Morning Briefing: Drill Results from Arras Minerals and Dakota Gold

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

Today is Thursday April 6th.

Wednesday gold drifted sideways for the most part overnight before spiking higher from $2038 to $2048 per ounce after the ADP payroll report showed much slower job growth than expected. Mysteriously, 15 minutes before the stock market opened, the gold price was slammed lower to as low as $2026 before rebounding and trading in a narrow range, settling in the afternoon at $2037. Silver, on the other hand, was pushed down shortly before midnight Wednesday from $25.30  to as low as $24.78 per ounce, with the low correlating with gold's lows. Silver rebounded back over $25 and settled at $25.08. The Mining Stock Journal commented that, while the dollar rebounded Wednesday morning, it only partially explains the sudden cliff-dive in gold and the sharp sell-off overnight in silver. The newsletter commented that it suspects official price intervention was involved, particularly in silver because the big derivative short positions of the bullion banks have the potential to be completely unmanageable. 

While the metals were marginally lower yesterday, the mining stocks managed to close green on the back of the recovery in the metals from their lows. The GDX was up nearly half of a percent. Speaking of the mining stocks, the Mining Stock Journal will, among other things, discuss the highly volatile price-action in US Gold over the last week as well as update a junior exploration gold stock, the news of which  released yesterday could lead to a 3 to 5 bagger price move this year.

AHH, THE 19% SELL OFF IN US GOLD

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…Fireweed Metals.

Fireweed Metals is advancing 3 different projects within the Yukon and Northwest Territories, including the flagship Macmillan Pass Project, a large zinc-lead-silver deposit and the Mactung Project, one of the largest and highest-grade tungsten deposits in the world. Fireweed plans to advance these projects through exploration, resource definition, metallurgy, engineering, economic studies and collaboration with indigenous people on the path to production. For more information please visit fireweedmetals.com.

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

Ivanhoe Mines produced 93,603t of copper from the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex in Democratic Republic of Congo in the March quarter, with a record 34,915t from Kamoa-Kakula. The concentrators are now regularly operating at the increased processing rate of 9.2Mtpa following the completion of a US$50 million debottlenecking programme, increasing production capacity up to 450,000tpa of copper in concentrate. Kamoa-Kakula milled about 1.93Mt of ore during the quarter at average grade of 5.4% copper with the phase 1 and 2 concentrators reaching a new daily average milling record of over 29,000t while average copper recoveries exceeded 88% in March. The company said a phase 3 expansion is on track for 2024. It also said that as the rainy season ends its geological team will ramp up exploration on the Western Foreland exploration project next door, where it expects to drill around 75,000m this year. (TSX: IVN; OTCQX: IVPAF) news release

Arras Minerals announced assay results from ongoing drilling at the Beskauga copper-gold deposit in Kazakhstan. Highlights included 778.2m grading 0.31 g/t gold, 0.13 % copper and 0.94 g/t silver for a 0.40% copper-equivalent starting at 40.8m in hole 15, including 95.2m grading 0.61% CuEq. The company said consistent mineralisation was seen for the entire 1110m length of hole 15 which further defines a high-grade core to the Beskauga deposit within a lower grade halo. Arrashas also begun exploration on the Beskauga South area, 3.2km to the south of the main deposit. Arras Minerals (TSX.V: ARK) news release

Dakota Gold released drill results from its Maitland Gold Project in South Dakota, United States. The drill program has been testing and confirming Homestake-style, Precambrian gold mineralization in the Homestake Formation along the structural corridor approximately three miles northwest of the historic Homestake Mine. Results reported today included 7.19 g/t gold over 7 meters. This intercept likely extends the Unionville Zone farther to the south than previously expected and the mineralization remains open in both directions. Other results included 3.85 g/t over 8.1m and 5.78 g/t over 4.4m. Dakota Gold trades on the NYSE American with DC. News Release

Hecla Mining says they have signed the definitive agreement to acquire ATAC Resources, along with its Rackla and Connaught projects in Yukon. Under the proposed transaction, the Company’s subsidiary would acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of ATAC for a consideration of C$31 million, or 0.0166 Hecla share per share of ATAC. Hecla would also invest C$2 million in seed capital, equal to a 19.9% interest, for a new exploration company Cascadia Minerals Ltd. (“Cascadia”), which would be spun-out with certain properties to ATAC’s shareholders as part of the transaction. The total consideration to the ATAC shareholders, including the implied value for the shares in Cascadia is C$39 million. Hecla trades on the NYSE with HL. ATAC trades on the TSXV with ATC. News Release

American Pacific Mining has appointed Peter Mercer as Senior Vice President of Advanced projects. He will be focused on the advancement of the Palmer VMS project in Alaska. Peter is experienced in the exploration and development of volcanic massive sulphide and epithermal gold deposits. He has previously held the role of General Manager of the Ming Copper-Gold Mine, a VMS operation in Newfoundland and Labrador. Before that, he worked as an exploration geologist helping successfully advance several projects in Labrador, including the Michelin uranium deposit, the Kami Project, and the Ming Mine. American Pacific Mining trades on the CSE with USGD and on the OTCQX with USGDF. News Release

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