White Gold Corp. (TSX.V: WGO, OTC – Nasdaq Intl: WHGOF, FRA: 29W) : Largest Land Holder in White Gold District, Yukon, Making New Discoveries, Agnico Eagle and Kinross Each Own 19.9%; Interview with David D'Onofrio, CEO
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By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 9/19/2019
White Gold Corp. (TSX.V: WGO, OTC – Nasdaq Intl: WHGOF, FRA: 29W) is the largest land holder in the prolific White Gold District, in Canada's Yukon, which has been the area of multiple high-grade and world-class discoveries in recent years. We learned from David D'Onofrio, CEO of White Gold, that their land package was assembled by Shawn Ryan, one of the most successful prospectors of all time and Chief Technical Advisor for the Company. We learned from Mr. D'Onofrio, that in 2018 they had several new high-grade gold discoveries, including the Vertigo discovery. The Company has been busy in 2019, with drilling to increase the mineral resource at the Golden Saddle & Arc deposits (currently 1,039,600 oz Indicated at 2.26 g/t Au and 508,700 oz Inferred at 1.48 g/t Au), obtaining first geometry on the Vertigo discovery, expanding the VG resource (currently 230,000 oz Inferred at 1.65 g/t Au) and exploring multiple regional targets, with very strong results so far. At the same time, White Gold continues to generate new gold discoveries, utilizing their proprietary data driven methods, including advanced soil sampling, LIDAR, GT probe work, RAB/RC drilling and other exploration activities. Strategic partners Agnico Eagle and Kinross each own 19% respectively of White Gold Corp.
Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, interviewing David D'Onofrio, who is CEO of White Gold Corp. David, could you give our readers/investors an overview of White Gold Corp. and what differentiates you from your peers?
David D’Onofrio: Absolutely, thanks again for the opportunity to chat with you and your readers/investors. White Gold Corp. is a Canadian based gold exploration company. We have a very significant land package in Canada's Yukon. In fact, we are the largest land holder in the prolific White Gold District, which has been the area of several high-grade and world class gold discoveries in the last number of years, taken out by major companies such as Kinross and Goldcorp, which itself is now Newmont Goldcorp. This is the area famous for the gold rush at the turn of the century, at which time over 20 million ounces of gold were known to have been mined in a placer manner. Since then, nobody has been able to discover the source of all this placer gold, until recent times when a handful of companies have had some tremendous success in identifying some of these potential sources. The main prospector, who had started identifying these hard rock sources of gold, is a gentleman by the name of Shawn Ryan, one of the most successful prospectors of all time. He has been in the Yukon's White Gold District, prospecting this area for 15 years.
In addition to those discoveries that he made, he's also assembled a very significant land package, now held by White Gold Corp. Shawn and our experienced management team, partnered with both Agnico Eagle and Kinross, with each owning 19% respectively of the Company. We are very proud to be the owners of this land package, which hosts a number of Shawn's most prospective gold targets. We are also proud to have joined forces with Kinross, who had originally purchased Shawn's first discovery, the Golden Saddle deposit. We blended that asset into our Company to back their share position, which is now a deposit of over one and a half million ounces of gold and continuing to grow. As a company, I believe what really differentiates us is that we have a number of very attractive features. One of the strongest being we have an established, large and growing deposit, very near surface and high-grade, comparable which is trading at a fraction of the per ounce basis take-out valuations that have happened in the district.
We also continue to produce new discoveries, with several last year and earlier this year. This growing pipeline of discoveries is possible through our proprietary exploration methods that continue to work in our jurisdiction, being primarily based on advanced soil sampling and other surface-type exploration. Our region of Yukon was never glaciated, so these exploration techniques have allowed us to explore very large areas of land at a very low cost. Using some of the newest technologies, we've been able to identify many highly prospective targets, across our35 properties, with a number of targets on each property. With some of our earlier stage prospects having turned into new discoveries.
Last year we had several new discoveries. Probably the most notable being our Vertigo discovery, which displayed some extremely high-grade gold right from surface. In this current season, we are using three separate approaches on our package to deliver value to our investors. One, continuing to add ounces on our Golden Saddle deposit; two, performing diamond drilling, for the first time ever, on some of these new discoveries from last season; and three, we continue to use our proprietary and unique exploration approach on our new targets to look for new discoveries in this jurisdiction.
We firmly believe that this is a highly prolific and under explored jurisdiction, much like Nevada was 70 ago, or the Timmins Camp, or any of the gold camp areas in Quebec. It's the very early days of a camp and we are well positioned as the largest landholder in that region, with a team that has been responsible and directly involved with all the success in that region to date. That's quite a bit. There is a lot going on in our Company. We own 40% of this prospective district which is a very unique position for a junior to be in and likely why the majors have taken such an interest in us.
Dr. Allen Alper: Well that's very exciting. You have a great land package, a great management team and great strategic partners and –
David D’Onofrio: A great jurisdiction, where we have government support. Additionally we are in a positive gold market here, with gold trading at all-time highs in Canadian dollars.
Dr. Allen Alper: It sounds excellent. It sounds like you've been having an exciting year with exploration. Could you tell our readers/investors your plans for the rest of 2019?
David D’Onofrio: Yes, absolutely our exploration program is a fully-funded $13 million program, which kicked off around the late spring and we've been very active since. We've had three diamond drills, and RAB & RC drills all going as one part of our program. We've also been active on some earlier stage regional exploration, with that work has been ongoing for a number of months now, and we are just starting to get some of these results back. From now to right through to 2020 will be a very active time for the Company’s news flow, as we receive our results, digested them and will be able to present them to the market. That's just started in the last month or so.
We've been very pleased with the results we've had to date in all aspects of our exploration program. On our diamond drill program, as of this interview we've had only one news release so far, which demonstrated the continued success on the Golden Saddle, our flagship asset. This season we drilled some of the highest grades to date on that project, extending the mineralization and strategically grown the boundary of mineralization in the area. We're very optimistic that drilling there, from what we've seen so far, will continue to grow that asset. Also on that project, we've identified a number of new perspective targets that are very close to our flagship deposit, which obviously are a key to continued exploration. Tapping those shallow ounces, near a substantial deposit, is ideal economically. The grade has continued to be excellent and the intercepts have been very wide. It's more of the same stuff we've seen over the years at that deposit; and we're really excited by that.
The other diamond drill program is on our JP Ross property, on our Vertigo target, which was a new discovery from last year. It's a somewhat different style of mineralization, an ultra-high-grade gold mineralization. Last season we saw gold up to 100 grams per ton at some of the preliminary RAB and RC holes. This year we've started to diamond drill it and continue to find similar mineralization, with our primary goal being to define some of the geometry of the mineralization.
Our preliminary drilling at Vertigo has identified multiple structures that are continuing at depth, and open in all directions, and have demonstrated more of this high-grade nature. That's very encouraging for a preliminary diamond-drill program, and it is still ongoing. We're now looking to continue to define that geometry further, and vector right into the source of this high-grade gold. We're very eagerly awaiting the results of this next wave of diamond-drill holes, and hoping to have more of the same type of high-grade results.
This year we also found many look-alike targets on the same trend as our Vertigo discovery, covering almost a 20 kilometer long trend. These were first discovered through our surface sampling, including through using the innovative GT probe, a mobile and cost-effective device that takes samples of underlying bedrock, providing us efficient visibility of possible regional targets.
This is equally exciting for us because it has demonstrated the potential for several new discoveries on the road accessible JP Ross property, with some very similar to the Vertigo discovery from last year. Our preliminary surface sampling program along the Vertigo trend, identified several targets that look to be similar or possibly even better than the Vertigo target itself, and all within a 15 to 20 kilometer trend. The sampling there had produced surface samples of almost 100 grams per ton in some cases, and some continuous high-grade bedrock samples. In terms of our process, that's stage one of a new discovery.
We performed our soil and bedrock sampling, and are thrilled to have this many new discoveries so close and so similar to the big discovery we made last year. The Vertigo is going to be followed up on this season with shallow RAB drilling, to look for a near surface mineralization. That drilling is just getting underway now, and we look forward to receiving those results later in the season.
Another very exciting thing is happening, on which we just released news last week. It is the identification of even more specific targets, based on our detailed soil sampling, many around our flagship Golden Saddle deposit. This has the opportunity to add significant shallow ounces to that deposit to make it even more robust. The detailed soil sampling also added specific targets that were identified on the JP Ross property, very near our Vertigo discovery.
It is very exciting to have so much at surface high-grade gold in the area. We're pretty optimistic, and think the probability of a new discovery in this area is very high. This could certainly be the source of some of the placer gold that's been mined out of this area for the last hundred years. We're very active on the exploration front, have been very successful thus far, and will have a lot more news ahead of us in the coming weeks and months.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds really fantastic and very exciting. It's a great time for your Company, for exploration and all the opportunities you have. Your huge property, great resource, and great targets you're exploring. It really sounds excellent, David.
David D’Onofrio: Yeah, thank you. You know this gold backdrop could be a bit of a perfect storm, to be in an evolving jurisdiction, where you have such strong support from the government and local communities, and alongside active mines being built in the area. Everything's falling into place, we're quite excited with the prospects at this time.
Dr. Allen Alper: That really sounds fantastic. Could you tell our readers/investors about your background and your team?
David D’Onofrio: Absolutely. Our team was formed as a partnership with Shawn Ryan, the prolific prospector that's been involved with these significant discoveries in our jurisdiction, and the PowerOne Capital Group, which is a Toronto-based merchant bank, which has been extensively involved in the resource sector for almost two decades now. We've been fortunate to have been involved in multiple high-profile exploration success stories in Canada and throughout the world. A number of those have gone from greenfield projects, to discovery, to now what are fully operating mines. We really have a passion for the gold exploration business and have been fortunate enough to work with great technical partners that have had tremendous success over the years. Additionally on our team, we have Rob Carpenter on the Company’s board, who was the founder of Kaminak that Goldcorp bought for $520 million in 2016, and Jodie Gibson as our VP of Exploration, who is one of the most experienced geologists in the District, and all complimented by our strategic partners Agnico Eagle and Kinross who each have 19% interest respectively in our Company and are keenly working with us to advance our projects.
Dr. Allen Alper: Well that's a great team and of course you have great experience in financing and advising resource companies globally. Sounds like you have a very, very strong team to move your Company forward. Could you highlight your share structure and capital structure?
David D’Onofrio: We have just over 112 million shares outstanding right now, no debt and Agnico Eagle and Kinross each own 19% of the company respectively. The insider group also owns approximately over 20%, so about 65% is owned by strategic investors, with the balance is held by a combination of mining-focused institutions and the retail public.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. Could you highlight the primary reasons our readers/ investors should consider investing in White Gold Corp.?
David D’Onofrio: There are a number of great reasons. We have a very attractive, high-grade gold deposit that's open in multiple directions. We just put out a mineral resource update this year, which showed significant growth and all only based on exploration work from 2018, and we're optimistic that that will continue year after year. We've continue to have success in utilizing our proprietary exploration techniques to produce new discoveries. Last year we had four new discoveries and I think this year we'll be putting some meat on the bones around some of these discoveries, and potentially adding additional discoveries. A lot of investors like to be part of new discovery stories, especially in such great jurisdictions, and our Company has the right partners to take these discoveries to the next level.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent, sounds like a great opportunity for our readers/investors to consider. Is there anything else you'd like to add, David?
David D’Onofrio: Just to thank you for interviewing White Gold Corp. for Metals News. It's an exciting time for us and we've been very active. There's lots of news to come, so stay tuned.
Dr. Allen Alper: Very good! 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.
(416) 643-3880
ddonofrio@whitegoldcorp.ca
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