Categories: Precious Metals
Topics: Gold Stocks

Daura Gold (TSX-V: DGC) CEO Mark Sumner on Advancing Antonella, Unlocking Libelulas, and Preparing for a Transformational 2026

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Daura Gold Corp. (TSX-V: DGC) — Mr. Mark Sumner. Mark, how are you today?

Mark Sumner: I'm doing well, Gerardo. How are you?

Gerardo Del Real: I am fantastic. Look, we have record-high copper prices, record-high silver prices, gold above $4,200, a weakening dollar, and $39 trillion in debt here in the US. There seems to be a lot of runway. 

Company-specific, you just announced some high-grade surface sampling results that were really impressive and caught the market’s attention. I would be remiss if I didn’t start, however, with your neighbor’s drill results from a few days back. Highlander Silver hit 23.9 meters of 20.82 grams per tonne gold at San Luis. 

That obviously has implications for Daura and the team. Can you speak to that a bit?

Mark Sumner: Yeah, definitely. The drill results from Highlander were nothing short of spectacular — and, more specifically, coming from their Bonita project, which I think is even more interesting for us than San Luis because of how Daura’s land package effectively wraps around and surrounds Bonita on four sides. Some of the results are really interesting. 

What’s also interesting for us is the orientation of these drill holes, which were effectively directed straight at Daura’s border to the northeast where our property at Libelulas sits, intersecting high-grade mineralization, over 6 grams per tonne gold approximately 80 meters from Daura’s border. 

And where we’ve mapped these quartz veins at surface on the Libelulas side, those veins extend into our property. We also need to explore further how these veins extend to the southeast into our property. But we’re looking at a 6.8-gram gold and 30-gram silver intercept about 80 meters from the border. It’s really, really exciting.

For the Libelulas project, we’re looking at getting our permissions in place so we can actually go out there and sample those veins at surface. We’ve got some of the mapping done; that’s the property we picked up from Barrick earlier in the year. 

It’s really just a function of timing as to when we can get permission to go out and do sampling and surface work in the first instance. It’s mostly a function of the change-of-registry process at the Ministry of Mines — more of a bureaucratic exercise at this stage — but it’s happening slowly but surely. Certainly, in the new year, we intend to get out there and have a much closer look.

Just to speak to our results from north of the main zone at Antonella — which is on trend with Bonita where they’ve been delivering these spectacular drill results — we’re finding vein extensions showing really strong surface expression with incredibly high grades quite a bit further north from the main zone where we have some of our historical drilling and some of the spectacular intercepts from the past drilling program.

In this last round, we’re seeing over 57 grams gold and 125 grams silver and nearly 25 grams gold and 128 grams silver from sampling these veins at surface. There’s still a lot of work to do but the way Highlander is delivering spectacular drill results, and the way we’re starting to really define the structure of the deposit at Antonella and how it relates to Bonita is incredibly exciting.

Gerardo Del Real: Listen, it sets up what I think is going to be a transformational 2026 for the company. Can you speak to how you envision that and what the first few months of the new year will likely look like?

Mark Sumner: I think we’re going to continue looking at the structure of the Antonella project in the first instance. We’re doing a bit of work on the drill core right now to refine our model and take a closer look at the structural controls because we’re in that same structural corridor as Bonita. We want to see exactly how these things relate.

So in the first few months of the year, we intend to refine our geological model, continue to map and sample, which is important because we’re trying to get a real sense of what this deposit looks like at surface as we feed this data into our drill permits. We intend to file for drill permits as soon as we possibly can. That’s a function of engaging a DIA consultant, and we’re in that process now.

So at Antonella, the first few months will really be about refining our geological model, optimizing the data we have because we’ve got 2,500 meters of high-quality drill core that needs closer examination and continuing to map and sample as we can. 

And as soon as we can, we want to get out to Libelulas — the property that effectively wraps around the Bonita target and sits less than 100 meters from what Highlander is calling the Kusi Zone. We want to get out there as soon as possible. But the priority is getting a DIA consultant in place and completing all the requirements to file drill permits.

Gerardo Del Real: Listen, it’s going to be, again, I think, a transformational 2026… and it couldn’t happen at a better time given the backdrop that we have right now. Anything to add to that, Mark?

Mark Sumner: Look, the only thing I’ll add is Tayacoto, which is another project we have in the San Luis complex to the northeast — just east of Highlander’s Daniella target. 

That’s sat in the background a bit for most of this year but we’re starting to bring it closer to the surface as we gather more data. I want to highlight that because Tayacoto is shaping up to be a really exciting prospect. I expect we’ll continue producing data from Tayacoto and continue shaping that project as well.

And we’re plugging away in Argentina. We announced an option to earn into Cerro Bayo, which is a really exciting gold-silver prospect in the Deseado Massif. We’re working quickly to get those programs underway, so you’ll see more news and information coming from Argentina as well.

Gerardo Del Real: Exciting times! Mark, always great to have you on. Thank you so much.

Mark Sumner: Thanks, Gerardo. 

Gerardo Del Real: Cheers. Chat soon.

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