- Focused on its flagship Ruby Creek Project in northern British Columbia and Que Project in Yukon Territory
- Ruby Creek silver/gold prospect also hosts historical Adanac Molybdenum deposit
- High-profile investor Eric Sprott is a company insider
Stuhini Exploration Ltd (TSX-V:STU) is a mineral exploration company that searches for and develops precious and base metal properties in western Canada.
The Vancouver-based company is focused on its flagship Ruby Creek Project in northern British Columbia and the Que Project in the Yukon Territory, with the option to earn a 100% interest on both properties. In July 2021, Stuhini added to its Ruby Creek Land Package by purchasing the Island Claims from Brixton Metals Corporation (TSX-V:BBB, OTCQB:BBBXF) while at the same time it announced the purchase of the Big Ledge Zinc prospect in south-central British Columbia.
The company in 2021 also staked seven Mineral Exploration Licenses (MELs) within the southern extent of the Thompson Nickel Belt in Manitoba.
The company's 28,631-hectare, road-accessible Ruby Creek Project hosts the historic Adanac/Ruby Creek Molybdenum resource, which has an intact British Columbia Mines Act permit. The property also has a rich mineral exploration history as there are 48 different documented mineral occurrences, of which 16 are gold-related.
However, most of the modern exploration during the past 50 years has focused on the development of the Adanac Molybdenum resource with very little focus on the gold and silver. The southern portion of the tenures lies within the historic Atlin Gold Camp, with seven of the 10 major placer streams at least partially laying within Stuhini’s claims. Stuhini maintains the hard rock mineral exploration rights as it does not conduct any placer operations.
The 4,243-hectare Que Project, also road accessible, is an underexplored, greenfield exploration target. Numerous gold targets exist across the property, which Stuhini optioned directly from the Lindsay family whose father first staked it in the mid-1960’s. Subsequent exploration has discovered anomalous gold in soil and stream sediment silt samples along with gold-bearing quartz veins. The creek draining Quiet Hill within the project also had stream sediment silt samples that were also anomalous in platinum.
The seven MELs encompassing 47,513 hectares along the southern extent of the Thompson Nickel Belt occur within the greater area of the Winnipegosis Komatiite Belt and cover prospective ground that is untested for bulk tonnage nickel (Ni) deposits. In 1983, Amax drilled 165 meters (m) 0.32% Ni, including an upper zone of 4m of 0.52% (including 1.06% Ni over 1.52m) and a lower zone of 49.7m of 0.37% Ni. The area hosts a large “bulls-eye” coincidental electromagnetic-magnetic geophysical anomaly, suggestive of a bulk tonnage target.
Both Stuhini co-founders have significant share positions. Eric Sprott has participated in all post-IPO financings and is a company insider as well as strategic investor who holds 11.3% interest (company insiders including Sprott hold 38.1%). The company also maintains low general and administrative costs.
How is it doing:
To fund its projects, Stuhini recently closed a $2.3 million non‑brokered private placement. Once the placement was completed the company had approximately 24.1 million shares outstanding with no warrants outstanding since first listing in May 2019.
Most of the funding is being deployed on exploration at the Ruby Creek Project primarily on geophysics and geochemical programs pertaining to the gold and silver targets. But with the continued increase in the price of Molybdenum (Mo) to recent highs of over US$20.00 per pound, the company believes the economic outlook for the historic resource has improved sufficiently to justify exploring the possibility of updating it. Molybdenum is used primarily as a steel additive but has potential for future use in batteries.
The Ruby Creek Molybdenum resource, using a 0.04% Mo cut-off grade, has a historic measured and indicated resource of 275.4 million tons grading 0.067% Mo for 407.9 million pounds, and an historical inferred mineral resource of 39.1 million tons grading 0.062% Mo for 53.7 million pounds. This estimate is historic in nature and has not yet been verified by Stuhini.
During the 2020 exploration season, Stuhini announced the identification of three high-priority silver targets within the Ruby Creek Project. The Ruffner area, which surrounds the past-producing Ruffner silver mine and the Adera Corridor where the company identified multiple high-grade silver/lead showings at surface along a newly expanded 7.5 kilometres (km) long target area, with several showing sampling over 4,000 grams per ton (g/t) silver. Lastly, there was a late-season Silver Surprise discovery with grades up to 14,179 g/t.
Also during the 2020 exploration season, the company announced numerous noteworthy gold showings, most of these associated with the southern portions of the tenures in and around the placer streams. The highest-grade results came from the Boulder Creek Sunbeam target that sampled an angular proximal float boulder that assayed at 121.3 g/t gold and 2,093 g/t silver.
Meanwhile, Stuhini in July 2021 expanded its portfolio by acquiring two mineral properties (gold and zinc) in British Columbia.
The Island Property was acquired from Brixton Metals Corporation for $60,000 cash. It is roughly 1,277 hectares in size and contiguous with the south-central border of Stuhini’s Ruby Creek Property and the area has potential for significant gold mineralization.
The second acquisition is the Big Ledge Property, which was acquired from a company director for a nominal consideration and is roughly 5,094 hectares in size. It is a stratiform zinc deposit and road accessible. The most recent historic samples have assayed up to 4.70% zinc.
Operations aside, the company has made a few moves recently to strengthen its management team.
Stuhini named industry veteran Ehsan Salmabadi as its vice president of exploration. He has served as an underground mine geologist and then senior geologist for North American Tungsten Corp at the Cantung Mine in the Northwest Territories.
Stuhini also recently announced the appointment of Dr Stewart Jackson to the advisory board, who brings a wealth of knowledge as he first walked the Ruby Creek project in 1964. He was attracted to the company because of the intrusion gold potential within the Ruby creek tenures.
Inflection points:
- Decision on Molybdenum resource update at Ruby Creek
- Complete Ground IP geophysical surveys at Ruby Creek
- Follow-up prospecting results from Silver Surprise
- Start geophysical survey on South Thompson Nickel Project
“Stuhini continues to explore for gold and silver at its flagship Ruby Creek project, while at the same time we continue to consider updating the historical Adanac molybdenum resource which we believe is best in class,” the company's CEO David O'Brien said recently. "With the more or less doubling in the price of Molybdenum over the past year, this historical resource has become our main focus."
He added: "In the meantime, Stuhini continues to cost-effectively acquire potential high impact projects in Western Canada, all of which are road accessible."
Contact the author: patrick@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow him on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) @PatrickMGraham