Interview with Ralph Fitch, President and CEO of TriMetals (TSX: TMI and TMI.B; OTCQX: TMIAF and TMIBF): 100% Owned, Near-Surface Gold Springs Gold-Silver Project in Nevada and Utah in the U.S.A
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By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 10/28/2016
TriMetals Mining Inc. (TSX: TMI and TMI.B; OTCQX: TMIAF and TMIBF) is a growth focused mineral exploration company, advancing their 100% owned, near-surface Gold Springs gold-silver project in mining friendly Nevada and Utah in the U.S.A. We learned from Ralph Fitch, President and CEO of TriMetals, that they have a positive PEA and close to a million ounce resource, which they hope to expand to a 3-5 million ounce resource. The TriMetals team has experience and a record of big discoveries. Currently, the company is in the middle of about a 40 to 50-hole drill program looking for what they call a "bulk tonnage, heap-leachable material". According to Mr. Fitch, they are going to have a continuous stream of press releases through the end of the year as the drilling continues.
Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-chief of Metals News, interviewing Ralph Fitch, President CEO of TriMetals Mining Incorporated. What differentiates your junior mining company from others? What's significant about your property and what are your plans?
Mr. Ralph Fitch: Certainly. TriMetals is TMI on the Toronto Exchange, and TMIAF on the QX in the US. I think what differentiates us in many ways is our corporate focus on the Gold Springs gold-silver property, which is in safe, mining friendly Nevada and Utah. That in itself is a bit of a differentiator. Secondly, the mineralization that we've found is actually outcropping, it starts at the surface and has good metallurgy, and we have a positive PEA. We have close to a million ounces, a positive PEA, and geologically and geo-physically we believe we've only drilled maybe 10% of the target. We already have close to a million ounces, we've only drilled 10%, and we already have a positive PEA. I think those are pretty good differentiators. Going forward our goal is to continue to expand the resource.
From a geological and geophysical perspective, we feel comfortable in saying that we think the property position, which is about 74 square kilometers, is prospective for the discovery of 3 to 5 million ounces.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds great! Really very good! Could you tell us a bit about your plans going forward?
Mr. Ralph Fitch: The last few years have been quite difficult with a low gold price and not much interest in the mining sector. Every one of those years, we've continued to drill and continued to expand the resource, and that's what we're doing again this year. We're in the middle of about a 40 to 50 hole drill program. Most of our exploration effort has been to discover what we often refer to as bulk tonnage, heap leechable material. This is modest grade stuff, it's about .6 grams per tonne gold equivalent, and that's gold plus silver. That translates to about half a gram of gold and 10 grams of silver. That type of material leads to very, very positive economics in our PEA.
We are doing something different this year. One of our goals this year is to see if we can put together a higher grade starter resource, or starter pit, as well as continue to expand the rest of the resource. A rather interesting twist is now that we are close to a million ounces, we realize that if we could put together 100,000 ounces of 2 or 3 gram material, much higher grade material, as a starter resource or a starter pit, that high grade material would be able to pay off the capital very, very quickly, and instead of having a robust economics with an MTB of 137 million, a regular turnaround of 50%, which is now pretty nice. We could dramatically increase those numbers in a positive way just by finding 100,000 ounces.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent! Could you tell me a bit about your and your team’s background and your board?
Mr. Ralph Fitch: Certainly. Randy Moore, who brought the Gold Springs property to us, is our Vice President of Exploration. He was with Cambior before he started joining the smaller companies. He was part of the discovery of the Livengood in Alaska. He definitely knows how to do this. He's one of the best geologists I've been around. We're very, very lucky to have him. We have put together this very large package of land now, which he is presently exploring very, very effectively. He's a field guy, so even though he's VP, he's living out in camp, where we operate, and directing everything we do there.
In terms of the board, probably the best known individual in the mining world is Robert Van Dorn, who joined about 6 months ago. He's a very useful member, well known in the industry. The other members, many of them European, were put forward by many of our very solid European investors who've been with us since the beginning. Myself, 50 odd years as an exploration geologist. I really enjoy finding ore deposits, the Australia burst plate is in Africa, the US and South America in terms of experience. I think that gives a fairly good background to the people on the team. We should have a continuous series of press releases for the rest of the year regarding our drilling and the results from the drilling. I look forward to a positive year for the company.
Dr. Allen Alper: Could you tell us a bit more about your capital structure, your share structure, and your financing?
Mr. Ralph Fitch: The capital structure of the company, we have 153 million shares outstanding. We have 4 million in the treasury, present market cap's around 46 million, average trading volume around 100,000 a day on the TSX, maybe half that in the US.
Dr. Allen Alper: That's very good. What are the primary reasons our high-net-worth readers/investors should consider investing in your company?
Mr. Ralph Fitch: First of all, all junior mining stocks are always risky ventures, very volatile, going up and down often with the gold price. I think once you're comfortable with that arena, I believe our company has a very good opportunity for increasing shareholder value. We've only drilled 10% of the target, and we already have a positive PEA and close to a million gold equivalent ounces. As we continue to drill, which is our goal, we have a very good opportunity to increase our resource to something quite substantial, which should be highly valued in the market.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Mr. Ralph Fitch: Just remember we are in the middle of the drilling program. We've put out our first release on the drilling, and had some really good results. In terms of headline numbers, we had a 1 and a half meter intercept of 7 ounces of gold per tonne, which is way above the usual grades we find. We are drilling this high grade Thor zone, so we might expect some good things coming out of it. We are going to have a continuous stream of press reports or press releases through the end of the year as the drilling continues.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent!
http://www.trimetalsmining.com/
580 Hornby Street, Suite 880
Vancouver, BC V6C 3B6
Telephone: (604) 639-4523
Fax: (604) 684-0642
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