Setting up drill rig at Wilson, Quebec

1. Introduction

Quebec is one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world, containing several of the largest gold trends worldwide, among those the giant Abitibi Greenstone Belt (180Moz gold production so far). When tiny junior Hawkmoon Resources (CSE: HM, FRA:966) announced their IPO, and strategy to do exploration projects in exactly this region, I was curious to see what kind of projects they had in mind. I met CEO Branden Haynes much earlier, back in 2019, and it was already obvious he was extremely passionate about his dream to have his own exploration venture, which is something I like to see, and which we could easily discuss for hours, besides one of his other passions, which is European football, more specifically FC Barcelona and Dutch football (I am a Dutchman myself).

Drilling at Regnault target, Frotet project, Quebec

After the nice batch of results released at the end of May, beautifully complementing the first sets of strong intercepts, Kenorland Minerals (KLD.V)(3WQO.FSE) was hoping to find more of the same when targeting the more southern parts of the discovered Regnault structure, potentially growing this into a district scale discovery. The final drill results from the 8,591m diamond drill program, being the remaining 15 holes (5,104m) were not of this high standard unfortunately, but for a greenfield exploration venture this project has already been a resounding success, with most holes hitting mineralization. The share price reacted substantially to the May results, which included the impressive 5.72m @ 90.56 g/t Au (incl. 3.89m at 132.57 g/t Au) intercept, as can be seen here:

Although metal prices and especially the gold price took a breather, Meridian Mining (TSXV: MNO) remains unfazed, and keeps providing investors with solid drill results from their Cabaçal VMS Copper-Gold Project in Brazil , at or even above expectations of management. Their ongoing 10,000m field program of diamond drilling returned assays from hole CD-010 to CD-019 in the last few weeks, and as we are almost already getting used to it, almost all holes contained economic mineralization. Highlights were CD-013 (116.5m @ 0.7% CuEq), CD-017 (46m @ 1.0% CuEq), and CD-019 (110.7m @ 0.6% CuEq), representing the thickest intervals to date, and all starting close to surface which means a low overall strip ratio for future open pit potential becomes more and more likely, something pleasing management for sure.

All pictures are company material, unless stated otherwise.

All currencies are in US Dollars, unless stated otherwise.

  Avrupa Minerals Closing In On Potential Economic Mineralization At Sesmarias

It has been a long wait before Avrupa Minerals (TSXV: AVU) was able to report new drill results at its Sesmarias 8 Lens target at the flagship copper-zinc Alvalade project in Portugal, operated by Avrupa and MATSA in a JV, but it finally did so at June 9, 2021. As the geology of the 8 Lens is complex, management is drilling several fences (rows of drill holes across perceived mineralized zones) in order to map geologic structures, before stepping out much further. The latest intercepts were decent although not very economic, with, for example, hole SES21-033 with 22.25m @ 0.42% copper from 363m, and SES21-036 with 17m @0.39% copper from 406m, both with significant zinc and lead credits. As the aim of management (and MATSA) is at least 1% copper, the search goes on, and in this update I discuss the latest drill results and other things with President and CEO Paul Kuhn.

Drilling at Frotet project, Quebec

It took some time, but it all seems to come together rather nicely now for hybrid prospect generator Kenorland Minerals (KLD.V) and its young prodigy CEO, Zach Flood. A few days ago the gold price broke through the important barrier of US$1900/oz again, lots of metals are witnessing positive sentiment on the back of a recovering world economy as COVID-19 vaccines are rolled out worldwide, so despite a recent crypto crash the mining industry is enjoying a bull market again after 2016-2017.

You have to hand it to them, the timing of Golden Independence Mining (CSE: IGLD, OTCQB:GIDMF, FRA:6NN) announcing their maiden resource estimate (MRE) on their Independence project in Nevada is pretty good, as precious metals sentiment becomes increasingly more positive, and other assets like bitcoin just seemed to have bowed out as a serious alternative, after getting into a tailspin of epic proportions, losing over 25% of value in one day. So far Frank Giustra seems to have won the gold vs. bitcoin debate with Michael Saylor for now.  

Salar de Incahuasi; Catamarca province, Argentina

1. Introduction

1. Introduction

There are lots and lots of interesting gold projects to be found in Nevada these days, and most of them are in the hands of large entities like Nevada Gold Mines, Kinross, Coeur, Waterton etc. Once in a while, much smaller parties manage to dig up interesting projects, and one of those is optioned by tiny junior Golden Independence Mining (CSE: IGLD, OTCQB:GIDMF, FRA:6NN). This company managed to arrange an earn-in deal last year to own up to 75% of the Independence project in Nevada, which contains a historic 1.07Moz gold resource with the usual hallmarks of a typical Nevada deposit: near surface, heap leachable oxides and deeper, higher grade sulfides.

1. Introduction

It is not often that you see a Partner of a multi-billion-dollar resource fund part ways with his former colleagues and accept the challenge of turning around a headache dossier of that fund by himself. This is exactly what happened to Meridian Mining (TSXV: MNO) where then-Partner Gilbert Clark of Sentient Equity Partners came to the rescue. The result is effectively a brand-new company without debt, cashed up with a roster of new investors, and a “company maker” new asset: the Cabaçal copper-gold project in Brazil, which is an exciting copper-gold VMS belt scale project with huge potential.

As Gold Terra Resource Corp. (TSXV:YGT)(OTCQX:YGTFF)(FRA:TXO) has been drilling their Yellowknife City Gold project diligently since the company turnaround, the first resounding results of their work were announced to the public on March 16, 2021. The NI43-101 compliant Inferred resource increased from 735k Inferred oz Au to 1.207M Inferred oz Au, and this is still without the inclusion of (not yet disclosed) drill results from the Campbell Shear, one of the highest priority targets at Gold Terra’s district scale Yellowknife City Gold Project.