Prairie snapshots: Eight companies to watch

The compelling geology, excellent infrastructure and mining friendly business environment of Canada’s Prairie provinces have helped a lively mining scene flourish, with companies large and small on the hunt for gold, base metals, uranium and diamonds. The following are eight such companies.

BISON GOLD RESOURCES

Bison Gold Resources (TSXV: BGE) is looking for gold in Manitoba, with an emphasis on narrow-vein gold systems in the Rice Lake area in the province’s southeast, as well as the Snow Lake area in the northwest. Its wholly owned Ogama and Central Manitoba gold property in the Rice Lake belt totals 30 sq. km that contain 12 shallow, past-producing gold mines and shafts.

Led by CEO Amir Mousavi, Bison has just announced a non-brokered private placement of up to 6.94 million units at 18¢ per unit for gross proceeds of up to $1.3 million.

Each unit would hold a share and one warrant, so that the holder could buy one share within five years for 24¢. The proceeds go towards general working capital.

Bison last traded at 25¢ per share, coming off a 50¢ short-term spike  in September. On Sept. 22, Bison said it had “recently entered into preliminary discussions with an unrelated party with respect to the potential acquisition” of all the securities of the company, but the discussions ended.

BWR EXPLORATION

BWR Exploration (TSXV: BWR) is the new and less creepy name of Black Widow Resources. The name change took effect on Oct. 3, with no change to the ticker or the number of shares outstanding.

BWR does have a new office in downtown Toronto, filled with the same executive team: cofounder Neil Novak as president and CEO; Daniel Crandall as CFO; cofounder George Duguay as vice-president of corporate development; and cofounder Carmen Diges as corporate secretary. Independent directors are Norman Brewster, Allan Ringler and Earl Coleman.

The name change coincided with BWR closing negotiations to buy the Little Stull Lake gold project in northern Manitoba from Puma Exploration, with the multifaceted deal including BWR paying $150,000 in stages, issuing up to 10 million shares, spending $1.5 million on exploration within three years and adding a Puma representative to the BWR board.

HUDBAY MINERALS

Hudbay Minerals (TSX: HBM; NYSE: HBM) has a dominant presence in Manitoba’s base metals subsector, having operated in the Flin Flon greenstone belt for over 85 years, and mining over 145 million tonnes of ore during that time.

Its Canadian operations are in Flin Flon and Snow Lake: the 777 zinc-copper-gold-silver mine, which began commercial production in 2004 and will continue until 2020; the Lalor zinc-copper-gold-silver mine, which achieved commercial production in the third quarter of 2014; the Reed high-grade copper mine, which hit commercial production in early 2014; processing facilities in Flin Flon, including a concentrator and state-of-the-art zinc plant; and in Snow Lake, a refurbished concentrator to process Lalor ore.

MURCHISON MINERALS

Toronto-based Murchison Minerals (TSXV: MAM) is the product of the reverse takeover of Manicouagan Minerals by Flemish Gold in June 2014. Murchison has a diversified portfolio of properties, including its flagship Brabant-McKenzie high-grade zinc-copper-silver deposit in north-central Saskatchewan, as well as its the HPM nickel-copper-cobalt project in Quebec, gold claims in Ontario’s Pickle Lake area, Cloridorme alumina shale formation in Quebec’s Gaspé region.

This quarter at Brabant-McKenzie, Murchison is carrying out a regional exploration program to follow up on mineralized showings and airborne geophysical anomalies over the property’s 16 km length.

The company says it will also conduct a downhole geophysical probing of past holes drilled into the Brabant-McKenzie deposit. This will inform a drill program expected in early 2017.

MUSTANG MINERALS

Mustang Minerals (TSXV: MUM; US-OTC: MSMGF) has suffered along with most other nickel juniors over the past few years from depressed nickel prices.

Mustang owns the mineral rights to the Makwa and Mayville nickel properties in the Bird River Complex of southeastern Manitoba, and completed a preliminary economic assessment of Makwa-Mayville in 2014.

In October Mustang reported that it had completed several transactions to improve its working capital position. Its cash position as of June 30, 2016 was $647,000, although the working capital deficit was $622,000 after accounting for liabilities associated with a federal tax audit. In May the company sold three of the four grinding mills it owned, and has carried out other sales of non-core mining claims in Ontario and Manitoba.

Mustang points to the “steady improvement in nickel prices” over the past several months, and says that while its Makwa-Mayville property “requires higher metal prices … to meet benchmarks for economic development, the current trend in metal prices is positive.”

NORTH ARROW MINERALS

North Arrow Minerals (TSXV: NAR) has various exploration projects across two territories and two provinces in Canada, but its Prairie exposure consists of the intriguing Pikoo diamond prospect in east-central Saskatchewan. The project — 80% owned by North Arrow and 20% owned by Stornoway Diamond — is at the stage of drilling and target generation, with 10 discrete kimberlite occurrences drilled to date, and five of which are diamond-bearing.

North Arrow describes kimberlite body PK150 as the “most significant discovery to date,” at 10 to 15 metres wide and traceable to 199 metres, and open at depth. Depending on the results of a mid-year till sampling program, North Arrow could resume drilling in early 2017.

SATORI RESOURCES

Toronto-based and Bruce Reid-led Satori Resources (TSXV: BUD) is looking at recommissioning the historic Tartan Lake gold mine complex in Manitoba’s Flin Flon greenstone belt.

It plans to complete a resource estimate at Tartan Lake, with a focus on improving the average grade; complete a preliminary economic assessment; and complete a drill program started in October that would expand the resource along strike.

In August, Satori raised $300,000 for exploration at Tartan Lake by completing a non-brokered private placement of flow-through shares at 15¢ apiece

SKYHARBOUR RESOURCES

Skyharbour Resources (TSXV: SYH) is another uranium junior active in Saskatchewan. It has an option from Denison Mines to acquire a 100% interest in the Moore Lake uranium project, which it describes as “a mature uranium exploration property in the eastern Athabasca basin near existing infrastructure, with known high-grade uranium mineralization and significant discovery potential.”

Under the agreement, Skyharbour will issue 18 million shares and make staged cash payments over five years totalling $500,000 to Denison, and spend $3.5 million on exploration over five years.

Denison owns 12% of Skyharbour’s shares, and its president and CEO is a Skyharbour director.

In October, Skyharbour started an airborne geophysical survey over its Preston uranium property in the basin’s booming Patterson Lake South area.