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23:53 of permitting in your sort of home department. And then as you get bigger, you need to do everything through the central government essentially. And the vast majority runs through Lima. The vast majority of the mining regulations run through Lima. And that's sort of the way that the country's set up. We had a really good experience with working with the Department of Juan Cavalica. We were able to get an environmental impact assessment done for the future mining operation. And specifically what we need to do at our project is we're looking to build a plant. Our mine has never had its own plant facilities, it's a polymetallic ore, so we wanna do concentration at site. They always had to truck the ore 50,200 kilometers away to have that done. So we can do it now at site, it's as what we're looking to do. And we got the environmental permit for that.
24:52 This actually just in August, we finally got it. So, and, you know, there definitely was a delay due to COVID. There were several months there where all the government offices were shut down, but they did reopen and they were working through the backlog of files. And so it's a very good experience. I think the thing to watch with Peru going forward is probably the federal or the nationwide political situation and also how COVID is going to affect that just because it is, you know, while the government was I think good at getting out in front of COVID back in March, you know, the reality is just because of the nature of the socioeconomics of the country and, you know, how many people don't, you know, couldn't really stay at home and, you know, don't have refrigerators or, you know, need to go and work, you know, or working in a sort of a job where they're paid in cash every day or whatever, you know, that's caused, that caused, essentially people couldn't follow the COVID stay-at-home regulations and then, you know, you have hundreds of thousands of cases in the country.
26:07 So it'll be interesting to see next year there's an election and to see if there's any spillover from that. I would say COVID-19 by far and away is the biggest issue in the country right now. And mining just trucks along. Got it. Thomas, anything to add regarding the political environment in the region that you're working in? Well, as again, we're very active right now in Bolivia. So I'll just address that point. I think David's clearly looked after the Peruvian side of things. Again, there's an election October the 18th, and so we believe that it'll probably be a right-wing government that ends up, you know, winning on the second ballot. You've got to win by 10 percent of the initial votes.
27:03 So MAS, M-A-S, which is more of a socialist government regime, they could win the first ballot. But as long as... Anyway, you know, I have to stay apolitical no matter who comes in, but there is on October 18th, there will be an election. The good thing about where we are, the Department of Potosi, it has a real history of mining activity and the people there are very open-minded when it comes to mining. But again, you obviously have to work together and be very, very conscientious in how you deal with, you know, it's their country and we're visitors, so, you know, we act accordingly. This is a good segue to our next question, actually. Speaking of working hand in hand with the local communities, I'm curious to know how involved are, you know, your respective companies with the local community? Are they a part of your projects?
28:03 How are you working with them? Nick? Okay, yeah, so we have the village of Castello de Sonios, which is where our project gets its name, is probably 20 kilometers away, 30 minute drive, 40 minute drive from site. So we're, they're not part of the project, but they're intimate, they know it, they understand it, they visit it. We have labor force from there as needed. We have very good relationship with that. We have some sort of internal guidelines on how we will help the community, and it's always, pretty well always, health care and education. So right now, things have been at a lower level through the exploration development phase. So our geologists will teach in the school, or there'll be trips out to the site.
28:51 You know, and we'll be helping with the health care system and obviously, as we said, with COVID now we've got a real benefit of the new hospital coming in there. But for us, we see them as a partner for us. I think we're very lucky with the community we have close by to us because they are a sort of a new community. It's a newer town. It's only probably 20, 30 years old. So it's not like a place with deep roots and many generations and you know that they went there for farming and for mining and so that's the style of people they are so you know we're in a farming community now but farmers who understand mining and they understand primary industry they can work on heavy equipment they can drive trucks and stuff it's really handy But they do understand what we're doing, and so they're not going to be massively concerned about a well-run mine 20 kilometers away. So I think that's our goal, is to make sure they are well enough informed and they're open. We have them out to the mine site regularly or the project site regularly and our geologists and we have a house in the town. So it's very friendly, very good relationship but our job is to maintain that relationship and make sure they know that what's coming is going to be a very well-run, good mine which will be a source of labour and a source of growth and sustainability for that village. And so that's our job moving forward. And I think probably our biggest job and most critical job of every company is to maintain that social licence.
30:15 Great. David? In our case, we have 1 community that would have jurisdiction over our mine called the Perroche community. The way it works in Peru is, you know, there's certain communities, I guess, all across the Andes. And, you know, I mean, unless you're in a big city, there'll be some community that has the, you know, the jurisdiction over the surface rights, over the land, the land use. And so that's an important part of life in Peru. And you can, depending on the size of your project, you could possibly be in more than 1 jurisdiction. In our cases, we're just dealing with 1 community.
31:10 And in terms of, this community, it's a very small population. It's, you know, only a few dozen people in total. We, you know, they were there and sort of actively involved with the mining operation when it was going up until 2016. Our job really, or what we're doing right now, is we're in a process to re-engage, make sure that we do know that when a new, especially Canadian company takes over, they're going to expect more from us than a private Peruvian company.
31:55 So we're working with them and it's been a very good experience so far. I mean, we, in Peru, you need your local community to approve your EIA, essentially. You know, you do it through these, you know, community meetings and stuff. I don't know how we would do it today, frankly, with COVID. Maybe you can do it virtually, but we did all our community meetings back in 2019 and fortunately and got that all done, approved by the community. They've given us rights to surface rights to use the land where the plant's going to be, the tailing storage, etc. So all that's been essentially worked, you know, we work hand in hand with the community on all those little jobs that are very important. And I mean, at the end of the day, we want to make, you know, the area a better place for them and for everybody.
32:48 That's a great goal to have David. How about you Thomas? Well, I mean, in regard to our crew property and department of Ancash, we've been involved since 2015, 16, or at least Laura's been involved. It was formerly owned by a company from a company called Partisan Resources, Mark Appleby, who picked the project up in 2010, 11. They did a great job putting the package together. We came in and JV'd it and now we own it outright. However, it's a 90km2 property. So yeah, we do encompass 2 or 3 communities in that. We did a drilling campaign back in, you know, 2 years ago in Rafina, which is in the southern area, I believe it's around 3,200m, but in a valley, so topography was quite extreme.
33:38 So we did a small drilling campaign. The ownership there was privately owned by the local people of the Wanderval. So that was fairly, I mean, it took time, but that was fairly easy to obtain a licensed drilling permits and stuff. But in regard to our more favoured area further up in the system, it's an epithermal low sulphurization type system we're dealing with at La Victoria. Higher up, up in the Alta Plana where it's more flat line is the San Marquito area, but that area is owned by the community itself. So we have to deal with the community. It's their property. They have the surface rights. We have the mining rights. They have the surface rights or mineral rights we have. So that's where it's been a bit of an issue.
34:24 We've been there, you know, soccer teams and monies for Christmas, you know, health, you know, sending monies for any health issues that, you know, that they might need from us. So we've had a presence there for, you know, a number of years, and we have a good relationship. And again, I do believe that we will be active in San Marquito shortly with the efforts of like Andres Ricolde and our team that have been down there working hard and getting, you know, making sure they understand that we're not affecting their water supply, you know, doing independent studies and such. So, you know, I mean, I'm looking forward to working with the community of San Marquito, the people there. They're such great people, nice people.
35:11 But right now we're just—we have to get the permit, the land purchasing agreement sorted out, which we're close to doing. In Bolivia, again, privately owned, so in a district-friendly environment, and so we've been very fortunate with the owner, the Vajegas family, because basically they own the property, we're earning into it. Like we basically have 4.5 years to decide whether we want to acquire ISCA or not. And in the event that we do, it's a flat 10M USD payment to the family. But there's no gun to our head right now as to having to spend money within 6 months and this and that. So COVID hasn't affected us in that regard.
35:59 So, you know, and To be blunt, I haven't been there yet. You know, we were planning to fly down, but again, with COVID in February, so I'm really looking forward to when we can visit Tepesia, you know, the old, the old Sun Dance Kid jurisdiction where they passed away. But anyway, yeah, looking forward to meeting them. All right, great. Thanks for that, Thomas. Just before we move into the Q&A section with the audience, I just have one last question. The question is, what sets you apart from other juniors that are operating in South America now? Nick? Okay, I mean, there's a lot of good companies out there. So I mean, there's a good choice, but I think where we can be different is Right now there's some excitement in exploration.
36:48 We've got 2 drill rigs on site right now and another one coming in a couple of weeks. We'll have 3 rigs working on exploration growth and we've got some really exciting targets that we're gonna be hitting. So we've got exploration excitement, But underlying all of that, we've got a pre-feasibility study, which you're going to complete early next year, which is adding substantial value. So it's like we've got a base that we're taking off from. It's not pure exploration with all the associated risk. It seems, for me, it's lower risk, because you've got a base, you've got something real, it's PFS, it's permitting activities going on towards production of a good scale mine. Our PEA had 130,140,000 ounces a year. So for me, that's the difference. It's not just exploration, but we have got that exploration excitement going on right now. And we've got the PFS, which is a solid base, which on its own is going to be very exciting and at significant value.
37:43 Excellent. David? Yeah, so that's a tough question, just because, again, there's so many companies, big and small, all over South America. But that being said, I would say our, you know, what sets us apart is the fact that we are a silver dominated company, near term producer, I'm not sure I can think of another company that, you know, like us at the moment. You know, there certainly have been in the past, Pan American started off the same way with a, you know, a high grade mine in in Peru back in the mid-90s, 1st Majestic in Mexico. But yeah, in terms of where companies today, I think we're kind of unique in that sense that we've got near-term production and a Silver-dominated mining project.
38:37 Great, and finally, Thomas? I mean, we're basically a unique emerging resource company in that we have 2 highly leveraged, untested, potentially large-scale Silver gold projects in world-class mineralised regions being Peru and Bolivia. There are a lot of exploration companies and very well-run exploration and development companies out there. I just, I think maybe our uniqueness is that we, you know, we have 2 properties, potential properties that could do really well in jurisdictions to different countries side by side. I'm really, really excited about the next few months. Great.
39:24 Now let's look at some of the questions that have come in from our audience members. First of all, the first question will be for David for Kuya Silver. I've had a lot of questions come in, a lot of excitement about Kuya getting listed. So the question is, once you're public, What will the total issued and outstanding share count be? And are you still on track to get listed tomorrow? And could you repeat your ticker again so they can find it and invest? So yes, we're listing tomorrow. Ticker is K-U-I-A. We're on the Canadian Stock Exchange so KUYA is our ticker KUYA and issued an outstanding shares it's it's about 32.3 million I think.
40:19 Excellent thank you. The next question is for TriStar. Leo wants to know, could you talk a little bit about your current drill program? Absolutely, yeah. So we've got, as I said, we're going to have 3 drill rigs. We initially, you know, we've got a plan for the rest of this year of like 12,000 metres that we'll want to complete before Christmas. The aim of that is to do the little bit we want to finish out in the PFS. We've got a few things we wanted to get done there, but not a lot. And then we've probably got 8 to 10 expiration targets. So we want to get a few holes into each of them so that then when we finish the Christmas break, straight after Christmas, we get back in and follow the results as they've come out of those exploration targets.
41:05 And for us, our exploration targets range from almost step out, where it's more of the same and fairly low risk exploration to conceptual targets on a big body, which is going to be high risk, high return if it hits, but you don't know and everything in between. So it's like I said, it's an exciting time, you know, 3 rigs and 2 of them are seized, which means we drill fast and get results really quick. So those results start flowing next month. Now We started drilling at the beginning of last week. And yeah, it's going to be really interesting because we feel like we've just touched the corner of this asset and we want to really unlock the full value of it now. Following up to that, Rama wants to know, this is for Nick, in addition to the 20,000 meter drilling campaign you completed, how much more drilling will you need to complete for a pre-feasibility study? Will that be published by March, 2021?
42:02 Okay, so the last bit 1st, PFS, I can't see it being done by March. I think it'll be April, May would be the best guess. As for the random drilling required, we have to get 3 additional geotech holes in. That's the sort of formal requirement that has to get done. On top of that, we're opportunistically, like I said, we've analyzed the drilling, we've got results from earlier in the year, and obviously we've found spots where we can add on nicely. So we're gonna be opportunistically putting a few more holes in where we can and where we want to. So, but there's 3 holes that we have to get in for the geotech results for the pit wall stability work. Excellent. Thank you, Nick. Here's another question from Leo, this time for Thomas. When can we expect results? Oh boy.
42:49 Thanks, Leo. I think basically we started our campaign, our drilling campaign, maiden campaign about 4 or 5-weeks ago now. We're basically on the 6th hole. So we do have the 1st and 2nd hole that has been, you know, everything was analysed at our core shack site in Topiza, CORE, you know, the logging, and then sent to our prep lab with ALS in Aurora, Bolivia, and then the pulps from there will be flown to Lima, to the ALS lab in Lima, and I believe they're there now, the first set of samples.
43:37 I would probably assume in the next couple of weeks, there might be some results, but then it will trickle through over the next 6-7-weeks. It's a 3,500m drilling campaign, but let's take a look at the initial results first before we decide where we're going to go. Probably in a couple of weeks, we'll probably start releasing a few results. Excellent, we'll keep an eye on that in the next couple of weeks. Here's a question for everybody. Jeff wants to know how much ownership does management hold? And then are there any other large investors involved that you could share? We'll start with Nick. Okay, so management and directors directly we hold, I believe, 12% of the company and sort of if you throw in friends and family, it's closer to 22, 25%.
44:31 Largest shareholders are US Global, Gold 2000, RBC, and we had a big investment from Royal Gold last year was there quite a royalty from us. So they're a significant stakeholder I'd say. David? So management owns 28 percent of Kuya and in terms of notable investors, we have Eric Sprott as an investor, invested in Kuya privately, and is still one of our largest investors. And Commodity Capital is a fund in Toronto, they're a big holder as well. Great, and finally, Thomas? Management, directors, management, 30%, 35%.
45:22 Ownership, shares outstanding. Probably our major, one of our largest shareholders, It's a macro, global macro asset fund, based out of Denver, Colorado, called Prescat Capital. They have just over 9%. Maybe a bit more now. Also Champion Iron have a share position and I'm a fairly large shareholder myself and Tartazan, the predecessor owner of the Peruvian project, they have around 4 million shares. So that's basically it out of the 47 million outstanding.
46:10 Thank you, everyone. I've got a number of questions here specifically for Kuya Silver, David. A lot of questions about when are you gonna start mining and then when you do, what do you need to get started in terms of capital, labor, equipment, et cetera? Okay, so I'll try and answer all that together. So, you know, the plan is to, you know, push forward with development over the next year. You know, if everything goes according to plan, we could be in production by late next year, early 2020, full production early 2022 would be the goal. You know, there's a few things that could affect that, including timing of financing, which I'll talk about in a sec. And also there's weather, there's certain times of the year when we don't wanna start certain activities, but otherwise it's not a big project to be honest.
47:13 It's not gonna take that long to build it. The total CAPEX for the whole expansion project, again, this is our internal estimate. So we don't have a PEA or PFS or anything like that at this point. But our internal estimate is about 10 million US. So that would include the plant, the tailings and the underground development. In terms of what specifics we need, labor. Yeah, I mean, we will need labor. We'll ramp that up gradually probably as the mine construction or the plant construction gets underway next year. And we are plugged into the region where there is a lot of other mining activity, etc. So I think labor is going to be widely available.
48:08 In terms of equipment, power, that kind of thing. So equipment, I mean, our mine is a narrow vein, high grade, very high grade mine. So the equipment, we will be acquiring some equipment, like a few jack legs and stuff from the previous mine owners, but yeah, there's probably some minor equipment that we will need next year, but again, it's not material. And you know, power, right now the mines run on diesel gensets and that's how we will start in 2021. We do have a plan or we would like to, in the longer term, and this might be the following year, connect up with the hydro grid. You probably wouldn't do it if you were only going to be there for a few years. But I think we're convinced that there's going to be a very, very long mine life here and that we're going to be there for a long time. So it is worth doing the additional CapEx, perhaps in 2022 to hook up to the hydro grid.
49:13 And then we'll get cleaner, cheaper power that way, more consistent power. Anything I missed? Okay, thanks. Let me know. I don't think so. We do have a bunch of follow-up questions. A question from Jeffrey for you, David. Do you need to wait for completion of a mill? How long will it take to build a mill if you need it? Yeah, actually, okay, let me, and then I think I saw another question about doing toll milling again. Someone asked if we would do that. So I'll answer that altogether. So the mill, I mean, once we have all the equipment and all the financing lined up, it's probably 6 months of actual construction time, and then another few months of commissioning.
50:03 So that's the order of magnitude of what we'd be looking at. Going back into a toll milling situation and paying those additional trucking and toll milling costs is not something I'm really a big fan of. If we do get like really crazy high silver prices over the short term, then I think we'd have to look at it. We would look at it. I mean, we'll do, you know, we'll obviously make those those are financial decisions, you know, by and large. But at this stage, it's probably not worth doing. We, you know, we'll make a lot more money and a better return by just getting the plant up and running as fast as possible. But yeah, I mean, if, you know, again, in an extraordinary circumstance, it could be possible to toll mill again and, you know, to generate some cash flow that way.
51:01 Thank you, David. Here's a question from Ernst. This is for everyone. These are, you all seem to be operations and companies where Dr. Quentin Henna is involved. So could you talk a little bit about his role and how he works with you? Maybe we'll start with Nick. Okay, yeah, Quentin's an independent director of ours. It's great to have him on the board. He's a great geologist. As a non-independent, non-executive director, he doesn't really have, in that way, he has no day-to-day involvement. I find him brilliant to sort of bounce ideas geologically off and chat about the paleoplasm component of CDS. So It's great having him there because he is a brilliant geologist.
51:49 But he doesn't have any other day-to-day involvement with the side of them as a very good independent director. Got it. How about for Kuya Silver, David? So we, Yeah, he came over, he was the director of Miramont, actually the chairman of Miramont. We nominated him to be the chair of Kuya Silver, you know, when we closed. But he'll be essentially an independent chair. You know, kind of same as Nick. I mean, you know, I really like bouncing ideas off of him. I actually, my background is geologist as well, way back when. And, you know, Right now, to be honest, as we're building up our team, we are a little light on that front internally.
52:36 And so, having myself and then Quintin's even more experienced than I am, of course, but having that access to him is going to really help out, I would say, especially in the first year or so, while we're essentially setting up our team and finding the right people for that. KUYA has, until recently, been very more mining engineering focused, and that's really our strength and our guys in Peru that we've been working with for the past 3 years are more on the mining engineering side and metallurgy. So, so, yeah, so having having that a really strong geological board, including Quinton, is going to be really good for us going forward.
53:26 Great. And how do you work with Quinton Thomas? Well, I've only... Quinton and I first met via phone call about 3 or 4 months ago through a mutual friend of ours based out of Lausanne, Switzerland. And this particular fellow had a lot of interest in Bolivia from the apex over days with Tom Kaplan and Larry Buchanan, so when he found out about a laurel being involved, he thought you know, let's I'm a good friend of Quentin Let's just see what Quentin has to say about this project. And So that was how I was introduced to him and just his track record and just how I mean when he explains things, I mean he was a math teacher, very simple sort of way of explaining but incredibly bright and knowledgeable And so we're very fortunate to have him. He's an advisor to our company.
54:22 And you know, he, so he works well with Dr. Bill Pearson, our chief technical advisor who in his own right, you know, very, very accomplished geoscientist along with Dr. Osvaldo Arkay. And again, the Micon group who I have a lot of respect for. So we do have a pretty good bench, you know, we have some bench strength, to say the least, when it comes to our technical exploration team, which is what Allura is all about, trying to find, you know, world-class deposits like all of us are. So yeah, Quinton has been most helpful. He introduced us to Crestcat Capital in Denver, who became a shareholder and helped with underwriting our initial drill campaign that was in our 43-101. So yeah, he's been fantastic.
55:09 Great, thank you for that. I think that's all the time we have for questions. Before we wrap though, I do want to ask one final question for our audience members. What does it take for a junior to be successful in South America? Let's start with Nick. Be successful in South America. I think the ESG stuff is the most important. If you lose that social license to operate, you'll never get it back. You can make a $20,000 mistake, and you can spend $10 million trying to fix it. So understanding that risk and understand, I think it's understanding all the risks outside of the coal mining risks. I think all of us understand metallurgy and resource estimation and exploration drilling, but it's understanding the risks outside of that, the ESG and infrastructure.
56:04 So I would say that's it, in the environmental, social and infrastructure, understanding them and you got a good leg up. Thanks, Nick. David? You know, I think, you know, South America itself is a very varied place, like, you know, and I know we tend to like lump it up, lump it all together, but that's not really fair. You know, the individual countries and even the regions within the countries can be vastly different. You know, I mean, you know, Nick is completely right. You know, ESG is extremely important. That's not unique to South America, but it is extremely important in our operations.
56:52 And I think at the end of the day, I guess, depending on what your strategy is, if you're more exploration focused or you're more production focused. In our case, I think we're sort of taking over from a mind that has had some history. And we just want, our attitude is we wanna make it better. Better for the community, better in terms of understanding what's there, and ultimately the production that we can achieve from that deposit. That's the way we're looking at it. And then with that success, hopefully then we can go and do it again.
57:38 And certainly South America could be a great place for multiple mines for us. So It's not an easy question because it can be so different, but I think that's what can make you successful, is if you know what your plan is and you basically try and follow it. Thanks, David. Thomas? Again, we're more focused on exploration and development at our stage, primarily right now in Bolivia. I still believe Bolivia has a, you know, it's somewhat overlooked. I think there's a lot of low-hanging fruit still there, especially in our area.
58:24 But again, you have to be really, really associated closely to someone like a Dr. Oswaldo Arce, when you're dealing in these types of jurisdictions, and really listen to what, you know, and his protocols of, you know, primarily doing, you know, doing the right thing with community and respecting these people. And you know, that's just basically how we try and move forward, especially in Bolivia. Just try and be respectful. All right, thank you very much, Thomas. I think that's it for today. We're coming to the end of our time together. I want to thank all of our speakers. Thank you, Nick, David, Thomas, for taking time out of your busy schedules and also sharing all of your insights on what you're doing in South America and really what makes this such a great jurisdiction to work in.
59:23 Everyone in the audience, I thank you for your questions. If you didn't get a chance for your questions to be answered, I saw a lot of great questions come in that unfortunately we weren't able to get to, please please reach out to any of our speakers today. There's also a short survey after this summit so you can leave your contact details and the teams will reach out to you directly so that they can answer any more questions that you have. Well, that's it. Thank you
