Sierra Madre: Alex Langer (CEO)

Alex Langer CEO Sierra Madre

The prices of the precious metals (ädelmetaller) gold and silver has expanded on the upside the last years, and this last year Gold is up +16,71 % and Silver is up +20,19 %. Today we got the opportunity to speak with Alex langer CEO of Sierra Madre (SMDRF), and in this interview he will tell us more about their mining prospect in Mexico and why you should invest in Sierra Madre.

Silver weekly chart (chart source: Infront)

Tell us little about Sierra Madres history!

Alex Langer CEO Sierra Madre:  Sierra Madre went public in May 2021 – silver and gold in Mexico has been our focus from the start.  Initially our key asset was the Tepic silver-gold exploration project in Nayarit in the Sierra Madre geologic province. Tepic was previously the flagship asset of Cream Minerals, a company with a +C$150M market cap.

We started drilling at Tepic in May of 2021; our exploration efforts at Tepic focused on confirming the existing drill database and expanding the size of the drill tested mineralization. The company really accelerated it long terms plan of becoming a mid-tier silver/gold producer, when in May 2022, we announced the acquisition of the fully permitted, past producing La Guitarra silver-gold mine located 120kms outised of Mexico City.

We acquired the mine from First Majestic Silver Corp. We acquired this mine for US$35M in consideration shares and First Majestic is now our top shareholder. The mine was operated by Greg Liller, our COO, and Luis Saenz, our Director of Exploration and Development under prior ownership between 2006 and 2009.

The acquisition closed in March 2023 and since then, we published an updated resource estimate (November 2023), announced a US$5M Loan facility, and are now completing mine and equipment rehabilitation and repairs for a possible restart of the La Guitarra mine in the very near term.

Are we talking about one mine or many?

Alex Langer CEO Sierra Madre: La Guitarra is our top priority right now. This one project is host to three production centres (mines): Guitarra, Coloso and Nazareno.

Additional potential for future mining is at Mina de Agua and El Rincon in the East District of La Guitarra. These mines were once some of the highest grade and largest producers of Silver in Mexico during the 18^th and 19^th centuries and are also fully permitted for production. There are a further 2 past producing mines within the 24,000-hectare land package, which makes it one of the largest in Mexico.

It’s very rare for a junior mining company of our size to have 7 past producing mines within one company.

How do you know that there are deposits in it?

Alex Langer CEO Sierra Madre:  In November 2023, we announced our first project-wide resource estimate for La Guitarra. This resource, prepared by independent consultants outlined deposits at the Guitarra, Coloso and Nazareno mines, at the Los Angeles area within the Guitarra mine and within the existing tailings.

There has been over 236,000 metres of drilling at Guitarra which makes up this resource estimate. It would cost approximately US$40M and a number of years to replicate this amount of drilling.

Are there any estimations?

Alex Langer CEO Sierra Madre:  Yes: the November 2023, project-wide Resource Estimate for La Guitarra covers the Guitarra, Nazareno and Coloso mines, the Los Angeles area at Guitarra and Mina de Agua. The estimate defined a total of 27.2 millions Measured and Indicated silver-equivalent ounces and a total of 20.2 millions Inferred silver- equivalent ounces.

These latest numbers represent a 373% increase over the Measured and Indicated silver-equivalent ounces and a 204% increase over the Inferred silver- equivalent ounces defined in a historical resource estimate from 2020.

Given todays spot prices this might have a theoretical value of 1.4 billion USD, but then there are also costs to mine and refine it.

Tell us little about yourself!

Alex Langer CEO Sierra Madre:  Me (Alex Langer): I have 20 years of experience in the public markets. Started my career at  Canaccord Genuity, which is Canada’s largest independent brokerage house. While there, I helped fund well over 100 companies, including the IPOs for Endeavour Silver, Fortuna Silver, and Great Panther. More recently, I was Vice President of Prime Mining and Millennial Lithium, handling Capital Markets for both companies. In early 2022, Millennial Lithium was acquired by Lithium Americas for C$490M.

Greg Liller, our COO and Chair, has over 40 years of experience in exploration and mine development. Over the course of his career he has played a key role in the discovery and development of more than 11Moz Au and 600M oz Ag combined reserves and resources and secured over $300 million dollars in equity financings and $100 million dollars in debt financing. Greg has served as an officer or director of public companies, including Prime Mining, Genco Resources, Gammon Gold, Mexgold Resources and, Oracle Mining.

When is the actual mining going to start and what exactly are you going to mine?

Alex Langer CEO Sierra Madre:  We are currently focused on preparations for test mining and processing at La Guitarra: assuming everything happens according to plan, commercial production, which is 500 tons per day, should start in Q1 of 2025. Having said that, things have gone very well and with the strong rise in the price of silver and gold, we are looking at ways to accelerate that timeline.

How does the financial looks like? Will you raising any capital in the near future?

Alex Langer CEO Sierra Madre: We recently announced a US$5M loan facility with our largest shareholder First Majestic Silver.  This capital should carry us through to production from La Guitarra.

Is Sierra Madre listed? If yes what is the market cap today?

Alex Langer CEO Sierra Madre:  It is! Sierra Madre trades on the TSX Venture (SM) exchange in Canada and in the US on the OTCQX (SMDRF). As of May 27, the market cap is approximately C$72 million (TSXV).

What is the projected income and profit 2024 and 2025?

Alex Langer CEO Sierra Madre:  We are excited to be bringing La Guitarra back into production and look forward to keeping investors updated on the progress of the mine restart. We don’t have production projections available at this time; but we a have a great understanding of the costs associated with production.

Historically, the mining costs were approximately US$13 per ounce of silver and at today’s current silver price of about US$30, there could be a very healthy margin for possible income and profits.

Once La Guitarra is producing, we will start reporting comprehensive production and related financial results on a regular basis.

Give us three reasons why to buy Sierra Madre?

1. Low Risk Mine Restart: Past-producing, fully permitted project previously operated by Sierra Madre management, expected to start producing silver and gold well within 9 months.
2. Strong Shareholder Base: First Majestic Silver holds 44.9% interest, management and founders at 24.8% and institutions own 12.9%.
3. Management Team and Board: Track record of project discovery, advancement and monetization, in Mexico and globally.

Dagens Börs would like to thank Alex Langer CEO Sierra Madre (SMDRF) for a very interesting interview, and we wish him and the company the best of luck in the future!

Diagram ovan: Sierra Madre (SMDRF) dagsdiagram (diagram källa: infront)