On Stockwatch today Chuck Fipke and Chad Ulansky's Cantex Mine Development Corp. (CD) rose 2.5 cents to 22.5 cents on 1.14 million shares. Cantex has a chart like an electrocardiogram -- except that its heart beats just a few times a decade at best. Still, its ticker could be getting set for another thump, as Cantex's shares leapt five cents to 20 cents on 1.75 million shares Thursday.(Before one gets too enthused about those two-cent shares they bought a decade ago, remember that the company rolled back its shares 1:10 in 2018 and a more energetic 1:15 in 2013.)
Mr. Fipke has a name synonymous with diamond exploration but he is an adaptable geologist and perhaps more flexible as a promoter. This week, he intrigued the market with assays from Cantex's North Rackla zinc and lead project in Yukon that showed "very high germanium values." The company collected spot assays from six samples taken from four holes and they averaged 795 grams of germanium, 0.56 gram of gallium and 0.93 gram of indium per tonne.
Mr. Fipke found the germanium of particular interest, as it currently sells for $1.21 (U.S.) per gram -- nearly double the current value of silver. And remember, these assays came from four holes drilled in 2018 that averaged perhaps 200 grams of silver per tonne, plus about 7 per cent lead and 15 per cent zinc. At current prices, those three metals combined contribute roughly the same value as the germanium. And so, the company is now eager to test for germanium along the full strike length of the Main zone at North Rackla, and at the nearby GZ zone as well.