From Stockhead:
Lode Resources (ASX:LDR)
The silver price is rallying, up 8.25% over the past seven days to its highest point in over a month.
It’s the perfect great time for LDR to unveil a monstrous 1,899g/t silver equivalent hit over 1.5m at the flagship Webb Consol project in NSW.
LDR uses silver equivalent numbers for simplicity, but the actual intercept also contained lead, zinc, copper, and gold.
This hit – part of broader 20.5m intercept @ 375g/t AgEq from 16m — was from the first drill hole into Copy Cat, the sixth sulphide lode discovered to date at the project.
It is also the first drill hole to contain more than 1% copper over the entire 20.5m intercept, LDR says.
However, it is only the fifth best hit so far from the wider project. The top four include:
50m @ 314g/t AgEq from 17m
5m @ 552g/t AgEq from 104.6m
3m @ 412g/t AgEq from 30.1m, and
2m @ 450g/t AgEq from 122.9m.
All six mineralised lodes identified so far remain open. Various geophysical programs are now underway to help with future drill hole targeting, the company says.
“Drilling at the Webbs Consol Silver Project continues to yield exciting results,” managing director Ted Leschke says.
“Discovering near-surface high-grade mineralisation in six lodes to date demonstrates both the rich endowment and potential scale of the Webbs Consol mineral system. “This has heightened our confidence in on-going exploration efforts.”
Focus Minerals (ASX:FML)
Like silver, gold is experiencing a small renaissance. FML shut its Coolgardie, Laverton and The Mount operations in 2013 amid nosediving gold prices and high operating costs.
Now the WA goldie is about to restart mining operations at Coolgardie, where it wants to produce 402,000oz over an initial seven-year life.
The numbers are pretty good. It would cost $51m to build/refurbish, a process which is already underway.
Once in production, it would have an all-in sustaining cost of $1,618/oz – giving FML pre-tax cashflow of $354m and NPV of $242m at a gold price of $2,500/oz. Commissioning is scheduled for mid-2023.
Meanwhile, toll treating (using third party plants) of low-grade stockpiles has produced 2,200oz to date, and a small 3,400oz mining project at the Big Blow deposit kicked off in October with ore to be milled via a toll treating campaign later in the year.
Los Cerros (ASX:LCL)
LCL has amassed an impressive 2.6Moz resource at its Quinchia project in Colombia but remains convinced that the “causative porphyry” (aka the ‘motherlode’) is yet to be found.
To find it, and just grow resources more generally, LCL launched an extensive +200m soil channel sampling program.
This program has uncovered high grade gold outside the current resource at the 459,000oz Dosquebradas porphyry, one of a cluster of targets within a 3km radius.
Soil sampling from trenches returned high grades like 146.6m @ 1.82g/t Au including 34m @ 4.22g/t Au. Deeper (3+m) auger samples included 9.28g/t Au and 5.68g/t Au.
“We believe an early diorite dyke and associated breccia logged in historic drill core extends to surface in this region and our channel and auger samples have told us we are on the right track,” managing director Jason Stirbinskis says.
“High gold grades at surface such as those we have just encountered could have a positive impact on Dosquebradas economics and its contribution to the Quinchia project.”
Financial indicators
The VIX fear gauge down by 9.50 points since 23 October to 2.52.
Paradoxically, the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 4,193 points or 14.15% since 23 October to 33,748, the STOXX 600 up 40.95 points or 10.46% to 432.26 and the Shanghai Composite index up 16.52 points or 0.51% to 3,087.29.
Gold up to 1,774.20. US 10-year Treasury Bonds down to 3.819 and oil up to 88.86. Cryptos Bitcoin down by 2,611 points or 13.64% to 16,534.
ASX 200 up 418.30 points or 6.21% since 23 October to 6,739.70. The Aussie dollar up to 67.03 US cents.
Carbon Market Spot Prices
LGC $65.00 STC $39.90
ESC $34.25 VEEC $74.75
ACCU $29.75 EU ETS €73.05
NZU $NZ87.90 UK ETS GBP70.86