Gold Co. Notes Safety, Environmental Wins in Sustainability Report

Dakota Gold Corp. (DC:NYSE American) this week released its 2023 Sustainability Report on its environmental, social, and government (ESG) goals.

The company found success exploring this year with multiple high-grade intercepts in the ground, but the report also noted the company achieved three years with zero lost-time incidents between 2021 and 2023 and had no reportable environmental incidents since starting the drilling programs in 2022.

"At Dakota Gold, our accomplishments extend far beyond exploration discoveries; they reflect our unwavering commitment to prioritizing health and safety, environmental stewardship, and the sustainable development of the region," President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director Jonathan Awde said. "In this time period, our team has grown exponentially, and we feel it is remarkable to have maintained our high standards for health and safety, while onboarding new team members and executing on our exploration programs."

The historic Homestake Mine, about 3 miles south of Dakota Gold's Maitland Gold Project, produced 41 million ounces gold (Moz Au) and 9 Moz silver (Ag) over 126 years. The company has 48,000 acres of holdings surrounding the original mine, which was first discovered in 1876 and consolidated by George Hearst. It currently has four drills at its properties in the district, including Maitland and its Richmond Hill project 2.3 miles to the west.

The historic Maitland Mine produced more than 200,000 ounces of Tertiary gold before 1945 when it was closed because of World War II. According to the company, numerous structures, including the historical Maitland Mine structure, remain untested along strike and illustrate the larger potential of the project.

Dakota's stock jumped this spring when it announced it had found three distinct ledges of high-grade Homestake Mine-style gold mineralization at Maitland.

The combination of Maitland and Richmond Hill "gives investors exposure to an advancing development project, with high-grade exploration sizzle, in our view," Canaccord Genuity Capital Markets analyst Peter Bell has written of the company.

The Catalyst: Securing Social License 'Critical'

In the report, the company said that while it "remains dedicated to exploration, our team firmly believes that securing a social license is just as crucial as the mineral resources themselves."

The report also pointed out that in health and safety, Dakota has voluntarily provided full mine safety and health training (MSHA) for its workers, which includes 40 full-time and two part-time employees, four interns, 10 consultants, and 40 contractors.

"Our team size remained relatively unchanged from the previous year, which allowed us to shift our focus from onboarding a growing team to building a solid foundation of health and safety trainings and protocols," the report said. "The team continued with weekly employee-driven safety meetings focused on Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) related topics."

The combination of Maitland and Richmond Hill "gives investors exposure to an advancing development project, with high-grade exploration sizzle, in our view," Canaccord Genuity Capital Markets analyst Peter Bell has written of the company.

For the environment, Dakota noted that in addition to having no reportable incidents since starting drilling in 2022, it has obtained approval for three state exploration permits.

Dakota "developed an excellent working relationship with the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources' (DANR) field representative and continued to build on our cooperative inspection program to ensure that all requirements of the Exploration Notice of Intent (EXNI) permits were met or exceeded," the report said.

For governance, the company noted it Board co-chairs Steve O'Rourke and Robert Quartermain sit on its ESG committee, and the company has updated and made available ethics, community relations, environmental, and anti-corruption policies.

In addition, the company the said it had made more than US$59,000 in direct investments in the local community, professional organizations, and educational institutions in South Dakota; and invested more than US$28.1 million in the state through payroll, payments, and purchases of land, buildings, and other fixed assets.

"Our exploration successes allow us to continue to invest in our local communities, as we prepare to develop these opportunities into productive mines that will create hundreds of well-paying jobs, hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue, and billions of dollars of economic impact within the state," Awde wrote in a foreword in the report. "Like the Homestake Mine before us, Dakota Gold is discovering assets that could positively affect the lives of South Dakotans for generations to come."

Super Giant Deposits

After results released earlier this month, Bell said that the Unionville Zone at Dakota's Maitland Gold Project "hits the mark."

"The Maitland target has multiple styles of mineralization, including shallow zones of gold above the deeper high-grade," the analyst wrote. "Dakota believes that there is potential to encounter additional parallel structures in the area which could provide an opportunity to extend the strike length already more than 3,000 (meters)."

Areas surrounding "super giant deposits" like Homestake are believed to contain significant additional gold resources, wrote John Newell of RSD Discovery Group on July 9 for a Streetwise Reports piece on the legacy of the famous mine.

"Super Giant deposits are characterized by clusters of geologically similar deposits within several hundred square kilometers, defining profoundly mineralized regions," Newell wrote. "It is believed that at least twice that amount of gold exists in the neighborhood of these super giants. If that is true, then there are at least 100 million ounces of gold left to be found in this vastly underexplored precious metal district of South Dakota."

This proximity to a super giant "suggests a high potential for similar deposits," Newell wrote. "Being in the shadow of many old mines increases the probability of finding significant mineral resources."

Dakota also recently released its initial assessment maiden resource estimate for its Richmond Hill Gold Project that noted an Indicated Resource of 51.83 million tonnes (Mt) at 0.8 g/t Au for 1.33 million ounces (Moz) and an Inferred Resource of 58.06 Mt at 0.61 g/t Au for 1.13 Moz.

The maiden resource was derived from a historical database containing 69,401 gold assays from more than 900 drill holes, including 57 drill holes from Dakota Gold's current drill program, the company said. 

Ownership and Share Structure

According to the company, approximately 25% of its shares are with management and insiders.

Out of management, Quartermain holds the most shares at 8.4%, Awde is next at 6.8%, while COO Jerry Aberle holds 4.8%, the company said.

About 26% of the shares are with institutional investors, according to Yahoo Finance and Edgar filings. Top institutional holders include Fourth Sail Capital with 5.3%, Van Eck Associates with 4.1%, Blackrock Institutional Trust Co. with 3.7%, The Vanguard Group Inc. with about 3.2%, Fidelity Management and Research Co. LLC with 2.7%, and CI Global Asset Management with 2.6%.

About 16.5% is with strategic investors, including Orion Mine Finance, which owns about 9.9%, and Barrick Gold Corp., which owns about 2.5%. The rest is retail.

Dakota Gold has a market cap of US$182.43 million, with 87.7 million shares outstanding. It trades in a 52-week range of US$3.25 and US$1.95.

Important Disclosures:

1. Dakota Gold Corp. is a billboard sponsor of Streetwise Reports and pays SWR a monthly sponsorship fee between US$4,000 and US$5,000.
2. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Dakota Gold Corp.
3. Steve Sobek wrote this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an employee.
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