Everton Resources Property Tour (EVR.V)

Back in December, I visited the Dominican Republic courtesy of Everton Resources (EVR.V). While visiting a warm place in the middle of winter is always a treat, I managed to fail the travel portion of the trip by turning on my iPhone for a day. I learned that data roaming is obscenely expensive. I also lost my iPad somewhere in the Miami International Airport on the return trip.

After a very full travel day from Calgary to The Dominican Republic (via Dallas and Miami) I met with Everton management (President and CEO, André Audet, Director Brooke Macdonald, and country manager Hugo Dominguez) in our hotel in Santo Domingo.

The following day we headed North/Northwest on the #1 highway (Autopista Juan Pablo Duarte) turning right at Piedra Blanca. Our first stop of the day was the Acme Analytical Lab in Maimon. While there was no evidence of any Coyotes, it was interesting to watch the prepared samples being wheeled around on gurneys... it was like a rock hospital.

Acme Labs
Then we headed ~4km east to check out GlobeStar's Cerro de Maimón operation. Construction of this 6 million ton open pit copper-gold mine was completed in late 2008.



Open pit at Cerro de Maimón



Contract mine truck (and palm tree) - Cerro de Maimón

We squeezed in a lunch at an interesting hotel where the bandstand was directly behind the pool. I'm sure there are some pretty interesting stories coming out of this place.

A moat to protect the band? How many great musicians have been electrocuted here? They finally found a way to make stage diving safe.

While Cerro de Maimón was an impressive operation, it didn't prepare me for the massive size of Barrick Gold's Pueblo Viejo project. It was oilsands big, the largest gold mine in the Western Hemisphere. Entering a construction mega-project is not a trivial exercise and we had to go through an engrossing safety training course followed up with TSA like security measures to gain access to the minesite.


Pueblo Viejo

All of these mines were accessible by paved road only 100km from the capital city of Santo Domingo. By the time Pueblo Viejo is completely up and running the infrastructure in the region will be even better.

We then took a look at an active drill at their La Lechoza VMS project and some drill core. It was a long day but I was left with a couple of impressions, firstly, the Dominican Republic has solid infrastructure (even their pedestrian bridges have serious flair) and secondly Pueblo Viejo is huge... and Everton has land on trend that surrounds it.



As you can see from the map above, there is plenty of geological "smoke" (grab samples, trenching results, soil geochemistry, and scattered drillholes) on Everton lands. The company has been selling off North American assets and focussing more on the Dominican Republic. This has been a source of funding allowing them to go "all in" on the DR.

Everton shares have remained range bound over the last few months but that will change now that they have kicked off a 20,000m deep drilling program at Ampliacion Pueblo Viejo.

Disclosure

Everton paid for my trip expenses. I currently don't own any shares in EVR.V.