(Click to watch video)
The Golden Triangle in British Columbia is one of the most prolific regions in Canada for gold exploration and production.
Companies like
Etruscus Resources Corp.
(ETR) (
CSE.ETR,
OTC: ETRUF, FSE: ERR,
Forum) are at the epicentre of the Golden Triangle thanks to its Rock & Roll and Sugar properties, that span over 27,000 hectares close to the past producing Snip Mine.
With its headquarters in Vancouver, BC Etruscus Resources provides “a new perspective and a fresh approach” when it comes to exploration and development within the region. In addition to its work in British Columbia, Etruscus Resources is also dipping its toes into Newfoundland after acquiring an option to earn an interest in the Lewis Property back in July.
As Newfoundland continues gaining traction in gold exploration and development — and with the Golden Triangle already a hot spot — Etruscus Resources presents itself as a sound investment opportunity with exponential growth.
Stockhouse Editorial’s Jocelyn Aspa recently had the opportunity to speak with Jason Leikam to get insight into what his company has been up to and what investors can expect moving forward. Watch the video above or read the transcript below to learn more.
TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
SH:To start off with, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and the history of the company?
JL: Sure. So I joined the company Etruscus as CEO and President in July of this past year. I was a founding director dating back to 2018 along with a number of the other directors that continue to be with the company. I've been in the exploration capital finance side of the business since 1999 actually, when I started an investor relations and marketing career within the industry. So I've had some good experience, seen some fantastic successes in driving development and also seeing the ways to avoid the exploration games. So I got a little bit of experience below my belt and I'm joined with a fantastic technical team that we've compiled with well over 200 years of joint experience particularly focused on the Golden Triangle in British Columbia but certainly extending up and down the western hemisphere with more specific focus on gold, copper and porphyry scenarios as well.
So we were drawing on a very focused technical team as I mentioned to drive development. So the brief history of Etruscus was that we went public in 2019 based on our listing property called the Rock and Roll property which hosts the Black Dog deposit, and the Black Dog deposit is a VMS deposit, which was originally drilled out in the early 1990s. Now that went sort of went fallow for some time, but certainly as the exploration and development successes that we've seen in recent years throughout the Golden Triangle have really brought attention back to the sector obviously. We've seen a lot of successes there. We're very close to infrastructure, increasing infrastructure with some very good neighbors, very closely adjacent to us such as Skeena Resources. So there's been a lot of development in the area, a lot of excitement, and we're continuing to drive success and exploration for discovery based upon what we know of the Rock and Roll property at large, but using the Black Dog deposit, doesn't analog to focus on expansion of opportunities there.
SH: Let’s talk about BC’s Golden Triangle and what makes it such a great jurisdiction.
JL: Well, it's very mineral rich obviously. There's been a lot of the more prominent successes in the last number of years for mining development for discovery throughout Canada really comes through the golden triangle. So we're really happy to be there. I think even more importantly, very recently, as I touch base on what the local close neighbors going into development, bringing back the Eskay Mine back into production through the management of Skeena Resources, bringing back the infrastructure into that very close region, very close proximity to the Rock and Roll property means an extended work program or extended work season for us, cheaper expiration costs and that means our dollars go further from every capital reason that we generate to drive value through continued to exploration efforts through there. So it's a fantastic area. We've got again, a wealth of knowledge historically speaking, and very recently speaking for driving exploration efforts in that region. Also to mention our sister company Metallis Resources is very active on the Kirkham Property, also in the Golden Triangle and that actually affords us a even greater opportunity to share costs, cap costs, share personnel opportunities when both of the companies are active during the work season as they are today.
SH: Are there any recent milestones at the Rock and Roll Project over the last few months that you can touch base on?
JL: Sure. We engage in an exploration program to highlight or to follow up on a lot of the work that was done in the later part of the season actually in 2020, with new discoveries being made due to the recent glacial retreat that we've seen right across the region. So we were following up on some work there with an extensive sampling program, that work has just very recently been completed and we're waiting for the results of that program that those results will continue to inform our next steps on the property but even I would say in the very near future we expect to get back on the property before the end of the exploration season here perhaps early October to complete an IP program on a significant mineralization zone which we discovered on an area called Hoodoo Mountain.
So we're doing whatever we can to drive towards the decision to drill across the property, it's a fairly significant property holding but we're certainly using the basis of what we understand with the Black Dog deposit to inform our decisions on where we focus on the greater area to the north of the Eskay River from the Black Dog deposit to these new zones that we've discovered in 2020. So a consistent exploration work that's going on there and all with the intent of driving towards the decision to drill it, and another discovery had another lens of the VMS mineralization that we see at the Black Dog.
SH: The company announced in July it had acquired an option to earn an interest in the Lewis Gold Property in Newfoundland — are there any more updates on this development and what does this mean for the company going forward?
JL: Sure. I'll just put a bit of background context into that decision as well. So as we we're making a management shuffle if you will, for me to come on and take over as CEO of the company, we realized that we were rather constrained by having our sole focus in the Golden Triangle and that constraint really comes from seasonality. So we're limited in the amount of work we can do each year And we just appreciated that in order to continue to drive value for shareholders, we wanted to be able to really sink our teeth into exploration, driving discovery 12 months a year if possible. So that led us to obviously a very active region of Canada, probably the most active staking area, particularly central Newfoundland. We were able to acquire by option agreement, as you mentioned, the Lewis property, very strategically located amongst some very active neighbors including Newfound Gold with the acute zone, just quite closely adjacent to our property.
So we were taking a bit of a different approach from our neighbors in the case of a much of our neighbors. They're holding very large land packages, and we certainly don't discount that methodology, but we take a very focused approach due to the fact that we identified in the Lewis property, an area that had seen historic work by Noranda, specifically, in the early 1990s which was a successful program. We based our decision to acquire by option the Lewis property on the reasoning that they were successful on there. They didn't do a lot of up, they're doing maybe a regional approach at that point in time, we saw a lot of opportunity to follow up. So good results historically speaking and yet the property that we have at the Lewis property is still largely underexplored particularly to the north, so very focused. We've got about 2,500 hectors there, which is still a pretty sizeable property when we're looking at doing this property wide sampling and identifying new zones in order to target through IP and then subsequent drilling. So we are active there now, and we're going to be continuingly active throughout the remaining months of 2021.
SH: For investors new to Etruscus Resources, what is the company’s business model?
JL: Well, we're in the exploration business, exploration development. So our key focus is to drive to make discoveries, mitigate the risk by multiple property ownership, not spreading ourselves too thin but really continuing to add value 12 months of the year by again a very scientific, methodical approach to exploration. It's a simple business plan. It's driving value through the drill bit ultimately, but identifying what targets are available on each property and being very judicious on the use of our capital.
SH: Compared to its competitors, how does Etruscus Resources stand out?
JL: I don't want to compare ourselves too much, but I want to bring to our investor's attention that we are situated in two of Canada's most prolific exploration development camps. Both of course, those we mentioned the Golden Triangle and now the Central Newfoundland exploration camp. We're taking a targeted approach. We are well positioned for financing, again very judicious with the use of our capital. So currently we in fact in June, we just raised approximately $2.6 million to fund exploration. Some of which it was flow through funds. We still have a measure of flow-through funds remaining for 2021. We'll put that to work particularly to our Newfoundland property, and because we have such a very well-structured company with 36 million shares outstanding, we do appreciate that every step out towards exploration success, we can build a tremendous amount of value for our shareholders. We've again, due to the judicious use of our capital, we've been able to really monitor our share structure, and we believe that we'll set the platform to really add value for the company as we continue to explore it.
SH: With only a few months left of the year, is there anything investors should be watching for these last few months?
JL: Absolutely. So watch for continued work on the Rock and Roll property, again some geophysics programs that we need to complete towards the end of that exploration season and concurrent with that, the first we'll call it a modern exploration program on the Lewis property, a property wide sampling program to be followed by an IP program, all with the intent of identifying key targets towards the south where the historic work would had been completed and then branching out to the Northern areas, which would be brand new discoveries for us. So we'll be really focusing from October, November, December, really focusing on the work at the Lewis property in Newfoundland, so consistent news flow. We appreciate that’s what the market needs to continue to be competitive in the exploration space and continue to drive value. So we'll be really focused on communicating very regularly with shareholders on a monthly basis.
SH: Is there anything else I’ve missed that you’d like to touch base on?
JL: By simply summarizing, we’re a technically driven company, we use our capital very carefully, we're conscious of dilution. We know that the best way to counter dilution is to be successful in exploration,and in order to be successful in exploration, we need to be active year long and that's our intent. That's why we've picked up the Lewis property in Newfoundland, it drives business 12 months of the year, and we're continuing to identify and assess further opportunities to fast track exploration. That could be in Canada, it could be internationally, we’re really focused on driving value for shareholders.
For more information, please visit
etruscusresources.com.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by Stockhouse Publishing.