Welcome to our roundup of some the major mining investment, exploration, and development stories on Theassay.com from the last seven days.
One of the standout stories from this week centred around Steppe Gold LTD (TSX: STGO) reaching agreement for up to $65M in dept capital to fast track its Phase 2 construction of the ATO Gold Mine. Bataa Tumur-Ochir, the President and CEO of Steppe Gold said, “Following on the recent completion of the Feasibility Study for the Phase 2 expansion of the ATO Gold Mine, we are now very proud to announce this landmark US$65M financing package … Steppe Gold has cemented its position as Mongolia’s premier precious metals group.”
Benchmark Metals Inc. (TSXV: BNCH) has entered into an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters whereby it has agreed to purchase 10,000,000 units, 1,600,000 flow-through units, and 12,680,000 charity flow-through units of the company for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately C$30M.
The net proceeds raised from the Units will be used to fund ongoing project development expenditures and for general corporate purposes.
Exploration and development projects have also commenced in full force this week, with Laramide Resources LTD (TSX: LAM) initiating a helicopter supported reconnaissance stream and soil sampling programme designed to test for uranium, gold, and a suite of other precious and base metals, hosted within favourable geological units in Australia’s Northern Territory.
The programme is expected to be completed in 3-4 weeks’ time and results of the geochemistry and general reconnaissance undertaken are intended to inform an initial drilling program on Murphy which is planned for the next field season in 2022.
Canada Nickel Company Inc. (TSXV: CNC) has obtained promising results from the first phase laboratory scale testing, which demonstrates the potential for carbon sequestration in tailings at its Crawford Nickel-Sulphide Project near Timmins, Ontario. Chair and CEO, Mark Selby, said this is a critical foundation of Canada Nickel’s NetZero initiative to become the first zero-carbon nickel operation: “Today’s announcement is a critical demonstration that our tailings have the fundamental capacity to capture CO2 in amounts that exceed what we believe will be required to achieve net zero carbon production for our concentrates.”
This week’s drilling results begin with Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) continuing to obtain outstanding results from resource growth and greenfields exploration drilling at its 100%-owned Jaguar Nickel Sulphide Project in the Carajás Mineral Province of northern Brazil which are set to underpin a significant resource upgrade planned for December 2021. Managing Director, Darren Gordon, said the consistent flow of high-quality drilling results was testimony to the scale and quality of the Jaguar Project. Kairos Minerals Ltd (ASX: KAI) has received highly encouraging initial assay results from its reconnaissance air-core (AC) drilling program at the 100%-owned Kangan Project, located 70km south of Port Hedland in Western Australia.
In terms of significant company developments, Premium zircon producer PYX Resources Limited (NSX: PYX) has commenced trading its ordinary shares on the Standard Listing segment of the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) Main Market for listed securities under the ticker LSE: PYX. The company stated what while its primary listing will remain the National Stock Exchange of Australia, today’s dual listing on the LSE will enable the company to progress its development strategy. On Admission, the market capitalisation of the Company will be approximately £349.2M.
Finally, other news this week that Fission Uranium Corp (TSX: FCU) has confirmed it is actively collaborating and communicating with the Clearwater River Dene Nation (CRDN) and other rights-holders as it continues to advance the PLS project in Saskatchewan, Canada.
