Joining us for a conversation is Roger Moss, the CEO of Labrador Gold (TSX.V: LAB | OTCQX: INOKF). It’s a pleasure to be speaking with you sir, as you have some very encouraging news coming from the Kingsway Gold Project, this time in the form of pristine gold grains. Before we begin, Dr. Moss, who is Labrador Gold, and what is the opportunity the company presents to shareholders?
Dr. Roger Moss:
Labrador Gold is a junior mining company based in Canada, and we’re currently exploring in Newfoundland on our flagship Kingsway Gold Project. We’ve done quite a bit of work on there over the last year, and this Spring we embarked on a 50,000-meter drill program. We made a discovery late last year of visible gold in quartz grain boulders. And we’ve been drilling for a few months with some nice high-grade hits. We are quite excited about the potential before us, and our recent press releases seem to indicate that we may be onto something. And today’s news adds even more to the story.
Maurice Jackson:
Dr. Moss take us to the Kingsway Gold Project, which is along a structure highway known for gold-bearing fluids, please acquaint us with the primary structures.
Dr. Roger Moss:
One of the things that interested me about Kingsway when I first heard about it and we moved to acquire it, was the fact that we had these major crustal structures running through it. And we know that the kinds of gold deposits that we’re looking at here, orogenic and epigenetic gold deposits, they are associated with these major crustal structures. If you have them, it’s great, you can find gold along them. And we are fortunate enough to have two, the Appleton Fault Zone and Dog Bay Line. Most of our work to date has been along the Appleton Fault Zone, and it’s almost a no brainer because down to the south of us where New Found Gold are exploring, they’ve been having incredible success exploring along the Appleton Fault Zone with their great intersections at Keats and Lotto, and most recently at the Golden Joint, so they have three occurrences down there along the Appleton Fault Zone, and ours is just starting, and our Big Vein target is also located along the Appleton Fault Zone. It seems to be a pretty prospective structure that’s running through the property.
Maurice Jackson:
Speaking of the Big Vein in the Appleton Fault Zone, at the conclusion of our last interview, you stated that, “the Big Vein may be the first of many occurrences and that the ideal situation is finding a string of pearls along the Appleton Fault Zone.” Let’s see if the ideal has the potential to come to fruition. Let’s visit the Appleton Fault Zone as earlier today, Labrador Gold announced till results of pristine gold grains. Dr. Moss, what can you share with us?
Dr. Roger Moss:
Labrador recently conducted a pretty big till sampling survey over the lowermost, southernmost two licenses of the Kingsway Project. And I think there was 57 till samples in total, and we got some nice results and the key here, and I think you said it twice, I’m going to say it again, is pristine. Pristine gold grains and that means that these grains haven’t traveled very far from their source, and that’s what we see here in these results.
Dr. Roger Moss:
If I may just digress a little bit so that I can explain why these pristine grains are so important. We’re looking at rocks and grains that have been dumped out of glaciers as they melt and recede, so when the glaciers move across the rock, they scrape and scour the bedrock and they entrain all the material that they’re scouring and they carry it with them, and when they recede and melt, they start dropping that material all the way back to the source, so the more pristine the gold grains are, the closer to the source they would have been because you can’t transport these very flaky gold grains very far without completely modifying their shape.
Dr. Roger Moss:
And so, in terms of gold grain morphology for till sampling, we talk about pristine, closest to the source. Modified, further away, maybe around half a kilometer or more, and then reshaped where the gold grains are totally bent onto themselves and more rounded, and that’s furthest away from the source and probably up to over a kilometer away from the source. So, the pristine grains that we have, they indicate that those grains are very close to the source of mineralization that they came from.
Maurice Jackson:
Identifying the source, mode of transportation, along with pristine gold is a huge success. Does today’s release bode well on the ideal of having a string of pearls along the Appleton Fault Zone?
Dr. Roger Moss:
Oh, absolutely! To give you an example, and this is where it gets really exciting because we had a till sample that was taken right next to Big Vein, and it had something like 165 grains of gold in total and something like 80% of them were pristine. That’s great. So, it hadn’t come very far from the source, but we know that Big Vein has visible gold in there. We found a big boulder last year of quartz vein with visible gold in it, so it’s not a big jump to say that, “Well yeah, sure. That till sample came from Big Vein.” It seems to be a reasonable idea, but the results that we announced today, there are two samples, another one with 165 grains of gold, somewhere just over 90% of them pristine, very close to the source and the other one, 311 grains of gold, just over 80% pristine.
Dr. Roger Moss:
311 grains of gold is almost double the number of grains of gold that we found in the sample next to Big Vein and that occurs 700 to 800 meters northeast of Big Vein, so that means that the gold grains in those samples did not come from Big Vein. They came from somewhere much closer to the sample locations, so this goes back to my pearls on a string story, and we’re just adding pearls to the string with these till samples. It’s very exciting. It means that Big Vein is likely not the only occurrence that we’re going to be drilling, and there’s definitely more to be found along this Appleton Fault Zone.
Maurice Jackson:
Speaking of extending the string, Labrador Gold has embarked on a 50,000-meter drill program this spring. What work is currently being conducted on-site, and do you have any updates on when we may expect more assays?
Dr. Roger Moss:
Oh, that’s what everybody asks, of course. You got to ask it at some point and the answer is always the same. The labs are backed up, we’re getting results, but they’re much slower, and it seems like as every week goes by the turnaround time gets longer. One of our guys was at the lab yesterday and he came back, and he said, “Roger, you won’t believe the number of samples that are in that lab waiting to be assayed.” He said, “There are bags and bags and bags, just waiting to be assayed.”
Dr. Roger Moss:
I said, “Man, you should have taken a photograph, and that could be my answer when I get asked that question. ‘Look, folks this is what it’s like, the labs are jampacked”. We are getting results in, we will be putting out more results from the drilling. It’s going well, and yeah, I know patience is not the biggest trait of some investors, but you know what? I think that we’re going to be there. When these results come in, it’s going to be good, and I think we’ve got a long way to go yet, so yeah, I think patience is definitely required here.
Maurice Jackson:
Leaving the Kingsway Gold Project, let’s get into some numbers. Sir, please provide the capital structure for Labrador Gold.
Dr. Roger Moss:
Right now, we have around 150 million shares outstanding, and probably another 50 million warrants and options, so just over 200 million are fully diluted. We have 35 million in the bank. We don’t have any debt. So yeah, I think we’re in a pretty good position to keep on with this exploration that we’re doing and to keep going.
Maurice Jackson:
In closing, Dr. Moss, what would you like to convey to shareholders?
Dr. Roger Moss:
Well, earlier in the season when we were drilling, and it can be frustrating sometimes when we’re not hitting as often as we would like or we don’t see the results that we would like, but of course not every hole is going to hit, but I just tell myself, “Don’t stop believing,” and that’s the name of the game here. You have to believe as a geologist in this industry, you got to believe that you’re going to find the deposit that you’re looking for. And I think all indications right now are that we’re on the right track, and it’s a matter of time before we see something significant.
Maurice Jackson:
Dr. Moss for readers that wants to get more information about Labrador Gold, please share the contact details.
Dr. Roger Moss:
Yeah, you can email info@labradorgold.com, www.labradorgold.com is our web address. And I would recommend people look at our Twitter feed @LabGoldCorp. We post a lot of information on Twitter. YouTube is another channel, our YouTube channel, lots of videos there, so there’s a lot of information out there besides what’s on the website, but yeah, Twitter and YouTube both are channels that we use fairly extensively.
Maurice Jackson:
Dr. Moss, it’s been a pleasure speaking with you. Wishing you and Labrador Gold the absolute best, sir.
And as a reminder, I am a licensed representative to buy and sell precious metals through Miles Franklin Precious Metals Investments, where we have several options to expand your precious metals portfolio, from physical delivery of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and rhodium, to offshore depositories, and precious metals IRA’s. Give me a call at 855.505.1900 or you may email: Maurice@MilesFranklin.com. Finally, please subscribe to www.provenandprobable.com, where we provide: Mining Insights and Bullion Sales, subscription is free.
Hot Chili Limited (ASX: HCH) (OTCQB: HHLKF) (“Hot Chili” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has successfully arranged a $40 million funding through the issue of new shares at 3.2 cent per share (the “Placement”).
Highlights:
Fully underwritten A$5M share purchase plan, and A$35M private placement corner-stoned by mining major Glencore and underpinned by several domestic and overseas institutional investors, as well as some of Hot Chili’s largest shareholders
Glencore will emerge as Hot Chili’s largest shareholder with a 9.99% interest
New funds secure the final acquisition payment of US$15M for a 100% interest in the Company’s world-class Cortadera copper-gold discovery in Chile – payment to be made immediately
Fully funded to deliver a major resource upgrade and Pre-feasibility study for Costa Fuego, current resource standing at 2.9Mt copper, 2.7Moz gold and 9.9Moz silver and 64kt molybdenum (as announced to ASX on 12th October 2020)
Further updates expected as the Company advances its drilling, development studies and expected TSXV dual-listing later this year
Ownership of Cortadera, strong cash position, rapid resource growth and backing by Glencore provide a compelling foundation ahead for the Company’s plans to dual list on the TSXV in Canada later this year.
Hot Chili’s Managing Director Christian Easterday said “the $40 million funding secures ownership of Cortadera, and Glencore’s investment and involvement is a strong endorsement of our future”
Cortadera’s maiden Mineral Resource positions Hot Chili with the largest copper Mineral Resource and one of the largest gold Mineral Resources for an ASX-listed emerging company.
The Cortadera maiden Mineral Resource of 451Mt at 0.46% copper equivalent (CuEq) takes the total Mineral Resource estimate for Costa Fuego (Cortadera, Productora & El Fuego) to 724Mt at 0.48% CuEq for 2.9Mt copper, 2.7Moz gold, 9.9Moz Silver and 64kt molybdenum. Cortadera also contains a higher grade component of 104Mt at 0.74% CuEq, and this has strong potential to continue growing rapidly with further drilling.View the Cortadera Project
Hot Chili Limited Head Office (Perth) First Floor, 768 Canning Highway, Applecross, Western Australia 6153
Continuing excellent safety record with no LTIs recorded at the Company’s Beatons Creek conglomerate gold project (the “ Nullagine Gold Project ”)
Record monthly gold production of 8,589 oz Au in July , a 46% increase over June
7,899 ounces of gold sold in July, generating revenue of C$17.8 million 1 (A$19.2 million) , a 50% increase over June
Record number of grade control assays processed in July (> 68,000 PhotonAssays) , expecting to clear the assay backlog by October 2021
Exploration drilling ongoing at near-mine and East Pilbara conglomerate and orogenic basement targets
July month-end cash balance of C$49 million , representing 6% growth since June
Fair value of Novo’s investments of approximately C$170 million 2
“I’m delighted with the continuing positive trajectory of the Nullagine Gold Project as the team adjusts to mining and processing this completely new style of conglomerate gold mineralization,” commented Rob Humphryson, CEO and a director of the Company. “The site team is functioning cohesively as they perfect the geological and mining methods required to underpin a sustained and successful operation.”
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Novo Resources Corp. ( “Novo” or the “Company” ) (TSX: NVO, NVO.WT & NVO.WT.A) (OTCQX: NSRPF) is pleased to provide an operations update from the Nullagine Gold Project after another record month of growth. Subsequent updates will be provided on a quarterly basis.
NULLAGINE GOLD PROJECT
Gold Production
Gold production at the Nullagine Gold Project for July 2021 was a record month of 8,589 ounces produced during July 2021 ( Figure 1 ).
Mill throughput continued to increase month-on-month. As anticipated in the Company’s news release dated June 8, 2021 , the processing plant’s annualized rate is increasing towards 1.8 mtpa ( Figure 2 ). A total of 148 kt of gold-bearing conglomerate material was processed in July. Recovery rates are also stabilizing around 95%. July’s processing head grade was 1.94 g/t Au.
Mining
Mined mineralized and waste material was lower in July with some of the Company’s contract mining fleet allocated to assist with initial preparatory works for an upcoming tailings storage facility expansion.
Intertek Testing Services (Australia) Pty Ltd (“ Intertek ”) has now fully commissioned two Chrysos PhotonAssay machines at its Maddington (Perth) facility ( Figure 3 ) ( refer to the Company’s news release dated May 18, 2021 ) and processed a total of 68,235 PhotonAssays (including QA/QC samples) in July. This compares favourably against average sample returns per month over the past six months. Assuming that July’s processing rates continue, the Company expects that its backlog of grade control samples will be cleared by the end of October 2021 which will significantly improve the Company’s ability to optimize recovery of mineralized material at the Nullagine Gold Project.
Intertek have also been selected to design and manage a site-based sample preparation laboratory at the Nullagine Gold Project. The lab setup is proceeding rapidly, with commissioning expected to be completed by mid-August. To date the crusher/dryer facility, ducting refurbishment, and pad extensions have all been completed, with lab personnel expected to arrive on site early next week.
Exploration
Exploration works at the Nullagine Gold Project accelerated during June as reverse circulation (“ RC ”) drilling was completed at several conglomerate (Beatons Extended and Skyfall) and orogenic basement (Margies, Cutlass and AU81 north) targets, all located within a 50 km radius of the Company’s Golden Eagle processing facility. A series of additional high priority targets more recently delineated within the Nullagine Gold Project area by detailed geological mapping, rock chip sampling and soil sampling are also scheduled for drill testing in the latter half of 2021 (Daisy Central, Red Ensign, GENNE, Parnell, Vulture).
Further afield, RC drilling commenced in July at one of Novo’s high priority orogenic vein targets at the Talga Project ( Figure 4 ), testing strike and depth potential, and grade continuity of the mineralised lode systems at McPhees and NW Australian. Rock samples collected by Novo combined with detailed mapping define a mineralized corridor approximately three kilometres long and include assay results with best grades of 81.4 g/t Au, 46.9 g/t Au, 35.1 g/t Au and 30.0 g/t Au (refer to the Company’s news release dated June 3, 2021 ). These results are not necessarily representative of mineralization at Talga Talga. This prospect is located some 30 km to the north of the town of Marble Bar (150km north of Nullagine) and is suitable for haulage to the Company’s Golden Eagle processing facility at the Nullagine Gold Project.
Novo’s cash position and working capital remains robust, with cash reserves of C$49 million as at July 31, 2021 as compared to cash reserves of C$46.3 million as at June 30, 2021. Operational cash inflows accounted for most of this increase, with only approximately C$0.6 million attributable to stock option exercises and asset dispositions.
In addition to its cash reserves, the Company’s portfolio of investments held a fair value of approximately C$170 million 2 as at July 31, 2021. Volatility in the value of the Company’s portfolio is mostly attributable to the Company’s 9.83% holdings in New Found Gold Corp. (TSXV: NFG).
Dr. Quinton Hennigh (P.Geo.) is the qualified person, as defined under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, responsible for, and having reviewed and approved, the technical information contained in this news release. Dr. Hennigh is a director of Novo and its president and chairman.
Cautionary Statement
The decision by the Company to produce at the Nullagine Gold Project was not based on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability and, as a result, there is an increased uncertainty of achieving any particular level of recovery of minerals or the cost of such recovery, including increased risks associated with developing a commercially mineable deposit. Historically, such projects have a much higher risk of economic and technical failure. There is no guarantee that that anticipated production costs will be achieved. Failure to achieve the anticipated production costs would have a material adverse impact on the Company’s cash flow and future profitability.
About Novo
Novo is commissioning its flagship Beatons Creek gold project while exploring and developing its prospective land package covering approximately 14,000 square kilometres in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. In addition to the Company’s primary focus, Novo seeks to leverage its internal geological expertise to deliver value-accretive opportunities to its shareholders. For more information, please contact Leo Karabelas at (416) 543-3120 or e-mail leo@novoresources.com .
On Behalf of the Board of Directors,
Novo Resources Corp.
“ Quinton Hennigh ”
Quinton Hennigh
Chairman and President
Forward-looking information
Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information (within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation) including, without limitation, planned mining and processing activities; that the backlog of PhotonAssays is expected to be cleared by October 2021; and that the processing plant’s annualized rate is expected to reach 1.8 mtpa. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include, without limitation, customary risks of the resource industry and the risk factors identified in Novo’s annual information form for the 11-month fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, which is available under Novo’s profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date those statements are made. Except as required by applicable law, Novo assumes no obligation to update or to publicly announce the results of any change to any forward-looking statement contained or incorporated by reference herein to reflect actual results, future events or developments, changes in assumptions or changes in other factors affecting the forward-looking statements. If Novo updates any forward-looking statement(s), no inference should be drawn that the Company will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.
1 Converted to Canadian dollars using the July 1 – 31, 2021 average foreign exchange rate of 0.9294.
2 This value excludes the fair value of warrants held in GBM Resources Ltd. and Kalamazoo Resources Limited. Novo’s ability to dispose of its investments is subject to certain thresholds pursuant to its senior secured credit facility with Sprott Private Resource Lending II (Collector), LP. Please refer to the Company’s management’s discussion and analysis for the 11-month fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, which is available under Novo’s profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Novo’s investment in New Found Gold Corp. is subject to escrow requirements pursuant to National Instrument 46-201 Escrow for Initial Public Offerings . The value of Novo’s holdings in Elementum 3D, Inc. (“ E3D ”) is based on E3D’s most recent financing price of US$2.50 per share. Except for its investment in E3D, the fair value of Novo’s investments is based on closing prices of its investments and relevant foreign exchanges rates as at July 31, 2021.
Last week, on 321gold‘s 20th anniversary I had the opportunity to spend an hour speaking with Bob Moriarty about some of his favorite junior resource stocks and why this is the greatest time in history to be a resource investor. Bob has been consistent in stating that the world needs a return to sound money, and natural resources will be at the forefront of this return to sound money once the Ponzi economy comes crashing down.
In July 2021’s Energy & Gold conversation with 321gold founder Bob Moriarty we discussed Eloro Resources, New Found Gold, Eskay Mining, and Bitterroot Resources among many other topics including the covid vaccines and why counterparty risk is going to become a much bigger problem for cryptocurrency investors….
Goldfinger: Good to speak with you today Bob, let’s start with Eloro Resources (TSX-V:ELO, OTC:ELRRF). That’s definitely some notable news, and a stock that we have talked about many times – we were very early in illuminating this company and its potential. So in this hole 18 at Iska Iska, ELO intersected 300 meters of 129 g/t silver-equivalent mineralization, or if you want to make it gold equivalent term, it’s almost two grams per tonne gold. So that is an excellent width and grade, extremely good intercept.
The main question is that it’s a polymetallic deposit so there are eight different metals comprising this 129 g/t silver-equivalent grade over 300 meters. There is silver, lead, zinc, tin, copper, gold, cadmium, and even some bismuth.
Bob Moriarty: Yeah, it’s a polymetallic deposit. They’ve got silver, they’ve got lead, they’ve got zinc, they’ve got tin, they’ve got indium, they’ve got a bismuth sample and a tiny bit of gold. The key is that all of those minerals can be floated and you can make a silver con, a zinc con, a lead con, and a tin con. But here’s what I do, I’m the only guy that has done this, but I think it’s an accurate way of doing it. Nobody understands what a long intercept means. I used the analogy a couple of weeks ago, they had one fair size interval and one long interval, the long interval has a lot more impact on the total value. What I do is I imagine a cube, 300 meters by 300 meters by 300 meters. Now, obviously that’s the maximum size that you could possibly have. However, it gives you the ability to measure that against a hundred meter cube. Are you with me?
Goldfinger: Yes.
Bob Moriarty: So I worked up the numbers. I even applied 300 meters by 2.7 (specific gravity) by 2 grams (Au instead of Ag) instead of 129 g/t of silver, you divide by 31.1 to get ounces, and you come up with a hole that is 4.7 million ounces of gold.
Goldfinger: A 4.7 million ounce hole? 4.7 million ounces of gold in one intercept?
Bob Moriarty: In one intercept.
Goldfinger: Ok, but you’re giving them credit for many meters of mineralization or tonnage that’s not intersected in that little cylinder (the diamond drill core). You’re assuming that the mineralization extends out into an entire cube, that’s a big assumption right?
Bob Moriarty: Yeah, but here’s the key, and your point is absolutely valid. The only purpose of calculating the hole like this is to give you the ability to measure one hole against another hole.
Goldfinger: That makes sense.
Bob Moriarty: But if you had a cube, and it was 300 meters by 300 meters by 300 meters and 129g/t silver, you would have 7.5 billion dollars worth of metal. And the key here, is if it’s 300 meters in one dimension, but it’s only 50 meters in the other two dimensions, that’s still a fucking big hole.
Now, one of the interesting arguments and periodically, I guess you agree with Quinton, and once in a blue moon I’m right. And I’ve told Quinton and I’ve told Tom Larsen, right from the very beginning, that everybody is underestimating the size of that deposit. It’s an enormous deposit, if you go to the website and you look at the maps and you see the caldera. The whole damn thing, it is filled with mineral pipes and it’s mineralized deep. So it is going to be an absolutely world-class project. It will get mined, there’s no question about it. If it was one gram gold, equivalent, it would be economic. They had some intercepts of tin, that are 0.4%, and that’s roughly $120 value to the tonne just for the tin. So it’s going to be a giant silver project, but the tin could well be the most valuable mineral they mine at Iska Iska.
ELO.V (Daily)
Goldfinger: So just wrapping up on Eloro, the comments by the VP of Exploration, Dr. Bill Pearson are notable. He makes a point that there’s a gap zone between the central breccia pipe and El Porco. So there’s an area that’s been undrilled and he’s suggesting that the magnetic data suggests the potential for a significant amount of mineralization in this gap zone and they haven’t drilled it yet. What do you think about that?
Bob Moriarty: You’re absolutely right and he’s absolutely correct. That’s one of those projects like, New Found Gold (TSX-V:NFG, OTC:NFGFF) in Newfoundland. You need to bring in a bunch of machines and get to work. I talked to Tom and said, “Tom, you could support 15 or 20 drills.” And he totally agrees with me, but the problem is, they have 26,000 assays they’re still waiting for because of COVID. The labs and crew have been backed up, and he said, it’s a waste of time for us to go drill because it might be a year before we have the data. And that’s absolutely valid. But if you step back, look at all of the technical data, look at the maps and look at the size of the pipes they already know exist, this is a BFD deposit.
Goldfinger: Okay, fair enough. And the stock is up nicely today, about $4.20 a share right now, and it traded as high as $4.59 earlier. And yeah, that is a problem, the backlog on the assays, that’s a challenge that they’re dealing with. And I think a lot of companies working in areas outside of North America, they’re just doing the best they can. If we look at Australia and how they’re dealing with this COVID situation. Mining is considered an essential industry, but when so many things are locked down, labs are operating short staffed, and there are various logjams in supply chains and you’re going to get big delays.
Bob Moriarty: Well, because Australia has effectively been totally locked down for 15 months now, they’ve got a giant labor problem. The iron companies are getting the equivalent of four gram gold, and they can sell every ton of the iron ore they can ship. So they are paying absurd salaries to people. Which means companies like Novo and everybody else in the spectrum, has to belly up to the bar. Believe it or not, one of Novo’s biggest problems is, they can’t hire enough truck drivers to go eight kilometers from the mine to the mill.
But everybody in Canada, in Nevada, everybody is backed up on the assays. Everybody’s trying to hire people and they can’t hire people. You’ve got companies like Irving in Japan, effectively the Japanese wouldn’t let anybody in for six months, so there’s been zero news. So a great company, with a great deposit, it’s just hovering at new lows. And what’s really important for investors to understand, this is not bad management, it isn’t the fault of bad management, there isn’t a damn thing they can do about it.
Goldfinger: So let’s talk about sector sentiment and some of the price action that we’ve seen. We’ve been through a few rodeos in this sector, for sure, and this definitely isn’t our first one. I think back to other times where sentiment was really, really poor in the junior mining sector. End of 2015, summer of 2018, you couldn’t give a gold stock away. Obviously last March was another example, but that was very, that was a very short, violent experience and then we had a tremendous bull market run. How does this market feel to you? Relative to some of the other major lows we’ve seen in the last 5-6 years?
Bob Moriarty: One of the things I’ve tried to point out in my books and to the very best of my knowledge, I don’t know anybody else who has made this point. At bull market tops, everybody is in the market and at bear market bottoms, you can’t give shares away. That is a sentiment indicator that gives a very valid signal of just where you are in the cycle. Now looking at the HUI and the DM side, you don’t see any clear signals, like we had in 2008 and like we had in 2015. However, I think that we’re going to have a bounce, I think you called that absolutely correctly. But I think that what everybody needs to pay attention to, I am absolutely convinced the overall market is going to tank between now and October. I mean, we got this giant soap bubble, bubble floating around looking for a pin to pop it. And lots and lots and lots of people see it and it will take the resource sector down with it. The resource sector will be first to recover, but when the margin clerks come calling, everything gets sold.
Goldfinger: So what you just described reminds me a lot of 2008. If you’re saying that, okay, well we’re going to get a little bounce here into August, the seasonal bounce, but then we’re going to crash in September, October, and everything’s going to crash. Well, that reminds me of 2008.
Bob Moriarty: I think it should remind you of 1929.
Goldfinger: Okay. 1929. Well, that was the great crash.
Bob Moriarty: Yeah. The Dow Jones peaked, I believe, on September 5th at 295 and then it declined at the end of October, and then it crashed at the end of October. Between September of 1929 and July of 1932, the Dow Jones and the general stock market declined 89% to 41. That’s going to happen again. But if you go back to the great depression, the number one stock during the entire depression was Homestake Mining.
Goldfinger: Well, gold was hard money, a store of value, during a very, very tough economic time. And that was a very high grade gold mine.
Bob Moriarty: I absolutely want everybody to understand, who’s reading this, that the financial system is in more of a precarious position than I have ever seen or read about. And some things like Tether, Tether’s a $62 billion fraud.
Goldfinger: Yeah. Let’s talk a little bit about Tether and this ponzi scheme that’s hiding in plain sight.
Bob Moriarty: And it’s going to blow up.
Goldfinger: Let’s talk a little bit about Tether and cryptocurrency. So, can you think of another situation where a financial company or some sort of financial product supposedly had $62 billion in assets and it didn’t have to regularly submit to third party accounting and audits?
Bob Moriarty: Sure. Of course.
Goldfinger: Which one is that?
Bob Moriarty: Bernie Madoff.
Goldfinger: (Laughs) Yes, Bernie Madoff. But that’s not a good one.
Bob Moriarty: How about those idiots down in Houston. What was that?
Goldfinger: I think that was Enron, right?
Bob Moriarty: Enron, the energy company… people and the quotes they come up with. Warren Buffet is very well known for his quote about “Only when the tide goes out do you find out who’s been swimming naked.” And that’s such a wonderful line. But here’s what, there are some things that are so obvious, you just wonder why people don’t get it. There was a great celebration about Tether, and it’s a $62 billion fraud. I mean, there’s no fucking way those people are running anything except a scam. It is a giant shell game run by criminals, who’ve been caught in the past and they’re getting away with it. But it is important for investors to understand that the SEC was warned by a whistleblower that the numbers Madoff was quoting couldn’t possibly happen in the real world. And a fund manager told the SEC and the world that Enron was a fraud a year before they finally blew up.
Goldfinger: Yeah, this is the really amazing thing. Usually when people have been found guilty of fraud, or caught in different sorts of financial shenanigans, it’s hard for them to pull off another, especially in modern day. Right?
Bob Moriarty: It’s normal.
Goldfinger: Okay, so about Tether, if you look at the background of some of the main people involved, including the CFO, they have a pretty checkered past. Now, normally, in the financial industry, when people have a checkered past, especially in the realm of financial fraud, they’re not given many opportunities to pull it off again, especially not at a large scale. There’s always fools born everyday, but to pull off something in the billions, especially $62 billion, is pretty unheard of. This is incredible, that this is basically the biggest Ponzi scheme ever hiding in plain sight. It’s a Ponzi hiding in plain sight. Have you ever seen anything like this?
Bob Moriarty: Yeah, Bernie Madoff
Goldfinger: Well, yeah, but with Bernie Madoff, we didn’t know, or most people didn’t know that he was running a Ponzi until it was much too late.
Bob Moriarty: A guy went to the SEC, he took out a sheet of paper, he wrote down some numbers, and he said mathematically it is not possible to do what he claims he’s doing. The SEC said, “Oh, that’s interesting.” To call these Tether guys, to suggest they have a checkered past is like suggesting a hooker has a checkered past. It doesn’t quite qualify.
Goldfinger: So how does this end? This is a $62 billion financial fraud that is a really integral part of the cryptocurrency system. What happens here?
Bob Moriarty: Somebody pulls the plug, and the water comes out of the toilet. You know exactly what I feel about cryptocurrencies, I have never made any bones about it. There is no there there. Why anyone would speculate, and I acknowledge a lot of people have made a lot of money, but it’s a fraud, and, if it’s a fraud, why would you consider it an investment? It’s going to blow up. One day we’re going to pick up the Wall Street Journal, take a look at it, and see that Tether has imploded.
Goldfinger: It kind of reminds me of baseball cards. As a kid, I bought a lot of baseball, football, and basketball cards. I thought they were really cool. I thought they were going to be valuable one day, and I spent thousands of dollars of my parents’ money on these sports cards, and it’s been 30 years and many of them aren’t worth much still, but some of them suddenly became sought after. Suddenly people wanted some of these cards again, like some of the rarer ones of the better athletes, and so it’s kind of like baseball cards or football cards.
If somebody’s willing to pay a price for the Bo Jackson card from 1988, then that’s how much it’s worth. I kind of think the same thing about bitcoin or dogecoin. If there’s a fool who’s willing to pay for it, then so be it. But it’s very easy for, suddenly, these things to become out of favor, and for people to realize they’re not as rare as they once thought they were, and for the prices to crash. That’s what happened with most of the baseball cards from the early ’90s. The companies printed a ton of them, and suddenly they were all worthless.
Bob Moriarty: Let me give you an analogy, and you’re going to enjoy this analogy. Who was the most famous presidential stamp collector in US history?
Goldfinger: Stamp collector? Roosevelt?
Bob Moriarty: Roosevelt, okay. During the Depression, people needed things to do, and during the ’30s, the ’40s, and the ’50s, well into the ’60s, there were a lot of stamp collectors, and there were companies like Prudential Insurance that would go out and buy tens of thousands of dollars of sheets of new stamps because, one, they knew they were going to use stamps just to get the plate blocks. The interesting thing about it was the post office went to stamps with sticky backs, okay, so when you put a stamp on an envelope, that was it. You couldn’t do anything with the stamp anymore. And the post office didn’t realize it, but they killed what was a very big industry. There used to be $5 Alexander Hamilton plate blocks. They were worth hundreds or thousands of dollars, because they were relatively rare. I think now you can buy it for $150, because there’s no stamp collectors anymore. Lots of plate blocks, no collectors. I used to buy sheets of US stamps at a 25% discount from a dealer because no one wanted them any more and had no use for them.
The idea of cryptocurrency, it’s a perfect example of the greater fool theory. You’re thinking about, and focused on, the value of an investment, and the fact of the matter is, no investment has any value. It’s what somebody perceives, and that changes constantly, so what you’ve got to watch for is human behavior. Now, since Christ was a corporal, people have wanted to speculate. They love the idea of instant riches. They never get it, of course, but it’s really fun, and people get into it big time. They did it with Beanie Babies, they did it with baseball cards, they did it with postage stamps. Now they are doing it with imaginary numbers generated by tens of thousands of computers all churning away doing nothing practical.
Human behavior calls for people to act like a herd, and when the herd changes direction, all of a sudden they’re gone. Now, the beauty of the cryptocurrencies is, because Tether is so obviously a fraud, they’re just going to yank that plug and cryptocurrencies are going to disappear overnight.
Goldfinger: Yeah, it could honestly be the sort of thing where somebody yanks the plug, as you say, and suddenly there are no bids in the market. You could go to sleep one night and your crypto could be priced at $2 a coin, and wake up the next day and it’s priced at five cents, or maybe even less. It could literally be the sort of thing where the market goes “no bid”.
Bob Moriarty: Yeah, but how would you like to be short? If you were to short it at $2 and it went to five cents, how would you like to be in that position?
Goldfinger: That would be great.
Bob Moriarty: No, it wouldn’t.
Goldfinger: Why? Why is being short something that drops in value a bad idea?
Bob Moriarty: Because of counterparty risk. Okay, you have, right now, about a $1.2 trillion market in cryptocurrencies with no substance behind it. When they go from $2 to five cents, it’ll go no-bid, and all of the guys who were short at $2 are going to find out what counterparty risk is. Let me give you an analogy. Have you ever been to Vegas?
Goldfinger: Yes, more than a few times.
Bob Moriarty: Okay. You walk in, you’ve got a million dollars, you put it down on the crap table. You tell them, “I want to roll until I either make my point or I lose, and I want to bet a million dollars on that roll. Will they take the bet?”
Goldfinger: Yes.
Bob Moriarty: Okay. What are the only things that can happen?
Goldfinger: You lose your million dollars or you double your money.
Bob Moriarty: You win.
Goldfinger: Yeah.
Bob Moriarty: Yeah, okay. You happen to be from Saudi Arabia, and you walk in there with a certified check for a billion dollars, and you go to the biggest casino in Vegas, and after they’ve talked back and forth a little bit, they decide they’re going to take the bet. What are the only two things that can happen?
Goldfinger: You lose or you win and they still take your money.
Bob Moriarty: They give you your money if you win. They can handle billion dollar bets. That’s not the end of the world. But somebody from China, say, walks in, and he’s got a trillion dollar certified check, and he wants to make the same bet. Will the casino take the bet?
Goldfinger: A trillion dollars?
Bob Moriarty: Yeah.
Goldfinger: (launghs) I don’t think so.
Bob Moriarty: Sure, of course they’d take that bet. But what’s the only one thing that will happen?
You’d lose. How many casinos can pay off a trillion dollar bet?
Goldfinger: Zero.
Bob Moriarty: Okay, so you would just introduce counterparty risk, and counterparty risk is not a function of the bet, it’s a function of the size.
Goldfinger: Okay. Got it.
Bob Moriarty: In the cryptocurrency market, you’ve got $1.2 trillion worth of assets, but you’ve got $1.2 trillion worth of liabilities, and nobody can pay off the liabilities. Therefore, if you’re short at $2 and it goes to zero, you’re holding a used lottery ticket with zero value.
Goldfinger: That makes sense, so let’s talk about COVID a little bit. You posted a good article on Ivermectin, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that Ivermectin is a really important part of the COVID protocol, and the deadliness of this virus is clearly a lot less than we thought it was a year ago or a year and a half ago when we first heard about it. Mankind has figured out much better ways to treat this illness, yet the focus is purely on vaccination. What is going on here?
Bob Moriarty: It’s the biggest medical fraud in history. COVID is a damn flu. You do not want to catch COVID, it’s a bad flu. You can pretty much prevent COVID by taking vitamin D and zinc. People who catch COVID are old, or they’re fat, or they’re vitamin D deficient. It is a disease for people over 80. The government doesn’t want you to know that, so what the government did is they paid hospitals extra money for COVID patients. Everybody that walked in the door and died, if you said that they were positive for COVID, they gave you $13,000. Now, the beauty is they were counting people like 22-week old premature babies who died, and bullet wounds in people who were shot to death. Those must have been COVID. They were counting automobile accident victims. Those must have been COVID.
Now, here’s the problem: the CDC has finally come out and admitted, by the way, the PCR test is total bullshit. It generates a 80 to 90% false positive, however it gets you really big numbers of people who test positive. But if you had a flu a year ago, you test positive. If you had any influenza in the last year or two, you test positive. It is not a test for COVID. It is a test for any COVID or any cold. It is bullshit, they knew it was bullshit all along. It was a mass transfer of power to governments around the world.
Now, the funny thing is, I actually had a video removed from YouTube and an interview because I talked about HCQ and Ivermectin. In Tanzania, everybody takes HCQ, it’s a 35 cent pill that you take once a week to prevent malaria, and they’ve had 16 deaths in the last 19 months. And, by the way, you could take Ivermectin, which is another $5 or $6 drug, one of the safest drugs in the world’s history, and it’ll cure COVID. They don’t want people knowing.
They are killing people. Let’s go one better. Have you ever heard of anybody taking a vaccine for HIV?
Goldfinger: No.
Bob Moriarty: Why?
Goldfinger: There isn’t one.
Bob Moriarty: Right. Ever heard of anybody taking a vaccine for the cold?
Goldfinger: No.
Bob Moriarty: No. Because there isn’t one. They do come out with the flu vaccine every year, but it’s a vaccine based on last year’s flu. It protects you against last year’s flu this year for really simple reasons. Vaccines mutate constantly. I wrote an article a year ago, and I said they’re never going to have a successful so-called vaccine because the virus mutates on a constant basis. Therefore you would have to have a shot every three months or every six months, therefore it can’t happen. We have done exactly the wrong thing. Children are not at risk from the flu. Two out of 100,000 would catch the disease in the first place, yet they’re insisting that we use this experimental gene therapy on 12 and 15 year old children who were never at risk. People are waking up around the world. There’s been this giant seizure of power by governments, and people are very angry.
When this boils over it’s going to be pretty messy, because people have a right to be angry. What we have done to children by putting them in masks and keeping them from socializing with their peers for a year, a year and a half, it’s absolutely criminal. I hope people get hung for that. That’s a monstrous thing to do, and we’ve known all along that children are not at risk.
Goldfinger: Yeah. It’s really amazing some of what has taken place in the last year and a half. So now we’re dealing with delta, and surely there’s going to be another variant that will come about in the next couple of months. How long can we continue this futile exercise before everybody just says, “Okay, the virus is not going away,” and it’s, in fact, going to shape shift and morph over time, and we’re going to have to learn how to deal with it. We’re going to have to learn how to live with it. We have treatments that work very well, and the mortality rate is extremely low, and, as you said, it mainly threatens the elderly and the extremely obese, people with really high blood pressure, diabetes, and that’s it. It’s really that simple.
Bob Moriarty: Well, it’s been a monumental fraud on the part of Fauci and Bill Gates. It’s all about money. There is something evil in trying to force people into taking a vaccine. Do you have the current numbers on how many people the vaccine has killed?
Goldfinger: No.
Bob Moriarty: It’s about 19,000 in Europe and it’s about 12,000 in the United States. Now, there was a vaccine back in, I think, 1976, against the Hong Kong Flu, and when it killed 25 people, they said, “This is way too dangerous for us to give to people.” What they’re doing now with the vaccine is nothing short of cold-blooded murder.
Goldfinger: But Pfizer stock is breaking out to new highs right now. It’s up 2.6% today as they’re forecasting to generate over $30 billion in revenue from the vaccine this year.
Bob Moriarty: That’s evil. When you go to sleep at night and the bastards running Pfizer are like the cocksuckers that were running the tobacco companies. “Oh no, tobacco isn’t addictive. Tobacco doesn’t kill.” That’s bullshit. They knew it all along, and they were sued and they were pretty much put out of business in good form, but the vaccines can never work. They are exceptionally dangerous. It’s the most dangerous thing I have ever seen. I said this to you, remember when you asked, God, it must have been a year ago. You asked me for a one-liner of something that you think is important. You remember that?
Bob Moriarty: I said the vaccine was the most dangerous thing I had ever heard of.
Goldfinger: Yes. I remember, yeah. That was the end of 2020 article.
Bob Moriarty: Yeah.
Goldfinger: Are there any stocks that you really think are important to talk about today? Are there any companies that are on your radar that we should discuss?
Bob Moriarty: Yes, I’d like to, and I would certainly be interested in your comments about this. You were in the market in 2001, 2, 3, 5, 8, 12, 15. There were a lot of shit companies. Many of them disappeared, and they took all the investors’ money. There was a lot of crap in Toronto and in Vancouver, and the situation is pretty close to the opposite now. There are so many great companies out there with so much opportunity. How can you look at Eloro and not see a multibillion dollar company? How can you look at Newfound Gold or Labrador Gold and not see a multibillion dollar company? How can you look at Eskay Mining (TSX-V:ESK, OTC: ESKYF) and not see a multibillion dollar mine? Incredible opportunities, and right now they happen to be cheap. Now, there will come a time that they’re expensive, but right now all of these companies are cheap, and they offer a hell of an opportunity. I think, personally, this is just my opinion. I think this is the greatest opportunity to invest in resource stocks in history.
ESK.V (Daily)
Goldfinger: Yes, I would have to agree that some of the secular themes that exist today, like copper, battery metals, modern monetary theory, these factors are very bullish for resources. These are very bullish for metals. We’re not making new copper out of thin air. We’re not creating tin out of thin air. We’re not creating gold bars out of thin air, and, in fact, if you look at the data on head grade of some of the biggest mines in the world, the head grade of copper mines has gone from nearly 2% 25 years ago to less than 1%. In fact, some of the biggest copper mines in the world are mining .5, .6% copper. That means that it takes more tonnage to create the same number of pounds of copper. It’s more costly, it’s harder to extract. We’re not finding new deposits regularly, and permitting, dealing with governments, as we’re seeing in South America recently, is becoming even more challenging.
The fundamental secular themes are stronger than anything I’ve ever seen. Modern monetary theory, the theory that the government can spend, can go into debt as much as they wish, because they can print their own currency, everything is priced in fiat. If fiat is on a race to zero, well, the fiat price of those metals is going to go a hell of a lot higher, right?
Meanwhile, natural resources are becoming increasingly scarce and we are witnessing industrial battery metals like copper facing a looming supply crunch. There simply aren’t many new mines of any significant scale coming online in the next decade.
Bob Moriarty: Well, take a look at the price of gold in Zimbabwe dollars.
Goldfinger: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So this is a helluva time to be a resource investor, it’s a remarkable time. But, just like we started the conversation, Bob, yes, bigger picture bullish as ever, but even you’re worried about the short term, right? There’s this constant wall of worry that we have to climb as investors.
Bob Moriarty: That’s true, but let me point something out. You need to cleanse the system periodically. Because everybody in the world is on fiat currencies, we haven’t had the cleansing that took place in the 1930s. The government stepped in, and the government made everything far worse. But we had another depression in 1922, and the government didn’t do a damn thing. The government sat back and said, “Okay, you lost your job. You lost your factory. Too bad. You lost your home. We’re not going to do anything about it.” 18 months later, the economy rebounded. Government action doesn’t cure things. It causes bad things. We need to cleanse the system, we need to go back to real money. We need to go back to real world economics where people create things of value and they sell them at a profit, and when we do that, it’s going to be a much better world to live in.
Goldfinger: I’d like to point out that copper had a correction after reaching nearly $5/lb, and it has started to move higher again. Nickel is also back up to around $9/lb. The battery metals revolution is still in its infancy and the US does not have much domestic nickel production, and other critical battery metals are also in short supply domestically. The nascent battery metals bull market got me looking for potential new discoveries of copper and nickel in the US. This led me to a tiny junior explorer called Bitterroot Resources (TSX-V:BTT, OTC:BITTF) that is exploring for conduit-hosted massive sulphides in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.I have been accumulating a position in BTT and I wrote about the company in February.
Lundin Mining’s Eagle Mine is one of the few domestic sources of nickel. The Eagle Deposit is an extremely high grade copper/nickel/PGMs mine with a small environmental footprint. In the last quarter Eagle produced nickel at a NEGATIVE $1.62 per pound cash cost, this is due to the copper and PGM by-product credits. Bitterroot is exploring for an analog deposit to Eagle at its LM Project, which is 30 kilometers from Eagle. So far, Bitterroot has caught some sniffs of disseminated, sem-massive, and massive sulphides with a very high metal tenor (7-8% Ni, 7% Cu, and 2-3 g/t PGMs). The company is on the 4th hole of a 15-20 hole phase 3 drill program at LM, and it has a modest C$10 million market cap. This is a drill play with a lot of torque to a new discovery and I think the downside is pretty limited at this low valuation.
What are your thoughts on Bitterroot Bob, and how does the US find domestic sources of copper, nickel, cobalt and other battery metals?
Bob Moriarty: Interesting that you bring up Bitterroot. Quinton wanted me to talk to them and I did. That general area of the US used to be a big mining area but gradually mining companies moved to more friendly environments. There is a lot of metal still up there. Bitterroot has a great story and a great plan. They want to cookie cutter the Eagle deposit and should they accomplish that the shares are going a lot higher. Quinton and I differ on one important thing. He always focuses on the quality of the deposit and management. On the other hand, I get really excited when a good story is cheap. BTT is really cheap. I was buying in the open market at $.11 for a market cap of about $8 million. It can only go to zero or a lot higher on good results.
Goldfinger: I think that’s a great place to leave it for this month Bob. Before we depart I’d like to offer you congratulations on the 20th anniversary of 321gold, you have been an important voice for investors and the precious metals/junior mining world during the last twenty years. So thank you for all that you have contributed to the natural resources investing conversation, and thank you for your time and insights here today.
Disclosure: Author owns shares of Bitterroot Resources Ltd. and Eloro Resources Ltd. at the time of publishing and may choose to buy or sell at any time without notice. Author has been compensated for marketing services by Bitterroot Resources Ltd. and Eloro Resources Ltd.
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Joining us for conversation is Morgan Lekstrom, the president of Lakewood Exploration (CSE: LWD: OTC: LWDEF). It’s great to have you join us today to share the latest developments on Lakewood Exploration and the exciting flagship Silver Strand, which has the makings of becoming the next pure silver play in the United States. Before we begin, Mr. Lekstrom, please introduce us to Lakewood Exploration and the opportunity the company presents to shareholders.
Morgan Lekstrom:
Lakewood is a new silver company. We’re a pure silver play. We are looking at our flagship asset in Idaho, the Silver Strand Mine. It was a past-producing mine, and we are looking to go in there, explore it, put the ore body to depth. It was mined at a very shallow depth, only 90 meters. There’s so much potential there. It was held in by a bunch of feuding parties back in the day. The whole land package has never been consolidated like what we’ve done.
Morgan Lekstrom:
And by consolidating this land package, we’re able to get a five-and-a-half-kilometer strike put together, and which allows us the opportunity to explore the area. From what we’re seeing on the surface and in the underground, and we’ll talk about those news releases later, it looks very promising to have a large, large resource and payoff for shareholders, but also near-term production potential, which is the pillar of what we are looking to accomplish at Lakewood.
Morgan Lekstrom:
Lakewood Exploration is looking for that large exploration payoff, near-term production potential, but also acquisitions at the same time that fit that model. We do have a triple-pronged approach and our big concentration right now is on that large exploration payoff at Silver Strand.
Maurice:
The value proposition is quite compelling. Let’s go on-site. Mr. Lekstrom, please introduce us to your flagship Silver Strand and acquaint us with the region and some of your neighbors.
Morgan Lekstrom:
Silver Strand is our flagship mine. It’s in Idaho, in the Silver Valley-Coeur d’Alene, which is one of the most prolific areas on the planet for silver. The region has produced nearly 1.3 billion ounces of silver. Companies such as Hecla and Coeur have their start there. You also have the deep mines within the region, the Lucky Friday Mine, Galena, and Sunshine respectively.
Morgan Lekstrom:
There are not a lot of regions in the world that have extracted as much silver as the Silver Valley-Coeur d’Alene. The Silver Strand is one of the last, I would say, unexplored assets in this area. This is such an exciting opportunity for us. As a pure silver company, we look forward to putting this to depth. Our neighbors in the valley have mines go down to 2,000 meters. We have only scratched the surface, as the Silver Strand is at 90 meters of the original workings.
Morgan Lekstrom:
We’re going to start drilling the Silver Strand, with an emphasis to start pushing that ore body down to prove it. The unique thing about Silver Strand too is that we have something called a gold credit. What that means is there’s a portion of the ore that comes out that has gold in it. And unlike the rest of the mines around the area, this is actually very high-grade gold. What we’d consider higher-grade, which is 5 grams a tonne of what we’re looking at is 5 to even 10 grams a tonne.
Morgan Lekstrom:
To put that into terms, most mines are built on 1 gram a tonne or less. Silver mines. Most mines are built on 100, 200 grams a tone. We’re seeing anywhere from 300 to 2,700 grams a ton out of Silver Strand (Press Release), and this is just the top. If anything is proven in this area, the deeper you go, the better the grade. We’re looking forward to running our exploration program and getting going on this.
Maurice:
The Silver Strand has a historical resource. What is the exploration plan and timeline moving forward to have a complaint NI 43-101?
Morgan Lekstrom:
We’re currently working on our 43-101 in the background, and we plan update the market by the end of summer. We are looking to run the first-stage of our exploration program, as we’ve been saying, by the end of late summer. We’re working on our plans right now. I work all the time with our geology team and making sure we’re looking at the right area and the right mix of geology. We don’t want to do things in an unmethodical way.
Morgan Lekstrom:
In our latest announcement, we were proud to convey that we brought on Rob Burk (Press Release), which is just a tremendous value add for us. Ron is an exceptional geologist and exceptional exploration leader. He’s worked for some huge companies like Centerra Minnig and TecK Resources. Having calls with Ron and having that advisor in the background has helped us already hone in on what we’re looking at in terms of exploration. Also, how we can make the Silver Strand resource 43-101 compliant, build it out and make it a huge discovery. The upside potential of this resource is massive. I mean, if anything from that area, I mean, anything as an indicator, it’s there, in my opinion.
Maurice:
Having the intellectual capital of someone like Mr. Burk doesn’t show up on the balance sheet, but those are the accretive moves that a company has to make to achieve success. Now that we know the plan, let’s test the ‘Proof of Concept’ to date. Since our inaugural interview two months ago, Lakewood Exploration has had some exceptional sample grades. What can you share with us?
Morgan Lekstrom:
Absolutely. As stated earlier, we just announced 2,744 grams a tonne (Press Release). Keep in mind, most mines are built on 100 to 200 grams a tonne silver. We’re getting that from our existing underground, which everyone said, “Oh, it’s been mined out.” Our geologists go in there with new techniques, new technology. They take chip samples in areas, and it’s just a key indicator for us that there’s that high-grade mineralization. We’re seeing it on the surface as well.
Morgan Lekstrom:
There are outcrops all over the place. Having the ability to walk along this 5.5 kilometers strike length has helped us and help build the Silver Strand story out, along with the upside potential of this resource. Being able to walk on ground that hasn’t been walked up to our Burnt Cabin asset gives us confidence that we may be onto something very intriguing. And if anything that is shown by our results of that between 1,700 and 2,700 grams a ton just from chip samples, there’s a huge potential here.
Maurice:
Certainly sounds like it is. Well, let me ask you this, were the sample grades a surprise, or is this what the team had expected?
Morgan Lekstrom:
You expect good results, or you hope for good results. But honestly, I wasn’t expecting to see 2,700 grams a ton right away off a chip sample. It was unexpected, but it was also encouraging. These high grades reaffirmed to the team in the background that we’re doing the right thing. We’re looking in the right areas. And that when we begin the first phase of our exploration program, we’re going to be looking in the right area.
Morgan Lekstrom:
We have something a lot of companies don’t have, which is that existing underground, the ability to go in the historical mining there that was just hand to mouth small scale. We have the ability to blow this resource out big and score some value for the shareholders.
Maurice:
Multilayer question here, and you referenced drilling, what activity is currently being conducted on-site, and is the goal to twin the historic holes?
Morgan Lekstrom:
I can’t provide the full details on that currently, as we are finalizing the plans, and then we’ll have a news release around that. But I can tell you that we’re looking at extending the current non-43-101 compliant resource to depth, to use the words you used, to ‘Proof of Concept’, which is more than a concept for us. We want to show that identity between the mineralization we’re seeing on the surface, the gold credit, see how far that goes, and we also want to get this thing to depth.
Morgan Lekstrom:
Like I said before, a lot of these mines in the area go down to like 2,000 meters, and we’re only at 90. For us, it’s all about drilling and getting down there and chasing that resource down.
Maurice:
Before we leave the site, what is the next unanswered question for Lakewood Exploration? When can we expect a response, and what will determine success?
Morgan Lekstrom:
I’d say the next unanswered question for Lakewood is, what’s in the pipeline as far as acquisitions? And all I can say on that is stay tuned. What’s going on at Silver Strand for drilling? We’re looking forward to drilling in the late summer. Plus, we’re adding very, very competent, meaningful people to our team.
Morgan Lekstrom:
My background as a mine builder, I’ve worked all over the world building mines for large companies, small companies. It changes the dynamic of the team when you have geologists, amazing capital markets people, and mine building folks in the mix. We do have what it takes to take something through exploration, make the resource huge, and build it. That’s a very unique position for us and for the mining industry.
Maurice:
Yes, sir. The synergies complement one another with Lakewood Exploration. You have experts with a proven pedigree of success. You were brought on board recently, as well as Mr. Burk, and who else was added to the team, sir?
Morgan Lekstrom:
We have Lawrence Roulston. We have Ron Burk, like you mentioned. Myself. We have Kristina Pillon. She’s our head of IR. She’s unbelievable in what she does as well. And just lots of energy in our team so far. We’re going to add a lot more people in the right time and the right positions.
Morgan Lekstrom:
We added our chief geologist, I can’t forget him, Phil Mulholland. Phil is an exceptional geologist with a proven track record in the Western US, in Idaho as well. He’s worked all around the Coeur d’Alene area. He’s worked all over Montana. He’s worked for big companies like Barrick. I just can’t say enough good things about Phil and his dedication to the profession, but also to the Silver Strand project. The ideas that flow, we’re just approaching it with a very unique and new technology.
Morgan Lekstrom:
And Phil’s the right person to be working with that side of it, his ideas and the crew, between him and Ron and how we all communicate together. We have Joness Lang in the background too who’s an also a proven capital markets expertthere and he’s senior VP for Maple gold.
Maurice:
Switching gears, let’s look at some numbers. Mr. Lekstrom, please provide the capital structure for Lakewood Exploration.
Morgan Lekstrom:
We have about 33.8 million shares out. We have about 7.5 million share free trading right now. We’ve got 7.5 million warrants out, and we’ve had a very good run so far. Very successful. I think we’re hitting all the right tunes and all the right notes with our capital structure. It’s very tightly held. We’re in a very good place from a capitalization standpoint and a treasury standpoint. We just raised 3.5 million dollars with 14 million shares. We are well-positioned to execute and to execute on exactly what we’re saying and won’t need more capital anytime soon.
Maurice:
You’re also rewarding shareholders. Speaking of the market cap, Lakewood Exploration has been on a roll. Since our inaugural interview on May 31st, the stock was trading at $.29, and since has moved up to $.76. Congratulations, sir.
Morgan Lekstrom:
Thanks, Maurice. It’s exciting and positive to see the markets responding to the Silver Strand and the Lakewood story, but also to the capital structure and how this whole company has been structured is important to a shareholder to know that there is a lot of room to grow, but it’s also tightly held. It’s not just a large vehicle of shares out everywhere. We’re making sure that we have the ability to bring the value of the shareholders in a meaningful way.
Maurice:
And speaking of shareholders, I am a proud shareholder, by the way.
Morgan Lekstrom:
Oh, thank you.
Maurice:
Honored. Before we close, Mr. Lekstrom, what would you like to say to shareholders?
Morgan Lekstrom:
And I know I said this earlier, be on the lookout for the execution of our three-pronged approach on the acquisition side, stay tuned.
Maurice:
Looking forward to it. What keeps you up at night that we don’t know about?
Morgan Lekstrom:
I’ve been on many projects around the world, and there’s been a lot of times I’ve been kept up late at night for reasons I don’t want to go into it. But here with Lakewood Exploration and the Silver Strand. I’m not kept up at night because we have such a competent team. We have such good leadership in the right places. If there is something, we work it out right away. We have enough credible experience around us to solve challenges and not to delay. It’s a unique position as a company, but even for me to be the president of the company to have that ability to lean on technical experts like Ron Burk, to lean on our VP of exploration Lawrence Roulston when we need to and collaborate and have those great conversations. It’s unique.
Maurice:
Last question, what did I forget to ask?
Morgan Lekstrom:
As much as I say, we’re in the makings of a great mining company, I just remind people that silver is one of these commodities that isn’t just a hedge. It’s used in manufacturing. It’s used in making of video cards for cryptocurrency mining. It’s used in making a semiconductor. It’s used in making the microchips through silver pace.
Morgan Lekstrom:
This is not a commodity to be taken lightly. If the historic proves anything, we’re underperforming compared to our other commodities. I think there’s a big opportunity here. I’m a silver bull, but I think proven from the technology side and the market side, I think we’re onto something amazing here. Lakewood is getting positioned and we are positioned to take advantage of that for our shareholders.
Maurice:
Mr. Lekstrom, for someone that wants to learn more about Lakewood Exploration, please provide those contact details one more time.
Morgan Lekstrom:
Take a look at our website, www.lakewoodexploration.com. If you go to the bottom, Kristina Pillon’s phone number and email are there. She’s fantastic to speak with, if any questions need to be relayed up to me, she can do that.
Maurice:
Hands down, I have to give it to you, your corporate deck is amazing. It’s the best I’ve seen ever. I’d encourage anyone to go to the website. Take a look at their corporate presentation. They’ve put a tremendous amount of effort and it shows. All right. Mr. Lekstrom, it’s been a pleasure speaking with you, sir. Wishing you and Lakewood Expiration the absolute best.
Morgan Lekstrom:
Thanks, Maurice. You too.
Maurice Jackson:
And as a reminder, I am a licensed representative to buy and sell precious metals through Miles Franklin Precious Metals Investments, where we have several options to expand your precious metals portfolio, from physical delivery of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and rhodium, to offshore depositories, and precious metals IRA’s. Give me a call at 855.505.1900 or you may email: Maurice@MilesFranklin.com. Finally, please subscribe to www.provenandprobable.com, where we provide: Mining Insights and Bullion Sales, subscription is free.
Vancouver, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – July 29, 2021) – Riverside Resources Inc. (TSXV: RRI) (OTCQB: RVSDF) (FSE: 5YY) (“Riverside” or the “Company”), is pleased to present the new exploration model for the Cuarentas Project in Sonora, Mexico. This new model results from the compilation of the updated geochemistry processing from an external expert geochemist consultant, combined with the new proof of concept drill results from hole LC20-010. This is the first drill hole testing the Santa Rosalia Sur target by Riverside.
Highlights from the hole LC20-010 discovering a new drilled vein system:
3.15 m at 0.36 g/t Au including 0.7 m at 0.88 g/t Au
1.55 m at 0.58 g/t Au including 0.65 m at 1.05 g/t Au
Riverside’s President and CEO, John-Mark Staude: “We are excited to receive the new and first ever drill assay results from the Santa Rosalia Sur target area which begins to outline a strong drill target area at the Cuarentas Project. We are optimistic that with just one initial hole the campaign has encountered two vein areas wide open at strike and depth to continue seemingly above a degassing Laramide porphyry Cu-Au center.“https://s.yimg.com/rq/darla/4-8-0/html/r-sf-flx.html
The Cuarentas epithermal vein drilled mineralized area intersected at surface and appears to be the upper part of a copper-gold porphyry system that is potentially responsible for the extensive >6 km2 area including sericite and pyrophyllite alteration. Some of the key features include:
A major NW oriented fault corridor, linked with a 2.5 km continuous strong (>0.3 g/t Au) gold anomaly along trend.
Detailed and regional mapping by Riverside defines post-mineral cover boundary which was previously interpreted as the limit of the system and is now clearly seen as younger cover with the system being significantly larger and only a fraction exposed at the surface. Channel rock-sampling highlighting up to 3.4m @ 9.1 g/t Au at the surface of the single drill hole demonstrates potential for more gold in further drilling of this Santa Rosalia Sur target.
Strong geophysical texture with airborne and ground magnetic features defines the continuity of main shear zones which control veins and then downward into a porphyry Cu-Au targeting at depth. Further drilling is warranted to test the magnetic features.
Extensive pyritic halo across the entire property with zones of white micas and pyrophyllite indicate higher temperature vectors toward an undrilled porphyry system.
Extensive database from work done by Paget, Millrock, Centerra, Hochschild and Riverside gives abundant data now compiled.
Historical production reporting more than ten old adits and up to 100,000 tonnes mined from the 1950s.
A total of 14 historical and recent drill holes, which are evidence for mineralization, alteration useful for vectoring and targeting for future work.
And recently:
Defined Intermediate Sulfidation system at Santa Rosalia Sur which is vectoring toward a potential feeder zone; Geochemistry analysis are showing zoning of higher ratios which compiled with mapping and drilling is leading to a potential feeder zone (see Figure 1 below).
Single drill hole at the Santa Rosalia Sur target by Riverside has intersected wide pyritic zones, similar to the upper parts of known porphyry systems and vein halos in this Arizpe Sonora District including like portions of Las Chispas Mine and also Mercedes Mine which are nearby neighbors to the east and west respectively. Drilling here at Santa Rosalia Sur cut a gold rich mineralized quartz vein zone beneath post-mineral cover (see Figure 3 below – core pictures). Geologically, this hole is important for interpretation and vectoring purposes.
Figure 1: Two maps of the Cuarentas Project highlighting above the geochemistry ratio distributing spatial (top map), and Interpretation for targeting next drill program (bottom map of same area as top map).
To conclude, after taking into consideration, Riverside is highlighting the possibility of a feeder system of intermediate sulfidation along the Testerazo fault corridor. The latter is known to be involved as a deep-seated structure within the Arizpe district, and regionally associated with porphyry feeder further to the south. Distribution of evidence is showing an opportunity for more geophysics within the southern block, near the Sombrerito target, which then will lead to test drilling (see Figure 2 below).
Figure 2: Interpretative SW-NE Cross Section of the Cuarentas Project, indicating prospective target at depth for drill testing of feeder zone (based on current drill and surface data).
Overall, the Cuarentas district is particularly prolific, with extensive alteration and can be seen at surface with extensive jarosite, limonite and pyrite non-oxidized in drill holes (see Figure 3 below). This pyritic halo extends for multiple km2. Zones of higher temperature clays are an important vector for the feeder zone, which are defined in Figure 1 above.
Figure 3: Core pictures of the hole LC20-010. Left picture: sheeted vein zone – and gold interval upper part of the core hole; Right picture: Example of pyritic halo intersected in drill hole.
The scientific and technical data contained in this news release pertaining to the Cuarentas Project was reviewed and approved by Freeman Smith, P.Geo, a non-independent qualified person to Riverside Resources, who is responsible for ensuring that the geologic information provided in this news release is accurate and who acts as a “qualified person” under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
Riverside completed a QA/QC program as part of the drilling program with about 10% of the samples assayed being control samples. Standards and blanks were inserted approximately every 20 samples and duplicates every 30 samples. Drill samples were taken to the Bureau Veritas Laboratories in Hermosillo, Mexico for fire assaying for gold. The rejects remained with Bureau Veritas in Mexico while the pulps were transported to Bureau Veritas laboratory in Vancouver, BC, Canada for 45 element ICP/ES-MS analysis. A QA/QC program was implemented as part of the sampling procedures for the exploration program. Standard samples were randomly inserted into the sample stream prior to being sent to the laboratory.
Rock samples from the previous exploration programs discussed above at Cuarentas were taken to remained with Bureau Veritas in Mexico while the pulps were transported to Bureau Veritas laboratory in Vancouver, BC, Canada for 45 element ICP/ES-MS analysis. A QA/QC program was implemented as part of the sampling procedures for the exploration program. Standard samples were randomly inserted into the sample stream prior to being sent to the laboratory.
About Riverside Resources Inc.:
Riverside is a well-funded exploration company driven by value generation and discovery. The Company has over $4M in cash, no debt and less than 72M shares outstanding with a strong portfolio of gold-silver and copper assets and royalties in North America. Riverside has extensive experience and knowledge operating in Mexico and Canada and leverages its large database to generate a portfolio of prospective mineral properties. In addition to Riverside’s own exploration spending, the Company also strives to diversify risk by securing joint-venture and spin-out partnerships to advance multiple assets simultaneously and create more chances for discovery. Riverside has properties available for option, with information available on the Company’s website at www.rivres.com.
ON BEHALF OF RIVERSIDE RESOURCES INC.
“John-Mark Staude”
Dr. John-Mark Staude, President & CEO
For additional information contact:
John-Mark Staude President, CEO Riverside Resources Inc. info@rivres.com Phone: (778) 327-6671 Fax: (778) 327-6675 Web: www.rivres.com
Certain statements in this press release may be considered forward-looking information. These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology (e.g., “expect”,” estimates”, “intends”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “plans”). Such information involves known and unknown risks — including the availability of funds, the results of financing and exploration activities, the interpretation of exploration results and other geological data, or unanticipated costs and expenses and other risks identified by Riverside in its public securities filings that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Lakewood Exploration (CSE: LWD / OTC: LWDEF) (“Lakewood” or the “Company”) is pleased to welcome Ron Burk as a Technical Advisor to the Company.
Mr. Burk is an exploration geologist with over 30 years of experience in the minerals industry, primarily focused on identifying and evaluating exploration properties. He has held numerous senior roles, including Vice President Exploration at Centerra Gold Inc. and Vice President of Exploration and Chief Geologist at Silver Standard Resources Inc. (now SSR Mining), where he contributed to discoveries that resulted in the definition of a world-class silver resource at the Pitarrilla project in Durango, Mexico and major gold resources forming the Snowfield and Brucejack deposits in northern British Columbia, Canada. Prior to joining Silver Standard in 2004, Ron had worked since 1989 as an exploration geologist for Teck Resources Ltd. and its predecessors, focused on target generation and property evaluations in the Americas.
“The addition of Ron Burk as an advisor brings even more depth to our technical team as we advance the Company’s recently acquired past-producing Silver Stand mine towards an initial drill program later this year,” said Lakewood President, Morgan Lekstrom. “Mr. Burk’s extensive experience, including nearly a decade in senior roles for a silver-focused mining company (Silver Standard), will be invaluable as we advance Silver Strand and evaluate new acquisition targets as part of our growth strategy.”https://s.yimg.com/rq/darla/4-8-0/html/r-sf-flx.html
About Lakewood Exploration
Lakewood Exploration is a junior resource company that controls the Lacy Gold Project in British Columbia, Canada, and the past-producing Silver Strand Mine in the Coeur d’Alene Mining District in Idaho, USA. The Company is rapidly advancing towards an initial drill program at Silver Strand with the aim of defining a large silver resource within a belt that has produced more than 1.2 billion ounces of silver to-date. Geologic studies indicate that the Silver Strand Mine is hosted by the Revett formation, suggesting the potential for significant down dip extensions as demonstrated by other major mines in the district. Previous operators were solely interested in developing the known shallow mineralization, with the mine’s lowest level extending only 90 metres below surface. Lakewood strives to become a multi-mine silver producer.
Mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on the Company’s property.
On Behalf of the Board of Lakewood Exploration Inc.
Morgan Lekstrom
President
Corporate Office: 551 Howe Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 2C2, Canada
The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.https://s.yimg.com/rq/darla/4-8-0/html/r-sf-flx.htmlhttps://jac.yahoosandbox.com/0.7.0/safeframe.html
Labrador Gold Corp.Wed, July 21, 2021, 8:00 AMIn this article:
Figure 1
Big Vein Plan Map.
Figure 2
High-grade gold intercept in Hole K-21-31. Note photo is not intended to be representative of gold mineralization in Hole K-21-31.
Figure 3
Core photo of Hole K-21-31 from 0.0 to 12.86m showing high grade intersection. Note that this photo is not intended to be representative of mineralization in hole K-21-31.
TORONTO, July 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Labrador Gold Corp. (TSX.V:LAB | OTCQX:NKOSF | FNR: 2N6) (“LabGold” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce further high-grade intercepts of near surface gold mineralization from its 100% controlled Kingsway project near Gander, Newfoundland. The Kingsway project is located in the highly prospective central Newfoundland gold belt.
The high-grade intersections are from holes K-21-29 and -31 that contain fine particles of visible gold in quartz vein that is typically vuggy, locally contains stylolites, and is similar to quartz veins containing high grade gold intersections reported previously (see news release dated June 3, 2021). Hole K-21-31 intersected 276.56 g/t Au over 0.5 metres which represents a “metal factor” (grade x width) of 138.28 g/t Au x m*, the highest value yet on the Kingsway Property. A second intersection in hole K-21-31 intersected 13.14g/t Au over 0.65m from 54.5m. Hole K-21-29 intersected two mineralized zones a near surface zone grading 16.44g/t over 0.5m and a deeper zone starting at 49.35m downhole grading 37.72g/t over 0.21m. A summary of the high-grade intersections, as well as other holes with assays received to date, are given in Table 1 below. *width used to calculate metal factor is downhole width as there is insufficient information to calculate true width.
Table 1. Assay highlights
Hole
From (m)
To (m)
Length (m)
Au (g/t)
K-21-31**
10.5
11
0.5
276.56
And**
54.5
55.15
0.65
13.14
K-21-29**
8
8.5
0.5
16.44
And**
49.35
49.56
0.21
37.72
K-21-20
20
21
1
1.03
K-21-19
8
19
11
1.03
and
46.5
49
2.5
1.09
and
124
130
6
1.87
including
125.5
128.5
3
3.83
K-21-18
11
12
1
1.14
and
138.23
142
3.77
2.03
K-21-17
55
55.6
0.6
1.51
K-21-16
10.5
16.5
6
0.98
and
106.5
107.5
1
1.2
K-21-15
6.5
16
9.5
0.95
and
24
28
4
0.69
and
36
40
4
1.93
and
51.5
55.6
4.1
0.75
and
102
103
1
1.08
K-21-13
25
59.5
34.5
0.97
inc.
43
55
12
1.46
incl.
48.5
51
2.5
2.05
**Interval contains visible gold. All intersections are downhole length as there is insufficient Information to calculate true width.
“The Big Vein target continues to deliver near surface high grade gold mineralization shown by the grade x width value of 138.28 g/t Au x m in Hole-21-31, the highest value obtained so far from the Kingsway drilling,” said Roger Moss, President and CEO of the Company. “In addition to the drilling at Big Vein, our field crews continue to develop targets along the entire 12km strike length of Appleton Fault Zone covered by the property, including within the quartz vein corridor.”
The Big Vein target is an auriferous quartz vein exposed at surface that has been traced over 400 metres at surface along the Appleton Fault Zone. It lies within a larger northeast-southwest trending “quartz vein corridor” that stretches for over 7.5 kilometres as currently outlined with potential for expansion along the 12km strike length of the Appleton Fault Zone in both directions. Gold mineralization observed at Big Vein includes six occurrences of visible gold, assays of samples from which range from 1.87g/t to 1,065g/t gold. The visible gold is typically hosted in annealed and vuggy gray quartz, that is locally stylolitic with vugs often containing euhedral quartz infilling features characteristic of epizonal gold deposits.
The current drill program, recently increased to 50,000 metres, has only tested Big Vein over approximately 100 metres of strike length of the 400m surface exposure and to vertical depths of 50 metres. However, drilling has already produced visible gold in six drill holes giving high grade intercepts as well as wide areas of gold mineralization associated with significant quartz veining and sulphide mineralization including arsenopyrite, pyrite and possible boulangerite noted along vein margins and as strong disseminations in the surrounding wall rocks.
QA/QC
True widths of the reported intersections have yet to be calculated. Assays are uncut. Samples of HQ split core are securely stored prior to shipping to Eastern Analytical Laboratory in Springdale, Newfoundland for assay. Eastern Analytical is an ISO/IEC17025 accredited laboratory. Samples are routinely analyzed for gold by standard 30g fire assay with ICP (inductively coupled plasma) finish with samples containing visible gold assayed by metallic screen/fire assay. The company submits blanks and certified reference standards at a rate of approximately 5% of the total samples in each batch.
Qualified Person
bGold, a Qualified Person in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements as set out in NI 43-101, has read and approved the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for the disclosure contained in this release.
The Company gratefully acknowledges the Newfoundland and Labrador Ministry of Natural Resources’ Junior Exploration Assistance (JEA) Program for its financial support for exploration of the Kingsway property.
About Labrador Gold Labrador Gold is a Canadian based mineral exploration
Roger Moss, PhD., P.Geo., President and CEO of La company focused on the acquisition and exploration of prospective gold projects in Eastern Canada.
In early March 2020, Labrador Gold acquired the option to earn a 100% interest in the Kingsway project in the Gander area of Newfoundland. The three licenses comprising the Kingsway project cover approximately 16km of the Appleton fault zone which is associated with gold occurrences in the region, including the New Found Gold discovery. Infrastructure in the area is excellent located just 18km from the town of Gander with road access to the project, nearby electricity and abundant local water. LabGold recently increased its 20,000 metre diamond drill program to 50,000 metres targeting high-grade epizonal gold mineralization following encouraging early results. The Company has approximately $36 million in working capital and is well funded to carry out the planned program.
The Hopedale property covers much of the Hunt River and Florence Lake greenstone belts that stretch over 80 km. The belts are typical of greenstone belts around the world but have been underexplored by comparison. Initial work by Labrador Gold during 2017 show gold anomalies in soils and lake sediments over a 3 kilometre section of the northern portion of the Florence Lake greenstone belt in the vicinity of the known Thurber Dog gold showing where grab samples assayed up to 7.8g/t gold. In addition, anomalous gold in soil and lake sediment samples occur over approximately 40 kilometres along the southern section of the greenstone belt (see news release dated January 25th 2018 for more details). Labrador Gold now controls approximately 57km strike length of the Florence Lake Greenstone Belt.
The Company has 150,577,206 common shares issued and outstanding and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol LAB.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made. When used in this document, the words “may”, “would”, “could”, “will”, “intend”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from the statements made, including those factors discussed in filings made by us with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties, such as actual results of current exploration programs, the general risks associated with the mining industry, the price of gold and other metals, currency and interest rate fluctuations, increased competition and general economic and market factors, occur or should assumptions underlying the forward looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, or expected. We do not intend and do not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Shareholders are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.