Explorer Shares Upcoming Catalysts for Idaho, Nevada Projects

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NevGold Corp. (NAU:TSX.V; NAUFF:OTC; 5E50:FSE) Chief Executive Officer Brandon Bonifacio said his company is in an excellent position as it heads into a period expected to be full of news that could be catalysts for its stock.

After securing a financing arrangement of up to CA$8 million through a convertible securities agreement, Bonifacio said the company is "cashed up" for the next 12 months and now expects to release assay results from ongoing drilling at its Nutmeg Mountain heap-leach gold project and soil sample results from its Zeus copper project, both in Idaho, in the coming weeks.

"Now we're an execution story, and why is that exciting?" Bonifacio told Streetwise Reports. "Execution means we're going to have news and news in a driving commodity market, which is what we're in, and that's what's going to drive investors. … We're on the cusp of our news flow cycle commencing."

NevGold is expected to have an important permitting decision for its Limousine Butte heap-leach gold project in Nevada soon, in addition to the exploration results at the Idaho projects.

He also said NevGold is positioned well by having both its gold resources and a prospective copper project like Zeus, which sits on the emerging Hercules Copper Trend in Idaho. In its investor presentation, the company said Zeus offers the "same geological signatures" as Hercules Silver Corp.'s copper porphyry discovery there in 2023, which led to Barrick Gold Corp. investing CA$30 million for a 15% stake in the company.

NevGold is currently generating exploration targets at Zeus after announcing earlier this year that it had identified high-grade copper, gold, and silver mineralization at the surface along a 4-kilometer trend there.

Copper (Cu) highlights of the collected rock chip samples included 1.22%, 1.30%, 0.91%, and 0.86%; gold (Au) results included 8.19 grams per tonne (g/t), 0.19 g/t, 0.22 g/t, 0.11 g/t, and 1.03 g/t; and silver (Ag) results included 114 g/t, 21.9 g/t, 11.3 g/t, 20 g/t, and 9.9 g/t.

Bonifacio said he believes NevGold is trading at a "fifth or a 10th" of where the company should be valued in a "normal functioning market."

"Combined, we've got a path to 4 million ounces (Moz) in the next six to 12 months, and we've got a path to delineate and define what is one of the marquee copper projects in the western U.S. next to a major discovery that's been recently made," he said.

A 'Very Fortunate Position'

The company's Nutmeg Mountain project is a low-sulfidation epithermal gold deposit spanning 1,724 hectares. It has a current mineral resource, updated last June, of 1,006,000 ounces of 0.61 g/t Au in the Indicated category and 275,000 ounces of 0.48 g/t Au in the Inferred category. The company also said Nutmeg Mountain offers significant upside for exploration.

NevGold also owns 100% of Limousine Butte, a Carlin-style gold deposit in Nevada, another top-tier mining jurisdiction. About 300 kilometers south-southeast of Limousine Butte is Cedar Wash, the company's other asset in Nevada. Spanning 3,904 hectares, this hosts both Carlin-style gold and gold-bearing quartz-calcite veins.

Bonifacio said the infrastructure in the United States, especially in mining-friendly Idaho and Nevada, put them in a "very fortunate position."

"We've got a local labor force, we have power, and we have water, and we've got support from communities," he said. "It obviously drives our costs lower because we're so close to some of those key infrastructure components, and that sets us up for success."

The Catalyst: Gold's Bull Market, Copper's Inevitability

Gold hit a new record high last month but has been volatile since the U.S. election. However, it finally came up for air, breaching US$2,700 mark again on Friday as "safe-haven demand outweighed dollar strength and lower expectations of a U.S. rate cut next month," according to Reuters.

Many experts are predicting a prolonged bull market for gold. FXEmpire Analyst Christopher Lewis thinks gold will reach US$3,000 per ounce, he wrote in an October 15 article.

Brien Lundin of Gold Newsletter predicted a gold price of US$6,000/oz by the end of this bull market cycle, he wrote in the Oct. 18 issue. Lundin also highlighted junior mining stocks as a way to get exposure.

"We're in a long-term, secular bull market," he wrote. "And we need to be positioned for it. One of the best ways, of course, is through high-quality junior mining equities."

Declining interest rates and persistent geopolitical risks are expected to keep driving gold prices higher through 2025, analysts at UBS said, reported Investing.com.

"These elements are set to reinforce gold's status as a safe-haven asset while also benefiting from broader economic conditions anticipated in the coming year," Investing.com's Navamya Acharya wrote.

Writing for MarketWatch, Cam Hui this week noted that for 2025, he was "reiterating my bullish call on gold — even, and over U.S. stocks.

"Going back to 1980, there have been several distinct gold bull-bear cycles," Hui wrote. "Gold now is tracing out saucer-shaped multi-year bases against different regional stock indices. The gold/Dow ratio is the weakest owing to the strength of U.S. stocks, but it is nevertheless distinctive. The Gold/EAFE ratio is poised for a relative breakout, and the gold/emerging-markets ratio has marginally broken out of a 12-year base."

Hui continued, "These technical patterns argue for a bullish commitment to gold for 2025 and beyond for all investors in all major currencies from an asset allocation perspective."

And according to Credendo, demand for copper could double by 2035, as electric vehicles (EVs) use more than three times as much of it as gas-burning cars.

Experts agree any shakiness in the market should be temporary. In a piece on Mining.com, Ahead of the Herd's Rick Mills wrote, "Simply put, the road to reaching net zero begins and ends with copper. All infrastructure built to support renewable energy uses large amounts of copper, as the metal is a highly efficient conductor of electricity and heat."

S&P Global Market Intelligence has project that annual global copper demand will nearly double to 50 million tonnes by 2035, he noted.

Ownership and Share Structure

About 37% of the company is now held by strategic investors, including GoldMining Inc., which now holds 28.4% of the company on an undiluted basis, and McEwen Mining Inc. 

The company said about 30% is held by management and insiders. According to Reuters, these include Non-Executive Chairman Giulio T. Bonifacio with 5.26%, CEO Brandon Bonifacio with 4.83%, Independent Director Gregory French with 1.17%, and Independent Director Timothy Dyhr with 1.02%, Reuters said.

About 10% is held by institutions, and the rest is in retail.

As for its share structure, NevGold has 94.25 million outstanding shares and 57.43 million free float traded shares. Its market cap is CA$24.03 million. Its 52-week trading range is CA$0.21 and CA$0.500 per share.