[Music] thank you welcome to CEO insights I'm Marilyn De Guzman with investing News Network I'm speaking with Matt Nixon CEO of Labyrinth resources an Australian exploration and Mining Company about the company's projects in Canada and Australia and the global gold market Welcome Matt thanks Mary Lynn very young great to have you so let's start with an overview of your company could you provide this sort of an introduction of of Labyrinth resources yeah of course labence resources is an


ISX listed exploration company as you mentioned um focused on our two high-grade goal projects one located in Quebec in the philific avatibi belt and the other are located in the renowned cavali gold fields of Western Australia after securing the Labyrinth project in Quebec in 2021 we immediately commenced the diamond drilling expiration program for both underground and surface as we have the great ability to access the the four levels of historic underground working still mined up until 1983. these


programs yielded some excellent high grade results to complement the historic high-grade assays and we're able to release a made in York 2012 mineral resource estimate in September last year of half a million ounces at five grams per tonne and pleasingly with a very high grade component of 150 000 ounces at 10 grams per tonne so great outcome for us in the first 12 months since taking the keys of the lab withdrawal project the scale potential is immense and we've genuinely only just begun to


scratch the surface in terms of exploration in a region through the other TV which is well known for it's the significant depth of the operations and the increasing greater depth as well so a lot to look forward to our celebrant there and in regards to Commonwealth wa again we have a high grade goal project with historic proven gold from underground workings significant potential not extensively tested with the drill bit DC we also released a joke mineral resource estimate of 96 000 ounces at


4.8 grams per tonne giving us a great platform for growth there as well and that had an open pit an underground component of 40 000 ounces at 3.3 for the open pit and 56 000 ounces at seven grams per ton for the underground so great outcome for for the company in that regard also and we recently completed a drill program at common ball as well so some hybrid results very close to surface of up to 35 grams per ton really has us you know quite pleased to be advancing both projects wait I want to talk to you about sort of


a an overview of the gold market as you know you know it's been the gold prices has been you know on the uptick recently and I'm wondering what your thoughts are in terms of how that has impacted the mining sector have you seen that translate to Market positivity yeah excellent question so yeah as it's been well documented particularly in the last probably six to eight weeks um both in US dollar terms Cad and and Aussie dollar gold price is a touching all-time highs if not um achieving them


in terms of Australia you know we're talking about plus two thousand dollars an ounce U.S and plus three thousand dollars an ounce um in Aussie dollar terms um so you know some genuine positivity and um around gold prices and and yeah we we look for that to continue um in terms of impact on uh mining operations I think uh the really interesting point and and perhaps you need to you know your historic expectations of low price trends and and the associated response in the mining industry is that currently the


increasing costs in the well-documented uh inflationary pressures economies around the world those increase in in real mining costs on a you know per tunnel per ounce basis are still well outstripping the increase in the price of gold so whilst it's great sentiment and and lifts in the in the price of gold yeah companies continue to deal with operating companies continue to deal with real increases in their uh costs and that has forced um yeah again well documented on both sides of the world in regards to


Australia North America um plenty of operations actually being forced into care and maintenance in the current inflationary and cost environment right and and that that's interesting to um to know in in terms of the supply landscape so there's also uh you know been an increasing demand uh for gold from certain industries um and you've you know you mentioned about um the high cost of of exploration and Mining so what is the current landscape for in terms of supply for gold I understand there's really not been um


any new uh gold mines coming up and production is you know not really a big update a little bit more about that yeah of course um and yeah like uh yeah all Commodities and yes principals around the world uh gold is still supply and demand um and and heavily leveraged too and demand I think in 2022 the world gold Council said overall demand increased by Circa 18 and I would imagine you know when the statistics come out for this first half year of 2023 it may even be above that um if not consistent so you know jewelry


is is still the the number one I guess material um demand uh for for gold um but World Banks oh sorry uh government banks around the world have been in slowly but surely increasing their their reserves and you know Gold's always historically being seen as a you know a hedge against inflation and you know for the broader Market when there's uneasiness or or concern over um sentiment and the markets volatile particularly you know we we're hearing obviously daily about uh increasing interest rates and you know federal


reserve banks around the globe trying to combat that um you know people turn to gold and governments turn to Gold um and that's we've seen that definitely in the last uh 12 to 18 months um but with the higher cost pressures you know you're actually seeing a reduction in Supply so as you correctly touched on um gold operations you know we haven't seen significant rant up because of the capital Associated and particularly with with new projects coming online you know again if anything we've seen the


opposite where the cost pressures are forcing Minds to you know halt or into care and maintenance for a period of time um you know it's a quite large scale operations of unfortunately gone that way in the last six months and you know personally I don't think we've seen the end of it um with the current cost landscape so it's uh you know lower Supply you'd uh logically assume that that puts more upward pressure on the gold price um and eventually it becomes a Tipping Point where that gold price and ideally


the cost environment uh you know set me out a little bit particularly in terms of wages um and some of the steel supply that obviously impact infrastructure for growth and expansion uh when that levels out and the pressure comes off a little bit you know these operations aren't viable and if not some new uh new deposits at the point of bringing them online um you know again become viable and we see that that our supply increase again um but it's a really interesting year in 2023 for the the gold market absolutely


and speaking of new deposits I know exploration continues despite you know what's happening in the market uh could you talk about Quebec where one of your projects is at right now um what's the um uh value proposition for Quebec as an emerging destination for gold what's what have you been seeing there yeah Quebec is an outstanding jurisdiction um there's an absolute reason that we ventured the uh the long floss and the theater travel um to get to the other side of the world from from Australia


um yeah as a jurisdiction it consistently ranks in the the top five um in terms of Mining and expiration jurisdictions around the world and and that's on the back of a few things you know it has um an excellent and stable government with some you know world-leading basic uh basically incentives for particularly for exploration you know in terms of um uh again incentivizing companies to put investment into the drill bit um and getting reward accordingly so um that obviously really appeals to a


company like Labyrinth resources and many other explorers um and that's well documented um the access to you know really uh ultimately cheap power through the hydro um makes a a big difference and again it's very attractive for producing operations particularly in that cost environment we're just talking about um and proven infrastructure a great access to Skilled Workforce skilled labor and a really mining supportive community and exploration supporting Community um we've proven gold deposits you know


particularly along the Cadillac ladder fault um hosts you know many multi-million ounce deposits and and some of the biggest producing mines in the world currently in the top ten so you know when it's proven the jurisdiction is attractive government and the population are supportive with some great access to cheap power as I said you've got a great recipe for for growth and success and that's bringing um a lot of interested parties from around the world and companies into Quebec um you know most recently on a large


scale you know the the entry of gold Fields into Quebec with the the 50 acquisition of the Cisco windfall project you know that's uh a unicorn type deposit and he's only going to continue to grow from from what I can see um and yeah goldfield's entering Quebec is a sign I think of everyone wants wants to be involved and you've mentioned you know you've had some good successes so far from the work that you've done in your Quebec project can you talk a bit more about what the


next steps are for your labyrinth goal project yeah absolutely so it has touched on um completing the surface and underground programs um in 2022 and culminating in the high grade half a million ads uh job resource estimate for us was was step one and we were really pleased with that outcome and and since that time in September obviously we've seen improving gold sentimented and marketing conditions particularly for expiration so looking forward to getting straight into that that next phase and


what we have at Labyrinth is you know a genuine immense strike we've defined 1.6 kilometers along the existing mine structures and we've got over four kilometers of uh it's called The Labyrinth fault hence the the namesake which we believe hosts you know an immense potential for mineralization and and that both I guess areas have been relatively uh untested in terms of depth you know where the average depth of the resource was around 400 meters we've tested and demonstrated continuity of


all the mine sequence loads down to Circa 550 meters um but you know we really need to and look forward to getting back into the drill bit and expanding basically that that resource footprint so um we've demonstrated that those lows continued as I said so now it's about infilling that area and growing that resource from 500 000 ounces um you know towards the the larger numbers and um as well as a bit of regional growth opportunity and and that will be our our next phase of activity at Labyrinth and


um obviously with coming out of the winter you know the timing is uh uh imminent um to begin that that next phase of expiration and then meanwhile all that's happening there's also something going on on the other side of the world where your project in Western Australia is also undergoing some exploration programs could you talk a bit more about that yeah absolutely so comment Val again in in an excellent region around kalgoorlie which uh people that follow the gold industry know really well and


demonstrate it's and some world-class operations and and a couple also building you know within that couple hundred kilometer radius of kalgoorlie and kind of bucking the trend there of keeping costs down and being able to build a processing facility which is the the biggest you know call it single cost um to get the project up and running um so you know we're right in the heart of that and there's a bit of Renewed Energy and focus in the gold industry that we're seeing in Western Australia


um and come about um it's a 51 JV owned by a labyrinth um with 49 owned by a private group and both parties um you know took the step this year to reinvigorate exploration um into the comet Bowl uh tenure and project and we targeted uh initially you know the brownfields approach around the historic workings um which would you know produce gold historically up to 23 grand for ton as an average so really high grade output um and for a small program Mary Lynn uh less than majority holds less than 50


meters vertical debt from Surfers to have some really high grade results you know multiple meters at uh over an ounce in terms of Grants per ton um was an excellent outcome for us and again it's uh probably energized the um the intent to do some further exploration quite rapidly um at carnival as well right so um we're certainly going to uh uh we'll watch out for more news coming from your company thank you thank you very much yeah we look forward to updating the market and yeah the news flow on both


sides of the world in in genuine tier one jurisdictions um we've got a lot to be excited about so look forward to keeping you updated great and thanks I appreciate your coming here today and sharing your insights on the market as well in the gold market Edison thanks very much for having me and thanks for watching join us again next time and another engaging conversation on CEO insights [Music]