Skip Navigation Links


Bookmark and Share
Makara Mining Corp. (CSE: MAKA; FSE: MK0; OTC: MAKAF): Exploring for Very large, World Class Gold-Copper Porphyries, with Very Long Mine Lives in the Yukon, CA and Nevada; Grant Hendrickson, President and CEO Interviewed

on 7/1/2021
We spoke with Grant Hendrickson, President and CEO of Makara Mining Corp. (CSE: MAKA; FSE: MK0; OTC: MAKAF) a mineral exploration company that holds options over the Rude Creek Property and Idaho Creek Property, located in the Yukon, the Kenora Gold Property located in Northwestern Ontario and the Davis and Paradise Valley claims, located in Nevada. We learned from Mr. Hendrickson that the Company was created 19 month ago, with the view toward a very large, world class gold-copper porphyry exploration, with 50-100-year mine lives, in mining-friendly jurisdictions. In 2021 the Company's focus is on the Yukon, with 7,000 meters of core drilling and 2,500 to 3,000 meters of shallow RC drilling.


Makara Mining Corp.


Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, talking with Grant Hendrickson, who is President and CEO of Makara Mining. Could you give our readers/ investors an overview of your mining company? I know you are located in three great locations: Yukon, Nevada and Ontario, but give our readers/investors an overview and also tell them what differentiates your Company from others.

Grant Hendrickson:Makara was created about 19 months ago, with a view toward a gold, copper porphyry exploration, particularly the very large world class ones that the major companies in the world want and the governments in the world like to see, because of their 50-year, 100-year mine life. We thought we'd focus on that my own expertise. I spent the last 20 years looking for those. Much of that time was in Mongolia, working on the OT deposit. That was what we set the Company up for and we started acquiring properties, particularly gold properties, that might lead us in that direction.

The initial project that we acquired was more an Archean lode gold deposit in Ontario and that got the company started, but it wasn't really our focus, but we thought it was a good property that deserved a good look. We very quickly started examining gold copper porphyry systems in North America. We decided to focus on North America and in jurisdictions that were mining friendly. The Yukon and Nevada stood out very well. Also, it had a great pool of exploration talent, geoscientists, jewelers, etc. Both the Yukon and Nevada fill that bill very well.

We started looking for projects and we went through a lot. We were particularly attracted to the Yukon and the Casino Porphyry up there that, by itself, had been known for a number of years. It's unusual for these things to occur by themselves there's usually a structural control and we focused on that. We liked all the information we were getting, and we increased our land position dramatically, up to 85 square kilometers now. the news on Monday morning that Rio Tinto had acquired an 8% interest in the Casino Porphyry, which is adjacent to us, was vindication of our own thinking. It's good for the whole exploration camp in the Yukon.

Dr. Allen Alper: I know! That sounds very interesting, very exciting!

Grant Hendrickson: We realize the Yukon has a relatively short season, for early-stage exploration work, when there's not much infrastructure in place yet. You can start working in late June and you have to be out of there by October. We also felt we had the capability and the interest to work elsewhere, and Nevada was the place we chose. We'd been looking for a gold copper porphyry system in Nevada. We found a property near Gabbs that filled the bill. There was porphyry copper exploration in the area that had been successful and also high sulfidation rolled systems that had been mined by FMC at Paradise Peak.

Then in another area, we found historical workings on a low-sulfidation, high-level vein system that certainly looks very interesting. It attracted our attention, so we created a joint venture on that project and we're advancing that project pretty fast now. The first drilling program should be underway in about a week in Ontario.

The project in Ontario is still a lode gold deposit, but it's on the back burner now because it doesn't exactly fit our model. Because of COVID it was very difficult to work there last summer. The property vendor is a Professional Geoscientist, PGO, and we advanced the funds to him so he could be the operator on the project. We're waiting for the receipt of his 43-101, updated report to decide if we're going to do some drilling there and that decision will be made within the next two months.

Dr. Allen Alper: Excellent! Could you tell our readers/investors your primary goals for 2021?

Grant Hendrickson: Our primary goal is the Yukon Project. We want to advance that seriously, with about 7,000 meters of core drilling and about 2,500 to 3,000 meters of shallow RC drilling, like we've done in the past. The past drilling that was done was quite successful, that's explained on our CSE listing and also on CR for investors. We're picking up vein systems there that are high in gold and copper, but also all the base metals. So it's the signature of vein systems above and on the flanks, of porphyry systems.

We think this is a very large system and we have IP data that suggests we have some very big IP targets that are hundreds of kilometers wide and four or five kilometers in length. These are the dimensions of a world class porphyry. These haven't been drilled yet and that's one of the things we want to start testing these targets. There's a lot of potential there in Nevada. We were just getting underway, with a drill program of about eight holes. We terminated 18 holes, but we only drilled about eight on this first phase, we want to stop for a couple of months to update our geology and get all the asset information together before we complete the drill program in the fall.

Dr. Allen Alper: It sounds like 2021 is going to be a very exciting time for your Company.

Grant Hendrickson: Yes, it will take the Company into another level. When we talk to investors, they recognize that quite often, they see that with the work we have planned for this summer, it takes us up into a much higher data level. They'll be able to look at typical porphyry copper type goals that are kilometer long and get a better feel for the whole geological situation in both the Nevada Project and Yukon Project.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. Grant, could you tell us a little bit more about your Team and your Board?

Grant Hendrickson: I've been involved since 1971, I worked as an underground geologist first and then did the exploration geophysics in various parts of the world. I have been very active on international work for a long time. I came back to Canada from Mongolia after 16 years and took a year to get settled again. Then some friends said we should form this Company, which we did.

On the Board, my Senior Partner, Andrew von Kursell, is a well-known Mine Engineer, who's worked as Superintendent on large mining projects in northern Canada for some of the majors. He has a wealth of knowledge on the northern engineering, and he's also had a lot of experience on financing mining projects, so he's a big help. We have another Director, Hugh Maddin, who's a lawyer, and he's been working with junior companies for many years. He brings a lot of junior company experience to the Board.

Another Director, Stefan Szary, started out in the mining industry, working for various companies and doing a lot of First Nations issues. He switched careers recently into cinematography. He likes doing documentary films. He's based in Montreal. He does that type of work and he did the documentary video on The Root Creek Project in the Yukon. Our investors can go to our CSE listing, or on our website and click on the button and see a four or five-minute video of the property. Stefan was the author of that and we're working on him doing a similar type of video for the Nevada Project, as we start drilling, so investors can see what it's like out there.

Dr. Allen Alper: That's very good. You definitely have a great background.

Grant Hendrickson: We have. We've hired a young graduate, a Manager of Investor Relations, Cole Lesueur. He's very keen on getting established in the mining exploration industry. He likes the investor relations sector. He's been a tremendous help to us. Last night we finished working on the Mines and Money virtual conferences. We've been participating for about three weeks in that. It's been a lot of investor meetings. A lot of things had to be set up and Cole looked after all that and it went very seamlessly and introduced the Company to well over 30 investors.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, I've been very impressed with Cole, I've mainly corresponded with him in a series of emails, etc. So, I've been very impressed with how efficient he is and how easy he is to work with. So that's great, you're lucky to have him.

Grant Hendrickson: He's been good for us because he has the ability to work on his own. Everybody's working from home and he's full of ideas and suggestions, so we've been backing up his ideas. There were things we recognized we needed to do, but perhaps we were focused more on acquiring the properties and getting funding. Cole was playing an instrumental role in the financing of the projects and stuff.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. Money is important in the mining industry.

Grant Hendrickson: Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Dr. Allen Alper: You need that money for drilling those holes and exploring, etc. Could you tell our readers/investors more about your share and capital structure?

Grant Hendrickson: Yes, at the moment, we have around 37.5 million shares out and we're trading at the moment around 35 cents. We traded higher last summer, but it got too high, a stock price should be around 50 or 60 cents. I suspect we will be back there as soon as we announce the funding for the projects. There's a lot of investor interest in these projects, they like the idea of them, the Yukon, perhaps in particular because it's a little further along.

Funding will be through equity, private placements particularly, and we have investment bankers working on our behalf to come up with very significant funding, probably almost triple what we did last year. The type of projects we have, requires a lot of money for drilling. I believe drilling should be about 50% or 60% of our budget constantly. It's the only way you get the evaluation above your technical effort and thoughts on the geology and how to update your thinking.

Dr. Allen Alper: It sounds very good. Could you tell our readers/investors the primary reasons they should consider investing in your Company?

Grant Hendrickson: The primary thing that investors should focus on is what we're looking for. The supergiant copper gold porphyry systems like, OT, have a mine life of 100 years. They lend themselves to very large-scale mining like a 300,000 tons a day type operation, and they have a 50-to-100-year life. This is a massive cash flow of several million dollars a day, year after year. It gives stability to the Company. It gives stability to the government and the local communities. These are tremendous projects and frankly, the effort to explore for them isn't that much different, in terms of manpower, than people are spending on much smaller properties that have a life of 10 years or something and a much smaller CapEx.

These are big systems, and they last a long time. you'd think they were easier to find if they're larger, but it does still take a long time to find them. You have to be really focused on the geology and know the attributes of these systems that you can exploit the most. One of the things that's overlooked the most, probably is the structural control of these super giant porphyries. Be sure, if you're going after that type of target, that there is a good structural control that you can recognize, and the porphyries will occur along that structure. They tend to occur along the belt like some people often say, like pearls on a string and you'll get five or six over 25, 30 kilometers. The Casino Project in the Yukon is strange in the fact that it's only been one porphyry we found over the years there.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that sounds very perspective, what you're doing. It sounds like you have an excellent team, an experienced team that is very knowledgeable and can watch for copper gold systems. I think you're ready to find very excellent locations. I think you have a lot going for you.

Grant Hendrickson: Yeah, it's been good that we don't have to travel to the sites. There are people there, drillers, geologists, geoscientists of various sorts, and also supply companies in the Yukon and in Nevada. The downside is I enjoy visiting the sites and talking with the drillers and the geologists in the field and walking the properties myself. I love to get out and hike over the ridges and see it all, but I can't do that right now, but I'm hoping to get back into that mode very shortly.

Dr. Allen Alper: I think that's what most geologists and geophysicists love, getting out into the field. That's one thing that attracts people to the profession.

Grant Hendrickson: Yes, I certainly agree with that, that's one of my loves over the years. I've often considered myself fortunate to be out there in the wilderness.

Dr. Allen Alper: That's great, Grant. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Grant Hendrickson: No, just thank you for taking the time to talk to us. We wish you well and wish everyone in the exploration industry a great summer and perhaps slightly fewer COVID issues.

Dr. Allen Alper: Yes. It looks like we're going in the right direction now, with the vaccines. We’ll publish your press releases as they come out so our readers/investors can follow your progress.

https://makaramining.com/


Grant Hendrickson
Director and Chief Executive Officer
Telephone: 604-372-3707
Email: grant@makaramining.com










Disclaimer | Terms Of Use And Privacy Statement


© Metals News. All rights reserved.