Morning Briefing: Sumitomo Invests in FPX, Vizsla Silver Spins Out RoyaltyCo.

Welcome to Mining Stock Daily. I’m Trevor Hall. 

Today is Wednesday, January 17th. 

Tuesday gold was hammered, closing down nearly $20 from Monday and finishing the afternoon session at $2031. According to the Mining Stock Journal, most of the sell-off occurred after the eastern hemisphere physical markets closed for the day. Silver als was beaten down, closing the afternoon session at $23.08, down 24 cents from Monday. Silver's Tuesday action featured a successful test of $23. The Mining Stock Journal said that gold and silver sold off in the paper markets Tuesday because the markets generally began pricing in the possibility that the Fed will hold off on cutting rates longer than expected. While the physical buyers in the east could care less about Fed rate policy, the momentum-chasing hedge fund algos are programmed to trade paper gold inversely to interest rate expectations. This was likely the biggest factor driving the price action. GDX endured a 4% massacre yesterday. The Mining Stock Journal commented that, while mining stocks across the risk spectrum took a beating on Tuesday, the percentage drop in the Arca Gold Bugs Index and GDX was skewed negatively by the 9.5% bombing of Barrick Gold which was triggered by Barrick's YoY decline in gold production.

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… Victoria Gold. 

Victoria Gold operates the Eagle Gold Mine within the Dublin Gulch Property. Eagle is the largest gold mine in Yukon's long history of gold production. In addition to the long-life Eagle Gold Mine, the Dublin Gulch property has upsized exploration potential including priority targets Raven and Lynx among others. Follow all the gold production and exploration news at ⁠vgcx.com⁠.

And here’s what you need to know this morning….

FPX Nickel has entered into a subscription agreement for a private placement financing with a new cornerstone strategic investor, Sumitomo Metal Mining. Under the terms of the Private Placement, FPX will issue 30,104,488 common shares in the capital of the Company to SMCL at a price of $0.48 per Private Placement Common Share, for gross proceeds of $14,450,154. Upon completion of the Private Placement, SMCL will own 9.9% of FPX's issued and outstanding common shares on a non-diluted basis. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Private Placement primarily for exploration and development ‎‎activities at the ‎Project, continuance of ‎‎ongoing environmental baseline activities, feasibility study readiness activities, and ‎‎general corporate and administrative purposes. (TSXV: FPX) (OTCQB: FPOCF) News Release

Vizsla Silver announced this morning it will spin out the shares of Vizsla Royalties, which currently holds, indirectly, a net smelter royalty of any potential future mineral production at Vizsla’s Panuco silver-gold project in Mexico. The royalty consists of a 2% net smelter return royalty on certain unencumbered concession on the project, a .5% NSR on other concessions of the project which have a pre-existing 3% royalty. Subsequent to completion of the Spinout, the board of directors of Vizsla Royalties may decide to pursue a listing on the TSX Venture Exchange if and when the Vizsla Royalties Board determines it is in the best interests of the Vizsla Royalties shareholders. (TSX-V: VZLA) (NYSE: VZLA) News Release

West Red Lake Gold Mines reported final drill results of its 2023 campaign at the Rowan Property in Ontario. These results were focused on infilling gaps in the geologic model between the East and West Zones, as well as infill and expansion at depth on the West Zone ore shoot. Highlights included 4m of 9.5 g/t Au, inlcuding .75m of 25.2 g/t in hole 177, 2m of 10.84 g/t, including .5m of 42.6 g/t in hole 174, and .5m of 17.78 g/t gold in hole 180. The company says an Initiated baseline environmental and archaeological assessments are to begin advancing the Rowan deposit towards an Advanced Exploration Permit to allow for collection of a bulk sample. (TSXV: WRLG) (OTCQB: WRLGF) News Release

I-80 Gold reported results from ongoing drilling at the Ruby Hill Property in Nevada. The results today are from the 2023 program that continues to demonstrate significant potential to expand high-grade polymetallic mineralization in the Hilltop fault structure and within the Hilltop Corridor. At East Hilltop, drilling returned 22.4 % Zn over 5.8 m and 197.2 g/t Ag, 7.5% Zn and 5.0% Pb over 6.1 m. At Upper Hilltop, drilling returned 2.1 g/t Au, 514.8 g/t Ag, 3.1% Zn & 23.4% Pb over 10.0 m, while further expiration drilling had 1181.0 g/t Ag, 19.5% Zn & 10.2% Pb over 1.5 m. (TSX: IAU) (NYSE: IAUX) News Release

K2 Gold announced results from rock grab and chip sampling at its Mojave Project in California. Sampling at the Gold Valley target located on the east side of the property returned grab samples of 208 g/t gold and 32.1 g/t gold from initial prospecting. Gold Valley is located 1.5km north-northwest along the same structure as the Dragonfly target, a high-grade gold zone which K2 successfully drilled in 2020 with a highlight result of 86.9m of 4.0 g/t gold from surface. Sampling at the Soda Canyon target in the northwest of the Project area returned a sample grading 1.87% copper, and two additional samples with greater than 1% copper which are currently in the process of overlimit analysis. (TSXV: KTO) (OTCQB: KTGDF) News Release

Defense Metals announced it has entered into a co-design agreement with McLeod Lake Indian Band regarding ongoing project development for its Wicheeda Rare Earth Element Project in British Columbia. Collaboration will incorporate MLIB's interests and priorities in the planning and design of future feasibility studies and the environmental assessment process and include MLIB involvement in certain technical studies related to the Wicheeda Project. In addition, Defense Metals will make an upfront payment to MLIB, fund certain of MLIB's costs of participating in review activities and support MLIB Members in attending post-secondary training in a mining-related field. In addition to the collaboration, MLIB has also agreed to make a strategic investment into Defense Metals for an aggregate proceed of $665,000. (TSXV: DEFN) (OTCQB: DFMTF) News Release

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