National buys 500,000 shares in the market on Friday. Tocvan closed at $0.35 on Friday, trading over 757,000 shares for the week. It was interesting to see National step in and buy 500,000 shares on Friday alone, this looked like a pre-arranged trade. In my experience, when someone wants to sell a block of stock, they contact the company to see if anyone wants to buy the block. I am not sure where the shares came from but this will surely reduce the overhang in the market and move shares into stronger hands.
Also interesting, rather than National trying to put this money into the Private Placement where they could leverage their investment with a free warrant, they decided to buy in the market without the warrant. This is very encouraging as it indicates their strong support for Tocvan. National has bought over 740,000 in the past month alone , and an additional 110,000 shares in March,425,000 in February and 267,000 in January, while selling only 7,100 shares.
I am pleased to see Tocvan closing a 1st Tranche of the Private Placement for $2.1 Million. Tocvan has about 50 million shares outstanding, still a great share structure for a company at this stage of development.
"We are pleased to quickly close out a significant portion of the placement," commented Brodie Sutherland, chief executive officer. "The final portion of the placement will remain open while we collect final documentation. We are very excited with the resounding support received from current and new shareholders as we advance our projects."
I suspect another tranche will be closed soon as it often takes time for money and signed documents to be delivered. I am not sure how much more will be raised, but any additional money raised will be an added bonus.
I am very excited to see this tranche included $1.5-million from a U.K.-based institutional investor, Sorbie Bornholm LP, which has invested in several previous private placements with the company since 2022. Sorbie's investment is truly a vote of confidence in Tocvan's business model. The money will be held in escrow and $62,500 will be released each month for two years. This will de-risk operating costs for the next two years, allowing Brodie to concentrate on drilling, calculating a maiden resource, and advancing the permitting process for an open pit mine, as well as raising funds required for drilling the Greater Pilar and El Picacho, and for the infrastructure required to advance an open pit mine to production.
Another important detail of the Sorbie financing is that rather than take cash from the operations of Tocvan, they converted the finance fee of $105,000 into 300,000 common shares and 300,000 warrants on the same terms and conditions. This effectively leaves more cash for drilling. It indicates Sorbie wants the drills turning, and doesn't want to drain the company of cash, thus making them a great partner.
A link to the latest video where Brodie provides a drilling update and discussion of the Pilar geological model is provided below. What I really like is that Tocvan is advancing all aspects of Pilar simultaneously, including complete digitization of drilling data as evidenced by the 3 D interactive model Brodie discusses in this youtube video. It clearly shows the robust nature of mineralization at Pilar and where an open pit mine would be initially located.
Brodie manipulated the 3D model during the interview to show where infill and step-out data is required to expand the resource at Pilar to compute a maiden resource estimate. He also discusses drilling vertically at depth as mineralization has been encountered below the initial angled drill strings. In a previous video for example, he mentioned drilling continued 50 m deeper in the first hole due to encouraging mineralization.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=yRyNwy5OW5c
As of the beginning of last week, Tocvan had already shipped 10 holes to the laboratory and expects results back in a few weeks. The drills continue to plug infill and step-out holes at a rapid pace. Ten holes have already been shipped to the laboratory in less than 20 days, and I suspect more holes will have been completed by now.
Overall, I am very pleased with the drilling progress being made by Tocvan in the Main Zone, the primary location for an initial open pit mine. But I am more intrigued by the "Blue Sky'' potential surrounding Pilar, in particular, the mineralized footprint east of the Main Zone and extension of the Main Zone to the north. These areas represent the potential for significant future feedstock for the heap leach pads since the Main Zone will be developed first. The good part is the sooner Tocvan reaches production, cash flow can be directed to fund further development with little to no dilution, making Tocvan a very desirable investment.
Remember, the price of a stock is generally compared to its peers by its market capitalization (number of shares outstanding multiplied by the price of the stock). There is also a premium given to future resources as it is discovered during drilling or acquired by acquisition of additional high valued properties. These guidelines imply Tocvan has significant upside growth potential.
"..... Further south of the newly outlined placer source area mineralization continues with significant gold and silver values ranging up to 7.3 g/t Au and 389 g/t Ag. The total area evaluated in the first pass of mapping and sampling covered 800 metres by 800 metres and remains open to the east for another 1,600 metres. Mineralization is primarily associated with quartz veining and related alteration (sericite, silica and iron oxides)...."
"..... Past surface sampling of the northern extension of the Main zone onto the newly acquired expansion area have shown gold values above 10 g/t Au (historically no overlimit was tested) and silver values up to 645 g/t Ag (sample 617771, collected by Tocvan in 2021). These samples indicate multiple mineralized trends extend onto the expansion area for at least another 200 to 300 metres before plunging below overburden. These trends have full road access and will be evaluated in exploration drilling planned for later in 2024...."
Lastly, I always wanted to make money fast when I was young, constantly changing my bets, but after each time I lost money my dad would whisper this phrase to me, "son - one can't rush success, remember the three P's - patience, patience and patience."