Morning Briefing: Equinox Gold and Calibre Mining Merge

Good morning and welcome to the Mining Stock Daily Morning Briefing. I’m Trevor Hall.

It's Monday, February 24th.  

Gold’s move throughout the week last week could be defined as consolidation. After regaining everything lost in a horrible Friday the previous week, gold’s front month contract traded in a $30 range between $2931/oz and $2,963, with the exception of sneaking in a new high around 2,975 on Thursday, but then regrouping in that previous range. Silver lost one and a half percent on Friday and closed the week at $33/oz. The explosive move higher in silver is yet to be seen, however, the trend continues to be your friend for the metal. In this weekend’s German federal election, Friedrich Merz's conservative bloc secured 28.5% of the vote, positioning him to become the next Chancellor. The far-right labeled Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) experienced a significant surge, obtaining 20.8% and placing second, while the Social Democrats (SPD) faced their worst post-war result at 16.4%. Merz plans to form a coalition with the SPD, excluding any alliance with the AfD despite their electoral gains. Merz has mentioned less-reliance on the United States in very recent commentaries, which may be why gold is trading at the upper levels of this current range.

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 375,000 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….. 

Big news in the mining sector last night when Equinox Gold and Calibre Mining announced a merger. Equinox will acquire all the issued and outstanding common shares of Calibre and create an an Americas-focused diversified gold producer with a portfolio of operating mines in five countries anchored by two high-quality, long-life, low-cost Canadian gold mines. The combined company is expected to produce approximately 950,000 ounces of gold this year, not including production from Valentine or Los Filos. Calibre shareholders will receive 0.31 of an Equinox common share for each Calibre common share held. Concurrent with entering into the Arrangement Agreement, Calibre has entered into irrevocable subscription agreements to complete the issuance of an aggregate principal amount of approximately US$75 million convertible notes to Equinox, Vestcor Inc., and Trinity Capital Partners. Proceeds from the Convertible Notes will be used for funding expenses related to the Transaction, and general corporate purposes until completion of the Transaction. (TSX: EQX) (NYSE American: EQX)(TSX: CXB) (OTCQX: CXBMF) News Release

Meridian Mining provided new drill results out of the Cabaçal Cu-Au-Ag VMS project this morning and confirm extensions and projections of Cabaçal's multiple stacked layers of VMS mineralization. Several holes were drilled into the up-dip section of Cabaçal's Eastern Copper Zone ("ECZ"), the northeast and shallowest flank of the deposit. These were designed as infill holes for further confidence in the early phases of the potential starter pit. Results included 4.9m of 3.8 g/t AuEq and 7.4m of 1.9 g/t AuEq. In the Central Copper Zone, drilling returned 20.9m of 6.5 g/tAuEq, 23.2m of 1.5 g/t AuEq and 21.5m of 2.2 g/t AuEq. (TSX:MNO) (OTCQX:MRRDF) News Release

There is multiple news fronts out of Orezone as well. The company says they plan to accelerate Stage II of the Bomboré hard rock expansion by two years to achieve an optimized gold production profile of 220,000-250,000 ounces per year by late 2026. Subject to final board approval, the Stage II hard rock expansion would commence in H2-2025 and follow the current Stage I expansion, which is scheduled to achieve first gold in Q4-2025. Stage I is forecasted to increase gold production to 170,000-185,000 ounces in 2026. The company also noted they plan on dual listing on the Australian Securities Exchange to access resource capital there. Orezone has also entered into an agreement with Canaccord for a bought deal totalling C$35M. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering to accelerate both the Stage II hard rock expansion and additional exploration at its Bomboré Gold Mine, as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes. (TSX: ORE) (OTCQX: ORZCF) News Release

ATEX Resources announced updated partial assay results for holes 16B and 23A as part of its Phase V exploration program at the Valeriano Copper Gold Project in Chile. Hole 16B intersected 220m of 1% CuEq within a broader interval of 590m of .78%. The trend remains open to the south-southeast and represents an opportunity to further extend high-grade mineralization in further step-out holes. The company says Hole 23A grades improved upon receipt of final by-product metal results, showing a 152m intersection of 2.12% CuEq within a broader interval of 342m of 1.52%. Two rigs are currently dedicated to defining the high-grade breccia B2B zone with two others focused on infill drilling within the higher-grade Valeriano Porphyry units. The fifth rig will continue to provide optionality to test the current extents of known mineralization. (TSXV: ATX) News Release

Aurion Resources published results of 6 holes drilled at the Kaaresselkä area of the wholly owned Risti property, located in the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt in northern Finland. Results included 7.92 g/t Au over 13.60 m intersected in a step-out hole, extending the mineralized system 40 m along strike at the Vanha prospect. Scout drilling also returned .63 g/t Au over 12m in a hole located 800m west-southwest from the Vanha prospect. (TSXV: AU) (OTCQX: AIRRF) News Release

Omai Gold Mines announced assay results form the company’s first hole drilled at the gilt Creek deposit in Guyana. That hole returned 774m of the quartz diorite intrusion and averaged 1 g/t Au. The company noted 38 separate occurrences of visible gold between 442m and 1,139m. This same intrusive rock unit produced 2.4 million ounces of gold between 1993-2005. (TSXV: OMG) (OTCQB: OMGGF) News Release

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That’s it for today everyone. Have a great day. Stay safe. 

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