TriMetals Mining Inc. (TSX: TMI, US OTCQX: TMIAF): Exploration and Development of the Large-Scale Near Surface, Gold Springs Gold-Silver Project in Mining Friendly Nevada and Utah, Interview with, Ralph Fitch, President and CEO
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By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 9/28/2017
TriMetals Mining Inc. (TSX: TMI, US OTCQX: TMIAF) is a growth focused, mineral exploration company, creating
value through the exploration and development of the near surface, Gold Springs gold-silver project in mining
friendly Nevada and Utah in the U.S.A. Ralph Fitch, President and CEO of TriMetals Mining is an exploration
geologist, with over 50 years of international exploration management and field experience. He is excited about
the last season's drill results, especially at the Jumbo Trend that has significant growth potential. The new
drilling campaign is currently under way with the results expected at the end of the month. Another project,
coming into focus for TriMetals Mining, thanks to the firming copper prices, is the Escalones copper-gold porphyry
project in Chile that holds six and a half billion pounds of copper equivalent 43-101 based resource, and has lots
of potential to expand.
Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, interviewing Ralph Fitch
President and CEO of TriMetals Mining Inc.
Ralph, could you update our readers/investors, give them an overview of TriMetals Mining Inc. and let them
know what's happening?
Mr. Ralph Fitch: It would be a pleasure, Al. Assuming everybody knows a little bit about the company, just
a little reminder that TriMetals Mining symbol in Canada is TMI and in the US, it's TMIAF. Our focus is the
exploration and resource expansion at the Gold Springs gold-silver project in what we call, 'mining friendly',
'permitting friendly' Nevada and Utah. That's the main focus of the company. We're there drilling right now, so
that's the new news. We're in the middle of a drill program, first results should come out towards the end of this
month.
We're really excited to get this program going because, your readers may recall at the end of last year,
we drilled some really good holes at the south end of the zone we call the Jumbo Trend. This is a north-south zone
on the Utah side of the property. The property straddles the Nevada-Utah line. But the Jumbo Trend is over five
and a half kilometers long. We have two resource blocks on it. At the end of last year, we had one hole, in the
area in the south, of 150 meters of one gram gold equivalent. That was .87 grams gold plus the remainder in
silver. Within that was 18 meters of 3.4 grams. So a very exciting hole with similarly good holes around it. The
first holes we're drilling this year, we're on hole 10 now, will be in that zone.
The Jumbo Trend holds the majority of the resource we presently have on the Gold Spring property, about half a
million ounces in the measured and indicated categories. Obviously, our plan is to continue to expand the
resource. If you can imagine a block of ground, about a kilometer wide and five and a half kilometers long, with a
resource at the north end and a smaller resource at the south end, which is where we got those really good
grades last year. We're drilling around that area in the south and now we're moving the rig towards the middle.
There's an undrilled gap between the two resource blocks of about two and a half kilometers and we want to fill
that in.
We think the whole trend, based on geophysics, is prospective. So we think we have a very good chance of a
multi-million ounce type resource, within that Jumbo block alone. For those who are familiar with the property,
you will remember the Jumbo Trend is just part of this 78 square kilometer property. The other major targets are
typically on the Nevada side. We have 33 kilometers of these geophysical targets that we need to drill. We've
drilled about three of them and our present resource is about three quarters of a million ounces. That is why we
see this tremendous upside in terms of potential to discover more gold mineralization. That's probably a pretty
good update on the Gold Springs target.
Now, Gold Springs is our focus, that's where we think we're going to add value with news releases coming out.
Probably the first one at the end of the month and then probably on a monthly basis beyond that. Because the
copper price is firming, we're thinking about reviving a project we've held onto for many years called Escalones
copper-gold porphyry in Chile. We have six and a half billion pounds of copper equivalent resource there, 43-101
based resource, a very big porphyry copper-gold project, lots of potential to expand. We just recently doubled our
land position there, we've permitted it for 20,000 meters of drilling and have a lot of upside to continue to
develop that project.
We've had this in our financials for a couple years, but now we're looking for ways to add value with this
project. We think now is the time, with the firming copper price. Studies suggest projects like this in stand-
alone companies might have valuations in the future of two to four cents a pound. So we're looking at the usual
partnering, joint venturing. Another option that appeals to me, is to spin it out to existing shareholders and
then take it public as a separate company. Existing shareholders would potentially get a big boost in value by
earning the shares of both companies.
TriMetals, once this plan starts to gel, may see a significant increase in value also due to the
revaluation of these big porphyry copper projects.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds really great, like you have two very excellent projects, and it sounds like it's a
great time for both projects.
Mr. Ralph Fitch: I believe it is.
Dr. Allen Alper: Could you tell our readers/investors a bit more about how your gold and gold-silver was
formed in Nevada and Utah?
Mr. Ralph Fitch: Certainly. The ore type is “gold that is related to a hot spring deposit”, so we call it a
hot-spring type gold deposit. If you have a major structural corridor, like our Jumbo Trend, where we're doing all
the drilling, at Gold Springs now, you effectively have a crack or fault that goes down quite a few kilometers
into the earth's crust. The hot gold bearing fluids, which are super pressurized at depth, come up these faults.
When they reach approximately a kilometer below the surface, or something of that order, the super pressurized
fluid explodes into steam.
We call that the boiling zone. It creates a lot of brecciation and deposition of silica quartz and the
gold. That's what we look for in this geological model, to find the boiling zone. At Gold Springs, pretty much
over the entire area where we have outcrop, and we have 26 areas of outcrop of plus one gram gold, we see the rock
characteristics of this boiling zone or the gold deposition zone in this geological model. We think we're in a
really good spot at Gold Springs to continue to expand the resource. These big structures are showing up in the
geophysics and we have about 33 kilometers of these structures to drill. We've drilled about three of them and
we're at about three quarters of a million ounces. So we think we have great potential to continue to build the
resource.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds fantastic! Could you update our readers/investors on your background?
Mr. Ralph Fitch: Yeah, I've been a geologist a long time, Al. I think it's my 53rd year as a paid
geologist. I obviously enjoy doing it and discovering ore bodies. I started in West Africa for diamonds with De
Beers. I went to Australia with De Beers. Actually I was the first De Beers geologist in Australia. Then I
switched to base metals, with Anglo, spent some time underground in the South African gold mines and a little
exploration down in that part of the world. Then I came to the US, joined Chevron and worked my way up to Chief
Geologist. I was part of the Collahuasi discovery in northern Chile, the big porphyry copper, I think it's maybe
number three in the world in terms of production.
When Chevron decided to get out of the minerals business, I started a series of these TSX listed
companies. The first one was called General Minerals. We were the best performing stock on the TSX for a month or
so when we first discovered the Vizcachitas porphyry down in Chile. Then we suffered through the Bre-X fiasco that
really slaughtered our stock. Eventually came back a bit Eric Sprott and Rick Rule took over the company in, I
think that was 2007. And I IPO'd out two companies from that, South American Silver in South America and High
Desert Gold in the US. South American Silver found the Malku Khota silver Indian project in Bolivia, we got up to
400 million ounces, but unfortunately, it was expropriated.
Actually, an aside there, we have B shares TMIBF in USA and TMI.B on the TSX. They get 85% after costs of
any cash award from the arbitration settlement. We have been in international arbitration against Bolivia which
we've now completed, we're just waiting for the arbitrators to make a decision. High Desert Gold found the Gold
Springs project and when South American Silver lost the Malku Khota project, which was a major discovery I\South
American Silver no longer had a precious metal property so we merged the two back together again and changed the
name to TriMetals.
Dr. Allen Alper: It sounds like you have a fantastic background, great experience and great discoveries.
That's something to be very proud of.
Mr. Ralph Fitch: Well, thank you very much. I certainly enjoy it.
Dr. Allen Alper: It's fun. It's nice to be able to discover metals and materials, a very enjoyable
experience! It’s great to enjoy what you're doing.
Mr. Ralph Fitch: Yep, and hopefully, we make some money for shareholders. We have in the past in the
different cycles and we think we're in a really good position this time around with a firming gold price and
firming copper price. I think we have a very good chance of our shares being revalued upwards.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds great. Could you tell us a bit more about your board and some of your
investors?
Mr. Ralph Fitch: We have a very global group of investors, from China, Europe, the US, and Canada. Most of
them are not well known names. But Gold 2000, a very well-known gold fund, came in to the last two financings. We
also have McKenzie out of Toronto. Those are probably the best known major funds that we have in the company.
In terms of our board, last year I asked Robert Van Dorn, who is a very experienced engineer and was
previously a board member, to become chairman so he's taken on that role, taking little off my shoulders.
Mr. Ralph Fitch: We have Tina Woodside, who was female Lawyer of the Year this year up in Canada, so a very
high profile lady, brilliant lawyer. I've actually worked with her since 1994. I believe we were her first client
when we started the first company, General Minerals Corporation. So we have Van Dorn, we have Tina Woodside. We
have one Russian gentleman who represents some of the funds from that part of the world. We have Paul Sheehan, who
is a Harvard guy, who represents our Chinese investors. Antonio Canton, who was proposed by our Swiss
shareholders. We have a big group of Swiss, very loyal shareholders, who have been with the company since the
beginning, through good times and bad.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds like a very diverse, very experienced board. Excellent!
Mr. Ralph Fitch: And very independent. They don't let me do everything I want to do, Al. They keep me in
check.
Dr. Allen Alper: Could you tell us a bit about your market structure?
Mr. Ralph Fitch: 176 million shares outstanding, that goes up over the 200 million fully diluted. That
additional script, is warrants. We have some options, but it's considerably less than the 10% that we're allowed
to issue. Management owns about 5%. I buy more shares every year including this year. I have about 4.6 million
shares now, I believe, in TMI. I'm clearly a believer.
Dr. Allen Alper: Very important that investors know you believe in the company and you're continually
investing in it. Well done.
What are the primary reasons our high-net-worth readers/investors should consider investing in your
company?
Mr. Ralph Fitch: The first thing is, if you want exposure to gold, buying into the explorers, the
discoverers, gives you much greater leverage to increases in the price of gold than buying gold bars or buying
producers where the outcomes are much better known. The big upside is if they discover more gold, you're creating
wealth where there was none before so you create value whether the gold price is high or low, but you typically
get a big spike in share prices if we get a decent bump in the gold price, which seems fairly likely in the next
year or so.
I think if you want exposure to gold, a company like ours is a good bet. We have a PEA, Preliminary
Economic Assessment already on the Gold Springs project. It's really a demonstration PEA, it's not the project we
want to build. It's about a 50,000 ounce a year project we have the PEA on, it's a backstop. So if we never
discovered anything more, which is very unlikely, you already have a block of ore that is likely to make good
money and be able to go into production. So you have a good backstop. With the Escalones porphyry copper, the fact
we have 6.5 billion pounds of copper equivalent with the copper price rising is again another nice backstop. If we
did nothing more, we've two really good assets, which should give increasing value to our shares even without
further discovery, which is very unlikely since we are presently drilling in the area where we got excellent gold
intercepts last year.
At Gold Springs, if you look on our website and look at the actual presentation, geologically there's clearly a
very good opportunity that we're going to continue to discover more gold ounces. I think if folks are interested
in the gold sector, a company like TriMetals Mining Inc. is a really good idea to consider for investments.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds great! Sounds like excellent reasons for our high-net-worth readers/investors to
consider investing in TriMetals Mining Inc.
Mr. Ralph Fitch: Yeah, I think it's actually a really good time to look at precious metals and also the
base metals. They're starting to stir again. It looks like there will be a copper deficit down the road so likely
prices will go higher.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds excellent!
http://www.trimetalsmining.com/
Ralph Fitch
President & CEO
303.584.0606
ralphfitch@trimetalsmining.com
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