Empress Royalty (TSX-V: EMPR)(OTC: EMPYF) CEO Alexandra Woodyer Sherron on Rick Rule Symposium, All-Time Highs & Gold-Silver Royalty

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president and CEO of Empress Royalty (TSX-V: EMPR)(OTC: EMPYF), Ms. Alexandra Woodyer-Sherron, Alex, how are you today? Live from the Rick Rule Symposium, I hear.

Alexandra Woodyer Sherron: Yes, it has been a phenomenal day. This conference is my third time doing it, and it is full of energy and buzz, and there are so many great investors here, and also some fantastic speakers. So feeling very energized being here right now.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, listen, I have to ask. Is this your first year where you get to be there and your company is at 52-week highs? And I know Rick has to be happy, because I know he's a pretty committed long-term shareholder as well.

Alexandra Woodyer Sherron: He is, yeah. I actually just saw Rick, it was great. He was obviously very happy we've hit the high, we closed today at 79 cents, on the back of the news we just put out on our US royalty. But yeah, it's great being here, and there were so many investors we've met in the last couple of years, and it's really great seeing them have that win with us as well.

Gerardo Del Real: Well listen, the last time you and I spoke, I complimented you on a spectacular shareholder registry. I also complimented you on the extensive experience that the team brings, and a big important part of that is the capital markets experience, and the access, frankly, to deals that other groups just are not able to access. And so when I read today's news, you executing a binding term sheet for a three million dollar gold and silver royalty here in the US, it didn't surprise me, but it did put a smile on my face. So congratulations. I would love the details of that deal.

Alexandra Woodyer Sherron: Yeah, absolutely. So we announced the binding term sheet, as you mentioned, on Monday, and we are hoping to close that, or expect to close that, shortly. You know, this was a really great opportunity. We knew the operating group. This has been a restart of a copper mine in Utah called Milford, and we're taking a five percent royalty on the gold and silver on this one. Actually, our chairman David Rhodes has stayed behind to get this deal completed and moved forward. One of the most exciting things about this transaction when we complete it for the three million dollars US is we will be self-funding this. So from the profits I've seen from the revenues that's come in from our other four assets over the last year, we've been accumulating that gold and silver and that cash, and so now I can use that funding to provide it for our new investment.

Gerardo Del Real: That has been a mandate from yourself and from David and the team all in unison, is to self-fund as much as possible. And I know that you have the debt facility, but it took a lot of work, and I know because I've been following the company for the last several years, to get to this point. Can you speak to why that's so important, and more importantly why it's critical right now with gold at 3,300, and silver looking like it really wants to break out into the 40s?

Alexandra Woodyer Sherron: Yeah. I mean, we set the company up, what, four, four and a half years ago, and we had a very clear vision that there was the opportunity to provide the streaming finance solution to the junior side of the market, directly investing into the companies, and to get the financials at the year end where we had eight million dollars US in revenue. We're on track to double that revenue just with the existing portfolio. We became cash flow positive, operational cash flow positive, at the end of this year, or end of 2025. Sorry, 2024 we became operational cash flow... That was a huge milestone for us, and very much part of our drive, but to get to the point now where we can reinvest into our portfolio is phenomenal. And as you mentioned, we still have a debt facility from Nebari for $20 million US available to us. So these other opportunities we're looking at in our pipeline, we have access to that also to grow further as well.

Gerardo Del Real: And is the mandate still a focus on the gold and silver strictly?

Alexandra Woodyer Sherron: Absolutely. That is so critical to us that we've seen other companies do different other commodities. We've seen opportunities in other commodities, but we've wanted to stay really true to our original investment thesis. We believe very strongly where gold and silver can go, and we're seeing that now come through. I think there's a lot more room for gold and silver to grow, especially in today's geopolitical uncertainty and the volatility in the markets. So yeah, we stayed true to who we are, and that's now starting to pay off.

And when I say we're on track to double our revenue this year, that's what the ramp up of two of our mines increasing production. They're the two ones giving us the consistent revenue. And that's using pretty conservative numbers of $3,000 gold and $30 silver for that forecast. So we're so leveraged to the price of gold and silver that with the movement in that with gold and silver, it should really show even more revenue coming in.

Gerardo Del Real: You touched on the fact that you're looking at other deals, and you mentioned the geopolitical landscape and scenario right now. Are you strictly focused for now in a certain part of the world, or are you willing to explore and take some risk in other jurisdictions that maybe some people wouldn't touch, because you're familiar with them?

Alexandra Woodyer Sherron: That's exactly it. I mean, that was also part of our original investment thesis, was to be a global investor going into Africa, Latin America, and we're staying true to that. We want to stay true to that, and a lot of the opportunities I'm looking at are in Latin America and Africa right now, the other opportunities. The one in the US, we never necessarily plan looking at the US, but the operating group is phenomenal. What they're doing with that copper mine is going to be great. It's great for the local community as well. So we had the opportunity, and we grabbed that one and brought it into the portfolio.

But kind of levered further up than what you were saying there, Endeavor Financial, I've worked with David for many years, and we know how to operate and go into different jurisdictions. We want to go into countries where we can... you know, we take security and in most cases first ranking over the assets. We make sure that the legal framework works in those countries to be able to do that. We make sure we can get the money out of the country. So we have that expertise and experience operating globally, and we're really able to leverage that from our past into Empress.

Gerardo Del Real: I know you just hit 52-week highs. I think it's just the beginning. I couldn't be more excited about the precious metals cycle that we're in right now, and I think it's still early days. Congratulations. Anything to add to that, Alex?

Alexandra Woodyer Sherron: No, I'm just so excited. We've got a consistent revenue, we're growing that revenue, gold and silver are just starting to catch. I think this is a very, very exciting time coming in the precious metals world.

Gerardo Del Real: Thank you so much for your time. I'll let you get back to it. I know the enthusiasm at the conference, I've been told, has been off the charts, so I imagine that you're itching to get back to it.

Alexandra Woodyer Sherron: I am. Highly recommend everyone attending this conference. The engagements, the availability that all the CEOs of the companies that Rick's all an investor in that are here, the quality of the companies, the engagement with CEOs, is a truly unique, amazing conference to attend.

Gerardo Del Real: It's always great when you've made everybody, that's their money as well, right?

Alexandra Woodyer Sherron: It really does. It's the hard work. Well, we had a clear plan, and now we're delivering clearly on that plan, and that feels really good. And it's just, yeah, to deliver, and I want to keep delivering and keep growing this out.

Gerardo Del Real: Congrats on the execution. Impressive stuff. Take care out there.

Alexandra Woodyer Sherron: Thanks so much. Take care.

Gerardo Del Real: Cheers now.

Alexandra Woodyer Sherron: Cheers.

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