Top 10 Canadian base metal explorers and developers

The Northern Miner used the IntelligenceMine database of our sister company Infomine to determine the top-10 largest base metal companies headquartered in Canada that have non-producing assets. The list is ranked by market capitalization.

1. Ivanhoe Mines
$3.8 billion

With a $3.8-billion market capitalization, Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN; US-OTC: IVPAF) is the runaway leader amongst its base metal peers. The company is developing three world-class projects in sub-Saharan Africa: the Kamoa-Kakula copper project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; the Platreef project in South Africa for platinum group metals and nickel; and the Kipushi zinc project, also in the DRC.

The Kakula-Kamoa sediment-hosted copper project has gained the most attention in recent months. A resource update at the project’s Kakula deposit — a high-grade, flat-lying orebody located 5 km southwest of Kamoa — boosted the Kamoa-Kakula indicated resource to 1 billion tonnes of 3.02% copper, while inferred resources add 191 million tonnes of 2.37% copper.

Kakula’s new resource will be used to develop an expanded-case preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the project, which is due in next year’s third quarter.
The company is also planning a maiden resource for the Kakula West deposit, a new sediment-hosted copper discovery 3 km west of Kakula.

Ivanhoe owns 39.6% of the project, Zijin Mining Group owns 39.6%, and the DRC government owns 20%.

For The Northern Miner’s latest coverage of Ivanhoe click here.

2. Arizona Mining
$933 million

There’s no end in sight for zinc-lead-silver mineralization at Arizona Mining’s (TSX: AZ; US-OTC: WLDVF) Hermosa project, 81 km southeast of Tucson, Arizona. The junior explorer is in the midst of a drill program targeting Hermosa’s Taylor sulphide and Taylor Deeps zones — both carbonate-replacement style deposits — and a cross-cutting vein system called the Trench.

Drilling intercepted 18.6 metres of 16.5% zinc, 13.8% lead and 307.5 grams silver per tonne in a 457-metre stepout hole from the Taylor Deeps resource. Meanwhile a 305-metre stepout hole on the Taylor sulphide resource hit “weaker but significant” mineralization, according to the company’s July 13 press release.

The drill program could lead to a resource update and feasibility study by next June. The study would supersede the project’s 2017 PEA, which envisages a 10,000-tonne-per-day underground mine operating over a 19-year mine life using resources from the Taylor sulphide deposit — which contains 50.1 million tonnes of 4.9% zinc, 4.2% lead and 53.1 grams silver — and a part of Taylor Deeps. Taylor Deeps has 15.7 million measured and indicated tonnes of 2.8% zinc, 4.8% lead and 78.1 grams silver.

For The Northern Miner’s latest coverage of Arizona Mining click here.

3. Excelsior Mining
$167 million market cap

Excelsior Mining (TSX: MIN) is one step closer to production at its flagship Gunnison copper project, 105 km southeast of Tucson, Ariz., having received a draft operating permit from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality on June 14.

The aspiring miner expects to complete permitting and begin commercial production at the project’s North Star oxide deposit early next year.

The company intends to use in-situ recovery (ISR) to find the copper at North Star. ISR involves pumping weak acid into the orebody via boreholes, which dissolves the copper and migrates it to recovery wells, where it’s pumped to surface. The solution is processed into copper cathodes at a solvent extraction and electrowinning plant.

A 2016 feasibility study envisaged a 24-year mine life with an initial production rate of 25 million lb. copper cathode a year, expanding to 75 million lb. copper in year four and to 125 million lb. copper in year seven. The study delivered an US$807-million, after-tax net present value and a 40% after-tax internal rate of return.

For The Northern Miner’s latest coverage of Excelsior click here.

4. Cornerstone Capital Resources
$147 million

Prospect-generator Cornerstone Capital Resources (TSXV: CGP) has surged in market value since 2016, thanks to its 15% free-carried interest in SolGold’s (TSX: SOLG; US-OTC: SLGGF; LON-AIM: SOLG) Cascabel copper-gold project in northern Ecuador.

On July 14, the company entered into a lockup agreement with a SolGold shareholder that owns 6.8% of the company. The agreement commits both parties to not sell their shares without the consent of the other. The 6.8% interest held by the shareholder, combined with an 11.23% interest in Solgold held by Cornerstone, represents an 18.03% stake in SolGold.

On July 13, the company announced plans to spin off all of its assets — except for its interests in Cascabel and shares of SolGold — into a new company called Spinco. The remaining company would be renamed Cascabel Gold & Copper.

Cornerstone acquired the Cascabel concessions for its epithermal gold-silver-copper potential in 2011 and entered a joint venture with SolGold in 2012. Since then, SolGold has delivered world-class intersections of 1% copper equivalent over 1 km from the project’s Alpala zone, and continues to outline porphyry-style mineralization along the greater Alpala trend.

For The Northern Miner’s latest coverage of SolGold and Cornerstone’s Cascabel project click here.

5. Nautilus Minerals
$146 million

The avant-garde Nautilus Minerals (TSX: NUS; US-OTC: NUSMF) ranks the fifth-largest base metals explorer by market capitalization. The Toronto-based company is forging ahead with plans to “break ground” 1.6 km below sea level at its Solwara 1 seafloor massive sulphide copper-gold deposit, 30 km off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

Nautilus expects to mine the top 10 metres of Solwara 1 at a rate between 2,200 and 4,320 tonnes per day for 1.4 million tonnes per year at a US$64-per-tonne operating cost. Three seafloor production tools would cut and excavate ore, while a collecting machine would harvest the slurry and pump it to the support production ship via a riser system. The production vessel, which is being assembled in China, is over 60% complete, whereas the production tools are undergoing submerged trials in PNG. The company expects to begin the underwater operation in 2019.

For The Northern Miner’s latest coverage of Nautilus click here.

6. Tinka Resources
$142 million

Momentum is building for Tinka Resources’ (TSXV: TK; US-OTC: TKRFF) after a high-grade discovery drill hole at its Ayawilca zinc property, 300 km east of Lima. In March, the company intercepted 52 metres of 10.1% zinc, 62 grams silver and 233 grams indium per tonne in a drill hole 400 metres south of the project’s zinc-lead-silver resource.

Drilling at Ayawilca South has expanded the footprint of carbonate-replacement style mineralization across a 250-by-300-metre area, with intercepts including 20.8 metres of 5% zinc, 11 grams silver and 44 grams indium, and 11.5 metres of 2.9% zinc, 2.3% lead and 781 grams silver.

Tinka tallied a maiden resource at Ayawilca in mid-2016 of 18.8 million tonnes of 5.9% zinc, 0.2% lead, 15 grams silver and 74 grams indium. The 10,000-metre drill program will test extensions of the West Ayawilca, Zone 3, Valley and Chaucha target areas and help update the resource at year-end.

For The Northern Miner’s latest coverage of Tinka click here.

7. Filo Mining
$130 million

A resource update, metallurgical tests and preliminary engineering work are underway at Filo Mining’s (TSXV: FIL) Filo del Sol copper-gold-silver project, 140 km southeast of Copiapo, on the Chile-Argentina border. Depending on the results, the company expects to decide whether to proceed with a PEA in September.

Filo Mining was spun out of Lukas Lundin’s NGEx Resources (TSX: NGQ; US-OTC: NGQRF) in mid-2016 to evaluate the project’s potential for a low-cost heap leach operation. In May, the company completed an 8,600-metre drill program aimed at epithermal and porphyry-related mineralization at Filo del Sol, and tested copper-gold bearing trenches at the Filo South zone.

At Filo del Sol, drilling confirmed three discrete mineralization zones: gold oxide, high-grade copper oxide and high-grade silver. The work will turn the deposit’s inferred resource of 381 million tonnes of 0.39% copper, 0.33 gram gold and 12.2 grams silver into indicated.

At Filo South, the company outlined oxide gold mineralization related to a porphyry system, with intercepts of 56 metres of 0.53 gram gold per tonne.

For The Northern Miner’s latest coverage of Filo click here.

8. Western Copper and Gold
$128 million

Western Copper and Gold’s (TSX: WRN; NYSE-MKT: WRN) flagship property is the proposed Casino copper-gold mine, 380 km northwest of Whitehorse in west-central Yukon. The company expects to complete permitting and begin building the large-scale, open-pit operation by 2020.

According to the company’s 2013 feasibility study, Casino would process 120,000 tonnes of ore per day over a 22-year mine life, based on proven and probable reserves of 965.2 million tonnes of 0.2% copper and 0.24 gram gold. Another 157.5 million proven and probable tonnes grading 0.29 gram gold and 0.04% copper of heap-leachable material would be processed in the first two years of the operation.

The US$2.5-billion mine would deliver a US$1.8-billion after-tax net present value, assuming an 8% discount rate and a 20.1% IRR.

For The Northern Miner’s latest coverage of Western Copper click here.

9. Trilogy Metals
$123 million

Trilogy Metals (TSX: TMQ; NYSE-MKT: TMQ) has launched into a US$10-million program at its flagship Bornite copper project in Alaska’s Ambler Mining district to follow up on drill holes by the company in 2013.

The 12,000-metre exploration drill program is funded by South32 (LON: S32) as per the agreement on April 10, which requires South32 to spend US$150 million over the next three years to earn 50% interest in the company’s Alaskan assets.

Trilogy has delineated an in-pit resource at Bornite of 40.5 million indicated tonnes grading 1% copper at a 0.5% copper cut-off, and 84.1 million inferred tonnes of 0.95% copper. Bornite’s below-pit inferred resource stands at 57.8 million tonnes of 2.9% copper at a 1.5% cut-off grade.

Exploration at Bornite will test the carbonate-replacement mineralization found in hole 13-224, which in 2013 cut 236 metres of 1.9% copper.

For The Northern Miner’s latest coverage of Trilogy click here.

10. Noront Resources
$103 million

Noront Resources (TSXV: NOT) is the largest landholder in northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire district, a horseshoe shaped package of greenstone belts that host nickel-copper-platinum group metal and chromite deposits.

The company is in discussions with the provincial government and local First Nations to develop its flagship Eagle’s Nest nickel-copper-platinum-palladium deposit. The timing is tied to delivering a shared, all-season road.

Meanwhile, exploration to extend mineralization at Eagle’s Nest continues this year, with 21 early-stage geophysical targets being tested with rotary air-blast drilling and geophysical surveying.

Eagle’s Nest hosts proven and probable reserves of 11.1 million tonnes of 1.7% nickel, 0.9% copper, 0.89 gram platinum per tonne, 3.09 grams palladium per tonne and 0.18 gram gold.
Total chromite resources from the project’s three high-grade chromite orezones — Blackbird, Black Thor and Big Daddy — is pegged at 343 million tonnes, ranging from 23% to 38% chromium oxide.

For The Northern Miner’s latest coverage of Noront click here.