Talisker Outlines District-Scale Growth Plan and Robust PEA for Bralorne Gold Project

0:15Terry Harbort: Welcome back to Mining Stock Daily. Ian Wagner here with a corporate update from our friends at Talisker Resources. Talisker is an emerging gold producer, developer, explorer in the Braylorne district of British Columbia. They trade on the TSX under the symbol TSK and now on the OTCQX under the symbol TSKFF. And we last spoke with Talisker in July of 2026. We have covered the story for quite some time, so I would encourage any new listeners to go back and check out past episodes. But a lot has happened since then. A new PEA come out right in the last couple of weeks. A lot of operations on the ground, development cadence.

0:59Terry Harbort: So with us to talk about all of that is the CEO of Talisker, Mr. Terry Harbert. Terry, good to see you. Welcome back to the podcast. Hi, Inna. Thanks very much for having us on again. Of course. There's a lot to talk about. I think a lot probably the market wants to know about what you guys are doing and kind of future plans. So let's jump right in. I think the big news right of September was the PEA and you came out. And I think the thing that sort of stood out or was clarifying for me was just really, this is a multi-mine project, right? You guys are mining now today at Mustang, but that is a small portion of what you will be doing.

1:42Terry Harbort: And Braylor and West that we've talked about is, you know, I don't know, maybe an intermediate stage, but Olympus is really the bulk of this resource. just talk about I guess what you wanted the PEA to communicate and how it kind of affects your guys's development of this this project yeah Ian look I think the thing that the PEA really brings out is that we're really just at the beginning of our growth cycle here we've been talking about developing a district and really these are the first steps in this. With our original bootstrap or self-funding model and when times were tough, we started production over at Mustang for a very simple reason and that was that it was the most inexpensive place, lowest capex for us to get in into production, start to generate revenue and execute our plan.

2:46But really, it was that first step, the first phase that we were looking at. And even now, we don't have a lot of drilling underneath where we're mining at Mustang. So it certainly wasn't the best place in our first view. It was the easiest place and the cheapest place to get in, get into production. Obviously, we're drilling underneath there now with development, continuing down from where we started, you know, 1060 elevation level, 1045, 1030, 1015, 1000, 980. We're heading down and down and, you know, seeing some very good ore shoots there. But now we're starting to execute the second phase and that's across to our second mining area, which is Braylon West.

3:40And we finished that straight shot that we talked about, I think, on some of our first podcasts was, you know, what's the bottleneck? Where is the bottleneck? And it's that development across to Braylon West that opens up a whole new mining area. And, you know, technically it would be a new mine, except we're sharing infrastructure, we're sharing access, and really that, again, was following that thesis of, well, how can we get this into production quicker and cheaper but the big prize which has really been highlighted here by the PA is the future and that is where we're going to across at the Olympus area and the bulk of our resource, 2.4 million ounces, actually sits over there so that really is what's highlighted here in this PA that we've got a long way to go So this is just the beginning of a long life discrete scale play.

4:40Terry Harbort: Yeah. A lot to maybe unpack there. And let's jump in just for anyone who hasn't seen the PA. Let's run a little bit of the numbers because they are big. So an after-tax NPV at a 5 % discount of over a billion dollars Canadian that is based on a$3 ,500 U.S. gold price. important to point out that's that's implying an average annual production of about 110 ,000 ounces mine life over 14 years you know a good amount of capex right you know 416 million Canadian so I want to ask you about that and kind of the plans there but also 171 million Canadian cash flow annual free cash flow right with a two year payback from commercial production so ASIC a couple different numbers one could use, right?

5:34Terry Harbort: Maybe 1914 is seeing the U.S., but there's some different cash costs and different numbers there after the mill construction. So do you want to kind of talk us through some of those numbers, Terry, a little bit and kind of what you think is important to highlight and just how that kind of affects you guys, your development? it. Yeah, Ian, look, I think the first point to be made is that this is a realistic PA. So it's not based on comparable numbers. We didn't look at a series of other minds around the world and say, let's use their numbers. It's based on our actual numbers. It's based on our actual mind plan, and what we're executing now and implementing.

6:23So we believe it's a realistic study. It's a conservative study, of course, because we need to execute this as it's portrayed.

6:38And really that needs to be the main focus of what we're doing. And it includes our initial work using DSO or direct shipping. So it shows the plan that we're going to execute. So several years here using the DSO and everyone will note that the CAPEX is much higher, sorry, the all-in sustaining cost is much higher in this phase because we have to truck this material and ship this material. So we're okay with that because it gives us revenue and many other projects throughout the permitting, construction and execution phase aren't making any money at all. So I think that's a real key thing. We're moving ahead with this while we're in revenue.

7:32So those values are quite high. Even with 1900s, it's in the middle of the junior gold mining oil and sustaining range. So it's actually not bad. After the transition into milling, then we see that drop into the 1700s, which is on the lower end, particularly for an underground gold mine. So I think that's quite realistic and we're quite happy with that. it leaves a significant profit margin there. And we see that there with the base case of$3 ,500, you know, $170 million free cash, including that early period, which is lower. But, you know, if we look at current or spot values, you know, that's over$300 million.

8:24So very, very profitable mine, I think, as we're building out here. um i would just i don't mean to interrupt but yeah that allows you some torque to that gold

8:33Terry Harbort: price then kind of right like it basically you're seeing that free cash flow go up to you like you said spot or current i mean you you you have a lot of exposure there yeah absolutely you know it's i don't know i don't know what the gold price is going to do i'm i'm hopeful that stays where it is or even even moves back to where it was uh which a lot of people are predicting, you know, there's a lot of reasons for it, uncertainty globally, sovereign debt, cooling economies, who knows what it is. All I know is it's an exceptional gold period that we're in. It's well beyond the indexed, what was the index top, which was the spike in the 80s.

9:19We indexed that. It's about 28, 2900, and we're well beyond that now. So it's certainly a good time to be a gold miner. Yeah.

9:29Terry Harbort: And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. So I guess just one more kind of thing on this is what is the plan for the CapEx? Is that something you feel like you can raise substantially through debt financing, or are you kind of looking at debt and equity? What does that capital stack sort of look like? Yeah, look, I'd first like to make the comment that it's a very good and inexpensive build. We seem to have a lot of pushback in the market because we had CapEx. Like everyone was expecting it to just be free? Expecting it to be free. I don't know how people think we can build a multi-billion dollar project without investing some capital.

10:14So I think there's been some absolutely inexperienced and unsophisticated responses to that. You know, you can't build something for nothing. The big difference we have is the ratio of capex to MPV. You know, a bad capex to ratio is one is to one, and we're below one is to two, so it's actually exceptional. The second thing is we don't need all that money up front. You know, we've got a several-year staged ramp-up plan. The expectation is that certainly the fleet, the milling and processing equipment, we'd like to do that through vendor finance. We've never said that, oh, we'll just go out and raise$400 million tomorrow to build a mine in three or four years' time.

11:00So, there's a lot of opportunity here, particularly with such a strong PA. and being in production and in revenue. So we aren't a greenfields project. We aren't a project that's unknown how we're going to mine it. We're mining it now, so it's very de-risked. And it's a brownfields project that adds to that level of de-risking. So I think it's a very good CAPEX number. About half of that is in development. We have to develop access to be able to get in and mine things, and the rest of it is for the facilities we'll be putting in. So increased tailings, storage facility, dry stack, fills a press that goes with that, new camp to support 300 people to support that growth up phase, our mill, our process plant development.

11:51So, you know, it's well-spent capital and it's actually a small amount of capital for a mine of this size.

12:00Terry Harbort: Yeah, I think what's maybe gets lost to your point there is that you guys are bringing in revenue. You're mining Mustang every day. And so how is this sort of current phase over there? Well, let me re-ask, because there's a lot of things happening in tandem, right? Terry, you guys are, you know, you're milling, excuse me, you're mining right now with the DSO, you know, in that below 750 tons per day, but you're going to put in that 750 tons per day permit. It looks like an early Q1 2027. You're also going to be ramping up the sorting and crushing plant. You also have a hundred thousand meter drill campaign this year.

12:40Terry Harbort: So kind of talk to us about, yeah, just how everything's working in tandem and then maybe a little color around just the revenue side of Mustang and what that gives you. Yeah, sure. And so at this stage, we're really waiting for that 750 ton a day permit. We expect that here in early January. We're currently producing about 200, 250 tonnes per day, which is our annualised average rate. We're preparing now, so we're doing the development to support that ramp up and we're following that through sort of 500 tonnes per day by mid-year and then 750 by the end of the year. that's an ore out the gate rate.

13:28So with ore sorting we expect to be able to produce over that, over a thousand tonnes and beyond. So that's what we're planning for now. We've received revenue coming in. I think we've made about 28 million so far this year. So the mining's going very well. And really what's key for us is building this foundation for that growth over time.

13:55Terry Harbort: Yeah. Okay. So revenue. And I thought that was important what you said. So with that ore sorting, that doesn't limit you to 750 out, just sort of bulk raw ore, right? That's like, maybe just reemphasize what, maybe not optionality is not the right word, but just kind of allows you to add in the revenue and decrease the costs, right, of shipping ore that you don't have to ship ore that doesn't have, that is too much waste. Is that, am I understanding that right? Yeah. So really what we're doing is removing the waste material that has two significant impacts. And we're estimating here between 30 and 50%.

14:39Our last test was 60 to 65, but we've sort of calmed that down to what we think would be realistic. And really that feeds directly into reducing our transport costs. So it has a significant impact. We also see an increase in the grade from 80 to over 100 % and that increases our payable as well. Then on the permitting side, this permit coming in will be for 750 tonnes per day. If we can remove 30 to 50 % of the waste, that effectively can almost double our production rate. So we're expecting a range here between 1 ,000 to 1 ,500 at the coal phase or at the mining phase. And then we reduce that down to a lower level for trucking and ultimately for milling.

15:31Our maximal mining rate we're looking at is about 2 ,750. And then we're looking at having a mill of 1 ,500. So reducing that significantly before we mill it, reducing power costs and milling requirements. Yeah.

15:47Terry Harbort: So that's going to be a real leverage point, a real key for you guys at ore sorting. I guess just kind of switching over to the drilling campaign, right? So a lot of what you guys have earmarked out of this campaign is for resource conversion, correct? And that's a lot of that at Olympus, bringing a lot of that inferred to indicated. Talk to us about how that's gone. I know you guys raised money for that earlier in the spring this year and really have been aggressively drilling, I think, three or four rigs on site. Just what can you tell us about how that's going? Really here in the first phase of this, the focus has been on resource converting at Mustang.

16:31So a long strike from where we're mining, underneath where we're mining. but the big focus right now is over at Braylon West which will be our main focus here 27, 28, 29 so we're well underway with the development there we're drilling from underground targeting the three or four main veins there that'll come into our mine plan so we have all that inferred it looks quite good the drilling's been going very well and we're likely here by the end of the year to be intersecting our first vein underground. So that's very exciting for us. We get to have a look at it first, but then we get to sample it on the development round, so every 2.4 metres.

17:16So very high accuracy on what we expect those stopes to be. The Braylon West itself is slightly different to Mustang. it's closer to the core of the system the historic Braylon mine is over that way so what we notice is a lot coarser gold a lot more free gold, a lot more nuggets so our expectation is a lot, well significantly higher grade than what we're mining at Mustang

17:47Terry Harbort: Okay, interesting so a lot of that there looking at your guys' calendar and kind of you mentioned drilling there at Mustang and conversion at Braylor and West. And it looks like, so, so Olympus will be a little bit later. Then you'll obviously start drilling there. You mentioned the grade. I mean, one thing I wanted to ask, I guess, and just maybe, maybe there's either confusion or just something you want to define for people. This goes back to the PEA a little bit, just the head grade, 3.9 grams per tonne against a resource grade of over eight. Is that important? Is there anything people are misunderstanding there?

18:30Terry Harbort: Is there any important sort of context we should know? Yeah, look, there's a few things to really highlight there. Firstly, the majority of that resource is based on inferred grades. So we know that our grade increases as we increase the confidence of our sampling. So it's based on 50 to 60 meter spacing drilling at this stage. So we know that that increases from 7 grams, 8 grams up to 10 grams by the time we've drilled it and increased it. So at this stage to do a PEA and that's part of the reasons why it's called preliminary is because a lot of it's based on inferred resource. So in all honesty, we expect that to change as we transition across.

19:25We've also changed our mining unit, our mining width. So we've increased that up to 2.5. And the main reason that we've done that is to minimise the development we need for our level or our lateral access. so our stope unit will be increasing up to 25 metres in the vertical sense so what that means is we can reduce our development costs and requirements by about 25 % so everybody's focused on grade but grade is only relative to how it impacts on your economics and there's a lot of underground mines in the world that are mining 2.5, 2.6 grams per tonne and it's all about making money. So our business is not mining gold.

20:16Our business is making money by mining gold and I think there's a bit too much of a focus on standardized metrics for people who can't be bothered to calculate economics and the economics is what's important here. It's not how much free gold we have. It's not how the metallurgy works. We're not what process we use, not how we're mining. It's how much we make money at the other end. And that really needs to be the focus, building a good quality project, not using just some random or standardized metrics as to what's a good mine and what's not. Because in the bottom line, how much money that comes out the other end is what defines a good mine.

20:56Terry Harbort: Drilling, development, exploring and making money. I think that is important and an excellent place to leave it for today, Terry. Thank you for coming by and giving us some color on this. It's great to catch up with you. It had been a couple of months. I appreciate you coming back. And we're going to look forward to kind of coming back to you here kind of as the year ends and you guys kind of keep those drills turning and keep developing. All right, Ian. Thanks very much. It had been a pleasure as usual. And I hope your listeners keep their eyes out. Some very good news coming down the pipe. Some very good stopes that we're intersecting right now.

21:36So really great to see that. Awesome.

21:39Terry Harbort: Well, we will look forward to that. That is Terry Harbert, CEO of Talisker Resources. They trade on the TSX under the symbol TSK and on the OTCQX under the symbol TSKFF.

21:57Terry Harbort: The information presented should not be considered investment advice. Mining Stock Daily and its affiliates are not responsible for any loss arising from any investment decision in connection with the material presented herein. Please do your own research or speak with a licensed financial representative before making any investment.