Morning Briefing: Meridian Drills News Au-Ag Discovery; Minera Alamos Receives Key Approval for Cerro de Oro
Welcome to Mining Stock Daily. I’m Trevor Hall.
Today is Tuesday, June 21st.
Last week gold was predictably taken lower ahead of the FOMC policy meeting, as the yellow dog was slammed from $1876 to start the week and below its 200 day moving average to as low as $1806, before staging a rally the rest of the week back up to the 200 dma. Once again, gold managed to hold the $1820 level of support despite a temporary dip below it. The Mining Stock Journal pointed out that the majority of the downside in gold occurred during the western paper derivative venues' trading hours of the LBMA and Comex. Silver followed the same price-path as gold. And silver established a possible lower-high when it bounced at $20.84 on Tuesday. Previously silver had fallen to a 22 month low of $20.42 in mid-May. Speaking of paper silver, the Mining Stock Journal said that the Comex banks increased their net long position in silver through last Tuesday, curiously the cut-off date for the COT report data, by increasing the long position and marginally reducing their shorts. The biggest counterparty of the banks - the hedge funds - substantially reduced their net long position by shorting an additional 5,285 contracts. This managed money category is close to going net short. This is an important development to monitor with potentially bullish implications for silver. There's not much to say about the mining stocks, as they have been largely correlated with the general stock market. However, on Thursday, during one of the highest volume selling days in NYSE history, GDX and the HUI diverged positively and closed green that day. This also gives cause for optimism.
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…Western Copper and Gold.
Western Copper and Gold is focused on developing the world-class Casino project in Canada's Yukon Territory. The Casino project consists of an impressive 11 billion pounds of copper and 21 million ounces of gold in an overall resource. Western Copper and Gold trades on the TSX and the NYSE American with WRN. Be sure to follow the company via their website, www.westerncopperandgold.com.
And here’s what you need to know this morning….
Meridian Mining says drilling 2 km southeast of the Cabaçal Mine in Brazil has discovered a significant new gold and silver system. Hole 139 at the C4-A prospect returned 26.4m of .6 g/t gold and 25.2 g/t silver from 562 meters depth. The company noted that a follow up 50m step-out has also intersected a 150m alteration zone with assays pending. The gold-silver mineralization intersected is coincident with a 200m long chargeability anomaly, and lies along strike from a further 700m long chargeability anomaly. Meridian also reported further assay results from the ECZ, CCZ, SCZ & CNWE zones from its ongoing drill program. Highlights included 50.6m of .9% copper equivalent, 31m of .7% and 67.5m of .5% copper equivalent. Three surface drill rigs and four drill crews are currently confirming, infilling, and expanding the near-surface copper-gold mineralization of the Cabaçal Mine. Meridian Mining trades on the TSX with MNO and on the OTCQB with MRRDF. News Release
Minera Alamos announced it has received the surface rights agreements for its Cerro De Oro gold project in northern Zacatecas, Mexico. The agreements, finalized at meetings held last week will allow the Company to finish remaining activities necessary for the Permit Application submission for the project. This will incorporate all the engineering, geological and other geotechnical work completed to date that collectively represent the plan to develop the Cerro de Oro gold project into the Company's second operating gold mine. Work activities planned at the Cerro de Oro project area for the remainder of 2022 included metallurgical testwork, in-fill and resource expansion drilling, regional exploration, and securing long-lead equipment necessary for mine development. Minera Alamos trades on the TSX V with MAI. News Release
Newly listed Arras Minerals has filed an updated mineral resource estimate for the Beskauga copper-gold project in the Pavlodar Province of Kazakhstan. The report shows An open pit constrained Indicated Mineral Resource of 111.2 million tonnes grading 0.49 g/t gold, 0.30% copper and 1.34 g/t silver for 1.75 million ounces of gold, 333.6 thousand tonnes of copper, & 4.79 million ounces of silver. Its inferred mineral resources sits at 92.6 million tonnes grading 0.50 g/t gold, 0.24% copper and 1.14 g/t silver for 1.49 million ounces of gold, 222.2 thousand tonnes of copper, & 3.39 million ounces of silver. The constraining pit was optimised and calculated using a Gross Metal Value (“GMV”) cut-off of $20/tonne based on a price of: $1,750/oz for gold, $3.50/lb for copper, $22/oz for silver, and with an average recovery of 85% for copper and 74.5% for gold and 50% for silver. Arras Minerals trades on the TSX V with ARK. News Release
Freegold Ventures announced new drill results from an additional seven holes this morning, which are part of the ongoing program designed to expand, upgrade and increase the overall resource grade at the Golden Summit Project. Hole GS2201 intersected 207.2 m grading 1.45 g/t Au within a broad zone of 506.2 m grading 0.88 g/t Au. The results continue to demonstrate higher grade over increasing widths downdip within the projected mineralized zone. Four drill rigs have been operating since mid-February. The results of 2020, 2021, and several holes from the 2022 program are expected to be incorporated into an updated pit constrained resource estimate in the fourth quarter of this year. Freegold trades on the TSX with FVL and on the OTCQX with FGOVF. News Release
EMX Royalty shared drill results from its Hardshell royalty property at a new exploration target, named the Peake prospect, which is part of South32 Limited's Hermosa project in southeast Arizona. Hermosa also includes the feasibility stage Taylor lead-zinc-silver deposit situated directly north of EMX's royalty claim block. Drill results from Peake, which is partially covered by the Hardshell royalty, include copper-enriched skarn type mineralized intercepts of 76.5 meters averaging 1.52% copper, 0.2% zinc, 0.4% lead, and 25 g/t silver, as well as 73.8 meters averaging 1.06% copper, 0.5% zinc, 0.7% lead, and 67 g/t silver. EMX retains a 2% net smelter return royalty on Hardshell that is not capped nor subject to buy down. EMX trades on the NYSE American and the TSXV with EMX. News Release
FPX Nickel has executed a new Development Memorandum of Agreement for the Decar Nickel District with Binche Keyoh Bu Society, representing the Keyoh families within the Binche Whut'en in central British Columbia. The new MOA between FPX and the Binche Society formalizes protocols for continuing the cooperative working relationship established between FPX, the Binche Society and constituent Keyoh families regarding exploration and development activities at Decar. The MOA confirms the support by the Binche Society and constituent Keyoh families for offsite engineering and scientific studies and onsite field programs. FPX Nickel trades on the TSX V with FPX. News Release
That concludes today’s morning briefing.
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