Mines are made, not found. And no one understands that old adage better than Gold Bullion Development (GBB, TSX-V) President/CEO Frank Basa which is why this company is enjoying so much success developing its Granada Gold Property near Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec.
Any day now – this week for sure – investors are going to get their best indication yet of the real potential of the LONG Bars Zone at Granada when Gold Bullion releases its Preliminary Block Model. New assay results are coming as well but the really critical news will be the Block Model which is expected to contain a 43-101 non-compliant estimate of the potential ounces in the ground within the model boundaries. Based on all of BMR’s research to date, including a three-day site visit in March, the Block Model number is likely going to propel this company to a new level. We’ve said this many times and we’ll state it again – the gold is there in our view at Granada and all Gold Bullion has to do is drill like crazy to ultimately prove up a 5 million+ ounce deposit. A major new drill program starts at Granada next month.
The target of all previous work at Granada, prior to Gold Bullion acquiring the property in 2006, was individual, high-grade quartz veins which could support underground mining. Some 50,000 ounces of gold was produced this way in the 1930’s until a fire destroyed the mill structures in 1935. Extensive exploration in the 1980’s and 1990’s also focused on the high grade quartz veins.
The 52 year-old Basa, a very bright metallurgical engineer who got some extremely valuable operational experience with Agnico-Eagle Mines in the early part of his mining career, took a new approach with Granada – one that appears to be paying off tremendously as Gold Bullion inches closer to discovering a major bulk tonnage, open-pit deposit.
Osisko (OSK, TSX) used a fresh approach and made a massive discovery 65 kilometres to the east at Canadian Malartic, also a former producer. Basa did his homework, studied all the historical information from Granada, and even completed a 30,000 tonne bulk sample (plus a waste pile sample) prior to the start of any drilling by Gold Bullion to get a better understanding of what he was dealing with. He also got silver, nickel and copper values in the bulk sample, leaving him to believe there could be more to this story than just a whole bunch of previously undiscovered gold.
While prior Granada operators concentrated on the more continuous quartz veins within the sheer systems at Granada – of course they were operating in a much lower gold price environment so they were focused on high grade – Basa saw a different and much bigger picture, the potential for broad-based lower grade mineralization (1 g/t Au or better) over a very large area that would support a bulk tonnage, open-pit model. With the prolific Cadillac Fault traversing the northern portion of the property, and the Granada land package (now 5,000 hectares) mostly unexplored and much bigger than what others worked with in the past, Basa’s thinking made a lot of sense. A prominent zone of deformation, hydrothermal alteration and quartz-veining extends for at least five kilometres around the old mine workings, as revealed by Gold Bullion in its March 1 news release.
Gold Bullion’s first-ever drill program at Granada has demonstrated that gold mineralization in the LONG Bars Zone is near-surface and widespread. In the days, weeks and months ahead we’ll learn much more about what’s driving all of this and why Granada is such a fascinating and somewhat unusual quartz-vein type deposit.
The potential economics of Granada could be very robust – this should be a low-cost gold producer. Not only is mineralization near-surface, but Gold Bullion’s bulk sample showed high recoveries (90%) and no metallurgical issues with the ore (historical mill recoveries at Granada were up to 95%). The property is surrounded by excellent infrastructure and is located in what’s regarded as the best jurisdiction in the world for mining and exploration.
The best news of all – this stock is sitting at just 33 cents for a market cap of only $34 million. Osisko is taking over Brett Resources (BBR, TSX-V) and its 6 million ounce bulk tonnage, open-pit deposit for $375 million. Think about it.
The blue sky at Granada is looking more magnificent every day.
