Cygnus Metals (ASX:CY5) Pontax acquisition to JORC within 12 months
“We are not here to knit quilts!” – This was said by none other than David Southam on his first presentation coming as MD of Cygnus Metals. David meant business from day one and is on the pathway to deliver a maiden JORC resource at the Pontax deposit in Quebec, Canada.
The Cygnus model
The approach Cygnus Metals is using to unlock and create value has been successfully trialled and tested at Bellevue Gold:
- Start acquiring an attractive option, which Cygnus did in September last year through Stria Lithium’s Pentax project.
- Raise capital, which Cygnus has done twice over the last ~12 months. With ~60% of the capital gone into the ground and ~$5.4M cash still on the books to complete the summer drilling program.
- Drill by twinning historical holes, followed by step-out holes to increase the strike and improve understanding of orientation/depth.
- Consolidating all insight, incorporating it into a resource estimate, and, significantly, putting a time stamp on updating the market – which Cygnus Metals hopes to achieve in four weeks.
This program of work looks simple. However, it requires heavy-handed coordination, which Cygnus Metals MD David Southam and his management team are well aware of by working on and delivering multiple projects in their earlier professional life.
Safety and compliance
Cygnus Metals management team comes from a background where safe operation, compliance to plan, and timely delivery are at the forefront of unlocking value.
11,328 meters of completed drilling and a seven-kilometre road constructed by spending collectively >8,000 hrs in the field without any (LTI) loss time injury in very rugged harsh terrain highlights the commitment of the management and professionalism of operators involved during the various facets of field activities.
Pontax JORC Mineral Resource Estimate
Over the last few weeks, many brokers have written reports on Cygnus Metals. The floor and ceiling of the resource estimate are now almost well-defined based on available information. Seven million tonnes is the resource estimate floor aligned with the Market Open internal assessment. However, the cutoff grade used by the market to calculate the resource estimate is higher than our internal assessment.
Regardless, this is an excellent achievement of Cygnus Metals Management in delivering the maiden resource estimate within 12 months of acquiring the Pontax asset.
Sakami field program
The Sakami Project is ideally located within the La Grande greenstone belt, and exploration will start with airborne magnetics, LiDAR, and high-resolution orthophotography.
Initial desktop studies have identified multiple pegmatite targets, with outcrops up to 140m long and 30m wide; fieldwork commencement from August onwards.
Auclair field program and the pathway to JORC
Cygnus Metals’ exploration team has identified around 67 targets at Auclair for investigation, some of which are up to 1.6km long and 60m.
The airborne magnetic survey was completed in late June. LiDAR and high-resolution orthophotography are expected to commence later this month.
Geophysics, mapping, and sampling are expected to be followed by diamond drilling commencing in August, with a rig and crew contracted for the entire summer season.
Funding
With any junior exploration company, funding requirement is ongoing, and Cygnus Metals is no different, with $5.4m in the bank at the end of June. This funding program may not be enough to start the next phase of the drilling program. Most likely, a Capital Raise in the next six to eight weeks.
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