Welcome to a roundup of some of our financing, exploration, and development stories on Theassay.com over the last week. To keep up to date with all the latest headlines, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Financing and M&A
Over the last seven days, Lahontan Gold Corp (TSXV: LG | OTCQB: LGCXF) has entered into an amending agreement with Golden Arrow Mining Corporation as of 8 August 2023, in which the original lease with option to purchase agreement between the Lahontan and Golden Arrow from July was amended.
Pursuant to the option agreement, Lahontan was granted an opportunity to acquire the advanced West Santa Fe gold-silver exploration project, located only 15km west of Lahontan’s Flagship asset, the Santa Fe Mine, in Nevada’s prolific Walker Lane.
To exercise the option, Lahontan must make option payments in the aggregate amount of US$1.845M over a period of seven years and incur an aggregate of US$1.4M in expenditures on the property.
New exploration and development
North Arrow Minerals Inc. (TSXV: NAR) has confirmed at least four spodumene pegmatites at the company’s 100% owned LDG Property, Northwest Territories.
The pegmatites have been identified within 5km of the winter road connecting the Diavik diamond mine, with the city of Yellowknife, and within 1km of an alternative winter road alignment used in the past.
Ken Armstrong, president, and CEO of North Arrow commented “In a very short period of time, North Arrow has confirmed a new spodumene pegmatite field within our wholly owned LDG Project in the Northwest Territories.”
“Based on the size potential of these pegmatites, their location immediately adjacent to transportation infrastructure provided by the Lac de Gras winter road, and the fact that an exploration camp and drilling permit are already in place, we have refocused our 2023 drilling plans to test these discoveries starting in late August.”
Meanwhile, Hot Chili Ltd. (TSXV: HCH | OTCQX: HHLKF | ASX: HCH) has filed a National Instrument 43-101 technical report for its Costa Fuego copper-gold project in Chile. Wood Limited has prepared the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the project.
The PEA was prepared after Hot Chili’s 2016 study because of the addition of two satellite deposits, Cortadera and the San Antonio deposit, and the additional infrastructure required to transport the mineral resources to the proposed process plant at Productora.
The 2016 study was undertaken at a nominal plant throughput of 14Mtpa for a copper sulphide process plant and a 3.3Mtpa nominal throughput for the oxide heap leach process facility. This PEA considers a 20Mtpa nominal plant throughput for a copper sulphide process plant and 3.3Mtpa of oxide feed to be processed via a crushing-agglomeration-heap leach circuit coupled with a SX/EW plant producing up to 10Kt/a of copper cathode (increasing to 12Kt/a in Year 8).
Drilling results
Galileo Mining Ltd (ASX: GAL) has announced exploration results from RC drilling at the Jimberlana prospect within the company’s wholly owned Norseman project in Western Australia.
According to the company, the drilling intercepted nickel and copper sulphides. The sulphides were found in shallow sulphide lenses that began at roughly 59m below the surface. The best result came from a 1m @0.83% Ni, 0.36% Cu and 0.07% Co from 74m below (NRC456). A broader interval of the drilling covering 7m @0.22% Ni, 0.13% Cu, and 0.02% Co from 68m below (NRC456).
Galileo’s managing director Brad Underwood commented, “Finding nickel sulphides in the first RC drill programme at a new prospect is a very encouraging sign. This result illustrates the fundamental potential of our Norseman prospects, not only for nickel-palladium discoveries such as Callisto, but for high value nickel sulphide deposits.”
Also, Kuniko Limited (ASX: KNI) has achieved significant progress through two successful drilling campaigns at its Skuterud Cobalt Project, affirming the project’s potential for high-grade cobalt mineralization.
The maiden drill programme conducted in mid-2022 focused on validating and extending the historical mineralized position at the Middagshvile target, yielding valuable insights into the project’s potential. Notably, this programme strategically included an additional drill hole positioned north of the Middagshvile site, setting the stage for deeper exploration.
Building on the discoveries of the maiden campaign, the second diamond drilling campaign in 2023 further solidified Kuniko’s understanding of the mineralized system. This comprehensive programme not only confirmed the presence of mineralization observed in the maiden programme but also unearthed new mineralized horizons, particularly in drillholes KNI_MDV011 to KNI_MDV014.
Other company news
In other news, Century Lithium Corp. (TSXV: LCE | OTCQX: CYDVF | Frankfurt: C1Z) has reported successful progress in its collaboration with Koch Technology Solutions (KTS), a Koch Engineered Solutions (KES) company.
Century Lithium and KTS are working together on the application of KTS’s Li-ProTM system at Century’s lithium extraction facility (pilot plant) in Amargosa Valley, Nevada, USA.
President and CEO, Bill Willoughby, commented, “Century Lithium is delighted to see the progress made in our collaboration with Koch Technology Solutions.”
“Our team, with KTS’s input has successfully incorporated and operated the equipment at our pilot plant with significantly improved results.”
Since October 2021, the company has been continuously testing the extraction of lithium from the claystone found at its wholly owned Clayton Valley lithium project, Nevada, utilizing a chloride-based leaching process. Testing of the Li-ProTM system was conducted to evaluate potential improvements in the direct lithium extraction (DLE) area of the pilot plant.
