Mining Company Advances Billion-Dollar Gold Project

Source: Streetwise Reports 02/18/2025

Thesis Gold Inc. (TAU:TSXV; THSGF:OTCQX; A3EP87:WKN) announces the final drilling results from its 2024 program at the Ranch area of its 100%-owned Lawyers-Ranch Project in British Columbia’s Toodoggone Mining District, just as analysts say the yellow metal’s highest prices are “yet to come.”

Thesis Gold Inc. (TAU:TSXV; THSGF:OTCQX; A3EP87:WKN) has announced the final drilling results from its 2024 program at the Ranch area of its 100%-owned Lawyers-Ranch Project in British Columbia’s Toodoggone Mining District.

As the company works toward the completion of the Prefeasibility Study (PFS), which it said remains on track for the fourth quarter of this year, “exploration and near-resource drilling continue to highlight the potential for further resource growth at Ranch through new discoveries, and the expansion and updating of ounces outlined in the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA),” the company said in a release.

“The 2024 drill program played a critical role in positioning us to commence both the PFS and the EA (Environmental Assessment) process — key milestones that will drive project development and permitting decisions,” President and Chief Executive Officer Ewan Webster said. “Positive results from near-resource exploration have encouraging implications for the potential to expand and upgrade our confidence on the mineral resource defined in the 2024 PEA.”

That PEA demonstrated strong project economics highlighted by an after-tax NPV (5%) of CA$1.28 billion, an IRR of 35.2% and a payback period of two years.

Haywood Capital Markets analyst Jamie Spratt emphasized the economics highlighted in the PEA, giving the stock a Buy rating with a CA$3 per share target price when he initiated coverage for the firm recently.

“This shows that the Ranch area of the larger project still provides significant potential for resource growth and, in turn, improved project economics,” Webster said.

Haywood Capital Markets analyst Jamie Spratt emphasized the economics highlighted in the PEA, giving the stock a Buy rating with a CA$3 per share target price when he initiated coverage for the firm recently.

The analyst emphasized the project’s scale and quality, noting, “Resources have expanded quickly from the maiden resource of 132 koz in 2018 and now place the LR project as one of the largest gold-silver projects in Canada.”

“The LR project would rank in the top 15 of operating Canadian gold mines and the bottom quartile of the cost curve,” Spratt added.

Highlights of 2024 Program

Thesis Gold said that to advance the PFS and EA process, it has completed 2,266 meters of drilling focused on geotechnical and hydrogeological studies and drilled 17 geotechnical holes providing crucial data for mine design and six hydrogeology drill holes supporting environmental modelling for permitting.

Multipurpose geotechnical drilling found near-surface broad mineralized zones and high-grade intervals, including 27.5 meters of 2.08 grams per tonne gold equivalent (g/t Au Eq) in hole 24GTDD011, 40.5 meters of 1.2 g/t Au Eq in hole 24GTDD010, and 0.7 meters of 48.86 g/t Au Eq in hole 24GTDD015, the company said in the release.

In expanding the resource, hole 24TH2DD002 intersected 19.58 meters of 1.15 g/t Au and 9.92 meters of 2.69 g/t Au, extending mineralization about 40 meters at depth about 30 meters along strike at Thesis II, and a high-grade interval of 26.29 g/t Au Eq over 0.67 meters indicates higher grade domains.

Geotechnical drillhole 24GTDD008 also ended in mineralization, extending the strike length of a copper-gold mineralized domain at Bingo that remains open for testing, Thesis said.

Originally drilled for geotechnical purposes, this hole underscores additional expansion potential within the existing mineral resource estimate with results including 10.5 meters of 0.76 g/t Au and 0.22% copper (Cu), including 5 meters of 0.8 g/t Au and 0.37% Cu.

According to Thesis, the 2024 program also provided critical geotechnical and hydrogeological data for mine design and permitting while also uncovering additional mineralization potential.

Water monitoring drill holes provide baseline environmental data for the EA process; geotechnical drilling was designed to assess rock quality to directly inform mine design and engineering decisions; and unexpected mineralized intercepts, like those in drillhole 24GTDD008, will be incorporated into future exploration models.

‘Potential for Expansion’ as Catalysts Near for Co.

These insights will support the PFS currently underway, guiding resource model refinement and focusing 2025 drilling plans, which include expanding near-resource mineralization and testing high-priority regional epithermal and porphyry targets.

Major upcoming catalysts for the company include commencement of the EA in H2 and completion of the PFS in Q4, Thesis noted.

In December, Thesis announced a new discovery at the Ring Zone in Lawyers-Ranch after drills intersected high-grade mineralization near the surface, “supporting the potential for new, high-grade deposits to compliment those already outlined in the PEA” for the project.

Even before the Ring discovery, Analyst Jonathan Guy, director of mining research for Hannam & Partners, wrote in an October research note that results reported by the company “suggest the potential for an expansion in scale of both the open pit and underground resource.” Guy reiterated the firm’s CA$2.48 per share target price on the stock, which was trading at CA$0.65 on Tuesday.

The Catalyst: Highest Prices ‘Yet to Come’

After a couple of weeks of continued gains and records, the gold price rose again on Tuesday, rallying towards the all-time record high US$2,942.76, leaving analysts at major banks to rush to “hike their 2025 gold forecasts above US$3,000 following the ‘safe haven’ metal’s jump of 12.0% already this year,” reported Adrian Ash on Tuesday for BullionVault.

“Deep-rooted bullish sentiment [and] unprecedented gold market dislocations” mean the highest prices “are yet to come,” Joni Teves, strategist at Swiss bank and London bullion clearer UBS, told Ash.

Raising her full-year gold price forecast from US$2,800 to US$2,900 per Troy ounce, she now sees the precious metal peaking as high as US$3,200 in 2025, Ash reported. [OWNERSHIP_CHART-10373]

The BullionVault piece reported that’s US$100 higher than UBS’s prior 2025 gold price forecast, “published barely three weeks ago.”

Other experts have predicted that the US$3,000 milestone, or higher, is possible.

According to a report by Anmol Choubey for Reuters, Phillip Streible, chief market strategist at Blue Line Futures, said gold’s 45-degree rally since December might create a self-fulfilling prophecy of further price increases, potentially leading it to raise its forecast to around US$3,250 or US$3,500.

Ownership and Share Structure

According to Thesis, about 66% of the company is owned by institutions, and about 4% is owned by insiders. The remaining 30% is retail.

Top shareholders include Franklin Advisers Inc. with 7.82%, Merk Investments LLC with 7.58%, Delbrook Capital Advisors Inc. with 5.5%, Sprott Asset Management LP with 4.63% and Van Eck Associates Corp. with 2.45%. Director Nicholas Stajduhar owns 1.09%.

The company said it has 212,826,496 million shares outstanding. At the time of writing, its market cap was CA$155.84 million, and it trades in a 52-week range of CA$1.00 and CA$0.37.

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( Companies Mentioned: TAU:TSXV; THSGF:OTCQX; A3EP87:WKN, )

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