This Aben Resources Ltd. profile is part of a paid investor education campaign.
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Overview
Aben Resources Ltd. (TSXV:
ABN
,OTCBB:ABNAF,FWB:E2L2) holds two properties in premier mining locations recognized worldwide. The company is currently developing its flagship Forrest Kerr project, which is situated at the heart of the
Golden Triangle
region in northwest British Columbia, Canada.
The Golden Triangle is a remote and mountainous area of the province which sits on the border of Alaska’s panhandle. Interest in this area began in 1861 and mines have been in operation there since 1918. In the 1990s, it was a popular mining destination as the Eskay Creek and Snip properties became productive enough to inspire the region’s current name.
The Golden Triangle has historically been difficult to reach; however, recent developments in infrastructure, including roads and power lines, have inspired new exploration initiatives. New infrastructure, new discoveries,
higher gold prices
, receding glaciers and maturing production are propelling a new period of growth and development in the Golden Triangle.
Aben Resources’ Forrest Kerr project is in the center of the Golden Triangle and neighbors projects operated by GT Gold Corp. (TSXV:
GTT
), Pretium Resources (TSX:
PVG
) and Eskay Mining Corp. (TSXV:
ESK
,OTC:ESKYF,FWB:KN7). Through the company’s exploration, Aben Resources has determined that the mineralization at the property is controlled and present in primary and secondary structures, providing the company with discovery potential. The company’s phased 2019 drill program expanded mineralization at the North and South Boundary zones, which both remain open in various directions and at depth.
Aben Resources also holds the Justin
gold
project in the Yukon. The project is situated in the Tintina gold belt and adjacent to Golden Predator’s (TSXV:
GPY
,OTCQX:NTGSF) 3 Aces gold project. The property has the potential to host both high-grade and bulk-tonnage gold zones with three types of mineralization.
In 2017, the company collected a 3.8-kilogram bulk sample from the property for gold grain count analysis. Of the 1,135 gold grains recovered, 1,049 were classified as pristine, suggesting that the company is getting close to the lode source of the gold. Aben Resources has plans to continue drilling at Justin project in the future.
Aben Resources Company Highlights
- Three prospective gold projects in safe and stable jurisdictions in Canada, which are ranked in the top 30 attractive mining investment regions worldwide by the Fraser Institute.
- All projects have seen significant historic work.
- Golden Triangle, historically a prominent region for mining and exploration activity, witnessing resurgence thanks to new discoveries and improved infrastructure.
- First season of Forrest Kerr drill work exploring areas of historic results including 9.867 g/t gold over 29.3 meters and 33.4 g/t gold over 11 meters.
- Aben Resources owns a 100-percent interest in the Forrest Kerr project.
- A 2017 bulk sample returned 1,049 pristine gold grains at the Justin project in the Yukon.
- Drill programs are planned to further test the mineralization at the Forrest Kerr and Justin projects.
- Significant shareholders in the company include Eric Sprott, OTP Fund Management, Red Plug Capital and management and insiders.
- Experienced team of mining and finance professionals with over 150 years of experience between them.
- Aben formalized an Option Agreement to hold the exclusive right to earn a 100 percent interest in the Pringle North Gold Project located north of the town of Red Lake in the Red Lake Mining District of Northwestern Ontario.
Flagship Asset: Forrest Kerr Project
The 23,397-hectare Forrest Kerr project covers three adjoining properties in the heart of British Columbia’s Golden Triangle, north of the Iskut River and south of More Creek. Both the north and south limits of the property are road accessible and have access to existing power lines from nearby hydro-electric facilities. Employees take a 10-minute flight into the property from the Bob Quinn Airstrip located to the east of the property beside Highway 37. Aben Resources
completed
its earn-in on the Forrest Kerr project in November 2019 and now owns a 100-percent interest in the property.
The Golden Triangle
The Golden Triangle is in the northwest of British Columbia, 100 kilometers inland from the Alaskan panhandle. Interest in the region began in 1861 when placer gold was discovered, instigating the Stikine gold rush. The region is known for a number of key discoveries including the Snip deposit in 1964, which produced 1.1 million ounces grading an average of 27.5 g/t gold, and the Eskay Creek discovery in 1988, which totaled more than 3 million ounces of gold and 160 million ounces of
silver
.
The area of the Forrest Kerr property was first explored in the mid-1980s and was continually explored from 1988 to 2005, with little work having been done in the region since. Over the past decade, vast improvements in infrastructure as well as rapid melting rates in the glaciers, which have both vastly improved access and offered new drilling opportunities.
“The area was drilled decades ago with limited follow-up work due to limited accessibility, high drilling costs, and a less comprehensive understanding of the geology,” said Aben Resources President and CEO Jim Pettit. “Since then, major infrastructure improvements have been made, which have helped bring drilling costs down.”
Work Conducted to Date
Since acquiring the property in mid-2016, Aben Resources has conducted an intensive compilation study that reviewed the three joint properties based on their past drilling and other historical data and collected the information into a central database. With the data compilation study complete, Aben Resources has pursued further exploration activities aimed at generating drill targets, including ground truth exploration and surface sampling.
Historical drilling results at the Forrest Kerr project have ranged from trace values to several high-grade intercepts such as 9.97 g/t gold over 29.3 meters, including 125 g/t gold over 0.8 meters and 91 g/t gold over 1.9 meters, in hole RG91-21 in the Carcass Creek zone as well as 33.4 g/t gold over 11 meters, including 326 g/t over 0.5 meters, in hole RG91-16 at the Boundary zone. This high-grade mineralization is within 200 meters vertical depth of surface and the Carcass and Boundary zones are approximately four kilometers apart leaving robust discovery potential along strike, at depth and at other regional targets on the property.
The project received a two-year multi-year area base permit in July 2017 for a diamond drilling program which began in August. Drilling in the Carcass Creek and Boundary zones included 2,500 meters with the goal of testing the zones to confirm and extend the already high-grade gold mineralization discovered in the past. The drilling is also expected to explore conceptual targets, including areas of outcrop with multiple shear zones and abundant sulfides south of the Boundary zone.
Early results of the drilling program have outlined the discovery of various small zones of massive quartz veins and quartz-sulfide vein breccias that have reported high-grade gold mineralization in the past in the Carcass Creek zone. In the Boundary zone, drilling activities found massive to semi-massive sulfide horizons linked to strong quartz-carbonate veining and breccias. The sulfides discovered within these findings were somewhat enriched with chalcopyrite, which is a
copper
mineral known to have strong links with gold mineralization in the region.
“This [mineralization] is particularly exciting given the mineralogic similarities between the sulfide horizons we have drilled and those that GT Gold is reporting from their Tatogga property, located north of our Forrest Kerr project,” said Aben Resources VP Exploration Cornell McDowell.
Over the course of the 2017 program, Aben Resources
completed
nine holes on the project. Drill highlights include 10 meters grading 6.7 g/t gold and 0.9 percent copper and six meters grading 21.5 g/t gold, 28.5 g/t silver and 3.1 percent copper.
The first drill hole from the company’s 2018 program intersected multiple high-grade zones at shallow depths. The goal of the program was to test for an extension at the North Boundary zone. Drilling in this area has shown that the mineralization extends for several meters from a 100-meter by 200-meter mineralized core that remains open at depth.
The company also tested the mineralization at the South Boundary zone, which resides 1.5 kilometers south of the mineralization at the North Boundary zone. This new zone of mineralization had never been drill tested until 2018. Aben Resources was able to intersect mineralization in multiple broad horizons. Gold values ranged from trace amounts to greater than 5 g/t gold in the one to two-meter sample intervals.
Ongoing Exploration
Aben Resource’s 2019 exploration program is expected to be comprised of drilling, surface sampling and prospecting. In June, the company
completed
an airborne magnetic survey over the Boundary zone, which is expected to help delineate important geologic structures and help focus the company’s drilling efforts.
“The company looks forward to continued success as we start our fourth season of exploration and drilling at the Forrest Kerr gold project. With the addition of the recently completed airborne magnetic survey to our extensive historic and more recent data compilation, we hope to gain greater understanding of structural influences in the highly mineralized Boundary zone and, further to all this, we now have approval for 45 more drill pad locations that allows us to optimize the targeting of prospective zones, both new and old,” said Pettit.
The company
commenced
drilling at the Boundary zone in July. Drilling is expected to focus on the northward extension of the North Boundary area as well as the area immediately to the south of the zone. The company also intends to target the South Boundary zone.
In addition to its Boundary zone targets, Aben Resources intends to test a priority target in the Forrest zone, which is located 13 kilometers south of the Boundary zone. The area of interest is defined by highly anomalous gold-in-soil and gold-in-rock values that correlate to a strong geophysical anomaly.
To date, Aben Resources has
completed
over 5,000 meters of drilling on the Boundary zone and has expanded its budget to continue drilling into the fall. The company has encountered mineralization in multiple holes around the North Boundary zone. Highlights include 61.70 meters grading 0.46 g/t gold including one meter grading 11.85 g/t gold.
The expanded budget for drilling paid off for Aben Resources as the company
continued to expand the mineralized footprint
of the Forrest Kerr project. Five drill holes were drilled on the margins of the zone and intersected mineralization. The North Boundary zone now covers a 600-meter by 250-meter area that corresponds with multiple, widespread fault and shear zone structures. The zone remains open at depth.
At the South Boundary zone, Aben Resources
encountered
modest gold mineralization over a strike length over 500 meters long. Highlights from the area include 46 meters grading 0.12 g/t gold, 57 meters grading 0.12 g/t gold and 50 meters grading 0.10 g/t gold. The company believes that the zone remains open to the north, south and at depth.
Justin Gold Project, Yukon
The Justin gold project is a wholly-owned 18,314-acre property on the Tintina gold belt in southeast Yukon, adjacent to the Golden Predator’s 3 Aces project. It is situated 35 kilometers southeast of the Cantung mine on Nahanni Range Road.
Exploration
The project has seen two major exploration periods in 2011 and 2012, primarily in its POW and Kangas zones. During this time, a total of 4,014 meters were drilled in 19 holes across four different zones, with 10 holes successfully finding gold mineralization.
The most significant drill results for 2011 include an average 60 meters of 1.19 g/t gold in previously undrilled territory including 2.47 g/t gold over 21 meters. As a result of this greenfield gold discovery as well as new silver and copper discoveries, Aben Resources purchased additional claims around the northern part of the property.
In 2012, Aben Resources developed a 20-man camp that served as a base to the explorations in the POW zone. Almost 2,000 meters were drilled, with all seven completed holes finding gold mineralization and obtaining results including 1.49 g/t gold over 46.4 meters in one hole and 0.73 g/t gold over 88.5 meters in another. Additionally, mineralization in the region was traced along the surface for 450 meters west to east, 200 meters north to south and to 205 meters in depth.
The POW zone is still an area of interest due to the strong continuity of mineralization and remains open in all directions.
Throughout the
2017 work program
, 21 channel samples and three chip samples were taken from four trenches. Aben Resources also collected 13 rock samples, two silt samples and 380 soil samples with coverage totaling 16.8 line-kilometers. The program was primarily focused on two areas, the Lost Ace and Confluence zones.
Aben Resources also collected a 3.8-kilogram bulk sample from the property for a gold grain count analysis. Of the 1,135 gold grains recovered, 1,049 were classified as pristine, suggesting that the company is getting close to the lode source of the gold. In addition, the company discovered a new gold-bearing veins system, known as Lost Ace, which returned one meter grading 4.77 g/t gold. The new zone is located two kilometers along strike from the POW zone.
Aben Resources’ Management Team
Ronald Netolitzky, M.Sc. Geology – Chairman and Director
Ron Netolitzky serves as Chairman of the Board of Aben Resources Ltd. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alberta and a M.Sc degree from the University of Calgary, both in geological sciences. Netolitzky has been very successful in mining exploration with over 35 years of experience and by having been directly associated with three major gold discoveries in Canada that have subsequently been put into production: Eskay Creek, Snip and Brewery Creek. Netolitzky has been honored with the Prospector of the Year award from the PDAC, and Developer of the Year award from the British Columbia and Yukon Chamber of Mines. In 2015, he was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.
James G. Pettit – President, CEO and Director
Jim Pettit has been president and CEO and a Director of Aben Resources Ltd. since November 2002. He is currently serving on the board of directors of five publicly-traded companies and offers over 25 years of experience within the industry specializing in finance, corporate governance, executive management and compliance. He was previously Chairman and CEO of Bayfield Ventures Corp. which was bought by New Gold Inc. in January 2015.
Timothy Termuende, P.Geo. – Director
Tim Termuende serves as a Director of Aben Resources Ltd. and is a professional geologist with over 30 years of experience in the mineral exploration industry. He is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Since earning his degree in Geological Sciences at the University of British Columbia in 1987, Termuende has worked on exploration projects throughout North, Central, and South America and has been personally involved in exploration within the Forrest Kerr, British Columbia area in the early 1990s. He has been continuously active in mineral exploration throughout western Canada since 1976, and currently oversees a broad range of ongoing exploration projects located throughout British Columbia, Saskatchewan, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
Donald C. Huston – Director and CFO
Don Huston serves as a Director and acting Chief Financial Officer of Aben Resources Ltd. and has been associated with the mineral exploration industry for over 30 years. He has extensive experience as a financier and in-field manager of numerous mineral exploration projects in North America. He was born and raised in Red Lake, Ontario and spent 15 years as a geophysical contractor with C.D. Huston & Sons Ltd. as mineral exploration consultants in northern Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. He serves as a director of four Canadian public mineral resource companies.
Amanda Chow, CPA, CMA – Director
Amanda Chow serves as an independent Director of Aben Resources Ltd. She is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CMA) and a graduate of Simon Fraser University, where she earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree. She began working with public companies in 1999.
Donald G. Myers — Director and Corporate Communications
Don Myers serves as an independent Director and is the Investor Relations Manager of Aben Resources Ltd. He serves on the board of directors and manages the investor relations and corporate communications of publicly-traded mineral exploration and development companies. He has over 30 years of experience in public company management and investor relations having helped raise over $350 million in venture capital for resource and technology companies listed on the TSXV, NASDAQ and Toronto Stock Exchanges.
Cornell McDowell, P.Geo. – VP Exploration and Qualified Person
Cornell McDowell is a professional geologist registered in both Alberta and British Columbia and serves as VP of Exploration of Aben Resources Ltd. He has been self-employed as a geological consultant throughout the past decade with both publicly listed and privately held mineral exploration corporations. Most recently, he helped take Gold Reach’s Ootsa project from the initial exploration stage through to resource development which ended with the delivery of a positive PEA. He is currently president and CEO of North Sur Resources and serves on the board and audit committee for Manson Creek Resources.
Simon Dyakowski, CFA, MBA – Strategic Advisor
Simon Dyakowski serves as Strategic Advisor for Aben Resources Ltd. He has over 10 years of corporate finance, corporate development and capital markets advisory experience. He holds an MBA in Finance from the University of British Columbia, is a CFA charter holder and holds an undergraduate Finance degree from the University of Western Ontario. He advises venture-stage and growth-oriented public market issuers on deal structuring, capital markets and corporate development strategies. His professional experience is in equity research and equity sales coverage with previous positions held at Salman Partners and Leede Financial.
Henry Awmack, P.Geo. – Technical Advisory Board
Henry Awmack has over 30 years of experience in the mining industry. As a co-founder of Equity Engineering Ltd. in 1987, he has managed all aspects of a geological consulting and contracting firm including project planning and execution, hiring of field crews, geological fieldwork, property examinations and preparation of technical reports. He has worked around the world exploring for a variety of commodities, and has extensive “on the ground” experience in the Forrest Kerr, British Columbia area in particular. He holds a B.Sc (Honours) Applied Science in Geological Engineering from the University of British Columbia and is registered as a professional engineer with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia.
Carl Schulze, B.Sc., P.Geo. – Qualified Person – Justin Gold Project
Carl Schulze has been active as a geologist involved in all aspects of mineral exploration for the past 27 years. A graduate of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, he has extensive exploration and project management experience throughout the Yukon, northern Ontario, British Columbia, Alaska and southern Alberta. He was active in the Sprogge-Justin area of south-eastern Yukon in the late 1990s and was responsible for the discovery of numerous gold-bearing showings in the area including the Kangas zone.
Schulze was the Resident Geologist for the Government of Nunavut for two years gaining expertise working within Canada’s aboriginal communities. He gained his Professional Geoscience status in 2000 and has acted as the Qualified Person for a large variety of projects. In 2003, he formed All-Terrane Mineral Exploration Services, a Whitehorse-based consulting and contract exploration firm. He has also been a Director of the Yukon Chamber of Mines since late 2003, and was its President from 2007 to 2010.
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