Evergold Corp (EVER) - High-Grade Gold & Polymetallic Focus

Evergold Corp. is a mineral exploration company established in 2015. Evergold was taken public in October 2019 and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange as TSXV: EVER. In 2017 the Evergold team delivered the major Saddle copper-gold discovery holding more than 20 million ounces of resources in northwest British Columbia. The Saddle copper-gold discovery was acquired by Newmont in 2021 with their purchase of GT Gold.

Matthew Gordon of sat down with Kevin Keough the president and CEO of Evergold Corp. to discuss recent activities and the company's future plans.

Company Overview

One of the key assets of Evergold is the Snoball project, a high-grade epithermal gold-silver vein system located in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle. The Golden Triangle is a 500 km belt of mineralization stretching south from Atlin in northern British Columbia near the border with the Yukon, to Kitsault, just southeast of Stewart, British Columbia.

Another of Evergold's assets, Golden Lion, hosts a large epithermal gold-silver, zinc and lead vein located in the Toodoggone region of British Columbia. The Toodoggone region is similar to the Golden Triangle of British Columbia in terms of geology. In addition, there is the Rockland property located in western Nevada’s “Walker Lane''. The Rockland mine hosts two high-priority target areas, namely Rockland Mine and Rockland East. Rockland Mine is a high-grade, previously mined, shallow gold-silver vein. Rockland East is a long, broad, relatively new gold-silver zone blind to the surface.

A key objective for Evergold in 2022 will be to follow up on the recent discovery of the first high-grade domain at the GL1 Main prospect at the Golden Lion property. The GL1 Main prospect is a large and shallow zone situated adjacent to a major fault contact and traceable with geochemistry along some 1700 metres of strike. The final holes of the 2021 drill program intercepted with by far the highest grades of gold, silver, zinc and lead yet seen in drilling on the property. Due to the very promising and high-grade results, an expanded drill program is justified for 2022.

The second objective of Evergold will be to complete drill permitting on the Rockland, Nevada project, and then commence an initial phase of drilling.

Management

Steering the Evergold ship into the future is Kevin Keough. Keough holds an Honours degree in BSc Geological Sciences from Queen’s University and was most recently CEO of GT Gold Corp. GT Gold was acquired by Newmont in May of 2021 and is now advancing the Saddle discovery in British Columbia's Golden Triangle. Keough began his career with Anglo American Corporation and De Beers and has more than 35 years of diverse business experience. Keough has technical mining experience spanning throughout the world. Keough’s background also includes the management of projects and public companies, finance and capital markets, communications, and business development.

At the helm of exploration is Andrew J. Mitchell serving as Vice President (VP) of Exploration. Mitchell holds a B.Sc. degree in earth & environmental sciences from the University of British Columbia (UBC). Mitchell is a senior geologist with CJ Greig & Associates with experience of more than 10 years in the North American Cordillera region. The experience of Mitchell includes the development of projects from grassroots to an advanced stage. This development experience is mainly with Archer Cathro & Associates Ltd. in the Yukon and northern British Columbia.

Serving as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is Tracy Albert. Albert holds a BComm degree from the University of Ottawa. Albert is also a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA CMA) and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), with 25 years of experience. Albert brings her experience in diversified, progressive accounting and financial leadership roles with her to Evergold. Albert has held positions such as Controller, Director of Financial Reporting, and Chief Financial Officer positions in both publicly traded and privately held companies.

Projects

Evergold holds key assets in British Columbia and Nevada. The company's projects include the Snoball, Spanish Lake and Holy Cross properties. The Snoball project is a 100% owned, helicopter accessible property hosting a high-grade gold-silver epithermal vein that Evergold discovered in 2020. The property lies within and below Pyramid Peak and Snoball Ridge in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia. The Spanish Lake and Holy Cross properties are also 100% owned but have the added allure of direct road access. The Spanish Lake and Holy Cross properties host gold and gold-silver-copper systems respectively.

Two of Evergold's assets are poised for an active 2022, these assets are the Gold Lion and Rockland properties located in the Toodoggone region of North Central British Columbia and Nevada respectively.

Golden Lion Property

The Golden Lion property was first drilled in 1984 by Newmont Gold Corporation. The property showed highly encouraging intercepts at the GL1 main zone of the mineral deposits. Despite the encouraging results, Newmont did not drill any undercut to the drill holes which left mineral deposit depth potential untested entirely. Keough believes that this approach was not the correct one, stating:

“They set up a series of drill pads and they only ever drilled 1 hole from each of those drill pads. You and I, as juniors, would never do that. If we saw the kind of numbers that they got in those shallow drill holes, we would have gone under and under again, and maybe even under a 3rd time”

Evergold acquired the Golden Lion property in 2020 and started with further geochemistry and geophysical testing. The drilling program commenced in 2020 and a total of 2 988 metres was drilled through a total of 16 holes. Various targets throughout the property were tested and it was found that the best results were located at the GL1 main zone. Drill results confirmed the presence of a large precious and base metals-enriched epithermal system. This system is located close to the surface and consists of a broad mineralized envelope defined by bulk tonnage-style intercepts. The drill results also suggest that the system strengthens at depth. In July of 2021, a total of 1 811 metres was drilled through a further total of 9 holes. This drilling program showed the presence of a domain within the GL1 main zone consisting of high-grade gold, silver, lead and zinc.

Rockland property

The Rockland property is located approximately 25 miles south of the town of Yerington in western Nevada. The Rockland property boasts 71 unpatented claims encompassing 594 hectares. Rockland possesses a large, robust, low sulphide, quartz-adularia epithermal gold-silver system with excellent expansion potential. The Rockland property hosts a large drilled zone of gold, silver and trace elements more than 800 metres in length. The Trace elements may represent the metaphorical ‘halo’ above an underlying high-grade epithermal vein system. Keough believes that the property has great potential, stating:

“It is a very big gold-silver zone. It's an old high-grade gold-silver mine from the cowboy days. And of course, in those days’ gold was USD $35 per ounce or so. They just took the best stuff and left a lot behind. We have a very large drill gold zone that BHP had many years ago, and we think we can go back into that. We're planning to start drilling it next year”

In early 2021 Evergold signed a letter agreement for the option to purchase 100% of the Rockland property from Enigma Resources LLC over five years. This purchase will include the past-producing Rockland mine and adjacent exploration claims. The property, similar to Golden Lion, hosts a large, robust, low sulphide epithermal gold-silver vein system. This system has the same geological characteristics associated with bonanza-grade epithermal deposits as seen at other operations in Nevada.

The Rockland property consists of two areas of interest for Evergold Corp, these being the Rockland Mine and Rockland East. 

The Rockland Mine was in operation between 1870 and the late 1930s. The mine is largely undocumented but is estimated by the Geological Society of Nevada to hold approximately 50 000 ounces of gold and silver. The grade of these mineral systems is as high as 96 g/t AuEq. Surface testing of the Rockland Mine has also shown values of up to 50.9 g/t Au and 1 758 g/t Ag.

Rockland East however has drawn particular attention from Evergold, due to an extensive lower-tenor gold zone encompassing intervals of moderate to high-grade mineral deposits.  This zone possesses strongly elevated levels of pathfinder elements. Pathfinder elements are elements such as Arsenic (As), Antimony (Sb) and Mercury (Hg), which commonly suggest an underlying area of high-grade ‘bonanza-style’ gold veining.  

Cash Position and future plans

The drill results of 2021 have justified an expanded drill program for 2022 and has also led to Evergold possessing a market cap of $8,976,407, as reported on the 22nd of November 2021. The share price of Evergold Corp was at $0.12 a share on 22 November 2021, with an enterprise value of $5,876,407.

The cash position of Evergold sitting at $3,100,000 will enable the planned expanded drill programs of 2022. According to Keough, Evergold aims to increase the drill density and carry out expansion drilling to depth at Golden Lion, stating:

“What you're seeing in those high-grade results we just delivered is basically a broad, high-grade, epithermal system that's got a lot of high-grade scattered through it, but you don't hit it in every hole. If we get the density up, and I assure you we are, we are going to hit a lot more and we're going to deliver many more strong numbers from that system too. That's going to be the focus there.”

Increasing the drill density within the high-grade domain, and further exploration below and lateral to it is expected to result in additional high-grade intercepts and quite possibly, the discovery of entirely new high-grade domains.

The plan for the Rockland property, according to Keough, is to start an extensive drilling program when operations at Golden Lion are not possible due to British Columbia’s seasonal factors. Keough believes that Rockland is in his words “a prudent property to have” and may be a valuable asset to be sold in the future, stating:

“You do need optionality in this business. You cannot guarantee success, and I tell shareholders that. I think over time, you can and will be successful, but sometimes you have to cycle through some properties to get there.”

Will the future of Evergold see the roaring of a Golden Lion or will it see the sale of Rockland? A suspected industry turnaround and various drilling program results of 2022 will tell. 

To find out more, go to the Evergold Corp. Website