from stockwatch 2023-05-24 17:30 ET - Market Summary
by Will Purcell
Grenville Thomas and Ken Armstrong's North Arrow Minerals Inc. (NAR) lost one-half cent to five cents on 68,000 shares. The company has sold 22.89 million regular shares at six cents and 13.07 million flow-through shares at eight cents, raising a total of $2.42-million. This tops the $2-million that the company set out to raise last month. The cash, say Mr. Armstrong, president and chief executive officer, and Mr. Thomas, chairman, is for lithium exploration, mainly at DeStaffany, southeast of Yellowknife.
None of the cash appears destined for any of North Arrow's diamond projects, although at least one of the company's directors, Dr. Christopher Jennings, appears eager to carry on with gems. Dr. Jennings has bought a 0.5-per-cent royalty on the Loki diamond project, south of Lac de Gras, for $374,000 -- a sale that boosts his royalty holding in Loki to 2.5 per cent. As well, Dr. Jennings will get one million North Arrow shares should that company discover a new kimberlite at Loki, and a further five million shares will go his way if the company defines a resource on the project.
And so, while Loki is likely to see a modest program, the bulk of North Arrow's effort is headed to its lithium prospects. The company has been reviewing the data ahead of a planned preliminary program at DeStaffany -- and there is plenty of data to review, both old and new. The data show several geochemical targets on the property, including four that are "associated with features of interest" noted on satellite imagery -- geographical and geological features that easily wow a geologist already interested in a particular area for other reasons.
The good news is that DeStaffany already has yielded two discoveries of interest in earlier days, the Moose-1 and Moose-2 pegmatites. Moose-1 produced up to 1.5 per cent lithium oxide from samples taken along a body with an exposed strike approaching 400 metres and roughly five metres in width, while Moose-2 has a longer strike and greater width and sampled up to 2.7 per cent lithium oxide. Neither of the Moose bodies have ever been drilled as most of the earlier work, dating back to the 1940s, centred on the hunt for tantalum and niobium.
With cash in hand, that lack of drilling looks to change this year. Mr. Armstrong says that North Arrow plans sampling of the exposed mineralization for spodumene recovery and characterization studies, but he also promises "initial delineation drilling" will occur in parallel with the other work at DeStaffany. The two Moose bodies are presumably the primary targets for the drillers, but Mr. Armstrong continues to trumpet the "potential discovery of new spodumene pegmatites" on the property thanks to the study of satellite imagery and review of the historical geochemical data.
The shift to a focus more on lithium, at least in the short term, has put a hint of life into North Arrow's stock, which, despite its lowly range near the six-cent mark, is essentially double where it averaged through the fall and early winter. Volume has picked up too -- the market still loves a lithium story -- and Mr. Thomas has proven an adaptable promoter over the decades. Indeed, his interests shifted from lithium to diamonds in 1991, when he -- aided by his long-time associate, Dr. Jennings -- grabbed the Diavik claims for his Aber Resources Ltd. And so, it is perhaps fitting that his focus has shifted back to rare metals and lithium.