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Maudore Minerals Limited (MAO-TSXV) |
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November 27, 2009 Issue |
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The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information |
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Maudore Minerals Limited Owns 100% Of The Comtois Gold Project In Quebec Canada - Comtois Is A High Grade Gold Deposit With A 43-101 Compliant Inferred Resource Of 524,000 Ounces At 20.2 g/t (Uncut) And Excellent Local Infrastructure |
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Maudore Minerals Limited owns 100% of the
Comtois High Grade Gold Project in Quebec, Canada. Comtois’ current Inferred
Mineral Resource (RPA, 2002) stands at 524,000 ounces of gold [808,000
tonnes at 20.2 g/t Au (uncut)]. This resource is based on 66 holes drilled
up to 2002. Maudore has now completed almost 300 holes at Comtois, many of
which returned high grade intercepts not currently included in the resource
calculation. The Company has an extensive land position of 130,000 acres
extending over 60 miles westward from the present resource to the Sleeping
Giant mine. Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFOinterviews.com, Published – November 27, 2009
Mr. Shorr: Early in my career I was part of a team that discovered the second largest deposit of a mineral ever found in the world. That was asbestos, at a time when asbestos did not have a bad image. So early on I found a massively sized deposit of a mineral you can barely sell anymore. Now, I would like to find a massively sized deposit of a mineral that has been highly saleable, maybe the most saleable thing in the world for two or three thousand years. |
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CEOCFO: Would you tell us about the Comtois Gold Project? Mr. Shorr: The project was acquired in 1999 by the predecessor company to Maudore Minerals. The Comtois project was previously owned by Cameco, the world’s largest uranium company. Maudore spent $1¼ million in 1999 and 2000 to earn a 50% interest. However, the timing wasn’t very good because gold prices kept sinking at that point. In 2002 gold reached a low of around $250 and was still in the $250-$350 per ounce range when my predecessor stepped down and I was asked to take over the company. I was quite excited about the project’s strong infrastructure and high gold grade and the fact that we have a 43-101 compliant inferred resource of 524,000 ounces. The grade is a rather spectacular 20.2 grams per ton of rock, so we are talking about rock that has a value of about $750 per ton in the ground. Most people start to get excited about rock that has $100 valuations, so you can see that we are in the high end of the range.
CEOCFO: Do you own 100% of the projects? Mr. Shorr: We do.
CEOCFO: Where are you in the development? Mr. Shorr: We are still exploring. The 43-101 report was completed in 2002 with 524,000 ounces based on roughly 66 drill holes. Today we are almost up to hole number 300 and we certainly have found significantly more gold in these additional 200-plus holes. Maudore has told our shareholders we are planning to revise our resource estimate by the end of the first quarter, 2010. You don’t take a gold mine to production until you know how much gold you have. We continue to find gold at depth, along strike and in various directions from the current deposit area, so Maudore is drilling to find out how many millions of ounces we might potentially have. We need to assess the deposit’s size before thinking about what size to make a mill and the equipment needed to feed into the property.
CEOCFO: Are you going to have more drilling rigs out there? Mr. Shorr: We announced in early October an $8-million financing that will enable us to double the number of drilling rigs on site. We’ve had two rigs in place for the past 23 months, now we’re making it four rigs. As a result of that, the amount we’re drilling, which should come out to about 35 thousand meters this year, will likely go to 70,000 meters next year. The 35,000 meter level probably put us in the top 10% of all mining companies including major mining companies throughout the world. At 70,000 meters in 2010, I would guess this will put Maudore in the top 2% or 3% of all mining companies in the world in terms of drilling activities. Drilling is how you find gold, so we are actively trying to find as much gold as we can as quickly as we can.
CEOCFO: What is the financial position at Maudore? Mr. Shorr: Very strong; we have about $10 million cash right now. Maudore is located in Quebec, which is extraordinarily favorable, financially, towards mineral exploration companies. Not only does Quebec and specifically Comtois have great low-cost infrastructure but Quebec gives us almost half our exploration money back in cash every year, not as a tax credit that can’t be used until Comtois starts production. In 2008 we spent $4.5 million on the property and we got $2.1 million back in 2009. We will probably get almost $3-million back in 2010 and maybe $5-million or more in 2011. We are basically looking at, over the next twenty months or so, an ability to spend almost $20 million, which is an enormous amount of money for a junior mining company.
CEOCFO: You have a varied background in the industry, will you tell us a little about that? Mr. Shorr: I spent most of my career as a Wall Street mining analyst. Twelve years of that was with Bear Sterns, five years with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and five years with EF Hutton and a couple of other smaller places along the way. I left the Street in the mid 1990’s to do some consulting, and as a result of my reputation in consulting activities I was asked to be on several boards of directors. I still serve on three other boards besides Maudore Minerals. Two boards I have served on in the past were bought out by major mining companies, which is probably the best way to exit a board of directors and possibly the best way for a junior mining company to provide its shareholders with a nice gain within a relatively short period of time.
CEOCFO: Has the investment community been paying attention to Maudore? Mr. Shorr: Yes and no. About 80% of Maudore shares are held by institutions and insiders, so when it comes to retail investors we are a relatively unknown quantity. We have a public float of only 5 million shares and a very tight share structure with only 22 ½ million shares outstanding and 24 million shares fully diluted. The bulk of our shares are held in Europe and the bulk of those by major institutions. Our largest shareholder is Anglo Pacific Group PLC, a royalty company listed on the London Stock Exchange. Anglo generates strong profits, part of which has been put into a favorably situated junior mining company.
CEOCFO: In closing, address potential investors; why look at Maudore?
Mr. Shorr:
There are so many reasons for looking at Maudore. Two really good ones are
being located in Quebec, where we get half our money back, and having
extraordinarily high-grade gold. When I was an analyst and someone asked me
what was considered high-grade gold I would say anything over seven grams.
We have super high-grade because we have roughly three times that, over
twenty grams. Also, the Comtois project’s location will lead to very low
production costs. We are on a highway, not some dirt road, so we don’t have
to build roads into the property. We’re very near the forestry town of
Lebel-sur-Quevillon and there are logging roads criss-crossing our property.
The cheapest electric power in North America comes down lines less than
three kilometers to our property so we have access to extraordinarily
low-cost power. Another reason to look at Maudore: we don’t have hundreds of
millions of shares outstanding, which is now typical of junior mining
companies. Maudore’s shares outstanding are very tight at 22.5 million. We
have a lot more cash in the bank than our peer group. Almost none of our
peer group drills more than 10 or 15 thousand meters a year; we’re drilling
35,000 meters this year and up again next year to 70,000. So in assessing
Maudore you’ll find a very aggressive exploration program expanding a very
high grade, very well situated gold resource and a company with a market cap
relatively low in relation to the level of activity, cash in the bank and
the quality of the gold deposit. |
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We have about $10 million cash right now. Maudore is located in Quebec, which is extraordinarily favorable, financially, towards mineral exploration companies. Not only does Quebec and specifically Comtois have great low-cost infrastructure but Quebec gives us almost half our exploration money back in cash every year, not as a tax credit that can’t be used until Comtois starts production. In 2008 we spent $4.5 million on the property and we got $2.1 million back in 2009. We will probably get almost $3-million back in 2010 and maybe $5-million or more in 2011. We are basically looking at, over the next twenty months or so, an ability to spend almost $20 million, which is an enormous amount of money for a junior mining company. - Ronald Shorr |
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