Junior Exploration Sector – Page 14

Nickel, gold, palladium potential blossoming on Superior’s North Shore – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – January 6, 2021)

January 7, 2021

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Exploration companies deep into drilling in Hemlo area of northwestern Ontario

Three junior mining companies working ground near the north shore of Lake Superior are making great strides with their exploration properties.

One company looking for nickel is reporting significant exploration success in the Hemlo area.

Palladium One said the first two holes of a drill program at its Tyko property encountered massive magmatic sulphides grading 8.7 per cent nickel (193 pounds per tonne) over 3.0 metres. The intersections were taken a depth of less than 30 metres.

SolGold boss wants to end the brawl with BHP and Newcrest – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – January 6, 2021)

January 7, 2021

https://www.afr.com/

SolGold managing director Nicholas Mather wants to repair his fractured relationship with BHP and Newcrest Mining after an acrimonious year that culminated in a massive protest vote against his re-election to the board of the high-profile copper explorer.

BHP and Newcrest both own more than 13 per cent of SolGold and last year made public their respective concerns about Mr Mather’s approach to governance and funding of the Brisbane-based company, which has discovered several prospective copper and gold targets in Ecuador.

BHP and Newcrest were not the only SolGold shareholders with concerns about Mr Mather, with 44.7 per cent of the company’s register voting against his re-election to the SolGold board shortly before Christmas.

Red Lake gold camp has a new land baron: Trillium Gold seals the deal on full ownership of high-grade gold property – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – January 4, 2021)

January 5, 2021

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Vancouver’s Trillium Gold are busy campers in the Red Lake district. The junior explorer has been a whirlwind of activity flying airborne surveys, filing for drill permits, and running drill programs on its Red Lake gold properties.

On New Year’s Eve, the company announced it closed the acquisition of the Newman Todd Project, which, according to Trillium, makes them the largest property holder in the area.

In a cash-and-share deal with Heliostar Metals, Trillium picked up the remaining 16.5 per cent ownership stake in the 198-hectare property.

How the COVID-19 pandemic fuelled a boom in Canadian stock promotion scams – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – December 31, 2020)

January 5, 2021

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Cromwell Coulson, the CEO of New York-based stock trading platform OTC Markets Group, is getting sick and tired of trying to stomp out Canadian stock promotion scams.

OTC plays host to more than 10,000 early-stage speculative stocks and every day it publishes a list of companies it has identified as running misleading stock promotions. In 2019, 30 per cent of troubling campaigns were by Canadian companies.

But since the global outbreak of COVID-19 last winter, there has been a boom in pump and dump scams, in which shady promoters use any means necessary to push up the price of a company’s shares, then sell their stakes at huge profits just before the stock collapses.

Wolf Lake defenders, mining company at odds – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – December 17, 2020)

December 17, 2020

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Renewed probing for gold and other minerals at Wolf Lake could begin as early as this month. “The plan is to drill in January but it’s possible we could get going before the holidays,” said Stefan Spears, CEO of Inventus Mining. “We don’t have a specific date, but I’d like to get started as soon as we can.”

The winter exploration work is part of a broader hunt for deposits in the Chiniguchi-Temagami region that the junior miner, which is headquartered in Toronto but counts an office off Falconbridge Road, has dubbed its Sudbury 2.0 Project.

The premise is this relatively untapped area, similar in scope and magnetic signature to the Sudbury basin, could duplicate — or rival, at any rate — the mining camp that built the Nickel City.

Rare earth riches in the mine waste pile – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – November 25, 2020)

November 26, 2020

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Avalon Advanced Materials looks to clean up, extract value from tailings dumps

Shuttered mine sites with legacy environmental issues pose a unique opportunity for Avalon Advanced Materials to recover rare earth minerals.

Don Bubar, CEO of the Toronto-based lithium and rare earth producer, talked strategy last week in a web call to shareholders, a day after announcing a partnership with Rock Tech Lithium on a possible processing plant for Thunder Bay.

Avalon is carving out a space in the clean and green tech economy with a diverse mix of Northern Ontario exploration properties in lithium, rare earth metals, cesium, tantalum and other non-traditional minerals that the company hopes to advance over the next couple of years.

U.S. Rejects Controversial Alaska Pebble Gold, Copper Mine – by Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Steven Frank (Bloomberg News – November 26, 2020)

November 26, 2020

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg) — The Pebble mine in Alaska was dealt a potentially lethal blow after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rejected an essential permit for the project.

The proposed mine in southwestern Alaska, which would tap one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits, has been dogged by protests for years, as conservationists warn industrial mining operations near Bristol Bay threaten a flourishing sockeye salmon fishery.

The Army Corps issued a record of decision Wednesday denying Pebble’s permit, after determining the project “is contrary to the public interest,” said Col. Damon Delarosa, the agency’s Alaska district commander.

Barrick enters earn-in deals with two juniors near Hemlo – by Simone Liedtke (Mining Weekly.com – November 23, 2020)

November 23, 2020

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Canadian major Barrick Gold has entered into two option and joint venture (JV) agreements with junior miners near its Hemlo operation, in Ontario.

The first is with TSX-V-listed Melkior Resources, which has granted Barrick the right to earn-on up to a 75% interest in the White Lake project, 20 km from the Hemlo mine.

Under the terms of the option agreement, Barrick could earn a 75% interest in the White Lake property in consideration for completing $4-million in exploration expenditures over a period of five years.

Flurry of exploration activity in Kirkland Lake gold camp – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – November 10, 2020)

November 10, 2020

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

The Kirkland Lake area remains hot property for many junior miners drilling or acquiring property in the Abitibi region of northeastern Ontario. Meanwhile a cobalt plant developer is finetuning its strategy to bring a mothballed refinery back into production in the Temiskaming area.

Toronto’s Mistango River Resources started a 10,000-metres drilling campaign on its Kirkland West Project, just west of Kirkland Lake Gold’s Macassa Mine.

The plan is to explore multiple target areas on the property with the first holes going in near the former Baldwin Mine, where historical production yielded gold grades of 15 grams per tonne.

B.C. regulator says junior mining company broke laws with flawed technical report – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – October 28, 2020)

October 29, 2020

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) alleges that junior mining company First Mexican Gold Corp., its then-chief executive officer and an external consultant broke securities laws by knowingly publishing a shoddy estimate of resources on a minerals property.

The allegations centre around the conduct of the Vancouver-based, TSX Venture-listed gold and silver exploration company from 2014 to 2017. This past July, First Mexican changed its name to QcX Gold Corp.

According to a BCSC news release, in 2014 First Mexican hired an external mining engineer who came up with a rough estimate on how much gold and silver might be on the ground at its Sonora property in Mexico.

Diamonds Snapshot: Seven small diamond producers and explorers to watch – by Alisha Hiyate (Northern Miner – October 15, 2020)

October 16, 2020

https://www.northernminer.com/

The Covid-19 pandemic has choked off revenue for diamond producers and funding for diamond juniors for much of the year. But with the diamond trade slowly starting to reopen and buyers and sellers adjusting to life under the pandemic, some companies outside of the big two – De Beers and Alrosa – have proven to be resilient. Here’s a look at seven small diamond producers and explorers that are soldiering on.

Gem Diamonds

Gem Diamonds‘ (LSE: GEMD) Letseng mine in Lesotho, known to host large, high-quality Type II diamonds, has continued to deliver exceptional diamonds this year, with 12 diamonds larger than 100 carats recovered to date. The latest stones included a 442-carat diamond Type II stone in August, and 233-carat and 166-carat Type II white diamonds in September.

Production at the Letseng open-pit mine was suspended for 30 days early in the pandemic, but resumed in late April. On the sales side, Gem has been successful in adopting flexible tender processes to continue diamond sales during travel restrictions associated with the pandemic. Its average sales price for the first half of 2020 was US$1,707 per carat on 43,384 carats sold.

Coalition worried about future of Wolf Lake – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – October 15, 2020)

October 15, 2020

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Mine company, however, promises minimal disruption and commits to maintaining the beauty of the area

Wilderness champions say concerted political pressure is now required to protect Wolf Lake after another permit for mineral exploration was recently granted.

In a post at its Facebook page, the Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury said more than 500 people commented on the permit application through the Environmental Registry of Ontario, with the vast majority — 98 per cent — opposing it.

Nevertheless, “the application was approved with no conditions attached,” the coalition said. Wolf Lake is located northeast of Sudbury in the Chiniguchi waterway chain — a popular area for canoe tripping — and counts the largest contiguous stand of old-growth red pines in the world.

Northern Dynasty eyes controversial Alaska mine as high gold prices encourage ecologically dicey projects – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – October 7, 2020)

October 7, 2020

https://financialpost.com/

Last week, Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. issued a press release that declared its Pebble Mine, located in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, as the “most significant” source of rhenium in the world.

Rhenium, one of the rarest elements in the earth’s crust, is prized in military and industrial applications for its high melting point yet remained unheard of to most investors until U.S. President Donald Trump included it on a list of critical elements in 2017 whose permitting should be prioritized and streamlined.

Advertising the Pebble Mine as a significant source of rhenium marks the latest strategy by Northern Dynasty to advance its long delayed, highly controversial, project — a polymetallic deposit that contains copper, gold, molybdenum, rhenium and various other metals.

Former Kenora nickel mine may have some life left-Tartisan Resources posts new mineral estimate for Kenbridge deposit – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – September 18, 2020)

September 23, 2020

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

A Toronto junior miner has released a new mineral estimate after poking around an old Kenora-area nickel mine from the 1950s.

In preparing for an upcoming exploration program, Tartisan Resources complete a review and re-estimation of the nickel and copper resources at the Kenbridge deposit near Sioux Narrows in northwestern Ontario.

In the late 2000s, Canadian Arrow Mines had been sizing up its Kenbridge property for both an open pit and underground mine, 70 kilometres southeast of Kenora. Canadian Arrow produced a preliminary economic assessment for the project in 2008. Tartisan acquired the deposit in early 2018.

Argonaut takes a shine to high-grade gold at Dubreuilville: Open-pit developer looks to expand gold resource base – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – September 18, 2020)

September 18, 2020

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Argonaut Gold continues to find high-grade gold beside and below where it wants to carve out an open-pit mine near Dubreuilville.

The Toronto mine developer released results on Sept.16 from an exploration drill program specifically targeting high-grade mineralization near the planned pit in northeastern Ontario.

Since July 2019, the company has discovered a number of high-grade gold bearing structures trending westward from Alamos Gold’s Island Gold Mine, their neighbour to the east.