TSX Venture Exchange inches higher, March 5-9

After rising as many as 24 points midway through the trading week, the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index levelled off at 828.9 — a 0.35% gain over the previous week.

Shares of Goldex Resources rose 45¢ to $1.52. The company has mineral exploration licences in Guatemala and Mali, where it recently signed a joint-venture agreement over its newly acquired Korokoro gold project. Korokoro is a 143 sq. km property being explored by Geo-Sys-Tech Sarl and RexMetal-Sarl. It lies 54 km from Randgold’s Morila gold mine.

Geo has a small-scale mining licence and a plant capable of processing 10 tonnes of ore per hour. Under the joint venture, Geo and Rex will transfer their interests to a new company. Goldex will become the operator with a 51% interest in the joint venture and the licence.

Shares of Maya Gold & Silver fell 28¢ to $2.13. Maya has assets in Morocco, where it is focused on its 85%-owned Zgounder silver mine. The mine began milling in July 2014 and poured its first silver in August of the same year. As of December 2017, Maya had produced 1.35 million oz. silver by Zgounder.

The company filed a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on the Zgounder project earlier this year that projects another decade of mine life. According to the new PEA, the project still has 990,000 measured and indicated tonnes grading 315 grams silver per tonne for 10 million oz. silver. The project has an after-tax net present value of US$200 million at a 6.5% discount rate and a 118% after-tax internal rate of return.

Shares of Lithium X Energy rose 37¢ to $2.57 in final trading before the company was acquired by NextView New Energy Lion Hong Kong. Shareholders of Lithium X received $2.61 for each share held. The companies closed the deal on March 9, and shortly after Lithium X was delisted from the Venture Exchange.

NextView acquired Lithium X as the first in a series of moves to obtain raw materials for electric vehicles. It also acquired a 20% stake in Bacanora Minerals, which has agreed to supply the company with 7,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate per year from its Sonora lithium project in Mexico.

Bacanora owns 100% of one mineral concession at Sonora and 70% of two others. Across those concessions, the project has 244 million proven and probable tonnes grading 3,480 ppm lithium and 1.45% potassium for 3.7 million tonnes lithium carbonate attributable to Bacanora.