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U.S. Gold Advances CK Gold With Multiple Paths Ahead | George Bee · Kitco MINING

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  SPEAKER_00: Kitco Mining on-site coverage of Mining Forum Americas is presented by Metalla Royalty and Streaming.
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  SPEAKER_02: America's next gold development.
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  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to Kitco Mining with me, Paul Harris, here at the 2026 Mining Forum Americas.
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  SPEAKER_02: Joining me now is George B, president and CEO of US Gold.
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  SPEAKER_02: George, welcome back to Kitco.
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  SPEAKER_02: Great to be with you all.
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  SPEAKER_02: Now George, uh to set the scene, you are advancing the CK Gold Project in Wyoming, which is fully permitted at the state level.
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  SPEAKER_02: You have no federal NEPA process there.
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  SPEAKER_02: You've got a March 2026 feasibility study looking at about 110,000 ounces a year of production, 394 million US CapEx.
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  SPEAKER_02: All going well.
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  SPEAKER_02: Construction preliminary site work initiated this year.
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  SPEAKER_02: Formal construction decision is coming?
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  SPEAKER_01: It's becoming very shortly.
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  SPEAKER_01: Essentially, we uh we hold about$30 million in Treasury.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh we wanted just to make sure that we uh had our complete financing package in place before uh resuming construction.
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  SPEAKER_02: And in terms of that financing package, what may that look like?
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  SPEAKER_01: Look, uh we are we we've got a great deal of interest uh in the uh product.
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  SPEAKER_01: It's a very clean concentrate uh copper gold.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh we we see that the copper is in uh tight supply at the moment.
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  SPEAKER_01: As a consequence, uh uh you know there is a lot of interest around the copper aspect, but we see about uh 60% of our value coming from gold, a little bit of silver.
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  SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah, the uh there's certainly uh potential for an off-take agreement, and uh there's some capital behind that.
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  SPEAKER_01: Um we're also uh seeing uh debt uh from uh a number of different sources.
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  SPEAKER_01: So uh and that you know debt equity, maybe a silver stream.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh we've got produce about two million ounces of silver, uh, and from that perspective uh you know it's not a major part of the business, and we wouldn't be giving a great deal away.
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  SPEAKER_01: So it would be uh uh an interesting capital stack, and we'll be uh appointing a financing advisor for that shortly.
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  SPEAKER_02: I imagine it's a great time to be financing a project given that uh you know the metals prices are high, you've got gold, copper, and silver in the United States where there's uh a mining renaissance, if we can phrase it like that.
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  SPEAKER_02: And I imagine there's a lot of competition amongst the different types of finance to be able to finance projects.
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  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, and yeah, what a what a great time to be uh uh developing a project and uh going out for financing.
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  SPEAKER_01: We um we do see that uh a certain amount of competitive attention uh tension.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh there seems to be a lot of capital out there uh and certainly uh folks wanting to secure copper for smelters, which uh as I understand it are uh certainly looking to uh to uh fill their capacity.
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  SPEAKER_02: George uh US gold is notable, I think, for many reasons, one of which is the low number of shares outstanding you have.
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  SPEAKER_02: So presumably protecting against uh excessive dilution is one of the key tenants of your your the construction of your financial package.
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  SPEAKER_01: Well we're uh you know, management, uh some of the insiders, uh uh we're all shareholders.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh we've got a cadre of uh people who have been very supportive as we've gone through the journey.
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  SPEAKER_01: And remember that you know, as through 2020 when I came on board uh to pivot towards development uh to where we are today, and it's been tough times uh through COVID and so on.
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  SPEAKER_01: So look, we're very interested in preserving uh the uh you know shareholder register.
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  SPEAKER_01: And uh we've got 16 and a half million shares outstanding.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh there's uh uh 2.8 uh million warrants.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh most of those warrants are in the money at the moment, uh except a few from the latest financing.
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  SPEAKER_01: So uh protecting shareholder you know equity uh is of key importance to us.
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  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_02: You've the company formed a special committee to evaluate strategic alternatives.
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  SPEAKER_02: Um apart from asking the obvious, you know, what was the purpose of that?
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  SPEAKER_02: What was the purpose of that?
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  SPEAKER_02: What are you looking to do there, and what what sort of direction are you perhaps looking to go into?
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  SPEAKER_01: So we've been on a dual track.
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  SPEAKER_01: Um we we look at the uh market at the moment, and you know, having a shovel-ready project in a stable jurisdiction, uh, and you know, a lot of the companies looking to add to their uh portfolio because frankly, with the dearth of expiration over the previous years, there's uh there aren't too many new projects, new discoveries uh out there.
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  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we have to recognize that there's uh strategic interest in our company.
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  SPEAKER_01: Um and the strategic committee was formed uh in able in order to uh allow the uh board to look at um unsolicited uh interest that uh we've seen in the company.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh but the other track obviously is uh moving forward.
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  SPEAKER_01: You know, we've knocked down the uh the uh some of the uh hurdles or hurdles to share valuation, you know, having put out a very robust feasibility study, having permitted, fully permitted the project, we're ready to go.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh now uh with uh financing ahead of us, you know, that's the next hurdle, and then uh certainly looking at execution.
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  SPEAKER_01: And I see this you know, financing very doable uh for the metric that we've got, uh around round numbers 400 million dollars, and uh execution.
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  SPEAKER_01: Nothing's ever easy in the mining space, uh, certainly when you get into development, but this is a relatively simple project to develop.
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  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, George.
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  SPEAKER_02: In terms of the sort of build or sell decision, many people I've spoken to here and at uh the conference last week say that at the moment it's perhaps a builder's market rather than a buyer's market, but that may change in a in a year or two.
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  SPEAKER_02: Could that potentially hold back a construction decision?
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh it has.
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  SPEAKER_01: It has.
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  SPEAKER_01: We've been fielding uh a fair amount of interest.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh we have uh uh some M NDAs in place, and uh we've had quite a few people visiting through the project.
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  SPEAKER_01: But uh, you know, uh we just need to move forward at the moment.
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  SPEAKER_01: And part of the reason that we're uh and you'll see some news flow related to that, me adding to the team, uh developing relationship with an EPCM firm, uh, the financing it the financing activities.
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  SPEAKER_01: But part of the reason is that uh we see so much more value than we have uh described in the feasibility study, uh both from the expansion of the current pit below our um our current uh pit solution.
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  SPEAKER_01: We know that we've got resources which are economic, which can be permitted in due course.
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  SPEAKER_01: Um we also see uh expiration potential in the area.
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  SPEAKER_01: After all, the the area was uh the Silver Crown Mining District, uh lots of little mines around.
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  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we we have the option of uh looking in due course at uh augmenting gold recovery uh and uh certainly selling rock uh as an aggregate source to nearby uh communities and to all the way down to Denver.
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  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_02: George, um I've been doing some quite a bit of desk research recently and into developers, and one thing is is very, very clear a developer getting, let's say, a 40% premium is attractive, yeah.
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  SPEAKER_02: But the the value lift that a developer gets from going through the construction and pouring that first down is far in excess of that.
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  SPEAKER_02: So I mean I presume you're aware of that kind of circumstance.
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  SPEAKER_02: Does that inform your decision path going forward?
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  SPEAKER_01: Look, there's a there's a risk reward uh consideration there.
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  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, um, as I mentioned, uh development is never simple.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, we have been dealing with uh uh trying to uh ascertain you know where we're gonna get primary uh equipment from, uh tariffs, uh that it's been a changing uh uh field there.
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  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, as you look at um as you look at the uh cost of energy at the moment in the form of diesel, we've got a very low cost of uh power for the project, but uh you know diesel's gone up.
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  SPEAKER_01: So from that perspective, uh there are risks.
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  SPEAKER_01: Relatively speaking, the CK project is uh simple, as I as I stated, uh to develop.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh but there's a there's a risk reward.
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  SPEAKER_01: So those are factors which uh will be coming into decision.
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  SPEAKER_01: Should we should we see a compelling offer?
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  SPEAKER_01: And obviously, we have to uh take any offer that we get seriously.
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  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_02: Now you've got uh quite a large number of ounces within the resource pit shell that aren't in the in in the reserves.
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  SPEAKER_02: To what extent, what what kind of work do you need to do to bring those to elevate those to reserves and are are you sort of planning to do that?
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  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, look, um so we went out um we we've always known that we had a million ounces of gold, 260 million pounds of uh copper.
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  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we've limited our permitting, which uh started um back in uh September of 20 uh 2020.
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  SPEAKER_01: We we prepared a permit application on the basis of a PFS.
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  SPEAKER_01: We submitted that in 2022.
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  SPEAKER_01: The the idea really was to show the value proposition and then uh demonstrate that we could get a permit for that um uh for that uh initial uh build.
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  SPEAKER_01: Now the the resources that we see uh we have to uh quote those within uh a pit shell and we mop up most most, if not all, of the uh measured and indicated um resources outside our current uh reserve shell uh at$3,000 gold and$450 copper.
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  SPEAKER_01: So we know it's gonna get uh we know it's gonna get bigger.
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  SPEAKER_01: We do have to cross a dry drainage um to expand the pit, uh which will then uh under current legislation will involve the Army Corps of Engineers, but we've got four or five years in order to be able to uh accomplish that uh permit amendment.
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  SPEAKER_01: So it's gonna get bigger, we're gonna expand into the resources, and we also will be drilling to uh take some of the inferred material into a measured and indicated category.
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  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, George.
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  SPEAKER_02: It would seem to be a great time to develop a US gold mine under the current administration, particularly as you have a copper component, because President Trump has spoken a lot about the need to have more copper produced in the United States.
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  SPEAKER_02: Is that uh manifesting itself in any more overt support or funding potential for the company?
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  SPEAKER_01: Well, look, we're fully we're fully permitted.
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  SPEAKER_01: Um uh we we are on uh state and private ground.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know we we don't have any nexus to the federal government.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh certainly uh looking at funding from uh the uh from the federal government uh does involve another process.
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  SPEAKER_01: Our objective at the moment is to get up into uh into production, but you know, how good is it to be producing uh copper at a time uh domestic produced copper?
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  SPEAKER_01: So I think that we do have the opportunity of attracting some funding both from the uh federal government uh but also perhaps from the uh state of Wyoming.
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  SPEAKER_01: Um you know they're unfamiliar with the with uh hard rock mining, uh not having had a hard rock mine for a little over a hundred years.
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  SPEAKER_01: Uh but um I think once the heavy lifting's been done they would be very interested in coming in.
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  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
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  SPEAKER_02: George, to sort of wrap up our conversation, maybe you could recap some of the key catalysts our viewers can expect to see from US Gold over the next 12 months or so.
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  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so you know we we've we've kept our team very small, uh, relying on a lot of the people who we've worked with over the years in order to be able to advance to this stage.
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  SPEAKER_01: Now we need to uh start adding uh adding to the team to get through the uh development.
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  SPEAKER_01: So you'll see uh personnel being added, uh experienced personnel, very capable of uh taking on uh the development process, um, establishing a relationship with uh uh the right kind of contractors uh to advance the project and uh the uh financing package coming together pretty quickly because you know we got term sheets on the table.
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  SPEAKER_01: So those are the things to watch for and uh we'll be moving forward uh with all due haste.
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  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm looking forward to seeing the financing package as and when you announce that.
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  SPEAKER_02: George B.
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  SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much for joining me today.
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  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much, a pleasure.
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  SPEAKER_01: Always good to see you.
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  SPEAKER_02: And we have a lot more to come from the 2026 Mining Forum Americas here in Colorado Springs.
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  SPEAKER_02: So stay tuned and hit that subscribe button.
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  SPEAKER_02: I'm Paul Harris, and this is Kitco Mining.
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  SPEAKER_00: Kitco Mining on site coverage of Mining Forum Americas is presented by Metalla Royalty and streaming.