Welcome to our roundup of the most popular mining investment, exploration, and development stories on Theassay.com from the last seven days.
Financing and M&A
The news kicks off this week with Eloro Resources Ltd (TSXV: ELO | OTCQX: ELRRF) entering into an agreement with Cormark Securities Inc. pursuant to which the underwriter has agreed to purchase, on a bought deal basis for gross proceeds to the company of C$5,000,060.
The net proceeds from the offering will be used for exploration and development at the company’s projects in Bolivia and Peru, and for general working capital and corporate purposes.
New exploration and development
In development news, Ascendant Resources Inc. (TSX: ASND | OTCQB: ASDRF | FRA: 2D9) provided a summary of recent exploration work and geological interpretation of its Lagoa Salgada Property in Portugal.
Mark Brennan, chairman of Ascendant Resources, said, “The infill drilling and DPEM programs have uncovered some very positive unexpected outcomes which solidify our long-held belief that the Lagoa Salgada property is still in the very early discovery phase of exploration, with significant untapped resource growth remaining.
“The potential to grow both the North and South Zones of Venda Nova, which are approximately 400m apart, as well as a prospective new target to the northeast of the property has the potential to be transformational for the company.”
KEFI Gold & Copper (AIM: KEFI) has continued to make progress with its Tulu Kapi Gold Mines Share Company (TKGM) joint venture project in Ethiopia.
Progress in Ethiopia over the past month has remained on track, with further advancement on the multi-party project financing activities and the early development works. Signing of the umbrella financing agreement remains on course for this quarter, with full construction to commence at the end of the current wet season.
This week an all-parties meeting of the Tulu Kapi Gold Project finance syndicate re-confirmed this plan to senior officers of the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines.
Krakatoa Resources Ltd. (ASX: KTA) commenced resource drilling at its 100% owned Dalgaranga critical metals project located approximately 70km from Mt Magnet, Western Australia.
The company has defined an Exploration Target, based on historical drill holes of between 1,470,000 to 3,185,000 tonnes with estimated grades of Rubidium (500-2000ppm), Lithium (50-300ppm), Niobium (100-500ppm), Tantalum (25-100ppm), Tin (50-700ppm) and Tungsten (10-100ppm).
“With buoyant prices of the project’s critical and tech metals fuelled by demand, we look forward to announcing the nature and extent of this potential maiden resource,” Krakatoa’s CEO, Mark Major, said.
Drilling results
In drilling headlines, we heard that Cannindah Resources Ltd (ASX: CAE) received promising assay results from its drilling programme currently underway at Mt Cannindah, copper, gold and silver project south of Gladstone near Monto in central Queensland.
“Once again CAE’s drilling programme at Mt Cannindah has delivered an excellent outcome for our shareholders,” Executive Chairman, Tom Pickett, said.
“We set out to extend past the northern section identified by the exceptional results released from hole 9 and achieved exactly that outcome delivering 295m @ 1.45%CuEq from surface.
“The board is delighted with these significant intercepts which are certainly hard to beat.” Pickett stated.
Galileo Mining Ltd (ASX: GAL) has drilled a “significant” palladium-platinum-copper-nickel-sulphide at the company’s 100% owned Norseman project in Western Australia.
Galileo’s Managing Director, Brad Underwood, said this an exceptional result from the Norseman project and, with every drill hole undertaken so far intersecting mineralization, the company is hopeful that the initial drill hole will translate into a high-quality resource for mining.
ION Energy Ltd (TSXV: ION | OTCQB: IONGF) has made a significant lithium brine discovery at its +29,000 100% owned Urgakh Naran Lithium Project in Mongolia.
The brine sample was collected at surface from a shallow pool and assayed 918 mg/L lithium. This is an exceptional early result for the company and is the highest-grade lithium brine known to have ever been collected in Mongolia. This is also in line with lithium brine results from producing operations immediately to the south in China.
Production updates
Finally, the main production news of last week was Victoria Gold Corp. (TSX: VGCX) releasing strong first quarter 2022 financial and operating results.
“Similar to previous years, the Eagle Mine’s gold production profile during 2022 will continue to be seasonal in nature. As summer approaches in the Yukon and the days get longer, we expect increased ore stacking and gold production to result in greater earnings and cashflows,” President and CEO, John McConnell, said.
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