Resource World Magazine

32 www.resourceworld.com J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 1 8 T he yellow metal is up +1.34% year-to-date (YTD) and is out- performing the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.08% YTD) at the time of writing, proving its worth as an asset class. With the market pricing in, two more interest rate hikes expected by the US Federal Reserve in 2018, gold is holding steady. Goldman Sachs recently stated, "The dislocation between the gold price and US rates is here to stay. Based on empirical data for the past six tighten - ing cycles, gold has outperformed post rate hikes four times". As investors are sensing heightened levels of geopolitical risk this is also directing them to the precious metal as a near term hedge. It seems counter intuitive and contrary to conventional wisdom but rising interest rates could benefit gold in the upcom- ing months making a bullish case for gold for the remainder of 2018. With the forecasted marginal decrease in the supply of gold and the underinvestment in exploration and capital expendi- tures by the global gold industry, discovery oriented companies are now attractive again in the eyes of resource investors and Westhaven Ventures Inc. [WHN-TSXV; WTHVF-OTC; 1W5-FSE] is one of them. Westhaven is run by a group of serially successful exploration - ists led by Gren Thomas, President, CEO, & Director. Thomas is best known for founding Aber Resources which discovered the Diavik diamond mine at Lac de Gras, Northwest Territories, one of the world's richest diamond mines. In 1999, the PDAC awarded Thomas the Prospector of the Year Award for his discovery and in 2009 he was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. Westhaven is a gold discovery oriented company which is exploring British Columbia's newest gold belt, the Spences Bridge Gold Belt. Technical advisor Ed Balon, P.Geo., identified the Spences Bridge epithermal gold belt (SBGB) in southern BC as a result of his systematic approach and detailed prospecting methods. Balon has over 40 years of geological experience and is credited with other key discoveries in BC, NWT, and in 2014 was inducted into the Yukon Prospectors Hall of Fame. The company's goal is to discover a high-grade gold, low sulphidation, epithermal deposit, which are known for being some of the highest grade mines in the world (ie Kinross-Kupol and Sumitomo-Hishikari). The company has 100% ownership of 35,363 hectares within the prospective SBGB, which is close to existing transportation and infrastructure, allowing for cost- effective exploration. The SBGB is a 110-km-long, northwest-trending belt. Westhaven has been working on the SBGB since 2011 and believes these relatively underexplored volcanic rocks are highly prospec - tive for economic epithermal gold deposits. At the end of 2017, Westhaven made a significant discovery at their Shovelnose gold project which indicated to the company that they may have vectored in on a gold mineralized feeder struc - ture. These are the structures that, given this type of deposit model, one can expect to find high-grade gold mineralization at or nearby. Eager to get back and follow-up this newly discovered area, the South Zone, Westhaven initiated a +2,600-metre drill campaign in late March 2018. Drill results released at the time of writing on the South Zone included 28.7 metres grading 2.6 g/t gold, including 17.7 metres of 3.9 g/t gold and 2.9 metres of 9.7 Westhaven Ventures following up new BC gold discovery by Yianni Sakarellos MINING Vein outcrop at the Mik Zone at the Shovelnose Project with colloform bands in massive cryptocrystalline quartz veins assaying up to 38 g/t Au in chip samples. Left to right: Ed Balon, technical advisor; Dr. Jeffrey Hedenquist, independent consultant and one of the world's leading experts on epithermal gold systems; and Gary Moses, geological assistant. Photo courtesy Westhaven Ventures Inc.

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