EGR Exploration Ltd. (TSX-V:EGR) just may be sitting on the next big goldmine in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in northern Ontario.
EGR's Detour West property lies about 20 kilometers (km) west of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd (TSX:AEM)'s Detour Lake gold mine – the largest gold-producing mine in Canada with the country's largest gold reserve at 20.7 million ounces and substantial growth potential.
At 40,255 hectares it is vast, measuring 35 km by 15 km of mostly glacial till, rock material transported by a glacier.
Following a recapitalization and restructuring in 2022, which resulted in the installation of a new board of directors and management team, EGR is keen to get moving on the project.
The plan is to discover what lies beneath the 40 to 45 metres of glacial till, and EGR CEO Daniel Rodriguez is optimistic that a drill program this winter will reveal good news.
"That’s the big push; that we’ll have drills turning, starting as early as possible but the ground needs to freeze first,” Rodriguez told Proactive.
“Being on trends and next to such a large producing mine … this juggernaut … we're trying to prove that we are the extension; that there are more discoveries that can be made on a very fruitful belt. The goal is to make that discovery.”
Changes at the top
With strong support from its shareholders, EGR welcomed in a new board of directors in June 2022 and overhauled its management team following a proxy battle.
It has since added David Stevenson, a founder and chief geoscientist of Kenorland Minerals, to its board, who Rodriguez described as an expert in undercover exploration and grassroots exploration.
The changes also resulted in a clean-up of its balance sheet, the consolidation and repayment of a large portion of its debt, and the acquisition of the keyhole area in the centre of Detour West.
To date, there is limited data on the property, which remains largely unexplored, apart from drill holes by Dome Mines in 1984 and an unsuccessful sonic drill program in 2020 that barely scratched the surface of the property, drilling just 2 km of the 35 km strike.
“There was a lot left unanswered, and that’s what we’re working on; taking a very regional and district-scale approach to exploring the property to increase our chances of making a discovery,” Rodriguez said.
After completing an airborne magnetic interpretation over the project earlier in 2023, EGR is compiling new, crisp data with government data and data from historical drill holes from the 1980s to highlight targets and new areas of interest for the fall/winter drill program. The data has been outsourced to consultants to narrow down the targeted areas.
“We know everything that we can know about the property at this stage,” Rodriguez said. “It is limited data, but we’ve tried to bring a lot of good minds into this.”
A summer prospecting program also investigated several potential outcrops that were identified from previously collected LiDAR data to add to the company’s geological understanding of the property.
“We’ve recently just finished outcrops; we did some grab samples and ran an outcrop prospecting program. We’re just waiting to get the results,” Rodriguez said.
“All that information gives us more geology to marry up to the geophysics that we have. We’re as prepared as we can be ahead of the drill program.”
Winter drill program
This winter, the company is planning 125 short holes, with the expectation that at least 75 will be completed depending on weather conditions, starting at the areas of highest interest and working across the property.
“The goal is to get drills turning as much as possible so we can keep moving forward,” Rodriguez said.
While the company plans to go to market to fund the program, some assistance has come from the Ontario government after it was also approved to receive up to $200,000 through an Ontario Junior Exploration Program Grant (OJEP). The funds will pay for the airborne magnetics survey, interpretive work, and summer prospecting programs.
If it successfully proves gold exists under the glacial till at Detour West, Rodriguez said the company will look for a strategic joint-venture partner of scale and size that wants to take the project on and be part of the discovery.
“I call it, we’re always looking for a sugar daddy,” Rodriquez joked. “I think it’s a big goal.”
Growth opportunities
Beyond Detour West, EGR is looking at other projects to complement the winter-focused Detour West project.
“We need to add to our portfolio and we are looking at all our options, whether that is through M&A or through staking,” Rodriguez said.
“We’re actively looking at opportunities. I believe we have the right share structure, and it’s a good environment to do M&A right now.
In the meantime, EGR is also looking for a partner or buyer for its Urban Barry property across the border in Quebec.
It has a very similar story to Detour West; it’s underexplored, it’s a closeology play, and it's in a very fruitful belt, Rodriguez said.
It is also located next to Osisko Mining (TSX:OR.WT)’s 50%-owned Windfall project, where it has been proven that there is gold and there is room for further discovery, he said.
“But the same steps have to be taken as Detour West and so our focus and budget has been solely on Detour West just because it is ten times the size,” Rodriguez said.
“There is just more ground to cover at Detour. It’s something that we believe that somebody else should take on.”
As winter draws closer, Rodriguez said his level of confidence is high.
“There’s loads of potential, and that’s what keeps me very optimistic. Looking at all the data that we’ve collected, talking with the geologists, talking with outside consultants, this is pure exploration,” he said.
“We’re not chasing historical holes; we’re not trying to redrill something. This is as pure exploration as it gets, and the upside in that can be massive. That’s what keeps me excited.”
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com