2008 Interview with: Houston Lake Mining Inc. (HLM-TSXV), President, CEO, CFO, Secretary-Treasurer and Director, E. Grayme Anthony, P.Geo. F.G.A.C., M.B.A. - featuring: their exploration for gold, platinum group metal and rare metal deposits in northwestern Ontario with a strategic focus on the West Cedartree gold project.. |
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Houston Lake Mining Is Focused On Their
Gold Properties In The Kenora Area And Adding Two More Resources To The One
They Identified In 2006, Positioning Them To Become A Producer
Houston Lake is an advanced, vertically
integrated resource exploration company. The Company is actively exploring
for gold, platinum group metal and rare metal deposits in northwestern
Ontario with a strategic focus on the West Cedartree gold project. Houston
Lake's objective is to become a gold producer by surface mining its West
Cedartree gold project and developing its 100% owned and optioned
properties. The Company has a total of 30,768,579 common shares issued and
outstanding.
CEOCFO: What is the focus of the company? Mr. Anthony: “First of all, Houston Lake has a strong focus on identifying new opportunities in a number of commodity areas. We were successful in generating opportunities in the platinum and palladium sector in 1998, in advance of the run up of that sector. In 1999, we identified opportunities in rare metals specifically tantalum, lithium, rubidium, and cesium. These metals have applications in the high technology sector. However, our chief focus is gold which we targeted in 2002, a full year in advance of the rise in gold prices. We consolidated our interests into one property in the Kenora area. Our initial exploration budget was only $10,000. Based on our successes we were able to rapidly expand. Our gold project now encompasses eight properties and we have spent in excess of $2 million on exploration thus far in 2008. With one resource defined in 2006, we are now working on adding two more gold resources this year. We are hopeful that this will bring us close to justifying a mill for that area and making Houston Lake a producer.”
CEOCFO: What do you like about this area and specifically these properties? Mr. Anthony: “The Kenora area was a very productive region producing over half of Ontario’s gold at the start of the 1900s. However, it was passed over by later gold rushes in the Timmins, Kirkland Lake, and Red Lake areas. Consequently, the Kenora area was largely forgotten and under-explored. We were able to identify a significant gold trend at Angel Hill, which is in a new geologic setting for gold; something that hasn’t been investigated before. We have taken an initial gold showing and built it up into a gold resource in excess of 100,000 tonnes of three grams. It is open to depth and along strike. This is the first new resource generated in the area in the past twenty years. We are very proud of that accomplishment
We consolidated our land position, so we now have approximately four miles of strike length covering the key geology that contains a lot of gold showings along this trend. Therefore, we think there is great potential there; less than 1% of the Angel Hill structure has been explored to date.
Along the way we have identified other opportunities in adjacent properties that would carry the Angel Hill trend further for instance to the north onto the Dogpaw Lake property, so that became a focus of the company. We are currently building resource on the Dogpaw No. 1 Vein. We have identified and reinterpreted the ground and we think we can triple the historical resource on that property. Last year we added the Dubenski property that adjoins the Dogpaw property, which had a historic resource of 355,000 tonnes running about 6⅓ grams. We put in an initial drill program on that one this winter and we were quite successful. I think that four of our seventeen holes intersected some of the highest grades that were ever encountered over the zone. The zone remains open below our drilling. We have done some deep-probing geophysics which suggest that the gold zone may continue to depths of at least 300 to 400 meters.. Each one of the sites we are working on has a similar story and it seems like everything we touch in the region is looking better and better.”
CEOCFO: Very exciting for you! Mr. Anthony: “We are tremendously excited. We feel we are building a very good opportunity for the company and our shareholders in the West Cedartree area. Gold prices have certainly supported our strategic focus as well.”
CEOCFO: You own all of your properties 100%; will you continue to do so? Mr. Anthony: “Yes, that approach gives us the greatest flexibility. We are a company that is capable through its board of directors and management of building ourselves from the exploration stage through to mining production. It is nice to have that ability in a small company. However, we also have the flexibility with the 100% property interests of bringing in partners while still maintaining a significant interest. We have this in mind for some of our other projects.”
CEOCFO: What is the financial position today for Houston Lake? Mr. Anthony: “We just brought out our June 30th quarterly financials and we have a positive working capital position of about $800 thousand, so we are well positioned to keep our projects moving ahead. In addition, we have just closed $1 million of additional financing. The market place seems to have recognized the potential inherent in our property holdings and the company’s ability to develop this golden opportunity.”
CEOCFO: What is the plan for the next couple of years? Mr. Anthony: “We are in the process of generating a modern resource calculation on the Dubenski property which is expected later this month. In addition, we are working towards our third gold resource in the Dogpaw No. 1 Vein, we hope by this winter. We will continue drilling and expanding our resources with the aim of defining a million tonnes at open pit depths. Once we have attained this resource, we are hopeful that we will be able to justify a mill for the project.”
CEOCFO: What are the challenges going forward? Mr. Anthony: “There are tough market conditions. The excellent work of a number of companies in this industry have been unrecognized by investors, but we are hopeful that the market conditions will return to normal. We think there is a lot of value that is not recognized in the junior market and we are hopeful that with our efforts that that value will also shed its light on Houston Lake Mining.”
CEOCFO: Why should potential investors choose Houston Lake Mining out of the crowd? Mr. Anthony: “With the junior mining companies one should look at the people involved, their track record, the excellence of the projects, and the ability to raise finances even in tougher times. The amount of dilution in a company is another important aspect. If you find an elephant out there and you have hundreds of millions of shares outstanding, the effect per share can be very low. The management of Houston Lake has controlled share dilution and we have only issued thirty one million shares over the Company’s 12 years of existence. Therefore, the effect of new developments can be much more dramatic on share price with our share structure. I would say the risk reward trade off in a company like ours is a lot higher than some companies.”
CEOCFO: What should people reading about Houston Lake Mining remember most?
Mr.
Anthony: “We
hope people would remember that our success to date is predicated upon early
positioning in the right commodity sectors with the right projects. The next
six to twelve months should provide lots of exploration activity and results
which are key steps in building toward Houston Lake’s strategic goal of gold
production at West Cedartree.” |
“We hope people would remember that our success to date is predicated upon early positioning in the right commodity sectors with the right projects. The next six to twelve months should provide lots of exploration activity and results which are key steps in building toward Houston Lake’s strategic goal of gold production at West Cedartree.” - E. Grayme Anthony, P.Geo. F.G.A.C., M.B.A. |
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