Long-Awaited Drilling About to Commence at Val-d'Or Black Tusk Resources Inc. (TUSK:CSE; BTKRF:OTCMKTS; 0NB:FSE) is about to start its first drill program—a initial 3,000-meter program—at two of its projects, McKenzie East and Lorraine, both located in the Val-d'Or district in Quebec.
Val-d'Or, literally "Valley of Gold," has seen gold mining since the 1920s; Agnico Eagle Mines, Bonterra Resources, El Dorado Gold, Yamana Gold, QMX Gold and Monarch Gold—which is being acquired by Yamana Gold—all have operations there. The Canadian Malartic Mine, Canada's largest mine and a 50-50 joint venture between Yamana Gold and Agnico Eagle, is located not far from McKenzie East.
The lion's share of Black Tusk's inaugural drill program is expected to take place at its flagship project, McKenzie East, a 1,676-hectare property that borders Monarch Gold's McKenzie Break project.
In preparation, over the last year Black Tusk has conducted rock and MMI soil sampling at the project—grab samples have returned assays as high as 241.8 grams per tonne gold (g/t) and 107.2 g/t gold—followed by a drone magnetometer survey and OreVision 3D induced polarization surveys. "This work has given us the first targets that we will be drilling, five or six holes, with some going as deep as 400 and 500 meters," Black Tusk CEO Richard Penn told Streetwise Reports.
Black Tusk wants to find out if Monarch's adjacent McKenzie Break deposit continues onto Black Tusk's side of the border. "Monarch's McKenzie Break has a proven resource and they have been hitting some incredible numbers. It's been coming up on trend with what we're seeing in all the sampling that we've done," said Roman Rubin, Black Tusk's CFO and a director of the company.
"What we want to do is prove up that the same deposit as Monarch's is on our ground; Monarch actually expanded its land package to touch ours. By drilling, we are looking to see if that resource is actually much bigger and is underneath us as well," Rubin explained.
Geologist Dr. Mathieu Piche, a director of Black Tusk who has also done work for both Monarch and a company on the other side of Black Tusk's property, "believes that the same trend on those two properties carries through our property. Hopefully we can prove that we are right in the middle," Rubin said.
Yamana's CA$200 million takeover of Monarch was "one of the biggest acquisitions in Val-d'Or in 2020, if not the largest," Rubin explained.
Black Tusk expects to start its McKenzie East drill program with about five or six holes, and expand the program based on the assay results. "We are funded to do a lot more that these first holes," Rubin said. The company expects it will take around two months for the lab to deliver the assay results.
The company will also conduct some drilling at its Lorraine property, also located in Val-d-Or, southwest of McKenzie East. "The holes at Lorraine will be shallower, about 100 meters deep, because the deposit is closer to surface, and we expect to begin with around five holes. The area has platinum group metals, copper and gold," Penn said.
Black Tusk is fully funded for the drill program, having around CA$2.5 million in its treasury.
"For investors interested in exploration, this is the time to get into a company like Black Tusk," Penn concluded.
The company is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the symbol TUSK and has approximately 138 million shares outstanding.
https://www.streetwisereports.com/article/2021/01/18/long-awaited-drilling-about-to-commence-at-val-dor-projects-in-quebec.html