Getchell Gold Corp. (GTCH:CSE; GGLDF:OTCQB) began with a historical 1 million ounce gold resource at its Fondaway Canyon project in Nevada, but the company has set its sights on a larger resource. In the company's 2020, 2,000-meter drill program, five of the six holes focused on the Central Area of Fondaway Canyon, host to the historical resource.
"The property comes with a very sizable historical resource, approximately 400,000 ounces of gold in the Indicated category and 660,000 ounces of gold in the Inferred," Getchell President Mike Sieb told Streetwise Reports. "We identified very early on that the historical resource was overly limited and constrained, since it was modeled on an underground operation employing a very high cut-off grade with a narrow mining width. But when you look at Fondaway Canyon, the mineralization is widespread and it starts at surface."
The company, rather than evaluating for an underground mining operation, began looking at open pit potential, and developed a new model.
"We believe the company could eventually define a ~2M oz deposit at Fondaway Canyon." - Taylor Combaluzier, Red Cloud Securities
"There is a huge halo of low grade gold that is actually quite expansive," Sieb said. "Our drill program did what it was designed to do, to show that there was continuity to the gold and the mineralized zone was extremely thick and broad, a lot more so than what had been delineated in the past."
The 2020 drill program focused on two sections with four holes drilled in one section to test the down-dip extension of the mineralization below the Colorado open pit. The Colorado open pit saw some small scale historical mining in the 1970s and 1980s.
"The results from those four holes came back as good or better than anticipated," Sieb said. Historical drilling had traced the mineralization down approximately 300 meters or so from the surface. "The drilling that we completed in 2020 extended the continuity of that mineralization to about 500 meters from surface. The mineralization is shallowly dipping, and it's well within the realm of a potential open pit."
Sieb noted that one major attribute of Fondaway Canyon is that it has some significant high-grade mineralized structures or conduits. "Due to that high-grade component, it provides the ability to potentially go underground upon the completion of an open pit," Sieb said. "One thing to note is that we definitely proved up the high-grade component; one of our drill holes intersected 22 meters of greater that 6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold material, which is extremely representative of the high-grade attribute that Fondaway Canyon provides."
From the 2020 drill program, Getchell found the mineralization is open laterally and at depth. "And it's not shown to be weakening," Sieb added. "One of our deepest intercepts graded 1.8 g/t gold over 90 meters."
Getchell is looking to build on its 2020 program this year. "We plan to be one of the most aggressive and active junior mining companies in the region," Sieb emphasized. "We're looking at doubling last year's drill meterage. We will begin with a phase 1 drill program of about 4,000 meters that will take us partway through the year. And then depending on the results of that, we will plan where we're going to drill the phase 2 drill program thereafter."
Sieb's optimism is shared by Red Cloud Securities mining analyst Taylor Combaluzier. Writing in an April 8 exploration update, the analyst noted, "Getchell Gold released results from the new geological model completed at its flagship Fondaway Canyon gold project in Nevada. The new model incorporated the results of the highly successful 2020 drill program, consisting of six holes (1,996m), which mainly focused on the Central Area – a nexus for the gold mineralizing system. The updated model shows significantly expanded Au zones, which bodes well for Getchell as it aims to modernize and grow the historical ~1 Moz I&I [Indicated & Inferred] resource. . . we believe the company could eventually define a ~2M oz deposit at Fondaway Canyon."
Getchell is also looking 60 kilometers to the north of Fondaway Canyon at the company's high grade copper-gold-silver Star project, which will see a maiden drill program in 2021 as well. The Star project is made up of two main mineralized occurrences, the past-producing Star Point copper mine and the high grade Star South copper-gold-silver prospect located 2 kilometers to the south.
The company also has two other properties in Nevada, Dixie Comstock and Hot Springs Peak.
Red Cloud has a Buy rating and CA$1 target price on Getchell Gold. On May 19 the firm noted, "Following the very positive results from the 2020 drill program and updated geological model, we continue to believe that ongoing positive drill results and a resource estimate at Fondaway Canyon (H2/21) could help drive Getchell's share price higher." Getchell shares are currently trading at around CA$0.52.
Getchell has approximately 83.4 million shares issued and outstanding, plus approximately 21.3 million warrants and 5.8 million stock options, for a total of approximately 110 million shares fully diluted. The company just closed an oversubscribed non-brokered private placement that raised aggregate total proceeds of CA$2.7 million. Each unit cost CA$0.45 and included one-half of a warrant; a whole warrant was for acquiring one common share at $0.65 and is good for a two-year period from the closing date.
Getchell also announced that it raised approximately $646,730 from the exercise of 2,586,921 share purchase warrants at the exercise price of CA$0.25, a 98.9% conversion rate for the warrants issued with a private placement that closed on May 17, 2019. Along with the private placement, the company received aggregate gross proceeds of CA$3,356,855. According to the company, these funds ensure it "is well financed for a very active 2021 exploration season."
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