What’s really important from this result is that LCL has now confirmed continued high grade mineralisation. …and this is just from the first hole of 18 planned drill holes in the current drilling program. Together, this first drill hole and the historical results provide proof of concept that the gold-copper oxide “skarn unit” here is continuous, potentially widespread, and could be capable of delivering large tonnage and grade. A “skarn” is a type of rock that is typically found at the contact zone between intrusive rock and carbonate sedimentary rock. Skarns can be economically significant as they can host gold - as LCL is finding out. LCL has identified two areas of interest for the current drill program. Rock chip samples from the second area have included grades of 61.3g/t gold, plus 18% copper, and 135g/t silver. From Colombia to PNG - what happened? We originally Invested in LCL a few years ago for its gold project in Colombia and were very happy with the management team’s execution to rapidly make a discovery and progress that project. Unfortunately the political winds shifted in Colombia with a new government coming into power last year, who wanted to make some changes toexploration regulations. In response to this (which we agree was the right thing to do) LCL reduced greenfield exploration activities until the new government’s updated exploration regulations are clear and in place, and has instead transitioned to focus on investigating potential development scenarios on its Colombian gold project. While we wait for clarity on exploration in Colombia - LCL acquired these new PNG assets. LCL adds the PNG vendors as shareholders & in-country team The PNG projects were acquired from a team of highly experienced in-country geologists late last year. The two vendors have a combined 60 years exploration experience, both having most recently served 8 years at Barrick Gold in PNG. Now the vendors have circa 10% of LCL shares. We see this as a big alignment with other LCL holders. That in-country experience and relationships will be invaluable for LCL moving forward. We are backing the now expanded management team to deliver on this new project in PNG. We like that LCL is not afraid to venture into frontier geographies, which fits our risk-reward profile very well. LCL’s management team and our confidence that they can deliver in PNG is why we participated in the recent rights issue at 3 cents per share. The LCL share price has been trading at multi-year lows while the market digested the project refocus, combined with a general negative sentiment in gold stocks - which also encouraged us to participate in the 3c capital raise because we believe gold will have a run in 2023. LCL raised $2.2M in this rights issue, adding to its December quarter cash balance of $8.4M - so cash is no problem for LCL for the foreseeable future. LCL has more than enough to complete its current 3,000m drilling program and other exploration at any one of its PNG projects that follow. So in summary, we are backing the LCL management to deliver on their new projects in PNG and they have plenty of cash to do it. Now all we need is the gold price to keep going up to new all time highs… Gold price back to record highsWe can't talk about a small cap gold company without recognising the current disconnect between the price of gold and that of gold companies. The gold price is currently trading at ~US$2,000/oz mark — just below its all time high. Despite the high gold price, there has been little to no movement in share prices across the entire gold sector, from the majors already in production down to the gold juniors like LCL. While the gold price is at new all time highs, many gold company share prices, and junior explorers in particular, are trading at or near all-time lows. We expect this to change if the recent run in the gold price continues going higher and proves to be more than a short term gold price spike. Indeed, a number of investment houses have been upping their target price for gold, the latest being Bank of America that has tipped gold to breach $2200/oz by year end. |