If the swing pattern continues, metals should be about ready to stop the recent multi-week decline and reverse into several green weeks. In the bigger picture, metal players will be looking for things like spot silver making a new higher low to follow a path upward from $13.62 in December 2015, $15.68 in December 2016 and $16.06 last month to signal some bullishness for the long-term.
In the developmental space, traders should start looking for news of exploration commencing at Silver Vista, the flagship project of Glacier Lake Resources, Inc. (TSX-Venture:GLI). The sprawling project covers 246 square kilometers (24,639 hectares) in north-central British Columbia, Canada about 55 kilometers northeast of Smithers.
Glacier Lake is looking to build upon the promising work of others before them, most recently Amarc Resources, since mineralization was discovered in 1990. Last month, Glacier Lake completed its transaction involving an option for 100% ownership of the project, less a net smelter royalty, and they’re not wasting time digging in. After sitting idle for about four years against the backdrop of tough mining conditions, Glacier Lake is ready to get drills mobilized to prove out the property’s resources.
Hopes are high based upon the property containing a sedimentary hosted copper-silver deposit. These are the type of deposits that are most attractive to miners, underscored by knowledge that the Zambian Copper Belt, the same type of deposit, has produced over one billion metric tonnes of copper at a grade of 2.7%. The prolific Montanore Deposit in Montana, with its Measured & Indicated resources of 82 million tonnes @ 58 g/t silver and 0.75% copper, is another example of the prolific reserves stashed in a sedimentary hosted copper-silver deposit.
That’s the reason that majors like BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP), Teck Resources (TSX:TECK) and Poland’s KGHM International (WSE: KGH) all have exploration efforts focused on this type of deposit.
Backstopped by a recent $500,000 raise, Glacier Lake contracted Mammoth Geological Ltd. to kick-off the 2017 exploration plan with a first pass, consisting of property reconnaissance, prospecting and sampling, at the end of this month. Later this summer, Glacier Lake plans to drill about 2,600 meters to better define the property.
The company hopes to add to compelling data sets of others that through surveys, sampling and 1,252 meters of drilling outlined an anomaly that is 1,200 meters long, up to 300 meters wide and still open to the southeast. Highlights from the limited drilling included a cut of 2.84 meters averaging 195.7 grams per tonne silver at 3.65% copper. Other discovery work has identified drill targets with grades as high as 93.2 g/t silver, 1,084 g/t copper and 6.33 g/t gold.
A NI 43-101 compliant VTEM survey in March earned the property the nickname the “purple monster” due to areas of strong conductivity – indicated high levels of metals – showing purple in the survey results.
The whole gamut of miners have largely been underappreciated, but with GLI sitting on a support level at only 9 cents per share with exploration activity looming any day now, the company likely will draw some interest from value investors taking note of the tiny market cap of only $2.4 million.
