NioGold Mining Corporation executives, Michael Iverson and Rock LeFrançois expand on why they are excited about their company’s upcoming mining projects.
NioGold Mining Corporation is a company that is known for its gold deposits and gold mining. “We’re about 14 kilometers on trend, on strike, of which 8 kilometers hasn’t been explored,” said Michael Iverson, Chairman and CEO of NioGold. “The other 6 kilometers already have three mines and, in the last couple of years, we have established a sizeable resource. We are open to depth on all three of them, and we’re excited about going out and discovering the new deposits.”
Rock LeFrançois, a professional geologist and President and COO of NioGold, echoed Iverson’s sentiments. “We’re going to be very aggressive in the next few years and we know if we’re going to drill, it’s just going to keep on growing,” he said. “Right now, we’re located in the hottest gold camp in Canada, between two other big companies. We’ve done about 50,000 meters of drilling in the last 2-1/2 years. We’re also coming up with a new resource estimate where we’ll have proven up in excess of a half million ounces or more, just with that drilling alone.
We’re trying to gear up a program of 100,000 meters in the next two years. We know in this camp, the more we drill, the more we find which has been proven by our neighbors.”
NioGold’s focus is in the Abitibi Greenstone belt that spans 160 miles from Ontario to Quebec (about 300 miles north of Montreal). This region has produced 170,000,000 ounces of gold in the last 100 years. NioGold has assembled a large, 40 sq. mile land package in this belt, particularly in the Cadillac, Malartic, and Val d’Or camps, that encompass about 40 miles along the “Golden Highway” where 45,000,000 oz gold have been produced and about 15,000,000 oz gold are currently in reserve.
According to LeFrançois, there are two producing mines located on the fault right now, as well as several past producers. “On our property, there were about 600,000 ounces produced along that fault zone, in a very short distance, over a 3 kilometer strike,” he said. “We have about 8 kilometers of that fault zone tied up that haven’t seen any drilling yet, so we see a lot of upside there to find a new deposit, and that’s what we’re doing right now. We’ve stepped away from the known deposits where we’ve drilled for the last 2-1/2 years, and are busy doing exploration drilling right now in order to find the next deposit.”
As far as the drilling plan goes, NioGold has definitely done its geological homework. “The main thing is, along this fault zone you have to find areas where it has been disrupted by cross faults or foldings,” explained LeFrançois. “And that’s where things can open up and where the next deposit may be. So, we’re going to be targeting those areas for drilling and it’s going to be shallow drilling. Since it hasn’t been drilled before, it’s going to be very short drilling, near surface, within the first 200 meters of surface.”
Compared to their neighbors, NioGold’s market cap is relatively low. “Our market cap is about $16 million,” said Iverson. “ And it’s fairly low compared to other companies located in that same area. But, you have to remember that we are the newest kids on the block, with one of the largest unexplored structures. So you know, it’s like basically a golden highway. We might be [at this market cap] today, but with some success and discovering more gold ounces, we will be much higher.”
With experienced executives at the helm, the future appears to be bright for NioGold. “I’ve been in the industry for about 23 years,” said LeFrançois. “I worked in the Abitibi as well as the southwest U. S. and Mexico in the field as a geologist, and joined junior mining companies around five years ago. I gained a lot of experience participating in the promotion and financing of mining companies.”
“I’ve been in this business for about 14 years,” added Iverson. “This is the third company I’ve been with. Our market cap at NioGold may be low, but in 2-1/2 years we have put this land package together and we have drilled over 50,000 meters. All that’s left to do is drill, drill, drill and find gold, gold, gold.”
Having a solid infrastructure at the mining campsite will help move the process along. “Everything’s there,” said Iverson. “The drilling contractors, engineering firms — everything. Other than that, there are about eight working gold mills in and around our property from all of the operating mines, so finding an ounce of gold in that camp is very inexpensive. The drilling costs are very low. And, once you find gold, it’s also very inexpensive to have it processed, with all of the mills around.”
According to Iverson, the Quebec government is generous to exploration when it comes to mining. “Every dollar we spend in the ground, we get 34 cents back from the government,” he said. “Which is very good for the share structure; less dilution, less financing.”
Investors should be just as excited about the NioGold’s prospects. “We’re in one of the best addresses in Canada as far as gold is concerned,” said Iverson. “We’re building ounces and we’re going to be very active in drilling to build more ounces. Right now the share price is at a level where it’s going to move upwards.”
“We are located in the best environment,” added LeFrançois. “Quebec was picked as the number one mining jurisdiction in the world.”
Since October 2004, NioGold has secured mining properties and established drilling projects with promising results making it little wonder why LeFrançois and Iverson are excited.
For more information:
http://www.niogold.com
Corporate Office
NioGold Mining Corporation
24549 53rd Avenue, Langley
British Columbia, Canada
V2Z 1H6
Toll Free: 1-877-642-6200
Fax: +1.604.856.9479
Exploration Headquarters
NioGold Mining Corporation
847- 5th Avenue
Val-d’Or (Quebec)
J9P 1C1
Fax: +1.819.825.2774