Aurcana Silver – A focus on the exploration potential at the Revenue-Virginus Mine and an update from the Shafter Project
Kevin Drover, President and CEO of Aurcana Silver (TSX.V:AUN – OTCQX:AUNFF) joins us to focus on the exploration targets and strategy at the Revenue-Virginus Mine, in Colorado. Kevin outlines the total number of known veins on the Project and the plans to explore them. We also get a general update from the Shafter Project, in Texas.
If you have any follow up questions for Kevin that you would like answered please email us at Fleck@kereport.com or Shad@kereport.com.
Click here to visit the Aurcana website for a recap of the recent news.
Gold walk down starting in London at about 1-2 AM EST and continued continuously until present at a 45 degree angle. Orchestrated and intentional. Corruption in your face.
Owned Aun long ago.. Has all the potential in the world but to many pass disappointment and under delivery for me.
Canuck i can see brixton breaking out to about 22.5 before retrace and up she goes.
Impact looks like it will tag .82 today or monday before a retest of .74-.76 and then off shoes goes.
glen
I’m much more constructive of (AUN) Aurcana, because I don’t blame the current team that took over the project a few years back, for the sins of the management teams in the prior incarnations of the company.
Keep in mind, the past disappointments in Aurcana were years ago in the bear market, when the old team operating in Mexico didn’t have a good grasp on costs and got in financial issues as the metals prices pulled back. Then with Shafter, they went into the old workings, without a modern resource estimate, they didn’t take time to understand the geology or an adequate mine plan, and also suffered in their Texas operations, at that time, and the lower metals prices imploded the company.
__________________ That is all past history, and doesn’t apply to the current scenario.
Fast forward to this metals cycle, and the current team took the company out of credit protection, added in the new flagship – The Revenue Virginius Mine in Colorado, which is the highest grade undeveloped silver resource on the planet.
They’ve only explored a fraction of the The Revenue-Virginius Mine vein system, as outlined in this interview today, and there is massive exploration upside available to grow their resources around R.V. They’ve only explored part of the Virginius vein, and it is open both north and south for more material. They have 8 other veins including the Wheel of Fortune, Atlas-Cumberland, Yellow Rose, Klondike, and The Terrible vein that all had prior production on them, so it is very likely there are still more high grade ounces left behind, just like at the Virginius vein.
As for Shafter, as Kevin mentioned in his interview today, they’re not just going into the old mining stopes half-cocked like the prior team did, but rather exploration the old shaft that Goldfields put in, and doing legit exploration work to come up with a resource estimate. That is night and day over the past team.
Aurcana is going into Silver production in the next few months, something most Junior silver stocks will never achieve. There may be a few startup kinks to work out like any new mine that gets commissioned, but their margins are fantastic at these Silver prices they’ll be making good money. I’m more focused on that future than looking back into a different time, different team, and different focus.
I was just over at their web site doing some research as I am looking at buying some shares. Wow! Do they have the warrants outstanding. Dilution? I could not find any information on warrant price or exercise time……..nothing.
Hi Chris,
As for the Aurcana warrants they were laid out in the January new release (reiterated in Feb release):
Jan 27, 2021 – “each Warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one common share at a price of C$1.25 for a period of 36 months from the date of issuance.
https://ceo.ca/@nasdaq/aurcana-announces-pending-closing-of-previously-announced
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Yes, Aurcana had some dilution in Jan/Feb, where they raised capital to be able to move into construction and move towards production this summer. That kind of dilution (where it leads to graduating to being a producer) is one that makes sense. In contrast, most dilution in junior miners is found in the explorers, that raise, drill, burn through G&A, then raise, drill, burn through G&A, rinse and repeat.
At least Aurcana’s capital raises were for something transformative, that will allow them to start actually making money and producing revenue and cashflow.
AUN is trading today up 1.1% to $0.95 so that warrant overhang at $1.25 may represent an area of resistance, if the stock jumps up there, and it will bring more funds into the company to use for exploration and development.
In the medium to longer term, it is less concerning, because if Silver does what many think and runs into the mid $30’s or higher by the end of the year, then there should be a big increase in the Silver mining stocks across the board. Even if Silver stays in the mid to high $20’s Aurcana has fantastic margins at current prices.
If you check out page 7 on their Corporate Presentation their AISC is around $8 Silver.
At current $28 Silver prices, that is a $20 margin for the company. Not too shabby.
That is why the focus should be on the future of AUN, not the past metals cycle.
http://www.aurcana.com/_resources/presentations/Corporate_Presentation.pdf
I appreciate your added commentary. There are many earlier warrants as I noted below.
Thanks Chris. Yes, as for the early dated warrants, I’m not sure how many are left and at what strike price, but we can ask Kevin about that for our next interview. Good question.
If anyone else has any questions for Aurcana or any of the companies we bring, please let us know here on the blog, or you can also email us. We try to use these questions when we follow up with the company for future interviews.
Nothing against AUN, as they all don’t like to put all their warrants out for information. I went through their News Releases to look at various financing’s with warrants and there have been many of them. Many now in the money, so some earlier investors made out well. They also have term loan at libor plus 10.5%…………all of this proves again that building a mine is a very expensive thing! As to the future, I expect new investors will be OK IF, the BIG IF the grades turn out to be as high as management believes they will be.
Good points Chris. Yes, to build a mine is always expensive, and any company that embarks on that journey has to dilute in some way to get it built – Either through a private placement, through debt, through a royalty/streaming deal, or by diluting through giving away ownership in a project to a larger JV project. Pick your poison.
As for the grades, their resource has been drilled out and is well understood, so that’s not as big of an “If” really, but you are correct that it ultimately comes down to what the head-grade ends up being once they achieve commercial production. Typically the first few months of production at new mining operations is with lower grade stockpiled ore for commissioning, so the real measure will be once they get up to commercial production and put a quarter or 2 of production on the books. I anticipate there are typically 3-6 months of start-up challenges to overcome, and give new mines some leeway in that regard, but by the end of this year or beginning of next year, we’ll all know more about what to expect moving forward.
Thanks Glenster,
I’m getting a bit more focused upon what’s the next set of pm investments. Thanks for keeping me in the loop!
My thoughts almost exactly on AUN too, I own a bit of BBB and IPT. Scorpio is showing some glimmers of hope too, I own some.
Dan,
If you own those three like myself and others, Wow! You are in a really good position at least glen thinks…
All the best buddy up there in Calgary…Down here in gta we going out with the family for a bite on a patio to refresh and enjoy.. Been a long time.
Vegas hockey game last night no mask full crowd. Don’t want to head into politics but disgusting what’s happening and more so for the kids.
Glen
Restrictions are loosening here too, some BC license plates can be seen again.
Glen……. ditto……. on the disgusting on the Political machines….. across the world….
Horrible for the future of the kids…. Entirely a whole new game…..
Paul Wong – Strong Tailwinds for the Precious Metals
Sprott Money Weekly Wrap Up (6.11.21)
https://soundcloud.com/sprottmoney/sprott-money-news-weekly-wrap-up-61121
Off Topic:
For those that still follow Theralase, they just announced they added The University of Chicago medical as a Phase II treatment site. That is the 7th named in the US.
Thanks David. I don’t really follow many of the Biotech stocks, but remember Theralase as a prior show sponsor.
One biotech stock / vaccine stock that I have noticed lately is the epic fall from grace in the cult-stock, Sona Nanotech Inc (SONA.CN). There were times last Spring and Summer it was running to ridiculous levels on their rapid saliva test for Covid 19, and buy July 29th it opened at $15.45. (obviously a nonsensical valuation for a hype biotech stock, but those are the market conditions we’ve been in for many sectors over the last year or two).
Well today (SONA) announced they have discontinued their clinical trial for that Rapid Saliva Test and it cratered another 67% on the day…. Down to $0.34.
There were days last spring where there were literally hundreds of investors piled into the SONA room over at ceo.ca, and all the typical “To the Moon” or RocketShip emojis, and despite the insane valuation people stating it hadn’t even gotten started yet as it marched from pennies, to dollars, to double digit dollars up into the mid $15s. Imagine the carnage 1 year later with this thing trading today at $.34. Talk about a round trip… Yikes!
Here is the spectacular pop-n-drop on the SONA #chart:
Sona…One of my biggest scores in 2021. 25k to approx.650k cdn$
I stand corrected.. It was in 2020
Congratulations Ann. Yes, Sona had an epic run up last year during the pandemic, and a multi-fold increase in market cap. The Biotech stocks can make insane runs higher if you can catch the tiger by the tail, and then have the courage to sell when things get frothy.
Biotech is an interesting sector with volatility as wild as the Cryptos, Pot stocks, Mining stocks, SPACs, or NFTs.
The only Biotech space I’m in currently is the Psychedelic Therapies stocks like Mind Medicine, Mydecine Innovations, and HAVN Lifesciences, and most of them had a nice corrective move down the last few months off their highs. I’m considering adding 2-3 more like Aion Therapeutics, Entheon Biomedical, and Revive Therapeutics.
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Psychedelic Sector Update: The Potential To Cure The Most Vexing Modern Mental Health Ailments
June 7, 2021
Promising Psychedelic Drug Trials Show Potential for a New Biotech Boom
Streetwise Reports (6/4/21)
“Encouraging results from recent clinical trials testing the efficacy of using psychedelics like arketamine, LSD, and psilocybin to treat mental health disorders have bumped up biotechnology firms working in the space. They’ve also pushed some states closer to decriminalization.”
“Public stigma toward this class of drugs is fading as continued advances in psychedelic therapies show potential to drive an investment boom that could reshape the future of medicine and mental health therapies.”
“Market Poised to Grow as Mental Health Disorders Surge”
“According to Research and Markets, the global psychedelic market was valued at $4.75 billion in 2020, and that figure is projected to rise to $10.75 billion in 2027. Per Canaccord Genuity, the potential market opportunity for psychedelics may be as high as $100 billion globally.”
Purchased a little fosterville south today on its’ pullback—-there will be other good buys coming up in this gold pullback.
Nice Doc. Did you get a chance to listen to the Fosterville South interview we had with Bryan yesterday? They are drilling at 3 main projects, and plans to drill a fourth in this upcoming drill program.
Yes, I did listen to that interview—-Hopefully they hit something decent in some of their drilling.
+1 Yes, we should know something more from some of the first assays in the next few weeks if all goes well…
long VTVT