TD UPDATE (Flash Note)Yes it does look like better days ahead! Looks like HBM should get rerated by analysts as exploration and production growth continues in CANADA.
Hudbay Minerals Inc. (HBM-T) C$7.60 Exploration/Property Acquisitions Potentially Extend Snow Lake Greg Barnes Derick Ma, CFA, CPA, CA
Event HBM released an update on its winter drilling program in Northern Manitoba and announced the consolidation of a number properties in the vicinity of the Snow Lake operations.
Impact: POTENTIALLY POSITIVE Step-out drilling ~500 metres northwest of the Lalor Mine has intersected a series of base metal and copper-gold zones, including a high-grade coppergold-silver zone. Recent borehole electromagnetic surveys in the area have identified multiple conductive horizons and HBM is in the process of generating targets and a plan for the next drilling campaign.
Given the close proximity of these intersections to the existing Lalor underground infrastructure, the mineralization in this area has the potential to be incorporated in the near-term mine plan for Lalor pending additional drilling and positive feasibility studies.
Down-plunge drilling from Lalor indicates the alteration zone, hosting mineralization currently being mined, continues for at least two kilometres to the north. This initial campaign consisted of eight widely spaced drill holes. Seven of the drill holes reached their planned minimum depth of 1,500 metres. All holes intersected the zone of strong alteration known to host the Lalor mineralization and have shown many occurrences of disseminated copper sulfides indicating the potential close proximity of one or more higher grade copper-gold feeder zones similar to Lens 27 currently in production at Lalor.
HBM announced the acquisition of the Cook Lake properties in Snow Lake that provide additional potential for a new discovery in the area. The Cook Lake properties are untested by modern deep geophysics. Historical drilling from the 1970s through 2012 intersected base metal and gold mineralization. The drill programs were limited to an average depth of only 275 metres, which is a fraction of Lalor’s current known depth of approximately 600 to 1,500 metres. Including the acquisition of the Cook Lake properties, the proposed acquisition of the Rockcliff properties (announced mid-June), and other recent land acquisitions, HBM’s Snow Lake land package has increased by more than 250% to 2,690 km2.
Consolidating these properties in the Snow Lake area will provide HBM with a significant land package within trucking distance of the company’s existing processing infrastructure