Red Pine confirms Wawa gold assays after reported ‘inconsistencies’; stock rebounds

Red Pine Exploration‘s (TSXV: RPX, US-OTC: RDEXF) stock rose on Monday after the explorer said an investigation into past assay results from its Wawa gold project in Ontario found no evidence of inconsistencies, and that the company can rely on the validity of those results.

Last week, the Toronto-based junior said it was withdrawing all previously reported assays from the project after discovering “inconsistencies” in certain results, pending an investigation.

It says it can now confirm that those issues are “unrelated to the integrity of its quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) measures” with respect to the drill core samples collected from Wawa and transported to Activation Laboratories in Ancaster, Ont.

The company added that it is confident the assay results provided by Actlabs “were correct” and can be relied on.

Its stock rebounded 26.7% to 9.5¢ a share by 10:30 a.m. in Toronto, taking its market capitalization to $17 million. The shares had dropped from 20¢ apiece to a 52-week low of 7.5¢ since last Wednesday.

Red Pine said the issue was specific to certain inconsistencies between some of the certified assay results received from Actlabs and the corresponding assay results reported by the company in press releases, other disclosure documents and the project assay database.

Red Pine has engaged WSP Global to lead an independent data verification of all assay certificates from 2014 to the present, copies of which have now been downloaded by Actlabs.

This verification process, it says, will provide the company with a “reliable baseline” to update the Wawa project resource set out in a June 2023 technical report.

The resource, which has an effective date of May 31, 2019, showed 1.3 million indicated tonnes grading 5.47 grams gold per tonne for 230,000 oz. and 2.7 million inferred tonnes at 5.39 grams gold for 471,000 oz.

Red Pine has been drilling to expand resources, with 70,000 metres in total planned on the Surluga and Minto Mine South resource areas as well as several greenfield targets. The company aims to release a preliminary economic assessment this year.