Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: Gold Stocks

VTEN Metals (TSX-V: VTEN)(OTC: TENMF) CEO Blair Way on Drill Program Update 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 director of VTEN Metals (TSX-V: VTEN)(OTC: VTNMF), Mr. Blair Way.

Blair, interesting times. We have gold right around the 4,400 level. We have silver right at 65. Copper's making seemingly new record highs on a monthly basis. The world is volatile to say the least, but it's new days at VTEN Metals. The drill's turning. Great to have you on. How are you?

Blair Way: I'm doing great, Gerardo. Of course, it's always great to have the drill turning because that's what this game is all about, getting funding to test hypotheses on ground. And that's exactly what we're doing here with VTEN. We've got this great property in the Tanami next door or not far away from Newmont's granite gold mine. Yeah, we're drilling. So that's great to have things happening. We did the pre-work, which we announced, got the tracks and trails put in place, got the pads built, and now the rig's moving from pad to pad. We're a couple holes in and it's going to plan. So that's always nice. We haven't had any hiccups or any challenges of any consequence along the way. So that's what I like to see at the start of a fresh drill program on new property.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, look, it's early days, we know that. And I want to caution that you are a newish company, you are a small company, but obviously with your pedigree, your background with PMET and your track record of discoveries with many, many, many companies, not to mention the team that you've been able to put together, I can make a pretty compelling argument that in this environment, the team itself is worth the current market cap. I want to highlight the share structure and just how tiny that market cap is. And then we'll talk more about what we hope to see with this drill program.

But where is the market cap right now? Can you just explain to the fine folks out there what the share structure looks like? Because as a biased shareholder, that is frankly one of the main reasons why I've written the checks that I've written for the company.

Blair Way: For sure. I mean, as you and I have been doing these sort of things for a while, it is all about the structure as our good friend Jeff Phillips always reanalyzes with us when we discuss these various sort of processes. And having that sort of structure, we're in the order of about 25 million shares and we have a very tight structure, mostly friends and family and well-intentioned shareholders.

So what that means is it gives us the funding and the time to do the work that needs to be done to prove these properties up. And that's really where we are. The structure allows us to just focus on getting the work done. We get the work, we get something of interest that comes out of the ground, which of course that's why we're drilling this ground and we're in a very good neighborhood, shall we say, up in the Tanami. And we remain very optimistic. We're drilling lines across some geophysical targets that we believe have merit for these sort of specialty materials, nickel, copper, PGEs. And yeah, we have to do the work, but we've got a tight structure with a shareholder base that understands the processes at work.

Gerardo Del Real: What comes next? Can you explain that to me? I know the drill is turning. What are you hoping to see out of it? What comes next and when can we expect that?

Blair Way: So the timeline is we'll continue to drill. I'd say we're probably another week or two of drilling. Then those materials will be shipped off to the lab. Labs are a bit of a wild card. We're hoping somewhere between four to eight weeks, and I know that's kind of a big window till you actually get in their pipeline. They'll of course tell you one thing and then when you actually get in their pipeline, it's another. So I don't want to over promise the timing on the assays, but it's probably somewhere around four to eight weeks. And if we can push it a bit harder, of course we will.

During that time, we will also be able to see some of the RC cuttings as they come out. So we'll have some visuals at least to give us some indication. And of course, we have been undertaking a soil survey as well on the ground and that work will also be incorporated into this same lab timeline. So I believe we'll have some pretty compelling information on the property in the coming couple of months. Now, of course, during that time, we have a few other things that we're working on in the background, looking at other possible properties elsewhere in the world as well as in Australia.

So we have a pretty full plate. The drill's obviously turning that’s the key focus right now, but I also continue to work in the background to explore and investigate other properties we can add to our portfolio.

Gerardo Del Real: Exciting times. There's nothing like adding value via the drill bit. The market cap is tiny. The share structure is solid. You got the right people at the helm. Looking forward to initial results and really looking forward to seeing what else materializes out there.

Anything to add to that, Blair?

Blair Way: No, absolutely. Obviously it's the right thing, get the drill on the ground, start testing some of these targets that we found through various geophysical works. The next steps of getting the materials, testing materials, and of course continuing to drive the company forward. The results from these works will direct us where we go next on the property. But at the same time, we have quite a bit of optimism with, as you mentioned at the very beginning of this, where the commodity pricing is all over. We've got gold pricing, copper pricing that are just fantastic for… It's still incredible. People just say gold's only at $4,400 an ounce.

Gerardo Del Real: Only.

Blair Way: It's incredible. I used to work and plan projects at 1,200 and people thought that was crazy. So we are in a crazy time. So this opens up opportunities, not only for some of the older type projects that maybe can be revisited, but keep in mind, this is a new project. This has never been explored before, but there's an awful lot of optimism. We, of course, have half of the project or part of the project. Joint venture go with Newmont, that's working way in the background. We'll provide updates on that as we can. But for the work we're doing, as you know, I like to keep people informed as much as I can, and I target a news release every couple weeks to four weeks so people know how we're deploying our resources and the activities that we're undertaking so that people can feel confident to continue to hold and let us do the work that needs to be done to, as you say, build value with the drill bit.

Gerardo Del Real: Thank you so much for the update, Blair. Appreciate it. Looking forward to having you back.

Blair Way: Thanks, Gerardo. Always great to catch up.

Gerardo Del Real: All right. Chat soon. Cheers.

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