Ontario Snapshot: Eight companies to watch

Ontario is one of the world’s premier mining jurisdictions. Here’s a look at eight companies exploring the province for gold, PGMs, lithium and more.

First Mining Gold 

First Mining Gold (TSX: FF; US-OTC: FFMGF) has gold projects in Ontario and Quebec. In northwestern Ontario, the company is advancing its flagship Springpole project, which it describes as “one of the largest undeveloped gold assets in North America,” and expects to complete a feasibility study in the second half of 2023. It has begun metallurgical and engineering work and in June 2022 it submitted a draft environmental assessment to communities and government. 

A prefeasibility study completed in January 2021 envisioned an open-pit mine producing 287,000 oz. gold annually over a mine life of 11.3 years (335,000 oz. per year in years one through nine. Initial capital costs were estimated at US$718 million with an after-tax payback of 2.4 years. The study forecast an after-tax net present value (5% discount rate) of US$995 million at a gold price of US$1,600 per oz., and an internal rate of return of 29.4%. The prefeasibility was based on proven and probable reserves of 121.6 million tonnes grading 0.97 gram gold per tonne for 3.8 million oz. of contained gold and 5.23 grams silver per tonne for 20.5 million silver ounces. 

The company also owns the 528-sq.-km Cameron gold project in Ontario’s Kenora mining division, about 88 km from New Gold’s (TSX: NGD; NYSE-MKT: NGD) Rainy River mine. Cameron encompasses the Cameron gold deposit and the East and West Cedartree deposits. 

In Quebec, the company’s Duparquet, Pitt and Duquesne projects are a collection of assets on the Abitibi’s Destor-Porcupine Fault. The company acquired 100% of Duparquet in September 2022 and updated the resource estimate to 3.4 million measured and indicated ounces and 1.6 million inferred ounces. 

First Mining has a portfolio of 21 royalties in four countries; joint ventures at Pickle Crow with Auteco Minerals (ASX: AUT) and at Hope Brook with Big Ridge Gold (TSXV: BRAU); and is the largest shareholder in Treasury Metals (TSX: TML). 

First Mining Gold has a market cap of about $160.3 million. 

Generation Mining 

Generation Mining (TSX: GENM; US-OTC: GENMF) is developing its 100%-owned Marathon palladium-copper project in northwestern Ontario, near the town of Marathon. The company says it is the largest undeveloped palladium project in North America. 

A feasibility study completed in March 2021 estimated Marathon would produce an estimated 245,000 palladium-equivalent oz. per year over a 13-year mine life at an all-in sustaining cost of US$809 per palladium-equivalent ounce. Over its mine life Marathon will produce an estimated 1.91 million oz. palladium, 467 million lb. copper, 537,000 oz. platinum, 151,000 oz. gold and 2.82 million oz. silver. The study forecast upfront capital costs of $665 million, net of equipment financing and pre-completion operating costs and revenues. At US$1,725 per oz. palladium and US$3.20 per lb. copper, the study outlined an after-tax net present value (6% discount rate) of just over $1 billion, an internal rate of return of 30%, and a base case payback period of 2.3 years.

In August, the company signed an agreement with Hycroft Mining to acquire an unused, surplus SAG mill and ball mill for US$12 million. The same month, the Joint Review Panel issued its Environmental Impact Statement report to the federal and provincial ministers of the environment. Generation Mining said ministerial decisions are expected to follow on or before Nov. 30. 

In March, the company closed a $240 million precious metal purchase agreement with Wheaton Precious Metals (TSX: WPM; NYSE: WPM; LSE: WPM) for a stream on all gold production and 22% of palladium production from the Marathon project. Of the $240 million, $40 million will be paid on an early deposit basis prior to construction, with the remainder payable in four staged installments during construction. 

Generation Mining has a market cap of about $112 million. 

Goldshore Resources  

Goldshore Resources (TSXV: GSHR; US-OTC: GSHRF) owns the Moss Lake gold project in northwestern Ontario, about 100 km west of Thunder Bay. The northern boundary of the project lies about 1 km from Highway 11. 

The  142.9-sq.-km property hosts gold and base metal rich deposits, including Moss Lake, East Coldstream, the historically producing North Coldstream mine, and the Hamlin Zone, all of which occur over a mineralized trend of about 20 km. 

Moss Lake and East Coldstream are shear-hosted disseminated-style gold deposits that outcrop. The North Coldstream mine reportedly produced significant amounts of copper, gold and silver, and the Hamlin Zone contains copper and gold mineralization. 

The company is undertaking a 100,000-metre drill program at the project and has been releasing drill results all year. At the Moss Lake deposit, it reported 58.85 metres grading 6.30 grams gold per tonne from 103.3 metres in drill hole MMD-21-008 in March, and 78.35 metres of 1.17 grams gold from 170.35 metres in hole MMD-22-020 in June. At the East Coldstream deposit, 13 km northeast of Moss Lake, Goldshore reported in September an intercept of 23 metres grading 1.34 grams gold from 244 metres in CED-22-004; and in October at North Coldstream, Goldshore reported 62.8 metres grading 0.36% copper, 0.06% cobalt, 0.30 parts per million gold and 3.1 parts per million silver (0.88% copper-equivalent) from a depth of 8.2 metres in drill hole CND-22-006. 

Wesdome Gold Mines (TSX: WDO) is a large shareholder in the company with an equity stake of about 27%. 

Goldshore Resources has a market cap of about $25.7 million. 

Green Technology Metals  

Australia-listed Green Technology Metals (ASX: GT1) is focused on lithium projects in Ontario. 

The company holds an 80% interest in the Seymour, Root and Wisa lithium projects under a joint venture with Ardiden (ASX: ADV) and owns 100% of the Allison lithium project.   

Seymour, its flagship asset, has a JORC-compliant global resource of 9.9 million tonnes grading 1.04% lithium oxide (Li20). The company is undertaking a preliminary economic assessment of the project, which sits on a claim base of 410 sq. km. In January the company reported an intercept of 40 metres of 1.54% Li20 in drill hole GTDD-21-004. Field activities include ongoing drilling with two rigs; ground testing interpreted geophysical targets, ground geophysics to test targets under glacial cover, and Lidar interpretation to delineate surface exposure of pegmatites. 

The company has started drilling at the Root project, a dense pegmatite swarm on a granted mining lease. The project contains three areas of key interest: the McCombe deposit; pegmatites at Morrison, and the Root Bay pegmatite prospect, about 5 km east of Morrison. 

Wisa is a large, under-explored tenement base covering 19 sq. km, and the 350-sq.-km Allison project is a prospective Archeon Greenstone tenure. 

According to the company’s latest corporate presentation in October, it has partnerships with several companies in the lithium space, including Primero, a founding cornerstone investor holding a 6.4% stake; AMCI, a 9.9% shareholder and also founding cornerstone investor; and Lithium Americas (TSX: LAC; NYSE: NAC) (a 5.2% shareholder). 

Green Technology Metals has a market cap of about A$176.4 million  ($153 million). 

Graycliff Exploration  

Graycliff Exploration (CSE: GRAY; US-OTC: GRYCF) is focused on gold exploration with two projects in Ontario: Shakespeare, 88 km west of Sudbury, and Baldwin, located just east of Shakespeare.  

The company began its initial exploration and drill program in the third quarter of 2020, and kicked off its phase four drill program in March. As of August, the company had completed more than 12,000 metres of drilling. 

In May it reported an intercept at Shakespeare of 2 metres grading 20.52 grams gold per tonne starting from 202 metres in drill hole J-31 and in September a 9-metre intercept grading 10.93 grams gold from 156 metres in drill hole J-48. Other highlights, released in October, were drill hole J-49, which cut 10.09 grams gold over 6 metres starting 189 metres downhole; and J52, which intersected 14.39 grams gold over 3 metres starting from 175 metres. 

The Shakespeare property is located in the area of the historic Shakespeare gold mine, which operated from 1903 to 1907 and reportedly produced about 2,959 oz. gold from six underground levels. In its fall corporate presentation, Graycliff noted that it intends to re-open the adit into the third level of the former mine to carry out exploration and drilling from underground upon the receipt of permits.  

It also noted that completed airborne geophysics over both Shakespeare and the Baldwin project, have identified new gold exploration target areas as well as new copper and nickel-copper and platinum group element target areas. 

Management and strategic investors in Graycliff own roughly 25% of the company. 

Graycliff has a market cap of about $2.7 million. 

Mayfair Gold  

Mayfair Gold (TSXV: MFG; US-OTC: MFGCF) is focused on its flagship, 100%-owned Fenn-Gib gold project, about 80 km east of the city of Timmins in northeastern Ontario. 

In mid-October, the company updated Fenn-Gib’s pit-constrained resource estimate to 118.07 million indicated tonnes grading 0.81 gram gold per tonne for 3.06 million contained oz. gold and 13.83 million inferred tonnes grading 0.70 gram gold for 311,000 gold ounces. The resource estimate also included an initial underground resource of 1 million inferred tonnes grading 3.22 grams gold for 103,586 ounces. 

The resource update included assay results up to July 31 for about 67,000 metres drilled, or 61% of its current drill program. The company says it expects to complete its 110,000-metre drill program in January 2023 and update the resource again in the second quarter of next year.

The deposit has a strike length of about 1.25 km with varying widths of up to 300 metres, and the gold mineralized zones remain open at depth and along strike to the east and west. Recent metallurgical tests indicate the deposit can deliver gold recoveries of up to 94%. 

Mayfair’s timeline includes a pre-feasibility study in the first half of 2023, and a feasibility study in the second half of 2023.  

The project, now 48 sq. km in size, was discovered by Pangea Goldfields in 1990. Mayfair completed its acquisition in December 2020 with its first drill turning in January 2021. Previous owners included Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD), Lake Shore Gold, Tahoe Resources and Pan American Silver (TSX: PAAS; NASDAQ: PAAS). 

Mayfair Gold has a market cap of about $92 million. 

Moneta Gold  

Moneta Gold (TSX: ME; US-OTC: MEAUF) is advancing its wholly owned Tower gold project in northeastern Ontario, about 100 km east of Timmins. 

A preliminary economic assessment of the project completed in September envisioned a 19,200 tonne-per-day combined open pit and underground operation with a 24-year mine life. The study forecast average annual gold production of 261,014 oz. in years one to 11 (192,666 oz. per year over the life of the mine) at cash costs of US$910 per oz. and all-in sustaining costs of US$1,073 per ounce. 

The open pit mine will be responsible for 158.2 million tonnes at a grade of 0.81 gram gold over a mine life of 24 years, and the underground mine will contribute 8.2 million tonnes at a grade of 3.42 grams gold over a mine life of 12 years. 

Initial capex was pegged at $517 million with an after-tax payback of 2.6 years. At a gold price of US$1,600 per oz., the project would yield an after-tax net present value (5% discount rate) of $1.07 billion and a post-tax internal rate of return of 31.7%. 

Tower’s total open pit and underground indicated resource stands at 150.57 million tonnes grading 0.92 gram gold for 4.46 million oz. contained gold and 235.63 million inferred tonnes grading 1.09 grams gold for 8.29 million gold ounces. 

Gold will be extracted from two separate areas: Golden Highway and Garrison. Golden Highway consists of the Westaway, Southwest, 55 and Windjammer deposits, and Garrison contains the Garrcon, 903 and Jonpol deposits. 

In mid-October the company released results from infill drilling on the Windjammer deposit, with highlights of 158 metres grading 0.55 gram gold in drill hole MGH22-298 from 264 metres downhole. In early November, drill results from Westaway included 70 metres grading 1.82 grams gold from 232 metres in drillhole MG22-310 and from South West of 56.50 metres grading 1.1 grams gold starting from 976 metres in MGH22-293  

Moneta Gold has a market cap of about $143.4 million. 

Trillium Gold Mines  

Trillium Gold Mines (TSXV: TGM; US-OTC: TGLDF) controls over 886 sq. km of property in Ontario’s Red Lake mining district and its three biggest projects there are Confederation Belt (100% owned); the Newman Todd complex (100%) and Gold Centre (80%). 

At Newman-Todd, about 26 km from Evolution Mining’s (ASX: EVN) Red Lake operations, Trillium has drilled 17 holes (7,665 metres) since January. At Gold Centre, adjacent to Evolution Mining’s Red Lake operations, Trillium has drilled five holes (4,950 metres) since January. 

The company reported drill results in late September from Newman-Todd including 40.56 grams gold per tonne over 4.18 metres in drill hole NT22-211 starting from 307.5 metres; and 90.38 grams gold over 1.01 metres starting 30.64 metres downhole in NT22-212. 

The company has been busy this year acquiring more ground directly and through option agreements. The deals have included the Uchi Gold and Satterly Lake Gold properties in April, which extended Trillium’s holdings to the northeast in proximity to First Mining’s Springpole project; and the Eastern Vision projects, which closed in late June. In June it picked up the Wenasaga property, contiguous to Eastern Vision, about 35 km to the west of Kinross Gold’s (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) Dixie project and 55 km southeast of Red Lake; and the Panama Lake properties, about 80 km from Dixie. 

Management and insiders own about 40% of the company. 

Trillium Gold Mines has a market cap of about $14.4 million.