Mining Co. Uncovers Promising Expansion to Significant Gold Zone

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Golden Cariboo Resources Ltd. (GCC:CSE; GCCFF:OTC; A0RLEP:WKN; 3TZ:FSE) announced results for the third hole drilled in its 2024 drilling campaign at its Quesnelle Gold-Quartz Mine in British Columbia.

While Hole QGQ24-12 didn't provide the kind of excitement gotten from 10 holes in a row with visible gold found, the company said it did intersect "significant gold mineralization starting from the bedrock surface."

The hole assayed 1.02 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au) over 37 meters an 1.57 g/t Au over 3.54 meters, within a broader interval of 0.74 g/t Agu over 61.49 meters.

In a release, Golden Cariboo said, "Deeper in the hole, several additional alteration zones with quartz-carbonate veining and elevated gold assay values were intersected, demonstrating the strong scale potential of the mineral system."

"We're very pleased to report results from QGQ24-12, which once more underlines the significance of the Halo zone," President and Chief Executive Officer Frank Callaghan said. "As the old miner's adage goes, 'You drill for structure and drift for grade' — and this hole exemplifies that perfectly. QGQ24-12 intersected multiple alteration zones that have since yielded improved grades in subsequent drilling, validating our exploration strategy."

Those deeper alteration zones with similar mineralogy and veining as the reported gold intercepts were intersected at 101 to 107.58 meters, 197.51 to 200.56 meters, and 282.85 to 346.69 meters, and yielded elevated gold assays, the company said.

These zones appear to correlate with gold mineralization reported from the deeper parts of drill holes QGQ24-17 to -20, suggesting that the gold-bearing structures, with weaker mineralization, still exist in drill hole QGQ24-12. The mineralized system was intersected over a width of over 300 meters in QGQ24-12. Current drilling in the Halo zone indicates a trend of increasing grades towards the northwest.

"These latest results from QGQ24-12 further validate the presence of a broad, cohesive zone of gold mineralization," Golden Cariboo said in the release.

Multiple Visible Gold Sightings

According to the release, the mineralized zone currently measures up to approximately 390 meters by 290 meters by 320 meters along the NNW-SSE trending contact between greenstones and the overlying black argillite unit, and remains open along strike and towards depth, including approximately 700 meters of untested north-northwest strike towards the past-producing Pioneer Mine and 750 meters of untested south-southeast strike towards the Main zone target at the past-producing Quesnelle Quartz Mine.

"The gold mineralization is found in association with quartz-carbonate veins within sericite-iron-carbonate alteration zones," Golden Cariboo said.

The company has been on a tear, seeing visible gold in many Quesnelle cores, including earlier this month.

In April, the company announced that drill hole QGQ24-21 at Halo intersected a "zone of persistent gold mineralization," which included "multiple occurrences of visible gold, starting from 257 meters downhole."

"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.

Addressing the 'Nugget Effect'

The company also recently announced that it planned an orientation study using Chrysos PhotonAssay technology to analyze the gold in drill core and rock samples at the site.

The non-destructive photon assay procedure is designed to evaluate the potential for better addressing the "nugget effect," one of the most persistent challenges in precious metals exploration, while potentially improving assay turnaround times, the company said.

The process uses high-energy photons (X-rays) to interact with the atomic structure of samples, resulting in characteristic gamma emissions from gold atoms.

"This process allows for the quick analysis of larger volumes (up to 500 grams) of sample material per assay, compared to traditional fire assay methods (30-to 50-gram sample material)," the company has said. "It therefore boasts a huge advantage in addressing the nuggety nature typical for gold mineralization. The nugget effect is usually found to be particularly strong when coarse, visible gold is present, as encountered in almost all of the recent drill holes at the company's Halo zone target."

By analyzing a bigger and therefore more representative sample, the photon assay "assures that both finely dispersed gold and coarse gold particles are accurately quantified. Photon assay is an established method widely used in multiple gold exploration and mining projects around the world with excellent results."

The procedure will be used initially on core samples, which have already been analyzed by traditional fire assay for a comparison of both methods.

The Catalyst: US Debt Worries Send Gold Higher

According to Neils Christensen of Kitco on Wednesday, the gold market is seeing renewed bullish momentum, with prices rallying back to US$3,300 an ounce as concerns over U.S. debt renew investor demand for safe-haven assets.

"The government's spending levels were thrust into the spotlight late Friday after Moody’s rating agency downgraded U.S. sovereign debt to Aa1 from Aaa," Christensen wrote. "At the same time, it revised its outlook on the U.S. to 'stable' from 'negative.'"

Gold has been the biggest beneficiary of the Moody’s downgrade.

"Analysts have said that gold will continue to shine as an important global monetary asset as investors and central banks look for U.S. dollar alternatives," Christensen noted.

Others are predicting that gold could still go 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.

Ownership and Share Structure

According to Golden Cariboo, management and insiders own 10.5% of the company, and President and Chief Executive Officer Frank Callaghan owns nearly 9%.

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

The company said it has 70.2 million shares outstanding, and its market cap is CA$6.66 million. Over the past 52 weeks, Golden Cariboo has traded between CA$0.09 and CA$0.30 per share.