Valkea Resources (TSX-V: OZ)(OTC: OZBKF) CEO Chris Donaldson on Upcoming Drill-Assays at Flagship, 100%-Owned Paana Gold Project in Finland's Prolific Central Lapland Greenstone Belt

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Valkea Resources — Mr. Chris Donaldson. Chris, it's great to have you on. How are you today, sir?

Chris Donaldson: Hey, I'm doing well. Thanks, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Well listen, let's get right into it. We got a chance to catch up properly finally at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference. The conference, I think you'd agree, was well attended, good energy, and lots of money on the sidelines that's looking for a home. 

And it was interesting to me, on the day before I left, three of my meetings were with companies, including Valkea, that are operating and exploring in Finland. I have to be honest, Chris, when I started looking at the region, and you and I touched on this while there, but when I started looking at the amount of gold that's been discovered, the amount of majors in the region, and just the amount of exploration upside, I was blown away. I didn't fully appreciate just how fertile the mineralization is in Finland.

And so, of course, that extends to Valkea, which is primed to take advantage of that with the drill program you just completed. It's the perfect time to get the story out to our audience because we're expecting assays and you have a tiny market cap. First and foremost, tell me about Finland and tell me about why you decided to focus on this part of the world.

Chris Donaldson: Yes, a couple of things you touched on there… the Vancouver Conference has been pretty slow the last few years, and there was a definite shift in attitude and attendance and so on. It was really pretty exciting to see, and I think the market is starting to wake up.

In terms of Finland itself, it's definitely a region that's becoming globally significant for gold production and exploration. And it's specifically the region that we're in, which is called the Central Lapland, which is up North in the Arctic Circle area. 

We spent a couple of years looking for projects around the world in greenstone belts because, as you mentioned, they host fertile rocks and tend to host multiple million ounce deposits. And this area is an area that's often compared to the Abitibi 100 years ago in that it's only really been explored for the last 25 or 30 years in earnest.

Specifically, we are right next to a mine called Kittila. Kittila is owned by Agnico Eagle. It is Europe's largest primary gold producer. And the reason we liked it is because it is an area that was seeing investment even in the tougher days a few years ago and seeing discoveries and seeing some M&A. All of those things you look for in a project, plus the geology is there for the potential for some good discoveries.

We’re certainly happy to be there. We've just finished our first initial drill program and are waiting assays. It was probably the easiest program… of course, it’s never easy… but we had the fewest issues in getting it done. And Finland has been really, really great to work in so far.

We’ve acquired five projects that we own 100%; the main one being Paana. Paana had a discovery, or a pseudo discovery, back in 2020. And then, because of COVID, it was an Australian company that owned it; they weren't able to advance it.

So we had something to start with, and they had some pretty good existing hits; almost 7 meters at 12 grams per tonne Au and 20 meters at 4 grams per tonne Au. We have something that we get to start from, and we're really pretty anxious to see what potential scale it could be here. And we'll know that in the next few weeks.

Gerardo Del Real: I mentioned that this is the perfect time to introduce the Valkea story to our audience. And the reason being, I love the region. I love early-stage exploration, and I really love it when we have assays pending. 

And look, we know there's gold there. We know there's high-grade gold there because we have historic holes, right? My understanding is that these holes that we're waiting assays on are step outs on 25 to 50-meter centers between holes 62 and 71. Is that accurate?

Chris Donaldson: Yep, that's right.

Gerardo Del Real: Can you tell me the past results there?

Chris Donaldson: Yes, we are following up on some good hits, and it's really now trying to understand these high-grade intercepts that we have. One of the signatures of the Kittila Mine, which started as an open pit operation, is that it had long sections of lower-grade but also had these columns or plunges of high-grade. 

And so this program, one, we want to reestablish the project and get a sense for the potential scale of what we have. But also, it's developing a geological model to get a real handle on these high grades. And we'll know that in the next few weeks. It's really a pretty exciting time, and things could line up.

There's a reason why there are a number of majors, not just Agnico, in the area. You also have B2Gold that's there; you also have Kinross Gold. And of course, the big success over the last four or five years has been an exploration company called Rupert Resources, which has the Ikkari deposit, and they're coming out with their Prefeasibility Study here in Q1.

And all of this is within, say, 100 kilometers or 60 or 70 square miles. It's really a concentrated effort. There are a number of majors and very few juniors, and we've got a dominant position there.

Gerardo Del Real: When do you anticipate assays? You mentioned the tens of millions of ounces that have already been discovered in the region. You mentioned how great it is to work in Finland. When can we get the first peek at assays there, Chris? What are you anticipating?

Chris Donaldson: I'm going to start getting them in in the next week or so; early to mid-February we’ll be able to put something out and report to the market.

Gerardo Del Real: And again, just for upside here, folks, what's the market cap, Chris, because I love tiny market caps in an area where you've already hit high-grade. 

Chris Donaldson: We're just starting so we're around a C$10 million market cap and definitely a lot of room to grow here if we have a little bit of success on this program.

Gerardo Del Real: A whole heck of a lot of upside. It's not going to take much to move the share price higher. Perfect timing. Chris, thank you so much for allowing me to share the story with our audience. I’m looking forward to following back up as soon as those assays start trickling in.

Chris Donaldson: Okay, thanks. Stay in touch.

Gerardo Del Real: Alright, chat soon. Cheers.

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