Two rigs drilling in the first week of January. I am always amazed how fast Christmas comes and goes. It is already December 28th and I am already thinking about New Year's Eve. 2025 is just around the corner, but I clearly remember when the world was going to end in 2000, that was 25 years ago already.
It was a very quiet week for Tocvan, closing Friday at $0.52 on 8,800 shares and trading only 55,000 shares for the week. It was a short trading week and most took a part, if not all of the week off. Next week is also a short trading week with New Year's Eve occuring on Tuesday, December 31.
The drillers are on Christmas break but I suspect everything will be in full swing starting the first week of January. Colibri has indicated they will commence diamond core in-fill drilling on the Main Zone of Pilar that will lead to the calculation of a maiden resource estimate.
At the same time, a Reverse Circulation drill rig will be continuing step-out drilling to the northeast where fault structures appear to extend out from the Main Zone.These structures can be key conduits for mineralization.
Brodie Sutherland mentioned in "X" posts that the first two holes have been completed by December 17th, both to a depth over 200 m. I am not sure if more holes were drilled prior to Christmas break.
The important note here is Tocvan is drilling extensions of the fault identified in the Main Zone that continue a significant distance on Tocvan's 100% owned Gran Pilar. Drilling in this close proximity not only represents the quickest way to increase the resource, but it provides the potential for better economics and more profits once they begin to extract production ore from the Main zone since Tocvan owns 100% of this new area.
I am encouraged with the progress, although delayed due to staffing issues, we should be on track for a very exciting beginning to 2025. The next important step will be the trenching and collection of a 50,000 ton surface sample for a pilot mine. This will represent the "Proof of Concept" for the establishment of a large open pit mining operation.
Tocvan is forecasting metals recovery at the test mine to be between 800 and 1,400 ounces (dependent on grade and recovery), as well as 5,000 ounces of silver (see Tocvan's news release dated Nov. 27, 2024). Tocvan's management believes that these are conservative estimates for recovery based on recovery rates experienced during the independently reviewed bulk sample completed in 2023, which yielded a head grade of 1.9 grams per tonne (g/t) gold (Au) and seven g/t silver (Ag) with 62-per-cent recovery of the gold and 50-per-cent recovery of the silver.
Exciting times ahead with completion of the previous announced Private Placement and the negotiation of $1.7 M USD to fully finance the test mine facility. This facility will form the basis for full production saving time and money in the future.
This should be a defining year to build value in Tocvan leading to either full production or potentially being acquired.
All the best for 2025.