ML Gold unveils new copper find, but shares down 20%

ML Gold Corp. [MLG-TSXV, MLGCF-OTC; XOVN-FSE] on Thursday March 1 announced a new discovery on its Stars Project in central British Columbia.

The company said hole 4 (DDE18SS004) has intersected 0.45% copper (0.50% copper equivalent) over 204 metres, including 1.02% copper equivalent (0.93% copper) over 40.2 metres from surface.

However, ML Gold shares tumbled on the news, falling 19.61% or $0.05 to 20.5 cents in early afternoon trading on Thursday. The 52-week range is 32 cents and 10 cents.

The announcement comes just weeks after company said it had intersected 311 metres of veined and variably disseminated copper sulphide mineralization consisting predominantly of chalcopyrite in the first hole of 2,500 metre-drill program. The program is designed to test copper-gold-silver-molybdenum mineralization, identified at near surface to depth.

On January 23, 2018, the company said it has intersected three long intervals with visible copper sulphide in the second, third and fourth drill holes at its ongoing program.

Drill hole four, collared 150 metres to the southeast from drill hole one, and on the eastern flank of the newly identified magnetic ring structure, has intersected 40.2 metres of 1.02% copper equivalent (0.93% copper) from 26.52 metres to 66.72 metres (bedrock begins at 21.58 metres) within a larger interval, grading 0.50% copper equivalent (0.45% copper) over 204 metres from 23.47 metres to 227.69 metres.

ML Gold is a diversified exploration company with several projects in North America, including the Palmetto gold property in Nevada, which remains its flagship asset.

ML Gold recently signed two separate option agreements allowing it to acquire up to an 80% interest in a total of 2,136 hectares of prospective mining claims in the Omineca Mining Division in north-central B.C. They are collectively known as the Stars property.

Prior to the current round of drilling, only nine historic shallow holes had been drilled on the property. One of them ended in 0.56% copper at only 110 metres, and another,  located over 1 km away, returned 142 metres, grading 0.25% copper. The latter hole was not assayed for gold.

Based on the shallow nature of the historic drilling, the company says there is a high probability that deeper drilling will identify a vertically extensive mineralizing system responsible for the high level style of mineralization, including chalcocite-bornite-chalcopyrite observed at and near surface.

On Thursday, the company said the recent detailed airborne magnetic survey identified a cluster of covered and untested circular magnetic anomalies between the two zones drilled in the current program and centered within a larger ovoid magnetic “ring” feature (or magnetic halo) approximately 5 km in diameter.

“Mineralization [observed in the Stars drill core] is consistent with mineralized features associated with a porphyry system and suggests that the current drilling is in a marginal position relative to the porphyry centre where it is reasonable to expect higher copper grades,” said Dr. Paul Johnston, an independent porphyry expert retained by the company.

The company said the near-surface high-grade zone discovered in hole 4 could play a significant role in economics required to build a mine at Stars.