Morning Briefing: Sandstorm Makes Two Prominent Acquisitions
Welcome to Mining Stock Daily. I am Trevor Hall. And I’m Paul Harris.
Today is Monday, May 2nd
Gold and silver were treated to an abrupt ride on the down elevator last week after the run-up to mid-April that took gold to $2000 per ounce and silver to $26.50 per ounce. The Mining Stock Journal said that the sell-off was the combination of a natural pullback from a technically overbought condition in the precious metals sector plus an automated reaction by momentum-focused hedge fund strategies in response to the rising dollar index and the plunging stock market. On Friday it was revealed by Russia that the Kremlin is considering backing the ruble with gold along with some other commodities like oil. This sent gold back over $1900 after the yellow metal tested $1870. Silver did not benefit from this news-induced bounce in gold and is back to fighting to stay above $23.
This week the FOMC meets and is expected to hike the Fed funds rate by 50 basis points. The Mining Stock Journal said it is likely that the price management team will work hard to keep a lid on the metals. It added that if the Fed hikes by just 25 basis points or if the Fed is interpreted as softening its stance on tightening in response to a struggling economy, the metals will take off. The mining stocks were hit hard last week, with the GDX retracing about 40% of its rally since the end of January. The good news is that the sell-off has taken the mining stocks from overbought to quite oversold.
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….
Sandstorm Gold calls it portfolio transformation this morning with the announced acquisition of both Nomad Royalty and BaseCore Metals Royalty. Sandstorm will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Nomad. Pursuant to the terms of the Nomad Acquisition, Nomad shareholders will receive upfront consideration of 1.21 Sandstorm Shares for each Nomad Share held, which implies consideration of C$11.57 per Nomad Share, implying a $590M US value to the deal. In regards to the BaseCore Royalty acquisition, Sandstorm has agreed to acquire the Royalty Package for total consideration of $525 million, payable as to $425 million cash and $100 million in Sandstorm Shares, upon closing. Concurrent with the BaseCore Transaction, Sandstorm has signed an amended and restated letter of intent with Horizon Copper whereby Sandstorm will sell the acquired 1.66% Antamina NPI to Horizon and Sandstorm will retain a long-life silver stream on the Antamina mine. With the close of the Transactions, Sandstorm is increasing its 2022 production guidance to be between 80,000 and 85,000 gold equivalent ounces, increasing to 155,000 gold equivalent ounces by 2025. Sandstorm trades on the TSX with SSL and on the NYSE with SAND. News Release
Blackrock Silver reported a maiden resource estimate for the Victor and DPB areas at its Tonopah West project in the Walker Lane trend of Nevada of 2.898 million tonnes grading 208 grams per tonne silver and 2.5g/t gold for 446g/t silver equivalent and containing 19.9 million ounces of silver and 238,000 ounces of gold. The resource is based on 116 surface drill holes for 65,870 metres and features optimized stopes with a width of 1.5m, 4m height and ranging up to 100m in length. The company said Tonopah West is one of the highest-grade undeveloped silver deposits of size in the world, with substantial resource expansion potential remaining. Blackrock Silver trades on the TSXV under BRC. News release
Arizona Sonoran Copper announced results from 25 drill holes for 9,426m from the completed Prefeasibility Study infill drilling program at its Cactus copper project in Arizona. The program tightened the drill spacing within the entire integrated Preliminary Economic Assessment mine plan, including Cactus East and West and the Stockpile, with the intent of upgrading the Inferred mineral resources to Indicated mineral resources. As a result of tighter drill spacing, data shows an improved resolution of lithological, structural, and mineral zonation controls. The PFS is expected to be complete in the September quarter and will include an updated mineral resource estimate. Highlights included 61,2m grading 1.28% copper in hole 53. Arizona Sonoran Copper trades on the TSX under ASCU and on the OTCQX under ASCUF. News release
Capitan Mining reported five more reverse circulation drill holes from the Jesús María Silver Zone, at the Cruz de Plata Project in, Durango, Mexico including its best intercept to date of 1.5m grading 2,406 grams per tonne silver equivalent in hole 10 within a broader intercept of 16.8m grading 332g/t AgEq. The company said all five step out holes intersected Jesus Maria style mineralization with assays pending for 14 holes. Capitan Mining trades on the TSXV under CAPT. News release
Torq Resources announced the discovery of a new copper and gold sulphide system with its maiden reverse circulation drill program at its Margarita Iron-Oxide-Copper-Gold project in northern Chile near Copiapo. The discovery hole returned 90m grading 0.94% copper and 0.84 grams per tonne gold in hole 013R at a depth of 50m, validating the Company's exploration thesis. The company said mineralization has a clear signature over a 1km strike length, and it is preparing a follow-up drill program. Torq Resources trades on the TSXV under TORQ. News release
Lahontan Gold reported results from five core holes, totaling 1,368m, completed in 2021 at the Company's 19 km2 Santa Fe Project in Nevada's Walker Lane. These core drill holes explored down-rake and on-strike extensions to the BH Zone and shallow, potentially open pit minable, Au and Ag mineralization southeast of the past producing Santa Fe open pit. Intercepts include 100.3m grading 2.96 g/t gold and 62.2 gpt silver. Based on these drill results and modeling historic drilling, it appears that the BH zone may consist of multiple, repeating or cyclic, down to the southeast raking zones, within the Santa Fe Fault and sympathetic structures. This interpretation greatly expands the target size of the BH Zone, especially given that older drill holes, located hundreds of metres to the south and southeast of hole 3C have higher-grade intercepts that have not been drill tested since the 1990s. Lahontan Gold trades on the TSX V with LG. News Release
That concludes today’s morning briefing.
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