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
Financing news over the last week kicked off with Steppe Gold Ltd. (TSX: STGO) undertaking a non-brokered private placement of approximately C$9,000,000 through the sale of common shares of the company at a price of C$1.10 per common share.
The proceeds of the private placement will be used to accelerate the Phase 2 Expansion currently underway in Mongolia, to fund ongoing exploration as well as to support the announced plans to pursue a dual listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Arafura Rare Earths Limited (ASX: ARU) has signed an offtake agreement with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy A/S.
The offtake agreement is for the supply of NdPr from the company’s Nolans Project in Australia’s Northern Territory to Siemens Gamesa over a five-year term (which may be extended for a further two years by mutual agreement).
Contract volumes (per contract Year) for NdPr Metal are 200tpa commencing in 2026, increasing to 360tpa in year two and 400tpa in years three to five to align with ramp up of the project.
“We are delighted to have concluded negotiations for our second offtake agreement. Siemens Gamesa is the world’s leading manufacturer of offshore wind turbines, and this agreement compliments our strategy to create supply diversification into the renewable & E-mobility sectors,” Arafura managing director, Gavin Lockyer, said.
New exploration and development
In exploration and development news, we heard that Ionic Rare Earths Limited (ASX: IXR) has moved to 60% ownership of Ugandan subsidiary Rwenzori Rare Metals Limited (RRM) which owns 100% of the Makuutu Rare Earths Project.
The news follows on from the positive Makuutu Stage 1 Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) which showed that Makuutu would have an initial 35-year mine life with EBITDA of A$2.29B and an IRR of 32.7% and subsequent advice that approval from the Ugandan Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD) to progress the construction of a technical facility and Demonstration Plant at the Makuutu Mine Site.
Eloro Resources Ltd. (TSX: ELO | OTCQX: ELRRF | FSE: P2QM) has announcedassay results from its last eight diamond drill holes from a definition drill programme at the Santa Barbara target, located in the company’s Iska Iska silver-tin polymetallic project, southern Bolivia.
Two of the drill holes (DSB-45 and DSB-47) filled in the gaps of previous drilling of the targets in the high-grade zone. The remaining six holes (DSB-44, DSB-48, DSB-49, DSB-50, DSB-51, and DSB-52) tested the potential south-eastern extension of the high-grade zone at Santa Barbara.
Drill holes in the southeastern extension of the Santa Barbara Deposit are notably Zn-rich, returning some of the highest Zn values intersected by the company thus far.
Pan Global Resources Inc. (TSXV: PGZ | OTCQB: PGZFF) has announced successful results for preliminary metallurgical test work from the La Romana copper-tin-silver discovery at the company’s Escacena Project, Spain. The metallurgical test work reported was completed by Wardell Armstrong International (United Kingdom), under the coordination and management of SCYPI (Spain).
“The high copper recoveries and concentrate grades achieved at this early stage are highly encouraging. It is not just the recoveries and concentrate grade that makes these results very good, it’s the combination along with low deleterious metals and coarse primary grind size, particularly when compared to what we know of the other deposits in the area, and potential for lower final energy consumption.” Said Tim Moody, Pan Global’s president and CEO.
Drilling results
Renforth Resources Inc. (CSE: RFR | OTCQB: RFHRF) has completeda six-drill hole programme, with mineralized graphitic mudstones hosting copper, zinc, and nickel intersected in each hole drilled over ~700m strike at the western end of a ~20km long Victoria polymetallic mineralized structure, which crosses the centre of the company’s wholly owned 330km2 Surimeau property.
In this drill programme, Renforth intersected net textured sulphides, which was notable, as one of Renforth’s key targets at its Surimeau project is to discover the source of the VMS stringer mineralization which has been observed in this, and prior, drill programmes.
The good news continued, with TomaGold Corporation (TSXV: LOT) receiving promising results from the year-end 2022 drilling programme on its wholly owned Obalski property in Quebec.
“While this latest programme has continued to intersect significant intersections on Obalski, we are particularly excited about the reanalysis results, which have increased certain historical gold grades significantly,” said David Grondin president and CEO of TomaGold.
Finally,Exploits Discovery Corp. (CSE: NFLD | OTCQX: NFLDF) has announced assay results from drill holes numbered four, five, and six, at its Bullseye property in Central Newfoundland.
The company has stated that visible gold grains have been observed within three of the six holes it has reported to date in close proximity to the Appleton Fault Zone as it tracks across Exploits’ wholly owned mineral claims.
Highlights of hole ‘BE-23-005’ include five occurrences of visible gold observed within veining encountered at 27.50m – 28.16m depth downhole.
Ken Tylee, vice president of exploration stated, “It’s impressive to see visible gold again in our fifth hole, 45m away from the 14.2g intercept reported in our first hole drilled at Bullseye. We are excited to find these locally high-grade vein sets at such an early exploration stage coming from a property with no previous drilling history. Our drilling operations continue, and we plan on providing further updates as the assays arrive.”
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