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Revival Gold (TSX-V: RVG) CEO Hugh Agro on the Updated Resource Estimate of 2 Million Ounces at the Beartrack Project in Idaho
Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is President and CEO of Revival Gold (TSX-V: RVG)(OTC: RVLGF), Mr. Hugh Agro. Hugh, how are you this afternoon.
Hugh Agro: Thank you for having me, Gerardo. I'm very, very good.
Gerardo Del Real: We were joking offline that I'm always enthusiastic but I got to tell you, I'm a lot more enthusiastic today than I was yesterday, especially in regards to Revival Gold. Congratulations are in order on the updated 43-101 resource estimate for the past-producing Beartrack project. Fantastic work. Congratulations, Hugh.
Hugh Agro: We're thrilled with the results. We aim to deliver. We've been talking with you over the last six months or so. This is the culmination of a lot of work, and a lot of anticipation on the part of our team and a lot of our shareholders. So, very happy to have this result out. Takes us a long way in terms of our objectives with Beartrack, Arnett Creek.
Gerardo Del Real: You know, 2 million ounces of gold is a heck of a start. Let's go over the details. You have 1.2 million ounces in the indicated category. The grade is fantastic, it's 1.13 grams per tonne gold. Then you have an inferred resource of 765,000 ounces of gold, grading approximately 1.41 grams per tonne.
Additionally, I said it's a heck of a start, but additionally, you've also recommenced drilling at Beartrack. There's metallurgical work and there's drilling at the nearby Arnett Creek. So, it's a busy, busy rest of 2018. Let's take that in order. Let's start with the resource, Hugh.
Hugh Agro: Yeah, you bet. As you indicated about two-thirds of it's in the indicated category, which means we got a lot of confidence in the numbers that we have here. It's a solid base to start thinking in future about a PEA and such things. It's underpinned by 71,000 meters of drilling. 13,000 meters of that drilling is new drilling. As you know, we were in last year. We also picked up some drilling from prior years and we've got, in total, 458 drill holes that form the drill hole database for this resource.
It's a really solid resource. It's one that we can grow on. So you talked about the exploration for this year, one of the advantages of having something like this, is we can now really target our drilling for expansion. That's the objective this year.
Gerardo Del Real: Let's talk about the possibility for expansion. I was onsite last year. I'm looking forward to visiting again soon in the next several weeks. When I was there last year, if I remember correctly, we talked about the importance of that 5 kilometer trend. Obviously a lot of these 2 million ounces are near surface, which is great considering the grades, but there is extensive and significant potential at depth. Can we talk about that a bit?
Hugh Agro: Yeah, the deposit remains open at depth. And it remains open along strike to the southwest. Just to give you a little bit of perspective here, the total strike length of mineralized body that we're talking about here in this press release is about 2,300 meters. That's roughly half the strike length of what we have in the deposit area. So lots of exploration targets here along this Beartrack, Panther Creek Fault. And we haven't even got in to Arnett Creek, which is next door and on an intrusive structure that's running approximately perpendicular to the Panther Creek Fault. So lots of exploration targets here for follow up.
Gerardo Del Real: I mentioned 8,000 meters are planned at Beartrack, which is the flagship, but you also have 2,000 meters planned at Arnett Creek. Can we talk about that a bit?
Hugh Agro: So we're permitting 50 drill pad locations at Arnett Creek, and we've got a broad swath of area that we want to cover off. The historic mineralization there, we've talked about the past, it's about 200,000 ounces close to surface in oxides. Previously worked back in the 1990s so you know, gold price environment well down from where we are today. And so our intention is to get in there and start testing that potential at Arnett Creek. It will be the first drill holes of any modern sense in there in at least 30 years. We're excited about how that fits with Beartrack and the infrastructure that we already have in place at Beartrack six or seven kilometers away.
Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. You mentioned that the resource is underpinned by approximately 71,000 meters of drilling. It's also underpinned by historic metallurgical work and I understand that you've also initiated a modern metallurgical test work program for Beartrack. Can we talk about that a little bit?
Hugh Agro: The mineralization at Beartrack is broadly in two categories; material that we can heap leach, and material that we would process through a mill. The resource estimate has got to be based on the facts we have at hand. And those facts in the case of metallurgy and the process flow sheet are some 30 years old. It really wasn't the focus of the historic work. So what we're doing with this program that we've kicked off on the metallurgy is to put six composite samples in from across the different mineralized lithological units into SGS labs in Vancouver and start looking at some of the more interesting processing approaches that folks are taking today.
It'll take us a while to pool result from this, but we'll get initial results by the end of the third quarter here and it sets us up well for getting into a PEA and an update to the resource in future. We've got a lot of drilling to do. We've got this metallurgical work in parallel and that should all dovetail in early next year to starting to think about updates to the resource and plan beyond that for looking at economics.
Gerardo Del Real: Wonderful. In an environment where geopolitical risk is ever more in focus, I mean everywhere you look it seems like it's getting more dangerous by the day in regards to the resource space, politicians to my absolute shock, politicians in the US have done marvels for Idaho, especially in the last several of months.
Can we talk about the support that companies in Idaho have received – bipartisan support I should mention – from the politicians in the state. I understand you recently had a couple dates – one in New York and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the second was in Toronto –where the governor of Idaho actually joined you for several meetings. Can you talk about that a little bit, Hugh?
Hugh Agro: You've been on top of this Idaho theme for awhile, I think you're one of the early identifiers of Idaho's geological prospectivity and geopolitical favorability, and you've been bang on. You've been bang on with Midas, you've been bang on with some of the other companies you've followed and you're bang on with the Revival Gold. Our positioning couldn't be any better. And as you indicate it's a state that really understands mining, and understands the importance of mining in the framework of a broader state economy.
The governor, Butch Otter, was out with the companies a couple weeks ago in New York and Toronto as you've indicated, was very well received and on the back of that effort by the governor and by the hard work and great progress that Midas has made we now have Barrick in the state. Agnico Eagle is in the state with one of our favorite folks next door, Otis Gold. I'm sure we’ll see others. It's a very attractive place to be, there's a deep mining heritage and there's an understanding of the importance that responsible mining plays and exploration plays in the fabric of the economy.
Gerardo Del Real: What can we expect the rest of the year? I know we have drilling planned at both. We talked about Beartrack, we talked about Arnett Creek. When do we anticipate those drills to start turning, Hugh?
Hugh Agro: We're already on our way. I think we're at about three or four hundred meters on the first hole at Beartrack. We're going to get a crew out the middle of June to visit the site. By then I'll expect we have two rigs working. Gerardo, I know you love to get out to see these projects and we'll certainly hope to see you out there as well for some on the site truthing of all this good work that's going on at Revival Gold.
Gerardo Del Real: I'm absolutely looking forward to it, thank you in advance for the hospitality. I want to note that although the stock responded well – you were up 19% today – you have a two million ounces of gold head start and your market cap is still sub-$40 million if I'm not mistaken. A lot of upside. I know two million ounces is impressive, congratulations are definitely due and well deserved, but I get the feeling there is going to be some more to come.
Hugh Agro: We think so, we're in an environment where these deposits in this order of magnitude are very, very rare. And I think what happens in the junior mining market is there's so much stuff that needs to be sorted through and it very quickly narrows down to a few great projects out there and if you got great geography to overlay that, I think the market interest just really grows from there. We're very excited about where we're at, we've got a very rare project, we're in a great location as we've discussed. We've got $7 million of cash, so we're well-funded to pursue our programs and we've got a team here that has proven that not only can we say it, but we can do.
Gerardo Del Real: Under promise and over deliver, it's a good way to play. Thank you so much for your time today, Hugh.
Hugh Agro: Thanks, Gerardo.