Tarku Resources Ltd (TSX VENTURE: TKU): A Quebec-Focused Accomplished Project Generator, Interview with Julien Davy, President
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By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, US
on 2/7/2018
Tarku Resources Ltd (TSX VENTURE:TKU) is a Canadian exploration company focused on generating sustainable projects for precious and base metals by conducting exploration in areas with strong geologic potential and high levels of social acceptability. Tarku holds a 100% interest in all its projects and has an option to acquire a 50% interest in the SOQUEM project. We learned from Julien Davy, President of Tarku Resources, that they are a Quebec-focused project generator, with a plan to build a portfolio of serval outstanding projects in the Northern part of the Abitibi. In 2018, Tarku plans to work on three different projects starting exploration drilling at the end of January. The company is tightly-held and has a really experienced board with both financial and technical expertise.
Tarku Resources Ltd
Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, interviewing Julien Davy, President of Tarku Resources. Could you give our readers/investors an overview of your company, your focus, your team and current activities?
Mr. Julien Davy: Yes, absolutely. Tarku Resource is a project generator focused mainly in Quebec. Our unconventional perspective on the types of mineralization for which we typically explore, in a target region, allows us to generate projects using exploration models recognized by the industry, but with different models from those generally applied to the target region. Our plan is to build a portfolio of several outstanding projects, in the northern part of the Abitibi. That region has been under-explored in terms of gold mineralization, and has great potential for new discoveries. That is the reason we have acquired our eighth project in Quebec.
Tarku is a tightly-held capital structure, with 57 million shares outstanding. We know over 65% of our shareholders. We have a really experienced board to help us build our business. Our CEO, Sylvain Laberge is working in the IR and financing sectors for about 20 years. I am an over 20 years’ experienced geologist, with an MBA and business experience in several junior mining companies. Our Director of Exploration, Benoit Lafrance, is a PhD in geology, with all the knowledge experiences for the project generator model. One of our directors, Tim Termuende, has been successfully directing project generation companies for over 35 years. Tarku Resources has the right team to achieve the new discovery in Quebec.
Dr. Allen Alper: It's an excellent team. You and your team have a great background. It's good to have such a strong, experienced, and successful team. Excellent!
Could you tell our readers/investors a bit more about your plans for 2018?
Mr. Julien Davy: Our plans are to advance our exploration program to maximize our results. We have 3 projects underway for 2018: the Guercheville Project, the Apollo and Atlas projects, in Matagami, and the Chateau Fort Project in the James Bay area. We are first going to receive results from our Matagami projects, within the next weeks. These results follow our, fall 2017, till sampling program and will guide us on where to focus these projects for 2018. Secondly, we are going to have results from our drilling program that will start early February on the Guercheville project, which is an earn-in project owned by our partner SOQUEM Then, we going to work the potential extension of the Past Eastmain Mine Trend on our Château Fort Project. All these three projects have good potential for new discoveries in 2018.
On January 18 Tarku announced the signing of an option and joint venture agreement with SOQUEM Inc. to acquire 50% of the Guercheville Project. According to the terms of the option agreement signed on January 15, 2018 (the "Effective Date"), Tarku has the option to acquire a 50% interest in the Guercheville Project, by incurring $2,000,000 in exploration work, over a period of three (3) years according to the following schedule: $350,000 by the first anniversary of the Effective Date, $650,000 by the second anniversary of the Effective Date and $1,000,000 by the third anniversary of the Effective Date. Upon acquisition of the 50% interest, SOQUEM and Tarku will form a joint venture. SOQUEM, a subsidiary of Ressources Québec and a major player in mineral exploration in Québec, will be the operator of the work program during the first year and Tarku will have the opportunity to become operator starting the second year.
The Guercheville Project strategically strengthens Tarku's position in the northern Abitibi region, the Company's main area of focus. Reaching the agreement, with a well-respected partner, will diversify Tarku's portfolio by including a drill-ready project with strong discovery potential. The agreement also allows Tarku to participate immediately in SOQUEM's 12-hole (2,555 m) drilling program, scheduled to start in early February. The aim is to follow up on the main discovery showings at surface and to test some of the areas of chargeability anomalies and magnetic highs that have been identified over the past few years."
Guercheville Project
The Guercheville Project comprises 80 claims (4,385.64 ha) held 100% by SOQUEM and is located approximately 50 kilometres southwest of the town of Chapais, accessible year-round by forestry roads. The Project is adjacent to the Fenton gold deposit (historical resources* of 426,173 metric tons grading 4.66 g/t Au; assessment report GM 58665), which is also held by SOQUEM, under option to Cartier Resources. The gold concentrations in the Fenton deposit are associated with pyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite, and with silica, sericite, chlorite and carbonate alteration in sheared pillow basalts of the Obatogamau Formation. The mineralization is also associated with areas of chargeability anomalies and magnetic highs. Management cautions that past results or discoveries on proximate land are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be achieved on the Guercheville project.
Several gold and polymetallic showings have been identified in different parts of the Guercheville Project, in the form of sulphide-bearing quartz veins or veinlets and disseminated sulphides, similar to the Fenton deposit. Their spatial distribution suggests the presence of multiple prospective horizons, indicating a robust mineralizing system. Intervals from the main showings include the following:
• Doigt showing: 90 g/t Au, 212 g/t Ag and 1.8% Zn (grab sample) and 21.7 g/t Au, 64.5 g/t Ag and 0.4% Zn over 1 m (channel sample);
• Clikendish showing: 124 g/t Au (grab sample) and 20.7 g/t Au over 0.5 m (channel sample);
• Lac Fenton West showing: 19.17 g/t Au (grab sample);
• Drill hole 1391-16-12: 4.8 g/t Au over 7.8 m including 17 g/t Au over 2 m;
• Drill hole 1391-17-20: 356 g/t Au and 0.9% Cu over 0.6 m.
* Estimate performed in 2000 by Mr. Denis Chénard, Eng. of Datac Géo-Conseil Enrg. on behalf of Boréal Exploration using 73 holes drilled on the three main zones of the Fenton gold deposit. The estimation used a lower cut-off grade of 2.0 g/t Au and a minimum true thickness of 1.0 m. The qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the resources covered by the estimate as compliant under National Instrument 43-101. The issuer does not consider the resources covered by the estimate as current mineral resources.
We also expect really interesting results on our Matagami projects, the Apollo and Atlas projects. The 2 contiguous projects are covering 104 km2 along a regional gold structure named the Rivière Waswanipi Shear Zone (RWSZ), a geological setting, which Tarku interprets as similar to the Sunday Lake Deformation Zone hosting the Detour Lake mine. The work program completed last fall included a till, humus and rock samples program, which aims to validate the historical results, including a value of 4.94 g/t in the heavy mineral fractions, in order to identify priority areas along the RWSZ as well as other promising structures and contacts over a distance of 19 kilometres.
Those results will help guide us in 2018, targeting our next steps in exploration.
That's for the second project. The third one is going to be the Château Fort project, which is accessible along the road that goes to the diamond mine, the Stornaway diamond mine Renar, in the James Bay area. That project is adjacent to the past Eastman mine, which was a high-grade production. We are going to do some geophysics and some ground exploration to target the next drill program on that project.
So we believe that the results coming out, from those three different projects, are going to give us a lot of news flow coming out during 2018.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds very good. Could you tell us a bit about your share structure and capital structure?
Mr. Julien Davy: Absolutely. It's a tightly-held structure, 57 million shares outstanding. The management itself own 22% of that float. We have the chance to have the Quebec institutional funds that support us being shareholders of the company with 14% of that float. We also have 35% of our shareholders that are what we call friends and family, which are the former founder of the company and a group of people we really know. As you can see, it’s a share structure well held with long-term and supportive shareholders. With our actual projects, it is for us, an underpriced share structure.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds excellent! What are the primary reasons our high-net-worth readers/investors should consider investing in Tarku Resources?
Mr. Julien Davy: There are three major points:
We have the team to make Tarku successful. We have the financial experience and contacts. We have the technical experience, and I think our plan to look into the geology in a different way will help us.
We have maybe one of the best locations in the world, Quebec. We had the chance to acquire really interesting projects in 2015-2016, while the market was down and nobody was taking. We acquired outstanding positions along regional trends.
Our capital structure is tightly-held and has a lot of potential to grow.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds like excellent reasons for our readers/high-net-worth investors to consider investing in Tarku. Is there anything else you'd like to add, Julien?
Mr. Julien Davy: Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you, Dr. Alper. Tarku is going to release a lot of news, within the next weeks and months. I'm really looking forward to all the results from our Apollo and Atlas Projects, as well as from the drilling at the Guercheville Project. Watch for them, I think they are going to be exciting!
Dr. Allen Alper: Well that sounds excellent.
https://www.tarkuresources.com/en/
Julien Davy
President
+1 (514) 618-7287
info@tarkuresources.com
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