TSX Venture plummets, March 16-20: Skeena, Azimut, Rock Tech

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index plummeted 8.84% (34.58 points) to finish the week at 356.54. Spot gold finished the week at US$1,498.80 per oz., down US$31.10 per oz., or 2.03%.

Shares of Skeena Resources rose 14¢ to 75¢. The company recently announced a $20 million financing. The non-brokered private placement consisted of 17.14 million flow-through shares at a price of $1.55 per share. The funds will be used for exploration at Skeena’s projects in B.C.’s Golden Triangle. Skeena said it expects the offering to close by mid-April. The company is focused on exploration and development of the past-producing Eskay Creek mine and Snip mine. Discovered in 1988, the former Eskay Creek mine produced about 3.3 million oz. gold and 160 million oz. silver at average grades of 45 grams gold per tonne and 2,224 grams silver per tonne over a 14-year period.

Azimut Exploration climbed 11¢ to $1.21 per share. The junior announced the start of a 6,000-metre (30 hole) drill program on its 100%-owned Elmer property in Quebec’s James Bay region. The company said on Mar. 18 that the drill program has started with two rigs and will run until the end of April. The objective is to expand its recent Patwon gold discovery, where drill intersections in January included a 102-metre interval of 3.12 grams gold per tonne in drill hole ELM10-002. The current drill program is supported by the results of an induced polarization (IP) and magnetic geophysical survey over the discovery area that delineated targets. Azimut said a “convincing relationship at Patwon between IP chargeability and gold mineralization” was demonstrated by an intercept grading 1.93 grams gold per tonne over 82 metres, including 44.1 metres of 3.46 grams gold in drill hole ELM19-007. Azimut is fully funded for its $10.5 million drill program and says it aims to expand the Patwon discovery laterally and at depth, over a minimum 850-metre strike length and down to a depth of 200 metres below surface.

Rock Tech Lithium’s shares fell 18¢ to 37¢. On March 17, the company updated shareholders on its Georgia Lake lithium project, 145 km northeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Management said it plans to soon formally submit its project description to the local regulatory authorities and is working with German and Australian engineering firms to create a processing plant design and flowsheets. In addition, it has started new negotiations with its partner Ardiden to increase access to lithium ore feedstock, which would allow Rock Tech to produce lithium chemicals at lower costs due to economies of scale. It also has appointed a new CEO, Simon Bodensteiner, a mining engineer who has worked for Rio Tinto and the Boston Consulting Group among other companies. The spodumene-bearing pegmatites of the Georgia Lake area were discovered in 1955.