Inventus Mining Has An Exciting Conglomerate Gold Project In Ontario That Few Are Paying Attention To Which Could Change Quickly

Around seven years ago, there was tremendous hype around a conglomerate gold discovery by Novo Resources in Australia. It was hailed as the second coming of Witwatersrand, the most prolific mining jurisdiction worldwide where over half of the gold ever mined throughout the world was mined.

What got many excited to epic proportions on the Novo story was that they were finding large nuggets of gold in the conglomerate. The problem was that the nuggets were sporadically distributed in the conglomerate which made for challenges in exploration and when they rushed in to try to mine, they killed the project.

It originally caught my attention due to the coarse gold nuggets, they were very impressive, but then I soured on the project because I saw they were jumping around from area to area on their projects. 

I got the sense they were struggling to find continuity in the distribution of the gold nuggets by jumping around from area to area, and not focusing on doing big bulk samples to see if mining the conglomerates was viable. 

Then under pressure from many to “just mine it”, management made the disastrous decision to start mining. What the mining proved was the gold nuggets were just too randomly distributed to be able to mine successfully. 

Although the gold nuggets were beautiful, the population of them and distribution was not there and the Witwatersrand in Australia story died. 

Clues to what to look for can be learned about the difference between the conglomerate deposits in Australia and at Witwatersrand. In the Pilbara region of Australia, the gold is coarse nuggets randomly distributed in the conglomerates. While in the Witwatersrand region the gold is fine grained in the conglomerates. 

Which brings me to a tiny exploration company in Canada, Inventus Mining that has found a conglomerate gold project with fine-grained gold in Ontario at their Pardo project. The colossal failure with Novo Resources has left a bad taste for investors when it comes to conglomerate gold exploration. Therefore, very few investors are paying attention to Inventus Mining. 

Conglomerate gold deposits are thin, maybe a couple metres,  you can think of them as a shallow lake that spreads out over vast areas and can go down for thousands of metres.

In the image below, you can see  evidence that they are onto something exciting in the context of looking for a conglomerate gold mine. On the left side, the model is based on a series of small diameter drill holes that have intersected a very shallow conglomerate with promising grades. In mauve is the modeled conglomerate zone that comes to the surface, where they took a 1000 tonne bulk sample that had an average grade of 4.2 g/t gold.

On the right side of the slide, is a picture of the conglomerate that comes to the surface. The gold is not in the bigger rocks, it is in the matrix surrounding the rocks.  

In the image below, you can see a panned concentrate of fine-grained gold. Although not as sexy as coarse-grained gold, it is actually what you want to see when looking for a conglomerate gold deposit like what was mined at Witwatersrand in South Africa.

In addition to the 1000 tonne bulk sample, they also did a 5000 tonne bulk sample that had similar grades. Bulk samples are not cheap and in a coarse-grained conglomerate it is the only way to get a representative grade. In a fine-grained gold conglomerate it may not be necessary to unlock the potential.

What they are doing is using large diameter core drilling, which can be done at a much cheaper cost. As the conglomerate at Pardo is very close to the surface, they can go at it with a bunch of shallow drill holes for a very low cost. 

Their Phase 1 Drilling Program, which is fully funded, will consist of 80 drill holes that are 12 metres in length. This will give them a chance to cover a large area rapidly.

Then the core will be shipped off for photon assaying which is an emerging assaying method that is excellent for determining gold content. It is an X-ray method that is very sensitive and accurate at determining the gold grades.

What is impressive about this method is that the core doesn’t need to be cut and the entire core is run through the X-ray to accurately determine the gold content. Then everything is left over for check assaying. Another benefit is that no chemicals are needed like in fire assaying. 

They crush the core and then run it through highly sensitive X-rays that pick up all the gold to determine the grades. It is a method that will likely overtake traditional assaying for gold as all the core can be used, instead of a tiny portion like in fire assaying.

There is a similarity to diamond mining that could play a role in separating the big rocks from the matrix at the Pardo project. In diamond mining, traditional crushing and large diamond recovery methods often break large diamonds. 

There is a diamond mine in Botswana that changed the crushing and other recovery methods, then started preserving the extremely large diamonds. This was a game-changer and it was one of my friends that identified the problem in the diamond mine in Botswana and came up with the solution. 

I intend on talking to him about the possibility of using a similar method to separate the big rocks in the Pardo conglomerate from the matrix to create a higher grade concentrate. If it is possible it could be a game-changer because it would remove the big rocks and leave the gold bearing matrix which has all the gold.

Inventus Mining’s Pardo project is very intriguing and could turn into a remarkable conglomerate gold project. It is already impressive, despite very few investors paying any attention.

The extensive drilling that they are doing, combined with the use of photon assaying could unlock the potential of the Pardo project and garner much more investor interest.

Next up, I will work on arranging an interview with management so that the audience at Rocks And Stocks News can learn more about Inventus Mining.

All the best,

Allan Barry Laboucan

Disclosure

Rocks And Stocks News does not make buying or selling recommendations. The reports are for information purposes only. Sponsors pay a fee to Rocks And Stocks News for content creation. The business model of Rocks And Stocks News is to fund research and reporting on the sector, picks and sponsors through corporate sponsorship. We are thankful to sponsors for enabling commentary free of charge to readers and viewers of the reports. When reporting on sponsors it is on behalf of the sponsors discussed in the portion of the report mentioning the sponsor. Before making any investment decision it is important for you to speak with your financial advisors to consider your risk profile. It is also important to do your homework. To help in that process, Rocks And Stocks News means to be a gateway by doing reports and interviews of management of sponsors and picks. The reports and interviews should not be considered investment advice. Allan Barry Laboucan is the founder and owner of Rocks And Stocks News, he has worked in the mining sector since 1993 and has been reporting on the sector since 2005. He has worked with and been mentored by very talented geoscientists in geology, geochemistry and geophysics. He uses the skills he has picked up during his career to assess sponsors and picks in the reports. Whether a company is a pick or a sponsor they go through the same filter and are reported on when important news is made that Allan Barry Laboucan wants to discuss on the Rocks And Stocks News platform. He may own shares in sponsors and picks for investment purposes which he discloses when discussing them in the reports.