Welcome And Valiant Overview

Andrew Musgrave 0:04

Welcome again to ASX Briefs, and joining me today is Brendan Triton, the managing director and CEO of Valiant Gold Limited, a newly established Australian gold company advancing a portfolio of Brownfield's gold projects in Western Australia's Murchison region. Brendan, thanks for joining me today and welcome to the ASX Briefs podcast.

Brendan Tritton 0:24

Thanks for having us, Andrew. It's great to be here.

Andrew Musgrave 0:26

Now, Brendan, it's been a big few months for Valiant since the demerger from Westgold. So can you give listeners a quick refresher on what Valiant Gold actually is and why you're excited about the Murchison portfolio?

Brendan Tritton 0:37

Fantastic. So yeah, as you mentioned, we've demerged two assets, Comet and Ready from Westgold. We've got 1.2 million ounces in resource that's there. These mines were in operation by Westgold back in financial year 23. So for us, it's a really exciting prospect in terms of the restart of the Comet and South England underground mines, as well as the opportunity to drill the rest of the prospects that are cross there. The other key point of difference that we have that really excites me is that we've got our processing solution backed in from day one. So we've got an ore purchase agreement with West Coal,

Comet Restart Contractor And Scope

Speaker 1:10

which means we've got a pathway to process our ore straight off of that.

Andrew Musgrave 1:14

Looking first at the Comet project, you appointed Mako Mining as the mining services contractor for Comet this quarter. What does that agreement actually cover and why was Mako the right partner for the restart?

Brendan Tritton 1:25

Yeah, so we we appointed Mako for the dewatering and rehab component of the restart at Comet. It's a pretty simple contract that's there, effectively allows us to do the site establishment works, basic workshops, um, pumping infrastructure installation, rehab of the underground. And Mako is the right partner for it because they've been through a number of these before in the past. They've got a good track record of doing these safely on time and on budget. So it's one of the ones that's a key thing for the business to go forward to the right partners for these projects.

Re Entering Comet Underground

Andrew Musgrave 1:54

Just after quarter end, you successfully re-entered the Comet Underground Mine. That sounds like a significant milestone. So, what did you find down there? And did anything surprise you?

Brendan Tritton 2:04

Look, Andrew, it's um yeah, it is a very significant milestone. And to be honest, we were very surprised with the conditions of what we found when we went down there and re-entered the underground mine. The ground support, the installation in terms of the water level was much lower than what we first expected. The primary infrastructure, such as escapeways and the like, are in really good shape, which means that it basically accelerates our timeline quite significantly. Uh, and that's one of the things that's really exciting at the moment for Valiant.

Andrew Musgrave 2:35

Alongside the physical re-entry, you're also running mine engineering and technical studies

Mine Planning And Restart Timeline

Speaker 1 2:40

to build an initial life of mine for comment. Where are those studies up to and when might we see a firmer restart plan?

Brendan Tritton 2:47

Look, the studies are in good progress. It's not a traditional study per se, so you're not looking to see a DFS or a BFS level study output at the back end of it. It's effectively recutting the original life of mine designs from Westgold from when they were last in operation. And this basically is effectively a mine planning tool that's there to really look at what we can do with these mines going forwards. We're expecting to have a firmer restart plant back to the market in the coming months as we move

Reedy Depth Hits And Resource Upside

Speaker 3:15

towards the back half of this year.

Andrew Musgrave 3:16

Turning now to the Reddy project, Reddy delivered some standout maiden diamond drilling results this quarter, including a 34.2 meters at 2.97 grams per ton gold with a higher grade zone inside it. So, in plain English, what do these numbers tell you about the system at depth?

Brendan Tritton 3:33

Well, the really interesting part about this is this intersection was effectively 400 meters below the existing mineral resource estimate. So it really shows that this system continues at depth uh quite substantially and has quite high grade zones that are there. A hundred gram meter intersection is significant from a mining sense because it basically shows that there's good optionality that's there for when we get down to that point of actually mining that in the future.

Andrew Musgrave 3:57

And with assay results still coming through over the next four to six weeks, what are you hoping those results confirm and how does that flow into resource conversion from inferred to indicated?

Brendan Tritton 4:08

So the the results that are coming through, we're effectively looking to still shape out the last parts of this component that's there outside of the MRE boundary. So this will effectively look at tightening up and increasing some of the confidence we've got some of that inferred material that's there.

Andrew Musgrave 4:22

Now you're also planning to mobilize a second drill rig to the boomerang gold deposit, which already carries a resource of 5.26 million tonnes at

Boomerang Second Rig And Strategy

Speaker 1 4:30

2.17 grams per ton for 367,000 ounces. What's the thinking behind bringing in a second rig and what's the priority target there?

Brendan Tritton 4:39

Look, the real opportunity here with bringing additional rigs to boomerang is this is uh the single biggest resource across the ready portfolio for us. And it really helps look at the potential for an early stage open pit and then future life of an underground operation there as the third uh mine front for Valiant. The key part here is it's a 1.2 kilometre project across the deposit. One section is drilled down to about 500 to 600 metres, and the other section is down with very limited drilling to about 100 to 150 metres towards the north. So there's a really good opportunity here to increase the confidence of the resource, look at the resource growth that's there, and look at what we can do in terms of increasing the confidence for a restart

Funding, Priorities, And Market Re Rate

Speaker 5:20

of operations there from an open pit perspective.

Andrew Musgrave 5:22

Turning now to the financials, you finished the quarter with over 67 million dollars in cash and term deposits. So, how comfortable does that make you feel about funding both the Comet Restart and the REDI exploration program without going back to the market?

Brendan Tritton 5:36

Look, we're we're fully funded to get back into production. One of the key things that's yeah, that we raised the $75 million at the back end of March this year. And it's allowed us to be in a really good position to fund exploration across the REDI portfolio as well as the restart of operations at Comet.

Andrew Musgrave 5:52

Now, Brendan, between the Comet restart, the REDI resource growth story, and now a second rig heading to Boomerang, how do you personally prioritize where management attention goes over the next six months?

Brendan Tritton 6:03

So the really good thing here is that we've actually managed to recruit the right team to be able to operate on both tandem work streams at the same time. So our geology team is heavily focused on the drilling that's there across the REDI package, as well as our mining team that's there that's looking after the comet restart. So it's equally split. We've got a dual track approach to this, and this is how we're going to create shareholder value.

Andrew Musgrave 6:24

And the final question, Brendan, for investors that are new to the Valiant story what's the one thing about this company you think the market is still underappreciating?

Brendan Tritton 6:33

So look, Andrew, I think the market is still underappreciating and valuing us as an explorer. The key message here there is that Valiant's a developer and we'll be a near-term producer going forwards. And as a part of that, we'd expect to see a re-rate in terms of the E Vita resource ounce. Currently, we're sitting at an E Vita resource ounce, which is about $50 an ounce, and that's significantly less than our peers that are operating within the region.

Andrew Musgrave 6:55

Okay, Brendan. Well, it's been great to chat. Exciting times for the company, so we wish you all the best, and we look forward to further updates in the coming months.

Brendan Tritton 7:02

Fantastic. Thank you very much, Andrew. I really appreciate your time today.

Andrew Musgrave 7:05

That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe, and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.