Arizona Sonoran Receives Investment from Rio Tinto; Aurelius Minerals Channel Sampling Results

Welcome to Mining Stock Daily. I am Trevor Hall. And I’m Paul Harris.

Today is Thursday, April 28th

The sell-off in gold that began on April 18th, triggered by hawkish rate comments by the Fed, continued on Wednesday, as gold fell from $1908 per ounce to $1882 before settling at $1886. The Mining Stock Journal points out that the entire move Wednesday occurred right after the Comex floor opened for business. This indicates that the sell-off was dictated entirely by momentum-chasing hedge funds with some help from the price management team. The good news, according to the newsletter, is that gold tested and held $1882 twice during the session. $1880 has been important support since February. Silver fared better, closing largely unchanged from Tuesday. 

The Mining Stock Journal commented that silver has already been hit hard relative to gold as evidenced by the gold/silver ratio, which is back up to 80. The mining stocks undulated around the unchanged level before closing lower, with both the GDX and the Amex Gold Bugs index down about 80 basis points. The newest issue of the Mining Stock Journal will be released this afternoon. It will feature Dave Kranzler's commentary on the current state of the precious metals market, for whatever that may be worth, as well as an update and new opinion on Pure Gold Mining as well as commentary and updated recommendations on several other mining stocks. You can learn more at InvestmentResearchDynamics.com

We will get to the news from the miners and explorers in a moment, but first a word about today’s sponsor.

This episode of Mining Stock Daily is brought to you by… Western Copper and Gold.

Western Copper and Gold is focused on developing the world-class Casino project in Canada's Yukon Territory. The Casino project consists of an impressive 11 billion pounds of copper and 21 million ounces of gold in an overall resource. Western Copper and Gold trades on the TSX and the NYSE American with WRN. Be sure to follow the company via their website, www.westerncopperandgold.com.

And here’s what you need to know this morning….

Arizona Sonoran Copper announced  it has entered into a strategic partnership with Rio Tinto focused on Rio Tinto’s Nuton™ venture and a non-brokered private placement for total gross proceeds of up to C$30.5 million. Nuton™ offers a portfolio of proprietary copper leach related technologies and capability developed by Rio Tinto to deliver increased copper recovery and leading environmental performance. ASCU is conducting a structured non-brokered private placement for up to C$30.5 million including Rio Tinto, and Tembo Capital Elim Co-Investment, where Rio Tinto will subscribe for 6,400,000 Common Shares and Tembo will subscribe for just under 4 million Common Shares . An aggregate of up to approximately 15,231,916 ASCU common shares will be issued at a price of C$2.00 per Common Share under the Offering. The Subscription Price represents a 3.4% discount to the closing price of Common Shares as at April 27, 2022 and a 1.26% discount to the 5 day volume weighted average price as at close of April 27, 2022. Upon completion of the Offering in full, Rio Tinto is expected to hold 7.4% of the outstanding share capital of the Company, and although participating in the Offering, Tembo will reduce its holding from 37.6% to 35.5% in the Company. Arizona Sonoran Copper trades on the TSX with ASCU and on the OTCQX with ASCUF. News Release

Royal Road Minerals (TSXV:RYR) announced results from a further two diamond drill holes and from new saw-cut channel samples taken from outcrops and underground development at its Guintär copper-gold exploration project, in Antioquia, Colombia. Highlights included 181m grading 1.1 grams per tonne gold equivalent in hole 21 and 118m grading 1 gram per tonne gold equivalent in hole 20. Drilling at Guintär is aimed principally at testing for an underlying intrusive or porphyry-related source to the gold and copper mineralization which had been intersected in previous drilling and is evident in surface geochemical sampling over an area of more than 10 square kilometers. Royal Road Minerals trades on the TSXV under RYR. News release

Aurelius Minerals reported results from its underground channel sampling program at its flagship Aureus East Project in Nova Scotia, Canada. Channel sampling programs have now been completed in three underground areas, with results justifying a continued channel sampling program throughout the existing underground development and infrastructure. Significant gold mineralization was identified in each of the three areas of channel sampling, in fact, 11 of 23 channels have samples grading over 30 g/t gold. Specific results included multiple .5m samples grading 501 g/t gold, 121 g/t and 78 g/t respectively.  The current sampling program supplements the ongoing mineral resource estimate work and enhances the expanding interpretation of the project's geology. An updated mineral resource estimate is expected in the coming weeks. Aurelius trades on the TSX V with AUL and on the OTCQB with AURQF. News Release

Gatos Silver’s operations at the Cerro Los Gatos mine in Chihuahua, Mexico have been temporarily suspended due to a temporary regulatory suspension of its explosive and blasting permit by the Ministry of Defense. The permit suspension follows a blasting incident during underground development activities where two blasts were detonated prematurely. There were no physical injuries as a result of the incident or significant damage to equipment or infrastructure. The company said the processing plant continued to operate normally and will shut down on April 28 for scheduled maintenance. After the completion of an investigation this week, the Company expects the reinstatement of its explosives and blasting permit soon. Gatos Silver trades on the NYSE and TSX under GATO. News release

SilverCrest Metals provided an update on construction activities at the Company's Las Chispas Project in Sonora, Mexico. According to the company, by the end of the first quarter, overall construction progress at Las Chispas was 95.7%. Start-up of the plant remains on track for Q2, 2022, in line with the Feasibility Study* despite a decline in labour availability in Q1, 2022 due to COVID-19 which eliminated the schedule gains made in 2021. The Company has committed $114.6 million (83.2%) of the $137.7 million Feasibility Study capital cost estimate. As at March 31, 2022, SilverCrest had cash and cash equivalents of $152.0 million and $30.0 million available under a $120.0 million project financing facility with an affiliate of RK Mine Finance. SilverCrest trades on the TSX with SIL and on the NYSE with SILV

GR Silver Mining announced an infill drilling hit of 24.2m grading 1,094 grams per tonne silver in hole 05A at its Plomosas Project in Sinaloa, Mexico. The results of the holes released today are part of the Phase I surface infill drilling program at the Plomosas Mine Area, targeting intervals on the upper levels of the historical Plomosas underground mine where unsampled intervals of historical drill holes within the mineralized zone were assigned zero values in the 2021 mineral resource estimate. The company said closely spaced drilling, with line spacing averaging 50 to 100m, was designed to obtain representative silver grades to improve the resource block model. GR Silver Mining trades on the TSXV under GRSL and on the OTCQB under GRSLF. News release

Coeur Mining made a new discovery at its Silvertip operation in British Columbia, Canada, which it said indicates significant growth potential immediately west of existing infrastructure. Surface and underground drilling led to the discovery of a new high-grade chimney west of the Camp Creek resource located at a shallower depth, called Camp Creek West. The first drill holes into the zone returned the highest grade-thickness assays at Silvertip to date. Highlights included 12m grading 459.6 grams per tonne silver, 15.1% zinc and 8.7% lead in hole 15. Coeur has an exploration budget of US$40 million this year across its operations split between capitalized infill and resource expansion drilling. Coeur Mining trades on the NYSE under CDE. News release

That concludes today’s morning briefing.

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