A look at some of the top mining headlines out this morning with some additional context on each.
Pilot Gold - (PLG:TSX) - Pilot Gold is out with news this morning that a 20,000m drill program is under way on the 60-per-cent-owned TV Tower property in northwestern Turkey. Major mining company Teck is the other 40% partner and a $6 million dollar US budget has been set.
The TV Tower property is a district scale target rich +90 km2 play. Three discoveries have been made on the property so far KCD,K2 (Valley and Hilltop), and Columbaz.
I noticed the budget is a little lower than the $7.5 million planned (25,000m program) in the March presentation.
Drilling will focus on the Valley porphyry and will test high priority step out targets. Preliminary met testing has been completed and environmental studies and a CSR program are continuing.
Valley porphyry drill highlights:
- 0.99 grams/tonne (g/t) gold (Au) and 0.39% copper (Cu), or 1.65 g/t gold-equivalent (AuEq1) over 153.1 metres in KRD-10C,
- 1.59 g/t Au and 0.48% Cu over 130.9 metres (2.41 g/t AuEq) in KRD-14C, including
- 3.12 g/t Au and 0.85% Cu over 49.9 metres (4.57 g/t AuEq)
"2014 saw tremendous success at TV Tower with the discovery of the Valley and Columbaz porphyries and growth of the mineralized footprint at the Hilltop porphyry," said Matt Lennox-King, President and CEO of Pilot Gold. "We believe these discoveries are only the first porphyries at TV Tower and we remain focused on driving district scale growth through additional discoveries in this rapidly evolving mineral belt. With our PEA-stage Halilaga copper-gold project 15 km away, we see tremendous potential for continued growth and consolidation across the district."
Pilot shares are recently hitting a 52 week low. Investors have been waiting for assays from the Kingsley Mountain project in Nevada which started in March. It is now approaching 3 months with no assays and the market is getting impatient.
Pilot is part of Oxygen Capital with Pure Gold and True Gold Mining led by founder Mark O'Dea. The group has had tremendous success in the past but it has been a bit of a struggle in the last year. Pilot and Pure Gold are trading at all time lows and True Gold has had issues building the Karma mine in Burkina Faso.
I wouldn't count this management team out and some investors will see this as an opportunity.
Read: Pilot Gold launches 20,000 metre drill program at TV Tower
Related: X marks the spot of discovery: Pilot Gold CEO Matt Lennox King
Sandstorm Gold - (SSL:TSX) - Sandstorm has paid $500,000 to Pacific Ridge Exploration (PEX:TSV) for package of mineral royalties. The package includes two royalties and the right to buy two more royalties.
One royalty caught my attention which is a 1.65-per-cent net smelter return (NSR) acquired on the high grade Spectrum gold property, located in northwestern British Columbia and owned by Skeena Resources Ltd.
Skeena recently closed a $8.01 million dollar private placement and is gearing up for an 10,000-12,000 m drill program at the property. $3.5 million is expected to be spent this summer and a new 43-101 resource estimate by the end of the year.
This 1.65% NSR on Spectrum could end up being a steal for Sandstorm if Skeena can prove up a multi million once high grade deposit and of course go into production. Of course the project is years away from production and a lot has to go right but buying the NSR now is an interesting "bet".
Sandstorm Gold stock has been cut in half in the last year with the decline in the gold price. The decline in the gold price has lead to several problems at mines SSL had streams on. The mines were profitable at higher gold prices but with current prices are not profitable (Luna Gold).
Sandstorm is still profitable but barely earning only $800,000 in the first quarter. The team has been busy making acquisitions but many of them are very small and won't be cash flowing for years if ever. The Diavik royalty acquisition from IamGold was a smart move in my opinion as it adds cash flow immediately.
The investment in BitGold has also done very well for SSL.
Read: Pacific Ridge receives $500,000 (U.S.) from Sandstorm
Related: Nolan Watson’s Big Idea
This is not investment advice. All facts are to be checked and verified by reader. As always please do your own due diligence.