US Federal Government Hands Trilogy Metals a Big Setback

Welcome to Mining Stock Daily. I’m Trevor Hall. And I’m Paul Harris.

Today is Wednesday, February 23rd. 

The price of gold took a big tumble from US$1,914 per ounce to as low as $1,893 early Tuesday morning right after India and China closed shop for the day, and the London gold market took command of the precious metals trading action. This was despite the overt escalation of the Ukraine situation. Gold bounced around for the remainder of the western derivatives-based trading activity day and settled right at $1,900. 

The Mining Stock Journal commented that, for now at least, the gold price management team will give its best effort at keeping gold tied to $1,900 or lower. 

Silver was sucker-punched lower along with gold early Tuesday am but then inexplicably shot up well before the Comex opened, running from $23.97 per ounce to as high as $24.37 before settling at $24.14. The Mining Stock Journal simply does not have an explanation for this beyond the rumors that the supply of physical silver is getting tight again. 

The mining stocks fell along with the stock market, with the GDX down 1.13% and the larger cap Amex Gold Bugs Index was down 1.80%. This was either in correlation with the entire stock market or a signal of an impending price ambush on gold and silver. Regardless, the newsletter believes the precious metals sector is in buy-the-dip mode now.

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… 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 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….

Trilogy Metals received another setback on the development of the Ambler Access Project (AAP) for the Arctic copper project in Alaska, USA it is looking to develop with Australia’s South32 as the US Department of the Interior (DOI) filed a motion to remand the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and suspend the right-of-way permits issued to their local development partner, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA). The DOI said the suspension will allow it to carry out additional supplemental work on the environmental impact statement. Some native American groups oppose the road development due to the potential impacts on subsistence hunting. Trilogy Metals trades on the TSX and NYSE under TMQ. News release

i-80 Gold started underground mining at its Granite Creek mine in Nevada, USA with the first stoping area defined and mining of the stope access underway as it targets production this year. Mined material will be stockpiled on-site in preparation for trucking to Nevada Gold Mines' Twin Creeks facility for processing. The underground deposit at Granite Creek is one of the highest-grade gold deposits in North America with resource grades in excess of 10 grams per tonne gold. An interim processing arrangement with Nevada Gold Mines has allowed i-80 to fast-track the underground development, which is one of four sites being prepared for mining in advance of the restart of its Lone Tree processing facility. i-80 Gold trades on the TSX under IAU and on the OTCQX under IAUCF. News release

Surge Copper announced assay results for 13 holes from the Seel breccia zone at its Ootsa property in British Columbia, Canada. Highlights including 80m grading 1.16% copper equivalent from 22m downhole depth in hole 314. The company said drilling has defined a zone of high-grade breccia-style mineralization that starts near surface and is over 100m wide, approaches 100m deep. The Seel breccia zone is 200m north of the East Seel deposit and contains high-grade copper and silver mineralization that extends from surface along a series of steeply dipping brecciated zones. Surge Copper trades on the TSXV under SURG and on the OTCQX under SRGXF. News release

Benchmark Metals announced new results from four drill holes extending across 750m strike-length from the Cliff Creek North (CCN) to Cliff Creek Mid Zones at its Lawyers gold-silver project in British Columbia, Canada. Drilling yielded broad zones of bulk-tonnage and high-grade mineralization with a highlight of 118m grading 2.23 grams per tonne gold and 25.01g/t silver. The company said the new results have potential to pull the pit-shell below 340m depth. Drilling so far in 2022 has yielded over >10,000m and continues to expand mineralization in multiple deposit areas. An updated resource estimate is underway. Benchmark Metals trades on the TSXV under BNCH and on the OTCQX under BNCHF. News release

Arizona Sonoran Copper announced interim results from ongoing metallurgical testing programs, in the form of sequential assaying, bottle roll testing and column testing for the mineral resources at its Cactus mine in Arizona, USA, which demonstrated improved overall recoveries of ~1% total soluble copper and a decreased net acid consumption by about 12% or 2lb per ton of material. The company said the results further de-risk the technical assumptions used in the Cactus PEA as it moves towards completing a PFS this year. Arizona Sonoran Copper trades on the TSX under ASCU. News release

New Pacific Metals announced assay results of an additional eight drill holes from the Discovery Drill Program completed in 2021 at the Carangas Silver-Gold Project, Oruro Department, in Bolivia. The drill holes intersected broad silver-rich mineralization near surface, including 9.67 meters of 102 g/t silver, .77% lead and 1.13% zinc and 322 meters of 1.03 gt gold and 12 g.t silver. The Company has commenced a resource definition drilling program at Carangas Project with two drill rigs currently and a third rig to be added after the end of the rainy season in March. An initial 30,000 m drill program has been planned for this year which could be extended to 40,000 m or more if on-going drill results continue to be encouraging. New Pacific Metals trades on the TSX with NUAG and on the NYSE with NEWP. News Release

K92 Mining announced results from an updates resource estimate completed on the Kora deposit and the maiden resource for the Judd deposit, at its producing Kainantu Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea. Kora’s measured and indicated resource of 2.1 million ounces at 9.20 g/t gold equivalent represents a 91% increase from the previous resource estimate. Its inferred resource sits at 2.5 million ounces at 9.48 g/t. The Judd Deposit’s M&I resource currently sits at 130,000 ounces at 11 g/t gold equivalent while its inferred resource is at 180,000 ounces at 5.66 g/t gold equivalent. Similar to Kora, a large portion of the Judd Mineral Resource is high grade, particularly for Measured and Indicated Resources, with moderate reductions in overall ounces as cut-off grade increases. Kora remains open along strike and at depth, while Judd remains open in all directions. K92 Mining trades on the TSX with KNT and on the OTCQB with KNTNF. News Release

That concludes today’s morning briefing.

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