Morning Briefing: Talon Drills 101.71m of 3.04% NiEq

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

Today is Monday August 21st. 

Last week gold was pushed lower four of the five days, falling from $1945 per ounce to Friday's close at $1916. Gold managed a slight rally Friday. For the month of August to date, the gold price has been taken lower 12 of the 14 trading days. Silver was actually unchanged in price for the week last week and managed to rally on Thursday and Friday, closing the week at $22.73 per ounce. The Mining Stock Journal said that, based on the weekly Commitment of Traders Report, the hedge funds have taken to shorting paper gold and silver contracts to the Comex banks, who are covering their gross short positions in paper gold and silver. In fact, as the newsletter predicted, the bank net long position in paper silver increased considerably last week. 

Historically this pattern of the hedge funds selling gross longs and increasing gross shorts while the banks take the other side marks the end of a long, painful sell-off in the precious metals sector. The mining stocks were also lower for the week last week, as they sold off in sympathy with gold and with the general stock market. The Mining Stock Journal pointed out that the GDX is extremely oversold technically and likely will embark on a healthy rally starting sometime in the next few weeks.

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…

Li-FT Power reported assay results from 18 drill holes completed at the Fi Southwest and Fi Main pegmatites within the Yellowknife Lithium Project located outside the city of Yellowknife in Northwest Territories of Canada. Results this morning included 80 m at 0.87% Li2O, including 44 m at 1.14% Li2O and 60 m at 1.26% Li2O, including 39 m at 1.38% Li2O at Fi Southwest. At Fi Main, drilling returned 26 m at 1.22% Li2O and 30 m at 1.13% Li2O. Spodumene percentages are in line with mapping that has been completed on surface. To date, the company has drilled 117 holes into six different pegmatites and will report the results in batches over the coming weeks. Because of the wild fires in the area LIFT has evacuated camp and will begin drilling once again when it is safe to do so. (CSE: LIFT) (OTCQX: LIFFF) News Release

Aurion Resources reported results from 22 holes from its Joint Venture with B2 Gold in the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt of northern Finland. In fact, a new gold discovery was made at Vuoma, which is 2.7 km south of Helmi. That discovery was confirmed with 1.33 g/t Au over 8.3 and is proximal to the mainly untested 20+ km southern domain boundary and is 15km along strike from the Kaaresselka Prospect, which is also owned by Aurion. Other results reported today included 1.21 g/t over 9.2m at Helmi, and 1.43 g/t over 10.45m at Kutuvuoma, which is a new zone south of historic mineralization. A total of 4,500 m of drilling is planned for the second half of 2023, increasing the total drilling to over 12,500 m from the initially planned 10,500 m. (TSXV: AU) (OTCQX: AIRRF) News Release

Talon Metals reported a big hole form the Tamarack Nickel Project. That hole returned 101.71 meters of high-grade nickel-copper mineralization at the Tamarack Nickel Project, grading 1.94% Ni,1.84% Cu, 0.35 g/t Pd, 0.64 g/t Pt and 0.62 g/t Au or 3.04% NiEq. The hole was completed in partnership with a research team from Columbia University that is funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Mining Innovations for Negative Emissions Resource Recovery (MINER) program. Talon and the State of Minnesota gain additional geological knowledge with respect to the Tamarack Nickel Project through the Columbia funded drilling, while Columbia will obtain material to utilize in their lab experiments to test novel approaches to enhanced metal recoveries within the mining industry. (TSX: TLO) News Release

Perpetua Resources has been awarded more federal money to Demonstrate a Fully Domestic Antimony Trisulfide Supply Chain for use in munitions. The company was awarded an Ordnance Technology Initiative Agreement grant of up to $15.5 million under the Prototype Other Transaction authority of the Department of Defense through the DoD Ordnance Technology Consortium. To meet this objective, the Company plans to obtain additional core samples from the Stibnite project site in Idaho, conduct a pilot plant study to produce mil-spec antimony trisulfide from the samples, design a full-scale process circuit, and deliver a modular pilot plant for the DoD to use in further investigations. Perpetua will be reimbursed for these activities on a cost-plus fixed fee basis over the 24-month period of performance. Perpetua Resources (Nasdaq: PPTA) (TSX: PPTA)

Dundee Precious Metals entered into an investment protection agreement with the Government of Ecuador for the Loma Larga gold project. The Government granted Dundee tax stability and certain tax incentives, as well as legal protections including stability of the regulatory framework and resolution of disputes through international arbitration. Key incentives include a 5% discount on the income tax rate, fixed at 20%, Tax stability on VAT, Exemption on import duties for key machinery for plant and mine facilities, Protections related to the prohibition of all forms of confiscation, non-discriminatory treatment and equal playing field, legal and tax stability, International arbitration based in New York, should there be any disputes in relation to the Project. For its part, Dundee will have to invest more than US$400 million during the construction and production phases of the project. Dundee Precious Metals (TSX: DPM) news release

ACG Acquisition Co, a special purpose acquisition company, warned that its Brazilian mining purchase deal may collapse, although discussions continue. ACG said that discussions between its anchor investors and Appian Capital Advisory are ongoing about its acquisition of the Serrote copper mine and Santa Rita nickel mine in Brazil, but it is yet to reach an agreement. The long stop date passed on Friday last week and the acquisition agreement may be terminated at any time. ACG has 12 months from the completion of its initial public offering, until October 12, to complete an acquisition. In mid-June, ACG agreed the acquisition of the Atlantic Nickel and Mineracao Vale Verde from Appian for USD1.0 billion. The doubt on this deal also means doubt for Royal Gold which entered into a binding commitment with ACG to acquire new royalty interests on Serrote and Santa Rita for $250 million. These include a gold royalty on Serrote, a gold, platinum and palladium royalty on Santa Rita, and a copper and nickel royalty on both. Royal Gold (NASDAQ: RGLD) news release news release

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