TSX Venture rises, Sept. 6-9

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index gained 1.24 points to an 812.16-point close. Spot gold peaked at US$1,350 per oz. after a subpar U.S. jobs report, before falling to US$1,327.83 per oz., up slightly from the last trading period, whereas Comex copper closed relatively flat at US$2.09 per lb.

Shares of explorer Novo Resources rose 28¢ to $1.53, after preliminary results of a 1,500-metre, reverse-circulation drill program at its wholly owned Tuscarora gold project in Nevada’s Tuscarora epithermal gold-silver district, 81 km north of Elko. All eight drill holes reportedly encountered altered and mineralized volcanic rocks within the Navajo vein extension, a 1 km long vein southeast of the past-producing Navajo vein. Historical production within the district produced 204,000 oz. gold, 7.5 million oz. silver and 300,000 oz. placer gold. The company anticipates drilling at Blue Spec — a gold-antimony project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia — will begin soon and continue to year-end.

True North Gems fell 5¢ to 1¢ per share after announcing that its operating subsidiary, True North Gems Greenland A/S, has begun bankruptcy proceedings. The company could not secure enough funding to develop its 76%-owned Aappaluttoq ruby and pink sapphire project in southwest Greenland. Open-pit mine construction began in 2014, with total capital costs at US$25.1 million. In April, the company announced that it had made “steady” progress with development, having installed the shell of the processing plant and the camp infrastructure. The project was designed to ramp up to 20,000 tonnes per year in the fourth year of the nine-year operation. Total revenue for the project was estimated at US$573 million, with an after-tax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of US$171 million and a 122% after-tax internal rate of return.

Nicola Mining saw 18.4 million shares traded before closing up 3¢ to 25¢ per share on news of drill results from its Thule copper property, 14 km northwest of Merritt, British Columbia. The company reported a 1.11% copper intercept over 85.9 metres from the project’s Embayment zone, one of three targets tested during the 1,084-metre drill campaign. The results suggest the Embayment zone continues westward from the skarn zone that hosts the past-producing Craigmont copper-magnetite mine, 1 km northwest. A follow-up drill program would determine any continuity of mineralization further west along strike and depth of the intercept. In June, the company restarted operations at Craigmont’s 200-tonne-per-day, gold-silver mill facility, with feed from the Dome Mountain gold-silver mine, 38 km east of Smithers, B.C., which is operated by Gavin Mines, a subsidiary of Metal Mountain Resources.