Santa Cruz Picks Up a Glencore Bolivian Asset While Zinc Rises

Welcome to Mining Stock Daily. I’m Trevor Hall

Today is Wednesday October 13th. 

Gold settled up over $3 from Monday while silver dropped 15 cents. The Mining Stock Journal noted that on days when the stock market experiences a significant draw-down, gold has tended to turn in a positive performance, outperforming all major asset classes including cryptos. This has been the case generally since early September. Silver, on the other hand, has tended to correlate more closely with the movement in the stock market. The Mining Stock Journal said that the hedge fund algos are likely treating silver as an industrial metal and dumping paper silver positions along with stocks on down-days. At some point, the Mining Stock Journal said that this will change and the price action in silver will reflect its monetary metal attribute and it will move in correlation with gold as well as begin to outperform gold. The mining stocks, mostly the larger caps, also traded inversely to the stock market, with GDX up 1.83% compared to a 10 point drop in the S&P 500 and a 117 point drop in the Dow. The Mining Stock Journal said GDX has traded back up to a downtrend line of resistance in the chart. If it can push over that line and hold, the entire sector could be off to the races.

We’ll get to the news out of the miners and explorers in a moment, but first a quick mention of today’s sponsor. 

This episode of Mining Stock Daily is brought to you by… Integra Resources.

Integra Resources is advancing the past-producing DeLamar Project in southwestern Idaho. The Company has continued to demonstrate resource growth and conversion through greenfield and brownfield exploration and plans on delivering a pre-feasibility study in Q4 2021 to further de-risk and advance the project towards permitting. Integra Resources trades on the TSX-V under ITR and the NYSE American under ITRG.

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

HighGold Mining has announced assay results from ongoing drilling program at its Johnson Tract polymetallic gold project in Alaska, USA. With highlights including 56.6m @ 18.69 grams per tonne gold, 2.43% zinc and 0.47% copper in hole 125, which was an infill hole. The Johnson Tract deposit hosts an indicated resource of 750,000oz grading 10.9g/t gold equivalent. HighGold has three diamond drill rigs operating and is undertaking a regional geological mapping and geochemical sampling program, air and ground-based geophysical surveying, and a Phase I metallurgical sampling program. An updated mineral resource estimate is planned for early 2022. HighGold Mining trades on the TSXV under HIGH and on the OTCQX under HGGOF. News release

Amex Exploration shared results for 26 drill holes this morning, focused on expansion and definition drilling of the High Grade Zone on the Perron Project. Today's results are focused on on-strike expansion as well as definition drilling of the High Grade Zone as the Company works towards its maiden resource on the Perron Project. A complete list of results is available in this morning’s press release, but a few select highlights included 43.74 g/t gold over 6.9 meters from the Shallow Western High Grade Zone, which also included a half meter interval of 531.99 g/t gold. At the Deep Eastern Zone, drilling returned 28.64 g/t over 5 meters. In addition, Amex is awaiting results on over 14,200 samples at three labs from holes targeting the HGZ, Denise, QF Zone, and Grey Cat Zone, as well as regional exploration drilling. The company trades on the TSX Venture with AMX and on the OTCQX with AMXEF. News Release

Hawkmoon Resources has received new assay results from eight drill holes from its 5,031 metre summer drill program on the Wilson Gold Project in Quebec. A few results included 11.25 g/t gold over 3 meters and 10.67 g/t over 3 meters. All the Holes intercepted Toussaint mineralization. Assay results are pending for another fourteen Holes drilled between the Toussaint and east of the Midrim Showing this past summer. Hawkmoon Resources trades on the CSE with HM. News Release

Diversified miner and trader Glencore is to sell its Bolivian zinc assets to Santa Cruz Silver Mining for US$110M in staged payments. Glencore will receive an initial US$20 million upon completion and a further $90 million to be paid within four years or less. Santacruz will receive the Sinchi Wayra and Illapa subsidiaries. The assets include various mines, a concentrator, power plants and exploration and development projects. The deal is a good win for Glencore. Glencore and Sinchi Wayra enjoyed a difficult relationship with the administration of former Bolivian president Evo Morales which saw the government nationalise its assets such as the Vinto tin smelter in 2007. Glencore gets to monetise its Bolivia zinc assets and reduce its political risk exposure while retaining offtake rights, and it will get a 1.5% net smelter royalty to boot, at a time when zinc prices have jumped to over US$1.30 per pound. The deal also marks a diversification for Santa Cruz, which produces precious metals from the Zimapan and Rosario mines in Mexico with annual production of more than 4 million ounces of silver equivalent. Santa Cruz Silver Mining trades on the CVE under SCZ. News release

Mako Mining has received approval to undertake a normal course issuer bid to purchase and cancel up to 5% of its stock, some 33 million shares over the next year. The company is starting to cash flow from its San Albino gold mining operations in Nicaragua and has been using its cash to repay its debt as quickly as possible. Company management believe its share price does not reflect the value of the business and its future prospects. Mako has 659 million shares issued and outstanding which trade on the TSXV under MKO and on the OTCQX under MAKOF. News release

That concludes today’s morning briefing. We’ll be back later today with more market commentary and corporate updates. 

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.