James Sykes | Successful Exploration Geologist Explains the Discovery Process

Understanding the discovery process is critical for the natural resource investor speculating in pre-revenue exploration companies. In this interview, James Sykes explains the discovery process in a way that retail mining stock investors can understand. James is the Vice President of Exploration and Development for Appia Energy Corporation, a uranium explorer in the Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan. Over the past decade, James has been directly and indirectly involved with the discovery of over 350 M lbs. of U3O8 in the Athabasca Basin. Most notably, James was the chief geologist leading the exploration program which resulted in NexGen’s Arrow discovery. 0:05 Introducing James Sykes 1:55 James’ past experience with numerous uranium explorers 3:25 James’ was chief geologist for NexGen’s Arrow discovery 4:15 Overview of exploration process 7:44 What if early geophysical results don’t align with original exploration thesis? 8:51 How should an investor interpret preliminary results not aligned with original exploration thesis? 10:16 How James approaches Athabasca uranium exploration 13:54 Geophysics serve to identify drill targets 14:36 Appia’s current Loranger exploration program 19:01 Concluding advice for investors