Morning Briefing: First Majestic Suspends Operations at Jerritt Canyon

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

Today is Tuesday March 21st.

In response to the bailout of Credit Suisse plus the joint western Central Bank announcement of the implementation of a coordinated effort to increase dollar liquidity in the western banking system, gold shot up to as high as $2015 per ounce during the Asian physical gold trading session. But, like clockwork, as soon as Asia closed for the day at 3 a.m. NY time, gold was slammed back down below $2000 in the London/New York paper markets. The Mining Stock Journal said that the selling pressure in the paper market continued when the Comex opened and the gold price was maneuvered down to as low as $1970 before bouncing to settle at $1982. Silver's price path was more correlated with equity futures. In that regard, silver sold off in the early a.m. hours but then caught a bid and shot up as much as 40 cents to $22.85 per ounce up until the a.m. London fix, when it was pushed off the cliff by the price management team, dropping to as low as $22.35 before another bounce took silver up to $22.66, where it settled in afternoon trading. 

The Mining Stock Journal commented that, with Central Bank reimplementation of Quantitative Easing in various formats, the path of least resistance for the precious metals is higher but expect higher two-way volatility as the Central Banks do their best to try and cap the upside movement. The mining stocks rose Monday in correlation with both the metals and the general stock market. The GDX was 1.75% higher while many individual stocks rose even more on a percentage basis.

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…Arizona Sonoran Copper.

ASCU is an early-stage copper developer and explorer of the Cactus Mine and its satellite project, Parks/Salyer, both situated on a 4km mine trend on private land in Arizona’s porphyry copper district. Opportunity for significant growth and scale exist along the mine trend, while future capex requirements outlined in the Cactus PEA benefit from significant onsite and nearby access to infrastructure. The Company is led by an executive management team and Board which have a long-standing track record of successful project delivery in North America. For more information, please visit www.arizonasonoran.com.

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

Shares of First Majestic Silver fell 16% in after-hours trading Monday, after the company halted operations at its Jerritt Canyon gold mine in Nevada, USA. The company said it has been unable to sustainably feed the processing plant at a minimum of 3000tpd and so its cash costs per ounce have remained higher than anticipated. While mining activities have temporarily stopped, processing of 45,000t of material in surface stockpiles will continue for the next couple of months, with the company continuing exploration to grow mineral resources. FIRST MAJESTIC SILVER (AG: NYSE; FR: TSX) News release

Calibre Mining announced results from step-out drilling along the Panteon VTEM Gold Corridor within the Limon Mine Complex in Nicaragua. The new intercepts continue to demonstrate the potential of the multi-kilometre long structure identified by the company’s 2022 VTEM geophysical survey. Today’s results are located more than 2km north of Panteon North with highlights today of 4.1m grading 17.45 g/t Au including 1.8m grading 38.45 g/t Au in Hole 4736. Calibre has two drill rigs active on the Panteon VTEM gold corridor and four rigs across our Nicaraguan projects, we will complete over 60km of drilling in Nicaragua. Calibre Mining (TSX: CXB; OTCQX: CXBMF) news release

Rupert Resources reported drilling results from its 2022 and 2023 exploration program on its Ikkari gold project in Northern Finland. Highlights from infill drilling results aimed at further upgrading areas of inferred resources were 52.6m of 2.3 g/t gold, 141m of 3.6 g/t and 15.4m of 5.4 g/t. Outside of the current block model, drilling returned 6m of 74.1 g/t and 14m of 1.5 g/t. The 2022/2023 work program commenced in August 2022 and is planned to include up to 72,800m of drilling. Around 30,000m has been allocated to Ikkari infill and project drilling with the balance divided equally between Ikkari extension, potential satellites; and regional exploration across Rupert’s 634km2 land position. Rupert Resources trades on the TSX with RUP. News Release

Fortuna Silver Mines reported an updated Reserve and Resource estimate for its four mines in the Americas and its development Séguéla gold Project in West Africa, and a maiden Inferred Resource for the Arizaro Project near its Lindero Property in Salta, Argentina. Combined Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves of gold and silver fell 14% and 22% respectively from a year ago to 2.8 Moz Au and 20.1 Moz Ag. Measured and Indicated Resources exclusive of Reserves increased 32% for gold to 1.1 Moz Au, with silver unchanged at 10.5 Moz Ag. The Maiden Inferred Resource at Arizaro Project is 280,000oz Au. The company increased the cut off grade at the Lindero and San Jose mines due to higher operating costs resulting in a decrease of mineralised tonnes. Fortuna Silver Mines (NYSE: FSM) (TSX: FVI) news release

At least 8 lithium releases this morning and we finally cracked, and have a lithium short for you. E3 LITHIUM announced an upgrade to the mineral resource to the Measured and Indicated categories at its Bashaw District project in Alberta. The resource includes 6.6 million tonnes of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent in the Measured category and 9.4 Mt in the Indicated for 16Mt M&I. This makes Bashaw Canada's largest Direct Lithium Extraction brine projects and M&I resources, and one of the largest globally. The deposit pretty much fills the 200km gap between Edmonton and Calgary. E3 LITHIUM. (TSXV: ETL) (OTCQX: EEMMF), news release

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