Value Microcaps Junior Miners

[Lone Clone]

IAU, KDK, BTO, ARK, OGC x 2, ODV x 2, KRR, MAI

Must be PDAC time -- everyone decided to put out NRs at once!

Given the low offering price, it is no surprise that Nevada gold miner i-80 Gold aka IAU have closed its most recent PP heavily oversubscribed. They will end up with more than $23M, which depending on the spend so far this quarter, might leave them with more than $100M in their cash stash. Read the PR itself a list of insiders who took down over 160k of the PP shares, with CEO Evan Downie alone grabbing 110k.

Given where the current share price is sitting as a result of the PP, since it does not include warrants you can essentially participate in the PP itself by buying shares on the open market. That is what I have been doing of late.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/80-gold-announces-closing-oversubscribed-110000950.html

Kodiak Copper aka KDK released the final results from 2023 regional exploration on its MPD property in south central BC, and they only add to its prospectivity. They were able to identify five new targets at MPD, raising the total number of 24 targets, of which only eight have been drilled so far, with results still pending for two of those. MPD is looking more and more like it has district potential, with mineralization identified so far across 20 km containing a number of porphyries.

Two of the new targets are considered drill ready. At Blue, where a sample yielded h 3.19% Cu, 0.21 g/t Au, and 41 g/t Ag, geophysics has identified an anomaly that extends over 700m deep from surface, while soil testing has identified an anomaly more than a kilometre wide. At Celeste, where a grab sample yielded 0.69% Cu, 0.68 g/t Au and 4.5 g/t, geophysics and geochemistry has revealed a large target only 600m from the Gate Zone drilled out last year. Expect exploration drilling this year and these two and other targets.

Even though KDK has identified a district scale system of porphyries, the stock continues to be unloved by the market. The IKN newsletter last week gives a bit of perspective, reminding us how Ross Beatty made himself rich by accumulating similar large low grade porphyries in South America when no one else wanted them. I expect something similar to happen with the BC porphyry explorers in BC as the copper shortage generates more bites. To put it another way, I will continue to accumulate KDK shares on the dips.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34579084

Thanks to the recent developments regarding B2Gold aka BTO, there is little chance I am going to buy in any time soon, so I am going to cut back on my coverage. I will still mention when I come across a new analyst report. In the meantime, here's a link to their latest PR concerning Q4 financial results

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34580475

FWIW, in response TD issued a new analyst report calling the impact of the PR Slightly Positive, citing in line production with costs slightly below guidance, They kept BTO at Action List Buy (their top rating) with a target of $7.

Arras Minerals aka ARK brings us news regarding their Elmes prospect in Kazakhstan (which is not part of their exploration alliance with Teck). Last month we heard about the results of re-assaying historical drill core, and now we hear about the first 60% of the 31k soil samples ARK collected last year on Elmes, centred around the Berezski target, and it looks promising.

ARK has been able to confirm an 8.8km long Cu anomaly, and even more importantly, a 2.8 km x 1.6 km Mo 'bulls-eye' anomaly, which looks to be the centre of a very large poryphyry that reaches surface. Since it has not been drilled to depth and its outer extent is below cover, it will take drilling to confirm its extent

We will hear about the rest of the samples collected last year in about a month, and then I expect we will hear about a drill programme to come.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34580492

Oceanagold aka OGC reported its Q4 and year end results, and at best they were mixed. In Q4 the Halle mine continued to increase output as more underground production came on line, while Didipio in the Philippines did very well and the New Zealand operations well enough that with 2023 production of 477,313 oz Au and 14,172t Cu, OGC managed to sneak just in the the low end of 2024 guidance, though they missed on costs.

In 2024 they did achieve $1b in revenue for the first time, and although financially Q4 was not great thanks to non-cash writedowns, they did well enough for the quarter to increase their cash stash to $61.7M. If they can come anywhere near 2024 guidance of 510-570k oz Au and 12-14kt Cu at a cash cost of $875-975/oz Au, I expect them to grow that substantially while also paying down debt.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34580514

OGC also released their annual Mineral Reserves and Resource update. Although they were able to increase existing Reserves at some locations and declare new Reserves at others, net of mining depletion their overall Proven and Probable Reserves decreased slightly in 2023. Meanwhile their Measured and Indicated Resources also decreased slightly in 2023, while the much smaller Inferred Resources decreased substantially. They still have many years of mine life left, and a number of exploration opportunities, but if the decline continues it will have to be addressed at some point.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34580574

FWIW, in response to the two OGC Prs, BMO issued a new analyst report calling the impact Mixed. Noting the lower guidance for 2024, BMO kept OGC at Outperform but lowered their target from $4.25-$3.75.

Osisko Development aka ODV issued a rather odd PR with the sole mission of warning us that their 2023 annual results are going to look terrible because they will include a non-cash $80-120M writedown on the carrying value of the Trixie gold mine. To me this confirms that they are poorly-run company, and at this point I wish I had not bought even small amounts of ODV warrants, which I expect will expire worthless.

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/osisko-development-provides-upcoming-end-120000779.html

ODV also released the remaining assays from drilling at the Trixie mine, located on the Tintic property in Utah. They continue to intersect narrow high grade veins. They also released the results of an extensive underground chip sampling prgramme at Trixie, which similarly found a number of narrow high grade veins.

Expect a new Resource Estimate for Trixie to be released next month. We are also still waiting for the assays from a hole that was aimed at finding a porphyry below Trixie, which if it hits big could materially change the Tintic project. Likewise for the hole underway targeting the Big Hill Cu/Au/Mo target.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34580603

Australian gold miner Karora Resources aka KRR released the latest results from ongoing drilling at its Beta Hunt Au/Ni mine.

In the Fletcher zone, where they hope to find enough mineralization to declare an initial resource and start mining by the end of the year, drilling at the north end of Fletcher found significant results like 3.8 g/t over 33.0m and 34.6 g/t over 2.0m, with the drill now back in the central portion of the deposit doing infill drilling.

In the Larkin zone, infill drilling delivered assays like 6.7 g/t over 9.4m and 13.7 g/t over 3.5m. Again, these results will be integrated into an updated Resource Estimate and eventual production, as KRR works to achieve its goal of reaching an annualized 2.0 Mtpa of ore from Beta Hunt by the end of 2024,

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34580630

Mexican gold miner Minera Alamos aka MAI had a tough first year for its Santana Au mine in Sinaloa, Mexico. First, a terrible drought delayed the initial increase in production, and then the Mexican federal government started dragging its feet on granting the permits to expand the hep leach area and hence production. But a junior mine developer has to be nimble, and the very experienced management at MAI has come up with a new plan to increase production regardless by using the existing heap leaches to process higher grade ore from the Nicho Norte and Nicho Main zones currently being stockpiled.

They are currently in negotiation with contractors to carry out the necessary work and will release more details in the next few months. And of course, the permit for heap leach expansion could come at any moment, particularly if outgoing President AMLO's party does poorly in the upcoming elections.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34580656