TSX Venture slips, April 15-19: Millennial Lithium, Novo, Superior Gold

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index fell 1.5% to 609.21, continuing its steady April decline.

Shares of Millennial Lithium rose 18¢ to $1.75, after the company doubled the resource at its Pastos Grandes lithium project in Argentina. The project now contains 1.8 billion measured and indicated cubic metres brine grading 427 milligrams per litre lithium and 4,440 milligrams per litre potassium, for 4.12 million tonnes lithium carbonate-equivalent and 15.3 million tonnes potassium chloride-equivalent. It also contains 350 million inferred cubic metres brine at 428 milligrams per litre lithium, and 4,457 milligrams per litre potassium for 798,000 tonnes lithium carbonate-equivalent and 2.97 million tonnes potassium chloride-equivalent.

Millennial Lithium defined the resource over a 45 sq. km area using more than 15,000 metres of core and rotary drilling. The company expects to build a pilot processing plant and table a feasibility study at the project by the end of June. In March, it completed a short-term pump test at the project’s third production-scale well. The company says the test indicates the aquifer could support long term pumping.

Shares of Novo Resources fell 31¢ to $2.28. The company announced a consultant was finishing an options study for its East Pilbara gold assets, including its Beatons Creek gold project, where it tabled an updated resource early in April 2019. The company expects the options study in 2019’s third quarter. The study will make recommendations on project-development scenarios that Novo will explore in economic studies.

The updated resource at Beatons Creek has both open-pit and underground resources split across oxide and fresh mineralization. The project contains a total 6.6 million indicated tonnes grading 2.1 grams gold for 457,000 oz. gold and 4.2 million inferred tonnes at 3.2 grams gold for 446,000 oz. gold. The entire indicated resource is contained within the open pit. The new resource boosts indicated resources 33%, compared to the previous estimate. The underground resource alone contains 885,000 inferred tonnes at 5.3 grams gold for 152,000 oz. gold. 

The company’s East Pilbara gold assets also include the Blue Spec gold deposit, the Talga Talga gold deposit and several early-stage exploration projects. The company will continue exploring and developing its East Pilbara assets in 2019.

Shares of Superior Gold rose 12¢ to 58¢. The company improved the grade of material milled at its Plutonic gold operation in Western Australia by 18% in 2019’s first quarter, compared to 2018’s fourth quarter.

The company milled 414,800 tonnes in 2019’s first quarter at 1.92 grams gold. It achieved 88% recoveries.