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THE BELT THAT BUILT BILLIONAIRES

CEO Saf Dhillon tells Mining.com.au that a quick back of the envelope calculation following the initial drill results at Gowganda West could suggest a starting point of 300,000400,000 ounces on iMetal Resources’ side of the fence.

“We share a border with a company called Aris Mining. Now, Aris Mining has a C$1.5 billion ($1.7 billion), roughly, market cap. Most of that market cap is derived from a merger they did in the last two years with Gran Colombia Mining,” Dhillon explains.

“So they actually have high-grade gold production coming out of Colombia. But back in 2020, when they were called Caldas Gold Corp, they acquired Juby for approximately C$50 million.

“That’s when gold was trading at US$1,400 ($2,166) to US$1,500 ($2,321) an ounce. Gold has doubled in price. I’m not saying that the resource should be worth exactly double, but it does kind of give you a little ballpark that maybe that resource is worth a heck of a lot more than they paid for it.”

At the time of writing, gold was sitting around

US$3,361 an ounce.

Given the gold potential at Gowganda West, iMetal Resources is keen to get rigs on the ground and start drilling. The company will first complete a capital raising and has lined up two local drillers, who are also shareholders in iMetal Resources.

“We’ve got a discovery hole, 50m of a gram basically, less than 700m from a multi-million ounce gold deposit that sits on the other side of our border, owned by a C$1 billion-plus market cap company, and we have a C$1 million market cap,” Dhillon tells this news service.

“So it’s more than just proximity. It looks like it could be a potential continuation of the same structure.”

While the Abitibi is very well known for its large gold endowment, it is also emerging as a particularly attractive region for graphite – a high-demand critical mineral.

iMetal Resources is exploring the Carheil Project, which is again located in close proximity to multiple major mines in the region.

“If you take a look at some of our neighbors at our graphite project in Québec, you’re looking at companies that have a C$300-billion-plus market cap, and they’ve been hitting some major polymetallic discoveries,” Dhillon says.

EMERGING GRAPHITE PROVINCE

While iMetal Resources’ Carheil Project is largely surrounded by gold and base metals operations, including BHP’s past-producing Selbai Zinc Mine, Nouveau Monde Graphite’s (NYSE:NMG) 100,000-tonne-perannum Matawinie operation is also located in the region.

As is Nouveau Monde Graphite’s Uatnan Project, which is believed to be one of the largest graphite projects in development with a target production rate of 500,000 tonnes annually for nearly two and a half decades and an indicative net present value of over C$2 billion.

Uatnan sits about 100km north of iMetal Resources’ ground.

“This region is known for graphite, it’s known for gold. Québec and Ontario, and of course the Abitibi, are very, very prolific,” Dhillon explains.

“So all the majors are around us there. It’s a good location to be in.”

In 2016, iMetal Resources drilled into a graphite horizon at the Carheil Project that returned an intercept of 4.67m @ 1.67% graphitic carbon, including 1.1m @ 7.48%.

The company then hit an historical horizon and unearthed two new horizons in its 2023 drilling program that comprised 1,053m across three holes.

Results from this program delivered 3.9m @ 7.08% graphitic carbon, including 1.9m @ 11.5% and 4.65m @ 5.11%, including 1.2m @ 12.9% and 4.9m @ 1.93% from the historical Zone A.

Meanwhile, drilling into the newly discovered Zone B intersected 10.55m @ 2.89% graphitic carbon, while Zone C intersected 8.45m @ 2.53%, including 1.5m @ 7.05% and 5.3m @ 4.25%, including 1.2m @ 7.9%.

iMetal Resources now plans to undertake 2,000m of further drilling this year.

“We’re going to be looking to raise some money, get back to work, drill and prove out resources, potentially at both assets,” Dhillon says.

TIGHT STRUCTURE, PROVEN LEADERSHIP

While iMetal Resources is one of many junior gold and critical minerals explorers, Dhillon, likening exploration to a Formula One race, says it basically boils down to who is driving the car, the assets in the race and the value upside.

“Driving the car would be our technical team and our management team, and we’ve actually had some successes in the past,” Dhillon says.

“We’re a team that, I think, is known for its honesty and integrity. We look for quality assets.”

In the driver’s seat is Dhillon, who has been involved in the development of public companies for over two decades. He was integral in the growth of Idaho-based US Geothermal from a US$2 million startup on the TSX to a US$450 million independent renewable energy producer that advanced to the NYSE.

He is also a founding director of Torrent Gold (CSE:TGLD) and a director of lithium explorer Lake Winn Resources (TSXV:LWR).

Dhillon’s co-driver, as a director and Chief Operating Officer, is Tim Henneberry who has 40 years of experience in Canadian and international exploration and production for base, precious and industrial metals.

iMetal Resources has just over 10 million shares on issue with insider and supportive ownership of at least 60%.

“So it’s an extremely tight capital structure and it’s poised for growth,” he concludes.

Written by Angela East for Mining.com.au