Prospector Metals (PPP) - Focus is on Newfoundland Gold

Prospector Metals Corp. is an exploration company with a portfolio of district-scale opportunities located in some of Canada’s most prospective mining jurisdictions. The company is focused on the acquisition of district-scale and early-stage properties, which it advances through exploration activities to create shareholder value through new discoveries.  

Matthew Gordon spoke with Alex Heath, the President and CEO of Prospector Metals (TSX-V:PPP) to discuss the company’s recent activities. 

Company Overview

Prospector Metals Corp. was previously known as Ethos Gold Corp. The company changed its name recently to show a new beginning for the company following a vast number of changes over the past few months. The first development of the company was Rob Carpenter, previously the company’s technical advisor, stepping in as co-chairman of the company’s board. Rob plans to be actively involved in the management of the company.  Prospector Metals Corp. forms part of the Discovery Group of companies and has been able to involve the founders of the Discovery Group, Jim Paterson and John Robins, in the operation of the company as well. The company further raised approximately USD$ 3.461 million through a private placement offering which also included the consolidation of the company’s shares in a three to one ratio.

The company recently announced an updated timeline for its planned exploration drilling programs at its Toogood gold project in Newfoundland, and Savant Lake gold and Whitton Lake Ni-Cu-PGE projects in north-western Ontario. The company plans to initiate the exploration activities at its Toogood gold project and Savant Lake gold project in May 2022. The company anticipates that it will conduct follow up drilling at the Savant Lake gold project in the fall. The exploration drilling program at the company’s Whitton Lake Ni-Cu-PGE project is expected to begin in early July 2022. Prospector Metals Corp. is awaiting the final drill permits for the planned exploration at its Whitton Lake project.

Company name change and share rollback

Prospector Metals Corp. has had a busy past few months. The company was previously known as Ethos Gold Corp, but due to various developments, the company decided to change its name to show its fundamental changes, Alex Heath describes the new name as follows: 

“We felt the need to do it because the company has been around for over a decade. We had about 150 million shares outstanding. We were about to launch a drill programme on our flagship project in Newfoundland. And then we got permits for our Savant Lake project and we're are very close to getting another permit on our battery metals project in Ontario. So we felt now's the time, might as well do it all at once, and just restart.”

The restart, as Heath refers to it, was prompted after the appointment of Rob Carpenter as the co-chairman of the company’s board and the founders of the Discovery Group, Jim Paterson and John Robins, getting more involved in the company’s management. The final developments that served as catalysts for the company’s name change were the announcement of a CAD$ 3 million private placement offering as well as the consolidation of the company’s shares on a three to one ratio. 

Rob Carpenter is one of the company’s largest shareholders and has over 30 years of technical and corporate mineral exploration experience. He was also the co-founder, president and CEO of Kaminak Gold Corporation which was sold to Goldcorp Inc., in 2006 for CAD$ 520 million. Carpenter was also responsible for leading the company in the discovery of the 5-million-ounce Coffee Gold project. Heath states that Carpenter will be much more involved in the management of Prospector Metals Corp and will be assisting in steering the ship from here on forward. 

Jim Paterson and John Robins are both co-founders of the Discovery Group of Mineral Exploration Companies. The Discovery Group is an alliance of public companies, which was founded in 2005 and is focused on the advancement of various mineral exploration and mining projects throughout Canada and Latin America. The companies that form part of the Discovery Group include Bluestone Resources Inc., Elemental Royalties Corp. and ValOre Metals Corp. amongst various others. 

The CAD$ 3 million private placement offering was announced by Ethos Gold Corp. in March 2022. The private placement offering included the consolidation of the company shares on a three to one ratio which consisted of the issuing of one new post-consolidation common share for every three pre-consolidation common shares.  The private placement offering consisted of the issuing of non-flow-through units at CAD$ 0.60 per unit, flow-through common shares at CAD$ 0.72 per common share and Ontario flow-through common shares at CAD$ 0.75 per common share. The private placement offering resulted in the gross aggregate proceeds of CAD$ 3.461 million to the company. 

Heath believes that the new company name shows the company’s more focused approach regarding its exploration projects. The more focused approach follows what he believes to have been an asset portfolio that didn’t follow a thought out strategy. He states: 

“…we felt it was a bit of a Frankenstein company. The assets that were brought in in the US and the Yukon and BC and Mexico, it wasn't really a well thought out strategy. Now that we've got Rob Carpenter fully involved, we've come down to what is our strategy and are much more focused.” 

Heath further states that the more focused approach allows for the aggressive advancement of the company’s projects. The advancement strategy will entail the aggressive exploration and identification of large discoveries. The company is searching for “home run” discoveries according to Heath, and should that not be the case at a project, the company plans to seize its exploration and rather focus on its other projects to ensure large discoveries. He states: 

“The idea here is that we have a portfolio of projects, a pipeline of grassroots exploration projects, but they have great geology. We don't know which one's going to hit, but we advance them. If we don't see the results that we think are significant enough, because we're looking for home runs, we drop the project. I mean, it's very mercenary but that's the idea here, we're looking for a big discovery…” 

The name change of the company was officially announced on the 6t of April 2022, with the company now trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol “PPP”. The new approach also follows the preference of some of the company’s shareholders according to Heath, with Great Bear Resources Ltd. and Kodiak Copper Corp. serving as inspiration, he states: 

“Yeah, this was kind of the advice that we've gotten from certain shareholders, from our advisors that were saying, listen, take a look at what happened with Great Bear. Back in the day, they were a CAD$ 0.03 stock and they did a rollback. Kodiak did the same thing in 2020. In fact, if you look at how we did our financing, the rollback and the name change, it's a cookie-cutter model of what Kodiak did. So that's kind of the idea if you're about to launch a new programme, rebrand the company, restart. Do it all at once, rip the band-aid off and get it over with.” 

The Toogood Gold Project

The flagship project of the company is the Toogood gold project, which is located on New World Island, approximately 65 km north of Gander in Newfoundland, Canada. The project covers a strike length of approximately 28 km and can be easily accessed via paved and gravel roads. Prospector Metals Corp. acquired the project in 2020 and assembled 5 different properties to produce the 180 km land package.

The company has encountered high-grade gold mineralisation at the project through grab samples, with mineralisation of up to 37.14 g/t of gold encountered at the Titan zone of the project and 10.98 g/t gold at the Quinlan zone. The company believes that the project holds the potential to host bonanza grade gold mineralisation in outcropping quartz veins. Heath believes that the planned drilling program at the Toogood gold project will give clarity regarding the high-grade mineralisation of the project, he states: 

“…high-grade gold deposits don't have to be huge; they can be very small. And we're seeing that with Newfoundland Gold. They've kind of reignited interest in Newfoundland because of the grade, so the grade is king in this case. We are seeing high grades in the areas that we're looking at, but we won't really know until the drill starts turning and we're going to find out very quickly.”

The planned drilling program at the project will consist of 2,500 m of exploration drilling and is aimed at targeting the high-grade surface occurrences at the Quinlan and Titan zones of the project. The 2,500 m of drilling will consist of shallow holes drilled in 5 m increments. Heath states that the company aims to discover mineralisation of over 10 g/t of gold at the project.

“…the goal here is really to step out in 5 m increments, step back and really hit it and see what comes out of the core. If it doesn't pan out, and we're talking, the expectations are plus 10g/t. If we don't see that, it's going to be back to sort of our thinking caps and what do we do?”

The planned drilling program will commence in May 2022 and will amount to approximately CAD$ 1 million which will be funded by the recently closed private placement offering of the company.

2022 plans

Prospector Metals Corp. also plans to advance its Savant Lake project and Whitton Lake project in Ontario in the coming year. The Savant Lake project of the company is a 229 km2 prospective iron formation gold project in which the company holds a 70% option. The company holds a multi-year exploration permit for the project which was issued in April 2022. The planned exploration at the Savant Lake Gold will commence in early May and will consist of property-wide prospecting and ground-truthing surveys. The surveys are aimed at identifying exploration drilling targets for the planned exploration drilling program of the company, which according to Heath will commence in September 2022, he states:

“We got to do a little bit more work to define some of our drill targets, but we do have a permit and that one will probably be, September timeframe to start drilling.”

The company will initiate exploration drilling at the Whitton Lake project in July 2022. The exploration drilling will consist of 2,500 to 3,000 m of drilling and will be targeted at identified and shallow electromagnetic conductors interpreted by the company’s geologists to host Ni-Cu-PGE magmatic sulphides. The project was discovered by Rob Carpenter through the identification of an open ground area near an operating nickel-copper-PGE project and the analysis of previously conducted geological surveys. The ground exploration of the project was conducted after the project identification according to Heath, with the total cost being approximately CAD$ 400,000, he states:  

“…this one came through Rob Carpenter, he was looking at a map of Ontario and he sort of found this area that had opened grounds, and then he cross-referenced it with geological surveys that have been done where there was low-grade Nickel-Copper at the surface. So we sent our geologists in there, we spent about CAD$ 400,000 and lo-and-behold, we have this large electromagnetic anomaly. We've got sulphide grades on surface Nickel-Copper and there's this depression in a lake, this is where Whitton Lake actually comes from.” 

Prospector Metals Corp. is awaiting the final drill permits for the planned exploration at its Whitton Lake project.

To find out more, go to the Prospector Metals website