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Ho, To The Klondike!: Klondike Gold Corp. (TSXV:KG)
Ho, To The Klondike!: Klondike Gold Corp. (TSXV:KG)
| Mining Analyst
research@redcloudsecurities.com
Investment Thesis
Table of Contents
Klondike Gold is an explorer focused on delineating a maiden resource
Investment Thesis 1 at its Klondike District property in the Yukon. The company holds a 100%-
interest in the Klondike District property (~585 km2), which covers the area
Catalysts 4
that was at the center of the historic Klondike Gold Rush. Previously, the
Valuation 4 company’s objective was to identify the hard rock source for the legendary
Klondike placer gold. Having accomplished that goal near the end of 2019,
Relative Valuation 5
the company’s focus switched to delineating a maiden resource at its most
Assets 7 advanced zones of gold mineralization – the Lone Star and Stander zones,
which run parallel to one another. Klondike Gold has also started to develop
Klondike District Property 7
a pipeline of earlier-stage targets on the property. In our view, Klondike
Risks 17 Gold has a comprehensive understanding of the geological controls on
orogenic gold mineralization and a dominant land position in the
Appendix A: Mineral Inventory
Klondike District, which should enable it to continue having success
Estimate 18 with the drill bit. We believe that the time to invest is now, in advance
Appendix B: Management & of 2021 drilling and a maiden resource estimate planned for 2022.
Directors 19
A little bit of history. The historic Klondike Gold rush was precipitated by
the discovery of gold in the beds of the numerous creeks that run through
the district in 1896. When two ships, the Excelsior and Portland, arrived in
San Francisco and Seattle, respectively, with prospectors carrying a total of
three tons of gold it set off a mad dash for the Yukon. A total of ~100,000
men and women endured treacherous conditions as they journeyed
towards the Klondike, with only ~30,000 of those who set out ultimately
reaching Dawson City. Of that number, only ~4,000 struck gold and much
The creeks in the Klondike fewer ultimately became rich. The stampede reached its climax in the
have produced +20M oz of winter of 1897-1898, after which word started to get out that there was no
Au since 1896 prospective placer ground left to be had. Dawson City reached a population
of ~40,000 in 1898 and was temporarily the largest city north of San
Francisco, before gold was discovered in 1899 in Nome, Alaska which,
together with the Spanish-American war, prompted its swift decline and
marked the end of the Klondike Gold Rush. Placer mining gold from the
Klondike creeks has continued at a less fervent pace from then until now;
currently ~25k oz Au per year production. Ultimately, a total of +20M oz of
placer Au is estimated to have come out of the creek beds in the Klondike
since 1896. However, since the original Gold Rush in 1987 the ultimate
bedrock source of the Klondike placer gold has been sought, and until
Klondike Gold started conducting significant exploration in 2015,
nobody had seriously looked for it. To date, the company has made
substantial progress advancing its geological understanding of the
district and has identified numerous bedrock sources of Klondike Gold.
A new geological model for the Klondike. Since 2015, the company has
refined its understanding of how gold ended up in the Klondike. The
exploration model essentially recognizes that NE-trending “D4” faults are
The Klondike District is responsible for gold mineralization, and that the D4 fault process also
located in the Tintina Gold reactivated and introduced gold mineralization into some earlier “D3” NW-
Belt, which hosts numerous trending faults. “Hotspots” for gold mineralization occur where these
significant gold deposits two types of faults intersect, which explains one of the best
intersections to date at the Stander zone of 1,009 g/t Au and 1,035 g/t Ag
over 1m (EC190267). Gold mineralization identified to date is hosted in both
quartz sheeted vein arrays in addition to the Klondike schist, which hosts
broad widths of disseminated gold. With this new understanding of the
Klondike geology, the company has successfully drilled numerous
targets on the property and is well on its way towards delineating a
maiden resource at the Lone Star and Stander zones in 2022.
$0.45
$0.40
$0.35
BYN announces 903,945
$0.30 oz Au initial mineral
Banyan Gold could serve as a resource estimate for
blueprint for what can happen $0.25 the Aurmac property
$0.10
$0.05
$0.00
16-Jan-20 16-Apr-20 16-Jul-20 16-Oct-20 16-Jan-21
TSXV:BYN
Catalysts
2021 drilling to form backbone for maiden resource. We expect assays for
30 holes drilled as part of the Phase 4 program at the Klondike property in
the latter part of 2020 to kick off news flow for the company in 2021. Going
Key catalysts include: 2021 forward, the company plans to drill at least 6,000m largely at existing
drilling and a maiden resource mineralized zones in preparation for a maiden resource, but also at new
in 2022 targets at the Klondike District property. After receiving data from the
upcoming 2021 program, the company is planning to put together a
maiden resource estimate, likely in the inferred category, for release in 2022.
Valuation
Our C$0.50 target was derived using our probability-weighted valuation
methodology. This methodology accounts for the probability of each
scenario being achieved, along with the time and money required to
achieve them. It uses our mineral inventory estimates as shown in Appendix
A. For Klondike Gold our three valuation scenarios are outlined as follows:
Lower Case ~0.5M oz at ~1.0 g/t Au (US$40/oz) $26.7 $0.0 0.0 133.7 $0.20 1.0 $0.18 10%
Middle Case ~1.5M oz at ~1.1 g/t Au (US$40/oz) $80.0 $5.0 16.5 150.2 $0.53 2.0 $0.46 30%
Upper Case ~2M oz at ~1.2 g/t Au (US$40/oz) $112.9 $10.0 6.2 156.4 $0.72 3.0 $0.57 60%
Relative Valuation
Continued exploration success and a maiden resource could drive re-
rating. With an enterprise value (EV) of ~$28M, we believe continued
exploration success at the Klondike property could drive the share price
Klondike Gold trades at a upwards. We would also expect a re-rating when the company releases a
discount to pre-resource peers maiden resource estimate for the project. Based on comparative valuations
for early-stage peers (see table below), we estimate that Klondike Gold’s EV
could re-rate by a factor of 2x to 10x on positive drilling news.
Klondike Gold Corp. TSXV:KG $0.24 -4% 133.7 $31.4 $3.2 $0.0 $28.2
Amex Exploration Inc. TSXV:AMX $2.87 -25% 90.5 $259.8 $31.8 $0.0 $228.0
QMX Gold Corporation TSXV:QMX $0.29 78% 478.9 $136.5 $9.4 $2.8 $129.9
Northern Superior Resources Inc. TSXV:SUP $1.40 -8% 71.5 $100.0 $6.6 $0.0 $93.5
Metallic Minerals Corp. TSXV:MMG $0.70 4% 137.6 $96.3 $6.2 $0.0 $90.1
NuLegacy Gold Corporation TSXV:NUG $0.14 -4% 606.4 $81.9 $6.2 $0.0 $75.7
Cantex Mine Development Corp. TSXV:CD $0.93 1% 55.5 $51.6 $4.0 $0.3 $47.9
Trillium Gold Mines Inc. TSXV:TGM $1.34 -14% 38.9 $52.1 $8.6 $0.1 $43.6
Galleon Gold Corp. TSXV:GGO $0.09 -18% 489.3 $44.0 $3.6 $0.3 $40.7
StrikePoint Gold Inc. TSXV:SKP $0.22 -21% 192.5 $42.3 $2.1 $0.0 $40.3
Pacton Gold Inc. TSXV:PAC $0.89 -14% 37.4 $33.3 $5.4 $0.0 $27.9
K2 Gold Corporation TSXV:KTO $0.35 -51% 65.2 $22.8 $3.0 $0.0 $19.8
Northern Shield Resources Inc. TSXV:NRN $0.08 -12% 279.9 $21.0 $2.0 $0.0 $19.1
Stratabound Minerals Corp. TSXV:SB $0.23 -26% 92.7 $21.3 $4.4 $0.0 $16.9
Strategic Metals Ltd. TSXV:SMD $0.40 0% 106.9 $42.2 $28.3 $0.8 $14.7
Quebec Precious Metals Corporation TSXV:QPM $0.25 7% 67.8 $16.6 $2.1 $0.0 $14.5
Aben Resources Ltd. TSXV:ABN $0.07 -7% 128.7 $8.4 $1.2 $0.0 $7.2
Median $40.5
Note: Average $56.9
*Peer financial metrics are as of the latest financial statements.
Figure 7: US$EV/oz Au Yukon peers with KG range based on hypothetical resource (1.5-2M oz Au)
$40.00
$37.01
$35.00
$32.58
$30.00
$25.00
US$EV/oz Au
$20.00
$16.16
Average
$14.81
$15.00
$12.29
$10.27
$10.00 $11.11
$8.33
$5.00
$2.95
$0.00
White Gold Cantex Mine Banyan Gold Golden Klondike Gold Triumph Gold ATAC Strategic
Corp. Development Corp. Predator Corp. Corp. Resources Ltd. Metals Ltd.
Corp. Mining Corp. (RCS Est.)
Source: RCS Estimates, S&P Capital IQ, S&P Global Market Intelligence
Assets
Klondike District Property
Klondike
District
Property
Infrastructure
Given that the Klondike District is in the vicinity of Dawson City (pop. 1,375 –
The Klondike District property 2016), the project has excellent access to government roads within the
has excellent access to project area, as well as direct access to the Klondike Highway, the Dawson
infrastructure airport, as well as power, water and town facilities and infrastructure.
Importantly, heavy equipment and considerable local mining expertise is
available in the region.
Quartz veining is widespread in the Klondike, and some rock units locally
have up to 10% vein material by volume. Most of this quartz occurs as early,
segregation veins that are parallel to compositional layering in the schistose
Quartz veining is widespread in lithologies and are interpreted to have formed during the ductile
the Klondike deformation associated with the D1/D2 and D3 deformational events. These
veins in the Klondike contain neither gold nor sulfides. Gold-bearing quartz
veins represent a later veining event (D4) and occur at scattered localities
throughout the district. Gold generally occurs most often as free grains
within vein quartz, and also adjacent to or as inclusions within pyrite,
especially in pyritic selvages that are present along the margins of some of
the veins.
March 18, 2021 8 Ho, To The Klondike!
Taylor Combaluzier, P.Geo. | Mining Analyst
In the right good neighbourhood. The Tintina Gold Belt extends from
Alaska through the Yukon into British Columbia and is known to host
significant gold deposits including Northern Star’s (ASX:NST, Not Covered)
Pogo mine (7.6M oz Au), Newmont’s (NYSE:NEM, Not Covered) Coffee
deposit (4.1M oz Au) and White Gold’s (TSXV:WGO, Not Covered) Golden
Saddle deposit (1.5M oz Au). In total, >50M oz of gold have been defined
throughout the Tintina Gold Belt in the past 20 years (Figure 11).
Figure 11: The Klondike District is within the Tintina Gold Belt
Notably, the Lone Star Zone and Stander Zone are both (D3-related)
structures cross-cut by the newly recognized (D4) faulting. The company
interprets the Stander Zone intersection of 1,009 g/t Au and 1,035 g/t Ag
over 1m from 104-105m depth (EC19-267) to be situated at the
intersection of localized NW (D3) and NE (D4) trending structures.
Exploration
The Company’s exploration has primarily focused on the Lone Star zone and
the Stander zone, which cover ~10% of the total land position in the NW end
of the Klondike District property. Other areas identified by prospecting
and/or outlined by soils and geophysics require additional work to vector
exploration and have yet to be significantly drill tested. Nevertheless, the
company intends to develop a pipeline of targets as it works towards a
maiden resource estimate for the Lone Star and Stander zones in 2022. A
total of 393 holes (37,560m) have been drilled on the property since the
beginning of 2015. Additionally, the company has carried out district-scale
geophysical surveys including: LIDAR, ground magnetic surveys, airborne
magnetic and radiometric surveys and geological mapping. A large
number of soil samples, rock sample and channel samples have been
collected and analyzed as well.
Figure 13: Drilling Summary for the Klondike District Property (2015-2020)
Drilling
Year # of Holes meters
2020 52 4,055
A total of 393 holes (37,560m) 2019 94 8,628
has been drilled since 2015
2018 87 9,512
2017 70 8,621
2016 71 5,375
2015 19 1,369
Total 393 37,560
The Lone Star zone is the company’s most advanced target with 216 holes
having been drilled since the beginning of 2015. Based on reported assays
for 150 holes (with a total of 170 unique intercepts) we have calculated a
The Lone Star zone is the
weighted average grade of 0.77 g/t Au over an average width of 25.4m.
most advanced target in the
In our view, this grade would likely be lower than an actual resource
Klondike District
estimate (which would be more selective and refined than our crude
estimate). We believe the average width is favourable and would be
supportive of an open pit mining scenario. In addition to drilling, the
company has collected data from geophysical surveys (IP, magnetic and
radiometric), structural and lithological mapping, rock sampling and
channel sampling.
Highlight Intercepts:
• 2.4 g/t Au over 40.9m (LS17-82)
• 1.02 g/t Au over 91m (LS18-201)
• 2.4 g/t Au over 37m (LS16-58)
Figure 14: Location of Lone Star Zone and Stander Zone Segments
Stander zone
The Stander zone is the company’s second most advanced target with 113
holes having been drilled since the beginning of 2015. Based on reported
assays for 43 holes (with a total of 56 unique intercepts) we have
calculated a weighted average grade of 2.63 g/t Au over an average
width of 13.8m. We would note that the grade is higher in the Stander zone,
Higher grades at the Stander as gold mineralization identified to date is predominantly hosted by quartz
zone are attributable to Au veining and quartz vein arrays along the Nugget Fault, in contrast to the
being hosted in quartz veins Lone Star zone where intermediate schist is the primary host unit for gold
which is permissive for extended widths of disseminated gold with much
less frequent quartz veining.
Highlight Intercepts:
• 404.2 g/t Au and 415.4 g/t Ag over 2.5m (EC19-267)
• 4.3 g/t Au and 1.1 g/t Ag over 21.5m (EC19-256)
• 1.4 g/t Au over 65.05m (LS18-156)
Figure 16: Three ‘levels’ of quartz veining at the Stander zone (Long section)
Gay Gulch
At the Gay Gulch gold showing, mapping and drilling have identified Au-
bearing quartz veining hosted within brittle felsic rocks developed adjacent
to the NW-trending fault Eldorado Fault over a 5-km distance. Gold was
discovered in quartz veins and first drill tested by a six-hole program in
2015. The best result at the time was an intersection of 75.6 g/t Au over
2.8m in hole EC15-10. A seven-hole program was subsequently completed
in 2019 that showed the potential for Au mineralization along the main NW-
trending Eldorado Fault and also along an intersecting N-trending zone of
younger faulting and intrusions.
Highlight Intercepts:
• 75.6 g/t Au over 2.8m (EC15-10)
• 10.9 g/t Au over 1.55m (EC15-13)
• 1.09 g/t Au over 9.8m (EC19-245)
Highlight Intercepts:
• 1.23 g/t Au over 13.5m (GR18-162)
• 0.99 g/t Au over 1.45m (GR18-160)
Figure 17: Exploration Summary for the Klondike District Property (2015-2021)
Quartz Veins
Drilled 94 holes
(8,628m)
Initial Exploration targeting high-
Drilled 19 holes grade Au
(1,369m) at the mineralization at
Stander, Gay Testing Lone Star Gay Gulch and Resource
Gulch and Drilled 70 holes Stander zone. Definition
Buckland zones. (8,621m) primarily Highlights: 1,009 Plan to drill
Highlights: at the Lone Star g/t Au and 1,035 6,000m starting in
75.6 g/t Au over zone g/t Ag over 1m Q2/21 in
2.1m (EC15-10) Five holes drilled (EC19-267) and 9 preparation for a
4.6 g/t Au over at the Stander g/t Au over 10m maiden resource
7.65m (EC15-01) zone (EC19-256) estimate in 2022
Placer Properties
Although the main focus remains the Klondike District hard rock claims, the
company also holds interests in three placer gold properties, including: the
Klondike Gold also owns Upper Eldorado Creek Placer, the Eldorado Creek Bench and the Montana
three placer properties (24 Creek Placer projects. Of note, Klondike Gold entered into a lease
km2) agreement with Dulac Mining on the Upper Eldorado Creek Placer,
whereby it receives a direct 10% gold production royalty from mining on the
placer, payable in raw gold. In 2020, Dulac Mining recovered a total of 500
oz of raw gold from 2020 processing. Dulac plans to conduct a full operating
season on the property in 2021.
Next Steps
The company has planned an initial 6,000m drill program set to
commence in early Q2/21. Drilling is expected to target the Lone Star zone
to depth beneath the known gold envelope for deeper extensions of gold
mineralization, along with near-surface drill testing of both the Stander and
Lone Star zones. Drilling at these two zones is designed to support a maiden
resource estimate anticipated for release in Q2/22. Additionally, Klondike
Gold is planning to drill the Gold Run and Virgin targets, as part of its
pipeline growth program to evaluate and advance prospective areas within
the Klondike District. These newly defined targets are believed to be of
similar scale to the Lone Star and Stander zones, and positive drill results
could potentially start to demonstrate the district scale potential of the
project (Figure 18).
Figure 18: Klondike District Property 2021 Drill Areas (red stars)
Steady news flow in 2021 Klondike Gold is well-funded for exploration in 2021 with $3.2M in the
should kick off with assays treasury. We are expecting a steady stream of drill results this year,
from 30 drill holes completed beginning with assays for 30 holes that were completed as part of the
in late 2020 company’s Phase 4 drill program at the property in late 2020.
Risks
Exploration, development, and mining projects are inherently risky
investments given the large initial expenses that are required in advance of
any potential revenue. Our view is based on publicly available information
but note that our estimates and views are not without political, technical,
geologic or financing risk typical for junior exploration companies. For
Klondike Gold, these risks may include:
Figure 19: RCS Mineral Inventory Estimate for the Klondike District property
Deposit Dimensions (m)
Case Zone Length Width Depth Volume (m3) Density (t/m3) Tonnes Grade (g/t) Au (oz)
Lone Star 1,000 100 50 5,000,000 2.65 13,250,000 0.78 332,278
Lower
Stander 300 50 50 750,000 2.65 1,987,500 2.63 168,056
Total 15,237,500 1.02 500,334
Disclosure Statement
Updated March 17, 2021
Recommendation / Target Change Red Cloud Securities has this percentage of its
universe assigned as the following:
Date Rating Target C$/sh Status %
2021-03-08 NA NA BUY 46%
BUY (S) 10%
HOLD 0%
SELL / Tender 0%
NA 6%
Under Review 38%
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