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Interview with Stephen de Jong, CEO and President of Integra Gold (TSX.V: ICG; OTCQX: ICGQF): Focused on Their High-Grade Lamaque South Project, Located in Quebec's Premier Gold Producing Districts, Creating Value for Shareholders

on 10/14/2016
Integra Gold Corp. (TSX.V: ICG; OTCQX: ICGQF) is a junior Canadian exploration company currently focused on their high-grade Lamaque South Project, located in Quebec's premier gold producing districts known as Val-d’Or. We learned from Stephen de Jong, CEO and President of Integra Gold, how his carefully designed exploration program has grown their resource by almost 500% since early 2015. The next step is to reflect this growth in an updated PEA, and expand the exploration underground. The results are in line with a ramp that is being put in place and they are looking forward to reaching the mineralized zones and opening them up by H2 next year. Integra Gold Corporation has been very busy and should have more news soon.



Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-chief of Metals News, interviewing Stephen de Jong, CEO and President of Integra Gold Corporation. I see you have a lot of exciting things going on this summer. Tell us what differentiates your company from other gold mining companies?

Mr. Steve de Jong: What differentiates us the most, is our performance in tough times. We're a company that has proven over the last 5 years that we don't need high gold prices to get out there and create value for our shareholders. Of course high gold prices are a major plus. If you look at the gold industry as a whole, we came into this year at a 4-year low in the gold industry, and obviously it's been quite a turnaround since. Looking at those last 4 years, Integra came into the year just a few cents off a 4-year high. The Integra asset, the Integra team, has really proven their ability to create value regardless of the market. I know we all believe in gold and that's why we make investments in it, but there will be ups and downs, it's a cyclical industry. We like to make sure our investors know that we'll find a way to create value for them regardless of what happens.



Dr. Allen Alper: That's great, and your drilling program has really proven that in the last couple of months. Could you elaborate on what you're finding?

Mr. Steve de Jong: It has. The resources have grown substantially over the last few years. We look at the PEA that we put out in early 2015, our Triangle Deposit recovered 250,000 ounces, and that resource today is over 1.2 million and continuing to grow. We're a very active exploration company, one of the busiest in the world. The drill program that we have continues to enhance our confidence in the resources that we do have, with tight space infill drilling. At the same time, we're also stepping out in some of the exploration targets in both known zones and other zones across the property, and finding new resources as well. There are 5 drills turning today, there are 45,000 meters pending. Once the ground's frozen, in probably December or January, we're going to increase that to likely 8 to 10 drills, just like we have in years past.



Dr. Allen Alper: That's fantastic. That's really great. What are you exploring now?

Mr. Steve de Jong: The property is in an old mining district. We're sitting right next to the city of Val-d'Or. There's been a lot of activity on our project. 9 million ounces have been produced between 2 mines on our asset in the past. We currently have 6 drills turning on the project. The bulk of the drilling is still at our Triangle Deposit (3 drill rigs), which is our main deposit. We also have one drill testing the Lamaque Deeps target and another drill on the Sigma East Extension target. The Sigma East Extension target is the first Gold Rush target we are testing. It is one of the top targets that came out of our crowd-sourcing Gold Rush Challenge that we did last year.



Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. What are your plans going forward?

Mr. Steve de Jong: The next step for us is to update our PEA, so we should have an updated PEA this year. It'll have a small resource update within it, but it's primarily infill drilling, so the resource we have on the project right now is indicative of what you'll see in the PEA. Next year we'll have a larger resource update on our Triangle Deposit, and that will incorporate another 50,000 meters of drilling or so. As we do this and these studies and resource updates, we're going underground now as well. So we can get right in there and take a look at the mineralization from underground. We're about 325 meters into our underground decline right now. By the middle of next year, probably sometime in Q2, we should reach the mineralized zones and be able to open them up, do some bulk sampling, close space drilling and a lot of that other work. It's a very busy year for us.



Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds great. What are your plans for the mine, the mill and the processing plant?

Mr. Steve de Jong: We have actually brought back the old mill manager who was there in years past. He's been there for 2 years, with a mechanic and electrician and a few other staff, just going through and actually taking apart all the equipment and making sure it's ready to go. The mill's in very good shape, we're doing some work this summer on the structures for the roof, some of the external structure of the mill. We're going to continue to do this maintenance work and small upgrades as we go. Once the project's into production, it'll just cost a few million dollars for the final refurbishment, and it should be ready to go. That mill was last operating in 2012, and it has had full care and maintenance, taken care of ever since.

Dr. Allen Alper: That's good. Could you tell me a little bit about your background and your team and your board?

Mr. Steve de Jong: Yes. We're very proud of our team. We've built our team over the last few years. Because of the downturn in the industry, we were able to secure some phenomenal people. On our operations team, we have Langis St-Pierre, COO, and François Chabot, our Operations Manager. Langis spent the last 30 years primarily underground in the Abitibi, working on deposits very similar to what we have, and most recently, prior to Integra, was the President of IAMGOLD’s Essakane Operation, with 3,400 people working in the Essakane mine in West Africa. On the exploration side, we have Hervé Thiboutot, Jacques Simoneau and Luc Théberge, who actually all have Goldcorp experience. Jacques and Hervé both worked at Goldcorp, and prior to that, Placer Dome, and Luc worked at Goldcorp and Agnico-Eagle as well, so a lot of big company experience. The corporate side is really led by our Executive Chairman George Salamis and myself, who over the last 4 years have raised 120 million dollars. We're very proud to say that all the money we've raised is at quite substantially lower prices than where we're at today. Regardless of the market, we've been able to make money for our investors.



Dr. Allen Alper: That's fantastic! Great team! Great management team! Great exploration and mining team! Tell us about your board.

Mr. Steve de Jong: We have a very well-rounded board with both capital market experience, mining experience, and financial accounting experience as well.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds great. Could you tell me a little bit about your capital and share structure?



Mr. Steve de Jong: We have 475 million shares outstanding, we have 40 million dollars in cash, and we have about 18 million dollars in marketable securities as well, so getting towards 60 million dollars in liquidity. Our budget for the balance of the year is about 12 million dollars. For next year, we're looking at between 25 and 30 million dollars.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds great, you're in a great position, that's excellent. What are the primary reasons our high-net-worth readers/investors should consider investing in your company?

Mr. Steve de Jong: If you want exposure to the gold sector, obviously it's always going to be a risky investment. Junior investments are high risk, but we like to think that because we have all the boxes ticked, we're a much safer investment than others. We are in a very safe jurisdiction in Canada. We have the environmental permits already in place for the project, so you lose the permitting risk. We're high-grade, with means that when the price of gold goes down, which it will go up and down, we have the margins to protect us from that. We have the infrastructure in place. We have a 100-million-dollar mill that we purchased out of bankruptcy for 7 million dollars. It's sitting on the project and ready to go.

That means we're a very low CapEx project. We need somewhere between 80 and 100 million dollars Canadian, to put a project into production, that's over 100,000 ounces per year. That ratio is almost unheard of in the industry. That's a very capital-efficient project. Because we've had a 4-year downturn, not a lot of exploration and development has taken place, so fewer projects. Not a lot of projects out there can tick all the boxes like Integra can. We also have a history of creating value and making money for our shareholders, which is very important. We're all heroes when the price of gold goes up, but how do we perform in a flat market or a down market? We have performed well.



Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. Is there anything else you'd like to add, Steve?

Mr. Steve de Jong: Watch our news flow. About a week ago, we put out the best drill results we've ever had on a project.

Dr. Allen Alper: Yes, fantastic! I was greatly impressed. High grade over a long length!

Mr. Steve de Jong: It's the real deal, and what's exciting about those drill results, specifically, is they're actually in line with the ramp that we're putting in right now. So about Q2 next year, we should be in a position to actually open up that zone that we drilled. We've also had some really nice step-out drill holes in the deeper zones. The infill drilling seems to be working out really well, and those are the high-grade hits you saw, and the step-out resource expansion drilling is working as well. Continue to watch for drill results and some of the bigger catalyst resource estimates and a PEA update as we go.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. I’m looking forward to seeing more of your great results.

Mr. Steve de Jong: Thank you.

http://www.integragold.com/

Integra Gold Corp.

Suite 2270, 1055 West Georgia St
Royal Centre, P.O. Box 11144
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6E 3P3

Telephone: 604-629-0891
Fax: 604-229-1055
Email: info@integragold.com




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