Resource World Magazine

72 www.resourceworld.com D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8 BonTerra Resources growing gold resources at Gladiator by Peter Kennedy BONTERRA RESOURCES INC. [BTR- TSXV] CEO Nav Dhaliwal will be hoping for a long, cold winter in Val d'Or this year as his company continues to outline a gold find that has attracted high profile inves- tors. As roughly 70% of eastern Québec is under lakes, drill crews needed a thick layer of ice to support the heavy equipment needed to probe beneath the surface. Last year, drillers were hampered by a short winter. So the company is anxiously watch- ing weather forecasts as it prepares for a 30,000-metre winter drilling campaign. Since starting exploration on the 100%- owned Gladiator Project in 2015, BonTerra has transformed a property with a small, high-grade gold deposit (273,000 inferred ounces grading 9.37 g/t) into a significant high-grade gold discovery, with poten- tial for a multi-million ounce mining operation. That enabled the company to raise $40 million this year from a number of financ- ings, including $5.2 million from Kinross Gold Corp. [K-TSX] and $20 million from Sprott Capital Partners. Other key inves- tors include VanEck and Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. [KL-TSX], each with 7.72% and 9.42% respectively. Expectations are high because the Gladiator Project is in the Urban-Barry Greenstone Belt of eastern Abitibi, a region with a long history of exploration and mining. Others active in the region include Osisko Mining Inc. [OSK-TSX] with its 800,000-metre drilling program on its Windfall Lake Gold deposit 8 km north- west of Gladiator. "It is crazy busy right now,'' said Todd Hanas, Vice-President, Investor Relations at Vancouver-based BonTerra." It has got to be the busiest exploration camp in North America right now for gold." BonTerra's property portfolio also includes the Larder Lake gold project in eastern Ontario, which contains indicated and inferred resources of 960,000 ounces at 5.4 g/t gold. That estimate does not yet include a $6 million, 49-hole drill pro- gram completed by Gold Fields. BonTerra acquired the project last year from Kerr Mines Inc. [KER-TSX] for $4.95 million in cash and shares. For now, the company is focusing most of its efforts on Gladiator, which covers three properties: West Arena, East Arena and Coliseum, part of a 10,540-hectare property package. BonTerra's involvement in the area dates back to 2009. But it wasn't until Osisko acquired a 19.9% stake in the company in June 2015 that investors began to take notice. BonTerra subsequently expanded the dimensions of the Gladiator deposit to a potential strike length of 1,200 metres and to a depth of 1,200 metres by a pro- gram of step-out drilling that also featured some deep holes. On September 14, 2017, the company announced the discovery of a new gold and silver zone on its Coliseum property about 4 km west of the Gladiator deposit. "The reason this discovery is exciting is that the new zone, named the Temica gold zone, is speculated to be an exten- sion of the Gladiator mineralized trend," wrote Siddharth Rajeev in a Fundamental Research Corp. report in September 2017. BonTerra hopes to be in a position by mid-2018 to announce a resource update that will include 60,000 metres of recently completed drilling as well as an additional 20,000-30,000 metres it hopes to complete this winter. In keeping with that plan, the company has doubled the size of its exploration camp to accommodate up to 60 people. When Resource World inter- viewed the company in late October, it had six drill rigs on site and $28 million in the treasury. However, those near term plans rest on the length of the ice season and availability of manpower and equipment. "Ice drilling is the fastest, most eco- nomical and the best way for us to drill up there,'' Hanas said. "No helicoptering [is required to support the drilling effort]. You can bring in most of the gear by snow- mobile or tractor. You don't have to build roads." One of the biggest issues with Val d'Or right now is manpower. Osisko has 130 people with 24 rigs turning. Still, analysts believe the next six to 12 months could be a key period for BonTerra as investors await more drilling results and a resource update for the Gladiator Project. For his part, Dhaliwal remains optimistic that the company can achieve its targets. "Because of our continued drilling suc- cess over the last two years at Gladiator, we have a high level of confidence that in 2018, we will be in a position to signifi- cantly upgrade the size of the geological model and complete a sizeable mineral resource update,'' he said. n MINING Diamond drilling on a frozen lake at the Gladiator Project. Photo courtesy BonTerra Resources Inc.

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