In the few years that Black Tusk Resources Inc. (TUSK:CSE; BTKRF:OTC) has been around—it was formed in 2016 and went public in November 2017—it has managed to procure two projects in highly prolific areas of Canada. The company's flagship project, Golden Valley, sits in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in western Quebec, not far from the Ontario border. The Abitibi has produced more than 100 mines and 170 million ounces of gold since the early 1900s. Quebec is considered a mining-friendly jurisdiction, ranking fourth on the Fraser Institute's Mining Investment Attractiveness Index.
Golden Valley is located a mere 26 kilometers south of the Casa Berardi Mine, which is 100%-owned by Hecla Mining Company. That underground mine has produced more than 1.9 million recovered gold ounces since 1988, and is expected to produce about 150,000 ounces of gold at a cash cost of roughly $850/ounce this year.
"The charts for Black Tusk show outstanding strength." - Clive Maund
The 1,850-hectare Golden Valley project has seen historical drilling, and one highlight hole drilled by Noranda Inc., LAB87-B2, returned:
- 0.91 gram per tonne (g/t) gold over 13.3 meters (51.3 meters to 64.6 meters), including 1.82 g/t gold over 4.5 meters from 57 meters to 61.5 meters, including:
- 1.4 g/t gold from 57 meters to 58.5 meters;
- 2.15 g/t gold from 58.5 meters to 60 meters;
- 1.90 g/t gold from 60 meters to 61.5 meters.
Another hole, LAB109-03-01, drilled by Noranda in 2004, returned:
- 1.40 g/t gold from 51.3 meters to 52 meters;
- 0.51 g/t gold from 107.3 meters to 108.2 meters in iron formation within basalt;
- 1.25 g/t gold from 109.5 meters to 112.1 meters, including:
- 0.99 g/t gold from 109.5 meters to 110.2 meters in iron formation within basalt;
- 2.49 g/t gold from 110.2 meters to 111.1 meters in iron formation within basalt;
- 0.32 g/t gold from 111.1 meters to 112.1 meters in iron formation within basalt.
The drill holes are close to roads and accessible.
"Over 4,000 meters of historical drilling has been conducted at Golden Valley, so we know that gold mineralization is there," Black Tusk CEO Richard Penn told Streetwise Reports. "The Laberge Deformation Zone, which is similar to the gold-bearing Casa Berardi Fault structure, passes through the property." Gold mineralization intersected in historical diamond drilling on the Golden Valley project has never been followed up, even though the site is accessible.
"Most of the drill pads are really easy to access. We are essentially drilling only about 330 meters off the side of the road, so we can just pull up with equipment. We don't have to fly helicopters," Penn explained.
"The site has infrastructure—roads, power, water—and a local labor pool," Penn added.
On June 10, Black Tusk reported that it received a drill permit to construct 15 drill pads on the Golden Valley property and followed up by announcing on June 24 that it expects to begin diamond drilling on July 18. "These drill stations will allow for the testing of two gold-bearing structures as outlined by historic work previously undertaken by other companies," the company stated.
The first stage of drilling will have two targets: target 1 is designed to "verify and expand upon the presence of a gold-bearing shear zone intercepted in prior drill programs," while target 2's proposed drilling is designed to "verify and expand upon the presence of gold-bearing iron formation structure intercepted in prior drill programs," the company announced. Stage 1 drilling will comprise up to 1,500 meters over 10 sites.
Stage 2, the company noted, is "planned to follow up on results of the stage 1 drilling and is scheduled to begin after all of the samples have been analyzed and the data has been synthesized and interpreted. Stage 2 drilling will expand upon significant results obtained from stage 1."
"We expect to get drill results back in August, and can do additional drilling in September, guided by the assays," Penn explained.
Black Tusk's second project, Goldsmith, is across Canada in British Columbia, in the Kootenays region. The area has seen mineral exploration as far back as 1865. The 885-hectare site benefits from infrastructure such as year-round highway access and water, and the power grid is just 14.5 km away.
"Goldsmith is a high-grade gold property, a nuggety style of deposit that is close to surface," Penn explained. "We went in there last fall with excavators and did a big trenching program and we got some really good numbers, 14.42 g/t, 5/26 g/t and 5/34 g/t." Results from rock sampling returned assays as high as 29.89 g/t, 13.34 g/t and 9.61 g/t. Historical rock sampling has returned some eye-popping results along the lines of 9901.8 g/t, 197.16 g/t and 140.16 g/t.
Despite these high numbers, this summer Black Tusk is turning its attention this summer to Golden Valley, and will further explore Goldsmith at a later time.
Industry observers have their eyes on Black Tusk. Technical analyst Clive Maund wrote on CliveMaund.com on May 20, "the charts for Black Tusk show outstanding strength, to the extent that it is worth going for without delay and this is a good candidate to switch to from weaker stocks. . . Black Tusk is rated an immediate strong buy at the current favorable price (CA$0.15)." Black Tusk shares are currently trading at around CA$0.15.
Bob Moriarty wrote last year on 321 Gold, "At the very least the company is interesting. They are in a gold district, they did a very cheap deal on the project and have a tiny number of shares."
Black Tusk has approximately 25 million shares outstanding, 30 million fully diluted, "which is extremely tight; the average company of the Canadian Securities Exchange has 65 million shares outstanding," Penn stated. Insiders hold about 20% of the shares. The company trades on the CSE in Canada under the symbol TUSK and OTC in the United States under the symbol BTKRF.
Penn stressed that investors won't have to wait a long time before they find out what Black Tusk has in the ground. "We have our permits to drill and will begin to drill July 18. We should have all our results in August. Everything will be rolled out in the next two to three months."
[NLINSERT]Disclosure:
1) Patrice Fusillo compiled this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an employee. She or members of her household own securities of the following companies mentioned in the article: None. She or members of her household are paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None.
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Additional Disclosures:
Bob Moriarty, 321 Gold: Bob Moriarty: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: None. Black Tusk Resources is an advertiser on 321 Gold.
CliveMaund.com: Clive Maund does not own shares of Black Tusk and neither he nor his company has been paid by Black Tusk.
