Tom Larsen and Dr Bill Pearson are very busy men. As CEO and Executive VP Exploration of Eloro Resources Ltd (ELO.V) respectively, these two are riding the tiger of the company’s massive Bolivian silver/tin/zinc/lead deposit at Iska, Iska plus gearing up to drill in Peru. But Larsen took the time to have a quick chat about his other company, Cartier Iron (CFE.CNX). (We’ll be speaking to Dr. Pearson when drill results come in.)
There is something of a gold rush taking place in Newfoundland. While the staking has been concentrated in central Newfoundland, there are other areas which are very prospective.
For Cartier Iron, the opportunity to pair its Labrador iron resource with a gold exploration opportunity was right down the virtual hall. Dr. Bill Pearson is Cartier’s Chief Technical Advisor and he had worked on the Avalon trend. As it happened, the owner of a property Pearson was aware of, was looking for a company to properly explore the large epithermal gold system it contained. A deal was struck and Cartier Iron acquired an option on The Big Easy.
Located near Clarenville in eastern Newfoundland, The Big Easy has some historic drill results which suggest that it contains a low sulphidation epithermal gold mineralizing system. For Cartier, the challenge is to define that system.
While Cartier had drilled some holes in the last couple of years, they had to wait for permitting to drill holes where they believed the mineralization would be most intense. While they were waiting they undertook a CSAMT study. “CSAMT is a geophysical technique that measures the conductivity of subsurface materials using electromagnetic waves from a distant transmitter. Both electrical and magnetic sensors are used to characterize distortions in the flow of subsurface currents that result from conductivity variations.”
Cartier reported the results of this CSAMT study in a news release September 21, 2021. In that release, Dr. Pearson states, “The CSAMT results confirm our view that the low sulphidation epithermal mineralizing system at Big Easy occurs along a major structure and is potentially very large.”
“The CSAMT study confirms a major structure,” said Larsen. “We are going to follow up the 31 historic holes with a Fall drilling campaign. We plan to drill around 3000 meters. We’ll go deep. 400-800 meter holes. The prior drilling was to one side of that we believe to be the target structure.”
All of which is by way of a heads up on Cartier. “We expect to be finished the drill program by the end of the year,” said Larsen. Core logging is ongoing and the core will go to the lab for assay and, then, assay results will be released in Q4 and in the New Year.
For investors, doing due diligence while the drills are turning is a smart move. We are heading into tax loss season and the junior market is down. Finding a company like Cartier ready to release results in the New Year is a significant opportunity.