American Eagle Gold Targets Scale and Grade at the Copper-Gold Porphyry NAK

0:15Welcome back to Mining Stock Daily. Ian Wagner here on Thursday, October 8th with a catch up with our friends at American Eagle Gold. American Eagle Gold is a gold and copper porphyry developer in British Columbia. They trade on the TSX Venture under the symbol AE and on the OTCQB under the symbol AMEGF. Host a market cap of about$200 million. With us today is the CEO of American Eagle Gold, Mr. Anthony Moreau. Tony, good to see you. Welcome back to the podcast.

0:53Anthony Moreau: Thanks, Ian. Looking forward to getting any of you by you for the first time. Yeah, let's see where this goes. So you guys, you know, you've been on before. You've talked about your NAC project in BC. You guys are drilling. You raised money. You're funded through 2028. I guess maybe if you want to start on the ground, I mean, operationally, like what is going well and what do you sort of want to go better? I guess as you guys kind of drill and develop this thing out, is it the south zone? Is it, I don't know, you know, the labs, like what, what's going on right now? Yeah, we're about a third through our drill program, 55 ,000 meters estimated.

1:38Anthony Moreau: We're drilling until April, 2027. First time we've drilled all the way throughout the year because we have the cash to do it. Yeah. So yeah, we're on schedule. We have a lot of holes in the queue. So like a lot of pressure on the company to get some news out. Honestly, pressure from people who don't own a lot of shares, to be honest. You know, the people that are bigger shareholders, Tech, South32, Eric Sprott, and I can name a couple other people who may or may not want me to name them. They don't bug me at all. They know what they own. They know where – I'm CEO of the company. I'm steward for the company.

2:19Anthony Moreau: I'm looking after the company's best interest. I'm not looking after the best interest of some, you know, stock trader that has 5 ,000 shares in their mother's basement of Nebraska. Like I'm telling a story here and we have a real story to tell with, with NAC. So I want the stock to go up. I think it will eventually get a re-rate. When I see it come off like 30 % down from it's high for the year of a buck 36, I'm not worried. I see that as a, an opportunity to get the traders out the fast money and, you know, allow the people that understand the story, believe in the story, know where it's going.

3:00Anthony Moreau: to get in at a discount. You don't have a lot of time to do it. I don't think anyway. So yeah, like, and we have a full balance sheet. We don't have to do it raised. So like, yeah, if we had$5 million left, we had to spend another$5 million and I had to do a raise. Yeah, I'd be worried, but I'm not worried at all. I try and kind of, you can't be everything to everyone. So I've learned you got to do follow the plan that you think's best for the company. A lot of our holes that we drilled beginning of the season was, you know, infill holes, holes that we're going to know what they are. Some are good, some are in stock, they're moderate grade, and it's not going to turn the needle.

3:36Anthony Moreau: And if you're a really tough market like we're in right now, if you're not finding a new zone or extremely high grade, it just creates a liquidity event for everyone. So what we have here at NAC is special. We're drilling a lot of those holes that we have to drill anyway because we're building roads and we're not doing helicopter support and we're taking big step out. so about two months ago, month and a half ago, we really started with these big step outs. The holes are really going to make a difference for the company, you know, a difference of whether we think that this can be, you know, purchased by a big company like BHP, Rio Tinto, South 32.

4:15Anthony Moreau: We started doing those holes and they're all hitting. I'm telling you that right now. Like it's going to add scale. It's going to add grade. So right now I'm extremely happy. um okay when we can start releasing some of those holes that's when our that's where news flow is gonna turn up it's been a little bit disappointing seeing how slow the the the assays have been i thought we'd at least have you know at least 98 by by now but like i've seen three weeks and i haven't seen a single gold piece of gold information so what it tells me it's like we're in the busiest season of BC ever. Um, and you know, a lot of people are doing rush assays.

4:57Anthony Moreau: Look around, like no one else has come out with news. The rush assays didn't get in front of us. So the news will come out when it comes out. We're going to be having, you know, 55 ,000 meters. The holes are going to come out. Nothing that we put out is going to affect our program in terms of like the news flow. So while it's been taking a little bit longer when, when people don't have news, it's going to come out a lot faster. So yeah, I wish the news would come out sooner. I like what we're seeing and look, look, we got a for sale sign in terms of the stock price right now. It's a good opportunity if you believe what I'm saying.

5:26Anthony Moreau: And I have no reason to lie. So we're extremely excited. We've discovered two new zones. So in the South, we drilled that three years ago, 2209. And, you know, you could say it's a discovery, but you need more than one hole to actually prove it's a discovery. We put those holes there. They track, they're better, and that's a discovery. And in the north, that 35, 38 area, I don't know, Ian, if like you weren't kind of around when we were drilling that, we got a lot of money from South 32 based on it. It was a bit of a head fake. Like it was, it was a good hole, but not as high as we thought it'd be.

6:01Anthony Moreau: And just turns out we were just drilling a little bit, a little bit too far to the south, a little bit too far to the west. And we stepped out a little bit north and east and hit what we thought we hit in the first place two years ago. So yeah, like to be hitting in two new zones and knowing that wherever you put the holes, they're going to be good. It's definitely the most exciting time ever. At the same time, I'm, you know, getting harassed online and asking where the results are. So it's just that, that kind of keeps me, that kind of keeps me up at night. And I'm not worried. It's just, you know, I'm in, I'm in the service business, right?

6:35Anthony Moreau: I'm your waiter and I got to put a smile on and answer all the questions. And I can run a little hot sometimes. so it's kind of goes against my personality but yeah it's like hey guys yeah like the news is coming as soon as possible and like yeah like don't worry like yeah i'm trying to be nice to everyone like hold on your shares if you can uh if you're getting a little bit worried it's probably not the probably junior business isn't for you just sell your shares and go buy microsoft it's doing well too so uh but like we give people a real opportunity to have like a 5x and in the stock which quite frankly i don't think nvidia is going to turn into a 25 trillion dollar company in the next couple of years, like we could very well turn into a billion dollar company.

7:11Anthony Moreau: So if you want that 5X, AE is a lot better than NVIDIA. If you want, you know, that constant return going up, you know, 3 % a month, the video is probably stocked for you. So talk to your investment advisor. That's the update for American Eagle. I wear my heart in my sleeve. I'm going to tell you what's going on. I told you at the beginning, I was going to have a conversation with you. It just sounds like I did like an eight minute long monologue that should be trying out for Hamlet, not a BCO of this company. Yeah, you shouldn't be in junior. You should be where I am just, you know, getting on the microphone.

7:41No, I mean, look. To sell or not to sell, you know? Yeah, exactly. We could do a whole series on that across the entire junior landscape, right? People are getting slaughtered right now for various reasons, you know, whether or not you think copper is going down to$4 again or silver is going to$40 or gold is going back to$35. I mean, you know, let me unpack a few things there. I mean, one, you mentioned kind of just dealing with the pressure. I mean, do you drill for big or do you guys drill for now in the sense of like, hey, we want to see, we really want to know where this thing can get to and how big.

8:18That way we're more attractive to a major. Or do we kind of drill for low hanging fruit or, you know, where we know there's going to be meters, even if they're not the best meters? How do you think about that?

8:32Anthony Moreau: Yeah, it's a good question. Like, look, it's a tough business. You're dealing with the macro environment. You're dealing with some sophisticated investors. You're dealing with some very unsophisticated investors, and both can help you. Both can hurt you. So I think for the last four years, for the most part, you know, we're playing it pretty safe. We had this roadmap, and our plan was let's get to a certain treasury size that we can just drill it to kill it or to build it. But it took us four years to get there. So, you know, over four years, we managed to find three strategics, Eric Sprott, Tech, South32, and cost$55 million in the bank.

9:08Anthony Moreau: And, you know, some people would say we had safe meterage and, you know, we're kind of drilling where we knew was, you know, mineralization and we did small little step outs. So that was safe drilling. But, like, I think our plan worked out very well. We went from$0.02 to$1.30 and held a pretty good market cap, didn't blow our cap structure out. And when we did sell shares, they went to good strategic investors, people that could buy the company someday. They tech us out there too, or Interexplorate holds on to the end. But it's, I don't know how I describe it, but I got a four-year-old, right?

9:43Anthony Moreau: He's got that little car and you pull it back, you pull it back, you pull it back, you pull it back. And then eventually let go and it zooms because it's got that little coil wheels. That's kind of what American Eagle Gold was doing, right? Like we were just pulling back, pulling back, pulling back. And then boom, like this is the year we're doing it, Ian. and like we're doing 200 meter step outs. We're going to show this thing and we either have it or we don't have it. And this is going to be, this is going to be a mine someday. I will say 100 % for looking statements, this will be a mine someday.

10:11Anthony Moreau: Question is, is it a mine when, you know, copper is at these current prices or is it a mine when we think copper is going to go to$10 a pound? Like that's why we're drilling this year to prove that it can be a mine in this economic cycle. And based on what I've been seeing in the last couple of months, I think it's going to be a mine in this current metals price environment. Like I'm telling you. So that's what we're here to prove. And we're just going for it. So we're going to drill every area on our property. I told Neil and Dave and James, our main geos. I said, boys, we are not drilling a single meter past 650.

10:43Anthony Moreau: If we do, I want an FNSA about why we did that. Because we're following a plan. We got to find high grade. We got to add time. We got to find it close to surface. And this is our plan. And this isn't a video thing, but we're drilling all around. So if you saw our porphyry stock, people that follow our company know you step outside of our porphyry stock, there's high grade. Let's see if that continues on the 70 % that we haven't drilled around it. So far, it's looking pretty good, as I mentioned. So we have a plan. We're going to go all the way around that, following that donut, circling that clock.

11:15Anthony Moreau: And we're going to drill all that. The plan is by December. And if we're going to get outside that plan, it's just to go a little bit north, a little bit east to bring some of that higher grade stuff we've been seeing recently to surface. And I think by December, we're going to know pretty much what we have here. And it leaves us an extra three or four months to kind of really drill this thing, you know, follow up on high grade zones, et cetera. But we're not taking the safe step out. They seem safe now because we're starting to hit and we're continuing to hit, but we're going to know what this thing is in the next four to six months.

11:46Anthony Moreau: And we're going for it right now. And I think the next 12 months is going to be extremely exciting. And like, Like, look, this is probably, if this is going to be a mine, they're probably producing, what, in six to ten years. I don't know what copper or gold price is going to be. I would bet it's probably going to be higher. So, like, what's it make a difference if our assays come out, like, today or three weeks from time, you know? Well, you're fighting with all the other people. You're right. Everybody's waiting for assays. It's not you guys. It's, you know, you are seeing rush assays. You are seeing people going, I drilled that hole six weeks ago, you know.

12:23I don't care.

12:24Anthony Moreau: Like we know it's going to be good results. Like they're going to come out when they come out. People want to sell and buy something else. Like, so be it. Like, I'm not worried about why people are selling. I'm trying to get people to buy. And I want people to buy because I want people to make money. We have something special here. So, so just to kind of set the landscape for anyone, obviously who, who, who's, this is audio. You're not looking at the deck, but you guys have that kind of big, big blob, right? About a mile and a kilometer and a half by about 1.7 kilometers. Right. So the poor free stock, and then kind of sections of your high-grade zones.

12:58Maybe tell those listeners why you told those geos. Like, why not deeper than 650?

13:05Anthony Moreau: Because we're trying to prove this is going to be a mine. If anything is lower than 650 meters, it isn't going to be mine for 30, 40 years. And you put that into a DCF, you're not going to get an NPV from it, right? So, yeah, it's blue sky. And if you find some super high-grade depth, you can blockade it. maybe you can move it into, you know, something that can give you revenue sooner. But like. That's not what you're seeing this to be. Well, yeah. Like I think there's something there. Those are expensive meters of drill. I think we have enough good, good higher grade stuff at surface that we haven't drilled.

13:37Anthony Moreau: We want to prove out. So I always say like every heli hole costs you two or three skid holes. And I, you know, every meter you go past 600 meters, you know, cost you two or three meters. You can drill below that point. Right. So it's incrementally, like you're doing about 30 meters per day after 600 meters. And, you know, between zero and 500 meters, you're drilling anywhere from 60 to 120 meters per day. So the value, like the cost is just based on the amount of time the guys are on the drill, how many meters they put in the ground. So just get it, prove it can be a mine, get as much tonnage as possible, hopefully find some high grade, which we're starting to see.

14:14Anthony Moreau: And like that, that stock that's in our deck, like that's just based on like kind of historical mapping. Like this drilling right now is like really proving where that stock is and that stock doesn't hold high grade. So for example, hole 98, it didn't start picking up till about 225 meters down hole, which is about, I don't know, 175, you know, vertical meters depth, like call it 0.1 to 0.25. And then it starts to really pick up. so what we want to know is like where is that stock and because that host rock that we start hitting at 225 meters down down hole like we think that starts at surface so figure out where that stock ends at surface and start drilling like out of that so we can get some of the higher grade stuff at surface so when i was kind of talking about those guys doing the step outs that's what i want them to do um as well but yeah it's it's tough like we have a balance sheet but look what happened like we have some sister companies metal energy and evergold like you say the wrong thing in the market you can have great results like the traders will just take advantage of you know how novice a lot of these investors are and people won't know what they're looking at and they'll just create a sell on a stock so i don't think that's going to happen with us but like i got to tell you like a lot of these smaller companies got to be really careful on how they kind of put uh information out to the market evergold is the best example for i don't know if you followed Ian, but they put out some holes.

15:38Anthony Moreau: They're pretty good holes. They were good holes. And I was reading the message board like in the morning and everyone's like, great results, great results, great results. And for whatever reason, it started to sell off. And then everyone just thought they're bad results. But like it's small little mistakes. It's putting like news out on a Friday. Historically, if you put news out on a Friday, people perceive it as being, you know, news you're trying to hide from. Trying to bury, sure. So all of a sudden you just get a little tick of red and then it starts starting from a one cent loss to a 10 cent loss.

16:04Anthony Moreau: And I think Evergold probably should have gone up. Like, that's a good stock. And for that thing to be cut in half, that's a huge buying opportunity. Like, I'm a shareholder myself, like forward-looking statements or whatever you want to call it. But I'm just using those as examples that you got to be really careful in terms of how you kind of put that news out to the public. You do because, you know, a lot of these can be treated as proxies depending on what the commodity is doing. But a lot of it is a narrative that you don't control, right? And people are, you know, is everybody looking for Great Bear or Philo or what, you know, like it's hard to know what people are going to respond to, especially notice that when companies are putting out PEAs, good PEAs, you know, with good, you know, two to one NAV to CAPTEX ratios and are just getting, you know, get hit.

16:56it's tough I mean I guess like looking beyond this sort of short term froth you know you have a clear idea of what you think is viable and buildable like what do you think is going to like make your company sort of be undeniable like is it just going to be just the geology is it going to be the ease of access the ease to get to mine or or what

17:24Anthony Moreau: I think it's got the three, it's got the four things I think big companies want. It's got the scale, like Ian's going to be in the billions of tons. But like, it doesn't matter. Like, you know, any area technically has billions of tons, but does it have the high grade to support those billions of tons of lower moderate grade to be mined? And, you know, my target for that is get to half a billion tons of higher grade. I'm going to say higher grade, anything over 0.5 and closer to surface. And I think we're going to get there this year. So I think we have those two things, the scale, the higher grade.

17:57Anthony Moreau: The other thing is the First Nations relationship, community relationship. I think Merrick Neagle has as good of a relationship one-on-one with the First Nations and community than any other company, whether it's Junior Explorer Clubs. It's a great relationship. And like the feds in the province doesn't even matter anymore. It's how's your relationship with the First Nations. and if it's good, they can help fast track it as easily as they could hurt it. So I think that's a big check mark. That can really scare off a lot of companies. But I think the other thing, which really is the most important thing, a lot of people talk about grade, right?

18:32Anthony Moreau: They talk about Fielo's grade and stuff because they talk about payback of capital. Because in the end, sometimes it doesn't seem like it, but these mining companies are businesses and sometimes it doesn't feel like it. So they like the high grade, it's sexy, it pays back capital. But you know what the fastest is? Way to pay back capital, Ian is. What's that? Having less capital to pay back. And the best way to do that is not to build your mind like 6 ,000 meters above ground in Chile or, you know, in the Arctic or on the moon, like some people are trying to do. It's building smithers. It's 85 kilometers away.

19:04Anthony Moreau: It's not in the mountains, not next to a lake. You can drive your Volvo. Or under a lake or under an ocean. Drive your Volvo or your General Motors. You're from America, Ian. So, yeah, the capital cost to build NAC, like, you know, compared to Glore Creek, like Texas partner, they have a big project, like probably cost a third to build it. And yeah, is it, is it going to be like six, 7 billion tons? Probably not, but I don't know. I probably won't be alive after it mines the first 2 billion anyway. So, so what does it matter? So yeah, like I think it's, I think NACS going to prove in the next 12 months to be one of the preeminent porphyry projects in all of Canada because of the economics it's going to prove for Well, let me ask you one more, just kind of miscellaneous business geopolitical or political.

19:51I mean, copper is different than gold, right? Like copper will be on lists of critical metals and is treated like a commodity in a way that gold is not, right? And you guys are a copper dominant porphyry. Um, what, what are you hearing, sensing, seeing, saying about just like general sort of federal and provincial level support for copper projects any different than in years past or, or not?

20:23Anthony Moreau: yeah i think the i i think i think the copper projects are going to be fast-tracked to be honest like what's what's a critical metal anyway like what's critical like is it is it the metal that's going to help you kind of you know get your electricity from point a to point b or is critical just having a mine and mining a metal that can be built which is critical for jobs in this economy we're worried about tariff so why is gold not a critical metal if you can spend three billion dollars create 3 000 jobs and 600 permanent jobs isn't that critical to our economy so i don't get all those critical things i think all the metals are eventually going to be critical i think right now the most valuable metal to have are these polymetallic mines like a copper gold mine like like we have like uh open misca has because you get the right now that copper is critical quote unquote uh the government's going to help you fast track it right um but you also have that that gold aspect to it as well.

21:18Anthony Moreau: And like, we're probably half gold, half copper. So I think that's kind of what people are looking for. Those half copper, half gold projects. So the feds and the province can help you get, give you funding, fast track you to build it, but you really get all the upside because gold's going higher too. Like don't, don't mince my words. Like, no, I just think it's an interesting, like, because they're different constituents, right? Like a core, gold is going to appeal to a different investor base and a copper might have a political aspect to it. Whereas like gold, like, I mean, maybe I'm wrong. Gold's sexy, man.

21:49It's sexy, but to politicians, like, is it, are they talking about supporting gold mines other than from the job creation capacity? Like, there's not going to be.

21:57Anthony Moreau: They are for Great Bear. Like, then that was the first, like, Fast Track Ontario mine. I believe they're helping Kinross with it. Okay. But yeah, copper is definitely like, like, you look at, like, OpenMesca, like, there's a company XXIX I'm on the board for. And, you know, there's, there's other, there's another company in the region. They have a lot of gold. There's, there's no copper. So like, if you, if you look at that strategically, it's, you know, open Miska is really key. It has only 120 million tons, but like you can, you can fast track the development and the infrastructure in that region by starting on open Miska.

22:32Anthony Moreau: Cause it's got the copper and it allows you to have all the rows and the infrastructure to mine all the gold around it. But yeah, I guess I think. I'm bullish on, I'm bullish on both. Also, these politicians aren't around for long, right? So things change pretty fast. Yeah. I mean, bullish on both. But I think what I want to see is like, I want to see how much of a like debt component companies can get to build a mine for, you know, for copper or for silver or nickel or PGM or just versus like a straight gold mine. Like, I don't know that I see a lot of that, you know, and I don't know if that's going to change.

23:09Anthony Moreau: I don't know. Like, that's a good question if you're a smaller company like us, right? Like, can you actually, can a smaller company like us that doesn't have the billions of dollars of cash to make, can we actually maybe not have to sell it to sell 32 tech or someone and build it ourselves? And can we get that debt from the government? I don't even think, I don't even think these mining companies need to like. I don't think you need a hundred percent even. Like, I just wonder. Like, I don't know. Like, they're essentially becoming banks. They don't even know what to do with their money. So look at Nikko and all these companies.

23:40Anthony Moreau: they just have cash. I don't even know if they need loans. I think, I think more of the debts maybe come into some of these juniors like us that want to become developers and producers. Yeah. I mean, that's what I want to see. And I want to see if that happens and I want to see if it depends how, how much of that is commodity specific. There's a big change happening. And I, like I didn't think it was happening, but I see it happening. Like you, you feel on the ground here. Like people are supporting our prime minister now. I feel like at least a lot more than they were before. and you're hearing the right things and you're starting to see these words that usually just remain words become action and the pipeline's hopefully getting built.

24:18Anthony Moreau: And I think, like, I love the U.S. I like all Americans I meet. They're nice people. Like, I'm sure you're a nice Ian. You seem nice. But, like, we got to not be so reliant on the U.S. And that big key is just start driving our own economy and it's getting these mines built when it was copper, gold, and the pipelines. And I think we'll be able to judge the next five years. But I think Canada's going to be doing really well kind of moving forward. Though I can't believe how high the U.S. dollar is to the Canadian dollar. Just looking the other day, it was like 1.43. Canadian Pacers, you should come here.

24:52Anthony Moreau: Come here, Ian. It's nice in the winter. Go skiing. I like Canada. I think Toronto's a great city. Vancouver's a great city too. No, I think so 100 % that things have, it does feel like the shift is real because there's real tangible consequences now if the shift isn't real, right? Like I think Canada and the leadership there, they're like not – like the shift in the trade relationship with the U.S. unfortunately is very real and you see it and you see the actions from the Carney administration or government. Just, you know, you guys are looking to develop and sell and sell away from the U.S. market when needed.

25:34And that's, I think that's just way different than the last 10, 15 years, 20 years.

25:40Anthony Moreau: He's got some moxie, Kearney. For sure. He's got a great talking politics. So many people hate the liberals in Canada. Like, I feel free. But I just see him. Like, I kind of like what I'm seeing. Like, he's saying the right things. He's not being bullied by Trump. And I like what I'm seeing so far. I got to say, like, I'm not, would never see myself as much of a liberal. But I like what I'm seeing. And maybe he's the right person for the job. He seems to be doing well so far. Cool. Well, let's leave it there for today. Don't tell my dad that. Let's leave it there, Tony. Great to catch up with you.

26:12Great to speak with you. We will look to catch up again here in the coming weeks and months as assays come back and some of that pressure relieves off you at nighttime when you are winding up the little car for your little man.

26:27Anthony Moreau: I think about the company all the time. Like, I got to sell this thing so I can just, like, relax for a bit. It's like, look, I care about the company. Neil cares about the company. Like, that's all we think about. But, like, I absolutely love it. But, look, if people have questions, just, like, reach out to me. It's not hard to find my email or my cell phone number. Enough people. I don't have a LinkedIn, though. I don't have LinkedIn. Let people know if they want to learn more. Where should they go? What should they do? Yeah, like, look, CEO.ca. like it's anthony backwards is my my my name so you can direct message me there and i'll send you my i'll send you my cell and you can talk to me or americaneaglegold.ca is probably your first stopping point right yeah like amoreau at americaneaglegold.ca or amoreau at orgroup.ca but like look look if you're trying to sell me something don't even bother i won't read the email but if you want to talk about the company and you have an investment or think about investing like I'm more than happy to talk to you.

27:30Anthony Moreau: That's my job. Cool. Well, thanks so much. Appreciate that, Anthony. American Eagle Gold trades on the TSX Venture under the symbol AE and on the OTCQB under the symbol AMEGF. Thanks, Ian.

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