Categories: Base Metals / Precious Metals
Topics: General Base Metals / General Precious Metals

Zacapa Resources (TSX-V: ZACA)(OTC: ZACAF) CEO Ian Slater on Drilling for New Gold Discovery in Nevada

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Zacapa Resources, Mr. Ian Slater. Ian, it's great to have you on. We got ourselves a gold market. How are you, sir?

Ian Slater: I'm great, thank you, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Let's get right into it. You happen to have a fully drill permitted set of targets that happen to be in the neighborhood where the companies all around you are trading at many, many, many multiples of what Zacapa trades for. Those companies are, of course a bit more advanced. There's going to be several producing mines that come out of this district that you happen to be in, but you have to be excited to have the targets at South Bullfrog, to be fully drill permitted and to have a drill contractor that you've selected.

Ian Slater: So excited. We saw this opportunity a few years ago where there was so much work being done. The district was so exciting, where you had Augusta, you had Corvus, it was bought by Anglo, and you had Anglo and all this activity going around. And right in the core of the district where there was so many signs of historic working, there was shafts everywhere, adits everywhere, oh, some pits, and it was free ground.

So a few years ago, we took the opportunity and staked it, and since then we've been doing step by step, the science. So we've done all of the geophysics and geochemistry and the detailed mapping, and then the drill permitting. And we have targets there that are very, very similar to the other discoveries. So specifically our Longtail target. It looks identical to silica, and it has the same mercury at surface has the same big alterations. It's a really, really exciting target. And the reason these are still here is because they're undercover, so it's just not obvious.

Gerardo Del Real: So how do you unlock that potential value there? Obviously, it's a target that, as you mentioned, it's a blind target because it is undercover. What comes next as far as unlocking that value? And obviously, look, you're coming on as CEO, you, I know are busy. You have a ton of experience, you have a phenomenal technical team. But I suppose that you didn't come on to not make a discovery or to not add value here in relatively short order. Right, Ian?

Ian Slater: Exactly. We're going to drill it. We're going to drill it this spring, and it'll be a really, really exciting time to be a Zacapa shareholder when those rigs start to turn.

Gerardo Del Real: Rigs will be turning. Initial drill program, do you have an idea on the meters and the amount of holes that you plan on testing the target with?

Ian Slater: Well, these are relatively short holes, so we're planning 3,000 meters to start. But if we hit any indications of what we think is there, then we'll just continue.

Gerardo Del Real: Gold has kissed and retraced a bit, but it kissed the $2,000 level before pulling back here $20 or so. How are you feeling about the momentum in the space?

Ian Slater: Oh, really good. I think we're finally... We've had a few false starts over the last couple of years, but I think we're really there. And it's finally all of us who have held gold and silver stocks for years and are well-positioned for what's going to happen this year.

Gerardo Del Real: South Bullfrog is clearly the flagship. That's the biggest near term catalyst, especially if there's a discovery to be had there. But you also have a portfolio of porphyry copper projects that also provide some value that I know you're looking to do something with. Can you speak to that before I let you go?

Ian Slater: Yeah, sure. So one, I guess not just long tail at Bullfrog, but we have a handful of targets at Bullfrog and different kinds of targets, so it's not just one shot there. And then we also have another gold project, which we've permitted now in Idaho called Miller Mountain. So we've worked there with surface work for the last couple of years. There's historic mines there. There's historic drilling of, I think about six meters of 23 grams. So there's some really nice targets at Miller Mountain that we're going to be drilling in the summer in Idaho.

And then on the copper side, we decided some months ago to spin off our copper and gold projects into two separate pubcos. So that's well underway. We've reorganized it internally already. So underneath Zacapa, there's two companies that one owns the gold projects and one owns the copper projects. And we're currently in negotiations with multiple companies about splitting those copper assets off.

So sometime in the near future, we'll be able to release that, and shareholders of Zacapa will end up with a share of Zacapa and a share of newco with gold one company and copper in the other company.

Gerardo Del Real: It's a lot to like, it's great to have a gold market again. I'm excited for the multiple targets. I'm excited for the drill program. I'm looking forward to having you back on here, Ian, thank you so much.

Ian Slater: Great. Thank you very much.