It was a very quiet week for Tocvan as we wait for closing of the next tranche financing and subsequent approval by the SEC. Tocvan closed on Friday at $0.35 on 18,500 shares with only 176,000 shares trading for the entire week. Anonymous was again the most active trader selling 150,000 shares and buying only 3,117.
There was no news this week but Brodie Sutherland did put out an update on X indicating drilling was progressing rapidly with 13 holes completed as of April 30th and 8 holes were already at the laboratory. Here is the link.
https://twitter.com/SutherlandPGeo/status/1785365197273911606
As my dad often said, "a picture (video today) is worth a thousand words". I take away two important observations from this video, first, the rig is drilling near vertical indicating they are infill drilling, and secondly, you can see on the ground before the drilling rig a previous drilling pad with an entry tube that is at about 45 degrees.
Why would a previous hole be drilled at such an angle? The reason is simple, imagine the drill starting at the surface, but rather than going straight down, it is angled at 45 degrees, thus drilling down and across a much wider area. This is an efficient and effective drilling process followed by early stage companies which allows collection of the maximum information possible during exploratory drilling. This process is continued until a picture of the underground emerges, but given the size of Pilar, many gaps in the data remain.
Tocvan has drilled over 22,000 meters in this manner, allowing Brodie to map the underground. Now that Pilar has been identified as a robust target for an open pit mine, Brodie is now putting meat on the bone by drilling vertically to gain maximum information between, above and below previous drill holes, this is called infill drilling.
Brodie mentioned in a previous video that the first hole went 50 metres deeper than the bottom of the drill set due to encouraging mineralization. I have said this before, he wouldn't keep going deeper if there wasn't a good chance of encountering elevated levels of gold and perhaps silver. The deeper the drill goes, the larger the potential resource. Subsequently, infill drilling is followed by step-out drilling to enlarge the open pit footprint.
All previous drilling data has now been digitized and a 3D interactive map/model has been created. It will be a simple and quick process to take data from this drill program and calculate a 43-101 compliant resource. Drill results are expected back in early May. This information will be evaluated and additional holes will be drilled as required.
Overall, I am encouraged by the drilling progress and look forward to closing of the current Private Placement. The results from the previous bulk sampling program and metallurgical studies have confirmed the viability of an open pit mine starting at the surface. The drilling currently being undertaken will now determine the overall size of the open pit mine and the size of the resource. Understanding the overall size of the resource is an instrumental step in financing construction of an open pit mine or attracting a larger potential JV partner to finance and develop the mine. Since Sonora is home to hundreds of mining operations, Pilar may also represent an attractive acquisition by a company looking to increase their existing resource.
Lastly, I am excited to get the drills turning on several of the newly identified targets on the Greater Pilar land mass. This will serve to increase the resource and provide feedstock for the heap leach pads, increasing the overall value of Pilar. Also, let's not forget El Picacho, where there are several significant targets which have yet to be drilled.