Today, Canadian Orebodies Inc. (TSX-V: CORE) released results from its fall 2017 Black Raven prospecting program which is indicating a significant discovery of multiple high grade gold bearing vein structures. The results are validating the company’s strategy of consolidating its land position at Black Raven as it is starting to uncover a new trend in the historic Hemlo mining camp.
Prospecting and sampling at the Black Raven Project uncovered new gold bearing veins either in outcrop or sub-cropping that are associated with a northeast trending corridor bounded by two regional shear zones: the Beggs Lake and Fallen Lake Faults, which cut through Canadian Orebodies Black Raven claims in the Hemlo greenstone belt.
“After two months of systematic prospecting and grab sampling throughout the Black Raven Property, our crew was successful in identifying a brand new two-kilometre long zone of alteration that yielded gold values up to 109.0 gpt, (the company is calling this the ABC Occurrence) in grab samples. Late in the season, we took an eight-kilometre step-out along strike to the southeast and incredibly, similar quartz veining in outcrop was located in mafic rocks which returned gold grades up to 11.9 gpt,” said Gordon McKinnon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Orebodies.
The company recently purchased the Goodchild Lake mining property which sits in the middle of the company’s 100-per-cent-owned Black Raven project. The property comprises 25 claims totalling approximately 400 hectares, increasing the company’s landholding at Black Raven to over 20,000 hectares. It lies along an eight-kilometre trend the company’s prospectors have been exploring over the past nine months.
The company purchased the claims from a company in financial hardship, Century Mining Corp., for a cash payment of $40,000 and the assumption of Century’s 3-per-cent net smelter returns royalty obligations. Orebodies also negotiated with Teck Resources Ltd. to terminate certain rights Teck had on the property in exchange for the granting to Teck of a one-half of 1-per-cent net smelter returns royalty on the property. All this helps to clean up the rights and ownership of the property and brings it under the scope of the Black Raven project.
“The Goodchild Lake acquisition covers a highly prospective property that hosts numerous high-grade historical showings. Due to the bankruptcy proceedings these claims have not seen any follow-up exploration in over a decade and a half,” said McKinnon. “With this acquisition the company has solidified its land position in the area, which will allow for an aggressive and systematic 2018 exploration program of this gold bearing system.”
Mr. McKinnon has led the Canadian Orebodies since its inception in 2008, serving as President, CEO and a Director. Mr. McKinnon was a co-founder of Mineral Streams Inc., a private mineral royalty company that was sold to AuRico Metals Inc. in 2015.
Mr. McKinnon had some spare time this morning to sit down and explain the significance of these results and what it means for the Hemlo mining camp.
What led to this acquisition?
After a couple of months of prospecting and grab sampling throughout the Black Raven Property, the crew was successful in identifying a brand new two-kilometre long zone of alteration that yielded gold values up to 109.0 gpt in grab samples – we are calling this the ABC Occurrence.
Previous sampling was showing a trend, so our prospectors just put a line on the map and said let’s do an 8-kilometre step out to test near the eastern geological contact. It produced a significant amount of notable showings such as 109.0 gpt Au, 46.8 gpt Au, 15.0 gpt Au, 14.7 gpt Au, 11.9 gpt, Au, 11.6 gpt Au, 9.7 gpt Au and 7.8 gpt Au over an 8 kilometre strike length. It was at this point that we realized we had discovered a potentially significant structure that was capable of producing high grade gold values over a large scale.
The company that owned the property was in bankruptcy, it fills a hole right in the middle of our Black Raven property that has shown several high grade gold values. The trend of the structure goes right through this system. Structure is very important to what we are exploring here. This could be the first new discovery since Hemlo, we are talking size and underexplored ground that has not been systematically tested before.
What are your plans now that you have consolidated a position in the Hemlo camp?
Our plan is to be thorough and systematic in testing our hypotheses. We’re currently in the midst of planning the detailed exploration program for 2018 which will include two airborne surveys commencing as soon as weather permits. That will be followed up by having four or five crews continue to map and prospect the property. We plan on sampling throughout the summer and conducting a drill program in late summer or early fall. Further details regarding the 2018 program will be made available in the near term.
Barrick is currently conducting a study at its William mine in the Hemlo camp to extend the life of the mine. The object of the study is to evaluate the potential of converting Hemlo back in to a core asset for the company. The camp is heating up with the potential to discover new deposits in underexplored parts of a known district that has a storied history.
We are confident with our team who know the Hemlo area well. Bruce Mackie has more than 40 years of mining industry experience. He has a proven exploration record, having managed several successful projects in gold, base metals and uranium in senior positions with Noranda, Hemlo Gold and North American Palladium.
On the board we have John Harvey, who served as President and CEO of Hemlo Gold Mines Inc. from 1989 to 1991. He also was President of Noranda Exploration from 1982 to 1994 and was most recently the Chief Operating Officer of Noront Resources until 2009.
Serving as an advisor to the company is Robert Middleton, who led the Rosario Resources team that discovered the Bell Creek Mine in Timmins, Ontario and, in 1982, he played a role in drilling the discovery hole at the Goliath Mine in Hemlo, Ontario. He is also credited with discovering the Cross Lake zinc deposit near Timmins, Ontario in 1997 and conducted exploration in the Nipigon Plate that led to the discovery of the Seagull PGE deposits.
In short, we have much of the original team from the days of Hemlo’s discovery.
What is your financial position?
The company is fully funded for our exploration plans; the company is not looking for money right now. Currently we have approximately $2.5 million, which is enough for us to conduct our exploration work this summer. Also with Northfield Capital, Osisko Mining, Rick Rule and management holding the majority of stock, the shares are in committed hands and well supported for the foreseeable future.
What are your plans with Wire Lake?
The new gold zone discovered on surface approximately 600-metre to the south is definitely something that we want to follow up on. To date we’ve found a significant amount of gold on the Wire Lake property – including wide and near surface intersections, but no orebody yet. We plan to do some follow up exploration work over the course of the year.
The company has been relatively quiet in the market?
We received some criticism for being quiet, but it takes time to put all the results together given the frequent backlog at assay labs this past year. We were the only ones working with Century Mining on its claims, and it still took nine months of negotiations to secure the transaction. Going forward there will be regular news flow as we advance exploration.
Bruce MacLachlan, a prospector working for the company, said that in his 30+ year career which included 18 years in the Hemlo camp, he had never had a summer like that in terms of the prospecting results he was seeing.
I truly think that Canadian Orebodies could be onto the next major discovery.