THE CRITICAL INVESTOR

As Westward Gold Inc. (WG.CSE) is looking to expand, in order to be able to attract more financing, they are also building on their team, and the most recent hire reflects this in spades according to management. Incoming VP Exploration Robert Edie will be stepping up to the plate at the end of September, while transitioning to this position effective immediately. Outgoing VP Exploration David Browning accepted a CEO role with another company, and will be instrumental in Robert’s transitioning, and transferring as much knowledge and experience as possible.

As an expert in Nevada Carlin deposits, Mr. Edie will have his work cut out for him, as not only an exploration strategy for flagship Toiyabe is being designed at the moment, but Westward’s management team is also looking at acquisitions to grow its asset portfolio and market cap. His experience will be invaluable when assisting in vetting new acquisitions, fitting them into his preferred exploration strategies.

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Please note: the views, opinions, estimates, forecasts or predictions regarding Westward Gold’s resource potential are those of the author alone and do not represent views, opinions, estimates, forecasts or predictions of Westward or Westward’s management. Westward Gold has not in any way endorsed the views, opinions, estimates, forecasts or predictions provided by the author.

After closing an oversubscribed non-brokered C$1M financing almost a month ago, with big names like Bill Sherriff, Terry Salman, a Mining Hall of Famer and “high up executives at First Majestic Silver” participating, Westward management has been busy planning further exploration at Toiyabe, and looking at M&A. As a reminder, the proceeds of the financing are assigned to a. follow-up work from the recent diamond drilling at its flagship Toiyabe Project (about C$500k), b. to advance potential accretive M&A opportunities (about C$400k) in order to grow and be able to attract more capital, and c. for general working capital purposes, including upcoming annual BLM claim maintenance fees (C$125k).

An exploration update can be expected around early September, in a nutshell according to management the company is planning to conduct lower cost exploration programs to further define targets, host site visits for major gold producers, and explore creative strategies to fund further drilling (ie. strategic investment from a major, exploration partnership, or potential JV if the terms are right). As incoming VP Exploration Robert Edie will be responsible for all exploration initiatives from now on, it will be interesting to delve a bit more into his background.

Mr. Edie has worked as a geologist in Nevada for 13 years, developing an expertise in the discovery and development of Carlin-type gold deposits. He is also an experienced leader, having most recently held the position of Exploration Manager at the Jerritt Canyon Gold Mine from 2020 to 2023. Mr. Edie was also formerly Project Manager of the Dark Star gold deposit for Gold Standard Ventures from 2015 to 2017, during which time the company achieved impressive exploration successes and delivered significant value to its shareholders. During his tenure, Gold Standard achieved a $1B market capitalization at its peak for the discovery of several million ounces on the Carlin trend, just 60km east of Westward’s projects.

Following the transition, Mr. Edie will be responsible for managing all of the company’s ongoing interests in Nevada, and will be supported by Westward’s Nevada expert Technical Advisory Committee. This includes Lead Technical Advisor Mr. Steven Koehler, who worked closely with Robert during his tenure at Gold Standard Ventures. His experience includes greenfield, brownfield, and near-mine exploration from both surface and underground, working in sediment-hosted gold, epithermal gold, and iron-oxide-copper-gold systems.

Mr. Edie is a Professional Geologist and holds a Bachelor of Science in Geology from San Diego State University. He noted: “I am thrilled to be joining the team at Westward Gold and for the opportunity to bring my exploration experience to their highly-prospective projects in elephant country. Just a stone’s throw away from the Cortez Complex, I believe Toiyabe, Turquoise Canyon, and East Saddle have the strong potential to develop into a multi-million-ounce economic gold district.”

It is good to see Robert Edie coming in, with lots of experience in Nevada exploration during deposit delineation and production. According to management he came highly recommended, and they are very happy with the new addition. They were also very sorry to see David Browning go, but were able to act quickly when they heard of David’s plans, as higher ups from First Majestic Silver (who are large shareholders) pointed Robert Edie in the direction of Westward management.

As a reminder, Carlin expert and Technical Advisor Koehler thinks Toiyabe could be hosting a significant deposit, as he noticed several similarities with the early stage discovery of the multi-million ounce Cortez Hills and Leeville deposits. According to him, there are compressional tectonics, favorable lower plate carbonate host rocks, pervasive vertical alteration of these rocks combined with extensive oxidation at depth, and of course there is already some gold mineralization. He thinks the hydrothermally altered SSD Zone extends and strengthens to the northeast, and this is where further drilling will focus, preferably widely-spaced step-out drilling, for which permits are already in hand. Koehler also commented:

“The recognition of gold in upper plate rocks above or outboard from gold mineralization in lower plate carbonate rocks in T2301 is reminiscent of geologic patterns in the Carlin Trend north area – especially those gold deposits down-dip from the Carlin and Pete open-pit deposits. The down-dip continuation of the SSD Zone – and its association with favorable carbonate stratigraphy and compressional tectonic features – is similar to the setting of deeper deposits discovered on the Carlin and Cortez Trends.”

Lots of step-out drilling needs to be completed to establish the stratigraphy here. It also needs to be noted that existing large deposits (owned by the likes of Barrick and NGM) start around 200-550m below surface, and extend to 1,200m of depth as mentioned. NGM seems to be on the same kind of exploration track with the Swift Project of Ridgeline Minerals, committing to a US$30M earn-in after some results that were hardly comparable to the ones Westward generated recently. As Toiyabe seems to have the same features, Westward management isn’t done exploring yet.

Conclusion

It was good to see Westward finding another VP Exploration shortly after David Browning announced internally he would be leaving for another position. And a worthy replacement it is, with Robert Edie having worked on various Nevada-Carlin style deposits, before and during production. I am curious what Mr. Edie can bring to the table, as Westward is actively looking for new acquisitions on the Carlin Trend, and is designing a new drill program at Toiyabe. They are cashed up and ready to go. Stay tuned!

I hope you will find this article interesting and useful, and will have further interest in my upcoming articles on mining. To never miss a thing, please subscribe to my free newsletter at www.criticalinvestor.eu, in order to get an email notice of my new articles soon after they are published.

Disclaimer:

The author is not a registered investment advisor, and currently has a long position in this stock. Westward Gold is a sponsoring company. All facts are to be checked by the reader. For more information go to www.westwardgold.com and read the company’s profile and official documents on www.sedar.com, also for important risk disclosures. This article is provided for information purposes only, and is not intended to be investment advice of any kind, and all readers are encouraged to do their own due diligence, and talk to their own licensed investment advisors prior to making any investment decisions.