Treasury Metals rebrands as NexGold Mining with an aggressive acquisitions strategy on tap
The rebranded company that holds the Goliath Gold Complex expects to start construction of an open-pit mine in the Dryden area by 2026.
NexGold is the new name of the former Treasury Metals after its merger with Blackwolf Copper and Gold first announced in May.
The Goliath Gold Complex is the flagship project, 20 kilometres east of Dryden, consisting of three deposits dubbed Goliath, Goldlund and Miller; Goliath being the most mine-ready.
For well over a decade, Goliath has been a much promised but yet to be delivered upon gold operation.
This time, NexGold Mining president Morgan Lekstrom said they are 18 months from making a construction decision in spelling out the new vision of the Toronto-based company in an online interview with Goldfinger Capital.
The name change went through on July 9. Shares of NeXGold began trading on the TSX-V on July 12 under the symbol “NEXG.”
Former Treasury Metals boss Jeremy Wyeth remains as CEO. Hollywood movie mogul and gold mining financier Frank Giustra has come aboard as shareholder and strategic advisor.
Big picture-wise, Lekstrom explained the company is pursuing a buy-and-build strategy in assembling a stable of steady 100,000-ounce-per-year gold producers.
With $16 million in the bank, Lekstrom said the company will be pursuing a dual track strategy of development and exploration at the Goliath Complex for the remainder of this year and into 2025.
The plan is to finish all the regulatory paperwork and technical studies to eventually bring the three-million-ounce Goliath deposit into production.
A final feasibility study on what the Goliath open-pit mine will look like is due out in mid-2025. Permits and an impact benefit agreement with area First Nations will be done sometime next year. A construction decision will be made by next year’s third quarter with groundbreaking anticipated in early 2026.
Longer term, the company intends to return to the former Treasury Metal’s roots of building ounces through exploration drilling to grow the gold resource.
Over the last few years, Treasury had been solely focused on the development of Goliath while neglecting a multitude of high-value gold targets on an expansive property that runs in a narrow corridor from the southwest to the northeast, between the village of Wabigoon and Sioux Lookout.
Years ago, a 65-kilometre-long gold strike length was identified, including a promising 25-kilometre stretch between the Goliath and Goldlund deposits that contains some potentially “ultra high-grade” targets. But these prospects have yet to see a drill bit, said Lekstrom. The focus is to haul the drill rigs back into the field to test this particular area.
“Huge potential for new discoveries.”
Not content to be single asset, mid-tier miner, Lekstrom said they are on the hunt to find some underappreciated projects at the bottom of the development curve.
With a team of experienced mine builders already on staff, including Wyeth, their strategy to create a pipeline of “buildable” Canadian projects over the next five years, he said.
NexGold is looking for acquisitions that fit a certain profile, particularly stalled and struggling assets where past companies have spent a bushels of exploration dollars to produce an indicated gold resource of at least one million ounces.
They prefer projects that are past the environmental assessment permitting phase and are in close proximity to infrastructure. For example, their Goliath deposit is just off the Trans-Canada Highway. Power lines run through the company’s property and they have the support of area First Nations.
“The vision for this company is to get exceptional good at building a 100 to 120,000-ounce-a-year producers,” Lekstrom said, with multiple, low-cost, mines that will avoid the “risk of a one-mine fail scenario.”
Besides Goliath, the Treasury-Blackwolf merger brought the Niblack gold and copper project in southeast Alaska into the development fold, a relatively turn-key project with fully-built underground and surface camp infrastructure.
This article was published by: Ian Ross | Northern Ontario Business
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