Gold Terra Resource (YGT) - 4 Drill Rigs Imitates Detour Mine Plan

Gold Terra Resource Corp. is a junior gold exploration company that is focused on the advancement of its 800 km2 Yellowknife City Gold Project located in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The project is located 10 km away from the City of Yellowknife and has access to various required infrastructure including all-season accessible roads, and hydroelectric power. The project also has the advantage of a skilled labour force and nearby service providers.

Matthew Gordon spoke with Gerald Panneton, Executive Chairman and CEO of Gold Terra Resource Corp. (TSX-V: YGT) to discuss the company’s recent activities.  

Company Overview

The Company announced an agreement with the Newmont Corporation in November 2021, which entails the earning of a 100% interest in the Con Mine property, which lies just north of the Campbell shear. The Campbell shear of the project is one of the company’s highest priority targets in the coming 2022 exploration drilling program.

Gold Terra Resource Corp has a cash position of approximately CAD$ 8 million, which it has been able to achieve through strategic investments as well as bought deal financings. The cash position will enable the company to complete 40,000 m of exploration drilling in 2022. The planned exploration drilling program will consist of four drill rigs with the bulk thereof focused on the Campbell shear and Con Mine property. 

The company plans to implement the planned exploration results to publish a mineral resource update at the end of 2022. Gold Terra Resource Corp plans to publish mineral resource updates on an annual basis in the future.

The company is managed by an experienced team of mining professionals, who combined have more than 116 years of experience in mining and capital markets.

Management

Gerald Panneton leads the team as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Executive Chairman of the company’s board of directors.  Panneton holds a bachelor’s degree in Geology from the University of Montreal and his master’s degree in Geology from McGill University. He joined Gold Terra Resource Corp. in October 2019 as Executive Chairman after Gold Terra Resource Corp. acquired Gold Matter Corporation, a junior mining company Panneton founded.

Panneton has more than 30 years of experience as a geologist in the local and internal gold mining industry. He has been a part of and played a key role in the discovery and advancement of various gold projects.

Panneton was the founder, President and CEO of Detour Gold Corporation from 2006 to 2013. The Detour Lake project grew from 1.5 million ounces of gold to over 16 million ounces of gold under Panneton and was brought into production in just over 6 years. Panneton raised over USD$ 2.6 billion in capital whilst at the head of the company, with Panneton and his team also honoured with the receipt of the PDAC Bill Dennis Award for Canadian mineral discoveries and prospecting success of the year, in 2011.

Joseph Campbell serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Gold Terra Resource Corp. and holds more than 40 years of experience in exploration and mining. Campbell holds a Bachelor of Science in Geology (Hons.) from Acadia University.

Campbell founded Gold Terra Resource Corp. in 2008 and played an integral part in the acquisition of the Yellowknife City Gold project. Campbell has held positions as project manager, mine manager, chief mine geologist, and mining and exploration projects appraiser with companies such as Noranda Mining Inc. and the Western Mining company Ltd. Campbells’ career includes highlights such as the discovery of the Touquoy gold deposit (now mine) in Nova Scotia and the discovery of the Meliadine gold project in Nunavut, which was sold to Agnico Eagle for USD$ 700 million in 2010.

Mark T. Brown is Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Gold Terra Resources Corp. and has more than 30 years of experience in capital markets and publicly traded companies. Brown is an expert in financial transactions, financings and corporate financial planning. He is also the president of Pacific Opportunity Capital Ltd. as well as a founder of Rare Element Resources Ltd., where he was a part of the company’s growth to a USD$ 500 million company and listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)

Brown currently serves as an officer and director of various publicly traded companies and has been instrumental in developing several junior mining companies, to the point of acquisition by larger companies such as Pitchstone Exploration which was acquired by Fission Energy Corp. and Animas Resources, which was acquired by GoGold Resources Inc.

Rounding out the team is David Suda who serves as Advisor. Suda served as the president and CEO of Gold Terra Resources from June 2018 until December 2021. He announced his intention to step down from his positions, effective December 31, 2021, to pursue other opportunities. He and the company entered into a one-year consulting agreement where Suda will serve as an advisor.

Suda has 11 years of experience in capital markets and was prior to joining Gold Terra Resource Corp. in June 2018, the Managing Director (MD) of Beacon Securities Ltd. Suda has developed extensive networks within the financial services sector, which allows him to support companies of various sizes to cost-efficiently raise capital, build and manage teams and develop communications strategies that create enhanced market awareness.

The experienced management team is tasked with the management and control of the company’s Yellowknife City Gold project located in the Northern Territories, Canada.

Projects

The Yellowknife City Gold project of Gold Terra Resource Corp. is an 800 km2 land package located north, south and east of the town of Yellowknife. The project is close to all necessary infrastructure including hydro-electric power, service providers and a skilled labour force thanks to its proximity to town and the town's historical mining nature.

The project lies on the Yellowknife greenstone belt, an Archean Greenstone belt composed mostly of Mafic Volcanic rocks. The Yellowknife Greenstone belt has historically produced 14 million ounces of gold.  

Gold Terra Resource Corp. announced in November of 2021, that it had entered into an option agreement with Newmont Corp. to purchase 100% of the past-producing high-grade Con Mine. The Con Mine was shut down in 2003 due to the low gold price of USD$ 370 per ounce at the time. The option agreement includes 100% of the assets, mineral leases, crown mineral claims, and surface rights comprising the Con Mine, and the areas adjacent to it.

The initial exploration agreement held between Gold Terra Resource Corp. and the Newmont Corporation has been superseded by the option agreement. The option agreement includes Gold Terra Resource Corp. agreeing to incur CAD$ 8.0 million of exploration expenditures over four years, which also includes the CAD$ 3 million exploration expenditures Gold Terra Resource Corp. has incurred to date. The option agreement further entails the company completing a pre-feasibility study (PFS), obtaining all required regulatory approvals for the transfer of the project and posting a cash bond at the time of closing, which will reflect the status of the Con Mine reclamation plan. The transaction will be completed with a payment of CAD$ 8,000,000 by Gold Terra Resource Corp. to the Newmont Corporation.

The company completed 12,687 m of exploration drilling immediately south of the Con Mine property in 2021, with the drilling conducted to a depth of 400 m. The drilling campaign intersected mineralisation in each exploration hole drilled and confirmed the company’s hypothesis of continuous mineralisation on the Campbell shear side of the Con Mine. The Yellow rex zone, a high-grade mineralisation deposit south of the Con Mine property has shown grades of 10.12 g/t over 3.73 m and 19.74 g/t gold over 5.44 m.

Company finance

Gold Terra Resource Corp. announced in February 2022 that it had concluded with a CAD$ 5.6 million bought deal financing agreement that was completed by a syndicate of Stifel GMP and included BMO Capital Markets and Beacon Securities Ltd. The offering was comprised of the issuing of charitable flow-through common shares, traditional flow-through common shares and common shares for the aggregate gross proceeds of CAD$ 5.6 million

The gross proceeds of the bought deal financing agreement in combination with the CAD$ 1.5 million the company received from the Newmont Corporation as a strategic investment has led Gold Terra Resource Corp. to have a cash position of just over CAD$ 8 million. The company plans on implementing its cash position towards the exploration of its Yellowknife City Gold project.

2022 Future

Gold Terra Resource Corp. currently has four drill rigs operational at its Yellowknife City Gold project and plans to complete 40,000 m of exploration drilling in 2022. The company will focus on the south of the Con Mine property, a part of the Campbell shear extension, its Yellowrex zone deposit and the MP Ryan (previously known as  Mispickel) target.

The company is currently underway with an exploration drilling campaign at the MP Ryan deposit, which consists of two drill rigs. The primary aim of the exploration drilling is to investigate and test the potential of the deposit to be expanded. The company plans to test the target's potential through the drilling of shallow exploration holes (200 m – 300 m) at 50 m – 100 m intervals. The company plans on concluding with the exploration drilling program at the MP Ryan target by the end of March 2022 from where it will focus exclusively on the Campbell Shear extension south of its Con Mine property.

Gold Terra Resource Corp. has also commenced with its planned 2022 drilling program of the Campbell shear south of the Con Mine property. The exploration drilling of the Campbell shear is the company’s highest priority in 2022 and is aimed at increasing the mineral resource of the Yellowknife City Gold project. The mineral resource addition and expansion is planned to be accomplished through the targeting of deeper mineralisation at an approximate depth of 1000 m.

The company will add a second drilling rig at the Yellowrex zone to continue with exploration drilling aimed at testing the down-dip extension of the deposit.

Gold Terra Resource Corp. aims to expand the mineral resource of its project through exploration drilling to the point where a large mining operation is economically justified. The mineral resource size needed to justify a mining operation is approximately 2 million ounces of gold according to the company.

Gold Terra Resource Corp. plans to implement its planned 2022 exploration results to publish a mineral resource update at the end of the year. The company plans on publishing a mineral resource update annually in the future.

The company believes that the advancement of the Yellowknife City Gold project holds great promise for the town of Yellowknife and its population.  Gold Terra Resource Corp. plans to continue developing the Yellowknife City Gold project into a 2 million ounce gold mining resource, at which point it may be brought into operation.

To find out more, go to the Gold Terra Resource website