Sable Resources Ltd. (TSXV: SAE): Developing a Large Portfolio of Highly Prospective Greenfield Projects to Resource Stage, in Mexico, Argentina, and Peru; Dr Ruben Padilla Interviewed.
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By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 8/5/2020
We learned from Dr. Ruben Padilla, President and CEO of Sable Resources Ltd. (TSXV: SAE), that Sable is a well-funded junior grassroots explorer, focused on the discovery of new precious metal projects, through systematic exploration in endowed terranes, located in favorable, established mining jurisdictions. Sable's main focus is developing its large portfolio of new greenfields projects, located in the Province of San Juan in Argentina, Mexico, and Peru, to resource stage. We learned from Dr. Padilla that in Argentina Sable is actively exploring the drill-ready Don Julio cluster of targets and is advancing the El Fierro project to drill stage, both projects located in San Juan Province. We also learned that in Mexico, Sable has an impressive regional program (1.16Mha in mineral application, 39,000ha titled) incorporating the Margarita, Vinata North, Vinata South, and El Escarpe projects; and one Project in Ayacucho, Peru. According to Dr. Padilla, the Company is in a position to drill multiple targets per year for the next few years, increasing the chances of economic discoveries.
El Fierro Project, San Juan Province, Argentina
Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, interviewing Dr. Ruben Padilla, who is President and CEO of Sable Resources. Ruben, could you give our readers/investors an overview of your Company and what differentiates Sable from others?
Dr. Ruben Padilla: Certainly. Sable is a greenfields explorer. We have a very good mix between large company experience and a junior approach on the execution of operational work. We have a unique portfolio of properties, with a large number of targets ready to drill. We are mainly focused on two regions in Latin America, both well-endowed and pro-mining regions.
One is in the Province of San Juan in Argentina, where we have over 68,000 hectares. San Juan has been recently ranked, by the Fraser Institute, as the number one jurisdiction for mining investment in Argentina and second in Latin America after Chile. We have a group of targets that we call the Don Julio Cluster. The Don Julio cluster consists of multiple porphyry centers, overprinted by high sulphidation mineralization, kilometers of outcropping epithermal veins, and an outcropping base metal skarn, within a large area of 12 x 10 kilometers. We completed detailed mapping and sampling at Don Julio for two and a half years. That was a big job and a serious investment that is paying us back, because we have delineated this very large mineral system that can evolve into a new mining district, if some of the mineral centers prove to be economic. We have at least five targets ready to drill.
Outside the Don Julio cluster, we have another 40,000 hectares of unexplored ground, with 10 anomalies that we are in the process of reviewing right now. I think we are able to produce at least another drill target outside the Don Julio Cluster. Also in San Juan, we just acquired a new project that we announced a few weeks ago. This new project is called El Fierro. It’s a 6,000 hectare property, located in an important old mining district and the project has never been drilled. It consists of very high-grade silver veins, associated with base metal and some gold. We just released results from our first sampling reconnaissance program at El Fierro, including a sample with >10,000 g/t Ag, confirming the high-grade nature of this mineral system. So, we have a very good land position and prospects in San Juan, Argentina. We're happy with the program there.
The other region where we work is along the famous Central Mexico Mineral Belt, host of a lot of large epithermal systems, including Fresnillo, Guanajuato, El Oro and many others. We are one of the largest landholders in that part of the world with 1.1 million hectares in mineral applications and around 40,000 hectares in mineral titles. We have covered all the ground with stream sediments sampling, generating more than a hundred anomalies that we are now evaluating. So far these anomalies have generated three drill ready targets, including El Escarpe, Vinata North, and Vinata South. We were drilling Vinata North in March, when we had to suspend operations due to the COVID crisis, however we plan to go back and finish the drilling this year at the two Vinata targets.
In 2018, we discovered the Margarita Ag deposit in the state in Chihuahua, Mexico. At Margarita, we completed 5,097m of drilling in 35 drill holes, proving the continuity of mineralization to a 100 m depth and for over 1500m along the main known structure. Some of the drill intercepts include 14.05m of 461 g/t AgEq, including 2m of 860 g/t AgEq; 11.3m of 252 g/t AgEq, including 1.3m of 890 g/t AgEq; and 4.25m of 462 g/t AgEq, including 1.5m of 1,092 g/t AgEq.
Sable is a well-funded Company, with $2.3 million in the bank and access to another $5.5 million from a deal that we did with Osisko Gold Royalties. We also own a 1% NSR on the properties that went into Talisker Resources, when we did the spin out of our assets in Canada in 2019. We also have properties ready for divestment and we’ve advanced JV discussions as well, to advance the more drill targets. That's basically it. That is our overview.
Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that sounds excellent. It sounds like Sable has some excellent projects and properties to explore. Could you tell our readers/ investors a little bit more about your plans for 2020 going into 2021?
Dr. Ruben Padilla: The most important thing we plan to do is to move into drilling at the properties that we have ready to drill because drilling generates discoveries and sustainable value creation. We want to go back before the end of the year, all depending on access to Chihuahua, Mexico, to finish the drilling in Vinata North, and then start the first drilling campaign in Vinata South. Those are excellent Au-Ag epithermal projects. Also, as soon as the summer season in Argentina starts we are going to go back to El Fierro and Don Julio and prepare some of those targets for drilling. We want to be drilling at least one of those projects during the first quarter of 2021. That will be drilling two or three projects, from now to April 2021, with Sable’s cash. Additionally, we are going to advance possible JV deals to fund additional drilling in some of our ready to drill targets. We are going to continue doing target generation work in our large land packages of San Juan and Mexico to bring more projects to drill stage. Those are the plans for 2020 and the first half of 2021.
Dr. Allen Alper: Oh, that sounds excellent. It sounds like you're going to have a busy time, and you'll be generating a great deal of data and information that readers/investors and stakeholders will be very interested in obtaining. So, it'll be a great time for you and Sable Resources. Could you tell our readers/investors a little bit about your background and your Management and Board of Directors?
Dr. Ruben Padilla: On the Management Team, I am the President and CEO. I'm a geologist with 35 years of experience in mining and mineral exploration. I completed my bachelor degree in Chihuahua, Mexico many years ago and worked in Mexico, for a while, with different companies. I worked for BHP for 13 years in different places, including Escondida, the largest copper mine in the world. During my time at Escondida, I generated the concept that advanced the discovery of the Escondida East deposit years after. I did my Masters and my PhD at the University of Arizona, working in porphyry systems.
Then I worked for AngloGold, where I joined one of the current members of the Sable Board, Terry Harbort. Terry and I worked together for AngloGold and we were involved with the discoveries of Colosa, a 30 million ounces gold porphyry deposit. We also participated in the discovery of Gramalote in Colombia, a 5 million ounce deposit. Then, later on, we were involved in the teams that changed the history of Windfall Lake and Barkerville in Canada. We have a team that has a proven discovery record with very close to 50 million ounces of gold. Our VP of Exploration, Luis Arteaga, a Colombian geologist, is based in Canada now. Luis has an MSc from Laurentian University. He’s a young geologist, with a lot of energy, great observational skills, knowledge, and experience in multiple types of ore deposits. Jason Kosec, our VP of Strategic Development, is another young geologist on the team, with good experience and a lot of energy to find ore deposits. We are lucky to have the support of very capable local groups, in Latin America, that complement our very solid team. I'm very proud of the team that we have.
We also have excellent experience in all the members of our Board of Directors, with people like Tom Obradovich, who has been on the Board of Directors of very successful companies including Aurelian Resources that discovered the great epithermal system of Fruta Del Norte in Ecuador, later sold for $1.2 billion to Kinross. He was also involved in Canadian Royalties, in Barkerville Gold and in Dalradian Resources. We also have Brent Gilchrist, current President of JDS Energy and Mining.
Dr. Allen Alper: Very impressive, very experienced and very well-accomplished! You and your team have a great background. Could you tell our readers/investors a little bit about your share and capital structure?
Dr. Ruben Padilla: Sure. Sable currently has 162,141,897 shares outstanding, with 20.6 million warrants and 14.2 million options, for fully diluted shares of 197 million. The Management owns 13% of the current outstanding shares. We are also supported by a number of strong shareholder groups, with about a hundred million shares owned by 20 shareholders. Osisko Gold Royalties is the largest shareholder with 9.9%, Rosseau Asset Management Group owns 8%, and RBC Global owns 4.7%.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds like you have a great group! Management has a lot of skin in the game and you have important investors. Excellent!
Dr. Ruben Padilla: Thank you. We have been fortunate to have a very good group of investors with us, because we have been active for eight years, generating a great portfolio. We really needed to have a very loyal group of shareholders to finance the systematic work that has brought us up to the point where we are right now.
Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that's an enviable position to be in, to have that strong backing so you can move forward. Could you tell our readers /investors the primary reasons they should consider investing in your Company?
Dr. Ruben Padilla: The reason for me to invest in a Company like Sable, is because we provide multiple chances for discoveries. Discovery is the only thing that gives sustainable value to shareholders. By drilling multiple targets on our land packages we expose shareholders to multiple opportunities of discovery. We have a very unique portfolio of properties. We didn't rush this business – over 8 years we’ve invested over $12 million to get where we are now and with more than 10 targets ready to drill, and very likely five more targets in the next one or two years. Now, we can be very aggressive with drilling, with the objective to drill between two and four targets per year, for the next few years.
We are a team that has been involved with several discoveries and we know that we can do it again. We have access to capital, to do the job that we have to do.
Dr. Allen Alper: It sounds like you're in a great position, having great projects, great exploration experience, excellent opportunities, and also excellent backing. So, it sounds like you have everything working for you, Ruben. Is there anything else?
Dr. Ruben Padilla: I moved from VP of Exploration to CEO and President in March of this year. This is the first public interview that I have given. I want to show to our shareholders and potential future investors how systematic and organized we are. We're strategic thinkers. We like to think big, but we like to act strategically, as a junior company. We feel that we are in a great position to create value for all of us, all the shareholders of the Company.
Dr. Allen Alper: That's excellent. You’re in a great position. Having all of these greenfield exploration opportunities, should really increase the value of the stock of Sable. It sounds like you should have a great future.
Dr. Ruben Padilla: Thank you very much. It's been a great pleasure talking to you.
Dr. Allen Alper: You’re welcome. I’ve enjoyed learning more about Sable Resources Ltd. We’ll publish your press releases as they come out so our readers/investors can follow your progress.
https://sableresources.com/
Ruben Padilla, President & CEO
ruben.padilla@sableresources.com
+1 (520) 488-2520
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