U.S. Gold Corp. (Nasdaq: USAU): Advancing 4 Projects: CK Gold Project in WY, Keystone on the Cortez Trend in NV, Maggie Creek on the Carlin Trend in NV and the Challis Gold Project in ID; Ed Karr, Founder Interviewed

By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 5/31/2021
We spoke with Ed Karr, Founder of U.S. Gold Corp. (Nasdaq: USAU), the USA-focused gold exploration and development Company, currently advancing 4 projects: the CK Gold Project, located in Southeast WY Keystone is on the Cortez Trend in North Central NV, Maggie Creek on the Carlin Trend in NV and the Challis Gold Project located in ID. The Company is working on a pre-feasibility study at the CK Gold Project, which is due to be completed in July. According to Ed Karr, the CK Gold Project could be in production by 2024. The Company has a very tight share structure with just over 7 million shares of common. Management and insiders are quite significant shareholders. U.S. Gold Corp. has a nice cash balance in the bank, fully funded for 2021 and 2022, with around $14 million in cash, no debt.

U.S. Gold Corp.

Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, interviewing Ed Karr, who is the Founder of U.S. Gold Corp. Ed, could you give our readers/investors an overview of your Company and what differentiates it. Also tell us some of the exciting things that have happened recently, with your Company.

Ed Karr:U.S. Gold Corp. is a publicly traded gold exploration and development Company, listed on the NASDAQ: USAU. We have projects in three mining-friendly states, in the western part of the United States, four projects in total. We founded the Company with our flagship project, called the CK Gold Project that is located in Wyoming. Wyoming is a great state to have a development stage project. It is a mining-friendly State and the CK Gold Project is located on all State of Wyoming claims – which gives the project a potentially fast path towards permitting and production. The CK Gold Project has a historic PEA, which shows a nice, robust resource of about 1.1 million ounces, MII of gold and 300 million pounds of MII copper. We are currently pushing that the project forward to a pre-feasibility study. This will be a brand-new geological, engineering and economic update and we anticipate having the full report out by the end of July.

Then we have two district scale exploration projects in Nevada. Keystone is on the Cortez trend and Maggie Creek is on the Carlin trend. Our last exploration project is in the state of Idaho, and it is called the Challis Gold Project. The Company has a very tight share structure. We have just over seven million shares of common, which might be one of the tightest share structures of any publicly listed exploration company. Management and insiders are quite significant shareholders. USAU has a nice cash balance in the bank, so the Company is funded for 2021 to 2022, with around $14 million in cash and no debt. A couple of analysts that currently cover the Company, are impressed with the top-notch Management Team and Board of Directors.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that's fantastic. Could you tell our readers/investors your primary goals for 2021?

Ed Karr: We have some great catalysts for your readers/investors and our investors in the very near future. Number one is the pre-feasibility study, coming out on our CK Gold Project in Wyoming. We anticipate having this published before the end of July. We anticipate this will be a very robust document. The last time the PEA was done in December 2017, MDA used $1,275 gold and $2.80 copper. I think everyone knows, spot gold is currently around the $1,900 an ounce price today and copper is $4.55, so we are hopeful the PFS will use higher input prices.

The PFS is looking at shortening the projected PEA 17-year mine life, so we are anticipating increasing the daily throughput and we are really trying to push this project towards a 100,000-ounce gold equivalent production rate for the first several years. That would be a big catalyst for us. We think a lot of institutions are going to look at the PFS and we will have a lot of potential for a valuation re-rating. Importantly, we anticipate a resource upgrade from MII to the Proven and Probable category, which could be a significant value driver. The CK Gold Project has a higher-grade center, which comes right up to surface. Our hole CK20-04c showed 78.33 meters of 5.71 grams per ton gold equivalent from surface. This is an impressive hole in an open pit project and shows some of the project’s best material starts right at surface, which means the project does not have a big overburden to pre-strip.

We put out a press release recently, announcing that the Company is going to have a field season this summer in Wyoming at our CK Gold Project. The Team is planning to do additional drilling, additional technical engineering, hydrology and environmental studies. Our goal is to push this project all the way to a full bankable feasibility study, by the end of 2021 or early 2022.

Our team started all the environmental and baseline data capturing last year, so we think by the end of this year we will be in a position to file the mine plan permit. We would do that, potentially in early 2022, which would take around a year for approval in Wyoming, so by 2023 we could have an approved permit. Then, we need to raise the money to build the facility. CAPEX should be reasonable, and the State of WY is supportive. Our CEO, George Bee is very capable. He has put very large projects, around the world, into production on multiple continents, so he really knows what he is doing. George projects it could take about 12 months to build the production facility, so the CK Gold Project could be into production by 2024.

In Nevada, we are currently drilling at our Maggie Creek Project on the Carlin Trend. We have almost completed our first hole. Our Chief Geologist, Ken Coleman, is quite excited. The visual indications look quite positive, but it really comes down to the assay results. The core is being sent to the assay labs right now, so expect probably about a two-month anticipated turnaround. Ken is going to drill a second hole off the same drill pad. The first hole was a vertical core hole, the second hole will be an angled hole off the same drill pad.

Realistically, we could be looking at those assays by the end of July, timing is all going to depend on the assay labs. If we can hit a big discovery hole here, with our Maggie Creek Project strategically located on the Carlin trend, we are literally right next door to Newmont's massive Gold Quarry Mine, it will be very exciting. A discovery hole would be a real game-changer for us, and I think would give us a lot of visibility. Finally, we are planning to have a Keystone exploration plan this year. Keystone is our project on the Cortez Trend in Nevada, just south of Barrick's Cortez Hills Complex. Keystone is a very prospective, district scale exploration project. We think we are close to discovery success there. Ken Coleman is putting the final touches on our Keystone 2021 exploration plans. We recently announced we have received approval from the BLM for another 50 acres of disturbance, allowing Ken to start planning the 2021 field season. We should be announcing our exploration plans by August or September. If Ken commences drilling then, by October or November, we could have some assays coming out of Keystone as well.

Dr. Allen Alper: They're excellent goals and excellent opportunities for the stakeholders and shareholders. 2021 is going to be an extremely exciting time for your investors and stakeholders. So that's great! You're doing so much. It's amazing! Nevada, two great projects in Wyoming and Idaho! It's amazing how fast you're moving along. I really admire what you've done!

Ed Karr: A lot of that is due to the addition of George Bee. We brought him on last year, as our President and CEO. George is an industry veteran of 40 years, with a very successful career in the mining industry. He spent 16 years with Barrick Gold, as a senior executive. George was the Mine Manager at Goldstrike and that is one of the biggest mines in Nevada, the mine that really made Barrick what it is today. In his very strong, capable, experienced, steady set of hands, we have been pushing all of our projects forward! He has a technical team, second to none, that he has worked with for decades and decades and George has brought the team here to work with us. We are just so pleased to have him pushing all our projects forward.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that's fantastic. Could you tell us a little more about the Management Team and the Board?

Ed Karr: George Bee is our President and CEO. Eric Alexander is our CFO. Eric and I had worked together at Pershing Gold Corp. He was the CFO there and I was the Founder and Board Member of that Company. Ken Coleman is our Chief Geologist. Ken has tremendous experience in Nevada, working for Barrick, at Goldstrike and a bunch of other companies as well.

As far as the Board, we have a lean and mean Board comprised of real industry veterans. We are very proud to have Ryan Zinke on our Board. He is the former Secretary of the Interior under the Trump Administration. Ryan is a geologist from Montana and a long serving Navy SEAL. He has been very instrumental, helping us up in Wyoming, with our CK Gold Project and local stakeholders. Our Board is rounded out by Bob Schaffer, Tara Gilfillan and Michael Waldkirch, all senior mining industry professionals.

Dr. Allen Alper: That's a fantastic Team and Board that you have assembled! It's really an amazing, accomplished Team. I'm sure you'll have the opportunity to do that again. It's great that your Team has experience in the region where you are operating. Ed, could you tell our readers and investors, the primary reasons they should consider investing in your Company?

Ed Karr: We have real immediate catalysts, with the CK Gold Project pre-feasibility study coming out before the end of July. I believe currently our Company is highly undervalued. I think our CK Gold Project asset is potentially worth more than the entire market cap of the Company today. As this pre-feasibility study comes out and we move the project to full bankable feasibility and into production, institutions should realize that value. Plus, the rising gold and copper prices help the project economics.

Secondly, you have ongoing high-potential exploration programs this year. We are trying to get to discovery success at both Maggie Creek and Keystone. These are three shots at goal. We really want to score. We have a very tight share structure, listed on the NASDAQ. I think it is a wonderful time for investors to be looking at the gold exploration sector. As we are talking today, we are seeing the crypto currencies, led by Bitcoin melting down 25 to 30% today. And gold is up $18 to $1886 right now. It shows me that money is coming out of the cryptocurrency sector because it is probably a little too volatile for most investors. When people get scared, they go back to gold for safety, so I think gold is going to go well over $2,000 an ounce, by the end of this year. So, it is a good time to be invested in this sector.

Dr. Allen Alper: Those sound like excellent, compelling reasons for readers/investors to invest in U.S. Gold Corp. That's excellent! Is there anything else you'd like to add, Ed?

Ed Karr: I don't want to overlook the copper component of our project in Wyoming. We have a lot of copper, about 300 million pounds out there. I think the price of copper, which people have been watching, is going to continue to do quite well. It is well above $4.50 today. The USA is going to need a lot of copper going forward, with the Biden Administration talking about this $2.2 trillion infrastructure program, the electrification, both the automobile industry, the trucking industry, redoing the electrical grid, roads, 5G, everything, that is all going to take a lot of copper. We have nice copper, from a US project, located in Wyoming. There is a rail line just two miles south of us, so we can potentially put that copper concentrate on the rail line, ship it right over to Bingham Canyon in Utah to the refiner and it should generate a lot of value for our shareholders.

Dr. Allen Alper: That's excellent. Copper is a key factor in electrification of the world and electric vehicles, and it looks like there's going to be a shortage in meeting the demand. Thank you for sharing your insight with us. We’ll publish your press releases as they come out so our readers/investors can follow your progress.

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U.S. Gold Corp.

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