TSX rises, Dec. 6-10

The S&P/TSX Composite Index climbed 1.25% or 257.3 points to finish the Dec. 6-10 trading week at 20,890.60 points. The S&P/TSX Global Mining Index rose 1.62% to 98.52 and the S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index jumped 5.12% to 170.92. Spot gold ended the week at US$1,782.90 per oz., up 30¢.

Lithium Americas jumped $2.43 to $42.72 per share. The company closed a US$258.75 million offering of 1.75% convertible senior notes due in January 2027. The offering included an over-allotment of US$33.75 million. The company said it used a portion of the net proceeds to repay in full its US$205 million senior secured credit facility and intends to use the remainder of the proceeds from the offering to repay other debts and for general corporate purposes. The company has projects in Argentina (Jujuy province) and the United States (Nevada).

Shares of Teck Resources rose $1.60 to $34.65. The company reported on the impact of heavy rain, flooding and mudslides in British Columbia. Teck said as a result of rail disruption, fourth quarter sales of steelmaking coal would come in at 5.2-5.7 million tonnes, compared to its previous estimate of 6.4-6.8 million tonnes, and noted that it expects when rail service is fully restored it will be able to “substantially recover delayed fourth quarter sales in the first half of 2022.” It said it had not idled any processing facilities and continued to stockpile clean coal and manage available railing capacity to minimize production impacts, and expected annual steelmaking coal production of 24.5-25 million tonnes, compared to its previous guidance following wildfires in the third quarter of nearly 25 million tonnes. The company forecast 2021 annual adjusted site cash cost of sales to be about $64-$66 per tonne, slightly above the upper end of its previous guidance of $59-$64 per tonne and full-year transportation costs of $44-$46 per tonne compared to its earlier forecast of $42 per tonne. Howver, increased costs will be “more than offset” by continued strong steelmaking coal prices through the second half of 2021. It noted that the average price of steelmaking coal in the three months ended Nov. 30 settled at US$371 per tonne, US$168 per tonne higher on an FOB basis than the three month average at the end of August, and US$254 higher than the three month average at the end of May, compared to only $3 per tonne higher transportation costs, based on the mid-point of its updated annual guidance. The company said the weather events had no impact on production at Highland Valley Copper, however up to 4,500 tonnes of contained copper in concentrate sales were at risk of being delayed into the first quarter of 2022 due to disruptions in the logistics chain.

Solaris Resources rose 98¢ to $13.78 after announcing it will spin-out non-core assets in Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Mexico into Solaris Exploration and will focus on its flagship Warintza project in Ecuador.