Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals

Heliostar Metals (TSX V: HSTR)(OTC: HSTXF) CEO Charles Funk on Expanding High-Grade Unga Gold Resource in Alaska By Way of the Drill Bit

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real at the 2021 Precious Metals Summit in Beaver Creek. Joining me today is the CEO of Heliostar Metals — Mr. Charles Funk. Charles, it's good to see you in person.

Charles Funk: Likewise. Thank you very much.

Gerardo Del Real: It's been a year!

Charles Funk: It's nice to be out meeting people, isn't it?

Gerardo Del Real: Good day in the field?

Charles Funk: Spectacular! It's not the normal fieldwork we do… but we'll take it!

Gerardo Del Real: It's not. Let's talk about the normal fieldwork that you do. You have two projects that I happen to like very much. One in Mexico. One in my old stomping grounds in Alaska. And I want to get into those. 

But before so, can you give us a brief overview of your background and the success that you've had because I think it sets the table well for the success that you're having in Alaska right now and what's coming?

Charles Funk: Yes, my longer-term background is major mining companies like Newcrest. But most recently, I think you're referring to Vizsla. I was the VP of Exploration for Vizsla.

Gerardo Del Real: Yeah.

Charles Funk: We had incredible success last year. We went from C$20 million market cap to, I think, we're C$320 [million] today.

Gerardo Del Real: Yes, sir!

Charles Funk: And that was on the back of discovery. And interestingly, the project we have today is pretty much the same project that Vizsla was… just 18 months behind the curve.

Gerardo Del Real: Let's talk market cap for Heliostar just to provide some context there, right? You talked C$20 million to C$320 million there. Where is Heliostar now?

Charles Funk: Yeah, so we're a C$25 million market cap company. But we've got a huge head start up there. We've got 384,000 ounces at 13.8 grams [per tonne].

Gerardo Del Real: So say that again for them… 384,000 ounces at… 

Charles Funk: 13.8 grams… that's why… it's amazing grade!

Gerardo Del Real: Yeah!

Charles Funk: But we're there because we think it can be much bigger. This is part of a big district that's never been well explored. And that's what we're doing for the first time… systematically exploring a high-grade district.

Gerardo Del Real: And that's the vision you had with Vizsla, correct, similar?

Charles Funk: Exactly. Funny that they're the same. That's how you make big discoveries. You go after big belts that haven't been well explored and you just go through. It's not the most exciting thing in the world to talk about systematic exploration; prospecting, detailed mapping, drilling, resource drilling… but that's what makes discoveries… and that's what makes money.

Gerardo Del Real: Tell me about Alaska; the targets and the project.

Charles Funk: Alaska is a really unique project. It's down in the Aleutian Islands, which everyone thinks, "Oh, Alaska is a long way from anywhere!"

Gerardo Del Real: Right.

Charles Funk: We did an analyst visit… and it is a remote project… but it's surprisingly accessible. So that analyst visit in July, everyone was like, "Wow, it took me two and a half hours to the project from Anchorage… that's the capital!” It's really straightforward. 

And one of the comments that I like is, "This project has all the upside that Alaska is famous for… but we can get Amazon delivery at our project!"

Gerardo Del Real: Right, I love that! And I have to say, because my wife is born and raised in Alaska… Juneau is the capital but Anchorage is the main city!

Charles Funk: Yeah, correct. Yep, absolutely!

Gerardo Del Real: Definitely the hub. Had to do it or the wife would tell me about it when we got home and she saw the interview! 

Walk me through the drilling that's going on. Your hit rate has been very, very good. The grade has been consistent… it’s been very, very good as well. How content are you with the pace of exploration, thus far? And then, kind of set the table for me as far as Q4 goes and then 2022, right?

Charles Funk: Yeah, so that's what we've done differently is bring a much higher pace to exploration; an ability to raise money and deploy that for a return. And so the resource was there; we think that can grow; we're drilling that. But what hadn't happened was any of the targets outside of that had never been tested. We worked out two holes outside of the resource in the last 30 years.

Gerardo Del Real: Right.

Charles Funk: That's the lack of exploration.

Gerardo Del Real: Right.

Charles Funk: And so the first one was Alaska's oldest goldmine.

Gerardo Del Real: Yeah.

Charles Funk: So we went to Apollo. We hit 3 meters at 88 grams; 4.5 meters at 20 grams.

Gerardo Del Real: Yep.

Charles Funk: We did that. That's open to expand. We did it with RC drilling because we can cover the ground really quickly. And then, next year, we'll follow up with the diamond [rig]. And then, just yesterday, we put out more results. So we drilled at Aquila; our third target.

We hit another 1.5 meters at nearly 10 grams… 3 meters at 6.5 grams… 200 meters away. So we're starting to show big footprints, high grades — and that's just scratching the surface.

Gerardo Del Real: You mentioned something that I think will be overlooked by a lot of people. You're doing this with RC drilling. I’ve got to believe that the confidence in the database, and the dataset that you have, is pretty high for you to be willing to go out there with an RC drill and go find these numbers.

Charles Funk: Yeah, it's what RC brings. What RC doesn't bring is detailed core that gives you extra information.

Gerardo Del Real: Right.

Charles Funk: And what it also doesn't bring is deep drilling.

Gerardo Del Real: Right.

Charles Funk: But what it does drilling is cheap, quick meters into new targets. And we've really utilized that. And you ask what's next for Q4 for investors and the plan… and it initially involves more of these results. We've got results to come from Apollo. Results to come from Aquila, which we just talked about. We snuck a couple of holes into a porphyry target we like.

Gerardo Del Real: Right.

Charles Funk: So we're waiting for those and the deep holes at the resource. So they'll come in the next 4 to 8 weeks. And then, what we'd like to do is redeploy that RC rig. Would you believe that we can drill with an RC rig in Alaska anytime of the year?

Gerardo Del Real: Incredible!

Charles Funk: So that's what we want to do at Centennial; an old resource that was found by Battle Mountain in the '80s. But we think there's high-grade feeder veins, and so we'd like to come back there late in the year. And then, we've got a portfolio of earlier-stage projects in Mexico. So we're not a company that goes dormant over the winter months.

Gerardo Del Real: Right.

Charles Funk: We'll pivot down early next year, and we've got ground immediately next to SilverCrest that we'd like to drill out.

Gerardo Del Real: I know you're excited about that ground. We talked about that privately. Obviously, you've been successful in Mexico. You know those systems. Anything else you want to add to that, Charles?

Charles Funk: No. I think we're aggressive… we're hitting high-grade… and right now is a great entry point with the current share price. Very rarely can you buy close to 400,000 ounces of high-grade for C$20 to C$25 million market cap and have a free ride on the upside.

Gerardo Del Real: In a great jurisdiction of Alaska!

Charles Funk: Couldn't say it better!

Gerardo Del Real: Got to keep the wife happy! Charles, thank you so much!

Charles Funk: Thanks, Gerardo!

Gerardo Del Real: Appreciate it!

Charles Funk: Cheers.

Gerardo Del Real: Alright.