The summer doldrums are in full force, with material news flow lagging relative to other parts of the year. Reduced news flow is expected to continue as we're entering the summer, where volumes are generally lower across the board, with many going on vacation. Things will pick up in August as Earnings season will once again be upon us. Gold looks to be rangebound for the time being, but because a near-term downtrend is in place, it wouldn't be surprising for gold to test lower levels, though unlikely it retraces to 2021 lows around $1,680/oz. But we will wait and let the market tell us.
$BTR, $KOR, $DSV, EQX, $GBR, $KGC, $LAB, $MGM, $MAI, $NFG, $ODV, $SVM, $VZLA
Bonterra Resources: Announced a significant increase in mineral resources across its deposits (Gladiator, Barry, Moroy). Total resources from these three deposits increased 78% (M&I) and 27% (Inferred). M&I resources currently stand at 1.242m oz. @ 5.21 g/t Au and Inferred resources currently stand at 1.781m oz. @ 6.05 g/t Au. The updated MRE is important for the PEA expected later this year. The company will contemplate hub-and-spoke operations leveraging its Bachelor mill (which is undergoing an expansion from 800tpd à 2,400tpd, approx. 75% complete.
Corvus Gold: The company announced additional drill results as part of the Mother Lode resource expansion program. Three new drill holes support expanding the Mother Lode's main zone in the northern part of the deposit. An updated resource estimate is expected to be compiled upon completion of the current round of drilling. Mother Lode drill highlights:
- 9.73m @ 1.43 g/t Au and 0.34 g/t Ag
- 22.82m @ 1.09 g/t Au and 2.09 g/t Ag
- Including 9.57m @ 2.05 g/t Au and 2.80 g/t Ag
- 118.28m @ 1.84 g/t Au and 3.14 g/t Ag
- Including 10.67m @ 3.18 g/t Au
- Including 82.02m @ 2.01 g/t Au
Discovery Silver: Announced results from 12 diamond drill holes targeting bulk tonnage mineralization at its Cordero silver project. These are part of the recently completed Phase I drill program and will be incorporated in a new resource estimate and PEA in the second half of the year. Phase II drilling has commenced and focused on resource definition and expansion. Highlights from the last holes from Phase I include:
- 66m @ 69 g/t Ag, 0.11 g/t Au, and 3.7% Zn
- 143m @ 39 g/t Ag, 0.13 g/t Au, and 1.30% Zn
- 59.5m @ 54 g/t Ag, 0.08 g/t Au, and 1.50% Zn
- 48.9m @ 85 g/t Ag, 0.08 g/t Au, and 1.1% Zn
- 59.4m @ 48 g/t Ag, 0.06 g/t Au, 1.0% Pb, and 2.0% Zn
Equinox Gold: Announced another illegal blockade at its Los Filos mine. However, this situation is far different relative to that the blockades in Q4 2020. The land Equinox leases land owned by three separate communities, and therefore the company has to deal with three separate unions. The community issues in 2020 revolved around the communities wanting increased social programs, whereas, in this circumstance, it's strictly about extorting money. The amount of money Equinox gives to these three communities is largely related to how much of the land package each owns, which makes perfect sense. In the case of this blockade, a group of unionized employees and members of the Xochipala community are both demanding payments in excess of their contractual agreements. Furthermore, this community only owns approx. three percent of the Los Filos land package.
Equinox will hold firm, and should this continue for much longer; the company will have to start laying employees off, notably those from the other communities who want to work and understand the mine needs to keep operating. They also know that the ongoing expansion project will create more jobs for them. Should this be the case and Equinox has to begin layoffs, the two communities that own most of the land will force/convince the Xochipala community members to give up their demands. Equinox could always have its security and the local police remove those blockading the mine, but the company prefers to have a long-term solution and not cause any bad blood.
Great Bear Resources: Reported results from its ongoing 2021 exploration program at its flagship Dixie Project in the Red Lake. Highlights from this press release include:
- High-grade intercepts include 400.00 g/t gold over 0.50 meters.
- Bulk-tonnage gold intercepts include 2.23 g/t gold over 77.40 meters
- 20.7m @ 5.14 g/t Au
- 12.15m @ 3.83 g/t Au
- 0.70m @ 55.40 g/t Au
Results from the bulk tonnage style mineralization:
- 23m @ 0.85 g/t Au
- 52.65m @ 1.02 g/t Au
- 106.7m @ 1.08 g/t Au
- 74.35m @ 0.73 g/t Au
Kinross Gold: Provided an update regarding Tasiast after the mill fire last week. Kinross revised 2021 production guidance quite a bit lower but maintained 2022-2023 production guidance. Mining activities (stockpiling) and project expansion work have resumed. Kinross has insurance and has commenced the claims process. Preliminary estimates indicate a restart of the SAG mill by year, with an expected cost of $50m. In turn, Kinross has revised 2021 AuEq production guidance lower from 2.4m oz. to 2.1m oz. In 2022 and 2023, production is expected to increase to 2.7m oz. and 2.9m oz. 2021 costs will be higher, not only due to the continuation of mining at Tasiast but because the operation is one of the company's lowest-cost mines.
Labrador Gold: Announced another high-grade intercept of near-surface gold mineralization at its Kingsway project near Gander, Newfoundland. This is an extension of the same Kingsway system on New Found Gold's land package. We should expect high-grade exploration results to come in throughout the year as part of the company’s 2021 exploration program, which was recently increased to 50,000m. Highlights from this release include:
- 1.85m @ 50.38 g/t Au (contains fine particles of visible gold in quartz vein).
- 2m @ 4.64 g/t Au
- 1m @ 9.82 g/t Au (from 16m)
- 1.61m @ 1.66 g/t Au (from 6m)
These results follow up some excellent drill holes In the last release including: 3.6m @ 20.6 g/t Au (Including 0.30m @ 103 g/t Au) and 2.4m @ 10.48 g/t Au. Eric Sprott and New Found Gold recently invested additional capital in the company, which is why Labrador increased its exploration program from 10,000m to 20,000m and more recently to 50,000m. If New Found Gold likes what they see throughout the year, it would make a lot of sense for them to acquire Labrador Gold, increasing its land package with high-grade gold mineralization.
Maple Gold Mines: Reported multiple high-grade (four), visible gold-bearing intercepts from the 531 zone at its Douay project, a 50/50 JV with Agnico Eagle Mines. The results indicate the potential for additional gold resources to be added beyond the current 2019 RPA 531 Zone underground mineral resource. Highlights include:
- 6.3m @ 2.4 g/t Au
- 9.2m @ 2.4 g/t Au
- 1.3m @ 4.80 g/t Au
- 1.5m @ 5.90 g/t Au
- 1.0m @ 21.70 g/t Au
Minera Alamos: Provided an update regarding the start-up of mining operations at the Santana gold mine. Construction has been completed, with the full leach pad now lined and available for stacking. First loading of mined material from the Nicho Norte pit began earlier in the month in preparation for the commissioning of leach operations around the end of June. Current planning is focused on the optimization of key parameters for full-scale operations at the Santana project:
- Blast designs suitable for efficient fragmentation of mined material;
- Crushing circuit optimization to provide throughput maximization for material from the Nicho Norte pit;
- Leach pad stacking plans;
- Open-pit haulage optimization and construction of roads for future pit development phases; and
- Leach plant testing and reagent preparation.
New Found Gold: The most exciting exploration story of the last eight or so months continues to get better. New Found has already illustrated exceptional high-grade mineralization at the Keats zone at its Queensway project, demonstrating similar (early) success at the Lotto zone. Highlights from this release include:
- 11.50m @ 150.28 g/t Au
- Including 2.45m @ 683 g/t Au
- 2.45m @ 683 g/t Au
- 6.70m @ 2.43 g/t Au
There is still a lot of drill remaining with approx. 55,000m of the planned 200,000m drilled to date with roughly 28,000m of core pending. Eight rigs are turning on site.
Osisko Development: Announced additional drill results from the ongoing 200,000m exploration and category conversion drill program at Cariboo. Ten diamond drill rigs are on the project. A total of 68 holes and 30,000m have been drilled thus far in 2021 at the Valley zone. Recent drill highlights include:
- 4.35m @ 11.39 g/t Au
- 5.10m @ 15.01 g/t Au
- 3.45m @ 11.54 g/t Au
- 10.70m @ 17.16 g/t Au (intersected a modeled vein corridor, increasing confidence of existing model).
- 1.2m @ 80 g/t Au
- 5.75m @ 7.86 g/t Au
- 15.15m @ 5.83 g/t Au
- 1.25m @ 73 g/t Au (drill hole CM-21-012 intersected ten mineralized vein corridors at least 3m wide extending vein corridors down to vertical depths of 440m).
- 3.60m @ 13.35 g/t Au
- 10.3m @ 6.81 g/t Au
- 0.60m @ 150 g/t Au
- 1m @ 34 g/t Au
Silvercorp Metals: The company continued to report excellent drill results, which will inevitably result in continued resource expansion in its Ying mining district. More specifically recent drill results have been from the LME mine, although all other mine sites at the Ying mining district are part of the 2021 exploration program. From October 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021, 17,752m from a total of 113 diamond drill holes, including 98 underground holes and 15 surface holes, were completed at the LME mine. Assay results for 102 holes have been received, with 52 holes intercepting mineralization. Currently, seven rigs are drilling at the LME mine. Highlight intercepts of the LM5 and LM6 and parallel veins include:
- 0.91m @ 6,455 g/t Ag, 10 g/t Au, 5.28% Pb, and 1.19% Zn
- 0.68m @ 1,538 g/t Ag, 0.73 g/t Au, 5.65% Pb, and 1.89% Zn
- 0.65m @ 1,902 g/t Ag, 1.48% Pb, 0.32% Zn, and 0.48% Cu
- 0.94m @ 3,014 g/t Ag, 5.51% Pb, and 0.39% Zn
- 0.64m @ 1,596 g/t Ag, 2.06% Pb, and 0.63% Zn
- 1.08m @ 13,70 g/t Au, 19 g/t Ag, 0.51% Pb, and 0.88% Zn
Vizsla Silver Corp: Announced the results of an additional fourteen drill holes from the Napoleon prospect at the Panuco silver-gold project. Highlights include:
- 3.73m @ 105 g/t Ag and 2.85 g/t Au
- 2.62m @ 476 g/t Ag and 5.51 g/t Au
- 8.36m @ 372 g/t Ag and 5.58 g/t Au
- 4.87m @ 112 g/t Ag and 3.70 g/t Au
- 5.24m @ 67 g/t Ag and 4.43 g/t Au
- 11.34m @ 88 g/t Ag and 3.11 g/t Au
The company also obtained shareholder and court approval to spin out its copper exploration assets into Vizsla copper. The SpinCo shares or Vizsla copper shares will be distributed to shareholders on the basis of one SpinCo share for every three shares of Vizsla Silver owned.
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