Morning Briefing: Vizsla Copper to Acquire Universal Copper in BC

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

Today is Wednesday February 14th.

After rallying overnight during eastern hemisphere trading hours and, believe it or not, through the London a.m. price fix, gold was slaughtered right after the Comex open in response to a higher than expected inflation report. The price plunged in the paper market from $2,043 to $2,003 - April contract basis. Gold closed at $2,005. Silver similarly rose overnight during the eastern physical buying feeding session but was shoved off the cliff with gold, dropping from $23 to as low as $22.03 - March basis - before bouncing to close $22.16. The Mining Stock Journal is encouraged that gold held above $2000 and silver held above $22.16. The mining stocks were massacred, with the Arca Gold Bugs index down 6.5% and GDX down 5.1%. The Mining Stock Journal noted that the large producer stocks were hit the hardest for some reason while many of the junior microcap stocks were left unscathed. The newsletter said, in the context that investors flock to gold as an inflation hedge, it's absurd that gold and silver were hammered on a bad inflation report. It illustrates corrupt nature of the gold and silver derivatives markets

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… Vizsla Silver

Vizsla Silver is focused on becoming one of the world’s largest single-asset silver producers through the exploration and development of the 100% owned Panuco-Copala silver-gold district in Sinaloa, Mexico. The company consolidated this historic district in 2019 and has now completed over 325,000 meters of drilling. The company has the world's largest, undeveloped high-grade silver resource. Learn more at ⁠https://vizslasilvercorp.com/⁠

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

Vizsla Copper has entered into an agreement to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Universal Copper, which includes its flagship Poplar Project in British Columbia. The Project hosts a current undiluted indicated mineral resource of 152.3 million tonnes grading 0.32% copper, 0.009% molybdenum, 0.09 g/t gold and 2.58 g/t silver and an undiluted inferred mineral resource of 139.3 million tonnes grading 0.29% copper, 0.005% molybdenum, 0.07 g/t gold and 4.95 g/t silver. Under the terms of the Arrangement Agreement, all of the issued and outstanding UNV Shares will be exchanged for Vizsla Copper common shares on the basis of 0.23 Vizsla Copper Shares for each UNV Share. (TSXV: VCU) (OTCQB: VCUFF) News Release

Calibre announced ore control reverse circulation drill results from its Leprechaun open pit on the Valentine Gold Mine in Newfoundland and Labrador. The company completed 486 ore control RC drill holes totaling 9,168 metres, with the majority of the holes drilled on a 9 by 9 metre grid spacing. Drilling identified previously unrecognized high-grade gold mineralization outside of Mineral Reserves which will lead to additional ore tonnes in the drilled area compared to the 2022 Valentine Feasibility Study. Results included 46.53 g/t Au over 5.3m and 17.16 g/t over 7m. The Initial ore control block model shows an increase of +15% ore tonnes and an increase of +12% ounces vs the 2022 Mineral Reserve. (TSX: CXB; OTCQX: CXBMF) News Release

Barrick Gold published their full year gold production numbers, which sit at just over 4 Million ounces and its copper output at 420 million pounds. Chief executive Mark Bristow said despite picking up the pace in the latter half of the year, Barrick couldn’t quite make up for the challenges it faced in the first half, and gold production fell slightly short of the annual guidance as flagged with the Q3 results. Nevada Gold Mines had a stronger fourth quarter on the back of higher grades and operational improvements, while Pueblo Viejo advanced the commissioning of the expansion plant, addressing most of the equipment failures. Operating cash flows increased year-on-year by 7% to $3.7 billion and free cash flow4 was up by 50% at $646 million. Net earnings increased by 200% to $0.72 per share, and adjusted net earnings5 increased by 12% to $0.84 per share, while the quarterly dividend was maintained at 10 cents per share. (NYSE:GOLD) (TSX:ABX) News Release

QC Copper and Gold says they have completed an initial four-hole drill program on the Cooke and Robitaille mines corridor, adjacent the Opemiska Open Pit. The company says visual results from this drill program confirm significant widths of mineralization. Although assays are pending, the Company's experience in the district defining open-pit type material these results are encouraging. This drill program targeted step-out areas of interest that could contain new resources with sufficient widths for open-pit mining. Very little drilling into the Gwillim Fault Complex has been done, and the structure extends over 15 kilometres within the greater Opemiska Project Property.  (TSXV: QCCU) News Release

New Found Gold released new results from 19 diamond drill holes that were completed as part of a follow-up drill program at Iceberg East, a high-grade zone located 300m northeast of Keats along the highly prospective Appleton Fault Zone. Results included 13.3m of 7.56 g/t Au and included a .8m interval of 91.75 g/t, 5m of 15.38 g/t with a 1m interval of 63.73 g/t, and 14.25m of 5.5 g/t with a 1m interval of 48.6 g/t Au.  When combined with the 400m high-grade segment of Keats Main, this near-surface, corridor now covers over 1km of strike. (TSX-V: NFG, NYSE-A: NFGC) News Release

The Mining Stock Daily morning briefing is produced by Clear Commodity Network 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.