Value Microcaps Junior Miners

[Lone Clone]

RIO, MAI, CEE, EDV, IAU

Rio2 aka RIO released a brief update concerning the Fenix gold project currently under development in Chile, or rather, not under development because a newly elected government delayed the permitting process. They highlight how that government lost a referendum on revising the constitution, in response shuffled the hard lefties out of cabinet, and are now aggressively trying to increase foreign investment in ways that could benefit the Fenix development process.

As well, we hear that long time CEO/President Alex Black is moving to Executive Chairman with the current VP taking over his former jobs. I don't mind this, as long as this management team with a great track record is still on the job, albeit with some different titles by their names.

We also got news that RIO had closed the sale of a non-core royalty for $5M, which will help tide them over the period until they get the permits and restricted cash becomes available.

(The IKN newsletter this last weekend also includes an extended discussion on how the Chilean government is now backing off its anti-mining stance, to the extent it is getting internal criticism from its own left wing. There are no guarantees, of course, but this bodes well for RIO getting its permits later in 2023 as the process wends it way through the bureaucracy.)

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34095636

Mexican gold miner/developer Minera Alamos aka MAI did not PR this, but they did file their Q3 financials on SEDAR the other day, so you can find them at that website of via the Investor section on MAI's website.

The bad news is that they did not have a bang up quarter at their newly operating Santana mine in Sinaloa, and hence have not yer declared commerciality. But given the difficult circumstances they have been dealing with in terms of Covid, inflation, and weather extremes, producing and selling 4236oz Au in Q3 is not so awful. (That area normally gets zero rain in the summer but instead got 400MM of rain in August, which interfered with both mining operations and the leach pad. Also note that in spite of all that rain, the area remains affected by a longer term drought.)

The better news is that in spite of all this they were cash flow positive for the third quarter in a row, and managed to generate a net profit of over $3M. They remain in good financial shape with almost $15M in cash, and their credit facility remains unused. If things continue to go even just this well -- I expect improvement -- by the time they have the permits to develop their second mine, Cerro de Oro, later next year, they may have enough cash on hand to develop it without taking on the small debt load they have been talking about.

MAI's share price has been weak of late, and the IKN newsletter brings us news that this has been the result of a large institutional seller with 20M shares to dispose of, and there are only 4M left to be sold, so perhaps they will run out of shares at the same time as comerciality is declared at Santana and the price of gold takes off, creating a perfect storm that finally allows the value in the company to be recognized by the market. In the meantime, the selling pressure creates a great opportunity to accumulate shares cheaply. If I wasn't already so insanely overweight in MAI I would be tempted to buy more myself.

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CEE, EDV, IAU

As much as Centamin aka CEE has for several years of necessity been focused on (so far successfully) turning around operations at their producing Sukari gold mine in Egypt, they have also been working away at some promising prospects in Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire. The most advanced of these is Doropo in CDI, and today CEE released an update on the PFBS for this deposit.

Extensive drilling since the release of a PEA on Doropo a few years has allowed the release of a new Resource Report with over 5m oz Au in the Inferred categories, but also a larger Indicated resource at a much improved grade, 2.13 g/t, which will in turn will improve the economics of the project. (But note that so far the Indicated Resource is small at only 160 oz Au, so more drilling will be needed to increase its size significantly.) metallurgical testing is also indicating that they may be able to use a much simpler and cheaper processing flowsheet than the one envisioned by the PEA.

The PFBS will be released in about six months, so expecT ongoing drilling and metallurgical testing to further improve the economics compared to the PEA.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34096943

Meanwhile, west Africa's largest gold producer, Endeavour Mining aka EDV, released a resource update for its Ity project, a set of producing gold mines in Cote d'Ivoire. Since the last Resource Report released at the end of last year, they have been able to add 800k oz of Indicated resources while increasing the grade from 1.56 g/t Au to 1.62. Drilling has also been able to unify seven smaller deposits near the processing plant into one large pit, decreasing mining costs. They are also well into delineating a new mining area called Plaque 7km from the mill at Yopleu-Legaleu, and another high grade deposit 22 km away shows great promise.

At the beginning of last year EDV set out a goal of developing 3.5-4.0M Indicated ounces at Ity by 2025, and they are already well on their way to meeting that goal with about 2M oz already on the books.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34096969

A few weeks ago we learned why i-80 Gold aka IAU was contemplating switching their mill at the Ruby Creek property in Arizona to include base metal circuits with the release of some very high assay results from CRD deposits on the property which included not only high levels of Au and Ag but also Pb and Zn. Today we get an update from the original focus of their drilling efforts, the Ruby Deeps deposit, and things continue to look very promising, with intercepts like 9.0 g/t Au over 51.2m and 7.1 g/t Au over 78.6m. These holes substantially expanded the size of Ruby Deeps to both the north and south, and mineralization remains open in both directions.

Given how well drilling at Ruby Creek has gone, IAU has again expended their current programme, so expect plenty more great intercepts, both CRD and Carlin-style gold, to come. Once the drilling is complete, we'll get a new Resource Report and an updated economic study.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34097003