I caught up with Strategic Metals $SMD CEO Doug Eaton recently to talk about Mt. Hinton and other irons in the fire. Two diamond drills are turning at Mt. Hinton, an area of high-grade gold and silver mineralization in Yukon's Keno Hill district adjacent to Alexco's property. Strategic plans a 7,000-metre drill program and Eaton expects that drilling could continue into early October this season.
The recently closed $4-million financing gives Strategic the capacity to expand - even double - the program, results and weather permitting. With gold near US$2,000 an ounce, the timing couldn't be better.
Strategic is a pretty compelling sum-of-the parts story beyond its wholly owned Mt. Hinton project. The company, one of three Resource Opportunities sponsors, has about $12 million in cash and roughly $27 million in shareholdings (current SMD market cap $77 million). Strategic also has about 80 wholly owned precious metals projects available for option, several of which Eaton says are high-quality enough standalone projects for a company to go public on.
00:00 - Introduction
00:16 - Mt. Hinton plans and drill progress
06:00 - Under the hood, Part 1: Major SMD shareholdings and upcoming catalysts
06:30 - Rockhaven Resources: New PEA, large drilling program possible
08:11 - Precipitate Gold: Barrick JV and drilling on wholly owned project in DR
08:35 - Trifecta Gold: Drill permitting underway for Yuge project in Nevada
08:50 - GGL Resources: B.C. project w/ porphyry/epithermal targets, new Nevada acquisition
10:55 - Under the hood, Part 2: Precious metals properties available for option
12:09 - Plata: High-grade silver plus gold; past producer
15:06 - Alotta: Porphyry/vein targets; 40 km from Western's Casino deposit
16:24 - Hopper: Porphyry target with similarities to Casino
18:02 - Groundhog: High-grade silver prospect w/ gold
19:37 - Gold price and market sentiment