Categories: Energy
Topics: General Energy

Azincourt Energy (TSX-V: AAZ)(OTC: AZURF) CEO Alex Klenman on Positioning For a Historic Uranium Bull Market

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president and CEO of Azincourt Energy, Mr. Alex Klenman. Alex, how are you today?

Alex Klenman: I'm good, Gerardo. It's always good to get on with you and chat about Azincourt. Lots going on for us now, even though it's the beginning of August, we got some plans.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, let's get right into it. You and I had a brief conversation off-air, about where the markets are and I was mentioning to you that as a contrarian, this is typically the time where, if I'm going to initiate or add to positions, I'm doing it typically, in July and August. I love to do it during the months where most people aren't paying attention. And frankly, I can low-ball my offer and wait for weeks on end. And I don't think it's coincidence, that here we are at the beginning of August, and we're starting to see some renewed optimism across the resource space. I reached out about Azincourt, because obviously you just announced updated exploration plans for the East Preston and Hatchet Lake projects. And so, I know it's going to be a busy couple of months and as someone that likes to get ahead of things, I figured, let me reach out to Alex and just get an update on where we are with everything.

Alex Klenman: Timing is great. And you hit the nail on the head. There was doom and gloom, March, April, May, into June and suddenly, look where we're at. We're starting, as you mentioned to see some optimism back in the markets, bids are starting to come in. I'm getting more calls from people asking questions. So, these things tend to cycle in a predictable way and optimism is beginning to creep out of the cloud. So, that's a good thing. As for Azincourt, yeah, we announced our exploration plans for the next eight to 12 months, and we're busy. We're going to be on the ground in September, which is well, a month away, about six weeks away, at our Hatchet Lake Project, which is an earn-in with ValOre Metals. It's a great project. It's about 14,000 hectares on the Northeast side of the basin, on the Wollaston corridor, which is where all of the production is.

So, it's a fertile area. And this is our first pass at it. It was a Rio Tinto-Hathor project, has been run by other companies. Prior to the utilization of knowledge gained in say the last decade, so a lot has changed in exploration in the uranium space in the last decade and particularly in terms of how you chase mineralization, how you look for deposits. A lot of it has to do with graphitic structures and the alteration zones and how you approach them. So, we're going in here with a fresh approach. There's mineralization already established on the project up to almost 2.5%, U308, which is pretty high grade. So found in several boulders and we think the source of those boulders is within the claim block. So we're going to go in, we're going to get a first pass.

We're going to spend a million to a million and a half. We'll get several drill holes done, but that's project number one. So we'll be doing that in the fall. And then we'll be back to East Preston to follow up on the results from this past drill program, where we began to see elevated uranium levels within the alteration zones, these massive alteration zones. So again, we're going to go in with a very similar size program, 5,000 to 6,000 meters, maybe more, and we're cashed up to do it. So it's going to be a good ride over the next six to eight to 12 months and let’s hope spot and the market respond. I think spot's already creeping up as we speak.

Gerardo Del Real: Where do you see the market heading into post Labor Day, which is typically when retail starts paying attention. You've done well in not just the resource space, Alex, but you've done well in tech. You've done well being a speculator across multiple asset classes. How do you see things shaping up here for the next few months?

Alex Klenman: Well, you're right. September is always a time when everybody comes back and says, "Oh, well, I've got to get back to business." And the reality is I guess from a psychology standpoint is we have behaviors and leopards don't change their spots. So, money needs to work. People need to deploy capital, to look for gains and nothing changes. Yes, the markets have been weak, but out of the weakness comes opportunity. There's a ton of opportunity out there. You could blindly swing your arms right now and find great deals. And that's what will lead to this next wave, I think. Now, we have other factors influencing whether or not the timelines stretch, but you know it and I know it, eventually everyone's back in the markets and things start to move again.

And I think we're headed there. I'd love to see September, October, November return with a pop as most investors want to see, but I'm patient. And that's the thing we have less of now, you and I have spoken about that many times, there's less patience in the market, particularly among retail investors, but patience is rewarded, particularly when you have a supply demand scenario, like the uranium space. Just ride it out. That's the best advice I could give and have been given by others. Just let the fundamentals play out.

Gerardo Del Real: Just a matter of when, as it relates to the fundamentals in uranium, I know that Rick Rule loves to use that line. He did very, very well getting that right once upon a time, continues to do so. And there are few bull markets that are as profitable as a uranium bull market. I'll caution, there's also a few bear markets that are as painful, but I think we got the painful bear market out of the way.

Alex Klenman: Well, you know what? The bears are always, in the history of uranium cycles, the bears were always the results, mostly of black swan events. So, we’ve well known three or four events, three events over the course, the last 34 years. But other than that, there's always some sort of an outside thing. What are the odds of the black swan? Very, very low, very rare occurrence. So I think, we're good here. Look, $49 spot is nothing to ignore. It's a strong price. Go look back at the last 10 years, 12 years. So we're in a good place and when it's going to rocket, it's going to rocket.

Gerardo Del Real: I sense and believe and suspect that that $49 spot price isn't going to last too long. It should be a fun fall, a fun rest of Q3 and an absolute blast in Q4. I'm looking forward to it. Alex, always great catching up. Thank you so much for your time.

Alex Klenman: Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks so much, Gerardo.

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