AuMEGA Metals Ltd (AAM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome those who are joining at the moment. We're here today with Matador Mining CEO, Sam Pazuki, and the VP of Discovery, Crispin Pike. The format today will be very typical in terms of a presentation from Sam and Crispin. And then throughout the video, please feel free to submit your questions on the Q&A or chat section below. And then at the end, there will also be a Q&A section if people want to raise their hand and speak. So to get things started, Sam, Crispin, do you want to take things off?

Yes. No, sounds good, Peter. Thanks for setting this up for us. It's a pleasure to be here to have the opportunity to talk about Matador and provide investors with an update on the business. As Peter mentioned, Crispin Pike, our VP of Exploration, is with us and will be part of the conversation. So we've got a few slides we're going to go through. I think Giles Dodds, who's our senior geologist is also on the call, but won't be able to answer questions because I think he's signed on now as an attendee. But you've got Crispin and I, and we're happy to walk you through the Matador story. Disclaimer here, forward-looking statements. These are fairly standard on our website as well, and you can review it afterwards. Matador overview, just basically the key information in terms of where we're listed, which most of you would be aware of. We've got what we're -- again, 1 of only 4 companies in Newfoundland that has a mineral resource. We've got a high-grade resource that's shallow. CAD 5.5 million, AUD 6 million reported in the last update. And robust shareholder register that is there to support our business, is there to support our long-term growth strategy, which is a key objective of ours. It's -- we're here for the long term, and we're here to create value, real value for shareholders. I joined in May 2022. It's been -- I guess it's been about 1.5 years, and I thought it just made sense to have a slide in here just to demonstrate that it's been a significant 18 months of change. We've made progress, but a lot has happened in the short time that I've been here, both from a corporate perspective but also from an exploration perspective. Basically, when I joined in May 2022, there was the strategy to build a starter mine a focus on brownfields. And we made a decision with the support from the Board to give it the strategy, go entirely greenfields and focus initially on Malachite, but also look to do some other greenfield exploration and other targets such as Hermitage and Long Range, et cetera. So kudo to Crispin and the team, they had a new CEO come in, and they embraced the strategy that was laid before them. And they were hungry to go out there and look for elephants in elephant country. And our result remains firm that we've got a bunch of these opportunities in the portfolio, and we're keen to go out and find them. One of the things that I needed to address when I started, unfortunately, what began the cycle that we're all in, in the gold industry, was a funding gap that needed to be addressed. So by July, we managed to do a pretty healthy financing. We brought in 2 large Canadian-based resource funds who, like the new strategy, wanted to be invested in the company. There's still big shareholders of us and big supporters of us and they were part of the financing of the 2 biggest checks. We also, in July, Justin became the Chairman of Matador. So we had some changes at the Board level. Kerry joined in August, which was a substantial addition to the Board just given Kerry's pedigree and the fact that he's made major discovery, the fact that he's been involved in the acquisition of a bunch of them as well, too. There on the same time, we paused the EIS and the permitting process to focus on greenfields. In October, B2Gold made a strategic investment into Matador, their first ever in first-ever strategic investment and the first investment in Canada. There's 90 companies as Crispin tells me, who are listed looking for some sort of mineral or metal in Newfoundland. So of 90 companies, we were the ones that B2 went with in terms of who they'd like to invest in, in Newfoundland, and in Canada, frankly. So they've been a very good partner to have thus far, and we've got a bunch of slides here to talk about how the relationship has continued. We updated the mineral resource. We've -- we went down the path of redomiciling of the Canadian company through an RTO. Unfortunately, that didn't work out as planned. So we've -- it was delayed and then we put that on hold, which was disappointing, but that's something that we can look to do next year potentially. And then more recently, as of just last month, with all the information we've had in the last 18 months or so, both from the work that we've done in the greenfield, the work that Crispin and team have done in the brownfield setting sort of behind the scenes work, the analysis work plus input from both internal Board members and external personnel. We've refined the strategy, and we'll talk more about that during this call. But we've refined the strategy to have a mix of both brownfields and greenfields. And we feel that, that's a robust plan going forward given the opportunities that we see. So all of that was corporate activities, the business, the bread and butter of the actual business is exploration, what Crispin's in charge of. The men on the ground in Newfoundland. I often describe Crispin as Mr. Newfoundland given his understanding of the structures, geological structures in Newfoundland. He is -- from his experience working with the national -- I'm sorry, with the provincial geological survey, but also with Vale. So we've been busy. While we were addressing the funding gap, Crispin and the team are out there in Malachite to work up targets, do prospecting, which is a very common technique, and in Newfoundland a lot of big discoveries have been made historically through prospecting. And so that was 1 of the first things we did at Malachite, which set us up to do some drilling, which ended up being the first ever drill holes into Malachite. We're also -- we had talked about -- and the company talked about Hermitage to its investors. The Matador have never actually step foot on the ground at Hermitage. Crispin and the team step foot on Hermitage, did a limited prospecting campaign that yielded some very strong results and then has positioned us to do more work this past summer here in Canada. The results started to trickle in. We've confirmed that there's gold in Malachite. There is a slide which basically shows that the result is gold in till across Malachite, which is 15 kilometers by 4 kilometers. So gold oozing out of soils is how I characterized it before, prospecting both float samples and outcrop samples, multi-grain samples confirmed that there's gold in the system. The drilling, they weren't drill intercepts that people, I guess, like to see we are shouting it from the rooftops, but our drill program in the greenfield setting as we put our first call in today, it's all been about reconnaissance style, trying to get as much information as we can about the structures that could potentially host a large multimillion ounce deposit. These calls into Malachite. We're the first ever. It confirmed that there is gold in basement, which is a huge market for us and just confirms that there's smoke on surface and there's smoke below surface, and we just need to figure out where the fire is being sourced from. That goes -- it's the same thing for Long Range as well as Bunker Hill. We're finding gold on surface, we're finding gold below surface, again, more smoke in these areas that are quite fast. So we're very -- we're feeling very confident about the results we've had thus far. We've been very busy on that front and we're continuing to move things along in using our systematic approach to exploration. And a key slide for us here, key message really that I'd like to provide to the investment community is that I've been in the mining industry for a number of years and prior to that, in the oil and gas industry, and I've always looked at the companies that I've worked for and the companies that we've evaluated from an M&A perspective as businesses. Yes, they are stocks, they're publicly traded. There's a game to be played. People like to trade in and out. When we look at the, I guess, the large sophisticated investors, the Warren Buffets of the world. it resonates with me when people like that say that they're not invested in stocks, they're vested in businesses. And that's something that I've always believed, that's what I'm a part of. It's a business. I'm an owner of businesses, the stocks that I own, I own part of those businesses. And coming into an exploration company where you've seen -- where there's probably 1,000 companies out there, all professing, they have the Holy Grail. A lot of these stocks, and I've seen them again from my Oceana days doing -- looking at M&A opportunities. They just treated as stocks not as businesses, whether that's the external perception of the internal management of them, it's just perceived as stocks. Whereas for us, at Matador, full stop, this is the business and the foundation of our business, what's going to make us successful was going to drive real value, tangible value in a sustainable way is to respect it as a business. And so to grow the share price, we're going to have to grow the business, and we're going to grow the business, our business through major mineral discoveries, which will take time. You do need a bit of luck in this space, but the team we've got and our approach to exploration and the investors we have, that gives us an opportunity to create that value. And that's basically what this image shows. We have to have the right assets, which we do. We have to add the right people, which we do. We have a very strong Board, very strong management team and technical team on the ground and a track record. And then you have to have what I described as foundational investors. The ones who understand the opportunities and the risks with exploration, who are patient, who will support you while we go through this growth phase, know that there's going to be times where you're not going to hit; there's going to be times we are going to hit. And we're all in it not for a 50% gain, not for 100% gain. I'd say not even the 200% or 300% game. We're here for multibagger, 50 times game, 100 time game. We're here for hitting the big ones. Newfoundland is a great jurisdiction. I think a lot of people, whether they're in North America or in Australia, they just think that because it's in Canada, it's a mature area, when it is in Labrador, there's a long rich history of mining iron ore nickel in Labrador, but on the island of Newfoundland, there's been 1 big nickel deposit, but everything else is with respect to gold is new. And you can see that from the chart in terms of the amount of exploration drilling that's gone into Newfoundland. Marathon is the most advanced project on the island with 5 million ounces but there's been a ton of exploration companies on the island investing in exploration. And it's a tremendous island to be on. It's a very supportive government, a strong workforce and there's infrastructure which is why it's more recently ranked fourth globally by the Frasers Institute. And it's a great place to be from a mining perspective. This is 1 of my favorite slides because it really encapsulates who Matador is. And when you look at -- even when I look at this slide and I talked through this slide, I think about this little company that we are right now. Obviously, we're making it -- we're trying to make it grow. But there's a lot of key attributes that we have in this company that really underpins the value proposition. This is really what drew me away from where I was before to the opportunity that I saw and I continue to see with Matador. First and foremost, you look at, again from the previous slide, Newfoundland is relatively new in terms of gold and gold exploration. And we've locked up a significant land package on the same structure that hosts the 5 million-ounce deposit. And so in some ways, and this is the way I was thinking about it when I came over to Matador. This is a district and this should be viewed as a district that there's been very little work in terms of exploration, there aren't a lot of companies -- major companies that had invested in it, but it's certainly drawn the attention of many bigger companies, B2, obviously, the first major gold company in 20 years to invest in Newfoundland, gold company to invest in Newfoundland. So again, significant land package that gives us the opportunity to make major discoveries on a proven structure that already has made a big discovery or 2. We've got a high-grade resource. It's small right now, but there is potential to grow it. And we are focused on growing that in a meaningful way to get to a scale where yes, it makes sense to put a shovel in the ground. But right now, we're an exploration company, and that's where our focus will continue to be, is to grow that resource and then make major discoveries along the belt both along the Cape Ray Shear but also the Hermitage Flexure. I've talked about how great Newfoundland is as a jurisdiction, mentioned B2Gold as a strategic investor, highly reputable, very successful gold miner. They build their own mines, they find major deposits, and they've got a strong track record from an ESG perspective. Without a proper team, you're not going to be able to extract value and grow the business. So we've got, as I mentioned before, we have a highly experienced team. Again, I think about who we are, a little Matador and think about the quality, members we've got on the Board of Directors. Think about the pedigree we have amongst the exploration team with Crispin and Giles and Rob, and Seamus, who we've just brought on. And so we've got a very strong team on the ground looking for, again, looking for elephants. And in another defining feature, not that there isn't a shortage of it because there's just plenty of things to like about Matador, is our approach to exploration. I've seen too many times, whether it's in this role that I'm in now or prior to coming over here, where it's the same sort of story and exploration. You've got a little bit of money and you tout that you've got a 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 meter drill program. And you go into these areas for various reasons, often in mineralogy and you drill these big drill campaigns and you've got nothing to show for it. That is the end one, that's going to Vegas. And I think you've got a better luck to put your money in roulette and you do drilling blindly, undercover these big drill campaigns. We're not going to do it that way. This is why -- another reason why I like Matador is that we've got this Australian approach to sample through weather [indiscernible], which is where many of these big discoveries have taken place in Western Australia, how Rupert Resources made their discovery at Ikkari in Finland. It's take that approach, marry it with Canadian approach, which includes prospecting. And that's how you're going to be able to make those discoveries. And when you look at the land package, sometimes my head spins, how big our land package is. You've got 9 different names here. You can see from the table what the size, what the dimensions are of each 1 of those. Our resources are predominantly at Cape Ray. We've got a little bit in Isle aux Morts. But even within Cape Ray and Isle aux Morts, there's a lot of area that just hasn't been explored properly or not explored at all. And that's 1 of the motivations for us to -- with the work that we've done. The internal work we've done and again, getting experts to also opine on things. We see tremendous opportunity to get in the brownfields, which is why we're returning there. And then from a greenfield setting, you can look at all the different areas we've got. And the way I -- when you think about 120 kilometers of continuous strike on Cape Ray, Hermitage is 27 kilometers of strike. Just think about where you are today and think about where 120 kilometers is from this point. For me, that's Niagara Falls. And so to take that we've got a belt and here to Niagara Falls is -- yes, it's extensive. And so a junior company, a junior exploration company in Canada could be sitting on 1 of these targets that we've got names here for and they'll spend 5, 10 years exploring looking for multimillion-ounce deposits. We've got 9 of them in the portfolio. You could probably -- if you take each 1 of these and put an exploration company on it, you can float $10 million, $15 million, $20 million market cap companies on each one, probably something a lot higher at Cape Ray given there's an actual resource there. And there are companies on the island and there are companies in exploration that have market caps of that size larger than us with the resource that have no resource whatsoever. They just got moose pasture. So again, this shows you the potential that we have here and why we get excited. I mentioned the Board and management, again, just to recap, Justin's our Chair. He's made major discoveries. He was part of Gold Road's big discovery back, I think it was 2012, similar junction to where we're at, where you've got a small resource, you start to step out and you hit and tag into what becomes a world-class deposit and for them was Gruyere. Kerry lives in Newfoundland, so he's close to Crispin, ex Franco-Nevada. He was the founder of Orla Mining, which is a multibillion dollar gold company today. Kerry has been involved in some major discoveries in his career. So he made major discoveries. He's looked at them in terms of investing at Franco-Nevada and he's involved with a number of different things that [indiscernible] is currently involved with and they're listed there. And then Nikki is both on the buy side and sell side. She sits on a bunch of different boards. She's the Chair of Hot Chili, another ASX company, and she's got extensive experience in capital markets and the 3 of them are geologists that support what we're doing and are involved to the extent we want them involved and their input has mattered and has made a difference in terms of advancing things along. So I mentioned the approach to exploration. Again, it's a hybrid approach. It's a hybrid Australian-Canadian approach, and it's frankly designed to deliver a return on investment. I said it at the Precious Metal Summit during my presentation that I don't believe there's a single exploration company other than us that uses return on investment in their presentation, who talks about it, but we have to do it. It's not about meters drilling. It's about how much value you're going to gain from the capital that you're deploying. And from a greenfield perspective, exploration in general, it's low probability. And in greenfield, it's even lower. So you have to go through this approach here to identify specific areas that you want to go in and do your diamond drilling because that's going to be your biggest ticket item. And the big differentiator again for us is basal till and bottom-of-hole sampling that Matador has done prior to me joining. Now we're looking at using a different machine that's going to deliver more productivity, again, a higher return on investment that allows us to then vector in on specific areas that we can follow up with diamond drilling. Again, there's been countless discoveries in Western Australia using that technique, and a good example for us that we often point to just given the similarities geologically and with the glacial movement is Rupert Resources in Finland and their Ikkari discovery coming through a bottom-of-hole sample. So that's -- this is an approach that we will adhere to and we will continue to use as we build up that pipeline of opportunities. Again, I mentioned B2. It doesn't seem like the market even recognizes that we've got a strategic investor that's a 10% holder in the company. Every junior exploration company wishes they have a strategic investor, a strategic corporate investor that has endorsed what they're doing is supportive of what they have, supportive of what they're doing as well too and are there to support you over the long term. I mean this is huge. And we're trading less than half of where we were when they first came in, which demonstrates the state in which the market is in. But from our perspective, I mean, this is another foundational investor, a big one, a huge 1 that we've got, that we've been working really well with that have been very supportive of what we're doing. We were the first investment in Canada. They've made 2 investments subsequent to our -- to the investment they made in us and they love the jurisdiction. And as I mentioned, it's been 20 years since the major gold company had invested in Newfoundland until B2. And their investment was in Matador. And as I mentioned, and we've put some news out on this as well, their investment isn't passive. They're not just saying, here's some money and go do some exploration and good luck to you guys. They've taken the time, the effort to look at things from a desktop perspective, they went through all their due diligence and site visits before they visited Matador. Then they've been involved in terms of what we're doing. They've looked at our plans. They've been very helpful in terms of providing some expertise, some resources that we needed. This summer, they spent -- they had 3 distinct visits, collectively spent a month's time on the ground with Crispin and the team. These are the most senior people at B2Gold from exploration that spent this time with us on the ground. Victor King is their most senior Exploration Executive reporting to the CEO. He's right here. His team, Andy is here. He's the VP of Exploration. Claudia is the Chief Geologist, Cam is the chief structural geologist. So again, a lot of brain power that we've had on site this summer, which has been the way I characterize it is that it's just been invaluable to have the amount of expertise on site, people who've made discoveries, people know what they look like to come in, look at what we have, get excited about what we have and be involved in the planning process with us. We are also lucky to get this chap here named Brett Davis, who's globally recognized as a structural guru -- structural geologist guru. Brett is -- he's a freelancer. A lot of companies try to actually get him on board. He likes to stay a free agent. He's very difficult to get -- to come over to your project, and we are fortunate to have him come for a couple of weeks, again, with the team, even overlap with B2, look at the structures. And Crispin's going to walk you through what came out of that, but it's really unraveled sort of new theories and new way of looking at the geological structures we have. And that in itself has created a bunch of new opportunities, and it's created basically an environment where it's wide open for potential new discoveries. So I'll stop there, and I'll turn it over to Crispin to walk you through some of that.

Yes. So we identified the need for a regional scale structural study through doing work on the deposits in the resource quarter. Early Matador, a lot of the work was focused in and around Window Glass Hill in Central Zone where the resources were. It was a great way to learn about the mineralization style and the plan being to learn from the deposits that we have and to extrapolate that out into the belt in order to drive discovery. One thing that we are learning now that it's been 18 months since we spread our wings and looked to fund the next multimillion ounce discovery on the Cape Ray Shear Zone. It isn't quite as simple as to study the deposits that we have and to extrapolate that out under the main belt. And 1 of the key kind of holes that we had what were the structural controls on mineralization. So it was great to get someone of Brett's caliber in. And the 2 big questions that were lurking were the kinematics on the gold. So the structural event that control the gold mineralization, what are the geometries associated with that and then as well as the timing. A lot of people worked in Cape Ray since the '70s, a lot of great geologists, but no one had ever really laid out clear evidence for the structural controls on the mineralization, that's what Brett was able to do. Some of the key takeaways from this were the kinematics of the gold. When these structures move, that's what allows space to be opened up and the fluids to come through allowing for gold mineralization. And to work out if this is -- if the faults are moving with a left sense or a right sense is very important in identifying targets that could be opening up space and allowing these fluids to come through. So the work -- some examples here in the Central Zone veins. Brett has seen a lot of evidence that this is a left system, a sinistral system. This is very important because since the '90s when the last structural study was done, it was thought to be the other direction. It's a bit of an aha moment for us and a lot of targets that we weren't sure if we should target based off of the previous knowledge are now wide open. Also, the timing of the gold is very important. It's something that's going on throughout Newfoundland and I think it's a consensus on the island that gold is a lot later, but Brett has found this evidence through our rocks and our mineralization from our diamond drill core review, our outcrop review, geophysics that the gold and the sulfide rich fluids that are responsible for the gold mineralization are later. And what this does, it opens up a lot more potential lithologies that previous explorers thought were too young to host mineralization. So the main takeaway from the structural study is that it's the opposite sheer sense than previously thought and it's later than previously thought and we can work this into all of our target and prioritization exercises to really generate those targets that are going to open up enough space to host multimillion ounce deposit. This is an example of the work that Brett had once the review of the outcrops and the core was complete, the next is to apply this to Bell Wide exploration. So this is an example of 1 of Brett's structural interpretations from the high-resolution geophysics. And he has interpreted the structures with their sheer sense and their relationship and the timing of gold. So you can see he's pointed out some areas that have favorable geometries to open up space and host multimillion ounce deposits. These areas that you've selected here in yellow circles are in the north Malachite, in the middle Grandy's and down to the Southwest Discovery Hill Granite area. So these are areas that we've always been confident in their presence of anomalous gold from geochemistry prospecting. But now that we have that structural skeleton and the associated geometries that are favorable for gold, now that we have that context we can much better target these structures. Because if you just look at the northernmost example, there's a lot of sinistral structures that are highlighted in red. In addition, many more green, which is the extra ones now we know which ones are favorable and also where along these structures to target. So it was a great exercise and we're looking forward to integrating this not just with our own work, but all the great conversations we had with B2. They were there on site when Brett was there, and there was a lot of on the outcrop discussions and everyone's pretty excited to take all this knowledge and this brainpower and add it back into our target and prioritization. Something else that Brett focused in on the geophysics were some potential subsurface plutons. Obviously, there's evidence for orogenic gold mineralization. But as we go along the belt, we do see variation in the styles of textures in the course, mineralogy, path finder geochemistry and we've sent some of our data to Greg Morrison, who is also an Australian-based technical expert in gold deposits. And he sees that as we move to the north, there's more of an epizonal signature to the mineralization, which means we could be kind of moving up section, which is important for how we explore. So we're seeing a big variation in the veins that hosts the gold as we move along the belt and understanding that is going to help us target better.

Yes. Thanks, Crispin. I'm going to turn it back over to Crispin in just a second. So with -- again, as I mentioned, the work that we've done internally in the last 12 months when I joined about 1.5 years ago, there was a lot of data within the resource corridor. The team -- while they're executing on the actual exploration work, we've been doing a lot of analysis in terms of what is the potential in the brownfields. The resource update you went through was very helpful and that exercise as well too to see what opportunities we might have been missing through the work that had been done previously, the business that we've had and then obviously, just having the internal discussions. And that's really allowed us to really think, okay, what is the best path forward? What's going to move the dial and balance that? What's happening in the market? How are you going to grow the resource, which, again, we've got a good start. It's small, but we've got a good start, while we try to manage how we explore the broader belt. Again, having the amount of ground we have, it's a double-edged sword. We've got a lot of ground to cover. And you could blow your brains out, trying to cover it all being a small company with limited capital. It's great again that we've got B2 there to support us, et cetera, but it's still a lot of ground for us to cover. And so with -- and frankly speaking, when I joined, I just felt that everything within the resource corridor was what we were looking for was just incremental growth. It was a 50,000 discovery here, 50,000 ounce discovery or 100,000 ounce discovery, nothing that was actually going to move the dial in a meaningful way. And we're -- again, we're out here to find MOz, not KOz. And so going through that work was important, while we were working up the targets from a greenfield perspective and getting a sense of what's out there, we were doing all this work behind the scenes to figure out, okay, are there opportunities to host MOz in the brownfield setting to add to significantly to the ounces that we do have. And that -- the answer was yes. There's a number of different targets that we've identified. We've got a slide on that. And we're certainly looking now to do a mix of both brownfields and greenfields. It's not that greenfields didn't work out. It's just that we've got much more cost effective, dial moving, higher return on investment, opportunities within the brownfields, and we can focus on delivering those results, while at the same time, we advance the pipeline of opportunities. The only way we're going to be able to be successful in exploring this belt is to think of it that way. We've got targets and opportunities that are grouped into advanced stage, intermediate stage and early stage. And while we're doing our diamond drilling, which is in the advanced stage and that's the main work that we do in that stage. And right now, the opportunities that we see in terms of generating that higher risk-adjusted return is within that brownfield setting. And while we're doing that, we're going to do our bottom-of-hole basal till sampling, our advanced geophysics on intermediate targets. We've got a really special one at Malachite at the breakout structure, which we've got a slide on here. And so the work that we've done at Malachite has allowed us to actually move that from early stage to intermediate stage with the work that we've done thus far and the results that we have. And then a lot of the -- some of the other things that we've done, particularly around Hermitage and Bunker Hill, et cetera, and large vast of ground at even Malachite, which just hasn't been explored, they are early stage. And we're going to continue to do our prospect, which is a very Newfoundland way of exploring, as I mentioned. We're going to do our geophysics or geochemistry. So again, while we're doing our drilling and looking for big deposits, we're going to just continue to advance along a pipeline of opportunities. so that once things fall off in the advanced stage, we've got more that are popping into that stage and really having this conveyor belt of opportunities. And again, that's what's going to be -- having that balanced exploration program and building up a pipeline of opportunities is going to generate, what we expect is a higher return on investment. And again, from the brownfield setting, we've got a resource already. We've got a head start. It's small. You don't build a mine based on a small resource. You've got to -- in my opinion, you've got to build a much bigger resource base for you to have a big operation or a bigger operation with a longer mine life. You don't want to be here for 5, 6 years, you want to be here for 10-plus years, and then you want to have a runway to continue to be there. There's a lot of capital that goes into building infrastructure for a mining operation. And when you do -- when you have a fall start in the small resource, that's a very big risk in terms of capital that you're sinking into a small operation has a short mine life. The work we did to update the resource, again, we're only 1 of a few companies in Newfoundland that has a gold mineral resource. It's high grade. It's shallow. Most of it is less than 150 meters from surface. The drilling we do is targeting similar style mineralization along the belt similar to what Marathon Gold has. And that's basically what we're looking for. It's to get another large or series of large deposits just like Marathon, and then we can sort of advance things forward. So the brownfields has really set the stage. And then beyond that, we see, as I mentioned, as Crispin has mentioned, significant opportunities with new targets that we've identified. Back to Crispin.

Yes. So as I mentioned, earlier. The previous explorers started in the '70s and '80s, identified the mineralization in the window, the Glass Hill Granite and projected that along strike. That's how central zone was discovered. And really, if you look at the expenditures throughout the history of the project, the majority of the expenditures were spent directly in these deposits, either adding confidence in the resource or incrementally looking for extensions. But the resource quarter is a large area. From the Big Pond deposit in the Southwest, to the Isle aux Morts deposit in the Northeast. It's 14 kilometers of strike. And there are sections, multi-kilometer sections of strike on the Cape Ray Shear Zone with the right rocks that host no mineralization and anomalies from surveys that don't have a single drill hole in them. So there's a couple of -- there's more than 1 stretch of greater than 2 kilometers without a single hole. And this is right in proximal to the mineralization. And then within the deposits themselves, there's lots of potential to find parallel loads in the hanging walls and footwalls that have been untested to find a long strike -- the mineralized horizons of these deposits are often just closed with 1 or 2 holes. And then you have kilometers of strike length of untested in that area as well as with the increased understanding of the styles on mineralization, the controls on mineralization, there's lots of opportunity in this. And the work that we've done through a series of work, we reinterpreted the geophysics, did 3 -- magnetic 3D inversions, geological modeling. The resource estimation was a great opportunity for us to pull the sections and really redo the modeling and the controls on mineralization and ultimately, what this has led to is a series of over a dozen high-quality targets, not looking for additional ounces right on the edge of a deposit or this is to look for new deposits within the resource quarter, another central zone or other high-grade shoots within the Window Glass Hill Granite, which the main shoot of Window Glass Hill is about 200 meters by 200 meters at the surface expression. But the granite is 5 kilometers in strike length and 0.5 kilometer wide and large portions of this are completely under cover and have no drilling. So there's lots of opportunities as well as in Big Pond up to Isle aux Morts and with our new confidence in the geometries, we generated some great targets. So we're really excited about to get back to the brownfields environment and find the next deposits that are in the resource quarter, 14 kilometers in strike is the same approximate land as Marathon Gold's Valentine Lake project. In 2015, they had a sub million ounce resource, not too dissimilar to what we have. And in their 15 kilometers of strike that they had, they made multiple discoveries to bring that sub-million ounce resource to a 5 million-ounce resource. So we're in a very similar situation where Marathon was 8 years ago, the difference is we have the greenfields potential outside of this resource quarter as well.

That's great. And that's again, those are the pipeline opportunities while we do the work on the advanced stage stuff, we build up the pipeline of opportunities and again, move them along the pipeline or the conveyor belt whatever analogy you'd like to use. But again, what we're looking to do here is targeting MOz. We're looking for millions of ounces, not just 50,000 or 100,000 here and there. We're looking for big deposits, things that have the signatures to host a big deposit. And 1 question that we often get asked, which is normal, it's a normal question is how many meters are you planning to drill? I know investors do like that having that number in mind because it tells you scale and potentially what the opportunity might be. But as I mentioned earlier today, we've seen big drill programs, build big drill campaigns in Newfoundland in Canada, where you go through all that work and you've got nothing to show for it. So that's not what we're interested in. Meters drilled is not a KPI. If we've tied into something, we'll drill more. So we will continue on this reconnaissance style exploration program. We can do a little bit more here in the brownfield setting because they're -- again, they're advanced targets. They're not like greenfields, where we're testing structures, and we're looking to see where the source of mineralization on surface is coming from. These are more mature -- this is a more mature area. These targets are new. It blew my mind a few months ago when Crispin and I were talking about some of these opportunities. Again, when I joined Matador, I thought a lot of those stuff has already been covered off. There's been exploration. There's been drilling. For example, the footwall central zone, which is a key target for us, has never seen a single drill hole into it. There's a couple Matador of geotech holes when they were looking to go through the EIS process. The area that's identified there on the map, just never seen a single drill hole. And the good thing about the brownfields setting as well is our exploration costs are relatively lower than most others in North America. But once you do drilling, diamond drilling, say in the brownfield setting, you've got the access road. So you don't need a helicopter to get you there. You've got the existing access road that you can use to move your rigs and people in and out of. So that lowers your cost as well. So yes, so we're excited about these new opportunities. And again, we're looking for MOz. We're looking to replicate what Marathon has at the very least. And with the belt we have, we think there's a potential for even more than that. Crispin?

Yes. An update on Malachite. We've done some work. The first work that was done was just 2 years ago now. This time of the year, we started to do the till sample. So we flew the high-resolution geophysics, which identified the segment order or structures that were coming off of the main Cape Ray Shear Zone, specifically into the footwall of the Malachite area. This was interesting, a lot of orogenic gold deposits don't sit right on the main shear zone. The main first order shear zone they're often and the second and third are displays off of these. So the geophysics did a really good job. We went in with the geochemistry with a large area of 14 kilometers in strike length and over 4 kilometers in width. So it's a large area, and the Geochem is to basically discriminate all of these structures to which ones maybe associated with large gold deposits. And what we came up with not just from the gold, but also from the Pathfinder geochemistry is large footprint, geochem anomalies. These aren't single-line anomalies where you might have a small gold vein. The [indiscernible] geochem anomaly is if you look at arsenic and antimony, tellurium and bismuth, and gold, silver, all of the things that we see associated with our known mineralization. This geochem anomaly is over 4 kilometers in strike length. So this is a big regional geochem anomaly, and it's coincidence with a large second order structure. So this was really exciting to us. We didn't know the geology. We hadn't been on the ground. So this went from a conceptual target with only recon style work being conducted from geophysics and geochem, to the second day that we visited the property, we found a boulder that graded just under 5 grams. So to go from conceptual target to kind of having a rock in your hand with gold in it so quickly, it was extremely exciting for us. And we continue to find multi-gram gold throughout the project area through the prospecting. The big thing is when you have a geochem anomaly that's multiple kilometers in strike length is we're in that, not just a long strike, but we're a cross strike, do you -- can you find a multimillion ounce deposit. So what we're looking at is the right rock type, the right structure. Of course, the geochemistry, the alteration. We're looking for a big system. So we're expecting to see significant signs of fluid moving through the rock, which is going to change the mineralogy of the rocks. And that's what we're seeing from our geological mapping. So we went in into geological mapping. Of course, last year, we did a small diamond drill program to test some of these structures to see if there's gold in the system. And that's what we did see. It's not the numbers that are going to get the market excited with -- it's not discovery holes, but what it is, it's to prove that there is gold in these structures. Two years ago, we didn't know if there was any gold there. There wasn't a single rock sample that had gold in it 2 years ago. And now we have multigram gold in boulders in veins as well as in diamond drilling. So we're excited about Malachite. We have a lot more information now about the geology. We're discovering new geological units, 1 being a granite that's hosted inside the shear. There is no other granites internal to the shear zone that we know of in the Cape Ray shear zone except for Window Glass Hill. And Valentine Lake up the shear has also -- hosted in granitic type rocks, which is a perfect structural trap for opening up space. So this structural and stratigraphic drilling in combination with the rest of the work is really kind of adding to the list of ingredients that we're expecting to see that when you find a multimillion ounce deposit. So we're excited about Malachite.

Yes, we -- I mean I personally love Malachite. I mean it's got -- in the words of Kerry Sparkes, who again has made major discoveries in his career and knows what they look like from his Franco Nevada days. He says -- he has said to me multiple times that Malachite ticks every single box that you'd be looking for when you're looking for a multimillion ounce deposit. There's just a lot happening here. You can see that just from that image in the bottom. There's a lot of structures that are splaying off the Cape Ray shear, second order, third order structures. You've got this big breakout structure that's coming right off this big band here down at the bottom. And as Crispin said, you're seeing differences in the geology as you go from west to east. So there's a lot happening here. And we haven't -- I can't even say we scratched the surface here. We've done a little bit of work, but there's still a lot of work to do here. Again, 1 company could have Malachite and spend 5, 10 years exploring it. This is, again, why we need a pipeline of opportunities and advance things along with the work that we do. And the breakout structure, we've talked about in news releases as well. It's something we identify, but it's been confirmed through some of the visitors that we've had, and then there's been, I think, 3 separate occasions where it's been compared to Obuasi, which is a world-class deposit and in West Africa, 65 million ounce [ series ] of deposits along a similar looking breakout structure to the main shear. Crispin, maybe just a few words on that specifically. And I know you've pointed to Salobo as well, just given your days back in Valley working in Brazil.

Yes. The structural geology of the Cape Ray Shear Zone is fairly complex. But basically, the Cape Ray Shear Zone was set up way earlier than gold and very deep down in the cross where everything is ductile and likes to bend. So you see the big band in the Cape Ray Shear Zone where Malachite is located, and it's no problem for these deep hot rocks to bend like that and as well as the structures. However, the gold was in place much higher in the crust where the cross likes to crack and fracture and everything is much more brittle. So when you have a brittle overprint on an older ductile system, what happens is it's -- the structure is following along -- the gold-bearing structure is following along the old shear zone. But when that old shear zone starts to bend, the younger more brittle structure kind of breaks through, it just wants to keep going straight. And this is exactly what we see in Malachite. The second order structure that comes off the main shear zone right where it bends -- and there's multiple deposits globally where the same thing occurs and creates big ore bodies in the Cinzento shear zone and in the Carajas region in Brazil, you have these large hydrothermal deposits with the brittle overprint. And Salobo was actually located basically in the exact same structural location as [indiscernible] on this later structure that's coming off the main shear zone at the bend. When I had Vic King, he spent a lot of time in Western Australia. And when he stood on [indiscernible], he instantly said this reminds him of the geometries of Vassan. Of course, Brett Davis spent a lot of time in Western Australia as well and he was on the site a month later. We stood on the same outcrop and had the same discussion and he independently brought up Obuasi. So I wasn't familiar with the geometries, but out there, a little bit of research, it does have a similar type of in placement in the system as Malachite and the [indiscernible] area as well as the Cinzento Shear Zone in Carajas in Brazil.

And just to clarify, Crispin, you meant Western Africa, not Western Australia, just for the viewers.

Apologies. I [ did ] mean Western Africa.

Yes. I mean, we can keep talking all day about all the different targets we have. So in the interest of time, because we got a bunch of questions here, we're just going to go through some of these additional slides quickly. Crispin, have walked them through these. It's a long range. Again, it's another big target. There's some historic figures there, dating back to 25 years with a recommendation to do some drilling. That is what we drilled. Again, we're still waiting for those assays to come through. But the drilling again is just focused on reconnaissance styles to test the structures and to test the areas that we saw as opportunities around these historic. We did prospecting as well. Now we've got this large corridor along the Windsor Point Group with multigram samples from the West side, which cuts through -- the highway cuts through it, all the way to the east along that trend -- of the Cape Ray Shear. We're seeing pathfinder elements that are 10 to 100x greater than what we see from the resource corridor center zone, specifically. So there's a lot happening here at Long Range. I love Long Range because it's very close to Port aux Basques. It's right off the highway, as I mentioned. So if we're able to make a multimillion ounce discovery or series of them here, this would be a dream place to have a mining operation. But again, we've barely even scratched the surface here, lots of opportunities. Grandy’s is something we put few holes as well around the bottom of whole sample that Matador has in 2021 that delivered 0.5 gram has bottom hole. There's rock chips that are multigram or super high-grade, 25 grams of boulder, not too far away, that had 191 grams gold. So again, the drilling we do, it doesn't do it any justice. It test a few things that we see here from a lithological and structural perspective. And these are all sort of data points subject to in on where we might see the big deposits. So again, there's more work to be had at Grandy’s. Hermitage off the Cape Ray Shear, different structure altogether. When I joined, I heard a lot about Hermitage, as I mentioned, but we put first boots on the ground last year with some prospecting. But there's many reasons to like Hermitage. There's a number of reasons to like Hermitage. And so Crispin, maybe walk through very quickly in terms of the structural setting here of Hermitage and then a little bit about the results we just published.

Yes. Thanks, Sam. I'll just get to Hermitage briefly. I just saw a question come in regarding the drill results when we had the slides on Long Range and Grandy’s. I thought I'd just address that about the turnaround times. The QAQC that we're dealing with right now. The turnaround times with SGS has been good on average about 5 weeks turnaround time. This -- we have -- like all companies, we have policies and procedures in place to review the QAQC. We insert standards into our sample batches that we know the gold grade of so we can assess the quality of the labs work. Unfortunately, this batch with the diamond drilling in it -- these batches with the diamond drilling did fail our standards. It's -- I reviewed the QAQC procedures and results from the last 2 years and we had great performance from SGS. However, it is -- it does happen that you get fails on your standard and what the procedure is, is to rerun the samples -- so we've identified which samples needed to be rerun. And this is a common thing. It's just unfortunate with the timing when it's on the batch that you're waiting to do the release on. So just to touch on -- it's not a big issue with the lab. The repeatability of the sampling, our blanks are all doing well, and the standards have been performed very well over the last 2 years. So SGS is doing an excellent job. However, you do get fails in standards and you have to go back and rerun that in order to be JORC compliant.

Yes. it's been a source of frustration for sure for us. The results from this informs what we do next. And when you have a delay, it just delays what you do next as well, too. So it's been frustrating from our perspective. And we've had some pointed conversations with our service provider on this. And as Crispin said, these things do happen, unfortunately, and it's happened to us on this batch here. We also are one of the few companies that are getting multi-element analysis done on, the samples that we collect, whether it's through drilling or prospecting -- so we do go through that process as well. It's more than just the fire assays on the gold. We are looking for these other pathfinder elements which are -- which is just as important as the gold. Obviously, we're looking for gold, but the pathfinders tell us where the gold is actually being sourced from. So it's a huge data point. And then one of the things that we pay extra for to get that analysis done that helps us triangulate and vector in on where the resources might be. So maybe we'll answer the other questions that are posted here afterwards, Crispin. So let's just walk through Hermitage and we can get to Q&A.

Yes. So the bottom image is a map of Newfoundland. We pointed out these 2 major trucks that we have in Newfoundland, the one in the west is the Valentine Lake Cape Ray Shear Zone, which hosts the Marathon Gold’s 5 million-ounce Valentine Lake Deposit and Project and our 0.6 million ounce Central and Window Glass Hill deposits. If you look at the style of mineralization on the structure, what you do have is not the quartz high-grade nuggety gold that you see on the East Coast. However, you have to strike lengths that allow you to build ounces. So it's not the booming widths and very, very high grades that you see in the news elsewhere on the island. But if you look at Central Zone, the mineralization is over a kilometer and strike. And this is really -- you need width grade and strike length in order to build up ounces. If you look at the structure for Newfound Gold projects are as well as a lot of other peers we have in the island. What you get is really thick intersections, very high grade of quartz nuggety gold. But to date, the strike length has been limited, and this is a structural piece. So we really wish our friends out in around the [ Grandy ] area to kind of crack the code and find that deposit that has all 3 because you will -- it would be a giant deposit with lots of ounces in it. But as you come down along this structure, Sam, do you just want to for your cursor in the structure. As you come down to the south there's a gold project here, historic gold asset. But if you look at all the geology in Newfoundland, it strikes northeast. So that's the main structural grain of the island. But down in the Hermitage area, everything bends around to the south. So this is the only significant impact of rocks on the entire island striking in more of an east-west orientation. This is important because what you do, the main strain direction that's responsible for all the structural events that open up spaces, not just for the gold but before the gold to open up these basins that are hosting the gold and the structures that host the gold, this is ideal here in the Hermitage area. So basically, what we have is a large structural anomaly. And that's what we're looking for in structural controls on gold, things that aren't like the rest of the areas that allow for this dilation. Also, the government did a large-scale geochemical survey over the entire island throughout the '70s and '80s. And antimony, is associated with the gold that is in the east. So there's actually a pass-producing antimony on proximal to Newfound Gold's mineralization, which is associated with those same fluids. So in the east, we have arsenic, antimony and gold. In the West, we have more of a base metal association with our mineral deposits. So this antimony association is important because if you look at all the antimony anomalies on the island, Hermitage is the largest anomaly in size. It's 30 kilometers in strike and it is also the highest and strongest amplitude geochemical anomaly on the island. And that's a really important vector for us to get in here and say this is a belt of rocks at its perspective. It's high in arsenic. It's high in antimony. It's high in gold. It's the same age that -- same-age rocks that host not just the Newfound Gold and Altius related mineralization, but also other large global deposits such as the Victorian Goldfields, which as you guys are aware of is a highly prospective belt. And that has that same arsenic, antimony, gold association. So -- the geochem and structure is what brought us here regionally. And if we zoom in on the geology, it just screams an area that could host a large-scale gold deposit. We have granites on either side with a package of metasedimentary rocks and metavolcanic rocks in between. So it's kind of like the granite sandwich. You have hard quartz rocks on the outside. You have this large regional scale structure in the Hermitage flexure coming through. and then you have the turbiditic rocks, which are folded. So this map pattern is produced by a large synformal fold structure. It was identified for its goal potential in the late '80s. In '89, Teck, Inco and Falconbridge went down there, did a year of work. All geochem from taking sole samples, did very little geology or prospecting -- and then the recession happened. The price of gold dropped and everyone pulled out in Newfoundland including Teck. If you look at Teck's last assessment report, it says that the Hermitage project is the best place to explore for gold in Newfoundland. So that was interesting for us to see. But no one did really crack the rocks with a hammer, and that's what we did. The plan is to go in as a first pass and just get down in the brooks and the streams and see, do we see signs of hydrothermal alteration. Do we see veining and do we see gold? And I'm very excited about this because a lot of -- we have to do work on this ground to keep it in good standing, and that's why it has to be over the entire land package to spread expenditure where all the licenses. But what that forces us to do is look at all the rocks and not kind of pick favorites too early. And it's great because -- within the first 5 actual days on the ground, we turned over a 7-gram gold intersect -- a gold quartz vein with gold up to 7 grams in it, located in a brook in place, and this is great. And then further prospecting up to over 7 kilometers along strike along the same structure, we made a discovery in bedrock of veins with over 2 grams of gold. So to be this early in the project and to be doing such early stage work is prospecting to be finding the very first multigram golds in a new belt is really exciting. And it's not just the 7 grams and the 2-gram samples. We had over 17 samples with greater than a 100 ppb gold. And this is important because our prospectors, they're walking 15 kilometers a day on foot. They are sleeping in tents and they're collecting about 21-kilo samples as they go. So they put a rock in a bag. It represents a massive area with lots of veining. So if we can get a kick of even a 100 ppb gold or 0.5 gram, we can follow up all of these 17 sample sites and with more selective sampling increase these numbers. So we're starting to see gold throughout the Hermitage project. We're waiting on our results from the nose, but there's lots of interesting textures in there as well. And what we're hoping to do is show that there's multigram gold along the entire strike length of this belt. Also, we're nailing down the geochemical associations we see in the surficial geochemistry with antimony and arsenic. We're seeing that in the quartz veins with the gold. So that's a good sign that our geochem is leading us in the right direction.

Yes. Thanks for that, Crispin. I mean the size of the price is quite big here at Hermitage. Again, this is an example where if you go too quickly with the drill rig and you start drilling areas, you think might have the big deposit and you miss it, and you just sterilize it prematurely. So this is why we've got to through that systematic approach to work up the targets. We've got to do our prospecting. As Crispin said, we've casted a wide net here in terms of covering as much ground as we can and taking what we can. And based on those results, we go back to those specific areas that had anomalous gold, and we do more focused prospecting, which is what we did last year, and that's where that 7-gram sample came from. It came from the second or basically from the return to that area following a couple of samples that were anomalous and that's where they found this outcropping sample. There is a question specific to Hermitage, Crispin. So I'll ask it now since we're on the topic of Hermitage. Basically, it says a series of large outcropping quartz veins identified, indicating -- sorry, I'll start from the beginning. Announcement from September 13 said, "There's a series of outcropping quartz veins identified, indicating broad-based hydrothermal activity. The question is, how wide, large are these veins? And can you provide pictures?

Yes. So when we first went into Hermitage, the very first time we went in there, we dropped 2 team members in a brook, and we told them, "See you in 3 days." We picked them up in the helicopter 3 days later. I got a message from the sat messaging system within a minute, I told them to sample every quartz vein and they say, within a few minutes, I got a message, we won't be able to sample every quartz vein. So there is significant numbers of quartz veins throughout this entire package of rocks. We're learning which ones have gold and which ones don't. But some of these veins are over a meter in width. And there are huge panels of lithologies that are completely blasted by hydrothermal breaches, shear veins. We see extensional veins and [indiscernible]. We really need to do a lot of work on figuring out the controls on the veins. But it's a good problem to have -- the gold-bearing veins themselves that we've seen are in the tens of centimeters in thickness. However, they exist in panels with multiple golds. So we're getting multiple gold-bearing veins in panels of rocks. So there is quite a wide range in the veining and the styles of the veining. So we just need to kind of sample everything, figure out which veins have gold in them and then move forward on targeting those veins. As far as pictures, I don't have any here that I can share now, but we'll...

We can post them. Yes, we can post them. Another one here at Hermitage. The recent results of Hermitage are encouraging as are the pathfinder element showings. It looks like the team were on the project recently. What is the exploration plan there for the next year? And how much focus will there be? So maybe I'll take that one, Crispin. I mean yes, we've been there all summer. We've had prospecting results there all summer, and they're trying to cover this big area, first to the West, which, as Crispin said, has delivered multigram gold, 17 samples of anomalous gold, and you're seeing 193 grams here of silver. We've seen high-grade arsenic and can make that sort of association between arsenic and gold to the west. Waiting for the assay results to the east. I think there is a plan to continue to go, do some more prospecting. We're basically into Phase II of prospecting at kind of Hermitage now, and there's a plan to keep going while there's still a window here, otherwise, for us to do some projecting. And that's the nature of the program right now in Hermitage. It's to continue to do prospecting. We've capped a wide net right now, got these results. We're going to go in specific areas based on those results and do more focused prospecting programs and advance them again along the pipeline to more exploration activities around doing some specific geophysics or geochemistry and the idea is to work up some of these targets with the hope that by the summer next year, spring summer next year, we could be in a situation where we can even bring that RC drill rig over to Hermitage and do some bottom of hole sampling. So that is sort of the plan here in terms of moving Hermitage along. It's not ready for diamond drilling, but it's -- we're trying to get it into that immediate stage. And then when I say take Hermitage into that stage, I'm not talking about the entire 27 kilometers of strike. I'm talking about specific areas that we've identified. But again, this is a big area that would be bigger than what most junior companies would have, and that's just in 1 of 9 properties we've got in the portfolio. Again, in the interest of time, just going to work through this, I mean, [indiscernible] there's a lot happening here. The geology changes as you go from west to east. We've got historic samples that have 18 grams gold, 17 grams gold in outcrop. We've had multigram samples from the work that we've done. There are silver samples that are 400 grams silver. There is a ton of copper in the system as well, too. Historic values. There's 57% listed on a table there. If you go back to some of the other historic samples, there's a 56% sample. There's samples in the 40% in terms of copper. So there's been lots of unwind here at Bunker Hill. It's a larger area than Malachite. We talked about [indiscernible] structures that could be here, that's something certainly that we'd be looking at Bunker Hill. But again, it's another massive area, and we've got to sort of work that up like we do everything else. This one here, yes, it's a busy slide, and that's the point. [indiscernible] fit one of targets on this slide. But basically, each one of those blocks that we've got in the portfolio has something that we're very interested in. We believe in each one of those. We believe that there is a potential for 1 or more multi-ounce deposit -- multi-ounce gold deposit in each one of these blocks. We've listed here the different characteristics of the different things we like about each one of these. But the point is, is that we've got a lot of ground to cover. We've got a number of different projects within that ground, each one of them have their unique attributes and their characteristics that give us the confidence that there's multi-ounce deposits within each one of these. So that's why we need to have a systematic approach to exploration. Going 100% greenfield is very expensive, as we've learned in the last 18 months. Having a mix of brownfields and greenfields is the right approach. But we've got -- there's targets here we have even talked about, and there's a question here on the intersection, which we'll answer in just a moment. There are some bullet points for the person who asked the question. But when I joined Matador, it's actually one of the first areas that I pointed to was the intersection, which in itself is the first goal at points, says that the intersection of 2 major gold structures on the island happening on the ground that we currently occupy. So again, the point here is that we've got a ton of opportunities in the portfolio to make discoveries, and we -- it's our job to do things in the right way and allow us to get there. Another way to look at it, I've said through different audiences, whether it's in Australia or North America, that exploration is a binary outcome. You're either going to have a one. And if you have a one, you hit the jackpot, or it's going to be a 0. And that's exploration. That's just the nature of the business that we're in. But when you look at Matador and you look at what we have in terms of the opportunities, the different names, different projects that we've got in the portfolio, each one of them represents a binary outcome, right? It's not just 1 or 0 for the entire Matador. It's 1 or 0 and probably arguably more 1s and 0s within each one of these different blocks, just given how large they are. And again, that just speaks volumes to the land package we have and the opportunity that shareholders have here to continue to support us to make those discoveries. And we'll have a pyramid of opportunities. It's a very ugly looking impairment, which we'll tidy up -- we're going through an exercise to prioritize and rank the different targets we've talked about today, but basically build up this pyramid of opportunities and events being go along through the pipeline, as I mentioned. And so yes, so key priorities. We're here to grow business. This is a business and we're going to grow it. And if we grow it, the share price will respond. So that's the strategy is to grow business with the aim of discovering the next multimillion-ounce deposit in Newfoundland. MOZ is a key driver for us. Meters drill is not, MOZ is. That's the key metric here that's going to deliver that value, unlock the value, I should say, for our shareholders and for the business. And if the business benefits, shareholders will benefit. So we'll complete the 2023 exploration program. We're -- we do have some permits here with the RC rig, but we're looking now to potentially look at doing that in the wintertime, which we can actually cover more ground. And then obviously, we're still waiting for the assays to -- the final assays to come through. And then we've got the prospect that I mentioned. But we are already planning for what's next. I'd say planning for 2024 and beyond. Some of that work might actually happen this year. We're planning for it. We always plan for success. That's our mantra as well, is always plan for success. So we are going through that prioritization process with the brownfields and greenfield-s targets that I've mentioned. I'd like us to get to a stage where we're doing exploration all year round. There a couple of months that you avoid, you don't want to be doing any major exploration work, that's November, December; also, say, mid-March to mid-May. So those are the points in time you want to avoid in terms of doing any significant exploration fieldwork. But beyond that, I'd like to get Matador to a stage where we're doing exploration work, meaningful exploration work in January and February and in the first half of March -- so that we're continuing to move the business forward, and we're going to continue to have [indiscernible] flow. I know it's important to have [indiscernible] flow. We're mindful of that. And to be able to set up the business where we're doing work constantly throughout the year -- is going to be a huge enabler for us. This year hasn't really worked out for us from a corporate perspective. I've been very vocal about the desire to get a Canadian listing. We went down a path that was unsuccessful. It was disappointing. That -- it took as long as it did to get to the outcome that it did. Unnecessarily frankly, that it got to that point. But we're still resolved to getting that listing in place. We do see that as another sort of unlocking of opportunity event, looking -- we're still looking at that as we speak. Timing of that will just be dependent on when we can get things done and what it makes sense -- when it makes sense for us to get that in place. But there is opportunities even beyond just getting a listing in Canada. It's -- as everyone knows, it's been a challenging market for the mining industry, for exploration companies, specifically. And we've been impacted. Others have been impacted. I know we're not alone. But we're in a much stronger position than most are. We've got a strategic investor. We've got a group of very large institutional shareholders that are supportive of the company, that will continue to support the company. We've got great other shareholders who I know are there to support the business. We've got, again, great land package, great people internally. So we've got a lot going for us. And that actually puts us in a very strong position to take advantage of what's going on in the market. There's a lot of companies, junior companies sitting on very good grounds that are on their hands and knees, and they may not be around come the end of the year if market conditions stay where they are. And that's the opportunity that companies that are in a stronger position have to create value for shareholders. You don't do M&A when the market is at the very top. You look for those opportunities when it's at the bottom. So we will be opportunistic. We will look for opportunities to consolidate, either to pick up the ground, good people, cash, resources, et cetera. So we will look for those opportunities, but we're not going to consolidate for the sake of consolidation. But my point is that we actually have a very good opportunity here to take advantage of what's going on, and we've got the support of our shareholders. And again, the business model, we need the right assets which we have, the right people, which we have and having the right owners to support the company. So that's the last slide we have, Peter. So we can go through Q&A. Do you want me to read it out? Or do you want to go through that?

More than happy to read it out. Yes. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Crispin. Obviously, we are quite short on time, so we'll try and run through these. The first one is a little bit complicated, but the gist of it essentially is -- I think it would be quite helpful to go over the basal till method in terms of looking at targets at Malachite. If the gold mineralization is farther than the basement, sort of a bit deeper, what use is the basal till essentially in those scenarios?

Yes, I think I can take that one. [ Andrew ] asked, is it possible to confirm the basement gold found in last summer's diamond drill program, was responsible for the till anomalies? So the answer to that is no. Just to use, MAL2 is an example, the geochem anomaly is 1 kilometer by 1 kilometer, and it's up to 0.5 gram of gold in the till. What we found through the 4 drill holes that we drilled there, was a meter of calcified-rich material that had about 1 gram of gold in it. There's no way that a few calcified-rich stringers are causing this large regional geochem anomaly. So we've got more work to do there. We are planning to do [ IP ] there. However, if that geochem anomaly is the largest geochem anomaly in the belt that doesn't have a known deposit underneath it.

Okay. One of the other questions, Sam might be better -- more tailored for you. But 1 is obviously how you're going to -- there's a lot of exploration to be done and a lot of pipeline building as well as brownfields. So -- how will that be funded moving forward? And maybe it might be worth touching on the corporate strategy. You mentioned that, obviously, the [indiscernible] quite work the way that you were looking at, at the moment. And maybe you could touch on how you might be looking at differently moving forward?

Yes. So as I mentioned, I mean, our last reported cash balance was AUD 6 million. It's a very strong position to have been in and continue to be in for what's going on in the broader market. We've done some meaningful exploration work. And we're encouraged by the results. Again, it just demonstrates that there's a ton of smoke here. We still have to figure out where the fire is coming from. The new strategy is a formidable strategy. It's the right thing to do because it's cheaper, more cost-effective, higher return on investment in the brownfields. And while we, again, do the right things in the greenfield setting to work up the pipeline of opportunities. So we will continue to look at these opportunities. And again, plan for success, look to do the winter program, look to take -- to prioritize and rank these targets, see what we can do with the team that we have with the funds that are available. We are -- exploration companies don't rate revenue and require the market to fund its business and it needs the right shareholders to continue to fund it. And that's the bottom line. Nobody wants to be diluted. Nobody -- everyone wants to raise at a higher price than they did last time. But there's a lot of things that just have to work well, and that includes the market -- so I mean bottom line, exploration companies do need the market to raise capital. And that's why my point here on the slide, you have to have the right owners that are there to support you. And I always say when you have the right investors, there is no such thing as dilution. You just go back to your shareholders. So this is the plan, this is the program and this is the funding requirements that we do have. We're in again, better positioned because we do have cash. We also have access to the Canadian charity flow-through which gives you a 40% premium. So you can stretch that dollar much, much longer, much wiser than most that are outside of Canada. So that in itself presents an opportunity. The share price is not where we -- any of us would like it to be. I see it as a short-term thing. We're here for the long term. In long term, we're going to look to create value. Even on the market upswing you should expect the share price to rebound significantly. And we've seen it all the time. There's no news the company has, but their share price re-rates just because the cycle has turned and it's back in favor. And [ unfortunately ], we've got -- when we did a transaction with B2Gold, they have an option to increase their position, which has already been approved by shareholders. So that's something that's already been approved by shareholders, where it's made with the share price what it is. It just made per for our strategic investor to increase their position to 20%. And that alone would bring additional funds that we can do some very meaningful work with. And again, you can even utilize it through a charity flow-through. Ideally, we want to make sure that we've got a robust plan in place, which we're getting there. We're going to share the details of. And then we're going to do what we can. And if there's a funding gap at some point, then we'll address it when we get to that. And again, the market will dictate what that -- when that is and what that looks like.

Perfect. Would you mind talking a bit about inception target and how that ranks in terms of properties? Also, do B2Gold visit that package of ground and if they have any thoughts on that area?

Yes. So -- we were asked this question a few weeks ago, what's your top 3 target. It was asked to Justin. I was asked to Crispin and it was asked to myself. We kind of all looked at each other and we laughed because I'm not sure if we'd have the same answer. But intersection was one of the first things that I was drawn to when I first started. I asked Crispin, and he probably remember this, I said, what's going on here? You've got the intersection of the 2 largest gold structures in Newfoundland. What's the work here? I mean there must be some really interesting opportunities. And Crispin smiled back, and he just nodded his head, said absolutely. But again, we've got a large ground to cover. And if you want to do everything, you're going to blow your brains up and you're not going to be around -- so you have to be focused. And again, that is why the pipeline is important is to take early-stage opportunities along the pipeline. And intersection is one of my favorites. And that's something Again, we're working through what the plan looks like for 2024, but I could see us doing some prospects in there at intersection. But historically, there's been very little work to date. But everyone who comes there, points that out and sees what the potential is. And I know Crispin and the team like that target as well. As B2 visited it, I think they might have flown over it. I don't think they've stepped foot on the ground there.

No. It's -- we haven't been there. The only work that was done was by Marathon Gold. I think they did 3 days work there, and they returned some samples that had 200 ppb gold -- so that's the only work that's ever been done there. It's basically wide open and a very interesting structural location.

Okay. Perfect. I think you've already touched on this, Sam, but were actually B2 might be able to increase there, say, to even potentially 20% you mentioned earlier. So in terms of the question in terms, will they continue to invest? I think you may have already answered that.

Yes. B2 is very supportive, highly supportive. They just spent a month of their time, senior executives spent a month of their time on the ground, looking at what we have -- when we put in that -- when we did the transaction with them, the way that is structured for that additional 10% was a pricing basement of 5-day VWAP. My belief and what's happened historically is when you get a strategic investor, our share price goes up. In this case, it didn't go up. That's the unfortunate part. But my expectation is B2 will continue to support this business. They've only been here for a year. Nothing's changed. If anything, they're more bullish on what's there. I'm more bullish on what we have. And -- and I believe that B2, and it's not just B2, we've got a number of other large shareholders that we've met with over the last 3 weeks and they're all very supportive of what we're doing and they're to continue to support us over the long term. Again, we're here for MOZ. We're here to find a multibagger over a series of multibaggers. And it's not 1-drill hole, 1-drill campaign is not going to motivate shareholders to either buy or sell out of their positions. They're in here for the long term because they understand exploration.

Good. On Hermitage, have B2 or Brett Davis been to Hermitage? And if not, are there any plans for them to come to that property at any point?

Yes, I think both -- so the answer is no, they haven't been to Hermitage. I think we've tried with B2 a couple of times, but, again, it's weather dependent to get there by helicopter or flow plane. Brett Davis' mandate was to focus on Cape Ray with the work that was done, there's still more follow-up work that Brett can do on Cape Ray, but the plan is to get them back there for another visit with us and would use that opportunity for him to go to Hermitage and have a look. I think you made an off-the-cuff comment after Crispin showed them some rocks that -- he kind of looked at them and made a comment that they looked a lot like Fosterville. So interesting. We like to hear things like that. But we will -- we've got a lot of work to do at Hermitage still to move that along in the pipeline.

Okay. Just 1 question left is, which came in via email prior. Can you just talk a bit about the JV strategy. Obviously, you've got 9 corporate meetings within the portfolio. Is there an opportunity here to potentially work with other mid-tier major companies to help progress those projects individually?

Yes, absolutely. I mean we're a small company. And again, even with B2, there is a big supporter of ours. It's still a lot of ground to cover and capital, unfortunately, isn't infinite. So for us, the methodology we have, the approach we have to exploration plus the new strategy and how we're going to tackle this is going to help in terms of covering this ground, but there's still a lot of ground to cover. And in some ways, you can even look at this map here and all the different projects that we have as an opportunity to partner up with other interested companies. Almost -- I wouldn't quite say because that would be a major strategic shift, but in some ways, be somewhat of a project generator and work with companies that have the capital, have the resources that they can deploy and earn in on these different projects. We would certainly entertain those opportunities. Obviously, B2 is there already and could be interested in doing that with us. When we were at the Precious Metals Summit a few weeks ago, we had, I think, it was 9 corporate meetings. Every single one of them liked what Matador has, every single one of them. They like the geology, they like the geography, they like the people, they like our approach to exploration. There's a lot of interest, a lot of demand from the corporates. So right now given what's going on in the market could be a major source of investment in capital. But more importantly, strategically in the bigger picture, I've often said I rather have 50% of something big than 100% of nothing. And so on that basis, we would certainly entertain the opportunity to potentially joint venture some of this ground that we just -- it's not high in terms of priorities, and we've done very little work on to date.

Perfect. We're about an hour and half now, so we'll call it there. But Sam, Crispin, thank you for your time. For those who would like it, we can send over a recording of this. Afterwards, we've also live streamed it on YouTube. We'll send a link of that around. If there are any further questions if we get through via the Zoom e-mail that has come through to you guys before or you can actually e-mail. I'm sure there's an e-mail on the Matador website that you'll be able to get through to the team, and I'm sure they'll get back to you.

Yes. Thanks a lot, Peter and I appreciate everyone's time. It all went longer than planned, but we had a lot to cover. There's probably more we could have talked about. But I appreciate you setting this up for us. And this is our -- we like to engage with shareholders. So we'd actually like to do more of these going forward and want to have that engagement with the shareholders.

Perfect. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Crispin, and thank you, everyone, for joining. We'll catch you next time.

Thank you.

Thanks a lot, Peter.