Morning Briefing: Ford Sweeps in Lithium Deals; Heliostar Drills 53.2m of 11 g/t Au
Welcome to Mining Stock Daily. I’m Trevor Hall. And I’m Paul Harris.
Today is Tuesday May 23rd.
After rallying in the early morning hours, with gold bouncing up to as high as $1985 per ounce going into the London a.m. fix, the yellow metal did an abrupt U-turn and sold off sharply to as low as $1971. After bouncing back to $1981 going into the Comex close, the price wilted and settled the afternoon session at $1,973. Silver somewhat followed the same price path but managed to keep rising after the a.m. London price fix, peaking at $24.06 per ounce before succumbing to sell pressure, likely by the bullion banks, in the Comex paper market. Silver dropped like a lead balloon, settling the afternoon session at $23.78.
The Mining Stock Journal commented that, while some headway was made last week in terms of the Comex banks reducing their net short positions in and gold and silver and the hedge funds reducing their net long, there's still a ways to go before the open interest interest consolidates and contracts enough to set up the next move higher. That said, the high intra-day volatility reflects the friction between tight supply/demand dynamics in the physical market and the price control effort in the paper markets of London and New York. The mining stocks vacillated Monday between positive and negative territory, but the GDX closed down just under 1%.
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….
Ford made various deals to buy lithium from projects in the Americas to secure the materials needed to build electric vehicles. Ford struck deals with Albemarle, Chile’s SQM and Canada’s Nemaska Lithium. The agreements will look to take advantage of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which contains incentives for battery manufacturing and sourcing of materials from the US and its allies. Albemarle will supply more than 100,000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide to Ford from 2026 through 2030. Ford will buy up to 13,000tpy of lithium hydroxide from Nemaska in Quebec, The quantity it will buy from SQM was undisclosed. News release
Heliostar Metals published their first drill results from the Ana Paula project in Mexico. These two holes are the first drilled into the property by Heliostar, with the on-going drill program targeting the High Grade Panel at the core of Ana Paula that Heliostar believes has the potential to host a high margin, underground gold mine development opportunity. Today’s results included 101m of 8.3 g/t gold and included 53.2m of 11 g/t in hole 292. Hole 291 returned 118.5m of 5.4 g/t included 44.5m of 11 g/t gold and 4m of 48.5 g/t. This drill program centres on resource and reserve growth, a key priority of the effort to re-evaluate the project as a high-grade underground mine. The Company expects the drilling data will improve resource estimation and allow the Company to evaluate potential expansion of the High Grade Panel. (TSXV: HSTR) (OTCQX: HSTXF) News Release
Integra Resources provided more drill results from the recently completed stockpile drilling program at the DeLamar Project in Idaho. Selected highlights from this morning’s release included .67 g/t AuEq over 80.77m from DeLamar and .53 g/t AuEq over 27.43m at Florida Mountain. Results from 8,229 m, representing 226 drill holes, have yet to be released. The Company will continue to release results as they are received from the lab. Final drill samples have been shipped to the assay lab and estimation work has commenced for the updated mineral resource estimate at DeLamar, including results from the stockpile drilling program. (TSXV: ITR; NYSE American: ITRG) News Release
West Red Lake Gold Mines reported initial drill results from its previously announced Phase 1 exploration program from its Rowan Property located in the prolific Red Lake Gold District of Ontario. Hole RLG-23-134 Intersected 8.0 meters (m) @ 10.34 g/t Au, from 71m to 79m, Including, 0.5m @ 107.99 g/t Au. Hole RLG-23-132 Intersected 5.5m @ 13.21 g/t Au, from 67.5m to 73m, Including, 0.5m @ 137.22 g/t Au. A total of 14 diamond drill holes totaling 2,314m have been completed so far in 2023 at the Rowan Mine area and 780m in 2 drill holes testing targets in the Red Summit NE area. (TSXV:WRLG) (OTC: WRLGF) News Release
Meridian Mining says they are expanding the drill program at the Cabaçal VMS belt, specifically at the Santa Helena project. The company says re-assays of historic drill core confirm high grade Cu-Au-Ag-Zn results at shallow depths, including 5.6m @ 3.4% Cu, 3.0g/t Au, 82.6g/t Ag and 7.6% Zn from 38.4m depth. They company says they believe this deposit has been structurally over-printed by a later-stage gold event, characteristic of the Cabaçal belt. The Santa Helena historical resource was only partially mined, and like Cabaçal, there is much more upside as an open pit prospect than as a selective underground mine. (TSX:MNO) (OTCQX:MRRDF) News Release
C3 Metals announced an initial Mineral Resource estimate for the Montana de Cobre Zone on its Jasperoide Project in Peru. The MCZ is the first copper-gold skarn zone that C3 Metals has systematically explored along a 28km belt. Measured & Indicated Mineral Resources at MCZ sit at 51.9 million ("M") tonnes ("t") at 0.50% total copper and 0.20 g/t gold for 569.1 million pounds of copper and 326,800 ounces of gold. Its inferred mineral resource hosts 4.0Mt at 0.32% total copper, 0.11 g/t gold for 28.3M pounds of copper and 14,600 ounces of gold. (TSXV: CCCM) (OTCQB: CUAUF) News Release
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