welcome to CEO insights I'm Marilyn dezman with Inn I'm speaking with Brandon McDonald CEO and director of fire weed Metals hi Brandon hi good to be here good to have you so you know one interesting about your companies you're help you're working with the Yukon government to create a you know a worldclass critical minerals District in Yukon could you talk about this strategy how you're working with the government and what's the the the strategy moving forward for that yeah we have we have


two projects uh you know core projects in eastern Yukon Territory our Mac pass a zinc Le silver project of which zinc is a critical metal and and a key part of the economics in fact the dominant part of the economics in that project and immediately next door to it adjacent to it we have our M Tong tungsten project um that one you know tungsten being absolutely a critical metal and and being you know key shortage in Western Supply um you know so we really see that these two projects next to each


other is a unique opportunity in terms of shared infrastructure uh even potential operational synergies and capital synergies um so as we advance these project and deris them it it it puts us in a place to have kind of two globally significant mines you know one for zinc and one for for Tungsten uh right next to each other and really the collaboration with the Yukon government and and federal government for that matter comes in in terms of of the infrastructure to the project so we have a road to the project now this is a road


that was that was built you know quite a long time ago and has not seen a lot of activity since then uh so the Yukon government in combination uh with the the federal government of Canada have committed $71 million uh to improve the access to our projects so that's a pretty pretty key uh component of drisking right so that opening up the the infrastructure Corridor um allowing it uh you know to to come to a place where you can actually operate mines we we drive the road now but it's not


really yet in a place where it's in a you know where it could be used for an operating MIM so we see also going forward additional opportunities to collaborate with both the Yukon government you know as we go through um the assessment project on our our assessment uh uh process on our zinc project and as we go through final licensing on on our Mong tungsten project uh a huge amount of dialogue with the government but also with the federal government um you know the new critical mineral infrastructure funds uh


which were announced by the federal government last year and then and then the details of that sort of coming out late last year um that's another opportunity for us to collaborate with them really and and build out that Corridor to our projects and perhaps also include some sort of power component to us well so when you're uh you know talking to government agencies uh with your projects to move it forward what are some of the other um what do you talk to them as still you know some of the other obstacles or like the stuff


that still needs the challenges that you're still facing um and you know how do you communicate with them yeah I think you know working with the government you know of course it's it's on us to to drill out and Define our project and to do the engineering and and and what have you but we recognize that ultimately that the capital to do that um comes from investors and and investors capital is mobile they don't have to invest in us uh so any effort they can make uh to to to make us more


you know appealing as an investment makes a huge difference in our ability to advance the project so you know for example the that you know initial trunch of of capital to help improve the road really helps drisk us right so in the eyes of investors particularly long-term strategic investors when they see that that the government is able to sign anou with the First Nations uh to to allow for that the capital be deployed and for the road to be improved um that's a huge change right and and I would say you


know another key dialogue really with the Yukon government and and to a degree the feds is um you know ongoing Dialogue on the evolution of the environmental and assessment and permitting process in Canada I think there's been quite a bit of scope creep in in the environmental assessment process in Canada which has lengthened timelines quite a bit but I'm extremely encouraged by um both the acknowledgement of that in various level of government and and a real appetite now uh to address that and and I think


that appetite comes from you know this this clear understanding that these critical minerals uh are essential that um it's uh unwise to to be Reliant sometimes for 80 90 or 100% of certain minerals from from countries or groups of countries that that may not be our closest allies and might even be categorized in some cases as as a geopolitical adversary um so this is this has been you know great strides forward as we as we move forward in that direction as well so speaking of moving forward what's the plan for 2024 as


you yeah well 2023 was a huge year for us we we did three times as much 2023 than we had done any year before and in 2024 we would look to be pretty similar um yeah it's for our M Tong project that's been mostly drilled to measure an indicated standard there's not a lot of of drilling left to do there perhaps some metallurgical work really there we're looking to take what was an old feasibility study from 2008 modernize it uh complete the environmental Baseline uh to to catch up on that because there


was a bit of a gap um and reenter the or or enter the final licensing process in hopefully about a year and a half and then hopefully that all leads to to Construction in about four years so this year there not a huge amount to be spent there in terms of dollar-wise but but definitely some critical drisking and advancing now on the Mac pass project we're it's interesting you know we hope to be in the environmental assessment in in a couple years but we're still delineating the edges of that system you


know 100% of our stepout holes in the known zones of 2023 hit so we're we're not yet at the edges of of the minimalization in the known zones there and we also have indications of another 5 to 10 possible zones so it's it's very much an advanced exploration project will'll probably do quite a bit of drilling in expansion of the known Zone quite a bit of work in Regional exploration um and then also some maybe Limited infill in areas that are of particular economic importance um so


that project's a bit uh you know has a bit more to go but I think it's kind of like a Hollywood problem so to speak that it's it's it's so big and it keeps growing it it does t SI push the timeline out but for very good reason right we want to make sure that we permit the right mind um so we're here at V in Vancouver what is a key message you want investors to know about your company yeah I think you know investors the key things to know about our company first are the respective quality of the projects right


understanding that our zinc project is is truly Best in Class and there's not really anything else like it held by a junior or really many other development projects period globally that could possibly slot into that upper tier of zinc projects um you know and to understand that our tungsten project I I I think without exaggeration is the best tungsten the pul in the world certainly the best outside of China um understanding that and then perhaps not even taking our word for it looking at the the quality of investors we have


right you have you have Tech the world's third largest sync Miner who who's who's repeatedly invested in us and own owns about 8 and a half percent of the company you have the lundine family you know who has tremendous track record in this industry who's invested I think about 27 million in US total now and has about 20% of the company um so this is this is you know a couple groups that have a strong track record of identifying quality projects um you know a strong history with sync in both of


them uh you know that I think is is is a critical endorsement that that you don't have to believe me that the quality of the projects you look at the sort of people who have put serious dollars behind the company and and I think it should be obvious great well thanks Brandon for coming on today and sharing your updates from the company thank you very much and thanks everyone for watching join us again next time for another engaging conversation on CEO insights if you like this video make sure you subscribe to our Channel and


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