Via CEO.CA, In the last ten years, new discoveries in the gold mining industry have been declining. So far this year, explorers are nowhere near matching the 89 million ounces of gold produced in 2014. There’s never been a greater need for junior companies to find new deposits and sell them to majors, despite what their shaky share prices are telling you.
Redstar Gold Corp (RGC-TSXV) is a re-organized venture-stage explorer that’s trying to cash in on the global mining industry’s never-ending appetite for large and high margin deposits. With a roughly $7.2 million market cap, Redstar has about $1.4 million in cash (March 2015 corporate presentation), and is 48% owned by institutional investors.
The company has gold projects in Alaska, Ontario and Nevada, but its focus is the high-grade Unga gold project in Alaska’s Aleutian islands.
Unga Island was home to Alaska’s first gold mine, the Apollo Sitka mine, which produced about 150,000 ounces of gold with an estimated grade of 10 g/t Au* between 1886 and 1922. Note these are historical and not 43-101 compliant figures.
A few junior companies have explored it since and turned up some very impressive, high-grade, near surface intercepts, including:
- 29.65 m of 14.98 g/t gold and 11.5 g/t silver (Redstar hole 11SH010);
- 4.0 m of 11.70 g/t gold and 10.2 g/t silver (Redstar hole 11SH009;);
- 1.0 m of 43.90 g/t gold and 18.5 g/t silver (Redstar hole 11SH007).
This morning, Redstar announced the commencement of a 1450 metre drill program at Unga. They’re targeting the Shumagin gold zone, part of the Shumagin Trend, which extends ten kilometres and parallels the ten kilometre long Apollo-Sitka Trend, three kilometres to the south.
The drill program is testing for continuity and expansion of the known high-grade mineralization within the Shumagin gold zone along strike and at depth.
Over 1700 soil and rock chip samples were collected at Unga in 2014, which along with a re-interpretation of previous exploration results, are guiding the current program.
Redstar has a management team and board of directors with considerable mining experience for such a small company.
Jesse Grady, B.Sc., M.Sc is an Alaskan-native and Vice President of Exploration at Redstar. He is at Unga Island overseeing the drilling.
Ken Booth is the Interim President and CEO at Redstar. Mr. Booth is an experienced geologist, investment banker and mining entrepreneur from Vancouver, Canada.
Mr. Booth told CEO.CA last month that he intends to stay in the interim CEO role until the company is well capitalized to explore Unga. He sees the project as a unique high-grade epithermal-style target with district potential that warrants aggressive exploration. The optimistic CEO believes Unga has similarities to Kinross’s Kupol deposit in Russia, one of the world’s largest and most profitable gold mines, despite its remote Northern location.
Jacques Vaillancourt, CFA and Chairman is a veteran UK-based mining investment banker. He’s been involved in natural resources financings and transactions worth $30 billion over his career with leading financial institutions like HSBC, BMO and RBC. Mr. Vaillancourt is the second largest shareholder in Redstar with 25.4 million shares or 15.4% of the company, according to a March 2015 corporate presentation.
Boston’s Geologic Resource Partners is the largest shareholder with 28.3 million shares, representing 15.7% of the company.
Here are Redstar’s objectives at Unga from the March 2015 presentation:
- Expand & extend known mineralised zones
- Discover new zones along both trends
- Preliminary NI 43-101 compliant resource in 2015
- Build toward a high grade reserve base
- Leading to Robust Feasibility Study.
And here is a link to today’s drilling news: Redstar Gold Corp. starts drilling it’s 100% owned High Grade Unga Gold Project, Alaska
Follow Redstar Gold #RGC in CEOChat for the latest updates and visit www.RedStarGold.com for more information. Also consult the company’s profile on www.SEDAR.com to fully understand the risks of investing.
*Redstar cautions Investors that a Qualified person ( within the meaning of NI 43-101) has not done sufficient work to classify these historical estimates of production or resources as current mineral resources and or mineral reserves and should not be relied upon until they have been verified and supported by a compliant NI 43-101 technical report.
Redstar Gold is a CEO.CA sponsor. This article is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed investment advisor before making any investment decisions.