Dear member,
Some of the most brilliant minds of the financial market are predicting gold to reach $2000 an ounce. Many have stated that the best way to leverage one's assets is through investing in gold mining equities. Our strong belief that we will soon be entering periods of heightened inflation has forced us to invest and focus on the gold market.
After months of researching the gold equity market, specifically in North America, we have finally made our decision. Houston Lake Mining (HLM:TSXV) is our Featured Gold Company of 2009. Houston Lake's immediate goals are to justify an on-site mill and to bring its flagship West Cedartree Project into production in the short term through surface mining. Currently, Houston Lake is focused on upgrading two historic gold resources (expected out this summer & fall); two main reasons why we are introducing you to this investment opportunity now.
Houston Lake's West Cedartree Project consists of 8 contiguous properties, all of which are 100% owned and optioned by the company. The gold project is located in the Kenora Mining District, which is in the politically stable, mining friendly province of Ontario, Canada. This prolific gold region produced over half of Ontario's gold in the early 1900s.
As we promised, this is not a grass roots project; Houston Lake has spent $4,916,182 on exploration costs at the West Cedartree Project, with 158 drill holes completed to date. The company has done extensive work over the years on the project and delivered high grade results which will be explained in detail throughout this report.
What immediately grabbed our attention while researching Houston Lake was the fact that a bulk sample from just one of their 8 properties (Angel Hill Zone) managed to return 1,041 mt @ 5.67 g/mt Au (gold) with a recovery rate of 93%. The significance of this is that they were able to generate $131,893 in revenue from the 5,490 grams retrieved from that bulk sample. This occurred when gold was trading below $700 an ounce. And that was just a bulk sample.
During the worst recession in over 70 years, Houston Lake has had little trouble raising capital. Over the last 6 months they have raised over $900,000 at significant premiums to their current share price. Many junior resource companies haven't been as fortunate and were forced to stop their drill programs due to a lack of funds.
Houston Lake's ability to raise capital has allowed the company to finance an aggressive exploration campaign at their flagship West Cedartree Project this summer. It has also allowed Houston Lake to produce, month after month, consistent and extensive drill results throughout the winter and spring; including multiple high grade gold results. To give you a few examples, their Dubenski property has recently returned:
- 38.9 metres grading 20.44 g/t Au.
- 50 of 57 Drill Holes at Dubenski encountered grades of 3.50 g/t Au or higher.
- Gold mineralization extending to over 365 metres.
Keep in mind, these results are from just one of their 8 properties that make up the West Cedartree Project.
The West Cedartree Project contains three principle high-grade gold bearing zones that have quantifiable resources. They are:
1. Angel Hill Zone 2. Dubenski 3. Dogpaw Lake
In this report we have decided to focus on the above mentioned three zones and their results and progress to date.
Enter: Angel Hill Gold Zone
Angel Hill is known for its high grade bulk sample which generated Houston Lake $131,800.
The bulk sample was conducted at $685/ounce gold prices and yielded a profit of $50/tonne and cost $421/ounce to produce. It is extremely important to note that 2/3 of this cost was trucking the 309 kilometres to Red Lake which would not be incurred if there was an on-site mill. This is why Houston Lake's short term goal is to justify an on-site mill that would cut mining costs dramatically and increase profitability. On top of that, gold prices are up 40% since the Angel Hill bulk sample was completed.
The strike length defined at Angel Hill is more than 200 metres and is open at both ends and to depth. The zone has been traced over 2.8 km by IP geophysics and can possibly extend to over 6 km.
(picture below - percussion drilling at Angel Hill)
Channel Sampling has shown true width of 7.07 metres grading 13.78 g/mt Au and 1.30 metres of 49.90 g/mt Au.
Highlights from the delineation drilling returned 10.2 metres of 4.26 g/mt Au.
Highlights from percussion drilling intersected 1.22 metres of 479 g/mt Au. That was not a misprint. 479 g/mt Au. Of note, less than 1% of Angel Hill has been explored to date.
Angel Hill is minable by open pit from surface to depth. A 10,000 tonne bulk sample is the next recommended step in the economic evaluation of the zone. Keep in mind, Houston Lake is not only focusing on Angel Hill, but the entire West Cedartree Project in hopes to prove up a single resource and move that resource through the permitting process.
Let's move on to what could be Houston Lake's most attractive target.
Enter: The Dubenski Property
The Dubenski Property has been the focus for Houston Lake over the past year and a half as it has continually returned high grade gold results and warranted the continued focus of the Houston Lake team. The results returned to date from this property were a major factor in the selection of Houston Lake Mining (HLM:TSXV) as our Featured Gold Company of 2009.
The Dubenski Property is large and consists of 364 hectares or 899 acres. The initial discovery of gold at the property occurred in 1935, when approximately 145 shallow holes were drilled which defined a steeply dipping, gold-bearing structure over a 914 metre strike length.
Houston Lake has spent $1,568,813 on exploration with 57 holes drilled at the Dubenski Property.
From only their Phase 1 drill program, which consisted of 17 holes (all of which graded at least 3.5 g/t Au) at the Dubenski Property, Houston Lake defined an initial NI 43-101 indicated resource of 41,750 ounces Au (uncapped) and an inferred resource of 21,500 ounces Au (uncapped).
Those numbers may not blow you away. But consider this. The resource calculation covers only 1/75 of trend 1 at the Dubenski Property.
Since this initial resource calculation was released in February, Houston Lake has been pushing forward with a new drill program at Dubenski in order to expand this zone. The results have not disappointed. Grayme Anthony, President and Chief Executive Officer made this statement about the latest drill results at Dubenski, "We've extended the gold mineralization by a factor of six times since our Phase I drilling and the mineralization remains open along strike and to depth."
The updated NI 43-101 at the Dubenski Property is expected out this summer; one more reason why we are telling you about Houston Lake's story now. The updated NI 43-101 will be factoring in Phase II and Phase III drilling results.
Phase II: 22 holes (19 were 3.5 g/t or higher)
Phase III: 18 holes (14 were 3.5 g/t or higher)
CEO, Grayme Anthony had this to say about Houston's latest work on the property, "Dubenski has become one of our most important and promising gold zones on the West Cedartree project. Of particular interest to us is that these results show high grades from a new area on Dubenski, meaning we now have high grade gold mineralization over the full strike length. Furthermore, these results occur at shallow depths within a wide zone of gold mineralization. This may suggest there is potential for defining a low grade, high tonnage gold mineralization at Dubenski similar to the Rainy River deposit also located in the Kenora Region. We look forward to adding to our existing gold resources given the positive results from these successful drill programs."
Some of the best drill results to date at Dubenski include 27 metres grading 12.95 g/t Au and 38.9 metres grading 20.44 g/t Au.
50 of 57 Drill Holes at Dubenski encountered grades of 3.50 g/t gold or higher.
The Pinnacle Team is anticipating Houston Lake's updated NI 43-101 resource calculation at Dubenski to be released this summer.
Keep in mind, this is just 1 of their 8 gold properties within the West Cedartree Project. Let's move on to the next one. Enter: Dogpaw Lake
The Dogpaw Lake Property is located only 2 km north west of Dubenski. This is a critical fact as management's plan is to justify one central mill to process three open pit resources within its West Cedartree 8 property contingent.
There have been four main gold zones defined at Dogpaw and 10 documented gold occurrences discovered to date.
Dogpaw's Vein # 1 Drill Program consisted of 47 holes and included 5770 metres drilled to date. Of these 47 holes, 36 of them have intersected gold values of 3 g/mt gold or higher. The best hole to date at Dogpaw intersected a core length of 7.5 m and graded 29.90 g/mt Au. There was also 0.97 metres intersected which graded 115.1 g/mt Au.
It is important to note that the width achieved during Houston Lake's channel sampling at Dogpaw has been significant. Some highlights are featured below:
Channel Sampling:
Best Results - Width 4.2 metres, Grade 12.32 g/mt Au
Vein # 2 - Average width 2.93 metres, Average grade 5.0 g/mt Au
Vein # 4 - Average width 2.50 metres, Average grade 5.35 g/mt Au
Their most recent program was aimed at expanding the historic resource to encompass Dogpaw No. 2 Vein. On March 18th, 2009 it was announced that, gold mineralization was extended to 140 m depth and 100 m along strike down hole 14. Grayme Anthony, President and CEO made these comments on Dogpaw. "We would like to include delineation drilling of the No. 4 Vein before commencing with a NI 43-101 calculation of the No. 1 Vein gold system planned for later this year." He went on to state, "Our 2008 strategy to delineate additional resources at Dogpaw and Dubenski has exceeded our expectations."
Houston Lake's Dogpaw Property was independently featured in the 'Northern Miner' a well known and respected researcher of Canadian small and large cap resource based companies. The link is provided below:
There is something very important to consider when evaluating Dogpaw. The Vein numbers 1, 2 and 4 form a single gold mineralizing system that has been traced for over 310 metres along strike and to depth of 210 metres. An updated NI 43-101 is expected to be published, including all of this additional drilling, by late summer to early fall. Yet another reason why we are telling you about their story now.
Houston Lake's management has over 100 years of mining industry experience from project inception to underground and open pit mine production.
E. Grayme Anthony P.Geo. F.G.A.C. M.B.A. President, C.E.O. Sudbury, Ontario
Mr. Anthony has been the President and a Director of Houston Lake Mining since October of 1997. He has been involved in the exploration for precious and base metal deposits in Canada, South America, Africa, and Asia since 1983.
Mr. Anthony graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree (Honours) in Geology from Concordia University in Montreal in 1983 and received a Masters Degree of Business Administration from The University of Western Ontario in 1986. Mr. Anthony earned his Professional Geoscientist (P. Geo.) designation in British Columbia in 1995 (accredited in Ontario in 2003) and was awarded the designation of Fellow of the Geological Association of Canada (F.G.A.C.) in 1997.
Houston Lake's Market:
Shares Outstanding: 34,257,638
Shares Outstanding Fully Diluted: 41,329,404
52 wk high/low: $0.71/ $0.14
Cash in the bank: Working Capital of $1.0 million as at December 31, 2008
Latest Financing: March 2009 at a price of $0.35
Due to a recent sell off in Houston Lake's market, we are now able to introduce the company to you while they trade close to a 5 year low.
Our team has gone back and reviewed the details of Houston Lake's trading patterns very closely.
On January 14th 2009, Houston Lake's stock closed at $0.26 per share. Two days later, on January 16th 2009, Houston Lake announced that they received their initial NI 43-101 which included only Phase I drilling on the Dubenski Property (as mentioned above). Eight trading days after the NI 43-101, on January 29th 2009, their share price closed at $0.50, nearly a 100% increase.
Houston Lake is expecting an updated NI 43-101 on Dubenski this summer. The updated NI 43-101 will include Phase II and Phase III drilling (40 holes). Their President and CEO recently made this statement regarding Houston Lake's latest drill results at Dubenski, "We've extended the gold mineralization by a factor of six times since our Phase I drilling and the mineralization remains open along strike and to depth."
Houston Lake currently trades at $0.165. We own shares in the company (purchased at $0.30) and will be buying more this coming week.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have and enjoy your weekend.
All the best with your investments,
PINNACLEDIGEST.COM
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