TSX Venture slips, Aug. 21-25

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index dipped 29 points to a 769.47-point close, as spot gold prices rose US$7.5 to US$1,291.35 per oz., and Comex copper prices gained US10¢ to US$3.06 per pound.

Shares of Regulus Resources gained 48¢ to $2.68 over the trading period. On Aug. 18, the junior explorer began a 3,000-metre drill program at its Golden Brew gold property, 32 km south of Austin, Nevada. Mineralization at Golden Brew occurs in a zone of gold-bearing jasperoid measuring 760 metres long and up to 60 metres wide. Samples from the zone are anomalous in pathfinder elements typical of Carlin-type gold deposits, with gold grades ranging from anomalous to 4 grams gold per tonne. The target was drilled by former operators in 1988 and 2010, with best results of 18.3 metres of 0.55 gram gold and 9.1 metres of 0.72 gram gold. Regulus has an option to earn 50% in the property from Highway 50 Gold by spending US$5 million in exploration over five years. On Aug. 15, Regulus announced drill results from its AntaKori copper-gold-silver project in northern Peru. The company intercepted epithermal mineralization in the first drill hole of the 18,000-metre drill program, which returned 184 metres of 1.54% copper, 1.05 grams gold and 11.9 grams silver per tonne. The program is in partnership with Compania Minera Coimolache, the operator of the Tantahuatay gold mine, south of the AntaKori project.

Noront Resources, a junior explorer with the largest land position in northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire chromite-nickel-copper district, saw 14.5 million shares traded before closing up 3¢ to 36¢ per share after Ontario’s provincial government announced building a road that would connect the Ring of Fire with First Nation communities. An environmental assessment of the project is scheduled for early next year, with construction in 2019 pending approvals. The time frame would help Noront advance predevelopment work at its Eagle’s Nest nickel-copper-platinum group metal project. Noront’s second project in its development pipeline is the Blackbird chromite deposit, 1 km from Eagle’s nest. The deposit contains measured and indicated resources of 20.5 million tonnes of 36% chromite.

Shares of Filo Mining, a spinout of Lukas Lundin’s NGEx Resources, rose 30¢ to $2.40 after announcing a 61% resource increase at the company’s Filo del Sol copper-gold-silver deposit along the Chile-Argentina border. The resource update incorporated 9,000 metres of drilling, and defined gold and gold-copper oxide zones amenable to heap-leach processing. Filo del Sol’s resource stands at 372.9 million indicated tonnes of 0.34% copper, 0.33 gram gold and 9.2 grams silver, and 238.9 million inferred tonnes of 0.27% copper, 0.33 gram gold and 7.8 grams silver. Most of the resource increase comes from the new Filo South zone. TNM