Gerald Panneton, Chairman and CEO, Gold Terra Corp. (TSXV: YGT, FSE: TX0, OTCQX: YGTFF) Discusses Their Multi- Million Ounce Potential at Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada

By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 4/5/2022
We spoke with Gerald Panneton, Chairman and CEO of Gold Terra Corp. (TSXV: YGT, FSE: TX0, OTCQX:YGTFF), a junior gold exploration company, currently focused on expanding and delineating gold resources, at the Company’s Yellowknife City Gold Project, in the Northwest Territories, Canada. In November of 2021 Gold Terra executed an option to purchase the Con Mine from Newmont. The mine is a past producer, with 6.1 M oz @ 15-20 g/t Au. The deal includes a $1.5M strategic investment with Newmont, 4 years to evaluate and minimum spending of C$ 8.0 M. The drilling is currently ongoing, at the Campbell Shear, south of Con Mine, with a minimum of 40,000m and with a view to update the resource, by the end of the year. Near-term plans include the pre-feasibility and Baseline study in 2023, and the feasibility study in 2024, followed by potentially moving into the development stage.

Gold Terra Corp.

Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, talking with Gerald Panneton, who is Chairman and CEO of Gold Terra Corp. Gerald, could you give our readers/investors an overview of your Company and tell us what differentiates it from others?

Gerald Panneton: That's probably myself.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that's very good. You have a lot to offer. You have a great background and a record of success, so that’s something to offer.

Gerald Panneton: Well, sometimes I think success is about choosing the right project, at the right time. What differentiates Gold Terra, for a lot of investors, is the opportunity that we have to create value, in the right spot and eliminate some of the risk that is associated with investing in exploration mining junior companies. I think one of the biggest advantages, of investing in Gold Terra, is that it's a good project, with a good location, very good potential, 1.2 million ounces and ongoing drilling, financed for the program this year. We look forward to sharing, with people, the results of our drilling. Currently, we have four rigs turning and those four rigs are targeting two high grade targets, one in the North Belt and one south of the Con Mine.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that's excellent! Could you tell us more about your plans for this year and your exploration work?

Gerald Panneton: Currently, we have four rigs turning. Two of them are turning in the promising south of the Con Mine, along the Campbell Shear. The Campbell Shear generated 14 million ounces of production, over the years, when Yellowknife was discovered in the early 30s. Both operations were shut down, towards the end of the 90s, or in the early 2000s, when gold prices were depressed. After the acquisition by Newmont of Miramar, in 2008, for the Hope Bay belt Project, the Con Mine and the surrounding south extension, of the Con Mine, was left to die on its own, with no exploration effort, no budget, no completion.

The gentleman, named Joe Campbell, founded the Company, which used to be called Terra X and started working in Yellowknife in 2013. After approximately six years of exploration and some good results that lead it to about 800,000 ounces of gold. I came and joined the Company to help focus the strategy, raising better money and I gave my expertise, of building three mines in the past and exploring and being successful.

We changed the name to Gold Terra, but I went because the Yellowknife project gives you an opportunity to build ounces of a high-grade nature. When I say high-grade nature, I'm not talking about 1 gram, I'm talking about 10 grams, please. The historical Yellowknife production was in the range of 15 to 22 grams per ton. Some of our best intersections are exactly in that range, 10 to 20. Our press release this week is a result of the Con Shear, which was only 4 grams over 4 meters, but this was the first hole we drilled. And what we want to be able to talk about is the fact that we're drilling the Con Shear now and so we have a possibility of finding additional ounces.

Dr. Allen Alper: That’s great! If you would like to give us more details to enlighten our readers/investors, that would be excellent!

Gerald Panneton: I worked two years to sign a deal with Newmont. Currently, we have two rigs turning on the Con Mine. We have a deal to purchase the old Con Mine, which will give us some infrastructure and of course, access to the underground workings that used to be there, all the way down to almost 2,000 meters vertical. The potential on the Campbell Shear is tremendous. But, at the same time, we are making discoveries on our 100% owned property to the north, in the historical area. And with four rigs turning, I think the market should see a lot of results over the coming months.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent! Sounds like it'll be a very exciting time for Gold Terra in 2022.

Gerald Panneton: Yes, it will! Should be a very exciting year for sure!

Dr. Allen Alper: Gerald, I know you have a fantastic background, with great successes, but could you give our readers/investors a little bit about your background, your Team and your Board?

Gerald Panneton: I'd be delighted to! Starting with me, there's an extensive biography, our presentation, and our website. I'm a geologist by background. I graduated, with a bachelor’s degree, from the University in Montreal. I did a master’s degree at McGill. For the last almost 40 years, I've been working in this industry on gold. I still remember one of my first jobs, in the early 80s, on gold exploration and in the Abitibi Belt. I spent 12 years in Val d'Or. I worked with Barrick Gold in Val d'Or, from 1994 to 2006. I was basically in school, because Barrick had money, and we were taught to visit so many projects around the world.

During the time at Barrick, I acquired Pangea Goldfields in 2000. And from that, I put two mines in production, before I left Barrick. In 2006, I founded the company called Detour Gold, which started with a very meager $140 million market cap and six years later I pulled the first gold bar at Detour. Detour Gold was later sold for Cdn$4.9 billion. I take a lot of pride in this because I think I was the leader, the strategist, the champion of the Company, by starting it and going all the way to production.

I know from A to Z, how to bring a good successful exploration story, all the way to the production of gold. Time will tell, if we don’t get buy out before we deliver, we will be creating value again at the Yellowknife project of Gold Terra, in a very good fashion.

We have a Board of Directors that has tremendous people. Most of them have been involved with me, through the Detour Gold story, including Mr. Louis Dionne, a very experimental mining engineer, whom I met at Barrick 30 years ago, Laurie Gaborit, Investor Relations. It is a very strong Board, knowledgeable about mining and of course focusing on putting the money into the ground and drilling as much as we can. Since I joined, every year we've been drilling. This year, subject to financing, we are hoping to drill 40,000 or 50,000 meters of drilling. So far, we've raised money to drill some of that and we look forward to informing the market, on the success of our drill program, in the near future.

Dr. Allen Alper: Oh, that sounds fantastic. Gerald, could you tell our readers/investors, a little bit about your share and capital structure?

Gerald Panneton: We currently have over 200 million shares. We don't do any warrants. A lot of people, in the world today, only finance if you give them a warrant, I don't give one. It might be difficult to do a deal, but I prefer to do that than signing up for warrants, which sometimes are a kiss of death, in my mind. I want the stock to fly freely if we make additional discoveries.

As Chairman, I did not take any stock option in my package, I bought the shares myself, in every financing, or on the market. I currently own almost 6 million shares or just under 3% of the Company. I believe in the Gold Terra in the Yellowknife Project and that's the reason why we are focusing all of my time on this. We are drilling quite a lot and we're very excited about this year's gold grams on our targets.

Dr. Allen Alper: Oh, that's excellent! It’s great to see that you have skin in the game. You believe in what you're doing, you’re investing in Gold Terra and that’s excellent.

Gerald Panneton: I think it's very important that people, who run a mining Company, create shareholder value, as well as enriching themselves. And how do you create shareholder values? By finding gold and that's how you should do it.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that sounds excellent. I agree with you totally! Gerald, could you tell our readers/investors the primary reasons they should consider investing in Gold Terra?

Gerald Panneton: We are in the right location, geopolitically speaking, and at the same time, we have a local Team from Yellowknife that is working in Yellowknife. And investing in one of those prime targets, where our current 1.2 million ounces could grow to 3, 4 or 5 million ounces, over the next couple of years, being valued from less than $20 U.S. an ounce to $25 an ounce for 1.2 million ounces.

The more ounces we bring, especially if there are great ounces, along the Campbell Shear or the MP-Ryan Zone in Mispickel Area, we could be reevaluated eventually, by the end of this year or next year. If we find a million or 2 million ounces more, the Company will be worth 3 million ounces times $100 an ounce, that's $300 million. So, it can be a ten bagger, in my mind, to create shareholder value. that's exactly what the focus of the Company is, finding more quality ounces.

I learned the biggest lesson, when I was at Detour, low grade is low grade, but it's all about volume and small margin. I prefer to do smaller volume, higher margin and be protected, when the gold price turns around and goes down. So, it's very important for me that the focus of the Company is to yield very good value for the shareholders, with high grade discoveries.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, sounds like compelling reasons for our readers/investors to consider investing in your Company. You have a fantastic Team! You’re in a great and safe location, with mining history and infrastructure and you have great goals for going after high-grade and fairly large volume.

Gerald Panneton: That's right.

Dr. Allen Alper: Gerald, is there anything else you'd like to add?

Gerald Panneton: With the Team that we have, fully dedicated, with a relationship with the investors, with our number of news releases, drilling with four rigs now and a lot of drilling result expected through the year of 2022. The big part will be this winter. We're going to keep drilling all winter long, all summer long as well, because we have the infrastructure to be able to drill. We're right in town and being in town means everybody goes home at night, which facilitates a lot of exploration or development in the future, at a cheaper cost.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that sounds excellent. We’ll publish your press releases as they come out so our readers/investors can follow your progress.

https://goldterracorp.com/

For more information, please contact:
Gerald Panneton, Chairman & CEO gpanneton@goldterracorp.com

Mara Strazdins, Manager Investors Relation
Strazdins@goldterracorp.com