Insights from the Explorers
“The Battle Mountain – Eureka Trend is one of the most prolific and well-endowed gold trends in Nevada. As the adage goes, the best place to start hunting for new discoveries is near other large deposits - and we are only 10 km away from Cortez Hills, one of the most significant gold mines in the world. Nevada also has excellent access to infrastructure and skilled labor. From a regulatory and political standpoint, Nevada remains the best jurisdiction to operate in, as evidenced in the most recent Fraser Institute Report on top mining jurisdictions. Early-stage exploration is an inherently high-risk business, so operating in a mining-friendly jurisdiction like Nevada helps mitigate additional outside risks.”
Colin Moore, President, Westward Gold
“Juniors are currently facing some challenges regarding market support. However, I think that the fundamentals are strong in the near term and beyond for higher gold prices and for a stronger junior market overall. There are few companies in prolific and supportive operating states, and at the same time, within underexplored regions. Realistically, it is becoming increasingly harder to find resources and reserves for intermediates, seniors and the industry as a whole. We believe that, as the market improves for juniors, we will be able to take advantage of our strong position in a well-developed jurisdiction.”
Evandra Nakano, CEO & Director, Infield Minerals
“Following the gold price run, numerous junior companies raised huge amounts of capital in 2020. This led to an exploration boom in 2021, which priced services at a premium and made it hard to find both drills and geologists. However, market sentiment in the junior gold space has decreased recently, so over the next 12 months we expect to see a significant slowdown in exploration for the juniors and some of those companies will struggle to raise capital. We see this as an opportunity to pick up distressed assets and we are always looking to add quality projects to our portfolio whenever possible.”
Chad Peters, President, CEO & Director, Ridgeline Minerals
“Nevada is probably the best jurisdiction in the world to be in for a junior exploration company thanks to its stable regulatory environment and rich mineral endowment. Within Nevada, we are fortunate to be in the Tonopah mining district, located only 20 minutes away from the nearest town. Besides having excellent infrastructure and a trained workforce, Nevada is a great place to find professional services, which helps keep our costs down. In addition, federal and state regulators in Nevada are well paid and educated about mining. However, at the same time, the competition for resources in the state is fierce.”
James Hesketh, CEO, Viva Gold Corp
“Nevada has always been an extremely popular jurisdiction for gold exploration and development. We were particularly interested in the Independence Project as it has two development paths – one being the near surface heap leach component, which we have focused on for the past year, and the other a much higher-grade skarn at depth. The high-grade skarn target will take much more capital to unlock relative to the heap leach asset, but we believe it is a big prize and of potential interest to our neighbor NGM or other major mining companies active in Nevada. The project has world class potential that we will need help unlocking, but also has the potential for near term cash flow from the heap leach project.”
Christos Doulis, CEO, Golden Independence Mining Corp.
“Historic districts that have not seen modern exploration offer attractive acquisition opportunities, which Tonopah fits the criteria for. In my experience as a geologist, I realized that historic producing areas that have not witnessed modern exploration technology and techniques more often than not hold substantial potential. As they say, the best place to find a new mine is next to the old mine. We are simply replicating a model that others have executed successfully before.”
Galen McNamara, CEO & Director, Summa Silver
“Our next phase of activity will include furthering exploration to expand the resource base as well as put the Bell Mountain project into production. According to our estimations, we should be putting a small heap leach into production by the end of 2022.”
Ron Netolitzky, President, CEO & Director, Eros Resources
