Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals

Gold Bull Resources (TSX-V: GBRC)(OTC: GBRCF) CEO Cherie Leeden on Potential Game-Changing Geologic Model & Deep Drilling At Sandman

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real… from the 2021 Precious Metals Summit in beautiful Beaver Creek. I am here with the CEO of Gold Bull Resources — Ms. Cherie Leeden. Cherie, we shook hands… it’s a pleasure to see you in person!

Cherie Leeden: It’s so nice to be in person!

Gerardo Del Real: It's overdue. Thank you so much for making the time. You and I have been chatting back and forth for several months. And every time you and I have a conversation in public, I tease you about the fact that I want an update on the five million ounce resource base across all categories. And we'll talk about that here in just a bit. 

For those of you not aware, when Cherie and I met, we talked about the goal. And the goal at Gold Bull has always been to discover gold ounces and to buy gold ounces on-the-cheap to try to get to a gold resource of approximately 5 million ounces. 

We aggressively hope that would happen by the end of 2021 so we'll get an update there. But first off, can you provide a brief overview of the company for those that may not be familiar with your background and the team?

Cherie Leeden: Absolutely. So Gold Bull was born in August of last year… we're a COVID company essentially! I live in Nevada… so do our team. So we're all on the ground in Nevada. 

And it was born out of the acquisition of the Sandman assets, which we purchased in cash from Newmont. And the Sandman asset already boasts half a million ounces. We've grown that from 310,000 ounces to 494,000 ounces over the last six months or so. 

And so we've also been busy doing exploration drilling to further increase that resource base at Sandman. So Sandman is our flagship project. However, we're definitely on the hunt for additional resources both via acquisition and discovery. And on that note, we're in dialogue with a number of companies just entertaining potential M&A opportunities, mergers, acquisitions. We're open to any ideas if there's value for our shareholders.

Gerardo Del Real: And you're very humble but I love that you say that you're open to ideas because I know you have plenty. Again, for those that may not be familiar with your background and what you did in your prior incarnations with other companies — such as the Newmonts of the world — can you explain to everyone your upbringing in the resource space?

Cherie Leeden: Sure, I'm a geologist by background and specialize in project generation and pride at creating global resources. The team at NV Resources — who are placing a number of resource assets and finding them homes, vending them to public or private companies — so we have looked at a lot of assets over the course of NV Resources. And we're basically going for our favorites now in Gold Bull. 

And we've got relationships with the majors and the juniors. Most of our team are either ex-Rio Tinto or ex-BHP so we've got pretty good relationships with some of these companies. And the Newmonts of the world… they're not really interested in a few million ounces. So we are. We think a few million ounces is a nice number, especially if you can consolidate and stack a couple of two million ounce projects… it gets to the five million ounces pretty quickly. 

So that's obviously the goal, and we've got a number of projects that we're in advanced discussions with.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, I know you're selective, and I know you're not going to want to give away any of the details behind the advanced discussions. So let me pivot back to Sandman and what makes that asset so special.

Cherie Leeden: So Sandman, there's limited downside as we see it because we've got the half a million ounces. It's essentially sticking out of the ground.

Gerardo Del Real: In Nevada.

Cherie Leeden: In Nevada, in a mining-friendly place. We also own many of the surface rights associated with the mineral rights. It's located near the mining hub of Winnemucca. 

So half a million ounces at today's gold price… you can do some back-of-the-envelope numbers and it starts looking pretty attractive. Those resources also remain open in a number of directions. The majority of this year's drilling has been expanding on that where we've got a resource that's open. We’ve put a few holes outside, and no surprise — we've got gold! 

And we haven't come out with an increased resource yet based on our recent drilling. And just yesterday, we announced another summary — a 6-month summary — of drill results. And it doesn't take rocket science to work out that the resource is growing. And we've drilled three of our four resources, and they've all hit mineralization outside the known resources. And Southeast Pediment is probably just the next cab off the rank; we just didn't drill that one this time.

So growing the resource at Sandman, I guess, is a two-fold approach. That's the first fold. The second fold is, we want to find another Sleeper. And Sandman is only 30 kilometers south of the Sleeper Mine. And that was discovered by a geologist named John Wood in the '80s. 

And we've just engaged John as a mentor and advisor to our team. And John's been onsite. We spent a week with John in Winnemucca recently, and said to John, "John, where would you look for another Sleeper within our portfolio?" And to paraphrase, he's like, "Well, you’ve got so much gold at surface. You've got half a million ounces of known gold in the tertiary. So where's that coming from?" 

And he was just baffled that no one's been really focusing on a geological contact of tertiary rocks up top and basement rocks below. Everyone's been looking at these tertiary rocks because you've got this gold sticking out of the ground. 

But that's essentially been a distraction for the predecessors, including us over the last six months. It's just so easy to add to those ounces that no one's really looking for the Mother Lode that is sourcing that gold that we're seeing at the surface.

With John's direction, we've actually changed our exploration strategy. And commencing in Q4 will be a drill program looking for that Sleeper deposit that no one's been drilling for at that contact. So super exciting times for Sandman.

Gerardo Del Real: So John doesn't lend his name out very easily. He doesn't lend himself to being impressed very easily either. So for him to publicly opine in that manner… there has to be a certain level of credibility for him that he believes that's the most obvious target for you to find the next Sleeper.

Cherie Leeden: For sure. I mean, he's saying there's just so much gold anomalism; we've got gold anomalism over a 20 kilometer area, and there's only half a million ounces that's been defined. So he's like, "Well, this doesn't really make sense that you've got a surface footprint that big and only half a million ounces generating all that anomalism." 

And he's also created our motto, which is essentially, your gold is brought to the surface through a structure such as a fault.

Gerardo Del Real: Right.

Cherie Leeden: And then, the obvious place for the gold to disperse is at a pressure release point. And that obvious place is the contact between these two very different rock types.

Gerardo Del Real: Right.

Cherie Leeden: And so most of the drilling to-date has been in that surface geology… and very little drilling has actually focused on that contact zone. So we're probably going to be drilling a little deeper than they did historically. Historically, most of the holes were less than a hundred meters.

Gerardo Del Real: Right.

Cherie Leeden: And we're going to be drilling more like 200 to 400 meters to pierce this contact point. And you don't need to have close spaced drilling.

Gerardo Del Real: Right.

Cherie Leeden: If there's going to be a big deposit, you're going to get that probably on one kilometer by one kilometer kind of spaced drilling. So we're not proposing to drill a ton of holes. But we are proposing to drill deeper holes… much deeper than they have to ensure that we intersect that favorable horizon. And if we get anomalous gold in that, then we're going to be onto something pretty interesting.

Gerardo Del Real: Sounds like you just shared the new geological model with us — and even I understood it!

Cherie Leeden: Pretty much… I'm glad… I'm really glad that a non-geo got it!

Gerardo Del Real: Love it, love it! I think we're going to close the year in a very, very strong precious metals environment. And I think the sentiment is going to pick up from where it's been the past 12 months where it's been a consolidation, right, a clear consolidation. Gold Bull's market cap right now is currently at… 

Cherie Leeden: Around C$25 million with half a million ounces to back that up.

Gerardo Del Real: In Nevada.

Cherie Leeden: In Nevada, yeah.

Gerardo Del Real: Drilling in Q4. On the M&A trail.

Cherie Leeden: Absolutely.

Gerardo Del Real: A lot to like.

Cherie Leeden: Absolutely.

Gerardo Del Real: Anything else to add, Cherie?

Cherie Leeden: Watch this space. Watch this space on the M&A and especially on the Sandman exploration holes that we intend to drill in Q4.

Gerardo Del Real: We'll make sure to put a link up to the corporate presentation with that new geologic model.

Cherie Leeden: Super.

Gerardo Del Real: As soon as we get it.

Cherie Leeden: I appreciate it.

Gerardo Del Real: An absolute pleasure! Thank you.

Cherie Leeden: Thank you very much for your support.