Ontario spotlight: Four explorers worth a look – Part 1

Ontario is a global mining powerhouse, rich in copper, gold, nickel, lithium and platinum group elements. Here are four companies to watch. 

BTU Metals  

BTU Metals (TSXV: BTU) is advancing an 8,000-metre drill program this year at its main Dixie Halo project in Red Lake, about 5.5 km east of Kinross Gold‘s (TSX: K; NYSE: KK) Great Bear project. The major owns about 14% of BTU’s outstanding common shares. Red Lake is about 1,350 km north of Toronto. BTU expects to have drills turning at three of its gold projects in Ontario this year.  

Kinross is earning a 70% stake in Dixie Halo by spending $4.7 million (US$3.41 million) on exploration over four years. The first hole Kinross drilled last year returned an intersection of visible gold. Drillhole BTU-25-001 returned 0.75 metres grading 2.65 grams gold per tonne. While The Northern Miner generally doesn’t report results less than 6 metres, BTU reported no longer cores or assay tables via releases or regulatory filings.  

Drilling at Dixie Halo this year will focus initially on the TNT area, which BTU Metals discovered in 2019. The objective is to intersect and better understand the extent of anomalous gold and copper mineralization and alteration in the area. 

BTU is also undertaking geophysics and refining targets at Dixie Halo in preparation for this year’s drill program. 

 

The company acquired the Dixie East project in September. There has been no drilling on the property since the early 1990s and the small amount of historical drilling was limited primarily to base metal exploration targets near the property’s eastern margin. 

BTU is also preparing to drill its Hubcap project in the Wawa area, immediately south of RPX Gold’s (TSXV: RPX; US-OTC: RDEXF) (formerly Red Pine Exploration) past-producing Wawa project. Historical drill results from Hubcap include 0.6 metres of 8.4 grams gold from 47.2 metres downhole in BS-91-M1 and 0.3 metres of 37.9 grams gold from 61.4 metres in BS-91-M1. 

BTU’s other Wawa projects include Centennial, which contains the past producing namesake gold mine. Historical drill results from the project include 0.15 metres grading 2.8 grams gold from 1115 metres downhole in CE-85-01. 

Its Echum project is contiguous to Alamos Gold’s (TSX, NYSE: AGI) Island mine, one of Canada’s highest grade gold mines. Prospecting samples from Echum returned assay values from trace to as high as 20 grams gold, 65 grams silver and 1,290 parts per million copper. 

BTU Metals has a market cap of about $10.8 million. 

Clean Air Metals 

Clean Air Metals (TSXV: AIR; US-OTC: CLRMF) is focused on its Thunder Bay North platinum-palladium-copper-nickel project in northern Ontario, one of the few primary platinum resources outside of South Africa. 

The project, 40 km northeast of the city of Thunder Bay and 60 km southeast of Impala Platinum Holdings’ (JSE: IMP) Lac Des Iles mine, consists of two shallow-dipping sister deposits, Escape and Current, located about 2.5 km apart. 

In March the company was approved for up to $200,000 in government funding as part of the Ontario Junior Exploration Program (OJEP) that will be used to advance work in the 2.5-km-long Escape down-plunge target, where it intersected 53 metres of 0.52 gram platinum, 0.69 gram palladium, 0.26% copper and 0.17% nickel from 404 metres downhole in drillhole EL25-001.  

The broad interval included 22 metres averaging 0.84 gram platinum, 1.12 grams palladium, 0.41% copper and 0.21% nickel starting from 411 metres and 11 metres grading 1.08 grams platinum, 1.41 grams palladium, 052% copper and 0.24% nickel from 430 metres downhole. 

A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) completed in October envisioned a ramp-access underground operation producing 2,500 tonnes per day over 11 years. 

The PEA outlined an post-tax net present value (at an 8% discount rate) of $157.5 million and a post-tax internal rate of return of 32%. Initial capital was estimated at $89.5 million with a payback of 2.5 years. 

Platinum constitutes about 40% of the project’s value at current prices, with copper making up about one-third of the value and nickel roughly 10%.  

The two deposits host 14.9 million indicated tonnes grading 1.31 grams platinum per tonne, 1.37 grams palladium, 0.41% copper, 0.25% nickel, 0.1 gram gold and 2.53 grams silver. Contained metal totals 1.27 million oz. of platinum and palladium, 60,000 tonnes copper, 36,000 tonnes nickel, 44,000 oz. gold and 1.14 million oz. silver.

Inferred resources add 2.37 million tonnes averaging 0.83 gram platinum, 0.82 gram palladium, 0.31% copper, 0.19% nickel, 0.07 gram gold and 1.81 grams silver. Contained metal totals 126,000 oz. of platinum and palladium, 7,000 tonnes copper, 5,000 tonnes nickel, 10,000 oz. gold and 300,000 oz silver.  

Clean Air Metals has a market cap of about $16.3 million. 

Dryden Gold  

Dryden Gold (TSXV: DRY; US-OTC: DRYGF) has earmarked $11 million for a 32,000-metre drill program this year at its 803-sq.-km strategic land package in the Dryden district of northwestern Ontario.  

The underexplored property includes historic gold mines and hosts high-grade gold mineralization over 50 km of potential strike length along the Manitou-Dinorwic deformation zone.  

Major shareholders include Alamos Gold (10%) and Centerra Gold (TSX: CG; NYSE: CGAU ) (9.8%). 

In March the company reported drill results including 7.5 metres grading 5.03 grams gold, including 0.58 metres averaging 43.60 grams gold in DGR-036; 2.2 metres grading 5.73 grams gold, including 0.3 metres of 32.9 grams gold in DGR-037. Drillhole DGR-031 intersected 15 gold mineralized structures over 600 metres. 

Previous highlights include 5.7 metres averaging 30.72 grams gold from 118.3 metres in KW-24-024, including 0.55 metre of 313 grams gold from 121.95 metres.  

 

The Gold Rock target hosts various styles of gold mineralization, from quartz veins with free gold to shears hosting gold and disseminated sulphides – the same three known types of mineralization characteristic of northwestern Ontario’s Red Lake Camp. Gold Rock has a similar geological setting, rock types and dykes with regional folding and also features near-surface, high-grade free gold in an Archean lode gold setting. 

Dryden’s regional discoveries include the Hyndman and Sherridon targets. The company believes the mineralization at Hyndman is similar to NexGold Mining’s (TSXV: NEXG; US-OTC: NXGCF) Goldlund deposit, about 60 km northeast of Dryden.  

Drill highlights from Sherridon include 15.5 metres grading 1.1 grams gold from 47.5 metres, including 0.5 metres grading 25.2 grams gold, in drillhole DSH-004. 

Dryden Gold has a market cap of about $62 million. 

GFG Resources  

GFG Resources (TSXV: GFG; US-OTC: GFGSF) has three district scale gold projects in the world-class Timmins camp of northeastern Ontario. 

Alamos Gold (TSX: NYSE: AGI) holds a roughly 11% stake in the company.  

The company’s most advanced asset is the Aljo project on the 200-sq.-km Goldarm property, about 10 km northwest of McEwen’s (TSX, NYSE: MUX) Fox gold complex and 50 km east of Timmins. The project contains the past producing Aljo gold mine, which operated intermittently from 1918 to 1943. 

GFG plans to drill 6,500 metres at Aljo this year, its largest drill campaign to date. Results from last year’s program include drillhole ALJ-25-036, which returned 51.5 metres grading 1.01 grams gold from 291 metres downhole, including 5 metres of 6.36 grams gold. Drillhole ALJ-25-032 intersected 4.5 metres at 3.68 grams gold from 29.5 metres downhole. 

The last two holes of the 2025 drill program were step-outs to the east of the historical Aljo mine and confirmed that mineralization extends beyond the known limits of the mine workings. Drillhole ALJ-27-037 cut 16 metres of 1.23 grams gold from 132 metres downhole in the hanging wall zone. ALJ-25-038 returned multiple near-surface and stacked gold intercepts, including 5.3 metres of 2.23 grams gold from 123 metres. 

 

At its 475-sq.-km Pen project, 50 km southwest of Timmins, the company is developing a pipeline of targets and is planning about 1,500 metres of sonic and diamond drilling this year.  

Pen covers an approximately 55-km-long section of Archean greenstone that contains the interpreted western extension of the Porcupine Deformation Fault Zone (PDFZ). Pen sits between Discovery Silver’s (TSX: DSV; US-OTC: DSVSF) Borden gold project and Pan American Silver’s (TSX, NYSE: PAAS) Timmins West mine. 

At the 212-sq.-km Dore gold project, previously known as the Swayze project, GFG is analyzing drill data to generate drill targets. Dore is about 40 km east of Discovery’s Borden project and 30 km northwest of Iamgold’s (TSX: IMG; NYSE: IAG) Cote Lake gold project. Dore covers a 12-km-long section of Archean Greenstone within the Swayze Greenstone Belt. 

GFG Resources has a market cap of about $44 million.