White Gold Corp. (TSX.V: WGO, OTCQX: WHGOF, FRA: 29W): A District Scale Portfolio, covering about 350,000 Hectares, representing Over 40% of the Yukon’s emerging White Gold District; David D’Onofrio, CEO interviewed
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By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 7/26/2022
We spoke with David D’Onofrio, CEO of White Gold Corp. (TSX.V: WGO, OTCQX: WHGOF, FRA: 29W), a gold exploration Company, with a district-scale portfolio of 17,584 quartz claims across 30 properties, covering approximately 350,000 hectares, representing over 40% of the Yukon’s emerging White Gold District. The Company’s flagship, White Gold property, hosts the Company’s Golden Saddle and Arc deposits, which have a mineral resource of 1,139,900 ounces Indicated, at 2.28 g/t Au, and 402,100 ounces Inferred at 1.39 g/t Au. The 2022 $6 million exploration program includes drilling at White Gold property, Betty property, and regional exploration work, to identify new targets. Yukon is a Tier 1 jurisdiction, with excellent mining infrastructure, that has seen 20M+ oz placer gold and 25M+ oz modern day gold discoveries. White Gold Corp. is managed by leaders in the mining exploration field, including Shawn Ryan, co-founder and Chief Technical Advisor, who's advanced soil work led to the discovery of the millions of gold ounces, including the Golden Saddle & Arc, Coffee, and QV gold resources.
White Gold Corp.
Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief, of Metals News, talking with David D'Onofrio, who's CEO of White Gold Corporation. David, could you give a reason for an investor to consider your Company and an overview of your Company? What differentiates your Company, and then tell us about your significant properties and data that you've obtained in Yukon, in the White Gold region, where from what I understand, you're one of the largest owners of properties.
David D'Onofrio: Gladly, happy to do that. Thanks for having me. What you touched on, is one of the things that makes this Company so unique. White Gold has been able to tie up a truly district scale land package. We're in the White Gold District of the Yukon. This is the epicenter of the famous Klondike Gold Rush, which from that point in time, 125 years ago, until today, has produced over 20 million ounces of gold, from the creeks sitting on surface. And astonishingly, it hadn't seen any modern-day hard rock exploration, until about 10 or 15 years ago. What this Company's been able to do, led by world-renowned prospector Shawn Ryan. He first went there and in record , made a huge discovery, proving the thesis that if there's that much gold on surface, there's a great probability of having a lot more gold in the hard rock below.
Shawn Ryan has systematically been there testing, for almost 20 years now and he's compiled the best properties that he's seen, over his time there. It represents 40% of the claims in the district, but really 80% of the gold targets. What we really love about it, is for one junior company to be able to hold this much land, in such a prospective area that has this rich history, with so little work that's been done and being so under-explored. The work that has been done has been so successful, in generating several world-class deposits, high-grade gold deposits, to own that in Canada, a Tier One mining jurisdiction, with the Yukon being ranked top 10, by the Fraser Institute. It almost sounds too good to be true, but that is in fact what White Gold has assembled, with its property portfolio.
Within that portfolio, we have some very exciting assets and new discovery targets. It has a great balance of existing resources, with gold deposits, which have grown globally to about 1.8 million ounces. This has an average grade of over two grams and is open-pittable. I think the economics around a project like this could be quite impressive. And an even more exciting characteristic of this Company, is that we've done a tremendous amount of work on our exploration pipeline, to generate and advance new targets over the years. We are now performing maiden diamond drill programs, on a number of these targets. This work has generated several new discoveries already and we're extremely optimistic about the probabilities for even more new discoveries to be made. Specifically, our recent maiden diamond drill programs have already had three, what I'll call world class discovery holes.
One of them is on our Ryan Surprise target, which is two kilometers, west of our flagship deposit. Our strategy was, that although our flagship deposit is open in basically all directions, instead of working to delineate the deposit itself, we figured we'd get a better bang for our buck, by finding new zones of mineralization, in close proximity to the flagship deposit. And we've done just that. The first zone we found is called the Ryan’s Surprise, where drilling over the past few seasons intersected extremely high-grade material, complimented by broad intersections of moderate grade material. To date we have traced it to a sizable dimension of 400m x 400m x 400m from surface and remains open in multiple directions. So that's really exciting! And last season, we looked at another target, which was adjacent to that Ryan Surprise target, less than 1km to the south, called the Ulli's Ridge. And we had a brand-new discovery there, drilling 20 meters of about seven grams, which on a maiden diamond drill program, is a great success. Huge credit is due to the amount of work and preparation done to plan these drill programs.
Ulli’s Ridge represents a new zone of mineralization. What’s even more exciting is that it appears that it could potentially connect to the Ryan Surprise, so a huge amount of upside there. And what's even more exciting, in that regard, if that's not exciting enough, is that those two targets sit on a mineralized trend that traces six and a half kilometers, north to south. So it's a huge untested trend. The little bit of testing that's been done has been very successful, with these new discoveries. So we are very eager to continue to do work around there. Any ounces found there will certainly be accretive to our flagship project. Over the last couple years, the work that's been done on the Ryan Surprise, after that initial discovery, has really shown some continuity amongst multiple structures. The opportunity to build significant ounces there looks really good. We've kicked off our 2022 program in this area, back in early June, and drilling has progressed smoothly. Being in a northern environment, the Company operates a seasonal exploration program that runs from June to October. So, it is a very exciting time of the year right now, as drills are starting to turn.
This mineralized trend, on the White Gold property, is going to be a big focus of our program this year. We have a fully funded, $6 million exploration program. We're fortunate to have Agnico and Kinross, as our partners, as you know, to support us financially and technically. The other focus of our program this year, which I think the market is probably most excited about, is on our Betty Property. That property is located on the Southern end of our land package. It's contiguous to Newmont’s Coffee multi-million-ounce gold deposit and Western Copper and Gold's massive copper gold porphyry deposit. What’s so special about the Betty property, is its location right along the same geological fault structural system. We've been working that up and preparing those targets, on Betty, for drilling the last number of years. We initiated our maiden diamond drill program, on the Betty Ford target, last year. And similar to our other targets, immediately had an impressive world class discovery hole, being 50 meters, at three and a half grams from near surface.
I think that's likely one of the best discovery holes, of any junior company, last year. So we are extremely excited about that. On its own, those are incredible results, but looking where it is, with these other big deposits in that area, as Shawn says, "This is elephant country." He discovered the Coffee. I think he sees a lot of similarities here. So, we could be at just the tip of the iceberg. We'll be spending some time and money drilling that target further this year. And there are a number of other targets, on that same property, that are not yet diamond drill tested, and we'll be starting to diamond drill test those. The Mascot is one of them, located just six kilometers to the east of our discovery at Betty Ford last year.
The Mascot actually lies on a bigger and more intense soil anomaly than the Betty Ford, representing a tremendous amount of prospectivity. The fact that we're making discoveries, basically at surface, in Canada, in 2022 is almost a dream come true. And I think that's really what's attracting, all these majors, to the area. There are not many places in the world you can do this, but to be able to do it in a Tier One mining jurisdiction, you couldn't ask for more. This district has attracted many major mining companies recently, with Agnico and Kinross with us, Newmont's, the largest gold company in the world, Rio Tinto is there, as a major partner of Western Copper, second largest mining company in the world. I think that should validate, for investors, the thesis that this could be the very early days of what looks to be a world class gold camp, like Timmins, or Nevada, or the Abitibi, in Quebec, or different places in Australia or South Africa.
That's our thesis. We have some great ambitions here. Our goal will be to continue to make discoveries, optimize the value and then look to monetize those, either through having our partners take them off our hands, move them to development, et cetera, rewarding the shareholders and using some of that capital to continue to develop and explore this area, with a tremendous amount of blue-sky potential. The majors get it, that's why they're there. The analysts get it. There are some great price targets out there, starting around $2.70. Our Company, unfortunately, trades significantly below that. Part of that might be seasonality, but we're really out there banging the table and wearing out the shoe leather to try and get out the message that this is a very special Company. It's a unique opportunity. All the big boys see it. I think it'd be very interesting for investors to be a part of it, at this time, in the gold cycle.
Dr. Allen Alper: It's an exciting story. And it seems like 2022, with all the drilling going on, will be a very exciting time for your investors, and your shareholders and stakeholders.
David D'Onofrio: We think so. I've been fortunate to be in this business, involved with some great success stories, over the last 20 years. And this Company certainly has all those characteristics, if not more than any one of those others. So, I think the opportunity is unique. The prospectivity is there. We have great partners and have generated numerous significant discoveries, with drilling, which at the end of the day is the most important thing for success. And we are extremely excited. Drills are starting to turn here for 2022 and we are really looking forward to what those results will bring us, over the next several months.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds great. Could you tell our readers/investors a little bit about yourself, your Team and your Board?
David D'Onofrio: Absolutely. So, I'm in finance, by background. I'm with the PowerOne Capital Group, a merchant bank, based in Toronto. It has been financing exploration activities, globally, for 20 years now. We have been fortunate to be involved, with some tremendous success stories, like Continental Gold, which was recently sold for over $2 billion, based on their huge discovery in South America. Aurelian Resources is another big success, in the precious metals space, in the last number of years. There's a fairly long list. Auryx Gold Corp was another, with its project in Namibia, sold to B2Gold. We're continuing to back that Team now, in Namibia and a number of others, not just in gold, but also in the battery metal space. Neo Lithium is another Company we have been part of co-founding and involved in that sale last year.
This is a business of risk. You want to mitigate your risks, as much as you can. To do that, you have to look to the right kind of assets and work, with the right kind of people, at the right time. And I think that’s exactly the scenario we have here, in terms of the Team. This is all being led by Shawn Ryan. He’s the guy, who had the thesis and had the courage to go to an area that nobody had prospected before and figure out what and how to identify his mineralized systems. And he has really cracked the code, within a couple of years. He has made two discoveries that were both acquired by majors, really the stuff that junior mining dreams are made of. Around him and his Team, we’ve brought in some incredible geologists, including Terry Brace, our Senior VP of Exploration.
He has a tremendous resume, and he's really helped us further delineate and identify these targets. The success, of our recent maiden diamond drill programs, is a testament to that. We're constantly integrating new technologies and approaches to evaluating the landscape. We've brought in a new structural consultant, Matias Sanchez of Fault Rocks Inc. He has done some incredible work. And on the back of that, I think that's also helped us dial in our drilling. We've done more work, over the winter, and really opened our eyes to a few new opportunities, so we're excited to drill that as well. It's a tremendous group of people to be working with.
Dr. Allen Alper: It sounds like you and your Team have a great track record of success and experience. That's excellent and it's well balanced. That's really great! David, could you tell our readers/investors a little bit about your share and capital structure?
David D'Onofrio: For sure. We have about 150 million shares outstanding. That's largely held, quite tightly, by a number of big groups. Agnico and Kinross are major shareholders. Combined, they own about 35% of the Company. The PowerOne group, including myself, along with the other founders, being Shawn Ryan, we own around 20% of the Company. There are some other great shareholders in there, including the Sprott Group, who has been very supportive for the last number of years, and some other highly sophisticated institutions. I think all these guys really understand the opportunity. The balance is largely held by retail. We've been spending more time and effort in the last number of years, to help get the story out there. I think once people realize the uniqueness of this opportunity, they're quite enthused by it. We need to spend more time on that, right? We have a great opportunity here and really want to share that with the market.
Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that's excellent. That's great to have such Management and Board support. It shows that you have skin in the game and also have very impressive, long term, powerful companies that are supporting you. That's excellent!
David D'Onofrio: We're very fortunate to have the support that we do, that's for sure.
Dr. Allen Alper: David, could you summarize and highlight the primary reasons our readers/investors should consider investing in White Gold Corp?
David D'Onofrio: I think this Company provides the best of all worlds, when it comes to junior resource investment. It has a significant number of proven ounces, with 1.8 million that's been documented in a 43-101. There's a tremendous amount of upside on just growing that alone, through delineating the deposits further. Plus, the balance of our property portfolio includes these new discovery zones, that we’ve mentioned, with incredible discovery potential. From a risk reward perspective, I think you're limiting your downside, with a significant resource base as protection. I think what’s most exciting, what people really like, is the tremendous amount of blue-sky opportunity, in this huge land package, where we are literally scratching the surface of the district. The Company's being run by a guy, who's gone there and cracked the code, in a district, with a prolific and mineral-rich past. We've been making several world class, new discoveries over the last couple years. The process works, systematically advancing properties based on our pipeline. With what we've seen, that's led to these discoveries, we're more optimistic than ever, to continuing making new discoveries.
This year we'll be following up on previous discoveries, made last year. I think the probabilities there are extremely advantageous, because we know what's there. Now we're just working to understand it better. We do also have some brand-new grassroots targets that have been worked up with these same protocols that have led to the previous discoveries that will be diamond drill tested, for the first time ever. You have the whole gambit of opportunities for investors and shareholders to build value, within White Gold. As I mentioned, I think the analysts really get that, with targets $2.70 and higher. The Company is currently trading at less than $0.40 CAD, which represents a big opportunity, for a value re-rating, as this year’s exploration program progresses. We're going to go and do what we do best, which is try and make new discoveries and further delineate the ones that we've made.
So, it's a great time to be looking at the Company, with drills turning since June, and lots of news to follow, for the balance of the year. The Company's fully funded, for this year and into next year, and well-capitalized. So that's another huge positive that the Company can offer here, for investors getting involved. Our last financing was actually done at prices significantly higher than where we are today, as well. Now is a very interesting and opportunistic entry point for people.
Dr. Allen Alper: Those are outstanding reasons to consider investing in your Company. You're in a great region. You have a huge land package. You have great potential to drill, and you have great grades that have been discovered and you have the right Team, and you have the right backing. That's excellent!
David D'Onofrio: I think that you summarized it very well there. We're in the discovery phase now. The truth telling machine is out there. It's been giving us great results and we're optimistic for a lot more of those to come.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. David, is there anything else you'd like to add?
David D'Onofrio: No, I think that's a great overview. Stay tuned. This is an exciting time of the year for White Gold. You can see that cyclicality; in the way our stock usually trades throughout the year. Your readers/investors can look forward to a lot of news to come from here, through the balance of the year.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds We’ll publish your press releases as they come out so our readers/investors can follow your progress.
https://whitegoldcorp.ca/
David D’Onofrio
Chief Executive Officer
White Gold Corp.
(647) 930-1880
ir@whitegoldcorp.ca
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