Categories: Energy
Topics: General Energy

Skyharbour Resources (TSX-V: SYH)(OTC: SYHBF) CEO Jordan Trimble on the New Uranium Bull Market & Upcoming Drill Program at the Flagship Moore Uranium Project in Saskatchewan’s 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 good. I'm happy to be back… it’s been a little while!

Gerardo Del Real: Happy to have you back on! A lot has happened, right? We have major catalysts like Sprott coming in and taking over in a way that's going to be very significant for the uranium space… taking over the management. 

And so I would love to get your take — before we get into the news about Moore and the geophysical program and the upcoming drill program which everyone is excited about at the high-grade Moore uranium project, which is of course the flagship — I've got to get your take on the Sprott news and just the other catalysts in the space, right? 

You have companies that are basically buying at the bottom and happy to sit on pounds in hopes of what everybody anticipates will be much higher uranium prices.

Jordan Trimble: Yeah, the Sprott news is incredibly significant. I think the market hasn't quite woken up to how meaningful it is. This, I think, will completely change the dynamic of the spot market. It allows Sprott now to go in with some more flexibility and buy more aggressively in the spot market. 

We saw the $70 million raise by UPC just before it transitions over to a trust. But it's going to be a big development going forward. They are going to be well-capitalized having a US listing. They're going to be able to access that capital market, which is significantly larger than the Canadian capital markets. And I think it's going to completely change what we see over the next 6 to 12 months.

So very exciting news! I think you're going to see, now, real price discovery in that market. This is going to be a big part of that. And that's yet one more positive development on top of what seems like a lot in the last six months. 

You and I have talked about it at length in previous interviews. But we have seen over the last — in particular, two months — developers and physical holding companies like Denison, UEC… obviously, UPC… and Yellow Cake buy significant amounts of material, further cleaning up the market; millions of pounds that are being taken out of the market strategically by these companies. 

You have the producers like Cameco and Kazatomprom that continue to have to buy to make up for curtailed production. So again, we're just seeing this tightening of the market; a rebalancing of the market.

We've talked at length about the supply/demand for this metal. It's, again, I think the most compelling supply/demand fundamentals that are out there for any metal. You see a significant supply deficit looming. And now you're seeing more and more material being taken out of the market. 

I think one of the next shoes to drop here will be major contracting. At some point later this year, I think you'll see Cameco… they just announced, last week, some new contracts… and I think you'll see that continue. And that, coupled with, again, this aggressive buying by physical holding companies, developers, and producers, I think, will be the catalyst for a much higher uranium price than where we're at currently at $30 a pound.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, let's talk about how speculators can take advantage of what is a clear bull market and one that I think will run for years, and one that I think we're in the very early stages of. 

Skyharbour, of course, had some important news this morning. You're cashed up. You did some good geophysics work. And now it looks like it's time to get in there and go test those targets.

Jordan Trimble: Yeah, so we just announced this morning that we've completed the geophysics at Moore Lake, which we wanted to get the results in to have our final drill target picks. There's going to be three target areas that we're going to be testing in this 3,500-meter drill program. And I'll just note that we do have a lot of room to expand that. 

I predict this year that we will have one of our most aggressive drilling campaigns throughout the year. We're well-funded now with over C$9 million in cash and stock in the treasury. So lots of capital to work with… lots of money to work with going forward. But we'll start with this initial 3,500-meter drill program.

The first and primary target is following up on the results that we announced earlier in the year at our East Maverick Zone. So this is a new discovery in the basement rocks that we've been doing some exploratory drilling into. You'll recall earlier in the year, we announced our longest continuous zone of uranium mineralization; 17.5 meters of 0.72% and, within that, 10 meters of 1% all in the basement rock. 

So we've really just scratched the surface here. We think there's a lot more to be found there. So that's going to be the first target that we go and we drill test with this upcoming drill program.

But we have two other targets that we're going to be testing; one of which is further up to the northeast on that 4.7-km-long Maverick corridor. It's called the Esker Target; a little bit of historical drilling that was carried out there; some anomalous uranium mineralization that was hidden; a few drill holes but really no follow-up work. And so we're going to go and we're going to drill a few holes at the Esker Target. 

And then, the geophysics was focused at, really, a new target area called Grid Nineteen, which is on a different conductive corridor further up to the north-northeast from the Maverick corridor. And this is exciting because there were some exploratory drill holes drilled years and years ago. And they intersected uranium mineralization. But again, not much follow-up work. With the new geophysics that we've carried out, we have some great targets there. So we're going to be drilling a few holes at that target as well.

So exciting time… really looking forward to getting back to work there again. We'll have lots of news flow as a result. There'll be several drill programs between now and year-end. And again, we're working towards a maiden resource estimate, hopefully, later this year, early next year.

Gerardo Del Real: I mentioned Skyharbour was cashed up. You have over C$9 million in cash and stock. I've got to believe that gives you a lot of flexibility if there's early success in the drill program to expand, right?

Jordan Trimble: Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I would think with success in the program — and we're confident, especially at the East Maverick Zone, given what we've seen with just a few drill holes put into the underlying basement rocks — that we'll have success there. So we'll want to continue expanding on that previous discovery in that zone. 

But also worth noting, too, yes; big healthy treasury… but we also have partner companies that are funding exploration and work at our other projects. And we've talked about a few of these in the past. More recently, a new partner out of Australia, ASX-listed Valor has come in and optioned our North Falcon Point or Hook Lake Project. 

There was news out on that just about a month ago here. They've started a phase one geophysical program and some groundwork. They'll follow that up later this year with some drilling.

And then, at our East Preston Project over further to the west in the basin, Azincourt has been actively exploring that. There's assays pending from a winter drill program. So there'll be some news out on that shortly. And they have plans to get back to work there in the summer months as well. 

So three partner companies in Orano, Azincourt, and Valor actively exploring our Preston, East Preston, and Hook Lake Projects, respectively. And we are getting closer to bringing in additional partners at some of our other 100%-owned projects in the Basin.

Gerardo Del Real: It's a lot to like with a company that has a market cap of, what, even after the recent run-up there, Jordan?

Jordan Trimble: Yeah, we're still just about C$50 to C$55 million. So again, relative to some of the peers, I think there is a very attractive investment proposition / value proposition with Skyharbour given all of the exploration we have going on and given the high-grade results we've announced at Moore and these new zones in the basement rocks that we're testing, And then, you add in all of the work being carried out by partner companies at our other projects. 

So a lot of company-specific news and catalysts coming up. But as we've talked about, the uranium market has come back to life. You continue to see ESG money come into the space. We talked about the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust. That, I think, will just open up the market even more, and that will really help drive a higher metal price over the coming months.

Gerardo Del Real: A lot to like, like I said. Jordan, thank you so much for the update. I'm looking forward to results from Moore and, of course, results from the other properties as well. Thanks again for your time.

Jordan Trimble: Absolutely. Good catching up.

Gerardo Del Real: Alright. Chat soon again. Bye.

Jordan Trimble: Bye.

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