With indications that we’re in the early stages of a bull run in junior mining equities, now that the precious metal is carving out new high ground, it’s a good time to bring Highballer up to date.
When I first started scribbling these reports a couple years back, I tasked myself with generating a list of companies, a ‘shortlist’ if you will, of high-quality plays that might benefit from improving sentiment in the junior exploration arena (content all based on my years of tracking activity in this Wild West sector). The idea was to take on a few clients—clients I believed in—and give readers a heads-up on the companies I was targeting for future purchases.
Now, with a writing schedule that’s becoming increasingly intense (I’m editing my second book and ghostwriting weekly content), I believe a better approach is to simply highlight the companies I’m positioned in now while at the same time (briefly) summarize those I plan to initiate a position in when funds allow. I’ll present this content with slightly less detail, putting the onus on the reader to continue the due diligence rigors to divine the merits I see. This will allow me to generate Highballer content more frequently without the long-form formalities.
I’ll still take on a client or two to help pay the bills, but know that said clients are people and projects I believe in (I’ve turned down numerous offers in the past because the value-creation potential simply wasn’t there).
We’ll start this report with a client company, and, closer to the bottom, I’ll list a few juniors I’ve been accumulating now that gold, silver, copper (and U3O8) are lighting up trading screens, and sentiment among junior equities appears to be finding a new gear.
Forum Energy Metals (FMC.V)
- 285.33 million shares outstanding
- $34.2M market cap based on its recent $0.12 close
Rick Mazur led Forum is no stranger to these pages.
With an upcoming drill program at the company’s mothership Aberdeen Uranium Project in the Thelon Basin in Canada’s Nunavut Territory, the company has set its sights on putting the region on the global U3O8 map in a major way. Thelon is vastly under-explored. What we do know is that it’s a close geological analog to the prolific Athabasca Basin further south. Forum management believes that its dominant 95,518-hectare land position in the region will prove the world’s next major high-grade U3O8 district (Thelon may be where Athabasca was before the discoveries of Cigar Lake and McArthur River a half-century ago).
There are three deposits at the development stage in the Thelon Basin—the Kiggavik, Andrew Lake, and End deposits—dubbed the Kiggavik Uranium Project, a pound-count that represents 133 million lbs of uranium controlled by Orano and Uranium Energy.
Forum’s 95,000-hectare land position surrounds this impressive mineral endowment.
Last September, Forum began proving up the latent high-grade potential of its commanding land position in the region when they released assays from a modest four-hole drill program at Aberdeen.
Highlights from this maiden round of drilling included 2.25% U3O8 over 11.1 meters, 1.01% U3O8 over 6.2 meters, and 0.40% over 12.8 meters. So far, after having tested only 300 meters of a 1.5 kilometer-long anomaly, this high-grade zone—Tatiggaq—is roughly 50 meters wide. It’s open for expansion to the northeast and southwest, and there’s also potential at depth as the company has yet to probe below the 250-meter level.
Boosting the potential economics of Tatiggaq’s U3O8 values, there’s also a gold halo associated with this high-grade mineralization, as revealed in a recent press release – Forum Drills 2.5 g/t Gold over 2.3 Metres Including 9.3 g/t Gold over 0.3 Metres at the Tatiggaq Uranium Deposit, Aberdeen Uranium Project, Thelon Basin, Nunavut.
Two drills, 10,000 meters, and forty drill holes are the game plan for this upcoming fully funded drill campaign. The target: high-grade unconformity-related mineralization as it steps out along this largely untested 1.5-kilometer anomaly.
75% of the $10.5 million the company raised last December will go towards Tatiggaq resource expansion—stepping out from the high-grade structures the company tagged last summer. The remainder will go towards testing some of the more compelling regional targets like Ned and Bjorn.
There’s no shortage of high-priority regional targets. There are at least twenty that deserve a proper probe with the drill bit.
In order to fine-tune the (drilling) priority sequence for this upcoming campaign, Forum ran an ANT survey (Ambient Noise Tomography)—a technology that can reveal structural information along regional and local scales (where the alteration and the mineralization interact, the location of the fault zones that influence the flow of mineralization, etc).
Forum’s VP of Exploration, Dr. Rebecca Hunter, trots out a 3D model of the Tatiggaq deposit(s) beginning at 10:50 in the (PDAC) video linked below. She also gives her read of the ANT survey data immediately following the 3D deposit model, starting at 12:00 (interesting stuff as the correlations are quite compelling).
This 10k meter drill campaign is scheduled to commence in early June and run through into October. Newsflow should be steady as the company plans to measure the radioactivity levels of the core as it’s pulled from the ground. Lab assays should begin flowing in late July/early August.
Mobilization is underway
As per a March 26 press release, Snowcats and sleds have begun hauling gear to the project – Forum Commences Mobilization for 10,000 Metre Drill Program at the Aberdeen Uranium Project, Thelon Basin, Nunavut.
Everything from the camp kitchen to a second drill rig is on its way to support the 10k meter campaign. It’ll require roughly twenty trips to haul everything to the site. The camp will go up in May.
This just in…
Forum just announced a new hire: Dr. Peter Wollenberg, the company’s latest appointment to its advisory board – Forum Appoints Peter Wollenberg to the Technical Advisory Board.
Peter was instrumental in the discovery of the Andrew Lake, End, Bong and Jane uranium deposits at Orano’s Kiggavik uranium project in the Thelon Basin (consult slide 14 on Forum’s pitch deck).
Peter has had a 50-year career in uranium exploration in a variety of geologic environments including unconformity style and sandstone hosted uranium deposits. He started his uranium exploration career in 1973 with Urangesellschaft Gmbh exploring in Germany, West Africa and South America. From 1983 to 1992 as Senior Geologist/Project Manager on Urangesellschaft’s Kiggavik uranium discovery in the Thelon Basin, Peter and his team unlocked the uranium potential of the area with the discovery of the Andrew Lake, End, Bong and Jane deposits.
CEO Mazur: “Peter brings a lot of knowledge and familiarity of the historical exploration in the area, including on Forum’s ground. His understanding of the geologic and structural controls of these deposits should be of assistance to Rebecca and her team in their exploration efforts along this favourable uranium trend for high grade, unconformity-style deposits similar to the Athabasca Basin.”
Final Thoughts on Forum
Forum believes the next big unconformity-type uranium discovery will emerge from its substantial land position in the Basin. Unconformity-type deposits stand out from other U3O8 deposits due to their superior grades. Where most U3O8 deposits scattered around the globe run grades less than 0.5%, unconformity deposits often run greater than 1% (a 1% U3O8 hit is roughly equivalent to a 15 g/t Au hit).
Highballer Porfolio
The following is a list of companies I’ve been chipping away at over the past few months:
Collective Mining (CNL.V)
- 65.14 million shares outstanding
- $266.08M market cap based on its recent $4.08 close
Freeport Resources (FRI.V)
- 157.33 million shares outstanding
- $10.23M market cap based on its recent $0.065 close
Nevada King Gold (NKG.V)
- 315.09 million shares outstanding
- $126.03M market cap based on its recent $0.40 close
Chakana Copper (PERU.V)
- 251.77 million shares outstanding
- $25.18M market cap based on its recent $0.10 close
Northern Superior Resources (SUP.V)
- 151.8 million shares outstanding
- $77.42M market cap based on its recent $0.51 close
Westhaven Gold (WHN.V)
- 148.51 million shares outstanding
- $31.19M market cap based on its recent $0.21 close
In a future report, I’ll briefly summarize the fundamentals underpinning these companies.
Highballer Wish List
Some of the companies I have my eye on—companies I follow—and may consider for future purchases: AE.V, AMQ.C, ARG.TO, ARIS.TO, AU.V, BIG.V, BRAU.V, FMAN.V, GOT.V, GTCH.C, HAN.V, HIGH.V, IAU.TO, KLD.V, MFG.V, NFG.V, PRYM.TO, RDG.V, RDS.V, RIO.V, RPX.V, SGD. V, SIG.V, TUO.V, USGD.C, WAM.V… among others.
END
– Greg Nolan
Full disclosure: Forum Energy Metals is a Highballer client. The author owns shares of Forum, Collective Mining, Freeport, Nevada King, Chakana Copper, Northern Superior, and Westhaven. Please note, though I plan to hold these for the medium to long term, I may decide to sell all or part of these positions at any time.
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