Value Microcaps Junior Miners

[Lone Clone]

SNAG, IAU x 3, ARK

Yukon exporer Silver North Resources aka SNAG has added another set of properties to its portfolio. MPD is composed of three claim groups in the Silvertip-Midway district prospective for CRD Ag/Pb/Zn minerlaization similar to that being mined at Coeur's Silvertip mine. In fact, one set of claims adjoins both Coeur's Silvertip holding and SNAG's Tim property, while the other two are about 10km north. All three also have known showings of CRD mineralization.

According to an agreement between SNAG and Coeur, the set of claims known as Veronica that adjoins Tim and Coeur's properties has to be offered to Coeur as a JV on terms mimicking those on Tim. I expect we will hear more about exploration plans on these new properties once Coeur has made its decision. If the JV goes ahead, they will be required to reimburse SNAG 50% of exploration expenses.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34667092

First up, with the release of Nevada gold miner i-80 Gold aka IAU's financial report for Q1, we learn why they were so eager to complete several recent PPs that have cratered the share price to 52-week lows. They've been spending money like drunken sailors, with their cash stash dropping to $13.1M on Mar. 31st (plus $39M in restricted cash). For a company building three mines, i.e. that has to spend like a drunken sailor, that's not a lot of capital on hand, so completing a PP for over $115M helps keep things moving. (There is still no excuse for those warrants though, which I maintain even though it appears I will make a good return on the ones I picked up.)

We also learn that gold sales from residual mining were down to 2486 oz in Q1, so it's a good thing that the PoG is so high. IAU also sold over 10kt of ore for $2.3M, so they managed to generate a small profit on the mining side The rest of the PR reviews what we already know from previous PRs, except for one tidbit worth watching. They have been having to deal with water inflows into the existing workings at Granite Creek, though they seem to have the problem in hand.

So now we wait and hope that the PoG and upcoming PRs are enough to make the share price break out of the current low trading range.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34667123

Next we get the voting results from IAU's AGM. Reading these is usually a waste of time, but I figured with the way the PPs have cratered the share price, I would check out the voting The table is laid out in a way that makes it hard to see, but many directors had more than 5% of votes 'withheld', i.e. people voted against their inclusion in the Bod, with John Begeman topping the list of shame with over 17% withheld. In addition, almost 20% of shareholders voted against accepting the company's share incentive programme for directors and executives.

Considering how many of those shares are owned by insiders and thus automatically voted 'for, there is a lot of anger among IAU shareholders right now.

https://www.i80gold.com/i-80-gold-announces-the-results-of-its-2024-meeting-of-shareholders/

So the question for IAU is whether they can win back the trust of shareholders. The charm offensive begins with the release of more high grade drilling results from Granite Creek.

We learn about the results for 7 holes drilled into the South Pacific Zone, with the headline assays being 22.0 g/t Au over 29.0m, 18.4 g/t Au over 14.4m, and 60.5 g/t Au over 4.1m. This area is where the first ore will be extracted from once underground development reaches that SPZ, which is expected to happen next month. I base that on this comment -- 'Initial stopes in the SPZ are being planned for H1-2024'. Underground drilling will continue, as mineralization remains open at depth and along strike to the north.

In addition IAU announced they are using some of the money raised in those PPs to finance a new 'large scale' surface drill programme at Granite Creek designed to support the upcoming revised Resource Report and FBS. They continue to be coy about when these will be completed.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34668261

Kazakh explorer Arras Minerals aka ARK announced the start of exploration on their extensive land package, which you can divide into two packages. One package consists of two sets of Cu/Au/Mo prospects being explored under an alliance with Teck, while the other consists of the 100%-owned Elemes and Tay copper prospects.

Across all these prospects, exploration will start with geophysics and mapping and sampling to further define known prospects followed by drilling at the most promising.

I think ARK will be able to release some very promising assay results this year and they build on several years of previous exploration.

https://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=34667232