There is really nothing like being out in the wilderness exploring the creeks for hidden treasures. Especially when it is on your own gold claims. In this part we are going to look at a few things to be aware of, some tools you will need, and even some tips to what be on the lookout for.
When originally one stakes a claim the big question is, "Is there any gold there?" If so "where do I look?" That's the reason why we have prospectors. People who go out in search of gold, silver, copper and so forth. There is a old saying and that is "Gold is where you find it." Truer words never spoken. But learning where to look is the big secret. First Things First
When going out to your claims some things you will want to make sure to take along. Because claims are out in the country away from civilization most of the time it is good to be prepared. Rule of the wilderness. Prepare for the worst. Make sure you have a good spare tire and jumper cables. We take one of those solar chargers that you plug into the lighter to keep your battery charged. Out in the bush with a dead battery can be deadly. A spare fan belt and some spare fluids like coolant, oils etc. along with some mechanical tools is a must.
Secondly, it's a good thing to build a checklist of items you will need. Even though we try to go with a buddy it doesn't always work that way and we find ourselves heading out alone. Firstly, get a small backpack to stuff things in. We always carry a first aid kit. The key to remember here is to always be prepared. Make sure you take an extra pair of clothes, especially socks and a spare pair of boots. When wearing boots it's always a good idea to wear ones with a firm ankle support. Walking over river rocks is a sure way to sprain an ankle. Gloves are handy. You would be surprised just how fast you will get a blister if you haven't been working a shovel.
Always carry matches / lighter of a flint starter in a pack back. A really handy idea is to pack along a zip lock bag with dryer lint. You know the lint that collects on the screen in a clothes dryer. That is the best fire starter you can get and it's lightweight. Also some high energy bars for that just in case along with water and water purification tablets. We also take a GPS just in case. A GPS is also handy for finding your boundaries and for recording findings that you can place on a map. We also carry a "find me spot" that will alert others if we are in distress. A good idea is to throw in an old-fashioned compass. GPS's need batteries and when you are out in the middle of nowhere you won't find a battery when you need it. Don't depend on cell phones. A flashlight is a handy item along with a good hunting knife and a few all-purpose pocket tools can sure come in handy also.
When heading out to into the bush or wilderness one can come upon wildlife quite a bit. If you are going into bear country this brings up another situation to be aware of. Always carry a can of bear spray or if possible even a weapon such a defender. Bear bangers do work OK also as we have had to use them on occasion. In desert areas a snake bite kit is important also. Your list of essentials may be much larger than this but we feel this is the basics for heading out. Also, be sure to tell others where you are going and an expected time you plan to be back.
Ok, here is a quick list of what we think are MUST HAVE things to stuff into that backpack. You can always add to this list but these are what we feel are essential.
When to tools for prospecting, try to keep equipment to a minimum. Remember that whatever you pack into the bush, you have to pack back out. Just look back up the page and see what all you are putting into a backpack. Now you will be adding some additional weight. You will find that prospecting is hard work. You will be using muscles you never knew you had.
Anyhow, the most important items you will need is a small spade, a small pick and a gold pan. Most people now use plastic gold pans because they a light weight and they quite durable. If you have a creek that flows well you can bring along a small ground sluice that you can set up in the water and shovel into. You will also want to bring along a small snuffer bottle, a few small plastic type of containers to out your cons in and a small tweezer. Remember the idea here is to prospect your ground. Not mine it. You want to find where the best area are first, then go in and mine that area.
Back in the 1990's I was a shareholder in a small junior company and through this shareholder involvement I got to know the president, vice president and secretary treasure on a personal basis. One day I got a call from the president of this company and was asked if I would be interested in going to Guyana and maybe help manage a small dredging operation. The company at the time was in negotiations with a private group of European's who were wanting to sell a mid size alluvial placer gold property with equipment. Basically this would have been a turnkey operation. After being asked if I would be willing to go to Guyana I did quite a bit of research and became quite interested in the country of Guyana and especially gold mining in that country. The deal however never did take place as neither side could come to agreements and the company moved onto other ventures. Fast forward to today and I'm presented with an opportunity of doing a feature article with the company Guyana Goldstrike TSX-V: GYA. Guyana Goldstrike is starting to get seriously active in Guyana and not just alluvial gold mining but also potential hard rock.
Before we get into the workings of the company we'll take a quick look at the country of Guyana itself. Guyana is in South America and borders between Venezuela to the west, Suriname to the east and Brazil to the south. The country covers an area of 83,000 square miles and has a population of less than one million. Guyana use to be called British Guyana as it was under British rule and today the country still follows British law and English is the official language. With no language barriers to deal with it makes it easier for foreign companies such as Guyana Goldstrike to do business. As most people live along the coastal regions, the interior areas are sparsely inhabited and largely undeveloped and for mineral exploration that means under explored potential awaits.
Guyana Goldstrike as a company has a lot potential in Guyana but one of the big plus's going for it is the company's CEO, Peter Berdusco. Other people on board include the senior geologist Locke Goldsmith who is a self employed consulting mining exploration geologist. Locke has been active in geology since 1970 and has worked on projects worldwide. Marshall Mintz who is in charge of operations has over 30 years experience in mining, exploration, operations planning and operations management in Asia, Canada and South America .
In prospecting circles, Guyana is very often called the "Land of Eldorado" because of the vast amounts of quanties of bauxite, manganeese, diamonds and gold along with other precious stones that are buried within the ground of this country. Historic records show that mining for gold from surface deposits began in the Amazon region as early as the 16th century. Since that time, it's estimated that over 50 million ounces of Gold have been extracted from this region as opposed to only 12 million ounces that was extracted from California during it's 1800's Gold Rush. All of this gold is located in an area called the Guiana Sheild as shown in the image below. The Guiana Shield is an ancient belt of gold-bearing rock extending eastward from Venezuela through Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana and southward into Brazil's Amazon Basin, and it is historically known to contain prolific gold and diamond resources. Throughout this "shield" there are many active mining operations. Some of the more familiar larger operations are run by companies like Guyana Goldfields TSX-GUY and Sandspring Resources TSX-V: SSP. It is with the southern portion of this belt that Guyana Goldstrike has it's flagship property, the Marudi Gold Project
Guyana Goldstrike's main property of interest is the Marudi Gold property. This property covers an area of approximately 13,500 hectare property and is located in the southern area of the country about 750 Km from the capital of Georgetown. This property has two areas of vital interest for exploration. Both of these areas have seen past exploration including trenching and drilling so the company has a good idea of where to focus it's efforts for exploration. There is also a technical 43-101 report that drawn up in 2016 from previous workings on the property.
The first area of interest is called Mazoa Hill which is a target area of approximately 300 x 300 meters. This small area has a historic 43-101 that shows about 390,000 oz gold averaging 2.8 grams per ton. One previous drill hole showed values of 14.85 grams per ton and had a 1.5 meter section with a showing of 51.7 grams per ton. Additional drilling in this area increase the resource and in 2004 a resource estimate shows an increase to 760,000 gold with a grade of 5.0 grams per ton.
The second area of interest on this property is called Marudi North. This area is approxiamtely 1 KM away from the Mazoa Hill target. The Marudi North has a target area of 800 x 500 meters. Exploration back in 2004 returned a potential resource of 120,000 oz gold with a grade of 2.7 grams per ton. Additional drilling in 2012 revised that estimate by an addition 20,000 oz of gold. Between the two defined target areas there is around 880,000 oz of gold.
Interest in the bedrock formation of this property is what the company is going to be examining over the 2017 work program. Under the alluvial formation of the surfaces lies what is called "Saprolite". Saprolite is soft decomposed porous rock and is often rich in clay and alluvial golds will settle out in this formation. At present there is no estimate of gold values in the saprolite layer on these properties but with grid sampling and trenching followed by additional drilling, the company plans to gain a new perspective of what this layer holds. Once this work has been completed the company will also plan on a bulk sampling program.
Guyana Goldstrike obtained this property with its recent acquisition of Romanex Guyana Exploration Ltd. The previous company has an already in place and constructed camp along with other infastructure and equipment in place. During the year of 2017 the company hired the consulting firm, MineIt. What MIneIt did was take all the old drill hole data and compiled that information into a 3D model that shows exactly where the deposit on this property is and basically give an outline of the entire how large along with an estimated tonnage this deposit is. The company has since then taken this modelling and will now move forward in 2018 with additional drilling and trenching.
Another unique idea that the company is exploring is the the crypto currency market and using that market to issue an ICO. ICO being "intial coin offering" like IPO being "inital public offering". Because the company has an estimated 880,000 ounce of gold it would use this gold to back the crypto coins and use the inital influx of cash to get the advanced exploration started.
Today there are thousands of junior mining companies to invest in. With the recent rebound in metals and gold in particular, investor taste for these kinds of investments have turned positive. Prudent and contrairian investors know all too well that these kind of investments run in cycles. Knowing these cycles there is no doubt that the world has seen the bottom of the bear cycle and the time to look at investing in these types of investments is now. Investors who understand this will be active in evaluating companies and projects that have a lot of positives and this is a catagory that Guyana Goldstrike is in.
Here is some good reasons to have Guyana Goldstrike on your investing radar.
Management. Same CEO as Nexus Gold
To find out more about and these projects, Click Here to visit their website. There you will find all an exstensive amount of information along with contact information.
Location, location, location. Its been said time and time again that the best places to find a mine is either right beside or right below an already existing mine. If those facts hold true, then the company we are going to look at just might have the shot at hitting the big time mainly because of it's location and that location is the world renown Abitibi Greenstone Gold Belt of Canada. A premium location right smack dab in the middle of dozens of existing mines that combined have produced in the tens of millions of ounces of gold. In fact this region has produced over 170 million ounces of gold and more is being found every day.
There are thousands of small juniors that are out trying to find the next big find and the truth is that most never find a thing. However, Aldershot Resources Ltd. is one of those small junior gold explorers that might become the exception not only because of its location, but because of what has already been discovered so far from the properties optionor, Transition Metals. In 2011, an exploration program led to the discovery of a number of zones of gold mineralization over a strike length of 1.5 km, which contained visible gold right at surface. For Transition Metals this find became known as the Haultain Gold Discovery. Since that time Transition Metals has been actively exploring the property while incurring exploration expenditures exceeding one million dollars which included a geophysical survey, a soil gas hydrocarbon geochemical survey and 2,251 metres of diamond drilling. Transition Metals also prepared a technical report regarding the project compliant with the requirements of NI 43-101.
In April of 2016, Aldershot Resources executed a binding letter of intent to enter into an option agreement with Transition Metals to acquire a 51% interest and up to a 75% interest interest in this property. Even though the property has a 43-101 report, Aldershot is updating the report and plans on following up with recommendations advised in the report in regards to drilling and trenching. Having this information updated, Aldershot Resources is now planning a $400,000 trenching and drill program to test further high priority target areas as well as testing gold mineralization at further depths.
The Gowganda property consists of 34 unpatented mining claims comprising of 220-16 ha units covering an area of approximately 3,520 hectares. This area is located alongside the Ridout Fault which is one of the three main faults that runs through the entire Abitibi Greenstone Belt. This fault produced over 3 million ounces of gold over 70 million ounces of silver. Exploration on this property along this fault has turned up some very impressive results to date such as gold values up to 97.6 g/t gold in grabs, with channel samples averaging 3.5 g/t Au over 20 m x 60 m long corridor. Of the 21 drill holes that were drilled in 2011, some of those drill results were quite exceptional. Some examples include:
Along these faults are mineralized intrusions called dykes. Geological mapping and trenching has exposed a large zone of mineralization in what is called a syenite dyke swarm. Most of the significant gold assays are from stockwork quartz and quartz-carbonate veins in these syenite dykes. The Stockwork systems demonstrate good geological continuity and have been traced along strike on surface for a length of more than 1.5 kilometers.
The second areas of interest are mineralized shear zones or shear structures. These shear zones ar weak fragmented types zones where gold can be found. Some areas along these structures can be quite rich. In fact one drill hole intersected 82.5 g/t gold over 0.4 metres.
During the winter of 2017, Aldershot began an aggressive work program which consisted of exploration work consisting of a structural study, trenching and sampling. A total of 30 chip samples were collected from multiple point sites across 5 identified shear veins. Several multi gram gold values from re-sampling were assayed with the highest value of 8.49 g/t gold being returned.
In February the company started a drilling campaign and to date two holes have been logged and assays returned. The table below shows the recorded results from the two drill holes.
News Update! On April 5 2017 Aldershot issued the results from a third hole that was drilled during the winter. The results were impressive! 11.52 m of 1.63 g/t gold. Along with these above average gold showings the company also reports a high grade cobalt showings.
Overall Summary
Today there are thousands of junior mining companies to invest in. With the recent rebound in metals and gold in particular, investor taste for these kinds of investments have turned positive. Prudent and contrarian investors know all too well that these kind of investments run in cycles. Knowing these cycles there is no doubt that the world has seen the bottom of the bear cycle and the time to look at investing in these types of investments is now. Investors who understand this will be active in evaluating companies and projects that have a lot of positives and this is a catagory that Aldershot Resources is in.
Here is some good reasons to have Aldershot Resources on your investing radar.
Aldershot has only 49,700,000 and approximately 62,000,000 fully diluted (of note, With a little positive news and market conditions, option and warrant exercises would result in $970,000 coming into the corporate treasury) The stock has a 52 week high of 0.095 cents and a low of 0.015 cents.
Since 2007 I have been doing due diligence on companies and it always pays to dig deep into all the information that is available. Just like placer mining, you need to dig deep to reach bedrock in order to get the gold. Too many people when doing their due diligence will just quickly skim over a company website, take a short look at the properties or projects, then take a quick glance at the stock charts and try to make an educated decision on whether to invest in the stock or not. The sad part of all this is that in a lot of cases, a lot of good valued companies and projects get dismissed just on account of the investor not digging through all the information to get the facts.
In this article, I'm going to present to you a company called Secova Metals Corp., which is a small gold junior that is active in exploring a gold property in Quebec called the Duvay-Chenier Gold Project and, at the same time, hopefully I can show you how is pays to dig a bit deeper for valuable information so in the future you, as an investor, will be able to make a sound investment decision. First some key facts and information about Secova Metals.
Secova Metals Corp. has it's office in Vancouver, BC, and at this time there are three key personnel in charge. Mr. Bradley Kitchen serves as Chairman and C.E.O., Mr. Morgan Good serves as President and Director, and Mr. Pierre-Jean Lafleur serves as the companies geological engineer as well as Director.
One of the first things I do when reading about a company is I read the bio's of the management for what I like to call "track record". This will give you a good idea of who is in charge by looking over their past history. In this case we see the CEO, Bradley Kitchen has 25 years of experience in investment banking and leading corporations. Mr. Kitchen also served as the CEO and President of Eagle Hill Exploration until it was taken over in August 2013. A quick bit of research will show that Eagle Hills Exploration was taken over by Oban Mining, which in turn was taken over by Osisko Mining, which is one of the larger gold miners in Canada. In order for a company to be taken over or bought out, that company and project needs to be a success. Proven track record. This is one of the key points I always look for.
Mr. Morgan Good who serves as President, has close to 11 years experience as a stock market professional focusing on areas of corporate development, finance, and investor relations. In 2013, he founded a company called Patriot Capital Corporation to invest in both private and public companies.
Mr. Lafleur who is a professional geologist, is also a respresentative for some prominent mining software companies, such as SGS Geostat and 3DS GEOVIA.
In short, Secova has a strong management team with a proven track record.
The company's main property and project is called the Duvay-Chenier Gold Project. This property is located about an hour's drive north from Val d'Or, Quebec, close to the town of Amos. The property is comprised of 174 claims covering an area of over 7,766 hectares. This property is what is known as a near surface high grade gold exploration project. Secova Metals has the option and rights to earn in a 90% stake in this property. By the way, when we talk about near surface high grade gold, it should be noted that visible gold was discovered at Duvay back in the 1930's, which brings us to another important key in due diligence, and that is, studing and researching the property's history.
Property History
The exploration history on the Duvay property goes back quite a ways to when numerous discoveries of precious and base metal mineralization were made in the Amos-Duverny-Barraute District dating back into the 1930's. All of this work over the years has been recorded and, for Secova Metals, this saves time and money. Having an extensive collection of records gives Secova a real advantage of being able to prioritize the areas of interest and the scope of work along with being able to plan such things as future drilling campaigns.
Early exploration started during the years between 1944 and 1948 when the Duvay Gold Mines Company explored the property with drilling and also dug an exploration shaft along with some underground drifts. The company encountered some very high grades of gold at that time. Some of those grades that were intersected were 469.8 g/T over 0.35m; 76.8 g/T over 0.48m; 14 g/T over 0.66m; and 5.89/T over 1.52m.
In 1985, the Sphinx Mining Company did exploration work and confirmed the presence of three mineral showings and a second parallel shear zone located north of the main shear zone was also discovered. A 1987-1988 exploration program saw 65,700 sq. meters of stripping and 3,170 meters of percussion drilling along with 7,718 meters of diamond drilling, totalling 40 drill holes and 75 bulk samples totalling 20,000 metric tons.
More recent exploration took place from 2011 to 2014, when junior company Tres-Or Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: TRS) explored the Duvay property in part with Aurizon Mines Ltd. Tres-Or drillled 13 holes during that campaign and some of the best analytical results included 83.194 g/T gold over 1 meter.
Present Day Exploration
In early January, 2015 Secova Metals made an agreement with Tres-Or Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: TRS) to acquire up to 90% of the advanced Duvay Gold Project. After a year of regrouping and arranging financing, Secova issued news in February 2016, stating the company had started a winter exploration program on the Duvay Gold Project. This exploration program was follwed by a spring program, where the company utilized an IPower3D IP Program that was being implemented by Abitibi Geoscience. This new technology enhanced resolution for narrow gold vein structures. By using this technology, the company was able to pin point potential vein structures for a more precise drill target.
Once all the information from the IP program was inputted and analyzed along with all the historical data, the company had a new model of what potential ore body or zones would look like. The results showed a defined geological model outlining with cigar-like morphology or shape hosting a high quartz vein density. These veins are very likely to host the gold grade values. These intersections or zones that are cigar-like shapes, are about 50 to 100 meters in diameter to a possible depth of 300 meters. You can view these IPower 3D images here.
In September 2016, Secova announced that the company had enough information from all the surveys and data compiled and they were going forward with a drill program. This drilling program will start in the fourth quarter of 2016 and will consist of 5,250 meters in 16 holes on 8 different target zones and will be completed in 3 phases.
Phase 1 will be a continuation of geoscientific compilation along with adding information from Chenier claims into a data base. The phase 2 will be the drilling of 5,250 meters in 16 drill holes program to test 8 different targets and phase 3 will be to drill the 5 remaining cigar-shaped anomalies.
Additional Properties
Secova also has another property call the Jessie Lake property. This property is situated within the Temagami Greenstone Belt, which is part of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in northeastern Ontario. This property has a number of copper, nickel, and gold occurrences that are similar to the Diadem nickel, copper deposit that is owned by Teck (TSX: TCK) and is located close to the western boundary of the property. In 2015, the company identified several areas of interest and the company has plans to conduct a MAG survey and a followup drilling campaign at a later date.
Conclusion
At the beginning of this article I stressed the key points of digging deep into the information that is available. In this short article, we discovered that the managment has a proven track record of running a successful mine. We also discovered that the company has a property of great merit with a history of old workings, records, and data This is a key point, because it saves the company years of exploration and untold amounts of dollars. We also learned about having quailified people in place as an important key point. People who are knowledgeable and have an understanding of new and cutting edge technology that can be utilized to the fullest measure to save time and money so the right desicions can be made.
Overall Summary
Today there are thousands of junior mining companies to invest in. With the recent rebound in metals and gold in particular, investor's appetite for these kinds of investments have turned positive. Prudent and contrairian investors know all too well that these kind of investments run in cycles. Knowing these cycles there is no doubt that the world has seen the bottom of the bear cycle and the time to look at investing in these types of investments is now. Investors who understand this will be active in evaluating companies and projects that have a lot of positives and this is a catagory that Secova Metals is in.
Here is a quick recap of reasons to have Secova Metals on your watch list.
To find out more about and these projects, Click Here to visit their website. There you will find all an exstensive amount of information along with contact information.
To view an up to date feature page, Click Here
Silver Spruce Resources is a very interesting company and is well worth anyone's time to really go over some of the information they have on their website along with the presentations. If you are looking to get some investing dollars involved in a silver play that could have some tremendous upside, this could very well be the junior you will want to investigate and do some due diligence on.
I would also like to point out that I did write up on this very same company back in November, 2015 as I am always on the prowl looking for undervalued stocks with an upside potential.
Silver Spruce as a company has been around since 1996 and although it's first ventures were in the exploration of uranium and rare earth minerals, it has taken on a project in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico and it's this exploration project, called the Pino de Plata Project that we will be taking a look at here.
Before we get started talking about the Pino del Plata Project it should be noted that the company, Silver Spruce Resources just issued a news release on Aug, 29, 2016. In that new release, they stated that:
The field team successfully pinpointed the proposed drill hole locations and mapped the new road access for the upcoming maiden drill program at the project. The team also completed onsite tours with representatives of three drilling companies that are submitting bids for the drilling contract. This first ever drill program at the project is based on recommendations contained in the NI 43-101 report, which is available on our website at www.silverspruceresources.com and is filed on www.sedar.com.
The Pino de Plata Project is located on the western side of Chihuahua state along the western edge of the Sierra Madre Occidental silver-gold belt. The property consists of four, road-accessible concessions that cover an area of 397 hectares. The property at present has no active mines other than small-scale mining which has gone on for hundreds of years dating back to the 1600's when the Jesuits first settled the area. There is however the very large Palmarego Mine owned by Coeur Mining that is located just 15 kilomters away. See map image below.
It should be noted here for the sake of reference that the Palmarego Mine is the third largest silver mine in Mexico and nineth largest in the world. In 2015 this mine produced 65.1 M oz Ag and 70,922 oz Au and has proven and probable reserves of 449 M ounces Ag and 690,000 ounces Au.
Old mining activity in the past did return good grades. In some cases grades as high or even higher than 1000 grams per ton silver were noted. Aside from remnants of old mines and workings, there has been no trenching or drilling on this property which in turn led to Silver Spruce doing some exploration on the property. The property was examined in 1985 by Consejo de Recursos Minerales and in 2013 and by Arcelia Gold. Both focused on existing workings and made resource estimates which could not be assessed due to unclear methodology and unsafe access to their sampling areas. Over the last thirty years, the recent owner surface mined and direct shipped high grade ores, some as high as 1000 grams per ton silver to different mills and smelters. In May of 2015 Silver Spruce produced a NI 43-101 exploration assessment report which identified a few high potential areas for exploration and drilling.
Most of the sampling that Silver Spruce did was taken around older workings. These samples were later assayed and results showed very good grades. One of the areas was shown to host widespread intrusive epithermal mineralization at surface with silver values, on average greater than 1.6 ounces per tonne. Some targets within this area of more than 1 square km has assays of up to 557 g/t or 17.9 ounces per tonne.
One area known as the Terrero target which is about two hectares in size and had good mineralization in igneous rocks contained good silver grades at surface. Seven out of nine samples were known to have been more than 1 opt Ag to as much as 17.9 opt Ag. Based on current geologic mapping, sampling and interpretation, the Company's modeling suggests that the Terrero target could contain 11.2 million tonnes of mineralized rock. Based on the nine samples taken from the Terrero target at surface with an average silver grade of 250 g/t (8 opt) Ag, this target represents a potential resource of up to 90 million ounces of silver alone. The company hopes to drill as many as six, 100 meter holes in this area.
Additional sampling on other areas of the property have shown excellent grades as well. The Santa Elena area covers an area of about 20 hectares and has been modeled that it could contain as much as 1.3 million tonnes of mineralized rock with an average grading of 250 g/t (8 opt) Ag which suggests an in-situ resource of up to 10.5 million ounces of silver. The company hopes to drill as many as five holes in this area. Drilled depth would be up to 100 meters.
Two other targeted areas, the Sierpe and Theodora were also looked at. These targeted areas are vein type that were open on strike and could contain an additional 28.5 million ounces of silver. So a combined total for what has been sampled and explored so far gives an estimated potential of around 130 million ounces of silver. This however needs to be verified and once the company gets drilling they will be able to prove up the resource more in depth.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the company is getting to drill and with the targets they have found so far it looks like this will be a very exciting play to watch. It's not everyday that we see a junior starting too drill in such a positive environment. This is one junior you will want to have on your watch list and maybe even get email updates from the company so you are up to date during the drilling of the project.Property Aquisition Update
On December 1st of 2016 Silver Spruce issued news stating that the company had aquired an additional property. This porperty is more gold than silver but will add considerable value to the company with an exposure to gold. The property is located close to Chinipas, in far western Chihuahua State, and consists of over 300 hectares, where field crews sampled 8.42 grams per tonne (g/t) Gold (Au), 8.04 g/t Au and 3.95 g/t Au in chip channel samples from mineralized outcrop in late September.
The new property is called the Encino De Oro Property. An initial property examination in late September 2016 confirmed that an outcrop of strongly silicified rhyolite tuff contains gold grades ranging from 3.95 g/t to > 8 g/t in three samples over 3 m in width. Leonard Karr examined this outcrop on November 17, 2016 and based on strength of silicification, quartz veining and iron oxides after pyrite found the values credible. This immediately elevated the Company's confidence in the vendor's statements concerning other multigram gold assays in the area, and Silver Spruce immediately began a reconnaissance mapping and sampling program on the property.Overall Summary
Today there are thousands of junior mining companies to invest in. With the recent rebound in metals and gold in particular, investor taste for these kinds of investments have turned positive. Prudent and contrairian investors know all to well that these kind of investments run in cycles. Knowing these cycles there is no doubt that the world has seen the bottom of the bear cycle and the time to look at investing in these types of investments is now. Investors who understand this will be active in evaluating companies and projects that have a lot of positives and this is a catagory that Silver Spruce is in.
Here is some good reasons to have Silver Spruce on your investing radar.
To find out more about and these projects, Click Here to visit their website. There you will find all an exstensive amount of information along with contact information.
To view an up to date feature page, Click Here
If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to share. When seeking out mining stocks always use Due Diligence and see our Disclaimer and be sure to sign up for our free news letter located on the right hand side of this page.
Blue River is starting a placer mine operation What's really interesting with Blue River Resources is not only "where" they are working, but "how" they are incorporating a different technolgy to finding gold. (We'll get to that in a moment).
But first a bit of information for those who are not familiar with placer mining. Placer mining is the type of mining that is done by sluicing or washing gold bearing material. Unlike hard rock mining where drilling and blasting and crushing is done, placer mining is a fairly simple system and in fact the principles of the extracting gold have not really changed in the past few thousand years. Whenever you see someone panning for gold, that's a simple form of placer mining. No chemicals are used in the process, just water and in a most cases today the water being used is recycled over and over with only minor amounts of fresh water added.
So back to Blue River and the "where". Well the country they are working in to develope this placer operation is Cambodia. When I first heard Cambodia I was very much surprised because it's one of those places we or at least me never thinks about but after reading over some of the information on this project all I could say was WOW.
Blue River's project is the Okalla West Gold project and is located in the Banlung exploration tenement which is located 450 km north-east of the national capital city of Phnom Penh in the Province of Ratanakiri. This tenement is owned by Angkor Gold and Blue River initially has the right to earn in up to a 50% interest from Angkor Gold Corp. after the completion of a total investment of US$3.5 million in exploration expenditures over a 4-year period. After that time Blue River can then exercise their option for an additional 20% interest. The entire tenement covers an area of 150 square kilometers but the area that Blue River is focusing it's work on is an area of about 4.5 square kiometers where visible gold grains were found in 83% of the samples.
Exploration in October 2015 discovered a 2 square kilometer surface gold anomaly that has recently been expanded to a 4 square kilometer mineralized zone from work conducted in April 2016. Work to date indicates the potential for a significant gold deposit of 400,000 to 800,000 ounces grading 1.5 gr/tonne. The real bonus here for this project is that with this alluvial ground the depths here are only about 6 meters to bedrock which would mean a very minimal strip ratio. In cases where you find gold at surface you could very well process all the material from surface on down to bedrock.
As of today, August 26, 2016 the company issued a news release stating that a shallow drilling program has commenced on the Okalla West. 250 shallow drill holes have been completed to date, of a total of 1200 holes to be drilled. The drill samples will be submitted to ALSs and results will be reported when received.
Some Interesting Prospecting
So how was this alluvial deposit actually found? A quick review of what was said earlier was that this deposit is already quite profitable to be mined. Gold average of 1.5 grams per tonne. There had been some French and Russian geology reports and maps from the 1970's to 1990's and there was even an old French exploration journal from 1894 that mentions mafic gabbro rocks south-west of Banlung as being "auriferous", without mentioning any specific location.
Then during 2015-2015 there was project for some sampling and mapping and even some termite mound survey (TMS) geochemistry. The geochemistry survey of 12,550 termite mound sites (25,100 samples), led to the discovery of anomalous gold in 26% of the pan-concentrates in this first survey. This percentage increased to 83% of samples containing visible gold in the Okalla West prospect area, located in the central-east of the intrusive complex and the focus of the second phase of termite mound sampling. The gold index anomaly discovery in the first round of termite mound samples, prompted the investigation of a further 4,240 termite mounds in the Okalla West prospect area in late 2015 The infill TMS was done on a 100m x 100m grid spacing with a 25m sample corridor, to better define the first phase pan-concentrate gold anomaly.
The discovery of the gold in the pan-concentrates also prompted further research, using heavy mineral separation (HMS) and scanning electron microscope imaging, conducted through a mutually reciprocal work agreement with researchers from the Canadian Museum of Nature, with the aim of identifying the source of the gold. This study showed the presence of both angular and rounded gold grains (up to 1.1mm), from the same sample locations. Leading to a conclusion of the possibility of both proximal (vein) and distal (sedimentary/placer) gold sources overlapping in the Okalla West gold anomaly area.
Blue River Copper
Aside from the company's Cambodia gold play, Blue River is also involved in 2 copper plays. One of those plays, the Mazama Copper Project is Washington state and the other, the Castle Copper Project is in British Columbia. The Castle Project is approximately 25 kilometers north of Copper Mountain Mining, a mid-tier copper producer that commenced production in June 2011. The Castle Copper project mining claims total 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) and is one of the largest land positions in this highly prospective area. Blue River conducted a 3,500 ft. diamond drill program in 2011, resulting in copper mineralization in eight of the nine holes, with one intersection of 600 ft. grading 0.04% copper and 120 ft. grading 0.16% copper. These results were very encouraging, indicating the potential for a large mineralized system on the Castle Project.
Both of these projects lie within the famous Quesnel Trough Copper Belt that runs through central BC into northern Washington. The Quesnel Trough is recognized as one of the largest copper belts in the world, trending for over 2000 kilometers. This copper belt currently hosts 8 producing copper mines and numerous other copper deposits.
Overall Summary
Today there are thousands of junior mining companies to invest in. With the recent rebound in metals and gold in particular, investor taste for these kinds of investments have turned positive. Prudent and contrairian investors know all too well that these kind of investments run in cycles. Knowing these cycles there is no doubt that the world has seen the bottom of the bear cycle and the time to look at investing in these types of investments is now. Investors who understand this will be active in evaluating companies and projects that have a lot of positives and this is a catagory that Blue River Resources is in.
Here is some good reasons to have Blue River Resources on your investing radar.
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The wild state of Alaska. Land of the last frontier. Grizzly bears, salmon, the north slope and gold. Home to many old mines that made fortunes for some. Ever since the gold rush to Nome in the late 1800's, men have been searching all over Alaska for the next big find and this is where Redstar Gold comes into the picture.
When you think of Alaska and gold, most people think about Fairbanks or maybe the Kenia Peninsula. It's not to often though that we think about that string of islands that stretch out towards Russia as being Alaska called the Aleutian Islands but it's here on one of those island within the Aleutian Arc that Redstar Gold is hard at work.
The most attractive feature of any precious metals project out there is probably the average grade of a project, as it might make or kill a project. When we're talking about an open pit mine we're already happy with grades of 1-1.5 g/t and an open pit mine with an average grade of more than 2 g/t is quite exceptional.
But imagine there's gold and silver mineralization located near the surface with an average grade of 27.4 g/t gold and 127 g/t silver, what would you think? Indeed, 'wow'. And that's the feeling we had when we started to dig deeper into Redstar Gold's (RGC.V) Unga high-grade gold-silver project on the coast of Alaska. The project will require some more drilling to highlight its potential, but Unga seems to be one of the most intriguing high-grade exploration stories out there.
Redstar's Unga project is located on the Unga and Popof Islands. The land mass is covers approx. 240 sq km and the company owns this area 100%. These claims have some interesting geological trends that contain two prominent, linear features, the Apollo - Sitka Trend and the Shumagin Trend, running sub-parallel and about 3 km apart. Each trend is over 9.5 km in length, and both show extensive, high-grade gold mineralization. A district-scale intermediate sulfidation epithermal exists across Redstar's property. Both trends were subject to a renewed exploration effort by Redstar during the summer of 2014, which resulted in a targeted drilling program on the Shumagin Gold Zone of 8 holes (1,500m) which was completed in May 2015. This trend in fact use to be home to Alaska's first gold mine. The Apollo - Sitka gold mine which is located on the southern trend with a historically reported production of around 150,000 oz of gold in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
Recent drilling by Redstar in 2015 on the Unga project has returned some very impressive results. Some of the highlights include:
Hole 15SH011: 1.9m of 202g/t Au and 82 g/t Ag
Hole 15SH012: 7.3m of 11.8g/t Au and 72.7g/t Ag plus 6.35m of 9.45g/t Au and 103g/t
Hole 15SH013: 4m of 11.62g/t Au and 95.6g/t Ag plus 1m of 17.45g/t Au and 122g/t Ag and 1m of 20.90g/t Au and 232g/t Ag
The table below shows additional grades from holes drilled by the company during the 2015 drilling program. Note some of the grades being as high 738 gr/t over 0.55 meters.
The company just announced on June 8th of 2016 that it has initiated an advanced drill targeting exploration program at its Unga Gold Project, Alaska, including work programs at the Shumagin Gold Zone, and the Empire Ridge and Orange Mountain Gold Prospects.
The scope of work will focus on the delineation of new drill targets to expand known mineralization previously drilled at the Shumagin prospect. A portion of the program will consist of detailed structural mapping and drill targeting at Empire Ridge, the southwest extension of the historic Apollo gold mine. Select samples of exposed vein gossans are enriched in silver up to 157 g/t. Quartz vein breccias sampled at the southern most exposure of the Apollo open stope ~500 meters to the northeast of Empire Ridge returned high-grade assays of 216 g/t of gold and 74.5 g/t of silver and reconnaissance mapping and sampling will also focus on obtaining drill targets within lithologically and structurally controlled silicification at Orange Mountain.
Redstar Gold also has properties in Ontario and Nevada. Redstar has a 30% stake in the Newman Todd project which is located in the Red Lake area of Ontario. In Nevada, Redstar controls 11 prospective gold/silver exploration prospects throughout the State of Nevada and a comprehensive exploration database covering mostly Nevada, and includes parts of California, Idaho and Utah
The company has it's head office in Vancouver BC and it's shares trade on the TSX Venture exchange. At this time the company has 218 million shares outstanding. The 52 week trading range has been 2 cents low and 7 cents high.
Overall Summary
Today there are thousands of junior mining companies to invest in. With the recent rebound in metals and gold in particular, investor taste for these kinds of investments have turned positive. Prudent and contrarian investors know all to well that these kind of investments run in cycles. Knowing these cycles there is no doubt that the world has seen the bottom of the bear cycle and the time to look at investing in these types of investments is now. Investors who understand this will be active in evaluating companies and projects that have a lot of positives and this is a category that Redstar is in.
Here's a quick list of positives for Redstar Gold Corp.
To find out more about Redstar Gold Corp. and this project, Click Here to visit their website. There you will find all an exstensive amount of information along with contact information.
To view an up to date feature page of the Unga project, Click Here
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It is well mentioned throughout mining circles that the best place to look for a potential mine is somewhere close to where a mine has already existed. Today we look at a small junior miner that is doing just that. Silver Spruce Resources SSE has been exploring for gold and silver at the Pino de Plata Project in the Sierra Madre Occidental silver-gold belt of Mexico. Their property lies in the southwest corner of the state of Chihuahua. Evidence of mining and metal extraction goes back to the Spanish Colonial era of the 1600's. Artisanal and small scale surface mining of high-grade silver/base metal veins (likely >1,000 g/ton silver) are evident at workings at nine (9) discrete locations on the property.
Many producing mines in the Sierra Madre are classified as epithermal deposits. The Pino de Plata property high base metal values (Pb, Zn,Cu) that are often associated with high precious metal values in these epithermal veins. Coeur Mining's Palmerejo mine located approximately 15 km NE of Pino de Plata, within the mineralized portions of the structures, silver and gold can be zoned from top to bottom with higher silver values occurring in the upper parts of the deposit and higher gold values in the lower parts.
A recently completed 43-101 exploration assessment yielded many silver values in excess of 200 g/ton and some greater than 500 g/ton from areas that for the most part have either been high-grade at surface or are highly altered and leached (gossan) at surface. The 43-101 assessment described large areas of alteration on a property with limited exposure and recommended an aggressive exploration program.
The property was examined in 1985 by Consejo de Recursos Minerales and in 2013 and by Arcelia Gold. Both focussed on existing workings and made resource estimates that could not be assessed due to unclear methodology and unsafe access to their sampling areas. Over the last thirty years, the recent owner surface mined and directly shipped high-grade (est.> 1000 g/ton) ores to third-party mills and smelters.
Despite the significant amount of small-scale surface mining, the Pino De Plata Property has never been drilled. A 2015-2016 work program is planned with an estimated expenditure of 1.4 million. The 2015-2016 program which would happen over a 9 month period calls for more detailed mapping of the property and more concentrated sampling and mapping in the areas of alteration and veining. Based on current knowledge of the mineralization the company expects many of these drill holes to be shallow.
Silver Spruce has only 21 million Shares O/S. Fully diluted there is 26 million. Stock price ranges from 1.5 cents to 10 cents.
As always, use Due Diligence and see our Disclaimer, and be sure to sign up for our free news letter located on the right-hand side of this page.
First off, happy new year to everyone. I always like to make new years resolutions even if I never follow through with them. It is a way of giving me some kind of goal to look forward to or at least try. One of the goals which of course happens every year is trying to find the next 10 bagger in stocks. Scanning over all the available information at the time and trying to look ahead through the year of all the things that could happen, then applying that information to a handful of stocks and see where it ends up a year later.
I seem to gravitate towards mining stocks which of course has proven to be not as profitable as say some of the health stocks or tech stocks. Being a contrarian type of investor I take all the worlds affairs and apply that into my theories also. With so much doom and gloom since 2008 credit crisis one would have thought that gold and gold stock stocks would have been a very profitable venture. However this has no been the case. Mining stocks for the past few years have been some the worst performing stocks right along side oil and oil service stocks.
Being a gold bug, my thinking for this year is still geared towards mining stocks and more specifically gold stocks. With all commodities being down globally, news that things are not so rosy in China, it's only a matter of time that the credit system that runs the world will experience a hick-up of some kind and there could very well be hick-ups tthat follow such as a run on the banks or else a loss of faith in the present money system. There has been tons of news letter writers and articles pointing to this fact even though nothing to date has happened. Governments all over the world seem to keep everything running smoothly or at least they do a good job to make it look that way.
Anyways, enough of that and on to my stock pick of the year. My first stock for this year is the stock that has been featured on the website here. New Carolin Gold Corp. LAD. The reasons why I am picking this as what I hope to be a 10 bagger for the year is quite simple. The stock has 80 million shares O/S and is priced today at 5 cents. The company has a gold property that is about 2 hour drive from Vancouver, and is only a few miles off a paved highway.
There is an existing mill and crusher along with power on this property. The property also has 5 older mines that all produced gold at one time. Back in the 1980's the company that held this same ground had a stock price of $60. Not 60 cents, 60 dollars. Today like I said the stock price is 5 cents so for this play to get noticed and it is getting noticed by some of the bigger names in the business, I see this play as being able to hit 50 cents within a years time.
It won't take much these days to get the price of gold back up a few hundred bucks an ounce and with everything else already topped out price wise, a lot of that money will definately be looking a undervalued plays and equities. For me, New Carolin Gold fits the bill. You can read my feature write up that was done on the site right here. There is also a news wire that just came out today about New Carolin Gold and it features both Rick Mills comments and Jay Taylor. Both of these guys are very well known in mining circles and are both savvy investors who are quite sharp on picking stocks that offer that winning combination. So thats another reason why I'm picking New Carolin Gold for this year.
As always, use Due Diligence and see our Disclaimer and be sure to sign up for our free news letter located on the right hand side of this page.
Most junior mining companies in the world are located in Canada. In fact some of the largest miners are Canadian companies. Companies like Barrick Gold, Teck, Eldorado, which are known the world over got started right here in Canada. One of the reasons is because Canada itself is the largest country in the world by land mass and is stuffed full of resources. From coast to coast you will find resources play a big roll in the country. Whether it be mining and minerals, oil and gas, pulp and timber, Canada has it all.
So it should come as no surprise that even though we find a lot of these small companies scattered around the world looking for the next big deposit, that some of these companies have decided to stay right here in Canada and explore and develope. A lot of these companies however have become forgotten over the past few years as the price of gold, silver and other metals have gone down. Lack of funding equals less exploration which in turn equals less interest.
However since the start of the year there seems to be a renewed interest in the metals and that includes a lot of the juniors mining stocks. While the DJIA has lost about 6% and most other stock exchanges are the same, gold is up over 7% YTD and we are just through the first month of the year. Looking at these figures we see a definate trend of new money going into junior mining stocks. There are lot of these companies that are trading for 1 and 2 cents but have values double, triple or even quadruple that just in cash values alone. Soem of these stocks have been totally inactive for months if not years are starting to get active. Trading volumes are increasing and trading volumes are responding to news whereas a year or so ago even the best of news would only bring a yawn.
An example would be the news that came out yesterday for New Carolin Gold Corp. LAD where the comany is having their terms for a 100% ownership of the Ladner Gold project ammended. This may not seem like big news on the surface but read between the lines and you will see that the company will own 100% of the rights to 144 sq km of prime gold property just outside of Vancouver BC. That news sent the stock almost back to it's 52 week high with close to 6 million shares trading hands.
Then today more news came out stating: Further to the press release on the morning of Feb. 3, 2016, New Carolin Gold Corp. will increase its financing as follows: The company will cap this financing with the issuance of up to 26.25 million units in its capital stock for gross proceeds and consideration of up to $1,312,500 in a combination of flow-through units and non-flow-through units, a drilling services contract, and a settlement of $225,000 related to an unpaid drill program carried out in 2012.
No news that I can find but for some reason Decade Resources DEC was very active today also. Stock price up a full cent to 2.5 cents. Decade has a work program going on in the Stewart Bc area. There are rumors of good assays and news but we shall see how thing unfold with this small Canadian player.
For those of us who like to trade out these penny mining stocks, who knows, maybe it's starting to be happy day are here again.
As always, use Due Diligence and see our Disclaimer and be sure to sign up for our free news letter located on the right hand side of this page.
This is a continuation of Nevada Explration NGE. In the first part we looked at the company's theory of using Groundwater Chemistry to located gold deposits. In this part we'll take a quick look at NEG's properties and mining claims and also look at the progress of work on these properties. NGE has five different land holdings of claim blocks and properties. These are the Grass Valley, South Grass valley, Kelly Creek, Hot Pot and Awakening. All of these properties are in various stages of exploration.
The Grass Valley property was a property that was identified in 2012. This property is located in the Cortez Trend which is about 10 miles south of Barrick Gold's Pipeline property. That property is one of the riches low cost gold properties in the world. At present McEwan Mining is doing exploration on this property through an agreement in place. So far with all the data that has been compiled it is looking like this property is going to represent a compelling new gold exploration target with significant upside.
The Grass Valley South project is about 15 miles south of the Grass Valley project. This property also is presently being advanced by McEwen Mining Inc. under an exploration partnership. NGE has compiled data on geochemistry through out this area and is at present looking for someone to partner a joint venture with much like McEwan Mining on the northern portion.
Kelly Creek is a property that is located northwest of Battle Mountain in Humboldt County. Using their Groundwater Chemistry the company believes the results indicate a strong potential for covered gold mineralization beneath the Kelly Creek Project area. This property has seen a lot of work done by the company including a large scale reconnaissance groundwater sampling program that has collected 97 samples and analyzing each for gold and 80 other trace elements.
The Hot Pot property is located not far from Kelly Creek. This property is very close to some of the large miners. It is a few miles east of Newmont's Lone Tree mine (+5,000,000 oz Au), and 6 miles from Goldcorp's Marigold mine (+4,000,000 oz Au). This property also shows a lot of promise and since 2005 the company has completed a lot of work including the drilling of 9 Vertical Reverse Circulation drill holes, 200 Groundwater Chemistry samples, 1,211 Samples along 11 survey lines, Two 4 Kilometre seismic lines and obtained gravity readings at 522 stations on a 200 meter grid for a total of 20 km2 of new gravity data. Then is 2008 the compay drilled another ten, RC drill holes ranging in depth from 50m (165ft) to 175m (575ft), for a total of 1,086m (3,565ft).
The last property is the Awakening property. This property is only 3 miles north of the Sleeper Gold Mine. The company has so far collected 85 Groundwater Chemistry samples and has done 600 Gravity Stations. In 2008 NGE acquired a 900 line miles of detailed airborne magnetic data. These results showed a pronounced geologic fabric suggesting varied rock types, covered fault zones, and possible alteration.
Well the gives you a brief over view of not only what NGE has for properties but also how they are going about adding value by discovery using Groundwater Chemistry to find more gold in Nevada.
As always, use Due Diligence and see our Disclaimer and be sure to sign up for our free news letter located on the right hand side of this page.
Before you decide on buying a mine, there are 2 primary ways to extract deposits, or primarily Gold. Almost all small-time mines are Lode mines since they are not near a fresh flowing water source. Even if you own a Lode Mine, you often need a water source to run your Trommel or Sluice box to move debris and separate dirt from your heavier flakes and nuggets!
The size of a mining claim varies based on the type of claim and the country’s specific regulations. In the United States claim differences are typically -
A Lode Claim covers underground resources and is usually 1500 feet along the vein or lode, with about 300 feet on either side. This gives you a total area of up to 20.66 acres.
A Placer Claim, on the other hand, is for alluvial (surface) mineral deposits and can be up to 20 acres for a single individual claimant, or up to 160 acres for an association of eight or more individuals.
The location of a mining claim is typically in areas designated as ‘public lands.’ In the United States, these are usually lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The specific location of a claim depends on the presence of valuable minerals and can span across multiple states, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Lode mining, on the other hand, involves extracting minerals from primary deposits, where the minerals are still in the place they formed within the earth. This often involves digging tunnels or open pits to reach these deposits.
Advantages of Lode Mine
Greater yield: Lode mines typically produce a higher yield of valuable minerals per volume of material processed compared to placer mines.Longevity: Because lode mines can be larger and deeper, they can often be mined for longer periods of time.
Disadvantages of Lode Mine
Higher operation cost: Lode mining is more expensive due to the need for extensive infrastructure like tunnels, ventilation systems, and safety measures.
Access difficulties: Lode deposits are often deeper underground, making them harder to access.
Greater environmental impact: Lode mining can create significant environmental disruption, including habitat destruction and pollution from mining operations.
Placer mining involves the process of extracting minerals from alluvial deposits. It’s typically done in riverbeds or other water bodies where minerals have been washed down from their original source and deposited over time.
Advantages of Placer Mine
Easier accessibility: Placer deposits are usually closer to the surface and thus easier to access.
Lower operation cost: The costs associated with placer mining are generally lower than those for lode mining as it doesn’t require extensive tunneling or other infrastructure.
Simpler recovery process: The mining process is straightforward, often just involving washing and sifting through gravel to find the valuable minerals.
Disadvantages of Placer Mine
Lower yield: Placer mines typically don’t yield as much mineral content per volume of material processed compared to lode mining.
Environmental impact: Placer mining can significantly disrupt local ecosystems, particularly aquatic ones, due to sediment disturbance.
Depletion rate: Because placer deposits are finite and often smaller, they can be depleted quickly.
If you want to find gold, do some gold prospecting or at least learn how to find gold or other precious metals, read on.
Although most junior mining companies that we have listed on the site here are public companies, there are a lot of mining companies that are private owned. You can see from our page that has mining claims for sale that most of these claims are owned by private individuals or small companies. These claims are owned people that went out and either bought mining and mineral claims or staked these mining claims to be explored and worked. Whether you stake a claim or buy a claim the choice is up to you. Both have pro's and con's. In today's environment it's something that almost anyone can do.
During the depression of the 1930's many families who were out of work took to the creeks to mine for gold. If it wasn't for gold a lot more people would have gone hungry. Today in 2010 with the economy in a wreck, a lot of people are starting to look at gold mining as an alternative way to make money or as a way to kind up top up the account. With gold prices at all time highs it seems like not idea.
So what does one need to buy or stake a claim? Well first of all it depends on whether you are buying or staking. In both cases it depends on the area (as in state or province) as too what legal requirements you need. In some places a mining certificate or license is required. These are just short formalities and they are ones that a lot of people figure are just a small tax grab. Some places even require you to take a small exam or quiz.
Once you have gone through any processes that are required by government you will be ready to stake a claim. Now the first thing to know is what kind of claim are going to stake. In most areas there is "hard rock" claims also known as mineral claims and "placer claims" or sometimes referred to as just "placer gold" or "alluvial gold" claims. Most times when you pictures or videos of people out panning or sluicing this is referred to "placer or alluvial mining". Placer mining is by far the easiest way to mine. Once you have have your claims staked it is just a matter of going out and sampling using simple tools as a shovel, pan and maybe a pick.
So now that you have your certificate or license and you know what sort of claims you are interested in, now what? Well in most provinces or states there is a mines and mineral branch department. That would be the next step. finding out what areas are "open" for staking. Most of these departments will have maps showing the province or state and in a lot of cases the map is broken down into sub areas also. You will notice below our menu on the felt hand side that we have links to a few map viewers. When the map first opens it shows the entire province. There is an assortment of tools that allow you to zoom in and select different areas. It will show you ares that are open along with other claims that are already staked in that area. It will also show you who owns which claims along with lot of other information. For those wishing to stake claims in British Columbia Canada, all staking is now done with the click of a mouse.
There are still places like Canada's Yukon still require that you to go out and physically put stakes in the ground marking your area. This is where the term "staking your claim" came into being. Before staking your claim you have to look for other stakes which are posts in the area and run your boundaries from those posts. This is where a GPS comes in very handy. Remember, just because is says on the map that such and such post is here, it does not always mean that the post is where they say. Be sure to find the other posts first, then stake your claims accordingly. It will save you the grief of having to re-stake your claims especially if you are out of bounds.
Years ago when staking claims in British Columbia we had to put physical stakes in the ground marking our boundaries. Using just a hip-chain and compass is what most prospectors used so one can well imagine just how accurate some boundaries were. This is where boundary disputes arose especially if the ground was quite rich. So make sure that post are planted in the right spots. Also finding the corners is a good idea. Some ares requires 4 post claims while other require just 2 post claims stating the distances right and left of each post along with directions. Like we mentioned earlier, each province or state will have it's own set of guidelines.
Ok, now that you have staked your claims it is time to record them. In most cases it's back to the mining office at the government where you will file your claim so that it shows up on the map as being staked. And in most cases there will be some kind of fee known as a recording fee. Once that has been paid you are now ready to start exploring for gold.
But first ... of course anything government, there is "PAPER". Be sure to keep all your paper work in a folder along with any other information such as receipts, fees, documents etc. Also keep in mind that most claims come due within a year along with your mining license. you do not want to loose any as it may cause you to loose your claims.
Next on the list is in most cases you will have to apply for a work permit of some kind. In a lot of cases if you are just going to do hand mining without equipment you really don't need a permit. But by getting a work permit it allows you to record your work and have that applied to your costs of keeping your claims. Work or money?! Of course most people will opt to due the work. Each area will have a set of guidelines that state if you dig X amount of ground it is worth X amount of dollar value. Each jurisdiction will have it's specific forms that you will need to fill out detailing the work you did. This work will have a dollar value that will be applied towards your claims as a credit. In some cases even though you do work there is still a fee attached.
On August 5, 2015, EPA personnel along with workers for Environmental Restoration LLC caused the release of toxic wastewater when attempting to add a tap to the tailing pond for the mine.
Before the incident, the local jurisdictions refused Superfund money to cleanup the regions' derelict mines due to a fear of lost tourism. Following the spill, the local government of Silverton decided to accept Superfund money to fully remediate the mine.
Workers accidentally destroyed the plug holding water trapped inside the mine, overflowing the pond, spilling three million US gallons (11 ML) of mine waste water and tailings, including heavy metals such as cadmium and lead, and other toxic elements, such as arsenic into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River in Colorado. The EPA was criticized for not warning Colorado and New Mexico until the day after the waste water spilled.
The EPA has taken responsibility for the incident, and the governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, declared the affected area a disaster zone. The spill affects waterways of municipalities in the states of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah as well as the Navajo Nation. As of August 11, acidic water continued to spill at a rate of 500-700 US gal/min (1.9-2.6 m3/min) while remediation efforts were underway.
What's really surprising here is that no one has lost a job. No one has been fired or disciplined for these actions. What is really maddening is these are the same people who make the environmental laws and now we find that they themselves can not keep within the boundaries of these laws. What would have happened if it was a mining company? Well I can tell you that the shit would have hit the fan full force. Heads would roll. The EPA would set out on witch hunt to "set and example" of what happens to those who stray outside the boundaries of their rules and regulations.
It's sad because now mining will have even a bigger black eye to contend with as naïve people will wonder and ask stupid questions like, "Who put the arsenic in the mine"?
If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to share. When seeking out mining stocks always use Due Diligence and see our Disclaimer and be sure to sign up for our free news letter located on the right hand side of this page.
What is the most rare thing in the world? How about a miner with money? Everyday we read about all the broke miners who can't get any financing and are having to get taken over or JV their projects. Everyone thinks it's just the little junior that is having a tough go but this past week kind of revealed some interesting stories about Barrick Gold ABX trying to raise $3 billion. Also of news is that they are temporarily suspending construction of the Pascua-Lama gold mine that sits on the border between Chile and Argentina. One aways wonders that if the big majors are having problems then who can buy out the mid tier miner or do the JV's with them. If they don't have money then who does?
But there are companies who do have money and are in fact out mining and making money. While doing some research on various miners I came across Semafo SMF. Here is a company who has three mines in Africa and is active in mining them. The company has the Mana property located Burkina Faso, the Kiniero Mine in central Guinea and the Samira Hill in Niger. The Samira Hill mine is on care and maintenance.
In 2012 Semafo produced 236,000 oz of gold and the company can produce gold for between $800-$850 per oz. The company has zero debt and in March of 2013 had $137 million in cash on hand. There is around 270 million shares O/S. The great thing about this company that I like is that the stock trading volume is higher than most equities with the average volume being 1 million plus per day. Also when running a Vector Vest scan, the stock ranks right up with the best of them for safety value and timing. One of the biggest issues these day with so many small miners is the lack of liquidity with the stock. There is nothing worse than holding a stock that just doesn't trade or holding a stock that you can't sell.
For those who like to trade warrants, I updated the warrant list finally. I was am going to put them on a page of their own but for now I just posted them on this page. They are at the bottom of the page so just scroll down. A lot of the warrants might not be worth much, but some are dated into 2016 and 2017 so if you think the market will be turned around by that time you just might find some jewels among the gravel. Be sure to check them out. I will try to keep them updated as much a possible.
As always, use Due Diligence and see our Disclaimer and be sure to sign up for our free news letter located on the right hand side of this page.
Buying stocks whether it be mining stocks, tech stocks, blue chip industrials or what have you, the underlying issue is for the investor to make money. In order to make money you need to go long as in buy low and sell high or take a short postion on stock and hope it drops further. It seems like the old way of buy and hold strategy just doesn't seem to work any more. Low priced stocks just keep going lower, especially mining stocks. Good news of any kind of discovery is met with immediate profit taking akin to "buy the rumor sell the news". Great news is met with yawns an shrugs. So what are the options for someone who wishes to stay in metals to invest in aside from buying physical metal or out right buying into a mining operation?
One great way to invest or trade is by trading the metals ETF's. When it comes to ETF's though, most people only think that there is one or two ETF's that trade in metals. Those two being the GLD SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) and the SLV being the iShares Silver Trust (ETF). what a lot of people do not know is that there are a lot of different ETF's to trade or invest in that are involved with mining and metals.
With silver ETF's there is the AGQ ProShares Ultra Silver (ETF). To compliment the AGQ there is a silver short ETF also. The ZSL is a an ETF that can be traded as a short side trade if you feel silver is going to be going down. In fact had you been a silver bear and traded this ETF, you would be up 50% YTD.
There are lot of different ETF's for you to choose from. Almost all large funds now have some kind of bull and bear gold or silver fund. One google look into gold ETF's and you will about 17 different gold related ETF's. While the GLD is by far the most known I learned that had I been a gold bear this year I could have bought DZZ the Deutsche Bank AG DB Gold Double Short ETN and been up 61% YTD on my investment. (However being a gold bull would have made it a tough decision to make a purchase on a gold bear play).
There is also ETF's for the miners. The most popular is the GDXJ being the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF. Market Vectors also has a rare earth ETF. The REMX. BMO also has a junior gold ETF the BMO Junior Gold ZJG and there is also the Claymore Global Mining ETF CMW.
No need to worry now about wondering if you should trade mining or metal stocks anymore. With ETF's going both bull and bear there is plenty of choices out there where you can trade or invest.
As always, use Due Diligence and see our Disclaimer and be sure to sign up for our free news letter located on the right hand side of this page.
Was reading a good article by Casey's about how the enviromental movement in the world today is right on course with shutting the world down. Everywhere you look and hear there are a bunch of do gooders that are out to make life misserable for others. Case in point is the news from Romania about the Rosia Montana mine that is for all intents and purpose a "no go". The company Gabriel Resources GBU has been working on developing this mine for around 14 years. It's not like this area has never seen any mining, it has been mined for about 2000 years but Gabriel would have liked to have mined the deposit using new technologies. After a bunch of protests from a lot of people the government decided that it would not grant the company the required go ahead.
There was a documentary done on this mine and other mines throughout the world called "Mine your own business" that went on to show how the locals viewed this mine. People living is a town with no running water, outdoor crappers and no jobs. They interveiwed young men who only wanted a job but because a few enviro-freeks didn't want a mine and lobbied powers that be to get their way these young people are poised to live without. This all brings me to the next issue which is not related to mining but is still resource based and that is the issue of "Fracking"
There is a lot of Anti-Fracking in the news lately. You would almost think that it was some new crazed idea of the oil patch if you listen to all the fear mongers on the left side of society. Thing is, it isn't anything new. The fracking thing is has been going on longer that most of the anti-frackers themselves. The first ever frac was done in 1947. That's 66 years ago but you would almost think by the way these people talk it's all new in the last year or so and totally unproven and needs to be regulated and needs to addressed and needs to be studied and we need to be educated about all the comings and goings. In reality none of these anti frackers want to be educated in the science of fracking. They have already made their minds up that it is bad and should be banned. In reality though these anti frackers or nimbys are just a bunch of hypocrites. Take a look at just how hypocritical these guys are. Take a look at the photo below of a camp out at an anti-fracking protest over in England.
So when it comes to investing in fracking, where do you look? Well there is the usuals like Halliburton and Schlumberger, but there is also some smaller Canadian companies that are quite affordable and have a good positioning in Canada. Three companies worth looking at are Trican Well Service TCW, Canyon Services FRC and Calfrac CFW. All three are TSX listed and pay dividends.
As always, use Due Diligence and see our Disclaimer and be sure to sign up for our free news letter located on the right hand side of this page.
Back in the late 1990's after the Bre-X scandal, a lot of junior's were finding themselves with super low gold and silver prices and investors kind of turned off with metals. Some of these juniors proceeded to re-invent themselves into the tech and dot com boom that going on at the time. It seemed at the time that getting into whatever investors were chasing was the only way to survive. Today with a stagnant metals market and investors chasing everything but metal plays, a lot of these juniors are getting into legalized grow ops of pot. Some of these companies have seen there stock prices become 10 baggers overnight. Stocks sitting at 1 cent are seeing 25 cents, 50 cents and higher. LW Capital did a 1:5 rollback and then did an IPO and re-named itself Tweed TWD and then saw it's stock shot from 2 cents to almost 5 bucks in a matter of days. How long any of this will last and how many of these juniors will survive as pot growers is anyones guess. If your thinking of dabbling in these pot stocks I would stick with any juniors that are still hooked into the metals and mining and are just doing the pot thing as a way of diverification.
When it comes to diversifacation, Bayhorse Silver BHS is company that is looking at getting involved in the marijuana business but with a different twist. Bayhorse does not wish to be a grower but wishes to become a provider of services for the grow op industry offering services such as labs, growing equipment, buildings, permitting etc.
Other companies that are in the mining business but looking into grow ops are West Point Resources WPO, Satori Resources BUD and Westar Resources WER. It will be only a matter of time before one knows which companies will be able to survive. For those who have access to capital and investors and get a foot in the door, they should be able to do OK. At this point in time there is still a lot of legal mumble jumble and differences between jurisdictions.
Spring time brings a slow down to winter drilling and the Athabasca Basin is in a slow down at the moment so uranium stocks are not quite as active as they were just a few short weeks ago. However spring time brings the start of summer drill programs and news was just out this past few days about North American Nickel NAN in Greenland. This year is going to be big! Two drill rigs and these rigs are now ooking to just how big that deposit they been drilling into for the past two years realy is. Some talk says it could very well be just a big or even bigger that Voisy's Bay. NAN stock has been trading higher each day now and is just under the 40 cent mark.
As always, use Due Diligence and see our Disclaimer and be sure to sign up for our free news letter located on the right hand side of this page.
For the past few years, metal prices have been really dismal. The juniors that explore for the metals have been hard hit and the majors who mine the metals have also been under a lot of strain. Just when you think prices have hit bottom and there might be a chance of an upside in a stock, the rug seems to get pulled out and down goes everything.
One metal in particular that stands out is nickel. Nickle prices have made a huge swing to the upside. Although still down from previous highs you can see in a 60 chart below how the metal is really bullish.
Today Scotia Bank put out news stating that their reasoning on nickel which had to do with Indonesia banning the export of raw un-smelted nickel out of the country. Indonesia had stated this four years ago but of course no one took them serious until all of a sudden there is starting to be a shortage of nickel and thus the price increase in the metal. Scotia also mentioned they were buying Royal Nickel RNX and the stock of Royal took off to a new 52 week high.
Aside from Indonesia's export ban, tensions in Ukrain and Russia could also help propel the price of nickel higher. One of the largest nickel mines in the world is the Norilsk Nickel Mine in Russia and if sanctions go into effect that in itself could drive nickel prices higher. Taking all of this into concideration, nickel looks like it could become the metal of choice and the flavour of the day for investors. For those looking at getting in on the ground floor of a junior of world class property, North American Nickel NAN has it's 100-per-cent-owned Maniitsoq nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum-group-metal project in southwest Greenland. News just this week was out letting shareholders know that the 2014 season has begun. This year there will be two drill rigs running and it is not to find out if there is nickel or not, this year is to define just how huge the deposit really is. Drilling over the past 2 years has pointed to what very well could become another Sudbury Basin or Voisy's Bay type deposit. Greenland being the last frontier and North American Nickel in on the ground floor could very well spell a lot of Ka Ching for investors this year.
As always, use Due Diligence and see our Disclaimer and be sure to sign up for our free news letter located on the right hand side of this page.
We are just a few days away from the Dawson Gold Show that is held every year in Dawson City Yukon. The Dawson area of the Yukon has long held the lure of the Klondike not just for independant placer miners but also for a lot of junior companies. Over the years junior mining companies have settled in the Dawson and other Yukon areas to explore for it's hidden treasures of gold.
Over time a lot of these finds have been explored to the point of some of them being almost shovel ready to mine. Companies like Atac Resources ATC developing Canada's only Carlin-type gold district at its 100% owned Rackla Gold Project. The Rackla Gold Project has no underlying royalties or third-party interests. ATAC is well-positioned with approximately $25 million in the treasury.
Kaminak Gold KAM is exploring it's 100% owned Coffee Gold Project, which is a multi-million ounce, high-grade oxide gold district that is amenable to heap leaching. The company has spent $65 million and drilled over 185,000 metres resulting in 16 separate and distinct discoveries and a NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate consisting of an Indicated Resource of 14 million tonnes grading at 1.56g/t Au for 719,000 ounces and an Inferred Resource of 79 million tonnes grading at 1.36g/t Au for 3,434,000 ounces of gold at a base case cut-off of 0.5g/t Au for Oxide and Transitional material and a 1g/t Au cut-off for Sulphide material. With $17 million in cash, 2014 will be another benchmark year for the company as it delivers its first Preliminary Economic Assessment at Coffee and embarks on another aggressive drill campaign.
Further south of Dawson in the Mt. Nanson area is Western Copper WRN which is working on the Casino project. This project is a multi billion tonne deposit of copper and gold. The company is on track to develope a mine with construction starting in 2016.
Further east and south of Dawson in the Mayo area, Victoria Gold VIT is working on the it's Eagle Gold project. This could very well become the largest gold mine in Yukon history. The area of this deposit known as Dublin Gulch hosts the 6.3 M oz Eagle gold deposit (Indicated and Inferred), the Wolf tungsten deposit and a 13 km-long belt of Au and Ag mineralization
This is just a brief overview of what is taking place in the Yukon right now. Summer time is 24 hours of daylight and not a minute of the time is wasted as companies and prospectors are out looking for gold and other minerals.
As always, use Due Diligence and see our Disclaimer and be sure to sign up for our free news letter located on the right hand side of this page.
