Auryn recently set out to raise $10M - but due to surging demand for the offering, they closed the private placement at $15M, and many legendary financiers jumped on board again.
Investors like Ross Beaty, Marin Katusa, Doug Casey, and Rob Sali have all recently put money into Auryn.
The name that surprised me most: Rob Sali. At one time, he was Ross Beaty's and numerous other mining magnates' broker.
Self-made, Rob became one of the biggest brokers in the business and made his clients tens of millions of dollars. He may just be the smartest and most successful investor in the resource sector that you’ve likely never heard of.
A confidant to some of the biggest players in the business, Rob has big expectations for Ivan and Auryn.
A large portion of the float is held by management, insiders and institutions - which is exactly what you want to see, because they are all long-term investors with a keen interest in backing the business plan.
So why are the biggest names in the mining industry investing in Auryn?
Two words: People and Assets.
To become a major resource company, you need to bring in a major partner. Ivan and Shawn managed to bring in Michael Henrichsen (P. Geo) as Auryn’s COO and Chief Geologist.
Michael was the global structural geologist at Newmont. He intimately knows the regions Auryn’s projects are in, and he has the track record to prove it.
Michael has assembled many of his former Newmont colleagues, all global experts in their various geoscience disciplines, including his partner, David Smithson, who is the VP of Exploration at Auryn.
Smithson led the technical success at the Auryn team’s previous company, Cayden Resources…which as mentioned earlier, was sold to Agnico Eagle for $205M.
More recently, Auryn also added Christian Rios to the technical side of the management team as the VP of Operations in South America. Not only has Rios spent the majority of his career working in Peru, he was directly involved in making world-class discoveries in the region through his work with Bear Creek Mining.
Of course, not every deal from a legend will make money.
But a strong management team like this has the best shot at producing results.
Come for the Copper and get the Gold for Free
This team likes to move fast and drill even faster.
They have raised more than $100M since 2014 –and they have put 80% of that money back into the ground to prove out their three tier-one assets.
If the economics work in their plan, they could be selling or spinning out those assets.
If that happens, you’d get additional shares of new companies.
So, you basically need to look at these three assets as three separate opportunities.
World Class Asset #1 - The Peruvian Copper Giant
Peru is well-known for its large-scale copper-gold deposits –and Auryn’s asset is a massive, 130,000 hectare, district-potential land package right in the heart of the resource-rich region.
Sombrero has world class potential given the size of the targets based on geology, geophysics and surface geochemistry and could yield a discovery that would move the needle for the largest copper producing companies.
Auryn’s Chief Geologist, Michael Henrichsen, with over 18 years of experience globally stated:
“Sombrero is the best pre-drilling project many of us have seen
in our careers.”
Why? Because already, they have over half a dozen high-priority targets a number of which have high-grade copper and gold on surface.
Each one of these targets could represent a significant discovery.
This district has the potential for multiple discoveries given the scale.
Shifting this project from exploration into production to meet the surge in copper demand will not be a problem to finance assuming all permits are obtained.
It has the right infrastructure and it even has the right neighbours.
Sombrero has all the characteristics of a tier-one world class copper deposit: extensive mineralization on surface, power lines, paved roads.
With infrastructure being a common challenge in mines coming online to meet copper demand, it couldn’t be better timing for Sombrero.
The Auryn team is constantly working towards very positive relations with the local communities to proceed with their exploration.
The company is looking to begin drilling at Sombrero in Q4 of 2020, with steady news flow expected through the second half of 2020 into 2021.
This is the lottery ticket the market is waiting for.
Again: Large area, Large targets. Minimal drilling. Right region. Right team.
It’s reasonable to expect a long line of interested buyers if Auryn starts to come out with strong drill results.
I mentioned earlier that the world needs to keep up with the demand for copper going forward. This could be the large, high-grade copper deposit that fills in the gap.
If Auryn hits what they think they’ll hit, this company could be sold for multiples of its current valuation.
Speculators looking for a huge return must have Auryn on their watch list as this is a high risk and high reward scenario.
World Class Asset #2 - High-Grade Canadian Gold
Auryn has identified two very promising tier-one assets in Canada.
A) - Prospective high-grade gold play: the Committee Bay project in Nunavut
This project has had over $160 million invested into infrastructure and exploration to date.
It has a maiden high-grade resource estimate of 524,000 indicated ounces at 7.85 g/t gold and 724,000 ounces in the inferred category at 7.64 g/t, mostly near the surface and it remains open for expansion.
B) - High-grade gold in the legendary Golden Triangle: the Homestake Ridge project
This region is the Beverly Hills of rich copper and gold deposits –and all the big companies want in… Barrick, Imperial Metals, Seabridge and Pretium Resources are all in the vicinity.
Auryn owns 7,500-hectares of claims and has recently released a preliminary economic assessment–with a net present value after-tax for the project at US$173M at a gold price of US$1,620/oz…and gold is now inching closer to US$1,750. (See company press release April 15, 2020)
World Class Asset #3 - The Golden Lottery Ticket
Auryn’s Curibaya project is like an early-stage junior in and of itself. It has all the characteristics an investor’s screening test would look for:
In a mining-friendly jurisdiction with great access to infrastructure,
Situated within a copper porphyry belt and an epithermal gold belt alongside multiple world-class mines,
Yielding exceptionally high-grade gold, silver, and copper results from limited sampling programs to-date.
Surabaya has high-grade potential, but it’s still very early stage.
If a major comes to the table for Sombrero, Curibaya and the Canadian projects could easily be spun out.
Remember Friedland’s prophecy that “Copper prices will be so high, you’ll need a telescope to see it”?
With substantial copper swings at multiple targets at Sombrero, Auryn is part of the solution.
And once again… shareholders who bet on their strong team stand to be rewarded handsomely.
To see why we believe Auryn has the makings of a company that can deliver solid gains, please read our full report here:
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