Many reasons for Storm Exploration’s drill ready high grade gold project to be on your radar screen – Richard Mills

2025.03.05

‘We have a lot of conviction that we’ll be able to expand the gold along that arm and into the nose which will allow us to grow the gold inventory very quickly’: Storm CEO Bruce Counts on drilling the Miminiska target

Storm Exploration (TSXV:STRM) has four properties in northwestern Ontario, a jurisdiction that has produced over 200 million ounces of gold. Three of Storm’s properties are in the Fort Hope area, home to a greenstone belt with the potential to host a major gold camp.

Miminiska has seen the most drilling, making it the obvious choice for an initial drill program, which is scheduled to begin in early 2025, subject to financing.

Storm Exploration to drill Miminiska BIF during H1 2025 — Richard Mills

High-grade gold has been confirmed by drilling at a number of locations on Storm’s flagship property, Miminiska. Historical assays include 5.75 g/t Au over 20.84m and 13.95 g/t Au over 5.32m, with mineralization hosted in Banded Iron Formation.

Miminiska currently has two main targets: Frond and Miminiska. Outcrops on the shores of Lakes Frond and Miminiska were discovered in the 1940s, but so far only minor drilling has been done.

Storm Exploration optioned the property from Landore Resources in 2021.

“It took quite a while to land these properties but I felt very strongly that they were exceptional. In all that research I’d been doing I really hadn’t seen historical results like these. This is an area with proven gold endowment that has seen limited exploration work; but more than that, I was drawn to the deposit type: Banded Iron Formation-hosted gold,” Counts said.

Banded Iron Formations (BIF) account for around 60% of global iron reserves, and can be found in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the United States India, Russia, Ukraine and South Africa.

BIFs have several characteristics that make them significant for juniors that own them, and producers that want to acquire them. First, they tend to be high grade / high margin deposits that have large gold inventories, often in the multi-million-ounce range. In addition, the grades tend to be consistent (not nuggety), meaning that they are easier for explorers to define and for producers to predict the ounces that will be mined. Finally, the metallurgy of BIF-hosted gold deposits generally tends to be simple. This makes for excellent gold recovery and a less complex processing circuit to recover the precious metal. 

Counts said the Miminiska project bears all the hallmarks of a Banded Iron Formation-hosted gold deposit. The closest analog is Musselwhite, located ~115 km to the northwest which has historically produced more than 6 million ounces of gold grading 5.3 g/t and recently sold for $850m. The geometry of the Miminiska target is similar to that of the past-producing Lupin BIF mine in Nunavut, which produced 3.4Moz at 9.1 g/t Au before closure in 2005.

Historical drilling on the Miminiska target totals approximately 13,000 meters — enough to compile an 80,000-ounce resource. Notably, this resource is non 43-101-compliant, meaning it cannot be relied upon for investment purposes. Still, it provides a ballpark estimate of how much gold has already been discovered with very limited drilling – 6.15 ozs of gold discovered for every meter of drilling.

Counts said he thinks the gold endowment at Miminiska can be expanded vertically and laterally through drilling.

“We feel confident that we can expand the gold inventory very quickly and without a lot of expense,” he told me, adding “The Miminiska target has the potential to host a multi-million-ounce deposit all on its own and it is only a small part of the 5,500-ha property.”

The Miminiska property hosts two banded iron formation hosted gold targets separated by 12 km: Miminiska in the west and Frond in the east. While drilling has been completed on Miminiska, the Frond target also boasts compelling historical drill results, including 12.54 g/t over 3.8m. In addition, limited exploration drilling in the 1980’s identified gold bearing BIF between Miminiska and Frond, making the entire property prospective for this type of rich gold deposit.

BIFs are different from shear-hosted gold systems. A shear-hosted system tends to host a “sheet” of gold; however, in Banded Iron Formations, explorers are looking for a series of “rods” or “shuts” that plunge deeply underground.

Counts notes that drilling at Miminiska has mostly been confined to the top 150m of the system. An important question is, could the zones run deeper? Counts gives the example of the past-producing Lupin Mine, where gold was mined at 9 grams per tonne from surface to a depth of 3,600 meters.

In 2022, Storm Exploration performed an electromagnetic survey over the Miminiska target to determine the conductivity of the known gold zones — something that had never been done before.

“We were excited to see that the known gold zones produced a very strong electromagnetic response and that there were similar responses in undrilled areas of the BIF,” said Counts, who describes the target as “folded into a Z pattern with the best gold results along the northern limb. What we found is that similar conductivity signatures exist elsewhere along that northern limb and into the nose of a fold. (see map below)

“The nose of the fold may be very important. There’s no guarantee that it will host a lot of gold,” he said, “but in many instances that is the sweet spot. At Miminiska, the nose has never been drilled and it has a fantastic conductivity signature that mimics where gold is known to be present. We have a lot of conviction that we’ll be able to expand the gold along that arm and into the nose which will allow us to grow the gold inventory very quickly.”

As mentioned, the drill program in the New Year is dependent on financing. In September the company launched a non-brokered private placement at $0.05 per unit that so far has raised $500,000.

Storm has also brought on John Williamson as a strategic investor and technical advisor. A gifted and successful geologist, Williamson helped develop Founders Metals’ Antino project in Suriname — which recently attracted an $8.8M investment from B2Gold; and was part of the team that discovered the Back River deposit in Nunavut, a Banded Iron Formation-hosted gold deposit that B2Gold acquired from Sabina Gold & Silver in 2023.

Could Williamson’s experience with Banded Iron Formations be a factor in bringing him into the company? It seems like a safe bet.

“John has a great deal of experience working with Banded Iron Formation hosted gold deposits and he is familiar the Miminiska project. There is no question that he has a lot to contribute technically,” Counts said. “But more than that, John is a serially successful entrepreneur, which will be important in marketing and fundraising,” he continued.

Conclusion

A junior resource company’s place in the food chain is to acquire projects and make discoveries. Storm’s checked that box.

Juniors have one of the toughest jobs in the industry. Finding and advancing new projects to the drill ready stage is difficult and capital-intensive. Storm’s checked that box as well.

The kicker is the juniors have no revenue stream to finance their exploration activities; they typically rely on outside sources for funding. Storm is in in the process of checking that box with the goal being to raise enough money to drill about 3,000 meters of core.

“That’s plenty of meters for us to really convince the market that the Miminiska target has great gold endowment and room to grow into a multi-million-ounce deposit. All the foundational work has been done and the project is ready for drilling,” he concluded.

Storm Exploration Inc.
TSXV:STRM
Cdn$0.04 2025.03.03
Shares Outstanding 52.1m
Market cap Cdn$2.9m
STRM website 

Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com

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