Overview
Inflationary pressure has affected most markets, and gold was not immune from its effects. Major financial events triggered an increase in the gold price in 2023 with the average gold price forecast for the year to reach $2,055 per ounce.
On the supply side, mining jurisdictions play a vital role in the success or failure of a mining project. A mining-friendly jurisdiction with a government and local community that supports the industry creates a stable environment for projects to reach their full potential. Conversely, unfriendly jurisdictions can create endless hurdles and challenges, leaving impressive projects unable to reach full development. Nevada has once again earned a top spot on The Fraser Institute’s list of the top mining jurisdictions in the world, ranking in the top 10 on both of Fraser’s important lists: Investment Attractiveness and Policy Perception.
Romios Gold Resources (TSXV:RG, OTCQB:RMIOF, Frankfurt:D4R) is a North American exploration company focused on gold, silver and copper assets in the United States and Canada. The company recently shifted priority towards exploration programs on its two Nevada projects.
The company is led by an experienced team focused on unraveling the geological setting of the mineralization on each project through careful geological mapping, and the application of modern geophysical and geochemical techniques to increase knowledge of and potential of each asset. Many of the Nevada targets were poorly understood due to their atypical geology, underexplored in terms of modern exploration techniques, and mined for different commodities other than copper-gold-silver. All of these factors suggest the properties have not been tested for their true potential, and significant blue-sky opportunities for increased value are present.
The company fully owns two promising assets in Nevada: the Scossa Project (gold) and the Kinkaid Project (gold-copper-silver). Romios has recently refocused its efforts on these core assets while still continuing exploration in British Columbia and Ontario, and opening discussions with potential investment partners for these large-scale exploration assets.
In Canada, Romios’ land package includes 10 claim blocks covering over 400 km2 adjacent to the giant Galore Creek copper-gold-silver porphyry project co-owned by Trek and Newmont in the famed Golden Triangle of British Columbia. Two priority targets included here are the TREK South and JW copper-gold porphyry prospects.
An experienced management team leads the company with a scientific approach to mineral exploration and a dedication to open engagement with First Nations and Indigenous communities. Stephen Burega, CEO and president, has significant experience managing natural resources projects, negotiating joint ventures and fundraising. John Biczok, vice-president of exploration, is a professional geologist with over 40 years in the mineral resources industry. A longstanding and experienced board of directors brings additional expertise in geology, property acquisition, business administration and international law.
Company Highlights
In 2022, Romios Gold Resources undertook an audit of its significant portfolio of North American exploration assets and concluded that it was in the company’s best interest to focus its efforts on two promising, 100-percent-owned, assets in Nevada, includingThe Kinkaid Project includes 109 claims with more than 13 historic mine workings and prospects as well as significant blue-sky exploration potential for copper/gold/silver.The Scossa Project covers a high-grade gold mine that was in production from 1930 to 1941. The company’s past drilling intersected Bonanza Grades including 3.35 meters @ 180.2 g/t gold, 4.02 g/t silver; 1.98 meters @ 268 g/t gold, 21.8 g/t silver; and 1.51 meters @ 62.49 g/t gold, 73.4 g/t silver.Romios also has 100 percent ownership of extensive claim holdings covering several significant copper-gold porphyry prospects in the “Golden Triangle” of British Columbia, and additional exploration assets surrounding Newmont’s Musslewhite mine in Ontario.Romios is led by a strong management team composed of experts in exploration, corporate management and joint ventures.
Key Projects
Nevada
Kinkaid Gold-Copper-Silver Project
The Kinkaid Project is located in Mineral County within the Walker Lane Trend and is 18 kilometers east of Hawthorne, Nevada. The claim block is made up of 109 claims covering 2,252 acres, with numerous historic mine workings and prospects across the property, including:
Multiple epithermal gold-silver-copper+/-barite vein deposits on the southern and central claims, commonly high-grade.At least four skarn prospects on the northern claims, apparently mined for tungsten, gold, silver and molybdenum in the past.Untested potential for a disseminated replacement style orebody on thrust faults beneath the two major gold-silver vein deposits, similar to the nearby Isabella-Pearl mine.
Multiple samples of quartz vein material collected from the Kinkaid Project in 2022 returned elevated gold values from 0.48 g/t gold to 33.7 g/t gold; silver values from 1 g/t silver to 1,725 g/t silver (55 oz/t silver); and copper values from 0.55 percent copper to 7.39 percent copper.
Romios is currently undertaking a detailed geological mapping and sampling program across the Kinkaid property, as well as a drone magnetic survey of the northern claims, with diamond drilling of several showings anticipated in 2023.
Romios president and CEO Stephen Burega shared, “We are very excited by these high-grade gold, copper and silver assays and the local abundance of bismuth, antimony and mercury in the numerous gold-bearing veins recently identified on the southern claims of the Kinkaid property.”
Project Highlights:
Unrealized Potential: Many of the claims throughout Kinkaid have unrealized potential due to low precious metal prices when they were previously explored. Additionally, previous owners targeted different metals during exploration programs conducted decades ago.Variety of Significant Targets: The Kinkaid Project includes numerous individual targets that warrant additional exploration campaigns, and the company continues to identify new and previously unrecorded former workings across the entirety of the project area.
Scossa Historic Gold Mine Project
The Scossa Gold Project is located in Pershing County, Nevada, at the intersection of the prolific Sleeper & Rye Patch Trends, and covers a former-producing, high-grade gold mine that was in production from 1930 to 1941. The project is eight miles southeast of the Hycroft Gold Mine, which has an estimated gold resource of 9.65 million ounces measured and indicated.
Scossa was an underground mine during the 1930s before it was shut down during WWII. It was explored to a limited degree historically but has yet to be explored using modern, leading-edge technologies or ore deposit models that are critical to successful exploration of deposits like this. Past production was from five epithermal veins in faults up to 6 ft. wide with an average grade of over 1 oz/t gold. Some ore was so rich it was stored in the bank vault in Lovelock. Historic production was limited to the upper 400 ft. while the geology of similar deposits nearby suggests there should be 1,000 ft. of potential ore left beneath old workings. Some additional veins that were never tested by drilling are now known.
Romios completed a series of drill campaigns in the early 2000s with some spectacular results, including diamond drill holes that returned assays up to:
3.35 meters @ 180.2 g/t gold, 4.02 g/t silver1.98 meters @ 268 g/t gold, 21.8 g/t silver1.51 meters @ 62.49 g/t gold, 73.4 g/t silverFollow-up mapping and sampling in 2021 returned assays ranging from trace to 23 g/t gold and 84 g/t silver. The assay results and observed vein textures suggest there is potential for at least 1,500 feet vertically of mineralization above the base of Scossa Hill, where the paleo-boiling zone is exposed, in addition to the unknown vertical extent of the boiling zone at depth.
According to VP for exploration John Biczok, “Epithermal gold-silver veins like those at the Scossa property typically form when hydrothermal ore fluids under pressure begin to boil as they rise to an elevation shallow enough to overcome the hydrostatic pressure.” He further explained, “Changes in the fluid due to boiling cause the gold and silver to precipitate and it can then be carried upwards in finger-like shoots at various intervals along the veins. These shoots can be very high-grade and it is important to determine where the mineralized shoots are versus the low-grade background vein material.”
Project Highlights:
Unique Gold Belt Intersection: The Scossa Project is located at the intersection of two major gold belts: the Sleeper Trend and the Rye-Patch Trend, creating a unique and underexplored opportunity.Past mine production: From 1930 to 1941, the average grade was over 1 oz/t gold mined from five epithermal veins down to a maximum depth of 400 feet, leaving significant potential down to 1,500 feet. level for continued mineralization.Future Exploration Campaign: Romios has planned work scheduled throughout 2023, including determining boiling zone levels in relation to the central veins, exploratory short-hole drilling to confirm gold-silver zones, and further isolating the best intercepts for further exploration.
British Columbia
Romios’ Nevada projects are its flagship assets, but the company is also simultaneously carrying out exploration campaigns on its Canadian projects.
The company’s primary prospects are the TREK and JW copper-gold porphyry targets. In total, Romios has 10 claim blocks covering over 400 square kilometers in the “Golden Triangle” of British Columbia.
TREK South
The Trek South makes up the southern two-thirds of the Trek property on the north-facing slope south of Sphaler Creek. These claims cover the Trek South copper-gold-silver porphyry system and an associated area of widespread copper-tungsten skarn mineralization discovered in 2022.
Romios completed an IP/MT program in 2022 to better delineate this unexplored porphyry system with tremendous blue sky potential.
The 2022 IP survey at Trek South detected a strong IP chargeability high interpreted to be more than 800 meters long and up to 500 meters wide that extends beyond 600 meters depth beneath both a large, newly discovered, copper and tungsten bearing skarn, and the ~1 kilometers wide porphyry-style alteration and mineralization zone discovered in 2021.
North West and Porc Claim Block
Quartz vein series
The North West claim is composed of four blocks located close to several major undeveloped copper-gold alkalic porphyry deposits including the giant Galore Creek deposit(s) 9 kilometers to the northeast, Copper Canyon 17 kilometers to the east northeast, and Schaft Creek 49 kilometers to the northeast.
Romios discovered a series of high-grade gold veins assaying from 12.65 gram per ton (g/t) gold to 72.6 gt gold in four of five samples. The veins appear to be controlled by a well-developed set of northwest-southeast trending faults. Four high-grade gold veins returned four assays between 12.65 and 72.6 g/t gold and a 5th assay of 1.23 g/t gold came from a chip sample.
Ontario
Five projects throughout the Archean North Caribou Lake greenstone belt have produced promising early exploration results and are immediately along strike from Newmont’s giant Musselwhite gold mine in Ontario, which has produced over 5 million ounces of gold. These projects capitalize on the rare opportunity presented by an entire underexplored greenstone belt containing only one active mine.
North Caribou River
The North Caribou River covers one of the most mineralized sections of the North Caribou River Fault (NCRF). Extensive exploration along the NCRF in the 1970s and 1980s included the drilling of more than 60 holes and led to the discovery of scattered high-grade gold+/-copper showings and locally broad zones of impressive alteration and sulphidation.
In 2022, Romios identified a series of 10 apparent splay faults coming off this major structure that have not been previously identified or tested. Soil samples collected over five of the apparent splay faults in 2021 detected a persistent gold anomaly over one splay and scattered anomalies over two others. Follow-up soil sampling was completed over two splays in 2022 with positive results.
Arseno Lake Project
Located just four kilometers from a road in the community of Weagamow Lake, the Arsenio Lake project covers the extension of several EM conductors and a linear magnetic high westward from the Arseno Lake lead-zinc-silver deposit owned by Newmont. Romios’ first geological mapping and outcrop sampling on these claims was completed in June 2022 and focused on a historically neglected area of schists suspected of being part of a VMS-type alteration path.
Future work on this project will attempt to follow the schists eastward and evaluate several clusters of untested EM conductors between these outcrops and the Arseno Lake deposit.
Markop Lake Project
This grassroots project is located immediately east of the Musselwhite gold mine owned by Newmont. Markop Lake project is a large claim block covering a highly underexplored Timiskaming-age and style volcano-sedimentary basin(s) adjacent to a major crustal break. Romios’ geological mapping confirmed the presence of a belt of coarse conglomerates and sedimentary breccias believed to have formed along the basin-bounding faults. Several outcrops of sheared alkalic volcanic were located within the sedimentary sequence, another rock type typical of Timiskaming basins. Future programs will continue to map and prospect the remainder of these prospective faults.
Lundmark-Akow Lake Project
The Lundmark-Akow Lake project is Romios’ main project in the North Caribou Lake Greenstone Belt and adjoins the Mussel White Mine property to the north. In recent years, Romios has discovered an extensive VMS system here with several massive sulphide horizons and two types of gold-bearing veins – a series of unusual ‘epithermal-looking’ calcite veins with sporadic gold mineralization, and an impressive quartz-pyrrhotite vein which returned the best gold intercept known in the belt outside of the Musselwhite property: 4.75 meters @ 8.64 g/t gold.
Drilling has also intersected broad zones 16 to 33 meters wide of copper-gold stockwork veinlets sub-cropping over a 125-meter strike length that have returned encouraging assays. Romios is currently sponsoring a research project on the geology of the VMS system at Lakehead University. The drill used in the 2021 program has been left on the claims for a potential follow-up program in 2023.
Management Team
Stephen Burega – President, CEO and Director
Stephen Burega has been in management and operations in the mining and natural resources sectors for the past 13 years and also has extensive experience in corporate development and fundraising, joint venture due diligence and negotiations, and management of public markets. His deep emerging markets background, along with a strong understanding of stakeholder management, social development, and structured community engagement and programming positions him well to lead Romios’ First Nations community engagements. His eight years of corporate communications and media relations, coupled with extensive issues management experience, are additional assets to be leveraged as Romios builds towards the future.
John Biczok – VP Exploration
John Biczok, P. Geo., is a professional exploration geologist with over 40 years of experience in a wide range of ore deposit types, including many that are relevant to Romios’ various mineral properties such as copper-gold skarns, massive sulphides, shear-hosted gold, iron formation-hosted gold and various exhalative type deposits (lead-zinc, barite). Biczok began work with Romios in August 2016 as a consultant in charge of the Lundmark-Akow Lake drill program in northwestern Ontario. His interpretation of the geology in those drill holes led to a new genetic model for the copper-gold mineralization and the subsequent discoveries of the first base metal massive sulphide and high-grade gold zones in the area. Before joining Romios, he worked at Goldcorp’s (now Newmont) Musselwhite gold mine (18 kilometers south of the
Lundmark-Akow Lake property) for 12 years, most recently as senior exploration geologist and senior research geologist.
Frank van de Water, – CFO, Secretary and Director
Frank van de Water holds a B.Comm. from Concordia University, Montreal, and is a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants. He has had a 40-year career in financial roles with a variety of companies including a multinational mining, metal processing and metal trading company, and extensive experience with mining companies operating in Canada, Africa and Europe, all listed on the TSX, TSXV or LSE. He has held the positions of controller, VP finance, CFO and president at various times, and was the finance director of a large metal dealer on the London Metal Exchange. Van de Water is also a director at five other public companies.
Tom Drivas – Director
With over 30 years of experience in property acquisition, development and brokering, and 15 years specifically in the mining sector, Tom Drivas has consistently been able to assemble the right teams for exciting projects with real potential. Drivas is a business entrepreneur with many years of experience in various industries. He is also the CEO and major shareholder of Appia Rare Earths and Uranium Inc., a uranium exploration company actively exploring the Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan and with significant uranium / rare earth metals deposits at Elliot Lake, Ontario.