Sometimes The Wait Is Longer Because The Blessing Is Bigger
Sometimes The Wait Is Longer Because The Blessing Is Bigger
Hercules Metals delivered an important news release but investors couldn't be bothered to read it
Sometimes a corporate news release can fall on deaf ears. This can happen for a few reasons, but it is more common when a news release is more technical nature. Toss in timing a news release around a contentious, and highly covered US Presidential Election and you have a good recipe for your news not mattering much to investors.
On Monday morning, we saw a number of news releases fall on deaf ears - a few examples:
DV shares fell 3% on this news.
DV.V (Daily)
Another example of this phenomenon came from Rua Gold:
RUA shares fell 8%.
RUA.V (Daily)
And then there was Hercules Metals (TSX-V:BIG, OTC:BADEF):
Hercules Intersects Shallow Porphyry Mineralization and New Hydrothermal Breccia
Not exactly a scintillating headline for a news release (BIG.V shares fell 2% on the day). In fact, if you weren’t already a BIG shareholder you probably checked to see if the news release contained assays and then quickly clicked away. However, for those of us who care about such things as shallow porphyry mineralization and new hydrothermal breccias, this news release was chock full of goodies.
The goodies began in the first paragraph with the following: “Three new holes stepped to the southeast, HER-24-19 through -21, all intersected early biotite alteration with mineralization beginning progressively closer to surface, starting as early as 72m true depth in hole 24-20. The depth to mineralization continues to shallow toward a large untested copper anomaly at surface to the east.”
What is early biotite alteration?
This alteration stage is usually associated with the potassic alteration zone, and it can often indicate the potential for high-grade copper mineralization nearby.
In the company’s October 10th, 2024 news release after receiving the first set of assays from the 2024 drilling program, we were left with “Drilling continues to vector toward the potassic core of the system….Additional step-out holes planned to test its potential northeast-southwest trend extending towards HER-24-12, as well as down-plunge to the southeast.”
This morning, we learned the following:
Mineralized early biotite alteration intersected in 3 new holes to the southeast - and potentially plunging under HER-23-14, previously thought to be the edge of the system.
A separate zone of early biotite was also encountered at depth in holes HER-24-08 and HER-24-12, which may be related to a separate intrusive center to the north.
New magmatic-hydrothermal breccia pipe discovered by HER-24-20 represents a new target type, with vertically extensive potential.
And the updated drill plan map:
This is the first we have seen of the purple shaded “early biotite alteration” oval. This appears to be a result of holes 24-19, 24-20, and 24-21 in combination with what was already learned from holes 23-21, 23-26, and 24-06. Of special note is the commentary around hole 24-20:
“Prior to entering the enrichment blanket, HER-24-20 intersected a compelling new magmatic hydrothermal breccia from 76m to 157m downhole, representing the first of its kind to be intercepted at Hercules. The breccia consists of strongly veined clasts of porphyry and wall rock within a fine chloritic matrix that becomes progressively more intrusive in nature near its footwall contact. Intermediate sulfidation pyrite-chalcopyrite mineralization occurs in the latter half of the intercept, within the matrix as well as clasts, and appears to increase in intensity downwards. The hole currently remains in progress in early biotite alteration.”
Magmatic breccia is a release of energy, the more extensive the brecciation, the greater the energy that generated the event. Breccias can host large quantities of copper, but most likely the breccia is a clue as to what exists at depth.
The commentary on hole 24-20 and the expanding purple shaded area is probably the most encouraging piece of news from Idaho since October 10th, 2023.
In addition, a separate zone of biotite alteration encountered in holes 24-08 and 24-12 offers two important clues: 1. Hole 24-12 may impress in terms of grades 2. A separate porphyry center may reside in the north, potentially near Grade Creek.
The large amount of tilting, faulting, and cover at Leviathan has created a master level geology puzzle, but the signs are encouraging that the Hercules team is figuring out this puzzle. In fact, they may have even cracked the code.
With one month left in the 2024 drilling season, we await assays and more details.
Sometimes the wait is longer because the Blessing is bigger.
Today’s junior mining market action reminded me of my Metals Investor Forum presentation from May 2024; waking up and turning your brain on to read and interpret news releases can generate a significant amount of alpha in the competitionless junior mining sector where 99% of investors are in a race to sell shares as fast as possible.
Disclosure: Author owns shares of BIG.V at the time of publishing. Author may choose to buy or sell at any time without notice.
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