Vanstar Mining Resources is a Montreal-based gold exploration firm with properties located in Northern Quebec at various stages of development. That includes the company’s flagship Nelligan Gold Project and its increasing gold resource, where exploration work is continuing to expand known mineralization.
Joining us here at the Top Line today is Vanstar President and CEO JC St-Amour. Welcome back, and thanks for joining us today.
TMH: Let’s start with your flagship project. You just released an updated mineral resource estimate there. What went into producing that most recent update?
JC: We announced a large increase to our resource estimate just a couple of weeks ago, which was the result of about 22,000 meters of drilling since the initial resource was produced back in 2019. And that’s significant because it shows you don’t need large drill programs on this deposit to add a lot of ounces. 22,000 meters is not a significant amount of drilling compared to a lot of other projects We were able to add a million and a half ounces at the same sort of cutoff grade that we had in the 2019 resource. Given the size of the project, it benefits from economies of scale, and as a result, the cutoff grade was able to be lowered, which contributed to the increase that we just announced. It is also an indication of the fact that we can potentially add quite a few ounces with relatively small drill programs in the future as well.
TMH: So you mentioned the increase in the new MRE, both the inferred and indicated resources on the project. Tell us about those numbers. Walk us through it.
JC: There’s a combined resource here of five point two million ounces. There are now higher quality resources within the indicated category that contains two million ounces which average in grade about.85. Then we still have 3.2 million ounces at 0.88 grams per tonne. The resource is quite significant and robust. If you look at this resource by cutoff grade, we included the table in our January 12th news release. You can see that no matter what cutoff grade you use, you don’t lose significant resources by increasing it. For example, if you wanted a higher grade out of the overall 5.2 million ounces, there are 4.5 million of it at over one gram per tonne. It is very robust, and that’s basically a function of the fact this is a well-disseminated deposit. Everywhere you drill, you hit gold, and it’s quite conducive to an open pit and can take advantage of the economies of scale on this project.
TMH: Now, that’s a good segue. You mentioned everywhere you drill, you come across gold. So you do believe there’s room for further expansion on the project. Tell us how some of that historical data has helped you get to that point.
JC: This project is continuing to grow and will continue to grow. The reason I say that is every drill hole has hit mineralization. There’s not one that’s missed yet. And that means that we haven’t found the edges of this deposit yet. The resource calculation is based on a number of drill holes in the center of the deposit, but there are drill holes beyond that which have hit mineralization, and there’s room for that to grow as well in all directions. There’s room to add ounces both to the east and the west of the project as well as at depth. At depth, there’s a potential to deepen the pit. The strip ratio on this is relatively low based on what we can see. Deepening the pit here can happen without increasing that ratio too much as well. On top of that, there are targets here that are quite obvious for growth. When you look at the block model that’s in figure one of our news release from January 12th, you can see in black the conceptual pit that contains the resource. But outside of that, you can see a number of blocks due to the drill holes that aren’t quite close enough to each other to justify putting that into the actual resource pit at this point. Still, you can see that those blocks are there and adding a few drill holes in between those can add quite a bit of resource to this Project. On top of that, there are regions within the pit itself that are light on drilling where a bit of infill drilling can add significant ounces within the pit itself, and that would both add and improve the quality of the resource there as well. So overall, this is a growing project, and I think it’ll continue to grow and get significantly larger than where it is today.
TMH: Where do you go from here on the project in the immediate term?
JC: This year, IAMGold has a 10,000-meter drill program planned. As I said, 10,000 meters can add quite a few ounces, given that every drill hole can hit large intercepts of gold. The program is designed to grow and expand the resource. So, it’ll be targeted, and it’ll focus on areas where resources can be added. And then there will also be a portion of the drill program that will be allocated towards exploration beyond the Nelligan deposit, but still on the property where there’s potential to find additional deposits. It’s blue sky, and if something’s discovered there, that can add considerably to what we have. On top of that, there’ll be a bit of metallurgical work done this year, and I think that’ll set up the company and the project to move toward economic studies beginning next year sometime.
TMH: Tell us what 2023 holds for the rest of your portfolio and what investors should be excited about.
JC: The most advanced of our other projects is our Bousquet-Odyno project. That one also is in a very prolific gold region. We are on the Cadillac break there, every single one of our drill holes there also hit gold. There is potential to find a large deposit there. It is a narrow vein-type system. We have to focus on the areas where the gold concentrates and get into wider zones. It requires some drilling to find those zones. But having said that, it is an interesting deposit. We are, looking at it right now to allocate what kind of budget we will spend on it this year for a potential drill program. We want to be cautious with our cash and cautious with dilution as well, we don’t want to dilute the value of our Nelligan project. Our other projects we’re also evaluating for exploration ideas, including the possibility of having pegmatites or lithium on them as well. So that is a possibility that’s to be determined. We do have an interesting project portfolio, and it can create value for shareholders.
JC, thanks for joining us at The Market Herald today and sharing your insights with our Top Line audience and your investors.
We’ve been speaking with Vanstar Mining President and CEO JC St-Amour. The company trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol VSR. You can also visit vanstarmining.com for more information.
Thanks for watching Top Line. In Vancouver, I’m Simon Druker. We’ll see you next time.
FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by The Market Herald.
