Comparison… Often as investors in metals markets it’s important to understand value by completing peer comparisons.
Today we will compare $BRC.v Vs. $WEX.v
**$BRC**
6.1 MT @ 242.6 g/t + 2.9 g/t Au. - 47.7Moz Ag + 570Koz Au
Mineralized Horizon: 400m - 600m Depth
Average Mineable True Width: 1.5-3m
Mining Type: Conventional Underground
Projected Cost to Mine: $83/ton USD
Recoveries: 95% Gold, 87% Silver
Post Recovery Resource: 41.5Moz AG + 541Koz AU
NPV: $1,000,850,000 ($1850Au) + 1,049,400,000 ($22Ag) = $2,050,250,000
Explorarion Potential - Infill Potential & Open to the North, but no signs of significant changes in geology. Targets continue to produce narrow low-sulfidation epithermal veins.
Pro‘s - Predictable orebody, existing mining community, strong grade.
Con’s - Narrow vein mining typically can pinch and swell. Every ton matters, but this can lead to non-mineralized extraction during mining. This dilutes head grade vs. resource grade. Inferred resource is highly speculative. Underground drilling required to mitigate discovery costs long term to upgrade resource beyond inferred category.
Market Cap: $55M
**$WEX**
Gravel Creek Resource - Underground Sulphides
Indicated - 2,079,000t - 3.72 g/t Au + 59.6 g/t Ag - 249,000oz Au + 3,986,000oz Ag
Inferred - 5,394,000t - 3.14 g/t Au + 45.5 g/t Ag - 540,000oz Au + 7,897,000oz
Total - 789,000oz Au + 11,883,000oz Ag
Mineralized Horizon: 200m - 1000m Depth
Average Mineable True Width: 15m - 30m
Mining Type: Bulk Block Cave Underground
Projected Cost to Mine: Less than $40/ton USD
Recoveries: 96% Gold, 90% Silver
Post Recovery Resource: 758,000oz Au + 10,694,700oz Ag
NPV: $1,402,300,000 + $235,283,400 = $1,637,583,400
Exploration Potential: Open All ways, north east drilling indicating orebody rising to near surface in Jarbridge rhyolite. On Strike with Wood Gulch Orebody. Claims Surround Barrick Gold Land Package that has never been drilled but contains best surface soil sampling on project. Claim covers half of gap zone between Wood Gulch resource and Gravel Creek resource. Interpreted to be connected at depth. Over 6km of strike yet to be drilled but containing the same surface alteration.
Pro’s - Highest grade undeveloped gold deposit in Nevada that is over 1moz but not yet in production. 30+ drill holes exist outside of current mineral resource. Very high grades, best hole ever 46m - 26 g/t Aueq Inc. 16.8m - 48.14 g/t Au. Wide widths mean the deposit is block cave underground mining capable which is half the cost of traditional underground narrow vein mining formats.
Con’s - Orebody is deep, an exploration decline or major partner will be needed to truly pepper the deposit with the drilling it deserves. Thankfully due to the open pit wood gulch deposit a decline could be inserted from the base of the pit that runs right through the projected mineralized horizon of the gap zone. This could in theory lead to additional ore for the surface mining operations. From which could finance the development of the decline itself without dilution.
Doby George/Wood Gulch Resouce - From Surface Open Pit Oxides
DG Indicated - 12,922,000t - 0.98 g/t Au - 407,000oz Au
DG Inferred - 4,999,000t - 0.73 g/t Au - 118,000oz Au
WG Inferred - 4,359,000t - 0.66 g/t Au + 5.8 g/t Ag - 93,000oz Au + 808,000oz
Total - 618,000oz Au + 808,000oz Ag
Mineralized Horizon: Surface - 200m (Open at depth)
Average Mineable True Width:25 -100m (Open all ways)
Mining Type: Open Pit
Projected Cost to Mine: Less than $15/ton USD
Recoveries: 69% Gold, 65% Silver
Post Recovery Resource: 426,420oz Au + 525,200oz Ag
NPV: $788,877,000 ($1850Au) + $11,554,400 ($22Ag) = $800,431,400
Exploration Potential - Surface pits have never been drilled to depth. Despite proven gold/silver deposition on the project as deep as 1000m. No drilling has occurred on the past producing (85/86) pits bellow the 200m depth. Significant sulphide/mixed oxide/sulphide discovery potential exists to grow resources.
Pro’s - Extremely low cost Capex restart of less than $50m USD to achieve 50-60koz per annum open pit production. Past producer, rapid permitting path to restsrt (2026?). Vast exploration potential for bulk low grade resources at a grade that ranks in the top quartile of all open pit mines in Nevada. Very high grade drilling encountered at times with intercepts up to 13.72m - 72.12 g/t Au + 463.9 g/t Ag (From Surface)
Con’s - Recoveries are not special, but are in line with typical open pit resources in Nevada. However advanced metallurgical study ongoing suggests three stage column/bottle roll/heap leach recoveries of 75-85% with modern techniques possible.
Grand Total of all Aura Project Resources - 1,407,000oz Au + 12,691,000oz Ag (1,557,920oz Aueq)
Post Recovery NPV of All Aura Project Resources - $2,438,014,800
$WEX.v Market Cap - $25M
Conclusion: I want to make it very clear. I do not believe $BRC is undervalued. During gold bull markets resources often obtain between $50-$100/Au oz in the ground. Based on this metric $BRC trades for $1.81/silver eq. ounce in the ground or $46.22 gold eq. ounce in the ground. $WEX on the other hand currently trades at $16.05/ oz Au. Furthermore I believe the 30+ intercepts about to be added to the resource estimate will materially increase the strike of both the Gravel Creek and the Doby George Deposit. Once this is done I believe the overall size of resources will increase to 2,000,000-2,500,000oz Aueq. This prediction means $WEX currently trades for between $10-$12.5/oz in the ground based on KNOWN data. A drill program is currently active and is targeting a 400m step out of the gravel creek deposit as well. This will also materially change the size of the orebody if it strikes good gold.
All of the above suggests that $BRC is full value given the current gold market and half of full value in a raging bull market. $WEX on the other hand is likely trading at 1/4 full value based on the current gold market and 1/8 full value based on a raging bull market.
In 2019/20 I was among the most successful returns based gold investors in the world. In this period I applied mathematics of comparison like this to find value in the market. I bought resources that were highly discounted and the markets came to me. By the end of 2020 I had invested in 3 of the best 5 returning gold stocks on the TSX/TSXv and made millions that changed my life forever.
I believe the 2023 tax loss season is sending very similar signals to the 2019 tax loss season. This time instead of the world preparing to print to fight a virus, they are preparing to print to fight a world war. Will the same market evovle, only one would hope. But if it does or if it doesnt one thing I know for sure, $WEX is way bellow fair value and given its extremely tight share structure it wont take long for full value to be realized with a little patience.
Management are highly connected mine finders with 20moz+ Au discovered in their careers including more than $4b usd in exits. Additional Founders are Wall st types with access to billions. When it comes time to make a market, one can be assured $WEX will wake up with a vengence.
$WEX Key Shareholders - Agnico, SSR Mining, Auramet, Golkonda (Wall st) and perhaps soon to be Barrick or other majors (Newmont, Kinross) keeping a close eye on activities. Especially the currently active drill program. Assays pending, expected this month.
GLTA
Goldnboy1
Full Disclosure: Past $BRC Shareholder. Current $WEX Shareholder.