[b]$SANP An Interview with Santo Mining’s CEO, Al French!!![/b]
Why start Santo Mining Corporation?
The simple answer is the opportunity we have to produce gold quickly and effectively. There is no question in my mind that gold, and all of the metals Santo seeks, will hold their present high value—and according to international experts’ opinions, prices may very well continue to increase over the next several years, until the World economies recover.
Santo’s claims may definitely be considered prospective. The neighborhoods where they lie are extremely active. We are located less than 1 mile from the famed Pueblo Viejo and Cerro de Maimon mines, which have produced more than 1 million ounces of gold as of 2012. Interestingly, Cerro de Maimon was recently sold for a 300% profit after having produced handsomely for its original owners. We’re also close to what was the world’s second largest nickel mine, and an area on the border with Haiti that may yield other major discoveries.
We consider metallic mining a good fit with our prior experience in the aggregate mining sector in the Dominican Republic. Obtaining claims in historically gold-rich areas persuaded me to change hats, so to speak.
How does Santo Mining select its claims?
Carefully, and with a great deal of analysis of a number of factors. Areas of high interest to me include territory where the locals are active in small-scale exploration and around Spanish Colonial mine works. When I see Dominicans going into the rivers following heavy rains to search out and find gold nuggets, or areas where farmers with backhoes are processing material on a small scale for gold, we conclude that there is a reasonable probability of gold close by–possibly of an economic scale.
How is your background in the aggregate market helpful to this venture?
Operationally, aggregate mining is not very different from extracting metallic ores. Of course, construction aggregates have very low intrinsic value, so the cost is in extracting, processing and transportation—the last being the most costly. With construction aggregates, it is very important to keep your operations at optimum efficiency, because of the low value of the commodity. Our future objective is to apply these same efficiencies to gold and metallic mining, thus improving our margins relative to more conventional operations. Furthermore, because of the significantly higher value of the ore, it can now be feasible to transport the unprocessed metallic ores much greater distances to a central processing plant located in an area with low environmental impact.
How will Santo Mining take advantage of your construction aggregate expertise?
Traditional mining companies look for proven reserves of 1,000,000 ounces plus. That’s been the traditional economic threshold. Santo’s methods and techniques increase the opportunity to deliver significant returns from deposits as small as 100,000 ounces by employing simple quarry-like operations. The concept is to extract the ore material and truck it to a centrally located processing plant. With this method, we can feed ore material from several satellite mine locations to a central facility and achieve better economies of scale. One of the main benefits of this approach is environmental: After processing, we can return the inert by-product to the original source mine to be used for reclamation, effectively restoring the site to its original condition.
