Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals

New Placer Dome Gold (TSX-V: NGLD) CEO Max Sali on Hitting Economic-Grade Oxide, Missing On Three Holes & Pending Assays from Kinsley

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of New Placer Dome Gold — Mr. Max Sali. Max, how are you today? Busy day for you!

Max Sali: Thank you! Good to be here again.

Gerardo Del Real: Let's get right into it, and let's be very frank. You announced some results today from the Bolo Gold-Silver Project where the headline read: 

New Placer Dome Gold drills 25.9 meters of 0.92 g/t gold oxide within a broader zone of 97.5 meters averaging 0.41 g/t. 

The market discounted the two solid holes in exchange for the three where no significant mineral intercepts of gold occurred. I've got to be honest, I don't think the market fully understands or appreciates the oxide potential in Nevada at a project that, Kris [Raffle], and your whole team, frankly, not just Kris, but the geologists all agree has the potential for a million ounces of oxide gold across the property at the very least. 

And so I say all of that to say… it's got to be disappointing to see the market not react to the news. But you have to be encouraged by the good widths and the good mineralization that you're seeing thus far.

Max Sali: Yeah, I agree. I think the market for gold in general is soft. I think our retail really wants to see Kinsley. What Bolo has shown is – despite us having three holes that didn't hit – what I want to say is, in 2019, we drilled 8 holes. In 2020, we drilled 14 holes. So far, out of 18 holes drilled that we've released to market to-date — we've hit on 15 of those holes, right? 

And every one of those holes has intersected significant mineralization. So Bolo is very consistent. In any drill program, you're going to have some hits and you're going to have some misses. And most of the time, you're going to have a lot more misses than you are hits. And we've consistently hit way more of the time than we have missed.

And the nice thing about this hole is almost 100 meters of economic grade. And most companies in Nevada are using a 0.2 gram cutoff grade for oxide. So we're well over that; we're twice that. And on the higher percentage, we're almost five times that. 

And so I think what happens is once you release the rest of the results to the market – and there's another four holes probably in the next few weeks – then we'll be able to put together a 2021 drill program and really show the market… Hey, one thing we have to tell people about Bolo is you can come out with one screaming hole, as you know, and never replicate it. You'd rather have consistency because that's what builds a resource and that's what we will do. 

And after the 2021 drill program, we will put out a maiden resource aiming at a million ounces. And so that's something that's just going to come out and probably shock the market especially when I'm getting zero, if not negative, value from Bolo at the moment.

Gerardo Del Real: Agreed. You mentioned Kinsley. So I have to ask… we have 40 holes in the lab… we are waiting for results from new parts of the property that have seen limited or no drilling… how are things coming along on that front, Max?

Max Sali: Well, as you said, 80% of the property actually saw no drilling. And so the first 9 holes that were drilled near the resource, 8 out of 9 holes, intersected significant mineralization. The best hole being 10.22 grams over 6.1 meters near the resource — so economic. 

But I think what the market really wants to see, and we understand, is a new discovery at Kinsley. And by new discovery, what I mean is there's the Secret Canyon Shale — and this is where most of the high-grade gold is located. So what we're trying to do is drill through that part of the shale formation, just on different parts of the property. It exists. Formations don't just stop and drop. And it runs throughout the property.

And so what we've done is we've chosen some of the better targets where we think we can hit some of these formations just on different parts. And so what you're going to see in the next batch of 9 holes – I'm aiming for mid-February – you're going to see 4 more or 5 more holes from the Western Flank, which is the current resource. And then, the rest of the release will be all new discovery. And then, every single hole you’ll see going forward is all new targets aiming for a new discovery; nothing near the current resource. 

And so that would be fantastic for us to show the market that we can demonstrate… not only does Kinsley have the super high-grade resource but that same sulfide exists on different parts of the property.

Gerardo Del Real: I agree with you and that that would be a game-changer for Kinsley… for New Placer Dome Gold. I think the stock represents a pretty compelling speculation.

If you look at what the market cap being assigned to the Kinsley Mountain Gold Project was – just a few years ago when gold was at much, much lower levels – that was in the order of, I think, it was something like C$250 million if I'm not mistaken. 

What's your current market cap right now, Max? Just ballpark it for me.

Max Sali: C$20 million.

Gerardo Del Real: Yeah. There's a severe disconnect there. And I think a discovery will be a game-changer. Is there anything else that you'd like to add to that, Max?

Max Sali: I purchased more shares this morning. I purchased another 25,000 shares this morning. I purchased 50,000 shares last week. And I purchased 60,000 shares the week before.

Gerardo Del Real: Skin in the game! I like it! I know that there are some shares that came free trading that are contributing to the liquidity in the market. That, as we both know, does not last; eventually it gets soaked up. If that coincides with a discovery or two — I think we're off to the races! 

Thank you for your time, Max.

Max Sali: Thanks, Gerardo.