Silver price surge revives Nord’s Gowganda tailings

Nord Precious Metals Mining (TSXV: NTH; US-OTC: NPMMF) has outlined 2.8 million oz. of indicated silver in historical tailings at its Gowganda project in northeastern Ontario, as elevated silver prices breathe new life into material left behind by one of Canada’s foundational mining booms.

The project hosts 1.85 million tonnes grading 47.4 grams silver per tonne for 2.81 million contained oz., Nord said Tuesday. The estimate, which uses a 10-gram cut-off, covers the Main and South tailings deposits and two smaller outflow areas. See a 3-D map of drilling.

“We intend to put the value in these historical tailings back to work: improve the site, build a recovery business and use the cash flow it could generate to pursue the next discoveries across our ground,” CEO Frank Basa said in a release. “We are pressing the engineering, metallurgy and permitting work forward.”

Nord shares gained 3% to 17¢ apiece on Wednesday morning in Toronto, valuing the company at $22.7 million (US$16.4 million).

The project highlights how higher silver prices are changing the equation for brownfield sites and old mine waste. Spot silver traded around US$64.80 ($90.07) an oz. Wednesday, roughly 50% above year-ago levels, putting lower-cost surface material and deposits around existing mining districts back under scrutiny. Silver briefly hit a record US$121.60 in January before retreating sharply.

Cobalt belt

That shift has particular resonance in the Cobalt-Gowganda district. Silver discovered at Cobalt in 1903 set off a rush that produced about 460 million oz. and helped establish the prospecting, financing and technical expertise that later spread across northern Ontario. Ontario calls Cobalt the birthplace of Canadian hard-rock mining, while miners and capital from the camp helped drive later development at Kirkland Lake, Timmins and elsewhere.

Gowganda emerged several years later as a satellite camp about 50 km west of Cobalt and produced more than 60 million oz. of silver, principally from the Miller Lake-O’Brien and Siscoe operations between 1910 and 1972. Nord’s tailings sit near those old workings, about 100 km west of its TTL Laboratories processing facility in Cobalt.

The timing is significant because Nord’s resource cut-off assumes a silver price of US$65 an oz., almost exactly the current market price. It also assumes an operating cost of $17 per tonne and silver recovery of nearly 82%. The company cautions those inputs are for resource reporting and don’t constitute an economic study.

The company is also working on engineering and permitting, including process selection, water management and project economics. It began pre-submission consultations with Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks in July for approvals that would accompany a planned mineral recovery permit.

Previous work

The updated resource broadly confirms work completed more than a decade ago. A 2011 estimate by GeoVector for previous operator Temex Resources outlined about 1.94 million tonnes grading 47.5 grams silver for 2.96 million contained ounces. It used 764 auger, drive-pipe and sonic holes totalling 3,012 metres from drilling campaigns between 1981 and 2000.

The new estimate from Nord incorporates later work as well, including 2011 and 2018 sampling/drilling campaigns, updated surface information and a new three-dimensional model. GeoVector visited Gowganda in July to verify drill locations and collect independent tailings samples.

Nord’s broader land package includes the past-producing Castle, Siscoe-O’Brien and Millerett mines and its Castle East discovery. The company says the strategy is to use potential cash flow from tailings recovery to support exploration across the historic district.