FINANCE – Kaminak Gold Corp. March 27 said it has closed the bought deal private placement financing announced March 10. The company issued about 14.025 million units at C82 cents per unit, for gross proceeds exceeding C$11.5 million. Each unit consists of one common share of the company and one-half of a purchase warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase one common share of Kaminak at a price of C$1.20 for a period of 12 months following closing. Kaminak intends to use the net proceeds of the offering primarily for continued exploration and development of the company’s Coffee Gold project in Yukon, and for general working capital purposes.
SILVER – Alexco Resource Corp. Mar. 25 reported financial results for its 2013 year end and 2013 fourth quarter. For 2013, Alexco recorded an adjusted net loss of C$4.3 million or C7 cents per share. The consolidated net loss for the year was C$50.5 million, including the impact of non-cash asset write downs recorded in the second quarter primarily due to the effect of significantly lower silver prices in 2013. For the fourth quarter of 2013, ended Dec. 31, Alexco recorded a net loss of C$1.1 million or C1 cent per share primarily related to care and maintenance costs at the Keno Hill Silver District, Yukon, where silver production was suspended for the winter. Alexco Environmental Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alexco, posted record financial performance in 2013, nearly tripling gross profit to C$8.8 million and more than doubling revenues to C$16.3 million compared to 2012. During 2013, Alexco produced 1.4 million ounces silver, 10.3 million pounds lead and 3.4 million pounds zinc in a shortened 245 operational days. Gross operating results from the Bellekeno Mine were essentially break-even on approximately C$43 million of revenue, reflecting a more than 23 percent decline in silver prices over the course of 2013. An interim suspension of mine and mill operations was completed in September. The current focus is on permitting and restructuring Keno Hill operations to accommodate the Flame & Moth deposit for future production. In December, the Eastern Keno Hill Silver District preliminary economic assessment outlined a revised production plan focused on Flame & Moth and incorporating supplemental production from Bellekeno and Lucky Queen, yielding an after-tax 38 percent internal rate of return over the development and operating period through 2020. During the year exploration drilling extended the Flame & Moth mineralized strike length to more than 900 meters, and identified a significant mineralized structure at the Flame & Moth West discovery some 500 meters west of Flame & Moth. Alexco said exploration will continue to focus on further potential resource expansion in 2014. At Dec. 31, 2013, Alexco had C$8.6 million cash and cash equivalents and net working capital of C$15.3 million. Alexco’s President and CEO Clynt Nauman said, “The business decision to suspend mining operations at Keno Hill in the face of declining silver prices and shrinking margins has proven to be correct, especially in light of the increasing significance of the larger Flame & Moth deposit which has the potential to underpin production at Keno Hill beyond 2020. Flame & Moth has an estimated indicated silver resource of 22.9 million ounces of silver and is currently calculated to contain 1.4 million metric tons of 516 grams per metric ton silver, 0.4 g/t gold and roughly 7.4 percent combined zinc and lead. Further, the deposit is shallow, adjacent to existing infrastructure, remains open and potentially opens the way for sustained higher throughput of 400 metric tons per day at lower fixed costs on a unit basis going forward. We are using this interim winter period to review and restructure both the underlying cost framework at Keno Hill and our third party contracts and obligations. Upon achieving those goals and assuming conducive market and other conditions, our objective is to restart capital development work at Flame & Moth. Meanwhile, we’re pleased to announce that in ongoing dialogue with Silver Wheaton, the deadline included in our silver streaming agreement for achieving production throughput of 400 tpd over a 30-day period has been extended to June 30, 2015.”
GOLD/SILVER – Rockhaven Resources Ltd. March 20 reported that funding is in place for its 2014 exploration program at the Klaza gold-silver property, located in the Dawson Range Gold Belt of southern Yukon Territory. Drilling and trenching at the road-accessible Klaza property since 2010 have identified nine main mineralized structural zones and numerous subsidiary structures within a 2,000-by-4,000-meter corridor. Individually, the main zones range from one to 75 meters in width and are continuously mineralized over strike lengths of 250 to 2,400 meters. The zones have been traced over a cumulative strike length of 9,400 meters and all remain open for expansion along strike and to depth. The proposed 2014 program will include 12,000 meters of diamond drilling and will focus on delineating and expanding areas of high-grade gold and silver mineralization (greater than 8 grams per metric ton gold-equivalent). 2014 drill targets will include the Western BRX Zone, where 2013 trenching and limited broadly-spaced drilling have returned strong results over a 750-meter strike length, including 68.27 g/t gold-equivalent (50.1 g/t gold and 910 g/t silver) over 3.25 meters from trench TR-13-58 and 8 g/t gold-equivalent (5.78 g/t gold and 111 g/t silver) over 15.62 m from hole DH-12-96; and the Western Klaza and Central Klaza zones and the Pearl Zone. “We are very excited to build on the success and knowledge gained from recent programs at the Klaza property which have outlined multiple mineralized structures over long strike lengths,” said Matt Turner, CEO of Rockhaven Resources. “We are now in a position to focus on defining the higher-grade parts of these extensive systems, while advancing other blue-sky targets within this evolving gold district.”
