Cassiar Gold: A miner in the making? – Richard Mills

2026.05.08

A junior resource company’s place in the mining food chain is to acquire projects, make discoveries and hopefully advance them to the point when a larger mining company takes it over. Discoveries won’t be made if juniors don’t have boots on the ground, if they aren’t out in the bush poking around and breaking rocks.

But few exploration companies have the will, money or technical expertise to “go mining”. For many, the goal is to hit upon a deposit that’s good enough to attract a major who will acquire the asset.

In a recent discussion with Cassiar Gold’s (TSXV:GLDC, OTCQX:CGLCF) CEO Marco Roque, I put the question to him: “Are you a miner? Or would you prefer to sell the deposit?”

His answer was an unequivocal “yes”.

“We will take this to mining.”

I pressed further, reminding Roque that mining is a long, difficult road that requires further studies, permits, and loads of cash.

“Do you think your payout’s better when you get to the mining stage?” Again, his answer came quickly:

“Absolutely. Without a doubt. In mining, we’d be making hundreds of millions of dollars of free cash flow. Selling, I wouldn’t sell it for less than $1 billion. That’s for sure.”

What makes Cassiar Gold’s namesake project in northern British Columbia worth such a lofty valuation? Gold in the ground.

Before we get into all the reason’s I think there is a mine to be built on the Cassiar project (mines are not found, they are built, one step at a time), I want to make it clear. I am not giving advice, I’m not a broker nor am I licensed to give advice. I am telling you my opinion, it’s not advice. Do your own due diligence and get advice from someone licensed to give it.

I think if you want to get into mine building there are very few projects that offer as much compelling evidence as Cassiar Gold’s Cassiar project. And not one mine but two, read on to find out why I believe this.

Cassiar Gold Project

Cassiar Gold is a large orogenic gold property located in the Cassiar Mining District of northern BC.

At AOTH we believe Cassiar’s project has substantial upside potential for both bulk-tonnage resources in the Cassiar North area, and high-grade gold targets in the Cassiar South area. The project is bisected by Highway 37, making it a true “roadside mine”. The company’s gold ounces in the ground, at an enterprise value of CAD$29.00/oz, appear to be attractively priced compared to its industry peers.

Cassiar Gold Project: Bulk tonnage in the north + high-grade veins in the south — Richard Mills

The 2025 drill program consisted of 7,308 meters of expansion drilling at Cassiar North. Taurus and Newcoast were the targets.

Remarkably, of 20 holes drilled, the drills hit mineralization in all 20. In fact, over the past five years, the success rate is 99%, an incredible hit ratio.

2025 results delivered notable extensions at bulk tonnage targets, for example 13.53 g/t over 13.4m, including visible gold intervals. 

So far, Cassiar Gold has drilled under 0.3% of the land package, presenting a huge opportunity for expansion. 

There is a foundational pit-constrained mineral resource estimate at the Taurus deposit, updated in 2025 using $2,400 gold. The resource is a combined 2.34 million ounces at 1.01 grams per tonne gold from surface, comprising 410,000 oz @ 1.43 g/t Au (Indicated) and 1,930,000 oz @ 0.95 g/t Au (Inferred).

It represents just over one square kilometer of the 590 km² land package, with 91% of the resource within 150 meters of surface, open for expansion laterally and at depth.

There are two existing mine permits on the property, enabling Cassiar to develop the bulk-tonnage targets at Cassiar North and the high-grade underground veins at Cassiar South simultaneously. 

The company has initiated a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) (for Taurus Deposit), at its Cassiar North Gold Project area, targeted for completion in Q3.

The PEA, led by engineering, consulting, and project delivery firm Ausenco, will evaluate potential development scenarios for the project and assess the economic potential of the Taurus deposit.

A metallurgical assessment of Taurus is currently underway, with results expected in Q2.

Cassiar is also conducting a review of its permitted mill to assess pathways to support potential near term development scenarios at past-producing higher-grade vein systems at the Cassiar South project area.

The latter provides high-grade optionality and a quicker path to cash flow than Cassiar North, which is much larger scale but could take up to five years to develop. 

Cassiar Gold Project: Bulk tonnage in the north + high-grade veins in the south – Richard Mills

Cassiar Gold hits jewelry-box grades at Taurus — Richard Mills

Cassiar North

My May 6 talk with Marco Roque focused mostly on Cassiar North, which hosts the Taurus and Newcoast mineralized zones.

At Cassiar North, the company already has a substantial resource of 2.3Moz over 1 g/t at surface. That’s the Taurus deposit, and there are several outlying bulk tonnage targets, including Newcoast. The Taurus deposit is open laterally and at depth, meaning it is expandable.  

According to Roque, Cassiar Gold believes it can reach over 5 million ounces by developing the bulk tonnage targets at Cassiar North. 

The drill results at Newcoast had broad intercepts ranging from 70 to 170 meters. There were also some narrow, high-grade intercepts of 40-50 g/t over smaller widths in narrow, high-grade veins. The highlight was 15.7 meters @ 3.8 g/t in a sparsely drilled part of the property. 

The company still sees a lot of potential at Cassiar North, and it hasn’t lost focus on its 5Moz goal. The Newcoast target’s footprint is about 4 km by 800 meters wide — about three times larger than Taurus. 

“We see a lot of gold at surface. We’re obviously seeing a lot of gold in the drilling. It’s indicating what we thought would be a pretty big mineralized system there.

“It’s still early days, but it’s providing more and further indications that we might have another Taurus at Newcoast,” Roque said during a video with The Gold Newsletter’s Kai Hoffman. 

Indeed, the bulk tonnage area at Taurus and the surrounding targets, including Newcoast, Cassiar Gold sees as a company-maker. 

High-grade optionality

But Roque says GLDC also has “a very exciting high-grade mine system that we see as a near-term development optionality as well.”

This is Cassiar South, which hosts high-grade veins that could provide a shorter timeline to cash flow than Cassiar North, which, though much larger, will take longer to build out — an estimated five years. 

The grades from the four underground mines were between 10 and 20 grams per tonne. On average, the veins are 3 meters thick and there is over 300,000 ounces of historical production.

Cassiar Gold over the years has hit some juicy intercepts at Cassiar South, such as 4.8 meters @35 g/t Au and 2.2m @ 32 g/t Au. 

Cassiar has a mine permit covering most of the Taurus deposit, but it has also has another mine permit covering 20 km of high-grade veins at Cassiar South, plus supporting infrastructure including a 300 tonne-per-day (tpd) mill. 

Without economic studies, Roque estimates about $30 million of capex could see Cassiar Gold getting the mill restarted at Cassiar South. 

“At 20 grams per tonne, that mill could be spitting out 60,000 ounces a year. At 10 g/t, it’s 30,000 ounces a year,” Roque said in the video. 

“In Canadian dollars, that’s anywhere between $200 million and $400 million of revenue per year.” 

He noted the mill needs a small amount of refurbishing and that Cassiar Gold would have to do a bit more exploration at Cassiar South “to increase our runway in terms of feed.” 

But with a 9-kilometer strike length running north to south, he suggested that every 400 to 600 meters there is the potential for parallel and stacked vein systems that, with the right grades, could each carry 150,000 ounces, or more.

Taurus/ Newcoast similarities

The company released drill results from Taurus on Dec. 3, 2025. As mentioned the highlight hole was 13.53 g/t Au over 13.4 meters from 28 meters down hole, Including 210.71 g/t Au over 0.8m with 369 g/t Au over 0.4 meters from 39.8m down hole.

Drill hole 25TA-242 intercepted 21.9m of 2.81 g/t Au (2.80 g/t Au capped) from 45.8m downhole, including 6.90 g/t Au over 2.3m, with 0.3m of 20.30 g/t Au.

Drill hole 25TA-238 cut 21.7m of 1.30 g/t Au from 13.1m down hole, including 0.9 m of 27.18 g/t Au (9.63 g/t Au capped), including 59.50 g/t Au.

Cassiar Gold’s Jan. 23, 2026 news release on the Newcoast prospect’s drill results were described as such: Results reported here identified a new higher grade, visible gold-bearing structure, and significantly extended known mineralization at the Newcoast prospect. These drill holes demonstrate potential for ongoing expansion of mineralization along key structural trends and identification of new mineralized areas with visible gold-bearing veins within extensive untested areas at the Cassiar Gold property.

It’s remarkable how similar the highlighted drill results are to Taurus’s results. Remember Newcoast is only 2 km south of Taurus. Remember also that Cassiar Gold sees Newcoast as another Taurus, albeit triple the size.

Drill hole 25NC-017 identified an area of new quartz veining with visible gold, returning 15.7 m of 3.80 g/t Au from 249.1 m down hole, including 176.50 g/t Au over 0.3m.

Drill hole 25NC-019 cut 22.5m of 3.52 g/t Au from 420.9m down hole, including 42.41 g/t Au over 1.6m, with 51.68 g/t Au over 1.2m.

Drill hole 25NC-010 intersected 89.2 m of 0.71 g/t Au from 217.3m down hole, including 43.5 m of 1.12 g/t Au with 0.4m of 5.59 g/t Au.

Drill hole 25NC-013 cut 167.5m of 0.42 g/t Au from 499.4m down hole.

“The similarities are very evident” between Taurus and Newcoast, Roque told me. “We see a similar style of veining, alteration and mineralization as we see at Taurus, and where we have gold data in the grab sample on the outcropping bedrock or in drilling, we also see similar grades.”

“We see similar grades quite frequently and consistently. Half a gram to two grams from surface. Pretty much all the drilling that we’ve done intercepted Newcoast similarly to Taurus.”

One difference is that at Newcoast, Cassiar drilled its deepest hole to date, 700 meters, and found mineralization throughout the hole. This could have implications not only for Newcoast, but Taurus and other surrounding targets, such as Snow Creek, Auroch, Hopeful and Lucky.

“This is, in our understanding, part of the same system,” Roque said of the Newcoast target.

Remember the upcoming PEA, to be released in August, will only cover the Taurus deposit. The Newcoast results will be added later, suggesting considerable room for more ounces to grow the resource.

“Our objective is to get to at least 5 million ounces,” said Roque, adding, “Honestly, the potential is many times that… it’s a big district and we see potential for a lot more than we currently have. And it’s already a substantial resource size at 2.3 million ounces.”

One intriguing possibility suggested by Roque is that Taurus and Newcoast — both open-pit scenarios — could connect, certainly they can both be serviced by one mill.

Roque says they plan to follow up on Newcoast and continue stepping out at Taurus to keep expanding the boundaries of known mineralization.

“We believe there’s very strong potential both of those targets to connect,” he said, “which would be very helpful in probably expanding significantly our 5Moz target to something substantially bigger.”

Roque confirmed the plan is to get to production at Cassiar South within 24 months. The company is also looking at direct shipping ore initially to speed up the process of getting to mining.

Conclusion

On April 30^th Cassiar Gold announced a non-brokered private placement of 7.272 million flow-through units @ $0.76. Proceeds of up to CAD$5.5 million will go towards ongoing and future exploration programs at the Cassiar Gold Project.

Highway 37 bisects the Cassiar Gold Project, and there are 160 km of access roads throughout the property. The project also has a fully owned and permitted 300 tonnes-per-day mill and a 48-person camp with power and water access. A 1.2-kilomter airstrip is 5 km from the Taurus deposit. The area features ideal topography and access for open-pit-mine infrastructure, with paved roads and grid power.

There are also 17 historical portals, 25 km of underground workings, four tailings facilities and a core shack.

The project is surrounded by existing significant gold deposits and mines, including Galore Creek (Anglo Teck), Eskay Creek (Skeena Resources) KSM (Seabridge Gold), Silvertip (Coeur Mining), Tatogga, Red Chris and Brucejack (Newmont).

There are two mine permits on the property and one exploration permit. 

Cassiar Gold is really two projects, the bulk-tonnage Cassiar North, and high-grade gold targets at Cassiar South.

The company already has a substantial resource on the Taurus deposit of 2.3 million ounces, and while Newcoast has yet to be folded into the resource, recent drill results reveal it to be a Taurus lookalike and three times as big. The upside here is extraordinary.

Trading at just $0.55 a share, Cassiar Gold is imo undervalued. The market is not yet recognizing its gold in the ground, which presents a unique opportunity for shareholders.

The resource at Taurus is just over 1 km of the 600-square-kilometer land package. Again, tonnes of blue-sky potential.

There are two near-term catalysts: metallurgical studies on the Taurus deposit and a PEA, which we should see by August. The report would set out the economics of a proposed mine based on a higher gold price than used in the 2025 resource estimate. Other catalysts for this year include drill results (both Cassiar North and Cassiar South) and development of Cassiar South.

To me the Cassiar Gold story is compelling because there is so much gold in the ground, and it’s “roadside gold”. Having existing infrastructure is a major advantage. It allows Cassiar to plow any existing and new money into the ground rather than spending it on roads, power lines, a milling facility and the like. 

Its $29 per ounce enterprise value is the lowest among its peers, with over $16 billion in contained metal.

Cassiar Gold management, including its CEO, have been purchasing shares on the open market — showing confidence in the project with ample “skin in the game”.

Roque says the best way for Cassiar Gold to fix its undervaluation is to enter production, “because you can be cash flowing, a number that’s substantially higher than our market cap right now per year. So that’s a no brainer for us.”

Shareholders who buy now “are going to be able to jump on a train of news flow that’s coming,” Roque concluded, adding “I’m more excited about the next 12 months than I was about the last 12.”

Cassiar Gold Corp. 
TSXV:GLDC, OTCQX:CGLCF
2026.05.07 Share Price: Cdn$0.55
Shares Outstanding: 147.4m
Market Cap: Cdn$81.1m
GLDC website

Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com

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Richard does not own shares of Cassiar Gold Corp. (TSXV:GLDC). GLDC is a paid advertiser on his site aheadoftheherd.com This article is issued on behalf of GLDC