With the spot price of gold hovering around USD$2000 and inflation soaring, savvy metals & mining investors are looking for real value and opportunity in the precious metals exploration space. And, it’s gold that has historically provided the most proven track record as a long-term hedge against inflation.
Enter
Getchell Gold Corp. (GTCH) (
CSE.GTCH,
OTCQB: GGLDF,
Forum) – a Nevada-focused gold exploration company primarily directing its efforts on its most advanced stage asset – Fondaway Canyon – a past gold producer with a significant in-the-ground historic resource estimate.
Stockhouse Media’s Dave Jackson was joined by Getchell Gold’s President, Mike Sieb, to get our investor audience up-to-date on this intriguing North American gold play.
(CLICK IMAGE TO PLAY VIDEO)
TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
SH1: To start off with, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and the history of the company?
MS: Sure. I've been involved in the mining and exploration industry for 35 years now and during my career I've worked in an underground mine. I've worked in an open pit mine, the swamps of Northern Quebec and the boardrooms of Toronto and New York and Europe. So I know what makes things successful and one of the first things that drew me to the company Getchell Goldcorp was the people behind it and not only the leaders of the company but the people who have been supporting it for all the many years prior to me getting involved with it and so that's the first thing is the people. The second thing of course is the commodity and when you're looking at a focus of gold and copper, when I joined about two to three years ago, I mean, there was a very strong projected forecast that actually has come to fruition and so if there's a place to be right now, you also want to be in a commodity that's very contemporary but also has a good, strong growth and robust trajectory. The third thing that makes things successful is the assets and through my tenure there, we've actually picked up and developed some phenomenal assets with really a strong foundation and upside potential.
SH2: Mike, you've recently announced that this would be Getchell Gold's most aggressive year yet. Sounds exciting, but what does that actually mean?
MS: Well this year we're going to be drilling more than we've drilled in the last two years. So that's the definition of ambition and aggressiveness and what we've done over the last two years is just by itself, wholly impressive. We've made multiple discoveries, we've extended the mineralization from its known historic location at near surface to significant depths and the project remains completely wide open, both along strike and down dip. So this year is going to be that sort of like that segue that leapfrog year from our past two, our past two in my definition would be our formative years and we've seen some significant growth in our share price and our prominence on the Nevada stage but this year is going to be the crystallization of everything. We've proved up our concept and this year we're just going to kind of continue to expand on it and add more ounces in the ground.
SH3: You’re located in Nevada, The Silver State, which we don't immediately associate with copper. Can you give us some details on your Star Project?
MS: Well, Nevada is extremely fortunate. It's resource rich and that's both the precious metals, the gold, and the silver, as well as the base metals like copper and our Star Project just to the north of our flagship Fondaway Canyon gold project is a bit of a sleeper. We've been developing it over the last number of years and it's unique in that it's high-grade copper, gold, and silver. So you don't see that very often. There's been historic small-scale production at surface at the turn of the last century and then through part of like the 1940s and 1950s, but they've only scratched the surface and they were pulling out extremely high-grade mineralization of copper, gold, and silver. And so what we've been doing is yes, okay, we know the high grade is at surface.
What we're looking for is we're looking for the source and we've performed some really good penetrating and distinct geophysical targets and this is going to be the maiden drill program. So in addition to our strong gold focus that Fondaway Canyon brings to the table. There's the copper, gold, and silver aspect of the Star Project. I mean the geophysical targets are highly indicative of a buried large sulfite body and we will be drilling it here in mid-May of this year. So it's highly anticipatory for ourselves as well as for our long-term shareholders.
SH4: You briefly mentioned the two rigs. What’s the plan of attack for the 2022 exploration season?
MS: Well, one rig is definitely going to Star and that's going to be starting in mid-May and testing those geophysical targets and so that's the huge, huge bonus that Getchell Gold provides to our shareholders. Our existing and hopefully our future shareholders because it has significant upside potential that has yet to be kind of valued into our share price. The other drill rig is necessary to be completely dedicated to Fondaway Canyon because what we've seen and discovered over the last number of years is truly worthy of being put on the Nevada world stage. The mineralizing system that we've encountered at Fondaway Canyon, we have yet to find the roots of. The mineralization is a stack multi-layered body that extends probably just now for about 600 meters wide and 800 meters to depth, still completely wide open. Every drill hole is going to be kind of extending it and this is really good grade material as well. Something you also don't see in Nevada.
SH5: Let’s talk a bit about the recent results at Fondaway Canyon. What are some of the highlights here?
MS: Well as I said, 2020 was a phenomenally wonderful start to our exploration at Fondaway Canyon. We discovered three new zones. In the past and there is a storied history to Fondaway Canyon. It has been explored for about 40 plus years and there are numerous drill holes but the vast majority of them are shallow, focused on developing the mineralization that's near surface. When we took over the project, we took a really kind of deep-down delving look at the model and we said, well, they've only just scratched the surface. There should be large bodies of mineralization. That's the extension of what they've been testing in the past and so in 2020, we came up with three huge discoveries and at the end of 2021, we act actually hit the last drill hole of the program.
We hit the best drill intercept in the entire history of the project. We're talking better than 10 grams per ton material over 25 meters that's in a larger zone of 6.3 grams over 50.7 meters. That's 166 feet. So that's just one drill hole and it's the best that we've ever hit. It's the best that anybody's ever hit and we're really going to be kind of starting and stepping up and starting to define that whole new zone. It's truly exciting and that's where we're going to be starting this year.
SH6: You’ve also just announced plans to start drilling on the North Fork high-grade discovery at Fondaway. Can you expand on this initiative for our investors?
MS: Yes, and that's the intercept I was just talking about. We've drilled only a few holes on that section and every hole almost seems to be getting better and better. We've extended the mineralization from surface and we've modeled it and traced it down 800 meters so far. So it's open to depth. It's open along strike and this year basically where the drill is going to be mobilizing this week is it's going to be mobilizing to that spot and start to do definition drilling on those high-grade intercepts and so that's just the start of this year. So, I mean we finished off last year with a bang. We're actually going to be starting this year with a bigger bang following up on that great intercept.
SH7: You and your team seems very excited about recent results. How would you summarize Getchell Gold to a prospective new investor?
MS: Well, I think what Getchell Gold brings to the table, it's the best of both worlds. With our Fondaway Canyon Gold Project, we have sort of like defined ounces in the ground. So there's a really true intrinsic base valuation for what we have as part of our asset portfolio. So it's a nice sort of confident investment to walk into but it's still quite undervalued in that regard but it also brings the huge upside potential of what we can still find. Not only at Fondaway Canyon, we've just drilled two fences so far and all along those drill fences we've hit. So it's the huge upside potential. We don't know how big this system is going to be and then you couple that with our maiden drill program at Star looking for high grade copper, gold, and silver. It's never been drilled for before, highly distinct, compelling geophysical targets, looking for that big new discovery. So that's the definition of Getchell Gold and what we bring to the table.
SH8: And as a follow-up question, what can investors expect to see from Fondaway in the near future and what are the company's plans to develop the project long term?
MS: Well I mean, we're leaping from two great years. This year, every drill hole is almost going to be more meaningful because as we step out, it's that you're adding that extra three-dimensional addition to your extension. And this year is going to be wholly aggressive from the start all the way through to the end of the year where it's going to be constant activity, constant news flow and so from a news release drilling result perspective you can't ask for a better investment from that perspective but in addition to that, we're also going to be advancing the project through a revised resource, working towards a PEA over the next year. And so that takes us and our story onto more prominence onto the Nevada world stage. So we’re at a wonderful point right now as an entry point right now for bigger and better things in the future.
SH9: What can you tell our investor audience regarding the current valuation of your stock and why you think it’s a good buy right now?
MS: Well, we've done a really good job over the last year of kind of cleaning up our overhang. So we're completely uncapped right now, as well as if you look at our share price over the last number of months, there's really been a kind of a good consolidation at a nice base level. We also have significant long-term investors and insiders that hold a significant portion of the shares. So I know where most of my shares are held in the company. There's very little float. We’ve actually been reducing the float over the last little while. So we've built up a really nice baseline of value but we're still undervalued relative to our discoveries that we've actually made and the addition to the mineralizing system that we've defined over the last two years and we still have yet to have the new gold price reflected in our share price. So I think we're sitting at a really nice, undervalued platform to even begin with right now and in conjunction with the advancement and the added activity that you're going to see over the next two years. We are definitely a growth story.
SH10: And finally, Mike, if there’s anything I’ve overlooked please feel free to elaborate.
MS: Oh, well thanks, Dave. I think Getchell Gold is going to be one of those companies to watch. I mean, we are in Nevada and Nevada speaks for itself. It’s sort of like a self-contained goldfish bowl. Things that happen in Nevada, everybody starts to know about and Getchell Gold has yet to be triggered in that psyche of the marketplace. But in a very short period of time that trigger is going to be set and it's going to be turned on and Getchell Gold is definitely going to become one of the more prominent names that you're going to hear. Every time you hear about Nevada, we're going to be in the mix there, becoming more and more prominent, more and more of a significant player in the field over the next two years and so definitely Getchell Gold is the one to watch. Not just right now, right now is a wonderful time to really consider investing in Getchell Gold but we’re definitely on a truly growth trajectory moving forward.
For more information, visit
getchellgold.com.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by Stockhouse Publishing.