TSX Venture steady, Dec. 5-9

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index stayed relatively unchanged at 748.8 points. Spot gold prices fell US$17.57 per oz. gold, or 1.5%, before closing at US$1,159.86 per oz. — its lowest level since February this year. Comex copper prices kept 17-month highs, gaining US2¢ before closing at US$2.65 per pound.

Shares of NexGen Energy’s 75%-owned subsidiary, IsoEnergy, gained 40¢ to $1.03. On Nov. 7, almost one month after joining the TSX Venture Exchange, the uranium explorer closed a $2.3-million, non-brokered private placement, which saw 2.1 million flow-through shares issued at $1.10 per share. The company is exploring Saskatchewan’s eastern Athabasca basin for unconformity- and shear-hosted uranium deposits, with flagship projects including Thorburn Lake and Radio, beside Cameco’s Cigar Lake and Rio Tinto’s Roughrider uranium deposits.

Probe Metals gained 21¢ to $1.36 per share after announcing intercepts of 12.6 grams gold per tonne over 7.3 metres from a new gold zone at its Val-d’Or East project in Quebec. The zone was found while infill-drilling the project’s east-trending, quartz-tourmaline vein system. Mineralization was intercepted at 400 metres deep within a north-trending diorite dike with disseminated pyrite and quartz-tourmaline veins, similar to the property’s former Beliveau gold mine. The zone was traced down to over 800 metres deep, with more intercepts returning 8.5 grams gold over 3.5 metres and 9.7 grams gold over 4.2 metres.

Power Metals, formerly Aldrin Resource, rose 5¢ to 14¢ per share on news of a lithium discovery at its Larder River project, 3 km west of the village of New Ross, N.S., and 100 km of Halifax. The company extended a 1 km long lithium-in-soil anomaly by 75 metres, with most soil sample results grading “consistently several factors above background,” according to the company’s press release. Two follow-up core holes, designed to aid geophysical interpretations, intersected multiple pegmatites, with 14 core samples pending assay results. The exploration work builds on provincial data that targeted geological terranes known to host lithium deposits similar to North Carolina’s Gaston and Cleveland counties. The U.S. counties historically contained more than 80% of the country’s known lithium reserves, produced 50% of the world’s estimated output and launched FMC Lithium, now known as Albemarle.

First Mining Finance saw 6.3 million shares traded, closing down 9¢ to 81¢ per share. On Dec. 1, the mineral bank explorer announced a $21-million exploration and development budget in 2017, including 47,000 metres of infill and exploration drill programs at its Goldlund and Springpole gold project in northern Ontario, and its Hope Brook gold project in Newfoundland.