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Latin Metals (TSX-V: LMS)(OTC: LMSQF) CEO Keith Henderson on Securing Drill Permits for Cerro Bayo Silver-Gold Project, Argentina

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president and CEO of Latin Metals (TSX-V: LMS)(OTC: LMSQF), Mr. Keith Henderson. Keith, we talked all of 2024 about the many, many catalysts that we were anticipating and because it's exploration and because it's the mining resource industry, everything took a little bit longer than we wanted it to, but here we are in 2025, we have $3,000 gold, we have $5 copper, we have $33 silver. We talked a bit off-air, there's a lot of runway for each of those commodities. And you, sir, just secured drill permits for the Cerro Bayo silver-gold project in Argentina. It's a transformational moment for the company. Congratulations. Well done.

Keith Henderson: Yeah, thank you so much. It feels great to get a permit in the bag. It's always hard work. Everywhere you go in the world, there's a lot of work to do to get drill permits. Those two words kind of roll off our tongues, drill permit. Have you got a drill permit yet? Where is it?

Okay, so here it is. Yeah, it took a lot of work. Yeah, it took a little bit of time. And I know I've been talking to you for a year and a little bit longer about these kind of permits coming, but they're here. This is the first of three drill permits that we're hoping to have this year. It's fabulous to move to this stage and it's really, I've been speaking to a lot of potential investors for this project. We've got a lot of interesting companies sitting in the background looking at this and really, there was absolutely zero point in putting a deal together until we had these drill permits. Now we do. Now the next step for us is getting a partner signed up, getting that news out, and then moving as quickly as possible to drill testing.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, listen, I don't think it's going to take very long for you to secure a partner and a part of that is because you're in a world-class mining district, right? This is a region that has seen over 600 million ounces of silver and 20 million ounces of gold discovered. That's just since 1990. So you have majors surrounding you, you have a project that has company making potential. Can we talk about the address and can we talk about the project specifically, because this one is one that could set the stock on fire in pretty short order?

Keith Henderson: Yeah, this is in Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is the place to be in Argentina in terms of operating mines and projects that are moving towards operation. It has a lot of advantages, including excellent infrastructure. It's low elevation. You can work there all year long. It's got deep water ports. It's just got everything going for it.

The region, the province has been focused on precious metals always. That's what most of the production is. It's variably silver dominated, silver-gold, or gold dominated, gold-silver. Either way, it's precious metals. I think this one's likely going to be a silver dominated system. It's got ten drill targets right now. Each one of those could be a significant discovery in itself. If we get real lucky, more than one of them will work out and who knows what we can find. But we think it's got potential to be a very, very sizable discovery. It's, of course, in the right address. We're about 70 km south of Cerro Negro, which is Newmont's, one of Newmont's flagships, 7 million ounce gold deposit. Other mines around us as well. It's just such a great place to be and lots of audience for us when we start to think about potential partners and things like that, which is exactly the kind of place you want to be too.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, listen, I don't want you to tip your hand, but I know biased shareholders, and our group included, believes in the project and definitely does not want you to give the farm away. So with that being said, as much as you can opine, how are you approaching finding a partner? What characteristics are you looking for in a potential partner to make sure that you secure some of that upside for shareholders?

Keith Henderson: Yeah, there's going to be an option. I'm looking at 70% option so that we are retaining 30%. I think that's probably about the right combination for a project like this. This is a project where if there is a very significant discovery, that there is some potential for Latin Metals to hang in there with a minority interest. So yeah, for sure, we're not giving it away, and I think 70% is the right number. In terms of the companies, major companies, yeah, there are a couple there. I mentioned one that's located north. There's a couple of others like AngloGold that are operating in the district as well, so that's definitely a possibility. But my feeling is that it'll probably move more in the direction of a mid-tier. I think the mid-tiers are much more agile right now, and I'm really just judging that based on the kind of phone calls I'm getting.

When we started to get phone calls this year and when the market kind of started to turn in that direction, it was definitely the mid-tiers that were calling rather than the major companies, and these are the more agile and slightly smaller groups. But I think that looks really interesting and there's been some interesting names on the phone. What I like most about this project is it's not just a situation for outgoing calls. This is the kind of project where we get incoming calls as well, and that also makes us feel pretty confident about what we can do.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, far from a one-trick pony, you have a portfolio of very, very prospective projects, some of which you're partnered up with, carried all the way through a production decision, and some that you're yet to have partners for. And so I know that you mentioned this is one of hopefully three drill permits that you're going to be securing this year. Can we touch a bit on the rest of the portfolio? Because I think people that were waiting for the permit to get in on the Latin Metals story are going to look at this permit as a green light, and I don't anticipate that your share price is going to linger here for very much longer.

Keith Henderson: Yeah, so the other two projects are Organullo, which is a precious metals exploration target that's being run by AngloGold, and then also a copper-gold porphyry system at Esperanza, which is being operated by Moxico. AngloGold are AngloGold, massive mining company, huge technical capability. They've made some significant discoveries throughout South America. They're bringing that expertise to us. They're looking for something in excess of 5 million ounces total discovery, which puts their target absolutely in the tier-one level. Obviously there's exploration risk attached to these things, but if they're successful, this one project on its own is going to be the thing that changes everything for Latin Metals. We don't need all of our projects to work out. We need one of our projects to work out, and that's what having multiple projects and multiple partners does for you. It just creates multiple opportunities for discovery and multiple opportunities for success.

So we're excited to see that one drilling. I know that AngloGold had been drilling on something else in Salta, which they're just wrapping up. I also know that they're expecting a drill permit to come in March or April. We're getting towards the end of March, so maybe we're looking at early part of April. I don't know exactly, and I have not an idea from them from a couple of weeks, but let's say that's coming and as soon as it comes, they're going to start drilling. So that's definitely one that we expect to see drilling this year. And then Moxico at Esperanza are doing an absolutely tremendous amount of work. They've been in the field now I think for around 12 to 14 weeks with a short break on the holidays. But they're doing a ton of mapping. They're doing a lot of sampling. They're going to do regional geochemistry, and that's not just on Esperanza but on the property that we also optioned, which is contiguous, called Huachi.

This is actually a very big area. So as well as the core kind of mineralized area, they're going to be looking at geochemistry all around in a kind of regional sense. And I know they're also planning to do an airborne geophysical survey that covers all of that region and probably even a little bit beyond the properties that we own. So that's going to give us a really, really good picture. It's going to tell us what they think exactly about the mineralization that we know to be there, like the porphyry system is outcropping. You'll remember that we had significant drill results there already a few years ago, 400 meters, 0.57% copper, 0.27 grams gold. So that portion of the property has already got a discovery, but we've always had the question for ourselves, what sits beyond that?

And the work that they're going to be doing this year is going to tell us the answer. And if there's something hiding there that we're previously unaware of, that will be something that they'll be able to drill test as well. In terms of drill permitting, they're looking for a drill permit at Esperanza deposit itself and also looking for a permit on the wider Huachi property as well. So both of those processes are ongoing, and I have a call with them today, actually, to get an update on that, but that's another one that we hope to have this year.

So theoretically, drilling at Cerro Bayo when we have a partner, drilling at Organullo when AngloGold gets the permit, and drilling at Esperanza as well. On Organullo and Esperanza, under those option agreements, we basically have agreements in place for up to $80 million of investment over the next few years. And you start to compare that with the cost of running this company and the kind of money that we go and raise, we are running the company on typically less than $2 million a year, minimal dilution, and yet all of this money's being spent and all these opportunities are getting created. And as I said a while ago, it's multiple opportunities. We don't need all of the projects to succeed. We need one of the projects to succeed.

Gerardo Del Real: Lots of shots on goal. I've had conversations with people much smarter than myself. I had one with Mr. David Rhodes the other day of Endeavor Financial fame, and I'm happy with $3,000 gold. I'm happy with $33 silver. He believes we're headed towards $5,000 gold and $50 silver, just based on the charts, right? And so I'm an optimist by nature. If we get halfway there and we just stay at current prices, it's going to be a phenomenal run and a phenomenal couple of years for Latin Metals and shareholders that are positioned correctly. Anything else that you want to add to that there, Keith?

Keith Henderson: I was relaxing in my home the other night and I was on YouTube watching the television, and I listened to one of your interviews, the one that you did with Jeff Phillips. It wasn't that long ago, maybe a month ago or something. And it was about structure and company structure and it kind of got me thinking, because I look at Latin Metals and I think the structure is fabulous, and Jeff's a smart guy and he understands that that's very, very important. We've got 109 million shares issued and outstanding. 47 million of those are reporting insiders.

And there's another 33 million sitting with a single brokerage in Vancouver. And these are long-term guys. I charted this up last week and I looked at the shares that they have. They basically moved from having 2 million shares at the time that we positioned Latin Metals as a prospect generator, and they've been gradually increasing their position over the last five years to today, where they now have 33.5 million shares. And at no point in that five-year period have they been sellers. At no point in that five-year period has their share position decreased. It's just been increasing steadily the entire time, some of it being market and some of it being private placements. But you add all of this together, I basically know where 82% of the shares are in Latin Metals, so we've got an 18% float, 20 million shares, and aside from that float, there's basically nothing else trading right now. So it really is tight, and the structure I think is really good.

Gerardo Del Real: No, listen, I know that Jeff's a shareholder. Again, our group is biased in that sense, but it's not going to take much for the stock to move. And thank you very much for articulating exactly where those shares are and the fact that 47% of those are reporting shares, which is critical, right?

Keith Henderson: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Keith, congratulations. I look forward to having similar conversations and really looking forward to you getting a partner and starting to drill these things out.

Keith Henderson: Sounds great. Talk to you soon. Take it easy.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Thanks for your time. Cheers.

Keith Henderson: Bye-bye.

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