Please start by giving readers some background to your operations in the Golden Triangle region of north-western British Columbia. What is it about the region that makes it special?
The Golden Triangle is home to the producing Red Chris copper-gold mine of Newmont Mining (70%) and Imperial Metals (30%), as well as the Brucejack gold mine 100% owned by Newcrest Mining.
There are many reasons why the region is special. The Golden Triangle is underexplored, despite the economic mines that operate there and the many potential high-grade deposits in various stages of exploration. British Columbia is a politically stable, mining-friendly jurisdiction. There is an all-weather paved highway only 20km northeast of Treaty Creek, the Bob Quinn gravel airstrip only 40km to the north, the high voltage Northwest transmission line nearby, and deep-water ocean port facilities in Stewart.
In addition to the physical infrastructure of building and supporting a mine, the Tahltan First Nation is very supportive of development within the region and has a signed engagement for communication and opportunity sharing agreements with Tudor Gold.
Your flagship property is Treaty Creek, and last year you released an initial Mineral Resource Estimate for the property. Please give us some more information on that.
The initial mineral resource estimate for the Goldstorm and Copper Belle Deposit represents a very large, structurally controlled gold-silver-copper porphyry mineralizing system that is open to further expansion with drilling. A total of 218 drill holes totalling 105,658.8m were reviewed in the Mineral Resource Estimate. However, only 132 holes were within the Goldstorm-Copper Belle deposit limits and were used to constrain the resource estimate
Highlights of the current Mineral Resource Estimate include:
- A total of 17.33M oz of gold reported as Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources and with an additional 7.22M oz of gold reported as Inferred Mineral Resources
- A total of 93.41M oz of silver reported as Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources with an additional 40.57M oz of silver reported as Inferred Mineral Resources
- A total of 1,096M lbs of copper reported as Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources, with an additional 330M lbs of copper reported as Inferred Mineral Resources
Future exploration will target the Goldstorm and Copper Belle Resource, particularly the limits of the 300 Horizon Domain, the CS-600 Domain, and the DS-5 Domain within Goldstorm and the limits of Copper Belle Zone. Definition drilling within the current resource will target converting Inferred Mineral Resources to the Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource classifications where possible.
Tell us about current exploration activities at Treaty Creek – the Phase I drilling programme.
The company is carrying out a fully funded exploration drill programme at Treaty Creek that consists of a 30,000m diamond drilling campaign developed to systematically test the extension of the Goldstorm Deposit well beyond the limits that were outlined in the 2021 Mineral Resource Estimate for an additional 500m along the north-eastern axis. The primary goal of the programme is to expand the size of the initial mineral resource and to define the limits of the mineralized domains.
This year’s drilling campaign that will focus 80% of the exploration as continued step-out drilling from the impressive 2021 results obtained from holes GS-21-113, GS-21-113-W1, GS-21-113-W2 and GS-21-119 in the northern sector of the Goldstorm Deposit. The remaining 20% of planned holes will include Goldstorm resource definition drilling as well as exploration drill holes for CBS and Eureka gold systems.
We are very fortunate to have had an exceptional start-up to the programme this year as the team has done a superb job safely dealing with challenging conditions to mobilize drills and supplies utilizing the Brucejack Lake road to access the winter-haul route.
Results from recent drilling in 2022 includes step-out hole GS-22-133 returning an exceptional interval of 1.51 g/t AuEq (0.89 g/t Au, 0.49 % Cu) over 237.3m within a broader mineralized zone of 0.91 g/t AuEq over 600.0m; confirming the extension of CS600 to the north and an increase of gold and copper grades at depth. Not to be outdone, 500m step-out hole GS-22-134 drilled to the north of the CS600 resource area returned 663.0m grading 0.97 g/t AuEq and ended 500m to the northeast from the 2021 drilling, well outside the existing resource estimate area. This included a high-grade interval of 9.96 g/t AuEq over 25.5m contained an enriched zone of 20.86 g/t AuEq over 4.5m. The 25.5m interval of a newly discovered high-grade gold pulse contained 17 occurrences of visible gold and is interpreted to be either a continuation of CS600 or a separate intrusive stock that is genetically related to CS600.
Please elaborate on what’s happening at your other properties: the Crown Project and your Eskay North Project.
Exploration at Electrum and Crown will be planned for later in September. Furthermore, Tudor Gold has entered into an agreement with Goldstorm Metals Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary, to spin-off of the Crown and Eskay North by way of plan of arrangement. Tudor Gold shareholders will receive approximately 0.251 of a common share of Goldstorm Metals for every one common share of Tudor Gold held; and Goldstorm Metals will acquire the Crown Property in consideration for Goldstorm issuing 49,847,967 Goldstorm Shares to Tudor Gold.
From an investor’s point of view, what makes Tudor Gold an attractive prospect at the moment?
Tudor Gold holds a 60% ownership in the Treaty Creek project, which hosts a very large gold equivalent resource with significant potential to increase with expansion drilling. The size of the Goldstorm Deposit provides investors with incredible leverage to upward movement in gold prices.
In addition to the exploration upside at the Goldstorm Deposit, the Treaty Creek property also includes many additional zones and showings of hydrothermal alteration and gold with or without base metals that have formed in porphyry and epithermal settings. The Eureka, Calm Before the Storm, and Perfectstorm zones are considered to be early-stage to advanced-stage exploration targets. Future exploration drilling programmes will continue to define the Perfectstorm, Eureka, and CBS zones.
The overarching goal of future exploration programmes is to increase the size of the current mineral resource at the Treaty Creek property and to make new significant discoveries, as well as outline the economic potential of the Goldstorm / Copper Belle Deposit
Investors should also keep in mind that both Canada and B.C. are excellent jurisdictions for investments to build and operate mines. In addition to federal and provincial support, Tudor Gold has local support with a signed agreement with the Tahltan Central Government for communications, engagement and opportunity sharing.
The size of the Goldstorm Deposit provides investors with incredible leverage to upward movement in gold prices
Also, in order to create value and addition leverage for investors, Tudor Gold has decided to spin-out the Crown Properties located within a trend that includes the Goldstorm Deposit and other large porphyry deposits measuring over 100M oz of gold and 18B lbs of copper, including silver, lead, and zinc.
What can we expect from Tudor Gold for the rest of 2022 and into next year?
During the remainder of the drilling season, Tudor Gold will focus its efforts by continuing to drill within the Goldstorm Deposit area. Recent drilling north/northeast outside the resource has been extremely positive as the company continues to extend and expand the Goldstorm deposit to the north and northeast. Drill rigs have stepped out approximately half a kilometre with outstanding and consistent results and we will continue to drill step-out holes for 2022.
Expansion of the current drilling (Phase ll plans) will be contingent to the success of the Phase l drilling. However, future drilling again will most likely be concentrated in the areas at the Goldstorm Deposit that contain the strongest mineralization throughout the 300H, CS-600 and DS-5 domains. The Goldstorm Deposit continues to impress as it remains open in all directions and to depth with some of the strongest gold-copper mineralization obtained late last year within the northern areas of this deposit. We also plan to test the hypothesis that the Eureka Zone may be the continuation of the DS-5 domain.
Once the company feels that it has sufficient drilling to significantly increase the mineral resource estimate at Goldstorm, an updated resource will be initiated. Once this occurs it is anticipated a Preliminary Economic Assessment on the Treaty Creek project will shorty follow.
