TSX remains stable, April 17-21

Statistics Canada reported that Canada’s Consumer Price Index rose 1.6% year-on-year in March, after a 2% gain in February. The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 0.5% to 15,614.48, while the Canadian dollar finished at US74¢. The S&P/TSX Global Mining Index fell 0.5% to 66.73 and the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index lost 1.6% to 217.61. Spot gold lost US$3.90, or 0.3%, to finish at US$1,283.90 per oz., and West Texas Intermediate crude fell 8.2% to US$49.54 per barrel.

Shares of Erdene Resource Development were up 21¢ to $1.18. The junior is launching a 24,000-metre drill program at its gold projects in southwestern Mongolia. The company will use two Longyear 44 rigs and drill 20,000 metres at its wholly owned Bayan Khundii gold project, and 4,000 metres on its Altan Nar and Altan Arrow projects. Altan Nar is 16 km northwest of Bayan Khundii and Altan Arrow is 3.5 km north of Bayan Khundii.

Seabridge Gold was up 19¢ to $15.72 per share. The company closed a $15.7-million public offering of common shares, which will be used to advance its KSM and Iskut projects in northern B.C. and for general corporate purposes. Seabridge describes KSM, 65 km northwest of Stewart, as one of the largest undeveloped gold projects in the world. Iskut, which shares geological similarities with KSM, is 110 km northwest of Stewart.

Drill results from Arizona Mining’s Taylor deposit at its Hermosa project in Santa Cruz County, Ariz., lifted the junior’s shares 12¢ to $2.08. The company released results of the first 10 exploration holes of a new drill program that targeted the expansion of the Taylor zinc-lead-silver sulphide deposit. Drill hole 435 returned an 18.6-metre intercept grading 16.5% zinc, 13.8% lead and 9.84 oz. per ton silver, including 9.5 metres of 27.3% zinc, 22.4% lead and 14.85 oz. per ton silver. Management says the latest results show “the high potential to expand the Taylor Deeps zone, including at shallower depths updip to the northeast.” This year it will focus its 2017 exploration drill program on the Taylor Deeps zone and definition drilling of the shallow, high-grade, Trench vein systems in the overlying volcanic units. The company plans to update the resource and feasibility study before year-end. The Taylor deposit is open to the north, west and south.

Trevali Mining reported preliminary first-quarter production results from its two operating zinc mines: Caribou in New Brunswick, Canada, and Santander in Peru. For the first quarter, the company produced 32.2 million payable oz. zinc, 10 million payable oz. lead and 345,662 payable oz. silver. The company’s shares ended 9¢ higher at $1.21.