1. Introduction

There are lots and lots of interesting gold projects to be found in Nevada these days, and most of them are in the hands of large entities like Nevada Gold Mines, Kinross, Coeur, Waterton etc. Once in a while, much smaller parties manage to dig up interesting projects, and one of those is optioned by tiny junior Golden Independence Mining (CSE: IGLD, OTCQB:GIDMF, FRA:6NN). This company managed to arrange an earn-in deal last year to own up to 75% of the Independence project in Nevada, which contains a historic 1.07Moz gold resource with the usual hallmarks of a typical Nevada deposit: near surface, heap leachable oxides and deeper, higher grade sulfides.

1. Introduction

It is not often that you see a Partner of a multi-billion-dollar resource fund part ways with his former colleagues and accept the challenge of turning around a headache dossier of that fund by himself. This is exactly what happened to Meridian Mining (TSXV: MNO) where then-Partner Gilbert Clark of Sentient Equity Partners came to the rescue. The result is effectively a brand-new company without debt, cashed up with a roster of new investors, and a “company maker” new asset: the Cabaçal copper-gold project in Brazil, which is an exciting copper-gold VMS belt scale project with huge potential.

As Gold Terra Resource Corp. (TSXV:YGT)(OTCQX:YGTFF)(FRA:TXO) has been drilling their Yellowknife City Gold project diligently since the company turnaround, the first resounding results of their work were announced to the public on March 16, 2021. The NI43-101 compliant Inferred resource increased from 735k Inferred oz Au to 1.207M Inferred oz Au, and this is still without the inclusion of (not yet disclosed) drill results from the Campbell Shear, one of the highest priority targets at Gold Terra’s district scale Yellowknife City Gold Project.

Drilling at Frotet project, Quebec

1. Introduction

Kenorland Minerals was mentioned to me at the end of 2019 by mining legend Rick Rule, departing CEO of Sprott US Holdings, and more specific he extensively expressed his admiration for the young CEO of Kenorland, Zach Flood. According to Rule, who recently announced his retirement, Flood is a top category prodigy, who is probably destined to go places. Such an endorsement is pretty rare, so I kept this in the back of my head, as Kenorland wasn’t trading at the time. I had to wait until after the RTO in January of this year. After a few weeks of trading the share price started to come down, also caused by headwinds for gold as interest rates for bonds were steadily rising:

After Avrupa Minerals (TSXV: AVU) commenced drilling last December at its Sesmarias target at the flagship copper-zinc Alvalade project in Portugal, which is operated together with JV partner MATSA (joined company of Trafigura and Mubadala, two commodity giants), the company completed two drill holes so far for 874m of drilling, part of the 7-8,000m program. Hole SES20-031 and Hole SES20-032 were designed to test the area between the massive sulfide intercepted in hole SES008 and the stockwork zone intercepted in hole SES028, also at depth:

Plan view map Sesmarias, gravity geophysical data

After acquiring the neighbouring Goldlund open pit project from First Mining Gold, Treasury Metals (TML.TO, TSRMF.US) has been busy ever since to integrate both projects into a single open pit-underground project with synergies whenever possible. After hiring Ausenco, a reputable engineering firm, and appointing a new President and CEO, Jeremy Wyeth, who has lots of experience in building mines, the company worked diligently for 6 months on an integrated Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for both projects.

1. Introduction

When the mining industry is facing a gold bull market as it is now, many new opportunities are created in all kinds of forms and shapes in order to profit from it handsomely. This can for example be done through putting private assets into listed entities, buying new assets, creating a new vision for existing assets, but also turning around existing companies that have solid assets but not the management to make it a success. The last two options are what has happened to Gold Terra Resource Corp. (TSXV:YGT)(OTCQX:YGTFF)(FRA:TXO) recently, as it has seen a gradual turnaround in the last few years. Work is currently focusing on expanding their current mineral resource estimate with a drill program on the Campbell Shear, one of the highest priority targets at Gold Terra’s district scale Yellowknife City Gold Project.

Ivana deposit; Rio Negro province, Argentina

1. Introduction

Haldane Exploration Camp - December 2020

All pictures are company material, unless stated otherwise.

All currencies are in US Dollars, unless stated otherwise.

After drilling their flagship Haldane project in the Yukon 1.5 years ago, and coming up with decent but not spectacular results (October 2019: 2.35m @ 125 g/t Ag, 4.4% Pb from 154m depth, November 2019: 10.7m @ 125.6 g/t Ag including 1m @ 455 g/t Ag, and 1m @ 180 g/t Ag), Alianza Minerals (ANZ.V, TARSF.US) management was still eager to keep looking for the kind of silver mineralization that was responsible for over 214Moz Ag of historic production at the Keno Hill mining camp up to 1990, which was nothing short of spectacular at grades up to 89.2 oz(not gram!)/t for the larger mines:

LiSTR demonstration plant at Lanxess Project site

1. Introduction

Despite COVID-19 gearing up for a second wave, Standard Lithium (TSXV: SLL) (OTCQX: STLHF) (FRA: S5L) continues to raise money in very significant quantities for a typical lithium developer. I continue to be impressed by CEO Robert Mintak, who raised C$34.5M in December of last year, after completing a heavily oversubscribed C$12.1M round in February of that same year. Although COVID-19 is feared to have an impact on real world economics again, optimism seems to vaporize these sentiments quickly, fueled by a US$900B stimulus package signed by Trump at the last minute on December 27, 2020, and maybe even more importantly, two authorized vaccines, being allocated to front line health care workers worldwide at the moment, and later on to the general public.