This is the Investing News Network. I'm Georgia Williams. We're here at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference and joining me today is Jeffrey Reer, CEO and chairman of Peruvian Metals, which trades on the TSXV at ticker symbol PER and on the OTCQB under ticker DUVNF. Thanks for joining me today, Jeffrey. >> My pleasure. >> It's very nice to see you. >> Thanks. >> Um, I was wondering if you could start with a little overview of the company. >> Okay. Um well, first a little bit of


overview of how we got here was uh I've been working in Peru since 1994 and uh I've worked uh mainly all over Latin America. Um I worked in Mexico and Brazil and but uh in '94 I went to Peru. Um, and I kept on, you know, uh, my made my base, my Latin American base there. And, um, I the the mining laws and how to work down there are is easy. >> Mhm. >> And, and the proving people are very entrepreneurial and stuff. And some of the people I've been working with uh, in my crew has been working with me since


for over 30 years. So, we were explorers. We drilled a lot of properties off uh we found a copper porefree uh called the Aguila Norte or the Agila property and that was a copper Molly um big system. Um, also my crew found uh we were we were the initial people that found the Panaya project now in Ivo Electric and and we've we've worked in Peru and we've had joint ventures with Real Tinto, Real Alto, Cambold, uh, First Quantum. So we, you know, we were a prospect generator up to about


214 to 2014. And we sold one of our properties and I realized is that um, you know, a prospect generator model, it works if you got a really booming market, but you're always reliant on other people's news. And what I found out was when I was looking at Peru, and I've been there for such a long time, is that the small miners were the people that were um were the ones that really flourishing in Peru. I mean, there there was a new law that came in in 2012 that allowed the small miner to


start extracting mineral legally and bringing it to permitted toll plants. and and they had um the proven government had to think about um like do we shut down this massive industry of small minors because it employs over half a million people and yet all these people actually have families and stuff. So you'll be looking at it affects about two to three million people. So the proven government had to do something. So what they did is that we're going to allow you guys to extract mineral. have to get um you got to get


permission from the title holder and the local communities, but most of the local communities were themselves taking a mineral. So, so um they made this law and if you had to bring it to permitted toll mills, mills that had the full permit in place, and if you didn't have the full permit, the government would come in and destroy the per the the mill. So they really focused they really pushed the miner to the toll mill. So I looked at this industry and I said well we sold this we sold our agila north or


agila copper pfrey um and we netted about uh about5 million and I was looking we had another property called Pantaia. we were we were looking at putting this thing into our focus and I realized, you know, in all my years I've been in the junior resource business since 1989, I realized that um you're always selling shares. You're always diluting your company. You're always going on and on and on and on. So, I decided to stop doing that. So, I went and built a toll with the cash that I


had. And we and we got it going up. Uh we we started construction in 2017. We started producing our first mineral in 2018. And from there, um, it it's bringing in lots of cashes. We have an operating profit in Peru of about a million Canadian. And, and CO hit a little bit, so it came down a little bit, but since uh 2018, we've only done three finances in 2018, 2020, and 2024 of 1.4 million Canadian. and and and that shows that we're um we're able to um to make money in the country.


>> Our toll our our mill is perfectly situated. that us being me myself being a geologist and my crew as prospect generators, we started claiming we started focusing on high-grade mineral near and we've we've recently acquired um well we acquired a Paluk Data property really highra gold silver property we acquired 50% interest in a private company called Mercedes in southern Peru or central southern Peru and then uh we had several other properties So we're focused on the high grade because what we're going to do is


a palted rather which is only about 120 km on a highway to our plant is that the grade is about 9 g gold and we're between uh 5 to 10 ounces silver with some copper. But we're going to ignore the copper and we're going to prod be producing gold and silver concentrates and and with the metal prices where they are now, we have our own toll mill bought all paid for. And we think that we can be uh be producing, we're going to be driving into the um into the vein. And we're not going to be we're not


going to do the typical junior uh by spending money drilling all these holes. We're going to go right to production and we're going to follow the veins. We're going to do it the old style provian um way is that most of the big proving companies, they all started one way. They started mining their veins and that's what we're going to do. And but we're going to be focused on several veins and and then we're going to build a gold oxide plant and we'll be producing gold in 2027 like the the gold


bullion and and we can do it all out of cash flow, which is really what I want to do as our shareholders need to be their dilution needs to be protected and that's the way we do it. cash flow and we don't really need to raise any big amounts of money. We have to raise a little bit here and there but no big diluted financing and not myself being the largest shareholder of the company. I want to keep being the largest shareholder and that's the way you do it. >> Right. And the Aguila Norte plant ran at


full capacity throughout 2025. That's a big operational milestone. >> What lessons are you taking into 2026? Well, we're going to now I I've always waited to get instead of telling people that we're going to expand the plant. Um what we're going to do is we're going to expand our margins. So, we've been we've had a couple clients that are very pleased with us that bring in their mineral in and we're making good money from them. I mean more money that that


we're making on the toll mill than if I would and whatever but we've told them that we're going to lower their out their th throughput this in 2026 and 2027 and we're going to eventually change their mineral with our own 100% mineral. So instead of increasing the size of plant, I'm going be by treating our own mineral, we're going to increase the margins from from $30 $40 a ton up to whatever the price of gold and the cost of mining is, >> right? >> Yeah. >> And the company is now sharpening its


focus on silver and gold. What's driving that shift and how do those metals fit into Peruvian Metals longer term growth story? >> Okay. So, for example, we put out some press releases last week and we're going to get some out uh like in the late week in January. And one of them was basically when we acquired some of these properties for the Mercedes property, we acquired it when silver was $23 an ounce. Okay. So, we we were looking at it had some gold in it, $2,000, $2,500 gold. So, we had to look at it how we're


going to um um when we mine it, we're we're we're going to make more money per ton at $23 silver, but um we were going to include the lead and the zinc and we would be producing a a byproduct of zinc. But since silver is past $100 an ounce and gold's at 5,000, we've done new metallurgy that we actually ignoring the zinc and we're making one silver gold concentrate and with very little lead and we've increased our our um our uh recoveries in the silver and gold past 95%.


by doing by ignoring the other metals and in Peru we would be able to sell those this concentrate to several groups because what what they will do a Chinese group for example have um have a very rich gold concentrate and silver but it's full of arsenic so they could buy our concentrates at you know 95 cents to the dollar of the value let's say that just like we haven't and they would blend it with their mineral then they can ship it. So, so we're we're going to refocus how we're doing the metal energy


and metal energy is everything in this business. You can have all the gold you want or copper if you can't take it out profitably. you if you and and we and I've become even though I'm a geologist I think I'm more of a metallergist now because we have been doing these studies and it's on our pala dorata property as well that we've increased our our gold recoveries from 75% to 89% by just um uh ignoring some of the uh other elements and just focus on gold and silver and really is a gold that's a gold project


and I think at at um at 9 10 gram gold. Um, that shows that we'll produce over an uh an ounce of gold in our concentrates for sale in in the proving market, but every three and a half tons of ore we take out of the out of the mine, we produce one ton of concentrate. So, and that's going to be very profitable and and and our gross metal value at Palta Data is about 1,300 bucks a ton and our mining costs are going to be in the $200 $300 range. So, we're going to make a pile of money on that.


>> Those are great um optics. Yeah. >> So, we're just we're focused on cash flow and revenue growth. And I I'm really running a real business where a real business is always revenues must exceed co costs and that's what we're doing. >> And you know, as we head deeper into 2026, what what should investors be keeping an eye out for? >> Well, our first uh gold production, right, that will be this year. and um and and really uh of uh ramping up the uh ramping up the the underground


drifting on our Mercedes property. We'll be extracting the mineral out of the uh out of the old workings. There's like 900 meters of old workings. We have rehabilitated those minerals. So, our first shipment will be to um to the mill in May of our own mineral and that will be about, you know, we're looking between 10 to 15 ounce material. >> Wow. >> Yeah. >> Thank you very much for joining me today. My pleasure. Thanks for having >> sharing the story of Peruvian Metals.


>> Okay. >> I'm Georgia Williams. This is the Investing News Network.