Blackrock Gold (TSX-V:BRC) is one of the best junior mining turnaround stories of 2019. With the stock languishing down at C$.03 per share in early May, it looked like BRC was a classic share rollback candidate. That was until new Blackrock CEO Andrew Pollard took the helm and took emergency action to clean things up, which included bringing in Bill Howald as Executive Chairman.
Mr. Pollard has also taken it upon himself to buy as many BRC shares on the open market as he can afford; at last count, Pollard holds ~2.5 million BRC shares that were all either purchased on the open market or through company financings. Executive Chairman Bill Howald has also bought 560,000 BRC shares on the open market, since taking the helm as Chairman.
In the span of two months, Pollard helped lift BRC shares by more than 400%, raised C$600,000 at what was an above market price at the time (C$.10 with C$.16 warrants), and assisted in developing a new interpretation of the geological model at BRC’s flagship Silver Cloud Project in Nevada.
Andrew is a promoter through and through, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. He sees possibility where others do not, and this is why he was a perfect fit for Blackrock Gold. By all accounts Silver Cloud is a real project with the right pedigree to become something special once proper exploration programs have been carried out.
In a company news release dated July 29, 2019, Blackrock outlined several geochemical anomalies across the Silver Cloud Property including an anomaly in the middle of the property that “contains mercury in soil that has identified a window through post-mineral volcanics approximately 1.3km north of the Silver Cloud mine. The mercury anomaly is also associated with a gravity low. Additional fieldwork is required to understand the geology and significance of the anomaly.”
CEO Andrew Pollard added:
“Our first priority is to get drills turning to test the East-West vein system at the Silver Cloud mine, where previous drilling returned values including 1.5m @ 157.7 g/t gold and 12.2m @ 5.53g/t gold, followed up by refining the target identified by Anomaly (1) in the northeast portion of the project."
Blackrock has submitted drill permits for the Silver Cloud mine area target and BLM approvals are anticipated by mid-August. Scope of work and drill bid documents have been delivered to eight drilling contractors with bids expected on or before August 1st, and a final contract selection is expected in early August for a September start.
The results from the soil geochemistry is highly encouraging because it identified two new large anomalies that line up with the gravity lows on the Silver Cloud property. As pathfinder elements go for targeting these low sulphidation Epithermal Systems, Blackrock is seeing exactly what they want to see. Moreover, the fact that these new anomalies line up perfectly to the gravity lows effectively confirms these are valuable targets that must be tested through drilling. Drill-ready targets are already in hand and have been submitted to the BLM. Blackrock expects to have drills turning by early September to test the East/West strike potential between the Teck/Placer holes.
Blackrock issued another important NR about a month ago, after identifying a new vein system in the northeastern portion of the Silver Cloud Property. Executive Chairman Bill Howald explained the potential significance of this new discovery:
“The newly identified vein gives the Company a third meaningful target to explore. The three targets include the Silver Cloud mercury mine, the Jackson and Surprise mercury occurrence, and the newly discovered banded vein. In all these areas, the target is a high-grade gold and silver vein system with widths similar to the Midas mine (1m to 2.7m width), and gold grades comparable to the nearby Hollister mine (+15 g/t Au and +80 g/t Ag). The Company is preparing the east-west trending Silver Cloud mine-Northwest Canyon vein system for a drill campaign and has started the permitting process. The addition of the West Silver Cloud property provides additional strike potential to the west of Northwest Canyon. As I have stated before, the Silver Cloud project is an excellent under-explored asset located in an extraordinarily productive part of north-central Nevada along the Northern Nevada Rift."
Assays are pending from rock chip samples collected on the outcropping vein. Also, of particular interest in the area is a gravity anomaly similar in scope and dimension to the one occurring over the Silver Cloud mine.
The catalysts are all lined up for Blackrock over the next few months. Meanwhile, the chart has consolidated nicely after a large rally:
BRC.V (Daily)
There is important support/resistance down near C$.11/$.12, and the next leg higher in BRC shares could easily reach the C$.25-$.30 area (a double from today’s levels).
Disclosure: Author is long BRC.V shares at the time of publishing and may choose to buy or sell at any time without notice.
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