RE:RE:RE:Gzzgzz rzz part NM "Glenn Mullan, president and CEO of Golden Valley Mines (TSXV: GZZ) and chairman of Abitibi Royalties (TSXV: RZZ), has spent the last forty years working in the mining industry. He got his start as a prospector when he was still a teenager, and his enthusiasm for geology and remote locations has never waned. In December, Mullan was appointed as the 36th president of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada. He took time out to speak to The Northern Miners Trish Saywell about his career and some of his ambitions as PDAC president. The Northern Miner: Abitibi Royalties, where you serve as chairman of the board, is doing very well. Its shares have risen from a 52-week low of $3.45 in April 2016 to around $9.85 today. What do you think accounts for that share price appreciation? Glenn Mullan: Abitibi Royalties has some unique circumstances that are different in terms of shareholder demographics. It was born from a negative experience with a hostile transaction with a predecessor company and we didnt want that to happen twice. So Golden Valley Mines spun it out and owns 49.3% of its shares. When you add Rob McEwens shares youre at 61%, and with the Quebec Labour Funds, that shareholding moves closer to 66% of Abitibi Royalties Inc.s shares outstanding. The top ten shareholders are very close to owning around 80% of the issued and outstanding shares, so thats why it only trades at about 4,000 shares a day. Other juniors arent constructed like that and they have much broader distribution. So Abitibi Royalties was designed to enjoy a single royalty from the Malartic mine and you know that Canadian Malartic is either the largest gold mine in Canada or one of the top two if you include Detour Golds Detour Lake mine, and having a 3% NSR is an important part of the project and a compelling asset. TNM: At what point did Golden Valley get involved in Malartic? GM: Golden Valley originally staked and owned 100% of the Malartic property, with no NSR. After Osisko Mining earned its 70% interest, Golden Valley took the 30% free-carried interestwhich is much more lucrative than a conventional NSRand spun that off into Abitibi Royalties in 2011. So Abitibi Royalties started with that as an anchor asset, which helps account for its share performance over the past three years. It wasnt that long ago we were trading at 30, but it moved north of that pretty quickly through some creative transactions. With the discovery of the Odyssey zone, a new zone about 2-3 km east of the main Malartic deposit, the market started to give value to the royalties Abitibi has held. This is pretty unique because most juniors dont begin with a single asset like that. Were not chasing after 25 other grass roots royaltieswere focusing on that one key asset and trying to see how far we can take it. The Odyssey zone is a bona fide new discovery and that accounts for the share price appreciation and given that the Canadian Malartic mine is owned and run by Agnico Eagle and Yamana, and you have the largest gold mill in Canadian history on the property, those are pretty unique circumstances for a junior company to have as a focus asset. TNM: When was the Odyssey discovery made? GM: It was pretty much when Goldcorp launched its hostile bid for Osisko in 2014. By the time Agnico and Yamana prevailed in their takeover bid a few months later, the zone was by then pretty well understood to be a mutually exclusive deposit east of Canadian Malartic."