2022 has not been a great year for markets with the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq down 12%, 18% and 27%, respectively as of 27th October, while the value of mining companies on the TSX-V are down by 24% from US$54,018 million at the start of the year to US$41,296 million at the end of last month.
Despite this negative backdrop during the year, we have seen a total of 39 new mining issues on the venture exchange, of this there were 11 initial public offerings (IPOs), 5 reverse takeovers (RTOs) and 10 qualifying transitions by cash-shell companies with the balance classified as ‘other’. This compares to 67 new mining issues during the whole of 2021 and 48 in 2020, which shows the mining IPO market has still been relatively strong considering the weak macro-economic environment.
Of those 39 mining new issues an eye-watering 87% have experienced negative or neutral share price movements, with the average new issue price down 28%, as of 27th October 2022.
IPO’s appear to be the best method for a mining company to go public on the venture exchange at present with the average mining IPO price down just 14%, which compares to an average fall of 38% for RTOs and 46% for qualifying transactions.
Top performing new issue – Patriot Battery Metals Inc.
Patriot Battery Metals Inc has been the best-performing mining new issue to date on the venture exchange during 2022, up 240% since its July up-listing from the CSE. Following its up-listing, the Company has published a series of impressive drill results and discovered a new spodumene pegmatite cluster at its wholly-owned Corvette Project, located in the James Bay Region of Quebec.
The Company also strengthened its board with the appointed highly-experienced mining executive and former Managing Director and CEO of Pilbara Minerals Limited, Ken Brinsden, as Non-Executive Chairman and Director. Mr Brinsden experience of the Australian resource market will be hugely valuable for Patriot as it plans to dual list on the ASX before the end of the year.
More recently, the Company has increased its land position in the La Grande Greenstone Belt through the acquisition of a 100% interest in the Pontois West Project, which is located just 10.5 km west of its Corvette Property, adding an additional 8.3 km of highly-prospective lithium pegmatite trend to its portfolio.
Finally, following all its success Patriot has raised C$20 million in flow-through financing and is now fully funded to undertake its winter and spring drill programme at the Corvette Project.
Another strong performer – Canadian North Resources Inc.
Canadian North Resources Inc was the second-best performing mining new issue so far in 2022, up 145% since its IPO in April. Following its IPO, the Company commenced its ongoing 15,000-meter drill programme, which confirmed high-grade nickel-copper massive sulphides and high-grade palladium-platinum low-sulphide mineralisation zones at its 100% owned Ferguson Lake Project, located in Nunavut, Canada.
Canadian North Resources also filed an updated mineral resource estimate for Ferguson Lake, which defined 455 million pounds (Mlb) copper at 0.85%, 321 Mlb nickel at 0.60%, 37.5 Mlb cobalt at 0.07%, 1.08 million ounces (Moz) palladium at 1.38 g/t and 0.18 Moz platinum at 0.23 g/t in the indicated category and 947 Mlb copper at 0.91%, 551.5 Mlb nickel at 0.53%, 62.4 Mlb cobalt at 0.06%, 2.12 Moz palladium at 1.4 g/t and 0.38 Moz platinum at 0.25 g/t in the inferred category.
Given the significant potential for resource expansion along strike and at depth over the 15 km long mineralised belt, the Company also staked an additional 156.9 km2 claims surrounding the 96.9 km2 mining lease at Ferguson Lake.
New discovery sees a large share price rise – Lithium Ionic Corp
Lithium Ionic Corp. is up an impressive 31% since in May 2022 qualifying transaction. Since this time the Company has increased is ground holding at its Itinga Lithium Project in Brazil with the acquisition of a 100% ownership interest in two lithium mining licenses, also located in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
The Itinga Project is located immediately south of the CBL lithium mine and plant, Brazil’s only lithium producer, and immediately north of the large Barreiro and Xuxa lithium deposits of Sigma Lithium Corp (TSX-V:SGML, OTCQB:SGMLF, NASDAQ:SGML).
An initial 7 holes drill programme, totalling 900 meters, defined high-grade lithium mineralisation at surface for over 800 metres at the Outro Lado Target and led the Company to complete a C$25 million financing and expand its drill programme to 30,000 meters.
Getting off the Ground – Grounded Lithium Corp
Grounded Lithium Corp. is up 10% since its very recent August 2022 RTO of VAR Resources Corp. Grounded Lithium has a landholding of 73,259 hectares in Saskatchewan prospective for lithium brine deposits.
Its flagship Kindersley Lithium Project has a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate of 2.9 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent. Grounded Lithium is currently undertaking concentration testing with extraction testing to commence shortly. A Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) is targeted for Q3 2023.
The company has also announced a $5,000,000 unit offering to further advance its projects.
Spinout already delivering exciting results – Lavras Gold Corp (TSX-V:LGC).
Lavras Gold Corp. is down 12% from its June 2022 spin out of Amarillo Gold Corporation (TSX-V:AGC, OTCQB:AGCBF), which was acquired by Hochschild Mining PLC (LSE:HOC, OTCQX:HCHDF).
Lavras is focused on gold exploration in southern Brazil. Its LDS Gold Project, has 23 known gold prospects and historical diggings scattered throughout the 22,000-hectare property. These targets are at different stages of exploration but the most advanced are Butiá and Cerrito, which between them contain a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate of almost 1 million ounces of gold.
Recently Lavras has completed drilling at the Zeca Souza Target, defining bonanza gold grades near-surface in an exciting new discovery. This was a first pass drilling programme designed to test targets to relatively shallow vertical depths of up to 230 meters below the surface and 5 of the 14 holes drilled bottomed in gold mineralisation.
The next round of drilling at Zeca Souza will test deeper targets and extensions to known mineralisation. Further follow-up work may include a ground induced polarisation survey to better define the structural setting at Zeca Souza and to highlight any areas of high-chargeability and/or zones of high-resistivity.
Lavras is also investigating the relationship between Zeca Souza and the Caneleira Gold Target, located just one kilometre to the southeast. A fence of 12 holes, totalling 2,300 meters, were drilled into Caneleira in 2007-2008 and defined a 900 meter-long southeast-northwest trending gold-bearing structure associated with a magnetic low. A soil sampling programme is underway at Caneleira and will be followed-up by a 3,000-meter drilling programme in the fall of 2022.
Infrastructure underpins potential value – Premium Nickel Resources Ltd.
Premium Nickel Resources Ltd. is down 27% on its August 2022 RTO, despite a wealth of progress, including the completion of its acquisition of 100% of the Ni-Cu-Co-PGE Selkirk Mine.
Selkirk is located in northern Botswana, and was previously operated by Anglo American between 1989 and 2002. Premium Nickel is planning to complete an initial NI 43-101 technical report on the project, while also prioritising the preparation and exploration requirements that will support the mines redevelopment.
Premium Nickel also owns 100% of Selebi Mine, also located in Botswana, around 75 km south of Selkirk. Selebi operated between 1970 and 2016 and closed due to a failure in the offsite Phikwe processing facility. Over the next year, the Company plans to confirm the existing in-situ mineralisation and test the down plunge extension of economic mineralisation at Selebi, producing a preliminary economic assessment before the end of 2023.
The Company has completed 8,958 meters of a 15,000-meter drill programme at Selebi and initial results from this drilling have returned wide intersections of mineralisation. Selebi has two existing shafts that are fully functional, and the care and maintenance of the remaining infrastructure, rail, power and water, is ongoing. The Company estimates that the replacement cost of the current infrastructure at the Selebi Mine would be approximately US$400 million.
Market yet to realise the implications – Regency Silver Corp. (TSX-V:RSMX, OTCQB:RSMXF)
Regency Silver Corp. is down 32% since its April 2022 IPO despite the first result from its initial drill programme at the Dios Padre Project, located in Mexico, being very interesting.
The initial 2,000-meter drill programmes’ aim was to test the core of induced polarization (IP) anomaly, located 500 meters north of the historic Dios Padre silver mine, to determine whether it represents a significant continuation of the mineralisation at Dios Padre. Dios Padre has initial inferred resource of 9.5 million ounces of silver equivalent (AgEq) at a grade of 236 g/t AgEq.
To date only one drill holes from this programme has been reported to date and this intercepted a zone of very high-grade gold mineralisation with 4.7 g/t gold over 53.8 meters, including 35.8 meters of 6.84 g/t gold, 0.88% copper and 21.82 g/t silver, and 13.97 g/t Au, 50.25 g/t Ag and 1.11 % Cu over 9.8 meters. The hole ended in mineralisation and was stopped due to the 500-meter maximum capacity of the drill rig being used.
More assay results from this drill programme are expected shortly.
Big drop but PEA could see fortunes reverse – LithiumBank Resources Corp (TSX-V:LBNK)
LithiumBank Resources Corp. is down 57% since its April listing, despite well sampling at the 100% owned Boardwalk Lithium Brine Project, located in west-central Alberta, returning higher grades than the NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate of 5,973,000 tonnes LCE at an average grade of 67.1 mg/L Li.
A hydrogeological study and well network design has also been completed at the project returning exceptional flow rates. A Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for Boardwalk is nearing completion and updates are expected in due course.
In addition to the progress at Boardwalk, LithiumBank has recently increased its land position by over 530,000 acres with a strategic focus on Fox Creek, Leduc reef area. These permits were acquired directly from the government of Alberta and brings the Company’s total MIM permits (Alberta), and Mineral leases (Saskatchewan) to 3.77 million acres, or 1.52 million hectares.
Investors cannot see this blinding blind discovery – Astra Exploration Inc (TSX-V:ASTR)
Astra Exploration Inc share price has its fallen 60% since its January 2022 qualifying transaction. Since January, drilling at the Pampa Paciencia Gold Project, located in Chile, has indicated the presence of a large, gold mineralised epithermal system concealed by shallow gravel cover.
From the limited drilling completed to date, Astra has discovered three shoots of high-grade gold mineralisation over significant widths and have defined over two kilometres of vein strike length, all within an area that represents less than 10% of the total project.
Astra’s initial drilling has only focused on a small area of the project but has demonstrated that linear magnetic low features, particularly those oriented NW-SE to E-W, have a high correlation with concealed gold-bearing vein structures. While there is minimal vein outcrop in the project area, there is widespread epithermal mineralisation in surface float samples across the entire project demonstrating the high-prospectively of the project.
Potential of large mineralised system should drive a recovery – Infinitum Copper Corp (TSX-V:INFI, OTCQB:INUMF).
Infinitum Copper Corp. is down 66% following its March 2022 RTO, despite its Phase 1 drilling programme demonstrating the potential of its Adelita Cu-Au-Ag-Zn Project, located in Sonora and Sinaloa States, Mexico.
The Phase 1 drilling programme, consisting of 12 holes totalling 2,574 meters, defined well mineralised skarn at the Cerro Grande zone, which ranges from 3 to 36 meters true thickness, over 250 meters depth, with a strike length exceeding 200 meters. Cerro Grande remains open in all directions and the scale of the zone could be extended with future drilling.
The results of the spring 2022 geophysical survey have revealed a series of strong conductive anomalies in the axial fold plane of the anticlinal fold that hosts Cerro Grande and Pericos zones. The mineralisation occurring throughout La Adelita Anticline, Las Trancas zone and the neighbouring former producing Alamov Dorado mine are all believed to be derived from the same buried porphyry system at Mezquital.
As a result, the mineralised system extends 10 km east to west and at least 5 kilometres north to south, this area will continue to be the area of focus for the Company’s exploration efforts going forward. Phase 2 drilling, expected to commence following the summer rainy season, will include targets at Las Trancas.
Down but not out – Lahontan Gold Corp.
Lahontan Gold Corp. is down 81% on its April 2022 RTO, which is quite staggering considering the very exciting drill results the Company has been publishing since it listed.
Lahontan owns a significant land package in the heart of Nevada’s Walker Lane Mineral Belt. The Santa Fe Gold Project, within this package, has been the focus of the Company’s efforts so far this year. Santa Fe contains a historic operation that produced of 375,000 ounces of gold and 710,000 ounces of silver between 1988-1992.
Its Phase One drilling campaign totalled 9,410 meters and has resulted in the discovery of two new high-grade “feeder” zones, Bonanza and Big Horn, the expansion of the BH high-grade zone, and impressive volumes of good-grade shallow oxide and transition gold and silver mineralisation at both the main Santa Fe pit target area and at the Slab target
To date the first seven drill holes of its second phase drill programme have been completed, totalling 1,710 meters. These results confirmed the potential of the northern extension of the Slab pit with high-grade gold mineralisation returned over large intercepts.
Lahontan remains on track to deliver its maiden resource estimate for the Santa Fe Gold Project in 2022.
Tin market acting as a drag – TinOne Resources Inc.
TinOne Resources Inc. has seen its share price fall by a eye-watering 81% since its January qualifying transaction, as it has been weighed down by the 50% drop in tin prices since the start of the year.
Despite the negative back drop for tin metal at present, TinOne has made good progress at its Great Pyramid Tin Project in northeastern Tasmania, Australia and its Panama Gold Project also located in northeastern Tasmania, Australia.
At great Pyramid, the Company commenced a 5,000 -meter drill programme target areas below and proximal to the historical inferred resource. Initial results have returned high-grades in a new near surface zone and robust intersections at depth showing the presence of mineralised zones below the historic resource estimate.
At Panama, TinOne completed a 1,860-meter drill programme to target previously undrilled prospects defined by surface geology, geophysics, historical exploration and small-scale historical mining activity, assay results are pending.
Comments are closed.