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For investors looking for real value and opportunity in the precious metals’ exploration space, a company that’s fully-funded with low G&A expenses and highly prospective properties is always a good start.
Toronto-based
Nubian Resources Ltd. (
TSX-V.NBR,
Forum) is a mineral exploration company managed by a team of experienced mining and geological professionals. Nubian's projects are focused on key mining jurisdictions in Australia – including central Victoria and Tasmania – Peru and Esmeralda County in Nevada.
Stockhouse Media’s Dave Jackson met up with company Director & CEO Martin Walter to get our investor audience up-to-date with all the latest and greatest hits from Nubian Resources Ltd.
TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
SH: To start off with, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and the history of the company?
MW: I'm an exploration geologist by trade. Cut my teeth in, I guess, went through university, actually went through university in a place called Ballarat Victoria, where funny enough, the two projects that we're sort of exploring now, Nubian now they're very closely located, but I did university in Ballarat left there as a young geologist headed for the West and what happens when you graduate as a geologist in Australia? It typically is not a lot of work on the Eastern seaboard. So you get in the car, and you head to the West. Western Australia, you know, if you know the gold business or the mining business in Australia all the mines and the gold mines are in the West.
So you head over there, and I did that, spent five years down the hall or in mines in Calgary and combodour and in the gold, nickel business. Caught the travel bug headed to South America ended up being in Argentina, Peru and those sort of places, wonderful geology, wonderful, wonderful mineralization, good place to be as an exploration geologist, lots of opportunity. It's probably now 15, 20 years ago, I guess. Got teamed up with a group of Canadian cleaning companies that were, they were down in Argentina, down in Peru looking for various precious metals. I joined a company called Aquiline. We managed to develop one of the largest, I guess, one of the largest silver deposits on the planet called Navi Galaxy. They should book province of Argentina and it was a good experience for us, for the whole team and all the rest that was back in 2010, 2011 as an exploration geologist.
We sold that company under Pan American silver back in 2011 since that I lived in Toronto exploration geologists here, close to the exchange, and I'm an entrepreneur at heart, I guess in the mineral business. I've had a number of a couple of other companies that don't have a lot of, I guess I managed treasury metals, which is another company that was based in Dryden Ontario here developing a very good gold project up in, in the middle of Ontario, push that along to them, to the feasibility type level but since then 2015, I, I joined the Nubian team. It was a very early stage company at the time. We didn't have a project and my job was to go and sort of find some opportunities for the company, which I did.
We managed to acquire a silver project in Peru, which is the Escalade project, wonderful silver project, as far as silver projects concerns in the right place to where you want your silver project in the high end is, you know, in the Southern part of the Caribbean copper belt lots of mineralization, it's very good spot to go and explore and lots of mining culture there and those sorts of things and from there we've just been growing the company as I started off, you know. I'm from Ballarat, I'm from Victoria, Australia from the Ballarat golf fields and headed back there perhaps in 2009 and 2019, when there was a mini gold boom going on in that park mainly led by Kirkland making the success of the fossil goldmine. I think a lot of people are aware of right.
In just outside of Bendigo and I grew up in Bendigo Ballarat and that area. So I managed to get off the grid, grab a couple of nice opportunities for Nubian once called the yang doors and the other one's called the Fossil East and we have a very good, advanced property called yen DeWalt, which we've got news out this morning day where we've started a drill program. So we're off and running on some drilling there, which is great, and we also have the Fossil East project, which is probably one of the closest land positions to the fossil mine itself. So onward and upward company's well funded, a very tight share structure exciting times as we move forward, I think, right and maybe well positioned with our projects, great locations in Victoria and the Victorian Ballarat.
SH: Can you update our investor audience and your Nubian shareholders on any new company developments, especially in the wake of COVID-19?
MW: Good question. I mean, you know, you live in interesting times for the first part this year. You know, we like everybody has probably been a little bit effective with the COVID in terms of, it hindered the traveling ability to travel from country to country but that said with our two projects are in Victoria, Australia, they are very close to Ballarat Bendigo. These are two major towns, so we are available. We are, you know we've managed to put together a very good team on the ground down there. So although I can't be on the ground right there at the moment, we have very good, well experienced geological team for the drilling program and some of the new developments that you just mentioned, it was this point that we made an announcement to the market that drilling has started. So we've started and it great to be back in drilling. I mean that's the essential part of mineral exploration, right? It's great to be drilling some way close to where I grew up as well, just outside of Ballarat. So I know that I know the area, I know the people and it's good stuff for us. It's a good situation for Nubian and right now,
SH: Back in late April released metallurgical characterization results for your Yandoit Gold Project in Victoria Australia. Can you expand on some of the results highlights for our investor audience?
MW: Well, it's the endorse project gold was discovered in just outside of Dallas, in and around 1860 and you know the central Goldfields of Victoria that's about the right time when it was discovered right across there in the 1860s, but you know I think it's fair to say that over the past 130, 140 and 50 years. Most of the gold exploration, most of the mineral exploration for gold in Australia is probably a bit focused in Western Australia and the Eastern Seaboard, which caused a lot of full belt. You know, some of these mineralized rocks and the trends that go down through Ballarat Bendigo and down, underneath best straighten on their way to, you know, and pop up the other side of Tasmania.
That's sort of been overlooked to a certain extent as I mentioned before in the intro that because of the success is possible and other companies that are in there, there's a number of companies that have finding a lot of success in that area because of that, we've got a modern day gold rush going on. So, you know, it's for us, you know, moving forward to have that, and we know the rocks and we know the area. So moving forward with the gold project that’s been prospect on that project now for the past 5 to 10 years and they've done a good job for us, so to speak because they've gone and prospect at the surface, as well as put down some small shafts and some smaller workings.
So we know that's sort of like a good guide to where the gold is and what we're looking at in the end, or what projects have gold reefs that can repeat themselves so to speak and the endo approach it is, you know, it's 32 square kilometers, but the main part of it is an 8 to 10 kilometer, a couple hundred meters wide, but an 8 to 10 kilometer mineralized gold belt that has never really been drilled or never really been explored with modern methods but it's had a lot of prospects, it's had a lot of, I guess metal detectors, those sorts of things across the surface. So we know there's gold there. We know it's probably on surface and that sort of thing. It's not a matter of I guess, you know, as I mentioned before, we're going to start drilling now, imagine to see what's below that the autonomous, all the old prospect is in the old mine that was done in the area back in the 1860s, it only went down to about 200 feet, maybe even less, hundred feet and what they mined out was not so much the sulfide ore, but what's interesting about the metallurgical results that we've got now and we submitted about six decent sized metallurgical results that were taken from some of the historical stockpiles and surface, and what we've found is to extract the gold from sulfide mineralization, and that's where most of the historical production stopped but we're finding now that we can today and just in conventional methods and conventional ways extract the gold at a very good recoverable rate. From sulfide or so that will be below the historical workings. So that's important for us. I mean we know that historical mining and the old timers or the prospect is having gone down past it that hundred feet, 200 feet mark. So what's below there will be available for us and that's really what we're targeting right now with the drilling campaign. So we're trying to drill underneath that known, but moving from the known to the unknown, so to speak. So we're drilling underneath where we've got these historical workings and trying to identify, pick up locate some of them, all of the sulfide ores, it may be the low some of those historical work. Okay.
SH: In December, the company acquired two additional projects in Australia – one in Victoria and one in Tasmania – adding to your already impressive portfolio of properties. Can you unpack the benefits of buying these projects?
MW: We are earning in Yandoit, but we've got good agreements in place and those sorts of things, there's some commitments to be made, but that's all happening. So that's important to the company now because, you know we actually go in the projects and if we do make those discoveries and what we're really looking for, especially at Yandoit’s. So with the fossil mine so close if we can find fossil quality Goldman in sections. That's really what the vision of the company is. In the shadow of the head frame, so to speak or in the near vicinity of fossil and in Ballarat Bendigo gold field, mineralized coal, or we can if we can produce fossil quality, length and grade style intersections that are similar or mirror, some of the things that are seen at the fossil mine, then we'll be in very good shape. So that's where we're heading the drill start. It's quite exciting and we'll go from there. We'll see. We'll see what we turn up.
SH: The Company looks set for strong growth in 2021. How are you positioned to expand operations?
MW: Well at the moment, we're not really expanding where we're going is to expand the gold mineralization that we have on surface, or that we have just below or some of the historical workings. That, again, don't show, we want to expand on that and that's part of this drilling program that we're doing now, but currently we have, I think, two very good projects that are located in the heart of the central Victorian gold fields. In an expansion, not something that we're really looking at the moment, what we're trying to do right at the moment is do a good job of what we have. So get the drilling done at Yandoit, which is happening. Get the early stage geophysics geochemistry, these types of exploration programs, get them started at Fossil East programs. These project gets geo-targeting done there and move that forward as well and that's happening as well as we talk.
SH: Both retail and institutional investors take notice when a project gets backing from billionaire mining investment guru Eric Sprott. Can you tell us some more about the Sprott private placement and the raise from last August?
MW: Yeah. Well, I think that's great to have an investor like Eric, obviously in the company. We really appreciate that. I also think obviously that Eric will be happy to know that we've actually started drilling there. Actually one of my next items to be done here is to send Eric an email, just to let you know that we are drawing it at Nubian in Victoria and those sorts of things, but it's great to have that sort of backing. I mean, behind the company, that sort of stuff, as we move forward the, the funding that came from Eric middle to late last year, that's enabled us to do these drill programs is we're fully funded for all programs, 2021.
SH: For company shareholders and potential investors, what kind of future development and progress can we expect at your Australian projects in particular?
MW: At the Yandoit project, the main focus is to try like I said before, is the intersect and if we discover if you may, quality fossil style, you know, drilling golden sections and from there presuming, by successful air, or we do innocent gold below some of the work and those sorts of things in this current drill program that we're doing right now. Again, if you may, appreciate him that we are successful in doing that, then we'll be working towards putting towards, you know, this is the first drill program Yandoit. So then what will come on the back of this either a second drill program, or we will be all week working towards trying to put out some sort of initial mineral resource, but just to show that our investors, that, you know what we're looking at the project in terms of the potential gold, that's on that project. The Yandoit Project is 32 square kilometers.
So it's quite a big project. It's not a small one and the mineralized corridor that's been defined by historical working pits. We've also ran a number of chief physical surveys over this sort of stuff. So we can actually trace what we believe is that targeted mineral corridor for one of the better mine, well they're mineralized, but looking, and what we're trying to do now is drill across that and make an end to see if can extend some of the showings that are at surface to extend them in depth and if we can do that and then be successful in doing that then we should be able to put together some sort of reasonable indication of the mineral potential of the Yandoit project going forward. That's the second part of the company. I mean t's one job at a time, of course.
So that's ongoing right now. We started that this week, the next step in the company is to, as I mentioned just before, is to begin some of the geophysical surveys, let's get some, we're going to start some gravity surveys, some soil sampling, and some geochemistry stuff across our fossil East project, which is perhaps one of the closest, closest to the fossil goldmine. So we're going to get into that work in the second part of the year now and work our way towards it and see if we can find some drilling targets there. The Fossil East project is under a little bit of cover what we call in the business. A little bit of carbon, not a lot, probably five to 10 minutes, no more than that but the geophysical surveys that we're using again, we do believe that there'll be able to see through that cover and what we're looking for is geological structures. That will be interesting enough to drill, of course, and that'll be parallel and, and that will hopefully represent similar splice structures, similar gold bearing faults from these sorts of things that may be similar to the fossil mining. So on a similar sort of trend as well.
SH: It would be remiss if I didn’t mention your stock has had a very nice bump over the last 12 months…more than doubling in value since last June. What can you tell our investor audience regarding the current valuation of your stock and why you think it’s still a good buy right now?
MW: Well, we're always undervalued. I wouldn't be a very good CEO if I didn't say that. Okay. I think the companies can be a compelling investment just for the fact that one, we are tightly held. The share structure, the capital structure of baleys is in good hands. We spend a lot of time and we have spent a lot of time in the past taking care on financing and those sorts of things and making the right capital structured to appeal to the market. The current board over the past 12 months and you'll see that if you look back in a few of the press releases and you look at the history of the company, we've been slowly building, what I think is the A-Team of a board myself as CEO and I have now I've been joined by Mark Henderson. He's become the chairman in the last month or so of Nubian. Mark brings to the company a good understanding of capital markets, a good understanding of public markets, a good understanding of the mineral exploration business and on top of we've got Matt Andrews, he's like a very senior person in the Pan-American silver company. He's joined us on the community, environmental sustainability front, those sorts of things. So we've been doing a very, very talented board with a lot of diverse or, you know, with a wide range of skills to help us go forward. I think the share structure of the capital starts is nice and one of the better words, it's well put together at the moment our projects are positioned in because we got in early, because we were early starters there in Victoria, our projects very well positioned in Victoria, in central gold belt with drilling okay.
Right now. So let's hope we get some success with the drill bit. I mean, that's what it's all about at the end of the day and if we can do that and we can get some good news, I think you might see some appreciation in the stock, but, you know, we're undervalued, I think on top of all that, I think the teams Philly, you know, the team here in Canada and the team in Victoria as well, we're well connected in the business we're always looking of course for new opportunities if the right opportunities come along. So that's where we are June 2021. Lots of good things to come, I think has been moved forward.
SH: What’s the long-term strategy for the company moving into 2021 and beyond, and what retail and institutional investors should be looking out for?
MW: Our long-term strategy, maybe you know in the business, we talk about companies that have mines and we talk about, you know, exploration companies and, you know there is the divide of those that build and operate mines and those that look for deposits and then look for the gold and look for the exploration and look for that added value in the exploration business. I think that's probably where Nubian, and this is where we fit. I don't think anyone probably not going to be a mine builder at the end of the day. There's plenty of mind builders in the Victorian gold camp there for us. Our job is to get out and find ore bodies and get out and find gold ore bodies and like I mentioned, several times go out and find phosphor quality type of gold or bodies or deposits that have some legs to them.
That we'll be interested in, that will attract the attention of some of the bigger players of some of the mid tier bigger players that are in the area and that's a good thing about the Victorian gold fields know, as opposed to probably half dozen or 10 or 15 years ago, you wouldn't have seen some of the big names that are in the Victorian gold fields. You wouldn't have seen them there, you know, 10, 15 years ago, but because of the success of the fossil goldmine, the success of Kirkland Lake and the success of Eric Sprott and the success of some of the other companies that are in exploring around Gina Rinehart catalyst company, that's in there at the moment on the four Eagles deposit which is a little bit to the North of Bendigo, that that looks like it's going to be a fabulous, fantastic discovery going forward, as well.
There's a number of mid to large developed, implies mine builders, those sorts of companies that are in the area now that are watching the area and I think if you can be one of the leaders in the exploration business and how you come up with a deposit, that's got legs, that's got some meat on the bone, so to speak, right and with some good grades and good, good intersection. So I think it's going to bode well for your business and well for Nubian. So that's where we're trying to position the company. We're an Explorer and explore an early developer rather than a mine builder.
SH: And finally, Martin, if there’s anything I’ve overlooked please feel free to elaborate.
MW: Fair enough you did mention that we had those projects in Nevada at the start. When I joined the company back in 2015, 16, the company had a couple of legacy, very good legacy gold projects in Nevada, one's called the associates Springs. We've managed to spin that out to a company called Athena gold and Athena gold now is earning an optional is taken that, that Celsius Springs and their gold will be listing here in the short, in the next short while in the Canadian Securities Exchange – the CSE. So look for that. We plan to follow the shares that we get from that we plan to dividend those shares through 12 shareholders.
We're Judah received around about 50 million shares of the Athena when it finally does list on the CSE and that will providing that we don't change the ratio right now in terms of the Nubian share counter to the Athena gold cap. Right now, I think that's going to come in around about a .08 of Athena’s share for every Nubian share that we have. So that's a great little dividend going forward, little surprise calls that are not a lot of investors of Nubian are fully aware of that'll become more apparent as we go forward, because we'll be putting some news out about the progress of Athena and as they make their way onto the CSC. So that's one thing and I think that's probably been a pretty good roundup when you're thinking of it.
The company we're really starting to get a well-rounded company from the board to really focusing in now on projects in Victoria, but well funded. The capital structures couldn't be better. Going forward, we're focused on trying to be one of the leading people that we're leading companies to find gold deposits and those sorts of things around Fosterville. I think that will attract the interest, as I mentioned before, some of the larger players in the area. No, I think it's very, I think it's a good time zone. When this hybrid continues right into what I think is probably a rising or a very strong, precious metals market. So I think we're well positioned at Nubian. Ticker symbol is MBR, and I guess I should mention that we trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange on the Venture Exchange here.
We're headquartered out of Toronto. We have offices here in Toronto and offices down in Melbourne or near the project down there and in Victoria and that's really it. You mentioned the website nubianr.com and you know the website's always moving forward. So you want to get up to date information, photos, news releases, press releases, those sorts of things in presentations. Yes, the website is a good place to go that –Nubianr.com. I think also you will find that I'm always available on the telephone or the cell phone, and you'll find my phone number on that website. There's some way, right? For free. If you want to be an investor for free to give me a call, that's no problem at all as well and I think that's a pretty good roundup to tell you the truth.
For more information on the company, visit
www.nubianr.com.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by Stockhouse Publishing.