Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals

K2 Gold (TSX-V: KTO) CEO Stephen Swatton on the Excitement Surrounding the Recently Acquired Mojave Gold Project in California

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of K2 Gold (TSX-V: KTO)(OTC: KTGDF), Mr. Steve Swatton. Steve, congratulations are in order. How are you today?

Stephen Swatton: Very good, thank you, Gerardo. I'm sorry it's been such a long time coming, you've known that I've been working on something. But we're finally here.

Gerardo Del Real: You know, it seems like we spoke maybe three or four months ago, and at the time we had agreed to chat a few weeks later because you were hot on the heels of a project that would allow K2 to become a year-round explorer. I know that's been a focus internally for the company. Obviously, those two or three weeks turned into several months, but it does seem like it actually is a project that many people think is one of the best early-stage gold camps they've ever seen, including John Robins, I understand.

So congrats to the team. It's an absolutely great looking project. Can you tell us a little bit more about it?

Stephen Swatton: Yeah. This project was discovered in 1984 by Mobil, but in that time it was in a wilderness study area. So a lot of the early exploration, they were basically doing it in a study area knowing full well that they were waiting for a change in, if you like, the environment to allow it to come out of a national park. Wilderness study area is one down from a national park. So a lot of people were doing exploration without really understanding whether they're going to be able to go to the next stage.

It was taken out of the wilderness study area in the mid-'90s. So consequently, by that time, the Newmont and Asamara and a few others had already undergone that process of doing the exploration. BHP followed through with a small drill program, and all of the different groups on there have replicated earlier work and confirmed that indeed there is Carlin-style and there may even be a porphyry type target as well on this very large piece of land.

Time will tell whether with further exploration we find more. But at the moment we're sitting with about seven targets on the area. And yes, the reason why the deal took a little bit longer is that the vendors are very wise and they're very knowledgeable of the area and they wanted to get full value. And, of course, we're a junior company and we needed to get full of value. So there was a lot of tense discussions at times.

Gerardo Del Real: There's been several drilling programs – and you referenced this – by several senior mining companies over the past nearly four decades. I want to highlight some of the historic drilling. The Dragonfly Zone has returned a 53-meter intersection of 0.55 grams per tonne gold. Importantly, that starts at surface. There is a 9.2-meter intersection of 3.46 grams per tonne gold. A 12.3-meter intersection of 3.43 grams per tonne gold.

Obviously, you have near-surface, good grades, continuity, and then being able to tie that into a deposit obviously is going to decide the success of the project. What are the next steps, Steve?

Stephen Swatton: Next steps are for us to actually replicate what's been done in the past in terms of on the ground. We're realizing that there's so many different areas that we have to get our head around where exactly we want to start. We're well aware that there's lots of restrictions that are going to be placed on us in terms of doing initial work. We need to apply for various drill permits in the future, if that's the way we want to go with roads.

But at the moment we have a permit which allows us to heliborne drill. But our initial job at the moment is to go in and replicate what has been done and to improve upon and decide which of the areas that we want to focus our attention. Those areas on the northwest side, Soda Ridge and Soda Canyon, which after Asamara had very little exploration done on them. But when it turns out the work from SSR recently, there is a very large alteration zone that's going on over those areas, which we'd like to do further work.

So just because the areas that you've highlighted, the drilling have been the focus of attention, it's not the only areas of interest on the property. And in fact there's another area called Stegosaurus Ridge, which was mined by the old timers back at the beginning of the last century. That also looks extremely interesting, too. So we've got to spend a bunch of geological time. And then come the fall, then we'll decide how we're going to proceed.

Gerardo Del Real: You have an option to earn 100% of the project. It's structured very well. You also have the option to walk away at any point if for whatever reason in the future there are issues in the way of permits or things of that nature. Is that accurate?

Stephen Swatton: Absolutely accurate. We'll be looking at this very carefully going forward and look, we were all about getting shareholders value and also making sure that we involve communities and do the right things on the ground in terms of environmental. So if there's something that is a red flag, which we cannot overcome, of course we'll review our options. But with that in note, I've also been looking at other things in the US. But this has been our single, most largest prize that we've been been heading for all this time. So very happy to have this one in there. But it's not the only thing in the US which we're getting towards, if you like, final stages.

Gerardo Del Real: Good stuff. Well, let's hope you and I chat in weeks and not months again. Steve, again, congratulations on this one. It's a big deal for the company.

Stephen Swatton: Thanks so much and I fully appreciate your patience over the time, but it has been worth it. Thank you very much, Gerardo.

Gerardo DelReal: Absolutely. $1,400 gold helps.

Stephen Swatton: It certainly does.

Gerardo DelReal: Thanks again.