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 week, MINK Ventures Corporation (TSXV: MINK) closed the second tranche of a non-brokered private placement announced on 21 June 2023.
The second tranche raised gross proceeds of C$96,774.84 from the issuance of 293,166 hard dollar units at a price of C$0.15 per HD Unit and the issuance of 293,333 flow-through units at a price of C$0.18 per FT Unit. The total gross proceeds raised from both tranches of the private placement was C$323,509.74.
Each HD Unit consists of one common share of the company and one common share purchase warrant. Each HD warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one common share of the company for a period of 36 months from the date of issuance at an exercise price of C$0.20 for the first 18 months and an exercise price of C$0.25 for the remaining 18 months. Each FT unit consists of one common share of the company and one common share purchase warrant.
New exploration and development
Aston Bay Holdings Ltd. (TSXV: BAY | OTCQB: ATBHF) and American West Metals (ASX: AW1) have reported significant copper sulphide mineralization intercepts from the initial two diamond drill holes testing a blind gravity target at the Storm Copper Project on Somerset Island, Nunavut, Canada.
“Discovery of sedimentary hosted copper has been the true goal for all explorers at Storm, including Aston Bay. I’m delighted to report that, finally, the quest has succeeded, and we have definitive proof of a new sediment hosted copper system.” stated Thomas Ullrich, CEO of Aston Bay.
Diamond drilling of a large gravity target has yielded exciting results for Storm Copper exploration. Thick intervals of copper sulphides were intersected during the drilling, which raises hopes for potential new copper deposits.
The two discovery drill holes showed similarities to many major sediment-hosted copper systems around the world, such as those in the Kalahari Copper Belt and Central African Copper Belt.
Diamond drilling continues on high-priority copper targets with first assays expected in the next four weeks. Reverse circulation resource definition drilling is also underway on near-surface copper targets. Results from the 2750N and 2200N Zones are expected shortly.
Also, Iceni Gold Limited (ASX: ICL) has provided a significant exploration update on the Claypan target area at 14 Mile Well in the Laverton Greenstone Belt. The approximately 900km² 14 Mile Well tenement package is situated on the western shores of Lake Carey, about 50km from Laverton in Australia.
Recent exploration fieldwork within the Claypan target area, the majority of which has never been subject to modern systematic geological investigation, has recovered a large gold nugget on surface. This nugget was located in between two previous Iceni drill lines.
The gold nugget at Claypan is the single largest gold nugget discovery at 14 Mile Well since the IPO and anecdotal evidence exists for other large gold nuggets discovered in the Claypan target area.
Drilling results
In drilling news, American West Metals Limited (ASX: AW1 | OTCQB: AWMLF) has provided an update on its diamond drilling activities at the Storm Copper project, Nunavut.
Diamond drill hole ST23-03 has discovered a new near-surface zone of mineralization and a deeper sediment-hosted copper system in an underexplored area of the Storm project. The new near-surface copper has been named “Thunder”.
Hole ST23-03 has intersected two zones of visual copper sulphide mineralization. Highlights include:
- 76m of visual strong breccia to massive copper sulphide (chalcocite, bornite, and chalcopyrite) between 32m and 108m downhole
- 2m of visual breccia and dense vein style copper sulphide (chalcocite, bornite, and chalcopyrite) between 273m and 275m downhole
Managing director, Dave O’Neill, commented, “The diamond drilling at Storm continues to deliver, producing one of the best intersections ever seen at the project. Over 76m of near surface breccia copper sulphides with zones of massive sulphide have been intersected in the third diamond drill hole, ST23-03.”
Finally, Reach Resources Limited (ASX: RR1) has advised that assay results returned from the first sample batch of 833 samples have returned high grades across a large area at the Bonzer pegmatite field, Morrissey Hill, WA.
Results covering the Bonzer pegmatite field from a larger >2,000 regional and infill soil sample programme have returned results up to 759ppm Li2O. Drilling at the Bonzer pegmatite field remains on schedule to commence next week. The company has stated that strong, coherent lithium anomalism has been defined over an area of at least 1.5km in strike length and 0.7km in width, with results between 350-759ppm Li2O.
