Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome to Edison TV. I'm Ashbourne. Now, as you know, the theory with exploration companies is this. The commodity price goes up and then the ah share price of the company goes up in a geared effect to that.
Speaker: um So whatever commodity price goes up by, you expect some more in your share price. Now, For those of you who are connoisseurs in the sector, you will know that this doesn't always work that way.
Speaker: But my gosh, for the next company I'm interviewing, it has absolutely and in spades. Now, you could buy shares in this company at the beginning of June last year for sixpence, and they're currently trading at, wait for it, $1.32. So they have gone up 22 times in the space of, well, a little bit less than two years. But who's discounting anyway when you've gone up 22 times?
Speaker: The company in question, P2 Gold, and I'm giant joined now by its chairman, its president, and its chief executive, Joe of Snack. Joe, thank you very much for indeed for joining us.
Speaker: Oh, well, I'm really happy to be here. Where should we start? ah what is What is the secret of your success? Well, i I think it's... it's sentiment is finally flowing and people realizing that you need gold and copper and where's it going to come from? You need mining companies and you need people finding it. And so as people have looked to that, they have seen that we're sitting on a lot of gold and a lot of copper and people are are buying our stock, which is allowing us to move our project forward to production.
Speaker: Tell us a little bit about that project. Give us a description, where it is, what the geology is, what the timelines are, all of the good stuff. Okay, so we have a... We're planning on building, we're in feasibility study right now on a gold copper mine, open pit copper mine in Nevada.
Speaker: So great jurisdiction, ah simple mine, open pit mining of gold and copper. ah Feasibility study is targeting production of 150,000 ounces of gold.
Speaker: 50 million pounds of copper in in in that neighborhood ah for a minimum of 12 years. We expect to be in production. Target is to be in commercial production in 2029, start construction in 2028 with a one-year build.
Speaker: And this is an area which has had quite a lot of historic exploration done on it and also historic production from just across the license boundary.
Speaker: Correct, yeah. they're Right on our southern border is a is ah is an older mine called Paradise Peak. It was in production in the 80s and into the 90s. And that's on our south southeast border. On our southwest border, there's a small open pit operation that's actually mining to this day. So it's mining right now. ah they They mine the ore and they truck it down to a different plant for processing about 25, 30 miles away.
Speaker: But yeah, no, we're in the heart of a mining area and there's lots of historical mining works on our property from, say, you know, 1900, late 1800s. So there's a lot of mineral here.
Speaker: And just, you know not only that, but you're in a pretty famed part of Nevada, the the Walker Lane trend from ah from a geological perspective.
Speaker: Just tell us a little bit about that. Well, there's a lot of mines historically within the Walker Lane trend. and And the nice thing about the Walker Lane gold is that it's free gold. It's not tied up with any other minerals. So ah there's a big mine that's been operating Gizarra.
Speaker: One of our directors was a CFO of a company that had that mine in the 1990s, and it's still operating. It's the Brown Mountain. Kinross owns it. and that's it's it's As the crow flies, it's not that far, maybe 20 miles. a little tougher to get there by car, but you can see it in the distance from our property. So, no, we're in a ah great mining jurisdiction. There's mining going down to the south of us in the Walker Lane Transom Mines being built now.
Speaker: Anglo and Sentara. So it's it's it's a great place to be. We're really pleased that we're in Nevada and the permitting is going well. So from that perspective, postcode is is fantastic.
Speaker: um And, you know, when we talk about Nevada being a ah premier jurisdiction, according to the Fraser Institute, it is it is the world's premier. It is the number one in the world.
Speaker: And do you notice that operating there? Yeah, what we've noticed is that dealing with the regulators, very professional, a very well laid out process. You know what's required of you.
Speaker: You know how to deal with it. And then when you're when you're dealing with the government, with the BLM, who's Bureau of Land Management, who's landowner, We also have, we're using local consultants to help us with our permitting and all very, very knowledgeable. So you've got deep deep bench strength, I would say, in in this area of the world on i'm taking a a project from exploration and getting it into production. Lots of support and and good relations with the government and good good support from the local professionals.
Speaker: You have already a a resource um that you've ah delineated. Just tell us a little bit about that, because you have a few sort of, um there are a few different types of mineralization there on there.
Speaker: And there's also, there's sort of suggestions from yore your drilling that you might have a bit of a tiger by the tail. Yeah, look, at we we the the majority of our mineralization is is gold, copper mineralization and porphyry mineralization is the type of deposits we're in.
Speaker: and And, you know, some of the the biggest gold mines in the world are really gold, copper or copper mines that are porphyry mines with gold. So we're sitting on one of these. and And right now we're exploring the surface, the parts of this that have come to surface and we're drilling them off.
Speaker: And so we're expanding them, but they're, and and, you know, we expect that, you know, produce, as I mentioned, you know, good number ounces of gold and pounds of copper over a long mine life.
Speaker: um We think that at a minimum, when we come up with our feasibility study, it'll be ah roughly 12 year of mine life, maybe longer. we're We're still drilling and target for the feasibility study is the first quarter of next year, just as an aside.
Speaker: But there's potential to be twice as long just on near surface mineralization, we feel. But the big potential is where did this porphyry mineralization come from?
Speaker: It is you know, usually there's a source porphyry that, you know, where the mineralizations come from. And when you get into one of those, you are into a long life, large mine. And so there's potential for that on our property.
Speaker: we haven't had the opportunity yet to really explore for that. Our focus is on i'm taking our project from exploration and getting it into production, getting that flat cash flow going, getting a return for our shareholders.
Speaker: But as we move forward and get that cash flowing and and and and the return, we will start looking for the source of that mineralization. And if we get into that, like that's that's another big game changer for for our company and for our project. So Yeah, there's just a lot of potential for growth here at GABS in Nevada.
Speaker: Let's talk about those timelines and and that journey into production that you you talked about. You did a PEA back in May 2024.
Speaker: And, you know, sort of difficult to imagine, but the gold price was then sort of $2,300 or something. um And price is something twentyn nine your As you say, you did a PEA, a preliminary economic assessment then, or you completed it then. you've now you're You're looking to upgrade those resources by the end of the year and then a feasibility study, a full feasibility study early next year?
Speaker: Yeah, correct. Yeah. so so we came out with a mineral resource estimate on the project, an updated resource estimate on the project in April 2024. At the time we used even lower metal prices for our resources of being conservative.
Speaker: We used a about $1,800 gold, like $25 silver, 375 copper. So, you well below current metal prices. ah And we are updating that. So that, that,
Speaker: resource estimate had, if i lump indicated inferred resources together, just to give you a feel for thing of the scope of of the project, we had 2 million ounces of gold and 864 million pounds of copper Now, as we move forward, and we've been drilling since we came out with our PEA to expand the resource, we expect to have a resource out later this quarter. So I would expect it'll be out before Christmas of this year, 2026. And our target is roughly 3 million ounces of gold. So a nice bump up in the ounces of gold and a billion to a billion and a half pounds of copper. So again, a nice bump up ah in the copper as well. And
Speaker: If I look at it in tons, um we're probably looking to have 170 to 200 million tons of mineralization defined with this resource estimate with potential for for for much more, another 100 to 200 million tons down the road as we continue drilling.
Speaker: And that's already driven an increase in your assumed throughput rate, hasn't it? You were at the time of your last PEA, you were looking at 9 million tonnes a year. And now you're looking at 12 million tonnes a year. So 33% uplift alone.
Speaker: on thatlet Correct. We, we just, because we've seen a growth, we haven't come up with the resource estimate yet, but we need to be, you know, be proactive and we're seeing that we have a lot more mineralization and, and, and with that. So what we've decided is we'll up the size of our mill.
Speaker: Now we were going to run our mill at 12 million tons a year. That's dealing with the sulfide mineralization. And then we're also going to have, as we're mining the sulfide,
Speaker: yeah there's an oxide, like there's a layer of oxide mineralization on top of that sulfide. So that oxide mineralization will go on a heap leach, will be mined in parallel with the with the mill operation. So ah potentially we will be operating at a rate of ah minimum 12 million tons a year up to say 16 million tons a year at times, probably more realistically say 12 to 14 million tons a year over a life of mine that's minimum we think 12 years and potentially a lot longer.
Speaker: And everyone thinks of Nevada, they think of deserts and so forth. In terms of water and electricity, easy access?
Speaker: Yes, we have a, with that, as you mentioned, there's ah there's a historical mine on our southern border from the 90s. They have 120 kV transmission line coming into their property that's still active.
Speaker: And so we plan to tie into that and wheel the power up to our property. it's maybe a We'll have to build maybe a six, seven mile spur line off of that ah transmission line up to our mill. So so not much not much capital there.
Speaker: on the waterfront it's it's amazing you you look at you you drive through this area nevada and it's brown uh no getting over it a bit of green depending on the on the season but uh it's brown and it's desert however you know when we drill we get down depending where we are some areas that we're down 100 meters and you're into water up by where we're going to be mining in our pits we get down to about 400 feet and we're into water And so there's there's lots of water in the aquifer. Now we had to secure water rights for that.
Speaker: Just because you have water in your property doesn't mean you're entitled to it under a law. So we've purchased water rights from ah from a dairy farm, actually up to the north of us.
Speaker: And we're in the process of having that transferred from from their use, from de from agricultural use to mining, milling, and dewatering use. And that's going through now. We expect that to be approved i would expect later this quarter or more likely in in the first quarter of next year but once that's in place we will have access to all the water we'll need for that mill and the heapleach operation so final investment decision and final fund project fundraising in a year's time
Speaker: Yeah, give or take. um Once we get the feasibility study out, that as I say, Q1 of this coming year, we will start getting, we're we're starting on detailed engineering actually later this quarter.
Speaker: So our plan is if if if the stars align and things work out well for us, we feel we could be permitted by the end of 2027 and be in a position to break ground in the middle at twenty early twenty twenty eight beginning of um If the stars are somewhat aligned, maybe not perfectly, we think mid-2028. So either way, 2028 is our plan to start construction.
Speaker: What we're planning on having is we want to have our detailed engineering all completed by the end of 27. We want to have our construction financing in place before the end of 2027. So when the permits are issued, we can start construction right after that. So that's pretty much our timing.
Speaker: And then first gold late 2028? Yeah. yeah What we're looking at, where' there's an opportunity for us to get a gold brought forward into our our production profile.
Speaker: We have a, as you mentioned, there's different mineralization on the property. I never really addressed that, but we have a smaller deposit. That's just a simple epithermal gold deposit. It's about a hundred thousand ounces. It's to the south of our main deposits.
Speaker: And, It leaches incredibly well. we can If we put that through our column tests for metallurgical test work, we get 90% of the gold out in under two weeks.
Speaker: So what we're thinking is if we can sequence our construction schedule well, that we get our heap leach facility in place at least a year or two years worth of the liner down.
Speaker: our ponds and our carbon columns, we could bring a contract miner in to start mining that higher grade. It's about a gram of gold per ton and and higher, up to two grams in areas, and get that on the heap leach right away and start irrigating it with our solution. And and potentially we're poor.
Speaker: cash flowing ah within, you know, seven, eight, nine months of of starting construction, which would be great for us. and And from then on, it's just, you know, keep ramping up from there.
Speaker: And so that's, you know, that's all in and in the next couple of years, really. Let me ask you this, in your wildest dreams, and bearing in mind, I'm not not the regulator, um where would P2 be in, let's say, five years' time?
Speaker: Well, look, at I focus near term. I think like right now, I think I look at peer companies and where they're trading. I think our share price should be you know, conservatively two, potentially three to four times higher than what we are today.
Speaker: Once we're in production, I look at at companies that produce the amount of gold. if If you look out there, just look at companies that are producing 150,000 ounces of gold, 50 million pounds of copper. There's not a lot that produce that specific mix, but If you look at it on an equivalent basis, depending on your metal prices, you're looking at a two, two and a quarter, 225,000 ounces of gold a year on an equivalent basis.
Speaker: And you're seeing those companies trading at four billion U.S. dollars. And um so what we're looking at is we or higher, like, you know, that's that's just throwing a number up there right now from some companies I follow.
Speaker: um We have currently 365 million shares outstanding. If we can do this right, we feel we can be in production for under 400 million shares outstanding.
Speaker: So with 400 million shares outstanding and a 4 billion U.S. market cap, you see there's lots of potential for our shares to run and re-rate as we as we become a producer. Now, you know, on the down on the ah on the let's just say if we can't make 400 million, I feel 400 to 450 million is sort of the top end of where we'll be on share insuances to get in production. Things go to where they're going.
Speaker: And still that that leaves a a big multiple from where we are today in our share price. And probably worth saying, this is not, if I can put it this way, your first rodeo, is it? You've you've done all of this before.
Speaker: Yeah, we've built mines before. We know what we're doing. we And we built them in like up and we built the Bruce Jack mine up in northwest British Columbia where, you know, you're constructing and operating where you get 22, 25 meters of snow a year. That's that's a lot of shoveling.
Speaker: And so... it's it's a it nevada is so nice you you might get a trace of snow you don't get much rain um the ground is nice and flat where you know the last mine we had to drive over a glacier to get to it so this is this is you know we drive on paved highway to get to our project you couldn't ask for a better place to build a mine so we're really pleased with with with the infrastructure and and the location of our vabs project in nevada
Speaker: Joe, I'm afraid that's ah all we've got time for today, but thank you very much indeed. We do wish you the very best of luck and we will check back in with you in the not too distant future just to find out how things are going. um Ladies and gentlemen, that was Joe Ovcinek, the President, the Chairman and the Chief Executive of P2Gold. I'm afraid that's all we've got time for, but we'll be bringing you more such investment opportunities in the very near future.
Speaker: Take a look at them, as I say, in less than two years. share price up from six cents to one dollar and 32 cents up 22 times and not to be sniffed at i think you'll agree um as i say we'll be back soon but uh until then you have a very capital day
