Investment Insight
With an established mineral resource and further significant exploration upside, the Herbert Gold project has opened significant opportunities and options for Grand Portage to advance the project, generate cash flow, and create significant shareholder value.
Overview
Grande Portage Resources (TSXV:GPG;OTCQB:GPTRF) is a publicly held junior resource company exclusively focused on the exploration and development of gold assets in southeast Alaska. The company is currently advancing its 100 percent owned Herbert Gold project situated approximately 25 km north of Juneau, Alaska and within the historic Juneau Gold Belt, which has produced over 7 million ounces of gold.
The Herbert Gold project has an updated mineral resource estimate, consisting of an indicated resource of 1.44 million ounces at 9.47 g/pt gold, and inferred resource of 515,700 ounces at 8.85 g/pt gold.
Grande Portage is led by an experienced management team with a strong background in exploration and project development. The team’s focus is on creating shareholder value through the advancement of the Herbert Gold Project while maintaining a commitment to environmental and community responsibilities.
Company Highlights
Grande Portage Resources is a junior resource company advancing its high-grade Herbert Gold project, located in a prolific gold belt in Alaska.Strong management team led by Ian Klassen who has 20 years’ experience in business management, public relations and government affairs.The company’s flagship Herbert Gold project, located near Juneau, Alaska, boasts a resource of 1.44 million ounces at 9.47 g/pt gold, and inferred resource of 515,700 ounces at 8.85 g/pt gold.
Key Project
Herbert Gold Project
The Herbert Gold project is an exploration stage, high-grade, mesothermal quartz vein system in the historic Juneau Gold Belt of southeast Alaska. The project consists of 91 unpatented lode claims located 25 km north of Juneau and to the south of Coeur Alaska’s profitable Kensington gold mine. The property covers six parallel vein structures exposed at surface. Grande Portage released an updated MRE on the project (2024) for 1.44 Moz (4.7 Mt at 9.5 g/t gold) and 0.5 Moz (1.8 Mt at 8.9 g/t gold) in the indicated and Inferred categories, respectively. The Herbert property remains open at depth and along strike. Overall, six or more promising gold-producing vein-fault structures that contain ribbon structures and quartz-sulfides are located on the property. Herbert Gold is one of Alaska’s most promising districts and has remained remarkably underexplored.
Grande Portage has conducted extensive drilling campaigns over the years, significantly increasing its resource base. Future drilling is expected to target deeper extensions of the known veins to further expand the resource. The mineral deposit model is characterized as mesothermal. These deposits are known to extend beyond 3,500 ft. The current model has only been demonstrated to depths of 900 ft. Grande Portage is also looking at various strategic partnerships in which to advance its Herbert project, which includes partnering with miners in the area such as Kensington and Greens Creek. The project has garnered interest from private equity groups. To further derisk project development, Grande Portage is committed to responsible mining practices. The company is focused on minimizing its environmental impact by avoiding the use of chemicals on-site, and instead shipping ore to off-site processing facilities. This approach also aligns with community concerns about environmental preservation in the Juneau area.
Management Team
Ian Klassen – President and Director
Ian Klassen brings almost 20 years experience in business management, public relations, government affairs and entrepreneurship to the company. He has extensive experience in the administration of public companies, government policy, media relations strategies, business/government project management, and legislative decision-making. Klassen is an (Honours) B.A. graduate from Western University and is a recipient of the Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada, in recognition of his significant contribution to his community and country.
Alistair MacLennan – Director
Alistair MacLennan has been working in the junior resources sector (oil/gas/minerals), in various capacities, for over 30 years. He has gained industry knowledge through founding, investment in and serving on the boards of a number of public and private exploration companies. MacLennan is also the chairman and director of Helijet International, a helicopter airline operating a fleet of Sikorsky S76 helicopters throughout the Pacific Northwest since 1986. MacLennan is actively involved in a number of private companies which are involved in leasing, manufacturing and natural gas production.
Michele Pillon – Chief Financial Officer
Michele Pillon has 25 years of experience in the junior mining exploration sector, providing accounting and regulatory assistance to public companies. Since May 1988, she has worked as an accountant to public companies in the resource sector.
Carl Hale – Director of Exploration
Carl Hale received his Bachelor of Science degree in geology from the University of Washington in 1972. He has worked the majority of his career on mineral exploration projects in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest for various mining companies and consulting groups. He supervised massive sulfide exploration projects in the Brooks Range, Alaska, mineral reconnaissance programs in the Alaska Range and Southeast Alaska, and is presently the project manager on a gold exploration venture in the United States. Mr. Hale spent several years as a mine geologist at the Cannon Mine, a large gold mine in Wenatchee, Washington, as a geologist at the Sunshine silver mine in Idaho, managed a copper exploration project at Bornite, Alaska for three years for Kennecott and served as a geologist on a gold exploration project in Myanmar.
Ronald Handford – Director
Ronald Handford is a professional engineer (non-practicing) and is president of Handford Management, a private management services company. He has been a senior executive of Sixty North Gold Mining since September 2016. He was formerly the executive vice-president, corporate development for Yellowhead Mining. Handford holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Western University (1979) and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Civil Engineering from the University of British Columbia (1974). He has over 20 years of international experience as a mining and technology entrepreneur, executive and advisor, plus 15 years as an international mining project finance and corporate banker, including Barclays Bank and the International Finance Corporation; and six years as an engineer/project manager related to mining and resource projects.
Douglas A. Perkins – Director
Douglas Perkins is a geology graduate from the University of British Columbia. Perkins has served on public company boards for over 25 years involving the promotion and representation of their geological properties. He has been involved in several start-ups of both public and private companies not only geological but including manufacturing, wholesale and developmental industries. From an exploration standpoint, Perkins has worked on the Gataga Trend for Cyprus Anvil, where several multi-million-ton deposits were discovered. He also worked for UTAH, UMEX, Cominco and oversaw Freeport/ Stryker’s exploration project in northern BC near the Windy Craggy deposit. Perkins has tropical experience in 1988 – 89 in the jungle of the Darien Gap in Panama. For the last two years he has been senior vice-president and director of GMV Minerals in Guyana South America.