TSX Venture ekes out a gain during May 1-5 trading week

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index inched 2.02 points or 0.3% higher over the May 1-5 trading session to close at 615.4.

Sigma Lithium led the charge among value gainers, which rose $2 to close the week at $49.17 per share. The strong equity performance follows the company’s Apr. 27 announcement that it has shipped the first lithium and lithium concentrates from its Grota do Cirilo lithium mine in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state a week earlier, with 100% of its output lined up for export. The company reported that 10 trucks arrived at its warehousing facilities in Vitoria Port, four carrying 146 tonnes of lithium and six containing dry-stacked tailings set to be upcycled into battery-grade lithium concentrate. The company says it remains on track to produce its phase one capacity of 270,000 tonnes yearly by July.

Among the top TSXV value and percentage gainers is Tudor Gold, which closed the week 49¢ higher at $1.74, a gain of 40% over the prior trading week. The company has, in recent weeks, expanded the resource estimate for its Treaty Creek  project in B.C., and its latest drill campaign starts this week on one of the world’s most significant gold projects. Treaty Creek, one of the largest gold discoveries in the last 30 years, was recently ranked in Mining Intelligence’s top ten largest gold projects globally. The company holds a 60% interest in Treaty Creek, which spans 179.1 sq. km and borders both Seabridge Gold’s KSM property to the southwest and Newcrest Mining’s Brucejack mine to the southeast. This year’s exploration program will total at least 20,000 metres and target the deposit’s north and northeast mineral extensions. In addition, the company plans to conduct exploration drilling at the Perfectstorm zone, which is about 2.5 km southwest of Goldstorm and about 2.5 km northeast of Seabridge Gold’s Iron Cap deposit near the southwestern boundary of the Treaty Claim block.

The week’s most active TSXV issue was Kesselrun Resources, which saw 7.8 million shares change hands. The company is exploring the Huronian project in Ontario, which hosts a historical resource of 550,000 tonnes at about 14 grams gold per tonne and is sandwiched between other multi-million oz. gold projects and former mines in the Moss Lake Trend. The company most recently released the final results of its 2022 drill program on Feb. 9. Eight of the last 11 holes were drilled in the southern portion of the project area, on strike from the adjacent Moss Lake gold project, under development by Goldshore Resources, where outcrop exposure is below average. Seven of the eight drill holes intersected broad zones of shearing and alteration along with low-grade gold mineralization, much like the mineralization seen next door at the Moss Lake deposit.