New gold rocket ahead of takeover? Tocvan Ventures stock on the heels of Barrick Gold & Co.

Tocvan Ventures in a transformative year

Tocvan's advanced-stage Gran Pilar gold-silver project is located in Sonora, a state in northwestern Mexico that is the top region for mining in the country. Accordingly, the infrastructure is good and cooperation with the authorities is good. There are already mines in production in the neighborhood and Tocvan's goal is to build a multi-million-ounce project.

2025 should be transformational for Tocvan. Among other things, the Company plans to drill a large number of wells – the first results are already available and are very promising – and the pilot mine is expected to start production. This will mark Tocvan's transition from an explorer to a commercial producer – a very interesting stage for investors.

Exciting peer group comparison

Tocvan is currently valued at just under CAD 50 million. This should change significantly with further positive drilling results and the development of the pilot mine. A peer group comparison with Minera Alamos clearly favors Tocvan. Minera Alamos is currently valued at CAD 180 million. The Minera project has 0.65 g/t Au. Tocvan's results have typically started at over 1 g/t Au and gone up to 2.5 g/t Au. Even though Minera's data is a bit older, it shows that a tripling of Tocvan's share price would be quite plausible.

High-grade gold mineralization to the south and east of the Main Zone

Strong drilling results for Gran Pilar were recently announced. They come from 10 core holes drilled in early 2025 for a total of 1,167.5 meters. The highlight is a 3.0-meter interval grading 21.6 g/t Au, 209 g/t Ag, and 6.7% Pb. Another interval of 3.8 meters graded 2.8 g/t Au, 38 g/t Ag, and 2.3% Zn. The broader anomalous zone extends from surface to a vertical depth of 64.9 metres and averages 1.2 g/t Au (JES-25-108). This is the first high-grade gold mineralization encountered in the southern end of the Main Zone corridor along the North Hill Trend. Being near surface, these showings will be the target of lower cost trenching to more accurately assess the extent of the high-grade mineralization for potential inclusion in the pilot mine.

Encouraging discoveries were also made to the east of the Main Zone. One hole intersected 108.2 meters of 0.2 g/t Au and 5 g/t Ag from surface, including 12.6 meters of 0.9 g/t Au, 20 g/t Ag, and 0.5% Cu, 7.4 meters of 0.5 g/t Au, and 8 g/t Ag and 4.3 meters of 0.6 g/t Au and 7 g/t Ag.

Tocvan CEO Brodie Sutherland commented on the results: "*Core drilling has just discovered the highest-grade intercept outside the Main Zone. The best part is that it starts just a few meters below the surface so that we will have easy access to this area for the trenching planned in the next phase of exploration. This opens up another area where we can define mineralization as potential feed material for the pilot mine. Trends like the North Hill trend are still largely untested and show that other areas throughout the expansion area have considerable potential for the discovery of high-grade gold and silver mineralization. *We look forward to further drilling throughout the expansion area to target additional areas of resource potential."**

Management confident in an interview

Following the outstanding discoveries south of the Main Zone, Sutherland was also very optimistic in an interview, saying investors could expect a lot in the current year. After more than 4 years of exploration work, the Company is on the verge of a very exciting year. After adding new areas away from the Main Zone last year, the first very promising results are now emerging. This opens up new opportunities for the resource and the planned Preliminary Assessment (PA). The pilot mine is expected to process 50,000 tons and pave the way for the large mine. Planning and approval for the large-scale mine could be in place by the end of next year. Link to the interview

Conclusion: Start of production or takeover equals rising share price

With the start of the pilot mine in sight, Tocvan is increasingly becoming a takeover candidate. This presents two attractive scenarios for shareholders. Tocvan continues to deliver strong drilling results, publishes the resource estimate and the PA, and then launches the pilot mine by the end of the year. Alternatively, the Company could be acquired in the course of the year. In both scenarios, buying the stock – it is also actively traded in Germany on Tradegate – at the current level of EUR 0.504 should prove to be a worthwhile investment.