Categories: Energy
Topics: General Energy

CEO Dev Randhawa Shares Fission 3.0’s (TSX-V: FUU) Origin Story, Details on Projects in Athabasca Basin and Peru

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is Chairman and CEO of Fission 3.0 (TSX-V: FUU)(OTC: FISOF), Mr. Dev Randhawa. Dev is also CEO of Fission Uranium, which of course made the shallow depth high-grade uranium discovery at the world class PLS project. Now, Fission 3.0 is a Canadian based uranium project generator with one of the uranium sector's leading exploration teams and a strong portfolio of very prospective properties. Dev, I want to thank you for joining me today. How are you?

Dev Randhawa: I'm very good. Thanks for having me on.

Gerardo Del Real: It's my pleasure. I mentioned Fission Uranium, it's hard to talk about Fission 3.0 without being able to talk about Fission Uranium. I want to talk about the excellent team that Fission 3.0 has in place, because you share several members from that highly successful management team, but first I'd love for you to share how Fission 3.0 came to be, Fission 3.0's origin story if you will.

Dev Randhawa: Sure, happy to do so. It's always easy to talk about a great team and past success. Fission 3.0 literally is that, it's our third version of Fission. Way back we were looking to make a discovery, if you remember we had a discovery called Waterbury in Fission Energy and then we sold that off to Denison Mines. We put hardly any money in until we found a partner from Korea, the largest utility there, KEPCO. We were able to take their money, develop it and sell the whole asset to Denison. We kept back a property called PLS we really liked, some other properties on the west.

We had an inkling back then that there might be something special here so we kept it, and that became Fission Uranium. Then if you remember we made that big Fission Uranium, we bought Alpha. When we bought Alpha, the other 50% of the asset, we weren't going to be given any value for what we had in the rest of the company. We basically spun off, kind of divided out all the exploration targets within Fission Uranium and today became Fission 3.0, so really the third version of the team. That's where Fission 3.0 comes from. Fission 3.0, the assets we have in it were all projects we picked up after using the same technology that found PLS. PLS, if you recall, nobody believed, and I mean nobody, believed there was any uranium deposits on the west side of the basin.

Gerardo Del Real: Correct.

Dev Randhawa: Cameco didn't, nobody did. All the exploration targets were all on the east. On the west our guys didn't believe that, they took a small airplane, low to the ground, looking for boulders or outcrops of uranium, and sure enough we found one which has become PLS. With that same technology we went around the whole basin, the edge of it, and that's where all these projects you have today. They’re all excellent, excellent targets. We have the technical team led by Ross McElroy and with him we've got a great team of geophysicists and geologists.

They're going to use the same idea, which is first you look for conductors, then if you find conductors then you need to find some alteration, and if you do that you start to drill and then you vector in, as they say. We'll be using the same team, the same approach to go after these targets. That's our strategy in Fission 3.0. Right now the markets are still a bit weak in terms of the junior markets, there's not a lot of people who can raise money to do exploration work.

Given that, we are right now probably going to be spending a bit more of our own money advancing our project before we bring other people in. That's the history of Fission 3.0, it's literally the third version of our approaches, which is it's always been our ideas, our properties, other people's money. In Fission 3.0, as you know Fission Uranium we brought in the Chinese Central Government through their SOE CGN. They're funding us for 82 million, they own 40% of the company. That's been our approach all along, is to really count on our people and be very nimble. Big guys can't be nimble, we have been. That's why we have Fission 3.0.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent, excellent. Now you're also well-funded, you mentioned last year being a tough year, and frankly the last couple of years in the uranium space, but you recently were able to raise some cash. What's the cash position of the company right now Dev?

Dev Randhawa: Once we finish the second round we should have close to three and half, four million, all depending on what we want to close or we don't. Worst case scenario is about three, and that being the case we will be able to take more effort at PLN and some others. Now, once the money is in we'll finalize our targets, because at the end of the day these public companies are bicycles, investors give you money, including my own money, we give money to the company and they advance the project. As they advance the project we get more money, so we know that we have to be very good stewards of the money we do have in order to get more money as we advance these projects.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent, excellent. Now, last December you hit really strong uranium and lithium mineralization in Peru, and then in March you announcement a new drill program at PLN with your partner on the project, Azincourt. What can shareholders expect here, in the next coming months here, for Fission 3.0?

Dev Randhawa: If we close that deal with Azincourt, it hasn't closed yet, we'll use the money to do some more drilling. We came pretty close smelling some smoke up at PLN, so whether they can finish the joint venture with us we have our own money. We definitely want to put some drill holes down there. Peru is an entirely different kind of project. Peru is again very shallow but it's low grade but it's very close to surface. Now, we've got a small piece of land there right in the heart of a district that's primarily owned by a company called Plateau. Plateau has gone from 50 cents to 60 cents.

We've got property right in the middle of it and they've got good lithium results, so have we. We want to develop it and the day will come we'll probably sell it. It won't make sense as a standalone project, you have to unitize the area or do a joint mining. Peru is a very, very different area than the Athabasca. Athabasca grades are very high. But the advantage of being in Peru is that your permitting times will be shorter and you have to definitely do a heap leach of some sort and then your cost might be cheap. You have different studies have shown that can be cheap but I'm not convinced yet myself.

The bottom line is the problem with all these companies, the wind is not in our back. We need higher uranium prices and as Tim Gitzel from Cameco has said over and over, "Today's uranium prices are not sustainable and they're irrational." They're unsustainable because nobody can make money here. There isn't anybody making money, remember, just because your cash cost could be $20, $30 but you've got G&A, let's just add 10%, 15% if not 20. Then you've also got to get a return for people on the project, plus get your capital back. On that basis I think most people believe that it's around $60 to $70 we need long term prices to be at before you're going to see a lot of projects on.

As much as I'm excited about a lot of projects outside the Athabasca, I'm not as convinced until we get high uranium prices. So really, some of these projects you're seeing out there are calls on the price of uranium, when price uranium does turn. That could be three months, it could be three years. I don't know that, but at the end of the day investors want to be in companies where the management has a track record of making discovery, adding value, put their own money into the deal, same price as them. In this private placement we've all put a bunch of money in, insiders. I put another 100,000 in myself.

Investors, you don't know when things are going to change but if you’re in companies that are well funded, well managed and good assets, those are your best shots, rather than in buying something that may not quite work out, with especially the team that doesn't have the track record of discovery, development, etc. That's why Fission 3.0 I think should be a part of everybody's portfolio who's into uranium and believes it's just a question of turning around, because of the management team, we have the technology and people who have done this three times.

We found the Waterbury, sold it, before that we sold a company called Strathmore, spun that out. It's actually our fourth run in what we're doing at 3.0. We don't get free shares, we own all our shares, we buy them. To me that's the kind of guys I like to back. As you know I do a lot of investing on my own, that's why Fission 3.0 I think, because you've got the right team, you've got the right assets and what we really need is the wind to change with what's going on with uranium prices.

Gerardo Del Real: I've got to say you're definitely well positioned for success again, Dev. You have the team.

Dev Randhawa: Thank you.

Gerardo Del Real: You have good assets. You obviously know how to develop those assets and make those discoveries. You obviously know how to monetize them as well. Provide some context for people that may be new to the 3.0 story, could you provide us the current market cap? Because it's tiny, especially considering the experience and the success that the team has had.

Dev Randhawa: Right. I would say, around 15 to 20 million, it's quite volatile as you know.

Gerardo Del Real: Correct.

Dev Randhawa: It's a very small market cap. It seems to get forgotten sometimes when I see some of our competitors who don't have the team or they don't even have the assets, but it might be a tighter held stock. Maybe that's something we have to look at, maybe a rollback or something. It's a very small market cap, again, good cash for a small company. I believe we're one drill hole away from a 5-10 bagger on that. If you're looking for that you've got to be in the right area and with the right team, and they've got to have the cash to go do it. That's why I think we're, like you'd mentioned, well positioned. When you're investing with people you're trying to mitigate risk.

Gerardo Del Real: Correct.

Dev Randhawa: Now you want the shot of a 5-10 bagger but you're going, "What's my downside?" When you look at the chart on the stock, that's part of it. Two, who's the management? Are they going to walk from a project? Do they have the technical abilities? Those are the boxes you have to tick, and I think Fission 3.0 does check all those boxes like you mentioned.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Dev I hope to have you back on as you continue to develop the company.

Dev Randhawa: Absolutely.

Gerardo Del Real: It's always fun to watch you guys roll stuff out, develop it and like I said making those discoveries and being able to monetize them. That's something you've done and have a history of doing. I want to thank you very much again for your time.

Dev Randhawa: Thank you.

Gerardo Del Real: Again, hopefully we have you back on soon.

Dev Randhawa: Thanks again.

Gerardo Del Real: Thank you, Dev.

Dev Randhawa: Thank you so much.