Cartier Resources (ECR.V) released the results of the first two holes of its planned 600-hole, 100,000-meter drilling program at its Cadillac project in Quebec. The results were good, with a headline grade of “16.7 g/t Au over 2.1 m”. Just as CEO Philippe Cloutier very much expected them to be. With gold at $3700 an ounce, the market is paying attention.
“These holes are in previously explored ground,” said Cloutier. “In 2024 we audited historic discoveries on this ground and put in some drill holes, which we reported last year. This year, we are confirming and extending those results.”
Cloutier has a big picture to colour in. 15 kilometres of potential strike in which Cartier has identified 10 to 12 different gold zones.
“We have a lot of drilling to do,” said Cloutier. “We want to go laterally and get a thorough scanning of the first 300 meters.”
I asked why 300 meters? After all, the Chimo mine shaft is 900 meters, and Cartier has drilled as deep as 1500 meters. Gold in the Abitibi tends to run deep.
“The gold can run very deep,” said Cloutier. “However, drilling 300-meter holes is quick and efficient. Once you go below 300 meters, costs go up and production goes down. You can do it, but not quickly.”
The reported gold intercepts in the first two holes are some distance from the surface but, in the release, this stuck out, “that this area has rock exposure and just beneath 5 m of overburden”. I asked Cloutier about this.
“We have a lot of older work on the various deposits, including drilling,” said Cloutier. “So, we have more information than just our drill results. We can use that older information to guide our drilling program on a particular piece of ground.”
“What we are doing is setting the table for what we believe will be a multi-generational gold camp,” said Cloutier. “We think we may have three or four Chimo-sized deposits. Chimo is close to 3 million ounces indicated and inferred. It has a PEA which, using a $1750 gold price and very conservative assumptions about CAPEX and OPEX, would be profitable. Using today’s gold price, it would be very profitable.”
“We knew Chimo was surrounded by other gold deposits. Other companies had explored and drilled, but it was not until two years ago that we were able to acquire those properties,” said Cloutier. “Now we have a plan to drill the gold targets along a 15-kilometre strike. It is a bit of a beauty contest. Which deposits are the most attractive?”
“We have two rigs running 24 hours a day,” said Cloutier. “We started on August 26 and each rig is drilling 100 meters a day. We may bring on more rigs but, right now, we are able to manage the program effectively. We were able to contract with a brilliant diamond driller. It was mid-summer, and not a lot of junior explorers had the financing in place to be able to drill. We received very competitive bids and, all in, drilling, core prep and assays, our costs are running $110 a meter.”
Having closed an 11.4 million dollar Private Placement at the end of April, Cartier’s 100,000 meter drill program is fully funded. 75% of the targets have been selected based on historical work and last year’s drilling program; the rest of the drilling will be in the undrilled ground between the identified gold zones. “Some of this greenfield drilling will be testing targets generated by Vrify’s Artificial Intelligence Discovery Platform,” said Cloutier. “And some of it will be old-fashioned prospecting with a drill. We can be agile.”
While the drills are turning, Cartier will also be working on metallurgy, environmental baseline studies and an initial evaluation of the economic assessment of the past-producing Chimo mine tailings. All are essential to the gold camp concept Cloutier envisions.
“We’re looking for interest at a different level,” said Cloutier. “We’re shooting for the moon, knowing we will land in the stars.”
Cloutier knows that the scale and scope of the Cadillac project is a bit difficult for the market to grasp. Even with hard news releases out every couple of weeks, the market needs to hear about it, “We are developing a marketing program,” said Cloutier. “We now have an in-house full-time assistant to shoulder increasing corporate development and marketing efforts to raise our profile.”
All of this is music to investors’ ears. Gold, a steady hard news flow for the next 18 months, the very real possibility of “bonanza” holes, a marketing plan and enough money in the bank to take the moonshot. It will take patience, but ECR’s current market cap of just under 82 million is likely to go up substantially as Cloutier and his team add holes and ounces.
Cartier has always been an exploration play with the endgame being a sale to a major. What Cloutier is doing is expanding the goods on offer and, of course, raising the asking price with each hole drilled, each deposit confirmed. It is quite a plan, and it looks like it’s working.