Categories: Energy
Topics: General Energy

Skyharbour Resources (TSX-V: SYH)(OTC: SYHBF) CEO Jordan Trimble on Uranium Bull Market & New Partner-Funded Exploration Project 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. Mr. Trimble, how are you today?

Jordan Trimble: I'm doing well. It's good to be back on. Lots to go over.

Gerardo Del Real: Let's get right into it. Big announcement this morning… you want to provide some context there? We'll get into company specific news. But I'd love for you to provide a little bit of color to the announcement that we had this morning that's moving the uranium names once again including Skyharbour.

Jordan Trimble: Yeah, from a macro standpoint, we had the announcement out of Kazatomprom. I guess, it's a bit of a copycat, if you will, to what Sprott has done. And they've announced they're planning to raise, ultimately, over half a billion dollars for a new physical uranium fund in Kazakhstan. 

It's backed by Kazatomprom and by one of the banks there. And they've got a fund manager who's going to be overseeing it. But that's obviously sparked the market here yet again. And so it's just more mainstream positive news flow and tailwinds for the sector. 

And again, just to reiterate the impact that the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust has had since, call it early to mid-August, we've seen the spot price move from, basically, the high-US$20s right through US$50. It retrenched a little bit the last several weeks but it's been moving back higher the last week or so and back up in the mid-US$40s.

And so it just shows you how tight this spot market is. There aren't a lot of mobile, secondary supplies, and, obviously, it's getting utilities' attention and that's going to be key for a new contracting cycle going forward. So more good news. Additional discretionary and new demand coming into the market that's going to continue to tighten the market and, I believe, propel prices higher. 

But we've also had some additional positive news, in particular, out of Europe. Just over the last few days, we've seen the UK announce that, at the core of their zero emissions strategy, they plan to put nuclear energy there. And I think that that's going to be an important source of new demand going forward as they roll out additional nuclear power plants, and, in particular, small modular reactors in the UK. We've seen France also double down on their commitment to nuclear energy.

So just continued good news coming into the market here that's going to continue to improve investor’ sentiment for the nuclear industry and, as a result, for uranium mining companies. And as you and I were talking offline, I think it's still important for investors and people to recognize that there are very strong and compelling underlying fundamentals that are really at the core of this helping to drive the higher prices.

Obviously, Sprott Physical Uranium Trust and some of these other financial entities have been near-term catalysts. But at US$45 a pound uranium in the spot market, you're still at relatively low levels and there's still a lot of runway from here. So I think we're, again, still very much in the early innings. The supply-demand fundamentals are there to drive a higher uranium price, and I think we're going to have a good couple of years here.

Gerardo Del Real: I think you're absolutely correct. And look, the bottom line is, we talked a bit off air as you mentioned, there's not a lot of quality companies out there with quality teams that have seen both a bear and bull cycle in uranium. Frankly, there's not a lot of companies with quality assets that are going to be able to advance their projects during this bull cycle. 

Skyharbour positioned itself beautifully. You and the team deserve a lot of credit. You've hit the ground running. How is drilling going at the Moore project? And then, of course, let's talk about the agreement with Black Shield Metals today to option 75% of the Mann Lake project.

Jordan Trimble: Sure. So yeah, at Moore Lake, we're just completing 7,000 meters. We announced this in a news release just over a month ago with the initial five drill holes. Some very high-grade results in that press release. 

But again, it's only a fraction of the 7,000 meters total that we've now drilled over the last several months. So you'll see additional news flow over the coming months as final assays come in. That should take us well into the new year. 

And as we talked about offline, we are planning for a fairly aggressive winter drill program likely to commence in January to follow up on some of the high-grade results that we've announced here this year thus far. So keep an eye open for news flow at Moore Lake. Again, the focus there has been drilling into the underlying basement rocks in that last news release that came out a month ago where we announced a 2 meter zone of 6.8% U308. That was at the East Maverick zone in the basement rocks.

We've also done some drilling at some of the regional targets at the property in addition to focusing on that main Maverick corridor. So lots of drilling to be announced, and, obviously, happy with what we've seen and what we're discovering there and continuing to delineate high-grade zones of uranium both in the sandstone at the unconformity and in the underlying basement rocks.

Moving on to the news today, we have now announced our fourth partner company and an option deal. So this is at our Mann Lake project. So Mann Lake is a property that we've had in the portfolio since 2014. We did a little bit of work there in 2014. We did some ground geophysics. 

And what's exciting about this project, a number of things, is one, its location. It's right on the main mine trend on the eastern side of the Athabasca Basin. It's about 25 kilometers southwest of McArthur.

So it's right in the thick of things on the east side of the basin. It's actually adjacent to another project, also called Mann Lake, which is a joint venture operated by Cameco but also has Denison and Orano as joint venture partners. There was a high-grade discovery made at this project back in 2013 and 2014. So it's really just a stone’s throw away from our Mann Lake project. 

And what we announced this morning was a new partner company called Black Shield Metals Corp., soon to be renamed Basin Uranium Corp. They've come in and we've signed a definitive agreement whereby they can earn up to 75% at the Mann Lake project. 

In order to complete that 75% earn-in, they have to spend C$4 million in exploration over three years. They have to pay us C$850,000 in cash — that's all Canadian — over the 3-year period, and they will issue C$1.75 million worth of stock to Skyharbour.

So again, this is an accretive deal for Skyharbour and its shareholders. It brings in a strategic partner with a very capable management and technical team, and they will be the ones funding the exploration. We'll be working closely with them as we do with our other partner companies and excited for them to hit the ground running. 

I think this is a great project. And had we had the time, money, and resources over the last seven or eight years, we would've done more work there. But it's great to have a new partner come in and take the reins here. And again, we'll benefit with a minority interest, assuming they earn-in, and with a large shareholding in the company.

Gerardo Del Real: Exciting times in the space! Exciting times for Skyharbour shareholders and a lot to get done. I'll let you get to it, Jordan. Thank you so much for the update today.

Jordan Trimble: Thanks a lot. We'll see you soon.

Gerardo Del Real: Alright, chat soon.

Jordan Trimble: Take care.

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