On My Horizon

From time to time I do an “On my Radar” piece about my first look at a particular company. But, before a company gets my first in-depth look, I have to see it off in the distance. Or it will be brought to my attention. There are hundreds of interesting companies in the junior resource sector, but I have limited time and limited money to invest. So I look for interesting opportunities.

A sector which I think is under appreciated is tin. I have an investment in Eloro (ELO.T) which is bringing along a huge tin deposit in Bolivia. Very interesting but, well, in Bolivia. What about tin in North America? Specifically, in BC.

Barry Miller is a subscriber to “Talking My Book” and is the President/CEO of Rare Earth Ridge Resources Corp which is pivoting away from Rare Earths toward tin in Northern BC.

The company is on my distant horizon as it is not yet publicly traded. It is raising funds by way of a proposed private placement and will be vending its properties into a publically traded shell company. The venture is presently sailing under the name Tinova. It has a website: https://www.tinovaresources.com/, a well-done presentation and a fact sheet.

There are two projects: Ash Mountain and Mt. Hart, both of which have elevated levels of tin in historical sampling. The tin found in samples has been in a granite matrix which makes recovery more feasible. That said, this is at the earliest of early stages. There might be something there, there might not.

Miller has assembled an experienced executive team, led by Ernest Cleave, with some geological depth as well. Tinova has the ingredients for a first-class junior if it can float its initial private placement. I spoke to Miller briefly and he seemed confident that the placement would be filled.

Once there is a publicly traded entity, I will be taking a closer look.

A couple of months ago Simon Dyakowski pointed me in the direction of GSP Resources (GSPR.V) which I wrote about here and here. He also mentioned Aztec Resources (AZT.V) which has properties in Arizona and Senora, Mexico. I was a bit busy and only glanced at AZT.

However, Robert Sinn, aka “Goldfinger” has been following AZT and his frequent mentions of the company swung my attention around. AZT’s news flow has been focused on the Arizona “Tombstone” project. This project is in an area which has already been extensively mined for silver and gold. Nothing wrong with that:

Tombstone produced 32M ounces of Silver, 240K ounces of Gold, 65M pounds of Lead, and 1.1M pounds of Zinc from 1.5M tons and mostly from oxide ores between 1878 and 1939 (AZT website)

The great thing about old time miners is that they chased the most obvious high grade material and left the rest as uneconomic with the mining and recovery technologies of the time. The technology has changed a lot and with it what might be considered “economic”.

Here’s the “blue sky” from the company’s most recent press release:

Aztec believes that the historic silver mines at Tombstone could be related to a much larger mesothermal system with CRD mineralization below the old mines. Since 2017, Aztec has completed geological mapping, geochemical sampling and geophysical surveying to identify the most prospective areas for Au-Ag mineralization around and below the Contention open pit, and CRD zinc-lead-copper-silver-gold mineralization below the entire district. Aztec management views the district as highly prospective for the discovery of mesothermal and CRD mineralization.

The press release summarising the 2024 Exploration Drilling program is worth reading. Lots of mineralization including a bonanza grade ((233.7 opt AgEq – 3,669 gpt Ag, 44.7 gpt Au) silver/gold intercept over 1.52 meters.

Aztec remains on my horizon simply because I do not yet know what its 2025 drilling program will look like or how it will be funded. I’ll be watching for that announcement and a starter position below $0.20 is looking attractive.

As I write, gold is trading at $3426 USD an ounce. An all-time high. Gold producers are coining money. Gold developers are firming up. Gold explorers? Well, looking for ounces in the ground has become more attractive, but we are some distance from the full-on feeding frenzy which sends the explorers skywards. But you can see it from here.

My pal Bernie Kreft got me into one of his exploration projects, Kestrel Gold, (KGC.V) a couple of years ago and it promptly lost about 50% of its value and has bumped along at between $0.03 and 0.05. The joy of junior explorers. However, Kestrel has not been idle.

In March 2024, Kestrel completed the acquisition of the highly prospective QCM property from, well, Bernie Kreft. A bit of cash and many shares which left Bernie holding 12.76 million shares or a little over 12% of the company. So Bernie is interested.

In May 2024, Kestrel entered into an option agreement with Centerra Gold (CG.T) which allowed Centerra to “earn a 75% interest in the QCM gold property” by “making cash payments totaling $900,000 and incurring mineral exploration costs totaling $6,500,000 on QCM”. Centerra is a mid-sized Canadian mining company which, inter alia, operates the Mount Milligan Mine in British Columbia. It has plenty of cash and an excellent operating reputation.

Critically, the option agreement requires actual drilling, “a minimum of 13,500 metres of drilling, by May 7th, 2029”. This is important to investors as it means there will be news flow as Centerra fulfils its drilling commitment.

In a news release dated 17 April, 2025, Kestrel outlined Centerra’s plans for its second season of drilling at the QCM property:

Centerra's second year program has an approved budget of $3-million, with current planning for 7,430 metres of diamond drilling. Work will be concentrated in the Main zone and 14 vein areas, along with exploration of other showings, and is anticipated to begin by the end of May.

All of which might go some distance in explaining why almost 4x its average daily volume on April 21. On Twitter, I asked Bernie what was up?

Bumps in volume are often indicators of renewed interest in a junior explorer. “Trading by appointment only” is broker speak for dead money, 4x volume is just the opposite.

Kestrel may very well be poised to catch the all time high gold price updraft. It is back on my investing horizon and closing fast.

(Disclaimer: I hold shares in Eloro, GSP Resources and Kestrel which I may buy or sell at any time. This is not investment advice. Do your own due diligence. Call the CEO.)