Top 5 resources: a triplet of vanadium, gold and nickel
- Small gold producer Troy obtains authorization to mine ‘Smarts’ underground deposit
- VR8 rises on positive study of vanadium project ‘Steelpoortdrift’
- Pacific Nickel Mines strikes thick, high-grade nickel at flagship “Jejevo” project
Here are the biggest winners from small-cap resources at the start of the session on Wednesday, June 23.
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This South African vanadium project developer was a dark horse performer in 2021, up around 110% since the start of the year.
Yesterday, the market capitalization of $ 30 million VR8 published a study on its flagship project of 18,500 tons per year “Steelpoortdrift” (50%, moving towards a property of about 74%).
Highlights include an after-tax net present value (NPV) (100%) of US $ 1.2 billion, average annual cash flow of US $ 139 million and very low operating costs of 3.08 US $ / pound V2O5.
Current dark market prices are bouncing around the US $ 8 / lb to US $ 9 / lb mark.
Steelpoortdrift’s $ 200 million construction costs will only take 25 months to pay off, according to VR8.
“The PFS has once again confirmed our belief that the Steelpoortdrift project is well positioned to become a significant high volume, low cost producer in the market,” said Eugene Nel, Managing Director of VR8.
“It also gave the company a perfect platform to move the project forward through more detailed design studies and ultimately construction and production.”
“With a number of potential optimization opportunities having been identified during PFS, we are confident that future studies can gradually build on the foundations laid by PFS,” said Nel.
The company returned thick, high-grade results – such as 8m at 2.8% nickel – from drilling its “Jejevo” nickel DSO (drop-shipment ore) project in the Solomon Islands.
All 26 holes impacted nickel laterite mineralization, according to the company. A resource assessment of the JORC is underway.
Nickel laterite ores from DSO operations – an inexpensive way to go into production – provide a feedstock for nickel pig iron production suitable for Chinese stainless steel producers, according to Pacific Nickel Mines.
Few alternative sources of nickel laterite ore exist in the world outside of Indonesia (higher jurisdictional risk) and the Philippines (lower grade) to meet demand from Chinese domestic producers of RKEF, the company said.
The $ 10 million market cap explorer is up 20% in 2021 so far.
Venus (30% owned) and its joint venture partner Rox Resources (ASX: RXL) (70%) increased resources from the “Youanmi” gold project by 39% to 1.7 million ounces.
This includes the near surface high grade “Grace” discovery, which is now 109,000 ounces at an average gold grade of 7 g / t.
The discovery cost of $ 16 per ounce is well below the industry average, Rox says.
“Following the resource upgrade, we will begin the Youanmi Mine Feasibility Study,” said Rox General Manager Alex Passmore.
“Drilling will continue at Youanmi with an emphasis on the ongoing conversion of inferred material into indicated grades for deep and near surface resources and the extension of Youanmi depths along the strike and dip. “
In addition, “core regional exploration drilling will continue on our broad interests with the goal of making new discoveries in the region,” the company said.
Rox is up about 4% in early trade.
Small gold producer Troy has obtained Guyanese government approval to develop the 290,000-ounce underground ‘Smarts’ mine, which is part of the Karouni project.
The Smarts mine is expected to be the main continuous source of power for the Karouni plant once it goes into production.
This approval is a big deal. Authorization for the underground mine had been pending for some time, according to the company.
“One of the main challenges for Troy is that there has never been an underground mine developed in Guyana and therefore the Department of Mines (GGMC) has no experience in this area,” he says. -he.
Troy produced 2,140 ounces of gold in April.
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This China-backed shell is now up 230% since signing an agreement with a the mysterious Singaporean consultancy called Cloud Securities in early June.
Cloud titles – that doesn’t even seem to have a working website – ostensibly “specializes in supporting mining and exploration companies in their commercial development”.
As part of the deal, Cloud agreed to bring Zeus a minimum of three new mining projects for review within 12 months of signing the deal.
