Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
Kenorland Minerals (TSXV: KLD) announced Monday it has commenced exploration in the Red Lake district and Wabigoon subprovince of northwestern Ontario.
The work involves multiple regional-scale surface exploration programs at its 100%-owned South Uchi, Western Wabigoon, Flora, Algoman and Stormy Lake projects, covering approximately 3,310 sq. km. of mineral tenure.
A budget of over C$3.2 million ($2.3 million) will be used in the summer 2024 exploration program that includes mapping, prospecting, glacial till geochemical survey and detailed till sampling for gold and spodumene counts.
“The scale of grassroots exploration which is now underway in Ontario cannot be understated,” Kenorland CEO Zach Flood said in a news release.
“Collectively, these campaigns will cover over 331,000 hectares of ground, within highly prospective greenstone belts, and in areas which have seen limited modern systematic exploration,” Flood said.
“In addition to the multiple first-pass, property-wide geochemical surveys covering new projects, we are carrying out detailed prospecting and HMC (heavy mineral concentrate) till surveys at South Uchi, following up on two very significant gold-in-till anomalies generated from previous regional surveys.”
Earlier this month, Kenorland said the high-grade gold assays from the winter drill program at its Frotet project in Quebec bode well for an initial resource.
Before that, Centerra Gold (TSX: CG) took a 9.9% stake in Kenorland as part of a C$9.9 million private placement in May, joining Japan’s Sumitomo as one of the junior’s biggest backers.
Sumitomo agreed in January to end a joint venture at Frotet, in which Kenorland had a 20% interest, in favour of full control while Kenorland gets a 4% net smelter return royalty. That deal closed in February.
Kenorland shares were down 1% on Monday afternoon, valuing the company at C$68.7 million ($50.3 million).
