Over the last month central Yukon gold explorer White Gold Corp. (WGO:TSX.V; WHGOF:OTCQX; 29W:FRA) reported that it has achieved a litany of accomplishments at its White Gold property, including positive drill results, raised resource estimates, new game changing discoveries, and a capital infusion from a strategic investment partner via a private placement.
White Gold Corp. is a gold exploration firm headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, that operates solely in the White Gold District of Yukon, Canada. The region has historically produced over 20 Moz Au since the first gold rush there in 1896. The district has undergone a renaissance since around 2010 when several new large gold discoveries were made in area. White Gold owns claims covering more than 420,000 ha, which encompass greater than 40% of the District, including its "flagship" White Gold property, host of the Golden Saddle and Arc deposits which have an Indicated resource of around 1.14 Moz of 2.28 g/t Au and an Inferred resource of 402.1 Koz Au at 1.39 g/t. Located just 11 km north of Golden Saddle is the firm's VG Deposit which hosts an Inferred resource of 267 Koz of 1.62 g/t Au.
In a conversation with White Gold Corp.'s CEO and Director David D'Onofrio, D'Onofrio stated that White Gold Corp offers unique potential for growth. The area is home to two large known deposits including Newmont Corp.'s (NEM:NYSE) Coffee project and White Gold's Golden Saddle project, each of which was initially discovered by White Gold's co-founder and Chief Technical Advisor Shawn Ryan. Not very far from White Gold's Golden Saddle is Western Copper and Gold Corp.'s (WRN:TSX; WRN:NYSE.MKT) Casino property which has been shown to contain enormous gold and copper deposits.
White Gold releases slew of positive drill results
The idea that the best place to find gold is to look where gold has already been found in large quantities is not a new one. Regional exploration work has also produced several other new discoveries and prospective targets on the company's claim packages which border Newmont's and Western Copper's sizable gold discoveries.
The company's management team has instituted a highly effective, low-cost, proprietary exploration strategy to locate and confirm several other numerous high-grade gold discoveries including Titan where starting from a depth of 10.67m from surface intersected 72.81 g/t Au over 6.09m, including one 3.05m segment of 136.36 g/t Au. Other notable discoveries have been made at the Vertigo target where drilling returned 23.44 g/t Au over 24.38m, Ryan's Surprise which discovered 20.64 g/t Au over 6.09m and most recently at the Betty property where starting from surface recorded 50.29m of 1.08 g/t Au.
"This diamond drilling program is a great start to hopefully leading to the Yukon's next big discovery."
—White Gold Corp. CEO and Director David D'Onofrio
White Gold Corp. has released a slew of positive drill results in the past month. On Nov. 1, 2021, the company reported that it intersected several new zones of significant gold mineralization at the Ulli's Ridge Target located about 3 km southwest of the Golden Saddle and Arc deposits. The rotary air blast (RAB) drilling program was comprised of 11 holes totaling 937m, with eight holes drilled at the Ulli's Ridge target and 3 holes at the Minneapolis Creek target. The company advised that its 2021 exploration drill program is fully funded and backed by its investment partners Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. (AEM:TSX; AEM:NYSE) and Kinross Gold Corp. (K:TSX; KGC:NYSE).
The company highlighted that three RAB holes drilled at the Ulli's Ridge target intersected significant gold mineralization including 6.1m of 4.67 g/t Au, 21.33m of 1.35 g/t Au and 1.52m of 4.43 g/t Au and added that gold mineralization encountered extends over a 500m strike length that is open along strike.
One week later, the company indicated that it intersected significant additional gold mineralization at the Ryan's Surprise and Ulli's Ridge targets which included 10.36 g/t Au over 3.25m and 1.66 g/t Au over 25.5m which demonstrated further expansion at those two sites.
White Gold mentioned that drilling at Ryan's Surprise has encountered gold mineralization over a 400m by 400m area down to a vertical depth of 450m and remains open along strike and downdip. Ulli's Ridge is located south of Ryan's Surprise where trench and drill work conducted before this year encountered significant gold mineralization.
On Nov. 11, 2021, White Gold announced that it was successful in increasing the Inferred resources at its VG Deposit by 16%. The VG Deposit is situated around 11 km North of the Golden Saddle and Arc deposits and a case could be made for it to be combined into one larger project with Golden Saddle and Arc due to its geological similarity and proximity.
The company reported that the VG Deposits updated mineral resource estimates near-surface Inferred resources of 267.6 Koz Au, which is 16% higher than the Inferred resource calculation prepared in 2014. The firm said that the latest resource estimate includes assay results from 4,324 m of drilling across 23 diamond drill holes and 870 m of drilling in eight reverse circulation (RC) drill holes, all of which were completed by the property's previous owner, Comstock Metals Ltd. (CSL:TSX.V) between 2012 and 2017. The company advised that the QV property lies host to several other prospective targets knows as the Stewart, Tetra and Shadow zones which have undergone only limited exploration work but provide potential for future discoveries.
White Gold's most recent announcement may be the most exciting of all. On Nov. 17, 2021 the company reported that its maiden diamond drill program intersected "broad zones of significant near surface gold mineralization at its Betty Ford Target including 50m of 3.46 g/t Au and 48m of 1.17 g/t Au."
The company highlighted that the Betty Ford target is just one of five targets at its wholly owned Betty property located approximately 40 km east of Newmont's Coffee gold deposit which hosts 4.1 Moz Au and just 15 km to the northeast of Western Copper's Casino porphyry deposit containing an estimated resource of 8.9 Moz Au and 4.5 Blb Cu.
The firm explained that the Betty property is located on the eastern extension of the Coffee Creek Fault, which hosts Newmont Mining's Coffee deposit. It is important to note that White Gold's co-founder and Chief Technical Advisor Shawn Ryan is credited with originally discovering the Coffee Deposit. Way back in 2010, Ryan had staked out what he said were two key intersecting regional structures, the Dip Creek fault (NE) and the prospective Coffee Creek fault (EW). Ryan noted that since then, the company has completed a systematic soil investigative program that has identified a large mineralized gold system. The report mentioned that this is the same methodology employed by Ryan that led to the discovery of both the Coffee and Golden Saddle deposits.
Ryan commented in the release that, "This diamond drilling program is a great start to hopefully leading to the Yukon's next big discovery."
The company stated that the first phase of its 2021 diamond drill program focused on two of five targets identified at the Betty property and that it plans to test the three other targets in 2022.
White Gold's CEO David D'Onofrio remarked that, "We are very excited by the results from our maiden diamond drill program on the Betty Ford target…Hole 3 ranks amongst the best holes drilled in the district, including at our flagship Golden Saddle deposit, and has considerably extended the recently discovered broad zone of near surface gold mineralization, while encountering significantly higher-grade gold mineralization and remains open along strike."
Deposit's underlying value 'grossly undervalued'
Clearly the most important consideration is that mining in the Yukon presents very little, if any, jurisdictional risk relative to mining exploration activity in most other countries. In fact, the government is now spending CA$200-300 million in Dawson City and throughout Yukon to build out infrastructure such as airports, roads and logistics to promote mining and other commercial activity in the region that when finished should benefit White Gold substantially.
The area has historically been a particularly good place to find gold though much of it has not been touched or developed except at the surface. The White Gold District was never glaciated and thus much of the earth has not been turned up there for millions of years. Major mining firms have already demonstrated their interest in the company and the area and have performed significant amounts of due diligence identifying available surface and near-surface deposits at multiple potential targets.
The area itself and underlying structural formations have demonstrated to contain several large blocks of gold mineralization with several large miners already conducting operations there including Newmont, Agnico Eagle, Kinross, Western Copper and Rio Tinto Plc (RIO:NYSE; RIO:ASX; RIO:LSE; RTPPF:OTCPK).
According to D'Onofrio, "the property's deposit carries underlying value which has been grossly undervalued by the market and has not given any value to the prospective upside, which the firm continues to demonstrate with successes like the Betty discovery."
"The property's deposit carries underlying value which has been grossly undervalued by the market and has not given any value to the prospective upside, which the firm continues to demonstrate with successes like the Betty discovery."
—David D'Onofrio
D'Onofrio pointed out that the upside potential cannot be understated as there really are not many other opportunities in the gold sector that offer a better risk reward profile. D'Onofrio added that though it is purely focused on exploration, White Gold perhaps could be thought of a "Super Junior" since five to ten large producers are actively pursuing development projects in the region. With Kinross and Agnico Eagle already there with boots on the ground and Newmont, Western Copper and Rio Tinto nearby, it is quite clear that those firms and others see tremendous opportunities in the White Gold District and the company believes that its share price does not presently reflect the true value of the firm's resource.
Lastly, CEO D'Onofrio mentioned that he expects that M&A activity is likely to pick up in the near future as companies have under invested in development over the past several years and will need to rebuild their gold supply sources and inventories.
Stephen Soock, P. Eng., CFA, a precious metals analyst with Stifel Nicolaus Canada Inc. advised that his firm currently has a "Buy" rating and CA$2.70 per share price target for White Gold Corp. Soock commented in a November 8 research note that the results obtained from Ryan's Surprise and Ulli's Ridge targets demonstrate strong potential to increase the global resource to over 2 Moz Au at the company's Golden Saddle/Arc property and added that a re-rating for the firm's shares is likely if the company is able to increase the resource to beyond the 2 Moz mark.
The analyst claimed that White Gold Corp.'s shares trade very cheaply versus its peers. Stifel noted that it anticipates that as the total resource approaches the 2 Moz mark, the property will likely be spun out to an industry "major" for development.
White Gold lists on its website that David Talbot of Eight Capital also has issued a "Buy" rating and has a CA$3.20 per share price target for the company.
White Gold Corp. shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "WGO" and last closed for trading at CA$0.65/share on December 1, 2021. The firm's shares also trade in the U.S. OTCQX market under the ticker symbol "WHGOF" and on the Frankfort Stock Exchange in Germany under the "29W" designation.
As of the close of trading on Wednesday, December 1, 2021, White Gold Corp. had 137,246,170 shares outstanding and a market capitalization of CA$91.95 million (~US$71.68 million).
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