Friday Footnotes

American Pacific (USGD, CSE)

Gets $10 million (U.S.) and 100% ownership of Palmer, Dowa gets rights to Zinc concentrate

24 cents per share | $53 million market cap

Warwick Smith, American Pacific’s CEO, stated:

“This is a transformative transaction for American Pacific.

“American Pacific receives a significant injection of capital and 100% control of a project that has an established mineral resource with significant exploration upside throughout the district.

“An updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) is underway, and this transition consolidates ownership and provides a clear path forward with a renewed focus on advanced exploration and resource expansion, which we believe will create significant value for a project that currently includes a small fraction of the known VMS showings in the current MRE.”

The resource is approximately 14 Mt grading 9% Zinc equivalent.

The Palmer VMS Project is an advanced stage Copper-Zinc-Gold-Silver exploration project in Southeast Alaska with road access and located only 60 km from the deep seaport at Haines, Alaska. More than $116 million (U.S.) has been spent to-date at Palmer, with NI-43–101 mineral resources defined at the Palmer and AG deposits. Recent drilling (2023–2024) has highlighted the potential to define extremely rich Copper zones and the Palmer Project includes numerous drill-ready, high-grade prospects that define more than 15 km of favourable mineral trends, all hallmarks of a significant massive sulphide system.

From a near all-time low, USGD rallied from 17 to 27 cents on the news, closing Friday at 24 cents.

Watch for a potential retest in the coming days or weeks toward the now-rising EMA-200 (currently 18 cents).

Liberty Gold (LGD, TSX)

They want you to know – we’ve got Antimony

32 cents per share | $122 million market cap

Pete Shabestari, VP-Exploration for Liberty Gold, commented: “Our successful fieldwork at Antimony Ridge confirms the high-grade potential of this discovery, not only for Antimony but for Gold as well. This program demonstrates our commitment to unlocking value from all parts of the Goldstrike Project. We look forward to advancing Antimony Ridge into the next phase of exploration with an expanded field program and preparation for drilling in 2025.”

In case you weren’t aware – Antimony is 1 of the hot commodities of late.

For example, Military Metals (MILI, TSX-V) has shot up by more than 500% since June, commanding about a $50 million market cap, mainly because it’s a way to play Antimony, though this play has also been aggressively marketed.

Several other explorers have shifted their focus to Antimony in recent months in their efforts to get on the bandwagon.

However, LGD is likely going to need a lot more than Antimony to get its share price turned around.

This particular equity has yet to double off all-time lows, which isn’t a sign of relative strength as most of the better Gold names have doubled or more by now.

Liberty’s flagship project (Black Pine) is a past producing heap leach mine in Idaho.

A Pre-Feasibility Study suggests 2.2 million ounces Gold production over a 17-year mine life.

After-tax NPV(5) is $550 million.

Startup capital is expected to be $327 million.

No great reasons to be buying LGD right now.

Orla Mining (OLA, TSX)

Moves into Canada with $81o million acquisition of Musselwhite mine

$6.42 per share | $2 billion market cap

The transaction adds a second high quality, high margin producing asset to Orla’s portfolio. The combination of the proven Musselwhite mine and Orla’s low-cost Camino Rojo oxide operation more than doubles the company’s annual Gold production to over 300,000 oz, with expected near-term growth to over 500,000 oz of annual Gold production as the South Railroad Project is expected to commence production in 2027. The transaction will also significantly enhance the free cash flow of the company, providing additional cash for the execution of Orla’s organic growth plans.

CEO Jason Simpson commented: “This acquisition is a significant milestone for Orla Mining. It more than doubles our annual production, while providing us with a presence in Ontario, Canada, one of the premier mining jurisdictions in the world and where I began my career. We intend to not only continue to operate Musselwhite, but to seek optimization opportunities and to invest in its future, grow its reserves and resources, and extend its mine life. The mine has a proven history of successful production, cash generation, and reserve replacement, having consistently added to mine life.

“We have been impressed with the operating team at Musselwhite, which runs an exceptional mine and has developed positive and strong ties with First Nations, local partners, and community members. We are fully committed to respecting and growing these relationships.

“Thanks to our shareholders, notably Pierre Lassonde and Prem Watsa of Fairfax, and our banking and financial partners, for their continued support as we strive to elevate Orla into an even stronger and more robust mining company. We are also grateful to Newmont for their trust in our vision and commitment to sustainability. We intend to be responsible stewards of Musselwhite, creating a legacy of excellence, respect, and value for all stakeholders.”

OLA is one of the stronger mining stocks.

They’ve got some key backers in Lassonde and Fairfax Financial (FFX, TSX), who was adding to their position in the open market this past week.

If I was going to buy Orla, I’d be setting an alert at $7 per share.

It’s been grinding sideways for several years but when OLA finally breaks above $7 and out of this range, there will be a nice run.

Lion One Metals (LIO, TSX-V)

Trying to hone in on high-grade roscoelite, brings on 2 ex-Newmont geologists

29 cents per share | $80 million market cap

The new structure has been continuously mapped and mined for over 100 m in the E-W direction and appears to extend further to the east of the current underground workings. While roscoelite-bearing mineralized structures have been identified in drill core at Tuvatu, this is the first time that a significant roscoelite-bearing lode array with high-grade Gold has been identified and exposed continuously over a significant distance underground.

Notably, this structure is striking E-W and dipping at approximately –20° to the north. This is an orientation that has not previously been defined or predicted in the Tuvatu geological model, though it has been identified in recent structural analysis.

No word on production (yet), which is what investors are wanting to hear about.

Surely more will be told about that in the weeks to come – Lion’s initial bulk sample of 861 tonnes ran 11.6 g/t Au. They’re working their way toward 700 tpd.

Yet another example of a widely touted stock which had a big run and has now come down to Earth.

As you can see in the 10-year chart above, LIO is trying to find support near its all-time low but no clear sign of having done so yet.

Steer clear for the time being, until they get a handle on production.

GoldQuest Mining (GQC, TSX-V)

Initiates environmental studies application for its Romero project (previous week’s news)

28 cents per share | $73 million market cap

“This regulatory change is expected to permit GoldQuest to carry out studies that allow us to demonstrate the environmental feasibility of our Romero Project and at the same time respond to the environmental concerns that the province of San Juan has,” stated Luis Santana, CEO of GoldQuest. “The company is funded to initiate a full Feasibility Study (FS), building on our existing Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), once the necessary approvals are obtained.”

The news helped them conclude an $8.7 million financing this past week, done at 19 cents per share.

GoldQuest touted several important people within Dominican Republic’s business community as having participated.

New hope for Romero and that it may finally (finally) get the long-awaited permits.

Speculators have run GQC up from 16 to 28 cents over the past 2 weeks.

Not a ton of volume though, at least not yet, but the price trend is definitely bullish.

About the writer: Daniel T. Cook, who joined BMR in June 2016, hails from Texas and now resides in Florida after recently moving from Utah. Daniel has a strong passion for the junior resource sector and has followed the Venture and broader markets with great interest since he bought his first stock more than 20 years ago at the age of 12. He became a licensed investment professional who was a Bright Future’s Scholar at the University of Central Florida, graduating in 2010 with a major in Finance.

Note: No positions in the above mentioned stocks.