Inside The Investment Case: Lahontan Gold

Nevada remains one of the world's premier gold jurisdictions, and Lahontan Gold is advancing a growing portfolio of assets in the state. CEO Kimberly Ann joins us to discuss the company's investment case, recent progress, key milestones ahead and the opportunities she sees for creating shareholder value in the current gold market.

Guest Host: Lyndsay Malchuk, Global On-camera Reporter at Apaton Media

Featuring: Kimberly Ann, CEO of Lahontan Gold

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're listening to the ASE podcast, where mining meets capital, powered by one-to-one mining investment. Today we are coming live from our event in New York City. Please note this podcast is for information only and isn't financial advice or recommendation to invest. As always, the views you'll hear are those of the speakers.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Welcome back to the Inside the Investment Kids. I'm Lindsay Melchick, your guest host, coming to you from the one-to-one investment conference right here in New York City. I mean, let's face it, every mining company can build a great slide deck. The real question is what happens when you strip away the corporate presentation, the conference talking points, and the carefully crafted investor pitch. Well, that's exactly what we're doing today. Joining me is someone I've interviewed more times than either one of us could probably admit or would like to admit, Miss Kimberly Ann, President CEO and Director of La Haunt and Gold. Kimberly. Hi. You know, I see you more around the world than anywhere else. Anywhere. Not home. That's right. Not home, definitely not home. We're like traveling sisters. We're like this traveling pants of sisterhood. We are.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

But you know, we're going to great places and meeting amazing shareholders to be here. Right?

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Yeah, it's amazing. And here we are. First time for me in New York City. What? Everyone says that. I know. Oh my gosh. I can't believe it, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:15

That's a whole nother conversation.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Well, let's go back to the conversation I'd like to have with you. Alright. You have been in the industry a very long time, and you know that building a mining company isn't usually limited to just geology. It's limited to the people, the capital, the timing, the markets, you know, regulations. It's about all the variables put together. My question for you is what do you find that's most complicated behind the scenes?

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Well, for me, it's always the things you can't control. Like I believe I'm a very good leader. Um, I've been running companies my whole life. I don't know anything different. Um so you know, it's it's the permitting, it's the timelines, it's managing expectations. Um nobody likes to be surprised. Overpromoting your company never works out in the end. So for me, it's always managing expectations, uh, whether it's my people on the ground or it's the shareholders of the public market. So we really try to execute on everything we we say we're going to do because I'm a perfectionist and that's the way you can be successful. So those are the things for me that I push hard on every avenue. Absolutely. Um I don't think mining is any different than any other industry. You need a team that will execute and do what they said they're gonna do. So um that's how I look at.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

And that's that's one of the key things because investors they they only see the outcomes. They don't necessarily see the decision tree that got you to that decision. One thing I've always found very fascinating about you and about CEOs is that every company has 20 things is trying to accomplish, but it rarely accomplishes all those things at one time. When you're looking at Lahontan today, how do you decide what deserves management's attention and what gets pushed to the back burner?

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Oh well, it's a it's a beautifully orchestrated dance that you're always trying to accomplish. I mean, whether you wake up in the morning and you look at the market and see what Gold and Silver is doing and what our lovely president is doing, all those fun things, that's one dance. Um the next dance is looking at all your emails, and I always say that my job is to stand at the top of a cliff and find the parachute halfway down. So I adjust how what's going to be prioritized on a daily hourly basis of what's happening, you know, in our world uh on a you know, globally and internally with our team. So um, you know, I I like staying at the edge of that cliff and jumping. So uh that's that's where I start every day.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Wow, it's almost like that one episode in Friends where they're putting the uh the couch up the staircase, and Ross is like, pivot, pivot, pivot!

SPEAKER_01 4:04

That's really what it's like. Well, and also look, you're working with Mother Nature. So as much as all these lovely studies and all of our geologists and engineers, we try to de-risk it and drill, drill, drill, and we always joke that you know you put out all these studies, and the one study you won't be following when you're in mining is the that half million dollar study that you did to actually get you to the finish line. So I think people forget that this is Mother Nature, you can't control everything, but I try to control everything to get to the finish line as much as we can do.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

That's that's exactly it. That's exactly it. Let's talk about momentum. Okay. Every CEO starts the year with a really solid plan. This is where we're going, this is what how we're getting there, but momentum gets tested when the timelines stretch, when markets get distracted, financing windows open and close, and the plans inevitably they change. What has reinforced your excitement about the La Haunted story over the last year?

SPEAKER_01 4:59

I'm obsessed with this story. I'm obsessed with what we're doing. I love it. We don't lose momentum on any avenue of our company. The markets are what they are. Um, the things you can't control, the wars and all these unfortunate things happening. But literally, we are all so dedicated to this company. I incentivize my team on the ground every day with all different kinds of things, and there's stupid things like chocolate. Chocolate, me cooking my my drill team at dinner. No. But no, I mean, seriously, I we do contests, just silly stuff, but it keeps everybody motivated, and you know, you need some lightness in how hard this is. So I try to motivate everybody organically, and the team calls me mom, and uh it's really warms my soul.

SPEAKER_02 5:51

So what's one thing that's challenged your story a bit this year?

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Whoa. Whoa.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

This year.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Every year's a new year. Everywhere's a new year. I mean, just timelines. The challenge always for me is I'm impatient and I want to control everything, and I I can't. That's always it's a no a personal issue. That's fine. Yeah, I mean, if you want to be successful, you have to overachieve the whole time and not disappoint people.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Well, the market, I mean, you know, you know, the gold story is so saturated that you almost have to overdo it in order to cut through all the noise right now.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah, I mean, I also think that if you methodically have a business plan and stick to it, it's it's not that hard because I think we are saturated with too many stories. Um it's not people always say, oh, consolidate. Well, it's not easy to consolidate because there might be 20 companies that all those assets should be held in five or three, but that's not how it all gets done, right? So um I think keeping a focus is really important for a company.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

I think too, it comes down to how you tell your story, too. It's not you're not scripted, you're not overly polished, you're just here's what it is.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Well, so from my background, like you know, you know I've bit I have clothing companies, I've been in clothing forever, and my husband and I had a a ski and snowboard clothing line at one point, right when the market was booming. Um, we were the third company to have both segments uh up with Burton. And then the next year, the boom, like junior mining, blew up with like I don't know, 500 snowboard companies with one rack of clothes, and I'm I would just look around the room going, none of you will be here next year. Because we all know how expensive it is to do this job. But yeah, at the end of the day, it is kind of similar. We always have a lot of little companies that can oversaturate the market. But if you can burn through the noise with a solid plan and a solid story, then you'll come out. The other side is the winner.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

And do you think that's the main one of the main reasons why those ones will fade away?

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Is because they're just well, I mean, you can it's easy to get an asset, pay hardly anything for it, because you can structure an easy deal, find a little money for it, and you know, hype it up. Yeah. I'm not interested in those deals. I'm I'm interested in a full-on business model where you're actually building a company. That's all I know. I want cash flow, that's why we started perming three and a half years ago when the markets were terrible. Um to me, it is absolutely about building a real company, not hitting a drow hole and hyping it up. I'm not interested in that kind of business. So we we really want to be a multi-billion market cap company, and that's what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

What do you what are the catalysts you have to hit now?

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Well, the catalysts are going to the New York Stock Exchange next year as we have our mining permit in hand, um, building out the pro the asset towards production. We anticipate pouring gold in Q4. Okay. I want to hold that button in my hands and ring that bell and start acquiring.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

I want to push that a little bit further because uh, you know, I I want you to give the audience, you know, a little catch-up on what's happening at La Hontan right now.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Well, we have our MRE coming out very soon. I've been guaranteed that, which is an update of our resource numbers. Yeah. Um the PEA will be done in September. Behind the scenes, we're doing incredibly expensive studies for permitting that are required. From you know, drilling core holes to find the water table to make sure we're above the water table, just all the responsible things you have to do to get your permit. Right. And all those things are going quite well. Um, but you know, we our goal is to be a hundred thousand ounce producer. I don't even care what the mine life is because we will be extending, extending, extending as we um throughout the project. West Santa Fe is becoming a very sexy asset for us. It's across the road. Every I want people to think about every press release you see as mineable ounces because they're gonna be trucked across the road. There's not gonna be a capex over there. Um we're already permitting it because it is there and it starts at the surface, and it's side it's got high grade silver and high grade silver in that you know, 800 to a thousand grams per ton silver, which I was never a silver bug before, but now I'm becoming one because of this. Because here we are. Because why not? But no, and we have eight edits on the property from back in the 30s or mined for silver underground. Well, we weren't mining silver underground in the 30s if it wasn't high grade. So that's becoming quite interesting part of the story, and I think it's important when you're in permitting building out one mine that you better have a backup to more information of something else that's exciting happening with your company. Another pipeline, if you will. So West Santa Fe, and then of course our Moho high grade asset. So we have lots to talk about, but I also think it's important for people to understand that we're focused, we're painfully focused on what we're doing with Santa Fe and trickling in what we're doing with West Santa Fe, you know, so people can get excited about but uh not all overwhelm them with oh wait, are they getting distracted? Because we are absolutely not getting distracted.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

When are you heading back to site?

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Next week. Exciting. I was home, I I got got to go out to site last week when I was home for four days. I thought my husband was gonna kill me because I hadn't seen him. I haven't seen him in months. And I said, hi babe, bye babe. Out to the field I went, but you know, I love hanging out with my team, you know. It's so great. Just get to really like you know, you talk when you're on the road so much, you feel like you're drinking your own Kool-Aid of excitement. But going out in the field and seeing it, it it's just it just makes me giggle and smile with pride to see what we're doing. We have so many teams.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Yeah, you have boots on the ground and you're getting to experience exactly what your team experiences, and you get to take that on the road with you. Which I think is very, very important as a CEO to know what is going on boots on the ground.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

So oh yeah, I have to go see it as often as I can. It's like going home and hugging your kids, it fills you up for the next trip, right? Right? It's really important.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

So true. You've sat across the table from investors, analysts, bankers, mining executives for years. What's the most intelligent question you're hearing right now from the sophisticated investors? I mean, other than all the questions I'm asking you, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Um what's your payback? Oh, okay. But which to me is it cracks me up when people say that to me because it's exactly what I worry about. Like this is the only thing I care about with our new studies. Um, because we're gonna raise debt and equity. We don't need to raise that much, $130 to $150 million. Um, so 80% will be in debt. Okay. And I want to know the shortest timeline to pay it back. Right. Because I don't like debt at all. Um, I bought my house for cash. I I don't have any debt personally. So um for me that's really important to keep the company clean. And when you're going to build a mine, you better have a a good, you know, business plan to, you know, get to cash flow free of a debt as soon as possible. I love that. So the models right now are showing about 12-month payback, and that's a really short timeline for a hundred million dollars. So that's that's when someone asks me that question, I know that they know how important that is, and that's a huge key point to a good um business, you know, well-run business.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Well, again, um I could sit here and just talk all day with you. We can do that overwine later.

unknown 13:38

For sure.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Thank you again for sitting with us for sure. And I'm sure I'm gonna talk to you again very soon. Yes, thank you. Absolutely. Again, that was Kimberly Ann, President, CEO, and director of LaHont and Gold. The company trades on the CSE under the symbol LG, on the OTCQB, under LGCXF. XF. And for more information, head over to LaHont and Gold Corp.com. I'm going to leave you with this. The mining industry spends a lot of time talking about ounces, grades, and resources, but in the end, are the best investments really built on rocks in the ground or on the quality of the decisions being made above them? Thanks for joining us right here at the Inside the Investment Case from one to one mining conference right here in New York. I'm your guest host, Lindsay Melchick, and we will see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

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