Conference Transcript - NCAUF 2025-11-02

Malika Dvovska, Head of Investor Relations

Morning, everyone. I hope everyone's having a good early breakfast. For those of you who have not yet met me, my name is Malika Dvovska. I'm the vice president of corporate development and investor relations for Nucor Gold. I have been with the company for just over five years now. So I'm going to walk through the presentation, then I'll open up the floor to any questions. If you do need a fact sheet or a pen, there are a couple more left up front. And then if I haven't scanned your QR code, I would appreciate if you came by post presentation so that I could do that. So at Nucor Gold we are a developer, publicly listed company, we trade on the TSXV as well as the OTCQX. I will be making some forward-looking statements today so please do refer to the full disclosure available on our website. So who are we? At Nucor Gold we are advancing our NSHE Gold project. Three key characteristics about our company. We have a team with a track record and alignment, and we have a project that is underpinned by economics, we have a PEA study, but also we benefit from exploration torque. So first and foremost, this is a team with a track record of capital market support, one that is very strong alignment with shareholders. So about 15%, 1.5% of the equity is held by management and board, and importantly that has been invested alongside shareholders, so either through financings or buying on market. Our NCHU gold project is underpinned by economics. We put out the results of a PEA study in mid 2024 that highlighted the development potential for an open pit heap leach project. We're now doing the technical work to de-risk and advance the development of that project towards a pre-feasibility study next year. But importantly, especially in this gold market environment, we haven't forgotten about the exploration torque. We have a project that sits on a prolific gold belt. We have a district-scale property and we're drilling 45,000 meters currently to continue to define that longer-term potential that exists on the project. So in terms of that team, the team is led by Luke Alexander, our president and CEO. He has about 25 years of experience in the mining industry. He comes from a capital markets finance background. Notably, he's well known for his time in London. He spent over a decade in London building these very strong relationships with corporates as well as with institutional investors. Greg Smith is our VP of exploration. He's a geologist with over 35 years of experience specifically defining and drilling out these large-scale green stone hosted deposits. Myself, I come from a finance background as well. I've been in the industry for about 15 years. I spent the first half of my career in investment banking and private equity before moving into roles such as this one on the corporate development and IR side. Dan Wilson is our country manager. He's a geologist as well. He's been working on and off on the NSHE project for the last 30 years, so he knows it extremely well. And then Alan Pangborn, he's the most recent addition here as a technical strategic advisor. He has significant operational experience, so we're very lucky to have had him join as an advisor as we continue to advance the development of the project. Importantly, Nucor is founded by Doug Forster and Blaine Johnson, two individuals with a very strong track record in the industry. They were behind recent successes such as Newmarket Gold, which sold to Kirkland Lake, and then Calibre most recently. So Calibre, they took that from an exploration to a development stage company, then through acquisitions became a multi-mine gold producer before merging with Equinox most recently. So as a result of that track record, those strong relationships in the industry, I think you'll see that reflected in our share ownership. So alongside management and board that holds 15%, we have a very strong institutional shareholder base. About 55% of our shares are held institutionally by long-term value focused funds. Our top institutional holders include Franklin Templeton. They own about 8% of the company. Aegis Financial out of the US owns about 6%. Ruffer out of London is about 5% and And then a number of others that we've highlighted here are in that 1% to 3% range. So really strong shareholder support from our institutions in tandem with broker coverage. So we do have three different brokers that cover the company currently. In terms of corporate structure, share structure, 263 million shares outstanding. Current market cap is roughly 175 million Canadian. In U.S. dollars, about 125 million. Importantly, key takeaway here is that we have the cash to do what we need to do, what we have defined for the next 12 to 18 months. So we have $10 million cash, Canadian million, in the bank at the end of September, post-exercise of warrants that expired at the end of September. They were well on the money, so further institutional support there. With that $10 million, we can complete a 45,000-meter drill program as well as that pre-feasibility study next year. Importantly, in tandem with the cash on hand, we see line of sight for a further 10 million to come in in the next four months from warrant proceeds. So we have another 20 million warrants at 50 cents Canadian. They're well in the money given we're trading at around 67 cents. So we anticipate that those funds will come in over the next four months. They're held predominantly by our long-term investors, our institutional shareholders, so really strong hands. And with that money that gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of potential to increase the drill program and continue to advance the development of NSHE past a PFS. In terms of our project, it is located in Ghana. It's in the southwest corner of Ghana. Ghana is a phenomenal jurisdiction. It's known as the Gold Coast given the gold endowment and gold history in the country. It is Africa's top gold producer. It's the sixth largest globally. It has a very stable democratic government, has had one for decades now. It's pro-development mining. It's English speaking, English rule of law. Importantly you don't need security in country and as a result you see a lot of contractors actually base themselves out of Ghana for the rest of West Africa. But importantly look at who's actually operating in country. I think this really speaks to the quality of the jurisdiction. Four of the major top gold producers operate in Ghana. Cijin is the latest addition to this. They acquired Achim earlier this year and then And importantly, Newmont continues to invest in the country. They noted recently that Ghana, their assets in Ghana are their cornerstone assets in their global portfolio. So they just invested a billion dollars over the last several years to bring a half-owned north online. That's an expansion to their existing mine, a half-owned country. So we think that speaks very highly of the jurisdiction. Now in terms of our NSHE gold project, so as I noted, we're located in the southwest corner of Ghana. There's two prolific belts that run through this part of the country, the Ashanti belt and then the Sefwe-Bibiani belt. Key takeaway from this slide is that our project is on trend with some very prominent gold mines that are in production that have much larger endowments of gold defined to date given they've been in production and development for a much longer time frame. So you have Newmont's a half-o mine, the one that they've just expanded and invested money into that has an endowment of over 20 million ounces. Then you have Asante, which has the Bibiani and Chirano mines, both in operations, both benefiting from further exploration. They have an endowment of over 10 million ounces. Chirano is just 50 kilometers to the north of us. At NSHE, to date, we've defined about 740,000 in the indicated category, along with 970,000 in the inferred category. So hence, we believe we've got a lot more potential at our NSHE project to come through drilling and development and exploration. Just a quick snapshot of our project. What you see here is our land property. It's 248-kilometer square land package, 40 kilometers from end to end. We have five deposits currently defined on the project where we have resources, so Boyne, Sioum, Nyam, Kwachikrum, and Tokosea. We have a number of additional targets where we've drilled, we just don't have sufficient drilling yet for a resource, including Arati, Kojina Hill, Sioum South, and then a number of additional targets defined that will warrant drilling over time that we've identified through soil anomalies, trenching, geochem, but importantly we also benefit from infrastructure. So we have a paved road and power line that goes through our site to the town of Enchi and what you can see here as well as our core shack facility which sits just outside of town. I'm just gonna give you a quick snapshot of the lay of the land. This is the town of Enchi. It has a population of roughly 1 to 5, 15,000 people. It has hotels, it has restaurants, it has a hospital, schools, as you can see, paved highway, cell reception, cell towers. So this is a real benefit for us. It's about 15 kilometres as the crow flies from the town of Venturi to our project, so we can actually rent houses here and host our employees. And then when we move over to our core shack facility, this again, you can see the paved highway, you can see the cell tower in the distance, we have cell reception on the property. You can see our core shack facility, really strong infrastructure and year-round access to drill on our property. So again we do have a resource to find on the project, we sit along a belt that hosts a number of other producing mines and we have a district scale exploration opportunity. So in terms of what we have underway now, we have a 45,000 meter drill program underway and I'm going to bucket this into two. So phase one, which is now complete, which is about 25,000 meters of drilling, that was focused on the work that needed to be done in advance of being able to commission a pre-feasibility study. So with a pre-feasibility study, you can only base that study on indicated ounces, so you need to do tighter drill spacing. So that was the focus for that first 25,000 meters, was to really focus on our existing deposit areas and proving up the ounces there. Now with the following 20,000 meters we can focus on that longer term potential through exploration and resource growth. Right now I'm just going to focus in on the results from the 25,000 meters we've released to date and then I'm going to highlight that exploration potential that we're very excited about. So we've released 25,000 meters to date key the key goals of that that we've achieved included drilling encountering wide zones of gold mineralization at our existing deposit areas we've seen some higher grade intervals. Most of the drilling, 98.5% of the drilling completed to date has intersected gold mineralization, so a really strong hit rate, and then we're also pushing some of these drill holes past the limits of the pits that constrain our resource, and we're continuing to encounter mineralization. So that highlights that potential for resource growth even with the drilling that we've done that's focused on resource conversion. So I'm going to take you to our Boeing deposit now. Our Boeing deposit is our second largest deposit that's defined on the project to date, and some of our key results from drilling from this current drill program. What you see here are a couple cross sections. On these cross sections what you want to focus in on is that the pit outline for the current resource is on all of these, so that you can see where this drilling is in context of the current resource. So what you see here is wide zones of gold mineralization encountered, along with mineralization being encountered outside of the limits of the pit. So we're seeing really good resource conversion as well as the potential for resource growth and really strong results so KBRC 352 which was released just earlier this year hit 2.25 grams per ton of gold over 56 meters along with KBRC 357 hit 4.41 grams per ton gold over 24 meters. At Boyne again this is another example of pushing these drill holes past the limits of our current pits that constrain our resource to highlight that growth potential, and once again, these drill intercepts are ending in mineralization, highlighting that potential for resource growth longer Well, obviously, these types of results warrant further follow up with deeper drilling as we continue to define the project. And then excitingly, we're also hitting some very high grades, so longer term we believe that there is potential here for higher grade mineralization, and so with this specific drill program, we actually hit our highest grade interval to date, 204 grams per tonne over a metre, but what really excites us are these wider intervals of high grade, so 3.36 grams over 28 metres. So what does this all mean? Taking a step back and looking at a long section of our Boyne deposit, what you see here is the pit limits that constrain our current resource at Boyne, along with all the drilling we've completed in 2024 and 2025. So this is all drilling that's been completed post the resource estimate that's defined on the project. And what you clearly see is mineralization being encountered outside of the limits of So we believe with this drilling, we've not only accomplished resource conversion, but we're also hoping to see some resource growth. Taking a look at our seam deposit and the drill results completed to date, seam is our largest gold deposit currently defined on the project. We're also seeing really strong success. So we're seeing wide zones of mineralization, such as 1.85 grams per ton over 62 meters, and then we're also seeing potential for resource growth. SWRC 224 at CU was drilled outside the limits of the pit that constrains the resource in that area, and that hit strong mineralization, 1.24 grams per ton over 20 meters. So again, potential for resource growth with that first 25,000 meters of drilling that's been completed. And lastly, one other area that we did drill as part of this first phase was Cogena Hill. Cogena Hill is an earlier stage target which means it does not currently have a resource. It's an area that we believe over time we'll be able to prove up as a new deposit area through drilling. So to date we've actually only drilled about 4,500 meters on that area but we've had really strong results and we believe over time with further drilling this will be another deposit on the project continue to highlight that resource growth potential. So we actually did just recently, a couple months ago, release these results. It included one of the highest grade intervals on the project, 184 grams per ton of gold over a metre, and really strong results that we believe will eventually lead to a resource estimate at Kujina Hill. So that's the first phase of the program. Now we're very excited to be getting into some of the longer term exploration and resource growth potential. and I'm going to bucket that into two categories now as well. So you have your near surface potential as well as the longer growth potential from the deeper. So in terms of the resource, our property has a lot of significant expansion potential just near surface. So again, our 248 square kilometre property, our five deposits, Foyan, Siem, Nyam, Quachukum, all remain open along Strike for drilling and resource extension. In addition to that, we've touched on this, but Arati, Cojina Hills, Hume South are earlier stage targets that do not currently have a resource, again an area for us to go back to to drill to continue to prove up potential future deposits on the property, along with those additional geochem, soil anomalies, different exploration targets on the property that will warrant drilling over time that will look to grow that oxide near surface mineralization. The longer term potential here, and what we're excited to be drilling now, is that deeper potential. So what this is, is a comparison of Turano. Just as a refresher, the Turano mine is the mine 50 kilometers to the north of us, along that same belt, along the same trend. It is a mine that's been in operations for over 20 years now, both open pit and underground, has an endowment of over 5 million ounces. and what you see here is a long section of Enchi compared to Cherano. The interesting thing with Cherano is it actually started as a series of open pits. Through time and development and exploration, what they started to define were those higher-grade chutes that existed on the project. They're now mining down to a vertical depth of 800 meters, 1 to 2 grams per ton. Now compare that to Enchi. At NSHE, most of our drilling's been done down to about 100 and 150 meter vertical. Our pits that constrain the current mineral resource are down to about 80 meters vertical. And when it comes to that deeper drilling, we've only put in about 40 to 45 holes between 150 and 350 meters vertical. So that's where longer term there's a real potential to grow this resource by defining these higher grade shoots that we believe exist at NSHE. And with the drilling we've completed to date, we're starting to see that. So at our NSHE project we've done the most deeper drilling at NIAM. It's the third largest gold deposit to find on the project to date. So I'm going to take you into a long section of NIAM now. What you see here once again are the resource pits that constrain the resource, the resource block models, and then all the drilling we've done to date at NIAM. When you start to hone in on just the higher grade, the one gram per ton material and above, you can clearly start to see that there's these higher grade shoots forming. What this warrants is obviously follow-up drilling, but with the drilling we've completed to date, we've had results such as 5.8 over 7, 5.6 over 8 metres, 6.6 over 4. We're clearly starting to define these higher-grade chutes that plunge at depth. This would only be down to about 250 metres, 300 metres vertical. So our current plan with the drilling that's underway will be to get back in here with our deeper diamond drill rigs to follow up and continue to define that potential that we believe exists through these higher grade shoots and then importantly there's been no drilling done here in terms of a long strike and within in between these higher grade shoots we believe exists so that also does lead to some potential growth areas as well and then importantly with the drill results that we've had to date at Boyne we also believe that we're starting to see some of these higher grade shoots forming they warrant follow-up drilling so that's gonna be a focus of this second phase of drilling that we have underway now is to chase some of these higher-grade results to see where we potentially have higher-grade shoots forming at depth. So we're very excited about that as part of the next leg of the exploration at NSHE. But importantly, we are also on a near-term development path. So we're taking that PEA to a pre-feasibility study in tandem with all the drilling that's We're very much focused on the work that needs to be done there. So hydro, logical, geotech, metallurgical test work, all being done now in preparation of commissioning a pre-feasibility study later this year, with the target of having those results in the first half of next year. And just a quick refresher on that PEA as well, which has led us to take the project towards a pre-feasibility study, it highlighted the potential for an open pit heap leach project. very robust economics at a $3,000 gold price 971 million US after-tax NPV 136 percent IRR less than a one-year payback really driven off a low upfront CapEx reason for that is heap leads you're not building a mill facility contract mining is very standard in West Africa specifically in Ghana so you're not buying a mining fleet and then you're not crushing the mineralization until you get into the deeper mineralization so you can fund that crusher CapEx from your cash flow and all of that within a nine-year mine life at approximately 122,000 ounces per year which we believe through that exploration that I've walked through now that this is really just the base case in terms of mine life potential on the project. Lastly in terms of valuation we have very strong leverage to the gold price defined in these economics so for every hundred dollar move in the gold price we see a roughly 50 million dollar move in the NPV of the project. That's U.S. 50 million. You compare that to our current market cap of roughly 125 million U.S. Now look at the leverage to the gold price. That NPV at gold price is between 3,000 and 3,500. It's closer to a billion two. When you compare that to our current market cap, we're trading at about 0.1 times. So we believe that as we continue to advance the development of the project, de-risk it by taking it from a PEA to a PFS and onwards, that we should see that multiple better reflect the value that has been defined in the economics. We think there's a lot of potential for a re-rate as we de-risk and advance the project. And then further to that, that exploration work that comes from defining the longer-term growth potential on the project. So just to wrap things up, really excited. We've got lots of catalysts coming with a 45,000 meter drill program underway, pre-feasibility study targeted for mid-2026. We are fully funded for all that work and we have a top tier team here that's aligned with management and shareholders, sorry. So with that, please do consider following us on social media. We post a lot of great content from site.