MAI, GNG, WGX, NTH, RIO
I follow Minera Alamos aka MAI very closely, but this came out of the blue for me.
MAI already has a pipeline of Mexican gold assets to bring into production to join the producing Santana mine, but now they are buying Sabre Gold in order to get their hands on Copperstone, a past-producing gold mine in Arizona which 'is at advanced stage permitting for a near-term mine restart'.
MAi are touting the purchase as adding 150k oz of annual production to come, based on a recently completed PEA. They also mention that they have enough plant equipment already on hand to significantly reduce capex for the restart. The PR doesn't specify a new development sequence; rather, it seems they will try to restart Copperstone at the same time as Cerro de Oro, their next Mexican mine, though with the permit slowdown in Mexico yet to be fully resolved it would not be a surprise if Copperstone moved to the front of the queue. They almost mention that SGLD's existing debtors are willing to write off 15% of the owings as part of this deal.
MAi indicates that they think they can get Copperstone producing within a year thanks to the already completed infrastructure built by SGLD. Last year's PEA indicated a mine life of about 6 years based on 300k oz Au in the M&I category, but MAI believes there is a good deal of exploration upside to Copperstone to extend that mine life.
So now we we wait while MAI arranges financing and gets the final permits for construction. But even before that, I think this is a good deal for MAI shareholders based on the numbers I have seen and the potential upside.
Note: Onepath suggested another possibility, that the purchase signals they are giving up on Mexico due to the recent permitting issues across the country. Yes, that's a possibility, but even if it is true it would not politic for MAI's CEO to say so.
Message 34883231
Golden Goliath aka GNG announced they have sold their Mexican properties to Fresnillo for up to $150k. They hadn't done any work on these properties for years, and will use the money to advance their Ontario gold and Quebec REE properties.
Message 34883349
For reasons that areoabscure to me, Western Australian gold miner Westgold Resources aka WGX has announced a new $200M credit facility, which according to the announcement remains undrawn.
newswire.ca
Perhaps this will be explained on an 'Investor Update Webcast' which will be held in the middle of the night in North American time zones. I hope they will post a replay we can listen to when we are awake.
ca.finance.yahoo.com
To remind you, Nord Precious Metals aka NTH has hatched a scheme whereby surface tailings at their Castle Mine property in Ontario will be processed to extract contained silver and cobalt and then used to backfill the topmost of 11 levels in the Castle Mine itself, allowing the extraction of further already extracted ore that has been stored in the remaining levels. This latest update tells us that the value of metals extracted from the tailings is more than it will cost to use them for backfill, though no details are included other than the basic cost of backfilling. They also tell us they are meeting with federal and provincial authorities to advance permitting. Again, no timelines are given.
It will be interesting to see if this seat of the pants company can pull this off.
Message 34884527
Last weekend's IKN newsletter included an extensive analysis of the financing announced last week for the construction of Rio2 aka RIO's Fenix gold mine in Chile, scheduled to begin production next year, and like me, IKN liked the deal. If you want the details you'll have to subscribe, but I will say that IKN has now moved RIO to Top Pick with an initial target of $1, and mentions $3+ once operations are fully underway.
Today, RIO announced that the $63M Public Offering and the $5M PP with WPM are both closed, meaning that the financing for the construction of Fenix is now complete. The build will begin within days.
ca.finance.yahoo.com |
