What is the story behind the founding of Millennial Precious Metals and how has the company gone about acquiring its current portfolio of assets?

Me and my partners Ruben Padilla (CEO, Sable Resources) and Terry Harbort (CEO, Talisker Resources) were looking into gaining a toehold into the United States, and so we decided to focus primarily on assets in the southwestern United States and ultimately identified great opportunities in Nevada.

Our team ran hundreds of desktop reviews and made over 30 site visits in order to pinpoint development and exploration assets that had an existing resource base or presented great exploration potential, while also making sure that those development resource base assets had enough potential to significantly grow.

Fortunately, we got first crack at Waterton’s exploration portfolio in Nevada. From there, we acquired six of their properties, and one other asset from a private company called Red Canyon, and that is how Millennial, and its portfolio came to be. Two of these assets have a historical resource base that Millennial can add ounces to quickly and cheaply, and we have been open to looking at things that were missed by other groups. For example, at Wildcat and Mountain View (two of the properties acquired from Waterton), located in Nevada's Hycroft district, no one to date has really understood the plumbing system and the high-grade nature of it.

We have been putting things together that could build the base for the next exploration and development company focused in top-tier mining jurisdictions like Nevada, and we now intend to advance the assets we acquired over the past year and a half.

What were the biggest highlights of 2020 and what is Millennial’s strategy moving forward?

The base of our portfolio consists of seven assets. Each of these assets has not been in the public markets and nothing has been done on them in over a decade. Millennial just put its Maiden Resource Statement for 1.2 Moz in two pits of inferred oxide, with 700,000 oz of potential, and that has attracted a strong base of well-respected institutional investors seeking to back the company.

We plan to take Millennial public sometime in Q1 and we are coming out at a US $68M market cap with US $24M in the bank and Eric Sprott will own close to 8.2% of the company moving forward.

The idea over the next 18 months is to drill a minimum of 20,000 M on Wildcat, Mountain View and Red Canyon. We also intend to do an updated resource on Wildcat and Mountain View, as well as a PEA. We have a very aggressive strategy. I think most people do not understand that one of the biggest killers of junior companies is a lack of news flow which will hurt the momentum of the story. Not being aggressive enough is a big pitfall, and Millennial is lucky that its three assets that are going to be drilled this year are very low hanging fruit, and we can add ounces very quickly and cheaply.

What makes Nevada such an appealing jurisdiction?

Millennial’s Red Canyon asset is just south of Barrick’s Cortez Hill Gold Mine, so we feel that we are in a great location. From a permitting perspective, Nevada is amazing. It allows us to do things quickly and the infrastructure that you get is world-class. Between our two development assets there is a road that goes right up to the project and the rail line cuts between the two projects. There is also a powerline that goes right over top of the deposit, and the rail line connects all of the major deposits. So a lot of important infrastructure is already in place.

In remote areas in Canada, the drilling window is short. It takes a lot longer with more money and dilution to add economic ounces to your books because of the weather. In Nevada, you can operate year-round. What would take someone in the Golden Triangle three years to do, we can do in Nevada in eight months.

What people have not been doing in Nevada, is going back to the fundamentals of geology, and doing systematic scientific work looking for the next Cortez Hill. With Millennial’s portfolio, we believe we can have another major discovery and I am certain that if it is there, our team will find it.

What does success look like in 2021 for Millennial?

We want to grow our existing resource base by adding ounces by the drill bit and adding quality, economic ounces. If we can see our resource base grow past 2 Moz of oxide that is great. I would also like to see a technical success that is a market success as well. What I can control is the technical success. Lastly, at Red Canyon. We want to understand the plumbing system to show that the system can be world-class.