Golden Hope Leads the Pack in Quebec’s Beauce

By Greg Klein

Miners love Quebec. It offers infrastructure, tax incentives, settled land claims, iron ore in the Labrador Trough, gold in James Bay and gold galore in Abitibi. ButGolden Hope Mines TSXV:GNHPresident/Director Frank Candido’s has found gold elsewhere: in the southeast Beauce region. That’s where the company has staked most of the Bellechase Belt, which Candido hopes will be Canada’s most significant new gold find.

“The craziest thing I hear is when people say, ‘I don’t believe there’s gold in southeastern Quebec because if there was, someone would have found it already.’ That’s complete nonsense. No one’s ever looked; no one’s ever really worked it.Golden Hopehas been here for 30-plus years, but for most of that time it’s done very little. Only since 2009 have we really been working.”

Credit would have to go to Candido, who led a takeover of the company in 2006, bringing with him new people and, apparently, new vigour.

“We drilled over 18,000 metres in 2010, about 15,000 metres in 2011, and 2012 looks like it’s going to be bigger than both those years combined, a combination of infill and exploration,” he says.

Last year’s drill program started with eight holes chosen by SGS Canada Inc-Geostat, the independent technical advisers retained byGolden Hopein April. Results released December 6 include

• 0.7 grams per tonne gold over 41 metres
  (including 1.6 g/t over 7 metres)
• 1.33 g/t over 112 metres
  (including 7.01 g/t over 13 metres)
• 0.96 g/t over 25 metres
  (including 2.16 g/t over 6 metres)

Assays released November 21 include

7.64 g/t gold over 15 metres
• 0.7 g/t over 50 metres
• 3.13 g/t over 9 metres
• 1.14 g/t over 24 metres
• 0.92 g/t over 25 metres
• 1.22 g/t over 15 metres

“We’re very happy with the results,” Candido says. “They continue to confirm what we had felt—the mineralization seems to continue to depth beyond where we drilled in 2010 and it also looks like the mineralization continues on strike to the northeast beyond where we drilled in 2010.

“What was even more significant about the latest results was that one of those holes, in fact the large intersection that we announced, comes from the 88 Zone,” he says. “There’s Timmins I and Timmins II, which lie right next to each other, and east of Timmins 2 is the 88 Zone. With that hole we confirmed a previous hole in the 88 Zone. So all of a sudden we’ve gone from two zones that we were definition-drilling to adding a third. That potentially keeps bumping the numbers up.”

The company plans its initial resource estimate for February release, with a minimum goal of 500,000 ounces. “That’s not what we think is in the ground; it would just be what we have based on the data up to that point,” emphasizes Candido. To help reach that goal, the company plans to drill right through the winter.

Candido’s still waiting for assays from a VMS target on the Champagne Zone, three and a half kilometres north of Bellechase-Timmins. In 2010 the company drilled the Belland target six klicks south of B-T, encountering the same type of gold found in Bellechase-Timmins, Candido says. Golden Hope still has about 30 holes to report, which are at various stages of being logged, shipped or analyzed. Meanwhile Candido’s focusing on a two-fold objective: “We want to continue definition drilling and blow this thing open by confirming a number of targets—and we have plenty of them.” He hopes to find five to 10 targets outside of Bellechase-Timmins, location of the upcoming resource.

“What’s significant about this is that Bellechase-Timmins represents only about 2% of our entire belt of claims,” Candido adds. “We obviously don’t believe that the gold just happened in that one spot. It must have happened elsewhere, and therefore we’re anxious to start drilling elsewhere to show that this could be the belt that we always thought it could be.”

Gold isn’t the only reason for the gleam in Candido’s eye. He’s also waiting for results from last month’s 1,467-line-kilometre VTEM survey, which could indicate the presence of other metals too.

The arrival of other companies in the Beauce region suggests Candido’s not so much a maverick as a trailblazer. Last November, GWR Resources TSXV:GWQ announced a 4,000-metre drill program on its Sainte Sabine Gold-Silver-Zinc-Copper Property adjacent toGolden Hope’sChampagne Zone. The following monthBowmore Exploration TSX:BOW, a strategic partner ofOsisko TSX:OSK, released initial drill results from its St-Victor Gold Project. Other companies prospecting, trenching, drilling or just lurking includeFancamp Exploration TSXV:FNC,VVC Exploration TSXV:VVC,NioGold Mining TSXV:NOX, Diamond Discoveries, Midland Exploration TSXV:MD,Nevado Resources TSXV:VDOandUragold Bay TSXV:UBR.

“Basically everything in the region has been staked,” says Candido. “But I think everybody is waiting for us. We’re definitely the leader; we’re way ahead of everyone else.”

Candido concludes, “As more data keeps coming out, people have to be more secure in whatGolden Hopecan deliver. We’ve got a great project and a great team, and we’ve surrounded ourselves with the best third party in SGS. We’ve got to pay attention to the market, but at the same time we’ve got to focus on what’s happening in the ground. At this valuation, I thinkGolden Hopeis definitely something people should look at.”

At press timeGolden Hopehad 130.79 million shares outstanding at $0.13 a share for a market cap of $17 million.