NV Gold is a financed junior exploration company based in focused on delivering value through mineral discoveries in North America, leveraging its highly experienced in-house technical knowledge, and identifying and drilling multiple priority projects per year. NV Gold controls several drill-ready projects in Nevada.
Today, we’re joined by the company’s newly minted CEO, John Seaberg. Thanks for dropping by John.
MH: To start off with, can you tell us a little bit about your recent appointment as CEO, and what some of your first duties have been?
JS: Yeah, no problem. Thanks Brieanna and thanks to Stockhouse for the opportunity to provide an update on NV Gold. A little about myself. I’ve been in the metals and mining sector for just over 25 years. Most of my career, I spent at Newmont Mining Corporation in various financial functions, including corporate development, as well as vice president of investor relations. I’m not a GEO, so let’s not get too technical but I have been a CFO more recently with Caliber mining and Condor Gold prior to joining the NV gold team in early June. This is my first experience as a CEO of a company and I’m extremely excited to be on board and having the opportunity to take this company to the next level.
MH: Any new developments that are underway as of late?
JS: Yeah. we have a lot going on. I mean it’s a challenging market but we have roughly six active properties that we’re focused on including Slumber, Sandy, Discovery Bay and Pickhandle. So we roughly have 20 properties in Nevada. We have one in Switzerland that is non-core to us. So we’re not really focused on that but of the 20 Nevada properties we have about six that we call an active project status that we’re focused on.
MH: In May, the company announced significantly enlarged epithermal gold mineralization at its Slumber Project in Humboldt County Nevada. What is happening with this drilling program currently?
JS: Three drilling campaigns have been conducted between August, 2019 and early 2022. These drilling campaigns were comprised of over 29 RC holes, that’s reverse circulation, totaling just over 5,200 meters. The recent drilling confirmed that the gold mineralization and the recess activity zones correlate with each other and we’re excited about Slumber and the gold mineralization is open in nearly all directions as well as a depth and we see the opportunity for increasing gold grades going to the north. We have two core holes planned to follow up on these drilling campaigns to test the deeper roots of the gold system and to confirm the recent results of the prior drilling campaigns.
MH: NV Gold also initiated a first-stage drilling program at the Discovery Bay Project in Lander County Nevada. Can you update us on any new developments here?
JS: Yeah, we’re digesting the results of that first phase drilling campaign. Those were aggressive step out one kilometer space RC holes. The purpose of those holes was to confirm the presence of a covered gold system on the property and to correlate this data with the recently conducted IP survey, which will help us identify better targets, more strategic targets in a second phase drilling campaign. We have not initiated that drilling campaign but we will later in 2022. The good news about these drill holes though, is that it has confirmed both holes hit enriched sulfide zones, very similar to the nearby McCoy Cove model, which is a very established large significant gold system.
MH: How are you placed to expand operations to meet demand for the remainder of 20-22?
JS: Well, we have four to six projects that we’re focused on. We’ll need to raise a bit of capital in the near future but we plan on doing that in a very disciplined manner. We only have 80 million shares outstanding. We have a decent cash position, very strong balance sheet and no debt But we are mindful of over deluding our shareholders. We have the technical expertise on our management team as well as our board to put those dollars to work in a very disciplined way to maximize the return to our shareholders. So we are not going to recklessly raise money and spend it foolishly. The environment in Nevada from a drill standpoint is very competitive. It’s very difficult especially for the junior space to obtain a drill rig and more importantly, capable drillers to spend those dollars wisely and have that productivity. But that’s why we’re not going to focus on 20 projects. We’re going to focus on maybe three to five and see how long we can make that capital last.
MH. Right. And try to do it properly.
JS: Discipline capital allocation, correct.
MH: For company shareholders and potential investors, what kind of future development and progress can we expect at your projects throughout Nevada?
JS: Slumber, Discovery bay and Sandy are our top priority projects but we’ll also look to use our technical expertise to advance some of our earlier stage projects into what we call an active project status but again, it’s about extending those dollars as long as we can and be selective of what we drill. Again, it’s about capital and it’s about finding the right drill rigs and the right team to do so
MH: Is there anything that makes your business model unique?
JS: I’m newly on board but one of the attractions for me personally to take this position was the land package. We have a very large land package. We have drill ready targets that are fully permitted and it’s in Nevada, which is arguably one of the best jurisdictions for gold mining in the world. So it’s leveraging our land package and looking for opportunities to gain scale. Again, only if it’s accretive to our shareholders but we have a very deep and varied experience of our staff, advisors and board and I think our large land package in Nevada gives us a strategic advantage over our peers.
MH: I must mention, your stock has been on a bit of a roller coaster ride this past year…like so many in the junior resource sector. What can you tell our investor audience regarding the current valuation of your stock and why you think it’s a good buy right now?
JS: You hit the nail on the head Brieanna that our share price performance is very similar to our peers and the gold space in general. Gold prices have been extremely volatile but I believe the fundamentals for gold are intact and expect stronger prices in the near future or I would say going forward. I don’t have crystal ball but I wouldn’t be in this space for 25 years if I didn’t have conviction in it. Regarding NV Gold’s valuation, our portfolio of projects is the same as it was when our share price was significantly higher. So this is really a reflection of general market conditions and not specific to NV gold. We have a strong cash position, as I mentioned, we have no debt and we’re very disciplined about issuing shares. Our management team and our board are very focused on creating shareholder value, which means keeping our dilution to a minimum. We need to raise money obviously but we’ll do so as required and with a defined capital allocation strategy.
MH: You mentioned something there that you wouldn’t have been in the industry, as long as you have been without your conviction that you have. So what is it that makes you feel so strongly even like when you wake up in the morning, like, what keeps you going?
JS: From a broader perspective, gold has always been and remains to be the ultimate reserve currency in my view. I mean we’ve seen a lot of volatility with the cryptocurrencies. The market in general is extremely volatile with inflation at record levels. The threat of rising interest rates, which we know are coming, but I think fundamentally the market will return back to mean reversion I call it and we should see stronger gold prices going forward.
MH: What’s the long-term strategy for the company moving forward and what should retail, private equity, and institutional investors be looking out for?
JS: Our strategy is quite simple. Being a junior exploration company, we arenot a very complicated story. We will take advantage of our large land package in a fantastic mining jurisdiction in Nevada and hope to make a discovery. Our team has tremendous amount of technical expertise with decades of geological experience. As I mentioned, we’ll look to at opportunities to create more scale, if that makes sense for our shareholders. That could be a combination with another company or a potential JV opportunity where we can augment other resources from other companies to expand our portfolio. But we are blessed with fantastic opportunities in our own portfolio that we own 100% of and we have the talent to take advantage of that. So that’s what we’re aiming to do is find a new discovery. We own a hundred percent of our properties. Most of them, at least in our active project pipeline, are fully permitted and we’re going to put those drill rigs to work.
MH: Thanks again for joining us John.
We’ve been speaking with John Seaberg, CEO of NV Gold. To follow the company, you can go to the TSX-V where they trade under the symbol NVX.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by The Market Herald.
