Frank Giustra on Aris Mining's Proven Winning Strategy | Mines & Money Coverage

[Music] it was my idea I conceptualized the the company I put together the management team I'd worked with Neil woodier before many times uh we created Endeavor mining which we launched in 2009 and uh ran that until about 2016 and uh um did very well with that uh very large eight I think it's about 8 billion company now um then we created Lea gold which was a at mines Mexico and Brazil and we merged that with Equinox back in 2017 or so 18 and then we decided to do it again with ays and uh so um I had an idea about a project in Columbia and um so Neil as the CEO is someone that I worked with many many many times i' had a lot of success the board I worked with before Ian taler and I did gold Corp back in the early 20000s and that was a tremendous success we did Eurasian uranium 1 in 2005 or six um Foo uh yako and Peter I worked with in the past so I kind of assembled the team and um it's the Devils I know and they're great to work with it doesn't remind me it's absolutely the same model so the model that uh was gold Corp how we created gold Corp was what we call a buy and build strategy so we both acquired mines and projects and we built uh so it required expertise in m&a capital markets and debt financing uh Neil is an expert in debt financing I'm sort of an m&a guy um and the idea is you start with one pro project usually it's pretty small although with ays it was quite a big project but uh and then you build from there and we usually take about 3 to seven years to build something of size and when I say size something that produces a million ounces a year at least and this is the same objective with ays we're currently producing about 250,000 ounces with the expansion at sovia and marato which is currently in in in process by 2026 will be at 4 60,000 o and then if we get Soto Norte permitted that can add another 225,000 o for our 50% so we're slowly getting we have a pathway to get in our minds to get up to a million ounces um and it shouldn't take that long the answer is always yes if the project makes sense we are driven by project economics if something is an opportunity that we can acquire at a sensible price that has potential and uh to to create more value will do it so we are focused in the Americas we have a project in Guyana which is 7 million oun that you know we're putting our heads to in terms of what we're going to do with it how we're going to develop it we have an exploration project in Canada but if an M opportunity came up somewhere else in the Americas we'll definitely look at it but it has to make sense you know I've been going to Colombia for over 30 years I was going to Colombia when it was inv vog invogue to go to Columbia when the farc was still there when the Naros were still there and um Colombia what most people don't recognize is that Colombia is the only uninterrupted democracy in all of Latin America the only one it's got the rule of law it's got a stable democracy you've never had a military coup there unlike every other country in Latin America it it works the the the issue with Colombia with respect to investors is that we're the only major Mining Company operating there so there isn't a peer group to look to so people go well Colombia I don't know what to compare it to I've had nothing but success in Colombia in oil and gas and Mining over the years we built infrastructure there I have a home there I have a home in cardana I love the country it's wonderful people and uh the rule of law works from our perspective um and and again I I I watch these things in all these countries and you're always going to have issues in different countries over different different issues but we're an underground minor okay I think that doesn't get the heat that open pit mining does okay so all our approaches in Columbia are underground mines and I know that for a fact is I I know the new president that's come in and he has no issue with underground mining so and we've never had any environmental issues we work very well with the communities we are actually one of the only groups in the world that have developed a model of working with informal miners to feed our Mill to train them to give them all the Environmental Training financing Technical Training so we bring them into the fold and it works very well it means opportunity listen I've been doing this for 45 years I've seen every Market cycle you can imagine I've seen the UPS I've seen the Downs I've seen the the dead quiet period I've seen the overly excessive bull markets and all I can tell you is it's all about sentiment right now the sentiment is probably as bad as I've ever seen it or close to and it will change it always does so what what did we need we needed the gold price if we're talking gold we needed the gold price to start to really show that it was going to break the old highs and stay there and you're starting to see that now you're seeing it yesterday and today and if this keeps going and I'm already seeing it in there AIS is up almost a dollar in the last dollar a share in the last three four trading sessions when you get that momentum when people start to see that it's actually the sectors in play then the momentum players come in but there's tremendous value there there's been a really actually a pretty big disparity between the equity values and the commodity prices but that will all change it always does I think inside ownership is absolutely imperative because if you don't have skin in the game you don't care as much you you write a check into your company you're going to watch that you're going to watch it very carefully and make sure that it works I own 8% give or take uh of the company and uh you know i' I was one of the founders and uh I'm very patient my My Philosophy in these things is invest early with a really good management team like Neil and uh be patient invest early and be invest large and and be patient and if it takes 3 years 4 years 5 years 7 years doesn't matter eventually there's a there's a great payday and that's the way investors should look at it mining's a you know it's a difficult business and as long as you're investing with the right management group and the projects are sound markets will always come around they might take time but they always come around and there's always a great payday like I said earlier our initial goal is always to get to a million ounces a year that puts you in the mid-tier gold producers and then it's a question of it's a question of just the right opportunities and if you look go back at say goldcore for instance which started out as Wheaten River then we did a reverse takeover gold Corp that gave us scale that brought us close to I think it was about a million ounces or a million and a half ounces and then we looked for a a merger of eals glamas and we created this monster uh over a period of about seven or eight years and it's always the same it's always going to be a about opportunities is there an A Creative acquisition out there that makes sense um where you can add value to whatever the asset is or the group of assets and you know it's all about a creative Acquisitions to all the investors be patient this will turn around this already starting to turn around be patient there's going to be a great reward Gold's going to go a lot higher before this thing is over a lot higher and if you're long gold stocks you're going to do very [Music] well

Channel: CEO.CA

Views: 10,740

Keywords: CEO.CA, CEO, Chief Executive Officer, Investing, Investments

Id: DNrpYWaKBKI

Length: 8min 40sec (520 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 30 2023