Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: General Precious Metals

New Placer Dome Gold (TSX-V: NGLD)(OTC: NPDCF) CEO Max Sali on Merger with Copaur Minerals to Advance Properties in BC and Nevada

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?

Max Sali: I'm in a very good mood, Gerardo. How you doing?

Gerardo Del Real: I'm in a very good mood as well. Thank you for asking. You just announced a transaction to combine and advance properties in Nevada and British Columbia with Copaur Minerals. It looks like the market is receptive to the deal. New Placer Dome Gold obviously up on the news. You want to provide the overview, Max? Congrats and good work, by the way.

Max Sali: Yeah. This transaction has been in the works actually for a very short amount of time. It seems like in the last few weeks, stalling the financing. Everyone kind of sat down at the table, and thought about what the best way was to go forward. And I say that because obviously the market is what it is. It took us a while to get a financing done. What happened is we had a big Bolo expenditure coming up. And it was either we drop Bolo, or we got to figure out a solution for that asset. It's a really good asset. But the money was raised for Kinsley. Hands down.

When I talked to 99% of the people that wrote a check in the last financing, it was what are you doing with Kinsley? Thinking about it, that's your flagship asset. You got to move forward with that. But how do we save Bolo? And Copaur, which is in the golden triangle right next to Benchmark Resources. It's a metal group company, and I know them. They always liked Bolo. They've seen the results. Our geologists kind of work in the same office. We got a deal done where we figured merging companies in this market would be better. Because one, we're now doubling our market cap. They will go and raise cash for this. And at the end of the day, we would've had to raise cash again for the payment to Liberty coming up, or we would've had to raise additional cash for Bolo.

And so what happens with this transaction is it's convertible to venture. They will loan us the money for Bolo for the expenditures for 2021. And if the companies merge, that just gets washed and it's gone away. And if the deal falls apart, we're essentially getting ... it becomes like a private placement where they've loaned us the money. If it doesn't work out, they end up getting shares in New Placer, just like a private placement with a four month hold, and then they can do what they wish for those shares after that just like a private placement. It seemed like a pretty good deal to us and them. Everyone's very friendly. In this market, I think you got to get bigger quickly. Because moving into a next gold boom, it's going to be the companies with the bigger market caps that are really going to run.

Gerardo Del Real: I tell you, what I really like about the deal, it really cleans up the share structure. Right? I think you do a good job of explaining that in the release. Just to be absolutely clear about the transaction as far as New Placer Dome Gold shareholders, they'll be receiving .1182 common shares of Copaur for every New Placer Dome Gold share. Shareholders don't have to do a thing. Correct, Max?

Max Sali: Yeah. What's going to happen is we're valuing Copaur at a finance price at about $1.10, and they're valuing us at 13 cents. So, you got a nice lift on that, and then essentially whatever the ratio works out to be. If the finance price changes ... for example, if Copaur raises at a dollar or $1.20, that ratio may change a little bit. But it seems like a nice lift going into a much tighter structure with cash in the bank on their side, and seems like a win-win. So far the market reaction ... at least what I've heard, and shareholders that have called me, or bankers and brokers have reacted quite positively to this news.

Gerardo Del Real: As you mentioned, most people that wrote a check in the recent financing, and frankly, early on, did so on the premise that Kinsley would see some pretty significant exploration. And of course, we're all hoping for new discoveries there and extensions of the current resource. How are things looking on the exploration front as it relates to Kinsley, Max?

Max Sali: Well, we're doing the geophysics. We put up the last release of the last seven lines, which are generating targets. That will continue probably through the end of January before we have all the data. And then once we have all the data for Kinsley, then we'll go and do a site visit and choose the drill targets. The game plan was to hunker down. Not go blowing a bunch of money drilling immediately, because we really want to see what happens in the market. We have our capital raised. Liberty goals are taken care of.

We are using the geophysics to try and get a better hit-to-miss ratio than we did on the last drill program. And really to see where the market is going, instead of blowing all your money again, and having a market not change, and having to go back to the market to raise capital is something we didn't want to do. And so we wanted to make sure that we could move the project forward, and methodically figure out where we're going to drill next, as opposed to just starting drilling and not getting any value for good oxide or good sulfide results like we did last year.

Gerardo Del Real: Well said, Max. Anything else to add to that? Congrats again on the deal. I like it. I think it bodes well for exploration in 2022. You're staying on, I assume, either as director or president. Is that the plan?

Max Sali: Yeah. I'm definitely staying on as director. This is a company I founded. And it's a company that, as everyone knows, I've spent more than my salary buying stock in the market. Having support of Liberty on this deal means a lot. Because without Liberty's support, the deal just doesn't get done. You have your biggest shareholder. And if they don't like the terms, then they just say no. And so we're coming into this deal with a yes vote from them, with a yes vote from my family and my board. And I think we can get a good transaction done, and move forward, and quickly, quickly be able to advance Kinsley, Bolo, and then Copaur's Williams property as well.

Gerardo Del Real: A lot to look forward to. Thank you for the update, Max.

Max Sali: Thank you very much, Gerardo.