Speaking at PDAC in Toronto this week, Mather made the case for more discoveries based on the geological knowledge gleaned from Cascabel already generating 14 other porphyry targets on SolGold’s ground including eight priority drill targets.
Mather believes Ecuador will host multiple porphyries as per Chile, with deposits relatively easily found in the latter’s arid dry environment but overlooked until very recently in the jungle and cloud covered former.
The cashed-up SolGold currently has three rigs on site, going to seven by the end of the year, and 10 next year.
Mather was super keen at PDAC to outline the potential of Cascabel and SolGold’s emerging other prospects given the huge run in the stock over the past 15 months or so.
The company is currently capitalised at more than $860 million, and if SolGold did happen to outline the 3-4 more tier one deposits Mather believes could potentially be in the offing, it would indeed be a major copper producer worth many multiples of current levels.
The more likely scenario assuming Cascabel stacks-up as expected is that it would end up in the hands of another corporate, with SolGold shareholder (and block cave specialist) Newcrest Mining and previously denied suitor BHP obvious interested third parties.
And another half dozen companies including Oyu Tolgoi block cave miner Rio Tinto can all be thrown into the mix without pause for thought.
A resource statement for Cascabel is due within the next 6-9 months, and while, in the words of Mather, “Blind Freddy can tell you it’s going to be a big one”, the formal numbers are awaited by the market.
Meanwhile Mather indicated the fiscal regime in Ecuador continued to track in the right direction, with SolGold’s future plans likely to be significantly assisted by Lundin Gold currently blazing a trail at Fruta del Norte and Chilean major Codelco entering a joint venture with Ecuador’s state mining company at a copper project 70km from Cascabel.
