Categories: Energy
Topics: General Energy

Atco Mining (CSE: ATCM)(OTC: ATMGF) CEO Etienne Moshevich on Bolstering a First-Mover Advantage in Canada’s Burgeoning Hydrogen Storage Industry with RESPEC Consulting Inc.

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the newly appointed CEO and the largest shareholder of Atco Mining — Mr. Etienne Moshevich. Etienne, it's great to have you back on. 

Exciting news… I'm a biased shareholder… but I love the direction things are going. You just engaged RESPEC and we'll talk about what and who RESPEC is. But you engaged the firm to advance the Eagle and Flat Bay salt projects, which, of course, is a massive first-mover advantage landholding that Atco has been able to put together with the help of, amongst others, Neil McCallum of Dahrouge Geological and Patriot Battery Metals Corvette fame, right? 

So I would love for you to speak on why this is… and I think this is a game-changing release in terms of workflow and news flow here over the next couple of months.

Etienne Moshevich: First, thank you so much for having me on, Gerardo. I really appreciate it. I really wanted to come on and talk to you and talk to your viewers because this is an extremely exciting news release and an extremely exciting deal that we just signed with RESPEC. 

They are the premier experts in the hydrogen storage salt cavern field, globally, and they're currently working with Vortex Energy — VRTX is the symbol in Canada. This is something that we wanted to get in front of them. We wanted to be working with them, and I think it's going to be an extremely exciting time because when we were speaking with them about working with us, they were very excited about our Eagle project and about our Flat Bay project. 

What we did was we sent them all the historical seismic data and gravity data on both projects. And so what they're going to be doing is, over the next three months, they're going to be going through all of the historical data, like I said, all of the seismic data and going to be coming up with a 2D model as well as a 3D model. 

Obviously, interpreting all of the data but then also showing us and giving us a geological model as to how much hydrogen we can potentially store in one of these, or both, salt caverns. So that'll give the market a much better idea as to how much potential hydrogen we can store in each of our salt caverns. 

And why that's important is, obviously, there are 19 companies that submitted bids to the Newfoundland government for wind rights and wind projects in the area. We haven't got an update from the government yet but we're waiting on that.

So hopefully, when that happens, like I was telling your viewers before, there is going to be billions of dollars being invested and being spent in the area, and we want to make sure that we are one of the key hydrogen storage players in the area. So right now, obviously, we know there's Vortex and there's us. Vortex Energy traded as high as C$2.50, C$2.40 a share, around there. And we're below a C$5 million market cap. 

I'm obviously biased. I'm the CEO, I'm the largest shareholder, I'm the founder of the company. I think we're trading way too cheap. And so, hopefully, RESPEC is going to help us showcase all of our data in a much easier way and go through everything and help us showcase all of that data to the world.

And then, after that is out, it'll be much simpler for us to take that data and give us a better idea on a potential drill program afterwards and where to potentially drill. And also to potentially take that data to a much bigger player like one of those companies that are submitting bids for wind rights, like a World Energy GH2, for example, and say, ‘Hey, look, here's all of the data that we have. What do you guys think? Let's cut a deal.’ 

So I think it's just the first step here. We’ve signed the agreement but they're already starting to get to work with us so we're very excited.

Gerardo Del Real: I mentioned the first-mover advantage having 21,450 hectares. Do you describe it as eight projects? It's really mostly one big dominant landholding, right? And so are you looking to potentially roll in other projects being that you clearly have the network to vet and option quality projects? 

And again, when we talk about potentially billions of dollars of government funding coming into this specific region for a specific sector, I’ve got to believe there's going to be a massive rush for staking properties. And the first-movers, the names that you mentioned, including Atco, are going to have a serious advantage.

Etienne Moshevich: I mean, I totally agree. And like I said, we're always looking, we're always open. And like you already mentioned, we have an incredible board; Neil McCallum, Dawson Brisco. Dawson is currently the CEO of Morien Resources, which is a royalty company based in Nova Scotia. 

Neil McCallum is one of the founders of the Corvette project for Patriot Battery Metals, which I know your viewers know very well. So there's nobody better to go through and vet properties better than these guys, and we're always looking. But we do have a massive footprint in the area already. 

So the hope is — I don't know if you remember, I don't remember the exact date, but it was when lithium was at its early stages when it was just starting to get recognition with the whole electric batteries and electric vehicles and the whole revolution started — and it was the first-movers in the lithium industry that went from C$0.05, C$0.10, C$0.15 to multiple dollars. And then, everybody kind of caught up. 

And we really believe that we're kind of at the start of that in the hydrogen storage salt industry because it's all in the same clean energy industry. And we have a massive footprint, like you said, with over 21,000 hectares. We're always looking for more. But we want to make sure that we're not just getting land for the sake of land and increasing our footprint because, as you saw, every single one of the projects that we acquired had something there that we wanted to follow up with either a historical gravity low that was already done or a previous drill hole or previous seismic info and data that was already done. 

So every single one of our projects has something. And we're just going through all of that data, along with RESPEC, to go through everything to give us a much better idea and picture of what we have.

Gerardo Del Real: Exciting times! I'm a biased shareholder. I have a pretty decent sized holding and then options on warrants. I'll likely be adding to my position at current levels here in the open market. 

Again, this is not a one month or two month flip for me. I firmly believe that, in the next couple of years, this part of the world and this specific sector in this part of the world is going to, in hindsight, look like a no-brainer when we look at today's prices and when we look at the Atco market cap and we look at the clear commitment from multiple government entities. 

I'm excited. I'm looking forward to a fun second half. I’m looking forward to a really profitable 2024. Etienne, anything to add to that?

Etienne Moshevich: No, I mean, I think you hit it right on the head. I mean, we were very quiet when we first went public. We had a news release every week to kind of come with that. And so, obviously, we came into the market with a bang; the stock did not perform badly. But unfortunately, over the last few months, we've been very quiet. 

And I think that will hopefully change with the deal with RESPEC because they're going to be the ones that are going to be feeding us with a lot of the news releases through all of their work. And they've already gotten started on analyzing all of the data that we've given them. 

You know, a lot of people say that the summer is quiet… but it’s not going to be a quiet time for us. We're going to have a lot of news flow to come. So I hope all of your viewers, and investors, keep ATCM, on the CSE, on watch and stay tuned because we're going to be having a very busy summer ahead of us. And symbol ATMGF in the US.

Gerardo Del Real: You got it. Music to my ears, Etienne. Great having you on.

Etienne Moshevich: Thank you so much, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Looking forward to having you back on… chat soon.

Etienne Moshevich: I really appreciate it.