Investor Insight
A Canadian exploration company poised for discovery, Bold Ventures is focused on the exploration and development of high-potential precious and battery minerals projects in tier 1 jurisdictions in Canada.
Overview
Bold Ventures (TSXV:BOL) is a Canadian mineral exploration company focusing on battery, critical and precious metals located in Northern Ontario and Quebec. The company's asset portfolio demonstrates its focus on these commodities to create consistent value with gold and meet the growing demand for battery and critical metals.
Bold Ventures' key projects are located within three active regions throughout Ontario: Thunder Bay West, Wawa West and the Ring of Fire camp located in the James Bay Lowlands. The Thunder Bay properties host gold and copper mineralization, while the Wawa and Ring of Fire properties have copper, gold, and chromium mineralization with additional potential for zinc, nickel, silver and PGE mineralization. The newly added Springpole East gold and Joutel gold and base metal projects expand Bold’s footprint into additional high-potential areas.
The Burchell gold and copper project, west of Thunder Bay, is Bold’s flagship property with a newly discovered high-grade gold occurrence as well as historical drill intersections of highly anomalous gold and copper. The project is ideally positioned next to Goldshore Resources Inc.’s Moss Gold Project hosting the Moss Gold Deposit of nearly 6 million ounces of gold in the indicated and inferred resource categories.
The 100 percent owned Traxxin gold project, west of Thunder Bay, has shown numerous high-grade gold intersections in drilling. The project is a joint venture between Bold Ventures, as the operator, and Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation, where the joint venture can earn up to 100 percent of the property.
An experienced team of explorers leads the company toward fully realizing the potential of its portfolio. The company's leadership team has participated in three significant world-class discoveries, including:
- Eagle River Mine: Discovered in 1987 by Central Crude/Noranda and has produced over 1 million ounces (Moz) of gold.
- Windfall Lake: Discovered by Noront circa 2006, currently owned by Osisko (purchased by Goldfields for $2.16B), it contains 4.1 Moz @ 11.4 grams per ton (g/t) gold indicated and 3.3 Moz gold @ 8.4 g/t gold inferred for a total of 7.4 Moz gold in all categories.
- Ring of Fire Deposits: Discovered in 2007 and contain multiple significant deposits including Eagle's Nest, Eagle Two and Blue Jay (AT-12) Nickel-Copper Massive Sulphide Deposits, Blackbird Chromite Deposit and Thunderbird Vanadium Occurrence.
This wealth of experience allows Bold Ventures to strategically acquire undervalued assets and apply sophisticated exploration techniques to identify significant mineral deposits.
Company Highlights
- Bold Ventures is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on exploring and developing its precious and critical mineral projects in Northern Ontario.
- The company owns and operates several projects throughout three key regions of Ontario: Thunder Bay West, Wawa West and the James Bay Lowlands-Ring of Fire.
- The company has been advancing its copper and gold projects to the drill stage.
- The Burchell gold and copper project is located 100 km west of Thunder Bay and enjoys major road access, rail, power, and an experienced mineral exploration workforce and mining supply located within hours of the property. The project hosts the newly discovered (Nov 2024) 111 Gold Zone as well as historical gold anomalies on surface and drill core along strike from the Moss Deposit to the west, owned by Goldshore Resources Inc.
- The Traxxin gold project is located 130 km west of Thunder Bay and is similarly accessible. It boasts the Company’s best gold intersection in drill core which is hosted in a similar geological setting to Agnico Eagle’s Hammond Reef Gold Deposit in the district.
- The Koper Lake project is located within 300 meters of Ring of Fire Metals' (formerly Wyloo/Noront) flagship Eagle's Nest Nickel-Copper deposit. It hosts a large chromite resource and attractive nickel potential.
- Bold Ventures continues to expand its portfolio with two promising new acquisitions – the Springpole East gold project in Ontario and Joutel gold and base metals projects in Quebec – both strategically positioned in established mining districts.
- Bold Ventures' management team has decades of experience within the mining sector. The management and technical teams have participated in three world-class discoveries and have the right experience to guide the company toward its goals.
Key Projects
Burchell Gold and Battery Metals Project
The Burchell claim group covers 4,607 hectares (11,384 acres) comprising 242 claims and is located 100 kilometers west of the port city of Thunder Bay in Northwestern Ontario. The project is road-accessible south of the Trans-Canada Highway 11.
Project Highlights:
- Located in the Western Shebandowan Greenstone Belt: The Burchell project is located on this high-potential, active mineral belt and contains copper, gold, silver, nickel, zinc, molybdenum and other minerals.
- Contiguous with Significant Gold Property: The Burchell property is contiguous with Goldshore Resources' Moss gold project. The Moss Lake gold deposit lies within a major 25 km NE-trending structural corridor which also hosts the past-producing North Coldstream Mine and the East Coldstream gold deposit. Approximately 1.8 km of this mineralized trend lies in the NW corner of the Burchell property, hosting historical gold occurrences.
- New Discovery (November 2024): A new zone called "111 Zone" was discovered in the center of the property, situated within a prominent magnetic low. Samples ranged from 10 ppb gold to 68 g/t gold in sheared, silicified, sericitized volcanic rocks. Historical trenches along strike to SW of 111 Zone in SW corner of property yielded rock samples up to 42 g/t gold. Historical Newmont drilling in the NW corner of the property returned 0.9 g/t gold over 6.4 m.
- Recent MMI Samples (November 2024): Soil samples in the NW corner of the property, along strike from the Moss Trend, returned high response ratios for gold (up to 40), copper (up to 61), molybdenum (up to 369), zinc (up to 93), and uranium (up to 52). Several samples in the northern half of the survey showed coincident gold, copper, molybdenum response ratios >10.
- Hermia Lake Copper-Gold Prospect: This prospect extends for 2.8 km along a northeast trend. Historical diamond drilling includes intercepts of 0.8 percent copper over 4.3 m (Great Lake Copper Mines in 1956), 0.25 percent copper over 51.9 m (Gulf Minerals in 1981), and 1.4 g/t gold over 7.2 m (Mengold in 2008).
Traxxin Gold Project
The 100 percent owned Traxxin gold project is 130 km west of Thunder Bay and has 209 claims covering 3,885 hectares (9,600 acres). The project has excellent existing infrastructure and is road-accessible, located between two major highways, cutting down on future development costs.
Project Highlights:
- Close Proximity to Significant Gold Deposit: The project is 40 km east of Agnico Eagle's Hammond Reef deposit, which contains 5.6 Moz of gold at 0.71 g/t, including reserves, measured and indicated.
- Promising New and Historical Exploration Results: Bold Ventures' 2021 drill hole campaign results indicated 3.57 g/t gold over 12.29 meters, including 6.13 g/t gold over 4.88 m. Additional historical results include:
- Grab samples 1281, 152, 116, 21.1 and 3.73 g/t gold
- Five historical drill holes with greater than 5 g/t gold over various intervals
- One historical drill hole greater than 37 g/t gold over 1 meter
- Exploration Campaigns: Trenching at the Main Zone and Tear Drop Lake in 2021 returned channel samples up to 9.08 g/t gold. In 2024, shoreline prospecting on Bedivere Lake yielded gold values up to 345 (parts per billion (ppb)) gold on an island northeast of Traxxin Main Zone.
- The gold bearing shear zone remains open in all directions with potential for extending the Main Zone to the north via geophysics and exploring the southern extension.
Farwell Gold-Copper Project
The Farwell project covers 6,440 hectares (15,914 acres) comprising 133 claims. The property is located in the Lake Superior east region of Northeastern Ontario, approximately 55 km northwest of Wawa, and in a proven gold camp.
Project Highlights:
- Promising Geological Formations: The claim group hosts gold-bearing quartz veins located within an iron formation that stretches along the western extensions of a major deformation zone. Additionally, there is base metal volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) style mineralization of copper, zinc, lead and silver. The property also features deformed "Timiskaming" style conglomerates along the gold mineralizing trend (similar to Kirkland Lake, Geraldton).
- Exploration Highlights and Future Drill Targets: A versatile time domain electromagnetic (VTEM) survey has identified multiple anomalous areas for future drilling. Additional results and interpretation were incorporated into the existing database for future exploration and, ultimately, for drill testing. The company completed geophysical modelling of six high priority electromagnetic conductors identified by a helicopter-borne, VTEM and magnetic survey.
- Road-accessible: The claim group is accessible via the Eagle River gold mines haulage road and is located approximately 6 km from the Eagle River Mill complex that also connects to major highways suitable for future material transportation.
Wilcorp Gold Project
The Wilcorp gold project covers 264 hectares (652 acres) and consists of four patented claims, 15 single cell and three boundary cell mining claims. The asset is 17 kilometers south of Agnico Eagle's Hammond Reef Deposit and 32 kilometers west of Traxxin, within the Thunder Bay Mining Division. New drill targets have been identified for follow-up exploration.
Project Highlights:
- Historical Results: The "Eagle Prospect" area has significant historical gold discoveries. Maps from 1946 indicate values up to 11.1 g/t gold over 4.1 m including 30.8 g/t gold over 0.8 m in core (unsubstantiated in the modern era). Recent values include up to 16.3 g/t gold in an area where 1990s drilling returned 1.8 g/t gold over 7.6 m.
- Sampling Results: In 2012, 62 grab samples ranged from <5 ppb gold up to 14,403 ppb gold (14.4 g/t gold), and in 2024, 39 grab samples ranged from <5 ppb gold up to 16,300 ppb gold (16.3 g/t gold).
- Induced Polarization (IP) Surveys: A 2012 IP survey identified several trends that are targets for exploration.
- Geological Setting: The property is proximal to the Quetico Fault, a major east-west fault zone. Gold mineralization is hosted in shear zones in volcanic and dioritic rocks which are subparallel to the Quetico Fault.
Significant Historical Work: The property has pre-existing historical work, including stripping, trenching and diamond drilling which identified significant gold zones.
Koper Lake Project (Ring of Fire)
Project Highlights:
- Multiple Commodity Streams: The Koper Lake project has significant potential for critical minerals. The property has the potential to develop battery metals, chromite and precious metals for multiple revenue streams.
- Within the Koper Lake project, the Black Horse Chromite Deposit contains an NI 43-101 inferred resource of 85.9 MT at a grade of 34.5 percent chromium (III) oxide (Cr2O3) using a cutoff grade of 20 percent Cr2O3.
- Black Horse Chromite Ownership Interests:
- Bold 10 percent carried interest (through to production), KWG 90 percent working interest
- All Other Metals (Green and Battery Metals including Nickel, Copper, PGEs; Precious Metals including Gold and Silver) Ownership Interests:
- Bold 40 percent working interest, KWG 60 percent working interest
- Bold has option to earn up to 80 percent working interest leaving KWG with a 20 percent working interest
The asset comprises 1,024 hectares and is located less than 300 meters from Ring of Fire Metals' (formerly Noront Resources) Eagle's Nest Nickel-copper massive sulphide deposit, which is in the permit stage.
Ring of Fire Claims
The Ring of Fire asset is a future key project that will be given further attention as the Ring of Fire regional infrastructure and First Nation agreements are developed.
Project Highlights:
- The Ring of Fire Claims project is a grassroots exploration project that has significant potential targeting the battery metals nickel, copper and platinum group elements.
- Bold carried out a VTEM airborne survey in 2013 that located numerous geophysical anomalies that are prospective for battery metals.
- Further exploration is pending the development of access, infrastructure and First Nation agreements.
In June 2024, Bold Ventures signed an agreement to option a 100 percent interest in two claim groups out of the 14 claim groups within the Ring of Fire region to an arm’s-length party. The two claim groups total 1,050 hectares and comprise approximately 90 claim units. The option agreement includes aggregate cash payments totaling C$135,000 and aggregate exploration expenditures of C$250,000 over a four-year period. The deal also includes a 3 percent net smelter royalty for Bold, after the optionee earns a 100 percent interest by fulfilling the terms of the agreement.
Springpole East Gold Project
The Springpole East gold project is one of Bold Ventures’ newest project acquisitions strategically positioned in an established mining district. This property covers 4,180 hectares across 208 single cell claims in northwestern Ontario, located just 120 km east-northeast of Red Lake and merely 9 km east of First Mining Gold's substantial Springpole gold deposit (containing 4.6 Moz of gold at 0.94 g/t in the indicated category and an additional 0.3 Moz at 0.54 g/t in the inferred category). The project shares a boundary with First Mining's land package, positioning it within a proven gold-bearing geological trend.
Despite its promising location, Springpole East has seen relatively limited systematic exploration. The most recent work in 2022 by GoldON Resources included high-resolution airborne magnetic surveys and prospecting that yielded encouraging results, including the discovery of altered granitic boulders with gold values ranging from 191 to 1,270 ppb. Of particular interest is the nearby Canamer or Birch Lake East Occurrence just 1.3 km west of the property boundary, where First Mining reported impressive grab samples yielding 15.3 g/t gold in 2022. This showing occurs in banded iron formation – a rock type that has been mapped in the northwest portion of Springpole East and corresponds with prominent magnetic anomalies identified during previous surveys.
Joutel Gold and Base Metal Project
Complementing its Ontario-based acquisition, Bold has also added the Joutel gold and base metal project in Quebec to its exploration portfolio. Located 140 km northwest of Val d'Or with favorable logging road access, this property comprises 41 claims across two claim groups covering 2,269 hectares. Bold is already familiar with the area, having conducted airborne VTEM and magnetic surveys in 2012, identifying several anomalies that remain underexplored.
The Joutel project sits in a historically productive mining region, just 6.5 km south-southeast of the former mining town of Joutel in Poirier Township. Its strategic location places it within 12 km of the past-producing Joutel gold mine and less than 10 km from previous base metal operations. A particular point of interest is its proximity (6 km) to the Explo-Zinc deposit, which hosts a 2006 mineral resource estimate of 588,000 tons grading 7.63 percent zinc and 0.35 percent copper in the indicated category, plus 273,000 tons at 6.64 percent zinc and 0.21 percent copper in the inferred category.
Historical drilling of VTEM anomalies in the area has produced encouraging results, including intersections of 0.83 percent nickel over 3.7 meters (including a higher-grade section of 1.27 percent nickel over 2.3 meters) and 0.51 g/t gold over 3.05 meters. These results highlight the property's polymetallic potential, with Bold targeting nickel, gold, silver, copper and zinc mineralization.
Management Team
David Graham - Chief Executive Officer and Director
David Graham has been active in the mineral exploration industry for over 40 years. Between 1997 and 2004 he was co-founder, president and CEO of Normiska Corporation, an industrial minerals and materials company with four production facilities in Canada and the United States.
Between 2006 and 2010 he was a director and vice-president of Noront Resources. During this time the company made major discoveries at Windfall Lake in Urban Twp., Quebec and the Ring of Fire in the James Bay Lowlands of Ontario. From 2010 until 2017 he was executive vice-president of Bold Ventures Inc. at which time, he was appointed president and CEO.
Mr. Graham has worked extensively in Canada as well as in the United States, Scandinavia and Africa. His experience has frequently included working with First Nations and regulatory agencies on projects that ranged from a grassroots stage to advanced development. He is a member of the discovery team for Eagle River, Windfall, and the "Ring of Fire" Noront deposits.
Bruce MacLachlan - President and Chief Operating Officer
With over 40 years of experience in the exploration industry, Bruce MacLachlan is a proven exploration manager and has been a key member of a number of mineral discovery teams, including Eagle River. He has managed a wide range of exploration projects from grassroots through to the post-discovery stage. MacLachlan has been responsible for project presentation, marketing and coordination within the investment space. He has worked with multiple exploration companies, including Noranda Exploration, Battle Mountain Gold and CanAlaska Uranium. He was the exploration manager at Noranda Exploration, Battle Mountain Gold, and CanAlaska Uranium. He is a co-founder and president of Emerald Geological Services (EGS), a consulting company created in 2001.
Coleman Robertson - Vice-president of Exploration
Coleman Robertson is a professional geologist who has worked exploring for gold, base metals and rare earth elements. His experience includes a wide range of exploration activities from grassroots to discovery stage projects. Employed by EGS since 2017, Robertson is vice-president of exploration for EGS and has experience with multiple projects in multiple jurisdictions, including Bold's gold and copper projects in Northwestern Ontario.
Robert Suttie - Chief Financial Officer
Robert Suttie currently serves as CFO with over 40 years' experience as a consultant raising capital for emerging companies. He has been a director/executive at several private/public corporations.
William Johnstone - Corporate Secretary and Legal Counsel
William Johnstone is the company's corporate counsel and corporate secretary. Johnstone has been a partner at Gardiner Roberts LLP since February 2005, practicing in the areas of corporate and securities law for over 40 years.
Ian Bodie-Brown - Director
Ian Bodie-Brown is an industry consultant with over 35 years' experience. He is chairman of Rio Silver (on the TSX Venture Exchange) and a professional geologist.
Steve Brunelle - Director
Steve Brunelle is a professional geologist with over 35 years' experience and is the chairman of Rio Silver (on the TSX Venture Exchange).
Figure 1: Golden Crown Exploration Target mineralisation envelopes (red fill) with 2021 MRE block model (grey) and drillhole traces (black) looking north-west. Dashed red line represents 500m of strike between Golden Crown South and North images for illustration purposes only.
