Gold news

 welcome to CEO insights I'm nind Gman with in I'm speaking with two Executives from Western copper and gold uh here is Paul West zels president of Western copper and gold and S wixi the brand new CEO at the com the aent thanks very thank you very much nice obious yeah so I think uh the first uh question for you s know if you're just fresh from a recent uh appoint with as the new CEO investors are probably interested to know you know provide us a little bit of a a background that Mar s and you know

what's your order the Cru order was sure happy to um so yeah new new to the role it's only a week a weekend so it's quite fresh and we've been kind of straight into conference season which has been great um but but not new to the company um you know I've known Paul for the better part of 20 years used to be as a as a young Banker in the sector an adviser to the predecessor company uh and in my last role uh held us you know royalty on the asset so I've always known the asset always held it in high

regard always held Paul and I regard uh so from that perspective it was It was kind of natural when the company was thinking about succession planning Paul and I started talking uh six months ago roughly uh and and working towards this announcement and worth pointing out that uh that we'll be working together for quite a while there's an extended transition period inished here Paul's been living and breathing the Yukon for 18 years of his life so it's a phenomenal resource to have and uh so

that'll be kind of the the the CEO president role for for the extended period of time so which I think serves the asset the best uh from my perspective 20 years in mining on more of the Capital Market side um in uh bring bring that skill set to Bear here which complement again Paul's skill set at the asset level uh in terms of of vision for the company really it's it's it's nothing different the project is going through permitting uh in the Yukon it's already a phenomenal asset at a

feasibility stage which is recent and and current uh a lot of the drilling is most you know the drilling has already been done as well so the project is there and it's real uh we just need to continue to push it up the the field uh together what I will say is you know when I was looking at Copper assets to get associated with for the next phase of my career uh there are very few that are real and viable and and casino is is on that list and then when you start to look at those in good jurisdictions

which I would certainly qualify the Yukon it's an extremely uh short list and so the scarcity value of this asset is What attracted me to it um and I'm very happy to be starting week two so uh Paul maybe K we can talk about the asset uh what makes the casino project in val one and what's the progress that's been done on the C of to yeah I mean I it it's a can asset U you know primarily just I first of all it's very large project uh you know the reserve is like by two billion T that's

a 27e reserve uh but if you look at the overall resour it's a 3.6 billion T So Reserve is going thir you're going to be Mighty there 8 100 years so it it it's really really in but um and yeah I mean the prog s the last a while it has really been uh you know we' been moving for on TR on our our finalized ibin on in September um but there's been some really exciting developments but Theon cover uh it within the project or uh we were very happy uh last year um C of the access road what was complete that was a

$30 million car D that went to actually one of the first stations uh S car Maps so that's a major Bridge that's beening that that completed that the end of last year the other thing that happened is that you saw the UK governments uh s aside $21.4 million the service platform service secures and TI water access at Skagway P concentrates that's the X very X SP as well and that um and the thing you did working on wasment most recently is to look at connect you with the AC and inar and um the E government is I

believe has applied to the benal minerals infrastructure fund the $15 billion part that was announced by Mr wion uh in November last year to to do the first uh you know engineering obilation s actually um so we apply to M FR for m so uh We've provided letters of sport and H that as well and so very excited about that soot lots of development uh uh in introo uh working with the you governments to to help remove so of the so um also an important I guess aspect of the project this re investing totic why is this a

significant factor sent look me I I could start and then Paul Paul was in uh the proponent that put that investment in place I mean from my perspective maybe outside in fresh fresh perspective it's a phenomenal uh partnership uh and I've been introduced to it now uh several times uh they're great uh supporters of the asset they own just under 10% of the company so on the equity level and as is Mitsubishi materials who came in uh after they own just below 5% of the company both are are are tremendous Partners they lend uh

you know a significant amount of technical expertise to the asset things that a junior company could not replicate on its own uh even if they had the the resources to do it so that that's great and and then from my perspective as I've been introduced to that relationship I mean every time they look at something and diligence it and and they tend to diligence things uh extensively as you'd expect uh the project comes out with flying colors so that's another kind of you know that endorsement was important to me more

importantly I think it's important to the market uh you know this is an asset that's been vetted thoroughly by two of the smartest people in the copper space uh and and come out uh standing up uh you know strong so you know that that's kind of the external perspective I'll let Paul touch on how it's been living that that relationship with with both groups yeah I mean and I think it's also important to to point out um yo u know you know R Tinto has had know a couple I mean they had an opportunity to increase

their investment they did then they had an opportunity to renew their investment and renegotiated investment that happened at the end of November and they did as well so know they've now looked at it extensively you know had a chance to say soout for us would you been after the opposite came in and and reiterated their B and uh yeah I mean they uh you know they've had and and this is important to understand I mean they've had over 100 people I believe looking at this project in the organization um lots

of technical input that they've not iner the work that we've done uh and then that we're doing and it's a pretty tight group ourselves uh R and Mishi is part of the tech and sustainability committee that we set up T and yeah they just it's been uh a lot of front BR all a yeah I say good Testament it is and I think the last thing I might add very Marland is you know the fact that the second biggest you know Diversified minor in the world uh thinks this asset is of Merit I think should tell you what Paul

was saying earlier it's not just the scale it's obviously very extremely large but also kind of the the other factors going forward the high-grade core that's at surface with next to no strip the clean Metallurgy uh again the jurisdiction it's in you know the stage it's in like there's a lot of positive attributes and uh it's not a surprise to us that it's attracted interest from those types of groups SE just going back to the Yukon investment in the in the region is there anything else I mean you

know in terms of what you feel the government should be doing uh to really push this CR for region for cuz you know with against the backdrop or like the critical minerals and the minerals that will need for for the future for electrification yeah I mean I think I mean I think the government s greates on infrastructure we talked about that um what one of the big push backs in terms of uh you know I think all projects in Canada is cting timelines and you know was very very excited again to to hear

uh Mr binson talk about recognizing that perating timelines are too long in Canada that they need to be reduced and so um you know we're here at at pdac uh we're following up apisto to Ottawa to to talk to various people there to sort of see okay this this is a great idea to reduce the timelines what does that mean and and and how can you make that happen for us because it it is uh you know I mean we've been already we've been in in this car build here for you know a year and a half last and yeah we just now

have our our gu lives we uh you know still have sort of three four years in front of us so um anything we do reduce that absolutely agree sort of C off Maryland but uh on the same note um you know once once you do go through permitting in Canada whilst whilst it is slower than than many places at least you're sure that you can keep your your asset which is not sadly the case everywhere in the world and and and I think that's you the the stability that that Canada provides um although slow at

times is is certainly worthwhile so what's the next steps for the h what are the some of the chemist are upcoming that the best skin look I think uh what expect is US continuing to kind of move the Milestones forward on the permanent side this will be an important year in terms of over the next say 12 months depositing the E eia statement uh that's the Bible on on the asset pering perspective and then and then it gets batted back and forth with the government uh in the meantime there's

there's good kind of uh ongoing metalurgy work being done with Mitsubishi and and riotinto just confirmatory stuff but in the process some some Dills else that come out from that perspective as well so uh the good news is we already have a viable asset you know the the drilling has been done the fees has been done so a lot of the heavy lifting is behind it um and we just need to kind of you know systematically move it to that permitting process uh and explain to people that we do have a tremendously

valuable asset unfortunately trading well below it it's its value well thank you uh Sandy and Paul for uh joining me today and sharing some updates about you yeah thanks for having us it's been our pleasure Che and thanks everyone for watching join us again next time for another engaging conversation on CEO wday if you like this video make sure you subscribe to our Channel and turn on notifications so you don't miss future updates and interviews see you next time [Music]