TM Editors Note: This article discusses one or more penny stocks and/or microcaps. Such stocks are easily manipulated; do your own careful due diligence.

Like many gold juniors, TerraX Minerals (TXR.V) (TRXXF) in Canada's Northwest Territories is hoping for a higher gold price. However, TerraX is not in production yet. Therefore, the company's CEO should be hoping for lower gold prices, because the cure to low prices is...low prices! I frequently discuss with investors that juniors not yet in production are not as bad off as they might appear. They don't have large overheads and they can leave gold & silver in the ground instead of selling it at depressed prices. Yes, juniors sometimes have to raise capital. However, even the Majors are surprisingly capital constrained, a few of them issuing equity to pay down debt and selling off written down assets. Freeport (FCX) just cut its dividend by 84%.

TerraX Minerals a Step Ahead of Most Gold Juniors

Rest assured, TerraX has no debt. Still, an astute reader might ask, what makes TerraX different from other gold juniors? To start, TerraX was able to buy what appears to be an increasingly valuable exploration property, immediately adjacent to two major past-producing gold mines at a receivership auction. Since then, the team expanded that area to a size they believe now gives them control of one of the six largest high-grade gold camps in Canada, and the least explored. How big? About 95 square Kms. Since acquiring the Northbelt property in February, 2013 TerraX has consolidated the project area by acquiring and optioning adjacent properties including: Goodwin, Ryan Lake, Walsh Lake, and U-Breccia, as well as staking additional contiguous lands. Being all-season road accessible and within 15 km of the mining town of Yellowknife, the Yellowknife City Gold Project ("YCG") is close to vital infrastructure, including transportation, service providers, hydro-electric power and skilled trades people.

But wait, there's more, and this is where it get's really interesting. Typically, when an early-stage project commences exploration, it's not on a property blessed with an extensive database of drill data. (more about that below). Most green field project's early drill holes are quite risky and over time, quite expensive. This is where most juniors end up dying on the vine. While it's true that the best place to find gold is near a known gold deposit, funding to do proper exploration over the course of several years is difficult if not impossible to come by. I apologize right now, the next paragraph may have to be read twice.

On Trend From Two Huge Mines That Produced 14 Million Ounces at 16g/tonne Gold

"Mafic volcanics" is a rock type, an important host for shears with gold; "shears" are visible structures within the mafic volcanics (rock type) containing veins that host gold; multiple shears that are sub-parallel or intersect each other are called, "shear systems." These rock types host the known gold deposits in the YCG. A key takeaway is that TerraX's property is on strike, and immediately adjacent to, the past-producing Con and Giant gold mines. In other words, the favorable rock types are continuous from Con and Giant onto TerraX's property. For example, the Barney shear system that occurs on TerraX's YCG is the northern extension of the Giant/Con shear system. Therefore, TerraX's YCG has the same rock types and the same shear system that hosted the highly prolific Con and Giant mines, which operated for over 60 years and produced over 14 Million ounces of gold between them at an average grade of 16 g/t Au. YCG's project area contains multiple shears that are the recognized hosts for gold deposits in the the company's gold camp, with innumerable gold showings and high grade drill results in 2014, and now 2015, that serve to indicate the project's district-sized potential.

That's why TerraX stands out. No, they're not the only early-stage company drilling on a property with prior work done. Yes, they are directly on strike with the two formerly producing mega-mines Giant and Con. In TerraX's case, after they bought the initial land package out of bankruptcy, they were astounded to find records of drill holes, 400+ drill holes, many with high grades. Even more exciting, some had core samples that the company was able to re-assay and re-log. This was a tremendous find, somewhat akin to making a discovery without drilling a single hole. The prior work would probably cost millions of dollars and take years to repeat today. Therefore, TerraX has been able to avoid significant capital expenditures and pull forward exploration & development, while also providing for greater confidence in the next set of drill holes. Time is money, TerraX is saving time.

Drill Data from 2014-2015

As important as the historical drill data and cores are to de-risking the company, equally exciting is the company's new drill results reported in two batches of 3 holes each. The first 3 holes were step out holes to test further down dip from known mineralization intersecting previously drilled holes. All 3 holes hit the mineralized shear where expected. A good understanding of one's deposit is worth its weight in gold!  Highlights of the first 3 holes include:

7.00 m @ 10.23 g/t Au, inclusive of 2.97 m @ 23.69 g/t Au; and 

6.73 m @ 3.36 g/t Au, inclusive of 2.50 m @ 8.79 g/t Au.

The second batch of 3 holes was reported on March 11th. These holes were step out holes drilled to test further northeast along strike from the high grade gold mineralization intersected in the three previously reported drill holes.

Highlights of these 3 holes include:

8.00 m @ 6.83 g/t Au, inclusive of 2.04 m @ 23.89 g/t Au, and 

15.50 m @ 2.89 g/t Au, inclusive of 2.94 m @ 13.28 g/t Au.

Management Team Most Exciting Asset of All

A strong management team led by managers with proven success is the best asset of all. In this case we have TerraX's President & CEO, Joe Campbell, P. Geo. I spoke with Joe several times in preparing this article. He gets it. He's been through cycles and has had more than his share of success. As Project Manager for 7 years from discovery to pre-feasibility at the Meliadine gold project in Nunavut, Campbell was also instrumental in Meliadine being acquired by Agnico Eagle (AEM) for $650 million in 2010. The Meliadine project has turned out to be one of Agnico Eagle's largest projects with proven & probable reserves of 3.3 million ounces @ 7.44g/tonne and an additional 3.3 million ounces of Indicated resource. Agnico's website describes it as one of its, "fastest growing projects with multiple high-grade zones."

Conclusion

TerraX Minerals is geologically blessed with the Yellowknife City Gold project and controls one of the six largest high-grade gold camps in Canada. The company has a valuable historical database and had great recent success with its own drilling. Year-round roads, 8 km from an airport, 2 km from grid power, a skilled workforce in the city of Yellowknife and cash in the bank, TerraX has what it needs to possibly become CEO Joe Campbell's next success story.