Earthwise Minerals: The under-the-radar explorer targeting high-grade gold in British Columbia

Earthwise Minerals (CSE: WISE, FSE: 966) is approaching a key inflection point.

This small Canadian gold explorer has secured an option to earn up to an 80% interest in the vast, underexplored Iron Range project in British Columbia, Canada.

Previous operators spent millions exploring the ground, completing extensive drilling and geophysical surveys confirming high-grade gold and polymetallic mineralisation remaining open both at depth and along strike.

• And now, Earthwise is preparing to follow up by drilling a priority target where work has identified a particularly strong zone of gold mineralisation.

With the bit set to begin turning in May, it shouldn’t be long before we start to learn more about the scale of this system.

And with Iron Range covering a large land package along a structural trend already known to host world-class deposits, the upside here could be very significant—particularly for a company with a current market capitalisation of just C$3.9 million.

Let’s take a closer look…

A large project in a proven mining belt

Iron Range sits in southeastern British Columbia and covers roughly 21,500 hectares benefitting from nearby road, rail and power infrastructure—an important factor when considering the longer-term development potential of any discovery.

More importantly, the project lies within a fertile, mine-proven geological belt capable of hosting large polymetallic deposits.

For context, Iron Range sits within the same regional trend as Teck’s historic Sullivan Mine. That operation ran for 92 years, producing around 160 million tonnes of high-grade zinc, lead and silver ore before closing in 2001, making it one of Canada’s most significant polymetallic deposits.

• Earthwise is exploring the same regional geological structure, but in a different area and with the benefit of modern exploration techniques.

Map showing Iron Range’s proximity to Sullivan (Source: Earthwise)

Alongside its broader polymetallic potential, the project also hosts structurally controlled high-grade gold mineralisation within a broad shear zone. That gold mineralisation is Earthwise’s primary exploration focus today.

Importantly, Iron Range is not a grassroots discovery story.

The project is already fully permitted and has benefited from significant historical work. Previous operators completed more than 20,000 metres of drilling across nearly 90 holes, alongside approximately 2,500 line kilometres of geophysical surveys. In total, over $8 million has been spent exploring the property.

That work confirmed high-grade gold and polymetallic mineralisation across multiple zones, with the system remaining open along strike and at depth.

More recently, Earthwise has added its own exploration work to that foundation, including mapping, sampling and geological modelling. This work confirmed strong multi-metal results, including surface samples grading up to 13.4 grams per tonne gold, alongside silver, lead and elevated arsenic values consistent with a large mineralised system.

• In short, Earthwise is not starting from scratch—it’s following up on a substantial body of previous exploration pointing towards large, high-grade gold potential.

The Talon Zone: where drilling begins

In terms of exploration upside, Iron Range contains three priority target zones. However, the immediate focus is on an area known as the Talon Zone.

This zone hosts a broad mineralised envelope containing multiple high-grade gold shoots along strike, alongside meaningful base-metal credits.

One historic discovery hole returned multiple high-grade zones including 14.0 m grading 5.1 g/t gold and 7.1 m grading 8.13 g/t gold, within a broader mineralized envelope totaling 56.5 m @ 1.9 g/t gold.

Earthwise recently announceda 1,000-metre drill programme to follow up on this work. The programme, funded through a recent financing completed about a month ago, will consist of three drill holes.

The aim is to test depth and strike extensions of the known mineralised zones, refine the geological model, and generate targets for follow-up step-out drilling.

• In essence, Earthwise is looking to confirm—and ideally extend—the historic discovery hole. And if successful, that would provide a strong platform for expanding the drilling programme and building exploration momentum.

Drilling is expected to begin in May, with results potentially arriving over the summer—making this programme the first major near-term catalyst for the company.

Broader exploration upside
Importantly, the opportunity at Iron Range is not limited to the Talon Zone.

The project hosts at least two additional priority areas—O-Ray and Car—both of which show strong exploration potential. Historical drilling at O-Ray, for example, returned an intercept of 7 metres grading more than 51 grams per tonne gold; again comfortably above the 100 gram-metre benchmark.

So, while Talon represents the starting point for Earthwise’s drilling campaign, the broader project footprint offers multiple opportunities for further discoveries. You can see all the targets in the map below…

A tiny valuation with catalysts ahead

Turning briefly to the stock itself, and Earthwise currently has a market valuation of around C$3.9 million. In other words, it remains firmly in microcap territory.

• Given its current scale, a meaningful discovery and successful follow-up at Iron Range could have a materially positive impact on the company’s valuation from here.

Of course, exploration always carries uncertainty, and results can never be guaranteed—it’s now down to execution and the nature of the rocks themselves.

Still, with a permitted project, a substantial body of historical work already completed, and a drill programme about to begin, Earthwise certainly represents an interesting early-stage exploration story.

As the company enters this upcoming drilling phase, it may well be one worth keeping on the watchlist.