Angkor Gold: Cambodia’s Premiere Project Generator

Angkor Gold (TSXV:ANK) is Cambodia’s premier project generator with more than 20 prospects across seven tenements covering a 1,448 square kilometer land package. Exploration data shows evidence of gold, copper, molybdenum and other minerals across all seven tenements.
Angkor Gold’s first successful transaction in Cambodia’s growing mining sector was the asset sale of the nation’s soon-to-be first commercial gold mine, Phum Syarung – expected to commence production in 2016. Angkor recently signed an agreement with Mesco Gold to receive a 2 to 7.5 percent sliding scale net smelter return from the gold mine. The company is now focused on building further shareholder value through its Halo, CW, Okalla West and Koan Nheak prospects.
Angkor has been very busy lately, completing six deals in the past three years with a value in excess of $18 million dollars. There seems to be more news on the horizon, so Investing News Network wanted to catch up with Angkor Gold CEO Mike Weeks and get some insight on what is happening in Cambodia and what makes this an interesting area.
Investing News Network: Mike could you give us a little bit of insight on what differentiates Angkor Gold from the rest of the gold junior mining pack?
Mike Weeks: I guess the first thing is Cambodia itself and we can talk a little bit more about that later. The next would be that our model is different from what’s out there. All our management and directors have invested into the stock, buying a lot of shares over the years, and so we run the company as owners. Back to Cambodia, we have multiple prospects with numerous targets and capable partners. We’ve focused on social development from day one and it’s a passion of ours. I guess that would be it in a nutshell.
INN: What makes Cambodia minable and attractive to miners?
MW: Cambodia is an amazing country. What makes it minable is they have power and water infrastructure as well as a good network of flat access roads. The local people are happy to have us there because of our social development programs. The government is supportive of us as well. Cambodia is a democratic nation and we have worked directly with the Minister of Mines and Energy on a lot of projects.
INN: As you mentioned, social license is more important than ever these days. Can you elaborate on what Angkor Gold has done in regards to social development in Cambodia?
MW: First of all we focused on social development from day one, since we first put our boots on the ground, and it’s an embedded culture in our company from myself as CEO and Chairman of the Board to the workers on the ground, and we think we do it differently. We don’t write checks and give out money. We get involved in the projects directly. We have a team of about five people working on social development, all Cambodian. My wife is VP of social development so it obviously comes directly from the top because if the chairman’s wife is involved in it you know it’s going to get done. And just to be clear, our policy has been to primarily self-fund these programs..
INN: I’d like to focus on a few recent transactions and get some insight. One of those transactions is Mesco Gold’s mining license for the Phum Syarung underground mine which is due soon. How will your shareholders benefit in this partnership?
MW: We have a 7.5 percent sliding-scale return on the project. When the mining license is complete we will receive a final US$500,000 payment and the mine will begin generating returns for Angkor once in production. If things go well with the production rate, there should be enough payments to completely run our operations, which is a huge win for us. Mesco is talking about increasing the production rate as well, so for a small company like ours to be cash flow positive will be a really big deal in these markets.
INN: Is production still expected in 2016?
MW: The mine is built. The processing equipment is being ordered. So as soon as the mining license comes in they will be bringing ore out of the ground and stockpiling it for their processing facility. The facility will take six to eight months to build so if things go really well we’re looking at end of 2016 or first quarter of 2017.
INN: Angkor Gold also just announced a joint exploration agreement with Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC). Can you give investors some insight on why this is going to be an important deal for you?
MW: JOGMEC is a department of the Japanese government. They conduct projects all over the world so JOGMEC is a world leader in exploration, so the partnership benefits both our company as well as Cambodia’s mineral industry which is still relatively undeveloped. The announcement should go a long way to dispel any questions about whether serious players are interested in exploring what Cambodia has to offer. JOGMEC is interested in working with us to build and acquire more projects in Cambodia. Its close proximity to Japan is advantageous because the Japanese economy relies on importing resources.
INN: Angkor Gold has also just signed a $3.5 million option agreement for a 50 percent interest in the Banlung license with Blue River Resources, who has recently announced expanded gold surface anomaly and exploration plans for the project. Could you give investors some insight into the geology here and why there could be some shareholder value here?
MW: It’s a large area that has a lot of gold near the surface. We have to prove out how much but it would be an alluvial type of system and we believe there’s another type of system underneath it. If it’s an alluvial play that we can prove out with Blue River’s help we will still have a 50 percent interest in it, and remain the operator of a project with the potential to be very profitable going forward. We’re exploring on it right now. We’re conducting shallow drilling because the gold is at surface and hopefully sometime within the next year we will have proven resource on the property, and then we would look to start mining.
INN: Another project you’re also focusing on in 2016/2017 is the Andong Meas license. Please tell us more about this project and the key highlights for shareholder value here.
MW: Andong Meas in the Cambodian language means ‘well of gold’ interestingly enough. There have been artisanal miners all over our properties but they’re heavily focused on that area. We find our best geologists for this region are the artisanal miners and we are working directly with a couple of companies to possibly conduct a ground program on that property and it’s an exciting property. I mean you see the artisanal miners working all over. They just scratch at the surface and pan the rivers and streams but there’s definitely gold everywhere there. Is it in enough quantities to be minable? We think so, but we haven’t proved it yet and that’s what we’re working for. We have created interest on that property with a couple other international companies that are looking at it with us.
INN: So far we’ve obviously discussed a lot of upcoming catalysts for investors to watch out for. What are going to be the key milestones for Angkor Gold over the next 12 to 18 months?
MW: Key milestones would be the Phum Syarung mine coming into production and helping us to achieve a cash flow positive position. There’s also drilling and proving out the copper-gold porphyry system at the Halo Prospect on Oyadao South with JOGMEC. And as you talked about with Blue River, we’re starting to prove out resources at Banlung.
INN: Great, thank you very much Mike for helping us to understand what is happening in Cambodia and why it could be an interesting pick for an investor.
MW: Thank you. I’d like to give one more final push for Cambodia. It’s a great country to tour around and is full of very friendly, honest people. With all the problems in the world it’s really a breath of fresh air to visit.
 

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