Dolly Varden Silver (TSX-V: DV)(OTC: DOLLF) CEO Shawn Khunkhun on Hitting High-Grade Silver & Expanding Silver-Gold Resources at the Flagship Kitsault Valley Project in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president & CEO of Dolly Varden Silver — Mr. Shawn Khunkhun. Shawn, how are you? Great to have you on.

Shawn Khunkhun: I'm doing really well. Very happy to be here.

Gerardo Del Real: I suspect you are. Your share price, despite volatile trading in the overall indices and the TSX.V, you name it, every market has been volatile, but the share price for Dolly Varden has held up remarkably well.

And you had some news today that I'm sure is going to catch the attention of a lot of market goers. You intersected 1.5 meters of 1,367 grams per tonne (g/t) silver. That's within 12.51 meters grading 442 g/t silver. And look, it wasn't the only intercept worth highlighting. 

There's other intercepts with true widths over 10.78 meters of 372 grams g/t silver. 6.59 meters — again, let me emphasize ‘true width,’ that's important — of 297 g/t silver. You had a hit of 3.3 meters of 585 g/t silver. Congrats! These are phenomenal numbers, Shawn. How are you feeling about everything?

Shawn Khunkhun: I'm feeling really good. I'm feeling really confident. The Dolly Varden project has been around for a long time, and what I'm really proud about is this season in particular, we are showing really, really strong resource growth and discovery, particularly around the silver-rich assets.

We did the big transformational acquisitions. We brought in a lot of gold and a lot more silver into our system. So just to reiterate, we have 63 million ounces of silver in all categories, and we have a million ounces of gold. Or if we looked at it through a silver equivalent lens, it's about 140 million ounces of silver equivalent.

But what we've done so far this year, we've had three discovery-oriented press releases; one back in August, one in mid-September, and then the results we put out today. And this is all on the silver side of the property in an area that's about 1.4 kilometers along strike from Wolf to today's drilling at Torbrit.

And we're expanding our footprint and we're hitting high grades and good thicknesses outside of the resource area. We are also expanding at the extents of the resort of known resources. And we're upgrading some of the known resources by some updip extensions, some higher grades within the resource area. So we're hitting it on all cylinders.

But there is a line I mentioned in the press release today where I talk about additional results in the next few weeks. 

Gerardo Del Real: Significant drill results is how you phrase that, Shawn, just to be clear. The line was you ‘expect to announce significant drill results from the other resource areas in the next few weeks.’ And I was going to ask you about it, and I don't mean to interrupt, but I want to make sure that we provide the appropriate context because anytime I see the word ‘significant’ in there, I have to ask about it, right?

Shawn Khunkhun: Well, I'm glad you highlighted that and that you picked up on that. And the two areas of the property that I'm really holding my breath on, number one, Homestake for a lot of reasons. It's new for us. There's a lot of prospectivity. We've got a very, very talented team of geos that have their own interpretations of the model. 

And I'm just a big believer in that part of the property, and I think we're going to see a lot of growth coming from Homestake. And I think we've got the potential there to really captivate the market.

And then, another part of the property that I'm really excited about is we've got a stepout hole. It's a 207-meter stepout at Wolf. And if we can show some economic grades over economic widths, it's going to represent a doubling of the strike length at Wolf. 

So it's a 200-meter step out but we're already 150 meters away from the deposit. So it's technically like a 350-meter stepout from where the resource is at Wolf. So this is a big, big, big hole that we've got pending at Wolf, and we've got big holes coming from Homestake, and then we've got over 50 drill holes to still report.

So lots of news to come that go beyond the next two announcements going in into December and even into January of 2023.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, congrats on some excellent, excellent results. I'm looking forward to holding you accountable to that significant drill results line. It sounds like you and I will be chatting often here in the next several weeks and months. Shawn, anything to add to that?

And let me add one thing before I let you go here. This is starting to look like to me as a very logical takeout candidate. And by this, obviously, I mean Dolly Varden. What are you doing between now and if that eventual decision comes up here, what are you doing to make sure that shareholders see the most bang for their buck, right?

Shawn Khunkhun: Yeah, that's a really good question. And I think we've done a really good job at building shareholder value. And the testament to that is the share price performance relative to peers. We're outperforming our peers this year by about 30% so we're very, very proud of that. And that's because of good drill results, and it's because of some very smart moves we've made in terms of timing of financings, transformational acquisitions, and so on and so forth.

But one of the things I did this summer is I brought in an old colleague that had worked with me about 15 years ago, and he and I had a lot of success together as a geologist. And he came in and we have put together what I would describe as a new model for the property. 

And what I'll say, Gerardo, is a lot of what I've talked about this year is what we have. We have the resource but a lot of what we're going to focus on — and this is what's going to drive shareholder value — is what this could be. And I think based on this new model, and if you look at the results we've put out this year compared to last year or the year before, that model is translating into results. 

And I think we just have the potential here to significantly add resources… and that is ultimately going to drive shareholder value.

Gerardo Del Real: Love it! Shawn, we'll chat soon. Thanks again for your time as always.

Shawn Khunkhun: Thank you, Gerardo. Thank you so much for having me on.

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