AuMEGA Metals Ltd (AAM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Operator Instructions] I will now hand over to Matador Mining's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sam Pazuki. Over to you, Sam.

Great. No, thanks a lot, Alex. Appreciate that. Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining. It's my evening here in Toronto, but it's a pleasure to be here to give you an update on Matador, and where we are with the project in Newfoundland, provide an overview of the capital raise we just completed, walk you through what we're looking to do for the remainder of this year and basically articulate what the strategy is, going forward. I've had an opportunity to meet a number of investors. When I first started traveling to Australia, spending a couple of weeks there with investors and with the team, and have had a chance to be Managing Director and CEO of Matador for the past not quite 3 months, but almost 3 months. Have made numerous visits to Newfoundland. Set foot here -- an image you see here in Newfoundland as we explore what is truly a world-class gold belt in a world-class jurisdiction. So I'm going to go through a few slides here, and there will be an opportunity for Q&A, which Alex will moderate. Again, I'll turn your attention to the disclaimer here and the cautionary statements. This presentation was just put into the -- was lodged with the ASX. So it is available on the ASX, but also will be available on our website if it's already not there. So just an overview of Matador. Again, we're strategically placed in one of the top-tier jurisdictions in the world for mining -- for gold mining specifically. Newfoundland is a great jurisdiction and is one that is emerging and this is one of the top jurisdictions. For Matador, as an overview, most of you are already aware that we -- our main listing is in Australia on the ASX with the ticker MZZ. We've had a market capitalization of $26 million. That was as at the 25th of July. So that was yesterday. Good liquidity, trading volumes for a company of our size. So that's really picked up this year, a lot of interest, a lot of activity in the stock. With the capital raise, we've just completed, not only do we issue shares, but we were able to raise at least $5 million through both the higher dollar rates and Canadian flow-through scheme. And obviously, we're in the process now with the share purchase plan and going through that. We're one of only 4 companies with a resource in Newfoundland, so sitting at 837,000 ounces at 2 grams average grade. The cash balance, as you see there, is as I reported in the March quarter. We will be providing an update this week with respect to our cash balance. And I'll also point out that, that cash balance excludes the capital raise we've just completed. And then again, the capital raising yielded $5 million. The top holders isn't updated, that's from a little while ago. Just as the dust settles, we will provide an update in terms of who the top holders are. There will be some changes. With the share -- the capital raise that we just completed, we did have our largest shareholders participate in the equity raise, some pro rata, some more than pro rata and that will be reflected in the update. And more importantly, we picked up 2 very large resource specific funds based here in Toronto. It's great to have their support as well as well as the support of our shareholders. I know it's not been easy. But we appreciate the support that we have received thus far, and we're looking to continue to receive that support, so we can continue on the good work that the team have been focused on doing in Newfoundland. One of the things that sort of came to my attention when I was in Australia is, there's a lot of shareholders in Australia, a lot of people who support the company who've been investors for a number of years. I'd say maybe less than half, I might be generous in saying that, but less than half know actually where Newfoundland is. And I thought it was an opportunity here to explain why Newfoundland, why is it a jurisdiction that investors should pay attention to. Particularly investors in Australia because you're -- you've got very little exposure to the island. Matador is really one of the few options that you have in terms of getting exposure to Newfoundland. So why does that matter? I truly believe Newfoundland is one of the final frontiers in terms of top jurisdictions to advance gold mining projects. I've had an opportunity to meet with high-level government officials, the premier minister of mines, and it truly is a dream jurisdiction. I felt that way after the Toronto PDAC conference about a month ago. We both attended, both addressed a large group of companies that are based in Newfoundland, and basically said that they are looking to remove as many barriers as possible to push forward with responsible extractive industry. This is a great jurisdiction to be in, and one that hasn't seen a lot of activity historically. And again, that's the opportunity in Newfoundland is that there hasn't been a lot of investment. It's only more recent that we've seen more investment on the island. We've seen the exploration activities increase. There are a lot of companies there now in Newfoundland. I believe the last time we checked, there were 75 TSX-listed companies with some form of interest in gold mining in Newfoundland or gold exploration in Newfoundland. We're the only ones in the gold industry that's ASX listed. So supported government and stakeholders. They -- again, the resources is in their DNA, a lot of skilled workers are over -- not overseas, but across Canada and working in the oil patch. Investments into the countries or into the province like at Marathon Gold and the work that we're doing, certainly allows those workers to come back and work for the companies that are in Newfoundland. More recently, the government approved a large oil -- offshore oilfield just off the coast of St. John's. Where in the world do we see offshore oil fields being approved right now by governments? So again, they're putting money where their mouth is in terms of their support of the responsible resource extractives industry. It is, again, highly ranked by the Fraser's Institute, ranked 11. I would probably rank Newfoundland as #3 globally, based on my experience and looking at different jurisdictions in my previous roles, looking at what those opportunities are in those jurisdictions. Supply chain and logistics, again, is also pretty strong here in Newfoundland, especially where we are. We're -- we've got an office in Port aux Basque, which is down in the Southwest, as indicated there by the map. Our current resource is 20ks away from that. It's connected by the major highway, the Trans-Canada Highway, it's a major seaport. And so in terms of bringing supplies in, when it eventually becomes a mine, it is well situated from a logistics perspective. And again, with the amount of investment that's going in there over the last few years or so, we are starting to see some big projects take flight. There are only 4 companies with the resource, as I mentioned, in Newfoundland. We're 1 of 4. The Marathon Gold, which is really what we're looking to replicate, is the largest, most advanced company -- gold company on the island with the recent upgrade in terms of the resources of 5.1 million ounces. So that's why Newfoundland. And then the question is, why Matador? So we have a solid foundation in which can grow and basically unlock shareholder value. The resource that we do have, it's small, the 837,000 ounces, but again, it's only 1 of 4 companies. So we're ahead of the curve in terms of the exploration opportunities and exploration companies in Newfoundland. The resource is 2 grams, which -- 96% of which are shallow. It's less than 200 meters. That makes it one of the highest grade -- potentially the highest grade open-pitable mines and in a top-tier jurisdiction. The resource we do have underpins our market capitalization allows us to have a lower cost of capital relative to much of the -- or many of the 75 listed companies that are on the island. From an opportunities perspective, there's -- the main structure in Newfoundland for gold is the Cape Ray Shear. That's where we've got 120 kilometers of continuous strike. It's the same structure that hosts Marathon Gold's 5.1 million ounces. So we know that it's a proven multimillion-ounce structure, and we're sitting with one of the largest tenement packages on that structure. The other main structure is called the Hermitage Flexure. It hosts Newfound Gold, which has the largest market cap in Newfoundland at just about around AUD 1 billion. It's had some significant intercepts, no resource yet, but some very big splashy drill intercepts in the order of 1,000, 1,500-gram meters. We've got a project called Hermitage, which is 27 kilometers of continuous strike. It is the largest antimony and arsenic anomaly on the island. The second largest is NewFound Gold. So very little work at Hermitage, but it's one potentially strong opportunity for a project we have in the pipeline. We do have a solid shareholder register as demonstrated by our recent capital raise with the continued support from some of our larger shareholders and the addition of 2 very large institutional investors based here in Canada. And again, we're the only ASX-listed company with exposure to Newfoundland and that in itself presents an opportunity to Australian shareholders. Our corporate priorities, it is obviously, from external perspective, the market has been a little bit uncertain, a little bit volatile. But we're focused on maximizing shareholder returns. When I joined basically almost 3 months ago, looking at the land package that we have, looking at some of the results there at Malachite, which we eventually published to the market, I saw that the opportunity to move the dial for shareholders is from a greenfield's perspective. The company had focused a lot of the drilling efforts around what I call the brownfields resource and the 837,000 ounces. The drilling was successful as demonstrated by the results that the team have put out. And we'll grow the resource. But it will grow it in an incremental way. From my perspective, it wasn't something that is necessarily going to move the dial immediately. What I'm looking for and what I've encouraged the team to do is look for multimillion-ounce deposits. Again, Marathon Gold is sitting there with 5.1 million ounces. We know it's a multimillion-ounce structure. We've got 120 kilometers of continuous strike. What I believe is going to move the dial for our shareholders is to find Marathon linked deposits, multimillion-ounce deposits. Looking at the results of Malachite, there's no guarantee that that's going to generate that, but let's give it a good shot. The indications are there that it could be potentially a big system. But we don't know unless we go and test it. And that's the strategy. So go greenfields, look for new multimillion-ounce deposits and really explore the belt that we're sitting on. We are looking at -- obviously looking to enhance the capital structure we've done a capital raise, but also looking to access new capital markets. Because of the projects in Newfoundland, it does make sense for there to be a Toronto listing at some point and be a dual listed issuer. I believe there are too many mining companies in the industry. I often said that when I worked at OceanaGold. I believe that producers needed to consolidate. I can certainly say that with even more confidence that exploration companies should consolidate. It's too many companies who are competing for the same resources. We're competing for the same capital. There's no need for it. 75 listed companies in Newfoundland is too many. So we'll look at -- we'll take a strategic view and take a prudent approach to external consolidation. Consolidation for the sake of consolidation doesn't make sense. But where there's synergies, where there's an ability to create shareholder value is something that we will certainly consider and look at going forward. And internal and external engagement is something that we'll continue to enhance. I believe in having an open dialogue with the owners of the business, that's you and be able to provide updates in terms of how the company is performing, what the strategy is and also hear from the owners of the business. Again, this is your hard working dollars that you've allocated to us to invest. And we want to ensure that every dollar that we spend is designed to return something and significant value for shareholders. And so your input is invaluable and how we engage with both our external stakeholders and internal and stakeholders will be enhanced going forward. One thing that attracted me to Matador is our systematic approach to exploration. It is doing the right thing. There's a lot of activity, obviously, in the province in Canada. And this is an opportunity for us to really go about it the right way. There's a lot of till cover in Newfoundland. A lot of the easy stuff has been explored. Even the resource we have is based around what was outcropping in that area. Other -- if you go further afield, there is some outcropping areas, but a lot of this is under till cover, not extensive till cover, but enough that it's not considered the easy stuff that previous explorers would have been chopping at the bit before. So the team had previously done a geophysical survey, which has yielded some pretty interesting targets like Malachite. They've gone through the process of looking at the geochem to really hone in on some of the areas that we'd want to put drill rigs and start drilling. And that's the name of the game, is to get out there and do some drive and drilling. You're going to learn a lot more from drilling and then some of the prework. The prework is important so that we're not blindly drilling. And I like Matador's approach coming into it, where they have been focused on ensuring that there's the right spots to drill and not waste to lay shareholder capital. And I do believe there's a balance between overanalyzing and also being over aggressive on drilling. So that geophysical survey, the aeromag survey that was completed last year, the results started to come through, and there is quite a bit of detail that the geologists have been able to look at the structures identify specific areas in which we want to have a look at do some field work on. So Matador toward the end of last year before the Canadian winter set in, at dispatch the fuel crew to take some gold grain samples in Malachite. Based on seeing a structural bend, the largest structural bend on the Cape Ray Shear to see if there's gold in the system. Malachite is just one of several target areas that we have, as you can see from the map on the right. Those dots represent different targets that we do have, but we are focused on the top priority targets, most of which is in Malachite. And so the work that was completed last year, we published those results, 1/3 of it before I joined and the other 1/3 after I joined, in terms of the gold grain analysis. This is something that Australian investors don't necessarily -- aren't necessarily familiar with. But it's a Canadian method to see -- to basically take soil samples and see if there's gold in the system. So each of those samples, there was [ 4 by 400 ] grid over a 15-kilometer by 4-kilometer wide area. So a lot of samples that were taken. And each of those samples are basically sent to a lab and they parse through it by hand, looking for gold particles. They're classified in 3 different buckets: pristine, modified and reshaped. Pristine is what we're looking for. It means that the gold hasn't traveled far across the ice. So the more pristine you have, the closer you are to potentially being closer to the source of that gold. So the area is large. This is a footprint that's larger than Valentine Lake. It's larger than what -- that -- what hosts their 5.1 million ounces of gold. And so it is a large area, but the key thing here is that there is gold in the system based on what you see here on the map. The gold grains, they were basically [ oozing ] in soils. We're getting -- we received a lot of -- some of the highest gold grain counts, especially in the island, if not even in Canada. And it ranges anywhere equivalent to 1.5 to 2.2 grams of gold and soil, which is quite phenomenal. So the team has been back there to follow up, do some bottom of hole samples, take some basement rock to sample that so that we can hone in on where to put diamond drill rigs. The structural bend there that you see is -- there's a major set of clusters of gold grains. That's to the Southwest. I'm not sure if my cursor can be seen here, but that's this area here. The team has been sampling around this large anomaly, the 716 gold grain sample, much of which is pristine. And then looking at this area as well. So that's some of the work that's happened thus far to get back into Malachite. Again, with the goal to identify specific areas in which we can go and drill. This one here, just another sort of couple of illustrations of that area that we've gone in and done gold grain samples and bottom of hole samples more recently. So we do have 17 high-priority targets for which we can follow up on, focused on basically bucketed in 5 specific areas, one around the 716 gold grains, which is up here. Then a couple on this area. And then we've got a couple of targets in this area. So I mean, the key thing is that there's definitely gold in the system. It does take some time because it is a large system, 15 kilometers by 4 kilometers. This area alone could sit within 1 junior. And when you look at 120 kilometers of continued strike that we have, I mean, this is just one large area of even larger greater area coming back to the slide. So that's the opportunity that investors have. It's being able to explore this vast area, 120 kilometers of continuous strike. I think about where 120 kilometers is from where I am today. That's Niagara Falls. There is a multimillion-ounce gold belt that could potentially host even more multimillions of ounces between where I am today and Niagara Falls. That in itself is expensive, and it's exciting. But we don't know that unless we don't explore it. And so that's why, again, we've done greenfields to really go test these other targets that we do have away from the resource that's currently there. And so in terms of the work plan, which is already underway and will continue through the course of this year and into next year, is we are focused on those 5 polygons that you see within Malachite. Top priority targets to, again, do bottom of hole samples, do some rock chipping where there is some outcrop. Do some infill and extensional till sampling at Malachite but also look at a couple of interesting target areas to the East, which is Bunker Hill and also to the West -- Southwest of Grandy's. So again, lots of opportunities. We are focused on what the key priorities are with the work and the data that we do have. And so our expectation is by late September, we will be drilling here in Malachite at some of these targets that you see here listed on the map. And so that's the name of the game. The team is on the ground this week to just continue on with the work that we're doing. There is some logistics that's involved in terms of getting access to this area because it's more remote than where we've been exploring around the brownfield exploration. It is helicopter assisted, which is a little bit more costly. But again, we're being mindful of the investment that we're making and ensuring that we're doing -- we're going about it in the right way, but we are expecting to start drilling in late September. And just a slide here in terms of the brownfields exploration. We haven't abandoned this at all. I mean, we've focused -- the company is focused on this for the last 2 to 3 years in terms of the exploration effort. There's been some very good hits, some extensions to window glass sale, some other areas of interest that the company has drilled a lot of areas that still unexplored. There are some top priority targets within the brownfields. But again, our focus is to move away from the easy stuff that I call and look at the potential of the belt. We've got Ian Murray and Justin Osborne, 2 people from -- who are ex Gold Road, who are part of the major discovery they had at Gruyere. And I've often told investors that I feel the Matador story is somewhat analogous to the journey that they went through. And I kind of feel like we're at the same junction that Ian and Justin we're at several years ago, where a lot of the exploration work that they had been doing have been around the brownfields resource that they had. We saw that it was incrementally grown the resource, but it wasn't moving the dial. It's not what shareholders were invested in Gold Road, or Matador in our case. It's really to go find multimillion-ounce deposits make those new discoveries, those new major discoveries that are game changing. And for them, they went through a similar process in terms of workshops, doing some work in the greenfields. And then when they started drilling, they got a little lucky in that the first one that they drilled was Gruyere. And obviously, everyone knows the story there and what became a Gold Road. So I'm hoping that we have a similar fortune as Gold Road, hoping we actually have better fortune than Gold Road. Again, we're certainly situated in the right geography in the right jurisdiction, and it just takes a little bit of time and effort and courage to go out and explore in the greenfields. And again, Malachite could potentially be one of those large systems, but we've got a number of different high-priority targets that we'll continue to look at. And one of them is Hermitage. The company hasn't really spent a lot of time discussing Hermitage. But again, it's one of the -- was the largest arsinic, antimony anomalies on the island. The second largest being Newfound Gold that's had 1,500 grams with [ intercepts ]. We're feeling pretty good about Hermitage and the potential there, but there's been very little work there. Historically, some of the larger mining companies like Teck Resources, Falconbridge and Inco had gone out there to look for base metals. So they've done not as great or low -- they had a low-resolution aeromagnetic survey, which has provided some details. There's been no drilling here and a lot of sort of sampling, but the till cover is pretty thick. So it does require a little bit more effort and a different approach to how we've approached things on the Cape Ray Shear. but it's a very exciting target, and one that I'm quite interested in us going to have a look at. Because it's remote, it does require some additional planning, some logistical planning. And I've asked the exploration team to come up with the plan that we can go to Hermitage probably in, say, 4 to 6 months and be able to do some work there to see what exactly we have. But it is a very interesting target. And again, it's one of several targets that we've got at Matador in which -- for us to go and explore. And we've got a strong team. Again, I've been with the company for 3 months, just under 3 months. I've inherited a very strong foundation in which Ian Murray in the Board have led over the last few years. It's got a very strong geology team, technical team and strong advisors. So it's -- when I was first approached in terms of the CEO opportunity and the first thing that really drew me to Matador was the quality of the Board. For a company of this size to have the type of Board that it has, is fantastic. And so there's a lot of experience here, a lot of experience in terms of making major discoveries. And from my perspective, a lot of good support in terms of ensuring we do the right things in the right fashion. So that's another tick for the Matador story is the quality -- high quality of the Board and management team. And so this is the last slide I have before I turn it over to Q&A. Basically, just to remind shareholders of the share purchase plan, the timelines specifically. So we're past 3 of the key milestones. The dispatch for the SPP booklet went out on Friday. So shareholders have an opportunity to look at whether or not they want to participate at the offer price, which was AUD 0.115, and the timelines associated in terms of submitting your bids. So encouraging interested shareholders, if you're looking to participate to be on the lookout for your booklet, be in touch with the company if you've got any issues receiving your booklet. And I'll turn it over to Alex to go through the Q&A.

Thank you, Sam. Thanks for the presentation. [Operator Instructions] Sam, Robbie's asked how is rig availability. And I might just say what sort of merger -- with another question from Bernie, which is, what is the full winter drilling season window in the greenfields area? I guess, if you're starting late September, how much time does it leave you with?

Sure. No -- thanks for the questions, Robbie and Bernie. So in terms of rig availability, again, there's a lot of companies in Newfoundland. There's a lot of activity that's happening on the island. We've got a very good drilling contractor who's got access to several drills. They are busy. They are on other projects. So it's one of the things that we have to ensure that we do properly is to plan the logistics. We need a helicopter. We need access to the helicopter because the work we're doing at Malachite is supported by helicopter because of access. And again, just leveraging on the relationship we've got with the drilling contractor, ensuring that it's available for when we need it. So we're being fairly realistic in terms of the timelines on when we can go and drill. And hence, why we've said late September, there is some prework that we need to do, and there are some logistics that we need to go through. It also includes permitting. So we are in that process to get the necessary permits. Again, it's a government that's highly supportive of investment in the province. We've never had issues with getting permits, but we also don't take shortcuts. So we go through the proper process. We've got the right vendors to ensure that we're working with the right partners ensure we've got access to equipment when we need it and make sure the team is with us -- and have gone through the proper health and safety training. So that -- rig availability is tight, but we're in the process of securing drill rig for the work that we're looking to do. Now in terms of drilling through the fall and winter, it's a good time to drill during the summer. As you get late into the fall season, when the weather starts to get colder, starts to become a little bit, I guess, more rainy through the fall season and hurricane season, it does become more challenging. But we are obviously very mindful from a health and safety perspective. And we drilled last year, the company drilled right through to November, took a couple of months break through Christmas and the start of winter, and then started a winter drill campaign. And that was the first a company had ever gone through drilling through the winter. It was a modest program, which the company was looking to drill between 3,000 and 4,000 meters, just to test whether it was able to drill during the winter conditions, whether it was safe from a healthy safety perspective to be able to do it and also ensure that the logistics were straightforward. The good news is that it confirmed that we can drill during the winter. It actually is potentially a preferred season to do drilling because taking the drill rig across snow covered ground is less disruptive or it disturbs the ground a lot less when you go over snow than you go over ground. So basically, bottom line is we can drill all year round. And the intention is to drill all year round as long as we have targets to drill, which as you've heard, we do, and the funding is there. And that's something that we'll continue to look to secure as we advance the program forward.

Sort of segues into another question that came in, Sam, which is about Hermitage. That appears to be an interesting property. What makes it special? And what is the timing for getting out there?

Yes. No -- Thanks for the question there, Alex. Yes, Hermitage is really interesting. I mean, when I first joined Matador even before I joined Matador, I started to hear some interesting comments being made by experts people familiar with Newfoundland in terms of what we have at Cape Ray Shear and it's a multimillion-ounce gold system. We know that already through Marathon and the 5.1 million ounces they currently host and the resource that we have. Hermitage is off -- is not on that structure. It's not a different structure. Obviously, NewFound Gold has been getting a lot of attention with the big drill/the drill results. And we're sitting on the same structure as New Found Gold. It is a different orientation than New Found Gold. It strikes -- the strike for Hermitage is different than almost anything else in Newfoundland. Everything geologically is structured from the Southwest to the Northeast, Hermitage is in the opposite direction. The work that was done by Teck, Falconbridge and Inco, some interesting data that came through the work that they've done, some interesting qualitative comments that came through. And more importantly, the geos, Crispin Pike, in particular, who stated Hermitage for Matador about a year ago when he joined the company. He works with the Prudential Geological Survey, and he's one of the experts in terms of different structures that are on the island. And this is the one he state. More recently, I've asked Crispin of all the different targets that we have, of all the different opportunities that exist in Newfoundland, including Marathon, including NewFound Gold, what is his favorite target, and he said Hermitage. So when one of my top geos tells me that this is an exciting target, it's one that we need to listen and start doing some work on. So in terms of timing, as I mentioned before, it does require a little bit more effort in terms of engaging with stakeholders in the area to go through a proper permitting process and to gain access because of where it is, we probably need to use seaplanes -- floatplanes to access it. It will take about 4 to 6 months to get boots on the ground. Because of the till cover, we would be using RC drill rigs or modified RC drill rigs to sample through the till. There is a shortage of RC drill rig, so it is a long lead item that we need to start that process sooner rather than later so that we can access or have access to a drill -- RC drill rig for it.

Okay. Thanks, Sam. One other question. You mentioned consolidation in the industry. What opportunities do you see for the company to consolidate with others?

Yes. As I mentioned, Alex, I do consider myself to be a consolidator, as I mentioned before, when I worked at Oceana in the corporate development function, often maybe you call it whinge, but I'd often complain that there is too many mining companies in the industry. We have no need for it. I, mean you're stronger together than you are alone, and there is definitely -- it makes sense -- for those synergies, it makes sense for companies to consolidate. Now coming to the world of junior exploration in Newfoundland specifically, again, 75 TSX-listed companies with some form of interest in gold exploration on the island. There's too many companies, and we're competing for the same resources, people, question earlier from Robbie was drill rate availability. We're competing for these resources. And it's unnecessary that we would have to compete with one another for that. We're also competing for capital. And the capital is scarce, depending on which part of the cycle you're in. Regardless of which cycle you're in, you're still competing for capital. So where it makes sense, where there are synergies, we will be looking for those opportunities to solidate and to create value for shareholders. We're going to do it in a very prudent way. I can assure you we're not going to consolidate for the sake of consolidation. We're going to look at what makes sense in terms of our portfolio and what we can tack on or bolt-on, which enhances the value of the business and enhances our opportunity to make major discoveries and replicate what Marathon Gold has.

There's one question here, Sam, specifically on the SPP. So Andrew writes with respect, can you comment on the timing of the raise with the share price that are low compared to 6 months ago? It was clear company would need to raise, so why wait?

Yes. Again, it's -- I know just from my experience, it's never the right time to raise capital. Even when you raise at the top, people think you're giving up some value in doing the raise. One thing I've learned from moving over from a revenue-generating company to one that requires the capital markets to advance this program forward is that you've got to take the money when you can get it. We can't predict what's going to happen tomorrow. The market has really turned sour in the last couple of months. Maybe some with better crystal balls could have predicted that. We don't necessarily have a crystal ball any better than anyone else. So one thing that I've learned is you take capital when you can get it. And it's never the right time to do it. but we want to ensure that we're well funded to progress the exploration program forward. It was great that we got the support from existing shareholders. Again, I've been with the company now for under 3 months and to get the kind of support from existing shareholders is great, both institutional and retail. There are a lot of supporters of Matador, clearly from the capital raise that we've just done. And more importantly, we were able to secure 2 very large resource-focused investors here in Toronto. We've barely scratched the surface in terms of getting the Matador name out in North America. That in itself is an opportunity to really get the name out what we're working on, what we're doing, where we are, the land package that we do have. I think this is all stuff that resonates well with the market over here. And that's the opportunity going forward is to tap into the network of investors that exist here in North America to complement the existing shareholders in the market that we have in Australia.

So this segues into a question here from Keith. I understand the company is looking to list on the TSX. So what is the timing for the listing and would you become a dual-listed company?

Yes. No, absolutely, there's an opportunity for us to increase our access to the capital markets. And we have done a successful raise through the ASX. So we utilized the Canadian flow-through scheme, which is great. The company is be able to use a subsidiary in Canada to be able to see the flow-through scheme, which is a great mechanism to raise funds for exploration companies in Canada. The TSX listing makes a lot of sense. Newfoundland is very topical in the North American space. Again, a lot of activity that's taking place on the island, the emergence of some new companies in the gold mine industry on the island. And a lot of capital has gone that way to those companies. Being a Newfoundland business on the ASX, again, presents an opportunity for Australian shareholders. But as I just said a few moments ago, there's a lot of investors in North America that are quite interested in what Matador is. When my announcement went out several months ago that I'd be going to Matador lot of my network of investors, but also sell side, both buy side and sell side hadn't heard of Matador. They didn't know what that was. They thought it was a company in Spain. And no, it's a company that's got one of the largest tenement packages in Newfoundland, sitting on some prime land, which already hosts multimillions of ounces of gold. A company that is only 1 of 4 companies in Newfoundland with a gold resource. So that in itself is interested a lot of investors. Hence, why there's 2 new ones, 2 new large ones, through the capital raise. And giving -- being able to access a broader group of investors in North America through a TSX listing makes a lot of sense. So the timing of that is that it's a priority for me. It's a priority for the company and the Board. and that's something that we're looking at to get in place. And to answer the second part to the question, yes, we wouldn't close off any access to a capital market. We're looking to increase our access to capital markets. Australia with the support that we have, clearly, again, through the capital raise is one that's going to be important for the company going forward. And so what I see for the company is once we are listed in Toronto, we'd be a dual-listed issuer and we'd be able to have access to both the Toronto market, but also the Australian market.

Great. Thanks, Sam. One more question here, specific to the SPP. Why choose an SPP rather than a rights issue? From William.

Yes. So William, thanks for that question. Yes. I mean, the actual capital raising process for me is relatively new from the Australian perspective. Big in Canadian, it's a different arrangement altogether. So we were advised in terms of the structure in which to go and raise funds. And I've never actually heard of the share repurchase plan, but I thought that, that was a great opportunity for retail investors to be able to participate at the offer price. Retail investors are very important. I see it as very important. Institutional investors, obviously, can be there to support and continue to invest in the company and continue to advance exploration programs forward, but the retail investor is also very important for us as well, too. And that's why when I first learned of the opportunity for retail investors to participate through a share repurchase plan, it was one that was very supportive of and obviously approved to go forward. So we do look forward to having investors participate through the SPP and continue to engage with the company and support the company and go to work as hard for one retail investors and for every retail investor and every institutional investor.

Great. Thanks, Sam. And just one last question here for Mark. In case the greenfields exploration is not successful, would it be feasible to mine the current resource, the 837,000 ounces?

Yes. Well, I'm not sure when we'd actually get that answer, whether or not the greenfield exploration is not successful. I mean, again, we've pivoted recently, and we're moving as quickly as we can to look at Malachite and look at the potential that exists there at Malachite, which is the large area. Again, Malachite in itself could be a tenement package belonging to 1 junior company doing exploration work. And they can be quite busy investing in exploration and being very successful in that one area. Malachite is just one of several areas that we have in the pipeline. And so we do feel confident in the potential that exists in Malachite. Obviously, there's no guarantee that we're going to make major discoveries. There's definitely gold in the system based on the gold grain analysis that we've done. The area is oozing gold. We just have to go and do the work and see if it's a large system and identify what the source of that gold is. If after it's all said and done in a lot in Malachite, we've got other major top priority targets like Hermitage, as I've mentioned, the Bunker Hill to the east, we got Grandy's to the Southwest, we've got other areas further along the strike length, there's a junction between the Cape Ray Shear and Hermitage Flexure. Geologists tell me that the best place to look for gold is where you've got structural bends, but you also have multiple structures. And we're sitting on the length that host the convergence of the 2 major gold structures on the island. So we will -- we've got a lot of opportunity here in terms of a greenfields perspective. The brownfields resource, again, the company has been drilling for the last 2 to 3 years. And we're seeing incremental growth in terms of the opportunity there. There are targets within the brownfields area. But with the resource that's currently there, that's not a project right now. And that's not something that I'm prepared to put a shovel on the ground for because it's not going to move the dial. And as we've seen with what's going on in the market, with respect to supply chain issues with respect to inflationary cost pressures. It's not a good time to be a developer right now. If you look at developing companies in the mining industry, they've all been hit pretty hard by these external headwinds that they're facing. So for us, it's probably a good time to be a junior exploration company because we don't -- we're not impacted as much by supply chain issues. We're not impacted as much by inflationary pressures. It's a good time to put money into exploration companies as we look to make major discoveries. And so when the market turns around and we come out of this, Hopefully, we've got a large resource, and we're in the right part of the cycle.

Thank you, Sam. So there are no further questions at this time. So Sam, I'll hand back to you for closing remarks.

Well, thank you, Alex. And appreciate everyone that's tuned in. I do believe there will be a replay available to listen in on the presentation and the Q&A session. But I do appreciate everyone's support. Again, I appreciate the support that we've seen thus far. I'm humbled by the support that I've seen in the last few months, being CEO of the company. I think we've got the right tools in the toolbox. We're in the right jurisdiction. We've got the right tenement package on a multimillion own structure. We're looking to replicate what Marathon Gold has achieved. Also, in some ways, from an Australian market perspective, and in some ways, I see this as Gold Road 2.0. And so that's the opportunity that I see here. This is why I left OceanaGold to come to Matador because I see a lot of potential here, a lot of opportunity to make major discoveries. And I think we've got the right building blocks in which to grow from and unlock shareholder value. I appreciate the support. I look forward to engaging with shareholders, owners of this business, going forward. And I look forward to the team on the ground making major discoveries.