Latest / Kitco MINING / Blackrock Silver Extends Tonopah West by 600 Meters | Andrew Pollard

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Blackrock Silver Extends Tonopah West by 600 Meters | Andrew Pollard · Kitco MINING

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Putting silver back on the map in Nevada.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to Kitco Mining with me, Paul Harris, here at the 2026 Precious Metal Summit in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Joining me today is Andrew Pollard, president and CEO of BlackRock Silver, which trades on the TSXB for a short time more under the ticket BRC.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Andrew, welcome back to Kitco.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's great to be here in person.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a catalyst laden year for the company.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: You've got the Tonopar West Silver Project in the Walker Lane Trend in Nevada.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: You put out an updated resource and PEA in March, looking at 7 million ounces a year of production.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Our previous interview, we talked in great detail about that.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to sort of pick up the thread from there, Andrew, and talk about what you've been doing since then to sort of continue to advance the project.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I say just this morning you put out some more drilling results showing a 600-meter step out or extension towards a newly identified intrusive complex.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start there.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: What uh is the importance of these drilling results today?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, this is the most ambitious step-out campaign we've done, I think, since we made our original discovery in 2020.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for the past few years, we've really just been focused on either conversion drilling or mine expansion style drilling.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, between 2024 and 26, when we put out um our first PEA and this updated one, we managed to convert to third of our ounces to indicated, but we're also able to grow our mine life by 40%.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: We went from seven and a half years to over 11 year mine life.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: So that's you know, the the type of progress we can make when we just do those small step out bolt-on, bolt-on style drilling um that that all goes to the mine plan.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: But we haven't really done much to show the the true scale of the system.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: So we figured, you know, while we you know, the way to advance a project like this is just to get underground and and and get in there.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what we're getting permit uh are permitting in order right now to do.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: We figured let's keep the market going by um seeing how big this thing can get.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: So not many people attempt five, six, seven, eight hundred meter step outs on an epithermal vein zone that's blind and buried.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we hit on a 600-meter extension on the Denver vein zone.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um effectively, what we've confirmed, and when you're doing a step-up program like this, really the first thing you're trying to confirm is does the high grade really go out there?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Is it is it actually there?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: We've got four drill holes into the that that got high grade results on there.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um but we're effectively flying blind on that first pass.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: So what we've been able to uh do now is, you know, in real time, we've been able to keep the drills going in that area and we're just laying into this now.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: So um this 600-meter zone, it's still open to the northwest, um, but we're circling back and we're just sort of offsetting all of that, and we think we can tie the whole thing together.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, based off what we're seeing, um, you know, this is some of the best looking rock we've ever drilled at the project, and and I don't say that mildly.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: So you these first ones just confirmed the premise that it's gonna keep going.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: But these follow-up ones, and we've got 12 more holes in the lab, all from this area.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: We've got two core rigs going 24-7, so there's two more underway right now.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: And we keep planning more holes just to follow up on this.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: So um it's big, it's high grade already.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't need to add more ounces.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be developing this either way, and that's what our permitting is getting uh in order.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: But we just boost got a lot of a lot of new high grade opportunity and we're following that up in real time.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you, Andrew, and congratulations on a successful step out.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: But uh let's dig into that a bit more if I may.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, how much you know, 600-meter step out, that's that's a massive step out.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're hitting high grade.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So making an assumption, forward-looking statements and all the rest of it, if that whole 600 meters is mineralized to a greater or less the same extent, what could that potentially do to your resource?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: What sort of ounces per meter would you expect that to hold?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: If we can tie the whole thing together, the nice thing about this is as we work our way back from that 600 meters, it should all bolt onto the existing mine plan.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that's you know, this isn't a standalone satellite deposit that would require its own standalone development.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: If we're successful in bridging that gap, that all goes to the bottom line, right?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um in terms of size potential.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, give us give us uh a little more data in terms of what's in the lab because it all depends on the grade and obviously the thickness.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: What I can say is that it looks like we're onto something here.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we're, you know, my geologists don't get excited anymore.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: They've got a lot of gray hair.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: Most of them have been with our project since the since Jump Street.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um this one's this one's got them clamoring a little bit.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll see.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we'll have more results out in the coming weeks and certainly through the end of the year.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: But this could be a lot of blue sky.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: But at the end of the day, as I said, even if we even if we hit dusters, even if it wasn't gonna get any bigger, this is one of the highest grade uh development stage projects in the world.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: And our plans for next year are to get permitted and break ground.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I expect when I see you here at Beaver Creek next year it's gonna be very different.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're gonna talk about that in just a moment, Andrew, but uh let's stick to the this step out for the time being.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: You put a PEA, a preliminary economic assessment out in March.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: With the success of the step out, if you continue to put good drill results, drill hits into that, um will that cause you to sort of perhaps rethink the mining plan or what you're you're looking to do?
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that's a good question.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: It won't uh it won't change anything in the early years of our mine plan simply because the mine plan is is focused on the shallowest mineralization, the what projects closest to surface.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: So that's uh in a completely different area.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um if we're successful in tying this on here, what it would do is it would just increase increase the mine life.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um so you know, right now we've already got a very low-cost, high margin operation that's got 11 years of mine life to it based off this PA.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: What this would do if we if we if we keep stepping out and tying this whole thing together, it's gonna be not only a low-cost, high margin, but it's gonna be a one of those really long life underground mines that that are very, very rare.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now you you you mentioned that uh you're engaged in the permitting process for uh to do an exploration decline, uh, which will presumably then serve for the future mining scenario.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but your the main purpose and initial purpose of that is to do a bulk sample next year.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: What are the sort of permitting stages that you need to go through and how how long do you anticipate that that process will take to complete?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, well, one of the best things about our project is that it's entirely on private land.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: So patented claims, what that means is um it's just the state and the counties that uh uh are the ones who grant us our permits.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: So it's you know, there's all this talk about Fast 41 or or you know, all the new federal government mandates.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: If we were to get in the Fast 41 program, it would actually slow us down.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like we're we only made our discovery hole six years ago.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: We'll have a permitted next year and we'll be breaking ground on it.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got the first of three key permits we're after.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: One what the first one's called the air quality permit.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: The the longest lead one uh that's called the water pollution control permit.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: And we've been doing hydrology-focused studies for the better part of two years now.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: We've got a good handle of the water balance, we've got a good handle of uh what where we'll be um well, pumping requirements.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh we've got a good handle of on now, we're the humidity cell um stage of testing, so we're looking to see how water reacts to what we're gonna be putting out on the stockpile and on the mine dumps.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we've pretty much got all the data we need right now.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: So we're uh we're at the very, very tail end of that environmental data collection for the water permit.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um we'll be at a point um really where we can put all of that together in a report to show the regulators, and then really what we'll use is we'll use a lot of that data to rejig some of our engineering plans uh as it relates to containment and mitigation strategies, and we'll have those done by the end of the year too.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: From there, uh one of the nice things about being on private land is you've got a very prescribed timeline.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um so it's not a question of if for us, it's a question of when.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that when isn't, you know, is it next year or the year after?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's like is it going to be April or March sort of thing?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's it's fantastic.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then really the other permit is um uh that that's just uh effectively approval of our engineering drawings for for the actual design itself, and that's pretty straightforward.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's that's that sounds like sort of six months more or less.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's about right.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're I'll I'll tell you what, we're in the position now where we're sending out um uh uh pro well, we're asking for proposals from underground contractors um in terms of who's available, who wants to bid on this, and who can show up at our site in September.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna be, you know, we're lining people up already.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we'll be looking at procurement.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, so it's it's happening.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: So a high degree of confidence there.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: What's the estimated cost to put that decline in to be able to take that bulk sample?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so that's a good question.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: So our capex for the project, it's uh 190 million based off this last PEA, and that had about uh 25 million built in for contingency.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the nice thing about how we're going about de-risking and developing this project is this decline test mining bulk sample, those are gonna be sunk costs.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: So those will actually be stripped out of the end result of that capex.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're looking, it's probably gonna be in the order of around 30 million US to do everything we want to do in terms of getting underground, um, doing all the underground drilling that we're going to be um uh really tightening up on 10 meter centers and converting to reserves, uh, and then of course test mining, getting all that real-time data, reconciliation against the model.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: This bulk sample, it's it's not just your typical, you know, 5,000 ton bulk sample.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're gonna be doing minimum 50,000 tons.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, what that'll give us is you know, we'll be able to send a portion of that to Capus and Cassidy who do our network for us.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but that'll leave a lot left over for us to look at potentially monetizing, be it through toll milling, be it through raw or off-take agreements.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, if you look at that zone that we're gonna be in, you know, 50,000 tons at about 450 grams per ton silver equivalent.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know where gold and silver are gonna be in say end of 28 and 29, but that could be a lot of money.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that could effectively pay for the decline and all of that itself.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um so well let's look into that a bit more.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: 190 million capex, you're you're gonna spend, let's say, 30 million of that on the decline to be able to do the bulk sample and some other bits there, which will leave you a capex of 160.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna generate some money from uh potentially being able to monetize some of the bulk sample.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: How much do you have an idea, a range in mind of um how many potentially millions of dollars you'll be able to raise through the bulk sample that would go towards that remaining 160 million capex?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'll let people do sort of back of the napkin math themselves because they don't want to exchanges don't like when you talk about revenue figures, but as I said, you know, you're looking at 50,000 tons and something, call it a half kilogram per ton.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um so that's that that's more than some that's more than a little walking around money.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um with the underground access, you mentioned you'll be doing in-fill drilling on 10 meter centers to be able to prove up reserves.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, will you also use that as an opportunity for for sort of deeper drilling to see to test the the depths and how far how deep the deposit the veins go?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, this this thing's gonna grow in three dimensions.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um so obviously these strike extensions are nice and that's straightforward.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: But this thing's got deep plumbing too.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, at certain areas of our project, like at our our our Victor, um our Victor deposit, which was the last producing mine in the district.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: We've drilled all the way down to 800 meters, and it's and that's about as deep as we can possibly drill from surface there because there's uh five different levels of workings.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um this thing's gonna have deep plumbing.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Victor's Victor's uh amongst our highest grade areas is also one of our largest areas, but we can't get it anymore from surface.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: So we want to get underground and start drilling it out there because we're nowhere near the bottom of the system there.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's still just gold and silver.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: There's no base metals in there.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: So uh this could have very deep plumbing, and getting underground just makes it a lot easier.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: Looking further ahead, you complete the exploration decline, you complete the bulk sample, um, you generate a lot of information for that, you do the infill drilling to prove up reserves.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Presumably, then you're gonna go to PFS or maybe even direct to feasibility.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Straight to feasibility.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: We don't need a PFS to tell me this is something that's gonna get developed.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: So what we're doing is by the time so you know, next year we break ground 2028, that's when we can drill it out from underground.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's when we'll be uh test mining, that's when we'll be stacking high-grade ore at surface, that's when we'll have all the bulk sample data and the model reconciliation.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: All that data is gonna feed into probably the whitest glove feasibility study you could possibly have because it'll be an actual operating, it'll be an operating small-scale mine at that point.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: There won't be any question marks.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it's gonna be a pretty easy decision, I think, because really all the feasibility is gonna, it's gonna allow for a go-no-go decision on the mill and surface infrastructure, which will allow us to really expand production up to that seven, seven million ounces on average per year at 1750 all in sustaining costs.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we'd have that all that data probably by the end of 28, 29, certainly early 2029, we'd have that decision ready to go and we'd be building the thing end of 29.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's not gonna take all that long to build.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I think in terms of realistically hitting that nameplate capacity, the mid to late 2030, certainly 2031 is when you're at that that full-scale commercial.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, in the interim, though, we'll have the decision.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be in the guts of this high-grade system already.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be underground.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: We'll have the we'll have a decision to make beyond that 50,000 tons.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Is do we continue on that um toll milling or off-take style agreement and just uh get some money while we're waiting?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Or do we just continue stacking high grade feed for when the mill is actually built and then we you know effectively we're we're we're we're our engines are revving, we're waiting for the green light, and then once this well, once we get the green light from regulators, this thing's going.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, once you've completed or extracted the 50,000 tons, are you able to continue extracting uh even though you okay yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll just keep keep expanding the the the permits and to allow it.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Everything sort of falls into each other and layers onto each other.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're able to do that, you obviously will continue to generate cash while you complete the feasibility study and and go forward to uh um an official green light uh construction decision.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: What um do you have are you starting to think about you know what kind of cash you will need to be able to sort of build out the the the full plan, how you would look to finance that you're starting to think about.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: We did our PEA at a base case of$31 silver, and at that uh it had a two and a half to one NPV to capex ratio and an after-tax IRR of 28%.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know we we used uh very, very conservative numbers on that because that's the same sort of numbers that bankers will try and muck uh well debt, um debt providers specifically will try and use to muck up a project to see if it's worthy or not.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: Ours had a 28% after-tax IRR at these prices.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh at$67 silver, this is north of$1.55 billion US um in terms of NPV.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: So we're not gonna have any issues in in financing it, and we'll look at all different um options that are afforded to us.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, even just, you know, we're one of I well as I understand it, we're the only we're the only American silver project that's gonna be permitted and breaking ground on a new project, on a new development in this administration.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: So we're already um uh uh pursuing um I I guess working through multiple halls of power in Washington um to pursue various grants and uh and um potential sources of funding there.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: So if they're serious about jogging domestic production, it's a universe of one.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're the only new project.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Winavada seems to be a magnet for federal funding for the for the mining sector.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: And this is gonna be a boon to Esmeralda and I counties.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's it's it's gonna be fantastic.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, even just right down the road from us, Santera just broke broke ground on their gem field project.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Anglo's um developing their 20 million ounce Arthur and Merlin deposit.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot more activity down in the Walker Lane right now.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I guess the the key question is, and one that you probably cannot answer, is are you still gonna be around?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because I imagine once you've got the the decline permitted, once you've extracted 50,000 tons and shown that uh you can make money from the mine, there's there's not a lot of silver projects out there, certainly not big high-grade ones like uh you have.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um at Tonapa West.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Silver companies have very you know thin pipelines.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna be around?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a great question.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's up to shareholders to ultimately decide, but we're doing.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: We listen, I know I know how companies with the you know, Aya Gold and Silver is a great example because they've got the exact same production profile that we're targeting.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: About seven, seven to eight million ounces a year at under$20, all in sustaining costs.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: They're$5 billion market cap right now.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm about$500 million Canadian.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, the biggest risk in mining is time.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's not geology, it's not metallurgy, it's time.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how it relates to permitting.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: The biggest de-risking thing we're gonna do, and analysts tell me that the biggest valuation gap we'll have certainly the next year or so is gonna be that step change once we're seeing as shovel ready.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: We've given the green light.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: From there, as we de-risk it, as we become a small scale producer, and then as we become a large-scale producer, um, American stories command the highest multiples.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: This thing's gonna be spitting out cash, it's as high margin as it gets.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: So um, I don't know if someone wants to come in, I it's it's gotta be pretty good.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: But we're building this thing.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: We're you know, one last thing I'll mention, and I think I mentioned it to you in our our our last interview.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna anticipate your question, so I'm gonna cut you off there because I want to sort of frame that.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um good that you mentioned I because they're sort of trading at uh let's say a 52-week high, maybe an all-time high, I'm not certain, but certainly a 52-week high.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: You're trading at about 60-65% of your 52-week high.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: So there's you know quite a valuation gap.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're a producer, you're a developer.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um in terms of closing that valuation gap, you you mentioned that um the company's recently been uh put into the GDXJ.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're up listing to the from the TSX to sorry, the TSX V to the TSX.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um both of these things will give you sort of greater visibility and presumably access to a sort of a larger field of potential investors.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um is that part of your strategy to closing that valuation gap, to getting your your market cap, your share price higher?
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And also, I can understand upgrading to the TSX, but what about the sort of nicy, nicy American Nasdaq getting onto uh a US gold stock on an American exchange?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds like a powerful combination, so so why not?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, absolutely.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, you know, six years ago we optioned this project for$250,000.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: Here we are, we're half a billion dollars.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: We're tight, we're targeting development next year.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: We're becoming a real company.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, we're we're we're this is the year where we're growing.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: We're growing our platform in terms of our board, we're growing our plat our platform in terms of bench strength as it relates to mine builders and our engineering team.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: We're building our financial controls platform.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: The TSX we're using as a training wheels approach um before we do the uh NICE sort of um route, um, potentially next year.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and when I say training wheels, you know, we're getting our you you're on the shortened financial reporting window.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um we're just making sure we've got all that in place so that by the time we're in development, I think this is going to be a screaming good story as an American project, in an American company.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well I'll have to bring this up then because obviously if you're thinking of going on to US exchanges, the SEC is widely acknowledged as being a much tougher regulator than the companies face in in Canada.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you had a bit of a brush with the authorities earlier this year.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it's very relevant to bring this up, and uh, I don't mean to sort of embarrass you, Andrew, but uh you know the British Columbia Securities Commission, you you were fine because of late reporting of stock trading.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Talk me through what happened there, how that situation came to have happened, um, what the corporate governance process in the company was for that situation, and I I guess what you've learned from that.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, listen, it was um uh uh uh effectively it was a number of misreported trades, not necessarily late trades.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um well they effectively what I'd done, especially in the early days, was uh I was establishing a position in the company and I was trying to buy sizable amounts of stock without batting around the price.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I would do five or six or seven trades in a day, and then I would go ahead and I'd sort of lump them together so they weren't all the same ticket.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and apparently you're not supposed to do that.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: So effectively, what we're reported in terms of um uh you know, single trades had to be unbundled.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it looked like there was a series of you know events.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: But effectively, if you actually look at the differential on my beneficial holdings, there wasn't much daylight.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: There were a few that the that there were certainly some where I got the math wrong in terms of the bundling.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: And when I when I couldn't quite reconcile my SETI filings, I approached them and I said, here's what I think happened, and can we can we find the source of these?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And they said, Okay, well, let's go ahead and unbundle all of them, um, let's lay it out, and then we we figured out where it was and we addressed it.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it was um, you know, listen, this is the first time I've been in a public company.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: I was actually, I thought I was doing the right thing in terms of not trying to move the stock around.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: They obviously looked into it to make sure there was nothing nefarious about it, nothing not trading around news or anything like that, which is why, you know, by being forthcoming, by addressing it, right, taking it to them.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that was a nice surprise for them for once.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um they looked into it and that was it.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: So obviously, in terms of moving forward, yeah, we've got great protocols in place and and uh yeah, but but it was sort of the the context was was primarily there.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well thank you for addressing that.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh okay, let's uh end on a sort perhaps a more positive note.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um you you've got a lot going on.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe recap for our viewers some of the sort of key catalysts for the company over the next 12 to 18 months.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the key catalyst is let's we we want the green light to get going, and then once we get going, we're not gonna stop.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, we do have uh this drilling, this blue sky drilling.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's looking pretty darn good right now, and it looks like that system keeps going.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna continue to lay into this and and hopefully prove up all this and just keep following it.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um we've got a lot of assays in the lab in the interim, but the biggest step change we've got for in the near near to medium term is getting those permits, and then by this time next year, uh this there there will be groundbreaking and it'll be a very different sort of league we're in.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Exciting times.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Andrew Pollard, thank you very much for joining us.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Cheers.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And once again, BlackRock Silver trades on the TSX V under the ticker BRC.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: It will soon be on the TSX.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, when will you be trading on the TSX?
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh in October at some point, yeah.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: We're just working on a date right now.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: So a matter of weeks.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Keeping BRC as the ticker?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be the same ticker, yeah, just a bigger, better platform and yeah, more advanced story.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Excellent.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: So there you have it.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: It will be trading on the TSX under the ticker BRC in a few weeks' time.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have a lot more to come for the 2026 Precious Metal Summit here in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: So stay tuned and hit that subscribe button.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Paul Harris, and this is Kitco Mining.