Paramount Gold Nevada Corp (NYSE:PZG) owns a 100% interest in the Grassy Mountain Gold Project in eastern Oregon and a 100% interest in the Sleeper Gold Project in northern Nevada. PZG acquired Grassy Mountain (GM) in July 2016 via the acquisition of Calico Resources for $15 million in PZG shares. GM has a total resource of 1.65 million ozs of gold (mostly measured) and 4.96 million ozs of silver. Of this, 504k ozs of the gold is underground with a grade of 5.32 g/tonne. The rest is 1.15 million ozs of low grade, open pit resource. PZG now controls all of the mining claims within its 10,000 acre Grassy Mountain land package.
Contrary to what one might think, the State of Oregon is highly supportive of developing the mining industry in eastern Oregon. At this point, PZG is in the final stages of permitting. The Company has already received preliminary outline proposals for financing mine construction. The existing PEA shows a project with an after-tax NPV of $87 million. The market cap of the stock, fully diluted, is $30 million. Because of the high-grade nature of the underground material, at higher gold prices this project is a literal cash cow.
The Sleeper Gold Project is a former high-grade open pit gold mine operated by AMAX Gold from 1986-1996 (AMAX closed the mine due to the falling price of gold). It produced 1.66 million ozs of gold and 2.3 million ozs of silver. This asset has over 4 million ozs of low-grade measured, indicated and inferred resource. With a gold price a few hundred dollars higher, this project is potentially a home run for a large mining company.