Blog posts

By Miguel A Heredia

During the 29^th week of the year (July 15^th to July 21^st 2024), at least 28 press releases were announced by companies working in Mexico, and 2 news published by the media, with ten disclosing deals and corporate issues, five announcing financing rounds, five communicating production and financial results, three commenting on Mexican issues, three reporting resources and development of their properties, two informing on exploration results, and two discussing social issues.   ON MEXICO ISSUES, Rafael Rebollar, general director of Industrias Peñoles, declared that the mining industry in Mexico has been affected due it awaits response on environmental permits. The Government of Mexico is preparing a preliminary report with arguments to declare that Vulcan Materials' Calica mine in Quintana Roo is located within a "protected natural area", which represents a possible expropriation of its land. Tocvan /Colibri reported the best drilling intercepts in Mexico on the third week of July, 2024. ON EXPLORATION, In Chihuahua, Kingsmen announced that it has completed an evaluation and interpretation of the ground magnetic data covering the entire Las Coloradas project area. In Durango, Silver Wolf provided an update on its Ana Maria project.  ON MINING, Americas Gold and Silver reported Q2, 2024 production results at its Cosalá operation mine in Sinaloa. Avino Silver & Gold Mines released production results for the Q2, 2024 at their Avino and La Preciosa mines in Durango. First Majestic announced Q2, 2024 production results from their Mexican operations, and provided an updated guidance for H2 and full year 2024. Bear Creek reported Q2, 2024 production results at its Mercedes mine in Sonora.  ON FINANCING, Aztec Minerals announced a non-brokered private placement financing for gross proceeds of up to CAD $1.5M (Cervantes project, Sonora). Garibaldi applied to the TSX Venture Exchange to extend warrant expiry dates (Tonichi project, Sonora). Regency Silver announced a non-brokered private placement financing for gross proceeds of up to CAD $2.5M (Dios Padre project, Sonora). Sailfish reported that the TSX Venture Exchange has accepted a notice filed by the Company of its intention to make a Normal Course Issuer Bid to be transacted through the facilities of the Exchange (Gavilanes project, Durango). Vizsla Royalties entered into a debt settlement agreement dated July 3, 2024 with Vizsla Silver Corp to settle outstanding debt of CAD $1,609,312 owing from Vizsla Royalties to Vizsla Silver (Panuco project, Sinaloa). ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT, Tocvan and its JV Colibri reported results of five RC drill holes from its El Pilar project in Sonora. Bendito Resources acquired a flotation plan and is finalizing economic studies for critical minerals production from its Oposura project, Sonora. ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES, Alamos Gold entered into a gold sale prepayment agreement for total consideration of USD $116 million in exchange for the delivery of 49,384 ounces in 2025 (Mulatos mine, Sonora). Golden Minerals announced that it has received payment in full of $2.5M plus VAT for the sale of its Velardeña Mine and associated facilities. Sierra Madre announced that it has secured a binding off-take agreement for 100% of concentrate sales from its La Guitarra mine, Mexico. US Antimony reported the appointment of its Vice President of the company´s Antimony Division (Los Juarez project, Queretaro). GR Silver closed the transaction to acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding shares of Marlin Gold Mining Ltd (Plomosas, Sinaloa).  Florida Canyon entered into a binding agreement to sell its interests in the San Agustin mine, El Castillo mine, La Colorada mine, Cerro del Gallo project and San Antonio project (collectively the "Mexican Business Unit") to Heliostar Metals Ltd. Florida Canyon advised the market that processes are underway to review strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value on the Mexican business unit (El Castillo mine, Durango). Florida Canyon announced it has commenced trading on the TSX Venture Exchange (El Castillo mine, Durango). Heliostar entered into a binding agreement with Florida Canyon Gold Inc (FCGI) to acquire a 100% interest in all of FCGI’s mining assets in Mexico for consideration of USD $5M. Sierra Metals announced the completion of the sale of the Cusi mine and surrounding mineral concessions located in Chihuahua. ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, SilverCrest and Alamos Gold released their 2023 ESG report (Las Chispas mine, Sonora and Mulatos mine, Sonora respectively).

ON MEXICO ISSUE

• Rafael Rebollar, general director of Industrias Peñoles, declared that the mining industry in Mexico has been affected due it awaits response on environmental permits that must be granted by the federal government for tailings deposits, a system that collects all the waste from the mining process, once the waste has been separated from minerals. Failure to grant it could lead to the suspension of operations of some mining units. For his part, Carlos Pavón Campos, general secretary of the Mining Metallurgical Union FRENTE, said that mines throughout the country face restrictions on tailings dams, which represents a risk. He cited the case of Fresnillo and Velardeña as an example. He commented that in Velardeña, there are around 600 unionized workers and that a fundamental part of the mines are the tailings dams.
• The Government of Mexico is preparing a preliminary report with arguments to declare that Vulcan Materials' Calica mine in Quintana Roo is located within a "protected natural area", which represents a possible expropriation of its land. The report will be evaluated for 30 days by the governments of the state of Quintana Roo, as well as by social organizations, indigenous communities and universities, reported the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) in a statement sent on Thursday. Vulcan Materials said in May that it received an offer from the Government of Mexico that “substantially undervalues” its property. According to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the Administration offered to buy the firm's assets on the Caribbean coast for USD $2B. Last May, U.S. senators warned that Mexico's expropriation of Vulcan land would force them to consider "all available resources" to prevent "the theft of this property," according to a letter officials sent to the Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena.
• Tocvan Ventures Corp., and JV Colibri Resource Corp., reported the best drilling intercepts in Mexico on the third week of July, 2024. Details are shown in the table below:

ON EXPLORATION

• Kingsmen Resources Ltd., announced that it has completed an evaluation and interpretation of the ground magnetic data covering the entire Las Coloradas project area in Chihuahua. It has identified two prominent magnetic bodies within a halo of weaker magnetics, and are interpreted to be shallow and probably linked to intrusives. Very positively, the structural picture appears to define a cymoid loop, a feature that generates multiple dilation zones that may host mineralization in both NW- and NE-trending zones along strike and at depth. These will be targets for drill testing. The project is prospective for epithermal precious metal, skarn and porphyry mineralization.
• Silver Wolf Exploration Ltd., provided an update on its Ana Maria project in Durango. The company has been planning the upcoming drill program at the El Soldado Claim at the Ana Maria project. “Activities that have been completed to date include: preparing and fine tuning the drill targets, finalizing drilling and QA/QC procedures, selecting a drill contractor to conduct the drilling work, updating and revising the drill budget to reflect the change in Mexican Peso and inflationary costs, finalizing access agreements with the local communities for drilling activities, staffing the appropriate positions to conduct the program with contractors and employees”.

ON MINING

• Americas Gold and Silver Corporation reported Q2, 2024 production results at its Cosalá operation mine in Sinaloa. It focused on mining the Main Zone at the San Rafael Mine and produced approximately 170K Oz Ag, 8.9M Lb Zn, and 2.6M Lb Pb. Silver production from the Cosalá Operations is expected to increase quarter-over-quarter.
• Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd., released production results for the Q2, 2024 at their Avino and La Preciosa mines in Durango. At Avino, the company processed 130,983 tonnes of 71 g/t Ag, 0.49 g/t Au, and 0.51% Cu with metallurgical recoveries of 88%, 70%, and 88% respectively, to produce 262.9K Oz Ag, 1,456 Oz Au, and 1.3M Lb Cu. At La Preciosa, it processed 9.951 tonnes of 133 g/t Ag and 0.28 g/t Au with metallurgical recoveries of 71% and 63% respectively, to produce 30.1K Oz Ag and 58 Oz Au.
• First Majestic Silver Corp., announced Q2, 2024 production results from their Mexican operations. Table below shows mine by mine results:

The Company's financial results for the second quarter of 2024 are scheduled to be released on Thursday, August 1, 2024. The company also provided an updated guidance for H2 and full year 2024. Tables below show mine by mine details:

• Bear Creek Mining Corporation reported Q2, 2024 production results at its Mercedes mine in Sonora. The company processed 95,727 tonnes of 3.23 g/t Au, with a metallurgical recovery of 93% to produce 9,304 Oz Au and 40,893 Oz Ag.
• Minera Alamos Inc., provided a brief operations update for its Santana gold mine in Sonora. The company initiated mining and stacking operations at the Nicho Main Zone of its Santana mine. As of the end of June, approximately 900 Oz Au have been stacked on the leach pad, with expectations to increase output to 1,300-1,500 ounces in the coming month. The company is improving access to the mineralization and plans to activate additional trucks to enhance operational efficiency. The average gold grade is around 0.9 g/t, and optimization efforts are underway to improve blasting and crushing processes. Overall, the operations are progressing well, with a focus on returning to a steady state of production as gold prices strengthen.

ON FINANCING

• Aztec Minerals Corp., announced a non-brokered private placement financing of up to 8,333,334 units of the Company at a price of CAD $0.18 per unit for gross proceeds of up to CAD $1.5M. Part of the gross proceeds will be used to fund ongoing expenses at the Cervantes Project in Sonora, and for general working capital and corporate expenses.
• Garibaldi Resources Corp., applied to the TSX Venture Exchange to extend warrant expiry dates. The original term of the Warrants was two years, of which 2,664,472 warrants (the “FT Warrants”) currently expire on July 22, 2024 and 181,250 warrants (the “NFT Warrants”) currently expire on September 16, 2024. The Company proposes to extend the expiry date for a one year period to July 22, 2025 for the FT Warrants and to September 16, 2025 for the NFT Warrants. None of the Warrants to be amended were issued to finders or agents.  No other terms of the Warrants are to be amended and the exercise price remains at $0.55 (Tonichi project, Sonora).
• Regency Silver Corp., announced a non-brokered private placement financing for gross proceeds of up to CAD $2.5M, consisting of 16.6M units at a price of CAD $0.15 per unit. Gross proceeds will be used for the upcoming drill program on the company´s Dios Padre project in Sonora, and for general working capital.
• Sailfish Royalty Corp., reported that the TSX Venture Exchange has accepted a notice filed by the Company of its intention to make a Normal Course Issuer Bid to be transacted through the facilities of the Exchange. The notice provides that the company may, during the 12-month period commencing July 22, 2024 and ending July 21, 2025, purchase up to 3,539,756 common shares of the company in total, being approximately 5% of the total number of shares outstanding as at July 16, 2024 (Gavilanes project, Durango).
• Vizsla Royalties Corp., entered into a debt settlement agreement dated July 3, 2024 with Vizsla Silver Corp to settle outstanding debt of CAD $1,609,312 owing from Vizsla Royalties to Vizsla Silver by issuing 32,186,240 common shares of the company to Vizsla Silver at a deemed price of CAD $0.05 per common share (Panuco project, Sinaloa).

ON RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT

• Tocvan Ventures Corp., and its JV Colibri Resource Corp., reported results of five RC drill holes from its El Pilar project in Sonora. Drilling highlights include hole JES-24-95 with 0.15 g/t Au, 1 g/t Ag, and 0.4% Zn over 76.25m, including 0.19 g/t Au, 2 g/t Ag, and 1.49% Zn over 16.78m, including 0.16 g/t Au, 3 g/t Ag, and 2.78% Zn over 7.63m, plus 0.83 g/t Au,  1g/t Ag, and 0.12% Z over 5.09m, and hole JES-24-94 with 0.06 g/t Au and 2 g/t Ag over 120.48m, including 0.09 g/t Au, 3 g/t Ag, and 0.15% Zn over 64.05m, including 0.17 g/t Au, 5 g/t Ag, and 0.22% Zn over 24.04m, including 1.26 g(/t Au, 37 g/t Ag, 0.55% Pb, and 1.16% Zn over 1.53m, plus 0.46 g/t Au, 26 g/t Ag, 0.12% Pb, and 0.57% Zn over 1.52m, plus 0.37 g/t Au, 5 g/t Ag, 0.6% Pb, and 3.05% Zn over 3.05m. Results for three drillholes are currently pending analysis.
• Bendito Resources Inc., acquired a flotation plan and is finalizing economic studies for critical minerals production from its Oposura project, Sonora. The company also acquired stationary and mobile equipment, including laboratory equipment, primary and secondary mining equipment, blast hole and exploration drills, and other necessary support equipment typically used at mine sites. “The general arrangement of the mine site and related agency approvals are ongoing ahead of anticipated earth and civil works later this year. It is expected that the plant will be operational at the Oposura site in the second half of 2025”.

ON DEALS AND CORPORATE ISSUES

• Alamos Gold Inc., entered into a gold sale prepayment agreement for total consideration of USD $116 million in exchange for the delivery of 49,384 ounces in 2025. The proceeds of the gold prepayment were used to eliminate gold forward purchase contracts, previously entered into by Argonaut Gold, totalling 179,417 ounces in 2024 and 2025 with an average price of USD $1,838 per ounce. As part of the recently closed acquisition of Argonaut, Alamos inherited Argonaut’s hedge book which included gold forward purchase contracts totaling 329,417 ounces between 2024 and 2027. The average forward prices on the contracts ranged between USD $1,821 and USD $1,860 per ounce (Mulatos mine, Sonora).
• Golden Minerals Company announced that it has received payment in full of $2.5M plus VAT for the sale of its Velardeña Mine and associated facilities and title has been transferred to a privately held Mexican company. Further and in connection with the Agreements, there has been a delay in the closing of the Minera William agreement entered into to sell the oxide processing plant and the water wells, located in Durango State, Mexico. To date, the Company has received partial payments in the amount of $373,000 for these assets. The remaining $2,627,000, plus VAT on the full sale price, was due on July 1.
• Sierra Madre Gold and Silver Ltd., announced that it has secured a binding off-take agreement with Swiss-based global minerals trader MRI Trading AG for 100% of concentrate sales from its La Guitarra mine, Mexico.
• US Antimony Corporation reported the appointment of its Vice President of the company´s Antimony Division (Los Juarez project, Queretaro).
• GR Silver Mining Ltd., closed the transaction to acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding shares of Marlin Gold Mining Ltd. Marlin is a private British Columbia company which owns, amongst other assets, Oro Gold de Mexico, S.A. de C.V., a private Mexican company that owns 100% of nine concessions, including the past producing La Trinidad mine, located adjacent to the Company's core Plomosas project, Sinaloa.
• Florida Canyon Gold Inc., entered into a binding agreement to sell its interests in the San Agustin mine, El Castillo mine, La Colorada mine, Cerro del Gallo project and San Antonio project (collectively the "Mexican Business Unit") to Heliostar Metals Ltd. At closing, Heliostar will pay cash consideration of USD $5M to the Corporation. In addition, the Corporation is entitled to cash generated by the Mexican Business Unit prior to July 11, 2024 and cash of USD $5M generated from operating cash flow after July 16, 2024, subject to a minimum of USD $2M of net working capital being left in the Mexican Business Unit on closing.
• Florida Canyon Gold Inc., advised the market that processes are underway to review strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value on the Mexican business unit (El Castillo mine, Durango).
• Florida Canyon Gold Inc., announced it has commenced trading on the TSX Venture Exchange. Common shares of the company will commence trading on the TSXV at the opening of the market on July 16, 2024, under the symbol "FCGV" (El Castillo mine, Durango).
• Heliostar Metals Ltd., entered into a binding agreement with Florida Canyon Gold Inc (FCGI) to acquire a 100% interest in all of FCGI’s mining assets in Mexico for consideration of USD $5M. The projects being acquired were recently spun out from Argonaut Gold Inc. Pursuant to the transaction, Heliostar will acquire those FCGI subsidiaries which collectively own 100% of the following properties: La Colorada Mine, located in Sonora, producing gold from residual leaching of gold while on care and maintenance; San Agustin Mine (formerly the El Castillo Complex), an open pit heap leach gold mine, San Agustin, and a closed open pit heap leach gold mine, El Castillo, located in Durango; Cerro del Gallo, an advanced gold development project located in Guanajuato; and San Antonio, an advanced gold development project located in Baja California Sur. The transaction is expected to close in October 2024. “As a condition to closing of the transaction, Heliostar and FCGI will enter into an agreement eliminating (a) up to USD $20M in contingent payments, which become payable to FCGI pursuant to the agreement under which Heliostar acquired the Ana Paula Project, and (b) up to USD $150M in conditional option payments and the issuance of a 2% net smelter returns royalty on the San Antonio Project, which might have become payable pursuant to the agreement under which Heliostar acquired an option on the San Antonio Project”. 
• Sierra Metals Inc., announced the completion of the sale of the Cusi mine and surrounding mineral concessions located in Chihuahua to Minera San Bernabé, S.A. de C.V., a subsidiary of Silverco Mining Corp. (SMC). The company sold the Cusi Mine for USD $2.5M in cash and a 2.0% net smelter royalty in respect of the Cusi Mine granted in favour of Sierra Metals. SMC has the right to purchase one-half of the royalty at any time in exchange for a cash payment to Sierra Metals of USD $5.0M.

ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

• SilverCrest Metals Inc., released its 2023 ESG report, which primarily focuses on its Las Chispas mine in Sonora, and also encompasses the surrounding communities in which it operates.
• Alamos Gold Inc., released its 2023 ESG report, which outlines the company’s progress on its ESG performance in 2023 across its operations, projects and offices (Mulatos mine, Sonora).

Content like what you have just read can be seen at https://gambusinoprospector.com/ and at LinkedIn’s Mexico Mineral Exploration Group.

On the picture above, vuggy silica in a high sulphidation epithermal system in a project in Jalisco, Mexico. Photo taken by Miguel A Heredia.