TSX Venture falls during the Jan 10-14 trading week

The S&P/TSX Venture Exchange fell 8.47 points or 0.93% to 902.99. Spot gold rose US$21.10 per oz. or 1.17% to US$1,818.10 per ounce. 

Shares of Nouveau Monde Graphite rose 99¢ to $10.47. The company appointed Bernard Perron as its new chief operating officer. An executive with over 25 years of experience in the energy industry, Perron previously worked as senior vice president at Inter Pipeline, where he led the construction of a $4.1 billion industrial complex (where large-scale propane is converted to polypropylene). Perron has experience working in large facilities and infrastructure across Canada, Africa and South America. “As the world transitions from fossil fuels to cleantech, I am delighted to see talented minds and skilled project managers come back to Québec,” Nouveau Monde CEO Eric Desaulniers stated in a press release. “Bernard will contribute his immense construction and operational expertise in sophisticated energy industrial settings to execute our vision.” The company, which is working towards building a local supply of carbon-neutral anode material to meet growing demand from electric vehicles, produced 99.99%-pure battery-grade spherical graphite (SPG) in its phase-1 operations last year. On December 22, the company received approval from the Quebec government to start building phase-2 of its Matawinie mine. 

Shares of Oroco Resource rose 24¢ to $2.31. The company announced drill results from its Santo Tomas project in north-western Mexico, including 328.3 metres grading 0.38% copper, 0.010% molybdenum, 2.60 grams silver per tonne and 0.038 gram gold per tonne (0.45% copper-equivalent) starting from 159.8 metres downhole in drill hole N008; and 280.1 metres grading 0.38% copper, 0.012% molybdenum, 2.85 grams silver per tonne and 0.025 gram gold per tonne (0.44% copper-equivalent) starting from 349.9 metres in drill hole N002. The 2021 drill program, which spanned 600 metres of strike length on the project’s North Zone, has confirmed the presence of “intensely fractured, potassic-and phyllic-altered andesite volcanics and Laramide-age porphyritic intrusive dikes,” the company said.  

Tower Resources jumped 82.4% to 16¢. The company announced it found a new gold zone at its Rabbit North project in the Kamloops mining district of British Columbia. Highlights from its drill program from the new zone included 0.3 metres grading 14.9 grams gold per tonne starting from 131 metres downhole in hole 556030 and 1.6 metres grading 14 grams gold per tonne starting from 113.2 metres in drill hole 556016. Joe Dhami, the company’s president, said that the width and grade of the golden zone “rival some of the best-known discoveries in central B.C. and marks a transformative change,” for the company. Tower plans to resume drilling on the zone after the lab results from its other December drill holes are obtained.