EDV, MIRL, RIO
In the wake of two major purchases a few years ago and then shifting its main listing to the LSE, Endeavour Mining aka EDV has outlined two major objectives: a focus n Shareholder returns, and a focus of exploration and developing new assets to production. They have already come through on the former, increasing the dividends and buying back a substantial number of shares, and with its latest PR EDV gives us concrete evidence they are also delivering on the latter.
The rapidity with which EDV hs developed a substantial resource at their Tanda-Iguela property in Côte d’Ivoire has been remarkable. Their first drill hole at the Assafou target was announced only last year, and in the interim they have been able to establish an Indicated Resource of 14.9Mt @ 2.33 g/t containing 1,114M oz Au, along with an Inferred Resource of 32.9Mt @ 1.80 g/t containing 1,903M oz Au. (Note the low cost, less than $10 per oz of Indicated Resources discovered.)
In addition, metallurgical testing has indicated the ore will be easy to process, and the company has developed another 10 priority targets which may contain similar deposits, prompting EDV to schedule another 70k of drilling at Asafou and the exploration targets in 2023. Based on what they have found so far, EDV clearly expects this exploration to be fruitful, and they have stated that they now expect Tanda-Iguela to become a major production hub for the company. Expect to see economic studies on mining the deposit to start to be delivered in the near future. Based on the mineralization and metallurgy, it should be a realtively straightforward open pit operation.
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FWIW, in the wake of this PR, BMO released a new analyst report on EDV. They see this as a positive, noting that it highlights EDV's exploration advantage and affirms their position as the preeminent gold producer in West Africa, but kept them at Outperform with a target of $36.
Peruvian gold miner Minera IRL aka MIRL provided us with a corporate update, which as usual for this crew obfuscates more than reveals. They barely mention the community blockade at Corihuarmi, and there is no mention of what was done to resolve it, which is supposed to be an agreement to close the mine within a few years. There is also no mention of the fact that they are likely to run out of money within a year, partially because the larcenous CEO is so overpaid.
Maybe they will pull a rabbit out of the hat and actually manage to find financing to construct their second mine at Ollachea, but it is hard to see how.
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Rio2 aka RIO has had to find a way to raise money to cover the delays in permitting imposed by Chile's new government on the Fenix gold mine it is building in northern Chile. Rio has sold several 'non-core' royalties to OR for $5M, which given the cozy relationship RIO has with the funders for the construction, could be enough to get them through the delays.
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