Gold exploration is challenging and complex. It requires significant time, financial resources and expertise in many disciplines such as geography, geology, chemistry, and engineering. The likelihood of a discovery leading to a mine being developed is very low – less than 0.1% of prospected sites will lead to a productive mine. And only 10% of global gold deposits contain sufficient gold to justify further development.
Significant exploration and development need to take place, both to determine, as accurately as possible, the size of the deposit as well as how to extract and process the ore efficiently, safely and responsibly.
So, when companies report significant drill intercepts, it increases the odds that the project may one day become a producing mine. Likewise, it increases the chances that investors in the gold exploration company will be rewarded for establishing a position early in the mining life cycle.
Wesdome Gold Mines – Feb 19th, 10.5 Metres of 106.3 g/t Au. Feb 12th – 2,690 g/t over 0.5 m core length (60.0 g/t Au cut, 0.4 m true width).
Wesdome announced the continuation of the Kiena Deep A Zone down plunge to 830 metres long. This includes drill results containing 106.3 g/t Au over 10.5 metres, and drilling up plunge commences from the new exploration ramp. They continue to hit high grades at Falcon Zone and 300 East Zones.
Blackham Resources – Feb 21, 26m @ 15.69g/t Au
Blackham announced positive results from reserve development drilling designed to expand and upgrade reserves ahead of the Stage 1 sulphides production at the Wiluna gold project. Drilling has commenced targeting high-grade zones anticipated to be mined early in the mine plan, which are located close to surface and close to existing underground infrastructure to allow for rapid development.
K92 Mining – Feb 20, 30.1m at 22.7 g/t Au
K92 announced continuing diamond drilling of the Kora North Extension of the Kainantu gold mine in Papua New Guinea. The results for the latest 25 diamond drill holes completed from both surface and underground into the Kora North deposit were summarized with a highlight of 30.1 metres @ 22.7 g/t gold. The results include multiple high-grade intersections, with the vast majority reported outside the boundaries of the October/2018 Resource estimate. The intersections demonstrate the high-grade and continuity of known mineralization beyond the resource along strike to the south, up-dip and down-dip.
Walker River Resources – Feb 5, 13.7 meters at 96 g/t Au
Walker River announced additional drill results from the late 2019 reverse circulation (“RC”) drill programs on the Lapon Gold Project, located approximately 60 kilometers southeast of Yerington, Nevada.
To date, mineralization has been discovered in broad, altered, fractured and brecciated NE trending structural zones. Anomalous gold values are denoted in many areas within this zone, and significant higher-grade mineralization over significant widths is located within sub-vertical en echelon zones of intense alteration and gold enrichment. To date, all the drill holes carried out in the Lapon Rose and the newly discovered zone have returned gold mineralization.
Gran Colombia Gold – Feb 3, 469 Meters at 2.2 g/t Au
Gran Colombia announced the discovery of a potential new high-grade zone at its Marmato Project outside the Deeps Zone. They reported additional higher-grade gold intercepts completing the 2019 Phase 2 drilling in the Deeps Zone including 75.83 meters at 4.03 g/t Au in drill hole MT-IU-051.
Picking winning junior gold stocks in the exploration phase is very difficult, but can yield significant returns when the drilling bares fruit. Mining stocks typically get a re-valuation higher when they publish a maiden resource or economic studies such as a preliminary economic analysis (PEA), pre-feasibility study (PFS) or full feasibility study (FS). These help to better define the resource and determine how profitable it would be to build the mine and extract the gold from the ground.
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