Categories: Energy
Topics: General Energy

Skyharbour Resources (TSX-V: SYH)(OTC: SYHBF) CEO Jordan Trimble on Expansion of Drill Program at Flagship Moore Uranium Project & Drill Results from Partner-Funded East Preston Uranium Project — Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, Canada

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president & CEO of Skyharbour Resources — Mr. Jordan Trimble. Jordan, how are you today?

Jordan Trimble: Doing good. Looking forward to catching up.

Gerardo Del Real: It's been a bit, and I want to get into the news that you announced this morning. You're expanding your current drill program at the high-grade Moore Uranium project. There was a quote in the release that I'll ask you to get into where you mentioned that the drilling is providing significant encouragement to expand the program. 

So an expanded program is always a good sign in my experience and in my book. So I want to talk about that. But I have to get your take on everything uranium. You always do a phenomenal job of providing great insight. 

As to the space, we're finally seeing the spot price start ticking up. And as we talked a bit off air, the fundamentals seem to be as strong as they've ever been for uranium. Give me your thoughts.

Jordan Trimble: Yeah, I'll do a quick overview. We'll start with the high level. So as you and I have talked about in the past, we've seen very, very compelling strong fundamentals for the space. Supply-side response has played out over the last few years. 

One of the big things more recently we talked about is Sprott taking over UPC. So that's going to come in here and that's going to drive a lot of buying price discovery into the sector. More recently, just last week, we saw The Wall Street Journal report on Anchorage Capital Group — a big hedge fund out of New York — buying a few million pounds quietly over the last few years. There's been about $408 million raised by producers, developers, physical holding companies over the last, really, 8-9 months that's gone into the market… a big part of that earmarked to buying physical material.

So this has just tightened up the market. And now that we're seeing more and more generalist money come into this space, it’s going to force the utilities — as we've talked about in the past — force utilities to come in and ultimately have to negotiate these long-term contracts. 

It's going to, I think, tighten up the spot market to the point where you'll see a breakout. We're at US$32 - US$33 [per pound]. You and I talked offline about the spot price moving up here just bit by bit over the last several months. It was kind of stuck in the high US$20s for a while. But we're now seeing it break out a little bit. But all of these factors, this confluence of factors is, I think, paving the way for a very, very strong end of the year.

I truly believe we can see US$40 a pound by year-end. And again, on the demand side, we continue to see positive sentiment grow for nuclear, right? A lot of countries, a lot of economies, aiming to go carbon neutral by the mid-century — US, China, most of Europe — right? 

So we continue to see positive developments and positive sentiment grow for nuclear energy. And so as we see that, demand sides continue to improve; new reactors coming onto the grid. We see new SMR [Small Modular Reactors] and advanced nuclear technologies being rolled out. 

You'll see that — this demand pull — but as we've seen over the last four or five years, this major supply side response that's played out. And now — with the advent of developers, physical holding companies, and these generalists funds buying in the market — this is much like we saw in the mid-2000s. This is gearing up to be, I think, a significant bull market over the coming years.

Gerardo Del Real: And that's a perfect segue into Skyharbour in the news this morning and how you're positioned for it, right? You're expanding the drill program. Tell me a bit about the significant encouragement as much as you can.

Jordan Trimble: Well, yes. So it's good that you picked up on it. It was kind of hidden in the news release. We didn't want to say too much. But, needless to say, we're quite happy with what we've seen, thus far, with the drilling. It's still early-days but we've expanded it from 3,500 to 5,000 meters; fully funded, fully permitted. 

We've got approximately C$9 million in cash and stock or shares in partner companies. So well-funded to complete this 5,000-meter drill program. We will continue drilling right through the end of the year. This will likely be the most drilling that we carry out at Moore Lake in any given 12 months… will be this year. So excited to have this program underway. Very happy with what we've seen thus far. 

The current drilling is focused at the East Maverick target. So this, as you recall, back in December and January is where we intersected our longest widths of continuous uranium mineralization: 17.5 meters of 0.72%, 10 meters of 1% U3O8 hosted in the basement rocks.

So we're continuing to follow up on that. We really think that we're onto something much larger there. So that'll be the first target. Then, we are going to continue to drill along the 4.7-km-long conductive corridor, the Maverick Corridor. 

There is the Esker target, which is up to the northeast that’s seen some limited drilling and had some decent historical results. And then, we're going to finish off with a new target called Grid Nineteen. And I believe we spoke about this in the last interview.

Gerardo Del Real: Yep.

Jordan Trimble: This is a new geophysical target. It's basically a very complex structural break in a couple of conductive corridors. And so this is exactly what you want to be looking for for these uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin. 

And it has had two exploratory drill holes in the past; some mineralization discovered but no follow up or no work or no drilling down in the basement rocks. So excited to go and test this new target, brand new area. So bottom line, lots of drilling; 5,000 meters. We'll continue drilling right through the summer. Results to follow.

Gerardo Del Real: A lot to like! Elsewhere in the portfolio, Jordan, I know there's been some activity at the East Preston Uranium Project recently. Would you like to opine there?

Jordan Trimble: Yeah, absolutely. So they announced — our partner company Azincourt — announced the results from a small drill program that they carried out back earlier in the year. Keep in mind, it was truncated due to warm weather. 

They got about 1,200 meters of drilling done. They had some elevated uranium and pathfinder elements and minerals in several holes. So very encouraging to see that. Keep in mind, it's still relatively early-stage. With each drill hole, with each program, they're getting closer to a discovery; I truly believe that. 

And as they announced in the news release, they have a summer program that they'll be carrying out. So you'll see news flow on that. That should actually start up soon. Some field work followed by 1,000 meters of drilling. And then, they are planning for a much larger winter program later this year / early next year: 6,000 meters. 

And I think that's going to be the ticket to a discovery there. They've done an excellent job. They've earned the 70%. And as a minority interest holder in the project, we’ll benefit with any exploration and discovery success that they have there.

Gerardo Del Real: Sounds good, Jordan. I'm looking forward to assays; looking forward to having you back on. Thanks for the update as always.

Jordan Trimble: Absolutely, Gerardo. Thanks.

Gerardo Del Real: Alright, take care now.

Jordan Trimble: Take care.

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