Welcome to our roundup of some of our most-read investment, exploration, and development stories on Theassay.com over the last seven days. To keep up to date with all the latest headlines, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Financing and M&A
Mako Gold Limited (ASX: MKG) has signed a binding MOU with Geodrill Limited whereby Geodrill may subscribe for up to US$1M worth of shares in the capital of the company in return for drilling services at Mako’s discretion.
Under the terms of the agreement Mako agrees to commit up to US$2M worth of reverse circulation (RC) drilling, diamond drilling (DD), or air core (AC) drilling with Geodrill. The agreement is valid for 12 months, in two six-month stages of up to US$1M each.
“We have a long-standing relationship with Geodrill and have always been impressed with the quality of their work, including their extraordinary ESG initiatives in the communities where they operate,” said Peter Ledwidge, Mako’s managing director.
Vancouver-based Northisle Copper and Gold (TSXV: NCX) has agreed to issue approximately 12M shares to certain cornerstone investors and insiders of the company. The non-brokered private placement will be priced at C$0.165 per common share raising gross proceeds of approximately C$2M.
Proceeds from the private placement will be used for development and exploration expenditures for the North Island Copper Gold Project, as well as general corporate purposes.
New exploration and development
Chesapeake Gold Corp. (TSXV: CKG) has released a positive updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for its world class, Metates gold-silver project located in Durango State, Mexico.
“Particularly encouraging is the confirmation of an increase of 15.8% higher gold grade for the intrusive and intrusive breccia portions of the measured and indicated category of the MRE. The grade increase together with the previously released metallurgical results of our proof of concept further support the PEA development case,” said CEO Alan Pangbourne.
Canadian explorer Intrepid Metals Corp. (TSXV: INTR) has revealed its new district scale, advanced exploration copper property, the Corral Copper Project, located in Cochise County, Arizona.
The project area is located approximately 20 miles from the company’s Tombstone South property and has over 50,000m of drilling, with shallow mineralization of copper, silver, zinc, and gold.
Ken Brophy, Intrepid Metals’ CEO, said that after many months of developing relationships with local stakeholders, he was very pleased to introduce the Corral Copper Project in Cochise County, Arizona.
Drilling results
AVZ Minerals Limited (ASX: AVZ) has received further strong results from its Mineral Resource drilling at the Manono Lithium and Tin Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
It has now received assay results from the third consignment of four diamond drill holes at the Roche Dure North-East Extension drilling programme.
Results from the third consignment of four drillholes out of 45 originally planned resource drill holes at the Roche Dure North-East Extension, confirms further widespread, high-grade spodumene lithium mineralization including 113.33m @1.79% Li2O abd 860ppm Sn which includes a higher-grade zone of 36.0m @2.06% Li2O & 887ppm Sn.
Defense Metals Corp. (TSXV: DEFN) has welcomed favourable comminution results on multiple samples extracted from the Wicheeda rare earths deposit in British Columbia.
The data allows the design of the crushing and grinding plant that will be an integral part of the planned Wicheeda development. These data are essential inputs to the upcoming pre-feasibility study.
Metallurgy advisor, John Goode, said the comminution tests on 17 variability samples and a master composite show that the ore is soft, amenable to conventional grinding operations and has a low abrasion index.
Hot Chili Limited (ASX: HCH) has hit a significant drill intersection of shallow copper-gold porphyry mineralization on the recently secured western extension to the Cortadera copper-gold resource, the centrepiece of the company’s low-altitude, Costa Fuego copper-gold project in Chile.
New assay results have recorded the significant drill intersection of shallow copper-gold porphyry mineralization, confirming the presence of a fourth porphyry (Cuerpo 4) at Cortadera.
Diamond drill hole LD0001 was drilled as a confirmatory twin hole to historical1 AMSA drill hole COR-03 that intersected 128m grading 0.5% CuEq (0.4% Cu and 0.1g/t Au) from 28m downhole depth, including 16m grading 1.3% CuEq (1% Cu and 0.5g/t Au) from 28m depth.
IPO news
Steppe Gold Limited (TSX: STGO) has confirmed plans to pursue a dual primary listing of its common shares on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (HKEx), the premier listing venue for Asia-based companies, anticipated to occur later in 2023.
The company believes that a listing of its common shares on the HKEx will assist with historical liquidity and valuation issues and will also serve as a better venue for trading for its Asian based shareholders, as Hong Kong and Mongolia are in the same time zone.
“As one of only a few companies in the mining and precious metals sector listed on the HKEx upon successful listing, Steppe Gold will be further differentiated, with increased visibility, making it an attractive opportunity for investors seeking investment opportunities in this sector,” said Bataa Tumur-Ochir, Steppe’s president and CEO.
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