Welcome to our roundup of some of the most popular mining investment, exploration, and development stories on Theassay.com from the last week.
Financing news
In significant financing news we heard that Giga Metals Corp. (TSXV: GIGA) has entered into a binding agreement with Mitsubishi Corp. 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.
MC will acquire a 15% equity interest in Hard Creek in exchange for cash consideration of C$8M. Giga will receive 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 (PFS) for the Turnagain project, with completion expected in the first half of 2023.
“We are very pleased to welcome Mitsubishi Corporation, a global trading and investment company, as a strategic partner for the development of Turnagain project,” said Martin Vydra, president of Giga Metals.
Galantas Gold Corp. (TSXV: GAL | AIM: GAL) also entered into an amending agreement with Canaccord Genuity Corp. on behalf of itself and a syndicate of agents including Cormark Securities Inc. and Research Capital Corporation, to increase the size of the company’s previously private placement for aggregate gross proceeds of up to approximately C$6M. Galantas previously announced it was seeking to raise C$4M.
The company intends to use the net proceeds of the upsized offering for exploration and development at the Joshua Target, as well as for working capital and general corporate purposes.
New exploration and development
Cannon Resources Ltd (ASX: CNR) has delivered a 72% increase with the completion of an updated Mineral Resources Estimate for the Sabre prospect at the company’s Fisher East Nickel Project in Western Australia.
The Sabre Mineral Resource now stands at 2.9Mt @ 1.5% Ni & 0.4 g/t (Pd + Pt) for 42.3 Kt of contained nickel and 32,800 oz (Pd+Pt) at a cut–off grade of 0.9% Ni (JORC 2012). The resource has been audited by RPMGlobal.
The Fisher East Project now has a total of 134,100t of contained nickel at an average grade of 1.8% Ni in 4 high-grade sulphide JORC 2012 resources at Musket, Camelwood, Cannonball and Sabre.
Nova Minerals Ltd (ASX: NVA) has received highly encouraging results from its first phase metallurgical test work on mineralization from its high-grade RPM North Deposit in Alaska.
Leach tests were conducted at Bureau Veritas Vancouver to determine the potential for intensive leach of gold contained in flotation concentrate. Results were outstanding with 96.2% of gold recovered. Concentrate leach recovery was calculated by Bureau Veritas based on gold recovered into solution and gold left in solid tailings. Relatively minor losses can be expected from the electrowinning circuit.
Drilling results
In significant drill results, Cannindah Resources Ltd (ASX: CAE) has identified zones of extensive copper, gold, and silver mineralized breccia are present throughout CAE hole #11 in its drilling programme at Mt Cannindah in central Queensland.
Hole CAE #11 is the northern most hole that CAE have drilled to date at Mt Cannindah. At a final depth of over 1099.4m, it is also the deepest, drilling east to west down the axis of a major tabular breccia body. The latest results further expand the depth extent of sulphidic , copper-gold -silver bearing breccia and altered porphyry zones.
Tudor Gold Corp. (TSXV: TUD) has obtained a positive fourth set of drill results for Phase l of the 2022 exploration programme at Treaty Creek, located in the heart of the Golden Triangle of north-western British Columbia.
“During the 2021 drill programme, we drilled hole GS-21-113-W2 to the maximum depth possible and noted that the strongest sulphide mineralization occurred at the bottom of this hole,” said president and CEO, Ken Konkin.
“A decision was made to leave the casing and HQ rods in GS-21-113-W2 with the plan of returning to re-enter the hole this year with a more powerful diamond drill rig, and we succeeded!”
Production update
Victoria Gold Corp. (TSX: VGCX) has unveiled its second quarter 2022 summary financial and operating results.
During the three months ended June 30, 2022, the company sold 28,580 ounces of gold, similar to the 28,731 gold ounces sold in Q2 2021.
John McConnell, the company’s president and CEO, said, “Similar to 2021, daily gold production at the Eagle Mine has increased substantially over the 2022 spring season. This is expected to result in materially higher gold production and revenues during the third and fourth quarters of 2022.”
Also in the news
Centaurus Metals (ASX: CTM) has appointed highly experienced mining executive and company director, Dr Natalia Streltsova, to its board as an independent non-executive director.
“We are absolutely delighted that Natalia has accepted our invitation to join the Centaurus board at this pivotal stage in our development as we continue to build the depth, capability and skills within our business and senior leadership team,” said Didier Murcia, chair of Centaurus.
“Natalia is a globally recognized senior mining executive whose skills, experience and capabilities are second to none. She has worked at senior levels of the global mining industry, including for several major mining companies,” he added.
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