American Eagle Gold Corp (TSX-V:AE) said it has decided to make a strategic shift to focus on exploration in Canada as it confirmed plans to change the name of the company to Drillore Exploration Inc.
The news came as the company announced that at its annual and special meeting of its shareholders held on June 3, 2022, each item of business placed before the shareholders was approved, including the re-election of the current board of directors and the change of the name.
The company said its focus will be exploring the NAK copper-gold porphyry project in Central British Columbia (BC). Since the acquisition of NAK in December 2021, an extraordinary amount of work has been put into the property, justifying the company's decision to focus its attention on exploring this property.
Therefore, American Eagle said, it will exit the USA and focus on expanding its presence in BC by making a discovery, defining a resource at NAK and further consolidating the area.
READ: American Eagle Gold expands its team to advance the NAK Copper-Gold Porphyry project
The company noted that the vast amount of historical data and new interpretations on NAK has provided confidence that a high-grade underground deposit could exist. Compared to exploring in Nevada, it said, BC offers a far superior risk-reward ratio, making it in the best interest of shareholders to shift focus to a jurisdiction that is more cost-effective for exploration drilling and managing a business.
At NAK, drilling will begin this year, and the company said it will test 5-7 drill site locations with a minimum of 3,000 metres (m) of drilling. The company added that it has contracted ITL Drilling, and drills will begin turning within two weeks of receiving permits.
The company pointed out that historical results at NAK have been encouraging, with the majority of the historical drill holes ending in copper and gold mineralization. The property exhibits an extensive copper-gold bearing alteration footprint with indications of higher grades occurring at depth. Historical drilling has been restricted to the upper parts of the mineralized alteration zone and limited drilling has been undertaken below a vertical depth of 170m. NAK shows strong geological similarities with Newcrest's Red Chris and Newmont's Saddle copper-gold deposits located to the north of NAK.
As a result of the change in focus, the company said will not pursue its interests on any claims in Nevada as its management believes that NAK and other opportunities in the company's strategy offer better prospects and higher potential risk-adjusted returns for shareholders.
American Eagle Gold is fully funded for NAK's 2022 exploration program and is awaiting its permit to begin drilling. It has contracted C.J. Greig and Associates to advise and execute the company's exploration program at NAK.
The company thinks the NAK project offers it a valuable risk-reward proposition to drill test a new geophysical feature within a well-understood geologic environment. NAK's known copper-gold porphyry mineralization is open at depth and is defined by a compelling geophysical signature analogous to Newcrest's Red Chris Mine and Newmont's Saddle deposit located in Northwest BC.
The drilling targets of NAK were defined and supported by the analysis and reinterpretation of geochemical, geophysics and drilling data, all of which demonstrated coincidental anomalies.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com