Transcript
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0:08 You know, we've always wanted to be in the gold sector. It's just that the timing didn't work out at the outset of the company when it started 2.5 years ago. You know, at that time, the founding directors were with B2 Gold as part of the executive team there. And we didn't want to have any conflict of interest between B2 Gold and B Metals. So we specifically really focused on base metals at the time. And since then, I think that B2 Gold has just completely grown to another level. It's producing over 1 million ounces of gold on an annual basis. And it's a $6 billion company today. So I think that now is a good time for us to get into the gold sector.
0:55 We've always liked gold. And based on the expertise of our team, We obviously have a lot of knowledge of working in the gold space, but now it really makes sense. And with B2Gold being the largest shareholder of Kronk, and them coming into the fold, I think that this is perfect timing for us because we get a good strong cornerstone investor into B Metals. Obviously we get the financial backing from B2 Gold as well with a $7.5M investment from them. And This gives us a really good head start to work on the exploration properties that we're acquiring in Japan, but also for anything new that comes into the fold or comes out across our desk, we can look at additional gold projects now. So I think It's a new or I think it's a different story because we have quite a diverse portfolio, especially for a junior mining company.
1:53 We're scattered across now Japan, Zambia and United States. I think that gives us a really good or broad exposure to both commodities, but also to jurisdictions
2:04 And in this environment, it seems as though gold is going to perform well. And with base metals, I don't think we can go too wrong. I mean, if infrastructure expenditure is increased from governments to come out of this pandemic, then base metal should be a terrific place. And so we're in both of those metal sectors. What are your thoughts on the Cato project? Sure. I mean, we're really excited about the Cato project especially right now. One of our advisors, Dr. Richard Sillitoe, is one of the most well-known economic geologists in the world. And it was a kind of a funny story, but our CEO, John Wilton was sitting in Denver, actually speaking with Dr.
2:54 Sillito and said that, you know, there's some gold projects that we might be able to acquire in Japan. And he said, well, I know of one of the best projects in Japan and it's called Seta River. Unbeknownst to us at the time, Seta River had actually, the project's name had changed to the Kato Project. And so Dr. Selto was really intrigued with this project. Back in the 90s, he was working with the Japanese government to drill this property. And It came up with some very great results and hasn't really seen a lot of follow-up work. And so when we were acquiring this project and it became known to us that this was previously called Seto River and he found out he was really excited and he wants to get down to the property again. Obviously we want to get to the properties as soon as possible as well.
3:52 So it's a great time I think for us to get into Japan and we have an exciting property there. We also have 4 other properties in Japan But this one is the most advanced. It's been drilled and it's come up with historically good results. So we just need to get a drill rig down on site and hopefully get to drill that as soon as possible. So I think at least if you ask anybody, you know, where do you think you're going to find the highest grade gold mine in the world? And probably unless you're a geologist or into mining, you're not going to guess that Japan is one of those places. And the Hishikari mine is one of the highest grade operating mines, gold mines in the entire world.
4:43 Its average head grade is between 30 to 40 grams per ton, which is about an ounce per ton. That's exceptional grade, especially when you consider that the average grade in operating mines is probably more like 1 or even less gram per ton. And so you look at 30 to 40 times what your average grade would be in the world. So that certainly is something that really attracted us. If you have something that's a high grade, it could be a very economic producer. And so that really intrigued us. It really worked out well because Kronk was one of the early companies to get into Japan and start staking up properties. So they were able to get their hands on this property. And so, you know, we're all just excited
5:30 to get our hands on this property and hopefully we can start drilling on it as soon as possible. Yeah, well, it's not exactly a new relationship, so to speak, because our directors, or at least 3 of them, are very highly involved with B2Gold. Myself, I started my career with Bima Gold, which was a predecessor to B2Gold. And then our CEO, John Wilton, also has a strong connection with the team because he was actually part of the exploration team that discovered the Ojikodo gold mine in Namibia and that project became a 2 million ounce deposit under his watch And eventually it was sold off to a company called Oryx, which then was bought out by B2 Gold. And so now the Ojikoto mine is one of the best producing mines in the portfolio for B2 Gold.
6:31 So John has always had a strong connection with the B2 team, myself. And now that we actually have B2 coming in as a strategic investor, also they're one of the largest shareholders, well, one of the largest shareholders of Kronk. There's all kinds of connections now with B2 Gold and this kind of cements it now having them as our largest single shareholder.
7:01 So quite a bit coming up I would say the first thing we got to do is close the cron transaction itself, which should happen any day. We're just waiting for the TSX to give us their blessing. Right after that, we kind of switch gears and look at the South Mountain property, which is a high grade polymetallic property in Idaho. It is our most advanced property in the portfolio and we're trying to get a revised resource estimate out on that before the end of this month. So we've got not even 2 weeks. So hopefully we should be able to get that done here. Then that gets fed into a preliminary economic assessment for the property, which should be completed by September of this year. I think that's going to be a really big milestone for us because it's finally going to give us a glimpse into the economics or potential economics for this property.
7:52 And then from there we'd probably look at doing either a pre-feasibility or feasibility study for South Mountain. For Pangeani, We just brought in a new partner, which is known as Jogmek, and it's a Japanese entity. They're actually coming in with a $1.5 million US investment into the property itself. And that's going to give us one of the biggest budgets for us to drill on the property to date. So we should be getting the drill program started there. I hope I say May or June and We'll be able to deliver a pretty substantial drill program there. And then of course, Japan. Once we get into Japan and start to drill there, we should have drill rigs turning on potentially 3 properties by the end of this year. So we should have plenty of news flow coming up kind of towards the fall and onwards.
