Great Interview Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is President of K92 Mining (TSX-V: KNT)(OTC: KNTNF), Mr. Bryan Slusarchuk. Bryan, how are you today?
Bryan Slusarchuk: Very good, Gerardo. Thanks for having me on.
Gerardo Del Real: Well, I wanted to have you come back on. You had an important update a few days ago regarding the underground mining operations, including the Kora drilling and the underground setup. Now, the stock has witnessed a bit of a pullback on the back of what was perceived as very negative news in regards to some damages that the market perceived and instability that the market perceived was happening onsite. I wanted to have you on because I thought that it was an opportune time to kind of clarify some things and give us a real-time update as to how things are coming along right now.
Bryan Slusarchuk: Absolutely. Thanks, Gerardo. The drill is back up and turning. We're following up on that Kora extension discovery hole that we announced in late May. It was a very high-grade gold, silver, and copper hole. We then intersected that Kora vein in the extension area, and remember this is 500 meters along strike and 150 meters downdip of the known Kora deposit. We're very excited that the drill is turning. We're following up on that discovery. At the same time, we're back in mine production and we're up and running at the underground. And of course, as you know, as you mentioned, the stock did sell off with news that there was some vandalism at the site. Quite fortunately for us, the vandalism was less than anticipated and we've got things fixed and we're back up and running now.
And really importantly, the underlying issues with regards to job distribution, contract distribution, etc., those underlying issues are solved now. We put out some really good news over the last couple of days that not only have we restarted mining, we've restarted drilling, but also we have signed a resolution with the local landowner group, the Mineral Resources Authority, and we're very pleased with the present state of things.
Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Now, the way that I understand it, you should be back with ore trucking and pre-incident levels, hopefully, by the end of October. Is that accurate?
Bryan Slusarchuk: Yes, absolutely. Right now, the first thing we did, we got the drill turning to follow up on that exploration discovery hole. We got production going. We anticipate first trucking of ore next week and then back up to pre-incident levels over the next few weeks. So, after a down period over the past few weeks, we're back up running not only the mining operations but the drill.
Like I said, the repairs have been made to the underground equipment. The majority of the mobile fleet, including all the drill rigs, the loaders, and four of the six trucks, are fully operational, so we're in good shape over there. With the underlying agreement signed with the local landowner group, people can start concentrating again on the fundamental reasons that we liked this project so much in the first place.
Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Now, on the news release from September the 15th there was mention of six containers of concentrates, which contained approximately 600 ounces of gold, that had been shipped since the incident. Payment was supposed to have happened the week after, which would have been last week. Everything up and going the way that it's supposed to there on that front, Bryan?
Bryan Slusarchuk: Yeah, absolutely. Those were ounces that were shipped since the vandalism occurred, and we included that in the news release just to let people know that for the most part it was business as usual outside of these repairs that we needed to accomplish. With the repairs done and things up and running again, we're in good shape. We continue to export concentrate that's being produced from the Irumafimpa mine and at the same time we're driving over towards Kora, which is the big high-grade deposit, wide open in every direction, very strong gold, silver, and copper grades that we're excited about in terms of testing the expansion potential.
One of the things that we announced not too long ago is not only are we in production at Irumafimpa, drilling in the area of this Kora extension discovery, but we're also planning to mine a bulk sample from that Kora extension area, and we'll have a concentrate spec from Kora after that's mined and processed over the next couple of weeks.
Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. So, moving toward here, we're at the end of September. We have the last quarter coming up. What can we expect from K92?
Bryan Slusarchuk: You know, it's been a quiet period over the last few weeks. I think now you'll see a lot of news flow. News flow will be driven by the expansion drilling of the Kora extension area. You'll see production updates as we move into commercial production. At the same time, you'll see this bulk sample being mined from that extension area that I mentioned and, again, that's a big step-out where the discovery hole was made, 500 meters along strike, 150 meters downdip of the known Kora deposit. We're very excited to see just how big this can go.
Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Well, Bryan, I'm excited to have you back on. It's good to know that things are getting back to normal out there, and I'm glad that everything came out favorably for K92 and, frankly, all the locals that were involved in the discussions with K92. It's always better to be friendly with the neighbors, right?
Bryan Slusarchuk: Absolutely. Rather than restarting without this agreement in place, it's a real pleasure to be able to start up operations and at the same time have this underlying landowner agreement now signed. That's just a real testament not only to the team of K92 onsite but the local groups that we were dealing with and also great support from the Ministry and the regulatory authority, the MRA.
Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Bryan, thank you very much for your time today. Thank you very much for the update. Again, as I mentioned, I look forward to having you back on as we start getting some of those results back from the drilling here. Thank you again, Bryan.
Bryan Slusarchuk: Thanks, Gerardo.