Royalty and Partnership Summary
Orogen holds various interests in the HWY 37 project owned and operated by Kingfisher Metals (https://kingfishermetals.com/hwy-37/) including:
- 1% NSR royalty on the Ball Creek East claims
- 1% NSR royalty on the Ball Creek West claims
- 3% NSR royalty on the Hank claims with a 1% buydown for US$3 million
- The right to acquire an additional 1% NSR royalty on the Ball Creek East, Ball Creek West and Hank claims for $1.0 million
Project Overview and History
Orogen holds various interests over 556 square kilometres of the HWY 37 property located in the Golden Triangle in northwest British Columbia within the traditional territory of the Tahltan Nation. Porphyry and epithermal style mineralization has been identified in multiple intrusive suites across the property which has seen limited exploration compared to the rest of the Golden Triangle.
In the east of the property, the Ball Creek Main zone (“MZ”) is a 1,200 by 400 metre porphyry system that has returned drill intersects including 455 metres grading 0.28 grams per tonne (“g/t”) gold and 0.11% copper in drill hole BC12-47, and 231 metres grading 0.54 g/t gold and 0.21% copper in drill hole BC07-12. The MZ remains open with anomalous intercepts at the extremities of the drilled area, untested internal areas, and depth potential.
Outside of the MZ, the 12 square-kilometre Ball Creek Cluster is defined by highly anomalous copper, gold and molybdenum soil and rock geochemistry with multiple exposures of porphyry-style alteration. This region is largely unexplored.
Porphyry targets on the Ball Creek West property including More, Mess, and Hickman have seen limited exploration:
- The More zone consists of an undrilled Galore Creek style megacrystic syenite porphyry occurrence partially hidden by Quaternary basalts with a potassically altered outcrop returning 6.8% copper, 0.20 g/t gold and 10.3 g/t silver in a grab sample
- The Mess zone consists of copper mineralization associated with the eastern contact of a monzonitic stock defining a fifteen-kilometre-long anomalous zone of mineralization at surface. There are greater than 500 metre internal gaps between drill holes and multiple strong soil anomalies remain untested
- The Hickman target, discovered in 2019, represents an undrilled porphyry target with copper-gold mineralization at surface in a potassically altered diorite eight kilometres from Schaft Creek.
At Hank, historical drilling focussed on two 250-metre-thick alteration zones (Upper “UAZ” and Lower “LAZ”) with intercepts of calcite-quartz-sulphide veins including 9.14 metres grading 13.4 g/t gold and 132.3 g/t silver in DDH 88-4 (LAZ) and broad zones of lower grade mineralization including 30.48 metres grading 3.74 g/t gold in DDH 85-45 (UAZ). Recent work by Golden Ridge has focussed on the LAZ and identified broad intersections of lower grade gold surrounding higher grade intercepts over a one-kilometre strike length and included drill hole HNK-17-009 that grades 6.26 g/t gold and 52.1 g/t silver over 21.62 metres. Golden Ridge also identified the Williams zone, a new alkalic porphyry discovery in the northwest corner of the Hank claims. The Williams zone is characterized by bornite, chalcopyrite and digenite mineralized monzonite, intruding strong potassic altered intermediate Stuhini volcanics hosting veined chalcopyrite and bornite mineralization.
Transaction Summary
In November 2022, Orogen acquired a 3% NSR royalty on the Hank Royalty from Nevada Gold Mines LLC in connection with the Maggie Creek option agreement. Pursuant to the Hank royalty agreement with Golden Ridge, 1% may be purchased by Golden Ridge at any time for US$3.0 million. In addition, Golden Ridge has agreed to make a milestone payment of US$2.5 million at the earliest of (1) the preparation of a NI 43-101 feasibility study, (2) a development decision or the commitment of construction on any part of the Hank project, or (3) the first day on which ore has been sold or shipped from the Hank project for the purpose of earning revenue. Subsequently, in March 2023, Kingfisher optioned the Hank project from Golden Ridge.
In March 2023, Orogen optioned the Ball Creek East project to Kingfisher Metals Inc. Under the terms of the Option Agreement, Kingfisher can earn a 100% interest in 35,020 hectares of mineral claims (“Ball Creek East”) by issuing $3.5 million in common shares of Kingfisher and spending $7.5 million in exploration over a four-year period. Upon exercising the Option Agreement, Kingfisher will transfer to Orogen the right to acquire a 1% NSR royalty subject to an underlying agreement. Kingfisher also granted to Orogen a 1% NSR royalty on Kingfisher’s 28,407-hectare Ecstall volcanogenic massive sulphide (“VMS”) project, located on the central coast in British Columbia on signing the Option Agreement (ground has subsequently lapsed)
In March 2023, Orogen sold the Ball Creek West project to P2 Gold Inc. for $1.0 million in common shares of P2 Gold, a 1% net smelter return (“NSR”) royalty and transferring to Orogen the right to acquire an additional 1% NSR royalty subject to an underlying agreement. Subsequently in January 2025, Kingfisher acquired the Ball Creek West claims from P2 Gold.
Recent Exploration Activities
In 2025, Kingfisher completed 7,630 metres of drilling in eleven holes on the Hank claim. Assay highlights from ten of the eleven drill holes released include:
- HW-25-004 grading 0.29% copper and 0.30 g/t gold over 557.8 metres including 234.35 metres grading 0.44% copper and 0.49 g/t gold and HW-25-008 grading 0.21% copper and 0.22 g/t gold over 889.35 metres. Both from the Williams zone
- A 500 metre step out from the Upper Hank epithermal deposit in drill hole HW-25-006 grading 0.28 g/t gold over 241 metres including 110 metres at 0.47 g/t gold.4
Visual results from drill hole HW-25-011 indicate drilling appears to have intercepted the periphery of a previously undrilled porphyry system over 429 metres beneath the Hank gold-silver epithermal deposit. Assays from hole HW-25-011 are pending. Additional drilling of the Williams area and elsewhere within Orogen’s royalty AOI is anticipated for 2026.
In 2024, Kingfisher completed a ZTEM geophysical survey, mapping and IP surveys to define future drill targets within the Ball Creek Porphyry Cluster.
In 2023, Kingfisher completed a six-hole 2,150 metre core drill program on Orogen’s Ball Creek East portion of the HWY 37 property focused on drilling three target areas: the Cliff porphyry, the Mary Root Zone, and the Mary deposit southern step-out. At the Mary deposit, a 100 metre step out to the southwest of previous drilling (M-23-006) returned 438 metres of 0.26 g/t gold and 0.043% copper with epithermal textures consistent with a shallow level of emplacement. This result indicates the exploration potential at depth beneath the barren cover observed at surface. The two holes drilled into the Mary Root zone returned anomalous gold and zinc intervals including 242 metres of 0.16 g/t gold and 0.13% zinc potentially representing the flanks or top of concealed copper mineralization. The two holes drilled into the outcropping quartz stockwork at Cliff returned 114 metres of 0.04 g/t gold and 0.11% Cu hosted in a more felsic phase of intrusive interpreted to be a small late intrusive phase. In combination these results outline a large hydrothermal system potentially related to a mineralized porphyry concealed by the extensive region of cover.
June 2024: https://kingfishermetals.com/kingfisher-provides-2024-phase-1-exploration-update/
March 2023: https://kingfishermetals.com/kingfisher-signs-definitive-option-agreements-to-consolidate-362-square-km-copper-gold-project-in-golden-triangle-british-columbia/
Nov 2022: https://orogenroyalties.com/site/assets/files/9702/ogn22-18_maggie_creek_option_final_lp.pdf
May 2022: https://www.goldenridgeresources.com/news/2022/index.php?content_id=174