The Gold Report: Your latest presentation declares that Quaterra Resources Inc.’s (QTA:TSX.V; QTRRF:OTCQX) “assets have the potential to be transformed into a district-scale, long-life copper-mining operation.” Tell us about your assets, and explain why you have such confidence in them.
Steven Dischler: We own 51 square miles of property in the Yerington district of Nevada. This is a district with a rich history of successful copper production in one of the world’s best mining jurisdictions. We have three properties there: Yerington, which Anaconda mined at an average of 0.54% copper, MacArthur and Bear. Yerington has a mineral resource as defined under NI 43-101, and MacArthur has a preliminary economic assessment, but it is Bear that we believe could be the catalyst for the whole district.
Source: Quaterra Resources
We own valuable water rights at Yerington specifically permitted for mining and mineral processing. We have broad-based community support for responsible mining. We have invested $28 million ($28M) in the district since 2006 with another $7.1M in planned exploration that has just begun. And we have the enthusiastic support of Freeport Nevada, which has an option to earn between a 55% and 75% interest in the project.
TGR: Tell us about the executive team’s background.
SD: Tom Patton, our executive chairman, has a successful track record of taking exploration projects all the way from discovery to production. He was the president/COO of Western Silver Corp. and was instrumental in the discovery of the Peñasquito mine in Mexico, now owned by Goldcorp Inc. (G:TSX; GG:NYSE). He was also previously vice president of exploration for Kennecott, and he’s got a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Washington.
Scott Hean, our CFO, comes from investment banking, including the Bank of Montreal and JP Morgan. He has an MBA from the Ivey School of Business.
