Jean-Marc Lacoste's Monarch Mining Corp. (GBAR), one company looking to showcase an updated resource estimate today, dipped two cents to $1.14 on 773,000 shares. Monarch has updated its calculations for the McKenzie Break project, just north of Val d'Or, listing a pit-constrained indicated resource of 1.4 million tonnes at 1.8 grams per tonne and 2.24 million tonnes inferred at 1.44 grams per tonne, a total of just over 187,000 ounces. As well, it lists 387,000 tonnes indicated at 5.03 grams per tonne underground and 1.08 million tonnes inferred at 4.21 grams per tonne, providing a further 209,000 ounces for a total of just under 400,000 ounces.
Those numbers are mere rounding errors for Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (AEM: $92.39), which sold the project in 2017, but Mr. Lacoste, Monarch's president and CEO, cheers his company's drilling over the past three years as having allowed him and his crew to "significantly expand the known mineralized envelope, which lies at a relatively shallow depth" -- the "relatively" qualifier needed since most of the ground is beyond the scope of an open pit mine.
No matter: Mr. Lacoste says that drilling will continue, as McKenzie Break "continues to hold significant exploration potential," although he does not say how many more years of his ballyhooed "efficient drilling programs" will be needed before the next update. When Monarch acquired McKenzie Break, Mr. Lacoste cheered that it came with a historical estimate of 814,000 tonnes averaging 6.63 grams per tonne, about 173,500 ounces of gold -- an estimate now just days from its 30th birthday. Monarch did produce its own compliant, "better than we anticipated" calculation in 2018, listing a total pit-constrained resource of 63,000 ounces and another 146,000 ounces underground, nearly 210,000 ounces.
McKenzie Break was one of the throwaways when Yamana Gold Inc. (YRI: $6.36) acquired Mr. Lacoste's Monarch Gold Corp. for its Wasamac project last month, but Mr. Lacoste hopes to combine McKenzie and a few other castoffs into a larger project.
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