Distributed on behalf of Blue Jay Gold
This is Why Gold’s Bull Market May Be Far from Over
Goldman Sachs just reiterated a $5,400 per ounce gold forecast by the close of 2027, even after the latest interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve. In fact, analyst Lina Thomas expects for strong central bank buying to offset any slowdown impact from higher interest rates. All of which is a solid catalyst for gold and related stocks, such as Blue Jay Gold (TSXV: JAY) (OTCQB: JAYGF), Newmont Corporation (NYSE: NEM), Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE: AEM) (TSX: AEM), Royal Gold (NASDAQ: RGLD), and Barrick Mining Corp. (NYSE: B) (TSX: ABX).
One of the most powerful catalysts supporting gold is central-bank demand. According to figures cited by the World Gold Council (WGC), global central banks purchased an estimated 289 metric tonnes of gold during the second quarter. They reportedly added another 23 tonnes in July. The WGC added that emerging-market central banks have been especially active with China and Poland adding about 20 tonnes and eight tonnes, respectively.
Gold could also benefit from concerns surrounding government spending, rising debt levels and the de-dollarization by some countries. In addition, Greenlight Capital founder David Einhorn is bullish. As reported by GoldSilver.com, Einhorn believes gold could “significantly outperform” the Nasdaq over the next three to five years. His outlook is based partly on concerns about loose U.S. fiscal policy and the continuing global trend toward de-dollarization.
In short, the longer-term case for gold is still strong, despite rising interest rates. Central banks are still accumulating the metal, government debt continues to rise and investors remain concerned about inflation, currency stability and geopolitical risk. If those trends persist, Goldman Sachs’ $5,400 forecast may not be as aggressive as it initially appears.
One of the Potential Beneficiaries is Blue Jay Gold (TSXV: JAY) (OTCQB: JAYGF)
Blue Jay Gold Corp. reported results from the metallurgical test program on mineralization from the Becker-Cochran antimony occurrence at its Steller Gold Project in southern Yukon. Our maiden test work at ALS Metallurgical Laboratories in Kamloops, British Columbia delivered a flowsheet design producing a 67% antimony concentrate at a 94% recovery. Roughly 50 kg of the concentrate is now being converted into finished antimony products by three North American processing groups who are looking to secure access to long-term supply, with first products expected in the coming weeks. Our test does not end at the concentrate. It continues until the material exists as a finished antimony product.
The material was placed with three groups rather than one by design. Each uses different processing approaches as high-grade concentrate is compatible with more than one downstream route. Our approach affords Blue Jay the pathway best suited to our material and ours interests.
Highlights
· 67% antimony concentrate was produced at a 94% Sb recovery.
· Concentrate grade well exceeds the 60% Sb premium product threshold. Pure stibnite is approximately 71.7% antimony, so 67% Sb approaches mineralogical purity.
· Three North American antimony processing groups will convert the concentrate into a range of downstream metal products, each using different processing approaches. First results are expected in the coming weeks.
· Test work was performed on material the Company collected and submitted, under documented chain of custody and modern quality assurance and quality controls.
· Material will move from site to finished metal product within a single exploration season.
· Drilling continues on high-grade gold targets with results expected to continue into 2027
"When we ran our due diligence after acquiring the Project, the antimony prospect was sitting in the historical record in plain sight, and nobody had touched it for sixty years," said Geordie Mark, CEO of Blue Jay Gold. "Modern conventional processing comfortably outperformed what was achieved in the 1960s, but a flotation number is where most companies at our stage stop and then ask investors to imagine the rest. We are not doing that. The concentrate is now with three North American processing groups who will convert it into a range of finished antimony products, and we expect the first of those within weeks. That means this material will have gone from rock in the ground to finished metal inside a single exploration season. Linking the mine site to metal production is where value is created in critical minerals, and we saw no reason to wait years to find out whether this material can make that trip."
"What we learn about the antimony also tells us something about the Project as a whole. One land package holds a past-producing gold mine, two further gold-silver deposits in different styles, and now produces a premium-grade antimony concentrate from a separate mineralized field whose footprint extends kilometres to the east. Those are different metals, deposited in different parts of the same system. To be clear, gold and silver are where our rigs and our budget are focused, and that has not changed by a single metre of drilling. But this is our maiden exploration year, and the point of a maiden year is to find out what you actually own. The antimony work was a small part of this year's budget, and it has told us a great deal. It is another piece of evidence that Steller is a geological district rather than a single deposit."
Table 1: Becker-Cochran Composite 1 (Concentrate): Cumulative Metal Balance
Notes to Table 1: Products are reported cumulatively; each row includes all products above it. Weight % is the share of the original feed reporting to that product, Assay % is that product's grade, and Recovery % is the share of the metal in the feed that it contains. Successive rows add lower-grade material, raising antimony recovery while diluting concentrate grade. The Company reports Product 1, 66.9% Sb at 93.9% recovery, as the representative result. Based on a single flotation test on a 2,007.5 g composite grading 17.1% Sb. Initial liberation analysis showed that stibnite and gangue minerals are excellent at 88% and 93% respectively. Mineral deportment studies have not been completed with Hg in concentrate aliquot up 1,100 ppm. Flotation optimization work is expected to commence shortly. No variability studies have been completed, and we note that the results are not necessarily representative of the occurrence as a whole.
Next Steps at Becker-Cochrane
First antimony metal products from the three processing groups are expected in the coming weeks. Assays remain pending from the ten-hole drill program at Becker-Cochran announced on August 31, 2026, which is testing the down-dip continuation of the mineralized shear zone below the historical workings. Should drilling confirm continuity at depth, the Company intends to advance to variability and locked cycle test work on drill core composites.
What Was Tested
The program was carried out on a composite of >400 kg of stibnite-bearing mineralization collected by Company personnel at a single trench at Becker-Cochran. The test sequence comprised head assays, mineralogical characterization, grind establishment, rougher and cleaner flotation, and final concentrate characterization.
The sample was collected from the surface expression of the stibnite-rich quartz vein systems that host mineralization in the underground workings at depth. These veins represent one on several east-west trending veins sets that occur on Becker, forming a trend extending west past the Goddell Gully Au deposit. Consequently, our work reflects only a small fraction of the system.
Reading the Result
Concentrate grade and recovery are most meaningful together, and in context with the flowsheet that produced them. Recovery measures how much of the antimony in the rock reports to the product. At 93.9%, almost none was lost to the tailings. Grade measures the quality of that product and determines what a processor will pay for it. Premium product specifications generally begin at 60% Sb, with value adjusted for other elements present and for processing factors. At 66.9% Sb, against a maximum possible 71.7% for pure stibnite, the concentrate is close to a pure mineral product. The flowsheet that produced it is conventional and uses standard reagents. Work at this stage does not constitute an offtake arrangement, or any type of commercial negotiation.
Why the Historical Work Needed to be Revisited
Bulk sampling and flotation testing were carried out on this occurrence in 1965. An approximately 8-ton sample was split between the federal Mineral Processing Division in Ottawa and Britton Laboratories Limited in Vancouver. The Ottawa work reported recovery of 92.8% of the contained antimony, and concentrates exceeding 62% antimony were produced. Underground development stopped shortly afterward when the antimony price fell.1
Those results are historical in nature. They were produced sixty years ago, to procedures and quality controls that cannot be verified today, on material the Company did not collect. A Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to verify them, the Company is not treating them as current, and they should not be relied upon. They were, however, sufficient reason to test the material again to a modern standard.
(1) Further detail regarding the Becker-Cochran occurrence, including its discovery, historical exploration, development and sampling, and regarding the Steller Gold Project and its current Mineral Resource Estimate, is set out in the technical report entitled “Technical Report and Updated Mineral Resource Estimate of the Steller Gold Project, Whitehorse Mining District, Yukon Territory, Canada,” prepared for the Company by P&E Mining Consultants Inc. with an effective date of October 31, 2025, available under the Company’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. The historical metallurgical results quoted above are drawn from reports prepared for or on behalf of Yukon Antimony Corporation Ltd. between 1964 and 1966, including the concentration report of the Mineral Processing Division, Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, dated July 6, 1965. https://data.geology.gov.yk.ca/assessment-report/202 https://data.geology.gov.yk.ca/mineral-occurrence/12812 https://data.geology.gov.yk.ca/assessment-report/3639
A District, Not a Single Deposit
The Steller Gold Project covers approximately 170 square kilometres and is accessible year-round by an 84-kilometre road from Whitehorse. It hosts the past-producing Mt. Skukum gold mine, the Skukum Creek and Goddell Gully gold-silver deposits, a 270 tonne per day process plant, and kilometres of underground development. Becker-Cochran lies within an antimony anomaly approximately 8 kilometres wide on the eastern side of the property.
The gold, silver and antimony mineralization across the property is interpreted to have formed during the same period of Eocene magmatic-epithermal activity, at different levels and temperatures within one extensive system. That interpretation is the basis for the Company's view that Steller can host several deposits of different styles carrying different metals. Antimony mineralization at Becker-Cochran forms no part of the current Mineral Resource Estimate, and the Company's 2026 program remains directed at the gold and silver resources at Skukum Creek and Mt. Skukum.
Metallurgical Test Work and Antimony Concentrate Results
Bench-scale flotation tests were completed at ALS Metallurgy Kamloops with the >400 kg sample provided from the Becker-Cochran antimony occurrence located in the Yukon Territory, Canada. The material was selected from an east-southeast trending stibnite-bearing quartz vein that is interpreted to reflect the vein exposed in underground workings accessed from multiple adits immediate below.
With a primary grind sizing near 140µm K80 and using lead nitrate as the stibnite activator and SIPX as the stibnite collector, excellent metallurgical performance was achieved with 95% antimony recovery to a stibnite concentrate which measured close to 66% antimony using rougher flotation followed by regrinding and two cleaner stages. This led to a final stage antimony concentrate grading 66.9% Sb. Antimony recovery to the final cleaner concentrate was 93.9%. These results are based on laboratory-scale rougher-cleaner testing and are preliminary in nature; they do not represent a feasibility-level process design or a commercial product specification.
Quality Assurance / Quality Control
The bulk sample used in this program were selected and prepared under the supervision of Freeman Smith. The ALS laboratory maintained its own internal QA/QC procedures to deliver these initial outcomes. QA/QC results were reviewed by Freeman Smith, and no material issues were identified that would affect the interpretation of the reported results.
Qualified Person
The scientific and technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Freeman Smith, P.Geo., VP Exploration of Blue Jay Gold Corp., who is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
Other related developments from around the markets include:
Newmont and Barrick Mining Corporation reached an agreement under which excluded properties, including Barrick’s Fourmile and Newmont’s Fiberline and Mike developments, will be contributed into the Nevada Gold Mines (NGM) joint venture. The agreement concludes all outstanding disputes between the parties related to the NGM joint venture. With the resolution of all outstanding disputes and contribution of excluded properties, Newmont has provided its consent to Barrick’s proposed IPO of its North American gold assets. The agreement includes enhanced governance provisions under a modernized joint venture agreement and provides for consideration of $1.95 billion from Newmont to Barrick to reflect the contribution of excluded properties into the joint venture. This agreement positions both parties to maximize the value of the joint venture. Newmont and Barrick will continue working together to improve NGM's safety and performance, unlock the full value these assets are capable of delivering, and ensure the long-term success of the joint venture for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Agnico Eagle Mines reported financial and operating results for the second quarter of 2026. "Our high-quality portfolio delivered another strong quarter, with better-than-planned production and disciplined cost control driving strong margins and record quarterly free cash flow," said Ammar Al-Joundi, President and Chief Executive Officer. "The strength of our business and our balanced capital allocation approach enabled us to reinvest in future growth, enhance our portfolio through the completion of the regional consolidation in Finland, further strengthen our balance sheet and return a record $625 million to our shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the quarter. Continued progress across our growth projects, supported by positive exploration results, reinforces our confidence in our long-term outlook, while our strong financial position supports our commitment to creating long-term value and delivering strong returns to our shareholders."
Royal Gold released financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2026. “Financial results for the second quarter were strong and we made meaningful progress on executing our priorities,” commented Bill Heissenbuttel, President and CEO of Royal Gold. “We continued our disciplined approach to capital allocation. We repaid debt, repurchased and cancelled shares, and invested capital toward our Warintza and Hod Maden portfolio interests. We also continued progress on simplifying the Sandstorm portfolio with the restructuring of the Hod Maden joint venture interest and the settlement of the fixed delivery obligations at the Relief Canyon mine. After a solid first half of the year driven by our large and diversified portfolio, our outlook for the second half remains positive, and we will maintain our discipline and long-term focus as we consider alternatives to accretively deploy capital in an active environment for new business development opportunities."
Barrick Mining Corp. reported second quarter operating and financial results for the period ended June 30, 2026. Barrick produced 796,000 ounces2 of gold and 56,000 tonnes1 of copper in the quarter. The Company generated $5.29 billion in revenue, $1.70 billion in operating cash flow, $1.12 billion in attributable operating cash flow3, and $141 million in attributable free cash flow3. Net earnings per share for the quarter were $0.73, and adjusted net earnings per share3 were $0.82—up 55% and 74%, respectively, from Q2 2025. Mark Hill, President and Chief Executive Officer, said: “We achieved an historic agreement with Newmont. Newmont has consented to the IPO and the parties have agreed to expand NGM with the early vend-in of our excluded properties, as well as settling all disputes. Through this agreement with our joint venture partner, we have substantially extended the asset base, and provided greater flexibility and value.”
2. https://www.barrick.com/English/news/news-details/2026/q2-2026-results/default.aspx
Legal Disclaimer / Except for the historical information presented herein, matters discussed in this article contains forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Winning Media is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority and does not provide nor claims to provide investment advice or recommendations to readers of this release. For making specific investment decisions, readers should seek their own advice. Winning Media is only compensated for its services in the form of cash-based compensation. Pursuant to an agreement Winning Media has been paid three thousand five hundred dollars for advertising and marketing services for Blue Jay Gold by Blue Jay Gold. We own ZERO shares of Blue Jay Gold. Please click here for disclaimer.
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