Gold Explorer Discovers High-Grade Silica in Japan, Revealing Exceptional Mining Potential

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Irving Resources Inc. (IRV:CSE; IRVRF:OTCQX) Director and technical adviser Quinton Hennigh appeared on Crescat Capital's Live Market Call with Crescat Capital's Kevin Smith on May 9 to talk about the company's projects in Japan.

Last week, Irving announced its first ever shallow-angle diamond core hole drilled at its Omui Mining License. It encountered a 101.1-meter-wide intercept of silicified rocks grading 1.14 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au), 16 g/t silver (Ag), and 84% silica.

"That translates to 1.34 g/t gold equivalent (AuEq)," Hennigh said. "If you want to play with math there, we're talking like 135 gram-meter gold. That, in my book, is a good hole."

Hennigh said another important factor from the drilling in hole 24OMI-001 is that it has 84% silica that can be blended with another target to get the more than 90% silica that would be ideal for a smelter.

"Through this drilling we found a very large volume of higher-grade gold silica that we could blend with our sinter and make a product," he said. "So, we're really intrigued by this."

The intercepts from holed 24OMI-001 also included 2 meters of 7.19 g/t Au, 52.64 g/t Ag, and 80.9% silica; 8.4 meters of 1.53 g/t Au, 5.13 g/t Ag, and 90.6% silica; 13 meters of 1.39 g/t Au, 8.5 g/t Ag, and 85.8% silica, 14.9 meters of 1.57 Au, 22.55 g/t Ag, and 83.8% silica; 8 meters of 1.31 g/t Au, 16.97 g/t Ag, and 81.3% silica; and 2 meters of 1.25 g/t Au, 47.2 g/t Ag, and 86% silica.

Having a large volume of near-surface gold-rich silicified rocks at Omui could complement the company's efforts to develop a silica body at Omu Sinter, just a few kilometers away, Hennigh has said.

Current work at Omu is focused on the vision to make it into a new source of gold-bearing silica smelter flux. During 2025, JX and Irving plan to drill an additional four such holes testing more parts of Omui for shallow silicification and veins, Irving said. Drilling is expected to commence in late May.

If the results are favorable, Irving said it and earn-in partner JX Advanced Metals Corp. plan to advance Omui alongside the Omu Sinter project to evaluate the potential for creating a new domestic Au-rich smelter flux production center that is capable of providing significant quantities of silica flux to numerous base metal smelters scattered across Japan.

Deeper Drilling Needed at East Yamagano

The Canadian explorer has backing from several majors going after gold and silver in Japan —  Newmont owns nearly 1/5 of the company. The country is known for some of the highest-grade gold mines in the world with dozens of past-producing epithermal mines.

At its joint venture (JV) with Newmont Corp. (NEM:NYSE) and Sumitomo Corp. (8053:TKY; SSUMF:OTCPK) at East Yamagano, Irving initiated drilling its third diamond drill hole at the project in the fourth quarter of 2024. Hole 24SY-002 was a south-oriented 702.1-meter-deep drill hole inclined at -70 degrees designed to test a steeply oriented electrically resistive zone evident in MT data.

Although it did not encounter any high-grade veins, several broad zones of silicification and anomalous levels of gold, generally ranging between 0.1 and 1 g/t Au, were intersected between 226-278 meters, 292-314 meters, 409-442 meters, and 623-648 meters, Irving said.

The highest-grade individual vein that was intersected ran 1.9 g/t Au over 0.86 meters starting at 226.36 meters, according to the company.

"We didn't really nail anything high-grade," Hennigh said on the Crescat call. "We simply skittered down all over the margin of that and didn't hit super-high grades . . . We should probably come at it again and drill across that, but at a deeper level."

Expert: Stock Is Undervalued

Brian Leni of Junior Stock Review said he believed the stock "spells opportunity."

"In my view, Irving is selling for less than it's worth, considering the potential upside of discovery at its Yamagano project. Not only that, but this junior company is exploring Yamagano" with Newmont Corp. and Sumitomo Corp. (8053:TKY; SSUMF:OTCPK), Leni wrote for Streetwise Reports in November.

"When it comes to Irving, I have long seen the potential of their project portfolio," Leni wrote. "Visiting Yamagano and Omu in person and meeting the technical team that is executing the exploration work has only further solidified that potential in my mind. To me, Yamagano holds the key to garnering frothy market attention once again . . . I clearly see that there will be a steady stream of project development across Japan moving out into the future."

In a post on his website in March, Analyst Jayant Bhandari said he and his clients have been long-term investors in the company.

"The designated areas within this agreement are progressing toward becoming mines, primarily for silica with gold credits," he said of Omu. "High-grade silica from Omu is expected to be in strong demand."

Bhandari continued, "IRV has stagnated for several months while similar companies have moved up," he said. "I prefer to invest when others aren't paying attention."

The Catalyst: Gold Under Pressure, But Not Out

Gold prices fell to a one-month low in Asian trade on Thursday, extending a recent run of losses as after U.S.-China trade war risks cooled, reported Ambar Warrick for Investing.com on May 15.

"The yellow metal was pressured by resilience in the dollar, as the greenback drew bids before more U.S. economic data, as well as an address by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell later on Thursday. A spike in Treasury yields also weighed," Warrick wrote.

Spot gold fell 1.1% to US$3,141.35 an ounce, while gold futures for June fell 1.4% to US$3,143.67 an ounce by 01:09 ET, the report said.

However, gold remained comfortably above the US$3,000 level — a level it had taken in April amid heightened concerns over the economic impact of a China-U.S. trade war.

"While Washington and Beijing did announce some de-escalation this week, relatively high tariffs still remained in place," Warrick noted.

Writing for CBS Money Watch, Aly J. Yale noted that experts did not see gold's overall bull market failing anytime soon.

"While there is likely a ceiling for gold prices at some point in the future, many experts are predicting further growth in the near term. But just how high could they climb? Could gold prices reach the $4,000 price point?" Yale asked. 

According to an April 10 post on Goldfix, Goldman Sachs revised raised the upper boundary of its forecast range for gold for the end of the year to US$3,520 an ounce and even introduced a "tall-risk scenario" as high as US$4,500 an ounce.

Ownership and Share Structure

The company said management and directors own about 9.3%, and strategic investors Newmont and Sumitomo own 19.2% and 5.2%, respectively.

Yahoo! Finance said about 1% is owned by institutions. The rest is retail.

According to Refinitiv, top insiders include President and Chief Executive Officer Akiko Levinson with 4.84% and Hennigh with 3.05%.

Irving Resources has a market cap of CA$14.62 million with 76.69 million shares outstanding. It trades in a 52-week range of CA$0.19 and CA$0.48.