Dryden Gold Is Hitting The Ground Running As A Newly Minted Gold Exploration Company
Dryden Gold (DRY.V)
This is a brand new public company that just started trading a couple weeks ago. Initially, I was impressed by the large land package they put together right by the city of Dryden, Ontario. Due to its geological similarities to the Red Lake, Ontario mining camp.
I was also impressed to see they were eager to tell their story well before going public and since, using social media channels. They have a strong story to tell and their enthusiasm to tell it is readily apparent. Interviews on Youtube are a great way for management to present their story and for investors to learn about their prospects. I think of them like a mining conference at the push of a button that management and viewers can tune in from the comfort of their own desk.
Projects always come first for me, but another key thing I look at are the people involved, they have an impressive group of leaders of the company and shareholders.
Trey Wasser is the CEO, he was the CEO of Ely Gold Royalties as it grew from a tiny royalty company into a $300 million takeover. They built the company by consolidating key land positions in highly prospective areas. He attempted to retire after the success of Ely Gold Royalties but was drawn back into the business when some of his partners convinced him that they should build a new company. Using the same model as they used for success with Ely Gold Royalties, they consolidated 480 Km2 near Dryden, Ontario. The map below shows the size of the claims and also some of the spectacular past drilling results.
Of particular note is the extreme high-grade gold hit on their Kenwest patented claims. You don’t see 3497.00 g/t gold over 8.5 metres very often in gold exploration. Drilling to understand the controls on that hit looks like a remarkable target. Have a look at the image below to see what that hit looks like in the drill core from the previous operator.
As you can see in the cross section on the left of the image, only 4 holes were drilled into this zone, with shallow holes. It is important to note that orogenic gold systems have very deep roots and the holes drilled haven’t tested the depth potential. This is a prime target to be drilled to follow the gold system deeper.
They have a target rich project, to figure it out they will take a sound approach using geophysics, geology, geochemistry and structural geology. Layering the data will help them filter through the many targets to help prioritize the order to drill them. Leading their geological team is the company’s president Maura Kolb.
Maura is a structural geologist, during her career she led the team in exploration at the Red Lake Mine and other projects in Red Lake. She has great experience in exploration and bringing projects into commercial production. Her experience at the Red Lake mine is ideal for Dryden Gold due to the geological similarities between Red Lake and Dryden, Ontario.
She has seen what the rocks look like in drill core and underground in a prolific orogenic gold system. I recently interviewed Trey Wasser and Maura Kolb, it was a great opportunity to learn about their project and methods to explore it thoroughly.
In addition to consolidating a highly prospective land package they have compiled all the past work on the project and are looking at it with a fresh set of eyes. They have a team that is following a similar approach as the one taken by Great Bear Resources which took an underexplored project, where they compiled all the geological data and then systematically went about exploration, ultimately leading to an important group of gold discoveries that made them an impressive success story when they were bought out for their Dixie project near Red Lake, Ontario.
This approach is just like what Maura Kolb and her team are doing at Dryden Gold. You can think of an exploration project as a big puzzle and the job of the geological team is to put the puzzle together.
Exploring an orogenic gold deposit is not easy, they are very high-grade, but the problem is that they are also small. They aren’t like a big oxide gold system that comes to the surface that you can walk on and see it poking out of the ground.
In an orogenic gold mine, the high-grade gold is found in narrow veins. Drilling a few metres in the wrong direction and you can easily miss the high-grade. Take for example the extreme high-grade in the image of the core above. If they drilled a few metres above it, or below it, they could have easily missed that intersection even though they likely had hit the same vein. They need several drill holes with tight spacing between them to get a reasonable handle on the continuity of the high-grade gold.
What makes them challenging also makes them spectacular when one is found that can be mined. The gold is such a high-grade and so low cost to mine, plus easy to recover the gold from the rocks it’s in, that they make for remarkably high margin mines.
The Red Lake Mine is a great example of how challenging they can be. Goldcorp was a small mining company struggling while mining the orogenic gold system within a few hundred metres of the surface. Then they drilled below the shallow underground workings and at around 1000 metres below the surface they tagged the bonanza-grade zone and the rest was history. When they were mining that bonanza-grade zone, they mined the bonanza-grade gold at very low costs, making them one of the highest margin gold mining companies in the business and one of the best performing gold miners.
The Fosterville Mine was a similar story. For many years it was a struggling mine going after the near the surface orogenic gold system. They drilled deeper and found the Swan Zone. Kirkland Lake was a small mining company when they bought the Fosterville Mine. When they mined the Swan Zone, they also mined bonanza-grade gold at a low cost with high margins. It was a company maker for Kirkland Lake, and made them one of the best performing gold mining stocks that ultimately led to them getting bought out.
What has me particularly intrigued about Dryden Gold’s project near Dryden, Ontario is that they have already hit bonanza-grade gold relatively close to the surface. While the depth potential is still wide open.
Orogenic gold systems start deep in the earth’s crust in very old rocks. They need deep crustal faults, which are the cracks in the earth that work as a path of least resistance for the gold bearing fluids to follow to make their way closer to the surface. When the gold bearing fluids get closer to the surface they will hit secondary faults that they can also follow as well as certain formations of rocks that enable those fluids to form a deposit.
So the orogenic gold discovery checklist needs very old rocks, deep structures and secondary structures, and most importantly high-grade gold mineralization. Dryden Gold’s project checks all those boxes. Just like in Red Lake, Ontario which is only a couple hours drive to the north of Dryden, Ontario.
It is kind of surprising that Red Lake is so well known for mines that have produced millions of ounces of gold, with low costs of mining, and exceptional margins that generate impressive free cash flow. Dryden, Ontario is not nearly as well known, even though it is so close to Red Lake with the same geology and remarkable potential for finding mines much like just up the road in Red Lake, yet it is underexplored.
Some of the reasons this happens in mining often is because gold was found many decades ago, over those decades the price of gold fluctuates and the investment money to explore can get scarce when gold is in a bear market. Also, the prospective regions get chopped up into a bunch of claims owned by several parties. Which makes regional exploration nearly impossible.
This has happened many times in the famous gold camps of Canada. Which is why mines were found over a hundred years ago and are still being found to this day. What helps is that these regions get well studied by geoscientists, explorers, and also benefit from new tools for exploration.
What often happens to open up a project like this is a company will go into one of these regions and make deals with the claim owners and consolidate a large land package so they can properly do regional exploration. This is how Trey Wasser and his team built Ely Gold Royalties into a success story and the method they are using to build Dryden Gold.
It never ceases to amaze me that in the early days of a company doing this, investors will often say, well if it is such a good project why didn’t somebody already find a mine there? The simple answer is because they didn’t do the right work.
When I hear that question, it always reminds me of the study that Newmont did to look at mines throughout the world. They found that on average it was the sixth or seventh company exploring a project that found the mine.
Key reasons this happens can be several, maybe they didn’t have all the land they needed, or the right funding, or the right people using the right techniques to find it. Basically, they missed it. But just because they missed it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
Dryden Gold has a seasoned team that is talented at consolidating big land packages in highly prospective regions. Because of their past success, even in a challenging market for funding gold exploration they were able to get well funded as a private company and then during the IPO process. They also attracted great geoscientists that are using the right techniques to explore their ground.
When a ship is sinking, people are trying to get off. When a ship looks to have clear sailing, good people are jumping on board. Trey Wasser and his team have attracted a lot of great people because they have built an excellent gold exploration ship.
In addition to a strong team of company builders and top notch geoscientists, this very young public company that only started trading on January 10, 2024, attracted an impressive roster of shareholders.
Earlier, I mentioned Goldcorp growing from a tiny struggling gold mining company to one of the best performing gold stocks. The guy who led the company from its humble beginnings to incredible success was Rob McEwen. He is a key shareholder of Dryden Gold.
I also mentioned Kirkland Lake, which went from a small mining company to a multi-billion takeover because of their success at the Fosterville Mine. Their key financial backer and chairman during that run was Eric Sprott. He is also a key shareholder of Dryden Gold.
Both Rob McEwen and Eric Sprott know a lot about orogenic gold systems and the kind of success finding them can lead to. Their investments into a brand new public company exploring for an orogenic gold mine adds a lot of credibility to Dryden Gold.
Earlier, I mentioned the checklist for an orogenic gold discovery, Dryden Gold has them all checked off. They also have an impressive team being led by Trey Wasser and Maura Kolb so they have the people part of a company covered. And an impressive shareholder group that has seen what it takes to find and advance an orogenic gold discovery. Plus, they are using the digital media tools available to build a large audience and provide content to tell their story.
Prior to going public they started drilling their project and the assay results from that drilling are pending. They are well cashed up to tackle the project with aggressive drilling during 2024.
Questions to answer with their drilling include better understanding where bonanza-grade gold was previously hit. As well as looking throughout their project for other high-grade gold hits to expand on them as well as developing a pipeline of exploration targets for drilling.
In Closing
I’m pleased to have Dryden Gold as a new member of my sponsorship program at Rocks And Stocks News. Sponsorships enable me to follow their work closely and provide regular reports and interviews on their projects.
I enjoy finding a junior that is early in its exploration and then follow them closely and provide extensive coverage as their story evolves. Especially when they have acquired an impressive land package in a highly prospective underexplored region, with a very talented team running the company and impressive investors that have seen the success from the exact style of gold system being explored.
All the best,
Allan Barry Laboucan
Disclosure
Dryden Gold is a sponsor of Rocks And Stocks News.
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