[Music] thank you welcome to CEO insights I'm Marilyn De Guzman with investing News Network in this episode I'm speaking with Corey bellick CEO of Vancouver based canalaska uranium hello Corey oh hello Marilyn how are you today I'm good how are you oh I'm fantastic it's beautiful weather and and you know we're doing great work this year and and things just really couldn't be better yeah that's great we're friendly you know getting some good weather um let's start a conversation Corey with


just an introduction of can Alaska uranium and the projects that you're working on at this time uh it's it's a great company we we are a junior Explorer centered on the Athabasca Basin in Canada the Saudi Arabia uranium really it's where you find these big high grade deposits like cigar and MacArthur River and and now we're drilling some very high grade mineralization on a couple of our projects in the Eastern Athabasca Basin region around all that critical infrastructure so in terms of the


company we are built on the Iranian portfolio centered in Saskatchewan in the Athabasca Basin and you know we've got a great uh Little Nickel portfolio going as well in a neighboring province of Manitoba and Thompson nickel belt so you know the company is a junior Explorer we go out there we try and make the discoveries and get into the hands of the producers that will take it through to production that's that's our game yeah you have quite a bit of portfolio of projects but I understand that you've


had some great results from some of these projects that you've done can you talk a bit more about that oh we've had fantastic success in q1 of 2023 we we really entered 2023 on a high having a brand new high grade Discovery at our West Macarthur project really close to the MacArthur River mine owned by kamako Morano our partner is chemical on West Macarthur so you know we drilled those very high grade holes in in you know the summer of 2022. we're really excited to get back at it in q1 and we


did and we came off uh uh roughly half of our program we've got 10 million dollars planned for West Macarthur this year we've we've done about half that work now and we continue to drill a high grade mineralization by our estimate up to 16 percent grade in the basement in some of the basement holes but importantly we've expanded and tested at the unconformity and we've got over 160 meters of mineralization already connected and completely open in the unconforming and within the basement so


and it's what we're calling the pike Zone our Pike Zone has really grown this year from that work and then our partner Dennis and our Moon Lake South try Adventure they operate in Lake South JB they drilled a 1.4 percent grade intersection over about 8.7 meters above the unconformity completely open again at the Young ferment on strike so again a second part of our portfolio delivering hybrid mineralization brand new discoveries we've got two of them on the go right now in eastern Athabasca so


that's just an incredible result from q1 of this year just just fantastic results from the Athabasca region so what do you go from there I uh you have a new drilling program I understand you're correct we're going to get on the ground for the very first time in our geeky project that's a new sort of new Option arrangement with base and energy out of Australia they're coming in they're uh they're spending money this summer to advance that project the very first drilling it's a project generation


uh process that we go through we generate this project brought in Basic Energy as part of an investment into it to de-risk it and go out and make a discovery and it's right near the recent results from night to energy and base load where um where they've drilled on their Accu and gmz discoveries and you know it's the same type of Target so we're really excited to get out there first drilling programs with base and energy and uh hopefully further success within our uranium portfolio so this


this again could be an incredible summer for catalaska right so for investors that are probably unfamiliar with what you do your business proposition can you just talk about um you know the strategy that goes behind the decisions to drill and which areas to focus on um in terms of uh you know from an Investor's perspective so from an investment perspective we deploy sort of a hybrid model where we project generate let's regenerate the ideas or go and stake the land or do deals to to bring them into a portfolio


and we also actively explore so where we see results coming like West Macarthur Moon Lake South or perhaps a geeky we'll go in and spend our own shareholders money to advance those through to Discovery so you know Wes MacArthur is is you know we own 80 percent of that so we're very willing to spend our money there because we're hitting high grade mineralization of 25 Iranian last year and and 16 this uh this winter so you know we really deploy that hybrid model we're always looking for opportunity to


go out and project generate great ideas geologically that can turn into something of value for our shareholders whether it's through our own spent or whether it's through bringing in outside parties to invest and move these projects forward so we we do have over 300 000 hectares of land in the Athabasca Basin centered in the Eastern Athabasca Basin near all that critical minor Mill infrastructure um we can't do it all so we look for the right Partners to come in and move these projects forward and you know that's


that's how we go about our business and you know it's about creating the layers of information that ultimately lead to that first drove hole and hopefully result in drill hole is mineralized and really get that tiger by the tail I always like to say tiger by the tail because you know these things are hard to find and if you can get any kind of mineralization you're Off to the Races it shows potential and that's what we look for it's uh it's a great model that we deploy and it's been very successful


for us and the focus on uranium you know you know Market has seen some you know increases in sort of demand for Uranium as nuclear nuclear energy re-emerges uh you know as we look for more sustainable sources of energy are you seeing this um you know demand for Uranium continuing on for the next you know several years like what are you seeing in the market right now for that for that why personal view is this going to be a very long run very different than what we saw in the last cycle about 15 16


years ago this has a very different foundation and the foundation are new build outs the introduction of um what's called military technology into civilian use small modular reactors which are really becoming an important part of the future for nuclear power generation that clean energy base load power um these small modulars open up completely different jurisdictions than historically was available to the larger reactor setups and it's not fantasy two years ago it seemed like fantasy now


it's reality just in Canada alone small modular reactors are being built Ontario by 2028 300 megawatts of SMR technology going into the Darlington plant generating clean electricity over 300 000 Canadian homes that's just Canada this is happening starting to happen on a global scale and when it does what does it really mean we need more uranium Fuel and that's where can Alaska comes in where we find the fuel that will eventually make its way into these reactors and generate that clean


electricity so the macros look brilliant they look great if we want to get off of fossil fuels for clean energy production it has to be a bigger part of the base load Energy Solution and um and that's that's the way the future is looking and this could be a great few Decades of uh of nuclear build out that's in front of us and ultimately more production of uranium which is great for us to go find it you know we're out there to if we're out there to find these deposits So speaking of clean energy you also


have a diverse portfolio of other metals aside from uranium and nickel is one of them uh you've recently made an acquisition uh in Manitoba could you talk about that a little bit yeah so you know and one no one wants to talk about uranium for for many years uh post Fukushima we looked around and said what can we do within that clean energy space well you have to generate the clean electricity through nuclear you have to move it through copper but you have to store and deliver it to the end user in nickel and clean solfe nickel


class one nickel so we looked around where in the world can cat Alaska go on Project generate in one of the most prolific nickel belts in the world and I was in the neighboring province of Manitoba the Thompson Nickelback it's historically the fifth largest nickel belt on the planet sulfide nickel belt home mostly to valet in terms of of production and um and there was opportunity there so we took it and we are the second largest land holder in that belt next to valet just an incredible District scale portfolio of


projects that we've now augmented through the purchase of the Mel nickel deposit which is up against some of our core projects in their in in the Thompson nickel belt and it has a 82 million pounds of nickel starting a surface at 0.88 percent grade that is a 43 101 confirmed indicator resource so this is just an incredible opportunity for us to add that to our portfolio which is built around exploration but now it has a tangible foundation in a very good very good nickel resource so just an incredible asset to acquire in


the last few months and we're looking forward to finding ways to uh to monetize that for our shareholders and build value so you know stay tuned for the future on that but it certainly looks good in the nickel space as well for catalaska right and um what are your plans for the rest of the year what are some of your expected milestones for the near term well in the near term we have our our geeky project moving forward we're going to be drilling there in a few weeks time that'll carry us into the middle part of


the summer again first ever drilling project and what is a uh is a very exciting project in in the uranium space and then later in the fall we look to get back into West Macarthur where we've got 160 meters of mineralization at the younger foreign and also within the basement some very high grades coming very close to the MacArthur River mining operation our partner there is camaco so you know it's a great opportunity to get in there and continue to drill out that mineralization we're working on for the


last 12 months and and build that story out and then Moonlight uh the Moon Lake South JV you know that's in the hands of Denison as operator but you know we'll have our meetings in a few weeks and we'll see what uh what might unfold from that success again 1.4 percent uranium overall is nine meters is quite an achievement for the third hour drilling program on this project and you know it's very near to their operations on the wheeler River Project the Griffin and Phoenix deposits so you know it has


a lot of synergies with what they're trying to do in that part of the Eastern athabasco Basin so you know it's a great summer ahead of us on three of our core uranium projects and you know we'll see what unfolds with the nickel space as well but you know we've got an exciting lineup to carry us through the year for news flow and an opportunity for shareholders to realize more Discovery and um yeah it I really couldn't be more excited and I can say the team isn't really more excited either they're


they're anxious to get out there and get at it again so you know we are doing some fantastic things for the next six months and leading us into 2024. right so we look forward to hearing more about uh you know all the results that you're getting from the activities you'll be doing for the rest of the year oh yeah no please stay tuned because I think we've got an incredible lineup of work in front of us and you know just in the uranium space alone it is uh really world class what we're doing you know


two of our core projects are generating high-grade mineralization on two brand new discoveries uh that's just um that's unique That's Unique out there and for a junior of our market cap it's um it could be a wild ride coming in front of us so hang on because it sure looks good great appreciate you speaking with me today well thank you Maryland it's a real pleasure to tell the catalaska story it's a real pleasure to talk to you and yeah um it's going to be a fantastic summer


great and thank you for watching join us again next time for another engaging conversation on CEO insights [Music] thank you