TSX Venture falls, March 4-8: Maverix Metals, Aurania, Novo

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index fell 1.13% to 618.08 in the first week of March, after a strong close to February.

Shares of Maverix Metals rose 36¢ to $2.69. The royalty and streaming company produced 20,900 equivalent oz. gold in 2018, beating the upper end of its 18,000 to 19,000 equivalent oz. gold guidance, and a 75% improvement over its 2017 equivalent oz. gold production.

The company produced 5,650 equivalent oz. gold in 2018’s fourth quarter — a 40% increase over the fourth quarter of the previous year. It produced 6,195 equivalent oz. gold in 2018’s third quarter, recording $9.8 million in revenue for $1.3 million in adjusted net income.

In 2018, the company acquired a 51-royalty portfolio from Newmont Mining, as well as a silver stream on Northern Vertex Mining’s Moss mine in Arizona. It also established a US$50-million revolving credit facility with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and National Bank Financial. It expects to produce between 22,500 and 24,000 equivalent oz. gold in 2019.

Shares of Aurania Resources rose 81¢ to $3.50. The company closed a $5.3-million rights offering in early March 2019 and intends to use the proceeds to fund exploration — including scout drilling — and pay concession fees at its Lost Cities–Cutucu gold-copper project in Ecuador.

The company recently found up to 9% copper with 185 grams silver in grab samples taken from Lost Cities’ Tsenken-A porphyry target. The company says the samples show the target holds porphyry clusters rather than one large porphyry. It says it will consider the possibility that other targets at Lost Cities on trend with Tsenken — like Kirus, Jempe and Awacha — could also host porphyry clusters.

Copper mineralization at Tsenken-A covers a 3 by 1 km area. It lies 8 km from Kirus, where grab samples have graded as high as 5.4% copper, with 54 grams silver and 12 km from Jempe, where grab samples have graded up to 3% copper and 47 grams silver. The company is waiting for the Ecuador government to approve the final drill permit for its Crunchy Hill gold-silver target, where it will begin a scout drilling program.

Shares of Novo Resources fell 19¢ to $2.61. The company recently announced initial bulk-sample assays from its Beatons Creek gold project in Nullagine, Western Australia. It expects to receive final assays soon and table a new resource for the project shortly after. Assays from 45 bulk samples — each weighing two tonnes — that the company has received from across the property returned grades ranging from 0.49 gram gold to 6.16 grams gold, for a 2.55-gram, gold-weighted mean value. It’s still waiting for results from another 20 bulk samples.

Earlier in the year it received positive results from mechanical rock-sorting tests at its Karratha gold project in Western Australia.