Relevant Gold hunts for Canada’s Abitibi in Wyoming

Relevant Gold (TSXV: RGC; US-OTC: RGCCF) is pushing a big idea across Wyoming’s Archean craton: that the rich systems in Canada’s Abitibi-type orogenic architecture  were rifted, rotated and stranded in the U.S. interior two billion years ago.

The explorer has built a belt-scale land position in the state and is drilling to see if modern geophysics can turn that deep-time correlation into discovery, Corporate Communications Officer Kristopher Jensen told The Northern Miner.

“We’re calling it the American Abitibi and it’s not just a cute marketing line – there’s science behind why we’re calling it that,” Jensen said. “If you could go back pre-discovery and explore a modern, untapped orogenic system like the Abitibi, that’s essentially the opportunity we’re developing for shareholders in Wyoming.”

The company’s main Bradley Peak gold camp sits in the Seminoe Mountains, where state-released aeromagnetics in 2024 showed about a 200-km structural corridor linking Bradley Peak to its South Pass camp. Bradley Peak’s geophysics most closely align with Abitibi characteristics, and highlight a more than 100 sq. km fold-hinge anomaly parallel with surface gold and copper sampling. Relevant says that picture echoes Abitibi-style shear networks – only largely buried beneath soil – and Bradley Peak is the near-term catalyst.

It’s where the geophysics lights up and the rock chips best resemble the Abitibi-style textures the team wants to see at depth.

To move the concept beyond analogy, the company is running a 5,000-metre, HQ-core drill program at the Apex target, a 2.5-km trend where outcrop sampling returned standout grades up to 46.8 grams per tonne gold, 7.8% copper and 2% zinc. The holes are designed to check vertical continuation of favourable structures, characterize alteration and veining at depth and to test for high-grade shoots within a broader orogenic halo.

Relavent shares in Toronto were trading 42% higher over the past 12 months at C40.5¢ apiece on Monday. It has a market capitalization of C$41.7 million.

Wyoming’s exploration push

The state’s policy tailwinds are material, Jensen said.

“We permitted this drill program in 45 days – six weeks from application to approval on federal and state permits,” Jensen said. “Unheard of.”

In July the state awarded Relevant Gold a $226,533 (C$316,000) Energy Matching Funds grant, covering up to half the cost of a helicopter-borne Versatile Time-Domain Electromagnetic (VTEM) survey at Bradley Peak, with drill rig mobilization scheduled for the current quarter and data products expected early in the new year.

VTEM offers a look a few hundred metres below surface to highlight buried structures and sulphides. The dataset will be public. Relevant will merge it with the state’s new magnetic survey and on-the-ground mapping to tighten Bradley Peak targets into next year.

“It’s a classic playbook for under-cover Abitibi analogues – use physics to reduce the search space, then let oriented core do the discriminating at depth,” Jensen said.

A plan map of the Bradley Peak project in Wyoming. Credit: Relevant Gold

Tightly held

Corporate discipline is part of the thesis. As of mid-July, the company reported roughly C$7.5 million in cash, a monthly burn around C$97,000 and a cumulative C$23.8 million raised since 2020 with just C$249,000 in finders’ fees – a simple cost of capital a shade over 1%.

The shareholder register is unusually concentrated for a junior. Kinross Gold (TSX: K, NYSE: KGC) and financier William “Bill” Bollinger each hold 19.9%, with management above 15%. The public float sits just under a third of the shares outstanding.

Governance has also tightened. On Sept. 9, Relevant named geologist Sarah Weber as independent chair. Weber leads Vancouver-based C3 Alliance and brings a profile in permitting and Indigenous engagement – useful currency as the company layers state partnerships and escalates drilling.

Project pipeline

The company’s broader pipeline offers optionality. At South Pass, the Golden Buffalo and Lewiston areas, early-stage prospecting has already delivered high-grade samples and defined multi-kilometre footprints, Jensen said.

“Near term it’s drill results from Apex, the airborne VTEM at Bradley Peak and more mapping and sampling – then stepping up to 20,000-plus metres of drilling next year,” Jensen said.

Drilling underway at the Apex deposit, Wyoming. Credit: Relevant Gold

Surface signals

The technical case hinges on proving that Bradley Peak’s surface signal – high-grade, polymetallic samples across sheared mafic and ultramafic hosts – persists down-plunge as focused ore shoots rather than dissipating into diffuse alteration, Jensen said.

The Apex program launched in July entails 15–25 inclined holes to 150–500 metres, seeking that continuity while cataloguing elements that might guide follow-up.

“It’s an incremental, data-driven approach that mirrors Abitibi practice, but under far more cover,” Jensen said.

There are trade-offs, however. Public funding lowers the company’s non-drilling spend and accelerates regional understanding, yet open datasets can compress any first-mover edge. Management counters that camp-scale control and early structural work will keep it ahead of fast followers.