SKRR Exploration, First Majestic Silver, Millennial Lithium - Commodities in demand as never before!

SKRR Exploration - Successful capital increase carried out

The Canadian exploration Company SKRR has once again raised fresh capital. The placement took place at CAD 0.27 and serves to finance further drilling. The 2019-listed Company owns several properties in Saskatchewan, one of the world's highest-ranked mining regions. The primary exploration focus is on the Trans-Hudson corridor, where world-class precious metal deposits are believed to exist. The Trans-Hudson orogeny is very well known geologically but has not been heavily explored to date. SKRR is very careful with its resources, and this is the same understanding it has towards nature in Canada.

By the end of 2022, they want to have determined a resource, giving the projects a definable commercial value. Should the gold price move again above USD 2000, there is, of course, a considerable value in the ground, which can become quite interesting for an expansive major. Management is banking on rock samples from Eagle Plains' Cathro Project. Here, gold values of up to 100 g/t gold have been reported in recent assays, but this chance find first needs to be fully validated in a more extended drilling program.

The recently 100% acquired Manson Bay Gold Zone has shown mineralization of 15.39 g/t Au in initial drill intercepts of up to 10m. Numerous occurrences on the property indicate excellent blue sky potential at first glance, but drilling is ongoing. SKRR shares have been relatively stable at CAD 0.22-0.25 for weeks, despite a weakening gold price. SKRR's market value calculates to around CAD 9.2 million - a bargain compared to many other explorers from Canada.

First Majestic Silver - New resource estimates for 2020

First Majestic Silver, one of the world's largest silver producers, announced its latest resource estimates last week. Proven and probable mineral reserves at the Company's three producing properties totaled 62.2 million ounces of silver and 606,000 ounces of gold, or 121.5 million silver equivalent ounces, a 16% decrease from previous estimates.
The decrease was primarily due to the downgrade of 14.6 million ounces of silver from reserves to resources contained in the old, low-grade tailings at La Encantada. In addition, the reserves at San Dimas only include exploration results from the first half of 2020 or 35% of the total drilling completed in 2020.

Admittedly, the suspected numbers are much higher still, totaling 98.0 million ounces of silver and 1.22 million ounces of gold, or 214.8 million ounces of silver equivalent - a 19% increase over the previous estimate. That was the good news First Majestic fans wanted to hear.

In 2020, the Company drilled more than 156,000 meters of exploration at its operating mines and projects in Mexico. The Board of Directors has appointed Jean des Rivières as a director of the Company effective March 31, 2021. Mr. des Rivières has worked in more than 50 countries over the past 35 years and brings a wealth of experience in the global mining industry. First Majestic's share price acknowledged the recent news with a 15% increase to EUR 14.5.

Millennial Lithium - First pilot plant trials completed

Millennial Lithium Corp. is one of the hopefuls for the tight lithium market. The pilot plant at Pastos Grandes has now completed its first run of concentrated lithium brine and samples have been shipped to an independent laboratory for control analysis. The brine material comes from the Company's production well at Salar Pastos Grandes, where the brine is pumped into large ponds where the lithium is then concentrated by solar evaporation. A full report on the samples' chemical and physical analysis results is expected in a few weeks.

The Company began constructing pilot ponds in 2018 and began feeding brine to the ponds in the same year. The completed pilot plant will be fed concentrated, lithium-rich brine from smaller feeder ponds that contain a target level of 3% lithium. The brine's chemistry, particularly the concentrations of potassium, boron, calcium, magnesium, and sulfate, meet the target specifications for feeding the plant and the plant design parameters described in the Company's feasibility study completed in 2019. The goal is to produce the purest possible industrial-grade lithium.

To meet the many operational requirements, the Company has increased its workforce and expanded the pilot plant's management team. Now they are still taking care of the semi-annual renewal of the environmental impact study. After temporary weakness, the Millennial share price has settled back above EUR 2.25, which is still around 30% below the high for the year.