Stockwatch Gold todayLess than honorable mention.
Gold Summary for July 14, 2021
2021-07-14 19:04 ET - Market Summary
by Stockwatch Business Reporter
New York spot gold rose $20.40 Wednesday, closing at $1,827.70. The TSX Venture Exchange fell 3.80 points to 937.82 while the TSX gold index added 2.31 points to 303.79. Most Canadian gold miners gained altitude today, although once again, Ero Copper Corp. (ERO) lagged, falling 36 cents to $25.06 on 202,000 shares. Kinross Gold Corp. (K) helped lead the rally, adding 13 cents to $7.99 on 4.79 million shares, as did Oceanagold Corp. (OGC), which jumped 10 cents to $2.37 on 14.92 million shares.
Donald Taylor and Scott Burkett's Augusta Gold Corp. (G) rose three cents to $1.65 on 117,000 shares on word that it has a maiden resource estimate for the Bullfrog gold project in Nevada. The company lists 52.3 million tonnes measured and indicted at 0.52 gram of gold and 1.42 grams of silver per tonne plus nine million tonnes inferred at 0.45 gram of gold and 0.84 gram of silver per tonne, a total of one million ounces of gold and 2.63 million ounces of silver. Nearly all the precious metals are oxide based and most of the ounces are in the Bullfrog deposit, with the rest in the Montgomery-Shoshone deposit, just to the north, and Bonanza, just west of Bullfrog.
Mr. Taylor, president and chief executive officer, left the promoting to Mr. Burkett, vice-president of exploration, who cheered the "robust resource" as representing a large pit-constrained deposit that is amenable to low-cost heap leaching. (It had better be, given the large tonnages and low grades.) As well, Mr. Burkett cheers -- a good explorer always looks forward to more exploration -- that there are several exploration targets under evaluation that were not included in the current estimate, and which have the potential to increase the resource.
Augusta, which was called Bullfrog Gold Corp. until early this year, acquired the project a decade ago and added to the project last fall in a deal with Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX: $26.68). The project has a long history going back over a century that includes mining and earlier resource calculations -- Augusta's claims of maidenhood notwithstanding. (A 2017 calculation listed 16 million tonnes measured and indicated at one gram of gold and 2.6 grams of silver per tonne, or about half the precious metals deemed present today.)
Heye Daun's Osino Resources Corp. (OSI), down one cent to $1.31 on 207,000 shares, has received a preliminary economic assessment of its Twin Hills gold project in central Namibia. The study is based on a resource of 14 million tonnes indicated at 0.98 gram of gold per tonne and 46 million tonnes inferred at 1.52 grams per tonne, or just under two million ounces of gold. The 15-year mine would cost $200-million (U.S.) to get running at about 10,000 tonnes per day, with production projected at just under 100,000 ounces per year. The bottom line was predictably encouraging -- rarely are dream sheets otherwise -- with a discounted net present value of $377-million (U.S.) after taxes.
Mr. Daun, president and CEO, was "very pleased" with the study, which he says, "demonstrates that Twin Hills is what we always said it would be." (For those who forgot what he said, or who tuned out his pitch years ago, Mr. Daun offered a reminder: Twin Hills is a "simple, economically robust and attractive open-pit gold project with significant upside," he cheered, adding that the project is geologically consistent, metallurgically simple and technically low-risk with a low capital intensity and -- just in case you missed the earlier reference -- significant future upside.)
Mr. Daun was proud to have been able to deliver this study within two years of discovery, and he will be prouder still if he realizes his vision for the next two years, which calls for the company to -- yes, again -- "unlock its true upside potential" and advance Twin Hills to the construction stage. If so, much more drilling will be needed to convert the inferred rock to feasibility-stage classifications ahead of the required studies.
William Sheriff's Golden Predator Mining Corp. (GPY) closed unchanged at 14.5 cents on 329,000 shares. The company said today that it will seek shareholder approval for its plan to devour Arizona Gold Corp. Arizona proclaims itself as an "emerging American gold producer" advancing its Copperstone project in Arizona. Golden Predator, meanwhile, has its hands full with advancing its Brewery Creek project in Yukon "toward a timely resumption of mining activities."
Therefore, Golden Predator decided today to regurgitate one of its earlier meals -- the Marg project in central Yukon. Gordon Tainton's Azarga Metals Corp. (AZR: $0.13) has agreed to -- here come the weasels -- "undertake due diligence and negotiate formal agreements to pursue an acquisition" of Marg. The weasels notwithstanding, Mr. Tainton expressed his excitement with the d