Morning Briefing: Royal Road Moves into Saudi; Ridgeline Stakes Big Blue

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

Today is Thursday February 9th.

Gold moved higher Wednesday during eastern hemisphere physical trading hours, with the price spiking up $13 to test $1900 per ounce in the last hour of Asian trading. But once the paper gold jockeys took over, it was all she wrote. Gold was hammered hard right after the London p.m. fix and even harder when the NYSE opened, falling from $1899 to as low as $1882 before bouncing to settle at $1888. Silver followed the same price path as gold, spiking up from $22.30 to $22.56 per ounce before getting sucker-punched at the London a.m. fix and sent traveling back down to the $22.20's. Silver managed to settle off the lows at $22.34. 

The mining stocks sold off Wednesday but outperformed the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. The Amex Gold Bugs Index and the GDX were each down 0.67% and 0.85%, respectively. Both are holding their respective 50 day moving averages as support for now. The Mining Stock Journal said it does not have an opinion as to whether they will break up or down from this key moving average. That said, it would welcome a sell-off down to the 200 day moving averages in order to be confident about putting more capital to work. Historically a 200 day moving average correction in a bull cycle for the sector has preceded big moves higher.

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….

Royal Road Minerals entered into a Strategic Alliance Agreement and Letter of Intent with investment holding company MSB Holdings with respect to copper, gold and other metals exploration in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The companies aim to develop an exploration decision-support-system, leading to the development of priority targets and an initial 12-month work program and budget for exploration operations in the Arabian Shield. The 50-50 Alliance will see Royal Road complete desktop and field-based studies and MSB provide in-country and field logistics support. This initiative comes hot on the heels of deals signed by Barrick Gold and Ivanhoe Electric in Saudi Arabia in January. Royal Road Minerals (TSXV: RYR) News Release

Ridgeline Minerals has staked the Big Blue Project in Nevada, a porphyry copper-gold-silver exploration prospect and includes the past producing Delker Mine, which produced 94,434 pounds of copper at an average grade of 6.2% Cu between 1916-1917 1 and shares its southern boundary with Reyna Silver's Medicine Springs Ag-Pb-Zn Carbonate Replacement project. A total of nineteen confirmation rock chip samples were collected by Ridgeline returning an average grade of 1.8% oxide Cu including a highlight sample of 6.4% Cu, 0.2 grams per tonne Au, and 53.8 g/t Ag at Skarn Hill. The Project has seen limited exploration over the past 100+ years and represents an opportunity to expand the known high-grade Cu-Au-Ag Skarn mineralization as well as discover new deposit types including Cu-Au Porphyry and Ag-Au-Pb-Zn CRD style mineralization at depth and along strike towards the Medicine Springs project. (TSXV: RDG) (OTCQB: RDGMF) News Release

Barrick Gold increased its gold reserve price assumption to US$1300/oz, helping to increase its attributable proven and probable gold mineral reserves by 6.7Moz net of depletion in 2022, while maintaining grade. Its reserves are now 76Moz grading 1.67gpt, up from 69Moz grading 1.71gpt a year ago at $1200/oz 2021, with gains lead by Pueblo Viejo in Dominican Republic and its Africa & Middle East region. Gold resources are now 222Moz in all categories. Exploration at its Lumwana mine in Zambia and Jabal Sayid in Saudi Arabia drove the growth of attributable proven and probable copper reserves by 640Mlb as Barrick increased its reserve price to $3/lb from $2.75/lb, effectively maintaining its reserves at 12Blb. Its copper resources grew 124% year over year to 59Blb in all categories, net of annual depletion driven by the completion of a PEA supporting the Lumwana Super Pit expansion, and incorporating Reko Diq. Barrick said its resource growth could enable the company to increase its production from 5.5Mozpa gold equivalent to 6.5Mozpa gold equivalent by the end of the decade. Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD)(TSX:ABX) news release

Rupert Resources intends to complete a non-brokered private placement of up to 10.1 million shares at C$4.70 per Share for proceeds of up to C$47.6 million. Agnico Eagle indicated its intention to participate in the private placement pro-rata to their current shareholding in the Company. The Placement is expected to close February 24. The Company intends to use the proceeds to fund on-going exploration and development expenditures on its properties in Finland and for general corporate purposes. Rupert Resources trades on the TSX with RUP. News Release

Kinross Gold said it plans to release a maiden resource on the Great Bear deposit in Red Lake, Ontario on Monday, and will host a webinar. News release

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