Tocvan Consolidates Gran Pilar as El Mezquite Delivers Standout Drill Hit

0:14Welcome back to Mining Stock Daily. Ian Wagner here with a corporate update from our friends at Tocquevan Ventures. Tocquevan is a gold and silver explorer in Sonora, Mexico with their flagship Grand Pilar project. They trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol TOC and on the OTCQB under the symbol TCVNF. And we have covered the Tokvan story for a while now, so I would encourage any listeners to go back to previous episodes if they're new to the story. Last time we spoke with Tokvan was the end of July, and a lot has happened in five weeks. There's a new CEO. They've got one of the best holes in the company's history.

0:56And then as of this week, full 100 % ownership of the heart of the project. So to cover those things, we have Mr. Christopher Gordon, chief executive now of Tokvan Ventures. Chris, thanks for joining us. Welcome back to the podcast and congratulations on the new title. Thanks, Ian. It's good to be back and catching up with you. It seems like where this gold market is sustaining itself, which is good to see. Yeah, a lot's happened on the macro side in the last five, six weeks too, but certainly seeing a big move for both gold and silver. So yeah, just kick off the news from the top. Late July, early August, you were promoted from Director of Corporate Development to the CEO role.

1:42Brody Sutherland moves from CEO to Executive Chair. Just kind of walk us through that, the restructure, what that gives you and how, for you in particular, what's different about carrying the CEO role now? To be honest, not a lot has changed since I joined a year ago as head of corporate development, working closely with Brody on the strategy of the company moving forward, capital markets, marketing and communication, all of these things combined with the really strong technical team that we have down on the ground in Mexico. Not a lot has changed. For me, my focus as CEO is execution, capital markets, and communicating TalkVan's value proposition as we move into this next phase.

2:26And, you know, in terms of Barodi as exec chair, he remains closely involved in strategic oversight and also continues to provide the benefit of his history with the company and the project. And on that note as well, Rodrigo was moved from chief geologist to the president role. You know, he brings approximately four decades of technical and operational experience in Mexico and globally, having worked for Rio Tinto, Kennecott, and SRK. So it just seemed like a natural transition for us. Yeah, Rodrigo's been on your board, I think, for some time now. And as you know, the decades of experience down there, I wonder what will he bring a little bit more on the as you guys expand out this this drill campaign?

3:12Or will he also be involved in the pilot mine? I mean, I guess now as president, he'll sort of touch a lot of those things too, right? Yeah, he's the driving force down on site for us and brings a wealth of experience, as I mentioned. So, yeah, his involvement, like I say, on the whole, not a lot has actually changed, really, other than a bit of a title shuffle moving forward. Okay. Well, the other news that happened a couple of weeks ago that we haven't had a touch base on was your drill holes, drill hole at El Mesquite, right? Drill 155, 215 meters of six grams per ton gold, starting about 36 meters down hole.

3:51You know, you had noted in the press release that it was one of your best holes ever drilled. Tell us what you guys hit there and maybe add some context about where El Mesquite's at as a relation to the main zone and just kind of what that area looks like. Mesquite is a step out to the tune of about 1600 meters away from the main zone. one of our first big significant discoveries of the year that structure is about 1200 meters long and put that into context the main zone where you know internally we feel we're sitting around 400 ,000 ounces of near surface oxide gold and silver it's about twice as long as that structure so this hole for us you know was really really big big hole one of the best we've hit to date where you're talking about 250 meters of 0.6 gram per ton there was a section a lower section and An upper section, one of the sections was 0.9 over about 70 meters, and then 0.6 over about 89 on that.

4:50There was also some high grade in between there. And that's a really pristine example of the whole system, where it's a broadly mineralized zone, where you can get these 20 meter to plus 200 meter hits that range from a half a gram to a gram per ton. Obviously, one of the things we like about that is a hole like that certainly looks like it has the potential to add a significant amount of ounces to the plan. So for us, you know, Elmosquete, we're looking at doing some drilling in and around there right now. Ideally, in a perfect world, you know, we are targeting a main resource coming up in Q4, which, you know, let's be honest here, these things sometimes can slide a little.

5:31So let's call it late Q4 to somewhere early in Q1. And the idea being originally that that was going to be exclusively carried by the main zone where we've had 30 ,000 meters of drilling. And, you know, again, get to remind the listeners that the main zone is one square kilometer of 22 square kilometers. And we've just largely stepped out in terms of drilling for the first time in the last sort of seven, eight months now into these other new areas. So that's what we had expected would carry the maiden resource. I don't want to make any promises that we can't deliver on. But there is a small chance with the holes we're drilling in and around that last big hole where, you know, if we delayed things by a few months, we may potentially be able to add some inferred ounces from El Mesquite.

6:17But again, don't hold me to that. I think that's in the best case scenario. but at the end of the day you know with a project like this where we're drilling as much as we are this year and then with a bigger program in mind for next year certainly looking to update the mre every 12 to you know call it 16 months or so is is going to probably be the target moving forward on this so no doubt a huge hole for us and then you look today at some of those surface samples we've released from the central corridor where we're looking at you know a trend that is now looking like it's going to be at least a thousand meters long if not more with some really strong soil grid results and rock sampling and that's in the central corridor it's on the same sort of trend as the main zone and again going back to earlier this year we finally got the magnetics flown on the the central corridor the way that it lights up is very similar to what you see in the south block it's almost as big and it's unexplored and we've been working through with the soil graded rock samples and we'll be using dora as well to establish drill targets there next year and this is just confirmation on what we believe internally is a much bigger system than just the main zone as you start to see these you saw the the sample and and rock the rock samples from boriques on the eastern portion of the south block where that area again has been untouched until this year.

7:42And it's looking like we were just continued at new targets to go after going forward. Yeah, a lot to unpack there. And before we jump to that central corridor, I do want to follow up about Mesquite. You noted that's about that 1 ,600 meters east of the main zone, and that's a 1.2 kilometer trend. How much of that has been drilled or is actively being drilled? And how do you think about that again in terms of that MRE? Do you kind of drill the MRE for now or do you drill it for bigger? It's always a tough time to, sorry, it's always tough to know exactly how to answer that. You know, it's really going to depend on the rest of the holes that we're kind of poking in and around that big hole right now.

8:37You know, it's still early days, as I've said, in terms of exploration. And the idea is always, OK, well, how much further do you push off a resource to include more ounces when you're continually drilling? So at some point in time, you just kind of have to draw a line in the sand and ultimately come out with your MRE, even though the moment you publish an MRE, it's going to be steel. It's as long as you're continually drilling, right? Yeah. And I think, too, you know, there is I think the good news because of this gold market, there is a lot of attention on early stage explorers and early status developers.

9:15But I think there is a risk, right, of you put out that MRE and you say, we know this is, you know, this is cut off. It's going to grow. But in terms of people's memory, sometimes that number is just the anchor. It's, you know, company X has this amount of ounces and, okay, we're going to go look for company Y with this amount. So I do think it is an interesting challenge that I, you know, because you want to communicate to the market that you have something here. You don't want to just sort of be drilling endlessly, right, without something to point to. But you also want to make sure that you get the chance to redefine that narrative as new results come in, right, as it grows and expands.

9:50So I am, you know, always curious how companies approach that dynamic. You know, I think there's a small subset of investors that think we're looking to just build something small here and get into production, similar to the Santana mine, which is about 50 kilometers away from our project. but what we think we've got is what we're building towards would be a base case of 50 ,000 ounces of production per year. And that's, you know, you look at Sonora, you look at heat bleach opportunities there. The reality is, is, you know, three quarters of a million ounces or more is going to be a production story down there all day long with the economics that are typically attached to these types of operations.

10:34We're no different. We think we're going to be showcasing pretty robust economics with our PEA study in Q2 next year. But at the end of the day, you have to make a decision at some point and just go with that. So we think we're kind of in the right spot here getting into development, but also looking for resource expansion. I mean, we've always felt confident that between the main zone and that north alteration zone, if things went reasonably well for us, This could be a one and a half to two million ounce sort of project, if you will. Now you look at that central corridor as another factor to add into the story and the success we're having identifying new targets.

11:16It's early to say, but certainly there's more upside than that on a project like this. And now we're at the point in time when we've just got to go out and execute on drilling over the next few years and build that up. At the end of the day, there's a lot of junior producers in Mexico that are very comfortable operating there that are looking to build into intermediates. And I think if you can show 50 ,000 ounces or more down there on the project set, you know, that's going to attract interest from groups that are already trying to build ounces out down in the area. So that's where things get interesting on the project.

11:54I think, you know, you have to factor in that this is a potential M &A target in the coming years as well. And that's where I think, you know, pre-PEA, pre-new discoveries, that's when you're looking at a project that's under a dollar, trading under a dollar right now. I think that's the opportunity for investors is getting in as it's starting to build. You know, all the signs are starting to point towards there is upside here at the project set. And I think that's where the value curve is for us right now. and then de-risking through the pilot operation coming up later this year. That pilot also not only de-risks the project, but it also helps us to fund going forward.

12:33You know, this year it's 50 ,000 tons. We're permitted on the infrastructure for 10 years. We ended up getting permitted for 50 ,000 tons of throughput this year. We're definitely going to be applying for more throughput. The pad that we're building can handle around 250 ,000 tons. So even if we are just permitted to say double that to 100 ,000 tons, we're anticipating recovering in and around a thousand ounces this year and the cost to build this is u.s two million so it should be a net positive exercise at the tune of around two million approximately usd and next year running that without that capex to build that even if we could just get a hundred thousand tons now you're talking about selling somewhere around two thousand ounces of gold and that becomes a meaningful amount for our company where you could be looking you know what I'd like to see us do for drilling next year at a minimum is four drills turning and 30 ,000 meters of drilling.

13:24And that would be in and around Canadian$10 million to accomplish that. So if you can get to a point with that pilot mine where you're de-risking it, building strong PEA, building further inroads in the community, but protecting that share structure that's at 78 million shares right now, but being able to potentially fund your exploration program, which is going to be the big value driver going forward after the pilot mine production and the PEA, obviously we need to add ounces here. So that's where things I think get excited. I think you laid out a nice timeline and cadence of activity there.

13:57And to your point about acquisition and 50 ,000 ounces a year, especially if something hits that double digit mine life, double digit years, mine life, that you guys can get if you get that X number of million ounces. Um, okay. So, and I guess too, you know, you've talked about this before, like the PEA part of what that pilot mining is going to do is going to provide meaningful metallurgical inputs into that PEA, right? That you guys are going to be able to use data from on site, not just totally inferred. So I think that's, um, going to lend some additional credibility to that PEA. Now Now, to circle back again to drilling, you know, I think when we spoke in July, you guys were about 6 ,000 meters into this year's 20 ,000 meter campaign.

14:51As of early August, I think you were around 11 ,000. You guys have a lot of results pending on about 5 ,000 meters or so, right? And what's the cadence of results kind of look like for the coming months? And what are you guys seeing and where are those results going to be coming from? The results are going to be coming from the expansion outside of the main zone at the South Block. That's where the focus has been. And we're also still expecting more rock samples from the central corridor, the north alteration zone as well. So it should be a fairly, every month we should see drill results. You should see sampling as well as we move forward.

15:34And one of the other recent pieces of news that kind of relates to the drilling, as you'll see here, is we actually have officially closed the transaction to remove the JV partner off the main zone, which gives us 100 % to that one square kilometer where there's been over 30 ,000 meters of drilling where we think we have the strongest internal resource at this point in time. And what that allows us to do is to go back in there, which we've done with one of the drills and hit some targets that we've wanted to go after for the last couple of years now. Obviously, we haven't drilled in there because the idea was to remove the JV partner and tie up the entire land package under Tokfan's umbrella.

16:14There is potential there with some more success. You know, we have kind of maxed out the constraints of that being one square kilometer. But there's some targets that we've wanted to go after, as I mentioned, and we are going after those right now. So I think maybe the upside, the top of that main zone could be half a million ounces on its own. So that's definitely meaningful to get in and do that. So we are working on that. We do plan on getting back up to that north alteration zone with some drilling later this year. And we are, yeah, we're approaching 11 ,000 meters of drilling completed. of the 20 ,000 meters planned for this year.

16:51So a lot more to come, a lot more drill results. You'll be spreading that around the main zone, the North Elmaski, presumably, and then that North Alteration Zone too. That's great. So we'll be able to follow up, you know, with you as you do that. I guess just maybe a quick update on the pilot facility. Just I know when we spoke, you know, you had laid out kind of that six-phase developments for the 50 ,000 tons. how is that coming along? Is there the leach pad or where are you guys at in terms of just, you know, getting that together and commissioning that still for this year? Great question.

17:29We are still expecting to complete the pilot line build in October this year. So the processing, yeah, the processing equipment is almost been built now. It's nearing completion. We should be receiving delivery of that in the next two to three weeks. and then look to set that up across the project set or pardon me on the the pilot mine on that disturbance area so yeah it is moving along nicely we're anticipating running that for the first time i would say late october uh definitely uh early early november i think latest to get that up and running however you know couch that with this is junior mining and things always seem to take a little longer than you think in some cases a lot longer but it is on it is on track right now there's been no delays and like i say that the processing equipment should be delivered to site in the next two to three weeks and we do expect to run that in november and that should you know we're processing 50 000 tons of material we expect to recover in and around a thousand ounces um so and there's conversations going on regarding offtake we're looking at some different options there where likely what we do is sell a loaded carbon uh at the end for uh to generate that capital inflow into the company.

18:44So that is the timing on the pilot mine. Again, the resource should be either late this year or Q1 of next year. And all of that builds towards a PEA in Q2. And from there, you know, at the same time in the first half of next year, likely Q1 is when we're looking to submit an application for full-scale production permit. And, you know, important to get into the queue for that and get in that lineup before others get to get in in front of you so that's the approximate timing there and then again next year we're looking to expand upon this year's exploration success with a much larger program a lot of uh catalysts coming up um well listen we will look to catch up with you as all of those things come to to bear especially the more drill results from this year's campaign and then absolutely that pilot facility that's exciting um chris i appreciate you coming by today and giving us kind of an update on where things sit my pleasure i appreciate the time that is mr christopher gordon ceo of talk van ventures they trade on the cse under the symbol toc and on the otcqb under the symbol tcvnf

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