Morning Briefing: Troilus going to feasibility
Welcome to Mining Stock Daily. Standing in for Trevor Hall, I’m Paul Harris.
Today is Monday October 17th.
On Friday gold was hijacked for $26 per ounce, with the majority of the sell-off occurring strictly in the Comex paper gold market, with the physical buying eastern hemisphere closed for the weekend. Ditto for silver. Gold fell to as low as $1646, December basis, before settling at $1648. Silver was pushed back below $19 per ounce and almost down to $18 before bouncing a bit to settle at $18.18. The Mining Stock Journal said that, without question, most of the selling and short-selling came from hedge funds on the other side of going long dollar index futures and shorting S&P 500 futures. The newsletter added that, at some point, the paper short-sellers will have to pay heed to the growing demand for physical gold and silver both at the retail level from coin dealers and in the big boy market, where wealthy individuals and large entities are draining physical gold and silver from the vaults in London and New York.
The mining stocks were also clobbered on Friday, with the GDX falling 4.3%. The sell-off in the miners was partly in response to the price-action in gold and silver but more so to the big drawdown in the general stock market. At some point, the Mining Stock Journal expects a sharp U-turn in the precious metals sector from large pools of cash looking for flight to safety as well as value plays.
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….
Ascot Resources reported initial positive grade reconciliation between muck samples and the block model grade from underground development from the Big Missouri deposit at its Premier Gold Project in the Triangle of British Columbia. Combined results from ore drives 1 and 2 yielded overall 9% positive grade reconciliation from muck samples compared to the resource block model. As expected, the Company encountered high variability in development round grades often associated with high-grade epithermal gold deposits. It said the initial results suggest there is good potential to increase mined grades by continuously improving external mining dilution. Underground development at Big Missouri has completed over 815 metres of development to date, with 150 metres remaining. Ascot Resources trades on the TSX under AOT and on the OTCQX under AOTVF. News release
Troilus Gold reported assay results from an ongoing 11,000-metre drill campaign at its Troilus Project in northcentral, Quebec in Canada, which aims to expand and identify higher-grade mineralization to the northern and southern extents of Zone 87, the larger of two formerly mined pits. It said the results reported today are among the thickest and most continuous high grades identified at the Project, including the single highest-grade interval ever drilled at Troilus, while a new shallow and high-grade panel of mineralization has been defined over 300m at the border of the Z87 PEA pit shell, which was not modelled in the 2020 Preliminary Economic Assessment. Troilus believes this new zone will have a positive impact on project economics and it will aggressively work on defining the impact of this shallow high-grade material, and intends to shift its engineering focus to the delivery of a Feasibility Study, rather than a pre-feasibility study as initially planned. Highlights included 46m grading 4.38 g/t AuEq. Troilus Gold trades on the TSX under TLG and on the OTCQX under CHXMF. News release
Denison Mines said it recovered uranium-bearing solution from the Phoenix in-situ recovery ("ISR") Feasibility Field Test at its Wheeler River project in the Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan, which it said was an historic moment for uranium mining in Canada. It said the company achieved targeted rates and grades with analysis indicating that the hydrogeological system responded as expected with pH trends, flow characteristics and uranium recovery meeting expectations. Given these results, lixiviant injection has ceased, and operators at Phoenix are preparing to transition from the leaching phase of the field test to the neutralization phase, which is expected to be completed before the end of the year. The final phase of the FFT, which involves management of the recovered solution, is expected to commence in the June quarter of 2023. A 2018 Pre-Feasibility Study on Wheeler River with ISR at Phoenix and a conventional underground mine at the Gryphon deposit estimated production of 109.4 million pounds U3O8 over a 14-year mine life following pre-production capital expenditures of $322.5 million. Denison Mines trades on the TSX under DML and on the NYSE American under DNN. News release
Adventus Mining and Salazar Resources announced the first infill drilling results for the underground portion of the Mineral Resource at the El Domo volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit at the Curipamba project in Ecuador. 15 of 48 definition drill holes have been completed for 3,388 metres from a planned 12,000 metres. Two geotechnical and two hydrogeological drills continue to support the detailed engineering for the El Domo open pit. Highlights included 6.91 metres grading 3% copper, 1.55 g/t gold, 7.64% zinc, 34.0 g/t silver, and 0.11% lead for 6.17% copper equivalent in hole 394. The results will be used to update the underground portion of the Mineral Resource estimate for El Domo in 2023, which will be part of a future feasibility study which will integrate the development a potential underground operation in addition to the planned open pit. Adventus Mining trades on the TSXV under ADZN and on the OTCQX under ADVZF while Salazar Resources trades on the TSXV under SRL and on the OTCQB under SRLZF. News release
The Mining Stock Daily morning briefing is produced by Clear Creek Digital and Investment Research Dynamic’s Mining Stock Journal. It is distributed throughout the world through your podcast network of choice, and by our friends at the Junior Mining Network.
The information presented should not be considered investment advice. Mining stock daily and its affiliates are not responsible for any loss arising from any investment decision in connection with the material presented herein. Please do your own research or speak with a licensed financial representative before making any investment decisions.