Leviathan Metals’ flagship is the Central Project in the Kalahari Copper Belt in Botswana, on the Hyena Hills dome, which sits directly south of MMG’s Khoemacau mine. Leviathan also holds uranium ground in Botswana, zinc-lead-silver ground in Bosnia and Herzegovina (the Foča area), and Australian gold assets it wants to sell. In this interview, I asked CEO Luke Norman about the drill program, the land position, cash, the share price slide, and how he plans to communicate going forward.

TL;DR

They’re about a quarter of the way into a planned 10,000m first-phase diamond program at Central, and the first assays are just starting to come back, but nothing has been released yet. CEO Luke told me they’ll now release results as they arrive instead of waiting to batch 14 holes. I also asked what a good result looks like and his benchmark for “almost bonanza” is the neighbour’s 20 to 40 m at 1.8 to 2% copper, while he said a truly economic intercept would be roughly 10 m at 1.2 to 1.5% copper. The drilling is testing a dome that he says has never been drilled, and he says no MMG drilling has happened on it. They have more than $8 million against a $4.6 million drill budget, so he thinks no raise is going to be needed for this program. The stock is below the May placement price, and he admitted the company has communicated too little, which he hopes will change.

What have they done for shareholders lately?

They bought their Botswana ground outright for C$3 million (about US$2.1 million), so there’s no joint venture or option structure. The only royalty is 1% to the Australian vendor group (Cura), on top of Botswana’s standard schedule. A further block extending Central by about 10 to 12 km of strike is under contract and waiting on final government sign-off, which he blamed on vendor delays rather than bureaucracy. Drilling started in June, and 14 holes are done, with visual copper sulphides in 8 of them per my intro. They flew a more detailed geophysics program than the inherited airborne data, and Luke says it makes the contact “light up” on their dome. They also picked up a portable XRF unit three to four weeks ago, which helps them understand where they are in the system but isn’t yet used for targeting.

How much money do they have and what are they spending it on?

Luke said they have “in excess of $8 million”. The full 10,000 m program is budgeted at $4.6 million, so he expects enough left for plenty of further exploration before they need to go back to market. The last raise was $10 million in May at what I quoted as 64 cents. Luke put in about $500,000 himself and says he holds roughly 18 to 20% fully diluted, with insiders together at 25 to 30% by his estimate. Michael Gentile holds about 10%, and he said the rest is mostly retail with a few small institutions. Options and warrants total about 20% of the fully diluted count, per my intro. Up to 16 million contingent shares (8 million for copper, 8 million for uranium) are owed on a significant discovery, which he described as “a while away.” Marketing spend is undecided, and he said promotion isn’t where he wants the money going. Change-of-control payments across management would come to roughly $1.5 million, and there are no bonuses, only base salaries.

Upcoming catalysts

Technical: assay results from the first Central holes, with no set dates. Luke said he couldn’t yet lay out a catalyst calendar because the board is still working on it. He also expects to add a second rig and to drill deeper than 200 m in places, and he said they’ll drill the uranium project before year end, which he described as separate from Central.

Operational: a press release on the uranium exploration plan “in the next couple of weeks,” and the closing of the extra Central land block, timing given only as “the next short while.”

Corporate: a sale of the Australian gold assets is being pushed but has no buyer or price yet. A decision on whether to spin out or separately fund the Bosnia and Serbia assets depends on Botswana results. He said he’s open to a joint venture or a strategic investment from a mid-tier producer, but nothing is signed.

Risks

Luke’s own answer was waiting for a discovery and keeping shareholders on side while they wait. Central is early stage, no grades are public, and no economic width or grade has been shown. Two Botswana uranium licences expire around year end, but Luke says the required spending will cover renewal. I asked about Hotspur Helium’s overlapping application on one of those licences, and he said the team is dealing with it and that it doesn’t affect the Cerui area. Australian asset sale proceeds look smaller than hoped, which doesn’t help the funding picture. A TSXV review of their marketing followed two unauthorised, apparently AI-written articles, and the company put out a clarifying release. The stock has been drifting down, and he attributed it to thin volume, a gap in news flow, and retail fatigue rather than any large seller.

Leviathan Metals CEO Interview

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