Mining Company Extends Major Gold Zone in BC

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Golden Cariboo Resources Ltd. (GCC:CSE; GCCFF:OTC; A0RLEP:WKN; 3TZ:FSE) announced new drilling results that significantly extend the Halo zone at its Quesnelle Gold-Quartz Mine in British Columbia by 100 meters to the northwest.

The Halo zone now comprises an irregular, up to about 320-meter by 290-meter by 320-meter body with mineralization open to the northwest and at depth, the company said in a release, including 718 meters of untested strike north-northwest.

"Drill hole QGQ24-20 capped off a remarkable year, stepping out 100 meters and delivering another exceptional intercept that affirms the Halo zone as a major discovery in the Cariboo Gold District," said Golden Cariboo President and Chief Executive Officer Frank Callaghan. "Greenstone contacts host many of the world's premier gold camps, and we have now identified one only 4 kilometers from a major highway and community in central British Columbia."

Drill hole QGQ24-20 intersected 0.71 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au) with 6.96 g/t silver (Ag) over 341.96 meters from 20.12 meters, including 0.99 g/t Au with 9.8 g/t Ag over 236.88 meters and 1.45 g/t Au with 16.05 g/t Ag over 137.17 meters, the company said. This included better grade intercepts returning 7.36 g/t Au with 164.95 g/t Ag over 11.95 meters and 16.35 g/t Au with 9.09 g/t Ag over 4.29 meters.

"Core recovery for these latter intervals was only 43% and 46% respectively, which could result in overall lower values," the release said.

According to Technical Analyst Clive Maund, while "the grades found are good, the big news here is the extent of it."

On the company's one-year chart, "early this month, the share price broke out of the downtrend, leading into the second low of a Double Bottom made with its lows of last July–August," he wrote three days after the release.

"Zooming out still further by means of a 17-year chart, we see that a gigantic base pattern has formed above a zone of strong support at a low level, with the recent high volume and stronger volume indicators promising a new bull market, especially given the ongoing upward march of gold itself," Maund wrote.

A Multi-Kilometer Trend Across Property

Drill hole QGQ24-20 was set up at an azimuth of 354° and inclination of -45°, and was the final drill hole completed during the 2024 drill program, "with an objective to establish northwest continuity of the Halo zone and to test for stronger grades encountered previously in the western portion of the zone," including in QGQ24-13, which returned 136.51 meters of 1.77 g/t Au.

According to Technical Analyst Clive Maund, while "the grades found are good, the big news here is the extent of it."

"Drill hole QGQ24-20 was successful in encountering stronger grades, which are found to be associated with a major fault along a greenstone contact, between the mafic to intermediate volcanic host rocks to gold mineralization (greenstones) and a black argillite unit," the company said. "The historical Quesnelle Quartz Mine on the Property is similarly situated along the greenstone contact, and (it) marks a significant development to encounter the greenstone contact for the first time in the Halo zone in QGQ24-20."

The Halo zone and the Quesnelle Quartz Mine are both situated within a multi-kilometer trend that extends across the property, Golden Cariboo said. Subsequent drill holes will continue testing the northwest continuity of the Halo zone along the greenstone contact.

Cariboo District's 'Next Chapter' Being Written

Golden Cariboo is rediscovering the Cariboo gold rush by proceeding with highly targeted drilling and trenching programs on its Quesnelle gold quartz mine property, which is bordered by Osisko Development Corp. and partly intertwined at the north end of the Cariboo gold project, and located along a favorable corridor adjacent to the Spanish and Eureka thrust faults over a 94,889-hectare area. Historically, over 101 placer gold creeks on the 90-kilometer trend from the Cariboo Hudson mine north to the Quesnelle gold quartz mine property have recorded production, and successful placer mining continues to this day.

Last month, previous results led to "a significant extension" of the Halo zone with drill hole QCQ24-19 returning 349.36 meters of 0.31 g/t Au, including 164.97 meters of 0.44 g/t Au from a depth of 7.85 meters. Intercepts from the same hole included 11.27 meters of 1.12 g/t Au and 16.6 meters of 1.05 g/t Au.

Golden Cariboo said diamond drilling beyond the Halo zone along the several kilometers of untested strike on multiple parallel trends remains a high priority.

"The next chapter of another bedrock source of the long and storied Cariboo Gold Fields is now being written in Hixon," Callaghan said in the February 28 release.

During its exploration, Golden Cariboo has found multiple occurrences of visible gold in its core results from the project.

"Visible gold in current drilling indicates potential for high-grade assays from mineralized targets," Couloir Capital Senior Mining Analyst Ron Wortel wrote of the project in a recent research report as he assigned a Buy recommendation for the company's stock, citing Golden Cariboo's exploration initiatives as a unique opportunity for exposure to a gold resource discovery in a Tier 1 jurisdiction.

The Catalyst: Is US$3,000 Gold in Sight?

Gold prices rose again on Wednesday as investors awaited the release of the U.S. payrolls data later this week for additional insights into the Federal Reserve's monetary policy, Anmol Choubey reported for Reuters on Wednesday.

Spot gold rose 0.2% to US$2,923.16 an ounce as of about noon EST, Choubey reported.

"There's still buying interest out there now . . .  there's going to be some measure of caution ahead of Friday's (payrolls data), but the underlying trend remains favorable," Peter Grant, vice president and senior metals strategist at Zaner Metals told Choubey. 

Concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff measures have driven up the prices of safe-haven gold to 11 record highs this year, peaking at $2,956.15 on February 24, and culminating in an overall year-to-date gain of 11%.

In an address to Congress late on Tuesday, Trump said further tariffs would follow on April 2, including "reciprocal tariffs" and non-tariff actions aimed at balancing out years of trade imbalances. That move would follow new 25% tariffs on most imports from Mexico and Canada that took effect on Tuesday, along with a doubling of duties on Chinese goods to 20%.

But how high will it go?

"Investors who expected the price of gold to moderate in 2025 may have to rethink their predictions," wrote Matt Richardson for CBS MoneyWatch on February 24. "Currently, it's consistently sitting in the US$2,900 range with many expecting it to surpass the US$3,000 price mark and, thus, another record, any day."

Lyle Niedens wrote that for Investopedia the threshold of US$3,000 appears in reach.

"Several Wall Street firms have raised their gold price forecasts to US$3,000 or higher," Niedens wrote. "Goldman Sachs, for instance, cited 'structurally higher central bank demand' for gold in addition to investors' appetite for parking assets in safe havens when it early this week raised its gold-price forecast to US$3,100 by the end of 2025, up from US$2,890 previously."

Ownership and Share Structure

According to Golden Cariboo, management and insiders own 12.2% of the company, and President and Chief Executive Officer Frank Callaghan owns nearly 11%.

Retail investors hold the remaining. There are no institutional investors.

The company said it has 60.3 million shares outstanding, and its market cap is CA$7.79 million. Over the past 52 weeks, Golden Cariboo has traded between CA$0.11 and CA$0.36 per share.