Morning Briefing: Arizona Sonoran Published New PEA for Cactus

Welcome to Mining Stock Daily. I’m Trevor Hall.

Today is Thursday, August 8th.

The precious metals sector got caught up in the sharp sell-off in the stock market yesterday. Overnight gold traded up to $2444, up $12 from its Tuesday afternoon close. But it headed south quickly as the stock market began to tip-over. For the day gold closed down $9. Silver traded as high as $27.35, up 26 cents from its Tuesday close. But silver began its journey lower right after midnight and closed at $26.71, down 50 cents from Tuesday. The Mining Stock Journal said that the action in the metals is being dictated by hedge funds and CTAs, which are unloading long positions aggressively as the market trades lower in order to avoid margin calls. The mining stocks were pummelled along with the metals and the stock market. GDX lost 2.6% and the Arca Gold Bugs index was hammered for 3.23%. The Mining Stock Journal noted that the markets are starting to feel 2008-ish, which ultimately will be very bullish for the precious metals sector if history rhymes.

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

This episode of Mining Stock Daily is brought to you by… Vizsla Silver.

Vizsla Silver is focused on becoming one of the world’s largest single-asset silver producers through the exploration and development of the 100% owned Panuco-Copala silver-gold district in Sinaloa, Mexico. The company consolidated this historic district in 2019 and has now completed over 325,000 meters of drilling. The company has the world's largest, undeveloped high-grade silver resource. Learn more at ⁠https://vizslasilvercorp.com/⁠

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

Arizona Sonoran Copper published its Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Cactus Project in Arizona last night after market close. The PEA supersedes the previously released Pre-Feasibility Study in all respects, and rescopes Parks/Salyer as an open pit operation resulting from the inclusion of the MainSpring property. The inclusion materially improves the economics and operations of the project, producing a total of 5.3 billion lbs or 2.7 million st of LME Grade A Copper Cathodes over a 31-year operating LoM via heap leaching and solvent extraction and electrowinning. Under this new report, Cactus now holds an NPV of just over $2Billion and an interval rate of return of 24%. The mine has a payback period of just under 5 years. The company is projects a Life of Mine gross revenue of over $20B with free cash flow of $7.3B and all-in sustaining costs of $2.00 per pound of copper. A total of 2,872 million tons will be mined and a total of 889 million tons processed, recovering 5.34 billion pounds of copper cathodes over the LoM. Copper cathodes will be produced directly onsite via heap leach and SXEW, including a four year ramp up period. Total Copper recoveries are planned at an average of 73%, extracting copper from the oxides, enriched and primary sulphides.(TSX:ASCU | OTCQX:ASCUF) News Release

Premium Nickel reported tier initial mineral resource estimate on its Selebi Main deposit and its Selebi North deposit in Botswana. Selebi Main now hosts an inferred estimate of 18.89 million tonnes at 3.51% CuEq or 1.70% NiEq for 165,000 tonnes nickel and 319,000 tonnes copper. Selebi North has an indicated resource of  3.00 million tonnes at 2.92% CuEq or 1.42% NiEq for 29,000 tonnes nickel and 27,000 tonnes copper, and an inferred estimate of 5.83 million tonnes at 3.11% CuEq or 1.51% NiEq with 62,000 tonnes nickel and 52,000 tonnes copper. Drilling is ongoing at both the Selebi Main and Selebi North deposits with the goal to re-classify the Inferred resources to Indicated and to expand the resource. The company says Borehole electromagnetic surveys and drilling continue to demonstrate expansion potential down-dip and down-plunge of existing resources. (TSXV: PNRL) News Release

NexGen says the mineralized zone at Patterson Corridor East (PCE) has materially expanded since the original discovery in the 2024 Winter Program. Off-scale (>61,000 cps) high-grade uranium mineralization has been intersected in four drillholes to date, including RK-24-183, -197, -202, and -207. The most recent intersection in RK-24-207 contains the first instance of massive replacement by uraninite, a key indicator of a strongly mineralized system with 1.5 m >10,000 cp within cumulative interval mineralization of 26.2 m > 500 cps. This is the best and most recent intercept to date at Patterson Corridor East. (TSX: NXE) (NYSE: NXE) News Release

Founders Metals announced drill core assay results from its drill program at the Antino Gold Project in Suriname. Highlights from today included 44m of 2.05 g/t Au, 35m of 2.37 g/t Au and 30m of 2.77 g/t Au. The headline holes, the 44m of 2 g/t, is a sizable step-out in the trend that occurs within a broader series of parallel shear zones east of the main Froyo Gold Zone. Drill hole 76 which returned 3m of 10.2 g/t is a 60 metre down-dip extension. The company notes that these parallel shears have consistent mineralogical characteristics of the main Froyo shear and likely exhibit deep rooted structures with strong growth potential. (TSXV: FDR) (OTCQX: FDMIF) News Release

Independence Gold announced assay results from the Ian Vein System from the spring drill program carried out at its 100% owned 3Ts Project. The 3Ts Project is located approximately 185 kilometres southwest of Prince George, British Columbia and is comprised of seventeen mineral claims covering approximately 8,840 hectares in the Nechako Plateau region of central British Columbia. It is situated 16 km southwest of Artemis Gold Inc.'s Blackwater Project. Results included 5m of 7.16 g/t Au and 108 g/t Ag and 26m of 9.62 g/t Au and 65 g/t Ag. The spring drill program, consisting of 22 holes and totaling 5,130m, was designed to test several targets along the Ted-Mint and Tommy Vein Systems, both near surface and at depth below the sill. The program also tested early-stage exploration targets, including the Ian and Johnny veins, in order to generate additional drill data for incorporation into the current resource model. (TSXV: IGO) (OTCQB: IEGCF) News Release

Orezone Gold has closes its C$64.9M non-brokered private placement. The net proceeds of the Equity Financing will be used together with the previously announced US$58 million senior secured term loan with Coris Bank International to fully finance the construction of the Phase II hard rock expansion at the Bomboré Gold Mine. All common shares issued pursuant to the Equity Financing will be subject to a four-month hold period from the date of closing. No commission or broker fees are payable in connection with the Equity Financing. (TSX: ORE, OTCQX: ORZCF) News Release

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