Pescod's Late editionAn Interview With Ewan Downie of Premier Gold
David Pescod: We are here with Ewan Downie and the last time
we were talking with Ewan was two years ago when Wolfden had
hit a certain time in its life history where it basically sold itself.
Ewan made himself a bunch of fans with that event. Now over the
last two years he’s brought Premier Gold to a certain point in its
life that once again might be attracting suitors. Ewan if you can
bring us up to date particularly in the Red Lake area where there
has been several companies coming up with decent results
lately?
Ewan Downie: Our main property package in Red Lake is what we
call the ‘Rayhill-Bonanza’ Project. This is a joint venture between
ourselves and Goldcorp, where we own 49% and this project that
is strategically located on the main mine trend in Red Lake. In
fact since the acquisition of Gold Eagle by Goldcorp last year for
1.2 billion dollars this project is the last remaining piece of land
on that main Red Lake ”Mine trend” not entirely owned by Gold-
corp. We have immediately east of our property the Red Lake
gold mine, that is considered the world’s highest grade mine, and
immediately west of our joint venture is the Bruce Channel de-
posit which Goldcorp announced last week they intend to bring
forward to potential development. Our project contains several
deposits right beside Bruce Channel that we expect could be-
come part of the entire mine plan once it goes ahead.
DP: You’ve got a total of four projects on the go and we find the
comment by Barry Allen of Research Capital of interest as he
says “Premier is an exploration company with four separate pro-
jects, all of which are in the shadow of headframes.”
ED: I think that the Rayill-Bonanza project is the one that is the
most popular headframe so to speak, seeing as we are several
hundred metres away from the shafts on both ends. The
“Cochenour Mine” proximal to the Bruce Channel deposit on one
end and the Red Lake mine shaft on the other side. In addition to
the Rayhill-Bonanza property package, our PQ North Project is
located along strike from Goldcorp’s other mine in Northwest On-
tario, the Musselwhite mine. At PQ, we are the only other com-
pany with property on the main trend, called the PQ limb, that
hosts the majority of the ore bodies at Musselwhite. In our first
drill program that we just completed we made two new gold dis-
coveries with similar grades and widths to those being mined at
Musselwhite and we will be following that up with the summer drill
program that will hopefully define resources on our 100% owned
ground. So we have two projects on the doorstep of the two gold
producing mines in northwestern Ontario.
The other project we have, that we recently ac-
quired from Barrick, is the Hardrock project where we
own that headframe and where we’ve been delineat-
ing several gold zones with the goal of having a NI43-
101 compliant resource by year-end and moving the
project towards development. We have been getting
some of the more spectacular open pit style results
you’ll find in any company in Canada right now. As
you can see, we have a lot on the go.
DP: Okay now you can’t be talking gold stocks with-
out some sort of an idea what is next for gold prices?
What do you see there?
ED: For gold price I think given what the US has done
putting out so much paper, that inflation is inevitable
and that the only place for gold to go is up. I think
we’re one of the best positioned companies to partici-
pate in a rising gold environment.
DP: Now we’re of the belief that you’re at this phase
of your history where you may be looking for offers to
cash in for yourself and shareholders, any com-
ments?
ED: The primary reason we formed Premier, a spin-
out from Wolfden Resource, was because of our ex-
ploration successes in the Red Lake camp so you
could say we were more or less packaging up the
company. Since that time we’ve made several strate-
gic acquisitions. We have acquired 100% of P.Q.
North that sits at the doorstep of the Musselwhite
mine and where in our first nine holes we made two
discoveries that are essentially identical to the mine
that have received little press so far so. We think that
will liven up with success this summer. Additionally,
the acquisition of the Hardrock project gives us a
genuine near term development target. Since we cre-
ated Premier a couple of years ago we have really,
really strengthened our property package with several
core land packages in proven gold camps - many
other companies have one project but we have three
core projects. I am of the opinion that we don’t get
proper value for having three, and believe we could
probably justify our share price with one of the three,
so I think Premier offers a great opportunity for inves-
tors to gain exposure to core land packages in pro-
ducing gold camps here in northwestern Ontario.
DP: Now as far as evolution of the company at this point do you see yourself selling one project or one project at
a time or the entire company or what? When Wolfden was sold you vended out Premier gold for instance.
ED: I think we’d be open to all sorts of options to grow our company. Compared to many of our peers, we have a
reasonable number of shares outstanding and a reasonable market cap. I think that our market cap value is
amongst the best you’ll find for exposure to the Red Lake camp, and outside that we have several additional pro-
jects. We have built the management team that is capable of building mines and our goal is to continue to build
large gold resources, continue to work with Goldcorp and hopefully become a part of the next development pro-
ject in Red Lake. And we will consider building the Hardrock Project at Geraldton. However, much like Wolfden,
we are not adverse to meeting with other parties and considering other options that may be available to us that
would be a benefit to our shareholders.
DP: Are these developments something that are recent to the company or yet to be initiated?
ED: Hard to comment on that one. Other companies have taken a look at what we are doing, much like you’ll find
in any prospective gold deposit I am sure. Our goal is to continue to grow the size of our discoveries and depos-
its so that they’re of larger and larger value to our shareholders not just in the event of a takeover.
DP: Okay now you’re a veteran explorer in the Red Lake area so it’s time for two questions here. What do you
see looking forward in the Red Camp area and if you had to buy one gold stock other than your own with no con-
flicts of interest what would it be?
ED: We will see Goldcorp moving forward with the development of the Bruce Channel deposit having recently
started the de-watering of Cochenour.
Rubicon is going underground at McFinlay, proximal to our 35% owned East Bay deposit. This underground
program will see if this is good enough to mine. Additionally, Claude is also drilling from underground so there is
potential future development on several Red Lake projects. I’d have to say Claude is closest because they al-
ready have a mill at Madsen. If Rubicon is successful, they will have to raise the capital to build their own mill and
get all of that permitted.
DP: Okay and if you could buy one stock other than your own?
ED: One stock of any kind, or one gold stock?
DP: And of course we’re looking for doubles and triples.
ED: Who do I like? I’ve been buying several recently; I’d have to say that Colossus would have to be one of the
better ones.
DP: Many Thanks!