The best assay yet from Patterson Lake South’s R00E zone hit the news on May 16. That’s when the Fission Uranium TSXV:FCU and Alpha Minerals TSXV:AMW joint venture reported nine more holes from last winter’s 46-hole program.
Just the stuff to develop bigger and healthier crops, potash complements a world growing in population and appetite. Two contrasting companies pursuing the commodity are Western Potash TSX:WPX, the most advanced junior in the space, and Pacific Potash TSXV:PP, with a very big but early-stage property optioned from Western. Those differences aside, both companies have seen a general upturn in share price over the last month.
If British Columbia’s mining and exploration sector needed a massive jolt of reassuring news, they got it May 14. The pollsters were wrong, the pundits were wrong and the winners might be as surprised as the losers are disappointed. Although the popular vote was close, the BC Liberal party won an historic fourth term, handily defeating the New Democratic Party.
What? Two weeks without assays from Patterson Lake South? No scintillometer readings either? Taking a break from reporting drill results, Fission Uranium TSXV:FCU and Alpha Minerals TSXV:AMW instead revealed a survey showing “the strongest radon-in-water anomaly to date,” the companies stated on May 6.
We’re about three and a half hours north of Vancouver, bouncing up a rough mountain road in a four-wheel-drive. The objective? To check out what Ryan Sharp calls “a grassroots exploration company with a producing mine. Or the other way around—a mining company with blue sky exploration potential.” He wants people to see for themselves Huldra Silver’s TSXV:HDA Treasure Mountain and Thule projects because, he says, “We’re not a paper company.” In particular, the nearly 3,000-hectare Treasure Mountain silver-lead-zinc operation hasn’t been divulged on paper nearly to the same extent as most working mines.
Geology has a way of stimulating even the most discouraged investors, as shown by the way North ROK excited an otherwise dismal market. The very first hole from the Colorado Resources TSXV:CXO project sent company stock soaring from an April 24 close of $0.16 to a May 6 high of $1.25. Along with the excitement comes revived interest in the northern part of British Columbia’s Golden Triangle, in the region around the discovery hole and Imperial Metals’ TSX:III development-stage Red Chris project, 15 kilometres east.
Great Northern Gold Exploration’s TSXV:GGE Wekusko property hasn’t always delivered the grade. But four holes reported April 29 have ended a 2,133-metre Phase I program on a high-grade note, extending the McCafferty zone at depth and offering encouragement to the project in northern Manitoba’s Flin Flon greenstone belt.
It’s a done deal, both companies announced April 26. Denison Mines TSX:DML closed its acquisition of Fission Energy TSXV:FIS. The latter company stops trading at the close of April 29 but a new company, Fission Uranium Corp TSXV:FCU, is expected to begin trading on May 1. Fission Uranium will retain the Fission Energy team and their most celebrated asset, a 50% interest in Patterson Lake South.
Will fortune treat this company so favourably a second time? David Grondin thinks it might. As president/CEO of TomaGold Corp TSXV:LOT, he’s already seen spectacular success at Quebec’s Monster Lake, a repetitive source of high-grade gold assays bankrolled by joint venture partner Quinto Real Capital TSXV:QIT. Now he’s planning a simultaneous drill campaign on TomaGold’s adjacent, 100%-held Winchester property.
Maybe as much as anyone, QMX Gold TSX:QMX president/CEO Francois Perron knows the challenges of the industry today. His company’s Lac Herbin gold mine in Val-d’Or has yet to meet expectations. A “broken market” has stalled plans to re-open the Snow Lake past-producer in Manitoba. The yellow metal’s sudden price plunge has only added anguish to angst. Still he soldiers on, with a confidence borne of long-term perspective.
