TSX Venture drifts lower over May 15-19

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index fell 5.05 points or 0.8% over the May 15-19 trading session to close at 612.79. 

Surge Battery Metals gained 12¢ to end the week at 43¢ per share on news from its Nevada North lithium project in the United States. 

The Vancouver-based company completed an initial drill program at the clay-hosted lithium project, 73 km northeast of Wells, Nev., in October, and is planning a second phase. On May 16, it said it has hired McGinley & Associates to conduct hydrologic work at Nevada North to support groundwater data collection and sampling and identify water sources within 5 km. 

Drilling has identified a strongly mineralized zone at Nevada North with a strike length of around 1.6 km. The highlight of the campaign was hole NN2207, which cut a total of 120.4 metres averaging 3,943 parts per million lithium in four zones.  

Baru Gold recorded the week’s greatest percentage change. The stock closed 100% higher at 5¢ on news that it dropped a lawsuit it filed last summer against the government of Indonesia. The Vancouver-based junior also said its 70%-owned Sangihe Island gold project had received “National Vital Object” designation, which means the company will enjoy “special protections and priority treatment,” including an assigned government liaison that will help it resolve any disputes. 

The lawsuit alleged local police and government officials supported illegal miners for “personal enrichment” and failed to uphold Baru Gold’s contract of work for the project, appealing to Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo to resolve the issue. The company said it now believes the issues raised in its lawsuit “are no longer present,” with new leadership in local and regional police forces committed to enforcing the rule of law.   

Baru Gold says it will now advance Sangihe to production without a feasibility study. The project has a 2017 resource outlining 114,000 indicated oz. gold and 2 million oz. silver (3.2 million tonnes at 1.13 grams gold per tonne and 19.43 grams silver) and 105,000 inferred oz. gold and 1 million oz. silver (2.5 million tonnes at 1.29 grams gold and 12.95 grams silver). 

Bravo Mining added 38¢ per share to end the week at $3.58. On May 8, the company reported trenching results from its Luanga PGM-gold-nickel project in Brazil’s Para state. 

Highlights included 146.8 metres of 1.36 grams palladium per tonne, 0.59 gram platinum, 0.07 gram rhodium (2.05 grams PGMs plus gold per tonne), including a 50-metre section grading 2.9 grams palladium, 1.06 grams platinum, 0.15 gram rhodium and 0.06 gram gold (4.18 grams PGMs plus gold). 

The company also released assays from historical metallurgical drill core that had never been sampled. Hole FM-0004 returned 110 metres of 1.39 grams palladium, 0.64 gram platinum, 0.08 gram rhodium and 0.12 gram gold per tonne (2.23 grams PGM plus gold) from surface. 

Bravo expects to release a first resource for Luanga this year. The project, which was discovered in 2003, has a historical resource estimate of 142 million tonnes grading 1.24 palladium plus platinum plus gold and 0.11% nickel.