Junior exploration companies often struggle to tell their story to investors. Press Releases, even when they contain excellent news such as Renforth Resources (RNR.C) release on February 25th, are required to be technical and precise. That is not enough for Renforth’s CEO Nicole Brewster. In addition to the press release, Brewster puts out a set of informal notes,
“This is exciting as with this hole we continue to prove that the 1940s drilling, which went across the entire western portion of the property, is reliable in terms of their results. It is also exciting as we got a nice deep pierce point on the #1 vein – 330m vertical depth. This proves that deep mineralization extends across the property, about 700m to the east is the deepest pierce point, 404 vertical metres. On top of all this we got good grades and widths!
Could not be a better start.”
I reached Nicole by phone and congratulated her on making the effort to explain the significance of Renforth’s news in laymen’s terms.
“I write these notes myself,” said Brewster. “I am aiming for the general retail investor. We have a group of investors around Val d’Or and when we put out news they get together for coffee to discuss it.”
It is a great target market and a necessary one as the junior mining world has changed. “Brokers are not as important any more,” said Brewster. “There are fewer of them and very few who have discretionary accounts for their clients.”
All of which means a company like Renforth needs to take its story directly to retail investors.
“At our New Alger property on Quebec’s Cadillac Break there is a history which goes back to the 1930’s,” said Brewster. “There are the old workings of the Thompson Cadillac mine and drilling from the 1940’s. We have the data from the 40’s drilling and that drilling demonstrates that there is gold right across the Western end of the property.”
As with any brownfields project, the challenge Brewster confronts is to confirm the old holes but also to ask, “were they drilling in the best spot?”
“There are three mine veins on the property,” explains Brewster. “They are ribbon veins very close to vertical in the mine area, drilled historically and we’re drilling currently.”
What Renforth is attempting to do with its current drill program is to understand the structure of the mineralization and increase the depth across the property.
“We have a surface gold system south of the mine area,” said Brewster. “Logically, we could build an open-pit there and, from that, go underground back towards the old, now flooded, Thompson Cadillac workings, as they were joined historically”
“We’re waiting on the results of our next two holes which are getting ready to go to the lab and then the fourth and final hole in the program should be finished early next week,” said Brewster. “We’ll report on the program in the next two to three weeks.”
“From there we want to do structural work on the geology,” said Brewster. “We’re also re-writing our 43-101 with more information. It will have input from mining engineers and we are really looking at it as our maiden mine plan.”
“We’re also permitted to do some blasting in the spring,” said Brewster. “We’ll take a bulk sample, a couple of hundred tons and work with a test lab on metallurgy and recovery.”
All of which adds up to a pathway to production in the relatively near future. Brewster knows that she can toll mill the production from an open pit so getting started does not involve a huge CAPEX. She also knows that the Quebec government believes that the gold mineralization goes down a long way. By drilling and understanding the structure and depth of the mineralization, there is every chance the New Alger property will contain a significant, economic, gold resource.