RE:HECLA'S NEXT TAKE-OUT: MMG OR SNAG?
There is not even an inferred resource on this project.
After getting up/down the mountain we're talking a three-four hour drive for heavy machinery to get ore to the Hecla Keno mill complex.
MMG were in constant communication with Alexco and now Hecla. The Formo deposit is 5 kms away from the Hecla mill complex and has a N.I. 43-101 resource of 12 million oz that should now be around 14 million oz after this latest drill campaign.MMG's total resource has become 20 million oz Ag Eq and it is all contained within Hecla's Keno Hill adjoining properties.
MMG mgmt. have stated they see Formo mineralisation as "another Bermingham" which is a high-grade 50 million Ag Eq oz+ deposit-so far.
If Hecla won't do a deal with MMG for Formo mineralization five kms from their mill then why would Hecla even consider going fiftty kms away and do a deal for mineralisation that is in an early drill stage without even an inferred resource?
As for Kaiser's musings : "The exit strategy for Silver North would be a buyout from Hecla whose Keno Hill mill is under-utilized, a problem that helped sink Alexco." Kaiser Research
This is nonsense. The Keno Mill is running at or near capacity now ,which is 4 million oz + per annum. Hecla have stated in their January 2025 presentation that they are considering an upgrade of their mill to produce six million oz per annum ,which the existing infrastructure can expand into.
Alexco ran short of money as the silver deal with Silver Wheaton kicked in and took the profits that were needed to invest into the operations underground and at the mill.
If Kaiser is this clueless about Alexco and Hecla then the Silver North recommendation smells like another Kaiser pump n dump.
Worth watching to see what they will drill next summer but as we have seen some seven years after MMG arrived at Keno-nothing is going to happen over night.