Q&A Session with CEO Patrick McGrath of Blue Moon Zinc Corp
OTC-BMOOF TSX-V-MOON
Alphastox.com
Can you please give our readers a brief overview of how and why you got involved with Blue Moon?
I became Blue Moon’s largest single shareholder in February 2017 when I accumulated a 17% stake by buying out the then largest shareholder in the open market. I bought the position because of the Blue Moon zinc project and its near-term potential. The asset is very attractive because Boliden, one of Europe’s largest zinc producer and well respected operator, did extensive work and advanced the project to a production decision. We plan to finish what they started.
What distinguishes MOON from other junior zinc companies on the TSXV?
The zinc recoveries at Blue Moon are estimated at 95% which will yield in a simple process to separate the economic minerals, including a premium zinc concentrate. Metallurgy is key for a zinc asset and is the first question you should ask when evaluating a zinc project.
The local infrastructure for Blue Moon is excellent. For example, we are within three miles of an existing paved road, one mile from a power source and an hour’s drive from a town to house and supply our future workforce. Not many projects can boast that.
Can you give us a short summary of your asset and why you feel your team is best suited to take this asset through the permitting process in California?
Blue Moon is a high-grade zinc asset that is on a pathway to permitting and production. The project has a resource estimate of 2.62 million tons with a grade of 6.01% zinc for approximately 315 million pounds of zinc in the Indicated category and 2.68 million tons with a grade of 5.98% zinc for approximately 320 million pounds of zinc in the Inferred category plus significant values of copper, silver and gold. This resources estimate was performed in 2008 utilizing a zinc price of US $0.75 per pound. The project is a past producer with 50,000 tons mined at 12% zinc during the second world war.
Our team includes two members who built successful mines in California. Local knowledge and know how is key. Lutz Klingmann recently permitting and built the Soledad mine in southern California which went into commercial production in December 2016. Larry O’Connor restarted the Mesquite mine in southern California while he was VP Operations with Western Goldfields (now New Gold).
At a $4.7M market cap company, what do you think the market is missing and where do you see the biggest upside from here?
Quite bluntly, the market doesn’t know about the Blue Moon project. The project was dormant for several decades because its situated in California. The reality was California made it tougher to permit. Now, the rest of North America has caught up to California in terms of permitting and we believe it’s an even playing field. The last mine to go into production in California was late 2016, being the Soledad Mountain mine owned by Golden Queen TSXV: GQM. Do you know when the last mine was built in the Yukon? The Minto project in 2007 owned by Capstone. Do you know who took both Soledad (California) and Minto (Yukon) through permitting and development? Lutz Klingmann, Blue Moon’s key technical advisor.
The upside is in the potential of the resource. We believe there is a very high likelihood that the resource continues at depth. The resource ends in mineralization and a few deep holes show significant zinc grades. In addition, VMS deposits are normally found in pods. There’s a high likelihood that additional pods exist along strike where soil and IP anomalies point to continued mineralization. That is the blue-sky potential.
What are a few catalysts investors should look forward to over the next six months?
The Company has several key catalysts. We expect an updated NI 43-101 report in late in September. The prior NI 43-101 resource estimate published in 2008 used $0.75 per pound zinc and $8.50 an ounce silver versus the current $1.40 per pound zinc and $18.00 an ounce silver. The updated resource estimate will utilize current commodity prices and will be a stepping stone to our second major catalyst, being our maiden Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). We expect our PEA study to be complete in Q1 2018 and to highlight Blue Moon’s value.
Why should investors consider MOON as a potential addition to their speculative portfolio?
Moon is attractive to investors looking for a leverage play to zinc with a near term development goal.
