Benzinga - by The Gold Report, Benzinga Contributor.
Source: Streetwise Reports 04/18/2024
Metallic Minerals Corp. (OTC: MMNGF) announces that all four holes drilled at its Newmont-backed La Plata project in Colorado intersected porphyry-style mineralization from the surface and over their entire lengths.
In releasing the final results from its 2023 drilling campaign at its La Plata copper-silver-gold-platinum group element (Cu-Ag-Au-PGE) project in southwestern Colorado, Metallic Minerals Corp. announced that all four holes intersected porphyry-style mineralization from the surface and over their entire lengths.
Three of four holes in the 4,530-meter program intercepted continuous porphyry style Cu-Ag-Au-PGE mineralization over 500 meters in width at 0.3% Cu, including significant intervals exceeding 0.5% to 0.7% Cu Eq (copper equivalent) with associated Ag, Au and PGEs. Drill hole LAP23-05 intersected 909 meters of continuous mineralization from surface, grading 0.26% Cu Eq over the entire hole length with a 550-meter-wide higher-grade zone.
The intensity of the mineralization in the drill holes varies based on the "veining and concentration of associated sulfides that carry the copper, silver, gold, platinum, and palladium" Metallic Minerals noted in a release.
"Our emerging vision for the La Plata project is that we have the potential for a district-scale system with multiple porphyry centers in addition to the Allard resource area" said President Scott Petsel. "This is supported by the multi-kilometer scale metal-in-soil values that extend well beyond the area of drilling and correspond with strong alteration responses in our detailed district-scale airborne hyperspectral survey."
Newmont Corp. (NYSE: NEM) — formerly Newcrest Mining Ltd. — invested CA$6.34 million in Metallic primarily to advance La Plata.
"Newcrest was one of the first to recognize the potential (of La Plata) following the announcement of our discovery drill results in early 2023" Metallic Minerals Chief Executive Officer Greg Johnson said.
These resources and results, combined with those from its flagship Keno property in the Yukon and an alluvial gold production royalty agreement signed with Parker Schnabel of the Discovery Channel's "Gold Rush" led Couloir Capital to rate the stock a Buy last year. In an updated research note on September 27, it set a fair value per share estimate of CA$0.74.
The inaugural resource was based largely on historical drilling from which gold and platinum group element assays were not available. Metallic has stated it expects to add the full suite of precious metals to future resource updates.
These resources and results, combined with those from its flagship Keno property in the Yukon and an alluvial gold production royalty agreement signed with Parker Schnabel of the Discovery Channel's "Gold Rush" led Couloir Capital to rate the stock a Buy last year.
In an updated research note on September 27, it set a fair value per share estimate of CA$0.74.
Petsel said the company expects to grow the resource for the La Plata project. "Our drill results indicate a significant opportunity for resource expansion and have continued to return both broad zones of mineralization and internal higher-grade zones with considerable precious metal associations showing elevated gold, platinum, and palladium values" he said.
The Catalyst: Open at Depth, Along Trend
"The 2023 exploration program was a major step forward in our understanding of the higher-grade controls to mineralization in the Allard resource area and in the advancement of several exciting surface target zones that demonstrate percent level copper with precious metals that have never been drill tested" Petsel said.
There has been excitement in the silver market recently, and some analysts are bullish on the metal. After recently correcting from fresh highs of US$29.80, silver rebounded to US$28.78 on Wednesday.
An advanced airborne hyperspectral survey covering 157 square kilometers has also been completed at the project, allowing for detailed mineral and alteration mapping across the entire district.
Metallic Minerals said the U.S. Geologic Survey has identified the La Plata mining district as a potential critical minerals resource area under the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative program.
Yukon Flagship Gets Technical Report
The estimate noted a combined underground and in-pit total from four deposits for the inferred resource of 2.5 million tonnes (Mt) at 223 grams per tonne silver equivalent (g/t Ag Eq), equating to 18.16 million ounces (Moz) of contained silver equivalent.
According to the company, underground inferred mineral resources include the Formo deposit, which contains 12.77 Moz Ag Eq (7.11 Moz Ag, 3,000 ouches gold (Au), 36.02 million pounds (Mlbs) lead (Pb), and 66.14 Mlbs zinc (Zn) within 1.08 Mt grading 369 g/t Ag Eq (206 g/t Ag, 0.08 g/t Au, 1.52% Pb, and 2.79% Zn).
The Formo deposit is directly adjacent to the highway and power lines that feed the central Keno Hill mill, which is operated by Hecla Mining Co. (HL:NYSE), the largest primary silver producer in Canada and the U.S.A., Metallic Minerals said. The Formo deposit directly adjoins Hecla's Keno Hill property, where Hecla is actively mining the nearby Bermingham deposit.
There has been excitement in the silver market recently, and some analysts are bullish on the metal. After recently correcting from fresh highs of US$29.80, silver rebounded to US$28.78 on Wednesday.
Silver is the most conductive element in nature. It's also important to the green economy transition because it's used to coat electrical contacts in computers, phones, cars, and appliances. It's also an important element in solar technology.
In an update last year, the World Silver Institute said there was a deficit of 140 million ounces (Moz) between supply and demand for silver in 2023, compared to 237.7 Moz in 2022. However, the institute also noted that global output shrunk by 2% in 2023.
"Mined output over the longer term, four to five years out, is forecast to begin to decline" the institute said in its World Silver Survey 2023. "This will be due to losses from grade decline and reserve depletion at existing operations exceeding the new production that is expected to come online from the current project pipeline."
Ownership and Share Structure
About 34% is owned by strategic investors, including Newmont's 9.32% and mining financier Eric Sprott, who owns 14.5%.
About 22% is owned institutionally. The rest, 27%, is retail.
Its market cap is CA$49.3 million, with 166.99 million shares outstanding, 123.02 million free-floating. It trades in a 52-week range of CA$0.44 and CA$0.24.
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