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Aura
Silver Resources Inc.
(AUU-TSXV) |
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April 2, 2010 Issue |
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The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information |
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CURRENT ISSUE | COVER ARCHIVES | INDEX | CONTACT | FINANCIALS | SERVICES | HOME PAGE |
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Aura Silver Resources Inc. Is Well Positioned For Long Term Value With Good Grades With Large Sized Properties In Both Mexico And Nunavut, Canada |
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Aura Silver is a TSX Venture listed company
engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of precious and base
metals prospects in Canada (Greyhound Lake) and in Oaxaca, Mexico. The
Company has 49,621,902 common shares outstanding. Robert G. Boaz, M. Economics, Hon. B.A., (Mississauga, ON) Position: President, CEO & Director Mr. Boaz has 18 years in the investment banking business after a career in the power and natural gas industry, working in management positions for Ontario Hydro, Saskatchewan Power and Consumers Gas. He has held senior management positions in a number of firms in the investment industry with direct responsibilities related to research, portfolio management, institutional sales and investment banking. From 2000 to 2004, Mr. Boaz was Vice President and Head of Research and in-house portfolio strategist for Dundee Securities Corporation. From 2004 to March 2006, Mr. Boaz was Managing Director Investment Banking with Raymond James Ltd. in Toronto. Mr. Boaz is a director of Ur-Energy Inc., a director of AuEx Ventures Inc. and chair of the board of directors and audit committee of Solex Resources Corp. |
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Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFOinterviews.com, Published – April 2, 2010
Mr. Boaz: My background in investment banking and research developed strong relationships with certain mining companies and at the end of the day I was invited on the Boards of those companies. Aura Silver was very attractive given the positive property development that we have down in Mexico as well as more recent positive developments up in Nunavut, Canada. The grades that we have been coming up with have been exceptional and we believe we may have something exciting in both countries. The other aspect of it is that both properties are quite large, and have great mineralization all the way through. For example, our Taviche property in Mexico is something over 55,000 hectares where our Greyhound property is over 25,000 hectares. When you have good grades and large property positions it just gives you a bit more value longer term.
CEOCFO: Why do you like silver today? Mr. Boaz: Though it has been fairly weak over the past week or so, silver seems to be experiencing an ongoing demand both for jewelry use, photography and industrial use, and we think that there just hasn’t been that many new mines opening up that will provide high-grade silver supply going forward. Our view is that the price of silver could continue to move higher. There are a number of analysts who have suggested that silver should be in the $20 to $25 range, and that is possible, but even at current price levels with the type of deposits we think we have in both Mexico and Canada, if a mine develops, we think we can be profitable.
CEOCFO: Do you own your projects 100%? Mr. Boaz: We own the Greyhound property 100%, and we are in a joint venture in Mexico on our Taviche property with both Pan American Silver and Intrepid Mines, where at the end of the day we will have 35% once our earn-in is complete. This should be this year.
CEOCFO: What is happening now in the ground at the Mexico property, and then in Canada? Mr. Boaz: We just finished our second phase of drilling in Taviche and came up with more interesting results. Just as an example, every hole that we drilled has at least some silver and gold mineralization. The third hole drilled came up with 34 meters of 269.7 grams of silver equivalent and that is quite high. One intercept had 2 ½ kilograms over 1.3 meters. Most of the other holes showed similar results including hole 16 which encountered 36.6 meters of 303.9 grams. Therefore, this sets the stage for a phase III drilling program. We are still trying to figure out the geology and we are trying to figure out the origin of the silver and gold. The fact that we have these grades over wide intervals implies that we may be on to something big. The Phase III plan currently for Taviche will be around 2000 meters of drilling. In Canada, we just completed our analysis of the geophysics work performed last October, which has given us drill targets in Nunavut, and we hope to start drilling by the second quarter of this year. It will probably be a 2000-meter program as well.
CEOCFO: Would you tell us more about the Canadian project and what is special about it? Mr. Boaz: It is interesting. Nunavut is not a great place in terms of location for mining activity only because it is so far north, but in general an all-weather road that goes from Baker Lake up to the Agnico Eagle’s Meadowbank Mine runs directly through our property. We are something like 32 kilometers south of the Meadowbank Mine and about 38 kilometers north of Baker Lake. So despite all the difficulties in working in Nunavut, we have great infrastructure and we are not far from Baker Lake. Baker Lake is also an inland seaport, so in that sense it is a good location. What we found in our prospecting started in August 2008, are, we think two distinct systems, one a silver/base metal system where we sampled 3080 grams per ton silver, 9.2 percent copper and 18.5 percent zinc values. We also believe there is a completely different geologic structure that provides high gold values of 28 grams per tonne gold, 17 grams and 15 grams, so it is an exciting place to be. I don’t know that we can compare it to the Meadowbank Mine, which will be a 3.6 million ounce deposit, but in terms of base metals and precious metals we basically have a grocery list that is very attractive.
CEOCFO: What is the financial picture for Aura Silver today? Mr. Boaz: We have just raised $1.3 million; funds directed towards Mexico and general working capital. We will likely raise some flow-through funds shortly for the Canadian operation, of about $1 million. So we will be cash rich with no liabilities and going forward we will be able to fund all of our activities both in Mexico and in Canada.
CEOCFO: Are you finding it a little easier these days to raise money? Mr. Boaz: It is always tough especially given the volatility of the stock market, but yes, I think investors are starting to come back into the junior mining market. There are still a lot of very good plays in both base metals and precious metals because their prices are holding up. Investors are looking at that and I think they are coming back into the market to allow companies the size of ours to fund and operate properly.
CEOCFO: Are you looking at any additional properties? Mr. Boaz: We are always looking. There are additional properties that we have looked at in Mexico, and there are Canadian properties that look intriguing. We will make decisions on those in the next three to six months.
CEOCFO: Why should potential investors choose Aura Silver? Mr. Boaz: We have had great drilling results over the past year. The stock price of Aura went from nine and a half cents to 44 cents in one day after we released results last August. However, I thought that was a little over done. Given the weakness in the market and the short-term weakness in silver prices, we are down at the .17- 18-cent level today. With my expectations of continuing drilling success in Mexico, and potential drilling success in Nunavut, our stock price has a lot of upside. We are not overvalued compared to what the stock price has seen over the past six months; in fact, I think we are probably hitting a bottom right now.
CEOCFO: Final thoughts, what should people remember most about Aura Silver?
Mr. Boaz:
The most positive aspect of Aura is our geologists. We have Dr. Jim
Franklin, who used to be head of the Canadian Geological Survey. Our head of
exploration is Eric Craigie and along with Paul Pitman; these two gentlemen
have discovered a number of properties over the years in Canada and in
Mexico. So that is where our strength is, in order to be able to find the
properties, and then do the analysis that will lead us to positive drill
targets. That is what investors are buying when they buy Aura stock. |
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Our view is that the price of silver could continue to move higher. There are a number of analysts who have suggested that silver should be in the $20 to $25 range, and that is possible, but even at current price levels with the type of deposits we think we have in both Mexico and Canada, if a mine develops, we think we can be profitable. - Robert G. Boaz, M. Economics, Hon. B.A. (Mississauga, ON) |
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