Alaska Panel

0:12 All right, well, hello and welcome everyone to the Alaska panel hosted by 6. We are joined today with the leaders of 3 mining and exploration companies working in Alaska. I'm pleased to introduce you to Rick Van Neuwenhuise, President and CEO of Contango Ore, Darwin Green, President and CEO of High Gold Mining, and Tony Girardi, President and CEO of Trilogy Metals. In this discussion, we'll explore what mining in Alaska has to offer for each of these panelists' respective companies. As a reminder, you can submit your questions

0:42 at any time on the Q&A panel on the right-hand side of the screen. And we will open the floor up to a live Q&A after the panel discussion. And as always, the summit is being recorded and will be available to watch afterwards on SIX.com. So welcome everyone. To kick things off, If we can just introduce yourself and your company briefly, starting with you, Rick. Sure, Dasha, thanks. And thanks for 6 for hosting this panel on Alaska. My name is Rick Van Emenuizen, president of Contango Ore. We're developing a 1 million ounce Gold deposit in partnership with Kinross Alaska and the Tetlin tribe. Our project has a good portion being brought off the Alaska highway and

1:30 our plan with Kinross is to utilise their mill at Fort Knox to process our ore from Contango. It's a pretty nice setup, obviously reducing capital and reducing execution risk to get this thing into production. I'm happy to talk about that more later as we go through here. Great. Thank you. And Darwin? Yeah. Hi, I'm Darwin Green. I'm President and CEO of High Gold. Our flagship asset is the Johnson Track project. It's located in South Central Alaska off of Cook Inlet. It's very near tidewater and we've defined just under 900,000oz Gold equivalent. It's a very high-grade deposit. It's polymetallic, about 50% of the value in the Gold and the remainder split between copper, zinc, lead, and silver. So it's sort of a naturally hedged deposit.

2:21 And our focus is on growing and expanding

2:24 the deposit right now with the drill bit and establishing scale. Great, thank you. Welcome. And Tony? Tony Giardini. I'm the president and CEO of Trilogy Metals. And similar to Rick and Darwin, our project is in the development stage. We have actually a district that we're working on in partnership with SOS 32. And similar to Rick, we have a native partner being in Northwest Arctic Bureau through the NANA Corporation. And we're obviously working very closely with the state of Alaska and ADA in terms of infrastructure into the district. And I'll speak a little bit more about the

3:03 exploration upside in the district. I look forward to the discussion. Thank you for having us. Great, thank you. I look forward to taking a deeper dive into each of your respective companies. But just to kick off the discussion, how easy or hard is it to work in Alaska from a business and permitting standpoint? If we can just start with you, Rick. Sure. I think one of the great things about Alaska is that it has a pretty stable jurisdiction for doing business. It's very pro-business. Mining is an important part of the economy, always has been in the history of Alaska. You know, it goes back to the gold mining and all the way back to the beginning. So from a regulatory standpoint, state laws and taxes, and they're very stable.

3:51 They've been very stable for quite a long time. Federal government, obviously, if you need a federal permit, that adds a new dimension or a different dimension to your permitting. Typically all mines need federal permits. And there's no question that that's more challenging than getting the state permits, but it is a process. I think the positive things are that it's a well established process. The environmental impact statement process that most mines have to go through is well established.

4:22 If you do a good job on collecting your baseline information and lay out a good plan, I think with time and effort you'll get your permits. Great, Darwin, anything to add? Yeah, I would agree with all of Rick's points there. It is a great place to operate. You've got this workforce and a population base that understands mining and there's resources to support what we do. And from a permitting standpoint, you know, the questions are almost are often framed, you know, easy or hard, but, you know, I prefer not to describe it as easy permitting. We don't want easy permitting. What we want is a permitting system that the public can trust, can have confidence in. And that's, it's practical and science based. And I think that's what you have in Alaska. It's a great, great place to operate.

5:09 Great, Tony, any thoughts?

5:12 Yeah, I think, you know, the comments, I would echo the same comments and basically just point out that it's very prescriptive and straightforward. There's a NEPA process to follow, which is well laid out. And I think as Rick pointed out, it's really just about making sure you have all your ducks lined up and you're in line and using consultants. And then from a business point of view, the good thing about Alaska is there's a rich mining history in the state. Lots of mines that are already operating there. So you don't have to teach people about mining. You've got a workforce that obviously is well in tune with the mining. They understand how things work. And there's services and personnel to support the industry, which is a big plus in terms of operating the state. Great. Yeah, Tony, if I can throw it back to you for this next question, how do you work with Alaska's indigenous people and do they support the mining efforts?

6:02 Yeah, I think, you know, a Native community is very supportive of mining. And I think it comes back to my earlier comments about a rich history with mining. In our area where we're located, we're in the northwest part of the state, and Nana and the northwest Arctic borough is a big player in the state. The largest zinc mine in the world is located there, Red Dog Mine, and actually sits on NANA land. And TEC is the operator, but NANA has a net profit interest now of 35%. And the community understands mining. They're very keen on seeing

6:35 the investment. They're keen on seeing jobs being created, procurement opportunities. At the same time, it's their land. We have to be very respectful of that. And the big considerations in the communities of where we operate are about subsistence hunting and fishing, which are very important to the native communities. And I can't stress how, you know, we need to make sure we're in sync with those communities in terms of as we look at bringing new minds on stream. But I would say very positive in terms of the relationship with the native communities.

7:05 Great. Yeah. Darren, how has your experience been? Oh, it's been fantastic. I mean, our flagship project, the Johnson Tract, is actually similar to Tony's project. It's on native corporation land. For us, it's CIRI, which stands for Cook Inlet Region Inc. They're 1 of 12 land-based regional native corporations. And just to provide your audience a little history here, in my view, Alaska really is a leader in terms of, or a model system in terms of Indigenous rights and land claims settlements. It was settled,

7:38 a lot of it was settled in the 70s when they was precipitated by the oil pipeline being pushed down from north to south. And They created these 12 separate corporate entities, they're for-profit corporate entities, with the shareholders being the Indigenous people that lived in the surrounding region. There's a lot to like about that, and they were able to select lands for their natural resource potential to generate revenue from that. So they're fantastic partners, and in our situation, they approached us to explore and develop the assets on their land. So I don't think you can ask for a much better sort of endorsement in terms of indigenous issues and concerns than them controlling land and coming to you. Right, absolutely. And Rick, how about for you?

8:22 Yeah, I think Alaska is a great model for indigenous rights and how the corporations were set up. In addition, you have tribal entities that are a local governance entity, and they also, they're separate from the corporations. In our case at Contango, we're actually partnered with the tribe. So it's a little different than what Tony and Darwin are dealing with. But in the same sense, the tribe owns the land. They have the rights to the entire area that we're working. It's a piece of real estate that's about the size of Rhode Island. So it's not a small land package.

9:09 You see the benefits of business interests that go to the tribe, training and jobs and opportunity for advancement are all there at the local level. And that's, I think that's one of the great things about mining and how it works well with indigenous communities is that it is in the rural areas. It's not in the cities, It's out in the country. And so you see those job benefits and the wealth creation at mine site that gets distributed locally. And I think those are very positive attributes of how mining can work with indigenous communities.

9:47 Great, thank you. I just wanna talk more about Alaska and how important mining is to the Alaskan economy. If we can just go back to you, Rick. Sure. I think as Tony mentioned, It's a significant part of the Alaska state economy. I think it's kind of revised for second position usually with fishing. And it kind of depends on what metrics you really measure is whether it's 2nd or 3rd. But certainly in terms of GDP, it's probably 2nd or 3rd right up there with fishing. And fishing probably employs more people, but they tend to be temporary seasonal jobs, whereas mining is year round. Mining does pay, I think, like the second, sorry, I think they're the highest wage area of the Alaska economy on a per person basis. It's well over $100,000 a year for the average mining job.

10:46 So again, it's very significant at that local level because as you can appreciate in most rural communities in Alaska, there's not a lot of jobs. So having a mine at the local level, you can see that, and Tony can speak to this more, but the differences in the Northwest Arctic borough region before Red Dog and after Red Dog is absolutely remarkable.

11:13 That's great. Darwin, Anything to add? Yeah, I just echo Rick's statements there, but you can run through some numbers here. 4,700 direct mining jobs in the state, I think from exports. It was 1.9 billion in exports last year or the year before. So it is very significant. And the significance of that to us as operators is the state gets it, the population base gets it, that we're an important part of the fabric in this state. I mean, tourism is important, fisheries are important, oil and gas is important, and mining are important, and all can coexist.

11:47 Great. Yeah, Tony? Yeah, I was just going to add that, you know, in the current year, particularly in what's been happening with COVID, mining has been one of a few bright spots that we've really seen in the state of Alaska. And, you know, it's contributing approximately $2 billion to the economy in 2020. And the other thing to sort of point out is, you know, as Rick mentioned with respect to NANA and Red Dog, NANA receives a significant amount of revenue and other native corporations within the state through the Red Dog Mine, because in the case of those amounts of Red Dog, they're actually distributed to a number of other communities outside of the Northwest Arctic Borough. So this is very important because it really does contribute to those communities in a big, big way. And then I think, you know, the last point is

12:33 the oil and gas industry, which is typically dominated in the state, BP has effectively sold their interests to private equity. And you're seeing less investment and exploration occurring in the state. So I think there's an opportunity for responsible mine development to fill some of that void. Great. So how do you each of you address the infrastructure challenges in Alaska? And what are they? Darwin, if we can start with you. Yeah, I mean, Alaska is a tremendously large state. I think a lot of people don't realize just how big it is. It's just a hair smaller than Mexico in terms of actual square kilometers or square miles. And it's incredibly endowed with minerals, but infrastructure is a challenge when you have a state that large.

13:17 And there's different, you know, you can focus on projects like Rick's that's very near a highway or mine that's right next to Tidewater. So you only have a short amount of say road to build, but I think the state gets it and they get it. They develop this agency called ADA that I'm sure Tony will talk to more here, in that they understand that that is the state's weakness. And so they set up a body that can fund the building of infrastructure to support projects. The Red Dog Mine, we come back to that, but it was a good example. They built the haul road and load out facility that helped create a real success story for Alaska. They've got the mentality that it's a bit of a build it and they will come. The threshold of a deposit to make an economic go, no go decision really drops if you've got that infrastructure in place. So you've got projects like the Arctic Antler Project

14:12 that will be the one that pushes it in. Once it gets in there, I'm sure it'll be many more deposits found. Great. Nick or Tony, do you have anything to add on that? Sure. Oh, thanks, Rick. I'll jump in. You know, I think in some respects, the state's actually quite blessed with really good infrastructure already. You've got the Dalton Highway, which was built for oil and gas purposes, which already runs through the state. And in the case of our project, the missing link is, as Darwin said, the road connecting the Ambler Mining District to that highway. But once you get to the highway, then that highway leads into Fairbanks. There's a railhead from Fairbanks all the way down to Anchorage, where there's a deep sea port that's already built, so there's tremendous infrastructure already in existence in the state. And I think the key is that as Darwin said, it's about you know, creating that missing link of infrastructure and red dogs a perfect example where the Red Dog Road was built for a 50-year time period, even though at the time that Red Dog was constructed, it didn't have a 50-year mine life.

15:16 But what's happened is it looks like it's going to operate for at least 50 years. So Ada and the state have effectively done well through the investment that they made, and I really look at it as an investment, in seeing that Red Dog mine built, the jobs that have been created, the revenue that's come into the state, the impact that it's had on the native corporations and the community. So that's how I see it working out. And I think the infrastructure challenges can certainly be met.

15:44 Great, Rick. Yeah, I just would add that most of the roads that do exist in Alaska exist either because of oil and gas development or mining mineral development. And I see that trend continuing, particularly with the move towards a non-carbon green energy transportation and energy future. My administration has a – last number I saw was $3 to $4 trillion infrastructure spend planned for the United States. And there's no question the United States is way behind in infrastructure. So I think we'll see that all states, including Alaska, will benefit from that $3 or $4 trillion. It's amazing that we measure things in trillions these days, but that's what we do.

16:33 And it just kind of rolls off the tongue now. But Alaska will be a beneficiary of a lot of that because we can get all the minerals that are needed for the green energy future from Alaska. And obviously, building out that infrastructure through groups like Ada that know how to work that from an investment standpoint. As I said, it's not a grant, it's not free money. It's just a good, solid, long-term investment. Right. Absolutely. And I look forward to talking more about the Biden administration later on. But how do the state and local governments view mining in Alaska?

17:10 Tony, we can start with you. Sure. I would say the state and local governments are very supportive for all the reasons that we've already talked about. I think there's definitely some challenges in the state right now in terms of revenue shortfalls and I think looking at the mining industries, there's clearly opportunities to see more development

17:30 that could come in. Someone that I used to work for had this phrase of saying that money's a coward and it sort of runs away from risk. And I think that's one of the balancing acts that you're gonna need to think about as you look at how regular, not so much regulatory, but how taxes and other things are going to be structured in the state because there is a balancing act. You want to encourage investment. You want to see these projects built. There's significant capital investments. My sense is the state gets it. The state wants to see this development. They're supportive. They've got Ada there to help fund infrastructure. And then for all of the reasons that we talked about before we even get into the geology, about the people that work there and the understanding of the industry and the infrastructure that already exists, My sense it's very positive. And as Rick said, it's a very supportive pro-business get things done type of environment. So I think it works well for the mining industry.

18:28 Great, thank you. Darwin, what are your thoughts? Yeah, I share Tony's thoughts. I mean, I can't really speak for the state or local governments, but I can observe their actions and policies and their policies are supportive. And, you know, the governor before COVID kicked in, he was down here in Vancouver at a big mining conference, he's going out to promote and seek investment in the state. So I think that's a pretty good sign that they're supportive.

18:54 Yeah, absolutely. Rick, anything to add? Yeah, I'll just add, and I'll speak to our project specifically. Again, we're on tribal lands. The Catlin Villages is nearby. It's like 20 miles from our project, but there are 3 or 4 other communities around us. Toke, Tantacross, Northway. And all of those are on the road system, so they can easily, people can live in Tantacross and Tocque and easily work on the project. And those are, Those local communities understand that and they get that. And again, they're high paying jobs. Average jobs is over $100,000 a year. That's a salary that you can actually raise a family on.

19:41 So I think there's a real understanding that mining jobs pay well. And people who work at mines become part of the community. They're not a fly-in, fly-out crowd. Some jobs are, but most of the jobs are right there in the community and the people live right there in the community. Yeah, that's great. So in general, how does Alaska compare and rank to other jurisdictions in the US and North America and also in the world? Rick, if you don't mind. Yeah, I mean, the Fraser Institute's, you know, for many, 20, 30 years now, the Fraser Institute's been putting out their report, and Alaska consistently ranks extremely high on potential and extremely high on its stability, if you will, and as a jurisdiction for investment.

20:42 So, and that's on a global basis. That's not just North America, that's on a global basis. I think they look at well over 100 jurisdictions that they evaluate. And it's certainly seen from the perspective of the people who are working in those countries. So

21:02 it's, and it changes every year. I mean, the rankings are always moving around. And I think one of the things you always look for is, you know, are you seeing improvements in certain areas? And I think my recollection is that Alaska is actually, over the last 20 years, has seen a vast improvement in how it's viewed on a global basis in terms of competing for capital for exploration and mineral development.

21:31 Great. Darwin, how do you think it ranks globally and also in North America? Yeah, very high. I mean, as Rick says, there's the surveys out there that kind of capture this. And I think the proof's in the pudding a little bit. If you just look at who's entering Alaska now, you know, there's been a real influx of Australians, for example. We're about as far away as you can get from Australia. You know, there's a very high percentage of Australians coming here and, you know, they can go anywhere in the globe. They'll run through their matrix of, you know, geologic potential, you know, political risk, a variety of factors, and they're here. And I think that's telling us something. Yeah, absolutely. And Tony, any other thoughts?

22:10 Yeah, no, I think Darwin and Rick have summarized it. I mean, the go-to jurisdictions typically top are Nevada, Canada, Australia, those are the ones and Alaska is right up there with those. I think the other thing is, we've all had the good fortune of having worked in a lot of different jurisdictions. And I can tell you that there's stability and process when we talked about permitting and understanding of the industry and history. And those are all very important in terms of making Alaska a very desirable place to invest.

22:47 So in terms of the people living in Alaska, how do they view mining and what are you each of you doing to educate them on why mining is so important in Alaska? Darren, I might start with you. Yeah, sure. Well, I always try to avoid saying, you know, educating people because it almost assumes they're uneducated but I think what we can do is provide a greater awareness to what we do and how we do it and I think it's always you know it's always by example and it's it's on an individual basis of connecting with people and respecting the people that you work with and respecting the lands where you operate. It's what we do, it's at the core of what we do and I think if people look closely at the mineral industry, they'll understand there's a lot more of that than the other way around.

23:33 And added to that, I think globally, the industry as a whole could do a better job of just better awareness. Because we are leaders really in a lot of sort of profit sharing with indigenous participation in mineral projects in terms of community engagement and community development projects and environmental stewardship. But I think the industry has a tremendous good record that doesn't get showcased very well. We could do a better job of that.

24:04 Great. Rick, what do you think?

24:10 I think there is an element of educating people where things come from that the mining industry probably hasn't done a great job of. Starting with our kids, one of the things that we do, that I do, is volunteer and just go to classes. We do it online now. It actually is amazingly more efficient to do it online than it is to actually physically go there. Alaska has the Alaska Resource Education Fund that is dedicated specifically to educating kids, literally from first grade all the way up through high school. And it's a great program. And that's where it has, I think it does have to start there. People have to recognize that your cell phone doesn't work unless you've got all these different minerals in it. And just understanding that and getting a little bit of an education about it, which I think is sorely lacking in our general education system.

25:13 So we have to, as an industry, sort of help that along and work with the teachers. We find that the teachers are like, geez, I didn't know that, that's great. So I think there is more of an effort that the industry probably has to put forward in showing what they do and why the mining industry is important. It certainly doesn't show up on the GDP. The people that produce all the agriculture, that produce all the utilities, that generate all the energy and produce all the minerals are the bottom 3 of the GDP, if you look at big groups. So I think there is an education process that needs to happen here.

26:00 Right, yeah, it's so important. Tony, any comments on this topic? Well, I think, you know, I defer to Rick on this one. It's hard for me to speak for Alaskans. I would say, you know, we do participate in Alaska and Alaska Mining Association. So some of the feedback that we get from the Association certainly gives us insight into the views that Alaskans hold on mining. And I would say it's all of the points that have been mentioned. A big part of it is really going to be the fiscal situation in the state of Alaska is going to be very important. And, you know, as I mentioned earlier, mining has been one of the few bright spots in the state, certainly in 2020. And I think that's an important consideration. Couple that with social environmental considerations, which are always going to be at the forefront of any discussion in the state of Alaska and the push and pull that you're going to have with regards to environmental concerns and issues around any resource industry is going to be a key. And then I think the other pressure, not just from Alaskans, but outside of Alaska, is the ESG considerations that are now a bigger consideration for all of us that we all have to be mindful of. So I think those are the factors. I don't think they're any different, in my view, from what I've heard in Alaska, as they are in other jurisdictions where I've operated in the past.

27:20 Yeah, the one difference might be here, Tony, is I think in Alaska, you know, with so much plaster mining and everything else that we Alaskans, Alaskans are a little bit closer to mining and as you say, the plaster mine is the family farm of the North, right? Yeah. Great. Well, Rick, you mentioned the Biden administration. Where does Alaska fit in with the Biden administration's plans for a 0 carbon emissions future? Yeah, that's an interesting question because it'll be a plus and a minus. I mean, obviously the oil industry is being targeted and Alaska is very much an oil-producing state. On the flip side, to achieve the objectives of the green new energy and transportation future requires a stupendous amount of minerals.

28:12 And Alaska is a warehouse of minerals. We've talked about it. We've got the largest zinc mine in the world, one of the largest silver mines. And lots and lots of copper in the state of Alaska. The Kennecott mine was once upon a time, the highest grade copper mine in the world. So high grade, they built a railroad to it. So the state has the ingredients to be a good fit for the Biden administration agenda of a green energy future. Oil and gas are going to be part of that future. May not be as big a part as they are now. So there's definitely a transition ahead for the state of Alaska over the next 10, 20 years.

29:00 And I think the state's aware of that, and I think just plan accordingly. So I think we're waiting to see where the administration, how the, when the wheels hit the ground in Alaska from the Biden administration in terms of mineral development? I think we've got some you know, we've got some discussions to have with the Biden administration I'm sure as a mining industry in general for the whole country but obviously specifically for Alaska. Right, Absolutely. Darwin, anything to add on that? Yeah, well, I think coupled with that is there's certainly been a move or a narrative more to self-sufficiency for the United States, you know, a bit of an America first, and to ensure self-sufficiency for critical minerals.

29:52 And that couples, pairs nicely with the move to a greener future. You know, if you're going to find it, Alaska is the place to find it. I mean, there's no bigger endowment in the country than Alaska. It's a place to be. Tony, anything to add? Yeah, I think it's early days, and we'll just have to wait and see how things unfold. Administration really hasn't said much in terms of what its specific plans are. But they have obviously talked about infrastructure, electrification of a grid, EV vehicles, those all tie to minerals that are found in abundance in the state of Alaska. And what was interesting in January when Senator Murkowski was the chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the committee really focused on solar, wind, hydro and geothermal research. Now solar might not be necessarily applicable to Alaska, but some of those other sources of power generation would be. And I think there's going to be a lot of focus in those areas, I would expect going forward.

30:54 But I think the industry is looking forward to working with the Biden administration in terms of advancing the plans for infrastructure, electrification of a grid, EV vehicles, et cetera, to very positive for the industry as a whole. Okay, absolutely. And in your opinion, what else should the mining industry be doing to promote their role in green energy and transportation future? Wow. Yeah, I think a big part of that is what Rick was talking about in terms of just education in the state of Alaska and where it begins. And I think the realization that we're talking about a significant amount of investment that's gonna be needed in base metals and gold over the next 5 years to meet this energy transition.

31:43 And where is that going to come from? So copper is a really good example where you can see copper increase, you know, sort of just new technologies requiring over 450,000 tons per annum of metals, you know, out to 2022, and then increasing to 600,000 tons per annum. And those are big numbers. And whether it's going to be wind turbines, whether it's going to be solar panels, whether it's going to be other sources of clean energy, they're going to require a lot of the minerals that are in abundance in the state of Alaska. So I think there's going to have to be a real education process that happens with respect to that. And I think the other thing that's clear is that whether it's Alaska, Canada, Australia, people want to have their own sources of those metals. And that's going to be really important in terms of strategic metals and having access to those metals.

32:38 And that's gonna necessitate a significant amount of new exploration to occur in the US. And I think that's an important consideration. And by the way, these mines take a long time to bring into production. It's not like you can just, you can just flip a switch and they come on site. So there is that other consideration that, you know, it's gonna be a long process And it's going to take time to not just discover new deposits, but bring them into production. So I think those are going to be some of the real big keys as we go forward. Great. Yeah. Darwin, what are your thoughts? I mean, I don't think I have much more to add but these guys, it's recovered pretty fully.

33:25 Great. All right, Rick, do you have anything to add? I was just gonna say, I mean, I think one of the things that people don't understand about this energy transition is we're transitioning not only to high-tech materials and things like that and all electric, but we're going from a centralized system to a decentralized system where we're generating wind over here and solar over there and hydro and maybe nuclear here and there. But it all has to be connected, and that's the part – because they don't work all at the same time, and as Texas found out, you can't just create a bunch of new wind generation. You've got to store it, and you've got to be able to transfer it around, and when you don't have enough power yourself, you've got to be able to borrow it from the state next door.

34:19 You can't just blame the solar or can't just blame the new wind turbines for the issues that Texas had, but what you can look at and say they weren't prepared for low temperatures from their gas generation to their wind. And it's because they didn't have all these connections in place. And battery storage is obviously going to be a huge part of making all that happen. So again, just the amount of minerals that are needed to achieve this is, I don't think anybody really appreciates exactly how much we need to do here in the next 20, whatever it is, 20, 30 years. Absolutely. All right, well, I want to take the time now to dive in deeper to each of your respective projects and what you believe sets your projects apart from other junior explorations as an investment opportunity.

35:12 Starting with you, Tony, and Trilogy Metals. I almost want Rick to answer this question because he knows it all so well, but I'm going to do it. I think, you know, the key is, and the reason I make that comment, for those of you that don't know, Rick was a former CEO of Trilogy, and he's really the person that's responsible for where we're at today in terms of being in the enviable position that we're in. And I would say the first thing is just the quality of the deposits. This is a great district. It's been explored for a long time, but I don't think people appreciate what we have there. So Arctic as an example is 43.4 million tons at 4.2% copper equivalent. That's hard to come by. So we've got that, plus we've got geological and exploration upside. We've got another advanced exploration project, born 880 million tons, roughly 1.5 percent copper when you factor everything in. And then there's a host of other targets that are adjacent to us. So it's quality of deposits. The partnerships that we've talked about, having NANA as a partner, working closely with the Northwest Arctic Bureau, having access to a native labor force, and being able to ultimately provide training programs to create job opportunities.

36:22 That's going to be a big plus for us. And the fact that they're going to actually have financial economic interest in any of the developments of the mines that occur in the district is absolutely key. Then having partners like SAS32 and ADA in the mix will be important. I think we've got a feasibility study, which is good because we've put something out that demonstrates the economic viability of where we're at. And then I would lastly point out to the metals that we're producing. The fact that we've got copper, zinc, lead, there's a cobalt resource at Boronite. Those are all very tied to what we talked about in terms of what's gonna be needed for infrastructure development going forward. Great, thank you so much. And Darren, what about for high gold? Yeah, well, what we have, it's very early days for us. We've been around for about 18 months, and what we've got is a very high-grade deposit, but it's really just a starting point for us. It's probably up there in the top 10% of undeveloped Gold assets in North America, but it's not the grade so much that sets it apart.

37:25 It's the combination of that grade with exceptional width of the mineralisation that's been identified to date. And what that would lend itself to is much lower cost mining. And it doesn't matter if you're selling granola or gold, it's all about margins. If you've got high value rock and low cost mining, that all equals margins. And it's in a very sort of accessible spot. And Like the Trilogy story, we do have Seery native corporate interest and there's a lot to like about that. We're squarely focused. We think we provide investors exposure to one of the more exciting drill bit stories in Alaska right now, just in terms of the types of intersections. We've generated several intersections that are north of 100m and better than 10g per tonne Gold with significant Zinc and Copper and Lead and Silver, so There's a lot to like there.

38:18 More recently, what's been emerging is that it appears this deposit sits within a small district or potentially a large district. There are several regional prospects that we're seeing that have seen almost no work since the early 80s when they were first passed, reconnaissance work that we're very excited about as well. It should be a fun couple of years ahead for us. Absolutely. And Rick for Contango Ore? I think somewhat similar to Darwin's story and the Highgold story is we're about grade. We have a 4-gram open pit Gold deposit, which is a lot of those around the world. And it's on private land owned by the Tetland Tribe. Our recent partnership last late September with Ken Ross really brought a whole new dimension to the story in that, and the reason we did the deal with Ken Ross is that they have a mill at Fort Knox that's underutilized.

39:17 I think it's 18 million ton a year mill and there's about 10 million tons on average going through that mill every year from Fort Knox. So there's, you know, 8 million tons of capacity there. We can truck 1 million tons a year up to the Fort Knox mill. And these are all, these are rough numbers, but they're in the ballpark of what, of the guidance that Kinross has put out. A 4 gram material actually probably be closer to 6 gram material initially, and you're producing 220,000 ounces of Gold on a 100% basis. And you don't have to build a mill and you don't have to build a tailings facility at our deposit on Tetlin land.

40:04 That lowers capital by about a third and lowers the execution risk from permitting through construction all the way through to mining. Basically, you're permitting your quarry, you're upgrading the road that connects you to the Alaska Highway, connects the deposit to the Alaska Highway. That's about a 10-12 mile road. Again, pretty simple execution plan and low capital. So we're hopeful that within 3 years, we can go through the permitting process, complete a feasibility study and start construction. So that's probably the unique part of our story is that we're not building a melon attaining facility.

40:55 Great. Thank you. Well, so I want to close out the panel with a few more questions about Alaska. And then we'll open the floor to live Q&A. So if you haven't submitted a question, now's your time to submit any questions that you have and we'll get to them afterwards. But Alaska hosts multiple world-class deposits. Red Dog is the largest zinc producer in the US. Green Creek is the largest silver producer in the US. And the Arctic deposit is one of the richest copper deposits globally. And there are so many large, multiple large, and rich gold deposits in the state. What is it about Alaska that produces such large, diverse, and high-grade deposits? I'll open the floor to any of you. It's all about the geology. It's big. It's really, really big and it's got really good geology and it's got a real diversity of geological terrains. And What that means is you're going to get a big diversity of deposit types. In southeast Alaska, you have what are called BMS, there's a bunch of those, and there's good Gold history there.

41:55 In central Alaska, you've got the Tintina Gold Belt. What you see in Yukon travels right across and vice versa. You've got Sedex type deposits at Red Dog. You've just got this perfect combination of a great diversity of fundamental geology. Then add to that, you can see a lot of it. A lot of it's mountainous and that exposes the minerals and the rocks to see. The big question is what are you going to find under the covered areas? Right now, Alaska is just grossly underexplored. The maturation in terms of the exploration compared to other major mining jurisdictions is so early. I mean, there's going to be multiple additional discoveries found over the next several decades, in my opinion. Yeah, I'll just jump in, give Tony the last word here, but I always like to describe Alaska as stuck between trying to figure out whether it's part of North America or trying to figure out if it's part of Asia. And that's been going on for literally 1 billion years.

42:59 And it's crashed and banged into that and Northern Europe, in fact. So all of that jostling around over the last billion years has created a huge amount of structure. And ore deposits always form where there's structure, deep crustal structures that bring up mineralizing fluids. So I think it's because of that long and torturous history. And Alaska still, parts of it are actually part of North America. Parts of it are part of Asia. And parts of it are part of former Europe. So it really is an agglomeration of terrains. In fact, that's where that terminology actually first started to be used was in Alaska, because they were trying to figure out how all these diverse pieces of geology were stuck next to each other.

43:47 So yeah, it's as Daron mentioned, it's you know, we've got just a tremendous from gold to copper to zinc, silver. We, as we talked about, we have all the metals that the green energy future needs. Great, Tony, final word. Yeah, I was just going to say, you know, the under explored factor is a big consideration. And as Darwin said, yes, mountains are there, but there's lots of snow and ice too. So you've got a short drill season and a short expiration season as well. And so that creates its own complexities, which I think had just limited the amount of expiration that's happened in the state over the years. But I think as people are discovering how good Alaska is, you're starting to see a lot more money coming into the state from an exploration perspective.

44:41 And all of those other factors that we talked about, in terms of some of the changes happening in terms of oil and gas exploration are certainly making Alaska that much more attractive for companies to come in, even Australians. Great. Well, thank you so much. I think just I'm conscious of time, and I think I'm going to jump into the live Q&A now. There's lots of questions here, but let me just start with that. So Terrence is asking, are there still prospective land opportunities available or old workings to explore for agreements with partners? Who wants to go first? Of course, yours.

45:27 I'm not going to tell you where they are though. I know, I mean, there's actually, I've always been shocked to be honest. Alaska is one of the biggest contrasts. You can go look at the Golden Triangle in northern BC and it's chock-a-block with different operators. You can't move there. It's completely staked, north to south. You just go across into Alaska and you're next to the biggest Silver producer in the country in Greens Creek, and where's the competition? There's all kinds of prospects in Alaska that are open and are underexplored. Our project is a case in point. It's a project that's generated 75m to 100m plus of 10g to 20g per tonne Gold with 5% to 10% Zinc and it sat there for 25-years. I hadn't even heard about it. To be honest, it's a little embarrassing. I've worked in Alaska for about 20 years, but it sat there long enough without anything done on it before it was brought to us. There are absolutely great opportunities around.

46:28 You can talk to the Alaska Miners Association. It's a great resource to point you in the right direction and other folks if you wanna get connected. Great, thank you. Unless anyone has anything to add. So Jan's question is saying that there's been a lot of delays at the assay labs in processing drilling results at the moment. Is there anything that can be done to speed this up? Yeah, I'll just jump in here quick. I think, You know, last year was certainly just, it was just disruptive period. Some projects didn't have programs, but certainly the assay labs were really stretched thin. And I think they've had a year to sort of, you know, re-look at and reassess how they're going to act in this continued COVID environment.

47:24 And I think most of us are resolved that it's, we're going to be under the same restrictive rules for most of this year, if not all of this year. So I think the labs have re-looked at how they're operating and, you know, jury's still out because the main push in the field season hasn't started yet, but soon, you know, we'll hear in another month or so. So I think we're hopeful that will be an improvement over last year, which was certainly not a good turnaround. Hopefully we will see an improvement, but there, I also expect that there'll be a lot more activity this year than there was last year in terms of generating samples for the assay labs to process. So the good news is the bad news.

48:13 So we might have a lot more activity that slows the process down again. So we'll see. Great. So Kurt, we did touch on this briefly, but Kurt is asking, how do you think Alaska will be affected by the demand for metals that the greening of world economics is going to entail? Yeah, go for it. Whoever. Well, I think we've touched on it a bunch. I figured we should hand this over to Tony though. I'm happy to. I think there's lots of opportunities. But at the same time, my comment earlier about how long it takes for mines to be developed is a big consideration.

49:01 And for Arctic to get where it is, it's really taken a lot of legwork over the last 10 years. And it's taken a lot of work in terms of getting this road to a permitting stage. And that, that takes a long time. And we still have a long ways to go in terms of making an investment decision and so forth. So, I think the important considerations are going to be working very closely with the native communities, in our case, Nana, North North Arctic Borough, being very sensitive to their considerations and concerns and working closely with other stakeholders, including ADA and the state, so that people are thinking about the long-term view of investment in the state and how it ultimately leads to these mines being developed. And hopefully not just a single mine, but additional mines in the Ambler Mining District, but in other parts of the state that can benefit from infrastructure that's developed. I think those are going to be the really important considerations.

49:56 The resources are there. There's a willingness for exploration dollars to come into the state. We've got a supportive state government and it's working with all of the stakeholders to advance the projects. I think that's gonna be the key. I think there's a singular opportunity or 2 that's emerging where, you know, broader society just doesn't appreciate what holds the walls up and their TVs and everything else. The critical role that metals play in our society. And I think this greening is an opportunity to really establish and remind folks about metals in mind and being such an important part of society, not just the green economy going forward, but everything, but we can use the, I guess, this as a bit of a wind in our sails to promote it a bit more, because it needs to be done. Great, yeah, absolutely.

50:44 Chelsea is saying there's been some pressure placed on the government officials to resist cutbacks. How likely is it that the state might impose an additional tax on the mining industry to offset the revenue shortfall? Yeah, maybe I'll just comment here. I mean, obviously, you know, when the when when government's the shortfall in Alaska is really resulting from the oil prices, I'd say we're seeing oil prices come back now we're over $60 a barrel now on on on West Texas. So there it's always a risk that you know, when when they're searching for money that you're, you know, your industry is doing well, you're going to get tagged. I think the state government understands mining and we've had this discussion several times before.

51:37 Mining pays, does pay its way as an industry in the state of Alaska and they're kind of in the sweet spot of the amount of taxes that mining pays. And I think the legislature in particular has been through this discussion multiple times. So I think there's good history here that the amount of taxation that the state of Alaska receives from mining is kind of in that sweet spot. And don't kill the goose, he's a lazy ghost, and that sort of thing. All right, thank you. Kurt has an interesting question. He's saying, given Alaska's relatively unexplored nature, do you see applications for utilizing artificial intelligence applications for Alaskan exploration projects and mines?

52:27 I would say absolutely. I think there's great databases of geophysical surveys and geochemical surveys that are available through the state surveys and the USGS that gives you the materials which can start applying that and there's obviously some good deposits that you can fingerprint and say, hey, can we find this elsewhere in the state? So absolutely, But I would counter that with, it's also a great state where the old school boots on the ground works really well still too, because there's a lot, I mean, we're finding that on our property, we're found great big gold and soil anomalies and new veins sticking out of the ground. We don't necessarily need those tools, but they would be a good add. Yeah, I certainly echo that. I think applying new technology is always just a fun part of the business.

53:16 But as Darwin points out, and I think Tony's mentioned the same thing that there's just a large part of the state that just really has not had a high level of exploration, certainly not to the level that you see in places like Ontario or Nevada or Arizona, where there's just been a tremendous amount of high intensity exploration. And you're finding deposits that are well over a kilometer deep. We don't even barely drill holes a kilometer in length in Alaska for minerals. Yeah, and I think that what I would add is that it's expensive to conduct exploration in Alaska. And so I think that tools, any tools that can help to better define, identify targets will be used. And AI certainly has a big role to play. But I think both, as Rick and Darwin have indicated, there's nothing that substitutes in this case, boots on the ground, particularly when you're looking at the terrain that you're talking about, and about doing soil sampling work and sediments and so on, that you need to get there and do.

54:27 And logistics mean that even that's challenging at times. So those are gonna be the considerations. And it comes back to the earlier comment about having an environment that's hospitable to the mining industry because it's a long-term gain in terms of these projects, not just being discovered, but ultimately being developed. Great. Thank you. There's a few questions here about what each of your timeline for mining is, for each of your companies. And so maybe we can just go around the room and just talk about what you see for 2021, what's upcoming and what your plans are for each of your mines. Starting with you, Rick, if that's okay. Sure.

55:13 Well, as I mentioned, we have the good fortune of not having to build a mill and a tailings facility and not have to permit those things. And with Ken Ross as our partner, and they are the manager of the project, they've outlined a three-year plan to construction. So we're in year 1 here, so we've got an $18 million budget right now that is basically directed at gathering all the information to start permitting, which we expect to do in the second half of this year and then complete a feasibility study next year with construction in 2023. That's a relatively short timeline for a mine that's going to produce over 200,000oz of gold a year.

56:02 But we can do that because we don't have to build and permit a mill and a tailings facility. So I think, you know, that's, you know, call it 3 years and We'll hopefully be able to stick to that. In our case, we have the capital to contribute to the point where we can make a construction decision. Shareholders don't have to worry about a bunch of dilution to take place to their shareholding. We have the capital now, we're about $30 million in the bank, and it's going to cost us in rough numbers, about 20 million to get to a construction decision. I think we're actually in really good shape as a company goes.

56:48 Great, thank you so much. Darwin, what about you and Highvolt? Yeah, I mean, we're kind of, I guess, the furthest away from making a mine decision out of the 3 of us here. We've been able to establish a significant deposit, but there's such obvious and clear opportunities to expand and grow the resource that it doesn't make much sense to frame economics on it now because it will become stale dated the minute we drill our next drill hole. So our mandate really is over the next year or 2 is to see what this thing's made of, both grow the deposit that we have and with a little luck, maybe make another discovery or 2 elsewhere on the property. And then once we have a better feel for the property as a whole, we would launch the economic studies and the permitting.

57:37 When we reached that point, though, the one thing that is kind of unique about this property is its proximity to tidewater. In fact, when it was last looked at, A mid-tier Gold producer was actually going to direct ship the ore. They were just going to mine it and send it to another mine about 900 miles away by barge to get processed there. Not dissimilar from what Rick was just describing, but you're doing it by water because marine transport, once you get it on a barge is extremely economical. The project does offer some optionality that way. That said, even if we don't go that way and you build a mine on site, because it's a high-grade, small footprint, underground type of operation, It's generally a more straightforward, less complicated project to permit. Some of these really long timeline permitting projects, it's not so much that the permits are tough, it's just that there's a lot of things to look at and a lot of studies. The more area and more footprint your project has, the more things you got to study and they just take time to review. So the more compact high-grade deposits generally have a much faster process through that system.

58:44 Yeah. So in our case, we're in a good position in the sense that Trilogy prepared a feasibility study last year. That feasibility study is being provided to joint venture Ambler Metals. Ambler Metals has $140 million in the bank, which should last us about 4 years if we sort of factor in the current year's spend of about $27 million, which we're going to spend for exploration and continued advanced project this year. And then there's additional money that's going to be spent, we should have an announcement coming out shortly, what the Ambler Metals share of the money that will be spent on detailed engineering for the road. So where that puts us is in terms of permitting, we hope to start the permitting process at some point this summer.

59:30 When we benchmark our permitting process against other projects in Alaska, we see a 30 to 36 month time period, which puts us sort of towards the end of 2023, early to mid 2024, in terms of hopefully making an investment decision. And that's when, you know, if everything goes according to plan, we would hopefully see construction commence on the road as well. And then as far as being in production, it's really a question of how all of those things fit and the flexibility that we have in terms of being able to get in there and move a project forward. And, you know, one of the things that we're focused on is Arctic right now has roughly a 12-year mine life and we're obviously looking at ways of increasing that mine life through the drill bit and more exploration in the district, looking at some of the satellite deposits and then ultimately looking at Boronite, which is a separate standalone deposit in the district, and starting to think a little bit carefully about how that sort of fits in to the overall development longer term. So those are the thoughts and processes in terms of what we're doing right now.

1:00:31 Great. Well, thank you all so much. That's all the half the time we have for today. And thank you for all your great discussion and insights and for taking us through the live Q&A. I also want to thank everyone who submitted questions and joined us today. If you if we didn't get a chance to answer your question, or if you think of 1 after the summit, we'll be sending out a short survey and you'll be able to leave your contact details and we can put you in touch with any of these amazing panelists here. Yeah, and thank you all for joining us and have a great rest of your day.