Disclosure: Eskay Mining Corp. has paid FRC a fee for research coverage and distribution of reports. See last page for other important disclosures, rating, and risk definitions.
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*Subsequent to FY2026 (3M), ESK completed a $1.26M through an equity financing.
Price and Volume (1-year)
Eskay Project (100% interest)
The 52,600-hectare district-scale project lies within B.C.’s Eskay Rift Belt in the Golden Triangle, one of the world’s richest precious metal regions. The nearby Eskay Creek mine, now owned by Skeena Resources (TSX: SKE), is a high-grade polymetallic VMS deposit. Operated by Barrick Gold Corp. (TSX: ABX) from 1994 to 2008, it produced 3.3 Moz of gold, and 161 Moz of silver, at grades of 45 g/t Au and 2,224 g/t Ag, with cash costs of just US$60/oz.
Located 70 km northwest of Stewart, Close to well-known precious metals projects
ESK’s project lies 13 km south of the past-producing Eskay Creek mine, which Skeena Resources is redeveloping into an open-pit operation. While in production, Eskay Creek was Canada’s second-richest gold mine, and the fifth-largest silver producer worldw
Mineralization
ESK’s property hosts multiple volcanogenic massive sulfides (VMS), and Reduced Intrusion-Related Gold System (RIRGS) prospects, as well as porphyry prospects
VMS deposits commonly occur in clusters (1-20Mt), and individual deposits, when combined, have potential to form mining districts/camps.
Canada has three large VMS camps: Flin Flon – Snow Lake (Saskatchewan and Manitoba), Bathurst (New Brunswick), and Noranda (Quebec)
Gold in RIRGS deposits is often coarse-grained and easy to recover, implying lower OPEX
The table below summarizes the targets identified to date on the project.
Several early-stage targets prospective for VMS, RIRGS, and porphyry deposits have been identified, with no NI 43-101 resources defined to date. Targets highlighted in orange represent near-term priorities
Between 2020 and 2022, Eskay conducted bulk leach extractable gold (BLEG) sampling across the project, identifying multiple gold anomalies. The strongest occur in the southern claims near the Vermillion and TM zones, which have been the focus of recent exploration.
Three priority targets: C10, Vermillion, and the TM zone
The following section presents details of ESK’s key targets:
Vermillion – TM
The Vermillion and TM zones lie along a northeast–southwest trend of copper–gold porphyry deposits, including Seabridge Gold’s Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) and Iron Cap, Tudor Gold’s Treaty Creek (TSXV: TUD), and Newmont’s (NYSE: NEM) epithermal Brucejack deposits.
These targets are significant, covering an area of approximately 0.5 km × 2 km laterally and 0.6 km vertically, with potential for further expansion. 2024 exploration identified high-grade gold–silver mineralization within flat-lying, sheeted, and stockwork quartz–carbonate–sulphide veins, considered prospective for RIRGS deposits. These veins are likely the source of gold anomalies detected in earlier sampling programs. Eskay recently completed follow-up sampling at these targets, with initial results returning multiple high-grade gold and silver assays.
While the 2024 program showed surface gold-silver grades of up to 205 g/t Au and 118 g/t Ag at Vermillion, and 100 g/t Au and 85 g/t Ag at TM, the 2025 rock sampling has returned even higher grades, including peak values of 246 g/t Au and 150 g/t Au, with corresponding silver and copper credits. High-grade samples were also collected at Vermillion, where visible gold was noted.
The Vermillion zone is approximately 9 km west of the Kings deposit at the Bruce Jack mine Mineralization has been identified along a 2 km strike
2024 and 2025 sampling programs yielded bonanza grades of up to 246 g/t Au,371 g/t Ag, and 10.3% Cu. Follow-up sampling continues to return high gold grades
19 out of 24 samples yielded grades of over 1 g/t Au Seven rock chip samples returned grades of > 10 g/t Au
C-10 Target
Located within the Eskay Rift, the C-10 showing is directly linked to the strong gold BLEG anomalies found in the southern Eskay claims. It borders the Vermillion target to the east. C-10 has been recognized as a VMS target hosted within a similar rock sequence as the Eskay Creek Deposit to the north. In 2021, drilling encountered significant gold mineralization within disseminated sulphide-chlorite-silica lenses, which is a key indicator of VMS deposits.
The C-10 target is one of many VMS showings discovered on the project to date. Drill assays graded up to 31.10 g/t Au and 4.97 g/t Ag over 1.95 m
Management Plans
The company is conducting further sampling on the Vermillion, TM, and Big Red zones, and is awaiting results of a high-resolution satellite imagery survey. ESK plans to utilize this data to generate drill targets for 2026.
Preliminary Speculative Estimate (FRC Estimate)
After reviewing all published assays, maps, and the projected dimensions of 2,000 m × 500 m, and considering average grades from 2021 drilling and 2024–2025 sampling, we are assigning a speculative/preliminary estimate of 2.11 Moz AuEq on the Vermillion–TM zone.
We are not assigning estimates for any other project targets due to their early-stage nature. Management and board own 17%. Three out of five directors are independent
Brief biographies of the management team and important consultants and advisory members, as provided by the company, follow:
Hugh M. (Mac) Balkam - President & CEO
Mr. Balkam was with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for 13 years, many of those involved in the investigation of stock market related fraud. In 1981, he resigned to become a financial consultant with a major brokerage firm, where he managed investments for retail clients. Since 2004, Mr. Balkam has been involved in raising venture capital and consulting for junior mining companies. Mr Balkam joined the Board of Directors and became CEO of Eskay Mining Corp during the fourth quarter of 2009. He holds a BA from the University of Toronto.
Bill Johnstone – Corporate Secretary
Mr. Johnstone has been a partner at Gardiner Roberts LLP since February 2005, practicing in the areas of securities ad corporate law. He has been practicing law for over 30 years, and is a director and/or officer of four other TSXV-listed companies and three CSE-listed companies.
Robert Myhill – VP Finance & Director
Mr. Myhill holds an HBA and MBA from the IVEY school of business administration at the University of Ontario and earned a CA designation while with Price Waterhouse. He, for 20 years was the president and CEO of Canadian Investors Corp., an investment management company focused on corporate reorganizations in a broad range of sectors in Canada.
Dr. Quinton Hennigh – Independent Director
Dr. Hennigh is an internationally known economic geologist, with over 25 years of exploration and expertise with major gold mining companies such as Homestake Mining Company, Newcrest Mining Ltd. and Newmont Mining Corp. Dr. Hennigh is credited with the discovery of the Springhole alkaline gold deposit near Red Lake, Ontario for Gold Canyon Resources, and the Rattlesnake Hills gold project in Wyoming for Evolving Gold. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Missouri, and an MSc and a PhD in geology and geochemistry from the Colorado School of Mines.
J. Gordon McMehen – Independent Director
In 2000, Mr. McMehen co-founded Conundrum Capital Corporation, a private equity real estate fund management firm which today has several sectoral real estate funds under its administration. He now serves as Chairman of Conundrum Capital Corporation. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto in 1972 and obtained an LLB from the University of Ottawa in 1976. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 1978, and is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada.
Thomas Weiss – Independent Director & Chief Geophysics Advisor
Mr. Weiss is a minerals exploration geophysicist with over 35 years of exploration experience working for both major and junior mining companies worldwide. These have included Exxon Minerals, Newmont and Normandy Poseidon. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in geology and a Master of Science degree in geophysics at Michigan Technological University as well as advanced studies and research at the University of Utah and University of Kansas.
Financials
Healthy balance sheet. Subsequent to Q1-FY2026, ESK completed a $1.26M equity financing
FRC Valuation and Rating
ESK is trading at just $24/oz vs the sector average of $105/oz. Applying the sector average to our speculative estimate on Eskay’s project, we arrived at a comparables valuation of $1.21/share
Following our review of the company’s portfolio, and management’s strategy to advance its projects, we are initiating coverage with a BUY rating, and a fair value estimate of $1.21/share. We believe our preliminary/speculative estimate will offer insights to the market ahead of Eskay's maiden resource estimate. We anticipate the stock will gradually align with our fair value as market recognition of the portfolio grows.
Risks
Assigning a risk rating of 5 (Highly Speculative)
