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Atco Mining (CSE: ATCM)(OTC: ATMGF) CEO Etienne Moshevich on Drilling the Fully-Permitted Atlantic Uranium Project in Canada’s Prolific Athabasca Basin
Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Atco Mining — Mr. Etienne Moshevich. Etienne, how are you today?
Etienne Moshevich: I'm good, Gerardo. Thank you for taking the time today. I appreciate it.
Gerardo Del Real: Listen, let's get right into it. I am a biased, long-term shareholder. I've written two checks at much higher prices. I haven't sold a share. I firmly believe in the hydrogen storage future and the trend that is emerging there. So today's news was a pleasant surprise but a surprise nonetheless.
You just announced that you intend to acquire up to a 75% interest in the drill-ready and fully-permitted Atlantic Uranium Project in the Athabasca Basin. The market seems to really like the news. Uranium is red hot and I think only just now starting to really, really heat up. And the Athabasca Basin is by far one of the premier jurisdictions in the world for high-grade uranium.
So I wanted to have you on and just provide an update on where we are with things and what comes next.
Etienne Moshevich: A hundred percent. And thank you so much for doing this and taking the time and for supporting us from the get-go. So here's kind of our thought process and why we decided to do the deal with Standard Uranium. We're extremely excited about it. Atco right now, we have about 50 million shares outstanding, and we're sitting at a C$2.5 million market cap, and we have about a million and a quarter in cash.
Over the last six months, Atco has been extremely quiet, and we've tightened the screws… we haven't spent any money. Because I said, you know what… the biggest asset we have right now are our projects in the hydrogen storage space, and we own them 100% outright. We don't have to spend any more money on them. We're holding tight onto those and we're waiting while there's a lot more news flow from the government in terms of the $66 billion that's going to be spent in clean energy projects off of the coast of Newfoundland.
So we still own those 100% and we're keeping those. And I wanted to keep that million and a quarter in cash for something that I feel is ready to go and that I think will provide substantial value for our shareholders. Because I'm the largest shareholder; I'm not only the CEO but I'm also the largest shareholder.
Neil McCallum, who's a director of ours, he's the one that brought over this project to us. He's also on the board of Standard Uranium. He brought this Atlantic project over to us. First, obviously, the uranium market, as you said, is extremely hot. And it's probably the only commodity right now that's getting a lot of exposure and raising a lot of money on the basis of it. I think this is not a short-term play. This is an 18 to 24 month window where I think the uranium price is going to go… like Cameco just got a massive 20% increase in their price target. This is here to stay.
Neil sent us over the Atlantic project. And we spoke to Jon Bey, and I absolutely love this thing. There were millions of dollars spent on it to get it to be fully drill-ready and fully-permitted. The crews are literally there and ready to start drilling this thing. And it's super close to IsoEnergy's Hurricane deposit. And I encourage everybody to go and take a look at it. IsoEnergy is the old NexGen.
I wanted to make sure that I give our shareholders, that I'm the biggest one, a chance on a real drill play because that's what I feel is really going to give us the biggest impact in the market is a drill play. From everything that I've seen on Atlantic, this is the best uranium drill play on the market today.
The good thing is that now we can leverage that cash that we have because the moment we sign this definitive agreement, which we're working on right now, we're sending the money and we're going to start to drill. So there's going to be no more waiting around for Atco shareholders.
We are ready to go. And we're still staying in this clean energy space, and we still have all of our hydrogen storage projects with us. We still own them 100%, and they're still in our portfolio. We're just waiting for the Newfoundland government to give us more updates on when they're going to be starting to spend the $66 billion dollars. That will all come but I didn't want to keep waiting.
I wanted to give our shareholders a chance. And over the last six months, we've had no news. The stock has been sitting at around a nickel Canadian this entire time. And we're finally giving our shareholders a chance on a real drill project with incredible upside in a very, very hot sector that I think is going to stay here for at least another twenty-four months.
And we're sitting at a C$2.5 million market cap with half of that in cash. So I don't think there's a better buy out there, in my opinion, than Atco right now, and I'm putting my money behind it. I'm the largest shareholder. And I think this can give shareholders an incredible chance. And this Atlantic project will give our shareholders an incredible chance at a drill-ready project that we're going to start banging out a lot of news flow from day one. So that's why we did the deal.
Gerardo Del Real: Listen, I like the project. I am, again, extremely biased. I'm an Atco shareholder. I also just recently wrote a check for Standard Uranium as well. So I like it as a shareholder of both companies. I love the exposure and the upside that we keep in the hydrogen storage space once the Newfoundland government gets back to it.
Look, I love uranium. I love where it's headed. And anytime we can get a drill turning to see if there is a discovery of significance in the very near term, like we have here, that puts a smile on my face. So congrats on getting the deal set up. I'm looking forward to you consummating it.
I'm looking forward to drills turning and having you back with an update because there are not very many companies out there with half the market cap in cash sitting there and a market cap of under C$3 million with the quality of projects that Atco has been able to develop.
Anything to add to that, Etienne?
Etienne Moshevich: You know what… there's just one thing. If you compare our market cap to any other market cap on the exchange right now with a drill-ready project in the Athabasca Basin, they're trading at 10 to 20 times our market cap. And we're sitting at, like you said, C$2.5M to C$3M with half of that in cash. So I think we're an incredible opportunity right now.
I encourage everybody to take a look at Atco. I'm obviously biased. I'm the CEO and largest shareholder but I think we're giving investors an incredible opportunity at a drill play that I think has an incredible shot.
Gerardo Del Real: Couldn't agree more. Etienne, thank you so much for the update. Looking forward to having you back on once we get details on the drill program. And I would love to have Neil on to chat about the property. I know it's one that he's extremely excited about.
Etienne Moshevich: I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Gerardo. Thank you for your time.
Gerardo Del Real: Perfect. Thank you.