Silvers Turning Tide – Deficit & Perfect Macro Setup

0:08 Hi, everyone. This is Jeff Clark at thegoldadvisor.com. Thanks for joining us in our Silver panel. This is going to be fun. This is going to be exciting and hopefully very informative for all of us. Our panel is titled, Silver's Turning Tide, the Deficit and Perfect Macro Setup. And we have some very distinguished gentlemen with us today, the CEOs of all these companies. They were invited here for a reason because of what they're doing with their companies, but also their knowledge about the business. So first we have there Sean Cooncoon, the CEO of Dolly Varden Silver. Thanks for joining us, Sean. Great forum to be on, Jeff. Thank you.

0:46 Andrew Pauler, the CEO of BlackRock Silver, who's been on one of these before. So thanks for coming on again, Andrew. My goodness, good to be here and great lineup you've put together. Yeah, great. And Galen McNamara, CEO of SummaSilver, also been on one of these before. So Galen, thanks again for coming back. All right, well, thanks for the invite, Jeff, and great to join such a great panel.

1:09 Yeah. So what we're gonna do, here's our sort of outline for the panel here. So we're gonna start macro first. We're gonna talk big picture on the economy, the markets and that sort of thing. Nothing to do with silver, but we want to talk about the macro picture because it does have influence on the silver market and of course silver stocks. And then we're going to talk about the silver market itself.

1:32 There is a big deficit, as many of you, I think, know. And we're going to talk about that. I have a chart to show you as well. And we'll get input from these gentlemen on what they see as the big issues for the silver market, whether it's the deficit or industrial demand, investment demand, all that sort of thing. Then our third topic will be the silver equities themselves. Some of the silver equities have struggled a little bit. Silver's made a little bit of move. Some of the equities are not following suit. So what about that? So we'll get some input from these guys on that as well. And then last, we're going to talk about these companies. Again, they were invited on this panel for a reason. We're going to talk about their companies, what's going on with them and what we can expect in 2023. And if we're going to see some very interesting catalysts coming out of their companies this year. So we're also taking Q&A as we go along, and I'll do my best to grab some of the more commonly asked questions.

2:29 You can see that. You should be able to see that on your screen, I believe it's on the right. And so you can submit those as we go along on each of those topics and we'll try to grab, like I said, some of those as we go along. The panel is going to be an hour long. So go ahead and strap in and sit back and enjoy. And if we go a little longer, so be it. So, okay, guys. So first let's talk about the macro picture, like I said. So, Sean, I'll start with you. I'll just take these guys alphabetically.

3:00 Sean, what do you see in the macro picture I mean we have. On the one hand we have inflation. It's coming down a little bit the fed still is talking about they're still going to raise rates I think the latest. Estimate from traders was at 25 percent basis 0.25 basis point raise. Coming up here next- meanwhile we have geopolitical concerns we have the possibility of a recession. There's a lot going on in the big macro picture so Sean what's your assessment of that What do you see coming here in 2023? What's your expectation here, if you could share with us? Sure. Well, that's a lot to digest there. I'll take the first point in terms of inflation. And it's interesting.

3:47 We hear that inflation is coming down, but I personally don't see it in my day-to-day life. Sure, we might have seen it a little bit with the oil price, and I know how important oil is into the inputs of other goods, but you don't have to go beyond the grocery store to see double digit inflation. So I, again, and this goes back to the idea of artificially suppressing rates and all the negative repercussions that could come from that.

4:21 And for me, it all goes back to, one of the first lessons I learned in financial markets goes back to the Battle of Waterloo in 1812. And the lesson in that, I'll spare everybody the details, but the lesson is, ultimately the truth comes out in the end. And I think right now, what's motivated me to dedicate my professional life to gold and silver, and I've been doing it for 20 years, is I see it as the only life raft that's going to get me through all the challenges that the world faces. So whether it's currencies being devalued, whether it's, you know, us moving into a very different world in terms of, you know, power moving from west to east.

5:13 And I just think that, you know, for All of us, gold and silver has this long history and this is really our life raft and I'm clinging on to it very hard. Well, I couldn't agree with that more. So Galen, where are you following this? What is the macro picture? Lots going on, but what do you see? What do you think? So Sean made some good points there, and maybe to build on that a little bit, the way I see it is that historically inflation comes in waves, in multiple waves, And maybe we're seeing it right now slow down, but like, you know, like Sean, you were saying we go to the grocery store and it's still going up, but here in Canada, I think it's like 11% food prices, you know, year over year. And the only thing that's making it slow down, or at least the headline is fuel prices. That's the main driver of this quote unquote slowdown.

6:04 But we all know that fuel prices are volatile from month to month, from week to week anyways, right? So is that really a decrease in the cost of living? I don't know. So I mean, for me, it's like, is this slowdown real? Maybe, maybe not. Does inflation come in waves anyways? Yeah, it really does every time. So again, there's really only, in a macro picture, where do we go from here? And I also like the shelter that gold and silver offer in the longterm. Yeah, good. Andrew, macro picture, big picture, what are you thinking? Yeah, well, listen, I think we're sort of in the middle of the perfect storm right now and we're staring down, I guess, the barrel of probably one of the best setups you could look for if you're in any commodity. I mean, you know, what took a lot of the luster out of the junior miners over the last few years was we were competing against the speculative bubble that was Bitcoin.

7:02 Well that's all but collapsed under its own weight and greed and we're left with a metal, a silver price that's 0.5, 50% off of its all-time highs. You're looking, staring down a deficit projected based off just the demand aspect of it. And now we're entering a point in time where the government's going to start tipping on the scales with all these, you know, they're going to mandate into extinction, you know, gas powered vehicles and, you know, really hammer home EV sales. Well, that's going to be good for silver. Obviously, solar panels, all this new demand that's coming online, whether it makes sense economically or not, the government doesn't care. They're going to just be doing it. And Silver is such a small market in the grand scheme of things that a little uptake in demand sends prices up at a logarithmic sort of path.

7:57 So here we are. Silver had a wild ride last year. And even though it's recovered a lot of ground here, the junior miners really haven't started moving yet, not in relation to how the commodities traded. The big caps have started too, and their balance sheets are healthier than ever. I mean, they've paid down debt. You know, not many silver companies were making money at $19, $20, but here you are at $24, and all of them should be cash cows right now. And you just haven't seen that, I guess, the high watermark start to rise, that the boats start to rise at the lower end of the spectrum. But that day is coming soon. I mean, right now there's just so much value in things. And it's like a spring. And I think it's going to happen sooner than we all can imagine. And you'll start to see the valuations move in conjunction with the underlying.

8:48 Yeah, good. Thank you, Andrew. But on the macro picture, do you see some things in the macro picture that maybe impact silver? If we go into a recession, if the Fed keeps raising rates, What do you guys think? Andrew, first, what do you think about that? Yeah, well, I mean, the macro picture, from the demand side of things, demand's only going up as silver panels, usage goes up significantly. I mean, that's gonna just keep taking a bigger slice of the mineable ounces, just going towards that. EV cars, I mean, they use substantially more silver than

9:27 a normal gas-powered vehicle. You've got the whole 5G network that they're rolling out and the electrification of society. Well, silver is in everything. It's in your handheld, it's in your computer, it's the best conductor of electricity out there. So, you know, as the world comes online, as third world countries become electrified, that's going to see substantial demand there. So silver is both a precious metal and it's got a utility to it. And on the just financial side of things, now that Bitcoin's sort of imploded, I think you're going to see a lot of money looking for a home there. You know, the outlook for gold, you know, that looks pretty good as well. And when gold goes, silver tends to outperform that. So you know, I'd say there's a lot going for us from a macro perspective. But right now, it's just it's like everyone's been burnt a few times because there's always been 1 step forward, 2 steps back in terms of a lot of the liquidity events you see over the last year or 2, which have been Fed driven.

10:28 Now we're coming to an end of that. The large rate hikes are over. They're getting smaller and smaller. And now the narrative isn't about what the Fed's going to do. It's when it's the narrative is when's the Fed going to stop and when are they going to start cutting? And I think that's really, you know, the end is in sight there. So I think the worst is behind us for sure. And I think when it goes, it'll really go. So. Okay, good, good. Okay, let's get into our second topic that Andrew started already talking about that of the silver market itself. So Cam is our organizer here. Cam, if you could throw that chart up for me. One of the things that we want to talk about in this panel is the deficit. We even put that in the title of the panel. So, and if you don't know, if you haven't seen this chart before, this is the gap between the annual silver supply and demand.

11:19 If it's green, that means there's more surplus. If it's red, that means there's more deficit that particular year. And look what happened just last year. We are at record levels. You have to go back to the 1990s, 2.5 decades to see a deficit in the annual silver supply and demand that is this big. It's huge. A lot of that is being driven. And here's the crazy thing. Supply was actually higher last year, but demand was so much greater that it made that gap that big. That's what's going on. But guys, do you have a comment on, you know, a lot of this is industrial demand, some of it's investment demand, But the point is demand is way up and supplies not able to keep up with it. So Sean back to you first. Do you have any insight as to what's happening there? What you see? Is this going to continue?

12:14 What's your reaction when you see data like this? Yeah, no, it's really interesting. A couple of things come to mind. If we look at the LBMA, for instance, and the 140-plus year history that they've been keeping price and inventory records, we're at the lowest levels in 144 years. You know, we've had 10,000 times outflow. And I think if we see demand in 2023, similar to what we saw last year, it's gonna set the silver price higher. And I've seen this in other markets, whether it was uranium going back to 2006, 7, we've seen it in silver going back to 2010,

13:03 silver is gonna have an exponential move. And what I really think about, if you go back to 2019, we had gold and silver breaking out in all currencies but the US dollar. And I think what we really need to highlight here is the marker that we're tracking price in. And in 2022, we had a really strong dollar. And I think we are seeing with this recent $300 move in the price of gold, gold always leads silver and then silver snaps. And I think we're getting very, very close to a breakout in gold. And I think $30, $35 silver is around the corner. So I'm really bullish. And like Andrew said earlier, what drew me to silver and what drew me to getting long silver equities is my experience in the 2000s, watching gold go through, breaking out, getting up to 1900, and silver can move so violently so quickly.

14:09 So yeah, the setup is ideal. However, saying all that, if we do get a massive recession, silver can get thrown out in the short term. But I think what I've learned, whether you go back to 2020, 2008, or even the 2000s, silver and Gold are the first to move. And unlike 07, where you had, if you look at the gold and silver equities that were really at a height of valuation, you go back to a company like Goldcorp back in 2007 that was trading at a $40 billion valuation, when the markets fell, they too fell. But this is a very similar setup to the 2000s where gold equities were in the basement, the sub-basement, and you can't fall from there. So I think the setup's ideal, and this is a once in a generational opportunity.

15:05 And that's why, like, 20 years I've been doing this, I've been very, very conservative. But if you look back at some of the videos that I put out in September, I was literally pounding my fist on the table saying, this is an all-in moment. And if you look at some of the silver equities, they've moved up a little bit, but there's still tremendous opportunities right now. Oh, undoubtedly. Yeah. Galen, what do you think? Silver market, industrial demand, physical demand, whatever you want to talk about, but what's your assessment of the silver market right now? Well, first of all, Jeff, like this is just a striking figure you've put up here, and not only is the deficit bad, It looks really bad. Speaking from my perspective, starting with the supply side, good silver deposits are really difficult to find.

15:56 And good silver deposits in good jurisdictions are becoming even more hard to find. So that is really causing a stress on the supply side. But that's only half the picture. Of course, on the demand side, with all of the emerging implications of Silver because of its electrical conductivity, like in solar panels, like in EVs, like in things like this. I mean, this isn't my idea, it's not an original idea, but silver really could connect with lithium or the next cobalt. And I think as an industry, the last thing that we want is getting sourcing some of these very critical metals from the places where we source things like cobalt right now and the conditions that brings.

16:41 So that as an industry leads us to have a unique challenge and also a unique opportunity in that domestic supply for a lot of these things is becoming a really important theme in our work. And are we going to be able to get back to supply to a surplus sometime soon? I don't know, but looking at, just to ring off some numbers, I think the IEA thinks that solar demand for silver could triple in the next 4 or 5 years. Well, if that happens, I mean, we're talking about 100 million ounces a year to 300 million ounces a year, you know, something like 30% of the market, and that doesn't even include the new solar technologies that need 2 or 3 times as much silver, you know, for every panel. So, you know, I think, Sean, to use your word, the perfect storm, it's, you know, we're, you know, I'm on the same page as that and and I'm really really excited about our prospects In the next year 2 years 3 years 4 years 5 years Good. Okay, great. Hey guys, we're getting some really good questions in here. So I want to jump into these were on this topic So this is from Adrian. So Andrew, what do you think? We are seeing EV battery manufacturers investing in battery metals mining companies.

17:56 Might solar panel or other industrial users of silver start investing directly in silver companies to secure supply? Great question, Adrian. Andrew, what do you think? Yeah, well, I think supply chains are coming more and more into focus now because, you know, with all of the shutdowns over the last few years, you realize how interconnected every moving piece is and one little kink in the chain can screw everything up for months and months. You saw that with cars, new cars not being able to access the chips to put in them. As Galen mentioned, the world's a big place and every country has its own set of standards. Before it was easy enough to, if you're a consumer, if you're say a Tesla for example, you were at the one end of the supply chain and then the mines were at a completely different other end of the supply chain and the smelters would be along the way too. Everyone was so far removed from all the different pieces of the chain there that no one was paying attention to it. But I mean, just a month ago, I think there was a guest on Joe Rogan who was shining a light on cobalt mining and the DRC and everything that all the manufacturers on the one side of the supply chain were saying about it being green and ethical and high standards and all these sorts of things turned out to be bullshit. You know, it's kids working in sandals, picks and shovels and thousands of them, right?

19:25 So I think the world's gonna get more focused on supply chains. I think it's gonna be, you know, You've got this whole stakeholder capitalism, which is sort of the word of the day, and where companies are, we answer to our shareholders, but we also answer to, I guess, what we're doing as a society and the role we play there. And I think that, you know, having domestic sources that you can point to and say, this is the mine, this, you know, silver for the solar panel came from. These are the standards. These are the environmental regulations. Here's all of their agreements. And that's gonna become more and more important. So I do see the Samsungs of the world, Tesla's even floated that they'd get into the mining business if they had to, to get a handle on their supply.

20:15 And most importantly, say where it's actually coming from. I think it's going to be demanded in the not too distant future. Good, okay. Here's another good question guys on this topic. It has to do with investment demand and if you don't know historically the research shows that it is investment demand in silver that tends to drive the price the most. Jewelry, silverware, even industrial demand, those things are relatively flat, they support the price. Industrial demand is definitely rising, but it doesn't tend to ignite the silver price. What really does that is investment demand. We had physical demand was elevated last year, was above average last year, but ETF demand of silver was actually below trend. It was below average.

21:00 So if we see ETF demand pick up this year and physical demand stays elevated, we could definitely see a nice little spike in the silver price. We'll see. But here's this question and Sean and Gail, I'll have you weigh in on this. I'd love to hear This is from Lewis. Thank you, Lewis. Would love to hear if these junior mining CEOs are personally seeing more large investor interest in investing capital with this recent rise in the metals price. So if you could speak to not just your company, but in general, what are you seeing out there? So John, what do you think? So back in September, we had a large institution come in and pick up a 7.5% position in my company. And that was a material investment.

21:50 And so we're seeing it firsthand. And then what we've also seen is, and companies on this panel have experienced this, where the SILJ, the silver ETF, has doubled its weighting into some of the names that are on this panel and what that's done for our valuations and our share prices. So yeah, I'm seeing it directly. And so from some of the biggest and smartest money that's out there and that's managed, what I'm hearing is we are buying today because we believe over the next 12 months, we are gonna see 400% returns. And that is the guidance I'm given by portfolio managers. And these are some of the largest organizations in the world, managed funds, that are very conservative.

22:44 And So it's interesting. They're not even silver bugs, right? They're not gold and silver bugs. Absolutely not. I'll give you an example. This one particular institution, let's say they're managing, I'm just going to throw in a number, $150 billion. They've allocated $1 billion to precious metals. And so and the money they're putting to work or they were putting to work in September and October with the view that, you know, we're not sure what happens in the short term, but over the next 12 months, we anticipate and conservatively making 400 percent returns. Wow. Very interesting. Galen, do you have a comment on that in terms of the silver market or the silver equities or what do you think? I would echo that same sentiment in that starting about 5, 6 months ago, we started seeing a marked increase in interest from the smarter style money where there was a lot of inbound investor interest on the institutional level for companies like ours.

23:51 And even in our last financing, without getting into names, that same strong interest was there and participation was there.

24:01 But the other thing just about that is that with the generalists now starting to come into this Even as a trade over a year They've still got a lot of catching up to do if they really want to have you know a fair weighting into this and you know Yeah, 1 billion dollars is out of 150 billion dollar fund is a lot But you know it's probably just a start if things start to turn up here. And instead of having less than 1% invested, you might have 3% to 5% invested in a fund like that. So when that happens- And that big amount of money would have a big impact on the market. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Good. So, hey guys, I just want to make sure we touch on this topic fully because a lot of people have asked me to what about silver equities in general and some of you kind of commented on this already but- do you have any other comments on.

24:55 Andrew starting with you- what about the silver equities trailing the price here- is this a concern is this. Is this an opportunity- is there something else going on. What do you think Andrew. I think any time you see a disconnect, a disparity between what you're seeing in the physical realm versus how equities are trading, that represents the opportunity.

25:21 Say this time last year, maybe February of last year when silver ran to 25, 26 bucks, most of our peer group in terms of ounce in the ground valuations, were trading for about 220 to 250 an ounce in the ground. Right now we're trading, and I think Sean's right around there too, about $1.40 an ounce in the ground, even though silver's prices are back to $24, $25. Well, that just shows how much room these stocks have to run to catch up to just the same level they were last time silver was at these sort of prices. So you know, we're effectively, you know, having ounces in the ground, it makes you a leverage call option on the price of silver because you could do nothing. And as investors come back into the sector, the tide just naturally rises. So, here we are $1.40 an ounce, knowing that last year these same ounces would have been valued for 250,240.

26:16 Well, that's a hell of a lot of room to run without actually having to do anything via the drill bit. So that's the upside potential there. You know, a lot of the downfall we saw in stocks last year wasn't because portfolio managers changed their thesis, it was because of investor redemptions, you know, people taking their money out of the market and portfolio managers just had to sell whatever they could to give them some liquidity. You know, sentiment has changed substantially in the last 3 or 4 months. And, you know, the redemption seemed to be over, at least amongst the precious metals portfolios, and they're starting to reallocate and put money back into their favorite names. I think it's only a matter of time for, you know, that you'll start to see retail investors hop back in because I think we've had so many false starts over the last 6 months.

27:07 And up until recently, it's just every one of those false starts has sort of been batted right back down. So it's been a 1 step forward, 2 steps back. This time's different though, because you're not fighting the Fed as much now. You know, the worst, I think everyone's of the opinion that the worst of the rate hikes are behind us and we're starting to look at the optimism, you know, what's going to happen.

27:29 And I think The US dollar rolls over, that's going to be good for gold. If gold is good, silver should be great. And then the equities will follow suit. But I just see where ounces are valued now versus how they were valued last time silver at these levels. I see big, big room to run, irrespective of what companies do. Good. Sean and Galen, what do you guys think? What do you think ignites this? Is there anything in particular you're waiting to see that could ignite the silver price or the silver equities? Do you see opportunity here? Are you, do you see concern here?

28:06 I'd like you guys to weigh in on this too. So Sean, what do you think about silver equities and what might kickstart this next thing? If it hasn't already started. Well, a couple of things to unpack there. I just want to say, Andrew, you hit some really good points there and just want to touch on one of them. If we go back to 2020 when silver was got up to $30, You know, gold had breached 2000. This is the first week of August 2020. I looked around the silver space, and silver companies were trading at about $4 an ounce in the ground. And I think about, In traditional bull markets, you know, 330,350 is sort of the mark. And that's like, and everything changed like 2008 with QE, right? So we never had like the unprecedented printing, like, so that 330,350 historic marker is we're going to see a different number in this next bull market.

29:06 But in terms of like, you know, putting like what is that, what is that the final snowflake that creates the avalanche or What's the last shoe to drop? You know, I was talking to an investor and I said to him yesterday, I said, look, I gotta get you here before it happens. You can't be too late. So there is probably dozens of things that could cause it, but I think like all the fundamentals have been there for a long time. One thing that really hits me is I've got a friend who sits on a copper think tank. And when I think of silver particularly, and 70% of it coming out as a byproduct. And I think about the prospects for some of these base metal mines.

29:56 I don't know about silver in the next 30 or 60 days, But when I look out into the future and I see this lack of supply on the base metal side, these mines not getting permitted, not enough water, being in communities that don't want them, I don't know where we get the silver in the future. And going back to the questions about, you know, whether it's the Samsungs or the Teslas that start making direct investments, I think the good news for us in the silver world is that like, if I'm looking around my desk right now, there's maybe an ounce of silver used, right? But there's probably thousands of dollars worth of goods here. And so if the price of silver could go to $150 an ounce, and it's not going to impact the final end price of these products. But I just I'm looking around like we've got people here that are viewing this panel from South Africa, from Italy, from all over the world. And I just think, you know, anybody who's tuning in right now, when there's no interest in the space, like, you know, we were all at a conference in Spokane at the end of summer, and there was like 300 people at this Silver Summit. And I remember looking around and talking to people saying, you know, when there's 3000 people here, or 30,000 people here, you know, like, if this was a crypto conference, there would be 30,000 people here.

31:20 But I just think that this is the time, you know, like, you know, we've we've all got Eric Sprott as a shareholder in all 3 of our deals. And Eric, you know, has this thing where he says, you know, you want to be the first to a party and you want to leave before the lights come on, right? And I think the key is, you know, they haven't even set up the chairs or put out the hors d'oeuvres or, you know, there's no refreshment. You're really early, but, you know, It's going to be exciting. And I think it's a great panel you put together here, Jeff, because what we represent here with these 3 companies is safe jurisdiction, pure silver. And that is one of the rarest things that you can identify. That's true. Good point. Yeah. Galen, you want to weigh in on that at all? Silver equities? Yeah, great stuff here. You know, in terms of what starts it, I do, I look at the fundamentals and start to think to myself, OK, well, you know, what could start it? And maybe it's a rate pause or a rate reversal, you know, that we've all talked about so much. And in that, maybe the context that I can add is that I don't think that Powell has the same political independence that Volcker did in the 70s to really get mean and really, really crank up the interest rates. I don't think he does.

32:38 I think with the election cycles the way they are now that the Democrats are really worried about this. And I think that all political pressure that can be put onto him to stop, slow down or reverse is coming. So, when and if that happens, that could just be the start of, hey, we're back to a little bit of more risk on investment style and things like precious metals run and for something like silver, that could be the start. Yeah, good. Okay. Guys, we're getting a lot of great questions coming in here, so let me just jump into these before we get to your specific companies. But this is from Adrian. Do any of you have a sense for any prospects for speeding up the various permitting processes. So permitting has taken a little bit longer admittedly, assays have taken a little bit longer.

33:24 Do any of you guys see any light at the end of the tunnel there for permitting speeding up or is this something we got to kind of live with now? Well, you know, one of the best things about our flagship project in Tonopah, which is right next door to Galen's project, is that it's 100% on private lands, patented claims. So we actually don't have to deal with the federal government on anything in terms of seeing this project permitted all the way to production if we wanted to. It's just really state and county level agencies who would really be the ones to move the needle for us. And obviously in Nevada, it's about as pro-mining jurisdiction as you could possibly get. I mean, Nevada is also the only state in America that's got its own EPA. So, you know, permitting's, you know, there's lots of things that could keep me up at night, but permitting in Nevada on private land where we don't have to build roads or move power lines or anything like that.

34:20 That's one of the best things about the project, from my perspective. You do see, on the delay side of things, I mean, yeah, assays can go from, in the winter taking 4 week turnaround time to the peak of summer, you know, it could be 12 weeks or 14 weeks sometimes. So you know, you do see a lot of things that are outside of your control there and it's just a supply demand. But you know, the permitting regime in Nevada is about as good as it gets anywhere in the world. But that is a major issue. Obviously, Mexico is throwing some curveballs into their permitting processes right now. They don't want any more open pit mines, for example. Peru, I mean, it's not just the government you have to worry about.

35:05 There's often violent outbursts at many of the large mines there from locals. You don't see that in the Golden Triangle. You don't see that in Nevada. You don't see that in these sorts of jurisdictions. So that's I think the best thing that all of our stories has going for it. Good. Hey guys here's another good question I want to get to before we jump into your company. This is from Paul. What is a typical junior equity silver price multiple that we can use to estimate whether the junior mining, junior miner prices are under or overvalued? And what are the factors that we should be looking at? So Galen, Shawn, either one of you want to weigh in on that? It's a tough one, right? I don't know.

35:51 It is a tough one, yeah. To be able to say, you know, what it boils down to is that there's really no silver bullets in anything, especially in investment. And just for me personally, it's really hard for me to say, hey, there's a multiple here that's 10 or 5 or whatever that I used to say is undervalued or overvalued. I think all of us as investors, apart from us being involved in the industry, all of us as investors need to determine what our appropriate risk appetites are and work from there. That's kind of all I can say about that. Maybe Sean, you have some better ideas than I do. Well, it just goes back to this line that I was told by mentors. Not all ounces are created equal. So depending upon depth and grade and location, metallurgy and there's just so many factors. So yeah, I reiterate and echo your points, Galen, there is no silver bullet, I think we take on risk in any project, whether it's, you know, there's, you know, environmental risk, you know, there's all sorts of risks that these projects inherently have. And so there is no, so it's very, very difficult to come up with a metric there.

37:09 Yeah, good. Okay, good input guys. Okay, let's jump into these companies, speaking of projects and prospects here. So what I want you guys to do is give us a brief overview of the company in case anyone is not familiar with it. And then what I really want to talk about is what can we look forward to in 2023 in terms of your activity, potential catalysts, that kind of thing. Sean, we'll start with you first. What's 2023 look like for Dolly Varden Silver and bring us up to that point too. I got to look back a little bit before I talk about 2023 and I'll make it quick. We had a breakout year in 2022. We made a transformational acquisition and on the back of that, we've put out, this was the best year we've ever had in terms of drilling.

38:01 So we have ambitiously stepped out of our known resources and we are heading and growing. And what I've got coming in 2023 is I have 50 drill holes from our 2022 campaign. So I think the reason Dolly shares and the company has grown, when our share price is appreciated, is because we have grown our mineral inventory. We've done that through acquisition and we've done that through Discovery. And I think that if we're gonna continue to drive shareholder value, it could be on the back of more exploration success. So these 50 drill holes are important. It's also important that we've got $28 million in the bank. And so that we can take this information and we could launch into the next program and continue to drive value. And so, you know, look, I work with a really talented technical team.

38:59 And We're in a very prolific area that's seen a lot of takeovers, you know, and we've got 2 big operating mines. And I really believe in my heart of hearts that if I, if it's not broken, don't fix it. There's something that we've been doing over the last couple of years at Dolly that have brought us here. If we continue in that trajectory, it will continue to lead to success. And then for all of us, and this goes beyond Dolly Garden, this goes to Blackrock, it goes to Suma. You've got 3 young guys here that have got experience, that have a lot of energy and that have projects where you've got all the majors that every day they get up, they deplete their mineral inventory. They're going to be coming for Andrew's project. They're going to be coming for Galen's project.

39:45 We haven't reached the part of the cycle where we're seeing a flurry of M&A, but we all have targets on our back, and that's something that beyond all of our plans is something that could happen at any moment. And so, yeah, that's Dolly's plans. We got results coming and we're gonna do more of the same. Yeah, Sean, how would you describe Dolly Varden in 2023? Are you still an explorer or are you a developer? Are you focused on the resource? Are you focused on how big this thing might be, all of the above? Talk to us about that real quick. That's a great question because, you know, a lot of investors, especially people that are new to the space, will say things to me like, you know, when are you going to be in cash flow? When are you going to be in production?

40:32 And I'll tell you what I learned during the last cycle, the best way to drive value is through discovery, is through creatively growing your mineral inventory. And So I'm going to say this really loud and proud. We are an exploration company. And that's the best way I can leverage our treasury is to continue to drill holes. And so now look, we are doing we want to we want to serve this project on a platter. So we're doing things like we're advanced, doing some things to advance the project like a developer would, but ultimately the main focus is looking to expand the footprint of the mineralization. Great, awesome.

41:19 Okay, Galen, Summa Silver, tell us what we can expect in 2023. I've talked to you a little bit about, you know, maybe are you going to update that, have a resource, initial resource on both those projects, or are you going to go for the drilling? So tell us what is coming from SUMA in 2023. Sure, sure. Well, even, you know, to look back a little bit as well, SUMA is a company that was founded, that We founded less than 3 years ago, and since doing that, we've acquired 2 very, very high-potential, prolific, historic producers. In Nevada and New Mexico, those were 2 of the places that really helped shape the early days of the American West in the late 1800s and early 1900s. And you find that when you go into these places and apply a modern focus and compile all of the old data and put it all together and use all the tools that we have at our disposal now that they didn't have 100 years ago. There's often a lot of juice left to squeeze.

42:19 So we're at the point where we're trying to wrap our arms around how much could be left in both of these pieces. And similar to what Sean is doing and what Andrew is doing, That requires a lot of drilling. It's the fun part of the phase, the exciting part of the phase, where we're following up on a lot of high-grade results over a large area on both these projects with a lot of drilling. I'm not afraid to say we're expecting a lot more high-grade results. That's our plan here going forward on both these projects is we've got 3 rigs currently turning on the project in New Mexico called Maguillón right now. And that's continued to vary. At which point, we'll rotate back to Tonopah, Nevada and drill some really interesting exploration at, you know, one of them being the extension of the district, which is currently undercover, sometime in the spring and into the summer before in the fall, turning around and going back to New Mexico and drilling some really exciting targets there as well that we're developing now that I'm gonna be able to share probably soon when that's done. So for us again, we've got 14 million dollars and change in the bank so it's a war chest and I like to call it to drill a lot of holes and really just continue to see what we could have on both of these potentially significant

43:49 and flagship projects. So that's what's gonna keep us busy for the next year. Great, I love hearing that. So the Gold Advisor wants you to keep drilling and not do that resource too soon. So Andrew. Here, I appreciate that. Andrew, 2023 for BlackRock Silver, you had 3 discoveries now. You got a resource, you got an option, you optioned out the lithium property, But what's ahead for 2023? What can we expect to see from BlackRock this year? Yeah, well, you know, we've been one of the most active silver exploration companies. Since we really got started, we've drilled 150,000 meters at our Tonopah project since June of 2020 and just last year we backstopped our discovery with some of the highest grade ounces in the ground of any silver exploration or development stage project right now. So we're starting off, we're backstopped with ounces but the biggest breakthrough we had at the project last year was we stepped out significantly.

44:52 We more than doubled the footprint of mineralization at Tonopah beyond where our Maiden Resource Estimate left off. So now it's just a matter of doing the hard yards, putting your head down and getting the drilling going to effectively expand on the resource that we've already know is there. Galen and our initial thesis when we both started at Tonopah was that the old timers did not shut down because they ran out of gold and silver. They shut down due to low metals prices and some technical limitations they had in the late 20s, early 30s. Well we've proven that. You know, just the 2 areas on our property where the old timers were mining or preparing to mine, We've now shown that those 2 areas where they shut down, we've got 45 million ounces or so silver equivalent at some of the highest grades in the industry and we're showing significant upside potential.

45:40 Another thing we did, which, you know, our shareholders will be the beneficiary of a lot of news flow, but we don't have to pay for is in our search for gold and silver and Tonopah, we augured into a whole heck of a lot of lithium on these new federal claims that we staked that were adjacent to our project. And we put out some results in October and we had so much inbound interest from lithium companies to partner up with and we finally pulled the trigger on a deal there. So we announced a $15 million US option earn in agreement for a company that's got some of the deepest technical bench in terms of lithium lithium claystone experts I've seen. It's one of the reasons why we wanted to partner up with them but they're going to be drilling the crap out of our project in Tonopah trying to put a resource on it as quickly as possible on the lithium side of things. So I think we're the only silver lithium story out there right now that's going to have 2 active projects. And last but not least, just a few days ago we announced a brand new bonanza-grade discovery on a project that no 1 even really knew we had.

46:52 It was a project in northern Nevada. We did about, it amounted to a Hail Mary. We were chasing these blind and buried veins that we didn't even really know were actually… You're referring to silver clad there, right, Andrew? Yeah, that's right. And we hit 70g per tonne Gold over a metre and a half in mineralisation that's oriented and looks a lot like the Midas mine, which we're directly on trend of. So we're very excited by that. I mean, that's our highest grade intercept ever for the company. We also hit 600g Silver in there too. And it was on, you know, the effectively a needle in the haystack, 3 drill hole program and we nailed it. So we've got 3, we had 3 breakthroughs last year across our 3 projects and we're going to look forward to a very exciting year this year across all 3 of them. The lithium thing could become a monster though because you know we're in a neighborhood of some absolutely massive lithium companies who have projects very similar in characteristics and in grade and in the same sort of host rocks that we have there and obviously you know the credibility we've gotten by bringing on such a team to spend their own money and bring their expertise to develop it, I think that could become absolutely massive. So it's just going to be another busy year on the drill bit for us. We've got 15 drill holes from Tonopah that we should have out within the next couple of weeks here, And then we'll lay out our plan for 2023. But, you know, it's a train on the track at this point. We're back by ounces and we know it's going to

48:23 get bigger. So we're just deciding now where we want to put a pin in things with respect to our next resource update. But you'll be drilling both at Tonopah and Silver Cloud, or do you know that answer yet? Yeah, anytime you auger into 2 oz per ton gold over something that looks very similar to one of the most famous cash cow mines in Nevada history, the Midas Mine, I'm not going to kick a gift horse in the mouth there. We're gonna ride that one. And now that we've got a handle on the structure and which way things are running there, we can keep laying into that structure. The high-grade tons pile up quickly. And the threshold for success at Silver Cloud is significantly lower than at Tonopah because at Silver Cloud we're surrounded by Hecla Mining. They've got the Hollister Mine next door and the Midas Mine just north of us, both of which have mills on care and maintenance, meaning you wouldn't have to build anything.

49:19 Whereas in Tonopah, we were looking at ways to what a plant would look like, what a mill would look like. We have to wrap our head around from a brand new discovery and build it all there. So good. OK, great. Hey, Sean, why should I buy Dolly Varden stock today? You know, simply put, it's size meets grade in a safe jurisdiction. You know, we've got in all categories, if we look at our resource, it's about 140 million ounces of silver, which makes it quite unique. We're in giant country. Like, if you look in the Golden triangle, you look at Eskay Creek, for instance, there was 200 million ounces of silver produced at over 2200 grams per ton. So we're on the Eskay Rift, we're set in the same age of rocks, in the Jurassic package, the Jurassic Age rocks.

50:19 You've got, you know, Bruce Jack, you've got Premier. So there's been this reawakening of the golden triangle that's been occurring over the last number of years. So I think the reason you buy Dolly is it gives you the type of deposit you're accustomed to seeing in Argentina or Bolivia, but it's located in Canada. And I think based on the other part of it is, I look at all these companies and I see them as, you know, as much as a project is so important, what's the foundation? And for these companies, it's about who are your shareholders? What is the alignment? What is the structure? And the fact that 90% of our shares are held by corporates, institutions, or high net worth individuals like Eric Sprott, you know, it's the reason that I think this name has so much torque.

51:15 And the fact that we've got Hecla in there as a shareholder and as supportive as they've been, I think is one of our big differentiators. So, just going back to it, we've got size, we've got grade, we're in a safe jurisdiction, We've got results coming, we've got treasury, and I'm surrounded by, you know, what I would argue is one of the stronger technical teams in the industry, you know, running operations. Very good. Yeah, I like it, Sean, and Sean made the comment off air before we started that the vetting process I put him through is more than some of what the majors did. So my specific comment, Jeff, was I've seen majors. I've seen takeovers occur in you vetted Dolly for 6 months and it was everything short of a medical exam.

52:10 At the end of it, you know, it tells me that, you know, the companies that you put in front of your viewers, you know, have to live up to a high bar. So I'm really grateful that we finally reached that level. Yeah, so if you're listening to this podcast, you might wanna stay tuned to see if Dolly Varden becomes an official gold advisor recommendation. So Galen, why should someone buy Summa Silver stock right now? What's coming here that could really propel your stock forward this year? Yeah, you know what, I think number 1, we're at part of the most exciting phase in the cycle in that we're expecting to drill a lot of good holes throughout the entire year. But it also comes down to, hey, look, good silver projects and deposits are becoming very difficult to find. We have 2 in the US that really provide a potential generational upside. And for us as a team, we're only going to look for things that we think could have that tier 1 potential or else, you know, why bother because life is short. That's just my philosophy in general and our philosophy in general. But it comes back to projects, people on the team, to use the guy's words here, a very deep bench of geologists that are mid-career people that have had some success in their past endeavors, some really good success, and are now very, very hungry to go out and do it on their own.

53:39 A lot of the people on the team took Discovery, right? And it's just a very passionate group, and self-included. Although now I've said that publicly, I hope my wife doesn't want to. But you know, so there's that. And then going back to the shoulder base, again, you know, we've had very strong support from Eric Sprott, and he's been in every one of our financings going back to 25 cents, the first one in May of 2020. And look how far we've come since then. So for I think, you know, we're getting started, very early innings and really are looking to go out and this year drill some big holes in what my professional opinion are some of the best exploration opportunities currently existing in the U.S. But currently existing in silver in general.

54:28 Yeah, Galen, one thing I liked is that you've only explored a small amount of the property yet, especially at Mungiwong. So is that still true? There's a lot of upside potential, a lot of exploration, I should say, to still take place there. Is that right? Absolutely. That for me is the most exciting part of this process. We're drilling the target that we're drilling now is about 500m of vein length. And that's where we're getting numbers that the best hole 31m at about 450g per tonne Silver equivalent. But there's 50km of vein and structure on the project. So we're really only scratching the surface and testing the first 1% of this project. And hey, I'm not gonna sit here and say, hey, it's all mineralized, but therein does in lie the big picture potential where I look at things in Mexico that the Spanish have been mining going back 500 years like Pachuca.

55:22 And I look at, you know, this thing in New Mexico that nobody has really been on the radar on the markets, really could be the best remaining bain field left in the United States and it's largely unexplored. Wow. Yeah, that's exciting. Great. Andrew, why should an investor buy BlackRock Silver now? You've made 3 discoveries. You've made some big waves here. Why buy the stock now? What's coming ahead that could drive your share price higher? Well, I think in just the past few months, I mean, silver's gone from probably the most hated, you know, investment class of all of them to it's starting to catch up. You know, the price is starting to run. Investors are watching it a little bit more but stocks haven't really gone there so. I think we're in a bit of a lag time here similar to what oil did a few years ago where it went from most hated to absolutely most loved and I think. That potential- for massive returns in any one of our equities is present, assuming the Fed doesn't have any more surprises for us. In terms of my company specifically, we've got 3 early stage discoveries that we're really just starting to hit critical mass on.

56:30 I mean, at Tonopah, we're backstopped by some of the highest-grade ounces in the ground in the industry. You know, we're a domestic source there that's got a clear path forward to develop it because it's on private land. We're stepping out, we're hitting in a big way. And you know, I think just based off our ounce in the ground valuation on that one project, we're probably undervalued based off what we have there. But then you factor in the Lithium project, which could be absolutely massive, and we're going to see millions of dollars invested from our partner on this over the not too distant future, get a resource on that in the not too distant future. You know, that's a warrant that investors have that can, you know, not just get exposure to Silver and Gold but you're getting a Lithium kicker. And then we just made a brand new discovery next to 2 of the highest grade gold mines in all of Nevada and we're the donut hole in the middle up there in the heckless claim book, you know, driving distance to Jarrett Canyon, which is owned by 1st Majestic, who owns shares in us as well. You know, I think as a, if you take a step back and look at our portfolio as a grouping, anyone that would have just liked us before for Tonopah will absolutely go crazy for us now because we've got this brand new high-grade discovery up in northern Nevada which could really, really, I don't know, give us some new luster here.

57:49 So we're expecting a big year on the drills as well across all 3 of our projects. The lithium thing, that's going to be a hell of a lot quicker to develop because we're not drilling out veins there. You know, this is right at surface, big, big plumes of good grade lithium. And yeah, we'll see. So I think our portfolio is gonna get a whole lot better this year, but we're starting from a very healthy place right now. So anytime you see your disparity, We've put out significantly good news over the last few months, discoveries, step outs, lithium, and our stock is right around the same price as it's been for the last 4 or 5 months. Well, 1 day, and that day may come soon, where you'll just see a big gap up. 1 sentiment comes back and all of a sudden you'll be off to the races. I think that's all that's missing now for the markets, just that fear of missing out.

58:40 Because the other big moves we've seen recently, the Wall Street bets crowd and stuff, Everyone started chasing things and then it took on a life of its own last year. I think the FOMO is going to start kicking back into the industry and that's when you'll see the valuations for all the juniors start to pick up. Yeah, silver is very spiky. Boring, boring boom as I've said a number of times in talks. So that day is coming, I think, and that'll be an awful lot of fun. Another question here. Oh, this is for me from Diana. This is Diana that Sean may know. Jeff, what has attracted you to these 3 projects in particular? It wasn't the projects. Projects are very important. Got to have them. Got to want to see lots of potential. But it's obviously the people. You always start with the people. These 3 gentlemen, like I said, were invited for a reason. So it's them and the team behind them that's really driving these stories and- and- the progress here with them so. Always start with the people and then I look at the jurisdiction it's got to be there it's the first 2 things I want to know, who's behind it and where is it? And these gentlemen have all 3 of those things, the people, the projects and the politics all lined up really well. So it's actually noon here Pacific where I am, so we're out of time. So gentlemen, any quick final 30 2nd words you wanna say before we sign off on this panel real quick.

1:00:10 John, anything you wanna add that we didn't talk about? I just wanna say thank you, Jeff. And I would just want to close with, I've seen how hard Andrew has worked, taking over this company. And Galen and I, we know each other quite well, and I'm just endorsed both these deals. I would give these guys my money. They work hard, they're superstars. And so I'm grateful to be here, Jeff, and good luck, both Andrew and Galen. That's very nice, yeah. Galen, any final words before we sign off? Yeah, Sean, thanks very much. I would echo the same sentiment. It was just a privilege to be on a panel with all 3 of you gentlemen and to work with everyone.

1:00:58 So I'm looking forward to a big 2023 for all us silver and gold bugs. Absolutely, yeah. Andrew, final word? Yeah, no, I just wanted to thank you for putting this together. I mean, you know, the one common theme that all 3 of these stories has going through it beyond the jurisdiction and geopolitical side is that they were all high-grade stories. And it's, you know, when you see the volatility in silver prices where it swings from $30 down to $16, $17 in, you know, a snap of the fingers, it's the high-grade stories that are the ones that should command the interest. It's those stories that we'll be producing at the cheapest cash costs. Most of these silver companies, the producers weren't making any money at $19, $20 silver.

1:01:43 I think it's safe to say that if all 3 of our projects, given the grade profiles that they have, these are projects that should be high margin operations, should we be able to get them to that point? So it should be an interest, good market or bad market. The end date's about making money and high grade stories are the ones that command the should command the highest premium in the market. The geopolitical side of things absolutely. Ounces in the ground should be valued based off grade, jurisdiction, all sorts of things. But Those 2 things are the biggest pieces of the puzzle and that's what all 3 of her stories has is the grade and the jurisdiction. Yes, and that's a good point to end on. Like I said, all 3 companies were invited for a reason. So I hope you'll check them out on their websites.

1:02:31 Lots of things happening with all 3 of them. If you want to check out thegoldadvisor.com, that's where you can find me. So thanks everyone for joining. I hope this was very useful for you and very helpful. And we'll see you at the next one. Thanks everyone.