Global Mining and Exploration Snapshot: Gold, silver remain most sought targets worldwide

With metal prices strong through 2017 and into 2018, there has been resurgence in activity amongst junior explorers and developers, with an emphasis on gold and silver. The following are five such companies planning for a busy year ahead.

AURANIA RESOURCES

Toronto-based Aurania Resources (TSXV: ARU; US-OTC: AUIAF) is the new Ecuadorian gold-exploration vehicle for CEO and chairman Keith Barron, who cofounded Aurelian Resources, which went on to discover the world-class Fruta del Norte gold deposit in Ecuador, now being built into a mine by Lundin Gold.

The Aurania team was beefed up in May, when veteran gold explorer Richard Spencer joined the company as president.

Aurania is seeking gold at its Lost Cities project in southeastern Ecuador in the Cordillera del Cutucu region, which is contiguous  with the Cordillera del Condor. The Cutucu forms part of the Northern Andean Jurassic metallogenic belt, which contains clusters of porphyry copper, gold-copper skarn and epithermal gold deposits.

After having completed a helicopter-borne geophysical survey of its Lost Cities property last year, Aurania says its next steps include more stream-sediment sampling; detailed exploration of prioritized targets; soil sampling; and selection of targets for scout drilling in the second half of the year.

Aurania’s stock had a run-up to the $5 mark in December, but has since settled back to $2.45 at press time, for an $80-million market capitalization.

LEVON RESOURCES

Vancouver-based Levon Resources (TSX: LVN; US-OTC: LVNVF) is exploring for precious metals in Mexico.

Levon’s key asset is its Cordero silver-polymetallic project in south-central Chihuahua state. The company sees it as “one of Mexico’s premier porphyry targets,” with host rocks, geology, metal assemblage and size analogous with other bulk-tonnage silver deposits in Mexico.

Resources at Cordero total 848 million indicated tonnes grading 17.91 grams silver per tonne, 0.479% zinc, 0.254% lead and 0.050 gram gold per tonne, or 41 equivalent grams silver per tonne. In the inferred category are another 92 million tonnes at slightly lower grades.

Total contained ounces in all categories is 1.2 billion equivalent oz. silver, and resources remain open along strike and at depth.

Levon aims to improve the project’s economics and is looking at an expanded mill design, as well as more engineering and metallurgical studies.

ORVANA MINERALS

Long a fixture in the Canadian junior mining scene, Toronto-based Orvana Minerals (TSX: ORV; US-OTC: ORVMF) is a growing, multi-mine copper-gold producer, with its El Valle gold-copper mine in Spain and its gold-silver Don Mario mine in Bolivia.

For 2018, Orvana is guiding total production of 110,000 to 120,000 oz. gold, plus by-product copper and silver, compared with last year’s 90,292 oz. gold, plus by-product credits.

However, it posted a net loss last year of $15.5 million on revenues of $138 million.

At the end of 2017, Orvana had $21 million in unrestricted cash and $18 million in total debt. In mid-February its market capitalization was $30 million.

This year, the company’s plan is consolidate its baseline production and focus on cost reduction, as well as look at growth opportunities, including exploration in and around its two mines.

SANDSTORM GOLD

Nolan Watson-led Sandstorm Gold (TSX: SSL; NYSE-AM: SAND) is one of the newer kids on the block in the gold streaming and royalty business, but has already acquired a portfolio of 174 streams and royalties since 2009, of which 21 of the underlying mines are producing.

Sandstorm says its broad plan is to “grow and diversify its low-cost production profile” by acquiring more gold streams and royalties.

Active projects where Sandstorm has a royalty or streaming interest include: McEwen Mining’s Black Fox property in Ontario; Equinox Gold’s Aurizona Gold mine in Brazil; the HM claim near Kirkland Lake Gold’s Macassa gold mine in Ontario; New Dimension Resources’ precious metal assets in Argentina; Metanor Resources’ Bachelor Lake gold mine in Quebec; and Erdene Resource Development’s  Bayan Khundii Gold and Altan Nar projects in Mongolia.

TERANGA GOLD

Teranga Gold (TSX: TGZ; US-OTC: TGCDF) owns and operates the Sabodala gold mine — the only gold mine and mill in Senegal, West Africa. (“Teranga,” the company says, means “hospitality and friendliness” in Wolof, the main local language of Senegal.)

The mine produced a record 233,257 oz. gold in 2017, and Teranga added 40,000 oz. gold to Sabodala’s reserve base.

The mill at Teranga Gold’s Sabodala gold mine in Senegal. Credit: Teranga Gold.

Located 650 km southeast of the capital Dakar in the prodigious Birimian greenstone belt, Sabodala has operated since 2009.

Teranga also has numerous gold assets in Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso, including its 1.2 million oz. gold Wahgnion development project in the southwestern corner of Burkina Faso, where mine construction is expected to begin after a financing closes.

Teranga’s shareholders include: Tablo Corp. (21.5%); Van Eck Associates (6.8%); Heartland Advisors (4.5%); Ruffer LLP (4.3%); and Oppenheimer Funds (3.5%).