Skyharbour Resources (TSX-V: SYH)(OTC: SYHBF) CEO Jordan Trimble on Late-Breaking Developments at Flagship & Partner-Funded Uranium Projects in Canada’s Prolific Athabasca Basin
Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president & CEO of Skyharbour Resources — Mr. Jordan Trimble. Jordan, how are you?
Jordan Trimble: I'm doing well. It's good to be back… been a little while.
Gerardo Del Real: It has been a little while. Let's get right into it. The equities in the uranium space have seen a consolidation. The spot price has been what it's been… relatively flat for the last few months. But we have seen a pullback.
And you and I were talking a bit off air. And the silver lining, for me, is that a lot of companies — the better ones anyhow — were able to raise cash at higher prices; not dilute with an extra warrant because they were able to do so by actually getting warrants that were in-the-money. And I think that the news that you had today really speaks to that.
You've received US$1.2 million from warrant exercise. And you also have a partner company that just announced a radiometric program with some new anomalies. And so I want to get into all of that. What's your take with the consolidation here?
Jordan Trimble: Look, it's been across-the-board. We've seen it over the last several months… as we were talking offline. I think it's a combination of time of year… the seasonality. Typically, in the venture markets, and with junior mining companies, and the material sector as a whole… it's a little bit quieter usually in the summer months. Last year was a bit of an aberration. But this year… not surprised to see a bit of softness in the market.
I continue to purchase shares in the market. I see there being a great buying opportunity here. I do see things picking up as we get into the fall. We did have the last batch of the US$0.27 warrants come in, and that's an important point in the news release. We've raised several million dollars now over the last several months — all hard dollars.
We’ll now have that overhang off of the market going forward which is good and, again, have a robust treasury with just under C$9 million in cash and stock. So that fully funds us right through into next year… all of our exploration plans and programs that we have at our flagship and plans for a couple of smaller programs at some of our other 100%-owned projects. So excited to see what the next few months bring.
As far as the news this morning — in addition to the warrant exercise announcement — you mentioned we had Valor, which is our ASX-listed partner company that we brought in late last year on an earn-in option at our Hook Lake Project.
So just to recap that; 80% earn-in over three years; C$3.5 million in exploration expenditures; just under half a million in cash payments, and over 233 million shares that have been issued to us, which is about C$2 million worth of stock. So a large shareholder of the company. They've been very aggressive and productive at the project thus far.
They just announced this radiometric survey in addition to some geophysics — EM and MAG surveys — that they carried out previously. They targeted a few different areas. They confirmed the high-grade surface showing at the Hook Lake target. There's been samples as high as 68% U308 at-surface. And then, they've also identified a few other radiometric targets.
And now, what they're doing is they're going into the field… they're going to be doing some groundwork to further refine these targets and delineate proper drill targets — definitive drill targets — for later in the year. So excited to see them make progress at the project, and lots of news flow yet to come.
It compliments all of our work that we're doing at our flagship project. We talked a little bit about this in the previous interviews. But just to reiterate… we've got a very large drill program underway; expanded it to 5,000 meters; very pleased with what we've been seeing. We'll obviously have some news out on that shortly and over the coming months.
We are planning — after we complete the 5,000 meters — to take a small break. And then, we are going to be going back drilling a few thousand more meters. So we'll probably look at 7,000 to 8,000 meters total this year at Moore Lake; focus is on the underlying basement rocks and at some regional targets. But again, focus is on the underlying basement rocks at the Maverick corridor.
So lots of news flow, and lots of potential for share price appreciation and catalysts in the near-term.
Gerardo Del Real: And we're coming into what, seasonally, the strong part of the year as far as share performance goes for companies that execute, right?
Jordan Trimble: Absolutely. We'll see what September and October bring. I think with the activities that we have, the exploration programs that we have, between our drilling, Valor's exploration at Hook Lake, and our other partner, Azincourt; they have plans for a very large 6,000 to 7,000 meter drill program in the next six months. I mean, the timing’s perfect.
Again, as an exploration and discovery story with multiple irons in the fire… any one drill hole can make a pretty significant difference in the market. The great news now is we have a market that I think is going to be paying a lot more attention to positive drill results versus a year ago where things were still quite difficult in the uranium sector.
A much larger audience and people paying attention to the news flow. So with good drill results in this market — in this improving uranium market sentiment and environment — I think it will go a long way.
Gerardo Del Real: Let's talk about that sentiment and that environment. How are you feeling about the overall space?
Jordan Trimble: We talked about the pullback recently in the equities. I think it's probably a healthy pullback. I think it's a great entry-point. Again, I've been purchasing more shares in the market.
The uranium price has held in-there. So we've seen a pullback in the equities. The uranium price is still US$32 to US$33 a pound which is good to see. Needless to say, I’m very bullish. I do think that the timeline on when we see a major move higher is near. I think we will see that here before year-end.
We've talked about this previously with the new Sprott Physical Uranium Trust coming to trade. They just announced a US$300 million offering. So that's going to, I think, clean up the market quite a bit… tighten the spot market. That could be the ticket to a much higher uranium price in the near-term.
But the supply-demand fundamentals continue to improve, in particular, on the demand side. We continue to see this improving sentiment and resurgence in nuclear energy, in the nuclear industry, and in the uranium mining industry. We just saw the report from the IPCC come out a few days ago… really sounding the alarm bells for climate change.
I think, again, all of this movement, recently, and government mandates to decarbonize their economies, their electricity generation grid… I just see this, ultimately, being very positive for nuclear.
You couple that with, in particular, here in North America, in the US, the new infrastructure bill that's been passed and the proposed multi-billion dollar injection into the nuclear industry for advanced nuclear technologies and SMRs [Small Modular Reactors]. So I think we're going to just continue to see this positive sentiment grow which will, obviously, be positive for demand.
Again, nuclear is the only base-load source of clean, affordable, reliable electricity; great compliment to renewables. So as the demand side continues to grow with this overarching decarbonization and electrification theme… the supply side — as we've talked about extensively in previous interviews — continues to be strained.
We've seen a major supply side response play out over the last several years. We just don't have new production that can come online quickly to meet the growing demand and to meet the shortfall.
You've got 180 to 185 million pounds of annual demand. Last year, we only had about 120 to 125 million pounds of primary mine supply in the secondary markets. The secondary supplies are drying up with each passing day.
So I think, again, US$30 to US$35 a pound — well below the incentive price; the average global all-in cost of production price for the commodity — you're going to have to see real price discovery. I think the Sprott Trust is going to help with that over the coming months.
Gerardo Del Real: A long-winded but very educated way, folks, of saying the spot price is going higher, and this is probably the last great pullback that you're going to get in 2021 in the uranium space.
Jordan Trimble: I agree!
Gerardo Del Real: Jordan, great as always! Good catching up. Looking forward to catching up in person here soon. Anything else to add to that?
Jordan Trimble: No, I think that covers it all. So just to recap a fair bit of news flow coming out. Keep an eye on the spot price and the market. And, ultimately, that will translate into a new contracting cycle.
I do think the utilities out there… they only have so much time left where they can sit on the sidelines as they have. I think you're going to see a number of higher price contracts announced here in the coming months.
Gerardo Del Real: Looking forward to it! Thanks again, as always, Jordan.
Jordan Trimble: Thanks, Gerardo. Take care.
Gerardo Del Real: Alright, you as well.
Click here to see more from Skyharbour Resources Ltd.