StrikePoint/SKP

StrikePoint Gold Inc. announced it has filed its first National Instrument 43-101 technical report for its flagship Hercules gold project in Nevada's prolific Walker Lane.

The report includes a "drill-defined, bulk-tonnage exploration target prepared in accordance" with the 43-101 guidelines for Hercules that ranges between 819,000 ounces and 1.018 million ounces (Moz) gold (Au) within 40.3 million to 65.6 million tonnes of mineralized material at an estimated grade between 0.48 and 0.63 grams per tonne (g/t) Au, the company said.

"Since acquiring the Hercules gold project in September 2024 for CA$250,000, the company has begun rapidly advancing the project," StrikePoint President and Chief Executive Officer Michael G. Allen said. "We have summarized the efforts of previous operators and established the exploration target. In addition, we were quick to mobilize for our initial drilling program with the goal of confirming and expanding the known mineralization at Hercules. Our initial campaign completed seven drill holes totaling approximately 1,400 meters with all samples currently in process and the results to be released shortly."

StrikePoint announced the start of the infill and expansion drilling program, which is meant to build on the exploration target, in March.

That was when Jeff Clark of The Gold Advisor noted that he was looking forward to StrikePoint's exploration plans for the year.

"Based on the prospectivity of Hercules, especially given this new exploration target report, I expect this project to receive the lion's share of StrikePoint's attention in 2025," wrote on March 6.

The company's other Walker Lane project, Cuprite, covers 44 square kilometers and encompasses 574 unpatented claims.

*"Cuprite was off limits for exploitation up until relatively recently, and so by Walker Lane standards, it is relatively 'virgin' territory with big discovery potential," Technical Analyst Clive Maund wrote in a recent contributor opinion.

Last year, StrikePoint completed a five-hole maiden drill program at Cuprite, which showed mineralization in four of the holes.

Maund described StrikePoint as a stock with big upside and very little downside.

AI to Guide Future Drilling at Projectt

The new technical report includes a drill-defined, bulk-tonnage exploration target prepared in accordance with the guidelines set forth in National Instrument 43-101, StrikePoint said. It establishes a baseline exploration target for the project.

"The quantity and grade are conceptual in nature as there has not been sufficient exploration to define a mineral resource, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource," StrikePoint said in a release. "The exploration target expressed should not be misrepresented or misconstrued as an estimate of a mineral resource or mineral reserve. The exploration target model has not been evaluated for reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction."

Mineralization trends were evaluation with artificial intelligence (AI), which generated a computer model that will be used to guide future drilling at the project.

The exploration target used data from the Sirens, Hercules, Cliffs, Loaves, Lucky Rusty, Rattlesnakes, and Northeast showings on the Hercules gold project, an area with a total of 306 historical drill holes and 31,776 meters of core samples in the database, along with data for 121 surface trenches.

"Numerous targets remain untested, and the previous drilled showings remain open for further expansion and potential conversion to mineral resources," StrikePoint said.

There were insufficient data in the database to provide silver grade estimates, the company said.

Seven holes have been drilled in the northern portion of the Hercules gold project testing the Hercules, Cliffs, and Loaves targets. All drill holes "visually returned alteration and silicification that are consistent with gold mineralization in previous drill campaigns" and samples are being analyzed and will be released as they become available.

The Catalyst: Could Gold Go Even Higher?

Uncertainty over the economic impact of U.S.-China trade tensions continued to spur heavy demand for safe-have gold on Monday, with the yellow metal surging above US$3,400 to a new record high as the dollar weakened.

Spot gold rose 2.6% to US$3,414.91 an ounce at 09:26 a.m. ET after hitting a record high of US$3,424.25 earlier in the session, according to Ashitha Shivaprasad and Daksh Grover writing for Reuters.

Gold is considered a hedge against uncertainties and is known to be a highly liquid asset. It has scaled multiple record highs and gained more than US$700 since the start of 2025. It surpassed US$3,300 last Wednesday and its strong momentum pushed it up by another US$100 in just a few days, Reuters reported.

"As tariff tensions continue to move at a fevered pitch, we continue to see gold prices move to the upside as a safe haven response," said David Meger, director of metals trading at High Ridge Futures, according to the Reuters piece. "There'll be pullbacks and profit-taking at times, but we still believe in the underlying trend to be on sideways to higher trajectory."

Some predicted gold could go even higher. Garth Friesen wrote for Forbes on March 15 that DoubleLine Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Gundlach said, "I think gold will make it to US$4,000. I'm not sure that'll happen this year, but I feel like that's the measured move anticipated by the long consolidation at around US$1,800 on gold."

And according to an April 10 post on Goldfix, Goldman Sachs has revised raised the upper boundary of its forecast range for the end of the year to US$3,520 an ounce and even introduced a "tall-risk scenario" as high as US$4,500 an ounce.

"The revision stems primarily from upside surprises in ETF inflows and persistent, large-scale central bank gold purchases," the article noted.

Ownership and Share Structure

According to Refinitiv, Executive Chairman Shawn Khunkhun owns 0.28% of the company, President and CEO Allen owns 1%, Director Ian Richard Harris owns 0.07%, and Director Adrian Wallace Fleming owns 0.02%.

Refinitiv reported that institutional and strategic investors own approximately 13.47% of the company, including 2176423 Ontario Ltd. with 7.17%, and Pathfinder Asset Management Ltd. with 4.81%.

According to Refinitiv, the company has 41.59 million shares outstanding and a market cap of CA$5.78 million. It trades in a 52-week range of CA$0.12 and CA$0.85.