TSX Venture logs slight decline, Nov. 27-Dec. 1

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index slipped 0.63% to a 789-point close. Gold touched US$1,300 per oz. before finishing at US$1,279.60 per ounce. LME inventories for copper, zinc and nickel were down 14%, 4% and 1%, according to Haywood Securities. The brokerage noted that “the drop in LME copper stockpiles represents the largest weekly drop in 12 years, and inventories are at the lowest level since June 2016.”

An early resource estimate for Millennial Lithium’s Pastos Grandes brine project in Argentina’s Salta province lifted the junior’s shares 91¢ to $4.05. Measured and indicated resources stand at 2.13 million tonnes lithium carbonate (Li₂CO₃) equivalent and 8.14 million tonnes potash (KCl) equivalent. Inferred resources add 878,000 tonnes Li₂CO₃ and 3.3 million tonnes KCl.

Shares of Liberty One Lithium gained 38¢ to $1.53. The junior announced a $5-million financing. The proceeds will develop its Pocitos West project in Argentina and supplement working capital and general corporate matters. The lithium brine prospect is located in the Pocitos Salar in the Los Andes Department of western Salta, and covers more than 157.8 sq. km in the region’s Lithium Triangle.

Leeta Gold — which is being renamed HIVE Blockchain Technologies — rose 62¢ to $3.45 per share. The company, which owns graphics processing unit-based digital currency mining facilities in Iceland, reported results for the second quarter ended Sept. 30. Revenues of US$170,819 were based on 12 days of operations from its initial facility and marked the beginning of the company’s commercial activity. At quarter-end, the company had US$3.5 million in cash and no debt. Since Sept. 30, management has raised $71.5 million, acquired a second operating facility in Iceland and is expanding into Sweden.

Novo Resources fell 54¢ to $4.91 in the aftermath of a Nov. 24 press release, in which the company stated that it was “uncomfortable” with the experimental, bulk-sampling technique that it has been using for grade estimation at its Purdy’s Reward joint-venture gold project with Artemis Resources in Western Australia. Novo said that after “careful review of sample consistency, integrity and recovery,” management plans to look at other options for collecting bulk samples from drilling.

Bluestone Resources rose 27¢ to $1.25. The junior announced underground sampling results and found high-grade gold veins at its Cerro Blanco gold project in Guatemala. Results included a new shear zone oblique to the main mineralized zones, where chip samples returned 3 metres of 231.6 grams gold per tonne and 323.3 grams silver per tonne. Including the shear zone, 30 more veins were found that graded over 5 grams gold. The program is the first sampling and geological work done on the project in more than four years.