Every so often a story comes across the Roundtable table that makes the panelists stop pushing back and start asking how to buy the stock. Arizona Eagle Mining Corp. (TSXV: AZEM) was one of those stories.
CEO Kevin Reid — a geoscientist by training who spent 17 years on the mining team at GMP Securities working on deals like the Wheaton River IPO and the original Silver Wheaton — walked the panel through what he believes is the most compelling project he has ever been involved with as a principal. The asset: the past-producing McCabe high-grade gold and silver mine in Yavapai County, Arizona, roughly 1.5 hours north of Phoenix and 30 minutes off Interstate 17, on private ground, in a mining-friendly state.
“This is, for me, the most exciting transaction that we’ve gotten to work on as principals.” — Kevin Reid
By the time the session ended, the consensus was unusually warm.
“I have not seen a rock yet, but from what you’re telling us here, this is a really exciting exploration story with wide open upside. I love how you brought the history in… It’s just one of the best presentations I’ve seen in a hell of a long time.” — Byron King
“I almost never buy stocks unless it’s on a financing, but I’m tempted to buy this in the open market.” — Doug Casey
The Setup: A District Consolidated From Scratch
The McCabe Mine has a long, layered history. Last operated in 1993, it was sunk to the 1,450-foot level by Stan West Mining in the early 1980s when gold ran to $800 — until a one-in-100-year monsoon, a fault collapse, and the mid-1980s mining-equity malaise put the operation into distress. The asset eventually ended up in Magma Copper, then BHP (which featured the project in its 1996 annual report), then sat in private hands for over thirty years.
Reid and his team — including Executive Chair Marc Pais (former CEO of Telegraph Gold and Arizona Metals) and the same group of founders who built Castle Mountain Mining Company Limited (which ultimately became part of Equinox Gold’s portfolio in 2017 and is now a key California growth asset) — spent three years negotiating to consolidate the ground. The result is the largest land package in the project’s 150-year history: roughly 225 acres of patented (private) land plus another 3,350 acres of BLM ground, with 14 historic shafts across the private package alone.
The historic estimate from 1984 (done by Derry, Michener, Booth & Wahl, and reported as historic — not 43-101 compliant) shows roughly 880,000 ounces of gold at 11.7 grams per tonne and approximately 5 million ounces of silver at 69 grams per tonne over about 800 meters of strike. As Reid explained, that 11.7 g/t was the recovered grade — back-calculating mill recoveries puts the head grade closer to 15 grams per tonne.
And here’s the kicker: that resource sits over 800 meters of strike on a system the team has now consolidated to roughly eight kilometers of strike on private ground.
The Monday Announcement: Three Past-Producing Silver Mines
The week before the Roundtable, Arizona Eagle announced the acquisition of 62 acres of patented land hosting three past-producing high-grade silver mines — the Arizona National, the Lookout, and the Silver Belt — sitting on strike with and approximately one kilometer northeast of the McCabe deposit, between McCabe and the historic Iron King Mine (which produced a million ounces of gold and a billion pounds of zinc and was mined to a kilometer in depth).
These silver mines were last worked in the 1930s, mined only to about 150 meters, and have been dormant in private hands for nearly a century. Surface sampling has already returned eye-popping numbers: 861 grams per tonne silver, 500 g/t silver with 3% zinc, and historic mining grades reportedly running 15 to 20 ounces per tonne silver.
Reid’s pitch on the silver acquisition is simple: the old timers stopped where they hit the oxide-sulfide transition because they couldn’t recover sulfides with 1930s technology. Modern processing handles that easily. The opportunity is to drill below the historic workings and along strike — using a hundred years’ worth of high-grade shafts as an exploration blueprint.
Why the Panel Got Excited
Skin in the game. The founders — Reid, his brother, and Marc Pais — have taken zero salaries and personally invested approximately $2 million each into the company. Roughly 25.9 million shares (about 53% of the 49 million outstanding) are held by principals and management under a multi-year escrow. That alignment didn’t go unnoticed.
“He’s set the deal up for himself and why shouldn’t he? He’s given himself some cheap stock, but he hasn’t given himself that much. The management is allied with the shareholders, which is something you don’t often see.” — Dominic Frisby
Tight share structure. Roughly 49 million shares outstanding, only about 30% in the public float, 4.7 million warrants (out of the money at C$1.50 and C$2.55), and approximately 2 million options.
“This is one of the best share structures I’ve seen for a mining company.” — Graham Summers
A real American mining jurisdiction. Two hours north of Phoenix on a paved highway. Power lines and water on site. All current surface disturbance on private ground — meaning a drill permit in 48 hours and no BLM plan-of-operations needed for the foreseeable future.
“Let’s not even forget about — it’s American soil. It used to be you had to be in some far away place. Now this is the time to be doing this.” — EB Tucker
A storyteller at the helm. The panel repeatedly returned to Reid’s command of the narrative — his geological background, his capital markets experience, and his ability to translate one into the other.
“He’s one heck of a salesman, and I like a salesman… The story’s new — when a narrative gets old, it just runs out of energy. This is a new story, so he can get lots of people excited.” — Dominic Frisby
The Exploration Case
Lawrence pressed Reid on mining widths. The historic record from Stan West shows mining widths of four to five feet, with the historic resource calculated at a 6.8 g/t cutoff — meaning anything below that grade simply wasn’t counted.
“At those grades, you can certainly afford a bit of dilution.” — Lawrence
The deepest historic intercept — drilled from the bottom of the Sooner Shaft at 1,450 feet — returned 1.4 meters of 19.4 g/t gold at roughly 480 meters depth. That’s well below the historic resource. The system is open at depth, open along strike, and now extended by the silver acquisition.
The phase-one drill program is fully funded — about 4,500 meters and roughly 12 holes — and Arizona Eagle is roughly 70% through it. Six holes were drilled on the northeastern edge outside the historic resource. The drill is now turning at the Little Kicker target on the southwest end. There’s also a copper anomaly identified by geophysics that returned surface samples up to 28% copper, 29 g/t gold, and 653 g/t silver — interpreted by the team as proximal to a VMS heat source in a district that hosts Iron King, United Verde, and others.
The Honest Caveats
Brian Leni pushed Reid on cost of capital, cash position, and how to prioritize between gold and silver targets going forward. Reid acknowledged the company will have roughly C$1 million left when phase one wraps in June, and will need to raise to fund a meaningful phase two. Asked which targets he’d prioritize with limited capital, Reid gave an unusually candid answer:
“If you’re asking me for my vote — I vote silver. They start shallow, we know they’re high grade, they’re on private ground… a lot of sizzle.” — Kevin Reid
The panel’s main concerns were straightforward: this is an exploration story, the company will need to raise, and results will drive everything. Dominic Frisby flagged the cash position as the one item to watch. EB Tucker’s read was that the slow, deliberate pace of raises is actually a feature, not a bug.
“They’re not going to spend until there’s something to spend on… 60 million Canadian market cap, like 45 million US — that to me seems like pretty low risk for the setup now.” — EB Tucker
The Comparable Math
Reid’s closing line was the one that stuck with the panel:
“If I walked in with a million ounces at 12 grams, 43-101, on a private piece of ground that used to be a mine, off a paved highway with a power line and water — it wouldn’t be 60 million Canadian. It’d be 900 million Canadian.” — Kevin Reid
That’s the bet. The historic estimate isn’t 43-101 compliant — and turning it into one (and growing it) is exactly what the drill bit is for. With eight kilometers of strike consolidated, multiple parallel high-grade structures, a fully-funded phase-one program already 70% complete, and a team of insiders who have written real personal checks, Arizona Eagle Mining (TSXV: AZEM /OTC: CNCOD) is exactly the kind of early-stage drill story that, if it hits, hits big.
“It could become a meme stock.” — Dominic Frisby
“I’m pretty interested. This is the time. The time is now on this thing, I think.” — EB Tucker
Watch the full Experts Roundtable session for the complete Q&A with CEO Kevin Reid.
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Disclaimer: Historic resource estimates referenced here are not 43-101 compliant and should not be relied upon. The company has paid a fee for the opportunity to sit in the ‘hot seat’ and present their story to our panel of experts; however, the opinions, analysis, and verdicts expressed by the expert panel are entirely their own, independent, and unfiltered. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investing in junior mining stocks is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
