Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: Gold Stocks

V Ten Metals (TSX-V: VTEN) CEO Blair Way On Newmont JV at Flagship Tanami Project in Northern Territory Australia & What's Next

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president & CEO of V Ten Metals Corp. (TSX-V: VTEN) — Mr. Blair Way. Blair, how the heck are you today?

Blair Way: I'm good, Gerardo. It's great to be catching up. It's been a while.

Gerardo Del Real: It has been a while. You have been very busy behind the scenes with the team getting this new vehicle up and running. You recently had a property update on the Tanami property in Australia regarding the exploration farm-in and joint venture agreement with Newmont and some of the work being done there. So I thought I would reach out and obviously catch up on the update there.

Clearly, that's an ongoing relationship that is advancing, but also to get an overview of where the company is and what you're expecting as far as approach and catalysts here for what I think is going to be a really exciting second half of the year.

Blair Way: Yes, as you suggested, we've been busy in the background with a new company, CPC, qualifying transaction, all the nuts and bolts that have to be put together for that to come into play.

We've got our Tanami property. The joint venture is progressing as planned. Newmont has done some work on the ground. Being a larger company, there's a bit more restriction on what we can or cannot say at this early stage, but the good news is the joint venture is progressing and we can carry on from there and provide updates as appropriate.

And of course, we still have a great deal of ground as part of that project that we have to do work on. Again, we are progressing that in the background and we'll have some updates very soon on that. Of course, that involves taking the property down the path toward an eventual drill program. So that's happening in the background, and I'll provide more detail on the timing and processes there in the coming weeks. But it's been busy.

As always, with a fresh baby company fresh out of the gate, we've had a lot of administrative activity in the background, but we've also been moving forward on the Tanami property. And of course, we are looking at other properties to add to the portfolio because a one-trick pony, one-property company is always a challenge. It's good to have diversity in both properties and the regions and jurisdictions we're working in.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, listen, present company included, anybody that wrote a check the last time you were quarterbacking a venture — that being Patriot Battery Metals — obviously did phenomenally well. So I have to believe the Rolodex, or the contact list as it's called now, has got to be pretty robust.

So when you mention looking at potentially adding other projects, do you have a commodity-specific focus, or are you really just looking for the best projects with merit that can get the company from point A to point B and hopefully someday to what Patriot Battery Metals has become?

Blair Way: Well, we've known each other long enough, Gerardo. I'm commodity agnostic. I've worked in almost all of them, whether it's gold, copper, nickel, magnesium, zinc, obviously lithium, and now cesium and tantalum. So there's a whole suite of commodities out there.

When you're looking at properties, you're looking for good projects with strong prospectivity and potential. Whether it's copper, gold, or something else, we evaluate them based on the quality of the project, and it'll be what it'll be.

Obviously, with Tanami, we are pretty optimistic about the copper-gold potential there, but there are other commodities that may have potential as well. We've got to do the work on the ground. Again, that's what I've always done in the past. We get the properties, figure out which ones are best, work those properties, keep moving forward, and turn the drill bit.

That's the way to deliver value and returns to shareholders — do the work. Less talk, more work has always been the goal.

Gerardo Del Real: Couldn't agree more. Back to Tanami, can you give people an overview of the difference between the farm-in agreement with Newmont and the property and concessions that V Ten has 100% control over?

Blair Way: Yes. It's a big property holding in the Northern Territory of Australia. For people who may not be familiar with Australia, it's right in the middle of the country, a little closer to the northern section — closer to Darwin than it is to Adelaide in South Australia.

We've got just over 1,200 square kilometers, and the joint venture covers less than half of that. So we still have a great deal of ground to work on, and that's actually what we're progressing right now. We have most things in place and, as I said, I'll be able to provide an update fairly soon on the next steps on the ground.

We certainly love the property. We've always loved it. And obviously Newmont has been pretty enthusiastic about it as well, given its willingness to execute the farm-in and joint venture.

For us, we'll continue to work the property. It's primarily the southern section of the property that we're focusing on. It's highly prospective. As I said before, we're looking at copper, gold, nickel, PGE, and potentially even rare earths. So nothing is going to be left out when we're doing assays in the key target areas.

You'll probably remember at Patriot [PMET] we were doing full assays on the holes, and we managed to find things in some of those later assays. So it's always good to spend the money on assays up front so you don't have to go back and redo the work later. It can provide opportunities when other commodities may or may not become of interest.

As I said, we've got a large area still to explore with highly prospective targets for copper, gold, nickel, PGE, and rare earths. So it's a full suite. It's a great property. It's in the middle of nowhere, but access is good because it's not that far from Newmont's Granites operation. It's about 30 kilometers away, so there is some infrastructure in the area.

Again, it's a desert environment. It's not hard to access. We're coming off the backside of the wet season there, so we'll be targeting getting on the ground later this year.

Gerardo Del Real: Sounds like a very catalyst-rich and busy second half of the year.

Blair Way: It is. Between the work on the property, potentially adding more properties, and some of the other things we'll have moving forward as we grow into our skin, get a bit more marketing going, and help people understand what we're doing, it's going to be a busy balance of the year.

I look forward to sharing the whole process with you and with all the investors who have been very faithful and loyal in following us over the years. I look forward to delivering similar results with V Ten.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, I'm biased. I've written checks in the last two financings. I think half the shares, if not most of them, are locked up, and I haven't sold a single share. I absolutely cannot wait for the drill bit to start turning. And frankly, I'm excited to see what other projects happen to fall into your lap over the next several months.

Thank you so much, Blair. Anything to add to that?

Blair Way: Nope, that's all. Great, Gerardo. We'll keep in touch. As I said, we'll provide more updates as they become available, but it's an exciting time ahead of us.

Gerardo Del Real: Looking forward to it. Thanks, as always.

Blair Way: Thanks, Gerardo.

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