
Darin Wagner, the President and CEO of Balmoral Resources
Darin Wagner, the President and CEO of Balmoral Resources, has been busy since the start of his newest venture in November of 2010. “I'm a geologist by training and spent about ten years with Canada's majors. I ultimately ended up in the junior world. I was exploration manager with a company called Platinum Group Metals when the Company made a significant platinum discovery in South Africa and then as part of that team put together a company called West Timmins Mining. I ran that as President and CEO for about four years and ultimately ended up selling it to Lakeshore Gold in the fall of 2009 for $424 million,” said Wagner.
Creating Balmoral
Beginning in September of 2010 , Wagner began putting together the current 80+ kilometre long land package for Balmoral Resources along the Detour Gold Trend and hired his technical team. The land that Balmoral has acquired has a significant gold presence. Wagner said, “Balmoral’s assets have just under a million ounces of historic resources. The land package itself encompasses about eighty kilometers of the Detour Gold Trend. We've been able to tie onto the holdings of Detour Gold in Ontario and acquire the key gold-bearing fault system for 80 of the next 90 kilometres.” Since drilling began in January the Company has announced three new discoveries – Martiniere West, Martiniere East and Grasset – and several high-grade gold intercepts from its Fenelon project. Said Wagner “We are excited about our discovery rate on the Detour Gold Trend and what it suggests about the gold endownment and potential of this trend.”
The initial drilling has offered positive results. Wagner said, “The first hole at Martiniere West returned 13g/t gold over 12m surrounded by a broad halo of lower grade mineralization. In the fourth hole of the program we intersected the same high grade zone seeing 10 g/t gold over 10 m within a broader intercept of 1.69g/t gold over 129m. That was a pretty good start for the company.” Fenelon’s initial drilling results in one hole returned 6.10 m of 97g/t gold. Wagner said, “It's a very high grade project.” The Fenelon project has available underground access to it with two working levels at 15 and 35 meters under the surface. According to Wagner, “The gold mineralization is fairly shallow and it's all open to depth. We have now intersected that system at 250m vertical so more than a 100m step out from the historic drilling and everything remains a green light there.”
The quick success of Balmoral Resources is due to experienced management and technical teams. “We've put together a group here that is experienced. Amongst the group there are three members of the board who have taken companies right from initial start up through sale. We are predominantly explorers, not necessarily producers, and look to create value through discovery .” As Wagner indicates their management team is focused, most importantly, on creating value for investors. To date, Wagner and his staff have already raised $21 million dollars and managed to bring on side 39 global institutions to support and finance the Company.
Why Balmoral Is Different
While there are other gold exploration companies, Wagner believes they are fundamentally different. “What differentiates us is the scale on which we focus,” he said, “We really do focus on district scale. For Balmoral it's a land package that encompasses 80km in the most productive gold belt in North America. We probably have the largest continuous land package in the Abitibi which has historic production of over 120 million ounces. We work those projects with a drill focused approach to things. Our exploration is results driven. We have a successful track record. We have always have multiple targets in front of us andwe stay focused over a three to five year time frame on our goal of discovery and resource growth.”
In addition, Wagner believes that their area is significantly underexplored. He said, “It's the last of the great underexplored belts in the Abitibi. It's traditionally suffered for access and that's changed dramatically over the last 7-10 years. The infrastructure of the Quebec hydroprojects to the north of us has expanded, and logging has reached the area, so we now have road access.” In addition, assistance from the government is critical. Wagner said, “We have a much bigger geological database due to what the Quebec government has done. They deserve kudos for that. They are one of the most progressive government agencies in terms of keeping their geosites data up to date, in assisting and supporting exploration in the province and provide a tax structure and exploration incentive structure that is globally competitive which is why Quebec typically ranks at the top of mining executives rankings for exploration jurisdictions .”
Investor Friendly
With a market cap of just under $100 million, high gold grades, an experienced management team, and solid financing, investors may find Balmoral Resources attractive. Additionally, Wagner believes that Quebec has a great reputation with investors. He said, “What we can always do for our investors is take away the political risk factors. There is no better place to work than Quebec.” Wagner anticipates bringing one, if not two, resource updates to the market over the next 12 months, revealing more information about what they have found.
Despite the newness of their company, Balmoral Resources is in a position to achieve success in a short time frame. With a focus on drilling multiple targets in a large land package, plus the fact that the resources fit well with their technical expertise, Balmoral Resources has an edge in the world class Abitibi gold belt of Quebec.
For more information:
http://www.balmoralresources.com
Corporate Address: Balmoral Resources Ltd.
Address: 2300 - 1177 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6E 2K3
Telephone: 604-638-3664
Fax: 604-648-8809
Toll Free: 1-877-838-3664