Liberty Gold lifts Black Pine indicated resource by 52%

IDAHO | Assays for 40 holes from recent drilling still pending

BY HENRY LAZENBY

Liberty Gold (TSX: LGD) has released a resource update for the Black Pine oxide project in southern Idaho, significantly increasing the indicated and inferred ounces and highlighting a significant exploration target.

The company announced on Feb. 7 after markets closed that the deposit now hosts an indicated resource of 157.3 million tonnes grading 0.52 grams gold per tonne for 2.61 million oz. of metal, a 52% jump compared with that outlined in the initial resource announced just 18 months ago.

“We’re really confident that there are new discoveries to be made,” Ken Armstrong, chief executive officer of North Arrow, said in an interview. “This is another tool we can use to help try and identify and build out those targets for drill testing later on.”

Vancouver-based Mineral Services compiles magnetic, electromagnetic and gravity data from property flyovers and feeds them into DML algorithms to predict the location of kimberlite pipes, Armstrong said. He said he’s especially encouraged by how the AI found the 1.7-ha Bear kimberlite for Arctic Canadian, a relatively large pipe in an area that’s been scoured by prospectors for decades.

“This Bear discovery is really intriguing because it’s so big in such a heavily explored brownfield environment,” Armstrong, a 25-year veteran of diamond exploration, said by phone from Vancouver. “It shows the platform clearly has promise.”

Still, there’s no word at this point if Bear holds economically viable gems. Arctic Canadian didn’t reply to an email seeking comment.

Gilles Bellefleur, a research scientist in Ottawa with Natural Resources Canada, said he was impressed with how the Mineral Services team prioritized the predicted targets with human expertise to avoid drilling false-positive anomalies, a potentially costly error.

“Deep learning techniques are very efficient at recognizing complex patterns in data from known examples, e.g., kimberlites, and at finding similar patterns on a large volume of data elsewhere,” Bellefleur said in an emailed reply to questions. “Of course, predictions are never 100% perfect. Their method may have missed some kimberlites or misidentified other geological bodies as kimberlites.”

Armstrong said he couldn’t be specific about the cost of using Mineral Services.

“But fair to say it is not high because it does not require additional field work,” he said. “It uses existing exploration datasets which were much more expensive to acquire in the first place.”

Geotek charges a fee for processing an explorer’s data and may seek equity stakes or potential royalties for other projects depending on the size and time required. Most contracts are three to four years, Kandanchatha said.

“Our goal is to provide a platform where you’re able to upload your data and leverage the AI to generate targets,” he said. “We’ve spent the last two years taking what took us 18 weeks and three people using a supervised algorithm to now do in two hours, unsupervised.” TNM

The inferred resource totals 35.2 tonnes grading 0.43 gram gold per tonne for 483,000 oz., 32% more than the previous resource estimate.

It now also includes a high-grade core within the 0.2 gram gold cutoff constrained resource pit shell, using a 0.5 gram per tonne cut-off. The high-grade portion entails 47.4 million tonnes grading 1.02 grams gold per tonne for 1.5 million oz. indicated and 7.3 million tonnes grading 0.93 gram gold for 219,000 oz. of inferred metal.

The significant increase in ounces can be attributed to the discovery and subsequent intensive drilling of 154 holes included in the resource in the Rangefront Zone beginning in July 2021 over 15 months. The company had succeeded in expanding and merging several existing zones, including the CDF, E, and M zones and the discovery of the Bobcat Zone, a southern extension of the CDF Zone.

The company’s drilling of surface waste rock storage and pit backfill and definition drilling in previously defined areas of inferred mineralization also contributed to the resource increase.

Liberty CEO Jason Attew said in a statement the resource update positioned Black Pine in the “rarified territory” of an oxide resource with more than 2.6 million indicated oz. and a further half a million oz. inferred.

Liberty Gold’s corporate technical advisor, Moira Smith, said the updated resource represented the next step in validating the company’s hypothesis that the Black Pine gold system might be the most extensive oxide gold system in the Great Basin not currently being mined.

“Our initial concept of a gold system hosted along low-angle, bedding-parallel faults over a wide area has withstood the test of time, and we were able to test the concept in an area of shallow cover to the east of the main zone of mineralization, resulting in a major discovery at Rangefront,” explained Smith.

The company said there are already another 40 holes pending assay results post-resource, pointing to strong potential for further resource growth. Smith estimates the resource potential within and outside the current resource pit, including across its other Great Basin property, Goldstrike, could extend to at least 7 million ounces.

Much of the gold system at Black Pine remains unexplored or incompletely tested, including areas along the southeastern, eastern and northeastern edge of the deposit, as well as the gap between the Back Range and E zones, the company said.

The 2023 drill program started on Jan. 7 in low-elevation areas along the eastern margin of the deposit. While the company awaits feedback on its recently submitted modification to the United States Forest Service plan of operations, it also recently received a Bureau of Land Management plan of operations approval, allowing access to some of these priority exploration areas.

The company has budgeted for about 32,000 metres of reverse circulation drilling, targeting resource upgrade and expansion over several areas of the deposit, as well as reconnaissance drilling in new places along the eastern margin of the deposit.

Haywood Capital Markets mining analyst Geordie Mark said the resource update was bigger than expected, with leverage to growth via the drill bit or at lower cut-off grades.

“This update marks a critical milestone as they have now bedded away a cornerstone resource mass to focus on improving and de-risking project economics by targeting shallow, high-grade mineralization and completed metallurgical domaining study for an upcoming prefeasibility study,” wrote the analyst in a note to clients.

At 51¢, the company’s shares traded more than 2.5% lower at press time amid difficult markets generally. It has a market cap of $162.7 million. TNM

AUTOMATION from / 11 focus on using those gains to begin making data-driven decisions at the operational level this year.

Future opportunities

Wilson said Agnico has been watching South Africa’s mandated collision avoidance systems with interest. “Collision avoidance is complex, however in addition to possible safety gains it would also be an enabler for underground automation to advance further as automated equipment and workers could potentially work in the same zone,” he said.

Both Awmack and Hille pointed to traffic management in underground operations as an area ripe for improvement by automation. Awmack pointed out that minimizing the amount of vehicles backing up to make room for others would not only be a safety improvement underground, but lead to more efficient vehicle movement that boosts productivity.

Eldorado’s Efemçukuru mine in Turkey created its own traffic management system “because there wasn’t one [available on the market],” Hille said. It comprised a simple red and green light system in both directions on haulage ramps, with small bays that trucks can pull into if a vehicle coming from the opposite direction as the green light.

“You could think of a future mine where perhaps that isn’t going to be utilized because you have real-time tracking of equipment, and you’re very certain you’re not going to run into someone,” he said.

Awmack said Eldorado is also considering equipment and employee tracking technologies to improve safety, and more intelligent supply chain management systems.

“As a mid-cap we really have to watch the spend we’ve got and make sure every dollar is well used,” she said. “One of the things that will be a bit up and coming is around, how do you use leading practices in operations, supply chain and asset management and tie them to more intelligent systems around inventory use [and] purchasing to try to limit the obsolescence factor.”

As mining companies continue their shift toward net-zero operations, Guimond said automation projects will play a meaningful role in driving down greenhouse gas emissions. The company has managed to drop its truck fleet at Young-Davidson from 15 vehicles to nine, and will reduce its Island Gold fleet from 14 trucks to seven, resulting in overall lower fuel emissions.

Hille said he expects to see companies relying more on technologies for measuring and analyzing sustainability-related metrics, such as fuel burn, gas emissions and the total energy use of any activity, and leveraging those to inform future operational decisions.

“Technologies are catching up very quickly in this space, and they’re something we will be fast adopters for,” he said, adding that the company plans to embed those types of monitoring and measuring technologies at its Skouries mine in Greece from day one. “It’s important for us as a corporation to do the best we can and the first step is always to measure, then make better decisions in terms of the next generation of equipment.”

TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE / FEBRUARY 6–10, 2023

Over the Feb. 6-10 trading period, the S&P/ TSX Composite Index rose by 146.22 points or 0.7% to 20,758.34. The S&P/TSX Global Mining Index gained 3.34 points or 2.9% to 116.22 and the S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index ended 10 points or 4.9% higher at 202.37. The S&P/TSX Global Gold Index gained 9.47 points or 3.3% to 290.92 and spot gold ended the week flat at 1864.82, down just US93¢.

The big news of the week was Newmont’s takeover offer for Newcrest Mining, which sent the Australian gold producer’s shares up $2.83 apiece or 14.1% over the week to end at $22.94. The unsolicited US$17-billion allshare offer implies a 21% premium based on Newcrest’s stock price prior to the bid. Newmont has offered 0.38 Newmont shares for each share in Newcrest. Newcrest shareholders would own 30% of the combined company. Newcrest, which was originally formed via a spinout from Newmont in the 1960s, says it is considering the offer.

One of the week’s top percentage gainers was Sabina Gold & Silver, which advanced 26¢ or 19.7% to close at $1.58. The company, which is advancing its Back River gold project in Nunavut toward production, did not release news during the period. However, B2Gold announced a friendly, $1.1-billion, all-stock takeover bid for the company on Feb. 13. The rally leading up to the announcement suggests news of the acquisition may have leaked out early.

Nighthawk Gold gained 15.7% during the week to end at 48¢. The junior updated the resource estimate at its Colomac gold project in the Northwest Territories, reporting a jump in total gold ounces of more than one-third. The company is working on a preliminary economic assessment for the project, which is located 200 km north of Yellowknife and has seen open pit production in the 1990s.

The project contains an open pit, indicated resource of 59.8 million tonnes grading 1.5 grams gold per tonne for 2.8 million oz. gold. Open pit inferred resources total 10.8 million tonnes grading 2.3 grams gold for 802,000 oz. gold.

“If the project is developed, it could have the potential to be a top-tier gold project with respect to size, scale, and economics, located in a mining-friendly jurisdiction,” said Keyvan Salehi, Nighthawk president and CEO in a press release.

Cameco shares added $1.77 over the week to end at $38.98. On Feb. 9, the Saskatchewan-based uranium miner reported a net profit of $89 million on revenue of $1.9 billion for 2022 compared with a $103 million loss on revenue of $1.5 billion the previous year. Cameco pointed to rising uranium prices last year, boosted by a resurgence in nuclear energy and by supply disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. TNM

TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE / FEBRUARY 6–10, 2023

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index retreated by 6.7 points or 1.1% over the Feb 6-10 trading session to end at 613.42.

Callinex Mines was the week’s top value gainer, adding 71¢ per share to close at $3.35 apiece on Friday. On Feb. 6, the company announced it had appointed former Hudbay Minerals CEO Peter Jones to its technical team. Jones is credited for playing a pivotal role in developing Hudbay’s 777 mine in Manitoba and the Konuto Lake and Chisel North mines in the same province. The company also recently announced receipt of the results from the 2022 exploration campaign to expand and delineate its high-grade Rainbow copper-gold-silver and zinc deposit at Pine Bay in Manitoba’s Flin Flon region. Rainbow sits 850 metres and 1.4 km from the historical Pine Bay and newly discovered Alchemist deposits, all located within the mineral lease. The company anticipates that the resource estimate will be completed by the second quarter.

The week’s top traded mining equity was ATEX Resources which closed 4¢ higher at $1.14 following 13.7 million trades during the week. On Feb. 7, the company announced assay results from a single hole, ATXD-11A, part of the third phase of drilling at the Valeriano copper-gold project in Chile’s Atacama

Region. The hole returned 1,270 metres grading 0.63% copper equivalent, ending in porphyry mineralization at 2,130 metres. The company said the drilling campaign had confirmed the continuity of the high-grade porphyry trend to the northeast by a further 200 metres and extended the known copper-gold mineralization along a new trend to the west.

The current phase of drilling continues to expand the mineralized corridor through step-out drilling along the strike, mainly to the northeast, test new targets along this corridor and define the continuity and geometry of high-grade trends. Two diamond drill holes were underway at press time.

Satori Resources was the week’s top gainer in percentage terms. The equity climbed 150% to close the week at 10¢ apiece. The market interest ostensibly stemmed from industry personality and investor Rob McEwen acquiring a 37.6% interest in the company. The former Goldcorp executive stated that his investment’s primary objective would be to expand the high-grade gold zones at the past-producing Tartan Lake gold mine in Flin Flon, Man. In return, Satori is proposing to acquire McEwen’s 100%-owned private exploration company, Apollo Exploration, which has been acquiring exploration ground near some of Canada’s largest gold projects and mines, including Barrick Gold’s Hemlo mine and Agnico Eagle Mines’ Hammond Reef project and Canadian Malartic mine. Apollo will also have about $1.5 million in cash and no debt upon closing. TNM

U.S. MARKETS / FEBRUARY 6–10, 2023

During the Feb. 6-10 trading week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 56.7 points or 0.17% to 33,869.3 and the S&P 500 fell 46 points or 1% to 4,090.5.

Among this week’s top-traded stocks was major Barrick Gold, which saw at least 31 million shares change hands by market close on Friday. The company’s equity added US62¢ to end the trading week at US$23.94. The company made headlines this week after announcing substantial global reserve growth. Barrick said on Feb. 9 that the proven and probable reserve base grew by 6.7 million oz. (net of depletion and using US$1,300 per oz.) to 76 million oz. This compares with total reserves in 2021 of 69 million oz. (at US$1,200/oz.). The largest increase occurred at Pueblo Viejo, in the Dominican Republic, where the completed prefeasibility study for the new Naranjo tailings storage facility added 6.5 million oz. The mine life will be extended beyond 2040 and as a result, the 2022 reserves for the region increased to 27 million oz. from 21 million oz. in 2021. When all was tallied at the end of 2022, Barrick had gold reserves of 1.4 billion tonnes grading 1.67 grams gold per tonne (76 million contained oz.), copper reserves of 1.5 billion tonnes grading 0.38% copper (12 million contained lb.), and silver reserves of 980 million tonnes at 5.39 grams silver (170 million ounces).

Arizona Metals counted among the week’s top value gainers, adding 90¢ to close at US$4.85. The copper junior’s story has become more interesting of late, given its announcement of a VMS discovery in Yavapai County, Ariz., on Jan. 17. The company said step-out drilling located 300 metres north and on strike of its Kay mine deposit had intersected a new zone of copper-gold VMS mineralization, at depths ranging from 150 to 600 metres below the surface. The new zone is said to be open in all directions, with drilling underway to test for extensions and thickening of the mineralization encountered. The company remains fully funded (with US$58 million in cash on Sept. 30, 2022) to complete the remaining 8,500 metres planned for the second-phase program and a further 76,000 meters in an upcoming third phase of the program (budgeted at US$32 million). The third phase will be used to test the parallel targets heading west of the Kay and possible northern and southern extensions.

Sabre Gold recorded the week’s top gain in percentage terms, adding 23.8% to close at US26¢ per share on Friday. Sabre said on Jan. 30 it had sold a 1% net smelter return royalty on the Kerr-Addison mine claims owned by Gold Candle for cash proceeds of US$7 million. It has agreed to pay a US$500,000 break fee to Gold Candle. TNM