Frank Guistra (intro about who he is) sat down with Paul Harris of Kitco Mining at the Beaver Creek Precious Metals Summit to talk about precious metals, specifically his outlook on gold.
Harris first asked about Guistra's recent hiatus and revival with upcoming projects. He wanted to know where Guistra had been and what prompted his return.
"Once this business gets in your blood, it's a hard business to shake," he said. He had considered retiring but ultimately decided to get back to focusing on the business. He built back up a team of experts, geologist, and engineers and now they're "back in the business."
Since they were at the Precious Metals Summit, Harris wanted to know if Guistra was "shopping" to which Guistra said he was.
"My personal track record has been based upon building multi-asset mining companies. I think that single asset mining companies are going to continued to be orphaned," he said, a sentiment shared by Bob Moriarty in a precious Streetwise article.
"They are of no interest to institutional investors," Guistra continued. "Most of our work is M&A work." He said that they find something small and then continue to build it in a strategy he calls "buy and build . . . building mines and acquiring projects and mines."
Columbia as a Jurisdiction
Next Harris wanted to know Guistra's thoughts on Columbia as a jurisdiction as past companies have been in this country.
"I've been going there for 35 years. I know the country well. I have a home there. I have had a lot of success in Colombia, and I think Colombia is misunderstood. Back in the days of the Narcos and Gurilla warfare colombia was a no go location, but I aways found it was easy to do business there. It was the only country in Latrin American that has not gone into a dictatorship. It's been a continues democracy for couple hundred years. Its got the rule of law. I've never had the issues that I have had in other countries. I feel comfortable there and there's less competition because of the ongoing stigma on Colombia which is unfiar.
A New Pure Silver PLay
The conversation pivoted to rumors that Guistra was creating a primary silver play in Argentina. Guistra noted that this is a bit of a passion project for him as he has always wanted to do a pure primary silver play but he had never found the right asset.
He "stumbled across one recently in Argentina that is 51 million ounces of indicated at the moment at around 500 grams per tonne, which is really high grade for primary silver plays
He commented it is still open for exploration "I think we can increase those ounces with a robust exploration program.The company that had it unfortunately was going through a bankruptcy because of its other mining operations in Mexico and other places and this opportunity came up ... one of our guys is from Argentina. He's been looking at this project for 15 years and when he saw it was available he alerted us and we just acquired it. It is going to be called Argento Silver, and it will probably start trading in early October."
First Majestic
In line with recent silver plays, Harris brought up the recent M&A transaction between First Majestic and Gato Silver. He opined about the competitiveness and that process and asked Guistras thoughts on the deal.
Guistra said, "
