Equinox Gold and Premier Gold Announce Merger

Welcome to Mining Stock Daily. This is your host, Trevor Hall

Today is Wednesday, December 16th. 

Gold began moving higher Monday night and rose nearly uninterrupted from $1829 December basis to as high as $1860 by the time the Comex opened on Tuesday morning. silver ran from $23.95 Monday night to $24.70 by the Comex open. While gold is trading between its 200 and 50 day moving averages, after getting slammed below the 200 day moving average earlier this month, silver jumped back over its 50 day moving average on Tuesday. The Mining Stock Journal said that the move in the metals was not accompanied by any news that would have triggered a rush into wealth preservation, making Tuesday's action more interestingly bullish. It added that the silver chart looks quite bullish. The mining stocks also bounced unexpectedly, with GDX up over 3% and some junior exploration stocks up double digits. One factor that might have stimulated interest in the precious sector Tuesday was weakness in the U.S. dollar. The Mining Stock Journal pointed out that the dollar index fell to its lowest level since April 2018 and if it breaks below 90 it should give a big boost to the precious metals sector.

We’ll get to the news out of the miners and explorers here in just a quick moment, but first a quick mention of today’s sponsor. 

This episode of Mining Stock Daily is brought to you by… Corvus Gold.

Corvus Gold Inc. is a North American gold exploration and development company, focused on its near-term gold-silver mining projects in southwestern Nevada.  The Company holds a commanding land position within the Bullfrog Mining District.  Neighbouring, adjacent projects controlled by AngloGold Ashanti, Kinross Gold and Coeur Mining highlight this active District.  The two 100% owned North Bullfrog & Mother Lode projects have a combined nearly 4M oz gold of in-pit resource and continues to grow with an on-going, successful, resource expansion drill program. 

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

Equinox Gold and Premier Gold announced the companies have entered into a definitive agreement whereby Equinox Gold will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Premier. Concurrently, Premier will spin-out to its shareholders shares of a newly created US-focused gold production and development company to be called i-80 Gold Corp. that will own the South-Arturo and McCoy-Cove properties and will complete Premier's previously announced acquisition of the Getchell Project, all in Nevada. Equinox Gold will retain Premier's interest in the world-class Hardrock Project in Ontario, the Mercedes Mine in Mexico, and the Hasaga and Rahill-Bonanza properties in Red Lake, Ontario. On closing of the Transaction, existing Equinox Gold and Premier shareholders will own approximately 84% and 16% of Equinox Gold, and Equinox Gold and existing shareholders of Premier will own 30% and 70% of i-80 Gold, respectively, on an issued share basis. And since Centerra has sold its stake of the Hardrock mine to Orion Mine Finance, Equinox will now hold the other 50% interest of that asset. Concurrent with the deal, Equinox will undertake a $75 million equity financing fully underwritten by its Chairman, Ross Beaty. Equinox trades on the TSX and the NYSE American with EQX. Premier Gold trades on the TSX with PG and on the OTCPK with PIRGF. News Release

Rupert Resources reported new drill results from its ongoing exploration programme at the 100% owned Pahtavaara Project in the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt, Finland.

The results reported extend the strike length at Ikkari to at least 650m with mineralisation now believed to extend to a vertical depth of at least 400m. Further to this, more results from the central section of the Ikkari discovery continue to demonstrate both the high-grade potential and broad widths of mineralisation. Results include 2.5 g/t gold over 37 meters and 3 g/t gold over 31 meters. Rupert Resources trades on the TSX Venture with RUP. News Release

Marathon Gold reported additional drill results from recent exploration drilling at the Valentine Gold Project, central Newfoundland. These latest results represent fire assay data from fourteen drill holes located within the Berry Zone and its northeastern extension. Highlights include 2.1 g/t gold over 47 meters, 18.16 g/t gold over 7 meters and 10.51 g/t gold over 3 meters. For the purposes of exploration and delineating potential future mineral resources, Marathon now considers the Berry Zone to be a single 1.5 kilometre zone of mineralization, with QTP-Au mineralization generally continuous along this full length. Upcoming results that remain to be released from the company’s 2020 exploration program include assays from 9,155 metres of drilling in forty-five holes from this now more broadly defined Berry area, and a further 2,260 metres in fourteen holes at the greenfield Narrows area located northeast of the Marathon Deposit. Marathon Gold trades on the TSX with MOZ. News Release

Bluestone Resources also had drill results out this morning from the South Zone of the Cerro Blanco gold project. Results from 5 underground holes were released this morning, and included 25.2 g/t gold over 6.1 meters45.9 g/t gold over 2 meters. The focus of the drill program is to improve the definition of key veins in parallel to expanding the high-grade mineralization for known veins outside of the current resource envelope. The work is expected to build on the infill drill program completed in the North Zone of the deposit in 2019 which resulted in an updated Mineral Resource estimate of 1.41 million ounces of gold averaging 10.3 g/t in Measured and Indicated categories. Bluestone trades on the TSX Venture with BSR and on the OTCQB with BBSRF. News Release

And here are some quick bulletins out of the sector: Great Bear Resources has added two new board members, along with also providing an interactive presentation of its 3D model of the Dixie Project. Users can digitally visit the exploration site in Red Lake, review the 3D renderings of the property geology, and interactively examine the gold mineralization at the LP Fault, Hinge and Dixie Limb zones. 

Condor Gold has commenced initial site preparation at the location of the processing plant facility at Mina La India, Nicaragua. 

Pure Gold Mining has introduced its first ore to the mill at the Company’s PureGold Mine, in Red Lake, Ontario. With ore delivered and first gold production scheduled this month, commissioning activities will transition into full scale ramp up of the mining and milling operations over the coming quarter.

Kirkland Lake Gold announced a quarterly dividend payment for the fourth quarter of 2020 of just over $.18 per share will be paid on January 14. This represents a 50% increase in the quarterly dividend form the previou payment.

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I’m Trevor Hall. Have a wonderful day. Be well.

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