The letters “Au” provide a short form for August, but it also makes up the scientific symbol for gold. Maybe it’s just coincidence, but the last few articles this month have been based on a theme: gold appears to be where it’s at. With the shaky economy and consumer and investor uncertainty, gold is becoming more the place to park one’s money. The shiny yellow metal’s high price (consistently above US$900 an ounce) would indicate its scarcity. And yet, more and more of a buzz is being created in the investment community by small, enterprising companies going into those parts of the world where gold can be found, spotting it, digging for it, and successfully taking it out of the ground and to market.
The latest example is Calgary-headquartered junior mining concern Northern Abitibi Mining Corp. (TSX: V.NAI, Stock Forum) which, on a dreadful mid-August day for the markets, August 17 to be exact, stood on its soap box and loudly announced superb assay results from its Viking gold property in Newfoundland. Canada’s youngest province provides an area a bit off the beaten track when it comes to gold mining; Newfoundland is known primarily for its fishing industry, and more recently, its oil reserves, making NAI’s results all the more remarkable.
The results were taken from four drill holes, one of which intersected one of the widest high-grade zones encountered in drilling so far, highlighting the excellent potential of the Viking project.
One hole intersected 22.2 metres grading 1.9 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, including 0.2 metres grading 37.2 g/t gold. Another intersected 27 metres grading 7.9 g/t gold, including 4.8 metres grading 41.4 g/t gold and half a metre grading 136 g/t gold.
Drill results from four more holes will be coming out in two weeks, and after a brief break, drilling will resume at Viking in early September.
The Viking Property contains numerous high-grade gold zones located within a three- to four-kilometre, mostly till-covered, gold in soil anomaly. NAI has been busy on this property, located near Taylor Brook, since May and June 2008. Last October, Northern Abitibi drilled 10 holes and intersected widespread gold mineralization. Highlights included four holes that returned a high of 218.79 g/t gold over 0.5 metres.
Over the last three years, the company has also been involved with other properties elsewhere in Canada, as well as casting an eye toward the gold-rich districts of the U.S. and Mexico.
Those with an appetite for risk will get excited over the company’s future prospects, just in Newfoundland, as well as the bargain-basement stock price for NAI. Coming off a 52-week high in mid-July of 17 cents, the price settled back to the 14-cent mark, still higher than its year-long gully of 5.5 cents plumbed last October. Still, NAI’s thrilling assay news provided one of the few distractions from another gloomy Monday on the markets, and provided momentum to a stock in which investors should take notice.
Disclosure: The author, Peter Szafranski, has not been compensated nor does he own any shares in the above mentioned companies.
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