Categories
Base Metals Energy Exclusive Interviews Precious Metals

Veteran Trader: Sentiment a Key to Trading Success

Veteran trader Jake Bernstein the founder of Trade-Futures and the Daily Sentiment Indiex sits down with Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable to discuss 50 years of profound wisdom and practical implementation that are paramount for investors in the natural resource space and futures trading.  Find out what has the legendary traders attention for your portfolio.

https://youtu.be/S6Pn-wu2QHc


Transcript

Categories
Base Metals Energy Exclusive Interviews Junior Mining Precious Metals Project Generators

Alaska Project Receives Strategic Investment

Find out why the value proposition for Millrock Resources just got more exciting for shareholders. Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable sits down with Gregory Beischer the President, CEO, and Director of Millrock Resources (TSX.V: MRO | OTCQX: MLRKF) to discuss the latest developments regarding the Goodpaster District in Alaska. In particular, the company has successfully completed a strategic investment with EMX Royalty. Mr. Beischer shall provide the details of the investment how the funds will be deployed to increase shareholder value. Millrock Resources has staked claims adjacent to the Northern Star Resources property, which produces high-grade at an annual production rate of 300,000 oz.

https://youtu.be/hDvM0cnkNBA


View Transcript

Categories
Exclusive Interviews Junior Mining Precious Metals

Group Ten Metals Advances Exploration at PGE Projects

Proven and Probable
Where we deliver Mining Insights & Bullion Sales, in form of physical delivery, offshore depositories, and private blockchain distributed ledger technology you may reach us at contact@provenandprobable.com.
Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable sits down with Michael Rowley the President and CEO of Group Ten Metals (TSX.V: PGE | NYSE: PGEZF) to discuss the latest  Platinum, Palladium, Nickel, Copper and Cobalt Intercepts from the Camp Zone Target Area, Stillwater West Project, Montana, USA.



View Transcript

Categories
Base Metals Blog Energy Exclusive Interviews Junior Mining Precious Metals Project Generators

EMX Royalty’s Approach to Value Creation

Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable sits down with David Cole the President and CEO of EMX Royalty (TSX.V: EMX | NYSE: EMX) to discuss the virtues of the companies highly successful business model that incorporates Royalty Generation, Royalty Acquisition, and Strategic Investments. Mr. Cole will address how the company is strategically positioning itself on the continued global demand for Copper. And equally important, what actions the company will take from the proceeds of the $67 Million U.S.  just received on the sale from the Malmyzh Project in Russia. Equally important, Mr. Cole will highlight the enormous value proposition at Cukaru Peki located in Serbia. EMX Royalty continues to demonstrate business and geological acumen, which has produced spectacular results on their balance sheet and their project portfolio.
Proven and Probable:
Where we deliver Mining Insights & Bullion Sales, in form of physical delivery, offshore depositories, and private blockchain distributed ledger technology you may reach us at contact@provenandprobable.com.



View Transcript

Categories
Base Metals Blog Energy Exclusive Interviews

(Video) Cobalt 27 | Cobalt, the Electric Vehicle, and Ways to Profit from Both

Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable sits down with Anthony Milewski the CEO and Director of Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. (TSX.V KBLT | OTCQX: CBLLF)which is a leading electric metals investment vehicle that offers direct exposure to metals integral to key technologies of the electric vehicle and battery energy storage markets.
The Company owns 2,905.7 Mt of physical cobalt and has acquired a cobalt stream on Vale’s world-class Voisey’s Bay mine‎ beginning in 2021. Cobalt 27 is also undertaking the friendly acquisition of Highlands Pacific to create a leading high-growth, diversified battery metals streaming company.

VIDEO

AUDIO

TRANSCRIPT

Cobalt, the Electric Vehicle, and Ways to Profit from Both 
Contributed Opinion

Source: Maurice Jackson for Streetwise Reports  (3/30/19)

Maurice Jackson

In this interview with Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable, Anthony Milewski, chairman and CEO of Cobalt 27, discusses his streaming company’s prospects in the cobalt sector, as well as how the automobile and battery industries will affect the sector.

Cobalt
Maurice Jackson: Joining us for conversation is Anthony Milewski, chairman, CEO and director for Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. (KBLT:TSX.V; CBLLF:OTC; 27O:FSE), which is a leading electric metals investment vehicle that offers exposure to metals integral to key technologies of the electric vehicle and battery energy storage markets.
Glad to have you with us today to share the unique value preposition of Cobalt 27, which is a successful cobalt royalty and streaming company, in addition to providing shareholders a proxy to the metal. To really appreciate the context of today’s interview, Anthony, I believe it may be best that we provide a basic overview on the global demand for electric vehicles, in which cobalt is an essential metal.
Anthony Milewski: I think we have to take a step back and look at what I consider to be two of the most important industries on earth, which are now sitting at the precipice of one of the biggest disruptions they’ve seen potentially in the last hundred years—namely the energy industry and the automobile industry. Today, 60% of crude is actually used in automobiles and in the automobile industry. Not only are you talking about a shift away from ICE [internal combustion engines] to electric, but you’re also talking about structural changes in ownership, with a ride-hailing services, autonomous vehicles, and a bunch of changes. These changes are dramatic and impacting a whole host of companies across a lot of different parts of our societies globally.

At the heart of this change is the electric vehicle (EV). And the reason is that the electric vehicle has the sensors and the technology on it to put forward the platform for the next generation of changes inside of the automobile industry, namely autonomous driving and some of the other safety features being rolled out. To put in perspective that change, I believe we should remember where we’ve come from. And a few short years ago EV sales were effectively zero. I mean, literally, they were just this novelty item that you probably couldn’t even ride in if you wanted to.

When we IPO’d about two years ago, we talked about 7% penetration in 2025 and even then we got push back. Now analysts are predicting as high as 20% to 30% penetration in 2025. Canaccord’s numbers are even higher than that in 2030. You’re seeing a dramatic increase in the rates of adoptions the analysts are looking at.

To help get specific, 10% of car sales in November in California were electric vehicles, with similar numbers in Canada. That was driven, in part, by Tesla Model 3 deliveries. But the point is the acceleration of adoption has really happened in the last 18 months. And we’re seeing the automobile companies heavily push these vehicles, not only for the environmental aspects—namely cleaner air in large urban environments—but also because of the future of automobiles and the future of the automobile industry around autonomous driving and around automation.

Maurice Jackson: This all bodes well for cobalt demand. Sticking with demand, cobalt is an essential metal in the manufacturing of batteries. What has Cobalt 27 excited about the battery demand?

Anthony M.: Well, each one of these cars has a battery. The cobalt market is anywhere from 105,000 to 130,000 metric tons of metal equivalent. And half of that demand today is actually batteries. Your laptop computer, iPad, just about any device that you plug into the wall and recharge it with the cord and then walk away has cobalt than it. That demand already exists.

But the demand that has us excited is really the demands from the electric vehicle. If I told you the market for cobalt today is about 135,000 metric tons, then let’s assume, at 20% penetration, you’re going to need something like 250,000 to 300,000 metric tons of cobalt just for electric vehicles. What you see is that as adoption happens, the actual use of cobalt grows exponentially. We’re seeing that happen as we speak with the adoption rates in sales of these vehicles.

Maurice Jackson: In the U.S., investors are aware of Tesla’s gigafactory, but Tesla isn’t alone. How many mega factories are in construction?

Anthony M.: Well, that number is interesting, because it’s changing all the time. In 2017 I think that number was 17. A few months ago it was 70, and even a few more gigafactories have been announced in the last few weeks. So the number is over 70 now. And even as recently as this month Tesla announced the construction of a gigafactory in China.
But all of these automobile makers and battery makers have these factories slated to be built globally. One of the things about these battery producers is they aren’t particularly keen to be shipping them long distances. And so, unlike an automobile, which is highly consolidated in where it’s manufactured, what you’re seeing is a lot of different gigafactories being built globally around the world at a very quick pace. The pace is almost monthly.
Maurice Jackson: Let’s move on to supply, to see how these factories will meet production. There are some concerning challenges on the supply side of cobalt, which really makes the value proposition exciting for Cobalt 27. Where and how is supply currently being satisfied?

Anthony M.: It’s interesting. The geology of the world is such that over 70% of cobalt comes from Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). And by the way, it doesn’t come from the Congo. It comes from one little tiny area in the Congo. So one of the problems with cobalt is simply concentration risk. It comes from the Congo, where there are alleged human rights violations associated with mining it. And it’s tough.
That’s part of the story and the balance of the story is that it comes from nickel outside of the Congo. So in the Congo it’s copper, and in the rest of the world it comes from nickel—in Canada and Australia, in particular, but also places like Russia and Cuba. Those nickel projects—not all of them, but many of them—are nickel laterite projects with enormous capex overruns.
Now in the Congo it’s slightly different. One of the things that we’ve seen is the ability to have artisanal cobalt. The price of cobalt ran up to $44 and has now eased off, and it’s eased off in large part because of artisanal mining. Artisanal mining can mean different things to different people. It typically means that an individual is showing up and shoveling cobalt. That, in some cases, is actually legal in Congo. It’s not illegal, per se, although most of the time it is highly environmentally damaging. However, what the problem is in the Congo—or the allegations are—is that often child labor is used for that, in just not Congo.
You have concentration risk and then you have supply chain risk, and you really have a need now from the automakers and the consumers and the battery makers to secure the supply chain and really be able to communicate to the consumers of automobiles that when they buy that car, the cobalt was ethically sourced and produced.
Maurice Jackson: You referenced that 70% of cobalt comes from the DRC. From an off-take standpoint, how can manufacturers confidently rely on the DRC to meet their production needs?
Anthony M.: I think it’s a real challenge. Obviously, there are companies like Glencore International Plc (GLEN:LSE) that are perfectly capable counterparties for the battery makers and cathode makers. But it’s a wider issue—and it’s an issue that’s being addressed and is going to have to be addressed going forward—which is how do you secure clean cobalt? I don’t think you can, if you are actually sourcing artisanal cobalt.
But I think there are solutions that could be put in place to actually do that. I think today, if you are an end user, a consumer of cobalt, you really need to source that cobalt from outside of the Congo or from a mechanized minor. There was a great Wall Street Journal article about this last year. If you’re getting it from artisanal miners, I think it’s tainted. That artisanal supply’s aggregated at refineries and while one of the 25 sources may or may not be clean, if any of the sources are unclean, it’s all mixed and it taints all of it. I don’t think those challenges have been fully addressed, and I think if an automaker wants to actually be able to ensure that it can say its cobalt and its basic material pipeline are ethically sourced, they’re going to have to, for the time being, buy directly from mechanized minors or go outside the Congo going forward. They’re going to have to consider whether or not they’re prepared to invest directly into mining companies or create pretty different environments around the artisanal mining in the Congo.
Maurice Jackson: You alluded to it, but just for confirmation, does Cobalt 27 have any offtake and or holdings in the DRC?
Anthony M.: No, we absolutely do not invest in the Congo. We don’t buy cobalt out of the Congo. We don’t have streams or royalties in the Congo. From our perspective, we sit and we watch some of these large mining companies have problems in the Congo, and with multibillion-dollar market caps, and if they’re unable to successfully navigate that environment, I think it would be a challenge for us to think we could do that. So we’ve steered completely clear of it. I think that’s one of the offerings of Cobalt 27—conflict-free cobalt.
Maurice Jackson: From a sovereign standpoint, which countries have a strategic stockpile of cobalt?
Anthony M.: Historically speaking, the U.S. and China did, but the U.S. government sold down its stockpile over the last decade. Today China has the key sovereign stockpile—there are different numbers about how large that is. I think it’s a pretty material stockpile, but it’s not used for batteries. Cobalt is critical in the aerospace industry. And so the cobalt that the Chinese government has stockpiled is likely earmarked for jet engines and missiles and that type of thing, as opposed to batteries.
Maurice Jackson: Now, from a manufacturing standpoint, which automakers have a stockpile of cobalt?
Anthony M.: I’m not aware of any. I suspect there could be, but I don’t think publicly there are any.
Maurice Jackson: Now, cobalt is a byproduct, primarily of nickel and copper mining. So how does the spot price of nickel and copper affect cobalt?

Anthony M.: Well, over time nickel and cobalt have actually been fairly correlated. If you look, although that’s not been the case, certainly in 2019 as nickel was up 20-something percent and cobalt is down. But I think the key correlation is that over time, in order to get increased cobalt production, you’re going to need to see higher nickel prices and probably copper prices.
Maurice Jackson: What is the current spot price of cobalt, and how is that in relation to the historic prices?
Anthony M.: Today cobalt is in the mid-teens. There are different types of cobalt. There’s metal. Even within metal there’s a high grade and low grade, and there’s a hydroxide. And so there’s a bunch of different products. But I would say it’s in the mid teens. It’s actually—right now—cheap. On the inflation-adjusted 20-year average, cobalt price is closer to $22. So cobalt is actually looking like a pretty strong buy as a metal at the moment.
Maurice Jackson: For readers, we now see the value proposition we have before us in cobalt. Let’s discuss the value proposition we have in Cobalt 27 and how you may profit. Mr. Milewski, please introduce us to Cobalt 27.

Anthony M.: Cobalt 27 is really a proxy for the adoption of the electric vehicle. I don’t know who the ultimate winner’s going to be among automobiles—if it’s Tesla, Ford, or Beijing Auto. Maybe you should own a chipmaker—Nvidia. I don’t really know, but what I do know is if there is a winner, basic materials will be winners, and among those basic materials, we think cobalt would be particularly positioned to be a winner.
Cobalt 27 gives investors access to those price movements and the cobalt spot price in three primary ways. The first way is just we have 2,900-metric-ton stockpile of cobalt sitting in LME-bonded warehouses. The second is a basket of royalties on nickel-cobalt projects globally—large-scale projects that give the investor optionality. And then third, we have a stream on Voisey’s Bay in Canada, on its nickel-cobalt mine. We’re also in the process of completing a recent transaction on Highland Pacific to own a joint venture interest in the Ramu nickel mine.

We’re not miners, nor are we going to be. You’re not subject to capex in the same way that you are with a mining company. Instead, what we try to give investors is really the maximum torque to that adoption and price move in the coming months, days, years, as the adoption of electric vehicles rolls out.

Maurice Jackson:
 Now, were you able to procure your cobalt previously through streaming deals or how was that accomplished?

Anthony M.: Cobalt 27’s streams and royalties are all financially settled, whereas with the physical, that was actually stationary. It is stationary so that was a purchase. But the nature of a stream is that you typically sell the material into the market as it comes in and then you take that cash flow and you pay a dividend, you buy back more shares, or maybe you make another investment.
Maurice Jackson: Is the ultimate goal to set up offtake agreements with EV in battery manufacturers with your physical storage?
Anthony M.: Look, I think there are two different kind of avenues that are being pursued. I think the first is just to look like a traditional streaming and royalty company. Look like a Franco Nevada or Wheaton Metals or Sandstorm, which is a very well-trodden path in Canada. You can get a multiple, in some cases, of over two times NAV. Today we traded a fraction of that.
A second avenue, of course, is we’re building a supply chain for cobalt and to a lesser extent nickel, outside of the Congo, and through the cycle that’s going to be attractive to automobile makers, battery makers and other end users of these products. And so one could foresee the cycle, how we would get approached by individuals in different capacities to try to transact on what is clean material.
Maurice Jackson: Switching gears, Cobalt 27 has strategically position itself for the upside potential in the clean air revolution in EVs and batteries. But equally important are the people that are responsible for increasing shareholder value. Mr. Milewski, please introduce us to your board of directors.

Anthony M.: Cobalt 27’s lead director is Nick French. Nick spent his career, since the early ’80s, late ’70s, trading cobalt. One of the most knowledgeable traders probably alive on the cobalt industry. And so he’s on the board.
Frank Estergaard, a former KPMG partner, really adds a lot to the audit committee.
Candace MacGibbons is a mining executive. She’s highly involved in the mining industry and understands a lot of the different aspects and concerns and transactions.
Phil Williams, a banker—former banker who also runs a royalty company—is excellent in terms of just being able to look at transactions and financings and add to the conversation.
Justin Cochrane, who is also the president and COO, spent a decade as a banker and in the streaming and royalty business, and then later went on to actually be one of the earliest team members of Sandstorm, and was critical there and ran the business development. Mr. Cochrane has been in the streaming and royalty business for his entire career. So Cobalt 27 has a really a strong board.
Maurice Jackson: Tell us more about Anthony Milewski and what makes him qualified for the task at hand.
Anthony M.: I think, in a lot of ways, one of the most important things that I can do it to help create value is make sure that we have the right team in place and the right strategy so that all the team members able to execute on that strategy. And so I really see myself as someone who puts forward that strategy, and facilitates Justin and Martin and the team members executing on that growth strategy, and executing on our strategy to really be a critical part of the cobalt and nickel supply chain going forward.
Maurice Jackson: Who is on your management team?
Anthony M.: So the key members of the management team include myself, Justin Cochrane and Martin Vydra. Martin Vydra spent over 30 years at Sherritt, ran a bunch of different aspects of that business, and is incredibly knowledgeable on nickel, and nickel and cobalt. He sits on the LME cobalt committee, and he’s really industry veteran that adds a lot of insight for the business.
Maurice Jackson: Let’s get into some numbers. Please share your capital structure.

Anthony M.: We have around 85 million shares outstanding and no preferred shares. We’ve never had a financing with an attached warrant. We have some options outstanding to the management team. And then we have a revolver in place for $200 million USD, but we’ve not drawn to any of it. So it’s a pretty simple cap structure and that’s intentional. We try to keep it straight forward and simple.
Maurice Jackson: How much in cash and cash equivalents do you have?
Anthony M.: Approximately $50 million.
Maurice Jackson: How much debt do you have?
Anthony M.: We have zero debt.
Maurice Jackson: Who are your major shareholders and what is their level of commitment?

Anthony M.:
 Well, I couldn’t speak to the level of commitment except that our shareholders have all been extremely supportive over the last couple of years and financings. One of them is Paula Investments, [others are] CI Harbor, BlackRock, Fidelity, and Neuberger Berman on the register. We have a pretty wide range of institutional investors who have been very supportive over the last year and a half, two years since since the IPO.

Maurice Jackson:
 Are you a shareholder and if so, how many shares do you own and when was the last time you purchased?

Anthony M.:
 I own around 400,000 shares and I purchased shares as recently as January and February. So big believer in the company and also in buying shares myself when the share price is priced as it is today.

Maurice Jackson:
 Multilayered question—what is the next unanswered question for Cobalt 27? When can we expect a response and what determines success?
Anthony M.: I think the next big moment for us is closing the Highland Pacific transaction. That’s anticipated later this spring. I think that will be a catalyst, that closing it will show that we were able to transact. It’ll also bring in a substantial asset, a producing nickel-cobalt asset. So I think that’s definitely the next big catalyst. That’s a few months away. And that’s heavily driven by regulatory matters in terms of court dates and voting and that sort of stuff. I think once we’re through that, the next big moment we’ll be thinking about cash flow and dividends and that sort of thing. I would say in the immediate term, the big moment for us is getting through the Highland Pacific transaction.
Maurice Jackson: Mr. Milewski, last question. What did I forget to ask?
Anthony M.: I think you covered it. You did a great job covering it, so I really appreciate your time.
Maurice Jackson: Anthony, if investors want to get more information about Cobalt 27 please share the website address.
Anthony M.: It’s Cobalt27.com.
Maurice Jackson: For direct inquiries, please call (647) 846-7765 or you may e-mail info@cobalt27.com. Cobalt 27 trades on the TSX.V: KBLT, and on the OTCQX CBLLF. Last but not least, please visit provenandprobable.com for Mining Insights and Bullion Sales. You may reach us at contact@provenandprobable.com.
Maurice Jackson is the founder of Proven and Probable, a site that aims to enrich its subscribers through education in precious metals and junior mining companies that will enrich the world.

Disclosure: 

1) Maurice Jackson: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: None. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: None. Proven and Probable disclosures are listed below.
2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: Wheaton Precious Metals. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees.
3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.
4) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports’ terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.
5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article until three business days after the publication of the interview or article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own shares of Wheaton Precious Metals and Franco-Nevada, companies mentioned in this article.
Proven and Probable LLC receives financial compensation from its sponsors. The compensation is used is to fund both sponsor-specific activities and general report activities, website, and general and administrative costs. Sponsor-specific activities may include aggregating content and publishing that content on the Proven and Probable website, creating and maintaining company landing pages, interviewing key management, posting a banner/billboard, and/or issuing press releases. The fees also cover the costs for Proven and Probable to publish sector-specific information on our site, and also to create content by interviewing experts in the sector. Monthly sponsorship fees range from $1,000 to $4,000 per month. Proven and Probable LLC does accept stock for payment of sponsorship fees. Sponsor pages may be considered advertising for the purposes of 18 U.S.C. 1734.
The Information presented in Proven and Probable is provided for educational and informational purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this forum is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice or any other advice. The Information on this forum and provided from or through this forum is general in nature and is not specific to you the User or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investments, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this forum without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional broker or competent financial advisor. You understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this forum at your own risk.
Images provided by the author.

Categories
Base Metals Energy Exclusive Interviews Junior Mining

NEVADA COPPER Company on Target to U.S. Copper Production by Q4 2019

Matt Gili the CEO, President, and Director of Nevada Copper (TSX: NCU | OTC: NEVDF) sits down with Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable to discuss the value proposition of Nevada Copper, which is on target for U.S. production in Q4 2019. Mr. Gili, provides updates on the flagship Pumpkin Hollow Project, which hosts both an underground and open-pit deposits. We provide an overview on the supply an demand fundamentals on Copper, where a prudent speculator may position themselves to take advantage of the copper supply deficit.

VIDEO

AUDIO

TRANSCRIPT

Source: Maurice Jackson for Streetwise Reports  (3/18/19)

Maurice JacksonMatt Gili, CEO of Nevada Copper, talks with Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable about his company’s progress in beginning copper production by the end of the year.

Pumpkin Hollow

Pumpkin Hollow
Maurice Jackson: Joining us for a conversation is Matt Gili, president, CEO and director of Nevada Copper Corp. (NCU:TSX), which is on target to U.S. copper production by Q4 2019.
Nevada Copper has a number of successes to share with reader. But, before you share the unique value preposition of Nevada Copper, Mr. Gili, for readers who may not be familiar with the supply and demand fundamentals regarding copper, please provide us with a 10,000-foot overview.

Matt Gili: When you look at the copper fundamentals, we see a very steady and predictable increase in demand of copper, modest amount, 1.5% per year. We see the move towards electrification of vehicles consuming more copper. We see other things that are offsetting that, but overall, a steady predictable 1.5% increase in the global demand for copper. Where the story really gets exciting, from the Nevada Copper standpoint, is with regards to the supply for copper. What we’re seeing is a lot of restrictions in future supply. We’re seeing a lot of difficulties on bringing on a future supply and backed up by work done by Wood Mackenzie and others, we’re projecting that by 2025, the world will be in a supply deficit of upwards of 6 million tonnes of copper per year. This just really supports what we’re doing in Nevada Copper in setting up the next copper mine.
Maurice Jackson: Now that we have an overview of the supply and demand fundamentals for copper, Matt, let’s discuss how someone listening may position himself prudently as a beneficiary. For someone new to the story, can you give us a very quick overview of Nevada Copper?

Matt Gili: Certainly. Nevada Copper, who’s Nevada Copper? We have an asset in Nevada called Pumpkin Hollow. This is our chief asset. It consists of two deposits: an underground deposit and an open-pit deposit for copper. We’re currently in the construction phase for the underground project with production from that underground project coming online later this year. I think we’ll talk more about that later. Regarding the open pit, we’re currently in the process of wrapping up the prefeasibility study for the open pit. You’ll see that being published in April of this year. Then, we have a regional land package of well over 15,000 acres that we are looking at really understanding, really unlocking the full value from that land package. That’s really Nevada Copper, building a copper mine coming into production later this year, with a lot of expansion into an open-pit mine, as well as regional exploration.

Maurice Jackson: Let’s provide readers the latest updates on Nevada Copper, as the company has been very proactive on a number of fronts. Please provide us with an update on the construction progress. I would like to begin with the multi-million dollar question, are we on track to enter production in Q4 of this year?
Matt Gili: Yes, Maurice, we are on track to enter production in Q4 of this year. We are very proud of that. The team’s doing a fantastic job. We have construction activities both on surface with Sedgman building the process plants, as well as underground cementation, both sinking shaft and doing lateral development on our main shaft. All that’s coming together very nicely. We are absolutely on track for commissioning of the plant in the fourth quarter of this year.
Maurice Jackson: As Nevada Copper is preparing for production this year, have you increased your staffing to meet the growing demands?
Matt Gili: That’s a really good question and yes, we have. We’ve increased our staffing. It’s an operational readiness question that you’re asking. This is where I want to stress to you and readers that this concept of operational readiness is foremost in our thoughts and how we’re planning for really becoming, not just building a great mine, but operating a great mine. When you look at the staffing, so far, our staffing, by design, is quite modest. We’re looking at a total workforce of Nevada Copper employees of around 30. That is because this is our model, a very lean, efficient operation. We utilize high-quality, expert service providers as necessary, to make sure that we are operating very efficiently.
Maurice Jackson: Is Nevada Copper still actively recruiting and if so, what positions?
Matt Gili: Yes, we are actively recruiting. Most of our positions open are technical and specialist positions, and would be part of the management team. I absolutely encourage anyone interested in what we’re recruiting for to contact the Nevada Copper website. You’ll see the complete listing of opening jobs there, as well as information on how to apply for any of these positions if you’re interested.
Maurice Jackson: Pumpkin Hollow is unique in that you have both an underground and an open-pit mine. Let’s discuss exploration and expansion potential. What initiatives is Nevada Copper taking to optimize the full potential of the Pumpkin Hollow project?

Matt Gili: We are in the process of constructing the underground, which has a large amount of upside potential. We’ll really only explore that upside potential when we’re underground, after we’re in production. We really look forward to updates on that front in 2020, and the reason for that is very simple. It’s just much more efficient to drill out the prospective areas of the underground from the underground; the holes are shorter. It’s just much easier. That’s really where the underground sits right now, in a holding pattern as far as expansion potential. When you look at the open pit, that’s where a lot of great energy is going into expanding the open pit, understanding the open pit better, really getting that ore body knowledge to allow you to build a world-class operation. That is part of the PFS, which is coming out in April of this year.

That PFS will include the drilling campaign that we completed in 2018, the 26 hole drilling campaign. It will include those results in the resource model. That’s going to give you an even better idea of the full potential of the open pit. The real excitement that we have is with regards to the region itself, a large region, relatively unexplored, but with large amounts of historical copper production, as well as great physical outcroppings of copper mineralization. This is really where we’re going to focus our efforts during 2019, to really get a chance, now that we’ve tied up this land package, to understand what we have.
Maurice Jackson: Speaking of the region, there was a regional survey conducted that led you to staking more land. Can you share the results with us?

Matt Gili: We staked a section a land that we refer to as the Teddy Boy Claims. This is about 5,700 acres of land to our northeast. We are very glad to have this in our portfolio. The criteria for that selection was we brought together experts on this region and experts in copper mineralization. They identified that as a really prospective area and where we should be really focused on. We’ve staked that land, secured it for our ability to explore over the next several years.
Maurice Jackson: Does Nevada Copper plan to drill the new area at some point this year?
Matt Gili: We plan on drilling this year. I really haven’t put out the entire drill program for 2019. We’re still pulling that together and analyzing where to best spend the monies we have available for exploration. We would like to drill that this year. Some more prospective holes, really not an in-depth blanket campaign, but probe a few really interesting areas over there and get a better idea for the drill campaign.
Maurice Jackson: It’s one thing to have tonnage and grade, but you must equally have astute business acumen to make the numbers work. Now, Nevada Copper is in discussions regarding an ECA-backed project finance facility to further optimize the balance sheet, as well as lining up a working capital facility and further offtake agreements to improve the economics of Pumpkin Hollow. Please provide us with the details.
Matt Gili: You kind of said it all. I can’t really provide you with any more details, but I can surely stress what you’ve just said, Maurice. We are in discussions with this export, credit agency style backed project financing. This is going to provide us the opportunity to substantially reduce the cost of our debt service, as well as attract strong and robust financial partners for potential future open-pit developments. Something we’re very excited about and it’s part of really creating Nevada Copper as a world-class company.
Maurice Jackson: Let’s get into some numbers. Please share your capital structure.

Matt Gili: The capital structure is well defined. We have $8 million in long-term debt. We have $153 million of cash or cash equivalents. When you look at the financing package specifically for the underground, we’re fully financed, including the working capital facility to take us through operation ramp up. The inputs into that are an equity raise that we did in the middle of last year, as well as a streaming deposit with regards to a stream arrangement on the precious metals strictly from the underground deposit. We also have a $25-million subordinated debt package. Really a standby loan facility that we can use if necessary.
Maurice Jackson: In closing, I have a multilayered question. What is the next unanswered question for Nevada Copper? When can we expect a response? What determines success?
Matt Gili: I would not classify our successful completion of underground construction and bringing them in operation as an unanswered question. That is going to happen, and I’m very proud of the activities that have happened so far. The real unanswered question for the investors out there, is what is the true potential of the open pit? There’s been a lot of great work done, a lot of exploration done, last year. That’s all been incorporated. I’m really going to be excited when the PFS is released and we can share the details of the open pit potential with the public. They are going to be very impressed and they’re going to see the picture. They’re going to see what we see when we get so excited about Nevada Copper.
Maurice Jackson: Speaking of the prefeasibility study, give us a timeline on that, sir.
Matt Gili: We’ll release that in April. I’m being careful. I don’t want to be too specific. It will be in April of this year. Next month.
Maurice Jackson: Mr. Gili, last question. What did I forget to ask?
Matt Gili: Maurice, forget to ask? You’re always very thorough, so I wouldn’t say you forgot to ask anything. What I would say is I want to reiterate something that we at Nevada Copper have been thinking about over the last month. Unfortunately, for the world, the last month has been a month marred with tragedies, with risk and with unexpected events. What we’re really stressing, with Nevada Copper, is the risk management of Nevada Copper. We are an operation that is on private land. We’re not waiting for any permits. We’re not waiting for records of decision. We’re utilizing EPC contractors, who have that fixed price nature, reduced risks. We’re building a dry stack tailing facility. We’ll never have a wet tailing storage facility at Pumpkin Hollow.  We’re doing this all with a proven, experienced team of mine builders and operators. Really wrapping that up, that concept of low risk, risk mitigation. We are going to build and operate the next mine and there’s very little risk to that execution.
Maurice Jackson: Matt, if investors want to get more information about Nevada Copper, please share the website address.
Matt Gili: Absolutely, www.nevadacopper.com. We love to get your input. You’ll see our investor presentationsthere in our latest news. Let us know what you think.
Maurice Jackson: For our audience, we wish to remind you that Nevada Copper trades on the TSX symbol, NCU, and on the OTC symbol NEVDF. For additional inquiries, please contact Richard Matthews at (877) 648-8266 or you may email RMatthews@nevadacopper.com. Nevada Copper is a sponsor and we are proud shareholders for the virtues conveyed in today’s message.
Last but not least, please visit our website, provenandprobable.com, for mining insights and bullion sales. You may reach us at contact@provenandprobable.com.
Matt Gili of Nevada Copper, thank you for joining us today on Proven and Probable.
Maurice Jackson is the founder of Proven and Probable, a site that aims to enrich its subscribers through education in precious metals and junior mining companies that will enrich the world.
Disclosure: 
1) Maurice Jackson: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Nevada Copper. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: Nevada Copper is a sponsor of Proven and Probable. Proven and Probable disclosures are listed below.
2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click herefor important disclosures about sponsor fees.
3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.
4) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports’ terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.
5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article until three business days after the publication of the interview or article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases.
Proven and Probable LLC receives financial compensation from its sponsors. The compensation is used is to fund both sponsor-specific activities and general report activities, website, and general and administrative costs. Sponsor-specific activities may include aggregating content and publishing that content on the Proven and Probable website, creating and maintaining company landing pages, interviewing key management, posting a banner/billboard, and/or issuing press releases. The fees also cover the costs for Proven and Probable to publish sector-specific information on our site, and also to create content by interviewing experts in the sector. Monthly sponsorship fees range from $1,000 to $4,000 per month. Proven and Probable LLC does accept stock for payment of sponsorship fees. Sponsor pages may be considered advertising for the purposes of 18 U.S.C. 1734.
The Information presented in Proven and Probable is provided for educational and informational purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this forum is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice or any other advice. The Information on this forum and provided from or through this forum is general in nature and is not specific to you the User or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investments, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this forum without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional broker or competent financial advisor. You understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this forum at your own risk.
Images provided by the author.
Categories
Base Metals Energy Exclusive Interviews Junior Mining Project Generators

(VIDEO) FISSION 3.0 Prospect Generator in Position for Uranium Turnaround

Ross McElroy the COO and Chief Geologist for Fission 3.0 (TSX.V: FUU | OTCQB: FISOF) sits down with Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable to discuss the value proposition of Fission 3.0 and their Property Bank. In this interview Mr. McElroy provides the macro economics for uranium and how one may allocate their uranium holdings in a Uranium Project Generator with a Property Bank with projects located in high-grade uranium districts, with proven management and technical team that has a 20 year history of delivering success to shareholders.

VIDEO

AUDIO

TRANSCRIPT


Original Source: https://www.streetwisereports.com/article/2019/03/16/prospect-generator-in-position-for-uranium-turnaround.html
Maurice Jackson: Joining us for a conversation is Ross McElroy, the COO and chief geologist for Fission 3.0 Corp. (FUU:TSX.V; FISOF:OTC.MKTS): A Uranium Project Generator and Property Bank. Ross McElroy, glad to have you back on the program to share the value proposition of Fission 3.0. Before we begin, Ross, I’d like to begin with some basic fundamentals regarding uranium. For someone new to the uranium sector, what is uranium, and where is it used?
Ross McElroy: Uranium is really all about energy. The way we use uranium is for nuclear fuel. That’s basically the fuel that runs reactors.
Globally nuclear power constitutes between 15% and 20% of the electrical requirements. That’s really where the majority of the uranium is used. There is some uranium that’s used for strategic purposes on a country by country basis, more for the Department of Defense reasons. But really, the vast, vast majority of uranium is used to fuel nuclear reactors.
Maurice Jackson: Provide us with some metrics on how abundant uranium is in the Earth’s crust, and correlate that to the average grade that is found versus the grade that is needed to define an ore deposit in a future mine?
Ross McElroy: Well, uranium is actually one of the most abundant elements in the Earth. It’s kind of ubiquitous. You’ll see it throughout the Earth’s crust; there is trace amounts of uranium present primarily in volcanic and igneous rocks and sedimentary rocks.
On a deposit level, there’s actually a number of uranium deposits around the world, in every continent on the planet and in many countries. On a global basis, the average grade of a uranium deposit worldwide is around 0.1 to 0.15% U308.
Now, if you compare that to say, the deposits in Canada, they’re orders of magnitude higher grade in Canada. We’re talking orders of magnitude that are 10 to 20 times that of the global grade.
Although I’ve given you the average grade, most of those deposits at those lower grades, the average grades are really uneconomic deposits. We need grades that are generally much higher than the 0.1%–0.15% if it’s going to be an economic deposit. And that’s what Canada has. Canada has very high-grade deposits, so the economic metrics are just that much more attractive in Canada.
Maurice Jackson: Now that we’ve identified uranium’s utility, what can you share with us from a supply and demand perspective?

Ross McElroy: Well, it’s fairly simple to understand what the demand for nuclear energy is, in other words, uranium. We can just multiply the number of reactors around the world that are currently operating, and the known fuel consumption rate for a 1000 megawatt reactor is just under 500,000 pounds of uranium a year. If we look at the global reactors, there are around 450 reactors around the world. You can see that the need for uranium on an annual basis is around the realm of almost 200 million pounds of uranium.
Maurice Jackson: How does the nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan, fit into this narrative?
Ross McElroy: Japan historically, up until the Fukushima event in 2011, was one of the main users on a country basis worldwide. Japan I think consumed almost 20% of the world’s nuclear power, in other words, 20% of the world’s annual production of uranium was used to run the Japanese reactors.
In 2011, of course, we had the magnitude 9 earthquake followed by a tsunami, and that’s what damaged the Fukushima facility. Interestingly enough, even with that magnitude of an earthquake and the soon-to-follow tsunami, the reactor still did not breach. The housing that surrounded the reactor was damaged, and this is where some of the radiation leaks came from, but the reactor itself actually held, and so the damage was actually very, very limited and manageable.
What happened is overnight, Japan shut down all of its nuclear reactors, in other words, all 52 reactors I think they had working at that time, went offline. That caused disruption to the supply/demand situation globally.
What’s happened since then is Japan is slowly coming back on. Japan’s alternatives for power are pretty limited as the country doesn’t have very much of its own resources, if any at all. It imports whatever energy that it needs, be it in natural gas now, in nuclear.
It’s important for Japan to be able to operate these factories that they’re running. I mean, it’s an exporting country around the world, so it does have high energy requirements. It also has the requirements for inexpensive power.
Japan is coming back on to the scene as far as nuclear power. There are eight reactors that are currently back up and operating, and 17 reactors that are in the near-term licensing for approval to get them restarted again.
I think the bottom line is, prior to Fukushima, Japan depended on nuclear energy for at least 25% of its electricity demands. I think by the time 2030 approaches, Japan is supposed to be right back up to those same levels. The country is coming back on, it has always been an important major consumer of nuclear power. I think we’ll see it right back to the equation again in the very near future.
Maurice Jackson: Uranium, next to gold, is known as the other yellow metal, and here’s why. Ross, let’s step back to the bull market in uranium. If one was selective with the uranium holdings, they would’ve had generational changes in their portfolio. What was the spot price during the last bull market?

Ross McElroy: Well, in 2002, uranium was around, I don’t know, about $15 a pound. This is on the spot market. That’s what uranium was trading for.
In 2003–2004, we really saw the lift off of the price of uranium. In fact, it peaked at 2007 to around $140 a pound. It went almost a 10-fold increase in the price of the commodity between 2003 and 2007. The peak at 140 didn’t last particularly long, but it had a slower decline until about 2008—2009, it stabilized, and then it peaked back up again.
Really, it was holding steady. I guess this is the point I would want to make, is that we were starting to see a steady state price of between $50 to $70 a pound, and then the Fukushima event hit that we talked about in 2011, and that really threw the whole pricing structure right out the window. We’ve been working on our recovery ever since.
Maurice Jackson: What is the spot price for uranium today?
Ross McElroy: Currently we’re about $28 a pound for uranium. It has recovered; we’re off the bottoms of $17, $18 a pound just a couple of years ago. Uranium is making its way back.
Maybe the important point here to note is we’re still at prices that the majority of mines around the world are not profitable. Even the lowest cost producers are really not operating in an environment where they can make money with uranium prices what they’re at right now.
What we’ve seen is that the supply is starting to be restricted as the producers are taking a lot of that uranium off market; they’re not supplying it to the utilities at this cheap price, because it’s not a working business model to lose money in the long run on the mining of the commodity.
We are seeing an improvement in the price of uranium, and it’s been about a year and a half in the making. It’s gone up from the $18 that I mentioned to about $28 a pound, but it certainly has a lot more room to move upwards even before we can start to get production back online to meaningful levels.
Maurice Jackson: What is that spot price that companies right now, uranium companies I should say, for them to earn their cost of capital? Is the number around $60 for a spot price of uranium?

Ross McElroy: I believe you are correct. We’re seeing prices that globally, they have to be in the $60 to $70 a pound really to bring on any meaningful production.
One of the clues that I look at when we look at the best uranium mines out there, the lowest cost producers, those would be McArthur River deposit in Canada’s Athabasca Basin in Northern Saskatchewan. That is one of the best uranium mines in the world, certainly the largest highest-grade operating mine. Cameco took that offline because of the prices of uranium where they were at, they weren’t making any money on the mining of this deposit.
There are some indications that Cameco won’t turn that mine back on into being a producer until the price of uranium is somewhat north of $40, maybe $45. Something in that realm.
I don’t have an exact number there, but it does tell you that if you’re going to even bring back the best of those deposits, you really need prices that are something of $40 to $45. As we mentioned earlier, the price for many of the other deposits around the world are probably closer to $60 or $70. You can see, there’s still lots of room for improvement.
Maurice Jackson: The current price of uranium does not support the fundamentals. What correlations do you see today that may exceed the returns from the last bull market?
Ross McElroy: Well, it’s sort of an elastic situation. I think that the longer that we keep depressed prices, yet the demand is still there and growing, reactors are being built, the need to fuel these reactors, that’s not stopping.
In fact, it’s growing. You have the primary suppliers of uranium, i.e., the mines that are not supplying it, the longer that the prices are low, the more rapid that climb will be in the price of uranium when it does correct.
I think there’s a possibility, as I’ve heard some analysts call it, a violent reaction upwards to the price of uranium. I think we’re going to see some substantial price increases within some short vision of time, maybe a year or two or three. Something in that realm that I think will be quite meaningful.
We’ll see what happens, but the longer it stays depressed, the more likely and quicker the rise will be when it does come.
Maurice Jackson: Ross, you’ve provided a compelling case on the fundamentals for uranium. I know readers may be asking, how will all of this demand for uranium be met? Mr. McElroy, please introduce us to Fission 3.0.
Ross McElroy: Fission 3.0 is a uranium explorer. This is a company that we spun out of Fission Uranium Corp. (FCU:TSX; FCUUF:OTCQX; 2FU:FSE), our larger company, back in 2014 when we bought out our partner on the Patterson Lake project, and in so doing with that process from that arrangement, we spun out our non-core assets, the more grassroots exploration projects.
We’ve been able to build up an exploration portfolio, primarily focused in the Athabasca Basin. Remember, the Athabasca Basin is Canada’s only producing uranium field. That’s where the McArthur River deposit is, this is where Fission Uranium has the Triple R deposit. There’s some fantastic deposits out there.
That’s what we’re exploring for in Fission 3.0. We’re looking for the next high-grade uranium deposit in the Athabasca Basin.
Maurice Jackson: You referenced that you’re a project generator. There’s a lot of ambiguity regarding project generators. Please share the virtues and why Fission 3.0 took on the project generator business model?
Ross McElroy: Project generators are really all about sharing the risk. In our case, what we do very well is pick ground. We’ve been able to strategically stake ground in the Athabasca Basin, we’ve made discoveries on two of our properties, the first one in the company called Fission Energy that we made the discovery at our Waterbury Lake property, and later on in Fission Uranium Corp on our PLS property.
That have been situations where we’ve had joint-venture partners sharing the risks, sharing the costs with others. To use the model, what we do is we use our brands and other peoples’ money. That’s really what we’re good at, that’s basically the model that we have.
We have a very highly trained technical team that’s exceptional at picking out high-quality projects. We attract other people who are looking to get into the uranium business, looking to partner up with a team such as ours and join us for the ride to make a discovery.
It’s really all about sharing risk. That’s really what the project generator model does. It’s our land, and we partner with good quality people that can fund a project, and that’s how they earn into it as well.
Maurice Jackson: Do you currently have a joint-venture partner? If yes, who and what are the terms of the relationship?
Ross McElroy: We have had joint-venture partners in the past, and very successful ones. As I mentioned earlier on our Waterbury project, we had a partner with the Korean utility called KEPCO. It earned in by spending a certain amount of money on the property each year over the course of a three-year period.
What we did with that, we were able to make a discovery, using the money in that project, we made a discovery, built up the resource estimate on there, and eventually sold that asset. That was how our shareholders were able to take advantage of our monetizing on the property.
I guess we could say the same at the PLS project, which we now own 100% of it, but that was also a partnership. We shared in the risk early on and in the money early on with our partner. We eventually bought them out in 2014. That was another example of a successful joint venture partnership.
Each one of the deals would be a little bit different from each other. It is a model that we think works very well. I will note that in our property down in Peru as well, we have a partnership that we’re still looking to finalize the deal. This is one where another group has approached us, said it’s interested in the potential of a property down in Peru. It will spend a significant amount of money having us as the operator. Hopefully we’ll make a discovery down in Peru as well.
Maurice Jackson: Well, you’ve just alluded to my next question. Fission 3.0 has 18 projects in its project bank. Now, it is strategically located in premier, high-grade uranium districts in Canada and Peru. Mr. McElroy, introduce us to the Fission 3.0 Project Bank (click here).

Ross McElroy: We have 18 properties in the Athabasca Basin. Our properties, we think that everywhere in the Athabasca Basin has the potential to host high-grade uranium projects.
One of the keys that we seek to identify are deposits that will be shallow. In other words, the closer a deposit is to surface, the easier it is to build a case that this could be a project that could go into production. It’s an easier mine to develop the closer it is to the surface.

Really deep deposits are challenging. They still exist, but they’re challenging. Eventually they cost more money to find and cost more money to get out of the ground. They’re just another level of challenge.
If you look at our 18 properties, they’re all in and around the edge of the Athabasca Basin, where we’ve had a great deal of success finding near-surface mineralization.
Our PLS project that hosts the Triple R deposit in Fission Uranium is a great example of a near-surface deposit. The mineralization starts at 50 meters below the surface, so 150 feet below the present-day surface is where the high-grade mineralization starts. That makes it a potentially open-pit deposit, which is generally low cost and gives you a lot of flexibility.
This is the sort of thing that we’re looking for in Fission 3.0. We’ve got very good properties that are in known mining districts, conversely, we have a good portfolio of ground around the southwest side of the basin where our PLS project in Fission Uranium is hosted, and also NexGen’s Arrow deposit, it’s all in that same area. We have the significant land package that surrounds that area.

We also have a good strategic land package in and around the Key Lake area on the southeast side of the basin. This has been, and still currently is the hot bed of uranium mining in Canada right now. This is the side of the basin where the McArthur River and Cigar Lake deposits are located.

McArthur shut down for economic reasons waiting for higher uranium prices. It was an operating mine up until about a year ago, and Cigar still is in operation. You’ve also got the Key Lake mine.
It’s a strategic area to have a good land package. We think there’s lots of opportunities in and around land in that area to make a new discovery.

And probably third for us is the land package that’s up in the northwest side of the basin, in the old uranium city Beaverlodge district where uranium mining in Saskatchewan first got started back in the 1950s and was the going concern back in the ’50s and the ’60s, I think there were about 52 operating mines up in that area, pretty small scale most of them, but still lots of high-grade uranium. That’s an area where we think that there’s still plenty of exploration potential.
Between all those areas, we’re going to be active and we’re going to be looking for the next high-grade uranium deposit in Saskatchewan.
Maurice Jackson: Speaking of being active, is there active drilling going on right now in these projects?
Ross McElroy: There is active drilling. We did drill in the southwest side of the basin. We were drilling in January on our PLN project. That project is just immediately north of Fission Uranium’s PLS project.
You’re really talking about the same area where the latest discoveries have been found, where you’ve got the Triple R deposit, you’ve got NexGen’s Arrow deposit. These are two of the best new deposits that have been found in the Athabasca Basin in the last 15 years.
We have a package around there called PLN, and we did drill six holes in there earlier this year. It has the potential to host another one of these fantastic deposits, so we are going to continue looking there. We see all the signs present that tell us that this is where we’ll make that discovery.
As we’re speaking right now, we’re drilling over in the Key Lake area that I described earlier. This is over on the southeast side of the basin, about 200 kilometers to the east of the PLS drilling. That is a program where we’ll drill probably eight or nine holes, just south of the Key Lake Mill and the old historical Key Lake deposits. There’s areas of activity there. We’ll continue drilling throughout the rest of 2019 on a number of our projects.
Fission 3.0 is active. We were able to raise some significant money early in the year, in late 2018. We’re going to be active. This is how we’ve been successful in the past, is by being aggressive, looking in places where people probably haven’t looked for a while or never even thought to look, and putting our technical team to work. Yes, you’ll see pretty good news flow out of Fission 3 this year.
Maurice Jackson: Ross, let’s expand the narrative on the project bank portfolio and go south into Peru. What can you share with us there?

Ross McElroy: Peru is a really interesting area. Where our projects are is called the Macusani Plateau, located in southern Peru, near the Bolivian border. The Macusani Plateau has shown at least over 100 million pounds in near-surface uranium deposits.

There’s a company down there that’s quite dominant called Plateau Energy. Plateau has been able to stake a lot and consolidate a land package in the area, and consolidated all these old deposits. It has amassed around 100 million pounds of uranium in these uranium deposits.

However, even more significant, Plateau made a discovery of high-grade lithium in the same area, and in fact, that’s within five kilometers of our southern property boundary on our Macusani plains. Not only do we have the potential now to host near-surface uranium deposits, and we have shown in fact that we do have mineralization on our property for uranium, we’ve mapped it, we’ve drilled, we’ve trenched and found high-grade uranium, but now the potential’s there for hosting high-grade lithium.
This is really a new dimension that we have down in that area, that we wouldn’t have had say, two or three years ago when we were last down drilling. You’ve got uranium, and now we have lithium. It’s a very interesting up-and-coming area as well.
Maurice Jackson: Switching gears, Fission 3.0 has the right projects in the right place at the right time. But that’s only part of the story. Equally important are the people that are responsible for increasing shareholder value. Mr. McElroy, please introduce us to your board of directors.
Ross McElroy: Thank you, and I appreciate that. We do have a very successful team. Our founder of Fission 3.0 is also the same CEO and founder of Fission Uranium, and previously Fission Energy before that, and Strathmore.
Dev Randhawa has been involved in this company right from the get-go in its first iteration back in 1996, and also heading up Fission 3.0. Dev is the longest running CEO in the uranium sector.
Myself, I’ve been involved with Dev 12, 13 years now. We’ve had a great successful relationship. We’re able to raise money, raise attention, put that money to work, make discoveries, and basically build shareholder value right from the bottom up.
This is the group that I think, we’ve been able to deliver in the past, and we’re going to be able to deliver shareholder value as we move forward in this much improving uranium sector.
A lot of the same players that we’ve had all the way along, still keep also in the Fission 3 group.
Maurice Jackson: Who is on your management team?

Ross McElroy: The management team is composed of our CEO Dev Randhawa and chairman. I am the chief operating officer, and also the chief geologist. We have maintained the same structure that we have in Fission Uranium, is the same that we have in Fission 3.0. It’s a fairly lean team. Phil Morehouse is president of Fission 3.0. We kept a pretty lean mean machine in Fission 3.
Don’t forget, we’ve had up until just recently in the last six months, it’s been a very quiet company, there hasn’t been a lot of exploration activities in the uranium sector. I think as we start to ramp up, with our level of activity increasing, we’ll start to draw more and more people into roles and developing roles within the company as we begin to be active, get out and start marketing the story more, get on the ground and back that up with real results, we’re going to continue to build our team.
Maurice Jackson: Before we move on to your impressive technical team, in the natural resource basis, why is it wise to follow proven winners? Ross, you alluded to it earlier, you and CEO Dev Randhawa have a proven pedigree of success. How were shareholders rewarded as far as returns for their loyalty to sticking with your team?
Ross McElroy: Well, if you owned the original company at the beginning, which would’ve been Strathmore Minerals, and you’d held on it to all the way throughout, over the last 20 years since about 1996, 97, you’d probably own about five different companies right now.
What’s happened is we’ve moved on to a new phase, we’ve made discoveries, advanced projects, sold different projects to different groups. What we’ve been able to do is form new companies, split off new companies in what they call a butterfly transaction.
You have shares in the new company, still maintain your shares in the old company, so you would’ve received essentially what would look like dividends in the way of different shares for five different companies since that time. The shareholders that have been loyal and sticking with us would’ve succeeded quite handsomely all the way along.
Maurice Jackson: Your technical team is exceptional. I had an opportunity to meet them in the summer of 2016 at the site visit there. Please, introduce us to them.
Ross McElroy: We’re very, very proud of this group. This has been the team we’ve had, the same core group of people with us since 2010. With that same group, we were able to make our discovery on the Waterbury Lake project, and then followed up in 2012 with the discovery of PLS. It’s the same group that is very core and important to us in Fission 3.0.
I do head up the team and the technical group, so I would be the team leader or chief geologist for the technical team. My right hand guy is Raymond Ashley, he’s the VP of exploration. Ray is an excellent geoscientist who I’ve had the pleasure to work with for over 30 years in this sector, so we’ve been working pretty close together. Definitely a proven mine finder.
We’ve basically held the same group of people together on the project managers, all the structural scientists, geochemists. We’ve kept the same core group together over the last almost 10 years or so.
To me, that’s really the key. You want a team that works together well, good chemistry with each other, the ability and the environment to think outside of the box. Really, the goal for each and every one of us is to responsibly make world-class discoveries. That’s what we’re all about.
We’ve got an excellent team. All the key people are listed on the website. You’ll be able to go there and see the roles of the various groups there in the technical team, but there’s about seven or eight of us that have been able to be what I consider the core team for the last decade or so.
Maurice Jackson: Let’s get into some numbers. Please share your capital structure.

Ross McElroy: In Fission 3.0, we have 142 million shares outstanding. We were able to raise a significant amount. We have just under $7 million in the treasury right now, that’ll allow us to be active over the next two years or so.
Maurice Jackson: What is your burn rate?
Ross McElroy: The burn rate, because it’s exploration, it’s pretty discretionary spending. We have $7 million that we have in the treasury right now, that’ll certainly carry us over the next two to three years of pretty aggressive exploration spending on our key projects. We can dial that kind of number up, and we can dial it back as conditions warrant. That’s the benefit of being in exploration.
The burn rate is actually pretty minimal. In other words, we run a pretty lean shop as far as the number of management and corporate costs. Really, the majority of the costs are exploration spending, which is really entirely discretionary.
Maurice Jackson: How much debt do you have?
Ross McElroy: We have no debt. We’ve not taken on any debt. Basically, the money that we raise have been through equity share offerings. No debt in Fission 3.0.
Maurice Jackson: Who are your major shareholders? What is their level of commitment?
Ross McElroy: When we spun off Fission 3.0 back in December of 2014, it was the same shareholders that were shareholders of Fission Uranium, were the same shareholders in Fission 3.0. We would’ve had a lot of the same loyal, large shareholders, including JP Morgan, even investment from others that we’ve had along the way. It’s been the same loyal group.
We have significant new shareholders now with the financing that we did back in 2018, which was led by the Sprott Global Resources Group out of California. I think we have some new players back to the game, but we have a lot of shareholders that have been with us over the long haul.
These are people that have a good vision of the uranium sector. They know that the good times are around the corner. It’s a point that we believe really strongly, and we think that the sector is improving a great deal.
This is how our loyal shareholders are going to be rewarded, by being a much better market with an aggressive team like Fission 3.0, and the new shareholders will probably be long term loyal shareholders too if we’re successful and able to build value for them as well.
Maurice Jackson: What is the float?
Ross McElroy: Fully diluted, we have 227 million shares. We’ve got shares outstanding, we’ve got options and warrants that we’re a part of financing as well, so 227 million shares out in total. We trade around 240,000 shares a day, I think that’s our average volume.
Maurice Jackson: Multi-layered question. What is the next unanswered question for Fission 3.0? When can we expect a response? What determines success?
Ross McElroy: Well, we are going to be successful through work. We know that a better market should buoy the price up of everybody involved in the nuclear sector. They’re starting to get some life back in the exploration world.
Really, we’ve always built value by our success. We’ve been successful with making discoveries. We now have the money, we have the team, we’re putting them to work. I would look to us as being one of the most dynamic uranium explorers out there. That’s something that I think people can follow, they can see our news release cycle, they’ll see how we’re marketing our story, and just look at the results. I think they’ll speak for themselves.
We’re looking at our projects, we’ll be active throughout the calendar year. I think the news flow will be very strong and steady. People that are interested in following the company will always see that there’s a continuing narrative out there. We want to take advantage of this and improve the uranium market, the fact that we are well financed, and we have the properties that we want to explore. I think there’s a very good opportunity for readers to look at Fission 3.0 as a sector leader in the uranium exploration business.
Maurice Jackson: Mr. McElroy, last question. What did I forget to ask?
Ross McElroy: I think we’ve covered a lot of ground here, and a lot of important ground. One of the takeaways that I want readers to know is we really do believe in the nuclear sector. We think that we have turned the corner and that conditions are improving.
If people are looking to invest in the uranium sector, I think it’s important for them to look at a group that has done it before. Your track record is very indicative of what your future has the potential to look like. I always find myself, when I’m investing, I like to back teams with a proven track record.
We have that in our group. We’ve got an exceptional management team. We’ve done it before. We’ve been able to capitalize on our discoveries by selling assets. We have a unique technical team that has the ability to make discoveries.
So better sector, very good team. Strong management. Those are the ingredients we need to be successful.
Maurice Jackson: Ross, for someone listening that wants to get more information about Fission 3.0, please share the website address.
Ross McElroy: Our website address is www.fission3corp.com.
Maurice Jackson: For direct queries email ir@fission3corp.com, or you may call (778) 484-8030. Fission 3.0 trades on the TSX:V, symbol FUU, and on the OTC, symbol FISOF.
For audience, we’ve been proud shareholders of Fission 3.0 since 2014. Last but not least, please visit our website, provenandprobable.com, for mining insights and bullion sales. You may reach us at contact@provenandprobable.com.
Ross McElroy of Fission 3.0, thank you for joining us today on Proven and Probable.
Maurice Jackson is the founder of Proven and Probable, a site that aims to enrich its subscribers through education in precious metals and junior mining companies that will enrich the world.
Disclosure: 
1) Maurice Jackson: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Fission 3.0. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: None. Proven and Probable disclosures are listed below.
2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click herefor important disclosures about sponsor fees.
3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.
4) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports’ terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.
5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article until three business days after the publication of the interview or article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases.
Proven and Probable LLC receives financial compensation from its sponsors. The compensation is used is to fund both sponsor-specific activities and general report activities, website, and general and administrative costs. Sponsor-specific activities may include aggregating content and publishing that content on the Proven and Probable website, creating and maintaining company landing pages, interviewing key management, posting a banner/billboard, and/or issuing press releases. The fees also cover the costs for Proven and Probable to publish sector-specific information on our site, and also to create content by interviewing experts in the sector. Monthly sponsorship fees range from $1,000 to $4,000 per month. Proven and Probable LLC does accept stock for payment of sponsorship fees. Sponsor pages may be considered advertising for the purposes of 18 U.S.C. 1734.
The Information presented in Proven and Probable is provided for educational and informational purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this forum is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice or any other advice. The Information on this forum and provided from or through this forum is general in nature and is not specific to you the User or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investments, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this forum without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional broker or competent financial advisor. You understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this forum at your own risk.
Images provided by the author.

Categories
Base Metals Energy Exclusive Interviews Junior Mining Precious Metals

BOB MORIARTY on Geopolitics, Resource Companies and His New Book


In this action packed interview, Bob Moriarty the founder of 321gold and 321energy.com sits down with Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable to discuss current events, companies that have your attention, and to discuss Amazon’s best-selling book right now, under Commodities Trading, which happens to be your book aptly entitled: “Basic Investing In Resource Stocks, the Idiot’s Guide”.

VIDEO

AUDIO

https://soundcloud.com/proven-and-probable/bob-feb-2019
 

TRANSCRIPT

Original Source: https://www.streetwisereports.com/article/2019/03/03/bob-moriarty-on-geopolitics-resource-companies-and-his-new-book.html

Bob Moriarty on Geopolitics, Resource Companies and His New Book 
Contributed Opinion

Source: Maurice Jackson for Streetwise Reports  (3/3/19)

Bob MoriartyMaurice JacksonBob Moriarty of 321 Gold sits down with Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable and sounds off about the state of the world, resource companies he is paying attention to, and what readers will find in his new book.

World map
Maurice Jackson: Welcome to Proven and Probable, I’m your host Maurice Jackson. Joining us for a conversation is Bob Moriarty, the founder of 321gold and 321energy.com.
We brought you on today to discuss current events, companies that have your attention and to discuss Amazon’s best-selling book right now under commodities trading, which happens to be your book aptly entitled “Basic Investing in Resource Stocks: The Idiot’s Guide.” Bob, you shared with me on a number of occasions to be aware of political and geopolitical events as they have a direct influence on our lives and portfolio. Let’s begin with current events and there’s a number of them unfolding right before us. Beginning in the U.S., what has your attention and why?
Bob Moriarty: I don’t know a good term to use, but it’s almost a feeling of a sick desire to watch something obscene, the Cohen hearings are certainly interesting. It’s a measure of how far over the cliff the country has gone. It’s obscene. Why you would get a guy who is a felon and who’s lied to Congress, who has an agenda to testify in Congress is just amazing! We know the guy is a liar. It’s all political theater. Sadly, neither party, no one is trying to improve the country. They’re just trying to get even with the guys on the other side of the aisle. It’s sick okay, but it’s interesting to watch because it’s so sick.
Maurice Jackson: In previous interviews you referenced the Deep State/Shadow Government. For someone new to the conversation, who is the Deep State and what is their significance?
Bob Moriarty: I’m not sure that deep state is a good term. It’s really the Congressional Military Industrial Complex that President Eisenhower warned us about in 1961 in his farewell address. In his written copy, President Eisenhower called it the Congressional Military Industrial Complex. His political advisor said, “You can’t do that. You can’t criticize Congress, so remove that. Just call it the Military Industrial Complex.”
There exists within the United States a small subset whose economic welfare is based on constant war. We no longer fight wars to achieve peace. We fight wars to achieve war and it’s a transfer of wealth from the taxpayers, the United States to the Congressional Military Industrial Complex. Wars will destroy, actually it has destroyed the United States already.
The United States is bankrupt, it’s functionally bankrupt. There is nothing we can do about it. There is no savior that’s going to come along. There are no solutions, we’re bankrupt. The standard of living of most Americans is going to decline a lot more than it already has.
Maurice Jackson: Just for the record, is it the Military Industrial Complex or the Democratic Party, which one is it that really wants President Trump out and why?
Bob Moriarty: Both the Deep State and the Democrats, but only because they wanted Hillary Clinton in. She was supported by the Deep State. A couple of months ago I was writing and talking about there being a coup d’etat in the United States. Then Andrew McCabe came actually went on 60 Minutes and he admitted it. I mean this is bizarre. If you have a coup d’etat in any country in the world, the legal system should arrest these guys, give them fair trials and shoot them. We don’t do that. We admit, “Oh yeah, we attempted a coup d’etat, the Department of Justice and the NSA and the CIA and the FBI were all trying to overthrow the democratically elected president of the United States,” but who cares?
Maurice Jackson: Bob, I want to go back to my previous question, what will be the purpose or what is the ultimate intent? If they get President Trump out, then what?
Bob Moriarty: Well, see, that’s the problem. We talk about defeating the ISIS in Syria or we talk about regime change in Iran or regime change in Syria or regime change in Afghanistan or regime change in Iraq. We never have a plan B. We never have anything that we actually intend to do. The journey has become the destination and that is perpetual war.
Maurice Jackson: Let me ask you this here, what is Bob Moriarty’s assessment of President Trump?
Bob Moriarty: I think the man’s an idiot. You want to beat around the bush, he’s a blithering idiot. He’s a narcissist. He’s knowledge of things economic or historical are absolutely obscene. He’s most certainly a criminal, but when you say that you also have to say, well, his opponent was Hillary Clinton. If she had been elected president, there would have been four versions of air force one, three of them just to carry her baggage around.
Maurice Jackson: Therefore, in some regards the United States would have the same president in Trump or Clinton. Let’s expand the narrative to geopolitics here. Things are really heating up between India and Pakistan. What’s going on there?
Bob Moriarty: Let me back track a little bit. I think we’ve discussed the worldwide revolution before, but the population of every country on earth is upset because the power and the money is being transmitted from the 99% to the 1%. Everybody is upset, the Yellow Vest and Israel and Canada and Brussels and Spain and I’m certain that’s true in Pakistan as well. There is an area of disputed territory between Pakistan and India that’s been in dispute since 1948. There are people, there are terrorists, India calls them terrorists, but they’re supported by Pakistan who set off a bomb and killed 40 Indian policemen, military. India was naturally upset.
When you’re dealing with two parties who are equipped with nuclear weapons, you want to avoid that kind of stuff. Because one of the options is everybody keeps being stupid and you end up lobbying nuclear weapons at each other. I’m not going to say I’m predicting it, I don’t know what the possibility is. I know it’s a very dangerous time and I wish there was a way of sorting it out that made sense. Unfortunately, I mean the only sane political leader in the world today I think is Putin.
Maurice Jackson: Speaking of Putin, I want to address the situation with Russian, Ukraine as well. Before we do that, let’s move west and go and discuss the situation between the U.S. and Iran, what’s going on there?
Bob Moriarty: Well, here’s what’s funny. Israel has been advocating for a war against Iran since 1982. It’s in writing. They’ve said it many, many times. It has nothing to do with Iran and everything to do with Israel. Israel has convinced the United States to fight their wars for them. There is no Iranian nuclear weapons program period. It stopped years ago, all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies admitted and there is no nuclear weapons program period, end of story. Everything that has been said about Iran is something that has been made up by Benjamin Netanyahu and the Mossad. They’re trying to convince the Americans to go to war.
Now since Donald Trump was bought and paid for by Sheldon Adelson, he sold his soul for about $30 or $35 million in the presidential campaign. Benjamin Netanyahu through Sheldon Adelson literally tells the President of the United States what to do. I’m naturally against that, however, if Hillary Clinton had been elected she would have done the same thing. We need to stop fighting wars for Israel. I am not a pacifist. I am the opposite of a pacifist. I am a warrior and I fought in war and I know all about war because I’ve been there. I would defend my country and my family and my state in a minute against a true enemy.
We go out and create the straw enemies who are not the enemies of us on behalf of Israel. Then we attack them and we let a bunch of our kids get killed. We pay for the war and it’s bankrupted the United States. The United States can end up just like French empire, the Spanish empire, the Russian empire, the British empire, it’s going to bankrupt itself. The standard of living of Americans are going to go down substantially, fighting wars for a tiny meaningless country in the Middle East.
Maurice Jackson: You know what you say sometimes I know that others may disagree with you and say, “That’s a little extreme,” but the reality is, you’ve stated empirical evidence. Wars bankrupt nations and then they also devalue their currency and history does repeat itself. The United States currently is on that trajectory. Let’s move north here. You referenced Russia earlier, there isn’t that much news coming out from Russia and Ukraine. What’s the situation like there?
Bob Moriarty: Well, actually there is and again that’s a situation where the neocons who are under the control of Benjamin Netanyahu. I mean they’re traitors to the United States, but they would like to get into war with Russia and they’re using the Ukraine. It’s really funny because the Ukrainian government is supported by the United States, Poroshenko, they’re just as corrupted as they could be. It’s the worst possible thing in the world for the Ukrainian people, but we don’t give a shit, okay, as long as they do what the United States wants to do, which is to antagonize Russia.
Now everybody talks about Russia having invaded Crimea, but the Crimea was always part of Russian, been part of Russian since I think Catherine the Great. The Crimea only became part of Ukraine in 1954, because Khrushchev got drunk and he signed it over to the Ukrainians. Ukraine was part of the USSR back then, so it didn’t really change anything whatsoever. When the United States sponsored and paid for and admittedly paid $5 billion of American dollars to subvert the Ukrainian government and sponsored the coup d’etat in Ukraine against their democratically elected president. Then the thugs that are running Ukraine started stirring up trouble that was anti-Russian. The people in the eastern part of the country voted and said, “We don’t want to be part of Ukraine, we’re Russian. We’ve always been Russian and we want to be Russian.” Ukraine is kind of split in two.
Ukrainian Navy tried to force a ship through a very narrow straight and the Russians captured the ship and said, “No, you can’t do that. That’s illegal to do.” It’s a hot spot and it’s something that could go nuclear in very short order. We have a small group about 30 people who are at the heart of military industrial complex. They’re neocons, they’re dual nationals. They do not owe any loyalty whatsoever to the United States, but all of it to Israel who want to sponsor war between the United States and Russia. If we do, if we allow them to do that, it’s a war that’s going to last for about 30 minutes.
Maurice Jackson: Well, certainly it’s a war that we don’t want. I recall, Bob, you’ve referenced before in previous interviews it’s a fact that maybe most people aren’t aware of. You referenced that the United States does not engage in war with countries that have nuclear weapons. I’m I correct in my memory on that?
Bob Moriarty: Well, by and large we choose to attack countries that cannot defend themselves. Pakistan was good and Afghanistan was good and Iraq was good and Syria was good and Iran’s good. Why they’re antagonizing Russia, which most certainly is nuclear armed, I don’t know.
Maurice Jackson: Switching gears, let’s move onto companies that have your attention at the moment.
Bob Moriarty: Well, there’s my favorite trio and Quinton Hennigh is behind all three of them in Novo Resources Corp. (NVO:TSX.V; NSRPF:OTCQX), which we have talked about at some length. It’s very hot in Australia right now and summer starts cooling down in March and April and they’ll get busy. Novo is doing some stuff now, but nothing of significance that will move the market. They will be testing at Egina probably starting in April and I expect some very significant results there.
But of more interest is Miramont Resources Corp. (MONT:CSE) that I think they’ve completed six holes so far in southern Peru. They’ve got a very interesting deposit with three big targets that could be a world-class project. I’m not sure the first results they’re going to show out of the box, blow the lead off the stock kind of assays. It’s a drill program that I expect to be of major importance. I expect drill results coming out in two to four weeks, and they’re certainly going to be very interesting and it’s the stocks that I own a lot of and I’d like a lot. It’s got about $30 million market cap. Now Novo has about $400 million market cap, so Miramont’s can move a lot more than Novo in terms of percentage.
Second, you and I went to Irving Resources Inc. (IRV:CSE; IRVRF:OTCBB) a year and a half ago, almost two years ago now. They should and should be in great big quotation marks, should start drilling about mid-March and probably six weeks to two months after that start coming out with the results. They’re testing two things. They’re going to test the area that we saw that had very high grade gold right at the surface in a vein system. Just for your information Keith Barron went over there. The samples that we took tested about $25,000 a ton. Keith Barron took a sample that tested $35,000 a ton. That’s not going to be the first drill target. The first drill target’s going to be in the sinter. The sinter has shown some several grams to the ton assays from the coats of silica cap that makes it the sinter. That sinter is steep because that’s typically not where the gold is found. The gold is trapped underneath the sinter and they’re going to drill into that. I can’t tell you whether Irving will hit on the first hole or its 50th hole, but I expect some real barn burning results there.
Maurice Jackson: It’s truly interesting times for Dr Quinton Hennigh there. How about switching to the Metallic Group of Companies. What can you tell us about them?
Bob Moriarty: Well, the first company that I wrote up going back 18 years ago is NovaGold. The guy that I was working with was Greg Johnson, he was the Vice President of Exploration. Very intelligent guy, very good guy. I like him a lot. What he’s done he’s put together three companies in different commodities. He’s got a company that specializes in copper and it’s called Granite Creek Copper Ltd. (GCX.V:TSXV). He’s got a company called Group Ten Metals Inc. (PGE:TSX.V; PGEZF:OTC) that has a platinum, palladium deposit in Montana right next to the Stillwater mine. It appears from a technical point of view, it appears that they’ve got a carbon copy of the Stillwater Mine.
Greg has done a brilliant job of putting packages together that nobody else has ever put together before. Everybody knew there were some good projects at Stillwater that weren’t owned by Stillwater. One guy owned one and another guy owned another. Another company owned the other and what Greg’s managed to do is put that together. Then there’s Metallic Minerals Corp. (MMG:TSX.V) that specializes in silver up in the Yukon. The interesting thing is, it’s all under similar managements. I like him a lot. These are all very quiet companies. Nobody’s heard about them. Nobody pays any attention to them, but I think that all three of them will end up being home runs. I like Greg Johnson a lot, he’s a good guy.
Maurice Jackson: Full disclosure, all the companies that you’ve referenced so far are sponsors of Proven and Probable with the exception of Granite Creek Copper. There’s one more company that recently you’ve been discussing and that is Rover Metals. What can you share with us?
Bob Moriarty: Well, Rover Metals Corp. (ROVR:TSX.V; ROVMF:OTCQB) is interesting. Rover has got the market cap about $3 million and they’ve got just under a million dollars in the bank. They can get started. In a roaring ball market it is not the majors or the mid tiers that have the greatest percentage advance, it’s the little tiny companies that have the major upside. Rover is north of the Yellowknife okay up in the Northwest Territory. I think they’re 110 kilometers north of the Yellowknife.
Most people won’t even recognize this, but I think it’s the biggest gold mine in Canada was the giant mines in Yellowknife. It was a big deal 30 or 40 years ago, but you don’t hear much about that district now. He’s put together a good package. They’re getting a lot of interesting results. He’s got enough money to get started on the drill program and it’s the company that can go from the $3 million market cap to a $30 million market cap with one set of good drill holes.
Maurice Jackson: The CEO there is Judson Culter. Just for our audience, we will be interviewing Group Ten Metal’s tomorrow as well as Rover Metals. Then Metallic Minerals as well next week and we plan to have Granite Creek Copper as well. We just interviewed Novo Resources and we’re trying to get Miramont and Irving back on the program as well here in the future. Finally, Bob, you just released a new book entitled ‘Basic Investing in Resource Stocks: The Idiot’s Guide.’ Allow me to be the first to congratulate you in less than 10 days your book is the best-selling book on Commodities Trading on Amazon. That’s quite an accomplishment.
Bob Moriarty: Well, yeah, but you’re the guy who kept bugging me to write the damn thing. It’s all your fault, it’s not my fault.
Maurice Jackson: I’m delighted and honored that you wrote the book and I know everyone that will be wise enough to purchase a copy will feel the same. Bob, tell us about your book, and why should someone reading purchase a copy?
Bob Moriarty: Well, here’s what’s interesting, if you’ve never written a book or a long article, you don’t realize that once you start writing, it takes a life of its own. I fully intended to cover copper and uranium and zinc and silver and gold and platinum and palladium. What I intended to do turned out to be something totally different than what I actually ended up with. I started writing and whatever it is that controls my typing fingers said, “No, you don’t want to go in this direction. You want to go in this direction,” so I did that. What I did is I put in a lot of things that I’ve learned over the years that they’re very important.
I mean, let me give you a perfect example. There are so many people who are invested in gold and silver and resource stocks, who spend a lot of time worrying about manipulations. The funny thing is the whole manipulation thing is just as big as scam as “Bitcon” and Global Warming. We talked about Bitcon when it was $800 billion and it’s $150 billion now. That was a great financial fraud world test. Global warming and carbon credits is an absolute fraud. It’s a tax. There is no such thing as global warming. The real danger is global cooling and it has far more to do with the sun than it has to do with the actions of man.
To a much smaller degree, the idea of manipulation being significant, it’s similar. It’s fraud and the people who talk about it know that they’re using fraud. However, it’s very appealing. When you go out and buy a company or when you go out and buy a commodity and it goes down, you can always point at manipulation and say, “It’s manipulated. I didn’t lose money because I’m stupid and made bad decisions. I lost money because it’s manipulated.” The guys who talk about manipulation and use manipulation as an excuse don’t bother telling everybody every financial instrument is manipulated. It is manipulated by everybody all of the time. Now if you think that manipulation is significant, you should not invest. It’s that simple, but everything’s manipulated.
We know the government manipulates the interest rates. We know they manipulate currencies, good chance they manipulate stock market. Who gives a shit? It’s like the sun coming up, you can’t do anything about it. Why worry about it? I put in a bunch of tips that I’ve learned over the years from mistakes that I’ve made and I’m really quite proud of the book. I think it’s a good book and I think that people will save themselves a lot of money by buying and reading the book.
What I try to do is I try to make books very simple. I’m not interested in a 400 or 500 page turner or I’m trying to espouse some really unique theory of investing. I don’t give a shit. I want to help ordinary people make decisions that can make them money. Now, I think you and I have talked a couple of times about the Daily Sentiment Indicator. I have used that to predict turns in 24 commodities. I did it in January of 2018 and then I did it in the end of December 2018. Only 24 commodities that I predicted would turn direction, 24 of them did it. The funny thing is I’m not a guru. Anybody could do that, if they would read the book, if they would understand the basics. If they use the tools that are available to everybody. Anybody could do that. There’s no magic to it. Everybody wants to convince people there’s some kind of magic. You need to listen to the experts, you need to listen to the gurus. Well, the experts are all full of shit. Why would you want to listen to them?
Maurice Jackson: Your book resonates with so many people, hence the success it’s had already. When one reads this book, you have the ability to tap into one of the deepest reservoirs of intellectual capacity in this sector that has a proven pedigree of success. Bob is sharing with you the tools he uses, and they’re very practical. Anyone as you referenced could use the tools.
When I first read the book, it wasn’t what I expected. Not in a disappointing way, I thought you were going to go into a more technical side but instead it’s a very pragmatic book. It’s very easy to understand and apply. Bob, on behalf of Proven and Probable, we want to thank you for giving us the seal of approval as one of the trusted sources that you recommend for readers. That is by far the highest compliment to our work and I want to thank you for that sir.
Bob Moriarty: Well, I don’t know whether you should thank me. If people hate the book, I’m going to blame you.
Maurice Jackson: We’ll take the blame on that one. Let me ask you this as well, what type of feedback have you received from your peers in the industry?
Bob Moriarty: Very positive. When you’re a writer you never really know how people are going to react to it. I mean face it, there’s a lot of books that are worth reading. When you do something and you have invested a lot of time and energy and thought into something, you want people to react to it in a positive way. I’ve talked to a lot of people and I’ve had a lot of people do reviews so far and there will be a lot more reviews. Everybody is receiving it very well. I think these guys are not trying to suck up to me. If they saw a problem with it, they’d say something.
Maurice Jackson: Bob, give us a title one more time and share with us where we can purchase a copy.
Bob Moriarty: Okay, you can go to Amazon.com and buy it there in any country they sell books. It’s “Basic Investing in Resource Stocks: The Idiot’s Guide.” I want everybody to understand it’s not the reader that’s the idiot, it’s me.
Maurice Jackson: Bob, before we close, last question. What did I forget to ask?
Bob Moriarty: Probably dozens and dozens of things. You just lack the ability to ask any interesting questions. Once you got past, “How are you doing on your book?” you just ran out of interesting things to say.
Barbara Moriarty: He forgot to ask about the new investment.
Bob Moriarty: Oh, which new investment?
Maurice Jackson: Well, please share with us.
Barbara Moriarty: Sheep. I bought two of the Swiss Valley black Nosed Sheep. They are a special breed. They are very rare and they are absolutely gorgeous. They are living in five star luxury in the new forest in England and they are two males, but they sort of didn’t go full, did they really?
Bob Moriarty: Yeah. Let me be nice about this. They used to be males.
Barbara Moriarty: They have them fixed, but they’re not like normal sheep. They are like lovely cuddly teddy bears.
Maurice Jackson: Pleasure speaking with you, ma’am.
Barbara Moriarty: I will send you a photo.
Sheep
http://www.valaisblacknose.org/
Maurice Jackson: Bob, for someone that wants to get more information on your work, please share the websites.
Bob Moriarty: I’ve got two websites, 321energy and 321gold, and they’re free websites and we’ve got about 50,000 people a day coming to them. We think they’re valuable.
Maurice Jackson: Last but not least, please visit provenandprobable.com for Mining Insights and Bullion Sales. You may reach us at contact@provenandprobable.com.
Bob Moriarty of 321gold and 321energy.com, thank you for joining us today on Proven and Probable.
Bob and Barb Moriarty brought 321gold.com to the Internet almost 16 years ago. They later added 321energy.com to cover oil, natural gas, gasoline, coal, solar, wind and nuclear energy. Both sites feature articles, editorial opinions, pricing figures and updates on current events affecting both sectors. Previously, Moriarty was a Marine F-4B and O-1 pilot with more than 832 missions in Vietnam. He holds 14 international aviation records.
Maurice Jackson is the founder of Proven and Probable, a site that aims to enrich its subscribers through education in precious metals and junior mining companies that will enrich the world.

Disclosure: 

1) Bob Moriarty: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Miramont Resources, Irving Resources, Novo Resources, Granite Creek Copper, Group Ten Metals and Metallic Minerals. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: Miramont Resources, Irving Resources, Novo Resources, Granite Creek Copper, Group Ten Metals and Metallic Minerals are sponsors of 321 Gold and/or 321 Energy.
2) Maurice Jackson: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Miramont Resources, Irving Resources, Novo Resources, Granite Creek Copper, Group Ten Metals and Metallic Minerals. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: Miramont Resources, Irving Resources, Novo Resources, Granite Creek Copper, Group Ten Metals and Metallic Minerals are sponsors of Proven and Probable. Proven and Probable disclosures are listed below.
3) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click herefor important disclosures about sponsor fees.
4) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.
5) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports’ terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.
6) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article until three business days after the publication of the interview or article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Granite Creek Copper, Group Ten Metals and Metallic Minerals, companies mentioned in this article.
Proven and Probable LLC receives financial compensation from its sponsors. The compensation is used is to fund both sponsor-specific activities and general report activities, website, and general and administrative costs. Sponsor-specific activities may include aggregating content and publishing that content on the Proven and Probable website, creating and maintaining company landing pages, interviewing key management, posting a banner/billboard, and/or issuing press releases. The fees also cover the costs for Proven and Probable to publish sector-specific information on our site, and also to create content by interviewing experts in the sector. Monthly sponsorship fees range from $1,000 to $4,000 per month. Proven and Probable LLC does accept stock for payment of sponsorship fees. Sponsor pages may be considered advertising for the purposes of 18 U.S.C. 1734.
The Information presented in Proven and Probable is provided for educational and informational purposes only, without any express or implied warranty of any kind, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose. The Information contained in or provided from or through this forum is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice or any other advice. The Information on this forum and provided from or through this forum is general in nature and is not specific to you the User or anyone else. You should not make any decision, financial, investments, trading or otherwise, based on any of the information presented on this forum without undertaking independent due diligence and consultation with a professional broker or competent financial advisor. You understand that you are using any and all Information available on or through this forum at your own risk.