Argo Gold (CSE: ARQ): Exploring High-Grade Gold Projects in the Prolific Red Lake and Birch Uchi Greenstone Belts, Ontario; Interview with Judy Baker, CEO
|
By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 6/8/2020
Argo Gold (CSE: ARQ) is a Canadian company, focused on gold exploration projects, in central and northwestern Ontario, that have indications of economic viability. All of Argo Gold’s projects are 100% owned. We learned from Judy Baker, CEO of Argo Gold, that their high-grade Uchi Gold Project (which includes the Woco Gold Prospect) is located west of Uchi Lake at the south end of a series of historical gold mines. The Uchi project is considered very prospective, the winter drill program confirmed 132 grams per ton gold, over 1.8 meters, at the Woco vein and 34.4 grams per ton gold, over half a meter, two kilometers to the southwest at Northgate. Near-term plans include; stripping the overburden from all the high priority targets, completing structural mapping, and getting ready for a larger follow-up drill-program in the summer of 2020.
Argo Gold
Dr Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, interviewing Judy Baker, who is CEO of Argo Gold. Could you give our readers/investors an overview of your Company and also what differentiates Argo Gold from others?
Judy Baker:Argo Gold is focused in Central and Northwestern Ontario. We see long-life producing mines in those areas. But prior to the Great Bear exploration and discovery, there wasn't the exploration activity that you see in the Abitibi, which is the Timmins, Kirkland Lake, and Val d'Or, Rouyn-Noranda area. We saw the area overlooked, from an exploration perspective, with a lot of high-grade gold mineralization.
Argo Gold's flagship project is the Uchi Gold Project, which was initially discovered in 1993. There's known high-grade gold there, of multiple ounces per ton, over a couple meters. What happened in 1993 was Windy Craggy - a world-class copper gold asset in BC - was expropriated and this resulted in a black cloud over Canada, and available capital for exploration activity became scarce. Exploration activity at the Uchi Gold Project was stopped and Argo Gold is the first company out there in 25 years to re-commence systematic exploration activity.
Argo Gold's Uchi Gold Project and Great Bear's Dixie Project are both in the Confederation volcanics, which overlies the Balmer volcanics of the Red Lake Mines. Explorationists have looked for Red Lake style gold mineralization, in the Confederation volcanics, for 50 years. Great Bear is the first big success, although First Mine Gold’s Springpole deposit of 5 million ounces is in the area, so we know the belt can have multi-million ounce deposits.
Argo Gold’s Uchi Gold Project and Great Bear’s Dixie Project are also proximal to a major crustal structure that separates the English River sediments to the south from the Uchi geologic sub-province to the north. The Uchi has multiple Greenstone belts, prolific Greenstone belts, long producing mines in the Red Lake camp and mineralization that's known to extend to great depths.
On Argo Gold's Uchi Gold Project, the winter drill program confirmed 132 gram per ton gold over 1.8 meters at the Woco vein and then 2 kilometers to the southwest at Northgate, Argo Gold intercepted 34.4 gram per ton gold over 0.5 metres. The 2 kilometer horizon between Woco and Northgate is considered to be very prospective.
One of the reasons Great Bear was able to make such a fantastic discovery in the Red Lake District, in 2018, is because there are about 1 to 4 meters of overburden and not a lot of outcrop. The lack of outcrop results in the requirement to rely on diagnostic tools for targeting including; geophysics, geochemistry.
At Argo Gold, we have completed airborne geophysics, and in the summer of 2019, we completed a bio-geochem survey along a 5 kilometer corridor of interest. The biogeochemistry orientation survey identified that known gold mineralization in the camp was identified by black spruce bark samples. The 1,100 bio-geochem survey of black spruce bark identified multiple blind, high priority anomalies proximal to the high-grade Woco vein, which is quite interesting and identified anomalies along the whole 5 kilometer strike length as well as new high-priority anomalies along the SW extension of the mineralized structure. These results were press-released on October 28, 2019.
We've also identified multiple other blind anomalies, along several different places, along the whole five kilometer strike length of the main mineralized trend. This gives us even more additional targets. We’re doing mechanical stripping out there, taking a dozer taking the one to three meters of overburden off from all our high priority targets. We're going to complete structural mapping. We're going to combine that, with all the geophysics, drilling them to update the geologic mapping that we have. That puts Argo Gold in position for a larger follow-up drill program, in the summer of 2020.
Another item accomplished in the summer of 2019 was initial mapping and sampling at the adjacent and parallel HST zone and Raingold system, located 500 meters west of the main mineralized corridor. Raingold is one of the mineralized areas of the HST Zone, which is a fractured/sheared gold-bearing zone, associated with a lean iron formation that extends for several kilometres and follows a lithologic horizon between rhyolite and greenstones. Argo Gold sampled anomalous gold along 600 metres of the HST Zone and at Raingold, one of the continuous chip samples across the structure was 14.5 grams per ton over 2.6 meters right at surface.
The plan for the summer of 2020 is mechanical stripping and washing in areas of known gold mineralization and at the newly identified biogeochem anomalies. This will put Argo Gold in a position to complete the structural mapping program to incorporate into the litho-structural model.
A fall 2020 drill program is planned to target gold mineralization, down plunge, at Woco and Northgate, the on echelon on parallel blind anomalies identified proximal to the Woco vein, as well as the other areas of anomalous gold identified to date.
Dr Allen Alper: That sounds excellent! Sounds like Argo Gold is making excellent progress and has great opportunities for exploration and development. That sounds really excellent, Judy. Could you tell our readers/investors about your background?
Judy Baker: I have a geology degree, an engineering degree. I've worked in the industry for about thirty years, including working underground in the Mattagami Camp, Quebec and in for the Ontario Ministry of Mines. I went back and did an MBA at Western Business School and then I worked mainly in the capital markets, financial side of the industry. In the last 10 years, I have founded three exploration companies; lithium, copper and now gold. Argo Gold is the first gold exploration company that I've founded.
Dr Allen Alper: That's excellent! That's very impressive, Judy. Could you tell our readers/investors a little bit about your share structure?
Judy Baker: Yes. Argo Gold has 51.5 million shares outstanding. Eric Sprott is the largest shareholder at 22% of the Company. Accilent Capital and Northfield Capital each own 6% and the Argo Gold team owns 10%. So the Argo Gold shares are well held.
Dr Allen Alper: That sounds very good. Could you tell our readers/investors the primary reasons they should consider investing in Argo Gold?
Judy Baker: Yes. Argo Gold’s gold projects are 100% owned by Argo Gold shareholders. The market capitalization of the Ccompany is low and I expect excellent upside for Argo Gold investors in 2020.
Dr Allen Alper: That sounds very good. Is there anything else you'd like to add, Judy?
Judy Baker: Thank you for inviting Argo Gold to do an interview with Metals News!
Dr Allen Alper: I’m always pleased to catchup with the great things you’re doing. We’ll publish your press releases as they come out so our readers/investors can follow your progress.
http://www.argogold.ca/
Judy Baker
CEO
(416) 786-7860
jbaker@argogold.ca
|
|