Gold Rips to $1900/oz

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

Today is Thursday, February 17th. 

As is so often the case, gold rose overnight on strong physical market buying in Asia only to be beaten down after the am LBMA price fix and again when the paper gold Comex market opened. But then the yellow metal took off higher - seemingly chasing the inflation rabbit - after the retail sales report for January was digested and it was determined that the big increase from December was driven primarily by price inflation. 

Gold ran from US$1,853 per ounce to as high as $1,874 before settling at $1,872. The Mining Stock Journal points out that gold has clawed back most of the price ambush that occurred on Monday after Russia did not attack Ukraine over the weekend and coincident with the worse than expected wholesale inflation report. 

Silver also made a nice move higher yesterday, running to $23.60 per ounce from the morning low of $23.34. The move in the metals turbo-charged the mining stocks, with the GDX jumping 3.2%. The Mining Stock Journal will be revisiting an old friend in this week's new issue, as a company recommended a few years ago released news last week that could eventually translate into a 5 or 10 bagger with a discovery from a drill program that starts in June. You can learn more about the newsletter at InvestmentResearchDynamics.com

We’ll get to the news out of the miners and explorers here in a moment, but first a mention on 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….

Hecla Mining reported the second highest silver reserves in its 130-year history as silver reserves increased to 200 million ounces while gold production was replaced and gold reserves increased 14% to 2.7Moz. As a result, the company said it extended or maintained already long reserve mine lives at its operations. The company plans a 2022 exploration and pre-development planned spend of $45 million with more than a quarter of this planned for Casa Berardi in Quebec, Canada and Greens Creek in Alaska, USA exploration focused on replacing production and expansion of high-grade underground reserves. Hecla Mining trades on the NYSE under HL. News release

Premium Nickel Resources and North American Nickel announced a letter of intent to merge by way of a reverse takeover of NAN by PNR. North American Nickel currently owns 9.8% of Premium Nickel. The deal will see each share in Premium Nickel exchanged for 5.27 shares of the resulting issuer. Following completion of the transaction, North American Nickel shareholders will own 25% of the resulting issuer and Premium Nickel shareholders will own 75%. North American Nickel owns properties in Maniitsoq, Greenland and Ontario, Canada. Premium Nickel Resources is a nickel-copper-cobalt explorer. North American Nickel trades on the TSXV under NAN. News release

Prime Mining said drilling continues to expand known mineralized structures at its Los Reyes gold-silver project in Sinaloa, Mexico. The company today 17 new core holes targeting the northern extension of the Zapote-Tahonitas structure, 10 of which were in a previously untested mineralized gap between Zapote North and Mariposa. These holes confirm that gold-silver mineralization extends from Zapote North to Mariposa, increasing the total length of the gold-silver mineralized Z-T Structure by 450m to about 3km. Highlights included 35.3m grading 4.89 grams per tonne gold and 22.2g/t silver in the Mariposa step out drilling. Prime Mining trades on the TSXV under PRYM and on the OTCQB under PRMNF. News release

Vizsla Silver announced initial metallurgical test results for the Napoleon resource area at its Panuco silver-gold project in Chihuahua, Mexico where open circuit rougher bulk flotation testing yielded recoveries of up to 93% for silver, 90% gold, 94% lead and 94% zinc. Open circuit rougher sequential flotation testing yielded lead and zinc concentrates with combined recoveries up to 88% silver, 88% gold, 96% lead and 96% zinc. Direct cyanide leach tests yielded recoveries of up to 87% silver and 93% gold after 48 hours retention time. The company called the results a major milestone ahead of publishing a maiden resource which is due later this quarter. It said similar metallurgical testwork is underway for the Tajitos area mineralization. Vizsla Silver trades on the TSXV and NYSE under VZLA. News release

Canadian Palladium Resources reported its highest grades to date from its East Bull palladium deposit near Sudbury in Ontario, Canada as drilling demonstrates the importance of sulphide-mineralized feeder conduits. Hole 80 returned 1m grading 18.76 grams per tonne palladium equivalent in the GAP target, which is considered a potential feeder structure to the Valhalla zone. The company said that showed that high-grade semi-massive sulphides are associated with mineralized feeder conduits at East Bull and constitute an exciting new opportunity for defining high-grade mineralization. The company is undertaking a 20,000m drilling program. Canadian Palladium Resources trades on the CSE under BULL and on the OTCQB under DCNNF. News release

Blackrock Silver announced the final intercepts from in-fill drilling at its DPB target at its at its Tonopah West silver project in the Walker Lane trend of Nevada, USA, which are being incorporated into its maiden resource estimate. It said in-fill drilling successfully established continuity of the vein structures and high-grade silver and gold mineralization of the multi-vein system. A maiden resource estimate is due for completion this quarter. Highlights included 1.5m grading 2 grams per tonne gold and 298g/t silver or 498g/t silver equivalent in a 350m step-out hole into an up-dip portion of the Merten vein system southwest of the DPB resource area. Blackrock Silver trades on the TSXV under BRC. News release

That concludes today’s morning briefing.

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