Interview with Stephen Stewart, CEO of Orefinders Resources (CVE:ORX)

Orefinders Resources (founded in 2013) is a gold developer with gold assets in Canada’s Abitibi, including its 100% owned McGarry, Knight and Mirado Projects. The company has c. US$2M cash and this should see them through a drill programme, with developing 2 of the 4 assets the focus for now. Sprott is involved, picking up around US$1M of shares in the recent private placement. The investor PPT says: 'Orefinders is not your traditional gold junior.' Orefinders Resources claims to have a unique 'value-based approach' that investors shouldn't ignore. What are the two key strategies?

'1. When the market presents an opportunity to acquire assets for less than their fair value, we look to acquire.

2. When the market pays fair value for assets and rewards exploration results, then we will pivot, return to the drill bit and focus on developing our existing assets.'

Buy when the gold market is down, pivot towards exploration when the market is up: investing rather than acquiring. 'Acquisition capital is best deployed in a bear market,' exploration capital is best raised in a bull market.' It looks a sensible strategy. Is it it really that different to most gold juniors we interview though? Let's unpack this.

Orefinders Resources is a contrarian gold developer that is looking to buck the trend of drill, drill, drill. Stewart came aboard in 2015 when the company had a share price of C$0.005 with just C$200,000 in the bank. He hit the reset button and resurrected the company, moving away from the traditional simplistic mining model the company had previously adopted. It was a tough environment for gold at the time, but the idea was to buy quality assets in the ground and create a 'hub and spoke model.' Not just any old ounces: quality ounces that were strategic to the master plan.

What sort of specific criteria get employed? Potential assets must have access to infrastructure and is preferably on a road within a 20km-30km radius, and must have had sufficient work already done on them. This is how Stewart has attempted to build value for Orefinders shareholders. Several of Orefinders acquisitions were undervalued because they were problematic, some involving litigation (Stewart wanting to get rid of the board and management of a company), but by eventually solving these issues, Stewart has successfully picked up them at a discounted price.

What will Orefinders next move be with just US$2M in the bank? The focus will be drilling on the Knight project, 70km to the west of the company's other properties, with 3 styles of mineralisation to focus on. If it wasn't for COVID-19, Orefinders may well be on the ground right now. The second drill programme will be on the McGarry project. Both these drill programmes will be completed in 2020. Why these two assets? Knight is the one that got investors most excited. The mineralogy looks promising. US$500,000 should get Orefinders 4,000m of drilling in 60 to 90-days, to add to the 30,000m of drill core from previous owners. This will go into the projects 43-101 (it's the only project owned by Orefinders without a 43-101). The projects sits on top of a 4Moz asset owned by Pan American Silver (who is in the process of selling it), which should see investment for the first time in years. He thinks this makes Orefinders an attractive proposition because the two projects belong together. The chess move on McGarry is similar: McGarry is close to one of the most historically profitable mines in Canada. The geology is all similar. Stewart is attempting to connect the dots. Orefinders also owns the tailings facility.

The next potential raise doesn't appear to be on the cards anytime soon. Will investors be concerned that Orefinders will be running its capital too low? Stewart is on C$10,000 pm and owns c. 5M shares (all paid for).  

Company Page: http://www.orefinders.ca/

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