Cartier Resources and HighGold Mining—two company’s on my endgame candidate shortlist—dropped news in recent sessions.
If you’re new to Highballerstocks and are unfamiliar with concepts such as endgame and peak gold, my maiden Jan. 15, 2020 article—Highballer’s Top Three Picks for 2020—will bring you up to speed.
The ‘About’ link at the top of the home page will also tell you a little about who I am, what I’m about, and what I see coming as when we enter a new bull cycle in junior mining stocks.
Company updates
HighGold Mining (HIGH.TSX-V) (HGGOF.OTCQB)
HighGold Mining, featured on Jan. 26th in A high-grade gold and base metal play with Tier-1 potential, dropped the following headline yesterday:
Here, we’re presented surface rock sampling and historic drill core re-sampling results from the Difficult Creek (DC) Prospect at the company’s flagship Johnson Tract property in Southcentral Alaska.
The sampling was part of a 2019 regional exploration program completed outside of the main JT Deposit area where recent drill hole results included 17.8 g/t gold equivalent (“AuEq”) over 75.1 meters (December 19, 2019 news release).
The purpose of the 2019 surface campaign was to 1) evaluate and extend known prospects within the property 2) identify new zones of alteration & mineralization 3) develop additional drill targets for 2020.
DC Prospect Highlights
Middle DC
- 1.5 meter chip channel sample grading 22.1 g/t Au, 178 g/t Ag, 1,1% Cu and 20% Pb;
- 1.5 meter chip channel sample grading 23.3 g/t Au, 74 g/t Ag, 0.2% Cu, 0.4% Zn and 5.9% Pb;
- 4.0 meter chip channel sample grading 5.3 g/t Au and 61 g/t Ag;
- Grab sample* grading 50.1 g/t Au, 97 g/t Ag, 5.2% Cu, 6.0% Zn and 20% Pb*
*Note – grab samples are often biased samples and are not necessarily representative of the areas underlying mineralization (chip samples are more reliable and may be a better representation of what lies subsurface).
New Vein Zone Discovery
- Grab sample grading 2.58 g/t Au and 102 g/t Ag;
- Grab sample grading 1.34 g/t Au and 178 g/t Ag;
- Grab sample grading 0.97 g/t Au and 221 g/t Ag.
Re-sampling of 1983 DC Prospect Drill Core
- 4.6 meters at 9.33 g/t Au, 4.5% Zn and 0.5%Cu from drill hole DC83-002, within 36.5 meters grading 3.04 g/t Au, 1.9% Zn and 0.2% Cu
Darwin Green, HighGold President & CEO:
“High-grade mineralization at Difficult Creek is similar in character to the main Johnson Tract Deposit located 4.5 km to the southwest and highlights the potential for multiple deposits on the district-scale land package. We are particularly encouraged by the discovery of a new vein zone and the widespread extent of mineralization. We look forward to testing the DC Prospect along with other major drill targets located in and around the Johnson Tract Deposit during the 2020 field season, which we anticipate will begin in late May to early June. HighGold is well-financed for an aggressive field program at Johnson and will issue more detail when plans have been finalized. Meanwhile, HighGold anticipates drills to be turning on its Timmins, Ontario gold properties before month-end.”
The surface samples
The DC Prospect, characterized by a series of large gossan alteration zones similar in style to the JT Deposit, is divided into four main zones 1) Upper Difficult Creek 2) Middle Difficult Creek 3) Lower Difficult Creek 4) and 5) East Difficult Creek. These zones extend over an area of roughly 2km x 3km.
For those who know their rocks:
“Mineralization and pervasive clay/anhydrite alteration appear to be preferentially developed within dacitic to rhyolitic tuffaceous rocks that underly a capping sequence of lesser altered massive andesites. The widespread extent of mineralization exposed in erosional ‘windows’ through the andesite supports potential for a large and partially blind mineralized system linking the various DC Prospect zones together.”
For those who don’t know their rocks, when the words “pervasive” and “alteration” are combined in the same sentence, it’s usually a good thing.
This ‘new vein zone’ discovery (above image) is a “raw prospect” characterized by low-sulphidation epithermal features.
“The vein zone trends east-west and is exposed in outcrop over a 100-meter section with talus-scree slopes covering the extension of the vein on either side. Rock chip sampling results show consistent anomalous gold and silver values across the lateral extent of the showing, and higher silver to gold ratios than the Middle DC mineralized zone, with several samples in excess of 100 g/t Ag. The veins are interpreted as high-level within the mineral system and are targets at depth where they project into underlying dacite tuffs that host most of the high-grade gold mineralization elsewhere on the Property.”
“The results of the new rock sampling at the Middle DC mineralized zone are similar to historic assays that reported anomalous Au, Ag, Pb, Cu and Zn, including a high of 50.1 g/t Au. The results of soil sampling across the zone identified a 100-meter long zone of +100 ppb Au that remains open to the south and east, with individual highs up to 3.06 g/t Au.”
The company also reported that several other anomalies across the DC Prospect were identified during the 2019 exploration campaign and will be followed-up during the 2020 field season.
Drill Core Re-Sampling
In addition to the surface exploration work at Difficult Creek, the company resampled 1,344 meters of drill core from the mid-1980s.
This historic drilling successfully intersected significant near-surface mineralization.
New assay results from this core validate the historic assays (table below):
The potential to expand this zone is considered to be good.
2020 promises to be a busy year at Johnson Tract. A $9.3M bought deal financing closed last December—a PP with no dilutive bells or whistles (warrants)—will buy a lot drilling (the company currently has approx. $14M in the till).
Future catalysts
HighGold is currently developing a 3D geological model for its JT Deposit with the purpose of completing an initial NI43-101 mineral resource estimate in the next 2 to 3 months.
The company will also be prioritizing drill targets for the 2020 field season.
Major drill priorities are expected to include:
- Expansion of the main JT Deposit;
- Testing the NE Fault Offset target, interpreted to be the fault-displaced depth continuation of the JT Deposit;
- Follow-up on the New Footwall Zone Discovery;
- Follow-up on the Difficult Creek Prospect highlighted today;
- Follow-up on other property-wide prospects.
As noted further up the page, a drill rig will be mobilized to the company’s Munro-Croesus and Golden Perimeter projects in the prolific Timmins Gold Camp of Ontario in the coming weeks.
Cartier Resources (ECR.TSX-V)
Cartier, one of my top three picks for 2020, dropped the following headline on Feb. 4:
Cartier Awards a second Mandate for NI 43-101 Resource Estimate for the Chimo Mine Project
This will represent the 2nd resource from the company’s flagship Chimo Mine Project.
The first resource estimate along the Central Gold Corridor was tabled last November:
- 3,263,300 tonnes at an average grade of 4.40 g/t Au for a total of 461,280 ounces of gold in the indicated resource category;
- 3,681,600 tonnes at an average grade of 3.53 g/t Au for a total of 417,250 ounces of gold in the Inferred resource category.
The current resource—the numbers highlighted above—is outlined in red (above map).
The pending resource along the North and South Corridors—outlined in yellow and green above—may represent only the beginning of sustained resource growth for the Chimo Mine Project.
The recently launched Phase III, 11,000-meter drilling program is designed to expand the dimensions of multiple prioritized zones.
Note that deposits in this region typically run deep. Now note the priority target at depth highlighted on the map below.
If this current phase of drilling is successful, we should see another resource update for the Central Gold Corridor later this year.
This stock is still mired in the $0.14 range. IMO, it’s only a matter of time before we witness a substantial re-rating in these shares.
Both HighGold and Cartier will be delivering substantial newsflow over the course of 2020.
We stand to watch.
END
Greg Nolan
Full disclosure: I have not been compensated for writing this piece. I do not currently own shares in HighGold or Cartier at the time of this writing (that may change in the coming days/weeks).
Disclaimer - Legal NoticeHighballerstocks.com (Greg Nolan) is not a licensed financial advisor and does not give investment advice.
The content of this report is for information purposes only.
Nothing contained herein should be construed as a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security.
Always consult a licensed qualified investment advisor in your legal jurisdiction before making any investment decisions.
Though Highballerstocks.com (Greg Nolan) believes its sources to be credible, and the statements contained herein to be true, readers must conduct their own thorough due diligence, and or consult with a qualified investment advisor before important investment decisions are made.
Highballerstocks.com (Greg Nolan) accepts no responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the contents of this report.