Western Copper & Gold CEO Discusses Latest Land Acquisition in Yukon

Trevor [00:00:09] Hey everybody welcome to Mining Stock Daily. It is August 9th. This is Trevor Hall. Thanks so much for tuning in and tuning in throughout the week. We've had a very eventful week in the precious metals sector gold still hovering around that $1500 mark in silver still kind of back up hovering $17 dollars mark. So that is exciting news. We've got a great in-depth interview for you today as we air every Friday here on Mining Stock Daily. But before we get to that I would like to thank our sponsors for the show that includes Pacific Empire Minerals, Minera Alamos and Integra Resources and Western Copper and Gold which actually consists of our interview today with CEO Paul West-Sells and also a newcomer to the show. That's the casino project head geo she is going to give us a great rundown of the excitement with the drilling going on there at the project and that interview was done actually before the announcement of the Canadian Creek acquisition adjacent to the Casino project. And we'll talk more about that with Paul in the upcoming discussion. If you have any ideas thoughts or just want to reach out to me feel free to do so. trevor@clearcreekdigital.com. And remember that the show is offered on about a dozen different networks including Amazon Alexa and if you are an Alexa user please be sure to access the mining stock daily flash briefing on your user app or web site. So without further ado I'm going to leave you here with my two discussions with two great people from Western Copper and Gold. I hope you enjoy. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you again on Monday and then enjoy this conversation.

Trevor [00:02:00] And today on money stock daily I am joined by the CEO of Western copper and gold that is Paul West-Sells. Western copper and gold is traded on the NYSE and the TSX with the symbol W R N. Before we get started I will notice that Western copper and gold is a sponsor of Mining Stock Daily. And I am also a shareholder of the company. Paul good to join you once again it's been about two I think about two months since we last spoke and have you been?

Paul West-Sells [00:02:29] I've been very good. It's been it's been a very exciting two months for four Western Copper and Gold. And to be honest it's been an exciting two months in the metals space. You've seen you know and it's an exciting day to be talking to with gold breaking through 15 hundreds in the first time in an oh gosh it's going to be since 2009 I think that since we've seen $1500 dollar gold here so guardedly or 2010 so it's been quite a while you know close to a decade since we've seen gold at these levels. So it's an exciting day.

Trevor [00:03:06] I think it was 2012 because it was on its way down. Yeah exactly. Well we have a limited amount of time here to. So there's a couple of things I do think we need to discuss. The first order of business here Paul is about a week and a half ago I think it was on the 30th of July. You announced the acquisition of a land package right adjacent to Casino and that's the Canadian Creek property. Before we kind of go into its location why it's important give us kind of a background of why this property why it's important for a casino and what's the plans for going forward?

Paul West-Sells [00:03:48] Yeah. So you know the Caribou Rose the Canadian Creek project that Caribou Rose owns is directly to the west of us and actually borders our project and we've been talking to them for about the past 10 years on and off and you know really why we've always been interested in this project is there's there's one real key reason there's a couple key reasons and then you know some good upsides. With the number one key reason is that if you look at our project and you look at the geology of it the edge of our project is actually on the airplanes. So there's there is gold heap leach material there is potentially deeper porphyry material that is actually located on the edge of our claims and on their claim. So that was a reason you know very very simple reason to get that. Because if you look at our pit and where we could potentially extend that current pit it goes onto their property. So that's sort of the simple reason. And then the other reason which is sort of exciting to me is there is a really good target on their project and it's called the Anna target and it's had a couple drill holes but not sort of in quite the right areas we think. But it's another porphyry target. So it looks a lot like casino has hasn't been drilled. And if you look at these porphyrys and if you look at say Chile or you look at Arizona places like that they don't tend to be you know one for free in the middle of a region all by itself there tends to be a few of them. So you know we're hoping that this is the next porphyry over from Casino and you know we we announced the deal on the 30th of July. We're actually put together a drill Plan I think two days later and we're putting them together and going to hopefully go up there and drill you know as soon as the next couple of weeks here.

Trevor [00:05:59] So the mineralization is basically a continuation into this deposit similar to what you were seeing a Casino correct?

Paul West-Sells [00:06:08] Yeah. The I mean particularly on the material right next to to our our deposit and no. When I say right next I can't overemphasize how right next it is. So as I think I've told the listeners when we've talked before. I mean our reserve is a 22-year reserve. But there's a number a bunch of material that is deeper than when we put a pit around that it goes to a fifty five year pit. That's 55 year pit is actually on those claims. So I mean very simply you know we now have the claims where that half century-pit is going to land. But when you look at the mineralization there and you can actually go we're going to put together some graphics but this you know I mean this is so fresh. We haven't had a chance to this week nationally the Caribou Rose Web site and you can look at some graphics they have and you look at their golden soils and you can see I mean right on that edge there's all this gold and soils and that looks exactly like what we have a casino where you have this porphyryand it's been weathered and gold is you know the gold doesn't whether it stays in the surface material and then beneath that we expect to see some worry you know copper gold mineralization like we see a casino.

Trevor [00:07:30] So let's talk real quickly about the current drilling campaign and when I was onsite last month and you could see the drill was really working can the edge of what that current property boundary was of Casino. So now my guess is your plan is to finish up those drill holes around that. What was the current border and just move across into the Canadian Creek area is that correct or am I mistaken note that that's correct?

Paul West-Sells [00:08:00] And you know they I mean you happened upon the drills in that area. I mean they've been sort of all around the edge of a pit. Again the current drill campaign really is looking at this this material on on the inside the pit but on the edge of the inside of the pit which currently is categorized as inferred and what the idea of doing infill drilling on that and converting it into measured and indicated that drill campaign has gone incredibly well. You know we we raised as $3.3 Million dollars to do that drill campaign in in May. And at that time we thought OK we'll have enough to do the drill campaign but just enough. But we actually now expect to be finished that drilling this week and that's going to sort of go into and give us room and money to sort of do some of that going on the Caribou Rose side here. Like I said hopefully as early as next week or the week after.

Trevor [00:09:06] So the last time you and I spoke we talked about it was right after the financing and you acknowledged that there was going to be a new drill program and you specifically stated that if there's money leftover from this drill campaign there's a couple of targets we'd like to go after. Now are these targets that you for mention was this part of the Canadian Creek property or is there other things within that boundary that you wanted to go after?

Paul West-Sells [00:09:32] Well you know I'll I'll be honest I mean I was I was biting my lip when I was talking to you because this deal was 90 percent done in June. But you know there's a lot. There was a lot of dotting the i's and crossing the T's that happened through June and July before we announced it. So I sort of in the back of my mind knew that we would have likely have this. I mean we'd sort of had the handshake done by then but you know hadn't had all the paperwork done so. And that's really what I was referring to is that you know we were pretty confident that we would have this Canadian Creek project and property and you know we were really excited about these targets.  And so we're very happy that we were to get this closed in time and and how much has the world that rolls out over that.

Trevor [00:10:23] And if I don't mind if you don't mind me asking about the two and two point seventy million dollars community as part of that acquisition. It consisted of the issuance of three million common shares of Western copper and gold. Can you tell us where those shares came from and how they're distributed.

Paul West-Sells [00:10:45] I mean yeah I mean so it's just that I mean it's a purchase for equity. So those that will be new shares that are that are added. So if you look at at this from the pollution standpoint that probably it'll be under 3 percent position. I mean we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 110 million shares outstanding. So we'll issue 3 million new shares to purchase this. But you know you're looking at a land package that's 40 percent of what we have right now. So we're increasing the land package by 40 percent. It's adding certainly well more than 3 percent of ore just on that edge. And that all of the upside. So we're we're we think it was a pretty good deal pretty good bang for the buck. You know we did it when our share price was was not really weak. I wouldn't say it was really strong but it was in a good fair position for everybody involved.

Trevor [00:11:47] Let's chat about their share price real quick because the last time we spoke was the week of June 3rd when you were around the $.50-.51 one cent mark on the U.S. on the US side of things. Today you're trading I believe. Last I saw around 79 cents. So about a 40 percent increase. So let's talk about the the. Give us your thoughts about the current trends in junior mining and how Western copper gold has been the beneficiary of it.

Paul West-Sells [00:12:17] Yeah. You know it's it's it's been an exciting and this is why people love junior mining you know 40 percent increase in two months on on a solid story. I mean I don't have you know super spectacular news results to point to. You know this is a great acquisition which had a little bit to do with it. But I mean a lot of movement before that and really why why is our share price going up like that. I mean part of the reason is that we were so beaten up and I think the other thing is that people are looking around for goods to gold stories and I often talk about the copper side of casino and and because it's a big part. But if you look actually today some gold that over fifteen hundred and copper pulled back at a little under two dollars and 60 cents. The Casino project will actually the revenue projected revenue as much revenue comes from copper as it comes from gold it comes from copper. So it gives you an idea of how much gold that we actually have. And you know we could see this in our corporate presentation and we sat down and said What are the top 10 gold projects in terms of overall contained ounces that are controlled by junior mining companies? So therefore not not yet in the hands of major. And we're in that top 10. And you know if you look at the projects in the top 10 a lot of those that a lot of issues are on them. Ours is very very clean. So I mean I think those are been some of the things that deplete in. I mean there's been a movement back into the junior mining market in general. Copper has held for the most part I mean it's bounced around but I took its licks. You know it's sort of beginning the year when the trade war sort of heated up and then it sort of sort of stabilized there but gold of course has really been the story. And then that's what's helped us.

Trevor [00:14:20] Paul would you say the biggest challenge to the stock price as far has been the copper story though and the trade relations that have been escalating?

[00:14:28] Yeah absolutely. I mean you know we we move with copper and gold you know wouldn't put us in gold's doing what it does right now I wish I could say it move mostly with gold. It moves a little bit more with copper. But if you look at the typical copper equities they've been really hurt whereas we've whole held and actually gained. And that's because of the gold component. But yeah I mean we were a nice hedge actually because when the economies are firing on all cylinders copper again with Dr. Copper does well and and you know we we trade up because of the copper part of the casino project and then situations like now where people are worried about global growth and worried about currencies. Gold goes up and and you know we we go up with that.

Trevor [00:15:21] All right Paul. Well that's about all the time I have. I'm actually going to move over and here from my conversation with your project geologist Heather so we'd better wrap things up here so we can hear that for our listeners. But thank you so much for your time. I do look forward to seeing you in Colorado at the precious metal summit and the Denver gold forum. So safe travels then and look forward to catching up with you at that moment.

Paul West-Sells [00:15:44] OK. Well thanks a lot Trevor. Always a pleasure talking to you and you're listening. Yeah. Look forward to seeing you right down in Denver.

Trevor [00:15:57] Welcome to mining stock daily. This is Trevor Holland reporting from the western copper and gold camp at the casino project here in the Yukon. Attending the Yukon Mining investment conference hosted by the Yukon Mining Alliance and with me right now is a new voice to the show it's Heather Sealy she's a project geo here at the casino project. Heather thanks so much for joining us.

Heather [00:16:17] Oh thanks for coming on to the project.

Trevor [00:16:19] I really want to ask you about the drilling program that's going on now it seems like there's a lot of eyes because of the first time you've even said since you started this project in 2013 that's the first time you've seen a drill on the ground.

Heather [00:16:29] So I've seen drills but they've been geotechnical so this the first time I've seen live corps coming out of the ground and we get to log as geologists.

Trevor [00:16:36] So how exciting is that for you to be here and to see what's going on.

Heather [00:16:38] Very exciting yeah. I love it.

Trevor [00:16:41] Part of the reason you're doing this. It's on the periphery of the deposit but you're trying to convert to some of the indicated to measured and inferred and potentially come out with the new resource estimate later this fall. But tell us about the project. The process of getting there.

Heather [00:16:59] Yeah for sure. So this is a not really an exploration program. We are pretty much expecting the results that are coming back. And we've had a few results coming already. So yeah the purpose is to just upgrade the resource so that that adds value to the Project for the investors. That's sort of the name of the game.

Trevor [00:17:15] So why now? I guess why. You know after all this time you know why why is now the time?

Heather [00:17:21] Well that would probably be a much better question for Chris to answer. But I mean I think it was sort of time to do. We've had feedback from people over the years that that's what they want to see. And you know this adds value it's I I've been telling people that don't know about geology I equate it to a house in a market. And nobody's buying your house and you can't figure out why. Well we're putting on that new roof that everybody wants to see.

Trevor [00:17:44] Yeah it's a really good metaphor.

Heather [00:17:47] Sort of I think you know what I mean like it's it's just that that's a simple way of putting it but it's adding value to something that already has a ton of value. But sometimes you just need that little kick over the edge to get people more interested in looking at you know the total value of this.

Trevor [00:17:59] Yeah yeah. So you've seen some core come out and I know you haven't provided to me I see information but just as a geo perspective what you've seen are you seeing anything different or new that maybe has popped out. or are we're still seeing the same continuity that you expected to see.

Heather [00:18:14] We're seeing the same continuity. Totally. Yeah. There's nothing crazy. There's some good stuff that we've seen the assays are pretty much right on par with what we've been expecting. That being said we still have half of the assets to come back so we'll see what happens.

Trevor [00:18:26] And you pointed out some native copper in the say is here that that was that was pretty cool I mean. But were you seeing that in the historical core as well?

Heather [00:18:34] That native copper has always been logged throughout this it's it's not pervasive throughout the entire deposit it's relatively rare. And I was also told by the engineers that they don't want to see that. So while it can indicate good grade it is a problem going through the processing plant. So I mean it can be done but it's just not ideal. So it's lovely for us.

Trevor [00:18:56] So I guess I'm just curious what is a successful conversion look like 20 25 percent? I mean I guess minimal conversion of what's from indicated the measurement.

Heather [00:19:08] Well I mean I think what Chris was saying. I think they're looking to add like 150 million dollars to this project. So I don't know what that conversion converts to in percentages but that's a significant value to that project if we can do that.

Trevor [00:19:21] I want to ask you about the jurisdiction. I mean you're putting right next to Coffee. White Gold is kind of to the north and northeast to the east. Tell us about the extensive growth and just the exploration and development in this jurisdiction and what a mine like casino coming on line would mean for the entire area.

Heather [00:19:42] Well it would be the largest one here in the entire territory period. So coming and having this happen one day to simplify it would be huge for the entire district. Just the road itself that would you know be built to come in here would benefit every single project along the way not to mention the first nation communities.

Trevor [00:20:01] Heather thanks so much. I know it's short and quick and I appreciate your time. Best of luck to you with the drill rigs and I'm sure we'll catch up with you or Paul or Chris says the essay numbers come coming in here in the next few weeks or months and have a great season.

Heather [00:20:16] Awesome. Thank you so much.

[00:20:18] That's Heather Seeley with Western copper and gold which is traded on the NYSE and the TSX with the symbol WRN. Mining stock daily and its affiliates are not responsible for any loss arising from any investment decision in connection with the material presented here in.