TSX Venture ends May 2-6 session lower

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index retreated by 44.46 points or 5.5% over the May 2-6 trading session to end at 769.97. 

Vancouver-based Chesapeake Gold rose 17¢ to close the week at $3.02, or 6% higher. The junior released infill drilling results from its Metates gold-silver project in Mexico’s Durango state that returned 22% average higher grades within intrusive-hosted mineralization than previously modelled. Chesapeake released assays from the final 13 holes drilled as part of an 18-hole 2021-22 infill campaign totalling 7,485 metres. Highlights included Hole CKG22-094, which cut 357 metres of 1.43 grams gold-equivalent per tonne (or 1 gram gold and 31.6 grams silver) from 57 metres depth.  

“The assay intervals for these holes, which intersected the intrusive and intrusive breccia-hosted mineralization, were on average about 23% higher in [gold-equivalent] grade than corresponding block estimates in the current resource block model.” said president and CEO Alan Pangbourne in a release. 

The current resource includes 1.3 billion measured and indicated tonnes at 0.47 gram gold and 12.9 grams silver for 19.8 million oz. of gold and 542 million oz. of silver. About 20% of the resource is in intrusive-hosted mineralization with sediment-hosted mineralization accounting for 80%. 

The company is working to incorporate the results into an updated resource estimate, mine plan, and upcoming prefeasibility study. A mid-2021 preliminary economic assessment pegged Metates’ capex at US$359 million for an open pit operation producing 110,000 oz. of gold and 2.5 million oz. of silver during the first 15 years. 

Uranium explorer Baselode Energy saw its shares rise 13¢ to 98¢ on volume of more than 3 million shares. The company reported that elevated radioactivity in a near-surface interval in drilling at its Ackio uranium discovery at its Hook project, in northern Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin. 

The company reported scintillometer readings of 914 counts per second over 6.3 metres at 35.9 metres depth in hole AK22-038. Assays are pending. 

Baselode made the near-surface, basement-hosted Ackio uranium discovery in September 2021. The company’s 20,000-metre drill program at the project is ongoing. 

Blackrock Silver shared declined 38¢, or 33.6%, to close at 75¢. The company released an initial stope-optimized resource for its Tonopah West project, in Nevada’s Walker Lane. The inferred resource is 3 million tonnes grading 208 grams silver and 2.5 grams gold per tonne (446 grams silver-equivalent) for 19.9 million oz. silver and 238,000 oz. gold. The resource was based on parameters that included a combination of long-hole and cut-and-fill mining, a gold price of US$1,750 per oz. and a silver price of US$20 per oz., and 1.5-metre-wides stopes of between 4 metres and 100 metres length.