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2024 | NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND | AMAZING SCIENCE EDITION

Greetings from a top-secret laboratory in an undisclosed location.


If you listened to my Stanford Business School podcast, you may remember that I spoke about an exciting project involving the use of microbes to recover gold. (and if you didn’t, here’s the link) I also stated that we were anxiously awaiting results.  Well, the results are in …. and they are truly amazing.  We could be on the verge of the most significant advance in the hunt for gold since the invention of blasting powder.


Biological processes for recovering gold have been used for several years to separate precious metals from electronic waste.  Cell phones, tablets, and circuit boards all contain minute amounts of precious metals.  Microbiologists have engineered microbes which latch onto gold atoms and assemble them into little particles which are combined to form usable bits of gold.  Those bits can be combined into doré bars. We’ve been working with a group that has figured out (with patents pending) how to use microbes to separate gold ore from rock.  


The results are in, and they are remarkable.  The first batch tested was a fifty-pound sample of loose ore from the floor of an old stope at the Clay Mine.  You may remember that based on previous testing we anticipated that the Clay, although a lot easier to mine than the Bates, had ore that would not be as rich.  The fifty pounds were divided in half and twenty-five pounds were put through a traditional pilot milling process that resulted in an assay of .47 ounce per ton of gold and 8.31 opt of silver.  Pretty close to what was expected.  However, the twenty-five pounds that were subjected to the microbes resulted in a product that assayed at 1.198 ounces per ton of gold and 30.05 opt of silver.  By latching onto the precious metal atoms, these microbes were able to literally scour the sample and grab every bit of value.  


We took another 25 pounds to test, this time material that came from concentrate derived from stope fill at the Golden Gilpin Mill.   There the microbes found gold at the rate of 1.4 ounces per ton of gold and silver at15.29 ounces per ton.  Coming from upper level stope fill that had an average gold assay of .37 opt, this was a very pleasant surprise.  The silver in this and the other samples also exceeded our traditional testing and adds value to our bottom line.


Biological milling has the potential to dramatically alter our procedures and enhance our revenue.  Currently we bring rock to the mill where it is first crushed and ground before moving into the flotation tanks, filters, screens, shaker tables, thickening tanks, and other apparatus all designed to separate the precious from the base.  Using microbes, we do away with all of these labor-intensive steps because we can stop and bag after the rock is ground.  Lastly, the use of microbes will lower the cost of per ounce production adding nicely to our profitability.


The potential benefits to us are spectacular.  The renovation of the Black Eagle will cost far less than earlier estimates and take a fraction of the time as we only need rehab the crusher and ball mill.  The bio team estimates that it will take them about four months to scale up from a pilot operation to full production, after which we can quickly move to full capacity at the Golden Gilpin without spending another $2-$3 million to go from 24 tons a day in Phase 1 to 90 tons a day of milling in Phase 2.  Soon we’ll have just one phase – continuous crushing and delivery to the microbe tanks.  And lastly, because of these microbes’ ability to recover far more precious materials than previously projected, revenue should exceed all of our former prognostications – especially when we get to 500 feet and below.


As many of you know, we’ve made the decision to focus on mining at the 500-foot level and below, where testing has shown an abundance of rich veins.  That decision was made before we had any of this microbe information.  It is quite likely that at lower levels that assayed at 2 ounces or more of gold per ton, the biological processes will show results similar to initial testing.  That is – it is reasonable to expect that traditional assays missed a lot and instead of talking about 1 to 2 ounces per ton – we’ll be at 2 to 4 or higher.  Given the current price of gold along with the distinct possibility of doubling our daily ounces, investors could see annual returns of 2x or 3x anticipated distributions.


We have launched a final and limited round of funding aimed specifically at capitalizing on these new developments.  If you are interested, please reach out to me at franklin@gsminingholdings.com and I will provide full information on what we are seeking and offering.


I hope you all had a great summer – now let’s have a spectacular fall.


Best wishes,


Franklin


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