White Gold (TSXV:WGO,OTCMKTS:WHGOF,FWB:29W) Chief Technical Advisor Shawn Ryan believes that he has found the source of the placer gold in the Yukon’s White Gold District. Ryan is a veteran prospector with over 15 years of experience in the Klondike gold fields, which earned him PDAC’s Prospector of the Year award in 2010.
In the interview below, Ryan provided an overview of how he has systematically been exploring the White Gold District. White Gold controls 40 percent of the district and Ryan has collected over 600,000 soil samples across all of his properties. Based on the data that he has amassed, Ryan believes he can tell where a deposit will be and what type.
He also talked about his other company GroundTruth Exploration and his innovative Drone to DrillsTM technology. Ryan took his technique to Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX:AEM), who has a 19.9 percent interest in the company and is funding White Gold’s regional exploration. White Gold has also partnered with Kinross Gold (TSX:K).
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Ryan also discussed White Gold’s long-term plans. He believes that once the company hits its two-million-ounce gold target set by Agnico, upper management intends to spin out its White Gold project. Additionally, White Gold will continue its regional exploration efforts, especially at the high-grade Vertigo and newly identified Henderson Creek targets. Ryan believes that the vertical structures there may be the source of the district’s placer gold.
Below is a transcript of our interview with White Gold Chief Technical Advisor Shawn Ryan. It has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Investing News Network: Please give our investor audience an overview of the Yukon’s White Gold District.
White Gold Chief Technical Advisor Shawn Ryan: I’ve been based in Dawson for 27 years. I initially went there to understand where the placer gold originated. The White Gold District is home to the historical gold rush. We’re sitting in a district that has up to 20 million ounces of placer gold with an unknown source. I like to compare it to Sasquatch hunting. We see all the markers of it being there, but no visual sightings of the beast that produced them. I’ve been doing this for 22 years now, and it’s going to take time to understand it.
INN: How did you get involved in the White Gold District?
SR: As a researcher, I like statistics, and in the Dawson district approximately three percent of the area is non-glaciated outcrops. You’re only going to find two percent of the gold in the area using the traditional rock and pick method. Those stats are not promising because there is more soil than rock.
I had to change the way we explored. In university, they teach you to take B-horizon soil samples, which only go down six inches. In the Dawson district, you need to go down 2.5 feet to get a response. Additionally, we took quality samples using soil loggers and grids. In the end, we collected approximately 5,000 samples. To date, we’re up to 600,000 samples from all of my projects, and we’re mapping them out. I can confidently tell you where to look based on the statistics and what type of gold deposit it is. Not all gold deposits are the same; they could be epithermal, motherload, mesothermal or base metal.
Technology also made things easier. In 2001, GPS allowed us to get a five-meter accuracy, and GIS computer systems allowed me to plot 10,000 soil points per day for three elements compare to the 300 I could get done by hand. Then the ICP-MS assay technique was developed and allowed you to test for 36 elements simultaneously cost-effectively.
This all came out around the same time. I then founded GroundTruth Exploration and developed a training program that taught prospectors how to jump out of helicopters and deal with grizzly bears so they could collect quality data.
Goldcorp’s (TSE:G) Coffee project was mine at one point, and 450,000 soil samples were collected there. That’s how the Latte deposit was found. It was a one-soil sample hit in 50 meters, that’s how small these targets can be. You have to pay attention to the details, and if we didn’t, we would’ve missed the three-hits at the White Gold property.
INN: What stage of development are your projects in?
SR: In 2011, I originally optioned my claims to 12 companies. Underworld Resources was bought out by Kinross, Kaminak Gold found more ore on Coffee. Then the market crashed, and I got all of my projects back. We decided to rethink our exploration approach again and came up with the Drones to DrillsTM technology.
We pitched the technology and our 17 projects to Agnico who agreed to finance us for a 19.9 percent interest in White Gold. The interesting thing about White Gold is that it’s set up to spend $500,000 per project instead of blowing all the money on one spot. We’re in the third year of our agreement with Agnico who is funding three years of exploration.
Last year, we repurchased my White Gold project and the JP Ross project from Kinross who also has a 19.9 percent interest in the company. Moving forward, we’ll have Agnico and Kinross as partners. We’ll be spending up to $3 million of the regional budget that Agnico set aside for us. We’ll be delineating more ore to increase the reserves at White Gold, and Agnico would like to see two million ounces. Last year, we reached 1.5 million, and I believe that we’ll reach two million ounces soon.
We’re also working on the JP Ross property. We’ve found a deposit with high-grade vertical structures that are up to seven meters wide, containing two ounces of gold. We’re excited about these structures because we’ve never seen the gold producing beast and this could be the first visual evidence of it. The deposit is in the hills over the placer gold creeks in an area called Henderson Creek. They’ve been mining placer gold there for a 100 years, and we may have found the source of the gold.
INN: What are the company’s long-term goals?
SR: We want to get White Gold up to 2 million ounces, and then we’d like to sell that for a cash buy-in to give our shareholders dividends. The idea behind White Gold is never to be bought out; we have too many projects that are part of my soil database. Our initial survey identified high-grades at the Vertigo discovery. We’re going to complete a 10,000-meter drill program there this summer. Next year, we’re going to spin the White Gold project out.
INN: Are you going to spin out the White Gold project or find a joint venture partner?
SR: We’ll probably spin it out, but I’ll leave that decision to upper management. I hold the paper on the spin-out and will get co-shares. Agnico and Kinross will also fund the new company, and White Gold will continue its regional work.
Let’s say that I find something on the surface, like what we have at the Dime target, and get 30 meters grading 0.6 g/t gold. It’s not going to make you any money. We’re in the mineralized system though, and we’re going to chase these targets.
It’s like owning 40 percent of the Timmins Camp, and you don’t want to lose any ground. We own 40 percent of the White Gold District, and we’ve found these mineralized haystacks based on the soils. We’re going to prove what we found.
INN: Why have you never walked away from the area?
SR: In my mushroom picking days, I found out that you could control the mushroom patch if you went there consistently. I went every day, and people gave up on it until I managed the patch. This is what I did with the Dawson district. I believed that something was there when others didn’t, and it gave me the confidence to keep moving forward. It’s still fun to walk the ground and make history. If we were in the Timmins camp, all of this would’ve been discovered 50 years ago, but in the Yukon, you still can find untouched targets.
This video interview is sponsored by White Gold (TSXV:WGO,OTCMKTS:WHGOF,FWB:29W). This video interview provides information which was sourced by the Investing News Network (INN) and approved by White Gold, in order to help investors learn more about the company. White Gold Corp is a client of INN. The company’s campaign fees pay for INN to create and update this video interview.
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