MRO: TSX-V
President and CEO: Gregory Beischer
Chief Exploration Officer: Philip St. George
Chief Operating Officer: Sarah Whicker
Millrock Resources Inc., which has become one of the one of the more prolific Alaska exploration companies since adopting the project generator model in 2009, is tightening its belt in 2013. As a project generator, Millrock relies on joint venture partners to do most of the heavy financial lifting on its portfolio of properties in Alaska and Arizona. This model diminishes the company’s need to raise money in the markets, minimizes risk and exposes shareholders to a large amount of exploration expenditure per dollar invested. Partners such as Teck Resources Ltd., Kinross Gold Corp., Vale S.A. and Inmet Mining Corp. (which was acquired by First Quantum Minerals Ltd.) have funded roughly 87 percent of the C$36.7 of exploration spending on Millrock properties since the founding of the company in 2007. During 2012, Millrock’s exploration expenditures were C$9.1 million, of which some 95 percent was funded by project partners. With junior exploration companies unable to raise funds and majors doing belt tightening of their own, the 2013 program is roughly half of last year’s. Most of Millrock’s Alaska properties will see little or no exploration this year. Looking for opportunity during adversity, Millrock is positioning itself for the time when markets improve and more venture capital funding is available. With depressed prices, Millrock plans to continue building a portfolio of projects that will attract the attention of major to mid-tier mining companies as well as junior explorers.
This portfolio building includes Stellar, an Alaskan copper-gold project Millrock acquired through staking in 2012. Situated some eight miles (13 kilometers) north of the Denali Highway and 42 miles (68 kilometers) west of the town of Paxson, the Stellar claims covers the Zackly copper-gold skarn deposit and surrounding lands considered prospective for porphyry copper-gold deposits. Roughly 12,200 meters of historic drilling in some 85 holes has been completed at Zackly, outlining a historic resource of 218,944 ounces of gold and 66.9 million pounds of copper contained in a deposit of 1.13 million metric tons grading 6.03 grams-per-metric-ton gold and 2.69 percent copper. Known areas of skarn mineralization occur over a strike length in excess of 3,000 meters with the known resource occurring within the main skarn zone which has a strike length of about 1,000 meters. Extensive geochemical, geophysical and geological surveys have also been completed at the property. All historical data, as well as sample pulps and core, were obtained by Millrock. In August, Millrock reported that an unnamed global copper miner has entered into an agreement to gain a first right of refusal to enter into an option and joint venture agreement at Stellar. To gain this priority position the undisclosed major funded roughly US$300,000 on initial exploration at the copper-gold prospect. This work includes an airborne geophysical program that augmented a similar survey flown by the state of Alaska over the same area in 2013. The balance of the program involved a grid-based soil sampling program and a rock sampling program over a large portion of the property. Millrock owns a 100 percent interest in the Stellar claims subject to a royalty payable to Altius Minerals Ltd.
In May, Millrock reported that it has entered an exploration and option to lease agreement with Bristol Bay Native Corp. on a 680,650-hectare (about 1.7 million acres) tract of Alaska Peninsula land that covers three known porphyry copper-gold occurrences – Kawisgag, Mallard Duck Bay and Bee Creek. Millrock must incur exploration expenditures of US$5 million and pay US$725,000 before the end of 2019. The initial payment is US$25,000 and the first-year exploration expenditure requirement is US$200,000. The company will seek partners to help advance the promising prospects on this massive land package.
The 2013 exploration program at Estelle involved geophysical, geochemical and geological surveys to better define an induced polarization anomaly discovered in 2012 that revealed a northwest-southeast trending zone of high chargeability. The highest chargeability occurs southeast of drill hole SE12-004 (41.5 meters averaging 1.1 g/t gold) providing a vector to possible higher-grade mineralization to the southeast where mineralization is open both along strike and down dip.
On May 10, Millrock said it had terminated its agreement with Bering Straits Native Corp. on Bluff and Council, two Seward Peninsula gold properties. The company has a number of copper and gold projects available for partnership across Alaska.
Cash and Cash Equivalents: C$2.59 million
(June 30, 2013)
Working Capital: C$2.66 million (June 30, 2013)
Market Capitalization: C$9.2 million
(Sept. 26, 2013)
750 World Trade Center
999 Canada Place
Vancouver, BC
Canada, V6C 3E1
Tel: 604-638-9620
Fax: 604-688-9620
