Cassiar Gold Corp (TSXV:GLDC) - Advancing District-Scale Gold Asset in a Premier Mining Jurisdiction

[Music] hi uh my name is Marco Rock I'm the president and CEO of cassier gold CER gold is Canadian gold Explorer uh we have a 1.4 million ounce resource at 1.14 GRS per time right at surface that is growing uh browing not only that tour deposit but uh other targets around our district scale project we have mine per infrastructure already in place social license to operate a great team we get all this for 35 millon Market yeah as we speak to that Marco good to see you again uh been a while um I wanted to catch up before the end of the year for everyone's kind of disappear as off to do the family stuff this holiday period um talk to me about you know the last three years we've we' talked in multiple occasions talk to other members of of your team as well I was very clear then about what the plan was how have things changed well uh well first the high and thanks for having me here and everyone to that that is listening uh well three years ago I joined this company in June 2020 um after review from um D Kerwin uh that you know compared this asset to fost surveil and he said he said that the he saw the potential for in this project for three to five million ounces that I really like the highr that we have at cassier South uh and on the back of that we've we've drilled 5,000 meters in 2020 we drilled 11,000 meters in in 2021 we then in early 22 2022 did a resource update we increased the resource on the back of those uh you know 16,000 met of drill to 1.4 from 1 million to 1.4 million ounce resource um and then Sal resource update we drill 23,000 MERS uh in uh 2022 and then uh this year we drill 16,000 M um for which we actually still have pending to release roughly uh roughly exactly 21 drills roughly 7,600 meters of drilling so that's that's been coming in the near future there okay I know what you've done because I've read the press releases I'm more interested in in in the why you're doing it and sort of towards what end in terms of the what's the plan not not what's the strategy but what what's the plan what are you trying to be because it's been a really tough market for gold companies the last three years you're you're not exempt from that you know your your profile looks like a lot lot of companies well maybe I'll tell you fav it's slightly better than than most but you know it's it's downward Trend you've got to have a plan say look we got to stay relevant we've got to stay at the table to play the game we've got to advance the project you've been raising money Just sh 12 million bucks this this year but to what end what's what's the plan well the plan is to eventually sell the company for a very attractive number you know as they call it these days to Great Barett so our our our goal is really to to exit this remin a so we're growing the company growing the project uh to a point where we can you know try to maximize the value we can get out of that you know I personally think that uh you know I would like to see a number that starts with a beat but uh you know we're we're very far away from that uh but we know the potential of what we have right yeah but well let let's go there okay you want a number of the B that means you feel like you're going to be in this game for a long time and therefore that's a lot more money to be raised so let's talk about where you're at today 35 million Market capish um you've raised 12 of that this year you burn you I mean are how quick are you burning through that what's your what's your burn rate well it really depends on how big the the the drilling program is you know but uh you know for this year we've burned through roughly just under 10 million uh so it's uh you know it's where's the where's the going then drill because you've got the drilling say 5,000 met drilling right but you You' kind of got the perimed ma you got6 large land package yeah yeah so so tell me about where the money's going and why is that the best place for the money to go some of I guess you're obliged to spend and others I guess you've got to Define how you spend it right yeah yeah most of the drilling is way towards drill uh and uh I mean we've drilled over 55,000 meters in the last three years roughly just under 4 ,000 since the last resource uped so I was I was telling you in the beginning on the back of 16,000 M we increase our resource from 1 to 1.4 million alysis uh and since that last resource update we drove just under 40,000 meters uh in 117 drill those and we still have those 21 pending as as I mentioned before but out of those out 17 so far we only missed two drill holes in significant width above cut off grade which is 0.5 which is you know relatively High care off rate especially for the touris depos which is right at surface right but given this this orogenic nature of it's very kind of homogeneous L great stuff you'd expect to be hitting hitting regularly I I maybe I'm over simplifying here but I want to come back to the you know how you decide in a market like this where people are finding hard to raise Capital you I say raise just under 12 yourselves this year so that's that's good going most people struggling to raise money it's expensive money when they do raise it so therefore you're getting mindful of the the best return on that Capital invested so again just talk me about the maybe targeting for the drilling and again is is it to the the end up we are going to increase the the resource and that should be a catalyst per for it is is that it that's absolutely absolutely you know and what's the number thing you need to hit though the number I like to to to hit uh is getting over 5 million alyses which is what you know the biggest way Mees are basically the corporate minimum they're looking for half a million a year 10 years getting to getting to you know 5 million oun that's that's what I would like to hit yeah that's eventually what what about n with with with you know the next resource are you not going to put out resource you think that you can come back with a number like that or is the case of continue to raise money to continue to drill to hit a a 2 million ads updated resource 3 million I mean because because the Market's changed a little bit one million used to be enough right you got point4 so that's good but 2 million seems to be the new number and I suspect it's it's only going to grow from there in terms of companies which are interesting to strategics or majors and their balance sheets Etc so you got to have a sort of sense of how you play the market and if you want to be yeah you got to have a clue about you know what you need to present to the market so how do you go about getting from where you are now to wherever you think it is that you need to be for drilling and continue to to basically step out and grow the re resource at the margins as well as potentially the fine H targets you know I we discussed the taus deposit that now is at 1.4 million oun well it's a early 22 22 resource we've drilled just under 40,000 meters we've been stepping out and hitting cons consistently we haven't found the edge of that that system we don't know how viig Tor is going to get uh we know that it's likely to get bigger and we're liking what we we see but eventually you know that we'll find we will start you know tapping out in terms of exploration potential both laterally as well as a depth um and and you know to your question on you know how how do we manage that dichotomy in terms of capital is expensive you know how we T it it's it's really finding the right balance uh and you know the financing that we just closed we we just Clos inside of L financing uh uh recently it is really trying to strike that balance you know we you don't want to raise 10 million bucks to have a crazy at this current market cap which in my opinion is extremely makes the company extremely under valed um we didn't we we didn't want to raise and dilute the raise $10 million to dilute the company uh just so we have a program that we believe the project deserves so with this 2 million We have basically we're fully funded for a significant program next year and we're going to focus on mapping and sampling and and potentially geop physics and uh up to ,000 M program or can focus on some of the priority Regional targets which is something that has a potential to uh F improve uh another tus deposit because we have a massive L vage we have 59,000 hectares Taurus just currently occupies a one square kilometers one kilometer by one Kil kilometer we obviously have been stepping out from that from that small po Post St but you know really we we haven't you we we we've done for example this year in 2023 the first mapping exercise which is an area 30 square kilometer area around the tus deposit um and to to really start to fundamentally understand what's the true potential uh of um you know of our district and that that what that means is that we've we've done that assessment in in September we don't have any results yet for that uh that that's still pending but that means that 9 95% of our land package hasn't hasn't prop hasn't been properly evaluated we're starting to you know although we already have a 1.4 million resource we're only starting to stretch the surface on our project we know there's some very attractive areas because although most of our project has cover there's some areas where we have some out crop uh in understanding the mization both at the open pable both tonish PS as well as from the past producing highr veins under Realms we have an understanding of what is the potential there um and that's why I believe it it's possible to get to those you know High numbers I was mentioning before um but we're really only s sorry to scratch the surface the truth is the potential could be a lot higher than what the number I mentioned okay I want always to talk to about strategy because in a market like this lots of companies have been sort of agile nland thought well if this strategy isn't working we need to come up with something which is going to be valued in a way that it's not being in the market now and and some of some of what I'm about to say relates to sort of higher grade stories but you're still with slight Advantage you've got the mill you've got or at surface um you've got yeah you've got that on your side those are positives I think right obviously you need to you need to re refurbish and and and and and the mill and kind of get that going it's not particularly big Mill but it might be able to kind of create some revenue for you now you you've obviously discussed this in multiple and numerous occasions and You' been question on num occasions about it too is that completely off the table because when you talk to me about big land package and you know going out and drilling you know you know left right and Center that sounds like a liability the liability being I've got to go and raise more money in a market like this to go and drill the heck out of these things to kind of drive that resource but are you are you hanging your Cote on that hook which is we are going to just deliver a big resource someone will want that big resource and then that can become their balance sheet problem not ours or is there a bit of you thinks actually to finance this company going forward in a nonary way we can explore maybe some early Revenue generation model in the shape of getting your um plant up and running again yeah well that's a great question and it's really you know something that is very relevant for cassier and that's something that makes cassier very unique you know the traditional model for exploration companies and you know you drill drill drill you find you know we find uh you we have a discovery find a deposit in the middle of nowhere and then you find a way to pay for all the capets including infrastructure roads power we we already have a provincial Highway by setting our property as you mentioned we already have two M act permits one M act permit in and around for covering most of the T deposit which is growing and and we also have a minac permit at Table Mountain which is the cassier South High great veins which is a a m myac permit that covers roughly 21 square kilometers uh now the mill that you mentioned uh is a 300 T per day me which is in relatively good shape uh it's uh it's 300 per day so because of the size it's only valuable for the high grate and and that's that's where the Strategic optionality uh can and uh so there's historical production uh from the caser south area of 35,000 ounces uh from you know 15 bals there's 25 kilometers of working there and both vein systems are open along strike and actually we've been extending them very very successfully um but for example the main mine has produce 150,000 oun at uh SE over 17 grams per ton uh so you know that's that's very high grade if we're putting 20 gram per 10 through that meal that meal could be spitting out 50 60 70,000 ounces a year so that is the Strategic optionality that we have as a company that most exploration companies don't have because we have the permits we have the infrastructure uh we have the mill um and we have uh uh drilled and extended these highr vein systems quite successfully and they remain open along strike and down dip and there's a lot of room for blind Discovery around uh those vein systems so there is definitely a strategic optionality to put that high rate into into production ourselves now but there's got to be a will to do it I'm I'm asking the question though because it's all in it's your in control of what you're in control of and I and we as shareholders need to understand how you're thinking about this that option's always been there for you but is there what I'm trying to get at is what how does the company View um its ability to you know survive this Market which been brutal let let I'm not we can jump into what how great next year is going to be in a second but if it's not so great is there the ability for you to deliver on that strategy is the ability for you to raise money on a near term Revenue model project basis in in a market like this I've seen it happen elsewhere with high gr St not even as high as the numbers you're you're mentioning here but have you got enough data have you got the intent at board level to do something like this if next year does not deliver on gold equities yeah I think there's certainly that potential and I think this year actually uh the what what happened to this year making you know the big you know reduction in evaluation that you know from the big producers to the mid years all the way to the Juniors has led us to you know has pushed us to to Really assess that we know that in 2010 the op that has that had this projects and that actually Amalgamated the entire District that we control solely um wanted to restart production uh and uh you know they had a budget to refurbish the meal which they did partially uh to rehab the other gr workings to ask infrastructure acquire Fleet working capital um and you know that budget was roughly around $12 million they they ran out of money and in the last basically uh at at the top of the last gold cycle when gold price was dropping from 1800s all all the way down so they couldn't refinance and that's why we are so lucky to have a project now because they they they had a cost over run and they fell flat on our pris so there's a bit of a a a flag there rat flag that that tells us like we got to be careful with this strategy so you know going into production is it's it's no easy task do we have the potential yes do we have people interest interested absolutely we have talk with finers with offers that would be uh interested in such such a scenario but we need to see more exploration upside and also we need to do a little bit more work we've done uh we've sent our Engineers to the undergrounds and check the underground workings we have 25 kilometers ofall workings that are relatively good shape uh most of them self draining self ventilating um and the high grate underground and M veins they they start at the end of those underground workings and they we've been extending those very very successfully uh we also sent our Engineers as well as we brought in a consultant to check the state of our mil which is also in relatively good shape so there's a bunch of D resisting activities uh checking the mill checking the otherr workings uh by the way for example at the ban Vin system the underground working was driven as recently as 2010 is it it's so it's relatively new in relatively good shape and it gets to 50 m away from the endline high grade vein at the main vein system where when we drove for the first time we had a 4.8 ler intercept at 35 G per time that's you know 70 meters away from the under work so there's there's material there but we would like to build a a highr uh resource inventory before uh considering such a scenario because you know most underground High great F mining companies they they don't have that traditional model of the fighing 10 15 year M life and then they start to M they have a rolling because it's kind of hard to Define these highr vins from from surface or even from underground they just you know they produce they they drill they produce they drove they produce they drill they have a rolling threeyear my life that keeps on getting pushed forward and so I would like to see I I I I I I prefer not to be a hero uh and you know try to put you know 60,000 ounces in production just to just to demonstrate we can we can cash flow in limit dilution uh when there's a much bigger price to be had by maybe selling this company for a much higher valuation by building a lot more both of Jes because the truth is a major is not going to buy us for a 60,000 o production profile a major is going to come for 200 300 half a million hour a year for 10 years production profile that's what they're looking for and they need it and there's not a lot of projects like these in safe jurisdictions that have at the same time infrastructure as well as well as already permits in place as well as a social license to operate which is you know without it you don't have a project okay so you you obviously look you've brought through 10 million bucks you said um this this year so you're obviously very confident you know I hope it's not wishful thinking you're confident about this strategy of setting yourself up for acquisition but who in the market is buying you know look it's it's it's like I got lowish grade type projects like this where you are right now we've seen a few um m&a um projects you refer to obviously Great Bear been a few mergers um and there's been some blowups blowouts as well so you've got to have a sense of who's looking for what your you might be able to produce 5 million an ounce but what margin because again margins are getting squeezed the costs still haven't come back down salaries are still up you know not all costs have fall back down anywhere near where it was pre preco so margins are still riding around the same ASC numbers are up across the board uh whatever goal is doing the you know cost have kind of kept kept TS with that so what type of company where you know where's the where's the money um you know and you know when will they be looking to kind of backfill their their Reserve type numbers um you got you got to you you you feel to me you're talking to me as a like a confident man who's very clear that this this the old old Canadian strategy or just drill drill drill to the edge of the envelope will will continue to work in a way that maybe some companies are thinking well perhaps it it won't so where's the confidence come from what's what's the dater that's driving that thought process well you look at the balance sheets of the majors and uh what do they have uh they have rapidly increasing uh you know cash reserves they have rapidly decreasing debts but also R rapidly decreasing resource and Reserve profiles and uh you know I think it's going to going to be coming from the Ms and the majors it's true they haven't been active in the market which for me is mindboggling to be honest um because you know they're GNA run theirselves you know to zero production zero production I don't know I don't think they will um I they will need to replace ounces you that's why Ken Ross paid almost two billion dollars for for a Great Bear uh because you know they they need projects and the world is getting very small for Western mining companies uh you know they can't operate in Russia can Russ again they had to get rid of kall um you know the Chinese are are dominating more and more and also the Russians dominating more Africa know you go to you know you want to go to venezuel or to Guana which you know Venezuela Venezuela now wants to invade uh you know say for me sa Min jurisdictions are Australia Canada us and you don't have a lot of projects in you set jurisdictions and I think you know they will be looking for these Majors we going to be looking for projects in stable jurisdictions where the risk of being getting these projects nationalized is low ideally in places that already already have infrastructure um you know because infrastructure is getting more and more expensive and I think that's also been driving a lot of the hesitation uh in Majors uh because you know feasibility study from 2021 saying that you know the capex is 500 million you know you Pro you probably better multiply that by two uh you know it's it's a very inflationary environment and that makes the the the infrastructure we have even more valuable because it's already there you don't have to rebuild the world you don't have to uh you know re re build the the power lines you don't have to rebuild the portals or the other all workings we already have a mill um so um you know I I think that's where uh the money is coming from from from the mid and the measures uh it's very interesting to see what caliber or caliber depending on how you call it they went for Marathon I think that was very smart move uh they you know just a few months ago uh they had a big scare with the US putting um bring the country in Nicaragua in the kind of the you know risky list you know their share price kind of went to half you now they're very smartly diversifying into a into a safe jurisdiction with a you know with with an asset that's basically under construction uh I that's way to see I think the majors in mid tiers should be taking notice because uh companies like caliber are coming in and stealing their lunch um you know and I think when the m&a cycle starts it's going to get you know you know wild very very quickly and the valuations are just so cheap right now they they they are but here's the thing and you made a great point there Marco which is you know there's a lot of companies these these mergers of equals um going on at the moment because the trying to drisk projects have have multiple jurisdictions because you say you know some jurisdictions which used to be deemed reasonable are now not it seems look at Mexico um you know and these merges of equals are where perhaps one part's got a little bit more money but the assets not is perhaps a little bit riskier coming together with with other companies which have are cash constrained but of a decent asset we've seen a lot of that sort of stuff that's why I'm asking you in terms what's the end game here because at 35 million bucks that's a heck and the burn rate that you've just demonstrated today you talking me about today that's a heck of a lot more diler raisings to get to a point where you G have a major interested in you right because you're going to need you are going to need 5 million answers and you are going to demon it demonstrate good solid economics I I get the the jurisdiction is good it's on your side there's lots of things on your side there's a lot of time a lot of money to get to that point isn't it better to see some of these mergers of equals or some of the smaller companies coming together to actually um you know ride the storm as it were but you know maybe see that could that kind of you know 1 plus 1 equals three type scenario yeah no I I I really like the model of the caliber did with Marathon so uh you know at the end of the day these kind of mergers they're they're not really equals but uh I think they're a good fit uh so nice so uh so I think they're a good fit and I think it it adds a lot of value for the both sets of shareholders in my opinion uh and I think I I would love to see more of that we are in a very unique situation uh because we have the potential to bootstrap we're not 100% our main strategy and that's what we're committed for is to uh grow this company grow the resources uh grow this project and then sell it to a major but we do have the Strategic optionality to bootstrap this into production and we don't have economic studies but that puts us in a very unique position um and you know we want to further deris this bad same because we we yeah because we don't want to we don't end up like pure gold we don't want to end up like you know these companies that or like our predecessor uh you know try to be heroes and then fall flat on our faces like we you know we we know the value of what we have if you know while we can we'll we we goes slow and steady and the rise that we just did is exactly that you know striking the right balance uh we you know ended up issuing you know 7 million shairs in order to be fully fund for next year uh but with the optionality of like if if we can see the prep the share price going up and we by the way we did that financing at a premium uh if we could see the the share price going up significantly we could you know raise more capital and do a much bigger program and grow the company faster as well sure and I love the theory of that but it hasn't happened for the last three years for anyone so you know my my question is about what if we get more of the same next year what are the options available to you I think we we've discussed you know a a few of the good on here talk to me a little talk to me a little bit about and I'm going to sort of leap away from the company now okay I'm sort of interest in your view o of the market let's may be positive and say well we think the Market's going to be good for gold next year so again what what what do you know you're you're nice uh markets guy I mean what what he seeing what's giving you confidence about where Gold's going next year well I think you know gold is doing his job uh it's you know it's you you know you cross an alltime high last week was a bit of a weird day um it's uh it's it's doing its job like in in in the most aggressive rate high cycle we've seen probably in history uh you know gold is still hold holding well uh we see a massive increase in Central Bank buying uh we see a lot of buying in the East there's a lot of gold flowing into China into India and uh and and gold is holding its price even uh with the ETF Holdings been you know increasing for the last 12 months and you know mo most of the holders of ETFs are Wester investors so uh that together for example with the much talked about uh the Shanghai Gold Exchange price which has been you know for for long periods of time has been trading at the $100 premium to lme or the comx well and and by the way the Shanghai Gold Exchange is a physical market so actually what you're seeing is physical gold moving to the east um so we're seeing the rising the rising uh economies or the emerging or developing economies uh accumulating Golds um the West is accumulating debt um and um I I mean I I I I've never been more bullish on the gold price I I think gold is is going to take off but I think the fundamentally you know just this week I think we saw fed pivot uh you know two weeks ago uh we shouldn't be talking about you know it's too early to be talking about uh uh raate Cuts now you know raate cuts are part of the menu for discussion Western governments the US government Canadian governments UK Europe they can't take High rates because the debt levels are so high at the government level at the corporate level at the at the you know individuals level uh and uh you know talking about what matters the most which is the government has probably bigger influence on that on monetary policy which it shouldn't by the way but that's another discussion altogether you know you can't be Crystal you know the US is2 trillion doll in deficit uh they're going to be paying $2 trillion doll just to service their debt the US Deb is spiraling from 33 trillion right now you know they they can't keep rates at this level for too long otherwise the system is going to implode on its all way uh so I I think we're on the path to to rate cuts um I I think the economy is starting to show some cracks uh and I think that's going to be unfortunately a wonderful environment for gold and even though forget about the gold price the valuations on the equities yeah are are they have decoupled with from the B price from not only the Juniors but the big producers they're cheap the MERS are cheap and of course the jors are even cheaper it's it's the worst that you know most people in in the space have seen this market so um I think it's going to be a good year but we'll have to see yeah that that well I think the US government is going to need a credit card at this rate because they can't they can't keep doing this but they do and they will um yeah that that that kind of decoupling um of you know from gold is actually doing uh versus the gold equities is I guess that's logical you know genius genius or businesses that haven't really started yet effectively it's the companies that are actually producing the cash which are going to get some credit but that trickle down um is a long ways away it feels like unless gold makes a momentous move next year uh let's hope it does uh but Rocky I appreciate you making time for us certainly as to run up towards um Christmas I think the the the market slows down a bit so um thanks for continuing to work hard um and sharing your strategy with us um stay in touch next year let's not how you get on with your plans and uh come on gold let's see a comeback right yeah yeah no it's uh you know I I think Gold's going to going to do well you know thanks for having me uh but you know even if it doesn't like we can't control the gold price we're happy with this uh with this gold price even if it says like this forever you know I I say this sometimes if uh you know if you don't it if your project doesn't work at Gold 2000 you need a new project uh we're happy with our project we're happy with the gold price but of course you know if you can get some winner or sales and uh you know get the valuations the the low value the third cheap valuations we we seeing both from The Producers all the way to the Juniors to get to some something more normal or even better if we can get a Mania in a gold price you know imagine gold price 2,500 or 3,000 um can we imagine the excitement could create in a space like ours which is Tiny I don't know if you ever saw that uh that chart comparing you know market cap of you know companies like apple or from Depot to you know the entire of the gold industry it's a very small door uh and if a lot of people try to get into into it um you know we could uh we could all look like Heroes but you know I'm not worried about that I'm worried about the things that we can control as a company I think we have a great project there's a lot of ways to uh and lot the value of what we have here uh but you know having said I still looking forward to have a great uh great um you know increase in the gold price next year and obviously in the valuation on the gold Ming space

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Keywords: mining, gold, nickel, cobalt, uranium, vanadium, lithium, precious metals, crux investor, cruxinvestor, silver, TSX, ASX, AIM, LSE, investing in uranium, investing in mining, investing in stocks, investing in stocks for beginners, investing in gold, invest in stocks, invest in stocks for beginners, invest in gold, invest in mining, analyst's notes, analysts notes, analyst notes, battery metals, electric vehicles, net zero, carbon neutral, carbon credits, nuclear, best mining stocks, TSXV

Id: UgP4laIM2iw

Length: 33min 46sec (2026 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 18 2023