TSX Venture steady over Dec. 12-16 trading week 

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index retreated by 1.36 points or 0.2% over the Dec. 12-16 trading period to end at 576.26. 

Los Andes Copper lost 45¢ to $13.50 over the period after the company said Dec. 9 it was being taken to court over environmental concerns about exploration drilling from 2007 to 2017 on its Vizcachitas project 120 km north of Santiago, Chile. Los Andes said it is fully committed to all environmental and social obligations. 

“The company views this as a speculative and unfounded claim,” it said in a Dec. 12 news release. “All drilling has been carried out in accordance with the law.” 

Los Andes resumed drilling in July after an environmental court decision reinstated permits with conditions. It suspended drilling in March when the court issued orders to protect the threatened Andean cat and the vizcachas, a small rabbit the cat eats. 

The project is a copper-molybdenum porphyry deposit located with a 2019 preliminary economic assessment estimating a post-tax net present value of $2.7 billion and an internal rate of return of 26.7% based on a $3.50 per lb. copper price. 

ArcPacific Resources fell 46% during the period to close at 14¢ after announcing a 10-for-one share consolidation would occur Dec. 15. 

The Vancouver-based exploration company owns the Lucky Mike Silver Lode copper, gold and silver project about 250 km northeast of Vancouver, the Blackdome gold project about 400 km north of Vancouver and the TL nickel project near Voisey’s Bay, NL. 

Last month, ArcPacific said it was buying all of the TL nickel project for 2.8 million shares and $175,000. In October, the company said grab samples at Lucky Mike in B.C.’s Quesnel Trough had returned grades of up to 20.1 grams gold per tonne, 130 grans silver, 0.44% copper; and up to 3.6% copper, 0.7 gram gold and 211 grams silver. 

The company has now obtained drilling permits for the project. 

In the otherwise down market, Sailfish Royalty gained by two thirds over its low-point during the week to close at $1.30 after announcing on Dec. 9 its fourth quarterly dividend for the year of US1.25¢. 

Sailfish reported a net loss of US$1.1 million for the nine months through September although it posted record revenue of US$2 million during the period. The company said last month that it is looking for other financial backers after Barnwell Investments pulled out of plan for Sailfish to spin out a silver exploration company. 

Sailfish has two main assets in the Americas. One is a gold stream equivalent to a 3% net smelter return (NSR) royalty on Mako Mining’s 3.5-sq.-km San Albino gold mine in Nicaragua and a 2% NSR on the rest of the 134.5 sq. km surrounding San Albino. 

The other asset is an NSR of up to 3% on the Spring Valley gold project in Nevada owned by Waterton Global Resource Management.