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Victoria Gold Corp is Digging Deep and Aiming High

by Sam Kiri

We met Chad Williams President and CEO of Canadian Venture listed Victoria Gold Corporation (TSX-V: VIT). The company is in the process of completing the acquisition of StrataGold Corporation (TSX: SGV) through a share transaction in which common shares of StrataGold shall be exchanged for common shares of Victoria on the basis of 0.1249 of a Victoria common share for each common share of StrataGold held. With some $10 million cash in the treasury and access to a further $6 million, Victoria is keen to get on with its development endeavours. Further acquisitions also can not be ruled out.

Victoria’s primary focus at this stage is Cove, the company’s most advanced gold exploration project. Located in Lander County, Nevada, the property covers a large "window" of Mesozoic rocks exposed through Tertiary volcanics. Victoria’s exploration team has identified 14 drill-ready target areas on the property. The Phase II drilling program, which commenced in October 2007, has successfully identified an exciting new gold bearing zone, named the Helen Zone. The Cove open pit has a historical production of 2.3 million oz Au and 102 million oz Ag and was leased from Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM).

Cove is a low capital cost project and Williams intends to put it into production first. This is to be followed by the construction of a tunnel from the Cove pit to Helen Zone, which is the most recently identified gold bearing zone. The tunnel construction cost is estimated to be $3-5 million. According to Williams, drilling from underground is expected to be faster, less expensive, and more precise than drilling from surface.

Williams is particularly upbeat on the Helen zone in which Victoria has undertaken some exploration work recently. Drill hole NW-14 in the Helen Zone has intersected many intervals of high grade gold which indicate a strong gold system. Hole NW-14 contained over 400 m of alteration, much of it containing anomalous gold thus confirming a large scale mineralization in the Helen Zone. The Company plans to start drilling hole NW-15 from surface shortly. The broad mineralised gold intercepts and high gold grades in NW-14 provide further confidence in the merit of driving an adit into the Helen Zone to facilitate underground exploration drilling in the future to expand the Helen Zone.

In addition to Cove, Victoria has amassed a portfolio of attractive projects in Nevada which include Mill Canyon, Big Springs (acquired from Gateway Gold Corp in December 2008), Santa Fe and Jack Creek. Following the StrataGold transaction, Victoria will add Dublin Gulch, Tassawini, BRL Venture and Mar-Tungsten deposit to its fold. StrataGold also has a pipeline of exploration assets. Williams was particularly excited about Dublin Gulch which has potential for a large open it heap leach mine. Located in the Mayo Mining District of Central Yukon, Dublin Gulch has an indicated resource of 2.7 million oz Au at 0.85g/t. Some exploration work is expected at the property to improve the resource categorisation.

An ambitious development programme is in store at Victoria and Williams provided the timelines for both Victoria’s Core projects and other less priority projects. Expect continuous news flow as Victoria has a series of development endeavours at Cove and Dublin Gulch.