[Carousel photo: picture of Red Lake gold-bearing ore, photo by Rob Lavinsky iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0]
Canada and Africa. Both are major destinations for gold exploration, development, and production. But most of the similarities end there.
Canada has a strong, well-established mining industry with a history that traces back well over a century. As a stable, Western jurisdiction with a well-developed legal system, Canada is seen as one of the most desirable jurisdictions for mining companies to do business.
Africa is much more of a “mixed bag”. Some areas and nations provide stable political conditions and relatively benign regulatory structures in which mining companies can operate. Other nations (notably the Democratic Republic of Congo) are notorious for internal strife and corruption. Many jurisdictions in Africa are somewhere in between.
Nexus Gold Corp. (
TSX: V.NXS,
OTCQB: NXXGF,
Forum), is a Canadian junior mining company looking to capitalize on gold mining opportunities in both continents. Stockhouse readers have had plenty of exposure to the Company’s operations via several previous feature articles, beginning with a full length feature from
April 5, 2017.
Readers familiar with Nexus know that its primary operational focus is in Burkina Faso. This West African nation has been in the news recently, unfortunately not for positive reasons. Pockets of violence have erupted, leading to a “state of emergency” in several provinces.
Nexus Gold’s operations are
not in any of these provinces. Warren Robb, the Company’s Senior Vice President of Exploration is frequently on the ground in Burkina Faso. His perception is that the media hype actually overstates the actual level of risk – to persons or property.
"The government has moved quickly to address the situation along the northern and eastern borders. Our mineral properties are located hundreds of kilometers from the borders, so we’re a significant distance from any area of concern. We are exercising common sense and going about our business."
Nexus still sees this emerging gold-producing nation as one of the premier gold exploration destinations on the planet. And NXS is far from being alone here.
(click to enlarge)
Previous readers will recognize this map from earlier articles on Nexus. What has changed is that the number of established gold deposits continues to increase as well as the
size of several of these deposits. Many gold companies from around the world continue to advance their projects in this nation.
The Company also has some strong backers of its Burkina Faso operations, who boast well-known pedigrees in the world of gold mining. Sandstorm Gold remains a major strategic investor, holding an approximate 17% interest in Nexus.
Ian Stalker, currently a Director of Nexus has 40 years of mining experience. This includes more than a decade spent in West African gold mining, where he has held
senior positions with household names like Gold Fields Ltd and (what is now) AngloGold Ashanti.
Burkina Faso may not be an ideal vacation destination for your family. But it’s a great place for mining companies to find gold and develop substantial deposits. And that’s what Nexus has been working on.
Bouboulou/Rakounga
The Company’s first (and most advanced) Burkina Faso property is the Bouboulou Project. Bouboulou’s geology is similar to much of the gold-bearing mineralization in this nation: lower grades, but with bulk-tonnage potential.
(click to enlarge)
Subsequently, Nexus added the Rakounga Gold Concession, contiguous to Bouboulou. The Bouboulou Concession is very large, 38.8 square kilometers in size. Rakounga is
massive, a land package totaling 250 square kilometers. Together, the two Concessions exceed 28,000 hectares.
The dominant geological structure here is the Sabce shear zone. Not only does this long geological trend (~120 kilometers) support numerous artisanal mining operations, it is now also being targeted by several mining companies for gold exploration.
The Company has established a mineralized trend of more than 16 kilometers running across these properties. Drilling highlights to date include:
Bouboulou:
- 1.54 g/t Au over 40 meters (including 2.25 g/t Au over 20 meters)
- 2.20 g/t Au over 35 meters (including 5.45 g/t Au over 12 meters)
- 2.84 g/t Au over 10 meters (including 12.45 g/t Au over 2 meters)
Rakounga
- 1.01 g/t Au over 32 meters (including 5.65 g/t Au over 2 meters and 2.81 g/t Au over 6 meters)
- 1.00 g/t Au over 34 meters (including 5.57 g/t Au over 4 meters)
(click to enlarge)
There is direct access to these Concessions off of a paved highway, and also considerable historical and current work on these properties in the form of artisanal mining.
These low-tech and often unauthorized mining operations are a mixed blessing for the mining companies who are also exploring for and developing gold deposits here. On the one hand, these miners extract (small quantities of) some of the most easily accessible gold.
On the other hand, they function as “bird dogs” for foreign mining companies. Where artisanal mining is taking place, gold mineralization
must be present. Using these operations as a guide can help mining companies shave substantial amounts off of exploration costs, and zero in on mineralization sooner.
Bouboulou is the Company’s flagship Project at this stage in terms of level of development, with three rounds of drilling having been completed. More recent work at Rakounga has centered around the Koaltenga Zone, with a strike length of roughly 1,200 meters in this one area alone.
For this reason, as management moves toward a decision on a resource estimate, Bouboulou (and Rakounga) may be seen as the most likely candidate, and further drilling here is already planned for 2019. However, it’s the Company’s combined land package to the northeast, which might actually offer investors the most blue-sky potential.
Niangouela/Dakouli 2
As noted above, most of the gold-bearing mineralization in Burkina Faso tends toward lower grade, bulk-tonnage formations. However, parts of this country also feature higher grade mineralization. It is this type of geology that characterizes the Company’s other enormous, combined land package.
Niangouela was the first of these two lower Concessions acquired by Nexus. It’s a huge, 38.8 square kilometer property Nexus made a big splash in the mining world with its first round of drilling at Niangouela, which followed some big numbers in initial sampling.
Samples include a reading of 2,950 g/t Au, from an exposed quartz vein in an artisanal mining shaft. An additional sample of 403 g/t Au was recovered from some of the material extracted from a shaft.
The Company’s first round of drilling at Niangouela, after very little preliminary exploration, hit on eight out of nine drill holes. Included in those results was an especially strong intercept, roughly 50 meters below surface.
- 26.69 g/t Au over 4.85 meters, including 132.00 g/t Au over 1.03 meters
The tricky part to exploring for gold with this higher grade mineralization is the nature of the geology. As with much of the high-grade gold that is found in West Africa, the geology tends to consist of tall vertical chutes of mineralization, versus the more horizontally trending sheets of mineralization with which mining investors are more familiar.
This means more patient, methodical exploration. However, it also means the potential for a big strike, should the Company hit on one of the more robust chutes of this gold mineralization. While Niangouela continues to offer substantial potential, management is actually more bullish on its more recent acquisition here.
In a conference call with Stockhouse Editorial, President and CEO Alex Klenman explained that it was actually Dakouli 2 that Nexus was first eying in this region, a 98-square kilometer land package. However, this Concession only recently became available.
While exploration here is earlier stage, management is very enthused by the unusual “nuggety” gold recovered in samples, with multiple showings of visible gold already. Nexus has noted that artisanal mining in the area is extracting substantial proportions of coarse, nuggety gold as well. Further exploration at Dakouli 2 is planned for 2019.
Even before recent instability in parts of Burkina Faso, management was already hunting for Canadian properties to complement the Company’s Burkina Faso portfolio. Nexus sees this as important diversification in terms of both jurisdiction and geology.
With NXS’s Bouboulou Project tending toward lower-grade bulk-tonnage, management was looking for additional holdings in a more established jurisdiction as well as geology that offers more upside potential in terms of grade. If investors were to sum up these Canadian acquisitions with a separate word for each, those words might be “prestige” and “proximity”.
McKenzie Gold Project – Red Lake
On
February 12, 2019, Nexus acquired the McKenzie property This is a series of mining claims, 1,348.5 hectares in size. It’s located in the prestigious Red Lake Gold Camp, world famous for its robust, high-grade gold deposits.
The previously unexplored property became of interest following a 2017 prospecting discovery. Multiple samples were collected. Assaying indicated grades ranging from 9.37 g/t Au all the way to 331 g/t Au. The Company has a summer work program planned for this year to continue with preliminary exploration.
New Pilot Gold Project: famous neighbour
On
January 11, 2019; Nexus completed the acquisition of the New Pilot property, a 509 hectare land package located in the Bridge River Mining Camp in British Columbia. New Pilot features gold-copper geology and is also at an early stage of development.
Three grab samples have returned values in excess of 100 g/t Au. Some chip and soil sampling has also been conducted on the property, which is accessible off of a paved highway.
New Pilot is approximately 18 kilometers southeast of the past-producing
Bralorne Pioneer Mine. From 1928 through 1971, that mine produced 4.15 million ounces of gold. More recently, exploration has commenced on a high-grade gold/cobalt prospect, almost directly adjacent to New Pilot. A summer work program is planned here as well.
While investors will be intrigued with the potential of McKenzie and New Pilot, of more immediate interest will be future development milestones, most specifically a maiden resource estimate.
In speaking with Stockhouse Editorial, CEO Klenman was constrained from getting into too much detail concerning the Company’s near-term options due to an existing Non-Disclosure Agreement. He did offer some guidance on management’s plans here.
“We’ve expanded our jurisdictional reach, while adding project upside in some prolific gold districts. We are looking to add more projects, and also possible joint-venture and earn-in scenarios, whereby we partner with others to develop some of our assets. In the near term we will continue to build our database at Bouboulou-Rakounga, conduct more in-depth exploration at the new Dakouli project, and begin working our Canadian assets. We are intent on growing our market cap, and feel we are on the right path to do just that.”
As the gold market heats up, Nexus Gold offers investors enormous upside potential, combining the emerging opportunities in Burkina Faso with the security and tradition of the Canadian gold mining industry.
www.nexusgoldcorp.com
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article of Stockhouse Publishing.