Kevin Brewer, President & CEO, CMC Metals Ltd. (TSX-V: CMB, Frankfurt:ZM5N, CMCXF: OTC PINKS) Discusses Its High-grade, Silver-Lead-Zinc CRD deposits and new targets in Yukon and British Columbia and high-grade copper-silver polymetallic projects, in central Newfoundland, Canada.

By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 2/7/2022
We spoke with Kevin Brewer, President, CEO and Director of CMC Metals Ltd. (TSX-V: CMB, Frankfurt:ZM5N, CMCXF: OTC PINKS), a growth-stage, exploration company, focused on extremely high-grade Silver-Lead-Zinc carbonate replacement (“CRD) and vein style mineralization, in an emerging Silver District, called Rancheria Silver District, in Yukon, British Columbia. The Company has acquired five properties, within the Rancheria Silver District, and is focused on advancing resource definition, at its flagship property, Silver Hart Project. In December 2020, the Company announced an initial 43-101 compliant resource estimate, from exploration, on the vein system, in the Main Zone of 7.5M ounces, grading 584 g/t silver equivalent, in 362,500 tonnes, utilizing a cut-off grade of 150 g/t Ag Eq. The Company continued drilling lateral and depth extensions, of the vein system, in 2019 and 2021, with some very impressive intersections (e.g., 2.3 meters of 4,910.8 g/t Ag Eq, Press release - Dec 9, 2021) and now considers that these veins represent “feeder zones” to potentially much larger CRD style deposits. An example of a CRD deposit, in the Rancheria Silver District, is the Silvertip mine, owned by Coeur Mining Ltd., that is one of the highest-grade underground silver-lead-zinc mines in the world.

Plans for 2022 include plans to explore the new CRD targets that have been verified through airborne geophysics, geochemical surveys and geological mapping and prospecting. The Company is aiming to do up to 5,000 meters of drilling at Silver Hart in 2022. In addition, The Company is advancing exploration on its other properties in the Rancheria Silver District, with a focus on taking Amy and Silverknife projects to “drill ready stage” in 2022. In Newfoundland, it has earlier stage copper-silver polymetallic projects, with very high-grade mineralization in outcrops and plans are underway to conduct preliminary exploration, on these properties, to determine if they merit advanced exploration.

Main Zone at Silver Hart, Yukon (CMC Metals Ltd.)

Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, speaking with Kevin Brewer, who is President and CEO of CMC Metals. Kevin, could you give our readers/investors an overview of your Company, what differentiates your Company and tell us about the projects you're working on?

Kevin Brewer: What differentiates this Company is that we have properties, with above average grades of silver-lead and zinc in Yukon, and copper, silver, and other metals in Newfoundland. The properties are all road accessible, and all were acquired at very reasonable costs. Our flagship project – Silver Hart in Yukon – has grades of silver-lead-and zinc, close to 600 g/t silver equivalent - that are 40% above average silver mines, in the world and 140% above those of other silver explorers and developers. With those grades, we can increase resources quickly. And our other projects, in the Rancheria Silver District, are all located in close proximity to an existing silver-lead-zinc mill at Silvertip, owned by Coeur Mining. There are not many projects, especially in Canada, located close to a mill facility, road accessible, with the potential of above average grades of silver, lead, and zinc, with which we are dealing.

Dr. Allen Alper: That's great. Could you tell us a little bit about your plans going into 2022?

Kevin Brewer: Since 1985, explorers at Silver Hart have been focused on exploring and drilling the high-grade, mineralized veins, in what we now refer to as the Main Zone. We have identified that these veins likely represent “feeders” to potentially much larger carbonate replacement (“CRD”) style deposits. For decades, the potential for CRD deposits, at Silver Hart, was documented, but never properly identified. So, in March 2021, we flew a Sky TEM Survey over the property and identified eight new target areas, with at least three of them having the characteristics of CRD style deposition…large laterally continuous and conductive bodies. Before jumping right to drill stage, we thought it best to verify those targets further, with geochemistry, prospecting, and geological mapping. The soil geochemistry confirmed the presence of large anomalous areas of silver-lead and zinc anomalies, coincident with the airborne targets, and our geological mapping and prospecting has served to confirm that we are in the right geological setting for CRD deposition. So, we now are planning to drill these large targets in 2022.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that sounds excellent. Could you tell us a little bit about what's happening, with your copper-silver polymetallic projects, in central Newfoundland, Eastern Canada?

Kevin Brewer: Well, some people may think I am a bit crazy, operating on the easternmost and westernmost parts of Canada. But we saw what was happening, with the current exploration rush in Newfoundland. It is one of the best jurisdictions, in the world, in which to operate, and it is my home province. So, when we were offered three properties, Bridal Veil, Terra Nova and Rodney Pond, all of which have very high grades of copper, silver, lead (+/- gold, bismuth, tungsten) from outcrops, at very reasonable terms, I jumped at the deals. Furthermore, the projects are hosted, within the Gander Zone, which is the current focus of a lot of exploration. We believe the Gander Zone has been vastly underexplored and has the potential to host a variety of deposit styles, which is evident from other areas, such as in New Brunswick, Canada. These projects are early stage, comprised of high-grade metals prospects and we think they will generate our future pipeline of projects and value generation.

Bridal Veil – An example of a high-grade copper-silver-lead polymetallic target in the Gander Zone, central Newfoundland.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that sounds great. It's great that you’re in the Yukon and Newfoundland, both great areas for explorations, great jurisdictions, and great areas, with a wealth of minerals.

Kevin Brewer: We also have a couple of great projects, in northern British Columbia. Like Silver Hart, they are also located, within the emerging Rancheria Silver District and they are all located in very close geographic proximity to an existing silver-lead-zinc mill, at the Silvertip mine, owned by Coeur Mining Ltd and are all road accessible.

Our Silverknife property is located immediately west of the Silvertip mine claims, and the Silverknife prospect is on the same structure and stratigraphically related to the Silvertip Deposit. Drilling conducted, in the mid 1980’s, at Silverknife resulted in, non-43-101 compliant, weighted average assay values, of up to 511 g/t silver, 3.7 g/t gold, 12.25% lead and 4.8% zinc. Our airborne geophysics identified targets, coincident with previous geochemical anomalies. We are now going to follow these up with a gravity geophysical survey, to pinpoint drill targets.

Our Amy advanced stage project, is located only 8km to the west of the Silvertip mine and hosts an historic resource, with very high-grades of silver-lead-zinc mineralization. Our 2021 reconnaissance efforts sampled trenches and an adit dump and returned very high grades, of up to 4,010 g/t silver, 40.94% lead, 7.6% zinc and >2,000 g/t stibnite. The property has an extensive exploration history, has undergone two levels of adit development, consisting of over 800 feet of drifting and crosscutting, with non-43-101 compliant average grades, along 200 feet of strike length of 20.74 oz/t silver, 5.17% lead and 7.46% zinc and a non-43-101 historical resource, of approximately 1.84 million ounces at 790 g/t silver equivalent.

We plan to take both of these projects to the drill ready stage and have them fully permitting, for drilling, in 2022. We think they will then be very attractive to possible partners – by mid-summer, we will likely be seeking a joint venture partner.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that sounds excellent. Could you tell our readers/investors a bit about your background, your Team, and your Board?

Kevin Brewer: I've been a geologist for 35 years and I am a “hands on” style Manager and that helps to keep all of our projects on time and on budget. We watch our expenditures, very closely, and have opted to contract services, rather than building a large in-house Team. The past two years, due mostly to COVID, I have spent my entire summers, out in the field, so I am very familiar, with all aspects, of every property in our portfolio.

I've a really excellent technical Team, supporting our efforts. Dr. Chris Hale is our geophysical advisor. With John Gilliatt, they have considerable experience and are working on other projects, in both Yukon and Newfoundland. We have some great capital and investor relations advisors, and our Board of Directors has been with CMC for many years, and they work very hard.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that sounds very good, and you definitely have experience and a great background. Could you tell our readers/investors a little bit about your share and capital structure?

Kevin Brewer: We completed a small financing of $750,000, in late fall, which provided us with the monies to continue a lot of technical work on all of our projects, through the winter months. For example, we are using those funds to conduct an intensive geophysical interpretation of the airborne data that will help us design our 2022 drill program at Silver Hart. We are about to contract data compilation work at Amy, and we are going to be conducting ground magnetic surveys, at our three Newfoundland projects. Our stock price has improved significantly, lately. We think that is attributed to the market viewing us as being undervalued and becoming more aware of the considerable upside exploration potential of our projects. We remain undervalued, as before the 2021 exploration season, two analysts recommended target prices of $0.25 (Red Cloud Securities) and at $0.40 (German Mining Networks) at 40 cents. Both of those being in the spring of this year. Obviously, they have not factored in any of the increase in value generation, for our recent exploration activities and some incredible drilling results, so we consider that our stock is undervalued.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that sounds great. Could you summarize the primary reasons our readers/investors should consider investing in CMC Metals?

Kevin Brewer: First of all, I think it's an opportune time in silver. I think silver has yet to play itself out here. We're going to have a lot more industrial demand for silver, in the coming years. The wide variety of uses of silver are increasing daily, especially in the EV and solar energy-based applications. Secondly, despite recent share price improvements, we still have considerable upside potential, for value generation, and our vision will serve to enhance shareholder value further, in the short to medium term. Third is the high-grade nature of our prospects, in great jurisdictions, highly prospective geological settings, acquired under reasonable terms and all road accessible. We have three advanced stage exploration projects, and all of our other properties have considerable upside exploration potential.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that sounds excellent. They sound like very good reasons to consider investing in your Company. Is there anything else you'd like to add, Kevin?

Kevin Brewer: We generally keep good news-flow, and we are a very active junior explorationist. We are about to commence a new round of exploration, in mid-February, in Newfoundland. And we still have news outstanding, on geochemistry results, at Silver Hart, and also our soil survey that we completed in late November, at Bridal Veil. 2022 will be a very interesting exploration season for us.

https://cmcmetals.ca/

Kevin Brewer, P. Geo., MBA, B.Sc. (Hons), Dip. Mine Eng.
President, CEO and Director
Tel: (604) 670-0019
kbrewer80@hotmail.com