Patrick Donnelly - Trilogy Metals: Getting Things Done #4360

Published: May 29, 2019, 7:43 p.m.

There's a new sheriff in town and as a result Trilogy Metals is on the move. VP Patrick Donnelly tells us that as a result of streamlined Federal environmental/land use regulations, Trilogy is moving quickly ahead with its Arctic and Bornite Projects (located in the Ambler District situated in Alaska's wilderness). The state's governor is pushing for the project as well. As a result, a much needed 211 mile industrial road is being permitted and will be built shortly thereafter. It will connect the district to the Dalton Highway that traverses the State and thereby facilitate development and production of the projects. Trilogy is in the unique position of having high cash reserves with more on the way. Its JV with South 32 could provide another $150 million by next January. The project is a monster with billions of pounds of copper and lots of Cobalt, Gold, Silver, Lead and Zinc as well. It will be producing for decades to come.  Transcript Kerry Lutz:       Welcome. You are listening to The Financial Survival Network. I'm Kerry Lutz. You know we love to showcase companies, sponsor companies that have amazing prospects, that are amazing values especially in this depressed resource sector. One of these companies is Trilogy Metals, which is a little bit of a misnomer but you'll understand why in a little bit. Trilogy is a company that is getting things done. So often in the resource sector viable projects, for reasons of financing, regulation, first nations issues, indigenous peoples, ecological issues, they get tied up for decades literally. This is probably the biggest crime because true wealth is created from the earth, it's extracted from the earth and you just have to look at history to understand that. This company, Trilogy Metals Inc., it's on the NYSE, the New York Stock Exchange and it's under the symbol TMQ. You'll also find it under the TSX. TMQ right now it's trading in the mid $2 range. Kerry Lutz:        Found out about this company a while ago when I was at PDAC, that's the show in Toronto, the show of shows. Trilogy had by far one of the best stories there, they had a virtual reality display showing the magnitude of their deposit, the extent of their project. It was amazing. Without further ado, I'm going to bring Patrick Donnelly on. Pat, you're Vice President Corporate Communications and Development. You shouldn't be fooled by Pat's title, I mean you started your career 25 years ago as a project geologist exploring for precious and base metals, diamonds in western and northern Canada. I should mention, this project is in Alaska and when you think Alaska you think cold, and definitely here. Pat, it's great to have you back on. This must be an extremely exciting time to be involved with a company like Trilogy. Patrick D.:        Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Kerry, for having me on. I keep telling people the stars have aligned. What I mean by that is copper fundamentals are very, very, very strong. We're in a great jurisdiction in Alaska, great support from the Governor and great support from the US federal government. Fantastic relationships with the indigenous peoples, and great support from one of our partners, South 32, which is a multi-billion dollar Australian company. Not to mention, we have a fantastic asset that has some of the highest grades in the world. Kerry Lutz:        I was recently saw you do a presentation. You were down here in my neck of the woods in south Florida. There was a group, I'd say about 60, 70 very sophisticated investors. When you told them Trilogy doesn't need any money, we're not looking to raise capital. We're looking to raise awareness of the opportunity because the market does not accurately express the value of the company. I swear to God, their jaws dropped, Pat. I mean, well wow, we don't see anybody who doesn't need money. They don't usually come on this circuit. It was quite interesting the response. Patrick D.:        Yeah, I left the begging bowl back in Vancouver. It's nice not to need money and you can focus on the business. We have $30 million in cash, US. All our warrants are in the money. We have over, I think six and a half million warrants that are set to expire in July and they're all in the money so that will add another $10 million to our treasury. We've got a very ambitious $18.2 million budget this year for exploration work and permitting, and feasibility work at our projects in Alaska. Yeah, it's nice to focus just on the company and tell people what we're doing. Also mention, it's nice that we're listed in New York. Which brings a big sigh of relief to people because a lot of people don't like trading on the TSX or the TSX venture or in the OTC. We're a legitimate company on New York and also have some very sophisticated shareholders as big shareholders and that helps as well. Kerry Lutz:        Yes, absolutely. There's two projects, two lead projects, you've got others of course. That's Arctic and Bornite. Arctic is the one that's moving ahead. You're currently in the midst of getting a highway permitted. Can you just explain how that works? Patrick D.:        Yeah, I mean the projects we have, arctic and bornite were discovered decades ago. The issue has never been about whether they're economic or not. They've always been economic, the issue has always been that they're remote. Last five or six years now the Bureau of Land Management of the federal government has been moving forward to permit a 211 mile industrial road to the project. What that would do is link us up to the Dalton Highway. The Dalton Highway is the main highway that goes north south in Alaska, it connects the north slope oil and gas fields to Anchorage. The permitting development in this road is a critical catalyst for this company and the government, like I said, the US government, the BLM has been making incredible progress on getting this road permitted, which will be done by the end of this year. Patrick D.:        It will be a private road, it will be for industrial use only and the taxpayer will not have to pay a penny for this. This will be financed with a public, private partnership between Alaska Industrial Development Export Authority, which is a state infrastructure bank and ourselves. There will be a toll for the road and the toll will cover the maintenance cost, and the capital cost, and the interest for the debt finance, support the road. This has been done before. This is a model that's been done before in Alaska. The Red Dog Mine, which is about 200 miles away from us, which is owned by NANA Corporation, which is a native corporation and operated by Tech Resources, which is $13 billion Canadian mining company. That mine was built i30 years ago and they needed a road and port. AIDA permitted and financed that road, raised debt in the private markets and the mine paid a toll in the road in the port. They paid it off a few years ago and now it generates around $20 million a year revenue for the state. That model's been done before and it's a model that we're going to apply to the road that we need to support our project. Kerry Lutz:        Right. A 211 mile highway, that's pretty substantial so I totally get the environmental aspects. All of this is moving ahead and you've got a pretty aggressive timetable, especially because you're dealing with the government and you never know what's going to happen. They seem determined, correct me if I'm wrong, to really get this thing going. Patrick D.:        Yeah. It's funny, United States right now, unemployment is very, very low and there's plenty of jobs in the lower 48. People don't realize that Alaska is in a recession and that's because historically Alaska is derived I think 80% to 90% of its revenues from the oil and gas industry. The amount of activity has slowed down considerably in the last few years. The governor of Alaska is adamant to diversify the economy of Alaska. One way is to support the mining industry and he's very, very familiar with mining. His three daughters worked at the Red Dog Mine, which is the second largest zinc mine in the world. The governor lived in the area where we are for many years so he's seen the positive benefits that mining has done for the region. It's created a lot of jobs, it's created a lot of revenues for the government and for the local peoples. He's incredibly supportive. Patrick D.:        Also, I have to give a tip of the hat to the Trump administration in Washington. They truly are pro-business. They're not cutting corners or anything, they're just getting things done. Things are moving and it's very, very refreshing to deal with a government that wants business, they want jobs, they want people, the local Joe's to do well. Yeah, just an absolute pleasure to deal with governments that are very, very supportive. Like I said, they're not cutting any corners, it's just simply making sure that the process is moving along. Like I said, we're going to have the permits for this road by the end of this year. It's a big catalyst for the company. I don't know any other jurisdiction right now globally that's this efficient and this supportive of jobs and generating wealth for people. Kerry Lutz:        It's pretty amazing and it's 180 degree turn from the prior administration where one of the things that they were doing that was literally going to destroy the mining industry in the US and just drive out the miners was a requirement that once a mine was expended, obviously, there's remediation and that's the right thing, but you would have to monitor that mine for 30 years after it was sealed off, remediated, to make sure nothing happened. Once a mine is closed and it's remediated, unless there's water running through it, that's it. Nothing is going to happen. Normally, in remediation you channel the water away from the expended mine so you don't have ecological issues. Patrick D.:        Yeah. Nowadays, one you have to have a closure plan. It has to be very, very detailed and well