Sorry - a busy day out. Didn't get home until quite late after returning from Melbourne.
They use the buy-back when they think it is appropriate.
Notes from the meeting:
AK, LS and AW at meeting. AG dialled in. DF in Alaska.
- a number of familiar and a number of unfamiliar faces present
- similar number attended to meeting a few months back
AK / LS discussion after formal part of the meeting:
- strategy to add significant value, focus on fundamentals, acknowledged market conditions painful
- decided earlier in the year to spinoff Lithium asset ( aware they might get backlash )
- certain investors understand gold and others understand lithium
- Lithium project is Canadian and will get more interest from Canadian investors
- seed capital has been raised (CAD $1M), flow-through capital (CAD $2.5M) to come is tax-effective for Canadian investors and this helps with raising funds ( hoping to complete this soon ). Flow-through funds must essentially be spent on exploration.
- funds to be spent on drilling program ( will start December or January )
- Roadshow was done in Canada ( quite a bit of interest )
- 80% earn-in achieved and PLAN 20% coming in. Nova will be major shareholder. Snow Lake will be able to independently raise funds.
- 3 directors of NVA have put in a total of $800k in recent placement ( @ 3.25c )
- aiming for 10Mt+ resource for PEA ( current exploration target is 7 to 13 mt ) and a quick start-up strategy for the plant
- TAW’s scoping study in July 2017 was against a 4.3Mt resource …
- slurry pipe can be done with poly pipe, normally used for tailings, cheap CAPEX
- early concepts for mine design underway
Note to above - TAW’s initial scoping study in July 2017 was against a 4.3Mt Li20 resource. They are now producing.
- Prospectively of Estelle was highlighted, comparisons to Pebble / Fort Knox, similar geology, Snow Lake Geo DS has good experience with gold projects
- dig for $4 to $5 / tonne for approx $22 / tonne revenue from ore (from surface), they heap leach it
- Majors chase big / bulk deposits not high-grade veins but estelle-type ground, porphyry deposits
- DS & team driving exploration at Lithium project will switch focus to Estelle after finishing drilling at Thompson Bros ( winter drilling for snow lake, summer drilling for Alaska )
- Compiling exploration data for Estelle announcement soon
- 51% into Estelle earn-in
I looked up the following definitions just now:
https://www.getsmarteraboutmoney.ca...ucts/complex-investments/flow-through-shares/ )
In Canada, companies in sectors like mining and resources can deduct exploration and development expenses. They are allowed to pass on the tax deduction to investors through a special type of common share called a flow-through share. When you buy flow-through shares, your money is locked in for up to 2 years – you can’t get your money out for any reason.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/flow-through-shares-ftss.html
Junior resource corporations often have difficulty raising capital to finance their exploration and development activities. Moreover, many are in a non-taxable position and do not need to deduct their resource expenses. The FTS mechanism allows the issuer corporation to transfer the resource expenses to the investor. A junior resource corporation, in particular, benefits greatly from FTS financing.
I'm thinking that the lock-in of capital for flow-through funds will help to limit churn of the stock, in addition to shares held by NVA which will also be tightly held.