The KE Report

Shawn Howarth, President and CEO of Excellon Resources (TSXV:EXN) (OTC:EXNRF)(FRA:E4X2), joins me to overview their 4 precious metals projects, with an emphasis on the recent closing in May of the acquisition of the past-producing Mallay Silver Mine, with plans to move this mine back into production by Q2 of 2026.  We then review the large exploration potential across their other 3 projects:  Tres Cerros, Kilgore, and Silver City. 

We kick things off having Shawn highlight why the company updated their project profile to focus on the jurisdiction of the Cerro de Pasco area of Peru, when acquiring both the Mallay Silver Mine and Tres Cerros exploration projects in the transaction announced in October of 2024, and closed on in May of this year.  Excellon has been a producing silver company in the past, and the management team and board had solid in-county experience in Peru, this transaction seemed like a perfect fit for taking the company to the next level.

 Mallay was built and operated by Buenaventura from 2012 to 2018, with US$115 million of historical investment.  The mine went into care and maintenance in 2018 due to low silver prices (~US$16.00 per ounce) and a change in strategic priorities at Buenaventura.  Annual production by Buenaventura (2013 to 2017) averaged 1.3 million ounces of silver, 9,100 tonnes of zinc and 6,500 tonnes of lead. 

Excellon announced a few months back that it has secured off-take agreements with Glencore for their concentrates, and is working to put a NI 43-101 economic study in place this year, to outline specific metrics for the move back into production. Shawn outlined that their internal studies project a run-rate of 600 tonnes per day of production, producing approximately 2-2.5 million silver equivalent ounces per year, and with a target All-In Sustaining Cost (AISC) of US$17 per AgEq ounce.   Shawn points out that they will also be engaging in an aggressive exploration program to demonstrate the resources can be grown and the mine life extended in a substantial way. 

The Tres Cerros Project is a highly prospective gold-silver exploration project approximately five kilometers northwest of the Mallay Mine. The project’s prime area of interest is a 2.5 kilometer by 500 meter corridor of gold-silver mineralization and coincident IP/resistivity anomalies, indicative of a bulk tonnage, high sulfidation epithermal system.  Numerous historical grab samples were taken across the 2.5 kilometer fault, which are being analyzed to determine further follow-up exploration work.

Kilgore, is an advanced gold project in Idaho with over 1 million ounces of gold delineated in all categories, and the Company is considering bringing in a JV partner to assist with moving this project forward in exploration and further derisking. Silver City, a high-grade epithermal silver district in Saxony, Germany, with a long history of almost 800 years of silver production.  Shawn has stated publicly that they are looking at various options, but are entertaining the idea of spinning out this asset into a new European-focused exploration vehicle. 

Wrapping up we reviewed the industry experience the Excellon management team and board has in both moving projects into production as well as a pedigree of exploration success.  We discussed that the company is cashed up after their financing and off-take agreement, to conduct the key work and studies on tap over the next 6-9 months as the company moves toward a production decision.

If you have questions for Shawn regarding Excellon Resources, then please email those in to me at [email protected].

Click here to follow the latest news from Excellon Resources

Jayant Bhandari, a private strategic resource investor that consults many high-net-worth investors and institutions, joins me to share his outlook on both gold and copper demand, as well as 3 different arbitrage trade opportunities in resource stock mergers, and the value proposition he sees in 2 gold exploration companies.

We start off in a general discussion about the macroeconomic and geopolitical tensions underlying the consistent bid in the gold price to higher levels.  At these higher prices he is not adding to his gold positions, but he is holding his positions bought at lower levels and anticipates pricing to keep advancing higher in most global currencies for medium to longer term.  

We also discussed the higher average pricing we’ve seen in copper (and this interview was recorded on Monday before Trump floated the plan to place a 50% tariff on copper coming into the US).  Jayant focused on the economic health in China being more robust that often covered in Western media outlets, and that despites the US/China tariff war, he still anticipates their internal growth will underpin consistent demand for copper and many other commodities.

The balance of the discussion focuses on value arbitrage setups in 3 resource stocks being acquired, and opportunities in 2 gold explorers that he holds in his own portfolio. The companies that we reviewed are:

Wrapping up, Jayant shares more information about why listeners may want to attend his Capitalism and Morality conference on August 22-23rd this year in Vancouver.  KER listeners can use coupon code KEReport25 for 10% off admission.*

https://jayantbhandari.com/capitalism-morality-2025/

Glenn Jessome, President and CEO of Silver Tiger Metals (TSX.V:SLVR – OTCQX:SLVTF), joins me to outline the importance of the imminent Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on the underground mine at their 100% owned, silver-gold El Tigre Project in Mexico. We then expand the conversation to highlight some upcoming blue-sky regional drilling that the exploration team will commence this fall around the La Protectora historic mine on trend with El Tigre. Wrapping up we also have Glenn separate the facts from the media hyperbole as it relates to mining and permitting in Mexico.

With the open-pit Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) solidly in place at El Tigre, and the operations team ready to hit the ground running just as soon as the final permits are received, the focus then shifted to building towards the upcoming PEA on the underground mine. The team has been compiling the last 5 years of work delineating the 113 million ounces of silver equivalent resources in the high-grade veins, shale, and sulphide zones underground portion of El Tigre, the metallurgical studies, and engineering work to be able to release the PEA by month’s end.  This report will center around the already permitted underground scenario utilizing an 800 tonnes-per-day (tpd) mill, and focusing on the initial first 10 years of mine life.

Glenn points out that during the PFS study on their open pit at El Tigre, that the 3rd-party qualified contractor noted when also reviewing their underground resources that they could add between 73-100 million more ounces simply by tightening up the drilling density in a number of areas.  We discuss the clear expansion potential beyond what will be highlighted in these initial economics.

Next we widened the vision of the company to their large district scale land position and how El Tigre is focused on just 2.5kms of a 20+ kilometer trend, peppered with a number of historically producing mines to both the south and the north.  The board has decided the time is right to step out and start doing regional exploration at the next key target of interest; around the La Protectora mine, located to the north of El Tigre.  Glenn mentioned that their exploration team has been on site there for the last couple months, mapping, sampling, and doing some targeting work to be able to start drilling there this Fall.

Wrapping up we focus on the misunderstandings from investors and the media with regards to the operational and permitting environment in Mexico, how the positive meetings between the government and mining companies have been ignored, and why the hyperbolic statements from some market commentators and the media have made a big deal about the “no new concessions” will be granted, not understanding the most mining concessions have already been granted for tens or hundreds of years now, so that won’t really matter, and doesn’t have anything to do with permitting on existing concessions.

If you have any follow up questions for Glenn about Silver Tiger, then please email me at [email protected].

Click here to follow the latest news from Silver Tiger Metals

Roger Rosmus, Founder, CEO, & Director of Goliath Resources (TSX.V: GOT) (OTCQB: GOTRF), joins me to review the news out July 7th  that announced the re-logging of drill hole GD-24-280 assayed 8.31 g/t Au over 23.00 meters, including 15.69 g/t Au over 11 meters, including 37.45 g/t Au or 1.20 oz/T over 4 meters in a third rock package within the high-grade gold Bonanza Zone and Surebet Discovery on the Golddigger Property located in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia. This leads to a larger discussion about prior press releases related to the overall 75 hole relogging program, and then the early visual results from the ongoing, 60,000 meters of new drilling, which will be the largest exploration program to date.

The increase to this year’s early exploration focus on relogging these holes is in light of the newly discovered widespread abundant visible gold seen with the naked eye in multiple reduced intrusion related gold (RIRG) dykes, as well as in the calc-silicate altered breccia which now means there is gold in 3 distinct rock pages on the property.  Roger describes the news release from back on June 23rd as really being the roadmap of what to expect as anticipated previously drill holes of interest and highlights a number of holes that are pending assays back from the lab. This re-logging initiative of core drilled between 2021 – 2024 is significantly expanding the area of strong gold potential, and takes the number of holes that have now intercepted ‘visible gold’ up to 94%.

Then we shifted over to the larger 60,000 meter drill program that is currently underway and still at the early stages, but Roger highlights the press release from July 2nd, where dill hole# GD-25-302 intersected 6 occurrences of gold visible to the naked eye within a 96.50 meter mineralized interval from 89.50 meters to 186.00 meters within sulphide rich calc-silicate veins in altered andesite with high density veining. This hole is still in progress and is the first deep hole drilled on Surebet designed to go to a depth of 1,000 meters to test the area believed to have strong potential to contain the Motherlode magmatic source responsible for the 1.8 km2 area of high-grade gold mineralization that remains wide open at the Surebet Discovery; assays are pending for drill hole GD-25-302.

There will be a flood of assays coming in from both the relogging initiative, as well as the new holes being drilled this season, so click on the link down below to follow along with all the news from the Company as it hits the newswires.

If you have any questions for Roger about Goliath Resources, then please email me at [email protected] and then we’ll get those answered or covered in a future interviews.

Click here to follow the latest news from Goliath Resources

President and CEO of Banyan Gold (TSX.V:BY - OTCQB:BYAGF), Tara Christie returns to discuss the updated Mineral Resource Estimate at the AurMac Project in the Yukon.

Key Milestone: Over 2.27 million ounces of gold converted to the Indicated category at 0.63 g/t Au, marking a major step forward in project de-risking ahead of a planned PEA in Q4.

Tara breaks down:

For follow-up questions for Tara, leave a comment or contact us directly. My email address is [email protected]. 

Click here to visit the Banyan Gold website.

Andrew Pollard, President and CEO of Blackrock Silver (TSX.V:BRC – OTCQX:BKRRF), joins me to discuss the final set of assay results released from its Resource Expansion Program showing significant width and high-grade silver and gold drill intercepts in step-out drilling at its 100% owned Tonopah West Project in Nevada, United States.  

Blackrock's resource expansion program at Tonopah West, which commenced in September 2024, consisted of 18 drillholes totalling 10,802 meters (35,438 feet) of drilling, targeted expansion potential along a one-kilometer northwest trend between the Denver-Paymaster and Bermuda-Merten vein groups ("DPB") south resource area and the Northwest (NW) Step Out resource area.

HIGHLIGHTS:

We review that in addition to higher confidence ounces, where there is now tighter drill spacing and ounces are going to be moving into the measured and indicated categories from inferred, that the resources will be growing in size, raising the overall high-grade deposit to even higher average grades, and there is more up-dip mineralization that will be factoring into the early year economics of the Project.  

These various data points will be incorporated into the upcoming updated resource estimate incorporating the M&I drilling due out by September, and then there will be a second resource update early next year that incorporates all the expansion drilling towards the NorthWest Step Out, and the Eastern Expansion area off DPB South towards the Ohio mine area.   After both resources have been released, then all of that data, combined with recent hydrology work, permitting work, and other derisking will be factored into an updated PEA.

We wrap up discussing the larger vision to get permitted to go underground and start working a trial mining study, where the bulk sample should be sizeable, and will verify assumptions on geology, ground conditions, recovery rates, and will be a payable event from the processed mineralized material.  These various catalysts are all opportunities for the company to rerate higher, in addition to just rerating more in alignment with the metrics the handful of other high-grade silver peers are receiving at present.

If you have any follow up questions for Andrew regarding Blackrock Silver, then please email them into me at [email protected].

Click here to visit the Blackrock Silver website to read over the recent news we discussed.

Ken MacLeod, President and CEO of Sonoro Gold Corp (TSXV: SGO) (OTCQB: SMOFF), joins me to review the value proposition for their flagship Cerro Caliche Gold Project, and the exploration and development initiatives to move it into open-pit gold and silver production within ~12 months of receiving their final permit in Mexico.

This 1,400-hectare property confirms a broadly mineralized low-sulphidation epithermal vein structure and over 25 northwest-trending gold mineralized zones along trend and near surface. With only 30% of the property’s identified mineralized zones drilled and assayed, the Company filed an updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) in March 2023 based on a total 55,360 meters of drilled data, including 498 drill holes, 17 trenches and assays for 53,865 meters of the drilled data.

In October 2023, the Company filed a new Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) demonstrating the potential viability for a 9-year open pit, heap leach mining operation. Using a gold price of US $1,800 per ounce, the project has an after-tax net present value discounted at 5% (“NPV5”) of US $47.7M and an Internal Rate of Return (“IRR”) of 45%. Using a gold price of US $2,000 per ounce, the project has an after-tax NPV5 of US $77M and an IRR of 63%.  We discussed that with precious metals prices so much higher that the project has grown in value considerably, and the Company is working on an updated PEA for Q3 of this year, factoring in the ability to bring in material previously sterilized, and the cost efficiencies of the higher gold and silver prices.

Ken reviews the potential for resource expansion once the mine is in production, funded through organic revenue generation.  We also discussed the bench strength and experience of the management team and board, the strong inside ownership and separate the signal from all the media noise as it relates to permitting in Mexico and their anticipated receipt of their MIA for environmental impact later this year.

If you have questions for Ken regarding Sonoro Gold, then please email those into to me at [email protected].

Click here to follow the latest news on Sonoro Gold

Craig Hemke, founder and editor of TF Metals Report, joins us for a timely discussion ahead of the July 9th tariff deadline. We open with expectations around the expiration of the 90-day tariff pause and examine whether a renewed trade war could trigger short-term volatility, or present another "buy the dip" opportunity for metals.

Gold and silver may have more room to run, but will a falling dollar and global demand keep fueling this bull market?

Topics covered include:

Click here to visit Craig’s website - TF Metals Report

Erik Wetterling, Founder and Editor of The Hedgeless Horseman website, joins us to review the value proposition that has his attention in the corporate news and strategies from 4 gold and silver exploration companies that have also seen participation from large strategic investors in their most recent financings.

  >> The companies we discussed in the interview are:

* In full disclosure, some companies mentioned by Erik in this interview, are positions held in his personal portfolio, and also may be site sponsors of The Hedgeless Horseman website at the time of this recording.

Click here to follow Erik’s analysis over at The Hedgeless Horseman website

With the first half of 2025 now in the books, on this Weekend’s Show we conduct a mid-year review of the resource sector. Joe Mazumdar of Exploration Insights and Dave Erfle of Junior Miner Junky break down what’s driving metals prices, why equities are outperforming, and whether the junior rally has legs. From gold’s momentum to copper’s supply crunch, this episode maps the capital rotation underway.

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