Banyan Gold Corp. is a junior gold exploration and development company focused on building gold resources in the Yukon. The company’s Yukon projects are the Hyland gold project, the AurMac Gold project and the Nitra Gold project.
The Hyland gold project of the company is a NI 43-101 accredited resource, with an indicated mineral resource of 8.6 million tons at a gold equivalent grade of 0.85 g/t totaling 236,000 ounces of gold equivalent (AuEq). The project's inferred mineral resource is 288,000 ounces AuEq. The AurMac Gold project of the company is a 173 km2 land package in the Mayo Mining District of the Yukon. The project consists of the Aurex and McQuesten projects optioned from Victoria Gold Corp. and Hecla Mining Company respectively, as well as additional claims by Banyan Gold Corp. The Nitra Gold project of the company, located 10 km west of the AurMac Gold project, is a 296 km2 land package consisting of 1,442 quartz claims.
Banyan Gold Corp. on the 22nd of December 2022 announced that it had concluded a non-brokered private placement for the gross proceeds of CAD$ 12.2 million towards the company. The private placement consisted of the issuing of approximately 12.9 million flow-through shares of the company at CAD$ 0.56 as well as approximately 12 million common shares of the company at CAD$ 0.40. The concluded non-brokered private placement has resulted in the company having a cash position of approximately CAD$ 19 million at the end of 2022.
The company on the 10th of January 2023, released the assay results from 37 drill holes that formed part of the company’s 2022 exploration drilling program at the AurMac project. The assay results include highlights of up to 0.59 g/t of gold over a mineralisation interval of 62.2 m as well as 1.02 g/t of gold over 34.8 m.
Banyan Gold. Corp. plans to complete approximately 25,000 m of exploration drilling at the AurMac project in 2023 as well as commence with metallurgical test work and commencing with environmental baseline studies.
2022 factors driving the share price
Banyan Gold Corp. compared to many of its peers has been able to exit 2022 with an increase in its share price. Tara Christie, the President and CEO of Banyan Gold Corp. explains that the share price is a result of the company focussing on finding the right shareholders since 2016. The key according to Christie was the company finding shareholders who understood the aim of the company and were willing to take a long-term position in it.
“It starts with getting good shareholders and when I took over the company in 2016, it already had quite a few shares outstanding. But I really had to go and go to the market and find shareholders who understood the story and were willing to invest in me and my management team. And so that was the start of it because the people that I've primarily placed in the financing are people that know this is a longer-term game and understand where it's going.”
Christie also explains that other factors that contributed to the increase in the company’s share price, are the quality of its assets and the company meeting its set milestones.
“Then it's a quality asset, that's another key thing, and then you got to have a plan as a management team and deliver on what you say you're going to do and we've done that, and the geology was there, we believed it was there, and we put together a geological model. We've told people what we hope to achieve with the money that we had, we went out and did that and we were efficient.”
AurMac Gold project
The AurMac Gold project of the company is a 173 km2 land package in the Mayo Mining District of the Yukon. The project consists of the Aurex and McQuesten projects optioned from Victoria Gold Corp. and Hecla Mining Company respectively, as well as additional claims by Banyan Gold Corp. The project is accessible throughout the year through the all-weather Silver Highway and the South McQuesten Road. The mineralisation styles of the AurMac project have been interpreted as intrusion-related carbonate-replacement skarns and sheeted veins.
The AurMac project holds a mineral resource estimate, which was published in May 2022. The mineral resource estimate consists of approximately 4 million ounces of gold in the Inferred category, with the Airstrip zone of the project holding 875,000 ounces of gold, the powerline zone holding 2.99 million ounces and the Aurex Hill zone holding the remaining 215,000 ounces of gold.
Christie explains the Powerline zone of the project may have low grade mineralisation, at 0.59 g/t of gold, but has great expansion potential due to the size of its mineral deposit.
“I guess before we say low grade, the thing that you need to have when you have a low grade is scale and that's something that we have in spades. But I guess, just look at the Powerline deposit itself, and remember, Powerline was a brand-new discovery in 2019. So we haven't had tons of time, lots of projects to get to 4 million ounces and get 20 years of exploration. Powerline 2019 was the discovery hole, 100,000 ounces in the original resource in 2020 and now just under 3 million ounces by our resource that we put out in 2021.”
The company holds the option to earn a 100% position in the project, subject to royalties and predetermined milestones to be met, including publishing a preliminary economic assessment of the project before December 2025.
Getting to production
Banyan Gold Corp. aims to advance the AurMac Gold project to such a point where the company may either set the project into production itself or have the project attractive enough to be acquired by a major mining company. Christie explains that the infrastructure of the project is its greatest advantage, with the project not only having readily available power but also easy year-round access.
“We have the scale, we haven't started to move to indicate yet because again, we want to find those right areas before we start to convert it. But the thing we have that really differentiates us is our infrastructure. We've got a power line already across the property, we need 50 m, that's metres, to get the power line across the highway to our camp.”
Christie further explains that the project has access to communication infrastructure including a fibre optic cable running through the property. The infrastructure of the project is in part due to it being located approximately 40 km south of the Eagle Gold mine owned by Victoria Gold Corp.
“We've got communications already on the property, there’s cell phone service, there's fibre optic cable already going down the property to Victoria Gold, that's a huge advantage, and the all-season road that's maintained by somebody else, it's the main highway goes right through there, along with the all-season road to Victoria Gold.”
Christie notes that with the potential of the AurMac project, the company is focusing on spreading awareness of the project in such a way enabling a higher probability for the project to reach production.
“That's the job that I have to do this year is to get out and tell the story and make sure that everybody knows about the project from the corporates who might be interested down the road.”
Concluded private placement and exploration plans
Banyan Gold Corp. on the 22nd of December 2022 announced that it had concluded a non-brokered private placement for the gross proceeds of CAD$ 12.2 million towards the company. The private placement consisted of the issuing of approximately 12.9 million flow-through shares of the company at CAD$ 0.56 as well as approximately 12 million common shares of the company at CAD$ 0.40. The concluded non-brokered private placement has resulted in the company having a cash position of approximately CAD$ 19 million at the end of 2022.
Christie explains that the private placement has enlarged the position of institutional investors including Victoria Gold Corp. and Osisko Mining Inc. The significance of such a large institutional shareholder base entails the company possibly having access to further funds in any future placements it may conduct.
“There were three subscription agreements in that CAD$ 12.2 million financing and very solid shareholders. If you look at our chart of how it breaks out, we now have basically 38% high net worth individuals and institutions, not including Franklin, which is 9.8%. And then we have Victoria Gold at 11%, insiders at 7% and Osisko development at just under 4%, which only leaves us 30% retail. So we really do know where our shares are now. That gives me a block of almost 70% which I'm pretty confident is going to be there in financings when we go forward, so it's good solid money.”
The proceeds of the non-brokered private placement will be implemented towards exploration initiatives at the AurMac project. Christie explains that the company plans to have a cash position of approximately CAD$ 9 million to CAD$ 10 million at the end of 2023.
“We can ramp up our exploration, anytime if we wanted to spend more of that money. Right now, we're targeting having about, somewhere of CAD$ 9 million to CAD$ 10 million by the end of 2023 so that we could go into 2024 and we're going to wait and see what the market does here. We can ramp up and drill 40,000 m if we want to because with our property we could access basically all year round.”
Banyan Gold Corp. on the 10th of January 2023, announced the assay results from 37 drill holes that formed part of the company’s 2022 exploration drilling program at the AurMac project. The assay results include highlights of up to 0.59 g/t of gold over a mineralisation interval of 62.2 m as well as 1.02 g/t of gold over 34.8 m.
Future initiatives
The company plans to implement its cash position towards various exploration initiatives at the AurMac project, with the intention thereof being to enable Banyan Gold Corp. to update the mineral resource estimate of the project. The exploration drilling program of 2023 is envisioned to consist of up to 25,000 m of drilling.
Banyan Gold Corp. will also focus on establishing the economics of the AurMac project in the foreseeable future. The company plans to complete a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of the project by 2025 which will enable it to earn a 100% position in the project.
“The only commitment we have to earn 100% on our property is, we have to do a PEA by December 2025. So that's lots of time and market timing is everything, and the first key thing is to have a project that you know is going to be economic.”
The main focus of the company’s activities according to Christie is to deliver quality data that will advance the project. She explains that the main focus of the company is to show the potential of the AurMac project to the market, with its location also adding to its value.
“I'm not going to put us in a position where if the markets are not going to appreciate it, that we're rushing to do some study for the sake of doing some study. People know what these projects are. The key thing is to find that grade, get the scale and make sure people understand how valuable that is in this jurisdiction with the infrastructure that we have.”
Banyan Gold. Also plans to commence with metallurgical test work in 2023 as well as with environmental baseline studies.
