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Through staking, partnerships and acquisitions, SLAM
Exploration has been able to develop a portfolio of zinc, lead and silver properties in New Brunswick, one of the major zinc producing areas
of North America
Exploration
Mineral Resources
(SXL-TSX)
SLAM Exploration Ltd.
285 Campbell Street
Miramichi, NB Canada E1V 1R4
Phone: 506-627-1353
Michael Taylor, BSc.
President and CEO
Interview conducted by:
Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor
CEOCFOinterviews.com
October 6, 2005
BIO:
Michael Taylor, BSc.
President and CEO
- 25 years managing gold and base metal projects in Canada
- SLAM founding shareholder
- Responsible for corporate and project management
Mr. Taylor is a founding director serving as President of SLAM Exploration Ltd. since the
Company’s inception in 1996. He raised it from seed capital to listed status. He
brings 25 years of exploration experience in gold and base metals within Canada.
Mr. Taylor was involved in the discovery of the former-producing Farley Lake gold mine
near Lynn Lake, Manitoba and a number of gold occurrences at Keezhik and Opikeigen lakes
near the former gold-producing town of Pickle Lake, Ontario.
Company Profile:
SLAM Exploration Ltd. is a fast-growing mineral resource company based in
Miramichi, New Brunswick and is listed on the TSX-Venture under symbol SXL. SLAM has two
large zinc projects in New Brunswick, one of the major zinc-producing areas of Canada.
These include its 100% owned Nash Creek Property and a 50% share (with Falconbridge
Limited) of the Bathurst Joint Venture, a $25 million, five year project. SLAM also owns
varying interests in four gold properties in the renowned gold producing Uchi sub-province
of northwest Ontario.
CEOCFO: Mr. Taylor, what
was your original vision for SLAM Exploration and where is it today?
Mr. Taylor: “Slam was put in the stock market five years
ago and we focused mainly on base metals in New Brunswick and gold in Ontario. Right now
our main focus is zinc, lead and silver deposits.”
CEOCFO: Why did you
choose New Brunswick?
Mr. Taylor: “New Brunswick is one of the major zinc
producing areas of North America. There is one mine here, Burnswick #12, produces about
10,000 tons a day. That mine is getting low on reserves, so we are looking to replace the
reserves at that location.”
CEOCFO: Will you tell us
about the area where you are looking?
Mr. Taylor: “This location is in northern New Brunswick.
We have been exploring Nash Creek for approximately three years. We had a drilling
campaign last winter that produced some very significant results. From that and some
previous work that was done by Falconbidge Limited (NYSE: FAL & TSX: FALLV) in the
1980’s, we had an independent resource estimate done that came up with indicated
resources of 3.4 million tons at just over 5% zinc, and an inferred resource of 1.7
million tons. We are very excited about those results. These are on our website in a
recently published press release.”
CEOCFO: How do you
develop from there?
Mr. Taylor: “We need some more drilling to see how large
the deposit is. We do not know the limits of the deposit yet. Once we ascertain that, we
will conduct a feasibility study and that includes a permitting process and environmental
studies. We will be treating this as an advanced project, so we would like to have the
feasibility studies done by the end of 2006.”
CEOCFO: Is this a wholly
owned project?
Mr. Taylor: “Yes Slam owns it. We acquired it by
staking. It is a low cost project for us so far. Today we have modest expenditures on it
and from that we have produced up to half a billion pounds of zinc in that resource. We do
think we can advance this project to the feasibility stage.”
CEOCFO: Will you tell us
about some of the other things you are working on?
Mr. Taylor: “We have a joint venture with Falconbridge
Limited; it is a $25 million dollar project, over five years. We call that the Bathurst
joint venture and that joint venture is 50/50; we funded and Noranda Inc. funds it.
Noranda has been amalgamated with Falconbridge so the company is now called Falconbridge
Limited (NYSE: FAL and TSX: FALLV). We are in the third year of that major
partnership.”
CEOCFO: Is that a
project for zinc?
Mr. Taylor: “Yes, our main commodity is zinc in northern
New Brunswick and our projects are technology driven. We have used very high-tech airborne
megaTEM surveys, which can detect metal deep in the ground; as deep as 250 meters below
the surface; followed with drilling. We have two projects close together, the 100% owned
Nash Creek deposit and the Bathurst Joint Venture in partnership with Falconbridge
Limited.”
CEOCFO: What other
metals are you working with?
Mr. Taylor: “We have a long-term focus on gold and we
have been exploring for that commodity since the inception of the SLAM. We have projects
in North Western Ontario in the Uchi sub-province. That is a major producing area with
world-class gold ores in the Red Lake Mine. It has favorable geology and we have four
projects in that area. We have produced excellent billing results there in the past as
well.”
CEOCFO: What is the
common thread when you look for properties?
Mr. Taylor: “We look for properties that have had a lot
of previous work done on them with infrastructure. Usually they are ready to drill and
there are some ore intercepts there already. It is more a matter of going there and trying
to expand on what is there already. That is our main focus.”
CEOCFO: Are you still
looking for properties?
Mr. Taylor: “We continue to review properties and if we
can find a property that stands out, we will acquire more properties.”
CEOCFO: How is your
funding to go forward?
Mr. Taylor: “Generally, we use equity funding through
the market and we will be looking at the equity market this fall for funding to advance
these projects. Nash Creek will require significant amounts of capital, so we expect to be
moving forward on that as well.”
CEOCFO: What is the
market like these days for metals and particularly zinc?
Mr. Taylor: “The zinc market itself is very strong. The
zinc price right now is in the area of 60 cents U.S. per pound. The side commodity to zinc
is lead and the price of lead is 40 cents per pound. The other by-product of zinc
operations is silver and silver at about seven dollars per ounce. These commodities are at
relatively high prices.”
CEOCFO: Is that helping
increase interest in SLAM?
Mr. Taylor: “Our timing is good, we acquired some of
these properties when these commodities were out of favor as far as the market goes. At
the time we staked Nash Creek, zinc was probably about 35 cents. That increase in zinc has
certainly increased the appetite for SLAM. It has shown its potential and shown me that
there is potential reward for having acquired these properties.”
CEOCFO: You mentioned
some new technology in terms of one of your projects, are there other technologies that
you could be taking advantage?
Mr. Taylor: “Yes, the technologies that we mentioned;
megaTEM and airborne gravity are state-of-the-art. There are also procedures on the ground
that we can use; very advanced geochemical procedures like one called, mobile ion
technology; it detects metal ions that are being driven off from ore bodies and detects
relatively deep ore bodies.”
CEOCFO: Why should
investors be interested in SLAM?
Mr. Taylor: “Slam has very strong management with a
long-term successful record. The Chairman is John Hansuld, he is the past president of the
Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. I am President and CEO. I possess a lot
of experience in the gold and base metal industries. We have an excellent portfolio of
properties in areas of infrastructure. We expect to turn the corner and move these project
to a more advanced stage.”
CEOCFO: Is there
anything that potential investors miss when they look at Slam?
Mr. Taylor: “I do not think the market fully understands
SLAM; I do not think our value is fully realized. At the current share price and share
valuation, it does not reflect the diversified portfolio of projects that we have in both
base metals and gold.”
CEOCFO: Is reaching
investors a focus for you?
Mr. Taylor: “Yes, we are using Stock Journal campaigns.
Bob Smiley, our investor relations person, is based in Vancouver, B.C., and can be reached
toll free at 1-866-309-6719.”
CEOCFO: Do you have any
final thoughts for our readers?
Mr. Taylor: “We are going forward with Nash Creek. We
are very excited about this project and we will be working very hard at that and pushing
to advance to the feasibility stage and hopefully, follow with production.”
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