Is This Junior Mining Stock the Next Big Win? Fully Funded & Backed by Ocean Partners
Summary
Precious Metals: Management is bullish on gold and silver prices, highlighting improved project economics and a constructive market backdrop for near-term production.
ES Gold Corp (ESAU): The company is advancing the Montauban project with a production-first strategy, backed by an updated PEA showing high IRR and fast payback, and planning a 500–1,000 tpd mill ramp.
Financing & Validation: Raised ~$8M equity and secured a $9M offtake-linked credit line with Ocean Partners, providing non-dilutive funding and third-party validation of minimum payable ounces.
Tailings Reprocessing: Core model focuses on cleaning up historical tailings and crown pillars to generate cash flow at low capex, then reinvesting into exploration and expansion.
Exploration Upside: ENT survey and forthcoming 3D model indicate structure to ~1,200m depth at Montauban, supporting step-out, definition drilling, and potential mine-life extension.
Low Capex Mining: Management emphasizes a nimble, scalable approach with fully permitted expansion to 1,000 tpd, aiming to self-fund exploration and reduce equity dilution.
Colombia: Conducting due diligence on a copy-and-paste, low-capex opportunity; key gating item is securing continuous feed, with jurisdictional permitting and risk assessed carefully.
Outlook & Risks: Near-term milestones include equipment orders, pilot-to-full production transition, and initial revenues; risks include ramp timing and operational hiccups, but funding and partnerships mitigate execution risk.
Transcript
Gordon Rob is the CEO of ESOLD and Paul Mastenuno is the chairman and founder of ESOLD. >> People that are new to the story, they want to look at the potential that this has. Look at the metallurgical work that we've done. We've put work into this. This is not a new project by any means. Is Paul and the team have been working on this over a 15-year period. Over $50 million have been invested into this asset into in Montabon specifically on the infrastructure side on the permitting side the metallurgical work that's been done this recent ENT survey that really showed the potential of the structure beneath us of the exploration upside the fact that we're going to be in a producing environment here in the very near future gives us so much optionality moving forward on the exploration side this is very different than other junior miners in the exploration space that are raising money, hoping to drill, hoping to hit so that they can continue to move forward and raise money the next year is we're going into production first. We're cleaning up an environmental liability with known tonnage. We know what we're getting into. We can we know the revenues. We know the the income we're going to be able to bring in. And then we can reinvest that into exploration and expansion and development further. We can turn something ideally with a mine life of 5 years potentially into a mine life of 10 15. But we also have the optionality is we don't find anything. We can take that money, we can reinvest it into another property and replicate what we're doing here. A low capex model cleaning up existing mine waste in an environment where there are a lot of past producing mines with tailings on surface. a partner like Ocean Partners coming on board and making what for me is a significant commitment in form of an investment through that line of credit because $9 million on 19 total. It's the validation part. ocean partners through their investment and their partnership. What it demonstrated is on minable at least at a minimum based on that agreement a minimum amount of ounces of gold and silver to be mined over the next few years here. For me, what it tells me, I'm a nuts and bolts kind of guy. So for me, it tells me that through their work, they believe that those minimum ounceses on that surface crown pillar and the tailings that should be a signal for shareholders uh future revenues, you know, through the process, we have at least a minimum of those amount of ounces of gold and silver. Gordon's addition since he's joined here in the last couple months has been able to take this over that finish line. I am super super excited for the shareholders. The mill buildout equals production. Production equals revenues. Revenues brings that intrinsic value, that real value, market value for shareholders. And we're in a position now to be able to do it. Something which for 15 years we were unable to be in that position to deliver. And so shareholders have a lot to look forward to here uh in the next 12 months. >> For disclosure purposes, our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services, or products. Nothing on our site or this podcast should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products [music] or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. Please read all disclosures and disclaimers at the end of the show. For disclosure purposes, ES Gold Corp is a paid for featured client on [music] the investor ideas website. Warden and Paul, it's great to have you both on the show. for investors that are new. Gordon Rob is the CEO of ESOLD and Paul Mastenuno is the chairman and founder of ES Gold. So, I wanted to get this story started off with the updated PA because we haven't talked in a couple months and I feel like that's one of the most exciting things. You had about 60% irr and tax loss benefits. Gordon, do you want to just give some of the overview of some of the best juiciest parts of the PA for new investors? Well, the pea it's what we did with an updated pea was quite exciting just to be able to update the prices of what we're seeing in gold and silver. But what's important here is when we did it, we did it at $35 silver and $2,900 gold. So already those numbers are out of date. So the excessive IR that we've seen, the very quick payback period of under two years, all of these numbers are already very conservative considering to where we've seen the precious metals space go over the last 3 months. So, we're very optimistic about moving forward with our uh milling program here, getting this up and running, but the numbers we have from our pea show that this has tremendous potential moving forward and we're very excited about the continued pre precious metals market rise. >> Do you want to talk about the offtake agreement in that as well? And then obviously, um Gordon, I feel like we should definitely comment on that you guys have raised a lot of money this summer. um 9 million with Oceanana Partners and 8 million on your life offering. I'd love to hear your commentary on that. >> Uh Cali, the last time you and I spoke, I was I think a week into this job. Um I was told recently by an investor that you're judging your first 100 days, and the first 100 days have been quite busy. In that time period, we have we've raised $8 million in equity financing, which got us our full funding for our $5.9 million capex. And we coupled that with an offtake agreement with ocean partners. This show in two tranches of $3 million and $6 million for development of a 500 ton per day capacity phase one and up to 1,000 ton per day which we are fully permitted for which would be phase two. Now this was a tremendous signoff. Uh company like Ocean Partners coming in to partner with us doing their due diligence having tremendous confidence in the project and they have tremendous incentive to get us up and running as they want the material is this isn't just a debt obligation and a debt agreement is what they're looking for is the ore and the door bars that we're going to be pouring. So having that partnership with a very reputable firm has been very exciting for us and it added tremendous validation to what we're trying to do. >> Paul, do you want to talk about the pilot planned that you guys are um in the process of getting organized and as you get close to production? Obviously you've had such a long relationship with this project. I'd love to hear your thoughts on Montabon and how it's coming along. The pilot plant is uh working under form of pilot plant. All we're doing is setting ourselves up uh to process exactly what is defined uh in the pea. Uh only um we're processing at a lower rate and it's um a couple of months. It's a period where during that couple of months we're able to do the proper tweaking and uh make sure that everything that uh was prepared through our validation work in the laboratory is done in the environment of a uh full-blown mill circuit. And then we're able to take that step from that pilot plant to the full 1,00 metric ton um milling circuit. But what I want investors to know is in the process of this pilot plant. All it is is a half step uh we're not doing a pilot plant because we have uh things or items that have not been validated that need to be validated. All the metallurgy work is done. uh we know what our extraction percentages are and all we're doing is validating uh and we're making sure that those recovery percentages that were um that were produced in the lab are in line uh in that full mill circuit. And this this pilot plant is is a rep is a representation of one of the circuits of the final two circuits that represent a thousand metric tons. So there's not going to be any uh adjustments or any modification to equipment or mill buildout design. We're really building out the first circuit of the two circuits that has been identified in that PA. It's more of a precautionary uh uh step before we we really go out and uh spend the full amount of money and get ready at uh 1,000 metric tons capacity daily. >> And for your pilot um plant, are you thinking to still start with 500 tons a day and then move up to a th00and or is that um change just to go for a thousand? >> That's the plan. We're we're in the process right now of uh evaluating management is evaluating even at the moment potentially just building out the thousand metric ton daily capacity buildout as uh as is identified in that PA. And the reason that we are looking at this and considering it is because uh we have the capacity uh to be able to do it given um the funds that were raised and the partnerships that are there. And if that decision is made, what it does is uh it puts the position it puts a company in a position where it'll be producing at a thousand metric tons quicker than originally anticipated. But there's still some validation uh work uh being done right now and we believe anyways in the next 4 to 6 weeks we'll have uh those answers and make that final decision. >> Gordon, do you want to talk about that? You're close to production once once you are doing a thousand tons a day. What what is the revenue that you're generating there with gold and silver prices the way they are? Like what what can you kind of project for that? without getting into too many numbers specifically, right? We want to wait till we're we're fully moving forward before we start putting out guidance to the market. But I can tell you that our model has significantly changed over the last month and a half because this project made sense at $1,600 gold and $20 silver. Um so with $4,000 gold and $50 silver, we're we're seeing um excessive returns in the first year. As Paul mentioned, that jump to a thousand tons per day would put us in a very advantageous position for more revenue generation right off the bat with tailings reprocessing, which allows this to move forward and scale quicker. But we're just evaluating right now if it's if we want to see that validation of the 500 tons per day first before we move up to a,000 tons a day or if we want to go straight into 1,000 tons a day to see more revenue by the end of 2026. I'm assuming the next step would be the exploration side of the Montabon project. Do you want to just talk a little bit about the um ant survey that you did there and then what are some of the exciting things that you're seeing for the discovery side? >> A big green flag for me when I joined this project was the exploration potential is this is a past producing mine that operated over 100 years ago with tremendous upside and very little exploration done at depth. This was mined down to 200 m. And what this ant survey did is this showed us that we had structure down to,200 m at depth. This deposit, this mine, this property, the surface has really just been scratched of of this. So our plan moving forward is to expand and to explore at depth along straight and do propertywide exploration for the first time in this area. Now, as we move forward with development, building up our mill, moving into that thousand ton per day capacity is we've always said production first and then exploration. But what we're going to do is we ideally have a 3D model coming out here in the very near future. Taking past drill holes, mining that's been done coupled with the ENT survey that's going to give us a good idea of what we're looking at underneath our feet. That should give us some solid drill targets and as well as some potential for definition drilling along that surface crown pillar. So, what we'd like to do is couple our development with a little bit of small scale exploration just to get an idea and a jump start on good drill targets moving forward before we really sink our teeth into it and do significant exploration on this property. >> I'd love to now change direction and talk about your new Colombia project. I'd love to get commentary from you both. Gordon, what drew you to the project? And Paul, um, I've heard that you say, you know, that you're looking to basically copy and paste and do the same thing again, which is a fantastic model. So, I'd love to hear both of what you guys think of this project and why you liked it. What it's a it's a tremendous opportunity to be to be able to expand into different jurisdictions with Colombia is we saw an opportunity something that could be copy and pasted of moving down very low capex start material on surface that could be processed right away. We sent our team down last week to do an initial assessment. We're still deep in the due diligence phase and while the initial work does look good. We want to make sure that this is the right move for shareholders is it is still an investment. We still have a lot on our plate of what we're looking to do and with Montabon being our flagship asset and our primary focus. We want to make sure that the move we make to another jurisdiction is the right move for our shareholders. So we are making sure we check every box, we cross every tea, we dot every eye before moving forward. And Colombia, while exciting, we are still deep in that due diligence phase. >> From my perspective, exactly what Gordon's saying, the opportunity is tremendous. Um the grades are phenomenal. We've done the validation work for um grades um to see what the business model would look like on an initial um buildout and uh production. However, the most important piece of the puzzle here in Colombia after we we did this validation work of uh grades material and recovery percentages is feed. Most important thing in the formula feed. And at the end of the day, um, our team went down there to primarily besides validating and checking off all the boxes for the property is to validate the continuous minimal feed that we're looking at that has to be there in order for ES Gold uh to move forward with that investment and begin production. uh because at the end of the day u if if we don't have a guaranteed feed um it's very hard uh to justify moving forward and commencing production. So for us risk elements were obviously validation of property and validation of uh grades and recovery percentages. Um but most importantly was solidifying a minimum amount of feed uh that we can have on a daily basis. And so we're we're in the middle of that due diligence uh process. And right now uh the big hurdle is making sure that we have that continuous feed. Gordon, can you talk about the sustainability feature for ES Gold that obviously you could replicate that again in Colombia and are there any differences as far as for permitting um in that jurisdiction that again for sustainability would um investors be interested in knowing? >> Well, I I think there's two ways of looking at it, right? Is um the sustainability of ES gold is what we're doing is we're cleaning up existing mine waste. So that stays consistent no matter what jurisdiction you're in. We are going into past producing areas that have significant mine waste and environmental hazard on surface and we have the capacity and expertise to clean that up and turn that into an economic viability for our shareholders. Now with that being said, every jurisdiction is a little different, right? There's challenges, there's risks, there's um idiosyncrasies in every jurisdiction, whether you're in Quebec or British Columbia or Colombia, the United States or in Africa. Every jurisdiction has a little bit of changes, but the general basis of ES gold is we are able to operate on a low capex model with a very significant target in mind, which is mining waste on surface that holds an environmental liability. Every jurisdiction is a little unique. we still have the expertise to be able to look at it holistically um and make that educated decision which is in best interest of our shareholders. >> You've had a lot of key milestones this summer. Um do you want to just break it down for an investor that's fairly new to this story? Um just like some of the best key points that they could really pay attention to or press releases that they can go reread. when I came into this company like this is this is a phenomenal project a phenomenal idea that now since I've come on board is we've made that theory and that idea a reality by getting our full funding by on the equity side is we are fully financed we have $10.5 million in the bank to move forward here but then coupling that with that strategic partnership of ocean partners really added that validation to the project that this isn't just a pipe dream this isn't just a capital raise in a hot market is we have the right people in place to get this over the line. For people that are new to the story and they want to look at the potential that this has, look at the metallurgical work that we've done. We've put work into this. This is not a new project by any means. Is Paul and the team have been working on this over a 15-year period. Over $50 million have been invested into this asset into in Montabon specifically on the infrastructure side, on the permitting side, the metallurgical work that's been done. this recent ENT survey that really showed the potential of the structure beneath us of the exploration upside. The fact that we're going to be in a producing environment here in the very near future gives us so much optionality moving forward on the exploration side is we're not going to be going to the market raising 25 dollars at a time for exploration programs. We're going to be funding that exploration ourselves. This is production backed. This is blue sky exploration potential backed by production is what we're doing and laying the groundwork for is a self-sustaining business model that can expand sustainably and organically. This is very different than other junior miners in the exploration space that are raising money hoping to drill hoping to hit so that they can continue to move forward and raise money the next year is we're going into production first. We're cleaning up an environmental liability with known tonnage. We know what we're getting into. We can we know the revenues. We know the the income we're going to be able to bring in. And then we can reinvest that into exploration and expansion and development further. We can turn something ideally with a mine life of 5 years potentially into a mine life of 10 15 as long as exploration goes well. But we also have the optionality is we don't find anything. We can take that money, we can reinvest it into another property and replicate what we're doing here. a low capex model cleaning up existing mine waste in an environment where there are a lot of past producing mines with tailings on surface by remaining low low capex nimble we're able to take advantage of a lot of opportunities in a very exciting gold and silver market >> Paul I'd love to get your commentary with the ocean partners how important was that to get a non-dilutive financing because I know I've had you on the show before and you love a good clean share structure which is again a favorite of mine and for investors always. So, um how exciting was that to have as a add-on for you? >> Oh, Gordon Gordon hit the nail on the head there. um besides besides being non-dilutive which is which is great for shareholders uh and for the corporate structure but the most important thing is a partner like um Ocean Partners coming on board and making what for me is a significant um commitment in form of an investment through that line of credit because $9 million on 19 total We have let's say what it is. It is significant. Um it's the validation part. Ocean partners through their investment and their partnership. What it demonstrated is it demon it demonstrated validation of work that was done previously on minable at least at a minimum based on that agreement a minimum amount of ounces of gold and silver to be mined over the next few years here. And that for me was very very very important um that throughout that due diligence process um and they they did an extensive due diligence process that they they move forward on the green light. It it it it shows anyways on on that validation side for me what it tells me I'm a nuts and bolts kind of guy so for me it tells me that through their work they believe that those minimum ounceses on that surface crown pillar and the tailings are validated and so that is that should be a signal for shareholders 's uh future revenues, you know, through the process, we have at least a minimum of those amount of ounces of gold and silver. So, for me, that was the most the most important thing and having them on board as a partner for me uh was important um because of that validation process. >> Wharton, um I know we can't talk about those numbers, but let's talk about the numbers that we can talk about. Do you want to just uh update investors of where your share structure um how many shares out now fully diluted your burn rate? Um I know you just touched that you have about 10 and a half million in the bank but um just again update them on the numbers that they want to know. >> Yeah. No, we have we have 92 million shares issued outstanding right now. Um about 130 million fully diluted. This is a after financings that have been done over the year to get us fully funded to where we are today is we're in a very advantageous position on that tight share structure as I'm sure you're aware and your the followers are aware is Paul has done an incredible job on the share structure up until me coming on board where this was predominantly family and friends funding this getting this over the line and we were we did a great job getting that institutional money in over the last 100 days. So adding that validation at this market cap in this valuation is taking that to the next level. We're in a very good position right now when it comes to um capital structure. We have as I mentioned we have about $10 half million in the bank. We still run quite a low burn rate. Um, on the administrative side, we're focused on getting this up and running and with equipment being purchased and the building being completed is we're seeing more money on the the operation side, which is money we're happy to spend to make sure that this gets up and running. Obviously, you don't know what delays or what hiccups could happen along the way, but for for like your 10 and a half million, is that like more than enough to get you to the production like across the line for that >> to get us to upward pilot plant? Yes, that 10.5 million will take us over the line. Um, if we wanted to jump right to a thousand tons per day, then we're going to rely more on that ocean partners funding as well. But we were looking at about $18 million on the pea for total capex. with that if you include the money spent already and the money we have in the bank, we we are over the line on that. So, we're we're feeling very confident about the money we do have available to get this up and running and into production. We're we've done a lot of work to be able to get here and it's been a very I think Paul can attest there's been a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of work that's been gone into over the last few months to make sure that we're in this position. Paul shakes his head, but um we're we're very pleased of what we've accomplished over the last little while here to so that to make to come true on the promises that have been made of this gets into production that production first then exploration of everything that ES Gold could be. We're making sure it can happen. >> Paul, do you want to um obviously I mean you started the company when it was around 20 cents and that wasn't that long ago. Do you want to make some commentary on the share price? I mean, we've seen, you know, all the way up to $140 and now we're in that 70 to $1.90 range. Um, for shareholders that have been with you for a long time or new investors that are looking at this story, I'd just love to hear what your thoughts are. >> What what I tell our shareholders is look, you know, don't look at the trade, you know, don't look at daily or monthly moves. We know how it is. As we know the stock market uh stocks will go up, they come back down. But at the end of the day, we're looking to build an intrinsic value um where over time well the intrinsic value will be built over time and it will be built through uh infrastructural work, production and production over the years to come. And so we we get calls, Cali, there's people who call, hey, you know, why are we down? Uh who's selling? Who's selling? Who's selling? Who's buying? We don't know. September of 2024, we're at 10 cents. So yes, we're down from a$130 where it hit the high. That went that was a crazy run. I mean, do I believe that we were worth a$130 at the time?$140 dollar 40 when we were at uh no I think that was uh overvalued but at the end of the day right now we're at six 700 times up from almost one year ago 12 13 months ago um we have a a stock that's liquid and what I tell the shareholders is we're going to build it and there will be a moment where it's going to happen where that value is going to kick in and it's going to kick in not based on market trend or gold sitting at four or five or 6,000 or whatever it's going to be based on real intrinsic value of generating the revenue that cash model that exploration potential um of additional ounces moving forward for I don't know how many years depending on what we find and that's where you know I tell them you know that's where You got to keep your eye on that. You've been with us for years. I mean, I've been here since uh when it was DNA precious metals when we started in 2010. And those in initially people uh we wrote private placements uh checks at uh 20 cents and 25 cents, you know, and those people are in with the reverse consolidations. Their averages are five and $6. You know, the new people coming in now. I mean, I I they're they're lucky uh based on people that were here at the very beginning and supported and uh saw the vision and saw the value. So patients will reward people and reward the shareholders. Gordon and I are not here to to build something uh overnight because that doesn't happen that way. Shareholders that have stuck with it uh I think are going to be very well rewarded. Gordon said it said it really well. this when we started this project we were at 1,600 gold and it made sense and we're like oh my god okay like let's get up and running and that was the whole idea let's get up and running with the tailings make a bit of profit here but look at the crown pillar look at those grades and we're able to use our money and extract and produce and that made sense at 1 1600 so 4,000 I I'm really excited so >> Cali to add on here right is as Paul mentioned at at when it was at a$120 dollar$130 a few months ago and it ran up And there was some hype in the market, hype in the gold and silver space. If people liked it there, people like what we've done since then is we are now fully funded to accomplish what we've said we're going to accomplish. We've expanded on our exploration side. We've shown tremendous potential down at depth. We've done nothing but add value since then. So if people liked it at a dollar, if they liked it at uh 90 cents, they liked it at 80 cents, like they should certainly like it at 75 cents. Is because we've done nothing but add value since that time. we've um showed that we're we're going to be adding tremendous long-term value for our shareholders as that's our goal. And the next few months as we approach those production timelines, as we start ordering equipment, as we start seeing a more expansive uh potential around this exploration upside is we're going to continue to deliver on long-term shareholder value, which is our goal as management of ES Gold. >> Well, I 100% agree with both of you. I think it's a fantastic story and I know Peter Kra does as well and quite a few of the big players love this story. Gordon, as we come to a close, do you want to just give any last thoughts to new shareholders um potential investors? Is there um any conferences that they can see you at in the next couple months for the end of the year? Um how can they reach out to you as well? >> Um my phone number is available in our news releases. Please don't hesitate to call me, email me. I'm more than happy to talk to shareholders because as [snorts] hard as we work, I really do love this, right? Like we eat, sleep, and breathe. I love talking macro. I like talking this company specifics. Like, you're never bothering me. I'm more than happy to answer your questions. So, never hesitate to reach out. And we're we're doing a little bit of marketing throughout the the fall time. We're going to be in Toronto by the in the next couple weeks. Uh and then be in London for Minds and Money here at the beginning of December. just being able to touch base with a lot of um connections in our European investor base which is continuing to grow. We're moving forward. You know what? This is a remarkable time is we're we're at the very beginning of what ESOL has said they're going to deliver on. This is the start of everything is while this company has been working hard to get to where it is today is we got our funding, we get to move forward, we get to start ordering equipment is people getting on board now. they're joining us at the very beginning of what we can do. So, this is a the last week and this little bit of slip we've seen in gold and silver has presented an amazing buying opportunity. And while a lot of people exited in fear across this space is I think the real investors in this space, the people that know that smart money got very excited about a little down dip because it presented a phenomenal opportunity to be able to get involved in a little bit lower valuation. And after this last week that we've seen, this has presented a tremendous opportunity for new people to get involved with ES Gold for what we plan on delivering in the the months to come is the end of 2025 is going to be exciting as we continue to build and get ready and 2026 will be the most exciting year yet in ES holds history. The um the biggest hurdle for this company was being having the capacity to raise uh the money required uh to get the project uh into production which is where that real intrinsic value will kick in for shareholders. Gordon's addition since he's joined here in the last couple of months has been able to take this over that finish line which something uh which is something that the company struggled for 15 years let's call it what it is and so I am super super excited for the shareholders over the next little while here because the mill buildout equals production production equals revenues. Revenues brings that intrinsic value, that real value, market value for shareholders. And we're in a position now to be able to do it. Something which for 15 years we were unable to be in that position to deliver. And so shareholders have a lot to look forward to here uh in the next 12 months.
Is This Junior Mining Stock the Next Big Win? Fully Funded & Backed by Ocean Partners
Summary
Transcript
Gordon Rob is the CEO of ESOLD and Paul Mastenuno is the chairman and founder of ESOLD. >> People that are new to the story, they want to look at the potential that this has. Look at the metallurgical work that we've done. We've put work into this. This is not a new project by any means. Is Paul and the team have been working on this over a 15-year period. Over $50 million have been invested into this asset into in Montabon specifically on the infrastructure side on the permitting side the metallurgical work that's been done this recent ENT survey that really showed the potential of the structure beneath us of the exploration upside the fact that we're going to be in a producing environment here in the very near future gives us so much optionality moving forward on the exploration side this is very different than other junior miners in the exploration space that are raising money, hoping to drill, hoping to hit so that they can continue to move forward and raise money the next year is we're going into production first. We're cleaning up an environmental liability with known tonnage. We know what we're getting into. We can we know the revenues. We know the the income we're going to be able to bring in. And then we can reinvest that into exploration and expansion and development further. We can turn something ideally with a mine life of 5 years potentially into a mine life of 10 15. But we also have the optionality is we don't find anything. We can take that money, we can reinvest it into another property and replicate what we're doing here. A low capex model cleaning up existing mine waste in an environment where there are a lot of past producing mines with tailings on surface. a partner like Ocean Partners coming on board and making what for me is a significant commitment in form of an investment through that line of credit because $9 million on 19 total. It's the validation part. ocean partners through their investment and their partnership. What it demonstrated is on minable at least at a minimum based on that agreement a minimum amount of ounces of gold and silver to be mined over the next few years here. For me, what it tells me, I'm a nuts and bolts kind of guy. So for me, it tells me that through their work, they believe that those minimum ounceses on that surface crown pillar and the tailings that should be a signal for shareholders uh future revenues, you know, through the process, we have at least a minimum of those amount of ounces of gold and silver. Gordon's addition since he's joined here in the last couple months has been able to take this over that finish line. I am super super excited for the shareholders. The mill buildout equals production. Production equals revenues. Revenues brings that intrinsic value, that real value, market value for shareholders. And we're in a position now to be able to do it. Something which for 15 years we were unable to be in that position to deliver. And so shareholders have a lot to look forward to here uh in the next 12 months. >> For disclosure purposes, our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services, or products. Nothing on our site or this podcast should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products [music] or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. Please read all disclosures and disclaimers at the end of the show. For disclosure purposes, ES Gold Corp is a paid for featured client on [music] the investor ideas website. Warden and Paul, it's great to have you both on the show. for investors that are new. Gordon Rob is the CEO of ESOLD and Paul Mastenuno is the chairman and founder of ES Gold. So, I wanted to get this story started off with the updated PA because we haven't talked in a couple months and I feel like that's one of the most exciting things. You had about 60% irr and tax loss benefits. Gordon, do you want to just give some of the overview of some of the best juiciest parts of the PA for new investors? Well, the pea it's what we did with an updated pea was quite exciting just to be able to update the prices of what we're seeing in gold and silver. But what's important here is when we did it, we did it at $35 silver and $2,900 gold. So already those numbers are out of date. So the excessive IR that we've seen, the very quick payback period of under two years, all of these numbers are already very conservative considering to where we've seen the precious metals space go over the last 3 months. So, we're very optimistic about moving forward with our uh milling program here, getting this up and running, but the numbers we have from our pea show that this has tremendous potential moving forward and we're very excited about the continued pre precious metals market rise. >> Do you want to talk about the offtake agreement in that as well? And then obviously, um Gordon, I feel like we should definitely comment on that you guys have raised a lot of money this summer. um 9 million with Oceanana Partners and 8 million on your life offering. I'd love to hear your commentary on that. >> Uh Cali, the last time you and I spoke, I was I think a week into this job. Um I was told recently by an investor that you're judging your first 100 days, and the first 100 days have been quite busy. In that time period, we have we've raised $8 million in equity financing, which got us our full funding for our $5.9 million capex. And we coupled that with an offtake agreement with ocean partners. This show in two tranches of $3 million and $6 million for development of a 500 ton per day capacity phase one and up to 1,000 ton per day which we are fully permitted for which would be phase two. Now this was a tremendous signoff. Uh company like Ocean Partners coming in to partner with us doing their due diligence having tremendous confidence in the project and they have tremendous incentive to get us up and running as they want the material is this isn't just a debt obligation and a debt agreement is what they're looking for is the ore and the door bars that we're going to be pouring. So having that partnership with a very reputable firm has been very exciting for us and it added tremendous validation to what we're trying to do. >> Paul, do you want to talk about the pilot planned that you guys are um in the process of getting organized and as you get close to production? Obviously you've had such a long relationship with this project. I'd love to hear your thoughts on Montabon and how it's coming along. The pilot plant is uh working under form of pilot plant. All we're doing is setting ourselves up uh to process exactly what is defined uh in the pea. Uh only um we're processing at a lower rate and it's um a couple of months. It's a period where during that couple of months we're able to do the proper tweaking and uh make sure that everything that uh was prepared through our validation work in the laboratory is done in the environment of a uh full-blown mill circuit. And then we're able to take that step from that pilot plant to the full 1,00 metric ton um milling circuit. But what I want investors to know is in the process of this pilot plant. All it is is a half step uh we're not doing a pilot plant because we have uh things or items that have not been validated that need to be validated. All the metallurgy work is done. uh we know what our extraction percentages are and all we're doing is validating uh and we're making sure that those recovery percentages that were um that were produced in the lab are in line uh in that full mill circuit. And this this pilot plant is is a rep is a representation of one of the circuits of the final two circuits that represent a thousand metric tons. So there's not going to be any uh adjustments or any modification to equipment or mill buildout design. We're really building out the first circuit of the two circuits that has been identified in that PA. It's more of a precautionary uh uh step before we we really go out and uh spend the full amount of money and get ready at uh 1,000 metric tons capacity daily. >> And for your pilot um plant, are you thinking to still start with 500 tons a day and then move up to a th00and or is that um change just to go for a thousand? >> That's the plan. We're we're in the process right now of uh evaluating management is evaluating even at the moment potentially just building out the thousand metric ton daily capacity buildout as uh as is identified in that PA. And the reason that we are looking at this and considering it is because uh we have the capacity uh to be able to do it given um the funds that were raised and the partnerships that are there. And if that decision is made, what it does is uh it puts the position it puts a company in a position where it'll be producing at a thousand metric tons quicker than originally anticipated. But there's still some validation uh work uh being done right now and we believe anyways in the next 4 to 6 weeks we'll have uh those answers and make that final decision. >> Gordon, do you want to talk about that? You're close to production once once you are doing a thousand tons a day. What what is the revenue that you're generating there with gold and silver prices the way they are? Like what what can you kind of project for that? without getting into too many numbers specifically, right? We want to wait till we're we're fully moving forward before we start putting out guidance to the market. But I can tell you that our model has significantly changed over the last month and a half because this project made sense at $1,600 gold and $20 silver. Um so with $4,000 gold and $50 silver, we're we're seeing um excessive returns in the first year. As Paul mentioned, that jump to a thousand tons per day would put us in a very advantageous position for more revenue generation right off the bat with tailings reprocessing, which allows this to move forward and scale quicker. But we're just evaluating right now if it's if we want to see that validation of the 500 tons per day first before we move up to a,000 tons a day or if we want to go straight into 1,000 tons a day to see more revenue by the end of 2026. I'm assuming the next step would be the exploration side of the Montabon project. Do you want to just talk a little bit about the um ant survey that you did there and then what are some of the exciting things that you're seeing for the discovery side? >> A big green flag for me when I joined this project was the exploration potential is this is a past producing mine that operated over 100 years ago with tremendous upside and very little exploration done at depth. This was mined down to 200 m. And what this ant survey did is this showed us that we had structure down to,200 m at depth. This deposit, this mine, this property, the surface has really just been scratched of of this. So our plan moving forward is to expand and to explore at depth along straight and do propertywide exploration for the first time in this area. Now, as we move forward with development, building up our mill, moving into that thousand ton per day capacity is we've always said production first and then exploration. But what we're going to do is we ideally have a 3D model coming out here in the very near future. Taking past drill holes, mining that's been done coupled with the ENT survey that's going to give us a good idea of what we're looking at underneath our feet. That should give us some solid drill targets and as well as some potential for definition drilling along that surface crown pillar. So, what we'd like to do is couple our development with a little bit of small scale exploration just to get an idea and a jump start on good drill targets moving forward before we really sink our teeth into it and do significant exploration on this property. >> I'd love to now change direction and talk about your new Colombia project. I'd love to get commentary from you both. Gordon, what drew you to the project? And Paul, um, I've heard that you say, you know, that you're looking to basically copy and paste and do the same thing again, which is a fantastic model. So, I'd love to hear both of what you guys think of this project and why you liked it. What it's a it's a tremendous opportunity to be to be able to expand into different jurisdictions with Colombia is we saw an opportunity something that could be copy and pasted of moving down very low capex start material on surface that could be processed right away. We sent our team down last week to do an initial assessment. We're still deep in the due diligence phase and while the initial work does look good. We want to make sure that this is the right move for shareholders is it is still an investment. We still have a lot on our plate of what we're looking to do and with Montabon being our flagship asset and our primary focus. We want to make sure that the move we make to another jurisdiction is the right move for our shareholders. So we are making sure we check every box, we cross every tea, we dot every eye before moving forward. And Colombia, while exciting, we are still deep in that due diligence phase. >> From my perspective, exactly what Gordon's saying, the opportunity is tremendous. Um the grades are phenomenal. We've done the validation work for um grades um to see what the business model would look like on an initial um buildout and uh production. However, the most important piece of the puzzle here in Colombia after we we did this validation work of uh grades material and recovery percentages is feed. Most important thing in the formula feed. And at the end of the day, um, our team went down there to primarily besides validating and checking off all the boxes for the property is to validate the continuous minimal feed that we're looking at that has to be there in order for ES Gold uh to move forward with that investment and begin production. uh because at the end of the day u if if we don't have a guaranteed feed um it's very hard uh to justify moving forward and commencing production. So for us risk elements were obviously validation of property and validation of uh grades and recovery percentages. Um but most importantly was solidifying a minimum amount of feed uh that we can have on a daily basis. And so we're we're in the middle of that due diligence uh process. And right now uh the big hurdle is making sure that we have that continuous feed. Gordon, can you talk about the sustainability feature for ES Gold that obviously you could replicate that again in Colombia and are there any differences as far as for permitting um in that jurisdiction that again for sustainability would um investors be interested in knowing? >> Well, I I think there's two ways of looking at it, right? Is um the sustainability of ES gold is what we're doing is we're cleaning up existing mine waste. So that stays consistent no matter what jurisdiction you're in. We are going into past producing areas that have significant mine waste and environmental hazard on surface and we have the capacity and expertise to clean that up and turn that into an economic viability for our shareholders. Now with that being said, every jurisdiction is a little different, right? There's challenges, there's risks, there's um idiosyncrasies in every jurisdiction, whether you're in Quebec or British Columbia or Colombia, the United States or in Africa. Every jurisdiction has a little bit of changes, but the general basis of ES gold is we are able to operate on a low capex model with a very significant target in mind, which is mining waste on surface that holds an environmental liability. Every jurisdiction is a little unique. we still have the expertise to be able to look at it holistically um and make that educated decision which is in best interest of our shareholders. >> You've had a lot of key milestones this summer. Um do you want to just break it down for an investor that's fairly new to this story? Um just like some of the best key points that they could really pay attention to or press releases that they can go reread. when I came into this company like this is this is a phenomenal project a phenomenal idea that now since I've come on board is we've made that theory and that idea a reality by getting our full funding by on the equity side is we are fully financed we have $10.5 million in the bank to move forward here but then coupling that with that strategic partnership of ocean partners really added that validation to the project that this isn't just a pipe dream this isn't just a capital raise in a hot market is we have the right people in place to get this over the line. For people that are new to the story and they want to look at the potential that this has, look at the metallurgical work that we've done. We've put work into this. This is not a new project by any means. Is Paul and the team have been working on this over a 15-year period. Over $50 million have been invested into this asset into in Montabon specifically on the infrastructure side, on the permitting side, the metallurgical work that's been done. this recent ENT survey that really showed the potential of the structure beneath us of the exploration upside. The fact that we're going to be in a producing environment here in the very near future gives us so much optionality moving forward on the exploration side is we're not going to be going to the market raising 25 dollars at a time for exploration programs. We're going to be funding that exploration ourselves. This is production backed. This is blue sky exploration potential backed by production is what we're doing and laying the groundwork for is a self-sustaining business model that can expand sustainably and organically. This is very different than other junior miners in the exploration space that are raising money hoping to drill hoping to hit so that they can continue to move forward and raise money the next year is we're going into production first. We're cleaning up an environmental liability with known tonnage. We know what we're getting into. We can we know the revenues. We know the the income we're going to be able to bring in. And then we can reinvest that into exploration and expansion and development further. We can turn something ideally with a mine life of 5 years potentially into a mine life of 10 15 as long as exploration goes well. But we also have the optionality is we don't find anything. We can take that money, we can reinvest it into another property and replicate what we're doing here. a low capex model cleaning up existing mine waste in an environment where there are a lot of past producing mines with tailings on surface by remaining low low capex nimble we're able to take advantage of a lot of opportunities in a very exciting gold and silver market >> Paul I'd love to get your commentary with the ocean partners how important was that to get a non-dilutive financing because I know I've had you on the show before and you love a good clean share structure which is again a favorite of mine and for investors always. So, um how exciting was that to have as a add-on for you? >> Oh, Gordon Gordon hit the nail on the head there. um besides besides being non-dilutive which is which is great for shareholders uh and for the corporate structure but the most important thing is a partner like um Ocean Partners coming on board and making what for me is a significant um commitment in form of an investment through that line of credit because $9 million on 19 total We have let's say what it is. It is significant. Um it's the validation part. Ocean partners through their investment and their partnership. What it demonstrated is it demon it demonstrated validation of work that was done previously on minable at least at a minimum based on that agreement a minimum amount of ounces of gold and silver to be mined over the next few years here. And that for me was very very very important um that throughout that due diligence process um and they they did an extensive due diligence process that they they move forward on the green light. It it it it shows anyways on on that validation side for me what it tells me I'm a nuts and bolts kind of guy so for me it tells me that through their work they believe that those minimum ounceses on that surface crown pillar and the tailings are validated and so that is that should be a signal for shareholders 's uh future revenues, you know, through the process, we have at least a minimum of those amount of ounces of gold and silver. So, for me, that was the most the most important thing and having them on board as a partner for me uh was important um because of that validation process. >> Wharton, um I know we can't talk about those numbers, but let's talk about the numbers that we can talk about. Do you want to just uh update investors of where your share structure um how many shares out now fully diluted your burn rate? Um I know you just touched that you have about 10 and a half million in the bank but um just again update them on the numbers that they want to know. >> Yeah. No, we have we have 92 million shares issued outstanding right now. Um about 130 million fully diluted. This is a after financings that have been done over the year to get us fully funded to where we are today is we're in a very advantageous position on that tight share structure as I'm sure you're aware and your the followers are aware is Paul has done an incredible job on the share structure up until me coming on board where this was predominantly family and friends funding this getting this over the line and we were we did a great job getting that institutional money in over the last 100 days. So adding that validation at this market cap in this valuation is taking that to the next level. We're in a very good position right now when it comes to um capital structure. We have as I mentioned we have about $10 half million in the bank. We still run quite a low burn rate. Um, on the administrative side, we're focused on getting this up and running and with equipment being purchased and the building being completed is we're seeing more money on the the operation side, which is money we're happy to spend to make sure that this gets up and running. Obviously, you don't know what delays or what hiccups could happen along the way, but for for like your 10 and a half million, is that like more than enough to get you to the production like across the line for that >> to get us to upward pilot plant? Yes, that 10.5 million will take us over the line. Um, if we wanted to jump right to a thousand tons per day, then we're going to rely more on that ocean partners funding as well. But we were looking at about $18 million on the pea for total capex. with that if you include the money spent already and the money we have in the bank, we we are over the line on that. So, we're we're feeling very confident about the money we do have available to get this up and running and into production. We're we've done a lot of work to be able to get here and it's been a very I think Paul can attest there's been a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of work that's been gone into over the last few months to make sure that we're in this position. Paul shakes his head, but um we're we're very pleased of what we've accomplished over the last little while here to so that to make to come true on the promises that have been made of this gets into production that production first then exploration of everything that ES Gold could be. We're making sure it can happen. >> Paul, do you want to um obviously I mean you started the company when it was around 20 cents and that wasn't that long ago. Do you want to make some commentary on the share price? I mean, we've seen, you know, all the way up to $140 and now we're in that 70 to $1.90 range. Um, for shareholders that have been with you for a long time or new investors that are looking at this story, I'd just love to hear what your thoughts are. >> What what I tell our shareholders is look, you know, don't look at the trade, you know, don't look at daily or monthly moves. We know how it is. As we know the stock market uh stocks will go up, they come back down. But at the end of the day, we're looking to build an intrinsic value um where over time well the intrinsic value will be built over time and it will be built through uh infrastructural work, production and production over the years to come. And so we we get calls, Cali, there's people who call, hey, you know, why are we down? Uh who's selling? Who's selling? Who's selling? Who's buying? We don't know. September of 2024, we're at 10 cents. So yes, we're down from a$130 where it hit the high. That went that was a crazy run. I mean, do I believe that we were worth a$130 at the time?$140 dollar 40 when we were at uh no I think that was uh overvalued but at the end of the day right now we're at six 700 times up from almost one year ago 12 13 months ago um we have a a stock that's liquid and what I tell the shareholders is we're going to build it and there will be a moment where it's going to happen where that value is going to kick in and it's going to kick in not based on market trend or gold sitting at four or five or 6,000 or whatever it's going to be based on real intrinsic value of generating the revenue that cash model that exploration potential um of additional ounces moving forward for I don't know how many years depending on what we find and that's where you know I tell them you know that's where You got to keep your eye on that. You've been with us for years. I mean, I've been here since uh when it was DNA precious metals when we started in 2010. And those in initially people uh we wrote private placements uh checks at uh 20 cents and 25 cents, you know, and those people are in with the reverse consolidations. Their averages are five and $6. You know, the new people coming in now. I mean, I I they're they're lucky uh based on people that were here at the very beginning and supported and uh saw the vision and saw the value. So patients will reward people and reward the shareholders. Gordon and I are not here to to build something uh overnight because that doesn't happen that way. Shareholders that have stuck with it uh I think are going to be very well rewarded. Gordon said it said it really well. this when we started this project we were at 1,600 gold and it made sense and we're like oh my god okay like let's get up and running and that was the whole idea let's get up and running with the tailings make a bit of profit here but look at the crown pillar look at those grades and we're able to use our money and extract and produce and that made sense at 1 1600 so 4,000 I I'm really excited so >> Cali to add on here right is as Paul mentioned at at when it was at a$120 dollar$130 a few months ago and it ran up And there was some hype in the market, hype in the gold and silver space. If people liked it there, people like what we've done since then is we are now fully funded to accomplish what we've said we're going to accomplish. We've expanded on our exploration side. We've shown tremendous potential down at depth. We've done nothing but add value since then. So if people liked it at a dollar, if they liked it at uh 90 cents, they liked it at 80 cents, like they should certainly like it at 75 cents. Is because we've done nothing but add value since that time. we've um showed that we're we're going to be adding tremendous long-term value for our shareholders as that's our goal. And the next few months as we approach those production timelines, as we start ordering equipment, as we start seeing a more expansive uh potential around this exploration upside is we're going to continue to deliver on long-term shareholder value, which is our goal as management of ES Gold. >> Well, I 100% agree with both of you. I think it's a fantastic story and I know Peter Kra does as well and quite a few of the big players love this story. Gordon, as we come to a close, do you want to just give any last thoughts to new shareholders um potential investors? Is there um any conferences that they can see you at in the next couple months for the end of the year? Um how can they reach out to you as well? >> Um my phone number is available in our news releases. Please don't hesitate to call me, email me. I'm more than happy to talk to shareholders because as [snorts] hard as we work, I really do love this, right? Like we eat, sleep, and breathe. I love talking macro. I like talking this company specifics. Like, you're never bothering me. I'm more than happy to answer your questions. So, never hesitate to reach out. And we're we're doing a little bit of marketing throughout the the fall time. We're going to be in Toronto by the in the next couple weeks. Uh and then be in London for Minds and Money here at the beginning of December. just being able to touch base with a lot of um connections in our European investor base which is continuing to grow. We're moving forward. You know what? This is a remarkable time is we're we're at the very beginning of what ESOL has said they're going to deliver on. This is the start of everything is while this company has been working hard to get to where it is today is we got our funding, we get to move forward, we get to start ordering equipment is people getting on board now. they're joining us at the very beginning of what we can do. So, this is a the last week and this little bit of slip we've seen in gold and silver has presented an amazing buying opportunity. And while a lot of people exited in fear across this space is I think the real investors in this space, the people that know that smart money got very excited about a little down dip because it presented a phenomenal opportunity to be able to get involved in a little bit lower valuation. And after this last week that we've seen, this has presented a tremendous opportunity for new people to get involved with ES Gold for what we plan on delivering in the the months to come is the end of 2025 is going to be exciting as we continue to build and get ready and 2026 will be the most exciting year yet in ES holds history. The um the biggest hurdle for this company was being having the capacity to raise uh the money required uh to get the project uh into production which is where that real intrinsic value will kick in for shareholders. Gordon's addition since he's joined here in the last couple of months has been able to take this over that finish line which something uh which is something that the company struggled for 15 years let's call it what it is and so I am super super excited for the shareholders over the next little while here because the mill buildout equals production production equals revenues. Revenues brings that intrinsic value, that real value, market value for shareholders. And we're in a position now to be able to do it. Something which for 15 years we were unable to be in that position to deliver. And so shareholders have a lot to look forward to here uh in the next 12 months.