Interview with KORE Minings CEO: What Comes Next in California?

0:15 Core Mining offers the investor exposure to the gold price and leverage to the gold price through an equity investment. Core Mining has gold resources in the ground in the United States with significant growth opportunities to add ounces and generate excitement in the equity markets. Core has a development portfolio from those resources with 2 economic assessments showing a potential value of almost $1 billion Canadian and almost 350,000 ounces of gold production per year on the horizon. This would transform Core into a significant mid-tier gold company in a safe and stable jurisdiction in the United States. Core offers the investor growth through aggressive exploration. We're currently permitting large drill programs at both of our projects and expect of significant news flow happening through the course of 2021.

1:08 This sets up the company with great value catalysts, both through the drill bit and through being on the ground moving our projects forward into development. Core's insiders and board are aligned with shareholders. We collectively own almost 38% of Core's issued and outstanding shares. We are also supported by our strategic investor, Mr. Eric Sprott, who owns 26% of Core and strongly backs the company. Core Mining is an attractive valuation to peers on both a PNAV and price to ounces in the ground basis. Core is an incredible investment. We're super excited about our prospects in 2021. We hope you can join our team.

1:51 Investor perceptions of mine purting in California are different from the evidence on the ground. The state of California has moved several mines into production over the last several years, including the Castle Mountain Project owned by Equinox Gold and the Solid Ed Mountain Mine owned by Golden Queen Mining Company. There's also a large operating mine, the Mesquite Mine also owned by Equinox Gold that is located in the same county and right near our flagship Imperial Gold Project. So California is a place with a gold mining sector and in the right location and with strong community support, a place you can permit a mine. Having an operating mine with the Mesquite mine located 9 miles from our project gives us a workforce and a county that has experience with gold mining.

2:44 This is important as CORE moves forward to build social license with local stakeholders, the key to getting any project permitted, be it in California or otherwise. We have a team on the ground and an office in Imperial City in Imperial County that are advancing our Imperial project with local professionals. And we plan to engage with stakeholders and build our social license as we move the project forward into permitting in 2021.

3:14 Core Mining has engaged a local group of professionals to pursue government relations, environmental work, community relations, and build core social license to operate in Imperial County, California. Imperial County has a large operating mine in the Mesquite Mine, which gives us the benefit of having an educated political and bureaucracy community in the region that understands mining and is receptive to responsible mining proposals. As we move Imperial into permitting in 2021, We will continue to build our social license by operating in the community, engaging and educating stakeholders in a transparent way, and ensuring that we are strong members of the Imperial community.

4:03 Our team based in Imperial County is going to be very busy in 2021. They are currently permitting an exploration program and are ramping up to drill at our project to grow our resources and make new discoveries in 2021. In parallel, as they've been for the last 12 months, our team is on the ground engaging with local stakeholders and building our position in the community. We are building social license and engaging with stakeholders in a transparent and responsible way. We look forward to 2021. Our team is growing and we're super excited about their value creation throughout the year. As a US gold explorer and developer, CORE's assets can be valued in 2 ways. The first is ounces in the ground.

4:51 CORE has a total of 3.9 million ounces of gold resources defined at 2 projects, Long Valley and our flagship Imperial project in Imperial County, California. Second way to value core is on a price to net asset value measure. The analysts coverage covering core use this metric to judge value of the equity. Core has done economic studies on 2 of our projects that show almost 1 billion dollars Canadian in potential value from 2 economic assessments at Imperial and Long Valley. Core trades at a discount to our peers on both of these metrics.

5:33 As a US gold developer and explorer, Core's peers are gold companies developing assets in the Western United States. Those include companies like Midas, Corvus, Integra, Gold Standard, and Liberty, which are all Canadian listed companies developing US gold projects. Core remains undervalued to all these peers and offers a shareholder great exposure to our exploration and development work in our flagship Imperial and Long Valley projects. Core Mining is a relatively new company to the market. While we've been listed since late 2018, we've only built our team and capitalized the company over the last 20 months. Our peers, which include other Canadian listed US gold developers like Midas, Corvus, Integra, Gold Standard, and Liberty, have all been around much longer in the market to generate shareholders' support and following.

6:31 CORE also remains undervalued due to perception of the ability to develop mines in California where our 2 flagship projects are located. California does have a significant gold mining sector, has put several mines into production over the last 2 years, And our project in Imperial County is located 9 miles from the operating Mesquite Mine, all of this activity in California, which is a place you can permit and develop gold mines. CORE is excited about our value creation in 2021 and catching up to our peers. Core Mining has done preliminary economic assessments of 2 of our projects with a total of 3.9 million ounces of gold in the ground. Both projects are open pit heap leach, simple projects as scoped in the PEAs, and show a potential value of almost 1 billion dollars combined at $1,600 gold.

7:28 Both projects have high IRRs at that gold price and low capital requirements compared to peer projects. This is because the simple nature of our projects and the access to infrastructure, which keep costs and risks low. Core is moving both projects forward and the Imperial project into permitting later this year while pursuing an aggressive growth program at both companies, currently permitting large drill programs to grow our resources and create excitement in the capital markets. Core Mining's Imperial project has a low capital intensity. This is simply because the project has access to infrastructure, including water, roads, labor and is in a flat environment.

8:16 The project is a shallow heap leachable gold deposit that's highly economic. The preliminary economic assessment released in 2020 shows a 52% IRR and $640 million Canadian NPV at a $1,600 gold price. So low risk in development by having simple access to infrastructure gives Core shareholders great exposure to a project that Core is moving into development and exploring and creating excitement in 2021.

8:49 Core's Imperial Gold Project, which was subject to a highly economic 2020 preliminary economic assessment, has access to incredible infrastructure, road, water, labor and power, some of which is attributable to the nearby operating Mesquite Gold Mine, which is a very similar size development using similar sized mining equipment and also the same processing technology. The project is a open pit mine with very simple run-of-mine heap leach processing. We're very excited about the value creation from CORE advancing this project into permitting in 2021 and the growth opportunities we have and will be testing in 2021 with exploration.

9:35 Core's Imperial Gold project was subject to a feasibility study and environmental impact assessment by a previous operator. That operator also installed a water well. All of these things give core opportunities to move directly from PEA to FS because we're confident in the technical data we have in the project. In addition, Imperial has a great exploration opportunity to grow the near mine resources, infill the deposit, and add more value, as well as the incredible exploration potential of controlling the entire Mesquite Imperial Picacho District in Imperial County, California. We're incredibly excited about the value creation from this low-risk, high-quality development imperial mining project.

10:23 Core's Imperial Gold Project is a low-technical risk heap leach gold project located in Imperial County, California. The project is on Bureau of Land Management or Federal Land and is subject to the NEPA or National Environmental Protection Act rules through and applied by the Bureau of Land Management. Projects with the Bureau of Land Management, which include most mines in Nevada, Arizona, and Idaho that are currently being permitted through other companies is typically 2 to 3 years. CORE is anticipating a similar time for our Imperial project and we are focused right now on engaging and developing support for the project locally, and building our social license to operate with our local team who's on the ground adding value to our project. We're super excited about the prospects in 2020 and submitting our mine application in the middle of 2021.

11:20 The Imperial Project is located in a prolific gold mining district in Imperial County, California. That district includes the currently operating Mesquite Mine, which has been operating for almost 25 years and has produced over 4.6 million ounces. It's still operating in the Equinox Gold Company today and has generated a strong reputation in the county for gold mining. There's also the now closed Picacho Mines, American Girl, Tumco, and other gold mines in the district. And in fact, gold mining in Imperial County goes all the way back to the 1870s. Core staked almost 21,000 acres and now controls the most significant gold district in the region, which includes the area from Mesquite to our flagship Imperial Project and then over to Picacho. This is a 28-kilometer trend, 100% owned by CORE. We're currently permitting drilling to start exploring that ground and making new discoveries and we're super excited about the growth potential for the Imperial project in 2021.

12:30 CORE is currently permitting a large drill program on our Imperial Gold Project. The objectives of that program are to test some of the highest priority targets on our exciting Mesquite Imperial Picacho District exploration. We also are permitting locations to step out and drill more resources for the Imperial project itself, do some infill drilling, as well as all the technical work that would take the project through to production. We are currently working through the permitting process with the Bureau of Land Management, our federal regulator, and we're expecting to receive drill permits in the middle of 2021. This will set up CORE for an exciting back half of 2021, drilling out some of our highest priority growth targets.

13:17 Core Mining is currently permitting a large drill program at our flagship Imperial project. The purpose of the program is to first explore the highest priority targets on our Mesquite Imperial Picacho district. This is a district that hosts 3 large heap leach gold projects, and we believe there's great potential to find more in between, and the area is underexplored. Second objective of our drill program is to provide all of the technical information to support our feasibility study, as well as to grow the current deposit and resources that backed our incredible 2020 preliminary economic assessment. So we'll have years of drilling to do when we receive our permit in the middle of 2021.

14:05 Long Valley is an intact epithermal deposit. So cutting through all the geology mumbo jumbo, this means that is a shallow oxide gold resource, which is amiable to heap leach mining. That is what supports our incredible economic PEA we released in 2020. It also means there's opportunities to drill for high-grade sulfides at depth underneath the deposit, which have not been tested. The deposit also is open on surface to drill off more of those exciting oxide mineral resources. We're permitting opportunities for both and look forward to drilling later in 2021 and opening up more value at our Long Valley Gold Project. We are currently permitting a 15,000 metre drill program at our Long Valley project.

14:54 This program is meant to target step outs to grow the oxide resources behind our great preliminary economic assessment, as well as to test for high-grade sulfides at depth underneath the known resources. We're super excited about this program. We're expecting to get our permits sometime in 0.5 one of this year and start drilling later in the year, opening up new opportunities for the Long Valley Gold Project.

15:23 CORE is currently permitting a 15,000 metre drill program at our Long Valley Project. The purpose of this program is to test step outs to grow the oxide resources that are behind our incredible 2020 preliminary economic assessment. We are also going to test deep sulfide targets to try and look for high-grade underground type resources. We are really excited about both these opportunities and expect to get our permits sometime in 0.5 1 2021 to kick off growth at our Long Valley project.

15:57 Core Mining has an exciting program for 2021 that includes both the risking of our high quality PEA at the Imperial Gold Project, as well as growth from 2 exploration programs that are currently permitting. At Imperial, we're moving the Imperial project into the permitting process in mid-2021, and then stepping through several milestones in the permitting process. In parallel, we're starting a drill program that we're currently permitting to step out and test some of the amazing targets on our Imperial Mesquite Picacho District, test resort growth targets. To help with our Long Valley project, we're also permitting drilling, and we plan to have lots of catalysts in the company in 2021. You