COO Interview: TNR Gold Corp. (TNR) - Mike Sieb
December 20, 2010 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published Gold and Precious Metals Report offering a timely review of the Precious Metals sector. This Special Reportcontains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts and Money Managers. Please find an excerpt below.
Mike Sieb brings 22 years of strong corporate growth and project management experience in international mining and exploration. Prior to joining TNR Gold Corp., Mr. Sieb was President of Brilliant Mining Corp., which was named "Top 10 Mining Companies on the TSX: V" for two consecutive years by the TSX Venture Top 50 during his tenure. Mr. Sieb is recognized as a committed executive with an exceptional array of skills essential for operating and developing a premier mining company. He earned an MBA from the University of British Columbia and a B.S. in geology from Concordia University.
TWST: Please begin with a brief historical sketch of TNR Gold and an overview of your current activity.
Mr. Sieb: TNR Gold (TNR) was formed approximately 20 years ago. It's spearheaded by individuals whose forte is identifying early-stage opportunities, acquiring them and advancing them to the resource stage for potential joint venture. So it's basically a joint venture business model which has been proven successful in the past. Historically, the company has been focused on gold and copper. We have a long-standing office and staff in Argentina, for more than 18 years now, which has been instrumental for our operations into Argentina. If you review our basket of projects, you can readily see that we're heavily weighted towards South America and Argentina in particular. However, our global investigations have led us to acquire and advance high-quality projects across North America.
TWST: Update us about the Shotgun property in Alaska. What prospects does the property hold in terms of reserves and when do you think you'll be able to get commercial qualities of gold from it?
Mr. Sieb: The Shotgun property in Alaska has seen a significant amount of exploration in the past. Greater than $7 million has been spent on the ground as part of a joint venture with TNR Gold and NovaGold. In a recent development, we've been able to consolidate 100% ownership of the Shotgun property into TNR by acquiring the outstanding 50% from NovaGold, providing TNR with the ability now to proceed ahead. The historic work has resulted in a non-43-101 compliant resource, a fairly significant one, that we're hoping in our next phase of exploration to convert into a compliant 43-101 inferred resource, expand upon it and develop it by expending $5 million over the next two years.
TWST: Update us about your Argentina projects, Mariana, El Salto, El Tapau.
Mr. Sieb: Those projects have all experienced early-stage drilling programs that have identified significant mineralization. The projects are all in the category of follow-up, whereby they now require additional drilling to advance the projects to a resource category. The El Tapau project has shown some high-grade copper intersections, very strong structural relationship that the subsequent drill program will need to follow up and define the high-grade core of those mineralized zones.
TWST: What are the dynamics, the fundamentals, the assumptions and the variables that the industry is facing that could have an impact on your own strategies and goals?
Mr. Sieb: The market is very supportive nowadays. With the record-breaking gold prices, the strong demand for copper, I think that TNR Gold is in an absolutely perfect position to take advantage of the current market situation, as well as we have the strong property base to be able to exploit that sector. Basically, we have built a solid foundation of very high-quality projects. The target is to spend a sufficient amount of money over the next two years to really bring out the valuation of those projects. That is our goal and one we can show to the marketplace.
: What is your agenda for the next 12 months? What would make that time frame a success?
Mr. Sieb: The first thing that we are doing is unlocking the value in TNR Gold. We currently have three subsets of projects. We have our Argentina gold and copper projects. We have our rare metal projects, which are in International Lithium, a wholly owned subsidiary, and we have our Alaskan gold projects in another wholly owned subsidiary, AmeriGold. Our philosophy is that the sum of the individual parts is greater than the whole. In order to realize an increased valuation, it is our goal to compartmentalize the three project subsets by translating the two subsidiaries into their own trading entities, thereby providing AmeriGold and International Lithium management team with the determination and independence to advance their projects as their own main priority.
The remainder of this 47 page Gold and Precious Metals Report can be immediately viewed by purchasing online.
The Wall Street Transcript is a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs and research analysts. This Special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse the views of any interviewees nor does it make stock recommendations.
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