Cartier Resources (ECR) - $8M of optionality to Bring Gold Together

Cartier Resources Inc. is a Canadian gold exploration company focused on the advancement of its flagship project, the 100% owned Chimo Gold Mine project. The project is located 50 km southeast of the city of Val-d’Or in Quebec and has historically produced just under 400,000 ounces of gold between the 60s and late 90s. Cartier Resources Inc. acquired the property in 2013 from a bankruptcy sale from where it embarked on a large-scale diamond drilling exploration program consisting of the drilling of 124 exploration holes, which totalled 58,054 m of drilling and resulted in 21,867 samples collected for gold analysis.

Cartier Resources Inc. on the 15th of November 2022 released a work progress update on the various endeavours the company has undertaken at its Chimo Mine project. The highlights of the progress include the interception of a 1 m mineralisation interval at a grade of 9.9 g/t of gold which included a 4.5 g/t gold mineralisation intercept over 2.5 m through the company’s current drilling initiatives. The company’s announcement is aimed at not only publishing the assay results from its exploration drilling initiatives but also aims to address the comments from the market regarding the grade of the project. The grade of the Chimo project is approximately double the grade of active bulk underground mining operations in the area. The company is underway with the creation of a preliminary economic assessment of the project, which will incorporate the results of industrial sorting tests from Corem and Steinert US. The industrial sorting tests have been shown to have the potential to increase the grade of the operation by approximately 170%.

Cartier Resources Inc. holds a cash position of approximately USD$ 8 million, which will enable the company to pursue its exploration drilling initiatives in 2023. The company also plans to publish the preliminary economic assessment of the Chimo project in the coming year and plans to evaluate the possible acquisition of neighbouring projects, with the aim being to further grow the Chimo project.

Being a junior in the current market

The current market conditions have shown to be challenging for various junior mining companies throughout 2022. The consensus has been that the market is in a downswing and as such results or milestones reached by companies which would have previously resulted in a share price increase, have gone unnoticed by the market. Major mining companies are no longer interested in advancing projects at their own costs, and would much rather acquire an advanced or producing asset resulting in a turnkey asset of sorts. Philippe Cloutier, the President and CEO of Cartier Resources Inc. explains that Major mining companies are interested in acquiring assets with cash flow, which is better justified in the current metals market.

“We have to keep advancing the project, but the situation is, as we've seen, once upon a time, our situation would have been a perfect takeout. Now, while the goalposts keep moving on us all the time, whether it’s the financial or economic difficulty, the economic times, or a general lack of interest by the investor, the seniors are merging together and requests for projects which are stronger. Where once they would have bought a project that had ounces in the ground, they would buy it and then develop it themselves, now they're buying projects that are already in production. They're buying cash flow; they are buying revenue. Juniors have to keep being creative and keep advancing their stories when their stories are worth advancing, such as ours.”

Cartier Resources Inc. believes that in the current market, a junior company must be able to identify a project which is not adding value to the company or its investors and must be willing to not only acknowledge this but also change its strategy to rather focus on projects which can add value. Cloutier explains that there is a difference between perseverance and relentlessness. Perseverance is the ability to continue advancing a project when the project continues to show mineral resource growth, relentlessness is the inability of a company to acknowledge that a project is no longer growing or adding value.

“There's a nuance between being relentless and being perseverant. You persevere when you know you're onto something and your project keeps delivering, and if it stops delivering, you're just being relentless and stubborn. In Chimo's case, every single drill program has brought new ounces and has discovered new zones. We've seen that when we look at this with 25 years of additional mining and metallurgical innovations, we're onto the tipping point. With 60,000 m of diamond drilling, we produced 4 resource estimates, and we've consolidated with our neighbours. Now, we're working on a PEA, we wouldn't be doing it if we didn't know that the answers kept being positive.”

Cloutier explains that the company is showing perseverance with regard to its Chimo project, with the project continuing to experience growth in its mineral resources. He explains that the current market conditions will necessitate the company being creative in its approach to attracting the attention of a major mining company, but that it has a large enough cash position to be able to achieve this goal.

“Therefore, with USD$ 8 million in the bank, two rigs in the field and an updated resource estimate and a PEA, that's what we're doing to keep the project moving forward. We are just going to have to be creative in how we attract the right eyes to this project. And if not, the PEA is structured to build it yourself. It's on a path to production process approach, whereas a few years ago, we felt that we were going to be taken out. The situation has changed and so we are forging on.”

Consolidating projects

Cartier Resources Inc. upon completion of the third resource assessment of the Chimo project found that the project’s mineral resources were continuing past its property boundary. The company was able to acquire the East Cadillac property, which borders the Chimo property through a share purchase agreement with O3 Mining Inc. The purchase agreement saw Cartier Resources Inc. issue approximately 46.27 million shares of the company to O3 Mining, which resulted in O3 Mining Inc. having a 17.5% interest.

The company also conducted a non-brokered private placement with Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. through the issuing of 14 million units at CAD$ 0.13, resulting in Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. holding a 17.7% position in Cartier Resources Inc. Cloutier explains that the acquisitions and onboarding of stakeholders was necessary to enable growing the mineral resources of the project.

“When we had delivered the third resource assessment, we realised we were enclaved. We were up against physical property boundaries, and we knew, and our competitors knew, that the mineralisation continues east and west, and at depth, it would actually plunge past the northern limit onto their ground. We were enclaved. In early 2022, we consolidated with that ground. In the process we acquired another significant shareholder, O3 Mining, in exchange for their asset, 100% control of their asset, we relinquished 17.5% of our company to them. Agnico chipped in and they then owned 18%. We realised that we were up against physical boundaries. We've taken care of those. Now we can grow the property east and west and at depth.”

Chimo project work progress

Cartier Resources Inc. on the 15th of November 2022 released a progress update on the various endeavours it has conducted at the Chimo Mine project. The highlights of the progress update include the interception of a 1 m mineralisation interval at a grade of 9.9 g/t of gold which included a 4.5 g/t gold mineralisation intercept over 2.5 m through the company’s current drilling initiatives. Cloutier explains that the company’s announcement is regarding not only the assay results from its exploration drilling initiatives but also addresses the comments from the market regarding the grade of the project.

“The press release was about two things: firstly, the first results that we saw from the diamond drilling. On the East Chimo mine sector, we pulled a 9.19 g/t over 1 m within a wider section that was 6 m wide. But the interesting thing here is that it is not in the 5 NE1 Zone, but in what we know now is Zone 3. Zone 3 was discovered in the late 80s, 44 g/t over 1 m. Then, in one of our programs, we intersected it at 300 m and we've just now punched it at 700 m.  We're generating ounces on a parallel zone to this by a few tens of metres, so, ultimately, we're going to have more ounces per vertical metre. In the West Nordeau area, likewise, we intersected a 9 g/t over 1 m, again within a 5 m section. The drill program is answering our initial hypotheses: can this thing grow? Can we build more ounces? And the answer is yes.”

Cloutier explains that the grade of the project is double that of active bulk underground mining operations in the area. The company is underway with the creation of a preliminary economic assessment of the project, which will incorporate the results of industrial sorting tests from Corem and Steinert US. The industrial sorting tests have shown to be able to increase the grade of the operation by approximately 170%.

“We've had comments to the effect that our grades are relatively low on Chimo, well, case in point, there are three other bulk mining underground situations along the highway that are mining 1.5 g/t, and the average grade of the mineralisation at Chimo is 3 g/t. We are very lucky at Chimo because of the mineralization contrast. Ore sorting tests have been done in two independent labs, one at Steiner and the other are Corem, they returned the fact that this stuff can be pre-concentrated by using ore sorting, optical and XRF. Therefore, when you're breaking your rock underground and mining 3 g/t, by the time it reaches the surface, you've got 5 g/t material. The impact of that is significant because you're actually manipulating or transporting half of the rock that you're blasting, you are pre-concentrating it and, therefore, bringing it to the surface and sending it to the mill material that is higher grade. Obviously, you're going to have a much lower environmental impact at the surface, which is all good for sustainability.”

Future

Cartier Resources Inc. holds a cash position of USD$ 8 million, which will enable the company to pursue its exploration drilling initiatives in 2023. The company also plans to publish the preliminary economic assessment of the Chimo project in the coming year.

“We have two machines, so we obviously are going to expect drill results, and we are drilling with the idea of growing the resource base. At the same time, we're going to deliver the PEA, which, in itself, will provide a recommendations chapter. Now, I will caution people that we've done much of the, what I would call, inexpensive type of exploration: from PEA to pre-feasibility, then you start to move into more expensive exploration because you're infill drilling and the next step is going there.”

The company also plans to evaluate the possible acquisition of neighbouring projects, with the aim being to further grow the Chimo project.

“We are going to insert ourselves and make some very good decisions moving forward. One of those decisions is to try to come up with some alternative solutions to develop this thing or move it forward. Now that we've consolidated both properties, there are other deposits to the east and to the west that we're going to have to investigate as a resource base. Some of them will be included in the economic planning, and some won't because they require a whole new set of infrastructure, but this thing continues to grow and I'm very happy. 2023 is going to be a year where we have to move this thing forward.”

To find out more, go to the Cartier Resources website