Value Microcaps Junior Miners

[Lone Clone]

Talk about a rat deserting a sinking ship! Today Minera IRL aka MIRL announced that the the truly pathetic 'independent' director Michael Iannacone has resigned from the BoD just after he was re-elected along with the rest of the board in spite of a strong push by dissident shareholders. If he thinks this will insulate him from the lawsuits stemming from him going along with the malfeasance by current management, he is in for a shock. His only hope is that the current bunch of thieves manage to put together a deal for Ollachea and save their own and the company's necks.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/minera-irl-announces-director-resignation-123000725.html

Kootenay Mining aka KTN brings us an update from their JV with Aztec Minerals on the Cervantes Au/Cu property in Sonora, Mexico. Drilling has begun -- as usual these days, assays are still pending -- on four of the seven prospects identified by earlier exploration. The main target is the CalifornaiaAu oxide porphyry cap, which they think has the potential to be an open pit, but they will also be drilling several possible extensions of California as well as looking for an underlying Au/Cu porphyry, plus checking out a separate breccia pipe.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=33682645

And Scotia put out a huge report on PM streamers -- seriously, you could spend a whole day poring through the many charts and tables -- in which they rated Sandstorm Gold aka SSL as Sector Perform with Target $US10 and Nomad Royalties aka NSR at Sector Outperform with target $US11.

B2Gold aka BTO brought us news from its operations in the neighbourhood of its producing Fekola gold mine in Mali. They now have exploration permits covering the entirety of the nearby Anaconda property, located 20km from the Fekola mine itself. They have begun a drilling prgramme designed both to extend the existing saprolite (oxide) resource and to explore for deeper lying mineralization.

Moving even closer to Fekola, only 500M away in fact, they also released an updated Resource Report for the Cardinal zone. Between Indicated and Inferred, the Cardinal resource, which is already in production, now comprises over 1M oz Au. Drilling continues both at Cardinal and at several other nearby prospects.

These developments are all positive on their own, but when you add in the recent political instability in Mali, they also increase the country risk.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=33690353

I-80 Gold aka IAU released more drilling results from beneath the existing underground workings at their Granite Creek Au project in Nevada, where they are planning to start production later this year. This time the drilling was in the oddly named "South Pacific" zone, with the resulting promising enough -- highlighted intercepts include 17.2 g/t Au over 3.8M m and 22.0 g/t Au over 3.4M in hole iGS21-07, and 10.5 g/t Au over 3.8M and 8.0 g/t Au over 4.8M in hole iGS21-08 -- that the drill programme has been greatly expanded, with additional drill rigs being added. In addition, they now describe SPZ as the primary exploration target at Granite Creek. Once the drilling has been completed, we will get a new Resource Report.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=33690397

Wallbridge Mining aka WM released a set of drilling results from its Martiniere Au project, located just west of their main Fenelon gold project in Quebec. The results included a number of high grade if narrow results, like 46.76 g/t Au over 2.40M and 77.89 g/t Au over 1.00M. Most importantly, the drilling is starting to connect the known zones of mineralization into what is looking like one large block of potential ore. Wallbridge certainly thinks so, as they have budgeted for over 40km of drilling leading up to a Resource Report expected in Q4. If they can establish Martiniere as a bolt-on to Fenelon, which looks more and more likely, they will have a nice package to market to the bigger companies who will eventually build the mines.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=33690465

I am very disappointed that Wallbridge Mining aka WM did such a large offering at such a low price. The redeeming feature is that much of the offering is flow through shares hence so they are being prices at 55 cents, well above the current criminally low share price. As well, I was glad to see that Kirkland Lake Gold, one of the leading candidates to buy the Fenelon/Martiniere complex from WM, took part in the offering to maintain their ownership stake at 9.9%.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/wallbridge-mining-company-limited-announces-213200248.html

FWIW, I tracked down several analyst reports related to yesterday's PRs.

Yesterday B2Gold aka BTO announced a Resource Update and permit grant in the neighbourhood of their Fekola Au mine in Mali. Scotia saw these developments as positive but expected and so maintained BTO at Sector Outperform with a target of $8.

Yesterday i-80 Gold aka IAU announced the discovery of a new high grade zone at their Granite Creek development project in Nevada, and consequent expansion of a drill programme leading up to a Resource Report and the start of production H2. Again, Scotia views these developments as positive but kept IAU at Sector Perform with a target of $4.75.

Calibre Mining aka CXB brought us an update on their discovery and resource expansion drilling programs on their gold prjects and prospects in Nicaragua Included is a review of the successful 2021 exploration programmes, which included more than 100km of drilling and more than doubled reserves. The proposed 2022 programmes total over 85k of drilling with the aim of delineting 250k oz Au deposits to provide feed for their mills, This will include both near-mine opportunities and out and out exploration, as well as geophysics.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=33691904

Impact Silver aka IPT released more drill results from its producing Veta Negra Ag/Au/Pb/Zn mine in Zacatecas, Mexico. The headline intersections of 19.8M of 257 g/t Aur and 12.97M of 487 g/t Ag reflect the wide veins found in the area that will continue to provide profitable mill feed. Drilling has moved on to look for extensions of mineralization at the nearby San Roman mine, after which it will return to Veta Negra.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=33697565

Interesting developments at Queen's Road Capital aka QRC, which is primarily an investing vehicle for the six Aussie billionaires who collectively own 81.7% of the shares. I figured they might be getting pissed off by now considering how poorly QRC has performed since its inception, but apparently not, since all six have agreed to contribute $80 toward the a $100M PP announced this morning. One nice aspect of the deal is that no finder's fee will be paid for the $80M. The PR gives no indication of what might be done with the $100M, other than the vague it "will be used to fund additional investments".

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/queens-road-capital-announces-private-130000497.html

One of the mistakes made by the former management of Centamin aka CEE with respect to its Sukari gold mine in Egypt was to contract out underground mining five years ago. The new management did a feasibility study on returning to owner operated mining with positive results. As a result, now that the contract has run out, they are carrying out this transition, including purchasing the existing mining fleet. According to the FBS, this will lead to lower costs and greater flexibility as well as guarding against the grade control issues that have plagued the mine the last five years.

Mind you, management is not averse to contracting out certain jobs as required. They just signed a five year contract with Geodrill for underground drilling and related services.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=33699022

I-80 Gold aka IAU continues to pull impressive drill results from the underground portion of its Granite Creek gold project in Nevada, which is slated to become its first production centre later this year. Step-out drilling in the Ogen zone, beneath the existing underground workings, came up with 7.4 g/t Au over 73.2M including 13.3 g/t Au over 13.1M, 20.3 g/t over 7.5M m & 10.1 g/t Au over 17.5M in one of the deepest holes yet. As well, IAU reported a number of high grade results from the Mag Zone located underneath the existing open pit, which will be brought back into production in the coming few years.

Management is pretty darn excited by these results, and so am I. I really should add to my stash of shares.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=33699044

Oceanagold aka OGC released a comprehensive 3-year outlook for their gold and copper mines in New Zealand, the Philippines, and the US. First off, we get 2022 guidance of 445k-495k oz Au and 11kt-13kt Cu at a cash cost of $675-775/oz Au. This is a substantial increase from 2021 production due to Didipio ramping back up to full production after receiving delayed permits plus ongoing optimization at the Halle mine in the US. According to what they have laid out, production is supposed to increase another 10% or so in each of 2023 and 2024 with costs continuing to drop. As well, they announced that a technical review of Halle is complete but came up with no material impact.

So at this point, barring further disruptions with permits in the Philippines or weather issues at Halle, it is all down to execution, particularly bringing a new mine at Waihi in new Zealand into production. If they are successful there should be substantial appreciation in the price, assuming the PoG cooperates. I might just add to my stash of shares.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=33702189

FWIW, BMO put out a new analyst report in reaction to this PR. Citing the cost increases at Halle in the technical report, they saw the PR as modestly negative, keeping OGC at Outperform but lowering their target to $3.

Kootenay Silver aka KTN announced a $4M PP and then upsized it to $5M. I am hoping part of the proceeds will be used to provide capital to list their subsidiary Kootenay Resources, created to hold their BC properties.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/kootenay-silver-announces-upsized-5-132600179.html

Minera Alamos aka MAI brought us a review of the first partial year of operations at their newly constructed Santana gold mine in Sonora, Mexico. Although they have had to deal with Covid and extreme weather above and beyond the usual startup issues for any mine, they managed to exceed projections by stacking 9100 oz Au on the leach pad in 2021. Mining is continuing to ramp up, reagent consumption remains low, and gold recoveries are continuing to increase, which may indicate it won't be too many more months before they declare commercial production and thereby open the stock up to more institutional investors. A number of different optimization initiatives are laid out in the PR, my favourite being higher than expected grades in the ore straining the crusher capacity, a problem which has been mitigated. A nice problem to have...

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=33702326

An interview with the President of MAI is available here https://www.caesarsreport.com/blog/report-minera-alamos-interview-with-president-doug-ramshaw/

Goliath Resources aka GOT released some very impressive metallurgical results from test carried out ore from the Surebet zone on their Golddigger property in BC's Golden Triangle. Gravity alone yielded Au recoveries of almost 40% indicating it may be practical to produce dore on site, while the addition of flotation pushed Au recoveries over 90%, with what look like economic recoveries of the Ag, Pb, and Zn. Equally positive, it doesn't look like the use of cyanide will be required.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=33702361