Welcome to our roundup of some of the most prominent mining investment, exploration, and development stories on Theassay.com from the last week.
Financing news
In financing news, we heard that international nickel sulphide developer Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) has appointed Orimco Pty Ltd to provide independent financial advisory services in relation to the debt financing of its 100%-owned Jaguar Nickel Sulphide Project in Brazil.
Orimco is a leading advisory firm providing services to resource companies and wholesale investors focused on the global mining industry. The Orimco team has extensive experience arranging and managing debt and hedging transactions for both resource companies and financiers.
Orimco has provided advisory services to resource companies across a broad range of projects, commodities (including recent nickel experience), and jurisdictions. The team is led by highly experienced mining executives Nick Harch, Brett Gossage and John Fitzgerald.
Centaurus’ managing director, Darren Gordon, said that with the delivery of the Jaguar Definitive Feasibility Study scheduled for the end of Q1 2023, the appointment of Orimco will ensure that the study outcomes and deliverables meet the requirements of debt financiers and support a competitive financing process.
We also heard that Giga Metals Corp. (TSXV: GIGA) has completed its previously announced joint venture transaction with Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) to form a new joint venture company, Hard Creek Nickel Corp. to jointly pursue the development of the Turnagain Nickel Deposit in northern British Columbia, Canada.
Further to the announcement on 15 August 2022, MC has now acquired a 15% equity interest in Hard Creek in exchange for cash consideration of C$8M. Giga received an 85% equity interest in Hard Creek in exchange for contributing all related assets for the Turnagain Project.
Pursuant to the terms of a shareholders’ agreement governing Hard Creek, Giga, with support from MC, will operate the joint venture, reporting to the board of directors of Hard Creek, and will work on a Pre-Feasibility Study for the Turnagain Project with completion expected in the first half of 2023.
New exploration and development
Development news over the last seven days started with Barton Gold Holdings Ltd (ASX: BGD) confirming a new ~500m gold zone at the Area 51 discovery prospect with assay results from the company’s May 2022 reverse circulation drilling programme (3,160m) at the Tunkillia Gold Project in South Australia.
The new Area 51 gold zone has been identified within a broad halo of gold alteration like that observed around the company’s cornerstone 965Koz 223 deposit (1.15 g/t Au).
“We are very pleased with these results, which confirm another new gold zone at Tunkillia and further demonstrate the substantial gold endowment of the Yarlbrinda Shear Zone,” MD Alex Scanlon said.
“As the footprint of this project grows with each programme, we are increasingly excited about the scale potential of this system. “With these results now in hand, our next Tunkillia drilling programme is set to commence very shortly, with the objective to support an updated Mineral Resources Estimate for the Tunkillia Project.”
Similarly, St George Mining Ltd (ASX: SGQ) has obtained significant new results from geophysical surveys completed at its flagship Mt Alexander Project in Western Australia.
“With multiple high-grade discoveries at the Project and large areas of tenure underexplored, Mt Alexander is one of the most prospective nickel-copper-PGE sulphide projects in Western Australia,” executive chairman, John Prineas, said.
“We are delighted that the latest seismic and EM surveys have delivered several targets that have potential to add to our existing discoveries.
“Significantly, the new targets are in unexplored areas of the project identified as having potential for new, large deposits. We look forward to progressing these targets to drill testing in the coming weeks.”
Drilling results
American West Metals Ltd (ASX: AW1) has received “outstanding” first assay results from a diamond drilling programme at the company’s Storm Copper Project on Somerset Island, Nunavut, Canada.
“Assays for drill hole ST22-05 – the first assays to be received for drilling in the current programme – have returned spectacular copper grades over very significant thicknesses,” Managing Director, Dave O’Neill, said.
The drill hole is located on the same section as drill hole ST22-04 (assays yet to be received) and was testing the upper continuation of the deeper mineralization intersected in ST22-04.
The market has responded favourably to the news, with American West’s share price jumping by some 74% over the past five days to A$0.235 a share, as of 7 September 2022.
Finally, Cypress Development Corp. (TSXV: CYP | OTCQX: CYDVF) also reported results from a recently completed drill programme at its 100%-owned Clayton Valley Lithium Project in Nevada, U.S.
“The drill programme was highly successful in generating material for our pilot plant and providing distinct data to strengthen the project’s resource model” stated Bill Willoughby, Cypress’s president and CEO.
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