Our next company is Lahontan Gold Corp. (TSXV:LG), a Canadian mineral exploration company. The company is engaged in the identification, acquisition, evaluation and exploration of mineral properties in Nevada.
The Market Online interviewed Director, CEO and President Kimberly Ann who spoke about the company and its recent activity.
TMO: To start us off, can you provide a brief background of your experience in the industry and Lahontan Gold?
Ann: I’ve been in the industry for about 18 years. One of my first companies that was a super fun asset to work with was the Magino mine. The asset was held through Prodigy Gold, so in Northern Ontario. We took that from a $20 million market cap company and sold it 26 months later to lovely Argonaut, who is now pouring gold.
That was super fun for me but I wanted a new challenge and I ended up going over to work for Waterton on the debt side of things. I switched to the other side of the fence and learned a lot about mining through acquisitions, etc. We were very focused in the Nevada area, especially in the Walker Lane.
I got to know Nevada quite well, a great experience there and then I moved back over to the junior exploration side because I love the excitement of the exploration phase of companies and growing them through that lovely transition to being a developer to a builder. And whether it’s in our hands or someone else’s, it’s all exciting all along the way.
TMO: Tell us a bit about the Santa Fe project and key information that investors should be aware of.
Ann: Santa Fe is a brilliant asset that was really held for a long time with Victoria Gold and several other companies, and it just didn’t have the attention that it deserved for mining in today’s world.
When we formed Lahontan Gold Corp, that was vended into our company through Victoria Gold, as well as the other assets were vended from myself and my business partner. But Santa Fe has over 100,000 meters of drilling over 1,100 drill holes that we inherited.
We weren’t starting at ground zero. It was a mine under closure, and also it had been mined for four years, leached for six. We weren’t scratching our heads trying to find the mineralization. It was really just focusing on how big is it, how much we can drill out and bringing it forward back into production.
TMO: From a broader outlook, what did the company achieve in 2023 and what do you have planned for this year?
Ann: Great question; 2023, even though the markets were quite interesting for all of us, it was a very exciting year of mineral exploration for Lahontan Gold Corp. We put out our main resource on Santa Fe in January of last year. That was fantastic to get out to the market because it showed that we had 1.7 million ounces, a million of that in oxide.
Again, a great starting point. More importantly, it was 1.12 gold eq, so great grade, especially for an open pit heap leach, low-cost operation, again in Nevada, the best jurisdiction in the world.
So that was exciting. Lahonton successfully drilled over 10,000 meters of drilling, expanding our resource. We acquired our fourth asset, which is West Santa Fe, which will become a satellite operation to Santa Fe proper in the future. Also, we increased our land package by 40 per cent. Everything we’re doing is in preparation to go back into production.
Last April, probably the most important thing we did was we started our plan of operation, the longest document and most costly document needed to pick a project back into production.
Essentially, you’re sterilizing the land package so that we can go in and design. We’re putting the heap leach pads, the admin site, etc., etc. Now that being said, because it was a past producer, Santa Fe, it’s not a guessing game for us.
We have an admin site, we have three wells that were used during mining and we monitor on a quarterly basis as well as a substation. All those things are there, and the plan of operation was a really important component to start last April, of which we’ll have sent off to the BLM in the next two months. It was a great head start for us.
TMO: Finally, is there anything that you would like to leave investors with?
Ann: It’s really important for any potential investors or investors who are with us now to continue to reach out, to hear information from us whether it’s from me doing interviews or going to our website or seeing our news releases about mineral exploration, but I want people to understand that Lahontan Gold Corp. is a development story that we intend to put out a PEA this year.
We intend to have that plan of operations submitted and approved this year. We’re aggressively approaching getting this back into production. If people really do their homework and study different companies, I think this is a really good buy for people.
We’re trading at a low 5-6 cents right now, much like a lot of our friends all over the globe. Ultimately, you can fix a company but not an asset. And we have a fantastic asset and it will show through and through over time.
You can find Lahontan Gold Corp. on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol V.LG or head to its website lahontangoldcorp.com.
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