Gerardo Del Real,
Editor
April 20, 2022
Editor’s Note: Gold, copper, nickel, and platinum discoveries of merit are being rewarded by the market. And after a year of delays, Prospector Metals (TSX: PPP)(OTC: ETHOD) – formerly called Ethos Gold – will be drilling three highly prospective projects, including two that I believe have company-making potential. I spoke with CEO Alex Heath about the recent name change, the projects, and why 2022 has the potential to be the best year yet in the company’s history.
Enjoy,
–Gerardo
Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president & CEO of Prospector Metals, formerly Ethos Gold, Mr. Alex Heath. Alex, it's great to have you back on. How are you today?
Alex Heath: I'm doing really well. Thanks for having me back.
Gerardo Del Real: Well, listen, there's been a lot going on and I am as excited as I've been for quite some time as it relates to Prospector Metals, formerly Ethos Gold, because everything I hoped would happen in 2021 looks like it's about to happen in 2022. What I mean by that is you have not just one but potentially two company-making projects that are both going to see the drill bit very, very soon. I'm of course talking about the Toogood Gold project in Newfoundland and the Whitton Lake project in northwestern Ontario. I’ve got to get your take on everything that's been going on, the name change and then let's get into the projects and what we can expect.
Alex Heath: Sure. Yeah. Maybe I'll touch on the name change first and then we can get into Toogood and Whitton. So yeah, you're right, we just did a name change and this was a culmination of things. Rob Carpenter getting more involved; Discovery Group having just sold Great Bear to Kinross for $1.8 billion. So we got John Robins and Jim Paterson more involved with the company and we decided, hey, listen, if we're going to do this and rebrand the company, let's change the name. Let's do a consolidation of the shares and let's do a financing. So we did it all in one, and now we’re like a coiled spring. We've got these two projects that are going to get drilled this year and potentially a third… so pretty exciting times.
Gerardo Del Real: Let's get into Toogood. It's fully permitted, drilling. The first program is expected to begin in May, right around the corner. And when I look at the pipeline of news flow, it looks like you're going to be busy drilling for the rest of the year, which is of course what I was really excited to see in 2021. COVID happened, delays with the labs, labor shortages, there was a lot that prevented that from happening. But now the rubber is hitting the road and so I want to get into both of those projects because although we haven't seen the drill bit go there yet, it's about to and, as I've mentioned, I think both of those can be company making projects.
Alex Heath: Yeah, absolutely. We were pretty excited as well and finally get on the ground in 2021, like you said. We actually got locked out of going to Newfoundland because of COVID. And right when we got there, we immediately made these bonanza-grade discoveries. These are grab samples. They're very exciting but they're not anything like a drill hole. I think you and I and a lot of our investors and followers have also been waiting for this finally to kick in and get to drill results, finally, because getting grab samples are all very nice but we need to see what's happening below the surface.
Gerardo Del Real: Absolutely. Let's get into Toogood. What's the plan there?
Alex Heath: Yeah, so Toogood, we've got two main showings, the Titan and the Quinlan. On Titan is where we had that 7,800 gram per tonne grab sample and it's within a few meters of where we've now found a quartz vein that we've trenched and it's got gold in the bedrock. So we have to drill it. And same with Quinlan, it's got some very high-grade, a hundred-gram-plus material that we found, also been trenched, gold in the bedrock. And like I said, this has to be drilled. So the plan is to start drilling in about mid-May. We'll do 2,500 meters between those two targets and then maybe put another couple drill holes in between… see if we can't connect it and go from there. If we hit, we'll definitely be looking to do more drilling and there's other areas on the property as well that we're seeing gold on surface. So it's not just the drill bit that's going to be exciting this year. It's also some prospecting.
Gerardo Del Real: Let's get into Whitton Lake in Ontario. Metals that we absolutely need: copper, nickel, palladium, platinum. I know that with Rob Carpenter coming on as co-chairman, I know that this is a project he is extremely excited to test. Can you tell me a bit about that one?
Alex Heath: Yeah, that's exactly right. This is Rob's baby. He brought this in, he staked it. He did some work on it and he's pretty excited. We've done a VTEM survey. We've got low-grade nickel copper on surface. But what's really exciting is that it's in low-grade sulfides. To translate that to non geological speak, if we drill 50% sulfide below surface, the grades will be Voisey's Bay-type grades: 2%-3% copper, 1%-2% nickel, and PGEs alongside that. Like you said, these are metals that are in high demand; nickel, copper. These are battery metals. The Canadian government is going to spend $2 billion trying to advance exactly these types of projects and President Biden also enacted the Defense Production Act.
Also, putting more money into metals like nickel and lithium and others. So this is a very exciting target. If we hit on this thing, it's a total game changer. I can't over-emphasize that portion enough. Take a look at when Voisey’s Bay made their discovery. The thing got taken over for $4.5 billion; it was like $42 a share and they'd done a split. That was 30-plus years ago. So you can imagine in today's nickel price environment what a big discovery like that might do. So we're pretty pumped.
Gerardo Del Real: Whitton Lake is a big prize to be had if it plays out because it's also 100%-owned. And I should mention just for context for people that may be newer to the project, this isn't a one target or two target-type project here. It's a district-scale project, correct?
Alex Heath: Absolutely. Yeah, we've got, it's probably on surface about seven or eight kilometers of strike. So you can imagine, if we find something we've got the whole thing.
Gerardo Del Real: We have drilling at Toogood, drilling at Whitton Lake. What else is going on elsewhere in the portfolio? You've done a brilliant job the past two years of bringing in new properties under the former Ethos banner and now Prospector Metals. What does the rest of the portfolio look like? And what's it look like the rest of the year, Alex?
Alex Heath: Yeah, actually there's one more project in our portfolio that we will probably be drilling this year and that's called Savant Lake. Again, we've got this project pipeline of other projects that are percolating along but this is the one that we were looking for a permit. It took a little longer than expected. We finally got it. This is an iron formation gold project. Rob wrote his PhD thesis on a very similar project in Nunavut called Meliadine. This project at Savant has very similar structures to it. What's great about it is that it's high-grade gold. It's very consistent.
These iron formations are very well known to the majors like Agnico Eagle (NYSE: AEM) and others and they produce hundreds of thousands of ounces of gold per year. There's multimillion-ounce deposits. They've got great metallurgy and they produce that in very low all-in sustaining cost [AISC]. So it's a great target if we hit on it. Again, these are all company makers for us and this one is fully permitted and we can start drilling it. We'll probably do it in September just so that we're not stretching the team too far, and we’ve got to do a little bit more work. So we'll get on the ground in May, and then by September we'll be seeing a drill there as well.
Gerardo Del Real: It's a lot of news flow. I love the metals mix. I love the jurisdictions you're drilling in. What's the market cap at right now, Alex?
Alex Heath: It's about C$30 million. And part of that is also a decent amount of cash. We're sitting on just over C$4 million of cash plus C$4 million in marketable securities. So we're looking pretty good in terms of our working capital position.
Gerardo Del Real: Well, that market cap will not stay at current levels if you hit at either of the projects. It gets exciting when you talk about the potential to hit on multiple projects. Alex, we were overdue for a catch up. It's great having you back on. Anything else you'd like to add?
Alex Heath: No, just to say that we're pretty excited, and what's really going to drive value for us is that drill turning. So there's only so much you can do in terms of prospecting and doing sampling. I think 2022 is going to be our year.
Gerardo Del Real: Looking forward to it. Thanks for the time, Alex.
Alex Heath: All right. Thanks a lot.
Gerardo Del Real: Cheers.
Gerardo Del Real
Editor, Resource Stock Digest