Silver Price Explosion: How Long Can It Last? | Joaquin Marias
Summary
Silver Market Insight: Silver prices have surged to nearly $40 an ounce, marking the highest level since 2011, driven by a significant supply-demand deficit in the market.
Industry Adaptation: The silver industry is adjusting to these new price highs by focusing on closing the supply-demand gap, with companies like Argenta Silver exploring new mining opportunities.
Investment Opportunities: Current market conditions present a favorable environment for financing and development projects, as evidenced by Argenta Silver's successful $17.5 million financing round.
Company Profile: Argenta Silver, a new company established in October last year, focuses on the Elavar project in Argentina, which is a pure silver play with significant untapped potential.
Unique Selling Proposition: Argenta Silver distinguishes itself with its pure silver focus, substantial infrastructure, and a vast, largely unexplored property, offering significant leverage and growth potential.
Growth Trajectory: Since its inception, Argenta Silver's share price has increased by 300%, significantly outperforming the silver market, attributed to strategic exploration and resource expansion efforts.
Future Plans: The company aims to expand its resource base and explore new targets, with a vision of significantly increasing its silver reserves, supported by strong backing from major investors like Frank Gustra and Eduardo Stein.
Key Takeaway: Argenta Silver offers a compelling investment opportunity with its pure silver focus, strategic location, and substantial growth potential, backed by experienced and long-term investors.
Transcript
The silver price is now nearing $40 an ounce. That's the highest price we've seen since 2011. That's huge because 2011 was its previous all-time high. And people have been waiting for a return of this all-time high. So, what's next for the silver industry, the entire mining industry? What are some of the key developments going forward that investors need to be aware of? Right now, we're going to be talking with industry leaders and executives on the ground who can give us inside insight. Our next guest is one such executive. He is Wim Marius, CEO of Argenta Silver and he'll be giving us his outlook on the entire silver industry as well as key developments from his company so that we can learn more about how silver companies adapt to changing macroeconomic and silver price environments. This is a sponsored interview. Do your own due diligence. This video is not financial advice. I'll be attending the Beaver Creek Precious Metal Summit in Colorado in two weeks. September 9th to 12th are the conference dates. I'll be speaking with more industry leaders to get insights on what is next for gold and silver and precious metals and base metals and the mining industries. We've got a great lineup of speakers including Frank Gustra, who is a mining mogul, one of the investors of Argenta Silver. So, you'll want to stay tuned for this conference September 9th to 12th. I'll be in Beaver Creek. See you there virtually. Now, back to the interview with Wen. Waqin, it's good to see you. Thanks for coming on the show. Welcome. >> Thank you very much, Lyn. It's um a pleasure for me. >> $39.50 an ounce. That's the latest silver price on my screen as of the 29th of August. That is a high we haven't seen since 2012. It's an extraordinary time for the industry. It's an extraordinary time for the metal and investors alike. How is the silver industry adapting to these new all-time highs? Um, I say new all-time high uh assuming we haven't counted uh January uh 2012, otherwise it's a 13-year high. >> Yeah, it's a this is this is crazy times. I think that we are doing really great and uh when you start thinking about um how the market is behaving it's uh it's impressive and I think that it's not that much about how the market is behaving it's how we are going to cover in the future the deficit in between supply and demand right um I was uh I'm actually just coming back from Argentina I was in Argentina uh last week and I was in the project and I was discussing that with one of the geologist that um imagine that you need to mine uh at least five ElkVars per year to fulfill that gap in between supply and demand. So the deficit that we are going to face uh David I think that it's going to be huge and that's probably one of the most important drivers on the price of silver. >> What about financing and raising money? Uh is it now an opportune time for companies to uh finance developments projects uh do developments and um financing um get affected by the price or not so much? >> Look, it's it's clear for us that if you have a good project, if you're in the right market, if you are in the right moment, uh you have the right backers, then raising money, it's not going to be an issue. At this uh moment we have a treasury of 24 uh million Canadian dollars and that's because we raised uh money or actually it was a bot deal that came to our table uh recently. So you know closing this uh bot deal for us has been very very good. uh we closed the boat deal for $15 million and to that we ended up adding $2.5 million from the pro rata right from our largest shareholder who is Eduardo Stein. So when you ask me if price is is one of the drivers I would I would say yes it's one of the drivers it's not it's not the only one it's one of of the many drivers that it's making now an opportunity for companies to raise money in the market. So it's a combination of things. I think that we are in a really good position. We have a really good asset uh with a very base uh or very nice base of 50 million ounces combined in between fair and indicated for the resource and all the potential for exploration. And as I said we had two great backers. One of them it's Frank Gustra and the other one it's Eduardo Estee. two billionaires that are very well aware of what's the mining industry and well the price of silver and gold it's helping us a lot as well >> in terms of developments and updates why don't we start with what Argenta silver is give us a scale or sense of the scale the deposit where you're operating in the world and the key opportunities in that jurisdiction basically just introduce the company to the audience first and then we'll talk about your latest developments >> amazing so Argenta silver. It's a company that was created um in October last year. So, it's not even been one year of life for the company. It's a very very recent company. Um it was created in the guts of the Fior group and it was created because I identified an opportunity and this opportunity is located in Argentina. The opportunity it's called Elavar and this is a very rare thing. It's a pure silver play located in the north of Argentina. And this um asset was in hands of a previous company that kept the asset dormant for over 10 years. So for 10 years, nobody was doing that anything there. And uh this asset is the third largest undeveloped silver asset in the country. And it's a pure silver asset with a spectacular grade. So, Elqvar, it's a project that has 45.3 million ounces of silver at 482 g per ton on the indicated category and 4.1 million ounces of silver at 417 g per ton of silver on the infer category. So combined let's say that we have almost 50 million ounces of silver from where 90% are indicated and that is putting us in a very good position for resource expansion. But then we acquire this project for a very small price and we have all the infrastructure in place from roads, railroads, a gas pipeline, a camp and many other things that are making this a unique opportunity. Um that is also helping us for the other portion of the story which is the exploration of new targets. Only 3% of the property has been thoroughly explored and the remaining it's still there. So we are going to be uh addressing this project in two ways. One is the resource expansion portion and the other one is the uh discovery of new targets or new things in the property. The potential is huge. It's been lying there for 10 years. Uh we grab it as I said last October and um actually Beaver Creek it's coming very soon. um on Beaver Creek. It's a it was the time when we were starting to raise the money to create Argenta silver. So it's a spectacular journey and we are very happy so far with the outcomes. >> Let's talk about uh why Argenta silver is unique. There's a lot of mining companies, a lot of developments and projects happening in South America. It is a very rich jurisdiction when it comes to uh the geology and um veins available. But um why Argenta Silver and not why and not one of the many other companies operating in the region? >> Okay, Argenta Silver has a particularity as I told you David, this is a pure silver play. So when you see our analytics right on on our web page, you can you can go and look at our analytics and and you will see that it's pure silver. There is no gold, no copper, no lead, no zinc. It's a pure silver play. So we have all the leverage from from silver. We were talking about silver markets. How good they are performing, how fast they can grow up. Well, we have all the leverage from silver. When you see other companies, they will have some other components inside. They will have lead or they will have zinc. And these elements, they don't perform as well as silver. So, we get all the leverage from silver on first place and on the second place is what I just mentioned about infrastructure. I don't know about other projects with all the amount of infrastructure that we have in place. When you think about that, building a railroad is extremely expensive. Building a gas pipeline is extremely expensive. We have a camp for 100 people and then we have over 60 kilometers of internal roads that are there in place. So putting all this in perspective are millions and millions of dollars in the order of the hundreds of millions of dollars that we do not need to put into the project for future development. They are there laying down there and and everything is uh usable. I mean it's very useful. The train goes once per week towards the region and the railroad it's at 3 kilometers from camp. Right. the road it's a it's going to be 75% paved. So all this infrastructure it's also plus that many other companies don't have. And when you think about the the the immense property, it's a 57,000 ectar property. Only 1% has been thoroughly drilled and only 3% of the property has been thoroughly explored. So there is 97% of the ground that we need to walk. And you know this is this is a fantastic thing on geological terms. I don't want to get too technical here David but for the audience to understand we are sitting on top of a volcanic complex and a volcanic complex it's a place where one volcano came on top of the other and they built this massive volcanic complex. So it means that there are pulses of hydrothermal activity coming into place and that's where the potential it's been you know growth one on top of the other so we need to get out we need to keep exploring and I think that that what's make us unique now in the market and probably in the region >> okay walking let's take a look at your presentation starting with your first slide now uh this is your company timeline for the share price and uh let's just begin with September and October 2024 and uh as you can see through this slide the company shares have gained roughly 300% since that time. Uh over that period of time silver has moved up about 50%. So maybe explain the leverage and why the company significantly outperformed silver. >> Perfect. So as I was telling you we created this company in October last year. So you can see on the left side of the screen that we started with a share price of 15 cents. That that's when we did the private placement and we raised the $15 million that help us to build this company. So since then as you can see we were working pretty much silently let's put it that way until January because we were preparing everything on place uh at site and building this company and in January is when we commenced exploration January 2025. So as I said this is a very new company and you can see how we start to build this up very organically. In April 28th, I was appointed CEO and that's when I start to put a lot of changes and and and created a really strong team here to start moving things forward and since then the company has been growing really fast. So if you take from October last year up to August this year, there is 300% in organic growth. So this is happening in in less than a year. Um the other thing if you allow me to show David it's is this curve. This is a very important curve. This is this is showing how our market cap has been growing up in connection with our share price. Right? So, as I said, we created this company with $15 million in the bank and from there we start building this up and we have up to now uh multiply by 10 the market cap of this company. Today we are sitting on a company that it's approximately 150 million Canadian dollars in market cap. And you can see that pretty much the the the push or the growth came with the first batch of results that we put out on July 21st this year out in market. Then we put a second batch of uh drill results on August 13. That was the latest push. And in between both of those uh the B deal happened and with that we incorporated or brought into the company $17.5 million uh into our treasury. The last image that I want to show you is this chart here and you can see the curve down below and that's the amount of money that we have put into work or that we have spent for for this. So we started very very small just doing expenses to build up the company and in January when we started exploration we start pouring more money into Argentina and into the team. And you can see here that from uh the 1st of January up to June 31st we have spent around 4 million Canadian dollars and the market cap was of 70 million. But if you think about that uh date when we started exploration up to now we have spent approximately 5.5 million Canadian dollars and the value that we have put here for the company it's immense. So this is a company that we are creating superb value at a very low cost. So we are committed on putting every dollar into the ground and maximizing that dollar from the investment into value for the shareholders. So I think that that's what I I should show from my presentation and um I want I want the the future investors to keep this in mind that we are maximizing the investment to create something very very valuable. of course that the market is helping, of course that the um silver price is helping, of course that the deposit is helping, but you know, I think that it's the team and the management that is adding most of this value into place. >> Can you tell us how much cash the company currently has um on the balance sheet and what you plan to do with this cash reserve going forward? >> Yes. So, we have in our treasury 24 uh million Canadian dollars. Um the strategy here is to invest uh that money in the next season which is going to be a much more ambitious season that the one that we had. We need to remember that it's summer on the northern hemisphere and it's winter on the southern hemisphere. So we have been drilling 4,000 mters in the middle of the winter with very very challenging conditions. Our team has been doing a spectacular job down there. And as you can see these results that are coming out from the ground are spectacular and that's why we are building this this um this uh value into the company. But what it's coming it's our summer season the summer season that it's 2025 2026. It's going to span between October to April. Uh we plan to drill in between 12,000 to 15,000 mters. we will be addressing um the targets as I was telling you before uh 40% or half of that it's going to go into resource expansion and most of the money or 60% let's call it will go into uh new discoveries or or exploration for for different targets that we have even identified with a lot of potential. So uh this dual approach will help us to build a to build up a very very solid company because we are drilling on the resource we can expand the resource and at the same time we will be able to discover new things. >> What's the timeline for uh resource exploration? So the resource expansion erh or or probably what you want to to ask me David it's when are we going to update this resource and I think that if that's the question uh we will be drilling the resource in most most of the boats that we have found so when I'm talking about voids it means that the resource itself they has gaps and we have proven with this uh drilling program that we are just about to finish we have proven that thoseap gaps are not mineralization gaps. We have proven that those gaps are drilling gaps. So we have drilling there and we have found that there is mineralization in between uh those voids. So what's going to be the timing for the next resource update? Well, it will depend mostly on the outcomes from this season and probably the next winter. But I think that we are doing a great job on identifying those gaps and drilling in there. The other important things to mention is that we have drilled stepouts in this um in this drilling program from the winter and those stepouts had been successful as well as the drilling between those boats. So we are proving that there is more potential for the resource to growth. Uh hopefully we will have a resource update by increasing ounces at least on 25% of the existing uh ounces that we have currently in the deposit. >> What's the uh 5-year plan for the company here uh going forward? Are you planning to ultimately take the company into production or do you think you're better off partnering with a company through a JV to produce? Uh perhaps you're looking to sell off the assets. uh ultimately what is you know your vision what would be a dream scenario for you walking >> okay you you you you made a very good question at last David and it's that question was what's my vision so if you ask me what is going to happen to us well I have no idea I don't know if somebody else in the in the market is thinking to acquire us or not uh I I don't I can't think about those but what I can tell you is what's my vision here and my vision here is to build a great company to build up this deposit and I think that we are sitting on a on a very very rich portion of ground and nobody has untapped the potential that this ground has. So there is where my vision lies or there is where my vision is at this moment on the potential from from from this rich portion of earth. I think that if we explore properly, if we expand the resource properly, if we go and look for new things, we can make this a very very big thing. And uh nobody knows, nobody knows, David, if there is another deposit next to the existing one. You know, the fluids have come up and this is what people has been drilling. But nobody knows if there is another branch coming sideways. Nobody has been drilling there. Nobody has been exploring properly this and that's my vision. My vision is to go out to look for more and to make this bigger bigger bigger bigger bigger. I wake up every morning thinking about 250 million ounces of silver and I think that it might be doable. So that's where my vision is. We will see what happens in the future if some company will uh acquire us. The opportunities are there are out there. We are still looking for new opportunities um in Latin America. It's really hard to find something like Kavar. Uh but our focus now it's pretty much on this project and to making it bigger. >> You say that you've built over $150 million worth of value. Now tell us who the backers are of this company, the major investors, the uh major shareholders. >> So our major shareholders are uh two two gentlemen. Uh these are very very well-known businessmen. These businessmen are one from Argentina and the other from Canada. So let's start on the Canadian one is Frank Gustra. I work here in the fur group with Frank. I have been working for the last four years uh with the group and advising him and some other people here in the group. So working with Frank has been super super valuable. Frank has an an incredible vision about the market and about precious metals and he is one of the founders of this company. So the foundations of this company uh in part are are are his own vision and his own dream of having a pure silver company. Uh after a while after after a couple of months of creating this company I met Eduardo Stein who is the the largest shareholder at this moment of the company and Eduardo Stein it's a very big businessman he's a very agri businessman a very big real estate businessman from Argentina and he has been investing in mining in South America in Argentina in Chile he owns a silver mine he owns a gold mine m. So he knows very very well the the mining markets and the mining scenario and um he has been super supportive uh that much that in the last bot deal they decided to make use of their pro rata right and that's why they came in with 2.5 million Canadian dollars and uh I think that it's great to have these two visionaries uh working with us and supporting us so much. They are very active. They they they have a lot of input on this and I'm I'm very grateful to have them as major shareholders. >> Tell us about your personal background, professional background leading up to uh Argenta silver. >> Okay. I'm I'm a geologist. So I studied geology in Argentina and uh I have been working with mostly international companies, mostly in private companies in Argentina on the exploration side and building companies in Argentina advising and consulting to foreign companies coming into the country. Uh I have been working in different countries as I said and the last country that I work was in Canada. I have been working um in northern BC and helping and advising the Fury group as well for the last four years. And um we came into this moment that we decided to build up Argenta silver and I was appointed as the VP of exploration for the company. Funny so, David is that we spent a lot of time looking for a CEO. And I was advising that if we could find a good CEO, he would or she would have to have a Spanish language, English language, knowledge about the markets, knowledge about the geology. It would have to be a person that could meet the people in the field, meet the people in the community, meet the people at government levels, you know, and he would have to be available for meetings and and traveling around the world. Well, funny. So, it was really hard to find that person. It ended up that it was uh pretty much me. That's why I am the CEO of this company at this moment. Um I think that uh the the position that has been appointed to me it's very well reflected on the share price and the and the value that we have been creating and the team that I have put in place. I think that that's crucial. Uh it's an honor to be working with the people that I'm working in Argentina and here in Canada. And as I said before, it's all about who is backing you up uh who is working with you. Going back to the two primary shareholders, this is a risk that some people have addressed for not just your company but any small to midcap uh resource stock that is primarily whole uh owned by a minority um or a small number of shareholders should I say. The risk is that if they sell their stock or liquidate there's going to be a huge downward price movement. How would you as a CEO address this risk from investors? Well, I think that uh dilution is in every company and the risk of a big big shareholders leaving a company, you know, it's it's always there. The matter is, okay, who is that people? Who are your backers? Who are your shareholders? Right? uh when you think about Frank Gustra, when you think about Eduardo, I mean it's it's people that has a shortterm ideas, short-term vision or is this people that has long-term vision, long-term ideas? Frank Gustra has been waiting for 40 years to create a pure silver company, you know, and he has created many companies that have been very successful. This one I think that it's it's something that it's coming from from his heart. So Frank is there. He's very supportive. I talk to him very often and he he give us great inputs. And the same is happening with Eduardo. Eduardo is a very very uh long-term player. He has been for years working on the agri business and he has been working for years on the real estate of Argentina. that's how he built um the name and the the the the the growth and the potential that he has. So he's been in mining as well for a long time. Mining has been one of his first businesses and the companies that he's in well he's been there for many many many years and so far as I know he hasn't left any one of those. So that's the question. Is this shortterm vision people or is this long-term vision people? And I think that for Eduardo and Frank is the second one. They are very long-term vision people. >> Thank you very much. Walking. Let's leave on one final note. If somebody were to ask you what's one key takeaway from Argenta Silver that I should be walking away with in any presentation or interview, what is that? Well, I think that uh key points, bullet points. So, the bullet points, David, are pure silver play. We have all the leverage from silver. We are located in a beautiful jurisdiction, which is the north of Argentina. No drug lords, no conflicts, no problems with the community. We have the government that is supporting us. And on top of that, we have all the infrastructure, the railroad, the gas pipeline, everything that you can imagine to put this in production into the future. And on top of that, 97% of the project hasn't been explored at all. So the amount of potential that is out there is immense. I think that we have something very pre very precious here and our shareholders are backing us really really well. Uh yeah, I think that th those are the most important keys, right? Um no, no more from my side. >> All right, Wen, thank you very much for your uh for your uh presentation and uh educating us about how the silver industry works on the inside. Tell us where we can learn more about Argenta silver. In the meantime, before we have you on again, >> well, I suggest people to go into our website. Our website, it's full on media things. you can find there from mats to tables and other things. The presentation that we have is fantastic. There are some videos in there. So visit argentas.com, follow us on social media so you stay tuned and you don't forget or miss actually anything that it's coming out and see our YouTube videos. There you will find interviews like this one and many other ones that are in there. So yeah, stay tuned with us and don't miss the incoming news. There will be more coming up. Okay, thank you and thank you for watching. Don't forget to like and subscribe.
Silver Price Explosion: How Long Can It Last? | Joaquin Marias
Summary
Transcript
The silver price is now nearing $40 an ounce. That's the highest price we've seen since 2011. That's huge because 2011 was its previous all-time high. And people have been waiting for a return of this all-time high. So, what's next for the silver industry, the entire mining industry? What are some of the key developments going forward that investors need to be aware of? Right now, we're going to be talking with industry leaders and executives on the ground who can give us inside insight. Our next guest is one such executive. He is Wim Marius, CEO of Argenta Silver and he'll be giving us his outlook on the entire silver industry as well as key developments from his company so that we can learn more about how silver companies adapt to changing macroeconomic and silver price environments. This is a sponsored interview. Do your own due diligence. This video is not financial advice. I'll be attending the Beaver Creek Precious Metal Summit in Colorado in two weeks. September 9th to 12th are the conference dates. I'll be speaking with more industry leaders to get insights on what is next for gold and silver and precious metals and base metals and the mining industries. We've got a great lineup of speakers including Frank Gustra, who is a mining mogul, one of the investors of Argenta Silver. So, you'll want to stay tuned for this conference September 9th to 12th. I'll be in Beaver Creek. See you there virtually. Now, back to the interview with Wen. Waqin, it's good to see you. Thanks for coming on the show. Welcome. >> Thank you very much, Lyn. It's um a pleasure for me. >> $39.50 an ounce. That's the latest silver price on my screen as of the 29th of August. That is a high we haven't seen since 2012. It's an extraordinary time for the industry. It's an extraordinary time for the metal and investors alike. How is the silver industry adapting to these new all-time highs? Um, I say new all-time high uh assuming we haven't counted uh January uh 2012, otherwise it's a 13-year high. >> Yeah, it's a this is this is crazy times. I think that we are doing really great and uh when you start thinking about um how the market is behaving it's uh it's impressive and I think that it's not that much about how the market is behaving it's how we are going to cover in the future the deficit in between supply and demand right um I was uh I'm actually just coming back from Argentina I was in Argentina uh last week and I was in the project and I was discussing that with one of the geologist that um imagine that you need to mine uh at least five ElkVars per year to fulfill that gap in between supply and demand. So the deficit that we are going to face uh David I think that it's going to be huge and that's probably one of the most important drivers on the price of silver. >> What about financing and raising money? Uh is it now an opportune time for companies to uh finance developments projects uh do developments and um financing um get affected by the price or not so much? >> Look, it's it's clear for us that if you have a good project, if you're in the right market, if you are in the right moment, uh you have the right backers, then raising money, it's not going to be an issue. At this uh moment we have a treasury of 24 uh million Canadian dollars and that's because we raised uh money or actually it was a bot deal that came to our table uh recently. So you know closing this uh bot deal for us has been very very good. uh we closed the boat deal for $15 million and to that we ended up adding $2.5 million from the pro rata right from our largest shareholder who is Eduardo Stein. So when you ask me if price is is one of the drivers I would I would say yes it's one of the drivers it's not it's not the only one it's one of of the many drivers that it's making now an opportunity for companies to raise money in the market. So it's a combination of things. I think that we are in a really good position. We have a really good asset uh with a very base uh or very nice base of 50 million ounces combined in between fair and indicated for the resource and all the potential for exploration. And as I said we had two great backers. One of them it's Frank Gustra and the other one it's Eduardo Estee. two billionaires that are very well aware of what's the mining industry and well the price of silver and gold it's helping us a lot as well >> in terms of developments and updates why don't we start with what Argenta silver is give us a scale or sense of the scale the deposit where you're operating in the world and the key opportunities in that jurisdiction basically just introduce the company to the audience first and then we'll talk about your latest developments >> amazing so Argenta silver. It's a company that was created um in October last year. So, it's not even been one year of life for the company. It's a very very recent company. Um it was created in the guts of the Fior group and it was created because I identified an opportunity and this opportunity is located in Argentina. The opportunity it's called Elavar and this is a very rare thing. It's a pure silver play located in the north of Argentina. And this um asset was in hands of a previous company that kept the asset dormant for over 10 years. So for 10 years, nobody was doing that anything there. And uh this asset is the third largest undeveloped silver asset in the country. And it's a pure silver asset with a spectacular grade. So, Elqvar, it's a project that has 45.3 million ounces of silver at 482 g per ton on the indicated category and 4.1 million ounces of silver at 417 g per ton of silver on the infer category. So combined let's say that we have almost 50 million ounces of silver from where 90% are indicated and that is putting us in a very good position for resource expansion. But then we acquire this project for a very small price and we have all the infrastructure in place from roads, railroads, a gas pipeline, a camp and many other things that are making this a unique opportunity. Um that is also helping us for the other portion of the story which is the exploration of new targets. Only 3% of the property has been thoroughly explored and the remaining it's still there. So we are going to be uh addressing this project in two ways. One is the resource expansion portion and the other one is the uh discovery of new targets or new things in the property. The potential is huge. It's been lying there for 10 years. Uh we grab it as I said last October and um actually Beaver Creek it's coming very soon. um on Beaver Creek. It's a it was the time when we were starting to raise the money to create Argenta silver. So it's a spectacular journey and we are very happy so far with the outcomes. >> Let's talk about uh why Argenta silver is unique. There's a lot of mining companies, a lot of developments and projects happening in South America. It is a very rich jurisdiction when it comes to uh the geology and um veins available. But um why Argenta Silver and not why and not one of the many other companies operating in the region? >> Okay, Argenta Silver has a particularity as I told you David, this is a pure silver play. So when you see our analytics right on on our web page, you can you can go and look at our analytics and and you will see that it's pure silver. There is no gold, no copper, no lead, no zinc. It's a pure silver play. So we have all the leverage from from silver. We were talking about silver markets. How good they are performing, how fast they can grow up. Well, we have all the leverage from silver. When you see other companies, they will have some other components inside. They will have lead or they will have zinc. And these elements, they don't perform as well as silver. So, we get all the leverage from silver on first place and on the second place is what I just mentioned about infrastructure. I don't know about other projects with all the amount of infrastructure that we have in place. When you think about that, building a railroad is extremely expensive. Building a gas pipeline is extremely expensive. We have a camp for 100 people and then we have over 60 kilometers of internal roads that are there in place. So putting all this in perspective are millions and millions of dollars in the order of the hundreds of millions of dollars that we do not need to put into the project for future development. They are there laying down there and and everything is uh usable. I mean it's very useful. The train goes once per week towards the region and the railroad it's at 3 kilometers from camp. Right. the road it's a it's going to be 75% paved. So all this infrastructure it's also plus that many other companies don't have. And when you think about the the the immense property, it's a 57,000 ectar property. Only 1% has been thoroughly drilled and only 3% of the property has been thoroughly explored. So there is 97% of the ground that we need to walk. And you know this is this is a fantastic thing on geological terms. I don't want to get too technical here David but for the audience to understand we are sitting on top of a volcanic complex and a volcanic complex it's a place where one volcano came on top of the other and they built this massive volcanic complex. So it means that there are pulses of hydrothermal activity coming into place and that's where the potential it's been you know growth one on top of the other so we need to get out we need to keep exploring and I think that that what's make us unique now in the market and probably in the region >> okay walking let's take a look at your presentation starting with your first slide now uh this is your company timeline for the share price and uh let's just begin with September and October 2024 and uh as you can see through this slide the company shares have gained roughly 300% since that time. Uh over that period of time silver has moved up about 50%. So maybe explain the leverage and why the company significantly outperformed silver. >> Perfect. So as I was telling you we created this company in October last year. So you can see on the left side of the screen that we started with a share price of 15 cents. That that's when we did the private placement and we raised the $15 million that help us to build this company. So since then as you can see we were working pretty much silently let's put it that way until January because we were preparing everything on place uh at site and building this company and in January is when we commenced exploration January 2025. So as I said this is a very new company and you can see how we start to build this up very organically. In April 28th, I was appointed CEO and that's when I start to put a lot of changes and and and created a really strong team here to start moving things forward and since then the company has been growing really fast. So if you take from October last year up to August this year, there is 300% in organic growth. So this is happening in in less than a year. Um the other thing if you allow me to show David it's is this curve. This is a very important curve. This is this is showing how our market cap has been growing up in connection with our share price. Right? So, as I said, we created this company with $15 million in the bank and from there we start building this up and we have up to now uh multiply by 10 the market cap of this company. Today we are sitting on a company that it's approximately 150 million Canadian dollars in market cap. And you can see that pretty much the the the push or the growth came with the first batch of results that we put out on July 21st this year out in market. Then we put a second batch of uh drill results on August 13. That was the latest push. And in between both of those uh the B deal happened and with that we incorporated or brought into the company $17.5 million uh into our treasury. The last image that I want to show you is this chart here and you can see the curve down below and that's the amount of money that we have put into work or that we have spent for for this. So we started very very small just doing expenses to build up the company and in January when we started exploration we start pouring more money into Argentina and into the team. And you can see here that from uh the 1st of January up to June 31st we have spent around 4 million Canadian dollars and the market cap was of 70 million. But if you think about that uh date when we started exploration up to now we have spent approximately 5.5 million Canadian dollars and the value that we have put here for the company it's immense. So this is a company that we are creating superb value at a very low cost. So we are committed on putting every dollar into the ground and maximizing that dollar from the investment into value for the shareholders. So I think that that's what I I should show from my presentation and um I want I want the the future investors to keep this in mind that we are maximizing the investment to create something very very valuable. of course that the market is helping, of course that the um silver price is helping, of course that the deposit is helping, but you know, I think that it's the team and the management that is adding most of this value into place. >> Can you tell us how much cash the company currently has um on the balance sheet and what you plan to do with this cash reserve going forward? >> Yes. So, we have in our treasury 24 uh million Canadian dollars. Um the strategy here is to invest uh that money in the next season which is going to be a much more ambitious season that the one that we had. We need to remember that it's summer on the northern hemisphere and it's winter on the southern hemisphere. So we have been drilling 4,000 mters in the middle of the winter with very very challenging conditions. Our team has been doing a spectacular job down there. And as you can see these results that are coming out from the ground are spectacular and that's why we are building this this um this uh value into the company. But what it's coming it's our summer season the summer season that it's 2025 2026. It's going to span between October to April. Uh we plan to drill in between 12,000 to 15,000 mters. we will be addressing um the targets as I was telling you before uh 40% or half of that it's going to go into resource expansion and most of the money or 60% let's call it will go into uh new discoveries or or exploration for for different targets that we have even identified with a lot of potential. So uh this dual approach will help us to build a to build up a very very solid company because we are drilling on the resource we can expand the resource and at the same time we will be able to discover new things. >> What's the timeline for uh resource exploration? So the resource expansion erh or or probably what you want to to ask me David it's when are we going to update this resource and I think that if that's the question uh we will be drilling the resource in most most of the boats that we have found so when I'm talking about voids it means that the resource itself they has gaps and we have proven with this uh drilling program that we are just about to finish we have proven that thoseap gaps are not mineralization gaps. We have proven that those gaps are drilling gaps. So we have drilling there and we have found that there is mineralization in between uh those voids. So what's going to be the timing for the next resource update? Well, it will depend mostly on the outcomes from this season and probably the next winter. But I think that we are doing a great job on identifying those gaps and drilling in there. The other important things to mention is that we have drilled stepouts in this um in this drilling program from the winter and those stepouts had been successful as well as the drilling between those boats. So we are proving that there is more potential for the resource to growth. Uh hopefully we will have a resource update by increasing ounces at least on 25% of the existing uh ounces that we have currently in the deposit. >> What's the uh 5-year plan for the company here uh going forward? Are you planning to ultimately take the company into production or do you think you're better off partnering with a company through a JV to produce? Uh perhaps you're looking to sell off the assets. uh ultimately what is you know your vision what would be a dream scenario for you walking >> okay you you you you made a very good question at last David and it's that question was what's my vision so if you ask me what is going to happen to us well I have no idea I don't know if somebody else in the in the market is thinking to acquire us or not uh I I don't I can't think about those but what I can tell you is what's my vision here and my vision here is to build a great company to build up this deposit and I think that we are sitting on a on a very very rich portion of ground and nobody has untapped the potential that this ground has. So there is where my vision lies or there is where my vision is at this moment on the potential from from from this rich portion of earth. I think that if we explore properly, if we expand the resource properly, if we go and look for new things, we can make this a very very big thing. And uh nobody knows, nobody knows, David, if there is another deposit next to the existing one. You know, the fluids have come up and this is what people has been drilling. But nobody knows if there is another branch coming sideways. Nobody has been drilling there. Nobody has been exploring properly this and that's my vision. My vision is to go out to look for more and to make this bigger bigger bigger bigger bigger. I wake up every morning thinking about 250 million ounces of silver and I think that it might be doable. So that's where my vision is. We will see what happens in the future if some company will uh acquire us. The opportunities are there are out there. We are still looking for new opportunities um in Latin America. It's really hard to find something like Kavar. Uh but our focus now it's pretty much on this project and to making it bigger. >> You say that you've built over $150 million worth of value. Now tell us who the backers are of this company, the major investors, the uh major shareholders. >> So our major shareholders are uh two two gentlemen. Uh these are very very well-known businessmen. These businessmen are one from Argentina and the other from Canada. So let's start on the Canadian one is Frank Gustra. I work here in the fur group with Frank. I have been working for the last four years uh with the group and advising him and some other people here in the group. So working with Frank has been super super valuable. Frank has an an incredible vision about the market and about precious metals and he is one of the founders of this company. So the foundations of this company uh in part are are are his own vision and his own dream of having a pure silver company. Uh after a while after after a couple of months of creating this company I met Eduardo Stein who is the the largest shareholder at this moment of the company and Eduardo Stein it's a very big businessman he's a very agri businessman a very big real estate businessman from Argentina and he has been investing in mining in South America in Argentina in Chile he owns a silver mine he owns a gold mine m. So he knows very very well the the mining markets and the mining scenario and um he has been super supportive uh that much that in the last bot deal they decided to make use of their pro rata right and that's why they came in with 2.5 million Canadian dollars and uh I think that it's great to have these two visionaries uh working with us and supporting us so much. They are very active. They they they have a lot of input on this and I'm I'm very grateful to have them as major shareholders. >> Tell us about your personal background, professional background leading up to uh Argenta silver. >> Okay. I'm I'm a geologist. So I studied geology in Argentina and uh I have been working with mostly international companies, mostly in private companies in Argentina on the exploration side and building companies in Argentina advising and consulting to foreign companies coming into the country. Uh I have been working in different countries as I said and the last country that I work was in Canada. I have been working um in northern BC and helping and advising the Fury group as well for the last four years. And um we came into this moment that we decided to build up Argenta silver and I was appointed as the VP of exploration for the company. Funny so, David is that we spent a lot of time looking for a CEO. And I was advising that if we could find a good CEO, he would or she would have to have a Spanish language, English language, knowledge about the markets, knowledge about the geology. It would have to be a person that could meet the people in the field, meet the people in the community, meet the people at government levels, you know, and he would have to be available for meetings and and traveling around the world. Well, funny. So, it was really hard to find that person. It ended up that it was uh pretty much me. That's why I am the CEO of this company at this moment. Um I think that uh the the position that has been appointed to me it's very well reflected on the share price and the and the value that we have been creating and the team that I have put in place. I think that that's crucial. Uh it's an honor to be working with the people that I'm working in Argentina and here in Canada. And as I said before, it's all about who is backing you up uh who is working with you. Going back to the two primary shareholders, this is a risk that some people have addressed for not just your company but any small to midcap uh resource stock that is primarily whole uh owned by a minority um or a small number of shareholders should I say. The risk is that if they sell their stock or liquidate there's going to be a huge downward price movement. How would you as a CEO address this risk from investors? Well, I think that uh dilution is in every company and the risk of a big big shareholders leaving a company, you know, it's it's always there. The matter is, okay, who is that people? Who are your backers? Who are your shareholders? Right? uh when you think about Frank Gustra, when you think about Eduardo, I mean it's it's people that has a shortterm ideas, short-term vision or is this people that has long-term vision, long-term ideas? Frank Gustra has been waiting for 40 years to create a pure silver company, you know, and he has created many companies that have been very successful. This one I think that it's it's something that it's coming from from his heart. So Frank is there. He's very supportive. I talk to him very often and he he give us great inputs. And the same is happening with Eduardo. Eduardo is a very very uh long-term player. He has been for years working on the agri business and he has been working for years on the real estate of Argentina. that's how he built um the name and the the the the the growth and the potential that he has. So he's been in mining as well for a long time. Mining has been one of his first businesses and the companies that he's in well he's been there for many many many years and so far as I know he hasn't left any one of those. So that's the question. Is this shortterm vision people or is this long-term vision people? And I think that for Eduardo and Frank is the second one. They are very long-term vision people. >> Thank you very much. Walking. Let's leave on one final note. If somebody were to ask you what's one key takeaway from Argenta Silver that I should be walking away with in any presentation or interview, what is that? Well, I think that uh key points, bullet points. So, the bullet points, David, are pure silver play. We have all the leverage from silver. We are located in a beautiful jurisdiction, which is the north of Argentina. No drug lords, no conflicts, no problems with the community. We have the government that is supporting us. And on top of that, we have all the infrastructure, the railroad, the gas pipeline, everything that you can imagine to put this in production into the future. And on top of that, 97% of the project hasn't been explored at all. So the amount of potential that is out there is immense. I think that we have something very pre very precious here and our shareholders are backing us really really well. Uh yeah, I think that th those are the most important keys, right? Um no, no more from my side. >> All right, Wen, thank you very much for your uh for your uh presentation and uh educating us about how the silver industry works on the inside. Tell us where we can learn more about Argenta silver. In the meantime, before we have you on again, >> well, I suggest people to go into our website. Our website, it's full on media things. you can find there from mats to tables and other things. The presentation that we have is fantastic. There are some videos in there. So visit argentas.com, follow us on social media so you stay tuned and you don't forget or miss actually anything that it's coming out and see our YouTube videos. There you will find interviews like this one and many other ones that are in there. So yeah, stay tuned with us and don't miss the incoming news. There will be more coming up. Okay, thank you and thank you for watching. Don't forget to like and subscribe.