Latest / Financial Survival Network / Dolly Varden's Becoming a Silver Unicorn with CEO Shawn Khunkhun
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What makes Dolly Varden what I describe as a unicorn,
- 0:03Speaker 1: a silver unicorn, is the fact that where the project
- 0:06Speaker 1: is located. You know, Mexico and Peru are the number
- 0:10Speaker 1: one and two silver producing nations on planet Earth. That's
- 0:15Speaker 1: where most silver comps. So what makes our projects so special.
- 0:18Speaker 1: We have one hundred thousand hactors of prospective ground.
- 0:23Speaker 2: Carrie.
- 0:24Speaker 1: As this bull market matures, you're not going to be
- 0:26Speaker 1: able to get these types of projects. The Financial Survival
- 0:30Speaker 1: Network now more than network, the Financial Survival Network.
- 0:39Speaker 2: Welcome. This is Financial Survival Network and I'm your host,
- 0:44Speaker 2: Carrie Lets. We have a major sponsor update from Sean
- 0:47Speaker 2: kun Kuhn, CEO of Dolly Varden Silver and Well, Sewan,
- 0:54Speaker 2: I don't know how you've kept still for the past month.
- 0:58Speaker 2: I mean when I look at what you've done, and
- 1:00Speaker 2: you got the New York American listing which is paid
- 1:05Speaker 2: major dividends, stocks up, you got three acquisitions under your belt,
- 1:10Speaker 2: you just did a over subscribe financing, and you got
- 1:16Speaker 2: a thirty five thousand drill planned that's starting to get executed.
- 1:24Speaker 2: Just those are the highlights. I'm sure there's a lot
- 1:26Speaker 2: more going on behind the scenes here, but why don't
- 1:29Speaker 2: you tell us, like what's going on?
- 1:32Speaker 1: Yeah, no, thank you so much, thanks for having me on.
- 1:36Speaker 1: As we were saying before we hit record, I've got
- 1:38Speaker 1: a great team and a very very very strong technical
- 1:43Speaker 1: team and had a great CFO. And you know, look,
- 1:48Speaker 1: Dolly Varden, for any of your audience who is new
- 1:53Speaker 1: of tuning in for the first time, the company is
- 1:59Speaker 1: what I would describe as a bit of a unicorn
- 2:01Speaker 1: in that there's only a handful of silver companies. You know,
- 2:05Speaker 1: if you talk about the uplisting to the NYC American,
- 2:08Speaker 1: there may be ten companies on the New York Sock
- 2:12Speaker 1: Exchange that are giving investors exposure to silver. Now Dolly
- 2:16Speaker 1: Varden is one of them, but that's a rare group,
- 2:20Speaker 1: only ten. And then what makes Dolly Varden what I
- 2:25Speaker 1: describe as a unicorn a silver unicorn is the fact
- 2:28Speaker 1: that where the project is located. You know, Mexico and
- 2:32Speaker 1: Peru are they're number one and two silver producing nations
- 2:37Speaker 1: on planet Earth. That's where most silver comes. There's a
- 2:40Speaker 1: big mine in Poland that silver is produced as a byproduct,
- 2:44Speaker 1: and most of silver commes as a byproduct. So what
- 2:47Speaker 1: makes our projects so special? What I've done over the
- 2:50Speaker 1: last couple of months is I've taken We've got a
- 2:54Speaker 1: really strong resource base, Okay, about one hundred and fifty
- 2:57Speaker 1: million ounces of silver equivalent half silver half gold, past
- 3:02Speaker 1: producing mines in a prolific mining camp. And we've systematically
- 3:07Speaker 1: gone out after going on to the New York Sock
- 3:10Speaker 1: Exchange and after having some US investors come into the
- 3:13Speaker 1: stock pushing the valuation up. We then use that stock
- 3:17Speaker 1: as currency, and we've gone out. And there's Carrie, you
- 3:21Speaker 1: know this better than anybody. There's a lot of juniors
- 3:24Speaker 1: that are still struggling intrementously, and so those juniors that
- 3:30Speaker 1: are have no bid, have no capital. We've gone to
- 3:33Speaker 1: those juniors and we've bought their silver projects in the
- 3:37Speaker 1: neighborhood in the Golden Triangle, and we've cut really good
- 3:40Speaker 1: deals for our shareholders. So what we did we started
- 3:43Speaker 1: in April with fifteen thousand hectors of prospective ground with
- 3:48Speaker 1: two past producing mines. I stand here today in June,
- 3:52Speaker 1: and today we have one hundred thousand hectors of prospective ground. Carrie,
- 3:59Speaker 1: as this bullmark it matures, you're not going to be
- 4:01Speaker 1: able to get these types of projects like Forget what
- 4:04Speaker 1: we paid for them, you just won't be able to
- 4:06Speaker 1: get them for any cost. And the fact that we
- 4:10Speaker 1: also picked up three pass producing historic some of the
- 4:13Speaker 1: highest grade the highest grade silver mine in the Golden Triangle.
- 4:16Speaker 1: And the fact that we did all this, you know,
- 4:19Speaker 1: we grew by over six and a half times, and
- 4:22Speaker 1: we grew with these three pass producing mindes. We did
- 4:25Speaker 1: all this for two percent dilution, not a stitch of cash,
- 4:31Speaker 1: and for two percent dilution. And if you look back
- 4:35Speaker 1: of when we executed these transactions, the silver to gold
- 4:38Speaker 1: ratio was one hundred to one. Today it's ninety. And
- 4:43Speaker 1: we just launched on the NYC American on the back
- 4:46Speaker 1: of a lot of good results from the twenty twenty
- 4:49Speaker 1: four droll campaign that were coming out in Q one,
- 4:53Speaker 1: and we went out and now the market's caught a
- 4:56Speaker 1: bid in the last thirty days. But before it caught
- 4:59Speaker 1: a bid, we close the transactions. And then on the
- 5:03Speaker 1: back of that, we put up a deal and we
- 5:07Speaker 1: raised twenty eight point seventy five million dollars at the
- 5:12Speaker 1: highest price the company's ever raised money in the history
- 5:15Speaker 1: of the company. So we doubled our treasury and again
- 5:19Speaker 1: we've done something We've been so fortunate. We've had great shareholders,
- 5:23Speaker 1: we've had good results, and we've been very fortunate. Carrie.
- 5:27Speaker 1: We're a junior in a tough environment that has yet
- 5:31Speaker 1: to do a down round of financing, including this last one.
- 5:34Speaker 2: Well, that is an accomplishment, and you know, it's amazing. You've,
- 5:40Speaker 2: you know, more than sixfold increased your land package. And honestly,
- 5:46Speaker 2: the stock's doing great. But I don't think the market
- 5:49Speaker 2: really has any understanding of this company, or a minimal
- 5:53Speaker 2: understanding other than the fact that it's gone up.
- 5:57Speaker 1: The market does not understand and yet because what's happened.
- 6:02Speaker 1: And I've got a list of companies I track that
- 6:05Speaker 1: are silver equities. And as I go through the list,
- 6:10Speaker 1: the biggest producers, Okay, this is your your core, your
- 6:15Speaker 1: Pan American, your first majestic, Your biggest producers are trading
- 6:20Speaker 1: at fifty two week highs. Okay, not all time highs,
- 6:25Speaker 1: but fifty two week hihs okay. But apart from your
- 6:29Speaker 1: ten primary producers, the big ones, the subcategory, so these
- 6:36Speaker 1: are your small producers and your advanced explorers, your juniors,
- 6:40Speaker 1: they're not they're trading at you know, sort of the
- 6:43Speaker 1: halfway point in terms of their fifty two week low
- 6:46Speaker 1: and high, and that tells me that the mark has
- 6:50Speaker 1: not come down. So we've got a really good gold price,
- 6:53Speaker 1: you know, almost at a record all time high. We've
- 6:56Speaker 1: got large gold equities that have been given love because
- 7:00Speaker 1: you've got companies like Egnico Eagle, the world's largest publicly
- 7:06Speaker 1: traded gold producer, that's got three hundred million dollars a
- 7:12Speaker 1: month in free cash flow a month, not a quarter,
- 7:14Speaker 1: not a year, a month. We're starting to hear some
- 7:17Speaker 1: numbers out of gold companies that rival where some of
- 7:21Speaker 1: the big banks were before the GFC. The gold stocks
- 7:25Speaker 1: are the new bank stocks, okay. And and for the
- 7:29Speaker 1: younger audience, the silver companies are going to be companies
- 7:34Speaker 1: like Navidio and like tech sooks. That's that's where we're headed.
- 7:37Speaker 1: We're not there yet. It's early days. It's stay one.
- 7:40Speaker 1: But my point is the market, like to your point, No,
- 7:43Speaker 1: the market is not crediting any of this stuff yet.
- 7:47Speaker 1: It's still early days, and it shouldn't be considering there's
- 7:54Speaker 1: only been two times in recorded history where silver has
- 7:57Speaker 1: been up at this price level. This is the third
- 8:00Speaker 1: time in history where silver's been here it's actually never
- 8:03Speaker 1: closed a year above thirty five dollars sounds.
- 8:07Speaker 2: I know, it's remarkable. And I read an article quite
- 8:11Speaker 2: a while ago that Eric Sprott would be the next
- 8:13Speaker 2: Elon Musk when the inevitable silver and gold bull markets
- 8:18Speaker 2: and as well as base metals copper nickel takes off.
- 8:24Speaker 2: And hey, one day I'm going to collect on a
- 8:28Speaker 2: bet somebody who told me I was nuts and didn't
- 8:31Speaker 2: know what I was talking about.
- 8:33Speaker 1: Well, if Eric's Elon, I hope to be Mark Zuckerberg.
- 8:37Speaker 2: You'll sell, Okay, So getting do the brass tax here
- 8:43Speaker 2: or gold gold or silver tax thirty five thou meters.
- 8:49Speaker 2: That's that's locked in. Or do you think you'll go
- 8:51Speaker 2: higher than that?
- 8:52Speaker 1: Well, we're going a lot higher. We're going a lot higher.
- 8:55Speaker 1: And I'm just looking. I'm a process guy, a results
- 9:00Speaker 1: I'm a data guy, right, So it's got to be
- 9:02Speaker 1: data driven and it's got to be process driven. But
- 9:06Speaker 1: there's Look, there's a reason that I took that money,
- 9:12Speaker 1: and again we took it from Eric Sprott, we took
- 9:14Speaker 1: it from our big shareholders. But I want to be
- 9:16Speaker 1: in a position where if the data suggests to go
- 9:22Speaker 1: and be more aggressive we do it, and so I
- 9:26Speaker 1: would like to see another twenty thousand meters added to
- 9:29Speaker 1: this drill program if the data supports it, and it
- 9:35Speaker 1: would be the biggest program in the company's history.
- 9:38Speaker 2: And you got four drills turning right right now.
- 9:42Speaker 1: I got four rigs going. They've been going for a month. Well,
- 9:45Speaker 1: actually we started with two rigs on May fifteenth. We
- 9:48Speaker 1: brought it in another two at the end of May.
- 9:51Speaker 1: We've had so we've had four rigs turning for a
- 9:53Speaker 1: couple of weeks. We've completed about six thousand meters of
- 9:56Speaker 1: drilling so far. And we should be in a place.
- 10:02Speaker 1: Are you going to be at the Rule symposium in Boca?
- 10:05Speaker 2: Absolutely, yes, I will be there out there. Please I'll
- 10:10Speaker 2: put a link in the show notes here. Please join
- 10:13Speaker 2: Sean and I and many others and Rick. It's always
- 10:17Speaker 2: a great event and you want to be there, especially
- 10:21Speaker 2: if you're interested in the Dolly Vard.
- 10:24Speaker 1: That's right, yeah, no, it's we've seen it. We're in
- 10:27Speaker 1: a really good place with the labs right now, good
- 10:29Speaker 1: turnaround times. It's early in the season. We got out there.
- 10:33Speaker 1: We're one of the first drollers in the district, so
- 10:36Speaker 1: you know we'll be ahead of the line.
- 10:38Speaker 2: So the acquisitions, you have three of them. Forget me
- 10:44Speaker 2: if I don't pronounce them exactly right, Kinskooch Quarter project,
- 10:49Speaker 2: and you bought the MTB Metals portfolio, so you alluded
- 10:53Speaker 2: to that a while ago that you know, barely any
- 10:57Speaker 2: dilution for these acquisitions two percent. That kind of fills
- 11:02Speaker 2: in some other holes, some other gaps in the Lamb package.
- 11:07Speaker 1: Well, look, I'll tell you the rationale behind the move.
- 11:10Speaker 1: So kins Coach, which is a big piece of ground
- 11:14Speaker 1: that our largest shareholder, Hackla controls, was a project that's
- 11:19Speaker 1: contiguous to our land package, and it was a deal where,
- 11:25Speaker 1: you know, for five million dollars in stock, our largest
- 11:28Speaker 1: shareholder became an even larger shareholder. So they are now
- 11:31Speaker 1: owned fifteen percent. The first twelve and a half percent
- 11:34Speaker 1: they owned came through them writing checks into the company,
- 11:39Speaker 1: buying equity. The last two percent came through this property divestment.
- 11:46Speaker 1: But they are intrusting our scientists who've proven that they're
- 11:51Speaker 1: through the studying of all the geochemistry and all the
- 11:58Speaker 1: geophysics and the structural geology and the whole historic mining,
- 12:02Speaker 1: have been able to find new silver mines on the
- 12:05Speaker 1: property and so HECKL has entrusted our scientists to advance
- 12:10Speaker 1: their project, which is a big sign of confidence from
- 12:13Speaker 1: America's number one silver producer, the longest, one of the
- 12:17Speaker 1: longest listed companies on the NYC. And then the other
- 12:21Speaker 1: two transactions were tiny transactions. You know, they totaled a
- 12:29Speaker 1: total of about three million dollars, So it all in
- 12:32Speaker 1: is an eight million dollars in stock for a company
- 12:35Speaker 1: that's got a four hundred million dollar valuation, very very
- 12:38Speaker 1: minimal dilution. The other transactions, the straight point transactions. We
- 12:42Speaker 1: brought in the Porter Idaho and I think you'll appreciate this,
- 12:47Speaker 1: Carrie Dolly Varden today is trading at two dollars an
- 12:51Speaker 1: ounce in the ground. We bought Porter Idaho for eight
- 12:55Speaker 1: and a half cents in the ground. That's in a
- 12:58Speaker 1: creative deal. That's a deal for shareholders. That's a deal
- 13:01Speaker 1: where you know, we're taking advantage of the disparity between
- 13:05Speaker 1: the larger advanced explorers and the juniors, right, And that's
- 13:09Speaker 1: an accreative deal. So that's a deal you do all
- 13:12Speaker 1: day long when you could use two dollars announced valuation
- 13:15Speaker 1: and buy it an under ten cents. So that's a
- 13:17Speaker 1: Smart deal and then the Mountain Boy deal. You know,
- 13:21Speaker 1: when we did the deal with Fury and bought Homesteak,
- 13:24Speaker 1: Mountain Boys got a really fantastic project called THEA that's
- 13:29Speaker 1: contiguous to Homesteak, and we have held off on advancing
- 13:37Speaker 1: Homesteak North because we didn't own THEA. And there's some
- 13:43Speaker 1: big numbers that the Thea's got, really really big silver numbers.
- 13:47Speaker 1: But the whole Mountain Boy portfolio, this is a company
- 13:50Speaker 1: that was trading up at sixty seventy million dollar valuation.
- 13:54Speaker 1: We bought their whole portfolio for under two million dollars.
- 13:58Speaker 2: Interesting going back to kN Skotch is that HECLA effectively
- 14:04Speaker 2: outsourced their exploration to you, right, taking a bigger piece
- 14:10Speaker 2: of the company. But effectively they're saying that Dolly Varden
- 14:14Speaker 2: can do the job better than we can in house.
- 14:18Speaker 1: Your word's not mine.
- 14:21Speaker 2: Well, through an untrained observer, unsophisticated observer, that's the conclusion
- 14:27Speaker 2: that you would reach because they got this land, that
- 14:30Speaker 2: they're in the silver business, they've been in it for
- 14:33Speaker 2: over one hundred years, and yet they're saying, well, Sean,
- 14:38Speaker 2: you take a crack at this.
- 14:40Speaker 1: Well, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Hacklaw
- 14:44Speaker 1: under their previous management, their CEO, Phil Baker. Phil was
- 14:48Speaker 1: our biggest advocate supporter funder lead order, great visionary, built
- 14:54Speaker 1: a great company there, and I'm really grateful for that support.
- 14:59Speaker 1: I think I think now that Heckla is under new management,
- 15:04Speaker 1: it's a really exciting time there because they're looking at
- 15:08Speaker 1: really you know, focusing on their existing operations, and I
- 15:15Speaker 1: think in that moment, there's an opportunity for Dolly Varden
- 15:19Speaker 1: to play a role in helping streamline the advancement of
- 15:26Speaker 1: this area. We could focus, we could take the lead,
- 15:29Speaker 1: and I think it was a win win deal for
- 15:31Speaker 1: both companies. I think it was a smart deal for
- 15:33Speaker 1: both companies. And those are the transactions that make the
- 15:36Speaker 1: most sense. You know, strike Point was looking to focus
- 15:39Speaker 1: in Nevada, so now they can focus in Nevada. Mountain
- 15:43Speaker 1: Boys looking to focus in Copper in the North, so
- 15:46Speaker 1: we took on their silver in all three deals, I
- 15:49Speaker 1: think in order to have success, whether it's a financing,
- 15:53Speaker 1: whether it's an acquisition, you need to leave something for
- 15:57Speaker 1: the other party. And you know, we did this financing
- 16:00Speaker 1: and people are saying, Sean, you know your your stock
- 16:03Speaker 1: looks like it wants to go to ten bucks. Why
- 16:05Speaker 1: would you raise money yet? You know, you know we're
- 16:08Speaker 1: raising some of this fow through money at six fifty
- 16:11Speaker 1: five seventy five hard dollars at four sixty. Why would
- 16:15Speaker 1: you raise money at an average price of five dollars
- 16:18Speaker 1: five point fifty when you could you're going to ten bucks?
- 16:21Speaker 1: And it's like, well, first of all, it's a catch
- 16:24Speaker 1: twenty two. We need capital to advance the project. Number one.
- 16:28Speaker 1: Number two, I want the investors that are participating to
- 16:32Speaker 1: have some meat left on the bone and experience and
- 16:35Speaker 1: be happy shareholders. Happy shareholders are good shareholders, right. You
- 16:38Speaker 1: don't want to be in a situation where you go
- 16:40Speaker 1: and you raise one hundred million dollars at ten dollars
- 16:42Speaker 1: a share and then the stock pulls back to seven
- 16:45Speaker 1: fifty and people are upset and they sell selling. Begets selling.
- 16:48Speaker 1: So I've always learned in the twenty two years I've
- 16:50Speaker 1: been doing this, you know, do it at a time
- 16:52Speaker 1: where we're going to be putting out results. There's going
- 16:55Speaker 1: to be catalysts. They have a chance to be very
- 16:57Speaker 1: happy and to continue to support us.
- 17:00Speaker 2: Yes, and I just see the picture here. We don't
- 17:03Speaker 2: even need to get into geopolitical just the market itself
- 17:07Speaker 2: is really y is really the biggest catalyst. I mean,
- 17:11Speaker 2: we've known each other for several years now and you've
- 17:14Speaker 2: been making all the right moves, and now it looks
- 17:17Speaker 2: like this is the moment. And that's why the uplisting,
- 17:21Speaker 2: what perfect timing, the acquisitions and the financing without giving
- 17:26Speaker 2: you know, your lowest cost financing yet here in terms
- 17:29Speaker 2: of dilution and in terms of cost. So it's looking
- 17:33Speaker 2: pretty good here.
- 17:34Speaker 1: And I just want to say thanks, Carrie for your support.
- 17:37Speaker 1: And I think you know, I think you might have
- 17:39Speaker 1: known it before I knew it when we first met
- 17:41Speaker 1: where you said, hey, you because you'd known the homestake asset,
- 17:44Speaker 1: you'd followed it before we acquired it, and so I
- 17:48Speaker 1: think you know you were you were early on you know,
- 17:53Speaker 1: the growth of the company and the trajectory of the company,
- 17:55Speaker 1: and I think you know you had as much conviction
- 17:58Speaker 1: as we did about that. So thanks for your support
- 18:01Speaker 1: and look forward to seeing you in Boca.
- 18:04Speaker 2: I appreciate that, Sean, and I suggest everybody go over
- 18:08Speaker 2: to Dolly Vardensilver dot com sign up for notifications. I
- 18:13Speaker 2: get to say a new symbol, which is DVS on
- 18:18Speaker 2: the New York Stock Exchange and of course on the
- 18:20Speaker 2: tsx V, it's d V and set. We'll see you
- 18:25Speaker 2: in Boca.
- 18:26Speaker 1: Thanks carry the Financial Survival Network