Latest / Kitco MINING / Mackay Gold Brings the Comstock District Under One Roof | Darwin Green

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Mackay Gold Brings the Comstock District Under One Roof | Darwin Green · Kitco MINING

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Breathing new life into an historical gold district.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to the 2026 Precious Metal Summit here in Beaver Creek, Colorado with me, Paul Harris.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: We are talking about gold exploration in Nevada, and joining me today is Darwin Green, CEO of Mackey Gold and Silver, which trades on the TSXV under the ticker MACK.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Darwin, welcome back to Kitco.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Great to be here.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: You've um had a very, very busy 2026 uh IPO financing, etc.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: etc.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: You've also been adding to uh uh uh to generate a big land position in the Comstock, the historical Comstock Gold District in Nevada.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you've recently added to that, so maybe let's start a conversation here.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: What have you added and what does that now mean you have in the Comstock district?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, we've we've completed a number of transactions.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh one of the bigger ones was the acquisition of uh a package of land from Comstock Mining.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's um it basically bolted on uh an entire uh additional load.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: The Comstock's made up of three primary loads.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's the Comstock itself, the Occidental, and then the Silver City.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that acquisition brought in the Hunter Silver City load, which actually brought with it about a million ounces of historical uh inventory uh of gold at about a gram per ton and a and a processing facility.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: In addition to that, our most recent acquisition is is one that is uh we call it the Marshall Ground, this uh individual Hughroy Marshall, who who consolidated the ground himself about 45 years ago at the very northern end of the Comstock load.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um and we were able to negotiate a deal with him.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: So for the first time in the Comstock's history, you have one company that controls it all effectively.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: All of the major mines uh that were responsible for about 10 million ounces of gold equivalent pass production at a fabulous grade of sort of 35 grams per ton gold and over 700 grams per ton silver.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's now under one roof.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: And the whole mission here was uh let's consolidate and let's then bring be the first to bring modern exploration at a district scale to the entire district.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so the the com stock load that's what a six kilometer strike.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as you mentioned, throughout its 167-year history, it hasn't been consolidated.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, what does having all of that ground under your control, what does that give you the ability to do?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it gives you the ability to look at the system as a whole, like an entire district, and and that it just allows you to think differently about the exploration.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Also, you know, it removes the barriers that were there before, and you know, consolidation happens in many different stages.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: There's little bits of aggregation that happens here and little bits there over the decades.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: And um this is the time where we've been able to pull all those pieces together, but prior to that, you know, people aren't going to drill a small property package if you think that you don't have the stuff next door because the deposit center of mass may be next door to you.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so it was a real barrier to exploration.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: So consolidation is the key to removing that barrier, and this is the first time that's really been done on the on the whole district scale.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: With your IPO, you raised more than 60 million US dollars.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: You began a 20,000 meter made in drilling program, and you recently put out your first drilling results from that.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: How how did they look?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or were you happy with the results you got?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Extremely happy, actually.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's um so just to set the stage here, uh our 20,000 meters drilling is on what's called the occidental load.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a parallel structure to the Comstock, same strike.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this one's five kilometer strike versus six, but more or less the same length, same dip, formed in the same environment.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: This one was extensively explored and developed in the 1800s, 1860s, 1870s, 1880s.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, this one, however, less so.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason for that, in our opinion, is that it's been downdropped relative to this main structure.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: So you're higher in the system, which means it's lower grades.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: In the 1800s, you needed extremely rich ground to develop.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: This was somewhat lower grade, still there.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um we think most of that real high grades at depth.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but what's sitting at the surface is incredibly attractive.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's wide intervals of grams uh plus one gram type oxide mineralization to be explored.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: And we had a starting point.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: So at the very southern limit of this five-kilometer long uh load, the occidental load, historically in the last 10 years, about five years ago, there was about a dozen holes put in over about 300 meters of strike length.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: All hit good mineralization, ranging from 25 meters of a gram up to say 25 meters of 13 and a half grams, sitting very near surface.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we did a soil grid for about a kilometer north of that, and uh it lit up just the same as what had been drilled, and we said, well, shoot, we think there's a real opportunity to build out, you know, target a million ounces pretty darn fast at a gram.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, that's kind of nominal a gram-type mineralization, which, you know, for Comstock is pretty low grade, but for heat bleach oxide in Nevada, incredibly high grade.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, most of the mines now are mining 0.3, 0.4 grams.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so getting back to our results, our first results were a 250 meter step out from that historic drilling, and we hit 50 meters of a gram.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh about one hole was almost 60 meters of a gram in the first seven holes, and we've we're 35 holes into it now, and so lots more news to come.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna drill 800 holes on that target uh in the next six months, and should uh if we keep seeing more of this, we'll build some ounces very darn fast.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the the drill plan for those holes, is that sort of stepping out or stepping along the the strike of the structure to see if you keep hitting that ground material?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly right.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly right.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: So you had a little little bit of data from past drilling that says, hey, this looks pretty promising.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: We consolidated all the ground around it and did some surface work to say this looks like it keeps going, because you got actually a five-kilometer long trend.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're just targeting right now one kilometer of it.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um the first step was to validate that that does go a long strike and that this soil anomaly that looks tremendous uh correlates with good gold and bedrock.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: And well, we it's exactly what we did.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: And and so yeah, it was a you know, a lot of guys will start out with the first drill program, cozy right up to the past drill results, be very conservative because you want to deliver to the market some good grades.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: We said, you know what, we we've got so much confidence in this target.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: We took a very bold step out, went 250 meters out a long strike.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're actually now backfielding our way to the to the historic drilling and carrying north.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: So we've drilled it out now, about a kilometer in length.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we've only got results for a small portion of it, but we instantly you know took a 300-meter long zone and made it almost well 550 meters now.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh so that's one component.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: So that's we're it's a real dual-pronged approach to exploring the occidental.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: There's uh this near surface oxide, which as I say is very high grade for Nevada comparables.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we really want to know what's going on at depth.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so we also have about 5,000 meters dedicated to core drilling a deeper target, and that's what's called the sutro tunnel target.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I want to talk to you about that in just a moment, but uh it's good to hear you've got confidence in your target, you're taking aggressive or big step out uh because of that.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: How quickly do you think you'll be able to get to um calculating, estimating an initial resource?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: How desirable is it to do that sooner rather than later?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Where does a resource fit into the overall picture?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's a good question.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we've set sort of set out for ourselves the 24-month plan kind of from inception.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the occidental targets, the two that I'm talking about now, are just one part of that.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: We also, through the acquisition of of that Comstock ground um on the Silver City load, it has historical estimates that are about a million ounces combined at around a gram uh gold as well, that are very low strip, like sort of 1.2 to 1 and 3 to 1 type strip.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: We want to convert those into 43101 compliant resources.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um we think there's a pretty high probability we're we're gonna get good correlation because they're not that old and they're done at conservative metal prices.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um so our master plan, and then in addition to that, we have some work on the main com stock load as well.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: As we have multi lay multiple layers where we we plan to be working.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: The top two, though, the focus on Occidental and the Silver City are ones that you know our objective over the next 12 to 24 months is to frame in two to three million ounces by converting the historic and drilling the new uh that's on the Occidental.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: And that's kind of our starting point, right?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: That that's that's our goal.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's an ambitious goal, but we think it's it's it's based on the geology and the pedigree of the area we're working and the really the results we're already seeing to date.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: We think it's it's very achievable.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the rock's got to cooperate, but uh that's what we're here for.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, two to three million ounces that starts becoming sort of very interesting for investors and other companies.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: How important is it that that's on sort of two of the three structures?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Is it is it important, is it necessary to have um both or more than one structure coming on into resource at the same time?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think what it means is we just have a lot of optionality.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: It is I mean we're in this incredibly privileged position to to own a district.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of guys talk about district scale land packages.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Our land package controls an actual district that produced a lot of gold and silver in the past, and a lot of that was done a long, long time ago, and it has not the vast majority has seen very limited modern exploration.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um and what that means is there's gonna be multiple fronts that you should be able to develop targets.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Our challenge really is being disciplined and not getting too scattered of chasing different things.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: So we're really focused on the occidental structure right now.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um and that's you know, I think we can bill out ounces, we can bill out significant ounces.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: But the fact that you have other stuff that's very close by is very relevant in our opinion, and and they're open.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like the Dayton deposit, it's 400,000 ounces.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Again, these are all historical estimates, non-43101 compliant, but you know there's something there.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um the northernmost hole in that that's been drilled on that was 40 meters of seven grams.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: The you know, the there's a hole at the southern end that's 500 feet off of their resource.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: It was the closest hole, it was sitting off by itself, it was 235 feet of a gram.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: Those are things that are, you know, give you a lot of conviction that you can grow these things a lot too.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: So it would uh it would make sense for us to be exploring and drilling those while we're drilling the occidental at the same time.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: And and yeah.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Without getting ahead of ourselves, what what's the sort of plan from there?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you are able to define a resource of two to three million ounces within the next 24 months, presumably that would be an inferred resource.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Does it make more sense to infill that to increase the category or do you continue trying to expand that?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned that uh the Comstock produced more than 10 million ounces.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: So is is it better to infill that to high resource categories or continue trying to take that two to three up towards five or even ten in inferred?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, really good question.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I mean, I guess step one.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, these are goals, these are aspirations that we want to get to.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: These are all forward-looking statements, yeah.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Very much so.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um but that's what we're here for.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you've got to set yourself a goals um and and then you you try and work hard to achieve them or or exceed them, and that that's exactly what we're gonna do.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: My view is districts like this, they have we're here because we think there's five to ten million ounces plus.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: The two to three million ounces is not the end game.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: This is one of those rare situations where, as I say, if the geology and the rocks cooperate and we're able to convert things, I think we can get to something in a two to three million ounce range in fairly short order.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think if you get there and then the market sees that all there's five million ounces is actually within line of sight, I think the focus is going to be on building out scale before coming back and infilling.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that potential for five million ounce is that near surface oxide?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Or is that getting into the Yeah, yeah, I I think it's it's all of the above.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, what we haven't even talked about yet are the deeper targets, and that they're kind of the sizzle and fun, too.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well let's jump ahead to that because you mentioned the the the sutro tunnel uh at Occidental, you've got the potential for depth.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um you you think the the higher grade system is there at depth?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta go ahead and test that with a drill, um, with core drilling.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: What was the plan there?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, we got to start somewhere.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you got a five-kilometer vein structure that you've got mineralization and and evidence of the structure on surface uh that's really not seeing any work at all below 100 meters.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um our view is if you know, we don't have to find bonanza type mineralization.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: And when I say bonanza, it's used because it was the historic term used in the district.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: We can use the Comstock as a blueprint.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're on a structure that, as I say, is the same strike, same dip, same length, uh, you know, one mile to the east.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: The probability, you know, you would expect that what you see here you can use to guide what you're gonna do on this.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: How accurate an analog is that?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because geology has a habit of being offset or drop down or who knows what.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, exactly.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: And actually, the drop-down is a pretty good reference because we actually believe because these were vein mineralized, they're mineralized structures, so it's not like one coherent mass of vein that goes for six kilometers.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's a structure, it was a fault structure uh that accommodated extension and down dropping.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't want to get too technical, but long story short, that was active during mineralization and post-mineralization.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: And what's that means is as you go east, everything is dropping down.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: And in epithermal, low sulfidation epithermal systems, which is what we're in, there's good geological models that guide your exploration.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: And some, you know, this vertical zonation on the metals.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: You get too high in the system, you lose the metals altogether.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Peter McGott, Mag Silver, the Wanissipio discovery, that was exactly that.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Going below an alteration zone, 200 meters down, they tagged into the Wanna Sipio vein, the top of that vein, and it's one of the best silver discoveries in the last 20 years.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, similar concept here, we can apply that while we think we're in the higher part of the system here, you're seeing gold, but not the spectacular bonanza style that made this the Comstock, the Comstock.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: And what's interesting in the Comstock, it while that structure went for six kilometers, they only really mined these high grade loads along and they left everything else behind.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it was sort of a step change drop in grade, still mineralized, but a step change drop in grade.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's an important target for us, and it remains an important target over here.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: So we're pretty happy to, you know, if you're getting 20 meters of five grams, I think everyone's gonna be happy.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: But the real fun part of this is, you know, can you see some of those bonanzas that were over here on this structure, which should, in theory, if they're there, they should be at this depth.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's you know, it's gonna take some poking around.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: We don't want to build people's expectations too high, but it's pretty fun to think that they're probably down there.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: And using good structural geology and all the tools we have, we've got some great, great people and a great team to explore.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we got we got the money to go do it.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we're well financed to to get out and drill it.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, with that um the initial sort of core drilling into the deeper target, is that within the initial 20,000 meters or is that an additional program?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is part of that 20,000 meters.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that 20,000 meters, by the way, is not our end game.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: That was just we wanted to walk our way into it without getting ahead of the geology and get ourselves well set up.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: So 15,000 meters of our C drilling, which is the near surface stuff on the southern end, 5,000 meters of core drilling, which is testing the deeper target.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and we're talking holes that are 500 meters plus or minus, probably 400 to 600 meter type holes.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's deeper.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: And why are we starting at that depth?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's because we have one data point at depth on this whole vein that's you know, four and a half, five kilometers in strike length, this vein structure.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: There's only data on the top level, except for what's called the Sutro tunnel.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: And this was a really cool engineering feat in the 1860s and 1870s.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: They were having a lot of water flowing into the Comstock mine, which was made up of literally dozens of separate mines.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: This guy, Adolf Sutro, came up with a vision to drive a four-mile-long tunnel from the valley off to the east that was at lower elevation on an incline to intersect the lower levels of those mine workings, and then tee off along it so that would all flow in and drag, drain out by by gravity.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, on its way along on that four-mile-long drift, uh about a mile to the east of the Comstock, it hit and intersected a hundred and twelve-foot length of vein, um, as reported.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: We haven't been able to put our hands on it, but it's it's been well reported historically.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: That was 1,500 feet down dip on projection of the Occidental Brunswick.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: It obviously wasn't Bonanza grade, otherwise they would have mined it.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was described as mineralized.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that's one gram or eight grams.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't know what it was.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: What we do know is back at the time they were putting that in, the cutoff grade was generally about a half ounce per ton.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: So for us right now, we're gonna drill near that intersection, go up a hundred meters, go down a hundred meters, step out and do another phantom holes, a hundred meters to the south and north, just to get information because we want to understand what it is.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if we hit a hundred feet of four and a half grams, we're gonna be incredibly happy.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: If we hit, you know, a hundred feet of you know, thirty grams, we'll be even happier.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I this, but it I don't want to build expectations too high, but it's really it's a starting point for us to understand what it looks like as then we go about exploring the rest of the five kilometers.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: Will that drilling be from surface, or or can you get into the sutras?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Can't get into it.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's been some rehabilitation of the very front end of the of the tunnel, um, but like only for 300 feet, and then there's it's been collapsed.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: So for now, this is all surface drilling, um, which is you know it's it's fairly achievable.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we got our first rig on it right now.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's about halfway down, so we haven't we haven't seen anything yet, but we're all we're all pretty excited.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so as I mentioned, you raised more than sixty million dollars.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: You announced an initial 20,000 meter drilling program, but it sounds like rather than having it a phase two, you'll just continue rolling that drilling program forward and extending, extending.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we've certainly had the capital.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: The whole idea when we went to the market was when we raised money initially on our go public, we were able to do it and you know there's a no-warrant financing.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: It was done at a at a pretty healthy valuation.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: It put us in a position to really explore this hard for a couple of years before we have to come back to the market with the idea that you don't have to come back till your$5 stock or more.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you there's no guarantees, but it's now in our control because we have the capital to do that.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so we've got the two rig starting.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna let those go.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I would expect there would be a third and possibly even a fourth drill on site within the next uh you know several months.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now you you've obviously got some sort of legacy assets uh that have got a long sort of history to them.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: Does that come with any particular permitting or environmental obligations that you need to sort of work with with the you know Nevada State authorities or even the sort of BLM or Yeah, yeah, sure.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: No, for sure.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um I mean it's I guess first off, it's an incredibly important historical district.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it played a really important part in the history of the American West.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: It helped build San Francisco and it and it's just a super cool town.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: The people are great, that's a great place to visit.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um so, like something like the Comstock Load, you're never gonna put an open pit there.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it's not in the cards.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: That would be underground mining.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Silver City Load already has an open pit that was permitted in the last 15 years.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: That was a Lucerne deposit.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: So outside of that Comstock Load area, you can do that.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: But there's yeah, I mean, you you really want to honor that his history and the archaeology that's associated with that.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think you know, there's a social element of there are some people around.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you you you we need to establish ourselves as as as well-respected operators within the region.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, but I really enjoy it there.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: The the people have been great.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and obviously, you know, working around, there's there's waste dumps and head frames and stuff everywhere, and you're worrying about safety, so you make things are gated so people aren't falling into holes and stuff like that.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's all those sorts of things, but uh honestly it's got a good history of of exploration and fairly current exploration.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: This story county itself, where most of our properties in Story County they updated their mining ordinances about 15 years ago, and they're they're modern and they're they they make a lot of sense.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, it's it's we find it, you know, it's it's a very workable place to uh to work, but there's there's things you're not out in the middle of nowhere with with nothing to consider.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's there's more things to consider for sure.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're taking me out there on a side visit in the first week of October.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what are you gonna show me?
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, we're gonna drive down the length of the Comstock Um and just sort of see, you know, what that looks like.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, we'll drive around to uh it's called the combination shaft.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: You can stand on top of a shaft that was built in the 1870s.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: It went down 3,000 feet, and they uh it was a four-compartment shaft, and they pumped the water over that thing.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: It was it's just amazing to think, you know, engineering-wise, in the 1870s, they were putting something down that deep.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then you can look back and you can just sort of see where that vein went.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: We'll take you to the Sutro tunnel, and obviously we'll take you to all the workings and areas of our drilling on our on our on our main um main main target areas.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, might even take you to a bar in town where we can go out the back of the bar straight into an underground uh tour.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm very much looking forward to the visit.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Darren Green, thank you very much for joining me today.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Great fall.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Once again, Mackie Gold trades on the TSXB under the ticket MACK.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: We have a lot more to come from the 2026 Precious Metal Summit here in Beaver Creek, so stay tuned and hit that subscribe button.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Paul Harris, and this is Kitco Mining.