| | | WEX, ARK, EDV, MAI
It's been a disappointing year for investors in Western Exploration aka WEX. It took forever to get the drilling started on the Gravel Creek deposit on their Aura Au/Ag property in Nevada. We finally get assays from the second hole drilled to the east of the Gravel Creek resource, and like the first hole, it did deliver some narrow but high grade intercepts like 0.7m of 143.56 g/t AuEq (138.82 g/t Au and 403.4 g/t Ag), and 1.0m of 67.49 g/t AuEq (52.46 g/t Au and 1278.0 g/t Ag). They have been able to identify two veins up to 200m in length and 5m in width, and have identified a new area for more intensive drilling of 550 by 350m, and it remains open to the northeast.
Future drilling will concentrate of connecting those veins to the existing resource and looking for extensions. Let us hope that these hole happen more quickly than the first two.
Message 34530107
Arras Minerals aka ARK released the results of re-assays on three historical holes drilled into the Quartzite Gorka area of their Elemes license in Kazakstan. (Note: Elemes is not part of the recently announced exploration alliance with TECK.)
All three holes delivered impressive intercepts of prophyry minerlaization, with the best being 132.6m @ 0.80% CuEq or 0.96 g/t AEq (0.39% Cu, 0.52 g/t Au, 4.1 g/t Ag, 59.5 ppm Mo) from 140.7m depth, including 57.1m @ 1.00 % CuEq or 1.20 g/t AuEq (0.85 g/t Au, 0.45 % Cu, 4.8 g/t Ag and 51.0 ppm Mo) from 188.7m depth down-hole. Notably, all three holes delivered higher grade sections.
ARK is interpreting these results as indicating a breccia-hosted intermediate sulfidation epithermal system that forms part of a much larger porphyry-epithermal system within the Elemes licence. which also hosts the Berezki copper-gold and Karagandy-Ozek gold prospects. ARK is currently evaluating the results of these results and their 2023 exploration to design a new exploration strategy for Elemes.
Message 34530161
FWIW, in the wake of last week's dismissal by Endeavour Mining aka EDV of their CEO for seriousm misconduct. BMO issued a new analyst report. Although they emphasized repeatedly that this will not have any financial or operational impact, they still reduced their target from $38 to $34, citing 1) although the BoD acted correctly and promptly in response, EDV's ESG reputation, the best in the sector, has taken a hit; 2) the now-fired CEO had great contacts throughout Africa which may be hard to replace. They did keep EDV shares at Outperform.
The latest issue of IKN offers some intel on a possible reason Minera Alamos aka MAI has been trading strongly of late. MAI has been waiting for a permit to expand their heap leach at the Santana gold mine in Sonora, Mexico, and we get news that the governor of Sonora has been making a concerted effort to speed up the issue of mining permits in his state.
FWIW, TD issued an new report updating their PM price deck. To summarize, they expect a positive 2024 for PMs, with their gold prices increased by an average of 4.4%. They also expect gold miner m&A to be strong in 2024, and are maintaining an Overweight recommendation for the sector. |
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