Morning Briefing: Signifiant Production Milestones for Sierra Madre Gold & Silver, Lifezone Metals and Ero Copper
Welcome to Mining Stock Daily. I’m Trevor Hall.
Today is Tuesday, July 23rd.
Monday the sell-off in the metals continued, as gold steadily declined overnight to a low of $2385 by mid-morning. The Mining Stock Journal noted that gold is declining during the trading of real physical in the east because of seasonal factors but also because the Indians put on the brakes on buying gold when it runs up quickly like it has recently. Interestingly, the newsletter added, the price in the paper markets bounced right after the a.m. London fix before getting pushed down to the low of the day into the paper Comex close. The price bounced back over $2400 in afternoon Globex trading but settled at $2398. Silver followed a somewhat similar chart pattern as gold, briefly trading below $29 before shooting back over $29 when the Comex opened to settle in the afternoon at $29.30. The Mining Stock Journal is confident that the trading pattern in gold and silver reflects an effort by the bullion banks to cover their paper shorts ahead of the next big move higher. The mining stocks closed green after getting hit early in the day, rallying in the afternoon along with the metals.
We’ll get to the news from the miners and explorers here in a moment, but first a quick word about today’s sponsor.
This episode of Mining Stock Daily is brought to you by… Fireweed Metals
Fireweed Metals is advancing 3 different projects within the Yukon and Northwest Territories, including the flagship Macmillan Pass Project, a large zinc-lead-silver deposit and the Mactung Project, one of the largest and highest-grade tungsten deposits in the world. Fireweed plans to advance these projects through exploration, resource definition, metallurgy, engineering, economic studies and collaboration with indigenous people on the path to production. For more information please visit fireweedmetals.com.
And here’s what you need to know this morning….
Sierra Madre Gold and Silver have commenced test mining an processing at the Guitarra Mine Complex in Mexico. The flotation plant has processed 5,698 dry tonnes of mineralized material from the Guitarra mine and is currently averaging 259 dry tonnes per day (tpd). This marks a significant milestone for the Company in the path to returning Guitarra to full commercial production of 500 tpd, which is now projected to commence in Q4 2024. The Company currently has four operating Scoop trams, one low-profile haul truck and a Jumbo drill which were rebuilt by the Maintenance Department. In addition, the Company has purchased an 18-tonne dump truck for surface and underground haulage and a Stopemate long-hole drilling machine. The current test mining is using long hole and shrinkage mining techniques, with cut-and-fill operations planned to begin shortly. (TSXV: SM) (OTCQX: SMDRF) News Release
Yesterday, Elemental Altus Royalties announced it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire two existing royalties from Cornish Metals, including an uncapped 4% net smelter return royalty on the Mactung Project which is currently being developed by Fireweed Metals. The company also purchased a 1% NSR royalty on the Cantung Project. Elemental Altus has agreed to pay US$3,000,000 in cash on the transaction close date. A second tranche of US$1,500,000 in cash is payable 12 months following the date of closing for a total consideration of US$4,500,000. As part of the transaction Elemental Altus will assume an obligation to pay a C$1,500,000 deferred payment due to Teck upon an investment decision being made to progress the project. (TSXV: ELE) (OTCQX: ELEMF) News Release
Alamos gold reported new results from underground and surface drilling at the Island gold Mine. From the Main Zone, drilling returned 36.54 g/t Au over 7.2m and 42.25 g/t over 2.82m. From the Hanging Wall zones, drilling return 79.93 g/t Au over 2m, 72.57 g/t over 2m and 55.98 g/t Au over 2.1m. And in zones yet to be defined, drilling returned 88.44 g/t Au over 4.65m and 84.87 g/t over 3m. And in recent resource conversion drilling the company also intercepted 135.39 g/t Au over 8.28m. A total of $19 million is budgeted for exploration at Island Gold in 2024, up from $14 million in 2023, with both a larger near mine and regional exploration program planned for the year. A total of 41,000 m of underground exploration drilling is planned in 2024. The focus is on defining new Mineral Reserves and Resources in proximity to existing production horizons and infrastructure, as well as the conversion of the large existing Mineral Resource base to Mineral Reserves. (TSX:AGI; NYSE:AGI) News Release
Revival Gold provided an update from its Mercur gold project in Utah. Legacy data from the Mercur project has been logged, including historic drill data which will be used to develop a geo-metallurgical model in support of a preliminary economic assessment. In addition to the logging, 4 holes which were drilled in 2022 were left un-assayed by the previous operator. Revival had those assayed and returned some positive intercepts, including 25.9m of .91 g/t Au. More exploration work at Mercur will commence in August with data compilation, field reconnaissance and selective geochemical sampling. (TSXV: RVG, OTCQX: RVLGF) News Release
Ero Copper announced a significant commissioning milestone at the Tucumã Project with the production of saleable copper concentrate, which exceeded process design concentrate grade targets. This milestone was achieved following the successful commissioning of the milling and flotation operations prior to the end of Q2 2024.
And Lifezone Metals has also produced its first nickel, copper and cobalt cathode samples via the semi-continuous pilot scale refinery test work underway at the Company’s Simulus Laboratory in Perth, Australia. The metals were produced from flotation concentrate derived from borehole core samples at the Kabanga Nickel Project, located in north-west Tanzania. This milestone marks the first metal ever produced from Kabanga mineralization since the deposit’s initial discovery in 1975 by the United Nations Development Program.
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