The fast track to gold production is underway in Nevada
The following is a transcription of the above video, and The Market Online has edited it for clarity
Lyndsay: Let's just get right to it because I'm sure there's more information that you can actually roll out for us. Right out of the gate, though a lot has really been happening already this year for all of you. New drill campaigns, more permits and now metallurgy. I mean, can you walk us through how it's all coming together and what you're really trying to accomplish this year at Santa Fe?
Kimberly Ann: Absolutely. First of all, we're up over 350% since the beginning of the year. And you know, the goal here is, let's not forget, is to make money. So my number one goal is to make money for our shareholders and for the company. And that means fast tracking Santa Fe back into production as fast as possible. So we're deep in the weeds, as I like to say, of our permitting. We're about, oh my gosh, two and a half years into permitting. This is a mine under closure. The Santa Fe mine was in production from 1988 to 1994 open pit heap leach. So inexpensive and, and we're considered a mine under closure. So for us, fast tracking it back into production really is fast tracking because there's so many things we already know about the project that we don't have to spend the dollars and time to do.
Kimberly Ann: So, where we sit today is we're about ready to hit the NEPA phase of our permitting, which means a comment period of the public. This is for the plan of operation, which allows us to draw out the project completely project wide. But also once we have that document in hand, then it goes into the mine permitting process. So it's quite complicated. But that being said, we are in Nevada. They just put president Trump just put gold on the critical medals list, which is fantastic. It's about time. And the legislation is really pushing the agenda forward. So it's really just about having people in the office that can help us get to the finish line. Why are we doing all this drilling and met work? Well, this project is 26.4 square kilometers. It's got massive upside of drilling. I mean, right now we have 2 million ounces. It's a great number.
Our PEA looks great. We can make a heck of a lot of money right now, but there's so much to explore. So this last round of drilling was only about 1,800 meters and was specifically driven on four different areas to target. You know, where we can really massively expand in the Slab Calvada area. So once we get those drill results back, we'll go back in October, but I don't believe in, as, you know, wasting dollars. So we drill a little bit, let's get the results back and then go back at it. So that's underway. And then the metallurgical work you're talking about. Well, you know, every time we try to check a box on our permitting and try to de-risk this asset, there's more things that come up. For example, when we put out our PEA in December the recoveries weren't what I would like to see them at.
For example, over at our Slab Calvada area, the recoveries from historic mining was 63%. And because we use a third party to write these reports, they would only put in 50% because they didn't specifically do the work. Which, you know, this 43-101 process, you know, upsets me as a CEO because I can't actually tell the public the truth in a lot of ways. And 13% is a huge amount when you're talking about recovery.
So when we put out our PEA, we have a checklist of everything that has to happen to get us to the finish line and get the numbers we actually need to see. And that's what we're doing. So we're checking every box that they want see to you know, bring up the recoveries and all the different deposits because we have four different deposits that we know of on the property and we're just going through that list, just checking 'em all off.
In Q1 of next year we can be talking about, okay, here's the new resource estimate and the PEA to come with all the new numbers. because we're so close to getting this permit that we have to have run a separate model internally to make sure that we really are moving X amount of rock versus what is publicly out in space, right? Because we all do these models at certain gold prices, et cetera, et cetera. Ours was done at 1950 gold, which feels like it was a hundred years ago right now. So all these things matter and you know, day by day that's what we're doing. Just de-risk, de-risk, de-risk. And moving it to the point where we're hoping by early 2027 we'll be breaking ground, which is a blink of an eye in mining as we both know.
Lyndsay: I want to talk a little bit about some approvals, though. That new BLM approval sounds like a big deal. So what does it actually mean for your team on the ground and when do you think we'll start seeing drill results from this next round?
Kimberly Ann: Good question. Well, I mean the permitting that we have gotten approved allows us to continue to drill under a notice of intent. It's acre by acre in a lot of ways. And so, we can do that incrementally as we go along. So it never stops us drilling when we're going for a plan of operation on the exploration side. But what it does do is once we have that document, we never have to go back to the Bureau of Land Management to get anything approved, which is amazing- Yes. But it's millions of dollars and a lot of time.
So we've gotten through all of the studies, we call them the 'bugs and bunny' studies and we've had those approved, which is really important because now they can't come back and say, oh, I need you to go look for the raptors again, or, you know, they can't go back on their word.
So we are at the point where those have been cleared and moving forward and that's taken us almost three years. So that's a really important part of the equation. But all those studies go into the mine permit.
So it's a really big deal for the company to be where we are right now. Because now it's time of getting it out in the public space, letting them look at the document.
We have no first nations, we have no communities around us at all. So it's not like we have a lot of people that are going to go, oh no, you can't go back into production. They're there to basically to be our workforce, which is three kilometers away.
On the drill results, we should have our first round of drill results out next two to three weeks. So it's, it's we'll be in the next month. You'll see all of them. So very short timeline.
Lyndsay: I want to actually also flip over and unpack the metallurgy aspect of that. So met testing, we all know is one of those things that sounds very technical, but it really actually does matter. So what are you hoping to learn from this phase and how much could that move the needle on the Santa Fe's overall economics?
Kimberly Ann: Well, what we do know is we will be able to report what happened in the past, if not better. And that's specifically on the oxides. When we look at our transition and sulfide materials, we have shipped a thousand pound of this off to a third party that I can't really talk about who it is, but it's a new technology that they're doing that essentially turned sulfides into oxides which could be heap leachable and it's literally rock dependent.
If it works, then it opens up so much for the company. Because We have high grade sulfides underneath all of our pits. I mean, amazing material that we're not even focused on right now because we have so much oxides ready to be mined. So, I mean, there is a lot to learn through this process and I think January will have information back.
So it's going to be, if this, if this works, it's revolutionary to the industry because it changes our recoveries from, you know, 50% to 90%. So, you know, every percent counts.
That's how much more money we'll make, right? Yeah. We're already going to print money at 1,200 cash costs all in for the company, and that's the first pass in our PEA and golds at what, you know, I mean it's really important and it's not sexy to the public, but it's sure as hell as sexy when you're looking at how much more money you're going to make in the process.
Lyndsay: You've actually been quite vocal about the Santa Fe having near term protection potential. What still needs to fall into place, whether it's from a permitting, technical or operational perspective to make that happen?
Kimberly Ann: It's simply the permitting process because every step along the way is, you know, them asking us to do more studies on air quality or you name it, they come up with it and we're there to facilitate that so we can move the project forward. But the drilling we are doing is simply to just add more ounces. And you know, right now the studies that we have on the PEA is 15,000 tons per day. I think that's probably going to get changed to 18,500 tons per day. So we're trying to like really put a narrow scope on it, right. Because the CapEx for it right now is a 130 million with 20% contingency. So a hundred million and that's not that much money to find, but we really want to get these numbers to per to as much perfection as we can before we are raising the money. Because, right now, next year I will be raising the money to build this thing. And people always say, well, how are you going to do that? At what market cap and blah, blah, blah. It doesn't matter what market cap we are sitting at the time. These are non-dilutive dollars. This is a rapid payback.
So when you talk to debt funds, like I used to work for one, I know what they're looking for. 70% of that CapEx will be probably in debt. We also barely have any royalties on the project. So we have royalty flexibility and maybe we'll take equity, but right now let's just keep going and moving the share price forward and doing all the work on the ground that's necessary.
Lyndsay: Looking ahead to the rest of the year, Kimberly, what's the one thing you think investors should really be watching for from Lahontan? What's the next big moment?
Kimberly Ann: They should be watching every result that comes out because all of this is the breadcrumbs to production. And look, we've been trading at 10, 11 cents and in December we were at 2 cents and I think you probably remember we did have that block from Victoria. We finally got that out purgatory in December. And those were things that we didn't expect to happen, but they're done. And the reality is that block of shares has moved into fantastic hands that don't run a mine like our friends and aren't at risk for that situation again.
So since then we're having massive trading volume and the stock keeps going up because people are starting to see this. So people should be getting in now because this the reason why I'm talking to you and everybody else I can because the stock is so inexpensive still right now.
It's not going backwards, it's just going to continue to skyrocket. And the path to production of what we're going to build along the way from Santa Fe to West Santa Fe to mojo is massive. It's not going to, there's not going to be a sit around and wait for something to happen. It's going to be okay.
We can now focus on west Santa Fe and start drilling that out, which is 10 kilometers away or satellite operation to be.
There's so much going on right now and I just, I don't want to have a shareholder come to me in a year when we're trading it. God knows what that great number is and say, gee, I wish I would've heard your story a year ago.
So at minimum get on our newsletter list so you get our information, my phone number, my email specifically is on there. Give me a call anytime. I love talking to our shareholders and buy some stock.
You can find Lahontan Gold trading under the ticker symbol LG on the Venture and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol Y2F.
If you're looking for a junior with big upside potential and real near term moves in play, check them out at lahontangoldcorp.com. This is one story that's not waiting around.
Join the discussion: Find out what everybody's saying about this stock on the Lahontan Gold Corp. investor discussion forum, and check out the rest of Stockhouse's stock forums and message boards.
The material provided in this article is for information only and should not be treated as investment advice. For full disclaimer information, please click here
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