Creating real value and opportunity for company shareholders and investors is the hallmark of any junior metals & mining company. Enter VVC Exploration Corp. (TSXV:VVC, OTCPK:VVCVF, Forum) – a Canadian-based mining and exploration company that converts exploration properties into economic producing mines using commercial and environmental best practices. VVC is currently engaged in five projects, at various stages of exploration and development, across North America.
The Market Herald Canada’s Simon Druker was joined by the company’s President, CEO & Director, Jim Culver, to introduce our audience to this intriguing mining exploration and development play.
TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
TMH: To start off with, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and the history of the company?
JC: Well, thanks. My background is the commodity business. You can see I’m an old guy by looking at me but I’ve been in the commodity business one way or the other all my life, grew up on a farm worked in both administration in the government and then worked on the legislative side in government, spent 22 years on wall street working in commodity business in some of the major firms and for the last 10 years have been running VVC.
TMH: Can you update our investor audience and your VVC shareholders on any new company developments, especially your flagship Plateau Helium Project?
JC: Sure. Plateau Helium is one of those projects that we were lucky enough to get, probably because of COVID. So, the Plateau Helium guys who had started the company had put together financing, COVID hit, and that financing went away. I happened to know about them, know about their project was intrigued by took it to our board. The board agreed to do it and I actually think it’s a major part, well I don’t think, it is now a major part of VVC, and it is the part of VVC that is closest to positive revenue.
TMH: You’ve recently announced significant increases in helium and natural gas production capabilities with new seven-mile pipeline at your Syracuse Project located in Hamilton County, Kansas. This may be news to many investors. Can you unpack the benefits of it?
JC: Sure. So, this is a 15-mile pipeline internal in our project that connects to the Tumbleweed Ladder Creek pipeline. That pipeline takes natural gas and helium to the tumbleweed processing plant in Cheyenne Wells, Colorado. This means that we don’t have to build processing for our helium and natural gas, so we can send it via pipeline through the tumbleweed system, process it in tumbleweed and then sell it into the market and by building this internal gathering system, we can accommodate now up to a hundred new Wells.
TMH: Can you briefly give an overview of your other projects for our investor audience?
JC: Sure. The other project that is near production near revenue is our Copper Project, which is in Northern Mexico. This is the Gloria of Copper Project. It’s a 4,000-acre lease, actually it’s 4,000-acre claim. So, in oil and gas it’s a lease and in mining its claim. So, this is a 4,000-acre claim. We have an (NI) 43-101 on that for that shows 150 million pounds of copper and this is on less than 25% of the total known mineralization zone and we suspect at least two other mineralization zones in addition to the one known. So, it’s a small portion of the total mineralization. We have a new mining plan and recovery plan that’ll allow us to mine and recover about between 90% and 95% of the copper. It will also allow us to recover the gold silver in the project at the 90% to 95% range and there’s probably enough gold and silver in the project that we’ll be able to recover that will more than pay for the mining. We should see the first copper sale at about this time in 2023.
TMH: The Company looks set for strong growth in 2022. How are you placed to expand operations to meet demand?
JC: So particularly in helium, if you back up to helium, we now have four projects and are bidding on two more. So, the four projects that we have, one of those we have started the drilling and built the internal gathering system. The second target is also in Kansas. It is a project that is tapping a different zone, this natural gas and helium zone. It’s one that will be higher production than the initial Syracuse zone. Then we have a very large project in Colorado and we have a smaller project in Kansas and we are bidding on two more projects in Kansas.
SH7: What separates VVC from the competition and makes your business model unique?
TMH: Well, I think two things separate us from the competition in some ways, one of those is that we have not only the helium and natural gas but we also own about 14% of what is the largest, we believe the largest carbon dioxide CO2 sequestering company in North America and we believe that the value of that company is going to be immense and it’ll have a huge impact on the value of VVC shares as we’re able to talk about it more and educate our investors. So, we really have three parts to the company at this point that are the major portions. One is helium and natural gas. The second is the copper mining and the third is our ownership of proton green. Now we have other mining projects as well but those are the three that are the driving forces of the company and I believe that over time, as we’re able to educate investors, we should see substantial increase in our share price.
TMH: What’s the long-term strategy for the company moving forward and what should retail and institutional investors be looking out for?
JC: Well, our strategy is to build the largest revenue we can over the next three years, both in mining, primarily again in copper and related metals out of copper but in the industrial gases, which would be driven by helium but also includes natural gas. It includes nitrogen and probably will include some other of the industrial gases and then carbon sequestration.
TMH: Can you tell our audience a little bit about your corporate management and board teams, along with the experience and innovative ideas they bring to specifically the helium and natural gas exploration and production space?
JC: Let me highlight two people – one is the chairman of the board chairman board of VVC is the former vice-chairman of the Intercontinental exchange. This is the group that owns the New York stock exchange and 18 or 20 other exchanges around the world, including the international petroleum exchange. Terry is very involved. This is Dr.Terrence Martell. He’s very involved in the management of the company. I talk to him usually an average of once a day and he’s very involved in both the industrial gas strategy and the mining strategy. The second person that I would highlight is Bill Kerrigan. Bill Kerrigan is one of the most knowledgeable helium geologists in the United States. He has run helium projects as long ago as 30 years ago and we joke that Bill has a garage full of filing cabinets, full of papers studying helium projects all over the United States. So those are two of the key members of the team and of course there are others but those are two that I’d like to highlight.
TMH: And finally, Jim, if there’s anything I’ve overlooked please feel free to elaborate.
JC: No other than looking at Proton Green, which is the carbon sequestration company. I’d advise anybody who wants to look at buying our shares to look at that company it’s still private. Although I suspect that it’s likely to be public in the near future.
For regular updates, visit www.vvcexpl.com.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by The Market Herald.
