EDV, MAI, NRN
It looks like West African gold miner Endeavour Mining aka EDV has developed another top rank asset with the Tanda-Iguala deposit in Côte d’Ivoire. Since the initial discovery in 2021, EDV has completed 226km of drilling, including 163km so far this year, and now they have released an updated Resource Report declaring an Indicated resource of 4.5M oz Au at 1.97 g/t plus an inferred resource of 200k oz at 1.91 g/t Au. Huge upside potential remains with the main mineralized trend remaining open at depth and along strike. There are also multiple promising exploration targets elsewhere on the property. Drilling continues.
EDV also announced that a PFBS is underway for Tanda-Iguala with completion scheduled for late 2024. Given that the mineralization begins at surface so conventional open pit mining looks the best, that metallurgical testwork looks good, and that the infrastructure includes nearby paved highway and grid power, I expect Tanda-Iguala economic studies to show numbers worthy of a flagship asset.
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In response, several brokerages issued new analyst reports. Although the updated resource increased BMO's NAV estimate for EDV by 5%, they kept EDV at Outperform with a $38 target. Likewise, Scotia saw the impact as Positive, noting Tanda-Iguala reduces the proportion of EDV's assets in troubled Burkina Faso, but kept them at Sector Outperform with a target of $41.
When Mexican gold miner Minera Alamos aka MAI's share price took off earlier this week, I expected that it meant they would shortly be announcing they have finally received permits to expand the heap leach at their producing Santana gold mine. But when MAI's quarterlies were released, it turns out that they are still waiting for those permits from a bureaucracy that has markedly slowed operations since Mexican President AMLO started in with his anti-mining statements. MAI does mentions that they are no longer receiving requests from the bureaucracy for more information, but I am not sure whether that is a positive development or not.
As to the rest of the quarterlies, I would say they are as expected. We already knew that production would be low due to water access problems earlier this year -- it came in a 636 oz Au -- and that although mining rates increased back towards normal in Q3, it takes time for the heap leach to process the ore into gold. MAI also mentions that they would like to increase production at Santana, but again, it's the permits.
Even as they start serious construction at their next mine Cerro de Oror, they remain in solid financial shape, with a cash stash of over $6.5M and working capital of almost $20M. Now we wait t0 hear about the remaining permits for Cerro de Oror, expected in Q1.
Meanwhile, the mystery of why MAI's share price suddenly took off with big volume remains. My best guess is a recommendation from a newsletter.
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Northern Shield Resources aka NRN released the results of a short drilling programme of shallow holes on the Conquest zone of its Root & Cellar Au/Ag/Cu prospect in Newfoundland.. They did manage to come up with a few promising intercepts like 1.5m @ 10.4 g.t, 1.0m @ 5.1 g/t, and 2.0m @ 5.7 g/t Au. And as we have come to expect from this crew, they have a new geological theory. They now think the Conquest zone might be on the periphery of a large collapsed caldera, a geological feature which can host large deposits. (But don't hold your breath; they are good at coming up with theories that so far have not panned out.)
Further trenching is now underway. Drilling will resume in February to follow the assays mentioned above down to a presumed feeder zone, to test several other nearby anomalies, and to further test the collapsed caldera theory.
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