Romios Gold Resources Inc.‘s (TSXV: RG | OTCQB: RMIOF) (“Romios”) focus is on gold, copper and silver exploration in North America. Romios has a 100% interest in five properties in northwestern Ontario, Canada but their recent focus has been on their assets in Nevada, USA.

Therefore today’s article will give an update on Romios’ two projects in Nevada, the Kinkaid Gold-Copper-Silver Project and the Scossa Gold Project.

A summary of Romios’ assets spread across North America focusing on gold, copper and silver

The Kinkaid Gold-Copper-Silver Project (Nevada, USA) (100% owned)

The Kinkaid Project has dozens of old mine workings and prospect pits from the 1930s and ‘40s and includes the historic Montreal Gold-Silver mine.

Various prospecting over recent years has found a number of positive results including:

• In 2021, a small-scale historic mining operation on the southern claims assayed 212 g/t silver (6.8 oz/t Ag), 2.3% copper and 1 g/t gold.
• Chip and grab samples from two old trenches returned assays of 13.5 g/t gold and 4.34% copper from one trench and 5.8 to 36.3 g/t gold and 1.55% to 4.8% copper from another.
• Mineralized veins adjacent to garnet skarn workings (“P.M. Prospect”) on the northern claims also returned excellent results including 1,725 g/t silver (55 oz/t Ag), 6.9% zinc, 0.4% copper, plus lead, antimony, arsenic, and mercury.
• In May 2022, high-grade assays were reported from the southern claims of up to 17.9 g/t gold and 6.59% copper.
• 2023 exploration discovered three copper-bearing samples from the Dry Gulch #2 skarn in the NE corner of the Kinkaid claims assayed 1.1%, 7.2% and 16.55% copper across different intervals 20-40 cm wide.
• 2023 exploration from dumps at a previously unmapped old adit and shaft on a swarm of quartz-sulphide veins in the central Kinkaid claims returned gold assays of 2.4, 5.5 and 32.0 g/t gold and copper assays of 1.27% copper to 3.22% copper.

Romios stated in May 2023: “(Romios) commenced a program of detailed geological mapping and sampling across the Kinkaid property with emphasis on the numerous mineralized showings. Diamond drilling of several showings is anticipated in 2023.”

Romios stated in July 2023 that they intend to “further refine the geological model of the Kinkaid mineralization” and “at this point, various geophysical, geochemical and geological options are under consideration for detecting and outlining any possible porphyry/plutonic systems beneath the veins and skarn occurrences on the Kinkaid claims. Work at Kinkaid is expected to resume in September, 2023.”

The Scossa Gold Project (Nevada, USA) (100% owned)

The Scossa Gold Project covers a former high-grade gold mine that was in production from 1930-1941 and where historic drill programs intersected ‘bonanza’ (super high) grades over multiple meters.

What’s interesting is that past mining only reached as deep as 400 feet (~122 meters). Romios state that “large sections of multiple veins have not been drilled, and there are some newfound areas of potential vein development”.

Romios conducted drilling programs in 2002, 2003 and 2006, intersecting bonanza grade gold mineralization in several shallow holes including 3.35 m @ 180.2 g/t gold. There was also one rock chip sample assaying 25 g/t gold. Romios model shows a high potential target area down plunge of the past mining that has not been drilled and now becomes a high priority target of the next drill campaign.

One new area of potential vein development was found from an assay of 10.2 g/t Au which was returned from a sample of a >1 m wide quartz vein exposed 340 meters south along strike of the main veins at the historic Scossa Gold Mine site.

In a July 31, 2023 market update Romios stated:

“Several days were spent prospecting and mapping areas north and south along strike of the >700 m long epithermal vein system that produced high-grade gold ore averaging more than 1 ounce/ton (31.1 g/t) gold during mining operations in the 1930s……The 340-meter gap between the known veins and this new discovery is now considered highly prospective for extensions of the Scossa gold vein system and will be explored in the coming months through a combination of detailed geological mapping, soil sampling and hand-trenching where appropriate.“

Romios’ 2 Nevada projects (Kinkaid & Scossa) are within major mineral belts in Nevada, the world’s 4th largest gold producing region

Source: Company presentation

Closing remarks

Romios has recently completed fieldwork programs on the Kinkaid and Scossa Projects in Nevada. Both have returned encouraging results from new areas that have expanded the potential extent of both mineralized systems. Findings so far have included some good gold, copper, and silver grades. The next challenge is to discover larger mineralized zones that can be drilled and potentially produce some long drill lengths leading to a potential resource.

Meanwhile, Romios also has their numerous other projects, notably in Canada (details in an InvestorNews video here).

Romios Gold Resources trades on a market cap of only C$7 million, meaning any significant discovery can have a huge impact on the stock. One to follow in 2023.

It’s not often that you see a junior mining company release a general corporate update, with no new drill results, that sparks a 45% rally in the stock with a dramatic and sustained increase in daily volume. Especially over the last two weeks, which hasn’t exactly been a “risk-on” type of market. Naturally, I was inclined to have a look and see what all the fuss was about.

It may come as no surprise that I had no idea what most of the somewhat technical press release was trying to convey. My commerce degree and business experience have not blessed me with the ability to interpret geologic concepts. I can grasp oz/tonne, true width, depth, inferred resource, etc. but that’s all just math (which my degree and business experience did equip me to comprehend). But when it comes to hyperspectral imaging, induced polarization survey, or the role of compressional structures on stratigraphy, you might as well be speaking another language, specifically one I don’t understand. However, the market has spoken and the market is always right, so even though I may not understand it, it appears that it is pretty good news.

The company that has generated this recent buzz is Westward Gold Inc. (CSE: WG | OTCQB: WGLIF), a mineral exploration company focused on developing the Toiyabe, Turquoise Canyon, and East Saddle Projects located in the Cortez Hills area of Nevada. They’ve assembled a 3,830 hectare land package in the heart of Nevada’s Battle Mountain-Eureka Gold Trend, one of the most prospective mining districts in the world, approximately 10 kilometers southwest of Barrick Gold Corp.’s Cortez Hills mine and adjacent to Barrick’s past producing Toiyabe-Saddle Mine.

The press release that caught the market’s attention was a seemingly run-of-the-mill corporate update, but I guess the devil is in the details. I’ve already stated that a lot of the technical information was over my head but I’ll try and interpret what made this particular update a little more special. It was a very thorough summary of the last year’s activity, but there wasn’t a lot of news that hadn’t already been disclosed. As near as I can tell, only the IP Survey, possibly reinterpretation of legacy geophysical data, and the combination of this data, with previously disclosed information, to come up with new stratigraphic findings are new to the public domain. So the excitement must lie somewhere within there.

Highlights from the 17 line-kilometer IP Survey point to the main host rock at the Historical Resource at Toiyabe (~173 koz at 1.2 g Au/t) being interpreted to also be present at Turquoise Canyon, under only 150-250 meters of cover. The chargeability model confirms two near-term step-out targets at Toiyabe and further informs priority targets at Turquoise Canyon. Reinterpretation of legacy geophysical data confirmed the IP findings related to the presence of favorable Lower Plate carbonates below the Upper Plate cover at Turquoise Canyon and further understanding of the geometry of the carbonate window and associated structures at Toiyabe. Certainly, positive news but even a layman like myself is struggling to find anything market-moving here.

That suggests it’s all down to the new stratigraphic findings (or I’ve completely missed the boat on this one, which is entirely possible). Cross-section analysis provided for a new understanding of the role of compressional structures on stratigraphy, the dip of mineralization, and a potential link between mineralization at surface in the Toiyabe-Saddle open pits and at depth at Toiyabe. Repetition of favorable lithologies (stratigraphic duplex) appears to occur beneath the Historical Resource. The Company believes this confirms that gold mineralization is hosted in the Horse Canyon and Wenban Formations, which are documented gold hosts at the nearby Pipeline, Cortez Hills, Goldrush, and Fourmile deposits.

If that is the good news, I will always be late to the dance because I look for something more understandable (to me), like drill results, to get me excited. To that end, the Company is proceeding with a 12-15 hole, 4,000 meter drilling campaign scheduled to begin in June, focusing on several of the targets noted above. This initial drilling program is budgeted to be roughly US$1 million, which leaves ample funds for Phase 2 drilling later in the year following the Company’s recent C$2.5 million financing, which closed in February.

At the end of the day, the market has spoken and people a lot more knowledgeable than me are suggesting Westward Gold might be on to something in Nevada. With a market cap of only C$10 million, this is another example of an almost free option on a company with an interesting next couple of months ahead of it.