[Music] Welcome to CEO Insights. I'm Marilyn Deuzman with investingnews.com. I'm speaking with James Turk, chief executive officer of Element 79 Gold, who's providing us an updates on their projects both in Peru and Nevada. Welcome James. >> Hi Marilyn. Thank you very much for the time here. >> Yes, good to have you and good to see you again. >> Likewise. So let's start our conversation with your Peru project. In your recent press release, you've provided some updates on that. You've uh


announced that you've invoked the force majour clause under your agreement with condor resources. >> That's right. >> Can you provide us some further clarity on your plans for the future of the Lucera project? >> Sure. Um first and foremost I mean we we built this company from day one as a balance company having properties and projects in multiple jurisdictions exactly for this reason. um when you're uh working outside of what's polite to call it a dris jurisdiction um like


North America um you can run into these delays and while we have been working diligently with the community for over 2 and 1/2 years since acquiring this project uh at Lucero um there's es and flows both on a federal level as well as a local level inside the community and uh you know the a force majour contract is really or sorry I should say clause inside of a contract really is a common inclusion of a lot of commercial details whether you're speaking of uh building a home or you're building a uh bridge or


in this case a mine and uh we did invoke it. What that does is it um effectively for the short run for the next uh maximum two years it puts payment terms between us and condor resources um on hold and that gives us more time to without the financial burden of having to carry payments. It gives us the ability to um work out the things that are delaying the progress at the project. So, um, I'll politely say that, you know, while we still believe firmly in the opportunity that the Lucero project has, uh, and what it it stands


to be in the future, unfortunately, it's a slow go, uh, for the time being. So, our plan is to continue working with the community. Our plan is to continue working towards obtaining long-term surface rights, access contracts, as well as working with the local artisal miners in the area to have a happy medium of contracts signed and built together. So, we can continue exploring and we can restart the mine and we can rework with the tailings that we've identified in in all of our past communications.


So, uh for the time being, Lucero um will uh slow down in terms of our general news reel. We will continue on with all of our efforts in the community and provide updates to our shareholders uh throughout the uh the overall flow of how things go down there. But at least in the meantime, uh the force majour clause uh puts additional financial burden of that project on hold uh until we can keep things moving forward. >> Has that provided I know there's um some geopolitical I guess aspects to to the


development there as well. Was there some, you know, has it influenced or how is it influencing maybe your strategy moving forward when evaluating future acquisitions? Is that has that you know what are you >> well uh one of the biggest delays um you know beyond community side I had mentioned that um there was a federal aspect to it and the federal government of Peru over the last um really it's been decades where they've been pushing to formalize artisal miners uh but realistically in the last 3 years


they've been pushing to um bring more of the the uh I guess we'll say smallcale artisal miners that are currently working in a gray area, some legal, some illegal, they've been pushing to have them formalize. And in our case, what that would mean is that being the mineral right holders, formalization looks like they get to it's kind of like a co-working agreement where they get to continue doing what they have been doing for so long. And um in that that they would pay us a small piece of any of the


uh revenues generated. um again terms to be negotiated but um in addition to that that we get to also access these projects. So while they you know in the concept of um have been working the mine for approximately 20 years by themselves um they've been doing it in a gray area whereas by formalizing um it formalizes a tax stream through us because they would uh re report their revenues through us and ultimately we end up paying tax and the government gets the benefit of that. Therefore more infrastructure, schools, health etc gets


invested in by the federal government. Um having said that that uh federal process has drawn out and um it's obviously quite complicated but approximately every 6 months over the last 3 years the community um you know doesn't feel any pressure because the federal side keeps changing the rules and keeps moving the goalpost of when formalization is going to be absolutely hardline mandated. And so therefore, um it sounds like today, uh while June 30th was kind of a soft start to it, um on a


federal level to formalization, um it looks like now it's December 31st of 2025. Now when you overlay that between today and um a rainy season that will prevent work for at least 4 months at the project. Uh going forward we can anticipate to have a lot better traction next year both because there is a federal hardline where there will be a lot more push and therefore impetus to for uh to forge contracts and work together. Um in addition to that the rainy season's in the way anyways. We won't be able to access the mine until


at least April of next year. So I do anticipate seeing some good news and some good updates coming closer to the end of this year and pushing towards approximately mid year next year as well. >> So you're now moving your focus to back to Nevada um your elephant project. What are the near-term milestones investors should expect for as from that uh the project? >> Sure. Well, in one sense, Nevada is nothing new to us in the sense that we've um we acquired a portfolio of 16 projects back uh in 2021, all located in


the uh the general Carlin GHel and Battle Mountain trend. And um the 3Ds of project development are you either, you know, you deal it, you drill it, or you drop it. And we had been doing that with uh several of our projects over the time. Had some great successes with developing out Maverick Springs and selling that for profit. And um we still retained the elephant project. It's in the Battle Mountain Trend. It's very close to some uh very large producing mines um either past producing or


existing producing mines. And in the sense that the project had just been sitting on the shelf for about the last uh 15 years prior to our acquisition of it. Um it's uh great that it's been sitting in stasis. It has 40 drill holes that are going to be a bit of a jogging start. So we are working on getting an updated actually uh the first ever uh 40 through 101 on this project which will identify both what is there as well as give us some indications as to what we should be doing for project work moving


forward. We do anticipate doing some uh surface level review first and foremost review all the cores um in terms of the historical data because uh well let's just say that they hadn't been looking at critical metals and we did learn that lesson from Sun Silver where they had revisited uh cores and found ample um sorry uh antimony uh stimium uh antimony uh inclusions which is a critical metal for metal hardening is um I guess we'll say a bit of a flavor of the day. So that can actually bring some more


excitement and in addition to reviewing those cores um starting trenching programs uh to figure out more of the uh the surface level geocchemistry in addition to sighting for drilling. So that's what we can expect to come from the drilling or from the elephant project over the next year. an updated 43101 uh revisiting the cores to understand really what we've got our arms around and then uh starting some actual field work um probably into the the late part of this year. >> Okay. And then the the updated NI43101


um you're expected uh should be expecting that by next year. Is that >> I'd imagine the 43101 uh we're just waiting on a a third quote uh right now. We should have it in hand by and definitely before the end of the year. Uh but it could be as fast as September. >> Oh, okay. That's good to know. Um in addition to Elephant, you also uh are focusing on completing your acquisition of the Gold Mountain project. That's right. >> What makes this uh what makes this a


compelling asset and how does it fit with Element 79's long-term strategy? >> Well, in the grand scheme of things, we've seen success um of projects that already have some uh project work on them. They're close uh you know closy in Nevada is everywhere when it comes to working inside of a major trend like the battle mountain trend and even more so uh while a lot of the uh service level sampling um indicates there's some great grades of gold to to be working with um we're very excited because it actually


comes with uh drilling permit in place. So the opportunity to effectively number one close on the asset which should be here in the next couple of days in addition to then complete a raise that will allow us to uh open up the the doors to drilling and starting to prove up some more resource on that project. It's absolutely palpable and tangible right now. >> Mhm. And is the plan to um simultaneously explore or drill uh both projects? >> Absolutely. Yes. Um there's going to be


that ability. Uh we'll have to see given that we're in midsummer right now. It sounds good, but it's always a a juggling game of working with uh who has availability in terms of uh you know earthworks and drilling uh because there's a lot of activity happening in Nevada today. In addition to there is a very marked winter season and in certain regions if you're not high up on a mountain um or even if you are high up on a mountain you could get snowed out. Um getting sight access might be


difficult depending where your drill locations are. So, we'll have to play that a little bit by ear, but ultimately, you know, in the best of worlds, we would love to number one, close on the transaction, number two, close a raise immediately in conjunction with that, and then get to drilling. >> So, as you look at your I guess your road map of your strategy for the remainder of 2025, are there specific targets that you're working towards that will demonstrate success of, you know,


for the company and, you know, positive for your shareholders by the end of the year? Um on three levels, I'll quickly uh run through uh Brew again. Um working with the community. There's going to be another community meeting here at the end of July. So we'll be providing some updates as to what may have unfolded by that time. Um but again, uh no major expectations out of the Lucero project until middle of next year like I've already outlined. Uh shifting over to Elephant first and foremost, we own it.


Um the biggest thing is massing all of the existing data into that 4311 that I've mentioned. So we really do have a clear um understanding of a what we have our arms around and we can relate that to our investors as well as uh start uh potentially some surface level work um after revisiting the cores to figure out again if there's uh anything more appealing at that level. Lastly uh when we look at the gold mountain project first and foremost um acquisition is underway. Um I believe I have the new


legal docs in hand right now. So closing should be relatively uh quick and um upon that it's drill ready. So uh completing a a quick equity raise and then moving on down the path towards drilling in Battle Mountain in Nevada is definitely on deck. >> Great. Let's leave it at that and I look forward to uh speaking with you again when uh you have some more updates to provide our investor community. >> Thank you Marlin. I look forward to that opportunity. And once again, that was


James Turk, chief executive officer of Element 79 Gold. For investors who are watching, what do you think about Element 79's recent strategic move to focus its exploration work on its Nevada projects? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. Thanks for watching. Until next time.