Whenever we think about Junior Mining gems stocks, we seem to gravitate toward the gold and silver explorers. In my last write-up just below, I talked a bit about Lucara Diamond, as diamond explorers are not as plentiful as, say, the gold or silver players. Today, however, we are going to take a quick look at an even smaller sector or the junior mining market. Rubies. You don't hear about too many ruby miners or explorers out there. Whenever we do hear about gems and rubies, we tend to hear mostly about rubies from some small unheard-of African country or somewhere in the Amazonian rainforest of Brazil. We very seldom hear about publicly-listed juniors who are actually out looking for rubies.
True North Gems TGX however is one of these rare companies. The company was in the news years back when it found an opal deposit in the Yukon. The company is now working over in Greenland where it has discovered what will probably be the first commercial type ruby mine ever. The company's core asset is the 100% owned Aappaluttoq Ruby-Pink Sapphire deposit. The property consists of two prospecting licenses consisting of eight claim blocks covering 823 square kilometers. TGX began summer exploration programs in 2004 and has returned every year since. More than 30 ruby occurrences have been found in the Fiskenaesset district so far, with a total of 165 tonnes of material removed for processing over four years. In fact, this is the only 43-101 compliant deposit in the world.
Both ruby and pink sapphire (red and pink varieties of the mineral corundum), are found on the property. Individual stones weighing more than 80 grams (400 carats) have been found. Both rubies and pink sapphires are valuable gem materials, and in high quality, rubies can be worth more than diamonds. To date, over 65,000 grams of gem and over 129,700 grams of near-gem ruby and pink sapphires have been recovered. Prices of gemstone can vary greatly depending on quality, independent valuations have valued a 0.69 carat ruby from Aappaluttoq at $3,220/carat and a 0.96 carat pink sapphire from Aappaluttoq at $460 per carat.
The company has almost 300 million shares outstanding. The 52-week low is 5 cents, and the high is 17 cents. Trading volumes can be light at times.
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