From INK morning InsiderOverview:
Sentiment and Stocks For the second time in less than two months, we focus on a Richard Warke junior mining play. On March 31st, we featured his Nevada-focused Augusta Gold (Mostly Sunny; G). However, like many Nevada plays, Augusta has lagged the overall mining sector since the report, dropping 28.4%. As John Kaiser explained in his April 28th Discovery Watch episode (available on INK and Canadian Insider), geology labs in Nevada are experiencing labour shortages which are leading to a delay in turning around drilling results. That could be one reason for the malaise seen in Augusta Gold and others as investors move to place their bets in other jurisdictions.
However, Mr. Warke's Latin American TSX-listed copper play Solaris Resources (SLS) has had the wind at its back, up 15.6% since the end of March. In fact, the stock is up a whopping 592% since it started trading on the Venture Exchange on July 13th of last year. Before its public market launch, SLS completed a $21.2 million private placement at $0.80 per unit (which included a warrant exercisable at $1.20 for 3 years). The company's flagship project is Warintza located in Ecuador which hosts a high-grade open-pit resource within a 5km trend. A 2019 report estimated 1.5 billion pounds of in-pit mineral resources with a 0.56% copper grade in the inferred category using a 0.2% cutoff.
Discovery drilling is continuing on the project this quarter. The company also expects to drill on joint venture projects located in Chile and Peru. Despite the stock's strong rally, we continue to see some officer and director accumulation including from Mr. Warke. Company executives and directors appear quite content to hold their positions for a potential outsized win in the copper exploration game.
Today's Chart Solaris Resources Inc. (SLS) Chart reflects public-market and option-exercise transactions of common shares (unit trusts) by company officers and directors. USD transactions are converted to Canadian dollars by us using the Bank of Canada noon rate on the transaction date. As the stock moved up last month, Solaris Resources (SLS) Executive Chairman Richard Warke (G, TI, etc.) acquired 109,125 common shares through options exercises at $0.60 on April 21st and an additional 7,000,000 common shares through a private purchase at $8.25 on April 26th (private purchase not shown on chart). Mr. Warke has not subsequently reported any selling. Mr. Warke is the largest insider equity holder at the company with 32.20% of shares outstanding.
In addition, from April 27th to April 28th, Vice President of Investor Relations Jacqueline Wagenaar bought a total of 1,700 common shares on a direct ownership basis at an average price of $9.26. Earlier, from February 11th to April 19th, a pair of 10% holders sold a total of 155,000 common shares, but we would note that INK puts more weight on what officers and directors do with their money than the activity of 10% holders.
Solaris Resources currently holds a sunny INK Edge outlook on the equally weighted V.I.P. criteria of valuations, insider commitment and price momentum which places it in the top 10% of all stocks ranked. INK outlook categories are designed to identify groups of stocks that have the potential to out or underperform the market. However, any individual stock could surprise on the up or downside. As such, outlook categories are not meant to be stock-specific recommendations. For background on our INK Edge outlook, please visit our FAQ #5 at INKResearch.com. The stock was #20 in the April INK Top 20 Mining & Crypto Stock Report.