Investors looking for exposure to gold in America need to look out West. Of the top 10 gold producing states throughout the golden era of U.S. mining, every state was in the Pacific or Mountain time zone (except for part of South Dakota being CT, although the Black Hills Gold Rush was indeed MT).
Idaho, the ninth-biggest gold producer of the era, remains a point of focus today, with many public companies developing projects and mines in the state. The state is still highly friendly to miners, ranked the ninth-best mining jurisdiction in the world in 2020 by the Fraser Institute.
For some, like Idaho Champion Gold Mines Canada Inc. (CSE:ITKO) (OTCQB:GLDRF), massive projects include past producing mines that potentially represent re-starting simple oxide heap leach mining operations with sulphide resources at depth for future underground mining too. Idaho Champion’s portfolio includes the Champagne gold project west of Arco and the Baner gold project southwest of Elk City, as well as four early-stage cobalt properties in Idaho’s prolific cobalt belt.
For the moment, the main focus at ITKO is gold, with exploration work ongoing at Champagne and Baner. Champagne is the most advanced as a past-producer with a historical resource of 2.3 million tons of 1.2 grams/ton gold equivalent that underscores the company’s exploration strategy. Under the ownership of Bema Gold, Mine Hill produced as recently as 1993.
Idaho is thriving with active projects statewide, including those by Finland-based Endomines and a host of companies from Canada. Compared to some other dually-listed gold explorers in Idaho, ITKO remains underappreciated, as measured by its current market capitalization around C$10 million that is outpaced by peers by a range of 5x-30x.
For instance, Liberty Gold (TSX:LGD) (OTC:LGDTF) and Excellon Gold (TSX:EXN) (NYSE American:EXN), which are exploring in the southern part of Idaho that catches the northern portion of what is known as the Great Basin, have market capitalizations of C$307 million and C$60.3 million, respectively.
Revival Gold Inc. (TSX-Venture:RVG) (OTCQX:RVLGF), market cap C$50 million, like Idaho Champ is developing a past producing, open-pit, heap leach project, the Beartrack Gold Mine, that it acquired from Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY) (TSX:YRI) subsidiary Meridian Gold Co.
Work conducted by Idaho Champion continues to support the thesis that the past-producing Champagne mine was only scratching the surface of the potential. Exploration in 2020 included 3,800 meters of drilling that defined a new mineralization corridor covering about 240,000 square meters (~59.3 acres) northwest of the existing pits. Using modern technologies, strong IP responses are defined over more than 2 kilometers of strike, while shallow anomalies in chargeability and resistivity explain the veins and breccias encountered in reverse circulation drilling and historic mining at Mine Hill.
This data aligns with the latest geophysical model that reveals a detachment structure connecting the Mine Hill mineralization to a larger and more deeply rooted anomaly to the northwest. Gold and silver discoveries from exploration indicate that mineralization is open along strike and at depth while directing in prioritizing upcoming drill targets.
Investors are watching for the latest drill results to be released and for Idaho Champion management to provide some color on the next phase of exploration in 2020, which could provide the catalyst necessary to make up some ground between ITKO and its peers.
