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Atco Mining (CSE: ATCM)(OTC: ATMGF) CEO Etienne Moshevich on Microcap Uranium Opportunity with Drills Turning
Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Atco Mining and its largest shareholder I might add, Mr. Etienne Moshevich. Etienne, how's it going? How are you today, sir?
Etienne Moshevich: I'm great, Gerardo. Thank you so much for taking the time today. I really appreciate it.
Gerardo Del Real: No, listen, it's great to have you on. Let's get right into it. Atco made a decision not to pivot away from, but to include uranium as part of its commodity mix. Obviously, the hydrogen storage trend is one that isn't going away anytime soon in Newfoundland, but we also understand that they're being very diligent in the way they're issuing permits and the way they're awarding contracts. And so that's taken a little bit and we had a gap for six or seven months where there just wasn't a lot of activity on that front.
Atco has always been committed to being a clean energy contributor, and so pivoting into uranium I thought was a smart move and you wasted no time. You just closed a private placement for $894,500. You're closing a second tranche here soon and you've started drilling at the Atlantic Uranium Project. Look, I'm excited. I'm excited to see what it is you're able to tap into. Hopefully we're talking a discovery and that's why I wrote a check here in the most recent financing, my third one now I believe. So I say that all to say what's going on in the field there Etienne?
Etienne Moshevich: I really appreciate it, Gerardo. So I wanted to, I think it was our last interview that we did where we talked about why we kind of pivoted and added a uranium project to our portfolio. Just want to be clear, we're keeping all the hydrogen storage assets that we have off the coast of Newfoundland. We have all of those. They're still in our portfolio and we're just keeping them on the side right now. And the reason for that is we're waiting. The government of Newfoundland announced that they're going to be spending $66 billion in the area to build clean energy projects off the coast of Newfoundland, and we're going to be one of the ones in the area including Atlas Salt and Vortex Energy that are going to take advantage of that. But it's on their timeline and when they're spending $66 billion, it is going to be on their timeline and it's not going to be on our timeline.
So what I wanted to make sure is that I wanted to give our shareholders, while we wait for that to happen because it will happen, but while we wait, I wanted to give everybody a chance to... Because we're sitting at that time, a two and a half million dollar market cap and a million and a quarter in cash, and we have an incredible story. We're in the clean energy space and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. And the opportunity came, Neil McCallum, who's a director of ours, he was one of the guys that brought over the Corvette play for Patriot Battery Metals, PMET, which I know you and all your subscribers know very well, very much about, stock did incredibly well. And so Neil came over to me and said, look, he's also director of Standard Uranium. We should take a look at the Atlantic Project because I wanted something that was drill ready.
I didn't want to go to our shareholders and say, we got something else. We're going to do some sampling work and a little bit of work to get to be drill ready status. Because in this market, if we're able to deliver good drill results, the stock will react. And we've seen it many, many times before. And so this is exactly what I wanted to give our shareholders. And that's exactly what the Atlantic Project gave us, and it gave us an opportunity to go ahead and drill right away. And if you look, we wasted zero time. We announced the deal with Atlantic. We announced that we're starting to drill, and we announced the first of our close of our financing of 895 grand. And so we're going to be closing our second tranche. It is still open 5 cents hard with a 5.75 cents flow through. Both have a full warrant at 15 cents for two years.
And so we think it's an incredible opportunity and we're drilling right now and our plan is to drill about six to seven holes, about 36-3,700 meters in the area. And it's all in the Athabasca. It's very close to the Hurricane Deposit, which is IsoEnergy's deposit, and obviously we're going to be putting out an update soon to the market, so I'll wait for the market to see that. But I really think that if we're able to put out what we hope to be putting out, I think the stock is going to react tremendously well, and that's what we're in this game for, for a new discovery and we're in a position to make that discovery. We're in the right area, we're in the right commodity, and this is a commodity that can gain attention in the market right now. And that's why I'm so excited about it, especially given our market cap.
So almost every single story with our market cap cannot say that they're drilling right now because they don't have the cash to do it. We do, and we're drilling right now. And so instead of saying we're going to be there and we're doing some sampling work to hopefully be drill ready next year, that doesn't get the market excited. What gets the market excited is we're drilling right now, results are going to come out soon, and if the results are good, we all know what can happen to the stock. And at 6, 7 cents Canadian where we're trading right now, I think there's tremendous amount of upside.
Gerardo Del Real: No, listen, I agree with everything you said. The one thing that I'll add is I absolutely love the technical acumen that you have conducting the drill program with Neil McCallum and his team they know the area, they know how to drill on budget and on time, and I am thrilled that it's them running the program, and I cannot wait to get an update once you start seeing results from the program. Can you walk me through what you think comes next here in the next several quarters? Will the focus continue to be Atlantic, assuming that we get good news, and if not, are you looking at other potential acquisitions?
Etienne Moshevich: The focus is going to be Atlantic.
Gerardo Del Real: Got it.
Etienne Moshevich: Right now, our focus is Atlantic and we have plenty there to chew off. Our plan is 100% sole focus on Atlantic right now, and so that's what you're going to be seeing. We're going to be hopefully putting out a drill update soon, then drill results, and then hopefully continuing to drill. That's the plan.
Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. And just for people that may be new to this story, the market cap currently stands at?
Etienne Moshevich: Cap right now is like 3 million bucks Canadian.
Gerardo Del Real: Yep. Okay. Just want to make sure that people understand what the risk reward proposition is here.
Etienne Moshevich: Totally. I mean, we're sitting at a three and a half million dollars market cap Canadian, and we have, call it around 2 million bucks in cash right now. We're spending obviously on the drill program, but our enterprise value on the project is basically zero. And this is why we think it's a massive opportunity for us right now. And just so everybody knows, I wrote the biggest check in this financing as I did in the previous one. I wrote a check for close to $220,000 in this financing. And I'm a true believer, I'm a believer in the story. I'm the CEO, founder, largest shareholder, and that's why I'm so excited about it.
Gerardo Del Real: Well, I'm up to almost 3 million shares plus warrants, so I'm rooting for Atlantic. I'm glad to hear that's going to be the focus here for 2024. That's encouraging. We'll wait for assays. We'll wait for visual results to start coming in, and then I'm looking forward to having you, Neil, and the team back on here soon.
Etienne Moshevich: I really appreciate Gerardo. Thank you so much for taking the time and look forward to coming back on with a major update.
Gerardo Del Real: Thanks a lot. I'm hoping that's what it is. Appreciate the time.
Etienne Moshevich: All right. Take care.
Gerardo Del Real: Cheers.