In September of 2015 First Mining Finance made an offer for Gold Canyon Resources.
Gold Canyon accepted the purchase deal and it closed in November of 2015. As part of the agreement,
Gold Canyon spun off $500,000 and certain other assets into a new shell named
Irving
Resources Inc. (IRV:CSE; IRVRF:OTCBB) headed by the Gold Canyon President
and CEO, Akiko Levinson.
Each existing Gold Canyon shareholder was given 0.0333 shares of Irving
per GCU share. As a result of the spinoff, tens of thousands of shareholders
found themselves with an Xmas present of tiny amounts of Irving shares. The
177 million shares held in Gold Canyon turned into 5.4 million shares of
Irving. That's the entire float due to who participated in the later
financing.
Since that time Irving completed private placements for about 9 million
shares at $0.14 in early 2016 and an additional 16 million shares at $0.40 in
late 2016. The company is especially well cashed up with just at $7 million
cash in the till.
Three investors own over 42% of the shares. That would be Akiko Levinson,
President and CEO, Dr. Quinton Hennigh, Director, and Eric Sprott,
billionaire. In addition, the next highest seven shareholders own 36% more of
the shares. In short on a basis of existing shares, 78% of the issued stock
is in the tightest of hands and 82% on a fully diluted basis. The remaining
20% or so is made up of tiny positions held by small shareholders who toss
them onto the market when they need some change.
I've never seen any stock so tightly held. It shows in the action of the
stock with the shares more than doubling from $0.49 to $1.18 in ten days at
the end of 2016.
Since the merger and spinoff, Irvine has shifted emphasis from some minor
REE projects in Africa to high-grade gold properties in Japan. Japan is
literally the last unexplored frontier. The highest-grade gold mine in the
world calls Japan home. That would be the Hishikari Mine in southern Japan.
Hishikari produced over 6.5 million ounces of gold so far with a head grade
of 40 grams per ton. They aren't the biggest gold mine in the world but
probably the most profitable per ounce.
Hishikari Sorting Line
The ultra-high grade ore at Hishikari runs past a line of sorters who pick
out the good rock. I'd love to pan their tailings. They don't even have a
mill. The silica rich rock is used as flux by parent company Sumitomo Metal
Mining. The gold and silver are recovered with almost 100% recovery during
processing base metals using the ore as flux. It's a perfect example of
Japanese ingenuity.
The entire Japanese chain of islands lies on the Ring of
Fire. All the volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis come from the Ring of
Fire activity. That's also the origin of the gold, coming from hot springs.
As a Japanese, Akiko Levinson has a home advantage. She speaks the
language and understands the culture. She was married to a Canadian mining
executive prior to his untimely death. She took over the reins at Gold Canyon
and ran it until the merger with First Finance. To a certain degree Japan has
opened up mining exploration to foreign companies lately. The gold mining
industry was pretty much quiet since World War II even though the potential
is tremendous.
Currently Irving targets gold at three Au-Ag vein properties where they
have prospecting license applications in progress. All are located in
northern Hokkaido in northern Japan. Of particular notice is the Omui project that contains a sinter measuring 12 km long and
up to 12 meters in thickness that carries gold values. A sinter is the
naturally forming cover for a hot spring system. It's entirely possible the
sinter covers another Hishikari type deposit.
Irving's technical team found float boulders containing up to 480 g/t Au and 9,660 g/t Ag
at the Omui property. That's $24,940.20 a ton rock, by the way. Fieldwork
in Hokkaido will not begin until May or so due to the snowmelt. Most of the
2017 prospecting activities will consist of rock and soil samples, mapping
and ground geophysics. Given that little serious exploration has been done
for many years, it will take time to bring government technical people up to
speed. Irving is working closely with MINDECO, a subsidiary of Mitsui Corp.,
for both permitting and technical work.
It would be safe to suggest that Irving maintains a giant competitive
advantage in that a Japanese woman runs the company who not only understands
how Japan works but also has run a successful mining exploration company in
Canada. Akiko Levinson has a foot in each camp. When I read the press
releases from Irving about what their technical team found during
exploration, I began to buy shares. This company is the hardest company to
build a decent position in of any that I have ever seen due to the tiny
float. A fund wanting a position worthy of the name could double the stock
again in a week.
Irving isn't throwing darts at a board trying to figure out where to
explore. All of the projects they are working on have had existing high-grade
gold mines in the past prior to WW II. The company will continue to acquire similar projects over
the coming months. Look for announcements. The company is deliberately
keeping a low profile but that doesn't mean the projects are not worthy of
merit. They have some of the finest projects I have ever read about.
Irving is not an advertiser. I have participated in the private placement
in the fall and have continued to buy shares in the open market. Do your own
due diligence.
Irving Resources
IRV-CSE $0.83 (Mar 1, 2017)
IRVRF-OTCBB 31.8 million shares
Irving website
Bob and Barb Moriarty brought 321gold.com
to the Internet almost 16 years ago. They later added 321energy.com to
cover oil, natural gas, gasoline, coal, solar, wind and nuclear energy. Both
sites feature articles, editorial opinions, pricing figures and updates on
current events affecting both sectors. Previously, Moriarty was a Marine F-4B
and O-1 pilot with more than 832 missions in Vietnam. He holds 14
international aviation records.
Disclosure:
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shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Irving
Resources. I determined which companies would be included in this article
based on my research and understanding of the sector.
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Image provided by Bob Moriarty.
