Hey everyone, I thought I would share this here. Roger shared this earlier this evening:
“MINING NEWS
Interesting (that is all that I will say).
Roger's Educational Note:
Argonaut Gold owns all of the mining claims and mining leases along LAURION's Ishkoday Gold, Silver, Copper and Zinc Project - Northern property line.
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Argonaut's Magino gold mine in Ontario achieves commercial production (Roger's comment: Note the number of ounces!)
article written by Vladimir Basov
Argonaut Gold (TSX: AR) announced yesterday that commercial production has been achieved at the company's Magino mine in Ontario effective November 1, 2023.
The Magino mine property is a past producing underground gold mine located 40 kilometres northeast of Wawa, Ontario, approximately 14 kilometres southeast of the town of Dubreuilville.
The property consists of seven patented mining claims, four leased mining claims and 69 unpatented mining claims totaling 2,204.495 hectares. A positive feasibility study was published December 2017 showcasing open-pit mining opportunity. The project has 2.4 million ounces of gold in proven and probable reserves, 4.6 million ounces in measured and indicated resources (inclusive of reserves), and a mine life of 19 years.
The company said that plant commissioning and ramp-up proceeded largely on plan from June through August, ramping up from approximately 50% of nameplate capacity to 80%, placing the plant on track for commercial production in September. However, 20 days of unplanned downtime in September, delayed the ramp-up.
Importantly, Argonaut said in a press release that the plant has been largely operating at nameplate capacity since the beginning of the quarter.
The company added that full year production for the Magino mine will not meet the guidance set out at the beginning of the year due to the slower than planned ramp-up to commercial production.
However, the company said it remains on track to meet its full year consolidated production and all-in sustaining cost guidance set at the beginning of the year
As a result of the slower than planned ramp-up of Magino to commercial production, the company said it will bolster its balance sheet through the sale to Franco-Nevada of an additional 1% net smelter return royalty (NSR) on its Magino mine, and its non-core royalty holdings in Canada and Mexico for an aggregate purchase price of US$29.5 million.
Upon the closing of this transaction Franco-Nevada will hold an aggregate 3.0% NSR on the Magino mine.
Argonaut Gold is a Canadian-based gold producer with a portfolio of operations in North America. Focused on becoming a low-cost, mid-tier gold producer, the company's newest gold mine, Magino is expected to become Argonaut's largest and lowest cost mine.”
In real estate it is always best to find the closest possible comparables that have recently sold/are currently listed when you look to sell your home. The same can loosely be applied to trying to value mines. This comparable is literally our neighbour to the north bordering the Ishkoday, we will not see a better comparable!!
Some of the biggest highlights here are:
“Magino is expected to become Argonaut's largest and lowest cost mine.” - If they can do it so can Cynthia and the team!
“The project has 2.4 million ounces of gold in proven and probable reserves, 4.6 million ounces in measured and indicated resources (inclusive of reserves)” - This give a total resource estimate of 7M GEOS
“The property consists of seven patented mining claims, four leased mining claims and 69 unpatented mining claims totaling 2,204.495 hectares.” - This works out to 22 sq. Kms.
Working off of these values they have 7M GEOs in 22 sq. Km.
With the recent Twin Falls aquisition LME now has 57 sq km on the Ishkoday. If gold distribution is similar on the ishkoday then we can infer that the Ishkoday holds approximately 18.14M GEOs!.
Remember Cynthia set out to PROVE 10M Geos and as far as I can tell they have not been PROVEN yet but across all categories (Proven indicated etc.) its possible we are close to a comparable total MRE on a per sq. Km basis. Obviously not every sq km will have even distribution but from the great drill results we have gotten (and more to come if this doesnt sell beforehand), the open pit model, great cut off grade values and narratives from Geologists such as Avrom Howard who spoke very highly of the mineralized structures on the Ishkoday … I am excited!
This is where the valuations come in.
Many people have given different values of GEOs so i will use a few round numbers that i have seen a few times. (Note I am working off of a number of roughly 268,000,000 shares for laurion fully diluted)
$250/GEO - 18.14M GEO x 250 / 268,000,000 = $16.92/share
$300/GEO - 18.14M GEO x 300 / 268,000,000 = $20.31/share
$350/GEO - 18.14M GEO x 350 / 268,000,000 = $23.69/share
$400/GEO - 18.14M GEO x 400 / 268,000,000 = $27.07/share
Say the Ishkoday is a massive miss (not likely at all imo) and only has half the distribution of mineralization than the Magino mine that still gives us a range of $8.46-$13.54. No matter how you slice it there is amazing potential here!
I know people doubt high numbers because of where the SP is or by the fact a deal has not been reached yet but these numbers are based on REAL numbers from a NEIGHBOURING PROPERTY with a SHARED PROPERTY LINE. Like I said earlier we will not get a better comparison!
Lets add in the other positive signs we have seen that point to a deal on the table and we have an awesome recipe for something amazing. Never been a better time to be a shareholder!