In the last week, you announced drilling is to commence at the Molopo Farms Complex Project in Botswana. In your RNS comments, you say this is an “exciting drill programme”. Why?
For the reason that captured Power Metal’s interest in the first place, that Molopo Farms is a District Scale opportunity. The plan is to drill four high profile targets for nickel sulphide and platinum group elements (“PGMs”), however there are many more targets than the initial four, and if successful in the maiden drilling, the potential scale of this project is immense.
To quote from the RNS itself:
“The Molopo Farms Complex is a major ultramafic-mafic layered intrusion straddling the southern border of Botswana with South Africa. It lies within the south-western part the large igneous province that includes the famous Bushveld Complex which contains the world’s largest reserves of PGMs.”
So, the excitement is palpable amongst the technical team and the very fact the drill team are getting set up on site is an event we have long awaited and long prepared for. We are eager to get the core out of the ground and see what results we find.
The Molopo Project is one of nine projects within the Power Metal Portfolio. What’s the Company strategy with such a large portfolio?
We have deliberately pursued opportunities offering District Scale potential. Molopo has this in Botswana, and so does our joint venture (“JV”) with Katoro Gold plc (LON:KAT) at the Haneti project in Tanzania where we are also building up to drill major nickel sulphide and PGM targets within an 80km long ultramafic complex. An extraordinary project of considerable scale and potential.
In our Australian gold JV with Red Rock Resources plc (LON:RRR) we have 2,188sq km of ground under application in the Victoria goldfields, one of the hottest postcodes for high grade gold exploration in the world at the moment. Again, District Scale however you look at it.
Our portfolio has nine projects in total, three described above. It has been assembled over 20 months in 2019/2020 during some incredibly tough conditions in the junior resource sector. The outcome is that Power Metal now has a project portfolio that ordinarily a much larger company would hold and we have a much bigger vision for our Company than the current market valuation would imply.
Ultimately the way to major valuation uplifts is through large-scale metal discoveries and for that you need the right projects, the right operational approach and adequate financing to pursue your ambitions. I believe we have all three.
You have been buying Power Metal shares in the past week, what attracts you to the Company’s story from a personal investment perspective?
The projects definitely, as Power Metal has been fortunate to assemble this number of large-scale projects in one small company wrapper. There is proactive exploration going on, and particularly drilling, with results coming from across the portfolio in the coming weeks and months. As an investor I like the concept of near-term results that could revalue the investment dramatically.
I have great confidence in what we are doing at Power Metal and bought £35,000 of Company stock on market in the last week. Overall, I have invested over £250,000 cash in Power Metal shares since I became involved.
I have been directly involved in a major discovery before, as CEO of Metal Tiger in 2016 when, with our JV partners, we discovered the T3 copper-silver deposit in Botswana. One single event, that T3 discovery, transformed Metal Tiger, almost overnight. I want to achieve that again with Power Metal, and this time with all the knowledge and experience that I have accumulated over the years.
When you buy shares in a company you lead as CEO, you are of course ultimately backing yourself. I am happy to do that and it’s ironic because I don’t see many fellow CEOs putting material amounts of money into their companies. Perhaps that should say something to investors.
Can Power Metal be the next Greatland Gold or Eurasia Mining?
Well what a target to go for as both have now achieved £1billion market caps and experienced an incredible pathway to grand market capitalisations, starting from small company status. I know both well as for Metal Tiger plc I was involved with the refinancing and restructuring of Greatland in April 2016 (refinancing then at 0.1p, GGP now 21.75p) and also the financing of Eurasia in December 2014 (financing then at 0.50p, now 37p).
Both Greatland and Eurasia show what is possible in our market. They have world class projects and major discoveries within their portfolio and have over recent months/years seen market valuations rise dramatically.
I would say Power Metal should try to emulate that success and we are working with that in mind. We think our projects have the potential to deliver multiple major discoveries and we have the working capital to proactively explore to achieve that. Our exploration work is underway right now in many of our projects and it won’t be too long before we find out if our early drill programmes do deliver a new major metal discovery.
What news can shareholders expect in the near future?
We recently published an overview of the Company’s projects and the targeted 2020 news flow. I have copied this below and it’s available on the Power Metal website through the following link:
https://www.powermetalresources.com/p/227/project-summary
| PROJECT | METAL | POW
INTEREST |
CURRENT STATUS | TARGETED KEY NEWS 2020 |
| AUSTRALIA
Victoria Goldfields Joint Venture
|
Gold | 49.9% | 12 applications over (2,188 km2.) Completed historic project reports, exploration planning and NI 43-101. | Potential grant of exploration licences, starting with first 3 priority applications, then launch of exploration programmes.
Progress updates for listing on North American stock exchange. |
| BOTSWANA
Ditau Camp Project
|
Rare Earths | 50% | 2 licences (1,386km2) Rare earths potential established from recent exploration work. | Commence orientation study to assist in the characterisation and exploration vectoring for the Ditau Project carbonatite ring-structures potentially hosting rare earths. |
| BOTSWANA
Kalahari Copper Belt Project
|
Copper
Silver |
50% | 2 licences (1,386km2) southwest of Sandfire Resources’ T3 and A4 Dome copper-silver discoveries. | Exploration results from soil sampling, then ground magnetic surveying, and possibly airborne electromagnetic surveying, leading into drill target development. |
| BOTSWANA
Molopo Farms Complex Project
|
Nickel
Copper PGMs |
Up to 50.96% | 3 licences (1,780km2) with multiple targets identified from electromagnetic survey and ground geophysics. | Planned launch of maiden drill programme and thereafter delivery of results from drilling to the market including on-site findings and laboratory assays. (Note: drill mobilisation announced 7.10.20). |
| CAMEROON
Cobalt Blue Project
|
Cobalt
Nickel |
100% | 4 licences adjacent to, or within 50km of the Nkamouna/Nada cobalt/nickel deposit. | Announce findings from review of exploration strategies and potential commercialisation options. |
| CANADA
Silver Peak Project
|
Silver
|
30% | Mineral claims over historical Eureka-Victoria Silver Mine and high grade, intrusion related, polymetallic Ag-Pb-Zn-Cu veins. | Planned launch of drill programme targeting high grade silver veins and following channel sampling in September 2020 which highlighted bonanza grade of up to 14,937g/t (482 oz/t). |
| DRC
Kisinka Project
|
Copper
Cobalt |
70% | Exploration licence of 41 carrés miniers (each 84.95 ha) with a 6.8km copper anomaly identified. | Copper/cobalt assay results pending from 2020 pitting programme.
Conversion of the licence to a Permis d’Exploitation (production license) with a 25 year life. |
| TANZANIA
Haneti Project
|
Nickel
Copper PGMs Gold etc |
35% | Large polymetallic land package of c5,000 km2 including 80km long ultramafic complex with drill ready nickel sulphide/PGM targets. | Planned launch of maiden drill programme and thereafter delivery of results from drilling to the market including on-site findings and laboratory assays |
| USA
Alamo Gold Project
|
Gold | Up to 75% | Package of mining claims covering c766 acres prospective for gold following the discovery of native gold nuggets near surface. | Planned follow on exploration programme after initial short reconnaissance survey conducted successfully in August 2020. |
For further information please visit https://www.powermetalresources.com/ or contact:
|
Power Metal Resources plc |
|
|
Paul Johnson (Chief Executive Officer) |
+44 (0) 7766 465 617 |
Notes to Editors:
Power Metal Resources plc (LON:POW) is an AIM listed metals exploration and development company seeking a large scale metal discovery.
The Company has a global portfolio of project interests including precious metal exploration in North America and Australia together with base metal exploration in Africa. Project interests range from early-stage greenfield exploration to later stage drill ready prospects.
The Board and its team of advisors have expertise in project generation, exploration and development and have identified an opportunity to utilise the Company’s position to become a leader in the London market for investors wishing to gain exposure to proactive global metals exploration.
