We told you so.
Equitas Resources (EQT.V), who wisely pivoted from a middling nickel play into a producing gold play earlier this year, and which we have said again and again was undervalued, grew that valuation nicely today when it announced the discovery of near-surface, high grade gold mineralization at the Baldo Zone in its Brazilian Cajueiro Gold project.
Chris Harris, President and CEO of the Zimtu-backed Equitas, said, “This provides good support for the Company’s focus on fast track gold production and potential for further upgrading of the resource.“
You want highlights? We’ve got highlights.
- Initial assay results identify eight intersections of 1.16 g/t Au or greater;
- Two high-grade intervals of 24.26 g/t Au over 2m, and 18.86 g/t Au over 2m;
- A broader separate near-surface interval of 12m @ 1.42 g/t Au;
- The exploration program is being extended with diamond drilling, auger drilling and trenching to further delineate and expand on the intersections achieved to date;
- To date 733 of 757 trench assays have been received, and all drill core results are still outstanding.
A *lot* of people I’ve talked to about Equitas have said they wanted to wait and see what sort of numbers came back before getting involved in the deal, but those people just missed a 35% jump on what can only be called crazy volume, with almost ten million shares changing hands at the time of writing. The train hasn’t left the station yet, but the first class carriage is full.
In fact, when we first started covering Equitas, you could have picked it up for $0.04. A week ago, you could have had it for $0.07, a nice upward shift all by itself. Today? $0.115. That’s almost a triple since we started writing about the company.
Equitas just blew away the stigma of their miss at the nickel play, and continue to put runs on the board. Their exploration program announced late May 26th is over, and was completed on time and on budget. That comes to 31 diamond drill holes totaling 1585m, and 1.6kms of trenching over nine trenches.
From the company news release:
The trenching program targeted gold mineralization in near-surface saprolite, the oxidized equivalent of hydrothermally altered bedrock structures hosting gold mineralization with associated pyrite and quartz veining. Assays received to date, for trenches TCBL_0001 to 0005 inclusive, a portion of TCBL_0006, and TCBL_0008, have identified eight discrete intervals of interest, as listed in the table below:
Trench
From (m)
To (m)
Interval (m)
Au g/t
TCBL_0001
47.0
49.0
2.0
1.16
TCBL_0001
60.0
72.0
12.0
1.40
TCBL_0003
23.0
28.0
5.0
1.26
TCBL_0003
167.0
171.0
4.0
2.12
TCBL_0003
197.0
199.0
2.0
24.26
TCBL_0004
146.0
148.0
2.0
5.54
TCBL_0004
173.0
175.0
2.0
18.86
TCBL_0006
31.0
38.0
7.0
1.57
VP of Exploration Everett Makela said in the release, “All eight of the intersections achieved to date are worthy of follow-up, as the saprolite can be directly excavated on surface and trucked to a processing plant, without the need for drilling and blasting. The high grade intervals in trenches TCBL_0003 and TCBL_0004 appear to represent a corresponding increase in structural complexity that adds an exciting new element to the Baldo environment. I would also emphasize that a majority of the assay results have yet to be received, so there is considerable new information still to come from this exploration program.”
In terms of putting Equitas exactly where it needs to be, this news does the job. In addition, however, the potential for expansion almost outweighs the legitimizing of what they already knew to be there.
Additional Targets at Baldo
Previous mapping and surface sampling has revealed the Baldo area as host to widespread gold mineralization in the saprolite. To date three additional target signatures similar to the current focus area have been identified.
Keep it coming, fellas.
To hear the podcast we did with Equitas a short while back, go take a look here.
— Chris Parry
http://www.twitter.com/chrisparry
FULL DISCLOSURE: Equitas Resources is an Equity.Guru marketing client.