TSX down, Sept. 27-Oct. 1 trading week

The S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 251.83 points or 1.23% to finish the September 27-Oct. 1 trading week at 20,150.87. The S&P/TSX Global Mining Index fell 0.52 points or 0.55% to 93.45 and the S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index rose 0.7 points or 0.44% to 158.34. The S&P/TSX Global Gold Index fell 4.12 points or 1.55% to 261.20 and spot gold rose US$10.80  per oz. or 0.62%% to US$1,761.00 per ounce.

Solaris Resources jumped $1.22 to $12.17 per share. Solaris announced additional assay results from its Warintza East discovery within the company’s Warintza copper and gold project in southeastern Ecuador. Drill hole SLSE-01, collared about 1,300 metres east of Warintza Central and drilled to the southwest, returned 396 metres of 0.42% copper-equivalent from surface, with the full length of the hole of 1,213 metres assaying 0.28% copper-equivalent. Drill hole SLSE-02, collared from the same platform but drilled to the northwest, cut 320 metres of 0.48% copper-equivalent, including 62 metres of 0.68% copper-equivalent from surface, from the first 320 metres of core for which assays were received, with the last 10 metres of the interval grading 0.47% copper-equivalent. Warintza East is the third major discovery within the 7 km by 5 km Warintza porphyry cluster. “With this latest discovery at Warintza East and the growing footprint of Warintza Central to the north and east returning some of the strongest intervals reported to date, the conceptual pit shell is expected to be extended to the north and east showing the potential to ultimately become one multi-kilometre ‘superpit’ joining the two areas,” Jorge Fierro, the company’s vice president of exploration, stated in a press release. “Future drilling will focus on the open, undrilled area between these two zones.”

Denison Mines rose 22¢ to $1.91 per share. The company announced on Sept. 22 that it is advancing its 95%-owned Wheeler River uranium project to a feasibility study. The project in northern Saskatchewan, hosts the Phoenix and Gryphon uranium deposits, which Denison discovered in 2008 and 2014, respectively. The feasibility study will assess an in-situ recovery (ISR) mining operation at the Phoenix deposit. The company completed a prefeasibility study on the project in 2018; the PFS considered the economic potential of developing the Phoenix deposit as an in-situ recovery (ISR) operation and the Gryphon deposit as a conventional underground mining operation. The company also announced an at-the-market offering agreement with Cantor Fitzgerald and Scotia Capital, which will allow Denison to offer and sell common shares worth a total of up to US$50 million. The ATM will be effective until October 16 2023 unless Denison chooses to cancel it before that date.

Shares of Verde AgriTech, formerly Verde Potash, jumped 15.6% to $1.26. The company raised its 2021 revenue guidance to R$90 million (US$15 million) from its earlier guidance of R$50 million. Construction of its second production facility for potassium fertilizer got underway in August and is expected to reach commercial production by the third quarter of 2022. Plant 2 will have the capacity to produce 1.2 million tonnes per year.