TSX Venture drops, July 8-12: Victoria, Firefox, Luckystrike

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index fell 1.99% to 576.03 during the trading week.

Victoria Gold led the pack in trading volume. The company saw more than 13 million shares change hands in the period. Its shares closed the week up 1¢ each at 39¢.

Victoria reports it is nearly finished construction of the Eagle gold mine in the Yukon. On June 4 the company announced mine construction was 95% complete, with open-pit benches established, and more than 1.3 million tonnes mined.

Victoria could deliver the first ore to the leach pad in July, and pour first gold in September 2019.

On June 25, the company announced Orion Mine Finance agreed to buy all of Osisko Gold Royalties’ 155 million shares in Victoria for 46¢ each, leaving Orion with a 37.1% stake in Victoria.

Vancouver-based junior Firefox Gold saw its shares rise 61.1% in the trading period, to close at 15¢ each. The shares reached as high as 23¢ on July 10.

On July 4, Firefox announced it closed the first tranche of a non-brokered private placement issuing 4.4 million units at 10¢ apiece, for gross proceeds of $440,000. Each issued unit included one common share and a non-transferrable common share purchase warrant that entitles the owner to buy a share within three years for 15¢.

Firefox controls 800 sq. km of ground on Finland’s Central Lapland greenstone belt, where it has found a suite of gold targets to carry out mapping, drilling, and other geophysics this year.

Yukon-focused project generator Luckystrike Resources saw its shares swing up 52% to close the week at 19¢ per share. On July 9, the company announced it began drilling its flagship Lucky Strike gold project in the Yukon’s White Gold district.

The drilling program will follow up on a drill hole from Lucky Strike’s Monte Carlo prospect, which hit multiple gold mineralization zones in 2018, including 1.16 grams gold per tonne over 8 metres in the upper zone, and 4.55 grams gold per tonne over 8 metres in the lower zone. The company considers the lower-zone discovery as highly important, because it holds broad, gold-sulphide-rich material.

The Lucky Strike project is just one of the company’s six wholly owned properties in the White Gold district. As of March 2019, the junior had $1.1 million cash-on-hand.