EXPLORATION & DEVELOPMENT

Top drill hits of 2017

Kirkland Lake Gold’s (CN:KL) stunning drill hit back in January at its high-grade, low-cost Fosterville gold mine in eastern Australia has not been beaten this year by any other ASX or Toronto-listed explorer to date.

Staff reporter
 Kirkland Lake takes the gold

Kirkland Lake takes the gold

Kirkland intercepted 15.15m at 1,429g/t gold from 345.55m, keeping it at the top of RSC Mining & Mineral Exploration's intercepts of 2017 with a stellar gold-equivalent value* of 21,649.35 AuEq/m.

The result was light years ahead of second-placed Atlantic Gold Corp's (CN:AGB) 4,752 AuEq/m in resource definition drilling at its Fifteen Mile gold project in Canada.

Kirkland's share price rise on the day of 5.6% was just a hallmark of more to come, with its shares seeing a three-fold increase in Toronto over 12 months, rising from C$6.33 to $19.07 about a month ago to last trade at $18.44.

It also listed on the ASX just under a month ago and the tightly-held shares have risen about 26% to A24c.

Record mining results at Fosterville, which accounts for almost half the company's gold production, are a primary factor in Kirkland's low-cost appeal, with the mine's operating cash costs per ounce sold averaging US$281 in the nine months to the end of September.

Kirkland has continued to keep drill bits turning and delivering high-grade exploration results at its projects - including today's 0.91m at 1,624g/t at its recently mothballed Cosmo mine in Australia's Northern Territory.

Projects are only listed once in RSC's table to avoid the same project being ranked multiple times.

According to the table, the top 10 results for the year were taken out by Toronto-listed companies, ahead of the best intercept by any ASX-listed company (Westgold Resources' (AU:WGX) 1,739.2 AuEq/m at Central Murchison).

All bar one of the top intercepts were in the hunt for gold or a gold combination, such as Sandstorm Gold's (CN:SSL) gold-copper-molybdenum intercept at Hot Maden which equated to 2,203.92 AuEq/m.

Last year's winner was the exception - uranium play NexGen Energy (CN:NXE) remained in the table with a 3,048.49 AuEq/m hit at its Rook 1 project but with continuing softer uranium prices, the company's share price has headed lower this year, as has Cordoba Minerals' (CN:CDB) and Nevsun Resources' (CN:NSU).

IAMGOLD Corp (CN:IAG) has seen its share price rise, as has Osisko Mining (CN:OSK), Sandstorm and Leagold Mining Corp (CN:LMC) while Colorado Resources (CN:CXO) remains about the same as this time last year.

The bulk of the top intercepts were found in Canada, with the rest spread between Australia, Colombia, Serbia, Suriname, Turkey and Mexico.

*All commodities converted to AuEq based on selling prices for that week sourced from https://www.quandl.com/collections/markets/commodities

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the farming sector, brought to you by the Kondinin team.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the farming sector, brought to you by the Kondinin team.

editions

Mining Journal Intelligence Investor Sentiment Report 2024

Survey revealing the plans, priorities, and preferences of 120+ mining investors and their expectations for the sector in 2024.

editions

Mining Journal Intelligence Mining Equities Report 2023

Access an exclusive, inside look on the quarterly mining IPOs and secondary raisings data and mining equities performance tables with an annual Stock Exchange Comparisons supplement.

editions

Mining Journal Intelligence World Risk Report 2023 (feat. MineHutte ratings)

A detailed analysis of mining investment risks across 121 jurisdictions globally, built on 11 ‘hard risk’ metrics and an industrywide survey.

editions

Mining Journal Intelligence Global Leadership Report 2023: Social licence

Gain insights into social licence trends and best practices from interviews with 20+ top mining company executives and an industrywide survey.