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Gold is breaking out once again after several years of trading sideways. It exploded through the $2,000/oz level earlier this month after consolidating between $1,700/oz and $1,800/oz since mid-2020.
While the gold market is volatile, major players on Wall Street have started to warm up to gold once again, with price targets from the likes of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley now ratcheting up well above current levels, signaling that the institutional money is back on board.
There are many factors driving the rekindled enthusiasm, including inflation, geopolitical tension, and concerns about digital currencies as safe havens if war spreads beyond Ukraine and increasingly involves cyber-terrorism and attacks on global communications systems.
One junior miner that has been on fire this year is BLAGF.
The company owns three properties: two gold-prospective, and one copper porphyry-type project. It has been drilling deep and striking gold over the past year, and much more drilling is planned for 2022.
When the gold market comes into favor, the big gains are generally found in the Junior Mining space. But that space is notoriously filled with cash-burning over-leveraged money pits that flame out and take investors down with them when the tide turns.
Blue Lagoon Resources has put together a business model and vision that deserves attention because the company has managed to pair an operational funding model that sidesteps dilution risk with the speculative upside potential of a true scalable junior mining name with real physical prospects already in place.
Shares of the stock are flashing promising signals as well at present, outperforming both the large-cap and small-cap metals mining ETFs during a period when those bets have been paying off and receiving attention from Wall Street and the financial media.
Both the Geopolitical and Inflationary tailwinds that have historically powered interest in gold are in full swing right now with the Fed well behind the curve and Vladimir Putin continuing to mount the first major land war in Europe in decades. That foundation should continue to put gold and gold miners in the spotlight. And BLAGF could be a uniquely well-positioned high-beta asset to consider in that context.
Recent Catalysts
Most recently, Blue Lagoon announced that recent assay results from the 2021 Phase Two drill program include new high-grade gold vein intercepts at the Company’s 100% owned, year-round accessible, Dome Mountain Gold Project located a short 50-minute drive from Smithers, B.C.
According to that release, results from Holes DM-21-188, DM-21-188A and DM-21-200 continue to show that the Chance Structural Zone contains multiple high grade gold bearing veins thus confirming it as a highly prospective target for aggressive follow up drilling in 2022. These holes intercepted sulfide-bearing quartz carbonate veins with strong alteration disseminated sulfide zones in the footwall.
“We are pleased to announce significant assay results once again for both gold and silver in new quartz carbonate veins drilled in the Chance Structural Zone. These sulfide-bearing veins are accompanied by intense alteration halos and bracketed by disseminated sulfide alteration which is unique to the Chance Structural Zone in the Dome Mountain Gold Project,” stated Bill Cronk, Chief Geologist for Blue Lagoon Resources. “Sheeted quartz carbonate veins with up to 30 veins per meter, intense carbonate alteration and significant base metal mineralization associated with high grade gold assays support the Alkali Gold Model,” he added.
Last month, the company announced that it has mobilized its crew and its first drill rig to commence its 2022 drill program, which is expected to be a minimum of 20,000 meters of diamond drilling on its all year-round, road accessible Dome Mountain Gold Project, located a short 50 minute drive from Smithers, British Columbia.
“The 2022 drilling at Dome Mountain will be a game changer for us,” said Bill Cronk, Chief Geologist of Blue Lagoon Resources.” We have drill targets that build on the newly defined mineralized zones at Chance and Federal as well as targets over the Freegold Intrusion. In addition, anomalous soils from the 2020 program have not been fully followed up and several new zones identified by soils in 2021 will provide new drill targets. Also, the Boulder Vein will be targeted for deep vein intercepts that is expected to add significantly to resource expansion there.”
That was followed by news that recent drilling has encountered new, high-grade vein intercepts at the Company’s 100% owned, year-round accessible, Dome Mountain Gold Project located a short 50-minute drive from Smithers, B.C.
“We knew we were in a good zone in the Chance Structural Corridor which has shown us multiple mineralized intercepts in previous holes,” said William Cronk, Chief Geologist for Blue Lagoon Resources. “We systematically worked our way south and then drilled south-southeast into the proposed eastern extension of the Boulder Vein in anticipation of mineralization at the intersection of two strong lineaments; the Chance Structural Zone and the eastern extension of the Boulder Vein. Previously reported intercepts were high grade in this area and the expectation is that we will be able to follow this intercept with near term holes which will test for further high-grade mineralization at depth and along strike.”
The company recently followed that up with key news that the Company’s toll milling partner, Nicola Mining (“Nicola”), is now ready to send the fourth shipment of concentrate made from the mineralized material from the Dome Mountain underground mine. The shipment of 103 dry tonnes of gold and silver concentrate grading approximately 90 g/t Au and 477 g/t Ag will be sent to Ocean Partners UK Limited, a leading European based commodities trading company with offices in six countries around the world. All concentrate assays were completed at Base Met Labs, an accredited metallurgical testing facility located in Kamloops, BC.
“So far three shipments totalling 223 dry metric tonnes of concentrate that were shipped last year have a value to the Company of more than CDN $1 million, with some funds received and more to be received in the coming weeks,” said Rana Vig, President and CEO of Blue Lagoon Resources. “This fourth shipment of concentrate is valued at more than $500,000, and once received, will give a boost to an already healthy treasury with no debt, ensuring the Company has a significant runway to execute on its aggressive exploration plans on a project that’s been relatively unexplored and under the radar.”
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 14, 2022 / Blue Lagoon Resources Inc. (the “Company“) (CSE:BLLG; FSE:7BL; OTCQB:BLAGF) is pleased to report that the Company’s toll milling partner, Nicola Mining (“Nicola”), is now ready to send the fourth shipment of concentrate made from the mineralized material from the Dome Mountain underground mine. The shipment of 103 dry tonnes of gold and silver concentrate grading approximately 90 g/t Au and 477 g/t Ag will be sent to Ocean Partners UK Limited, a leading European based commodities trading company with offices in six countries around the world. All concentrate assays were completed at Base Met Labs, an accredited metallurgical testing facility located in Kamloops, BC.
“So far three shipments totalling 223 dry metric tonnes of concentrate that were shipped last year have a value to the Company of more than CDN $1 million, with some funds received and more to be received in the coming weeks.” said Rana Vig, President and CEO of Blue Lagoon Resources. “This fourth shipment of concentrate is valued at more than $500,000, and once received, will give a boost to an already healthy treasury with no debt, ensuring the Company has a significant runway to execute on its aggressive exploration plans on a project that’s been relatively unexplored and under the radar,” he added.
https://www.accesswire.com/users/newswire/images/688533/BL4.PNGBags full of gold and silver concentrate made from Dome Mountain mineralized material are readied and await shipping at Nicola’s milling facility in Merritt, B.C.
Trucking of the Dome Mountain mineralized material began on June 14, 2021, with 10 to 15 trucks leaving the mine site on a weekly basis. Approximately 5000 tonnes of the Dome Mountain high-grade mineralized material were shipped and processed by Nicola. The Company has provided the Ministry of Mines with a draft of its proposed amendment application and is now awaiting comments in order to prepare its final application for submission and approval for the recommencement of mining operations.
The Company has not made a decision to proceed to production at this time and will evaluate its production decision once all permit requirements are in place. Any production decision in advance of obtaining a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability of the project is associated with increased uncertainty and risk of failure.
EXPLORATION DRILLING
The Company’s recently announced 20,000-meter drill program continues 24/7 with two drill rigs – one focused on the newly discovered Chance Strutural Zone ( CSZ) and the second drilling a follow up and deeper hole, to the highly successful hole DM-20-139. That hole hit 17.69 g/t Au and 70.41 g/t Ag from a depth of 335.47m to 338.6m (3.13 meters), the deepest intercept yet on the Boulder Vein, which essentially extended the down dip extent of the Boulder Vein by another 200 meters from the base of the 43-101 compliant resource (see News release Dec 9, 2020).
The scientific and technical data contained in this news release was approved by William Cronk, P.Geo., a qualified person as defined in NI 43-101 and a consultant to the Company.
The Dome Mountain Gold Project is an all-year road accessible project located a short 50-minute drive from Smithers B.C. The project holds both an Environmental Management Act Permit (EMA) and a Mining Permit providing for up to 75,000 tonnes production annually.
In addition, the property has 15 known high grade gold veins with 90% of the nearly 19,000 hectare property yet to be explored.
The property includes the past producing mine on tenures consisting of 23 contiguous mining claims and one mining lease totaling 18,617 hectares, located approximately 66 kilometers east of the town of Smithers in northwest British Columbia. The Dome Mountain area has a long history of exploration that resulted in the discovery of numerous gold bearing quartz-carbonate veins.
15 known gold bearing veins are located on the Dome Property and ready for drill targeting.
Gold mineralization was first located on the property in the late 1800s and considerable surface and underground work was done in 1923-24. Resumption of exploration in the 1980s led to the discovery of the Boulder Vein system in 1985 by Noranda. Underground mining was initiated in August 1991 by Timmins Nickel Inc. and its joint venture partner, Habsburg Resources Inc. and ceased in May 1993. During this period 43,900 tonnes at an average grade of 12.0 grams per tonne gold were reportedly mined from shrinkage stopes accessed from trackless drift developments on the 1290 and 1370 levels.
The Pellaire property is located 160 km southwest of William’s Lake in the Chilcotin range of south-central British Columbia (Fig 1). The claims cover an area of 7119.69 hectares (17593.12 acres) in two separate claim blocks (Fig 3) located to the east of Tsylos Provincial Park and to the west of Taseko Lakes. The northwest section of the property is accessible by road from William’s Lake. Road access to the southern claim blocks is pending required repairs to the Tchaikazan River Bridge.
Further infrastructure available to the Pellaire property includes a 20-man exploration camp with cabins, a cookhouse, laundry facility and mine dry (Figure 2). Several pieces of a small-scale 200TPD gravity mill are located adjacent to the camp including a cone crusher, trammel, RMS Jigs and Falcon separator, HG water stand and spiral screw classifier. The camp as well as the equipment requires some updating and maintenance.
A network of small roads carved out of side slopes or talus exist but are in need of some repair before they can be used. The roads were used to access the veins, adits, bulk sample sites, and additional stockpiles.
The southern claim block is known as the Pellaire Claims and consist of 13 contiguous claims totaling 4,081.82 hectares (figure 3). These claims represent an advanced stage Gold-Silver-Telluride vein system hosted by a Late Cretaceous equigranular biotite-hornblende granodiorite (Mt. Mcleod Granodiorite) near its contact with the Early Cretaceous Falls River Formation. There are 10 known gold-bearing veins on the property occurring along south verging thrusts. Five of these veins have been partially mined.
The resource estimate on the Big Onion project is considered historical by the Company. Blue Lagoon has not conducted sufficient technical due diligence on the Big Onion project to independently verify the resource estimate, and specifically has not conducted a comprehensive review of the drill sample data used in the estimate, or other analysis necessary to confirm the cut-off grade and other factors used in calculating the resource, including the method of calculation of the resource. Readers should not treat e the resource estimate as a current resource.
Another 20 holes totaling 4,467m was drilled post 43-101 report in 2014 for infilling purposes and to test geophysical anomalies on the Big Onion. The 43-101 has not been updated.
The Big Onion mineral deposit consists of three principal zones of copper-molybdenum mineralization known as the South, North, and Northeast Zones. These zones were established by earlier workers since spatial position and orientation of the mineralization and alteration. The zones are up to 200 meters wide and extend along strike in a north-easterly direction for approximately three kilometers and dip approximately 60° northwest.
The mineralization, consisting of pyrite, chalcopyrite, molybdenite, chalcocite, covellite and minor bornite, occurs as disseminations and in a stock-work of quartz-filled fractures. The mineralization is hosted by Late Cretaceous quartz-feldspar porphyry (QFP) and quartz-diorite porphyry (QDP) dykes and by the andesite country rock proximal to the dyke contacts. From a review of Eagle Peak Resources drilling in 2006 to 2008 (84 DDH; 21,523m) the median depth of mineralization (>= 0.20% Cu) is 130m below ground surface (blg) with a range between 6m and 396m blg.
Overall, the Big Onion resource is open along strike to the SW and, at depth. Furthermore, the Big Onion resource would benefit from further infill drilling along strike and at depth, more drilling to test geophysical already identified targets (IP) outside of the mineralized zone included in the resource model, separation statistically of mineralized intervals lumped together in the leach cap and supergene enriched zone and, further focused Geophysical techniques and applications to guide exploratory drilling.
The scientific and technical data contained here was prepared and reviewed by William Cronk, P.Geo., a qualified person as defined in NI 43-101 and a consultant to the Company.
Mr. Vig has over 30 years of business experience during which time he has helped to launch five business ventures in private industry. He has been involved in several publicly traded companies since 2010, serving first as an executive at an industry leading algorithmic securities trading systems company and then of an award winning automated referral marketing solutions company that powered loyalty and referral marketing programs across 39 countries for brands including AT&T, Sprint, Telus, Envision Financial and others.
From 2011 to 2016 Mr. Vig served as President of Musgrove Minerals, an Idaho focused gold and copper mining exploration company, and from 2013 to 2016, he was the Chairman and CEO of Continental Precious Minerals Inc., a TSX senior board exploration company with a focus on advancing one of the largest uranium projects in the world, located in Sweden.
Mr. Vig is a former chair of BC Open Learning Agency, and serves on several public company boards and committees. He is active in many charitable and community organizations acting as director or advisor.
In November 2017, he was invited to the Canadian Senate to receive the Senate 150th Anniversary Medal – which were awarded to top Canadians actively involved in their communities who, through generosity, dedication and hard work, make their hometowns and communities, a better place to live.
Bill Cronk has over 25 years of experience as a geologist and manager of exploration programs for precious and base metal deposits. Mr. Cronk has worked in Africa, Europe as well as North and South America with expertise that ranges from grass roots reconnaissance up to advanced stage and pre-feasibility work.
Mr. Cronk worked for mining industry leaders such as Dundee Precious Metals, and Northern Empire – which was acquired by NY listed Coeur Mining (NYSE: CDE), where he gained invaluable management experience and honed his skills in business development, project generation, program design, budget implementation and project management.
Mr. Brewster is the President, Director and CEO of Cadillac Ventures Inc., with development projects in Ontario (copper) and New Brunswick (tungsten). Mr. Brewster has served on many public and private company boards over his career in the mineral industry.
Prior to joining Cadillac Ventures Inc., Mr. Brewster was the interim President and Executive Chairman of Iberian Minerals Corp., successfully financing, developing and putting into production the Aguas Tenidas Mine in Andalucia, Spain, which became the region’s largest employer. During his tenure Mr. Brewster led negotiations for the purchase of the Condestable Mine in Peru by Iberian Minerals Corp., and as a final duty Mr. Brewster led a committee in reviewing the successful bid by Trafigura Group Pte. Ltd. (revenue in 2015 of 97 Bn) to acquire Iberian Minerals Corp., in an all cash takeover.
Mr. Brewster also sat on a committee, as a Director of Spider Resources Inc., which reviewed the successful all cash acquisition of Spider Resources Inc., by Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. Mr. Brewster holds Bachelor of Science and Education Degrees from Acadia University and was approved as a Member of the Association of Geoscientists of Ontario.
Mr. Bains is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) who in 2003 received his Chartered Accountant Designation from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of BC and in 2004 graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor of Business Administration. From 2000 to 2005, he was a Senior Auditor, Assurance Services at KPMG.
From 2005 to 2014, Mr. Bains was with Canaccord Genuity as Vice President, internal audit and financial analysis where he was involved in the company’s global expansion by performing the due diligence and integration of $850M in acquisitions in Canada, US, UK, Australia and China.
From June 2014 to October 2017, he was the CFO at OK Tire Stores Inc., an automotive company with over 330 locations across Canada. From October 2017 to March 2019, Mr. Bains was CFO at Zenabis Ltd., contributing in both finance and business development roles.
Mr. Marrelli is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA, CGA) and a member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, a professional body that certifies corporate secretaries. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto and has over 17 years of experience offering regulatory compliance services to listed companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, and the Canadian Securities Exchange.