WWW.RESOURCEGLOBALNETWORK.COM
MINING | Pancontinental Gold Corporation
A new vision intersecting battery metals and gold in North America
Resource Global Network
MINING | Pancontinental Gold Corporation
Pancontinental Gold Corporation is a Canadian junior with an interest in low-risk North American mining districts, but don’t let its name fool you. As of the start of 2018, the company is a multi-commodity driven explorer, having identified an emerging bull market in the battery metals space. Gold is still a key part of Pancontinental’s vision, which is maintained by its continuing commitment to the Jefferson Gold Project in the US state of South Carolina, but its strategic decision to acquire the Montcalm West Nickel-CopperCobalt Project in Ontario, Canada is a function of several factors. “One is the current market conditions for those battery metals,” says Pancontinental’s president and CEO Layton Croft. “The recent performance of those commodities, the very robust outlook for demand and the fact that this cobalt is located in a very safe, pro-mining jurisdiction
experience in Ontario’s Abitibi greenstone
with great infrastructure, great local suppliers
belt region.
and labour and access to capital, as opposed to other more high risk locations, have all
Filo played an instrumental role in getting the
been factors.”
deal for Montcalm over the line, but with the opportunity presenting itself as something
The deal was also built on a long-term
that made complete sense for both parties,
relationship between one of Pancontinental’s
it was soon agreed that he would come
founders and Kevin Filo, a local exploration
on board with Pancontinental as a senior
and project geologist with over 30 years’
technical advisor for the project.
Resource Global Network
The beginnings
He and Donald Whalen, chairman of
Pancontinental’s story actually began in
Pancontinental, later spent over 15 years
Australia, where the firm was first positioned
running successful TSX-listed High River Gold
in 2004 as a uranium explorer. David Mosher,
Mines. The duo developed successful mining
one of the company’s founders and a current
projects in Canada, Burkina Faso and Russia
member of the company’s Technical Advisory
and are veterans of the business.
Committee, made a name for himself via the discovery of the Jabiluka deposit in Northern
The company also experimented with a rare
Australia, which was the largest uranium
earths deposit in Australia before becoming
deposit in the world at the time.
aware of the Jefferson Gold Project in the spring of 2016.
MINING | Pancontinental Gold Corporation “In light of what we in the company believe is an emerging gold market, we decided to shift the focus and the company changed its name from Pancontinental Uranium to Pancontinental Gold,” Croft recalls. By the summer Pancontinental had struck a deal to buy the project, with Croft joining the company as an advisor and consultant in the autumn. At the time the company was listed on the NEX Exchange one tier down, and quickly raised C$1 million through a nonbrokered private placement that set the ball in motion for the company’s new vision. After being appointed CEO and president in April 2017, Croft oversaw post-drilling activity at Jefferson, which focused on six holes at one target called Anomaly A, along with a significant volume of post-drilling geophysics work. “The rich data set we have goes back to the 1990s when trenching, sampling and shallow RC drilling was conducted on land in the Jefferson project. We did some geophysics work, including in-house proprietary geophysical analysis of our data and other regional data.” After all this analysis, the most striking conclusion made by Pancontinental was the geological similarities to mined zones within the former producing Brewer gold mine adjacent to Jefferson and the very successful Haile gold mine which is in operation just 12km along trend.
Resource Global Network This notion is at the centre of Pancontinental’s strategy and is also replicated in the Montcalm project. “That’s what makes our overall story particularly compelling but also coherent,” proclaims Croft. “We are focused in North America, where there are safe jurisdictions, proven geologic potential, and supportive, pro-mining local governments,” Croft says. “We believe the timing for gold and battery metals is excellent.”
Battery metals “There are several key denominators in our business. The commodity, the geology, the location, the timing and the people. In the case of the Montcalm West Project, all of those are very strong,” Croft continues. The Montcalm project sits within 1km of Glencore’s former producing Montcalm site in Ontario that mined approximately 3.9 million tonnes of nickel-copper-cobalt ore in its short life. This proximity to a former mine was a major factor in Pancontinental’s attraction to the area. “We also have a gargantuan land position with great camp size potential. Those are two important ingredients,” weighs in senior technical advisor Kevin Filo. Pancontinental’s land position is split between two sites; the Montcalm property and the Nova property, both of which provide interesting mineralisation patterns.
MINING | Pancontinental Gold Corporation
The Montcalm mine was discovered in
lenses with the deepest lens starting at 250
the 1970s by Teck Corporation as a single
metres down, and that during the exploration
line input anomaly. In other words, the
and mining phase at the mine, geophysics
geophysics barely picked it up, but they did
technology at that time had its limitations.
find it. Twenty years later a Finnish company came along and found extra tonnage which
“Today with this nickel-copper-cobalt rush,
allowed the mine to be put into production.
fortuitously we happen to have technology that will penetrate below 250 metres,” says
However, what Pancontinental found was
Filo. “The land position joining the mine
that the mine is comprised of a series of
has never been followed up by these new
Resource Global Network but untested by previous operators, as well as new targets identified by the new airborne systems. “We have a great nickel-copper-cobalt situation, high demand and we have the technology to look for a new mine right beside an old mine,” says Filo. The polymetallic nature of nickel, copper and cobalt at Montcalm West is a very important distinction for Pancontinental, particularly as all three are vital ingredients in the EV story. The importance of cobalt and nickel in car batteries is well documented, but demand for copper is likely to rise not only from EV manufacturers but also to contribute to the construction of more power infrastructure and hydro lines. “All three of these are bona fide battery metals that will remain in high demand for the foreseeable future,” predicts Croft. The polymetallic nature of the mineralisation should also offset risk by reducing Pancontinental’s exposure to a single commodity. state-of-the-art airborne EM and gravity
The global cobalt market
systems that can help us look at the next
Croft identifies a few variables impacting
layer of the cake.”
the current cobalt market, not least the DRC’s recent mining code reform which
There is one minor issue with the Montcalm
increased the cobalt mineral export tax and
area, namely extensive sand and clay
government royalties and implemented an
overburden cover. Therefore, geophysics will
excess profits tax.
be Pancontinental’s primary tool, and Filo has great trust in the technology. The company
Well over half of the world’s global supply is
will also look at near surface targets outlined
produced by this African nation, and these
MINING | Pancontinental Gold Corporation
Australian Resource Business Global Network changes are very onerous on producers, a
Finally, the presence of Glencore in Timmins
situation which may lead to fundamental
may provide an interesting opportunity
supply and demand issues impacting spot
further down the line. The mining giant
prices.
has available milling facilities in the area, so if Pancontinental is able to establish
“However, all of that being said, for the
a mine deposit, a JV could be a mutually
foreseeable future there is going to continue
advantageous outcome for both parties.
to be significant demand and limited reliable supply from safe jurisdictions that
As Pancontinental embarks on a new multi-
are pro-mining, where the goalposts won’t
commodity vision, president and CEO Croft
suddenly move, or there won’t suddenly
stresses that he and the company are doing
be government-imposed force majeure,
all they can to secure that all important
expropriation or even civil war,” Croft says.
shareholder value in the coming years.
Not only is Montcalm West located in a safe,
“We are entrepreneurial and very keen to
predictable jurisdiction, the site is also served
keep risk down,” says Croft. “We’ve struck
impeccably by infrastructure links and access
a very good balance if you look across our
is clear-cut. “Our properties are all accessible
board, technical advisory committee and
by timber roads,” says Filo.
management/technical team. We’ve got a collective amount of experience that spans
“There are milling facilities in Timmins for
hundreds of years.
nickel copper and cobalt only 65km away by road. We have manpower, electricity and we
“Most importantly, the people in our team
are not in the middle of the Canadian Arctic.
have found, developed and built projects
That means low-cost exploration, access to
and mines that have returned significant
labour and much more.”
shareholder value to investors. We also have a lot of youthful energy and drive, so we’ve
The Timmins region is also a hive of mining
got the perfect mix of people.”
activity, which is reflected in the multitude of local partnerships Pancontinental has already struck up, aided by the localised expertise of Filo who happens to live right in the middle of an active mining camp.
a
142
Published by Anderson Murray Media Ltd
To tell the resource market your story, contact: editorial@resourceglobalnetwork.com
WWW.RESOURCEGLOBALNETWORK.COM