How has Newrange Gold Corp. gone about acquiring its current portfolio of assets?

Newrange Gold Corp. was originally incorporated as Colombian Mines Corp. to explore in Colombia in 2006. In 2016, however, it changed its name to Newrange Gold Corp. and transitioned its focus to the US, acquiring the Pamlico project in Nevada. Robert Carrington, a co-founder of the company, had actually worked on the Pamlico project before and was familiar with the site. This project focuses on a past-producing historic gold mine that we have since been exploring. Newrange also acquired two projects in Ontario and started working on those in February 2022.

Can you tell us about the historical exploration conducted at the Pamlico gold project?

Discovery of gold at the Pamlico site dates back to the 1880s. The mine was put into production in 1896 by a family who mined it until the 1920s. It was then sold to a different family followed by a third one from whom we ultimately purchased it. Despite its early days of production, the site has seen little in terms of modern exploration. Two other junior companies were there in the late 1990s and early 2000s when the price of gold was relatively low. We have picked up on their work and conducted our own exploration to better understand the gold mineralization that was mined in the past.

What have you learnt about the type of mineralization present at Pamlico?

At Pamlico, high-grade gold mineralization occurs in fractures and quartz veinlets as well as in lower-grade disseminations in the wall rocks. In the old days, miners focused on high-grade gold that they were able to see. The fine gold we currently have in Nevada would not have been economic or even known to miners in the 1800s. At Pamlico, we have high-grade veins and fractures adjacent to low grade material. Another important factor at Pamlico is the depth of oxidation, which at some points reaches 300 m. This presents a strong metallurgical response in the sense that recoveries are up to 97% from some of the preliminary testing we have done, with mineralization right at the surface. Not only is it easy to access, it would also be very cheap to mine and process on a standard leach pad. With this in mind, we have tried to target our drilling to better understand the mineralizing system and how to trace it out.

In 2021, we also expanded our geophysics beyond the gold zone and discovered several strong induced polarization anomalies. Based on these findings, we more than doubled the size of the property, to more than 5,700 hectares that is largely unexplored. Here, we are finding strong signs of copper mineralization ranging from 1% to 5.5%. We see potential for a porphyry copper deposit. We are in the early days of discovery, and it is exciting.

What was the decision-making process towards acquiring the Argosy gold mine in Ontario?

In the early 2000s, I was the CEO of a different exploration company that had the opportunity to acquire the Argosy gold mine. We drilled several holes and saw great potential, but at the time it was difficult to attract investor attention to narrow-vein, high grade deposits in Canada as the focus was largely on Mexico. In 2015, my previous company Great Panther acquired Cangold, which gave us control of the Argosy project. However, Great Panther was focused on Latin America and viewed the mine as a non-core asset. When I joined Newrange, I negotiated the acquisition of Argosy from Great Panther, presenting a win-win deal because Newrange obtained a project I have a lot of knowledge on in an area we are already involved in. At the same time, Great Panther will participate in any successes at the project via its shares in Newrange, as they are now one of our larger shareholders.  

Can you highlight some of the company’s key priorities for the coming months?

In 2022, the company will initially focus on its gold projects in Canada while grooming Pamlico for additional drilling. We can drill in Ontario from January to March and then switch back to Nevada once those programs are finished. In Nevada, we hope to expand the Pamlico project to include a copper environment in addition to gold. Overall, 2022 will be a very exciting year for the company.