Twin Gold gets nod for progress in northern regions

Exploration success by Twin Mining (TWG-T) has mining analysts keeping a close eye on developments at the junior’s wholly owned diamond projects: Torngat, on the Ungava Peninsula of northern Quebec; and Jackson Inlet, on Baffin Island.

Kerry Smith of National Bank Financial rates the company a “speculative buy.” He sees potential for the company’s shares to reach $1.50 within 12 months if results from the ongoing winter program continue to be positive. The shares currently trade at about 58 within a 52-week range of 25-$1.20. The junior has 77.3 million shares fully diluted, with management and directors holding about 8.6 million of these.

Recent work at Torngat includes geophysics, mapping and sampling of a near-surface, kimberlite fissure system. A total of 176 macrodiamonds were recovered from the initial two samples, which together weighed 17.4 tonnes.

“Grades were generally quite low,” Smith notes in a research report. “However, the indicator mineral and diamond compositions were favourable, and Twin has now completed a much larger bulk sample at site AD2. Given the large size of this fissure system and the early stage of exploration, we think Torngat offers tremendous upside.”

The company also carried out a regional sampling program that included 50-kg samples taken at roughly 400-metre intervals along the 37-km known strike length of the fissure system. Some 29 samples, ranging from 250 to 400 kg, were taken from the most prospective sites, while three samples totalling about 375 tonnes were taken from site AD2.

Smith notes that by year-end, Twin hopes to have results from the regional samples. Results from AD2 are expected to be in-hand a few months later.

“Twin only started exploration at Torngat in 1999, and already this project has produced some encouraging results,” Smith writes.

More work is planned this winter on the project, which now measures 507 sq. km in size.

The Jackson Inlet property is at an earlier stage of exploration. So far, 16 kimberlites have been discovered. Four of these have been sampled, with 1.5 tonnes of material recovered. Pipe 3 produced five macrodiamonds from a 160-kg sample, while Pipe 5 yielded three macros from a small sample. Results are still awaited from the remaining 1.3 tonnes.

“Twin will have a substantial exploration program in 2001, probably in the order of $2-3 million,” Smith concludes. “With excellent early-stage results seen so far, we remain positive and look for further good news in the weeks ahead.”