A week in which gold prices were boosted by weak market sentiment for equities saw a slew of announcements from Canada’s junior mining stocks.
Among the junior gold miners contributing to the news, Metals Creek Resources (TSX-V: MEK) unveiled an option agreement with Newmont Goldcorp which will allow the company to take charge of Goldcorp’s Dona Lake Mine near Pickle Lake in Ontario. The agreement allows for Metals Creek to acquire Goldcorp’s interest in the property - which was an active gold mine in the early 1990s - in exchange for 7,000,000 Metals Creek shares and funding $4m of exploration.
Meanwhile Quebec-based Bonterra Resources (TSX-V: BTR) announced drill results from the ongoing exploration campaign at its 100%-owned Gladiator, Moroy and Barry projects. Gladiator in particular caught the attention of investors with a highlight reading of 101.0 gold per tonne. A second hole returned 8.1 g/t over 1.8 metres.
Bonterra chairman Greg Gibson said: “These recent encouraging drill results bode well for the expansion of the current resource. The company now has five drill rigs working on the current exploration-drilling program on its three projects with multiple targets currently being tested to expand the gold mineralization footprint.”
Further results were forthcoming from IAMGOLD Corporation (TSX: IMG) in relation to its 2019 winter diamond drilling program at the Rouyn Gold project in Quebec, which it has optioned from Yorbeau Resources.
Craig MacDougall, Senior Vice President, Exploration for IAMGOLD, stated: "Our involvement in the newly optioned Rouyn Gold Project was based on the potential to rapidly delineate mineral resources along the targeted Cadillac Break, which could be evaluated as potential satellite deposits for our Westwood operation. Once the remaining assay results are in hand, the exploration team will work to develop a preliminary deposit model to support a future initial resource estimate."
In further junior gold stock news, Great Bear Resources (TSX-V:GBR) found that investors couldn’t get enough of its recent financing round. The company and its underwriters therefore agreed to increase the size of the previously announced financing, and will now issue 1,500,000 common shares at a price of $5.45 on a “bought deal” private placement basis, netting the group around C$8.2 towards its Ontario exploration plans, especially around its flagship Dixie property. The underwriters could even sell an extra 500,000 shares should demand prove high enough.
Great Bear CEO Chris Taylor said, “Interest in this placement from top tier investors whom we are pleased to include as shareholders has exceeded our capacity to accommodate within the terms announced on Wednesday. We are therefore pleased to announce expansion of the placement, and know that we will benefit from the added flexibility this additional funding will provide at the exploration level at Dixie.”
With speculation that the US Federal Reserve will soon be forced to cut interest rates also boosting the gold price this week, it was hard for other miners to get a look in. However, Canadian digger ALX Uranium (TSX-V: AL) got in on the actor with news that it had acquired claims prospective for nickel, copper and cobalt mineralization across 7,169 hectares of its Falcon Nickel Project in the northern Athabasca region of Saskatchewan. The company staked 25 claims during a staking rush in late May 2019 in the historic Axis Lake area, and added to its land position by purchasing a single claim from an arms-length vendor at the Rea Lake deposit located southeast of Axis Lake.
The announcement comes hot on the heels of news that ALX was making progress on its
Close Lake Uranium Project, also in Athabasca.
“Results gathered from a borehole survey at depth can provide a much clearer picture of the strike and character of local conductors and alteration haloes than that of a conventional ground geophysical survey,” the company said.
In terms of digging for copper, ALX’s announcement was particularly well timed: it came as the International Copper Study Group reported that global production of the mineral is down by 1.8% this year - albeit the data pertains only to the first two months.