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Westhaven Gold (TSX-V: WHN)(OTC: WTHVF) CEO Gareth Thomas on Franco-Nevada’s Strategic Investment in the Company’s Spences Bridge Gold Belt Claims
Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest, live from the 2022 Beaver Creek Precious Metals Summit. Joining me today, once again, is the CEO of Westhaven Gold — Mr. Gareth Thomas. Gareth, congratulations are in order. How are you, sir?
Gareth Thomas: I'm well. Thank you again. Thanks for having me again.
Gerardo Del Real: A bit of context. We had a conversation yesterday, and I outlined all of the attractive qualities that make Westhaven a quality, quality speculation if you want some good gold exposure, right? We talked about the jurisdiction… we talked about the infrastructure… we talked about the technical capabilities of the team and the capital markets abilities.
And look, it's one thing when little old Gerardo Del Real says all those things, right? You may have a look… you may have a second look. But it's a bit different when a group like Franco-Nevada comes in and gives you a stamp of approval like the stamp that you just got. Would you care to update everybody here on our conversation yesterday and the news this morning?
Gareth Thomas: Yeah, we're obviously very excited to have a group like Franco-Nevada involved in this. A huge stamp of approval, a big sign of confidence for the potential of our Shovelnose project and, really, the Spences Bridge Gold Belt. I think you'll get, certainly, some more eyes on this now.
And what it equates to is we sold a 2% royalty on all four of our projects for US$6 million, and then we did an additional C$1 million raise, so equity, with Franco. We had a 2.5% NSR in Talisker Resources, which is all around us; we sold that royalty for US$750,000. So it equates to roughly C$10.2 million dollars.
But also, importantly to note there is that those are hard dollars, which, spent in the ground, we get 30% back on that as a tax credit as an incentive to work where we are in BC. So, really, that's more like C$13 million of those hard dollars go to use in the ground, which most of them will; as people know, we put most of our money in the ground.
So it equates to somewhere where it’ll keep us not having to raise money for quite some time. So we're very excited and it was, in our opinion, the best non-diluted way to raise money in these types of markets. So yeah, we're very excited and thrilled to have Franco-Nevada as a shareholder and a stakeholder in the Spences Bridge Gold Belt.
Gerardo Del Real: You mentioned these types of markets, right? And when I do due diligence on a company that I'm looking to invest in or speculate in, it's an exhaustive list, right? There's a lot that goes into it.
Having Franco-Nevada come in and do due diligence, what was that process like? Because I've got to tell you, as a speculator, it's a big vote of confidence to know that Franco-Nevada looked at this and decided that they wanted to be partners in this.
Gareth Thomas: Yeah, I guess that bodes well for our team… and Peter and our exploration team hitting some really world-class assays; our resource helps. But I think Franco has really seen the potential of this relatively underexplored gold belt and the district-scale potential they see there. And I think that's the big thing.
A lot of people are saying we're a bit small for someone like Franco. But that being said, I think they see the potential to add multi-million ounces here, and I think that's what our goal is here and that's what we hope to do here in the foreseeable future.
Gerardo Del Real: Well, thank you so much for the update. We talked yesterday about what comes next… but an important update here, live from Beaver Creek, and wanted to make sure we got it to you. Gareth, absolute pleasure.
Gareth Thomas: Appreciate it.
Gerardo Del Real: Alright.
Gareth Thomas: Thanks, Gerardo.