Tarsis Building On Exploration Success For A Bright Future

Tarsis has a varied portfolio of discovery possibilities including projects on what is arguably the hottest patch of resource rich ground in Canada right now: The Yukon. The land of the gold rush is home to Tarsis’ most exciting property Prospector Mountain and the company received some very exciting results in late 2009 from the project. Working to their strengths Tarsis had the prescience to acquire the property and have done extensive early stage exploration work there which identified high-grade gold, copper and silver assays. Knowing that a company like Tarsis is building strong strategic partnerships, their management team immediately struck a deal with Silver Quest Resources to take full advantage of the site’s clear potential at no further cost to Tarsis.

Tarsis CEO Marc Blythe believes the Prospector Mountain project is the start of something very promising for the company telling Midas Letter “We had a fantastic year last year. We identified very high grade copper and gold mineralization on our Prospector Mountain project in The Yukon which is really a hot project area at the moment, and there are now a lot of people working up there, and there is lot of interest.”

With the Tarsis story arc ascending with the recent announcement of a drilling program at its MOR project and the acquiring of a 100% interest in five new gold projects by staking large new areas based on solid geological analysis in red-hot Yukon, it’s clear there will continue to be plenty of promising announcements from them in the near future.

The Tarsis Model
In an industry where many companies seem indistinguishable from one another in terms of their strategies for growing shareholder wealth, Tarsis stands out with a precise corporate focus. Tarsis focuses on advancing high quality projects to the point where an optionee can be brought on board to fund further exploration which, in turn, enables the company to offer its shareholders the possibility of exploration success on an array of diverse projects simultaneously while minimizing shareholder dilution.

Many other companies fund costly exploration programs by issuing stock and diluting their existing shareholders. Tarsis minimizes dilution by carrying out early stage exploration programs, which are less expensive and can highlight the potential of a project, and attracts other companies. Prospector Mountain is a prime example of the proven success of this approach. It’s an attractive business model and bold investors who want to add a junior with clear growth potential across a dynamic range of properties would do well to take a close look at Tarsis.

Tarsis currently has 17,877,970 common shares outstanding.

Tarsis Management
Marc Blythe – President and CEO is a mining engineer and spent the bulk of his career with Placer Dome and other large companies, working with gold miners in Australia and Canada. Marc is also the VP of Mining for Almaden Minerals Ltd.

Mark T. Brown CA, CFO has had several successful companies in the exploration areas. Mark is a director of Rare Element Resources Ltd., Animas Resources Ltd., and Everclear Capital Ltd. Mark also acts as the CFO of Pitchstone Exploration and Rye Patch Gold. Mark also runs Pacific Opportunity Capital which funds exploration companies and takes care of their financial administration.

In addition, Craig Lindsay, CEO of Otis Gold, and Gerry Carlson, a director of Almaden and experienced explorer in the Yukon, sit on the Board of Directors.

Prospector Mountain Project
The Prospector Mountain property is located 90 kilometres northwest of Carmacks, Yukon and is approximately 5,000 hectares in size. It lies within the Dawson Range portion of the Tintina Gold Belt and covers an area of hydrothermal alteration and mineralization, indicative of both a porphyry copper-gold and epithermal gold-silver mineralizing environment.

Copper-gold mineralized and K-silicate altered Cretaceous intrusive rocks outcrop on the project, as well as banded quartz veins that have returned high silver and gold values from samples taken in historic work programs.

Speaking with excitement about the initial results form Prospector Blythe enthused “What we found there is really quite significant”. In 2009, the company’s technical team discovered the

Bonanza zone at Prospector Mountain that was found to host a series of high-grade gold-silver-copper showings defined along a 1,200 m northwesterly structural trend. Eighteen samples of locally weathering vein talus were taken in total and results ranged from below detection to 82.8 g/t Au, below detection to 1,375 g/t Ag and 3 ppm to 11.65 % Cu.

Strategic Synergy with Silver Quest
The findings at Prospector were significant enough to pique the interest of Silver Quest Resources’ (TSX.V:SQI) Randy Turner and Tarsis was quick to create a deal which would benefit both companies and capitalize on the results and bring the profit out of the property. Blythe, as befits an exploration company such as Tarsis, is confident but cautious when he says, “Although It’s very early days for the property, we’ve managed to get a pretty good deal done here.” As well as spending 4m dollars over 4 years on the property to earn 60% interest in the project, Silver Quest will make staged cash and share payments to Tarsis totaling one million shares and $300,000.

The details of the agreement gives Tarsis full ownership of the project until Silver Quest has met all of the agreed commitments and will allow the company to quickly recover acquisition and exploration costs for the Prospector Mountain property allowing the company to pursue exploration work on the other promising projects in its portfolio. Further illuminating the companies’ corporate strategy of combining project depth, diversity, with powerful strategic partnerships Blythe said, “Tarsis is able to be involved in a number of active projects, while minimizing the amount of shareholder dilution. In the case of Prospector Mountain, it’s Silver Quest’s financial support and confidence in the project that enables us to focus on and progress other projects.”

The Erika Project
By creating partnerships like the one with Silver Quest, Tarsis is able to turn their sharp eyes to other possible project gems such as the Erika Project. The Erika Project, located in Guerrero State, Mexico, is approximately 16,000 hectares in size and is still available for option. The property covers a shallowly eroded epithermal gold-silver system and Tarsis believes that the alteration and mineralization, including steam heated acid sulphate alteration, mercury mineralization and replacement silicification developed in volcanic rocks overlying carbonate rocks, are all indicative of what can be expected to occur over high grade silver-gold vein systems, such as the nearby Taxco vein system which has produced over 1 billion ounces of silver.

Within the last year, Gleichen Resources acquired the Morelos Norte project, which adjoins Erika on two sides, from Teck and Goldcorp for approximately $209 million Canadian and 4.9% of Gleichen’s issued and outstanding shares. Gleichen’s Morelos Norte project hosts a 3.9 million ounce gold resource. Goldcorp’s Los Filos gold mine, which is Mexico’s largest gold producer, lies 30 km south of Erika and produced 239,000 ounces during 2009.

The MOR Project
From Mexico we return to the glittering North as Tarsis completes its portfolio triple threat with the MOR Project in Yukon. Proving that the company is nothing if not aggressive and refusing to rest on the laurels earned from its Prospector Mountain success Tarsis recently announced that diamond drilling is scheduled to begin on its 100% owned MOR property, located near Teslin, Yukon in early June, 2010.

Tarsis has engaged Archer, Cathro & Associates (1981) Limited (“Archer Cathro”) to manage and implement the program, which will consist of diamond drilling and soil geochemical sampling. Archer Cathro has managed the exploration of the MOR property for Tarsis over the last three years. Tarsis has also engaged Top Rank Diamond Drilling Ltd. who conducted the 2007 and 2008 diamond drilling on the property.

The drill program will consist of two or three diamond drill holes totaling 450 meters, designed to test a combined gravity plus induced polarization (IP) anomaly. The anomaly, which is located at the eastern end of the Discovery Zone is located proximal to and upslope from a strong auger soil geochemical anomaly. Copper values range from 41 ppm (parts per million) to 1,631 ppm copper with an average of 391 ppm copper over a zone of 80 meters by 150 meters interpreted as draining the area covered by the gravity and IP anomaly.

Previous exploration at MOR has discovered accumulations of massive and semi-massive sulphide mineralization in several stacked horizons within the Discovery Zone.

Tarsis Stakes A Golden Future
Tarsis is attacking all three of its major projects with the same simple and effective strategy that has lead to the company’s recent successes at Prospector Mountain, and considering the powerful potential of this triumvirate of properties the future looks set to be a bright one for Tarsis and its shareholders. With only 18 million shares outstanding, the shareholders have good exposure to owning a good portion of the company. Tarsis also has two major shareholders consisting of the management who own over 2 million shares, and Almaden Minerals Ltd. which owns 4.1 million shares. The companies projects also have exposure to gold, silver, lead, zinc an copper. With these projects building momentum and with five more claims staked in the Yukon there are lots of spaces for Tarsis to grow and to further refine its business model across an ever expanding stable of properties.

Looking forward to that bright future, Mark Blythe exudes confidence regarding the exploration results potential for 2010 and beyond as says, “It’s really is very exciting what we’ve got planned across this package of properties and I am looking forward to a steady stream of exciting announcements”. Shrewd investors employing the same savvy and sureness as Tarsis has shown so far will want to be part of the many shining storylines set to come soon.

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SOURCE: http://www.midasletter.com/news/100621_Tarsis-building-on-exploration-success.php
By Jonathan T. Orr and James West
MidasLetter.com
Monday, June 21, 2010