Every once in a while I find myself scanning through a company’s website or press releases and then I have to pause for a moment and go back and re-read something. Instead of the usual content you expect to see, something jumps off the page and you have to make sure you read it correctly and that your eyes weren’t playing tricks on you. Today’s junior mining stock had me doing this a couple of times for several different reasons. The company is unusual (in a good way) and not simply because Eric Sprott beneficially owns 25% of the outstanding shares (even more if warrants are exercised). It also had nothing to do with its location, Newfoundland & Labrador, although that’s why I was looking at it in the first place as I just happen to enjoy reading and writing about this special part of Canada.

The first thing that jumped off the page for me was “Approximately 48,000 metres remain to be completed in the current 100,000 m drill program”. For a junior miner anywhere, that is a giant volume of drilling, which also means there has to be plenty of cash around as well. How about a treasure stocked with C$13 million? Seems like enough to undertake such an enormous exploration program and as the Company states “sufficient funds to undertake all the exploration activities planned for 2022”. The last thing that stood out was the number of projects being actively explored – 5. Most junior mining companies don’t have more than 2 or 3 properties to pursue, often only 1, and even more rare is the resources to be working on all these projects over the next 3-6 months.

Needless to say, I was hooked. I had to find out more about Sokoman Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SIC | OTCQB: SICNF), and let me tell, there is a lot more to learn. The Company’s primary focus is its portfolio of gold projects; flagship Moosehead Gold Project, Crippleback Lake (optioned to Trans Canada Gold Corp.) and East Alder (optioned to Canterra Minerals Corporation) along the Central Newfoundland Gold Belt, and the district-scale Fleur de Lys project in north-central Newfoundland. The Company also recently entered into a strategic alliance with Benton Resources Inc. (TSXV: BEX) through three, large-scale, joint-venture properties including Grey River, Golden Hope and Kepenkeck in Newfoundland. Sokoman controls, independently and through the Benton alliance, over 150,000 hectares (>6,000 claims – 1500 sq. km), making it one of the largest landholders in Newfoundland, in Canada’s newest and rapidly-emerging gold districts. The Company also retains an interest in an early-stage antimony/gold project (Startrek) in Newfoundland, optioned to White Metal Resources Inc., and in Labrador, the Company has a 100% interest in the Iron Horse (Fe) project which has Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) potential.

I’m still trying to figure out what metal or minerals Newfoundland & Labrador doesn’t have as it seems the region has an abundance of everything. Along those lines, the Golden Hope JV with Benton made the first high-grade lithium discovery in Newfoundland in September, 2021. The first assay results from the drilling program that tested the Kraken pegmatite field returned an average of 0.95% Li₂O over 8.40 m with grades as high as 1.76% Li₂O. Not bad when you are looking for gold. The Alliance has proposed a C$3 million budget for a summer drill program testing as many of the known pegmatite dykes as possible, with up to 30-40 holes planned. Camp setup and drill mobilization are expected in mid-June.

But as interesting as this is, for today I think will focus on where the bulk of the drilling is being done, and that’s the Moosehead Gold Project where visible gold has been intersected in drilling over a 2 km strike length. From 2018-2021 Sokoman completed ~73,000 m of drilling with ~360 holes, leading to the discovery of 4 significant zones, all of which remain open. Highlights from these zones rival some of the findings from their neighbors to the east, New Found Gold Corp. (TSXV: NFG | AMEX: NFGC) another Eric Sprott backed gold miner in Newfoundland:

Western Trend • MH-18-08 • 1.05 m @ 207.5g/t Au from 8.5 m; and 2.28 m @ 42.36 g/t Au from 33.1 m

Eastern Trend • MH-18-01 • 11.9 m @ 44.96g/t Au, including 5.65 m @ 93.56 g/t Au from 115.2 m

75 Zone • MH-21-23 • 44.8 m @ 17.56g/t Au, including 2.75 m @ 30.59g/t Au from 44.75 m

South Pond • MH-20-12 • 35.0 m of 26.87 g/t Au, including 2.15 m @ 60.59 g/t Au from 47.0 m

Heading into 2022 is where things get really exciting. Results last week, some of the first holes from the 100,000 m 2022 program, expanded the 75 Zone and essentially linked it with the main Eastern Trend/Footwall Splay mineralization (see picture below). In addition, MH-22-418, completed last week (assays pending) intersected the deepest occurrence of visible gold to date on the property at a downhole depth of 352 m.

Source: Sokoman Minerals May 19, 2022 Press Release

It would appear there will be a steady stream of drilling results coming from Sokoman Minerals over the following weeks and months, not only from Moosehead, but Golden Hope and Grey River with JV partner Benton Resources Inc. There is a lot going on at this well funded, junior gold (and now lithium) explorer. With a market cap of C$66 million it’s not hard to imagine plenty of upside when one of your comparables is New Found Gold at a market cap of C$1.2 billion.

People of my vintage are familiar with comedian/actor Rodney Dangerfield and his catchphrase “I don’t get no respect!” It’s a classic and timeless expression, which is probably why he was so well remembered for it. This expression can also be applied to a lot of stocks out there today, and I’m not talking about Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and its one year return of +79%, despite what I’m sure Elon Musk thinks the performance should have been. I’m also not talking about the now unloved lockdown darlings like Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ: ZM) and Peloton Interactive (NASDAQ: PTON). You had to know at some point in time those stocks would stop growing at the pace they were on and the market would reassess their respective valuations. What I’m talking about is a stock that has dramatically underperformed its peer group without having any materially negative news.

Today I want to look at a gold stock that has significantly underperformed many of its peers over the last year, including one, Centerra Gold Inc. (TSX: CG | NYSE: CGAU), who last May announced that it had its largest asset, the Kumtor Mine in the Kyrgyz Republic, essentially seized by the government and then two weeks ago announced it had temporarily suspended gold production at another mine due to a mercury leak. That seems like a pretty low bar to try and outperform but it appears that for the time being, the team at Troilus Gold Corp. (TSX: TLG | OTCQX: CHXMF) don’t get no respect.

Troilus is a Canadian-based junior mining company focused on the advancement and de-risking of the former gold and copper Troilus Mine towards production. From 1996 to 2010, the Troilus Mine produced 2+ million ounces of gold and nearly 70,000 tonnes of copper. Troilus is located in the top-rated mining jurisdiction of Quebec, Canada, where it holds a strategic land position of 1,420 km² in the Frôtet-Evans Greenstone Belt. A robust PEA in 2020 demonstrated the potential for the Troilus project to become a top-ranked gold and copper producing asset in Canada with an after tax NPV5% of US$1,156 million with a 38.3% IRR at a Spot Price of US$1,950/oz Gold and an NPV5% of US$576 Million and 22.9% IRR at Base Case US$1,475/oz Gold. This was based on a total estimated indicated mineral resource of 4.96 million ounces AuEq (177 Mt with an average grade of 0.87 g/t AuEq) and total estimated inferred mineral resource increased to 3.15 million ounces AuEq. Since that time the Company has drilled over 120,000 meters, approximately 46,000 during the six months ended January 31, 2022.

Looking forward, Troilus is planning to update its mineral resource utilizing that additional 120,000 meters of drilling targeting release for mid calendar 2022. Additionally, a Pre-feasibility Study (PFS) is planned to be published mid calendar 2022 along with a continued drilling campaign with the objective of expanding the mineral resource estimate at the Southwest Zone as well as definition drilling in the Z87 and J Zone in support of the PFS. Plans to finalize the Environmental Impact Study targeted for filing in early 2023 show the progress the Company is making in getting this mine into production. The latest news reported excellent metallurgical recovery results for the J Zone as part of an ongoing pilot plant scale metallurgical testing program on each of the main mineral deposits. Knelson gravity separation and column flotation tests achieved gold, copper and silver recoveries of 92.9%, 90.4% and 88.8%, respectively, which will also be used to support the upcoming PFS.

Sounds like nothing but good news past, present and future. But that’s not what the stock price is saying when you stack Troilus up against other Canadian based junior gold miners. The chart below might be a little hard to read but it shows the one year performance of the commodity – gold (red line) and a hand full of peers. Troilus is the bottom line in this chart.

Source: Stockcharts.com

I guess you could say Centerra and the others I’ve included aren’t quite peers of Troilus given several of them actually have production today. However, one could argue that Troilus is well on its way to becoming a producer in the not too distant future and is in a stable, mining friendly jurisdiction with a large and growing resource. In the meantime, it seems odd, at least to me, that Troilus had a one year return of almost 37% lower than Centerra given their relative risk profiles and associated news. Then again, perhaps my opinion gets no respect either.

I was all geared up to write a story about a junior gold miner today based on the company name but upon digging a little deeper I found that after a couple of transactions it’s now a silver play. Correspondingly, I was prepared to take another stab at gold technicals and the price impact on the underlying equites. Instead, we are now talking about silver where my trading history in silver stocks is less than stellar to say the least. When silver got caught up in the Reddit meme stock frenzy, I thought I’d take advantage of the volatility by buying the underlying stocks and selling at, or even in the money covered calls for huge premiums. I collected those huge premiums but proceeded to learn a valuable lesson on how fast the liquidity in meme stocks can dry up and how hard they can fall. In fact, the silver names I participated in fell much further than where they were trading before the meme frenzy took hold leaving me well down on my overall trade, despite all the call premiums I collected. With that said, I still believe in the underlying fundamentals of the commodity itself and have confidence that as an industrial metal that is part of the technology revolution, silver will soar again. I just don’t know how long I’ll have to wait to get back to break even.

But enough about me, let’s have a look at Bald Eagle Gold Corp. (TSXV: BIG). As noted above, the Company came into being in March, 2021 with the completion of the qualifying transaction and subsequent amalgamation of CX One Inc. and Frontera Gold Inc. This resulted in the principal asset of the Company being a 50% interest in the Hot Springs Gold project located between the Battle Mountain and Getchell Comstock Gold-Trend in north-central Nevada. However, it didn’t take long for Bald Eagle to diversify its holdings substantially when on April 26, 2021, it announced a binding letter of intent to acquire the right and title to the Hercules Silver Property located in Washington County, Idaho. The transaction to acquire the 100% interest in the Hercules Property closed on August 10^th followed by the sale of its 50% joint venture interest in the Hot Springs property for US$1.27 million in early October. And voila, Bald Eagle Gold is now a prospective silver play.

A subsequent transaction in November, 2021 resulted in the Company acquiring a 100% interest in the Leviathan Property located immediately east of and adjoining the Company’s Hercules silver property in Idaho. The deal expands Bald Eagle’s total land position to 2,209 acres in this highly prospective area. Which begs the question, what makes this area highly prospective? Well let me tell you.

Six mineralized areas have been identified along the 10,000 feet (3,048 metres) of Hercules rhyolite underlying the length of the Property. Following earliest drilling (1965) near the Hercules Adit, surface drilling, guided by soil geochemistry, made it clear that anomalous silver greater than one ounce per ton is widespread in the Hercules rhyolite. Between 1965 and 1988 work by eight companies resulted in thirteen drill programs and about 1,045 feet (319 metres) of lateral underground advance. The drill programs produced 28 core holes, 43 underground percussion holes and 236 reverse circulation rotary holes. Select results from the Hercules Adit Area of the Property, include:

Source: Bald Eagle Gold Corp. website

The addition of the Leviathan property provides a much larger land package of prospective ground on which to explore and expand the currently known mineralization. Historical surface sampling indicates that the silver (+/- lead-zinc) mineralization on the Hercules Property extends onto the northern portion of Leviathan. Significant copper mineralization is also present within the volcanic rocks at surface on Leviathan, suggesting a potential porphyry copper system may be present at depth. Highlights from the Big Cut prospect located in the southeast of the property include:

Source: Bald Eagle Gold Corp. Nov 16, 2021 Press Release

The Company’s stated strategy is to build precious metal resources in recognized mining‐friendly jurisdictions and the Fraser Institute ranks Idaho ninth for exploration and mining investment out of 77 locations around the world. So that box is ticked. Disposition of the Hot Springs gold working interest increases the available capital pool to roughly C$2 million to begin exploration of the Hercules/Leviathan property. With a current market cap of just over C$10 million, a few good drill holes could make for some exciting times at Bald Eagle Gold Corp.