Categories: Precious Metals / Mining Stocks
Topics: Gold Stocks / Copper Stocks

V Ten Metals (TSX-V: VTEN)(OTC: VTNMF) CEO Blair Way on Drill Program at the Tanami Property, NT, Australia

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president and CEO of V Ten Metals (TSX-V: VTEN)(OTC: VTNMF), Mr. Blair Way. Blair, here we go again. You and I have a bit of a history. Going back to the Flinders days back in 2010, we've had a pretty good run of it. That was followed up obviously with PMET Resources, formerly Patriot Battery Metals. That was life changing. And here we go now with V Ten Metals.

You are a young company. You have a phenomenal share structure. You have a tiny market cap. I'm a biased shareholder, but I'm excited to be back in the car and go along for this ride. You just had your first piece of what I would call significant news announcing a drill program at your property in Australia, a first pass program. So look, what should we be expecting here? Good to have you on.

Blair Way: It's great to catch up again, Gerardo. Hope your summer's going well. Everyone seems to be enjoying a bit of summer, and the markets are doing what the markets often do in the summertime. But for us down in Australia with the property there, it's wintertime, it's time to get on the ground. So, we put out the press release and of course we're starting a drill program on a qualifying property, the Tanami property. And yeah, we're excited to finally get on the ground. It always takes time to get that first exploration license and all that sort of stuff. So, it's in place.

We also put in the announcement – people may not pick up. We also even got a grant from the Northern Territory government to assist with some of our costs because they're pushing for exploration in these new areas. So, it's great to be able to have a little bit of help that way. But yeah, the drill program, we've got the drilling contractor, our permits in place. And yeah, we'll be mobilizing in early August. And of course, news flow will continue to flow on beyond that, but it's an exciting time. As you said, brand new company, brand new property, our qualified property, of course. And we said we're going to drill it, and that's exactly what we're doing.

Gerardo Del Real: Let's talk about the property. It's a new property. This isn't a recycled project that has been in and out of 20 different companies' hands. But it's got a heck of an endorsement with a neighbor by the name of, a young up and coming company by the name of Newmont, right? Which also happens to be working the other half of the claim block. Can you explain the proximity to Newmont's property and where Newmont is working in relation to the property here that's going to be drilled?

Blair Way: So our Tanami property is part of obviously a much greater geological trend of which further to the west, 50, 60 kilometers to the west is the Granites Mine. And of course we're east of that. There's property held by other companies, one of which of course is Newmont and they've been working the ground there. They also have the joint venture with us working on some of the northern half of our property as well. So we are working on the southern half of the property, but geologically it's certainly very good proximity and also just good excellent geology. And the geophysics is indicating some pretty decent potential nickel, copper, PGE targets. So, we're going after them with our own drill rig and our own work program. And that's what we committed to do when we brought the property in. Obviously the Newmont joint venture firemen is going on their own pathway. And we'll provide updates as that becomes available.

But for us, we've got to get in there. We'll put the drill on there. We've got these targets. And yeah, as you said, it's a brand new area. It hasn't had a great deal of work done. There has been some geochem and some geophysics, but there hasn't been any real meaningful drilling done in the area. So it's always nice to be the first sort of guy in there, first company in there looking at these new areas with the prospectivity that as a super prospectivity we've just got to get in there and do the drilling and see what we can find. Validating models and then seeing where what we're chasing, is it there or how much is there and how do we track it down?

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. And just to be clear, the initial first pass program, you're targeting copper and gold initially, correct?

Blair Way: Yeah, that's correct. I mean, obviously we're going to assay for, as you probably recall back in the PMET days, we assay for everything because you never know what you find. And obviously that's paid off for PMET and we'll do the same thing. I've always been a firm believer, you spent the money to get the material out of the ground, assay it. Don't save a couple bucks by not assaying for all interesting elements, because later on in time those assays may be much more relevant than they may be today. So yeah, we're chasing copper gold, but obviously we're looking for everything. And you just never know what you find when you're in such a geologically rich area.

Gerardo Del Real: Exciting times. Looking forward to getting the rigs turning. Looking forward to getting a first peek at what may or may not be down there. And if I know you and I've known you for quite some time, Blair, you're likely looking at a hundred different things looking to bolster up the portfolio. Would that be accurate if an opportunity presented itself?

Blair Way: For sure. Obviously as you build a company like this, you don't want to be a single asset company. So as we progress through our commitments with the qualifying property, which is a very... It's a property of merit and we're going to do the work that we committed to, but we're also on the lookout. There are properties elsewhere in Australia and in the world that may or may not be worth bringing into the company, and then continue to work those properties in parallel to this one.

But we love the Tanami property. We're continuing to do the work that we've committed to do as well as we've got Newmont working the other half of the property. So yeah, we've got tons of work ahead of us just on this property, but we are looking and obviously talking to potential vendors of other interesting properties.

Gerardo Del Real: No. Look, exciting times. Appreciate the time, Blair. Let's see what this ride delivers, right?

Blair Way: Yeah, for sure. Look forward. We'll catch up in a couple of weeks' time when ideally rigs are mobilizing, we get something to talk about on the ground.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Thanks for your time. As always, appreciate it.

Blair Way: Thanks, Gerardo. Great to catch up.

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