SKRR Exploration Inc. (TSXV:SKRR) is a gold exploration company focused on a collection of properties in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The company’s flagship Olson gold project is located in the Trans-Hudson Corridor of Saskatchewan, an area known for its orogenic gold and volcanic-massive sulfide (VMS) style deposits. SKRR Exploration believes the Trans-Hudson Corridor could become Canada’s next leading mining jurisdiction based on its rich geology and relatively under-explored prospects.
SKRR Exploration’s flagship Olson gold project comprises 5,038 hectares in the heart of the Trans-Hudson Corridor. The property was acquired via an option agreement with Eagle Plains Resources. Under the terms of the agreement, SKRR has the option to earn-in up to a 75 percent interest in the property. In addition to its Olson gold project, SKRR Exploration owns a total of five exploration projects located in Saskatchewan’s Trans-Hudson Corridor including Irving/Leland, Ithingo Lake, Cathro and Manson Bay.
The Trans-Hudson Corridor is a large geological region stretching from South Dakota to James Bay that hosts rich mineralization and a number of past-producing and existing precious metals projects. The Trans-Hudson Corridor is home to the Homestake Gold Mine, the Seabee Gold Mine, and a number of modern exploration projects. The Seabee gold mine was acquired by SSR Mining in 2016 after operating between 1991 and 2018 when all mineral reserves on the property were exhausted. The nearby Seabee Mill has been in operation since 1991 and is capable of processing 1,050 tonnes per day.
Members of the SKRR team including Ron Netolitzky and Ross McElroy have spent the majority of their careers exploring the Trans-Hudson Corridor, partially due to Saskatchewan’s mining-friendly policies and exploration potential. At the provincial level, the province of Saskatchewan offers a safe and stable jurisdiction from which to conduct exploration. The province was ranked the 11th-most friendly according to the 2019 Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies.
SKRR Exploration’s Company Highlights
- Olson gold project is located in Saskatchewan’s Trans Hudson Corridor, home to the Glennie Domain and the province’s largest orogenic gold deposit
- Historical drilling as Olson has intersected 7.5 m grading 2.07 g/t gold including 13.00 g/t gold over 0.65 m
- Saskatchewan ranked the 11th most-friendly mining jurisdiction according to the 2019 Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies
- Saskatchewan has produced 5.5 million ounces of gold from primary orogenic deposits and base metal mining projects
- Irving/Leland gold project comprises 23,500 hectares split into two prospective gold properties
- Ithingo Lake project’s best intersection at the Main zone returned 7.5m @ 11.5 g/t gold
- Cathro gold project comprises 3,277 hectares of land within the La Ronge Greenstone Belt in Saskatchewan
- Chairman Ross McElroy has significant experience in Saskatchewan, including two major mineral discoveries
The Trans-Hudson Corridor
The Trans-Hudson Corridor is a geological region that stretches north from the midwestern United States across Canada up to James Bay. The area was formed by years of volcanic activity that helped create many of the volcanic massive sulfide (VMS) greenstone belts in the area, many of which host precious metals and base metals deposits.
A number of resource and exploration companies have begun focusing on the Trans-Hudson Corridor in recent years including Taiga Gold Corp. (CSE:TGC), SSR Mining (TSX:SSRM), HudBay Minerals (TSX:HBM), Alamos Gold Inc. (TSX:AGI) and SKRR exploration. Taiga Gold, a spin-out of Eagle Plains Resources, has focused its operations within the Trans-Hudson Corridor, specifically the area surrounding the Seabee gold mine.
The Trans-Hudson Corridor hosts a number of active and past mines including the McLellan Gold Mine, the Snow Lake Gold Mine, the Seabee Gold Mine and the Homestake Gold Mine located in South Dakota, which produced over 40 million ounces of gold before it closed in 2002. The rich mineralization and past production found within the Trans-Hudson Corridor have led resource companies including SKRR Exploration to target the area due to its district-scale potential. The region also benefits from existing infrastructure including the Seabee mill, which has been in operation since 1991 with a capacity of 1,050 tonnes per day.
Like British Columbia’s Golden Triangle and Ontario’s Red Lake Gold District, SKRR Exploration believes the Trans-Hudson Corridor has the potential to become Canada’s next major gold district. In addition to its exploration potential, Saskatchewan offers a safe and stable jurisdiction with mining-friendly policies designed to facilitate exploration and development.
SKRR Exploration’s Olson Property
SKRR Exploration’s flagship Olson property is located in the center of the Trans Hudson Corridor. Within this corridor, the Olson property is hosted in the Glennie Domain, which is the source of Saskatchewan’s largest orogenic gold deposit, the Seabee gold mine. The Olson project hosts 29 mineral occurrences defined by historical geological mapping, prospecting, trenching and 4700 m of diamond drilling.
Gold mineralization has been identified in several locations throughout the property via surface channel sampling and preliminary drilling. To date, geophysical models have proven to be a reliable source of information in terms of predicting further mineralization on the property. Historical drilling on the property has intersected 7.5m grading 2.07 g/t gold including 13.00 g/t gold over 0.65 m and grab samples of up to 105.52 g/t gold.
In 2018, previous owner Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. (TSXV:EPL) compiled the existing data at the Olson project before beginning a two-phase field program consisting of geological mapping and prospecting for a total of 862 soil samples and 126 rock samples. Fieldwork was also conducted in areas hosting anomalous soil geochemistry, which identified gold mineralization associated with shear-hosted quartz veins. Highlights from this work included 45.1 g/t gold with 20 grab samples returning greater than 1000 ppb gold. The Olson area also returned a maximum of 41.0 g/t gold from an outcrop sample of sheeted veins.
SKRR Exploration considers the Olson project to be relatively underexplored, with known gold occurrences that have shown to be open at depth and along strike. In July 2020 SKRR launched an exploration program at Olson with the objective of defining targets to inform a phase two diamond drilling program. The company has contracted Discovery Geophysics to conduct a 10.3 line kilometer resistivity and IP geophysical survey at the Jena-Juba and Point-Tuscan targets, with preliminary results expected to be available for follow-up during phase one.
SKRR Exploration’s Irving/Leland Gold Project
SKRR Exploration’s Irving/Leland gold project is located in the heart of Saskatchewan’s Trans Hudson Corridor, comprising 23,500 hectares that are split into two prospective gold properties. The Irving Lake property and Leland Gold property are both exploration-stage gold projects that have revealed gold mineralization on claims discovered during previous historical work.
The Irving/Leland Gold project is strategically located within 20 kilometers of SRR Mining’s (TSX:SSRM) Seabee Gold Mine, which hosts Saskatchewan’s largest orogenic gold deposit. The Irving/Leland project covers a portion of the Pine Lake Greenstone Belt within the Trans Hudson Corridor. The area is characterized by a major crustal shear system that intersects the corridor. According to SKRR, the area hosts many of the key geological ingredients needed to host large high-grade gold deposits, including those found at Seabee and the nearby Santoy gold deposit.
Leland Gold Project
The Leland gold project was acquired by SKRR Exploration via an option agreement in May 2020 signed with Taiga Gold (CSE:TGC). Under the terms of the agreement, SKRR has the potential to earn up to a 75 percent interest in the property. The Leland gold project hosts several high-grade gold occurrences, including findings of up to 60 g/t gold that are associated with hosted quartz veins.
A 2019 exploration program conducted by Taiga Gold returned channel samples of 2.1 g/t gold over 3.22 m, including 5.4 g/t gold over 0.65 meters. Five new gold occurrences were discovered during the exploration program returning grades of up to 3.5 g/t gold. Northeast of the Simon showing, Taiga identified anomalous soils that make up a new zone of mineralization. Taiga also conducted additional staking around the Duck Lake Occurrence, where historical grab samples have returned 3.2 g/t gold.
Irving Lake
SKRR Exploration acquired 100 percent of the Irving Lake project from Edge Geological Consulting Inc. in April 2020. The property hosts outcrop samples that have returned highlights of up to 3.93 g/t gold and 413 ppm copper.
SKRR Exploration’s Ithingo Project
SKRR Exploration’s Ithingo Lake project comprises 12 contiguous land claims for a total of 2,849 hectares. The property is home to historical exploration work that has been conducted by a number of previous operators, including Claude Resources Inc. (TSX:CRJ), Newmont Exploration of Canada, and Pine Channel Gold Corp.
SKRR Exploration acquired 100 percent of the Ithingo Lake property from Edge Geological Consulting in March 2020. Under the terms of the agreement, Edge has retained a net smelter royalty (NSR) of two percent, with an option for SKRR to repurchase one percent back for a cost of C$1,000,000. Over the next three years, SKRR Exploration is expected to contribute a total of $900,000 in work expenditures.
Historical exploration has been conducted on the Ithingo Lake property dating back to the 1930s when gold occurrences were reported on the property. In the 1908s, Claude Resources discovered high-grade gold mineralization after digging surface trenches that returned grab sample assays up to 27.37 g/t gold with channel sample composited intervals of 4.98 g/t gold over 6.1m and 9.33 g/t gold over 2.7m at the Main zone.
In 1988 and 1989 both Newmont Corporation (NYSE:NEM, TSX:NGT) and Claude Resources Inc. (TSX:CRJ) conducted drill campaigns on the Ithingo property for a total of 5,248.17 meters across 57 drill holes. The Main, Sterny, North Sterny and Ithingo Lake zones were all tested at the time, with the majority of the drill holes conducted on the Main Zone, which is open along strike and at depth. The best intersection at the Main zone returned 7.5m @ 11.5 g/t gold.
SKRR Exploration’s Cathro Gold Project
In February 2020 SKRR Exploration executed an agreement with Eagle Plains Resources (TSXV:EPL) to acquire 100 percent interest in the Cathro gold project located 50 kilometers northeast of La Ronge, Saskatchewan. The project comprises 3,277 hectares of land within the La Ronge Greenstone Belt, including volcanic rocks that are known to host structurally-controlled gold mineralization such as the historic Contact Lake deposit.
The Cathro gold project hosts four known gold occurrences within the claim boundaries and has seen limited exploration from past owners including Cogema, which conducted gram sampling and vein quartz sampling on the project in 1988. Highlights from this sampling program include:
- 492RR-1404: a grab sample of sheared quartz in metavolcanics returned 72 g/t gold
- 492RR-1406: a grab sample of grey quartz returned 100 g/t gold
- 492RR-1452: a quartz vein chip sample of unknown width returned 21.2 g/t gold
- 492RR-1456: a quartz vein chip sample of unknown width with visible gold returned 29.2 g/t gold
During its exploration work, Cogema exposed the main Vidgy Zone over a strike length of 21m with a maximum vein width of 2.5m. Five lines of contiguous chip samples at 4-meter intervals were also collected from the main Vidgy Zone with highlights including 0m at 8.1 g/t gold, 7m at 4.4 g/t gold and 5m at 5.6 g/t gold.
SKRR Exploration’s Manson Bay South Property
To expand its holdings in the Trans-Hudson Corridor, SKRR Exploration announced the acquisition of 100-percent of the Manson Bay South Property in September 2020. The property comprises nine mineral claims for a total of approximately 4,228 hectares. To complement Manson Bay South, SKRR Exploration also announced the acquisition of a 100-percent interest in Edge Geological Consulting Inc.’s adjacent Manson Bay Property, which comprises four minerals claims totaling 64.537 hectares.
Manson Bay
The Manson Bay property includes all of the known drill holes that outline the historic Manson Bay Gold Zone. Historical drilling was conducted on the Manson Bay Gold Zone in 1985 by HudBay Minerals, including three drill holes. Mingold followed up on this exploration with a 44-hole, 4,607-meter drill program in 1987-88, estimating a historic resource of 660,000 tons grading 3.4 g/t gold to a depth of 122 meters down-dip with the potential for expansion of depth and strike extent. SKRR Exploration considers these estimates to be historical in nature.
Highlights from the drill program include:
- MBO-15: 15.39 g/t gold over 10.03m including 23.13 g/t gold over 6.40m and 219.02 g/t gold over 0.61m
- MBO-37: intersected 2.91 g/t gold over 12.44m including 16.11 g/t gold over 0.24m
Manson Bay South
The Manson Bay South property is contiguous with and surrounds the Manson Bay Property. Manson Bay South contains a number of historical showings, including the Nest Group gold-silver-copper-zinc showing and the MAN Claim copper-gold showing.
The Nest Group showing is located approximately three kilometers southeast of the Mason Bay Gold Zone and includes four zones of known mineralization: The Showing, A Zone, B Zone and C Zone. The MAN Claim showing is located approximately 2 kilometers south of the Mason Bay Gold Zone, where previous explorers obtained a grab sample that returned an assay value of 5,680 ppb gold.
SKRR Exploration’s Management Team
Ross McElroy—Chairman of the Board, Director
Mr. McElroy is a professional geologist with over 30 years of experience in the mining industry. He is the winner of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada 2014 Bill Dennis award for exploration success and the Northern Miner mining person of the year 2013. Ross McElroy has been instrumental in several major uranium discoveries in Saskatchewan (the world’s largest source of high-grade uranium), the Triple R deposit and Cameco’s McArthur River deposit (the world’s largest high-grade uranium deposit). Mr. McElroy while at BHP, managed the vast Hope Bay Gold Project and was a key member of the team to discover 3 major high-grade gold deposits that TMAC Resources brought into production.
Sherman Dahl—President and Director
Mr. Dahl is a seasoned investor and financier who is well versed in finance and marketing strategies for small-cap private and public Canadian companies. Mr. Dahl has expertise in identifying undervalued companies and introducing these opportunities to his buy-side network of clients, strategic co-investors and marketing participants. Mr. Dahl has a proven record of being able to raise capital and increase investor awareness and liquidity. Mr. Dahl was previously a vice-president and investment adviser with National Bank Financial, a leading Canadian investment dealer. In addition to managing a $150-million retail book and achieving Chairman’s Council level, Mr. Dahl participated in numerous capital raises totaling over $150-million directly for various issuers with total issuer financings of $1 billion on behalf of retail and institutional clients over a 20-year career.
Iain Butler—Director
Iain Butler has over 25 years of experience in various senior financial and general management roles. Currently with Kal Tire as the VP of Finance for their Mining group where he is a member of the Board of Directors for Kal Tire’s International entities. Iain has completed multiple complex acquisitions, both in Canada and abroad. Iain has an Economics Degree from the University of Essex and is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of BC and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Jeremy Ross—Director
Mr. Ross has more than twenty years in corporate development and marketing for small-cap to mid-tier mining, oil and gas companies. With a comprehensive network of institutional and retail relationships, Mr. Ross has planned and implemented numerous marketing campaigns. He was the Corporate Development Consultant for Fission Energy and played a key role in growing investor awareness up until its major sale of assets to Denison Mines. In 2013, Mr. Ross was appointed to the Board of Directors of Fission Uranium and was appointed to the Fission 3.0 Board of Directors following Fission Uranium’s acquisition of Alpha Minerals.
Ryan Cheung—Chief Financial Officer
Ryan Cheung is the founder and managing partner of MCPA Services Inc., chartered professional accountant, in Vancouver, B.C. Leveraging his experience as a former auditor of junior venture and resource companies, Mr. Cheung serves as a director and officer or consultant for public and private companies, providing financial reporting, taxation and strategic guidance. He has been an active member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia (formerly Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia) since January 2008. Mr. Cheung holds a diploma in accounting from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Commerce in international business from the University of Victoria.
Brian Skanderbeg—Special Advisor
Mr. Skanderbeg is currently founding CEO of GFG Resources Inc., an Abitibi gold belt focused company and was most recently President and CEO of Claude Resources Inc. since November 2014 – which was acquired by Silver Standard Resources Inc. for $337 million. He previously worked for Goldcorp, Inco Ltd. and Helio Resource Corp., holding positions in both exploration and operations. Mr. Skanderbeg is also a director of Wesdome Mines Gold Ltd. He holds a B.Sc. from the University of Manitoba and an M.Sc. from Rhodes University, South Africa. He brings extensive experience in the exploration and evaluation of gold systems, operational management, cost and asset optimization and strategic analysis.
