iMetal talks Gowganda work, hybrid business model

Sep 28, 2017

2017-09-27 14:14 ET – Shareholders Letter

Mr. Brian Fagan reports

IMETAL RESOURCES INC. ANNOUNCES LETTER TO SHAREHOLDERS

iMetal Resources Inc. has released a letter to shareholders from the company’s president and chief executive officer, Brian Fagan, to provide an update on the company’s corporate strategy and mission statement. The letter is available on the iMetal website.

Sept. 26, 2017

iMetal Resources president’s letter to shareholders

Dear shareholder,

As your newly appointed president and chief executive officer, I would like to update you on iMetal’s accomplishments since April, 2017, and its plans going forward. iMetal has been transformed corporately and operationally into a completely different company than it was back in April.

iMetal is now a fully staffed hybrid prospect generator/independent developer mineral exploration company. I like to think of iMetal as a company on a mission of discovery. Its mission statement is to discover new mineral deposits, primarily in the mining-friendly province of Ontario, Canada.

Since April, 2017, iMetal — through boots-on-the-ground prospecting — has identified several new mineral showings of gold, copper, cobalt and silver on its original Gowganda West property near Gowganda, Ont., and on other areas in the Gowganda district. You can expect to be receiving detailed information on these showings in separate news releases over the next several weeks. An updated landholdings map will also be released soon. The company’s website — still a work in progress — is now live. Expect several changes in its format and content as we progress. In today’s letter, I want to address iMetals’ corporate strategy and mission statement only.

iMetal has been restructured and staffed to operate as both a prospect generator and/or an independent developer, depending on the characteristics of each of its properties. All of the newly elected directors and appointed consultants have many years of mineral exploration experience.

Being a prospect generator company is generally accepted as being the most conservative, yet extremely successful — corporate policy a junior mineral exploration company can follow. Let us face it — mineral exploration is a very capital-intensive activity. We are talking millions to tens o -millions of dollars here to advance a project to a production decision. There are only two ways for a junior explorer to raise anywhere near those sums of money. The company may continually sell treasury stock to finance its exploration activities or find a well-healed joint venture partner to finance the exploration and development of a property in exchange for an interest in the ownership of the property. Financing a company through continuous financings often results in an unacceptable number of shares issued in a short period of time. It also restricts the number of properties a company can work on. Even if a junior company has the money, it cannot have enough capable people to carry out multiple programs at the same time. A prospect generator does not have either of those problems. Yes, it does reduce the interest it has in each property joint ventured, but it can have an unlimited amount of properties being worked on simultaneously by joint venture partners at no cost to it. This greatly reduces the need for equity financings that dilute shareholder interest. In addition, a project generator will often receive both cash and stock from the joint venture partner for the right to earn an interest in the property. Even more important than all the preceding, it continually frees up the company’s best prospectors and geologists to traverse new ground, making new discoveries that can be further joint ventured.

With the guidance and encouragement from some very successful mining and financial professionals, I adopted the prospect generator business model in the early 1980s — long before it was common in the business. The entire process is explained in a 1983 video, Brican Resources Ltd., a Vancouver Stock Eachange- and Nasdaq Stock Market-listed exploration company for which I arranged an initial public offering and was running at the time. Remember, this video was made 35 years ago. The dollar values reported then would be 10 to even 20 times more if it were now. You can access this video on YouTube.

To function successfully as a prospect generator, a company has to have the ability to continuously discover new prospective mineral projects — preferably by staking — which will produce results that will attract joint venture partners to finance exploration programs on them. iMetal is extremely capable to achieve this objective. The main reason iMetal will be able to continuously do this is that it has attracted some of the most experienced, successful prospectors and geologists from the general Kirkland Lake, Ont., area to join the company. One of those individuals is Tom O’Connor, a third-generation Kirkland Lake mining contractor and prospector, now a principal and important internal member of the iMetal family.

Mr. O’Connor grew up in the mining business and the bush around Kirkland Lake. There is no one I have known that knows more about the property history, geology and people involved in the business in that part of the world. On top of that, he worked for 10 years as a mining claims inspector for the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development. Mr. O’Connor conceived and presented to the management of iMetal all of iMetal’s current programs. He is in complete charge of implementing them in the field. With his experience from being a claims inspector, Mr. O’Connor is also in charge of keeping the company’s major landholdings in good standing with the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. If one is to work anywhere in this part of the world, there could be no better person conceiving and implementing your exploration activities. In fact, my confidence in Mr. O’Connor was the main reason I got involved with iMetal in the very beginning.

As for iMetal also being an independent developer — project generators often do not joint venture all of their properties. While developing a property to the joint venture stage, once in a while, a property responds so well the company will decide to develop it further for its own account. This is where Mr. O’Connor is again extremely valuable. Having ran his own successful mining contracting business for over 30 years; iMetal is completely capable of completing any type of major programs on its properties. iMetal is a true hybrid prospect generator/independent developer mineral exploration company.

Directors, officers, consultants and advisers

iMetal and I, personally, are especially proud of the directors, officers, mining executives, professional geologists, prospectors, consultants and advisers who have chosen to join the iMetal family. Once you read their bios, you will know why iMetal is now structured for discovery, development and success!

Thank you for your patience and continuing participation. I and the board of directors look forward to providing you with a steady flow of news releases now that we have the company back on track and actively working for shareholder success.

This president’s letter was prepared by Mr. Fagan, president and chief executive officer of iMetal Resources.

https://imetalresources.ca/news-2/