We’re a few hours away from the conclusion of a two-day Fed meeting. Better than expected retail sales last week (the retail sector currently accounts for two-thirds of the GDP in the U.S.) might’ve turned the Fed hawkish. We’ll find out when Chairman Powell steps up to the mic.
Talk of tapering its $120 billion-a-month of asset purchases, sooner rather than later, could kneecap gold. However, a more dovish tone could push the metal significantly higher. Either way, there’s bound to be a reaction—there’s bound to be some drama. I may pop some corn for this one.
Speaking of gold…
Banyan Gold (BYN.V)
Banyan is a good example of a high-quality explorerco that struck me as overlooked-undervalued when I first featured the company in mid-February of 2020 when the stock was trading at a mere $0.06.
Banyan Gold (BYN.V) – resource expansion and discovery potential in the Yukon
The Company’s current $0.29 share price represents a fair gain for those who recognized the potential early in the going.
Helmed by force of nature, Tara Christie, CEO, the Company appears to be on auto-pilot, consistently grinding out resource expanding drill results at the company’s flagship 173 sq km AurMac Gold Project, a sediment-hosted structurally controlled Au setting.
Slide #3 (bottom left) on the Company’s deck details the ounce count at AurMac…
Another property in Banyan’s project pipeline—the Hyland Gold Project—shows 236,000 AuEq ounces in the Indicated category and 288,000 AuEq ounces Inferred.
There’s been a substantial volume of assay-related news here. I count 14 press releases highlighting drill hole assays over the past 12 months.
There was also an important met test update that was released earlier this spring—Banyan Gold Reports 90% Leachable Gold and Rapid Recoveries From Metalurgical Test Work of Airstrip and Powerline Zones, Aurmac Property, Yukon
Having closed a $16M financing last month, the company coffers are stoked.
The demand, and the placees of this PP, add a fair degree of validity to the company’s asset base, setting the stage for continued momentum in building out the AurMac resource going forward.
“With the closing of the private placement, the Company would like to welcome the Franklin Gold and Precious Metals Fund as a 7.1% holder in the Company and the continued support of Osisko Development Corp. and Victoria Gold Corp., the latter becoming an insider with an 11.1% interest.”
Certain insiders of the Company also participated in the flow-through component of the offering—1,426,387 in FT shares or $499,000.
The latest round of drill results dropped on September 8th…
Banyan Gold Reports 144.8 m of 0.74 g/t at the Powerline Deposit, Aurmac Project, Yukon
Highlights from the final 15 holes of a Phase-1 program directed at the Powerline Deposit at the AurMac Property:
- 144.8 meters of 0.74 g/t Au from 7.6 meters in DDH AX-21-101
- Including 47.5 m of 1.43 g/t Au from 7.6 meters;
- 60.9 meters of 0.41 g/t Au from 10.7 meters in DDH AX-21-103;
- 89.6 meters of 0.50 g/t Au from 6.4 meters in DDH AX-21-111;
- 78.1 meters of 0.43 g/t Au from 129.5 meters in DDH AX-21-112;
- 28.2 meters of 1.28 g/t Au from 8.8 meters in DDH AX-21-113.
This Phase-1 campaign consisted of 50 holes, totalling 10,476 meters, drilled along a 100-meter grid.
Gold mineralization is interpreted to be associated with swaths of quartz veins dipping shallowly to the north, and within pyrrhotitic horizons with a dip to the south. The combination of the two controls of gold mineralization equate to sub-horizontal mineralization envelopes at the current drill hole spacing.
Results thus far have increased the area of known gold mineralization by more than 650% (from 0.16 km2 to 1.22 km2) and demonstrated the potential for continued resource expansion in all directions.
Phase-2 drilling at Powerline is ongoing.
“Results continue to demonstrate growth potential of the Powerline Deposit, with continuity of near-surface gold distributed in mineralized horizons concordant with the sub-horizontal mineralization model. Banyan is well positioned to continue to rapidly advance our AurMac Project with our recent financing which will enable us to ramp up to three drills and plan to complete a total of 30,000 m drilling in 2021. Projects with the potential to host three to five million ounces, that are near-surface adjacent to an existing highway, communications and power infrastructure are extremely rare and will be in demand.”
A resource estimate that will capture all of these 2021 assays should drop sometime early next year (author’s best guess).
I talk about ‘endgames’ in these pages quite often. There’s no doubt in my that Banyan has an endgame—a scenario where a resource-hungry predator (Producer) will, at some point, swoop in and take over this Company at a fat premium.
This Youtube interview with CEO Christie is only a few days old…
HighGold Mining (HIGH.V)
Having featured this Alaska-based exploreco back in late January of 2020 in the $1.15 range, the stock struck me as good value. Though it’s up only marginally since then—the correction in all things mining has beaten this one down especially hard—it still strikes me as good value.
After upsizing its 2021 drill plan at their flagship polymetallic Johnson Tract Gold Project in Southcentral Alaska earlier this summer—from 16k to 20k meters—HighGold dropped its first assays just last week.
HighGold Mining Intersects 20 g/t AuEq over 4.3m in 100m Step-out at JT Deposit, Alaska
Drill Highlights – JT Deposit Expansion (JT21-123)
- 13.1 g/t Au, 200 g/t Ag, 4.92% Zn, 2.04% Pb, and 0.35% Cu (20 g/t AuEq) over 4.3m including
- 19.0 g/t Au, 242 g/t Ag, 7.10% Zn, 2.91% Pb, and 0.50% Cu (28 g/t AuEq) over 2.8m
Hitting on a big stepout is a great way to kick off this 2021 newsflow.
Darwin Green, CEO:
“This is a great start to the 2021 drill program. Our first drill hole of the season has intersected strong precious and base metal mineralization in a large step-out from last years drilling, expanding the total strike length of JT Deposit mineralization by 15-20% to 600 meters. In addition to the excellent gold grades, the intersection includes some of the highest silver grades documented to date at the JT Deposit and is developed within a mudstone host – features often found in gold-rich VMS deposits. We are already designing follow-up holes and are excited to see how this new variation in the mineralization style at the JT Deposit develops as we continue to test at depth and along strike.”
This very recent Youtube interview with CEO Green summarizes the significance of this big stepout…
As highlighted at the top right of the map above, the JT deposit resource currently stands at 2.14 Mt grading 10.93 g/t AuEq (6.07 g/t Au, 5.8 g/t Ag, 0.57% Cu, 0.80% Pb and 5.85% Zn) in the Indicated category plus an additional 0.58 Mt grading 7.16 g/t AuEq (2.05 g/t Au, 8.7 g/t Ag, 0.54% Cu, 0.33% Pb, and 6.67% Zn) Inferred.
All told, the current ounce count rings in at 750k ounces AuEq @ 10.9 g/t AuEq Indicated –
134k ounces AuEq @ 7.2 g/t AuEq Inferred.
This next slide from HighGold’s deck highlights the targets, both immediate and regional, that will receive a proper probe with the drill bit during this 2021 campaign.
After results are compiled from this 2021 program, we’ll see a resource update, likely in Q1 of 2022.
Elsewhere along the company’s project pipeline, a new acquisition was announced earlier this month:
Though we haven’t seen much activity on this ground in recent months, these are highly prospective hectares in a world-class mining district. I suspect we’ll see a ramp-up in activity during the winter drilling season.
HighGold’s shares, like the vast majority of its peers, have taken it on the chin in recent weeks.
Current prices may represent a good entry point for those looking to establish a position in an aggressive, well-run exploreco—an exploreco backstopped by a meaningful resource.
Current prices may also appeal to those looking to add to their current positions as assay-related newsflow is about to gain momentum.
Prime Mining (PRYM.V)
First featured in these pages on November 30, 2020 at $1.52—Prime Mining (PRYM.V) – a new addition to the Highballer shortlist—the stock delivered shareholders some respectable gains over the past ten months.
Prime, an expertly helmed explorer/developer, continues to deliver exceptional grades from a Phase-1 drill program at its wholly-owned 13,800-hectare Los Reyes Gold-Silver Project in Sinaloa State, Mexico.
The resource at this flagship project currently stands at 633,000 ounces of gold and 16,604,000 ounces of silver in the Indicated category PLUS an additional 179,000 ounces gold and 6,831,000 ounces silver in the Inferred category.
True to form, on September 8th, the company delivered another impressive set of assays.
Additional High-Grade Results Expand Open-Pit Potential at Guadalupe East
Some of these high-grade hits really stand out. I can only imagine the expression on their faces when they hauled up a three-meter length of core with 62.60 g/t Au and 2,574.0 g/t Ag. I’m sure spontaneous happy dances were improvised right on the drill pad.
Aside from the high-grade gold, note the silver values. And note the broader intervals of high-grade mineralization. Wow.
Highlight Drill Intercepts of Main and Subsidiary Estaca Veins
Estaca Vein
- 35.37 g/t Au and 1,626.0 gpt Ag over 6.0 meters estimated true width (etw), including 62.60 gpt Au and 2,574.0 gpt Ag over 3.0 meters (3.0 m etw) in hole 21GE-20;
- 15.58 g/t Au and 270.2 g/t Ag over 11.7 meters (9.4 m etw) in hole21GE-18;
- 2.66 g/t Au and 118.4 g/t Ag over 43.9 meters (30.7 m etw) in hole21 GE-19;
- 7.31 g/t Au and 615.0 g/t Ag over 7.0 meters (6.6 m etw) in hole 21GE-15;
- 4.77 g/t Au and 174.5 g/t Ag over 7.2 meters (7.2 m etw) in hole 21GE-13;
- 3.19 g/t Au and 376.7 g/t Ag over 12.9 meters (5.2 m etw) in hole 21GE-14;
- 1.63 g/t Au and 220.2 g/t Ag over 10.3 meters (7.3 m etw) in hole 21GE-11.
Estaca Subsidiary Veins
- 0.02 Au gpt and 1,064.0 gpt Ag over 1.5 meters (0.6 m etw) and 2.86 gpt Au and 179.5 gpt Ag over 0.5 meters (0.2 m etw) and 9.79 gpt Au and 1,228.0 gpt Ag over 0.5 meters (0.2 m etw) in hole 21GE-14;
- 2.56 g/t Au and 195.8 g/t Ag over 3.6 meters (1.8 m etw) in hole 21GE-10.
These drill holes all lie within, and adjacent to, the Guadalupe East deposit (Guadalupe East is one of eight known gold-silver deposits that comprise the resource highlighted above).
Results like these are not being ignored by the market. Results like these are the reason the Company’s share price continues tracking along the upper end of recently established highs.
“The high-grade drill results reported today expand the resource potential at Guadalupe East considerably. The three historic main veins and multiple mineralized splays encountered to-date all remain open at depth and along strike. Drilling has now defined the Guadalupe East veins over 420 metres incorporating current and previous drilling. Adding known historical underground workings, the total strike length of the Guadalupe East vein system is 1,000 metres. For reference, our April 2020 oxide Pit-Constrained Resource reflects a mineralized strike extent of only 120 metres at Guadalupe East based on open pit mining and heap leach parameters. The high-grade gold-silver values reported from our Phase 1 drill program indicate that conventional milling, with much higher silver and gold recoveries, may be the preferred processing method going forward.”
According to this September 8th press release…
Three drill rigs will operate at the Project until the commencement of the expanded Phase 2 program, which is expected to begin in November 2021. There are currently 35 completed drill holes that are pending release subject to receipt of some assay results. The Phase 2 program is under review and will include an increased number of drill rigs. Specifically, Phase 2 drilling will test the Guadalupe East veins, including the Estaca Vein, along strike and at depth and will target the known extensions of open pit resources. The Company expects that drilling will increase its understanding of the boiling zone controls and geometry and will target down-dip areas of underground resource potential at the Guadalupe East veins and other regional targets.
With 35 holes pending, and an aggressive multiple rig Phase-2 campaign planned for November, the Company offers an abundance of catalysts going forward.
One noteworthy shareholder, one Pierre Lassonde, likes what he sees and has developed an insatiable appetite for the stock.
In my mind, Prime Mining is one of the more obvious takeover targets in the gold arena. The company has an endgame.
Defense Metals (DEFN.V)
First featured in my maiden Highballer piece back in early 2020 at roughly $0.15, DEFN has given shareholders quite a ride over the past year.
The Company’s B.C.-based Wicheeda REE Project boasts a high-grade resource of 4,890,000 tonnes averaging 3.02% LREO (Light Rare Earth Oxide) in the Indicated category, and 12,100,000 tonnes averaging 2.90% LREO classified as Inferred.
The following map is a busy one. It neatly demonstrates the continuity of Wicheeda’s mineralization. Note the fat intervals of LREEs tagged outside the main resource block where the deposit is open in multiple directions (including depth).
After announcing a watershed MOU with Sinosteel Corporation back in August of this year, a news event I covered in some detail via Defense Metals (DEFN.V) announces landmark MOU with Sinosteel Corporation, the company went back to basics, putting boots on the ground at their flagship project.
Here, the company states:
During 2019, the Company completed 13 diamond drill holes totalling 2,005 metres that expanded the Wicheeda deposit to the north, where it remains open, and further delineated the relatively higher-grade, near surface dolomite carbonatite. The 2019 drill campaign yielded one of the highest grade REE intercepts to date within drill hole WI19-31 that returned 4.43% LREO over 83 metres; including 5.47% LREO over a drill core interval of 33 metres ending in mineralization[2]. The 2019 exploration resulted in a 49% tonnage and 30% grade increase in mineral resources (see Defense Metals News Release Dated May 13, 2020).
The 2021 Wicheeda diamond drill program is designed to build on the successes of the 2019 campaign in support of future advanced economic studies. The 2021 drill program will focus on expanding the zone REE mineralized dolomite-carbonatite to the north, in addition to further delineating existing inferred resources within the central and northwestern areas of the deposit (map below). A comprehensive campaign totalling 32 holes from seven drill pads ranging in depth from 75 to 225 meters over a 400 meter north-south strike extent is planned.
I love the maps these guys put out (note the drill pad locations and the blue arrows representing the intended drill targets along the North Zone at Wicheeda)…
Yesterday (Sep. 21st), the company dropped the following headline:
Defense Metals Drills 215 Metres Carbonatite in First Hole At Wicheeda Rare Earth Element Deposit
Here, the company announced that the first hole from this 2021 campaign—testing the North Zone of Wicheeda—tagged a 215-meter interval of “visually REE mineralized carbonatite“, representing THE longest carbonatite interval drilled on the project to date. The Company is currently on hole number four, with over 750 meters drilled thus far.
“Drill hole WI21-33 (350az/-80o) was designed to test the North Zone of the Wicheeda REE Deposit, which remains open to expansion, and collared into visually REE mineralized carbonatite, and remained in carbonatite to a depth of 220 meters downhole. Significantly the intercept extends 120 meters vertically below the bottom of nearest mineralized drill hole (WI19-32) and 70 metres and below the base of the current resource pit shell, reinforcing that the north end of the Wicheeda REE Deposit is open to expansion (map below).”
It would appear the LREE resource at Wicheeda is destined to grow, perhaps significantly so.
The company intends to drill up to 5,000 meters during this summer/fall campaign. I suspect, if they continue to tag carbonatite along these extraordinary lengths, they’ll go full-monty and give us the full 5k.
The shares are currently in the process of testing resistance at $0.28. A breakout above this level, on significant volume, could set the stage for a significantly higher trading range.
Highballer’s Uranium Focus
In a recent Highballer report—Uranium tags multi-year highs, Skyharbour Resources (SYH.V) in the spotlight, updating Defense Metals, Forum Energy Metals, Harfang Exploration—I chronicled Sprott’s recent appetite for physical uranium having mobilized the lion’s share of its $300M cash horde. The Sprott Physical Uranium Trust piled on over 10 pounds of physical uranium in just the last month.
A recent Tweet:
Incidentally, Sprott recently bumped up their long-term price estimates for uranium to $60 per lb, from $50 (there’s a certain degree of bias where these price targets are concerned, obviously).
So… is Sprott out of dry powder? Has the buying spree come to an end?
Hardly…
Sprott Physical Uranium Trust Announces US$1.0 Billion ATM To Fund Further Uranium Purchases
I got a good chuckle out of this recent Zero Hedge headline (well crafted Mr. Durden):
There’s a plethora of (potential) catalysts supporting higher uranium prices going forward.
In a recent Ellis Martin interview, Skyharbour’s CEO, Jordon Trimble, details how the long, brutal bear market in the uranium sector has driven down our current primary mine supply to roughly 125M pounds, not nearly enough to meet the growing demand at over 180 million pounds (2020 figures).
Further, according to a recent Skyharbour press release:
“There are 443 operable nuclear reactors and 51 new reactors under construction globally with hundreds more planned in the pipeline. China and India continue to be at the forefront of demand growth and have the largest reactor pipelines making up a significant portion of the global growth. More recently, an important emerging market for nuclear and uranium demand in small modular reactors has gained notable positive press and momentum. As the global push for decreasing carbon emissions continues, nuclear energy will play a vital role in providing base-load, carbon emissions-free, low-cost electricity generation.
On the supply-side, mine closures and production curtailment continue to dominate headlines which was exacerbated by the pandemic clearly illustrating the risks to global primary mine supply. Major production cuts and depleting mine reserves appear to be working their way into the uranium market and driving prices higher. The two largest producers, Cameco and Kazatomprom, have announced large supply cuts over the last several years and have been actively buying uranium directly in the spot market to fulfill their contract deliveries as their production profiles have decreased.”
A few striking digits plucked from the above-noted interview: The combined market cap of ALL publicly traded uranium companies is equal to roughly $35B. This pales when compared to the previous bull cycle when the collective market cap topped $150B.
After some spectacular price chart trajectory, uranium stocks as a group have corrected, erasing a lot of the rapid-fire gains.
This first chart is bellwether Cameco Corp (the blue line represents a level that hasn’t been tested since 2014)…
NexGen Energy (NXE.T), an Athabasca Basin explorer / developer took out all-time highs earlier this summer, and blasted through those highs in recent sessions, only to give back those gains in a few short sessions.
Fission Uranium (FCU.T) is another Athabasca Basin explorer / developer that took out multi-year highs, only to give a good chunk back in less than a week.
So what’s next?
If you believe we’re in the early innings of a uranium supercycle—that nuclear energy is the key to a cleaner, greener world—this retracement might be viewed as an opportunity, especially for those who missed out on the recent sector-wide breakout.
Forum Energy Metals (FMC.V)
Forum is a company I first featured in these pages on May 31st, 2020 at $0.09. Early shareholders have witnessed an impressive run and are enjoying some rather substantial gains.
In a recent Highballer piece I reported that drilling at the Company’s Janice Lake Project—where mining colossus Rio Tinto Exploration Canada (RTEC) is earning up to 80% by spending $30M—is now complete.
On September 9th the Company gave us the following update:
Rio Tinto has completed drilling a further nine holes on the Rafuse target during the summer exploration program, following up on the nine holes drilled on the Rafuse target by Rio Tinto during the winter drill program. Rio Tinto expects results to be available by mid-October. A major focus of Rio Tinto’s summer exploration program was regional mapping, sampling and prospecting of the full extent of the 52 kilometre long sedimentary basin hosting these copper deposits. Prospecting in 2020 discovered a 3.8% copper boulder eighteen kilometres to the south of the current drill area.
This update also highlighted the Company’s significant exposure to uranium in and around the prolific Athabasca Basin (note the project areas shaded in dark blue).
Northwest Athabasca JV (39.5% Forum; 28% NexGen; 20% Cameco; 12.5% Orano)
Here, Forum has submitted a permit for a 3,500-meter drill campaign scheduled to commence in Q1 of 2022. Forum will act as Operator and sole funder of the program with a proposed budget of $1.3 million. After incurring this (exploration) expense, Forum expects to increase its interest in the project to 47%, diluting its partners’ interests in the process.
This project boasts a 1.5 million pound (historical) deposit:
“The historical 1.5 million pound Maurice Bay uranium deposit* – 600,000 tonnes grading 0.6% U3O8 to a depth of 50 meters – is classified as a is a ‘perched deposit’ in the sandstone based on in the Western Athabasca Basin (Source: Saskatchewan Industry and Resources, Miscellaneous Report 2003-7).”
Forum’s focus with this 3,500-meter campaign is on the potential for a larger uranium deposit hosted at the unconformity between the sandstone and basement rocks and/or within the basement rocks.
Drilling back in 2012, 2013, and 2014 by Forum encountered a number of shallow zones of uranium mineralization. The highlight interval from this early drilling was an impressive 5.7% uranium over 8.5 meters.
The company has over twenty drill targets in its crosshairs.
“It is Forum’s view that there is a uranium deposit on the property yet to be discovered.”
Fir Island (Orano Canada Option to Earn 70%)
Forum is advising Sr. partner Orano to conduct a resistivity survey this December along an area north of the drilling completed this past winter, followed by a drill campaign targeting any anomalies detected via the survey.
The timing of this program will depend on Orano’s budget and permitting.
Other Uranium Projects
The gravity survey announced April 7, 2021 on the Wollaston project located 10km south of Cameco’s Rabbit Lake uranium mill and immediately east of the all-weather road to Orano’s McClean Lake uranium processing plant will be completed in Q4/2021.
Forum has identified a number of drill targets from past drilling by Forum at the 100% owned Highrock and the 65% owned Costigan projects located 5 km south of Cameco’s Key Lake uranium mill.
In the Western Athabasca Basin, Forum’s 75% owned Clearwater project, on trend from Fission’s Triple R and NexGen’s Arrow development projects has drill targets identified by previous Forum drilling.
Rio Tinto Exploration Canada (“Rio Tinto”), 60% owner and operator of the Henday project (40% Forum) in the Eastern Athabasca Basin, does not plan any programs for 2022.
Without a doubt, Forum’s significant exposure to uranium in the Basin is contributing to the recent positive price trajectory in the stock.
Forum’s CEO, Rick Mazur, sent me the following link, an interview with Canaccord’s uranium analyst Katie Lachapelle.
One of the more important points Katie stresses in this interview is how producers such as Cameco will need to wade into the spot market, perhaps in a significant way, to make up for this year’s production shortfalls due to operational shutdowns. This is yet another positive fundamental underpinning an already tight market.
This Forum crew is stacked with geological talent. I should have an opportunity this October to sit down and chat with Forum’s Ken Wheatley, a man with over four decades of uranium exploration experience. Ken has a remarkable track record of mineral discoveries—eight uranium deposits, four of which became producing mines in the Athabasca Basin. This guy is a rockstar, in the truest sense of the word.
Lastly, Forum dropped the following headline on September 20th…
Forum Provides Drilling Update at the Love Lake Nickel – Copper – Palladium Project, Saskatchewan
Here, Forum updated drilling progress at its 100% owned Love Lake Nickel-Copper-PGM Project located approximately 60 kilometers northeast of its flagship Janice Lake project, along Highway 905 to the Rabbit Lake/ McClean Lake uranium mills (map below).
Three holes drilled at the Korvin Lake and What Lake targets have been submitted for assay—results are expected in mid-October.
Forum is on its eleventh and final hole of the drill program on the Korvin Creek target.
The following is a summary of the Love Lake campaign:
Korvin Lake – two holes drilled on the electromagnetic target identified by the HeliSAM Time Domain Electromagnetic (EM) airborne survey completed in May 2021.
What Lake – five holes have been drilled on trenches which returned (historical) values as high as 0.43% Copper, 0.23% Nickel, 4275 ppb Palladium, 3580 ppb Platinum and 200 ppb Gold and on targets outlined by ground magnetic and electromagnetic surveys.
Korvin Creek – four holes will be completed where two drill holes in 1968 intersected 31.7 metres grading 0.23% copper and 36.6 metres of 0.29% copper, as well as targets outlined by ground magnetic and electromagnetic surveys.
Multiple targets across multiple highly prospective projects = multiple shots at a major discovery.
Skyharbour Resources (SYH.V)
I introduced Skyharbour to these pages back on September 7th in a piece titled Uranium tags multi-year highs, Skyharbour Resources (SYH.V) in the spotlight…
Skyharbour is cash-rich Basin-based land baron with control of over 250,000 hectares spread across six drill-ready projects. Located 15 kilometers east of Denison’s Wheeler River project and 39 kilometers south of Cameco’s McArthur River uranium mine, the wholly-owned 35,705-hectare Moore project is the company’s flagship.
Since I first featured Skyharbour earlier this month, the Company released assays from its fully-funded, recently accelerated drill campaign where it’s probing unconformity and basement-hosted targets along the 4.7-kilometer long Maverick Structural Corridor.
The highlight interval from this first batch of assays is impressive—the values are included in the text of this September 14th headline…
The Company has drilled 4,578 meters in thirteen holes thus far. Seven holes were drilled on the high-grade Maverick East Zone, three on the Esker Target, and three on the Grid 19 Target.
A good chunk of this drill campaign was designed to follow up on a significant hit from a previous program at Maverick East—0.72% U3O8 over 17.5 meters (including 1% U3O8 over 10 meters)—where the zone is open down plunge, at depth.
Seven holes (ML21-01 to 05 and ML21-12 and 13) were drilled on this high-grade zone. Assays for the first five (ML21-01 to 05) are reported in this press release.
Maverick East Zone Drilling
Hole ML21-01 was drilled just west of hole ML20-12 which intersected 0.28% U3O8 over 17.9 meters in the winter of 2020. ML21-01 tagged a broad interval of uranium mineralization returning 0.07% U3O8, beginning at 268.8 meters and extending 18.2 meters to encompass both sandstone and basement lithologies.
“This hole migrated well into the footwall and intersected structurally disrupted and clay altered to replaced sandstone and granite, along with uranium mineralization. The hole did return a typical footwall geochemical signature, with intense boron enrichment (up to 8,060 ppm) in the sandstone as well as elevated uranium, nickel and other pathfinders in the sandstone and basement.”
Hole ML20-02 was drilled to test for continuity within the central portion of the Maverick East Zone. The mineralized intercept in ML21-02 occurs in a broad zone that returned 0.19% U3O8 over an 11.7-meter interval, from 271.8 to 283.5 meters downhole.
“This mineralization straddles the unconformity with approximately two-thirds of the interval within basement rocks comprised of sheared, clay-altered to -replaced felsic intrusives. This hole once again intersected the main Maverick Fault towards the footwall side and the geochemistry is indicative of that with highly anomalous boron within the basement and the sandstone. The intercept confirms continuity within the central portion of the Maverick East Zone.”
Drill hole ML21-03 is the highlight interval from this first batch of assays as the company continues to probe the depth extent of the high-grade Maverick East Zone down plunge in the basement rocks. It was drilled to test for continuity within the eastern half of the zone, ten meters northeast of hole ML20-09 which returned 0.72% U3O8 over 17.5 meters.
ML21-03 tagged an impressive 2.54% U3O8 over 6.0 meters from 276.0 to 282.0 meters including 6.80% U3O8 over 2.0 meters from 278.5 to 280.5 meters.
ML21-03 represents one of the highest grade intercepts to date on the Maverick East Zone and stands as THE highest grades discovered to date in the basement rock.
“This mineralization is predominantly basement-hosted and accompanied by intense clay alteration of pelitic assemblages below the unconformity as well as up to 0.83% Cu and 0.73% Ni in half-meter sample intervals.”
“Drill holes ML21-04 and ML21-05 were collared to test for continuity between holes ML20-04 and -13. Hole ML21-04 was lost just above the target and the unconformity in the Maverick Fault at 238 meters. ML21-05 successfully tested the unconformity, but did not intersect significant uranium mineralization. The basement lithologies in this hole are typically intrusive in character within clay-altered to -replaced granites throughout. The sandstone is enriched in pathfinder elements, primarily boron, as is typical of footwall holes along the Maverick Fault.”
“Holes ML21-12 and 13 were drilled as follow-up holes within the eastern end of the Maverick East Zone. Both holes were completed to depth and intersected the expected prospective faulting and geology that has been identified in the Maverick East to date. Final geochemical assay results are pending and will be reported on once received and correlated with the noted geological features.”
Assays are also pending from two regional targets at Moore Lake—the Esker Zone and the Grid 19 Zone.
Jordan Trimble, CEO:
“We are thrilled with the first batch of drill results announced herein highlighted by drill hole ML21-03 which returned the best intercept to date in the basement rocks at the Maverick East Zone. Our geological team is continuing to explore for higher grade uranium mineralization along strike and down plunge at this zone with an expanded drill program. We are successfully increasing the size of the high grade zones at the Maverick corridor and these results illustrate the notable discovery upside potential at the Project especially in the basement rock feeder-zones which have had limited drill-testing historically. Furthermore, there is good progress being made at regional targets at Moore and we intend to follow up on other high-priority targets throughout the Project. The remaining assay results from the drill program are pending which will provide additional news flow in the months to come amidst a significant resurgence in the uranium market.”
This 4.7-kilometer Maverick Structural Corridor, where significant discovery potential exists along strike and at depth, remains the Company’s primary focus.
Drilling continues at the Moore Project with an additional 2,000 meters (four or five holes) added to the program.
Concerning recent insider filings on SEDI, in case you’re wondering, there was a batch of $0.30 options expiring at the end of the month that had to be exercised. CEO Trimble sold only enough common shares to cover his cost on the exercise and actually increased his net position by 100k shares. All told, Trimble holds 1,858,750 shares (1,583,750 in his personal corp plus 275k in his personal accounts). He also holds 425k options and 500k warrants, all of which can be found on the main SEDI website.
Like all of the companies featured above, I believe Skyharbour has an endgame.
I had originally planned to trot out a new suggestion in this report, but I’m already pushing 6k words here. A preview: Sokoman Minerals—a company with a dominant land position targeting high-grade gold in Central Newfoundland—is in the midst of an aggressive 50,000-meter Phase-6 drill program at its flagship Moosehead project. A full report will have to wait for another day, but in the meantime, it’s worth a look, especially at these lowly levels (please note that I’m biased re Sokoman—I own the stock).
- 200.23 million shares outstanding
- $75.09M market cap based on its recent $0.375 close
- Pitch deck
End
—Greg Nolan
Full disclosure: Forum Energy and Defense Metals are Highballer clients (color me biased).
****The Maurice Bay historical resource estimate was completed prior to the implementation of National Instrument 43-101. Given the extensive exploration work completed by experienced mineral resource companies, and the quality of the historical work completed, the Company believes the historical estimate to be relevant and reliable. However, a qualified person has not completed sufficient work to verify and classify the historical estimate as a current mineral resource, and the Company is not treating the historical estimate as a current mineral resource. Hence, the estimate should not be relied upon. It should be noted that mineral resources, which are not mineral reserves, do not have demonstrated economic viability.
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