Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for your time. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are listening to this live broadcast. Today, I'd like to speak to you about the very exciting announcement we made earlier today, the acquisition of the 100% owner of the Barsele project in Sweden. I'm gonna take the next few slides to take you through the transaction, some technical detail on the Barsele project, and a bit of a discussion around our plans over this coming year. There's our disclaimer. So let's just go back a couple of months just to refresh where we came from. In September last year, there was an announcement made. I was appointed CEO of First Nordic Metals.
In that announcement, we announced the new board that would come on in December, and we also did the $80 million raise, and brought on a new batch of investors. Between September and December, we spent time, a lot of corporate time, putting together the merger, which was between First Nordic Metals and Mawson Finland. That was successful. That was announced mid-December. Included in that announcement was the appointment of the new board, including Peter Breese as chairman, myself as a new entity as CEO, and Darren Morcombe as our special advisor. Our market cap at that time was $370 million, and we rebranded the company to Goldsky Resources, and really to create this vision of being this new leading Nordic gold developer.
In January, today, we announced the acquisition of the remaining 55% of the Barsele project. Remember, we had 45%, Agnico Eagle had the 55%. We had this JV, and I guess with all the work that we've done since September, rebranding the company, creating relationship, with our partner, we've been able to transact and announce that today, and Gold sky now becomes the 100% owner and operator of the Barsele project here in Sweden. So let's quickly look at the transaction. There's a $20 million cash component, and this is all described in the news release as well. There's a $20 million cash component, based on the 20-day VWAP. These are the shares that will be issued to Agnico.
There's a 2% royalty that we can buy back at any time for $50 million. Post the transaction, Agnico, I think, and this is a very important point, will become a 32.5% shareholder in Gold Sky. To me, I think that's a very important continued relationship with one of the, you know, the largest gold company in the world. Certainly, I look forward to working with the Agnico team going forward on this project, and that moves to the next point. Part of the deal, we have a technical agreement in place for the next nine months.
We create this integration, understanding, working together with Agnico on the Barsele project to get a proper handover of all the knowledge, all the information, not only on the geology, but on the side, on the community, on the environmental, everything that we see as a mature project site, which Barsele is. And, so I think that's a very important point that we've negotiated in the agreement. Agnico have the right to appoint three directors onto the Gold Sky board, and obviously, the transaction is, all the usual, customary closing conditions, and we expect this deal to be closed probably in the... Well, not probably, by the second quarter this year. Quick overview of the Barsele project. There's a lot more detail to this, but essentially, what we see here is it's a three-kilometer strike.
The Barsele property is 25,000-hectare property. We're about 600 kilometers north of Stockholm. There's an indicated and an inferred resource on the deposit, 2.1 million ounces declared as it stands right now. Good geometry of the ore body that we can see so far. You know, some pretty significant widths there. Metallurgy, simple free milling metallurgy, good recoveries, you know, +92%. And this has been designated as a, let's say, a mining status. So this has not only got an exploration permit, but it's also got an exploitation permit on as well, which is kind of the next step that is needed before you then go and apply through your environmental and your mining permits. So again, this is just demonstrating the maturity of this site.
It is not a new site by any means. To my point, if you look at this next slide here, this is the work that's been done to date. This has been a ten-year project where, you know, over 174,000 meters have been drilled, 478 holes, you know, and then the assays, the soil sampling, the BOT sampling. When you look at these type of numbers, there's a cost to this, but there's a time factor to this. And for me, when I look at the work that, again, Agnico have done on the project, this is years and years of understanding not only this ore body, but the whole region, the Barsele, let's say, complex. What is there? You don't drill and you don't assay, and you don't do 58,000 soil samples in one season.
This is years and years of work, which has been fantastic, good quality work, that has allowed the team to date to, you know, pinpoint correctly where eventually we need to drill. So this is not only a cost factor, it's a time factor as well. That's very important in our thinking and our development going forward. And look, the Agnico team last year, they did, you know, some more drilling, infill and some step-out targets. Those results are pending, and we'll be, you know, getting our heads around all of this, in the coming weeks.
Those two photographs there, for those of you who've not been to site, there's actually a trench that is a permitted trench that exposes the ore body, which is a great tool for the geologist to understand the geotech, the style of mineralization. You know, any visits, any analyst visits or anything that we will have in the future, people will be able to see this exposed ore body, and that you can see there it's very near surface. There's not a lot of till cover at all. This is, you know, a bit more of a detail and some examples of the hits that we've had or that the Agnico team have had. You know, I don't need to go through them, but essentially there's three zones here: the Avan, the Central, and the Skiråsen zone.
This is, you know, high level. What I'm seeing here is an open pit, how big that is, and then moving into an underground operation as we get more and more into the life of the mine. For me, you know, we've got over 2 million ounces in resource here, and obviously, and I'll get into the plan for what we'll be doing next. This is an ore body that I think if you, you know, put a program of some significant meters in terms of drilling, we can start to now understand grade, cut-off size, marginal ore mining methods. And that will all get done through a PEA, which we'll talk about just now. But I think this slide just shows you the continuity.
It is still open at depth, it is open at strike. This potentially could be a pretty big ore body. And with the work we'll be doing this year, I know that we will expand this. We will, you know, create condition in this ore body as well. But just to, you know, mention that point again, I think as this gets bigger, this is something, particularly at these gold prices that we're seeing, we can start to now understand those scenarios of the grade cut-off and this, you know, mill grade versus marginal ore, and what do we actually... You know, how do we manipulate and extract gold from this? So by no means this is not something that we need to find or look for. It's there, it's defined.
We're on a great footing, a great foundation to continue to now develop this into a proper, you know, from an exploration into a development project. I touched on this, the Barsele area has been given this national interest status, so essentially it's earmarked for mining. Nothing else can be done on this Barsele area. So the Swedish government actually designated this as national interest, and I think that's a very important point as well, that the government have recognized the significance and the size and the potential of what this ore body will look like. So again, I think this is just another positive in terms of recognition of what we see in terms of its significance in Sweden and its contribution towards, you know, the economy. And if we look at the Barsele, let's say ...
property in its entirety. We've got the Barsele ore body as such, but to the southeast of that as well, Agnico have done some great work, and again, this just backs up soil sampling, BOT drilling, and eventually, you know, target drilling, and that does take years to plan and then eventually execute. There is more areas like the Risberget area, which is just, you know, to the southeast of the Barsele project, where there's been some, you know, good, long, you know, large, gold hits. Very exploratory at the moment, but certainly something that in our program we want to go and investigate. So this is not just a piece of ground where we've got a well-defined ore body, and let's continue just to plug away at that.
That will be expanded at depth and at strike, as well as definition drilling, but also we'll be exploring and continuing the good work that Agnico Eagle have done in terms of exploring on the Barsele property for other areas where we know we can create resource and, you know, explore mineralization. Just to talk, move away from the site itself, included in the deal, we have the storage facility. This is where the 174,000 meters of core is stored. There you can see the picture in the middle. When I went to site and I looked at this, this is a, you know. You want to pull core for geotech, you want to pull core for variability work and metallurgy. You know, you want to pull core for even foundation work. It's all there.
It's all stored. It's, it's been well-managed. It is literally a library of the history and the core and the definition of what that ore body looks like to date. We have core logging facilities at the premises. We have an XRF scanning facility, offices, lunch facilities. It's a great facility down the road from where the ore body is, well-established. So I think it's important that we understand that, you know, this is, again, a mature site where Agnico have put all of these facilities in place, well-practiced, well-managed, and this is all part of, let's say, the deal going forward that we take on. The area that the Barsele project is situated in Storuman, it, it's probably the most unremote place that I've ever worked, and some of you know that I've worked in some pretty remote areas.
And I remember flying in a helicopter once and saying, "Well, where are we going to put the landing strip?" So in Tanzania, this is a complete 180 degrees to what a lot of projects have to think about. The infrastructure, there's tar roads, there is, you know, skilled people. The Barsele village is just up the road. It's right next to a rail line. In terms of we have hydropower and wind power. In fact, the hydro station is just across the road from the Barsele project. And most of you probably know, in terms of global power costs, Sweden is one of the most lowest costs that I've ever seen, $0.026 a kilowatt.
So again, if we step back and we just think about infrastructure, and we all know when we build in mines, the costs related to, you know, initially, let's say, site establishment, as well as then moving forward into detailed design and construction, the infrastructure. You've got to bring remote power, you've got to build a road through a forest, you've got to catering, you've got to all these, you've got to fly people in, do that. This site is nothing like that. It is not remote. It's well-supported. All those photographs you can see there, that's the town, which is, you know, 20 minutes down the road. We are very fortunate to be in a, in an area that supports mining. There is a lot of mines in this part of Sweden as well.
And the community have been very supportive of all the work to date that is being done by Agnico Eagle. So certainly this is a major, major plus as well for the Barsele project in terms of infrastructure, access to power, labor, and all the things that you need to eventually one day build a mine. And a big part of, very important part of what the Barsele project has been in terms of its management is obviously the environmental monitoring and the community engagement. And I think it's very fair to say that, you know, this is something that will be front and center of everything that Gold Sky will do. I again, Agnico Eagle have done a fantastic job on this, you know, hydrology studies, water flows, weather station monitoring, Sámi engagement, community engagement.
And it's very important, and we even say that in our press release, that we will continue to maintain and develop further all the relationship with the community, as well as all the good work that's been done on all the environmental monitoring. And this has been done for years, so we've got excellent baseline data that we can feed, you know, quickly into an environmental application, and the permitting and all the work that needs to do with that. So not only is the ore body well-established, but the site, the Barsele project site in its entirety, has got all of these systems already in place, and this is something Gold Sky will just pick up and continue to use.
Just broadening where we operate, the First Nordic ground, as some of you probably know, sits left and right of where Barsele is. I mean, Barsele is really kind of now the center of gravity, and we've got this gold belt, which is left and right of, the Barsele project. It, I mean, I'm sure some of you have seen this before, you're starting to create a bit of a I don't like using the word a province, but certainly there's gold, you know, left and right of Barsele, and the kind of the center of gravity is the Barsele site. I think, you know, it's not, it's not unthinkable to think that one day you'll have Barsele operated as a mine and then, you know, exploration, not only on the Barsele project, but in the gold belt as well.
You can, you know, start to bring ore into this central processing facility years away, but look, we have now tied up this ground of the Gold Line Belt within Sweden. I think it's pretty strategic, the ground holding that we have, and now that we have Barsele 100%, we've just now completely, you know, taken that entire strip. So there were some good results announced just after Christmas, and certainly in, you know, a lot of the drilling that was done last year, there was visible gold seen in quite a lot of the holes, and definitely gold-bearing structures on, you know, the majority of the holes that were drilled. So we're in, we're in Gold Line Belt country. We really are. And I mean, you've got Barsele, Risberget, and then the Gold Line Belt.
I think we've got a good land package there with some very exciting prospects that we'll be taking time to look at. In terms of the... Let's talk about the program. We have to get the acquisition closed. That'll take place sometime in Q2. We have this integration program with Agnico Eagle. I mean, really, that's going to kick off shortly, and that is, you know, over the nine-month period where we will, you know, integrate with the Agnico team, adopt their practices, their procedures. Part of the transaction, the Agnico team come on board to Gold Sky, so it will be business as usual, but also there'll be this integration, and obviously, on top of that will be this new package of work. We talk about the fundraise that we did last year, the $80 million.
We're well funded to do a significant drill program. I expect that we will spend time between now and probably second quarter integrating with the Agnico Eagle team on site. We have our geologists, not only in Finland but also in Sweden. I think there'll be a lot of workshopping and understanding exactly what this ore body, the targets, where we need to look at the structure, the geometry, all the stuff that we need to understand. And as you know, we get into the melt, then I think this program for the next, between now and the end of the year, to you know, between 40,000 and 60,000 meters, you know, 4 to 5, 6 rigs on site, and let's get a significant drill program done.
And this will be expansion, testing depth, you know, strike, as well as infill, and then going to places like Risberget and exploring what Agnico have started to, you know, discover and see. So, there'll be a lot of news flow and a lot of discussion around the programs that we'll be doing. This ore body, without a doubt, supports a PEA, and I think it's important. I mean, I've done the numbers, I'm doing them every day, and I know lots of people have, you know, done the numbers. How big this mill is? What's the grade? Da, da, da. I think what will be important for this business going forward is to kind of put some evaluation on what we've got and what we're doing. I would like to kick off a PEA in Q2.
I think that will be something that, you know, within six months we'll be able to deliver on, and it will tell us, you know, the design, the size of the mill, methodology of, you know, what we're thinking about the mining. By then, with the drilling that we'll be doing, there will be a, let's say, a new resource estimate coming out. Definitely, I think that'll happen at least once or twice during the course of the year as we drill and expand, drill and expand. And we'll be able to put those inputs into a PEA and really get to understand, so what does this business do? I think one of the things that I'm hoping, you know, by the end of this year is, well, you know, this thing is still delivering.
We've got to continue to keep drilling in 2027, and we'll be well-funded to continue to do that. So, that, that is a high-level kind of program of what we're looking at. So there'll be integration with the existing team, downloading that knowledge, understanding what we're doing, getting an agreed plan, putting together then this drill program, putting that on place on site, getting that going, and then bringing in a project team that we can now commence a PEA and then, you know, roll that out through to Q4, and then let's understand what this business really does deliver in terms of ounces, mining methodology, processing, revenue, costs, you know, all that kind of stuff. And again, let's get back to what we've got. There's been so much work done already on this project.
We can, you know, tap into that, do some extra work and, you know, I think we'll produce a good PEA, which will be at a standard much higher than a conventional PEA. So I think if just on the side there, you know, if we talk about news flow and what we expect, I think what will happen is, you know, there's gonna be this integrated team. I've spoken about the expansion of the resource. We're gonna increase the category, so, you know, to go from the inferred to measured and indicated, that's important. You know, get this PEA assessment done. You know, I don't foresee any capital raise. We've got good treasury, so we can get on with what we need to do.
We are gonna explore the areas, and this just kind of all creates this news flow that I think is important, that, you know, I want to get through to the, to the market. You know, every two, three weeks, give updates of what's, what we're, we're busy with. So, so I think that's important to understand. This is gonna be something that's gonna be a very active site, a very active team, a very active, let's say, a news flow over the coming year. So to summarise, it really is a transformational acquisition for Gold Sky. I mean, we talk about, you know, where the company was and then the merge, the raise of the money, this new team, this new board, and now we've got to a point where we've transacted. You know, this all forms a story, right?
And this is where we are now, and now, you know. I spoke this morning. I think we've just spent the last six months running around the cage trying to catch the tiger, and now, today, we've got it by the tail. So we've got it, and this next couple of weeks, we'll be now putting together our plans. We're all meeting in Cape Town in two weeks' time. The management and one or two of the board members, through a facilitator process, will be putting our plans together. The what do we need to do? The how we need to do, that, that'll be management business. But what do we need to do? So, it really is a very exciting time for Gold Sky. Agnico will become a 32.5% shareholder. I welcome that.
I think to have someone as experienced and as successful as Agnico Eagle is a privilege, and I know that we will create more and more relationship and working partnership with Agnico, as we have done in the past with other projects that we've been involved in. For some of you may know, and some of you may not know, Gold Sky now, we're not an explorer, we're now a developer, and including myself, more and more, you will start to see Gold Sky becoming a development company. And that all basically comes from our experience with LionOre. You know, with that was a 2,500 tonne a year nickel project in Botswana in 1995, which I was involved in, and roll forward 12 years, you're producing 95,000 tonnes of nickel, and selling the company for $7 billion.
Well, that group of people, in all different forms, will start to get involved with Goldsky as well. That same group, we did it with Mantra. That Mantra was the uranium project we developed in Tanzania. We sold for $1 billion, and the same group of guys that we did Asanko, which is Galiano Gold now in Ghana, which was a 200 and whatever thousand ounce gold mine. So there is a proper mine development team now that are gonna start looking at this project. Look, I've explained everything that we can see in Barsele. I think it's fair to say we have the opportunity to unlock some significant value, because of the establishment, the foundations that we've got on this project.
We're very privileged, and we're very fortunate to inherit all the work that's been done to date, and I think we can only add to that, and we see that in this current gold environment. And, you know, with the work that we need to, we've got a good idea, the work that we do need to do, and I think that will unlock a lot of value, in this Barsele project. We're fully funded. I've mentioned that. So, you know, we, we can think, we can think big, we can think long term. We can, we can put programs in place. We can do 40-50,000 meters of drilling. We're funded for that. We can do studies. We can attract good quality people to our team. So I think that's a very important point.
And what I see more and more in Sweden and in Finland, this is certainly an area of Europe that understand mining very well. Some very large mines here, some great skills, some good examples of how mines and mining companies get put together through environmental compliance and with community engagement. So it's a great great we're in a great spot to operate. And as I've mentioned, there will be some significant news flow in 2026 as we drill, as we you know get our heads around everything we need to do, resource upgrades, you know PEA engineering work, and everything else that goes with you know putting the story together. So that's essentially the high-level discussion on the announcement today. I know there's an opportunity for me to take questions.
So I'm more than welcome to take questions now, if there's general questions. I've also extended ... I know that some of you would like to have one-to-one discussion with me on this and maybe get into a bit more detail that's probably not appropriate to talk about now, because we get into the technicalities. I'm more than happy to do that. Please reach out to me, either through the info link or email me direct. But yeah, I'm happy to take any questions that are coming up right now.
Great. Thank you very much, Russell. And just as a reminder, anybody on the webcast who'd like to ask a question, just needs to click on the question icon at the bottom of the screen in the bar and type your question in. We've had a couple come in already. I wonder if I could just go through those with you. First of all, perhaps a bit more detail on how the relationship with Agnico will work going forward from a technical perspective on Barsele.
Okay. Thank you. In the agreement, we have agreed on a nine-month, let's say, handover period. Essentially, there's some key staff at the Barsele and also at the corporate level, that will be on call, that we can, you know, integrate with and work with, and that's on a, you know, kind of a day a week kind of thing, and that will be extended for nine months. The Agnico team currently, at the moment, that are based at Barsele, will come over to Goldsky. So all of that knowledge, all that practice, all those procedures will all come through to Goldsky, which is great. And, you know, with the shareholding that Agnico Eagle have in the company, I'm sure we would ...
And there's, you know, through the technical committee that we're gonna establish with, you know, Agnico team and Goldsky team, there will be continued collaboration on all the development, let's say, domains of work that need to be done to put this project together. So I certainly see this as a serious positive for the project. And, you know, again, I'll say, having Agnico Eagle as our partner and a significant shareholder, I know that they'll be there on call to help. So there's kind of like the official agreement, but also longer term, I know that you know, there'll be assistance given on anything that we need to tap into.
Can you also give a flavor for your exploration plans with Barsele now that you've become the operator?
Well, I think, I mean, we've discussed that in the presentation. So look, I don't wanna, you know... I've seen this before. You know, people get excited and climb in and wanna create all this news flow and, and, you know, get the drills running and da da. And, you know, three months' time, everyone realize, "Oh, we've made a mistake here." So, I think it's important that we just spend some time on reconnaissance, and, you know, let's integrate with the guys on site. Let's bring our team on board, let's get an agreement, let's understand exactly what needs to be done. I know that Agnico Eagle have plans already, you know, for this year and also for Barsele, so we will obviously take those all on board and listen to them and understand them.
And then, I think, come the second quarter, that's when I think we'll be ready to then put the drills on site, and then let's get going. With $80 million, you know, $400 a meter, you know, 50,000 meters of drilling, including assays, that's $20 million. You know, that is definitely in our sights, and I think this is what this ore body needs to understand its opportunity, its size, its development. With all the current work that's, you know, that's been done over the last 10 years, and all of the extra work that we'll be doing now, essentially, if you've done 174,000 meters on this ore body, if we do another 50,000 meters, that's what, 20, another-...
26%-27% added on top of what we've done already. So, yeah, there'll be a significant drill program. And then obviously, that all then filters into a study, which creates then the picture of what this business really could look like, and then that will be a PEA. And remember, that PEA really creates the motivation to go forward into a PFS, which is then all the optionality we need to look at. I think a big part of this optionality will be the mining, and again, getting back to this ore body with its size, and its options, and its mining methods. What is the grade? What is the cut-off? What does the cut-off grade do at these gold prices? How big does it get, and what do we put into the mill?
So, I mean, some great questions to ask, and it'll be all very interesting work, but the ore body, you know, with the expansion drilling will allow us to answer and ask those questions of it. So yeah, that gives hopefully a flavor of what we'll be looking at.
Thank you. We do have a couple more questions that are specific perhaps around the drilling. So I'll ask them just so that you've got the opportunity to comment. But the first one is taking into account the extensive amounts of exploration drilling that's been completed to date, do you have a sense now for where the focus should be for the PEA to add the most value in that process? Or is it still perhaps a bit early?
Look, I think. I mean, it will be important to understand. So, you know, Agnico Eagle have done some great work on not only focusing on Barsele, but they've identified this, Risberget area as well. What we're seeing there is something we can't ignore. We have to go there and spend some time and money on that area as well. The main game at the moment is obviously the Barsele ore body. I think in the short term, certainly this year, a lot of value we need to wrap around that ore body that we saw on the screen earlier, and that's where a lot of the drilling will go. But allocated in our treasury will be money that we will also put into Risberget. It's just too significant to ignore. We need to understand that.
You know, the way you understand that is continue to do what Agnico have done over the last couple of years: soil sample, BOT drill, and then, you know, get into target drilling. So without a doubt, that will be part of our plans as well. And I think in the PEA, even if there's... There won't be conclusion on Risberget yet, but it will be mentioned. Look at the blue sky. Look at the opportunity we're seeing here to not only, you know, continue to develop, but actually roll forward two years. This is actually adding now to our production profile. As Barsele gets bigger, well, you know, as we get more underground, then we're gonna move to Risberget. Maybe that's the next open pit, and that now feeds the mill as we get underground. And, I don't know, these are scenarios that we...
But again, I'm sitting here today saying we can build on this, and they did. They're established. They've been found. We don't have to look for it. It's already been found and defined as such, so in those various categories. So it's very exciting. We're very fortunate.
I think you've actually covered the other questions on drilling within that answer. At this point, we haven't got any additional questions. I'll just hand it back to you for your closing remarks.
Thank you, Julian. So I think in closing, it's been a very enjoyable process for myself and for the team at First Nordic, Mawson, this integration. I know that to get deals like this over the line, it certainly is not, it's not something you click your fingers, and it kind of happens. Things have to be, it's by design. And I just wanna say thank you to everybody who was involved in this to make this transition occur. And Gold Sky now is certainly at a point where we can now take on this asset with our experience, and our partners, and our communities, and everything that's been done, and move it forward responsibly.
I look forward to engaging with all of you as we move into our next phase of this very, very exciting project. Thank you all for your time, and any further questions, please reach out and, give me, myself a shout or Neil, or through the info or Tavistock. I'll be more than happy to go on a one-to-one call and take everybody through some more detail. Thank you.