TSX-V-listed precious metals explorer Kore Mining, which owns assets in California, in the US, on Friday unveiled a reorganisation plan to conserve capital, which would see CEO Scott Trebilcock step down as president and CEO on July 1.

Trebilcock will remain a director of Kore and will be a consultant after stepping down.

James Hynes, the current executive chairperson and founder, would assume the president and CEO role when Trebilcock steps down.

The cost reductions at the corporate and project levels are designed to preserve cash and focus Kore’s work on high-impact drilling activities at its two main assets.

"Given the challenging conditions for equity financings in the precious metals space, Kore’s board has made the decision to restructure management to reduce costs. With the reductions, Kore preserves optionality to pursue our permitted drill programme at Long Valley while continuing to fund key permitting activities at Imperial,” said Hynes.

In the first half of 2022, the company also outsourced various accounting and back-office functions at lower cost and has renegotiated several key contracts to reduce costs. 

Kore also eliminated a variety of other general and administrative costs and recently reduced staffing at the Imperial County office.

Trebilcock commented that Hynes was well positioned to advance key exploration activities having directed them throughout Kore’s history. 

“Ensuring spending goes into the ground and not to corporate overhead has to be the focus. I remain a director and consultant to Kore and will support the company from those roles,” he commented.

Kore recently submitted a second drilling plan of operations – a drill permit application - to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the existing Imperial gold deposit. The drilling is designed to provide technical information to support a feasibility study and mine permitting. The plan of operations is expected to trigger a mineral validity examination of Imperial Zone lode claims.  The company said it would work with the BLM to complete the mineral validity examination expediently and to start processing the Imperial Zone drilling permits.

Kore is also permitting regional exploration drilling at Mesquite East and Ogilvy, part of the Mesquite-Imperial-Picacho district via a second plan of operations. Mesquite East and Ogilvy are two of the ten highly prospective drill targets identified in the Imperial-Mesquite district to date.