Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals / Gold Stocks

Daura Gold (TSX-V: DGC) Director Mark Sumner on Advancing the Flagship High-Grade Antonella Gold Project in Peru’s Prolific Ancash Region

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the director of a new story to our audience — Daura Gold Corp. (TSX-V: DGC) — and I'm talking with Mr. Mark Sumner. Mark, it’s great to have you on. How are you today, sir?

Mark Sumner:  I’m well, thank you, Gerardo. Thanks for having me.

Gerardo Del Real: I’m excited, Mark, to help tell this story for several reasons. Obviously, it doesn’t hurt that gold is right near the US$3,000 mark, currently trading at US$2,940 per ounce and seemingly with lots and lots of upside for several reasons. 

When my business partner and friend Mr. Nick Hodge reached out to me and started telling me about Daura Gold, and I started looking at the projects, Estrella Gold was actually one of the first financings I participated in way back in the day, once upon a time. 

I love this part of Peru. I love the surrounding geology. And I thought it would be a great opportunity to have you come on and talk about the projects and the catalysts for 2025. But let’s start with your background and the team because I think that’s important.

Mark Sumner: Yes, the team is well-suited to be operating in Peru. My background is primarily in finance and project development, and I’ve been working on projects in Peru for the last 12 to 15 years now. Time’s flying! 

The team itself consists of Luis Saenz, CEO, and Ernesto Lima, a fellow director. Luis, Ernesto, and I have been working together the last five or six years on a range of projects primarily in Peru. 

We’ve spent the last several years assembling this land package and constructing this deal. We lost a little bit of time due to COVID, which put things on ice for a little bit. But as the market started coming back and as the gold price started really running, it made sense for us to come to market.

Our CEO, Luis Saenz, is based in Lima. He has an investment banking background, as well as a lot of experience with a number of junior mining companies trading on the TSX and TSX-V. He’s very well connected in the Ancash district, having worked in the region for a number of years, including financing and building gold mines. He’s well-suited to lead the effort in taking this forward in the Ancash district.

Similarly, Ernesto has been active in the region. He was head of project development for Silver Standard for a number of years and worked on the San Luis Gold Project, which is our neighbor, currently run by Highlander Silver Corp. 

San Luis was really the catalyst for interest in this region with their tremendous grades and project economics. Ernesto was very active on that project for a number of years. And now, we’ve all come together to put this project together.

Gerardo Del Real: I love introducing stories to our audience at the early stages and then setting the table for the catalysts. And this really is as early as it gets. I want to say you have roughly 42 million shares outstanding and roughly 24 to 25 million warrants. Is that accurate?

Mark Sumner: That’s correct.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. And you’re trading at C$0.15 per share. And so a function of that, clearly, is that this is a new story. It’s new to the market. And, obviously, for me, that’s a perfect time for setting the table. 

You mentioned Highlander Silver. And it’s interesting to me that the region is blessed with a lot of major mining companies and infrastructure in place because of how fertile the geology is. 

Can you speak to the projects, and can you speak as to why this part of Peru because it’s not every day a junior with a tiny market cap can source and bring in the quality of projects you’ve been able to bring in near the likes of the Newmonts of the world.

Mark Sumner: Yes, the region, as you mentioned, is well-known for having incredibly high-grade gold and silver veins, and the geology is just tremendous. 

The San Luis Project next door to us and operated by Highlander Silver — which, as I mentioned, was previously a Silver Standard mining project — was really the catalyst for our interest in the region and, I think, the catalyst for most major companies’ interest, including Barrick Gold, which is also another significant neighbor of ours. 

The grades at San Luis are spectacular. They have around 350,000 ounces of gold in their resource profile at 22 grams per tonne. The grades are tremendous… and that's what got us really interested in the region.

We started hunting around for land packages, and putting together concessions where we could, that made sense and where we could put some science behind them. Then, through Estrella Gold, we acquired the Antonella Project, which is our primary target. 

Antonella has about 2,500 meters of historical drilling with a number of spectacular intercepts similar to the San Luis Project in that sort of one-meter range between 9 and 20 grams per tonne gold. We have the basis for a really tremendous field program going forward. 

We have those same really high-grade intercepts, and, thus, the region is truly centered around and based upon that San Luis thesis. And Antonella, in its own right, is a tremendous project with a lot of potential.

Highlander Silver is next door to us, and they just closed a C$32 million financing. They're looking to advance their Bonita Project, which is adjacent to and borders Antonella. Barrick Gold filed for drill permits on their land package, which is to the south and sort of surrounds Antonella; their drill targets are just to the southeast of us. 

We'll be interested to see how Barrick goes forward with their project. As we speak, our guys are interfacing with the community. We have excellent community relations and excellent local partners, and we’re looking to get our team into the field as soon as possible.

Gerardo Del Real: Listen, I think the grade is definitely there. You have that in spades. Continuity and widths are going to be important. When do we get to start seeing what that continuity and what those widths look like via the drill-bit?

Mark Sumner: Yes, right now we’re preparing to deploy our team into the field to do some initial geological mapping and sampling and to really refine our next set of drill targets. We’re simultaneously applying for our DIA [Declaración de Impacto Ambiental], so we’re going to get those permits in place as soon as possible. 

All of those applications are currently in progress. In the first instance, we want to get out and refine our drill targets, and we want to do some additional mapping and really get the program refined. We’ll have more news on the DIA, the drill permits, and the forthcoming drill program in the coming few months.

Gerardo Del Real: That’s exciting! I know that in the last twelve or so months, Peru has been getting a whole heck of a lot more progressive on the permitting front, which has been wonderful to see. 

I have several personal holdings in the region, and so it’s great to see that trending in the right direction and for things to be progressing in a more streamlined way. Mark, is there anything else you’d like to add before we get out of here?

Mark Sumner: I think that pretty well covers the story. As you said, we’re a small player swimming in a sea of big sharks… but we have the land package and the grades to back up a really tremendous story. 

We’re excited to show the market what we have because, even with Highlander making a splash and with Barrick getting a bit more active in the area, I think this particular region isn’t quite as well-known as some of the other more prolific precious metals regions in Peru. 

So we’re excited to bring it to market and show people what it is because the potential is enormous.

Gerardo Del Real: I’m sure there’s a reason why you have nearly 3 million shares! I talked to you a bit off air, and I love it when management has skin-in-the-game, and that’s about as good as it gets given the low share float. 

Thank you so much, Mark. I look forward to having you back on. I’m also looking forward to chatting with Luis to delve a bit deeper into the regional geology and some of the results the team is seeing in the field. 

Thank you again for your time, sir. We’ll chat soon.

Mark Sumner: Thanks, Gerardo.

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