Say good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on where in the world you're logging in from today. Really appreciate you guys joining us. I've got with me today Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, CEO of Contango Silver & Gold, and Dave Larimer, the company's Vice President of Exploration, to discuss a recent press release that got into updates across the company's very broad, at this point, project suites. Gentlemen, how are you today?
Doing well. Go Canada.
Go Canada.
Good morning.
For the Canadians in the room, hope you're feeling patriotic. Here's how today's going to work. There's a number of questions about the PR. Some got sent in advance over email. I think our questions will cover most of those, but I will try to get to any that we don't. Of course, as always, this is an interactive event, so you can use the chat button at the bottom to ask any questions you'd like. We'll be spanning today from the market through to each project, so please feel free to ask any questions you'd like. We'll try to get to them as much as we can in today's half-hour event. If I do miss questions, I will make sure the team gets them afterwards.
It's also recorded and will be available for replay late this afternoon, Eastern Time, probably right at the end of the day for those on the East Coast. Let me get right into the business here because, Rick, I know the update was on a bunch of specific programs, but I do want to set the stage because obviously it's an odd week for markets. Gold and silver rollercoaster for a year plus now. You're of anybody I know plugged into the metals market. How are you reading the current backdrop, and what makes this a moment worth paying attention to a company like Contango?
Yeah, obviously, rollercoaster is a good way to describe the last year.
Yeah.
The last five months haven't been a rollercoaster, they've been like straight elevator to the basement.
Sure.
We sit below $4,000 gold and we're approaching $55 silver. Obviously way down from the highs and the stocks are reflecting it. I'd say the producers are getting hammered a bit more than the explorers, which-
Sure
I find interesting. It seems odd to me, I guess what it would tell me is that everybody thinks the future price is going to be higher at some point. Look, the Fed is between a rock and a hard spot. The employment numbers came in good, they don't have to worry about employment right now or unemployment right now. They are concerned about inflation. I think the biggest news out of the Fed discussion was it's going to be a different Fed. I think all of those things make the market nervous. They don't know how to read it, clearly the big takeaway from Kevin Warsh's discussion was that, hey, we're not going to give guidance anymore.
Yeah.
You guys are on your own. I think the market's just a bit nervous about being on their own, without being spoon-fed by the Fed. Anyways, all of that just on the big picture scene, nothing has changed. We're still $37 trillion in debt and China's no better off and Europe's no better off. It's not like it's just the dollar. Gold price is priced in all sorts of currencies. The one we usually pay attention to are the ones in dollars. Of course, for us, that is where we're producing gold. Look, I got this in Europe last time I was there. This is one of those $10 billion Zimbabwe notes. That's where we're headed. Trump's not afraid of debt.
No.
Look, the central banks are still buying gold. They're doing that for a reason. India was just in the news the other day that they didn't sell their gold, they sold their other currencies in their foreign currency reserves. Look, everybody's doing something a little different. Iran's on again, off again. Don't know. They have a ceasefire that nobody pays attention to, look, it's a very confusing market. We're just going to put our head down and I don't like the share price but
Sure
To me, it's a buying opportunity. I think I said earlier, this year is about execution for us. We've got a lot of things on the go. It's a good, solid plan. We're well-financed to do it. We're still selling gold and we're still making money selling gold. It's not like we're losing money selling gold. We've delivered into all the hedges for this year, so the rest of the year, the rest of the gold that we sell this year is at spot. If that spot price is $4,000, we're making $2,000 an ounce. That's not so bad.
Yes.
Five years ago, we would've been doing back flips for that. Look, it's confusing. If you're going to invest in the mining space, you got to look at it from the longer term.
Sure.
I think this is the opportunity to be loading up on stocks that are truly undervalued, which I believe Contango is. We're trading at less than the net present value of one of our projects, the Johnson Tract project. Yeah.
No, that's.
We're just going to put our head down and do what we do, which is what we're going to talk about. It's a good segue.
Yeah, no, appreciate the just context on the market. I just didn't want to not ask that question with today's gold environment, appreciate that answer. I want to give you a real overarch question, and then Dave, I'll get into you for some of the specifics because Rick, you got rigs turning at Lucky Shot, where Dave is joining us from right now, a summer field season ramping up at Johnson Tract, and a 40,000-meter program underway at Kitsault all at once. How are you thinking about running all these programs in parallel, and what does that say about where Contango sits in the market today?
Well, I just think we have a lot going on. They're all sort of at different stages. At Lucky Shot, fully permitted. We're underground mining. We're creating new tunnels from which to drill. We've got an exciting new discovery that we're going to talk about. I'm actually heading down to Lucky Shot tomorrow to join Dave and Sean and Lucky and the team down there to see with my own eyes, what is it that these guys are all excited about. Lucky Shot's just off to the races. That's something we can get into production relatively quickly. Fully permitted. We just acquired all the land. We bought out the underlying landowner and the royalty. We have a space now to actually develop the mine. Besides just being on the side of the mountain, we've got a big facility that we can use.
Yeah, very pleased with where Lucky Shot is. Johnson Tract is mostly about permitting.
Being part of the FAST-41 program, that's going along very well. Meanwhile, we are in a big logistical move here. We're barging over all the heavy equipment to start building the road that connects the camp to the portal site. Of course, at Kitsault, we've got five rigs turning. Whenever that project is drilling, just like Johnson Tract, when we're drilling at Johnson Tract, we're always putting out really, really good results. Stay tuned for all of that news flow. I think both Lucky Shot will be producing good results when we get back to drilling there, which Dave will talk about. Kitsault, we got five rigs turning, so we're going to be putting out a lot of results, I'd say in about a month.
No, that's fun. Love seeing the news flow and knowing what's coming up. Dave, I want to get you in here because you are live on scene at Lucky Shot, where the surface program was kicked off June 22nd. Two helicopter-supported rigs. Walk us through what these 29 holes are designed to do, and why the link between the Coleman Zone and the Lucky Shot vein system is the part that you're really most excited to test.
Yep. Absolutely. Like I said, live from Lucky Shot. Beautiful day outside. Still a little snow on the peaks, but that'll be there all year. Where we're operating, it's beautiful. The drillers showed up yesterday, got the drills here on the bench, got the helicopters coming in today, tomorrow. We'll start mobilizing these things up there. Got pads built. Everything's looking real good to the start of this surface exploration. The intent for this 6,800 meters that we've designed is twofold. The first one is we have an objective to do some infill drilling within the Coleman portion of the known mineralization. There are some areas up there that are in the model that it is inferred and indicated resource. We think we can do some further risk reduction by just tapping in a couple more drill holes in there.
This should help tighten the geologic model and support that more detailed mine plan and mine design work going forward in the next potential year. The second objective, as we talked about, is that step-out drilling from the Coleman. Seeing what we call that link between the Coleman side and the Lucky Shot side. This step-out drilling is specifically designed to see how much more battle space we can take to Coleman, and keep stepping it off towards what we believe that will be the cutoff, which is that Lucky Shot Fault. We've previously talked the Lucky Shot Fault from the underground side. We've tapped it really well underground. We know where it's at. On the surface, we know where it's at, and it's really interesting. When you start pulling these faults together as the geologist, when you first get them, what's the first thing you do?
You just draw the fault as a straight line because you don't know.
Sure.
Now that we've done this drilling, we've advanced the structural backbone and the structural model. We know the Lucky Shot fault starts at the surface. She curves down a little. Almost that little listric faulting. What that does for us on the Coleman side is it opens up more battle space as she curves away towards Lucky Shot. Our drilling's looking to do the step-off of Coleman and basically thread that needle. How far can we pull that Coleman mineralization and tie it into that Lucky Shot fault right there? That's the link we're looking to get to this summer. It's really exciting. I'm not going to say it's easy drilling.
Sure
It's conceptually pretty simple. It's literally right there at the top of the ridge. Our logistics are all lined up. We're really excited about this. Again, it's a pretty straightforward program. We're going to execute it hard. The program's designed to de-risk the known Coleman mineralization and then test that linkage between that, the Lucky Shot, and the Lucky Shot Fault side. Ideally, this drilling will validate the models. It'll be an important next step for us as we continue this value creation of our project in the next couple of years.
No, it's certainly a big summer at Lucky Shot. Rick, I wanted to get you in because obviously you know a lot about the structural side, too. While we're talking about the Lucky Shot vein system, how's progress going on extending the West Drift to test the KM Vein?
Yeah, as I mentioned, I'm going to head down there tomorrow to see with my own eyes how the progress is. They've advanced the tunnel. Remember the West Drift was built to fan drill the Lucky Shot Fault structure, which more or less runs east-west, and we're drilling fans off to the north. The Lucky Shot Fault offsets the Lucky Shot Vein up to the Coleman side, which Dave Larimer was just talking about. When we punched through, we saw this other new structure at right angles to the Lucky Shot Fault system, striking north-south, dipping east. It ran really well. We call it the KM Vein after Keith Miles, my superintendent. We've now advanced 15 meters-ish, 50 feet, the tunnel, just in the same orientation. We're seeing some interesting things. Can't say much more than that.
We don't have assays back, but this is a coarse free gold deposit. We see certain things with our eyeballs, and Dave and the crew are pretty zoned in on finding free gold. I'm heading down there tomorrow. I think we'll take a look and I think we'll probably do some talking at the vein face tomorrow. We'll get that out to do our investors as well. I'm excited by what we're seeing and with my structural background, Lucky Shot's a shear vein, so it's things moving back and forth this way that open up spaces for fluids, hydrothermal fluids to come in. The KM Vein orientation is at right angles, which means it's the expansion vein. When you crunch things this way, they open up in the opposite direction because they're getting squished.
That's exciting because open spaces are what suck in hydrothermal fluids. We're excited about what we're seeing geologically, structurally. We got to go assay, that's the work that we're doing now. We'll get the drills in there. Once we get the underground infrastructure completed, we'll get the drills in and do our normal thing there, pretty exciting what we're seeing. I'm excited to get down and boots underground tomorrow.
Awesome. Yeah, I'm personally excited to see footage. I always like seeing footage out there. Dave, I know the team framed this drilling as feeding into feasibility level mine designs.
For investors in the room, what's the significance of moving Lucky Shot towards that stage rather than just adding more ounces?
Yeah.
Oh, absolutely. That's an important distinction, especially for us planning this out. At this stage, Lucky Shot, we're not just about chasing ounces in there. It's about converting geologic understanding into a practical mine plan. At the end of the day, that's what we're looking for on the geology side. Can we build these ounces? Yep. We can increase the resource and reserve, but we also need the rest of that geologic understanding to make a practical mine plan going forward. The infill drilling at Coleman, like I briefly talked about, designed to help increase the confidence in that continuity and the geometry on the Coleman side and the grade distribution.
That matters for a feasibility level mine design because you really need that tighter data spacing and the confidence in that geology to make those disciplined engineering decisions around stope shapes, and the sequencing of how all this comes together. I do have a saying where mining is always based in the geology, and nothing is more true than right now at this kind of pre-feasibility study where we got to get the geology, we got to make sure it's tightened in there because that's what all the engineering hangs on and the mining hangs on the next years down the road. For investors, the significance is that this work is moving the project from that exploration concept, and we're moving it now towards that development framework concept.
It starts with this drilling, the geologic modeling, updating our Mineral Resource Estimate, and then as we've talked before, doing that feasibility level study in the future. That's when we start hanging our engineering and hanging everything else off of what we're doing right now. Really the value is twofold. Testing that growth potential while we go at every opportunity and developing that technical work to feed into that feasibility study going forward in the future.
Awesome. No, appreciate that. Do want to move on now to Johnson Tract because I know this was a multi-project update PR, so I want to-
Let me just make one-
Of course, please
Let me just make one other point on the feasibility study, and this is something that's specific to the DSO model, the direct shipping ore model is because we're not building a mill and a tailings facility, and we don't need a bunch of power to run all that stuff, I refer to this as feasibility light because it is effectively just a mine plan, feasibility level mine plan, hence the definition drilling that we're doing, a transportation plan, and a tolling arrangement. We don't have to do a bunch of test work on where we're going to put tailings and all that because that's already done. We don't have to do foundational drilling and worry about permafrost and stuff like that, because we're not building a mill. We don't have to worry about foundations.
Power plants are big messy things to permit because they have to have air quality. We just need a relatively small mobile generator to provide power to the drill rig, just like we're doing right now. It is really a lot simpler. The DSO makes that whole part of the process or that whole end of the process a lot simpler. Still a lot of work to do, but simplifies it greatly.
It's just rocks in a box.
It's just rocks in a box.
Just rocks in a box. Let's jump over to Johnson Tract because, as you mentioned already today, you're inside the FAST-41 program with six actions already completed. For folks who don't live in the permitting world, which I know is most of us, why is that a meaningful milestone for a critical metals project in Alaska?
Obviously, the Trump administration is very focused on critical metals and is using the FAST-41, which actually started back in the Obama administration. It's been around a while. It just hasn't been used specifically a lot for mining projects. We're hopeful that the permitting reform that's talked about in Congress will actually happen. What it should look like is what FAST-41 is. That the timelines are met and that the agencies get the work done in a timely fashion. It takes 1-2 years to permit a project, not 10-15. That's the beauty of FAST-41 as it's being applied to critical metals, which of course the Johnson Tract has numerous critical metals depending on which list you want to pay attention to. It's all working smooth. There's a lot of work to do.
It's collecting appropriate engineering work and environmental work, the studies on land and water, because we have to build a barge landing facility, so that's in the water. Hence we have to study things that are in the water. We have some sensitive things around. The Cook Inlet beluga whale is an endangered species-
Sure
We're going to have to do a fair bit of work on that to understand what the best way and where are they hanging out and how can we avoid them. That's what it gets down to. Cultural studies. Obviously, lots of things on hydrology and birds and moose and bears. The good news is we have a lot of data on that-
Sure
because of all the park related activities that go on in the area. There's a huge database to draw on. That's all in support of basically following the NEPA process, which is referred to as NEPA, National Environmental Policy Act. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the lead federal agency, is how that's referred to, so they coordinate and stick handle the other agencies who are then referred to as cooperating agencies. Yeah, it's working well and we're on track, I'd say. Johnson Tract is on track.
Track is on track. I like it. Like you said, a lot of the work this year is infrastructure. You got the 2.6 mile access road, the geotechnical drilling, the equipment to the portal site mobilization. How does getting all that built this season set up for 2027?
Basically the main construction activity is to connect camp and the proposed portal site, which we're finalizing the permits with the state on. I think we've got two main permits, and we've got one more that their reclamation plan has to be approved, basically. What getting the road finished this year will allow us to do is to start building the tunnel next year, subject to being permitted, which again, we're confident that we'll get the permits in plenty of time to meet that timeline. It's about a mile long tunnel, so it's a little longer than the Lucky Shot tunnel or the amount of tunneling we've done at Lucky Shot. It'll take roughly a year to complete. That'll be most of the activities in 2027. They'll spill over into 2028.
In order for it to spill over into 2028, we need to winterize camp, which we're also starting to work on this year, and then we'll be able to complete that next year so that we can work year-round underground. Once you're underground, you're in good stead there, right? That's the plan. Then it'll take about a year to complete the tunnel, and then the following year, 2028, we can do all the drilling to do exactly what we're doing at Lucky Shot now, is basically complete another DSO feasibility level mine plan, transportation plan, and figure out where the ore is going. Those are all things that we're working on in the background, particularly the site as to where this ore is going to be processed.
That's awesome. Appreciate the Johnson Tract update. Dave, I'll jump to you. Let's go a little farther south and a little left on the map to Kitsault Valley. I know you've already drilled 14,000 meters, over a third of the planned program, and as far as I understand, well ahead of schedule.
Yeah.
What's driving that pace, and what are you personally, I love asking geologists this, what are you most excited about for Torbrit, North Star, Wolf, and Red Point?
Absolutely. I think pace, you hit it on the head right there, Romeo. The pace to me is being driven by our strong crews out there. We have an outstanding geologic team, outstanding crews out there. They've put together a great field plan, efficient logistics, and a drill program that was set up to keep the rigs moving across multiple targets. To be 14,000 meters in right now of the 40,000-meter program is a real testament to that team. What they pulled together and what they put together and executing out there to a high degree has been absolutely fascinating to see. What gets me excited when the drill reports come in, you look at Torbrit and North Star. The focus really is on an infill extensional drilling around areas with historical continuity. The objective was always to improve that geologic confidence, where the mineralization is out there.
Those results coming back are what we expect, and we're really excited to see those. Wolf and Red Point, these are important because they're giving us additional opportunities to evaluate the broader Kitsault Valley system.
Yeah
Beyond the Torbrit, North Star areas. To me, what's most encouraging, what I really like to see out there is, we've got to frame it carefully, is the strong visual indications that we have seen so far out of the drill core. Consistent with our targeting model. Geos are excited out there. The team is executing well with what we're seeing. Again, we need to be clear, the assays at the end of the day ultimately determine the grade and stuff like that, and things are out there for assay. We'll get those back. Yeah, we're excited what we see out there and having that plan come together and be able to drive this forward. I like to analogize it as a hockey fan, but for the soccer fans, Kitsault Valley gives us multiple shots on a goal. We got multiple deposits out here.
It gives us multiple shots in the consolidated land package that we can advance resource confidence in a very, very small area. This is exciting. When the geology comes together, the drill results come together, you start to see that vision of how it comes together. When the assays come in and we start pumping out the press releases here in the next couple of weeks, I think we're going to be really excited
Oh, fun. Yeah, because like you said, you sent the first samples from Torbrit North straight to the lab already.
Yep
updated resource estimate targeted for late July, if I'm not mistaken.
Yep.
What should people be watching for as those assays start coming through the news releases you just mentioned through Q3? What should people be keeping an eagle eye out for?
I just want to hit on the assays real quick. It's a busy summer in exploration.
Sure.
I feel for the assay labs. We do have some turnaround times that we manage to creep on. They hear from us all the time. They hear from everyone else, "Where's our samples? Where's our samples?" What I can say is they're coming, and the assay labs are doing a great job turning around. These things are coming. As these things start flowing in, we expect to see decent assays that we're excited about that do line up to the geology. When a resource update comes out in late July, to me this is an important benchmark because it gives the investors that clear view of, hey, what we've updated to and where we're seeing.
You get that current view of what that resource is in Kitsault, they can start putting together the vision that we talk about here through the press releases, start overlaying in the new press releases and the assays that are coming out there. To me, the key question is whether these new assays demonstrate this continued continuity of these zones that we think are there, how far and how fast can we push this with our team that we have out on the ground in the next couple of months out there.
That'd be exciting.
We're drilling 500 meters a day.
Wow. A day.
Yeah. They're really kicking it. I've been impressed by the consistency of the productivity. Yeah, hats off to the team out there, the drilling company, the helicopter company, everybody. They've got it dialed in.
The logistics. It ain't nothing but logistics in remote work. I wasn't kidding when I said the pace. It just does seem to be really rock and rolling, which is fun. Rick, I got a question for you I would normally ask Michael Clark, but since you're on the call, I will ask you instead. On the financial side-
I know what it's about.
The H word might be mentioned in a moment. I know you've delivered all of the remaining 2026 hedge obligations, as I understand it, ahead of schedule. In plain English for a layman like me, what does clearing those hedges by mid-June mean for Contango's exposure to the gold price for the rest of the year?
Yeah. As you said, we've delivered into the 2026 hedge book, meaning that all the gold we sell forward, from this time forward, the next two batches for this year will be at spot. I will commit when we deliver into all the hedges, which our objective is still to do all that this year. Mike's coming on the show, you'll have a hat on that'll say, "Hedge free" or a T-shirt or something.
He'll get special sweater made.
That is definitely one of our main objectives, delivering into the hedges and pay off the debt. Again, we're going to look at some opportunity ways and look at a $4,000 gold price or under $4,000 gold price, maybe we'll take a look at just getting rid of them.
Sure.
We believe in gold. As we said earlier, we don't think any of the fundamental macro elements have changed for gold, and we're still heading towards this.
The train's still moving.
Hopefully we won't be as bad off as Zimbabwe. It's a good time to be thinking about these things.
Yeah.
55 silver, $4,000 gold, we may find something opportunistic, an opportunistic way to take out the hedges earlier. That is our objective. Our philosophy is that investors can make their own view on gold, whether it's going up or down. We want to produce it, and we want to give our shareholders and investors the opportunity to make their own decisions about where the gold price ought to be, and whether they should be shorting it or going long.
Sure. It makes sense. In the same universe, I know given the, we'll call it attractive pricing going on in the market generally, what are your thoughts on M&A in the space? Especially since we're seeing it heat up, I think, right now.
I think six months ago there was a lot of talk going on. I don't think anybody likes their valuation today, frankly. We certainly don't like ours, it is what it is. For us, the main thing that we're focused on from an M&A standpoint is acquiring a mill that will be able to process our Johnson Tract and Kitsault ores in particular, because that's a more particular kind of mill that needs sulfide flotation circuit to process the ore and concentrate the ore into copper, zinc, and lead precious metal concentrates. In terms of for the general market, again, I think most people are thinking they don't like their valuation today.
Sure
I think whereas six months ago there was a lot of talk about it, I think everybody's going to be a little circumspect right now.
Sure, it's going to look quieter. I got one question that came in advance over email, and then we'll close on a why now question for Contango. I think they'll flow into each other, but somebody asked over email, they like the merger, and like the company. They're wondering why their initial investment dropped after the merger occurred. Just if you could speak on general markets one more time.
Yeah. I mean, this is a sector-wide thing. I think everybody without exception, this includes Newmont, Barrick, Agnico Eagle, they're all off 30%, and I'd say as high as 50%.
Yep
From beginning of the year. Yeah, that's why I say nobody likes their valuation right now. Maybe this leads into the question, why now? We're trading at a valuation lower than before we were in production.
Yeah.
Which makes no sense. I don't think this isn't going to last very long. If this is the new normal gold price, $4,000 gold, we're making a lot of money at $4,000 gold. We're going to demonstrate that Lucky Shot is a viable project in the next year here. I'm going down more, as we talked about earlier. I'm excited about the new things we're seeing at Lucky Shot, the KM vein. If we can continue to advance our Johnson Tract project through the permitting process, get the road built, get underground. This year, five rigs turning at Kitsault. Don't know what we're going to be doing next year. We're also upgrading a road at Kitsault.
Yeah, sure.
Remember, that was a DSO mine, right? They didn't process any ore there. They hauled it down to the smelter. That infrastructure exists. We're just refurbishing that road this year. Part of it, not all of it, but a good part of it. Yeah, to me, it should be an exciting time for investors to take a look at Contango specifically because we haven't been valued this low for a long time. It's a great entry point if you're interested in gold. Our model focuses on getting things into production quickly because of the lack of permitting, the small amount of permitting that we're doing relative to most big mining projects. The fact that it's capital light because we're not building a mill and a tailings facility, and we have ore grades that allow for the transport of ore to an existing permitted facility.
I'm a significant shareholder of the company, and I don't like dilution. That's part of our philosophy in terms of executing this DSO plan.
Awesome. No, appreciate it. Appreciate you going through not just all the updates from the press release, but also yapping with me about markets because everybody's trying to figure out what's going on. I'm glad. Any viewpoints, appreciate it very much. Dave, thanks obviously for taking time out of your day while you're at Lucky Shot. Looking forward to see what news comes next. I know there are just 150 folks in the room. You guys were a little shy today with questions. If you do think of some afterwards, please do let me know. Shoot through over email. I'll send them through to the Contango team. They'll get back to you as soon as possible. Rick and Dave, thank you so much. Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.