Morning Briefing: Newcore Publishes Results for the Enchi PFS
Good morning and welcome back to the Mining Stock Daily morning briefing. I am Trevor Hall.
It's Wednesday, June 24th.
After yesterday's broad risk-off, the major U.S. indices are bouncing this morning in relief, and South Korea's KOSPI — whipsawed overnight — managed to close higher by the end of its session. But the metals aren't joining the party. Gold is pressing toward that $4,000 mark, down 2% at $4,016 an ounce. Silver has breached $60 to the downside, now at $59.49. And copper is off 1.5% at $6.05 a pound. The equity bounce simply isn't pulling precious metals up with it — the unwind there has its own momentum right now.
Two critical-minerals stories frame the morning. First, the China-Japan standoff is escalating on the materials front. China is throttling shipments of several critical minerals to Japan — it's halted nearly all exports of some intermediate forms of tungsten this year, and shipments of the heavy rare earths dysprosium and terbium, used in EV magnets, have been at zero all year. The slowdown is hurting Japanese manufacturers and fueling calls for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to find a diplomatic off-ramp with Beijing Tokyo's response so far has been to join a G7 pledge to cap reliance on any one country for rare earths at 60% by 2030.
Second, a big tailwind for the nuclear and uranium space: the U.S. Department of Energy is launching a $17.5 billion loan program to accelerate a nationwide buildout of 10 large-scale commercial reactors, with the goal of cutting up to three years off their deployment. The financing helps five projects procure long-lead-time equipment, with Westinghouse partnering on each AP1000 build and taking joint ownership. It follows Westinghouse's $80 billion Commerce Department deal late last year, and Cameco CEO Tim Gitzel welcomed it as another step toward rapid AP1000 deployment in the U.S.
We'll get to the news from the miners and explorers in just a moment, but first a word about today's sponsor.
This episode of Mining Stock Daily is brought to you by…Equinox Gold.
Equinox Gold is a growth-focused gold producer operating mines across the Americas. With cornerstone assets like the Greenstone Mine in Ontario and the Valentine Gold Project in Newfoundland & Labrador, Equinox is advancing a new generation of large-scale, long-life gold operations. Learn more about their portfolio and development pipeline at equinoxgold.com.
Here's what you need to know today.
Newcore Gold has delivered a robust pre-feasibility study for its Enchi Gold Project in southwest Ghana. At a $4,200 gold price, the PFS shows an after-tax NPV of $647 million and a 45% after-tax IRR, on upfront capital of $351 million. The plan is a conventional open-pit, mill-and-CIL operation processing 5.5 million tonnes a year, averaging about 130,000 ounces annually in the first three years, drawing ore from four deposits along the Bibiani Shear Zone. Notably, the study is built on a resource that excludes more than 50,000 metres of the company's ongoing 80,000-metre drill program, so there's room to grow — and Newcore plans to use the PFS to apply for a mining lease this year (TSX-V: NCAU, OTCQX: NCAUF). News Release
NexMetals Mining has increased the mineral resource at its Selkirk project in Botswana by 70%, now establishing 1.1 billion pounds of copper-equivalent in the indicated category, plus another 200 million pounds inferred. Selkirk is a past-producing, open-pittable copper-nickel-cobalt-PGE deposit, and the jump comes largely from re-assaying historic core for platinum-group metals — which were previously missing and are expected to contribute about one-third of the deposit's value — along with improved metallurgy. The updated resource sets up the economic studies NexMetals is targeting as it advances both Selkirk and its higher-grade Selebi mine (TSXV: NEXM, Nasdaq: NEXM). News Release
Li-FT Power has entered a binding call-option agreement to acquire the Renard mine site in Quebec — the former Stornoway diamond operation, now in CCAA proceedings. Li-FT pays a C$12 million option fee for a two-year window to acquire Renard's mine, processing facility and infrastructure for a nominal C$1, subject to a Quebec court hearing on July 2nd. The appeal is the existing plant: more than C$900 million was invested in Renard, and Li-FT believes it can repurpose it to process spodumene from its Adina Lithium Project, about 60 kilometres to the north — potentially cutting upfront capital, project risk and environmental footprint (TSXV: LIFT, ASX: LFT). News Release
Faraday Copper reported results from 18 more holes in its Phase IV program at the Copper Creek project in Arizona, with five holes continuing to hit near-surface copper in the American Eagle area — results CEO Paul Harbidge expects to feed the project's next resource update. At the American Eagle area, drilling returned 35.35 metres ("m") at 0.58% copper from 85.40 m, within 71.00 m at 0.41% copper from 80.00 m in hole FCD-26-171. With open-pit resource definition now complete, Faraday paused drilling as of June 20th while it works to close the proposed acquisition of the San Manuel property, and expects to resume in the fall (TSX: FDY, OTCQX: CPPKF). News Release
Andina Copper extended its Cobrasco copper-molybdenum porphyry discovery in Chocó, Colombia, to the northwest, with hole CDH009 cutting 186 metres of 0.50% copper from 38 metres depth, within a broader 502 metres of 0.40% copper. The near-surface grades stepping northwest continue to build the scale case for the Cobrasco Central system, with more step-out holes drilled and assays pending (TSXV: ANDC). News Release
Scorpio Gold drilled 2.56 grams per tonne gold over 13.38 metres from about 293 metres depth at its Black Mammoth target in Nevada's Manhattan District — the same caldera system that hosts the company's Goldwedge project and mill — continuing to extend mineralization along that structure. Hole 92 was also a highlight with multiple intervals of mineralization, including 0.57 g/t gold over 17.98 m from 157.28 m and 0.83 g/t gold over 18.01 m from 277.68 m. (TSXV: SGN). News Release
And finally, District Metals has commenced drilling at its Oesterkaelen license, part of its Alum Shale properties in Sweden. District is best known for the Viken deposit — one of the world's largest polymetallic resources — and the program comes as Sweden's lifting of its uranium-mining moratorium this year reopens the door to developing these critical-mineral-rich shales (TSXV: DMX). News Release
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That's it for today everyone. Have a great day. Stay safe.
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