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 previous seven days, Ascendant Resources Inc. (TSX: ASND | OTCQB: ASDRF | FRA: 2D9) has announced it is finalizing an amendment to the existing metals purchase and sale agreement with Sprott Resource and Streaming Royalty Corp., including an increased deposit of US$4M against future production at its Lagoa Salgada VMS project in Portugal.
The agreement is being amended to increase the stream percentage to 2.75% of gross metals from 1.75%. To facilitate funding in advance of commercial production, the parties intend to amend the existing 10% secured note from US$15M to US$19M. The amendments are expected to be completed and funded on or around 29 November 2023.
Proceeds will fund development works including metallurgical work aimed to further enhance both recoveries and concentrate qualities at Lagoa Salgada as well as optimizing the mine plan, production scheduling, and plant size which are expected to improve project economics.
Mako Gold Limited (ASX: MKG) has received strong support of its fundraising, securing binding commitments from new and existing investors to raise A$2.0M (before costs) to be completed via the placement of new shares across two tranches, at A$0.01 each.
The company has also entered into an exclusivity agreement with private Côte d’Ivoire exploration company, Goldridge Resources Pty Ltd with the aim to execute an accretive transaction to create a district scale gold play with multi-million-ounce potential and target in-country growth opportunities in the gold and battery metals space.
Subject to completion of a Goldridge transaction, Mako has proposed two strategic appointments: Jeremy Clark as a proposed non-executive director and Dr. Caigen Wang as a proposed strategic advisor. Clark is a geologist with over 20 years of mining and exploration experience with extensive West African gold experience. Dr. Wang is a mining engineer with more than 25 years’ experience and a PhD in geotechnical engineering.
New exploration and development
Also, Galileo Mining Ltd (ASX: GAL) has announced exploration results from geophysical IP surveying at the Callisto deposit at the company’s wholly-owned Norseman project, Western Australia.
The IP survey results highlight strong chargeable features associated with the Callisto deposit and geological modelling has confirmed a lower ultramafic sill target zone beneath the deposit which matches the geophysical target.
The North Callisto prospective sulphide trend along strike from NRC4721, 28m @0.18g/t 3E, was interpreted as geologically analogous to Callisto and the company has reported that the next round of drilling will commence in early December to test the Callisto and North Callisto prospects.
Newcore Gold Ltd. (TSXV: NCAU | OTCQX: NCAUF) has received positive results from two bulk-scale pilot heap tests completed as part of the ongoing metallurgical programme at the Enchi Gold Project, Ghana.
Two bulk-scale pilot heap tests, leached for 60-days, were completed on 15-tonne composite samples of oxide mineralization from the Sewum and the Boin Gold Deposits.
Greg Smith, VP exploration, commented, “These bulk-scale pilot heap tests completed on representative oxide material from the Enchi Gold Project returned high recoveries, in-line with results from metallurgical testing completed to date, further supporting the amenability of Enchi to heap leach processing. The larger, 15-tonne samples are a significant step in confirming the positive results from the extensive lab testing completed to date. These results, along with the additional positive test results completed and reported since 2021, will be incorporated into our updated preliminary economic assessment study which is targeted for completion in H1 2024.”
Drilling results
Meanwhile, Sky Metals Limited (ASX: SKY) has announced further exploration results at its Tallebung tin project in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The results have substantially expanded the extent of the known tin mineralization at the project.
Two groundwater monitoring bores were drilled to commence recording data for mining and environmental permits to progress Tallebung. The bores were designed to be drilled well outside of any known tin mineralization and any potential future open pit area.
The drilling outside of the ‘conceptual open pit’ was completed to commence the mine permitting process, with the bores completed over 140m from any previous drilling. One of the groundwater bores intercepted strong tin mineralization results, including hole TBRC072 with 18m @0.12% Sn from 14m, including 1m @1.27% Sn & 0.03% W from 24m.
Outcropping quartz veins approximately 200m from the current extent of drilling have also been discovered, with visible cassiterite-tin, rock chip samples collected. Assays are still pending for these samples.
Other company news
Finally, American Lithium Corp. (TSXV:LI | NASDAQ: AMLI | Frankfurt:5LA1) has announced that a three-judge tribunal of Peru’s Superior Court SALA 4 specialized in administration disputes has unanimously upheld the ruling of the lower court judge from Court SALA 6 announced on 2 November 2021 in favour of the company’s subsidiary, Macusani Yellowcake in relation to title over 32 disputed concessions out of 172 owned by Macusani.
Simon Clarke, CEO of American Lithium states, “We are extremely pleased with this ruling as it validates the company’s contention that the actions of INGEMMET and MINEM were inappropriate from the start of this process. It is very encouraging to see that the Peruvian judicial system continues to support the facts of this case and has found against INGEMMET and MINEM for the actions they have taken. The company has never lost title over the disputed concessions, which only represent a small fraction of our leases. For this reason, we have continued to advance the Falchani project and look forward to the announcement of additional progress shortly.”
