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Tosca Mining Corporation (TSXV: TSQ) is an exploration stage company focused on precious and base metals opportunities throughout the Americas.
“Our project has good potential for a new discovery,” says Tosca Mining Corporation (TSXV: TSQ) Director and consulting geologist Jonathan George. Mr. George provides a timeline for future drilling, describes what’s unique about Tosca’s Carol property in Mexico, and talks about an “interesting exit strategy” for his company.
Tosca Mining Corporation (TSXV: TSQ) CEO Interview Transcription:
Tara Sweeder: I’m Tara Sweeder for corresponding for SmallCapPower and today we are in Mexico. Senora, Mexico with John George, consulting geologist and director of Tosca Mining. John, tell us about Tosca Mining, tell us a little bit about the structure of the company, and why the management in this case, in this case, is so special?
John George: Well, first of all, Tosca has been [incorporated] and around for about eight years, and they’ve had some advanced projects in Texas before this project which we took on. So, the management is very familiar with Texas, Mexico, and in fact exploring all around the world. So a matter a fact the latest project we had as a team together was called the Creston moly Deposit. The largest Molly Deposit in Mexico. And my team basically took that from a developed deposit all the way to feasibility study in less than two years.
Tara: For two years? That’s a short period of time!
John: Well it was a developed deposit before. So we basically had bought the project in 2007, paid 39 million dollars for it. And we turned that into, essentially, a 176 million dollar merger when it was taken over. And on top of that team, that’s the geological side, including myself. The president and CEO has been an investment adviser for many years and has been in the business for 30 years. And he’s just an exceptional hands-on, focused president, and backing him up of course is Brian Roberts, our CFO.
And Brian has been in startups, and multi-faceted business for over 30 years as well. So we’ve got a seasoned team, we’ve got a focused team, and a well structured company. 17 million shares outstanding.
Tara: Oo, that’s tight! Yeah, that’s good.
John: So really– less than– right now I think we’re trading between 10 and 12 cents so I think less than a 200 million dollar market cap, so– It will be fully diluted, it’ll be about 24 million at the end of the day.
Tara: And are you raising money now?
John: We will probably be raising a little more coming here in the month ahead just to augment our [drawing] program that we’re going to be doing in 2014. We were originally were going to do a very limited program but now with some of the results we got to date, we are looking at doubling our program. Doubling our drawing program. So that’s what our intentions are now.
Tara: And why are you doubling it just to ramp it up? Just to get it going?
John: We felt that given the wide-spread mineralization that we found on the property and some of the recent trenching in our January 22nd release– we confirmed some of the old trenches that were done that doing a small program didn’t do it justice.
Tara: Okay, you’ve mentioned Texas and your moly deposit. What are you mining for specifically? And why Mexico? Senora? I mean– you hear about Silver in Mexico all the time. Is it silver, is it moly, what are you looking for?
John: Well in this case, it is essentially copper. We’re located right beside.
Tara: Copper in Mexico!
John: Well this is one of the biggest copper belts– this is the biggest copper belt where [we are]. Senora, in Mexico. And we are right beside one of Mexico’s third largest copper producer. Which is called the [Cadro Sivardes] Mine, and it produces about 80 million pounds of copper per year. And it’s been in production since 2008. And it’s got about 3.5 billion pounds of copper left.
Now, the project we have, which is right next door to it, is a combination of copper, silver, lead, and zinc. So it’s a different sort of deposit. And again, it’s not a deposit yet, because we haven’t drilled it yet. And that’s one of the most exciting things about this project is it hasn’t been drilled. It’s been trenched. There’s mineralization [in that] surface, and nobody’s ever drilled it, so…
Tara: So for the investors, grade is very important when we’re talking about copper. So when we hear this astronomical number, 80 million pounds, what’s the grade?
John: Okay, well that’s next door to us. And again, that’s an operating mine, very large– the third largest in Mexico. And their grade is averaging about .25 per ton, and they’ve got over 607 million tons. And they’ve got some bi-product in that as well, but it’s [SSEW] as you call it. It’s a heat-bleached type deposit. So it’s very economic and it’s producing all in at 162 per pound. So they’re making good money even at 3.15 per copper right now.
Tara: It’s called the Carol project– what makes it so attractive? What makes it unique?
John: First of all, before we optioned this, we optioned 100% of it in October. The previous worker on it, the company Mineta Alta Vista, put in about a half a million dollars of initial exploration on the project. And then 2008 came along, and we all know what happened to the junior sector after that. So it’s been sitting there idle since 2008.
They had done 17 trenches, opening up a wide– obviously quite widespread copper mineralization and silver on the surface. This had never been drilled before, and now we’re going to go in and under these trenches and drill this project because we feel that it’s proximity to a major copper deposit, and what we’ve evidenced– what the evidence we’ve seen on the surface, it’s got a real good potential for a brand new discovery.
Tara: Okay, so after you’re done all this work, do you think a possible buyout is–
John: Well you know you’re right next door to a major producer, that is a–
Tara: Is that the goal?
John: That is an interesting exit strategy. At this point we would probably– our goal is first of all, to drill this to see what we got, and yes if we could interest the next door neighbors, that could be an excellent ability for our investors.
Tara: If you go onto toscamining.com, which is their website, read their news. And what’s really important about their news, I thought was your January 27th release.
John: Right.
Tara: Which seemed to be right on par.
John: Well, it did. We opened up two trenches that had previously had exceptional results. One of the trenches, trench eight previous results were .486 percent copper over 48 meters on surface, and that’s very significant. So we went back in there and we just basically validated that the copper was in fact still there and the previous operators on it had done a proper job. And we did confirm that. So that verifies and justifies us going and doing drill program.
Tara: There’s risks in everything. What are the risks of developing this project?
John: Well the biggest one is to see if we hit on the first drilling. I mean, you go under these trenches that look very good on the surface, and that have long mineralized zones… What happens underneath? And the only way to really find out is to put a hole down there and see how it continues at depth. So you know, assuming that we have some positive results with these shorter holes with 100 to 125 meters, what our intent would be after to follow it up with deeper holes to see if the system continues even deeper, so…
Tara: Okay. So when does the drilling commence?
John: We were hoping to do a financing in the short-term and then we would like to see the drilling start probably in the end of April, beginning of May, in that time period.
Tara: I’ve heard wonderful things about working in Mexico with the team support that you had down there.
John: It’s fantastic! It’s like I’ve– again, I’ve worked on and off down there since 1994, and you know a lot of people feel it’s dangerous and what not. But you really get away from the border areas and it’s very warm and it’s very safe we’ve had nothing but positive experiences [enough].
Tara: How is your access getting into the property. Is it easy?
John: Our access is only 24 kilometers from the town of Alamos. And so a good gravel road all the way in. So it’s about a 45 minute drive in. So it’s access, we’ve got great infrastructure, power roads, and of course if we do succeed and find something that’s minable, we’ve got electrical power and water and all the advantages of this part of southern Senora. Particularly with that existing mine in production next door they’ve already kind of broken the mold. So they’re accustomed to mining in the area — it’s provided a lot of employment and a lot of capital into southern Senora, so it’s a very good reason to be where we are.
Tara: Well thank you for joining us, John George! Again I’m Tara Sweeter for Small Cap Power. You can find Tosca Mining on toscamining.com, and of course follow them on Facebook and Twitter. And their symbol is–
John: TSQ on the venture exchange.
Tara: TSQ of the venture exchange. Thanks for joining us! See you next time.
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