TRU options Newfoundland project with visible gold, shares rise
TRU Precious Metals Corp. [TRU-TSXV, TRUIF-OTCQB, FSE-706] shares rallied Wednesday in active trading after the company said it has taken an option on a Newfoundland property on which the company has found visible gold.
The optioned claims, covering 12.75 square kilometres, are contiguous with the company’s flagship Golden Rose project, and therefore represent a further expansion of that project. The company also disclosed that it has indirectly staked a larger land package surrounding the optioned claims.
The shares rallied on the news, rising 12.7% or $0.03 to 26.5 cents on volume of 1.63 million and now trade in a 52-week range of 52 cents and 12 cents.
TRU has assembled a portfolio of five gold exploration properties in the highly prospective Central Newfoundland Gold Belt. The company has an option with a subsidiary of Altius Minerals Corp. [ALS-TSX, ATUSF-OTCQX] to purchase 100% of the Golden Rose Project, located along the deposit-bearing Cape Ray-Valentine Lake Shear Zone.
TRU also owns 100% of the Twilite Gold Project, located along the same shear zone, and three under-exploration properties, including its Rolling Pond property bordering New Found Gold Corp.’s [NFG-TSXV] Queensway Project.
Golden Rose lies on strike with Marathon Gold Corp.’s [MOZ-TSX, OTC-MGDPF] Valentine Gold Project. Where Marathon recently reported a maiden resource estimate for the Berry Zone.
Marathon said it has outlined an inferred resource of 639,000 ounces of gold (11.3 million tonnes at 1.75 g/t). It said 89% of the total estimate is an open pit resource of 566,400 ounces, with the balance associated with underground.
On Wednesday, TRU said that in order to acquire 100% of the optioned claims, it has agreed to issue 300,000 shares and $90,000 cash to an arms length vendor.
It said due diligence and sampling on the optioned claims by TRU management consistently returned numerous pristine to modified gold grains. Those gold grains were found within a few metres of partially exposed hardpan gossan (oxidized rock formations often found above mineral occurrences] consisting of iron oxide encrusted quartz grains and other minerals.
A single large sample collected on the optioned claims by TRU was sent to Overburden Drilling Management Ltd. (ODM) in Ottawa for analysis. ODM identified 97 visible gold grains that may have a nearby source.
News of the option deal comes after mining financier Eric Sprott recently emerged as a major shareholder of TRU Precious Metals after numbered company beneficially-owned by Sprott purchased 9.09 million units of TRU for 22 cents each for an aggregate consideration of $2 million.
Sprott beneficially owns and controls 9.09 million shares and the same number of warrants representing approximately 13.7% of the outstanding shares on a non-diluted basis and approximately 24% on a partially diluted basis assuming exercise of warrants.