TERRACO GOLD CORP.
TSX.V: TEN
OTC Pink: TCEGF
Contact: Todd Hilditch,
President and CEO
960 - 1055 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC Canada, V6E 2E9
Toll free: (877) 792-6688
Phone: (604) 443-3835
Fax: (604) 682-3860
Email: info@terracogold.com
Website: www.terracogold.com
Shares Outstanding: 130 million
52 Week Trading Range:
Canada: Hi: C$0.50 • Low: C$0.165
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On December 21, 2011 Terraco Gold Corp.’s (TSX.V: TEN; OTC Pink: TCEGF) -- www.terracogold.com -- CEO, Todd Hilditch, gave shareholders an early Christmas present by announcing that Terraco had acquired an option to purchase up to a 2.5% sliding scale NSR royalty on claims covering part of the Spring Valley Project in Nevada. The Spring Valley Project (“SV Project”) is a joint venture between Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX; TSX: ABX) and Midway Gold Corp. (AMEX: MDW; TSX.V: MDW). The SV Project lies between Terraco’s Moonlight project and the Rochester Mine operated by Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. (NYSE: CDE; TSX: CDM). In addition, Terraco negotiated an additional (non-dilutive) USD$5 million financing which fully funds the company’s exploration efforts for 2012. To tie a string through this blockbuster deal, Terraco announced that the strategic investor (a private equity firm), in this 3-way deal, negotiated a first right of refusal on financing to get to commercial production at its advanced-stage Almaden project in Idaho. Needless to say 2012 could be a strong year for Terraco shareholders.
As for earlier in the year, Terraco acquired near a million ounces of gold in January 2011, for under $20 an ounce, and moved itself to a whole new level, becoming a company to watch as it works aggressively to develop the newly acquired, advanced-stage Almaden Gold Project in Idaho.
“We are really excited about Almaden, our drill results to date have shown us that we can grow the near surface gold resource to well over a million ounces,” says Terraco Gold President and CEO Todd Hilditch. “The prospect for preliminary economics are good especially in the current gold price environment.”
Not to be forgotten is Terraco Gold’s exploration-stage, gold-silver Moonlight Project that lies among major gold and silver producers in a new prolific mineral trend in Nevada.
Aggressive Exploration Planned at Almaden Gold Project
to Expand Resource, Discover Feeder Zones
Terraco Gold’s Almaden Project, located in southwestern Idaho, hosts an NI 43-101-compliant measured and indicated resource of 864,000 ounces of gold and an inferred resource of 84,000 ounces of gold (total 948,000 ounces gold), all within approximately 300 feet of surface. The currently identified ore body is about 1000 feet wide, 2000 feet long and 300 feet thick. The Almaden Project is an outcropping flat-lying orebody and boasts excellent access and infrastructure.
The NI 43-101 technical report, prepared by Mine Development Associates, outlines a measured resource of 239,000 ounces of gold (9,810,000 tonnes grading 0.754 g/t), an indicated resource of 625,000 ounces of gold (29,250,000 tonnes grading 0.651 g/t), and an inferred resource of 84,000 ounces of gold (4,780,000 tonnes grading 0.549 g/t), at cutoff grades of 0.274 g/t, 0.411 g/t, and 0.789 g/t for the oxide, mixed, and sulfide mineralization. The report was based on gold cutoffs of 0.008 ounces per ton for the oxidized material, 0.012 ounces per ton for mixed (partially oxidized) material, and 0.023 ounces per ton for sulfide (unoxidized) material.
The company also has intriguing geologic data accumulated during historic drilling of over 199,000 feet in 887 separate drill holes. Incredibly, only 24 of those holes extended deeper than 550 feet. And even more incredibly, assays from deeper holes including those recently completed by Terraco, hint at the presence of additional gold mineralized zones that could lead to gold-rich feeders. Similar gold systems are to those found at Great Basin Gold’s Hollister Mine (~4 million ounces) and Newmont’s Midas Mine (~7.6 million ounces) in northeast Nevada.
 A second round of holes drilled at the Almaden Project and released in 2011 included 167 ft averaging 0.032 opt gold including; 45 ft of 0.033 opt gold and 27.2 ft of 0.057 opt gold. The company completed 2011 core drilling in November focusing on the extension of near-surface gold mineralization, with the goal of gaining a better understanding of the underlying geology. In addition, the company is testing for high-grade, bonanza-style structurally-controlled gold mineralization at depth. The company drilled has drilled as deep as 1,800 ft. Additional results from assays are pending.
“Finding the feeder zone is important,” says Hilditch. “One drill hole, still at a relatively shallow depth, intersected significant widths of mineralization grading an average of 0.132 ounce per ton gold over 167 feet. We believe the existing surface deposit is like a flower sitting on or nearby to the stem of feeder type higher grade gold.”
Moonlight Gold-Silver Project Adjacent to Major Mining Properties
Significantly, Terraco Gold’s Moonlight Project in Pershing County, Nevada lies on a prolific mineral trend just five miles north of Coeur d’Alene’s massive silver-gold Rochester Mine. Over its 24-year history, the Rochester Mine produced 127 million ounces of silver and over 1.2 million ounces of gold. The mine recently returned to production.
The seven-square-mile Moonlight gold-silver property adjoins the north side of the Spring Valley joint venture between Barrick Gold Corp. and Midway Gold Corp. Spring Valley lies between Moonlight and the Rochester Mine and hosts an NI 43-101 resource of 3,450,000 ounces of gold (as announced by Midway Gold). Barrick’s 2010 and 2011 drilling confirms gold mineralization open to the north and trending toward the Moonlight Project.
Recent exploration at Moonlight was conducted by two highly respected professionals who were instrumental in the discovery of major Nevada gold deposits turned mines such as Barrick’s Goldstrike Mine – partially credited to Terraco Gold’s VP of Exploration Charles Sulfrian, CPG – and Newmont’s Ken Snyder ‘Midas’ Mine, named after Terraco’s lead consulting geologist, Dr. Ken Snyder.
Strong, Mining-Savvy Management Team
A significant part of Terraco Gold’s value lies in its management by a particularly experienced and accomplished team of mining professionals.
Todd Hilditch, BSc, Terraco Gold’s President and CEO since its inception in 1995, has over 17 years experience in the natural resource sector. His management credits also include serving as president, CEO and director of numerous companies listed on the TSX Venture exchange, including Salares Lithium, whose $350 million merger with Talison Lithium created the world’s largest producing lithium company.
 Terraco Gold’s VP of Exploration Charles Sulfrian, CPG, has more than 30 years of national and international exploration experience, particularly at Barrick’s Goldstrike Mine. In the 1980s, his work helped lead to the discovery of the Post Oxide Deposit and the Deep Post Deposit. Dr. Ken Snyder, Terraco Gold’s Lead Consulting Geologist, has over 30 years of national and international exploration experience involving the discovery and mining of precious, base metal and mineral deposits, including the discovery of the Rex Grande gold vein in Nevada, now known as Newmont Mining’s producing Ken Snyder (Midas) Mine.
“Terraco Gold feels privileged to have two men of this caliber. Charlie and Ken have unbelievable track records and are members of that rare group of geologists able to find economic deposits,” says Hilditch. “They continue planning this year’s program for the Almaden and Moonlight Projects.”
Investment Considerations
Terraco Gold began to get noticed last fall with announcements that the company had acquired the Almaden Gold Project in a merger with Western Standard Metals. By controlling and now growing the third largest gold deposit in Idaho, the company’s market cap stands at about C$30 million, which is below what the underlying assets provide for in today’s gold environment.
“Terraco Gold’s upside relates to the recent royalty option acquired and the SV Project development as well as building on Almaden’s gold resource to which a production scenario is possible,” says Hilditch. “Our safety is our nearly million-ounce, outcropping gold resource at Almaden. Our blue-sky is for Moonlight and other projects to become a gold and silver elephant.”
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