TSX Venture rises, Dec. 7-11

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index rose 1.46% (11.19 points) to finish the Dec. 7-11 trading week at 780.30. Spot gold dropped US$24.50 per oz. (1.31%) to US$1,839.50 per ounce.

Shares of Whitehorse Gold surged $1.50 to $3.28 per share on a strong intercept from its 2020 drill program at its wholly owned Skukum gold project in the Yukon. Drillhole SC20-001 returned 8.07 metres (true width) grading 6.54 grams gold per tonne and 186.83 grams silver per tonne starting from 434.08 metres downhole, including 1.2 metres of 21.4 grams gold and 563 grams silver. The hole was drilled into the Rainbow Zone of the project’s Skukum Creek deposit. Results from three other holes are pending. The 170 sq. km project is about 55 km south of Whitehorse and has year-r0und access. The project hosts three deposits with resource estimates and underground development – the Skukum Creek deposit, Goddell deposit and the past-producing Mt. Skukum gold mine) along with multiple mineralized showings. Skukum Creek is the largest of the three deposits and contains 1 million indicated tonnes grading 5.85 grams gold and 166.4 grams silver and 537,000 inferred tonnes grading 4.99 grams gold and 108.3 grams silver.

Chesapeake Gold climbed $1.19 to $5.52 per share. The company announced the acquisition of privately held Alderley Gold Corp., a mining technology company, and said the purchase gives it “access to a proven and innovative precious metals processing technology together with certain asset rights and proprietary databases, creating the path towards a new growth oriented and innovative gold and silver producer.” Chesapeake said it will now focus on advancing its Metates project towards production using Alderley’s suphide leaching technology. According to Chespeake, the technology oxidizes sulphide and transition ore “using certain chemistry to manage pH and alkalinity thereby increasing recovery and reducing potential to turn acidic during cyanide leaching.” Metates, in Mexico’s Durango state, is the company’s flagship asset. An updated prefeasibility study outlined a mine life of 37 years, including stockpile production, and average annual production from an open pit of 519,000 oz. gold, over 9 million oz. silver and 83 million lb. zinc.

Shares of Integra Resources climbed 40¢ to $4.75. The company released drill results from Florida Mountain, part of its DeLamar project in southwestern Idaho. The drilling intersected “significant mineralization” outside the known resource, “potentially increasing the resource footprint by approximately 300 metres to the south.” Highlights included 4.53 grams gold per tonne and 262.67 grams silver per tonne over 83.35 metres (within and below the existing resource estimate), starting from 2.13 metres downhole, including 30.48 metres of 11.74 grams gold and 652.45 grams silver in drillhole FME-20-085.