Hochschild Mining Share Discussion Threads

[stevea171] 04/9/2018 11:55

August news on HOC's 100% owned, 9.5 million oz, low grade gold deposit at Volcan. Cost C$103 million with the purchase of Andina Minerals in 2012.

The Volcan Gold Deposit was acquired as part of the Company’s acquisition of Andina Minerals Inc (‘Andina’;), announced in November 2012. The deposit is located in Chile's Atacama Region. The property is strategically located in the prolific Maricunga gold belt, which hosts a number of important gold deposits, including the Maricunga gold mine (Kinross), the La Coipa mine (Kinross), the Cerro Casale deposit (Kinross/Barrick), and the Lobo-Marte deposit (Kinross).

"Volcan is a project, as you know, that offers very attractive long-term optionality to the company. It is located in the Maricunga region in Northern Chile. It has around 10 million ounces of gold with water rights secured. It is in a very stable mining jurisdiction. We are currently exploring the potential for a higher grade project with a smaller water efficient plan. So trying to see if we can take it into a smaller scale, at least initially, to make it profitable and see if over time we can continue turning this into a larger and larger project.

The good thing there also is that many companies are having a more active presence there like Goldcorp, Barrick, Teck and we expect that that is going to continue being a very attractive area for gold production going forward."

[stevea171] 04/9/2018 10:14

Mirasol has announced a JV with HOC for exploration of a property in northern Chile that is prospective for gold and silver with geological characteristics similar to HOC's Arcata mine in southern Peru.
This is an early stage project that will be investigated, making about 5 JV's announced with HOC in the past year in Chile (3), Canada and Nevada,USA.

Mirasol Progresses Indra Epithermal Precious Metal Project in Northern Chile.

VANCOUVER, BC – August 30, 2018 — Mirasol Resources Ltd (TSX-V: MRZ), is pleased to report on progress at the Company’s 100% owned 21,000 ha Indra epithermal precious metal project, located 5 km south of the 1.37 Moz[1] El Guanaco gold mine in northern Chile.

Indra highlights:

Indra is subject to recently announced Letter of Intent for an option to joint venture with Hochschild Mining
Mirasol’s interpretation suggests the project encompasses the upper levels of a large epithermal precious system
The outcropping rocks are of a prospective geological age, and lie within a favorable structural setting on the Paleocene Age Mineral Belt
The project is located at relatively low elevation with year-round access, and is adjacent to mine infrastructure
Mirasol and Hochschild are planning a geological mapping, geochemical sampling, alteration vectoring and ground magnetics program for the southern hemisphere spring and summer (Q4 2018), that will contribute towards the US$800,000 minimum commitment for the first 18-month exploration program

Letter of Intent

The Indra project is subject to a recently announced Letter of Intent for an option to joint venture with Hochschild Mining plc (LON: HOC) which, contingent on completion of a successful due diligence by HOC, will grant HOC the option to earn up to 75% of the project. HOC can elect to make a series of exploration and development investments at the project, make staged cash payments to Mirasol of US$725,000, and at Mirasol’s request provide production financing for the Company’s retained 25% project interest (see news release August 29, 2018). Mirasol will be the operator for the first 18 months, (extendable, at the request of HOC, for a further 12 months), earning a scaled management fee of up to 10% of exploration expenditures.

Indra Project

The Project was staked by Mirasol as an outcome of the Company’s Atacama – Puna Generative exploration program and encompasses what Mirasol interprets may be the upper levels of a large epithermal Au-Ag system. Mirasol has identified a limited number of prospect pits at Indra estimated to be from the 1900’s; however, there is no evidence of modern exploration at the project despite year-round access and location adjacent to an operating mine.

The Indra project is located in Paleocene Age Mineral Belt of northern Chile. The Belt hosts a number of world class mines, including Yamana Gold’s El Penon Low Sulfidation Epithermal (LSE) Au–Ag mine (6.95 Moz Au and 188.1 Moz Ag[2]) and BHP Billiton’s Spence porphyry-copper mine (14 Mt of Cu[3]).

Indra is localized at the intersection of the Paleocene age volcanic arc with the NW-SE oriented Culampaja structural corridor (Figure 1). The Culampaja is considered an important crustal-scale, trans-orogen structure that has influenced the emplacement of many large-scale precious metal and copper deposits in northern Chile and Argentina, including Gold Field’s recently discovered Salares Norte gold deposit (3.7 Moz Au[4]), located where the structure traverses the Mio–Pliocene age mineral belt[5], 82 km to the SE of Indra.

The Chilean Government published a regional geological map of the area, including Indra, which confirms the presence of a prospective Paleocene age rhyolitic flow dome and volcanic complex. The flow domes have been radiometrically dated at 56.2 Ma[6]. Rhyolite flow domes of a similar age are also known to be associated with Yamana’s El Penon Au-Ag mine[7] located 84 km to the north of Indra. This association suggests a prospective age for the flow domes and associated alteration system at the Indra project.

The Project hosts the following encouraging prospects (Figure 2):

Agni, with a large chalcedony and opal silica alteration system and associated silica – barite structures; and
Indra, with a large carbonate-silica vein and vein-breccia zone.

The Indra vein-breccia outcrops intermittently through thin unconsolidated post-mineral gravels, and has been mapped for a strike length of more than 7 km before it trends under thicker cover. The vein-breccias widths range from a few cm up to more than 10 m and are characterized by well-developed colloform and crustiform textures and brecciation (Figure 3), which are indicative of a high-energy multi-pulse hydrothermal system.

Rock chip sampling of the Indra vein-breccia and the alteration and veining at Agni has retuned low-level anomalous Au and Ag (max 140 Au ppb and 1,690 Ag ppb) combined with very high levels of As, Sb, Hg, and Ba epithermal pathfinder elements, as well as strongly anomalous Cu, Pb and Zn (Figure 1). Alteration mineralogy analysis of the wall rocks hosting the vein-breccias at Indra show an interlayered illite and smectite mineral assemblage. The ratio of these minerals in the alteration can be used to estimate the approximate depth to the potentially underlying precious metal interval (Figure 4).

Based on Mirasol’s knowledge of this deposit class and ore deposit models developed from studies of epithermal deposits in Chile and other parts of the world, Indra is interpreted as representing the upper levels of a large epithermal system, where high-grade Au-Ag mineralization may be preserved at depth beneath the outcropping Indra and Agni alteration and vein zones. This interpretation is supported by the presence of “Indra” like carbonate – silica veining, peripheral to and overlying gold – silver mineralization in the El Penon district[8], and overlying the ore zone in the multi-million ounce HOC Arcata gold-silver mine in Peru that has produced in-excess of 390,000 oz Au and 200 Moz Ag.

Mirasol and HOC are currently designing the first phase Indra exploration program that will include detailed geological mapping, rock chip sampling, alteration vectoring studies and ground magnetics. It is anticipated that exploration will commence at the project in the 4th quarter of 2018.

[shakeypremis] 04/9/2018 09:41

There will be bargains galore in the PM sector if prices stay where they are or go lower. Of course they will only be bargains if PM prices turn at some point.

Pretty much no primary silver miners can make a profit or even break even at the current silver price, not without the co-credits from zinc/lead/gold anyway. Gold producers, the majority are probably still making profits at this gold price, but it will be getting dicey.

[juju44] 04/9/2018 09:16

Are we seeing a last hurrah in the sector . Miners wont survive at these metal prices

[roundhowe] 03/9/2018 18:46

juju.....Bill Fleckenstein agrees with you....

"Commercials are currently net long (futures &options) in both gold & silver, 1st time ever for silver, at least going back to 95, which is as far back as my data goes."

[dt1010] 03/9/2018 09:22

Yeah good run from here to Christmas

Next year will be better for HOC

Of course, market might crash in October as that’s a statistically more likely thing to happen in Oct than any other month.

[juju44] 03/9/2018 08:39

Holidays /doldrums over and Indian wedding season . Commercials have gone long in PMs and they are almost always right as they control it anyway

[dogwalker] 03/9/2018 08:35

It's a statistically observable seasonal thing.....What the fundamental reasons are supposed to be I can't remember off-hand....weddings or something ?

[robertthirkell] 03/9/2018 08:16

Why should sept be better?

[juju44] 02/9/2018 08:46

Sept . should be a better month for PMs .

[dt1010] 01/9/2018 18:35

Juju it’s not a hard call the seasonal one

This will trade on just 15 times earnings next year so it will re-rate naturally as funds buy in I reckon.

[juju44] 31/8/2018 09:12

I may be coming down ill but it is beginning to feel like a bottom all right

[juju44] 30/8/2018 21:13

Sept usually a good month for gold .Don't wait up

[onedayrodders] 30/8/2018 21:07

PMs sick again ... for me it's resuming it's downtrend

[richkid71] 30/8/2018 18:50

Essentially, we are screwed.
It’s a case of wait long enough and this will go up. LOads of waffle and twaddle.

[rhuvaal2] 30/8/2018 17:05

Also, see that hedge funds own 11.6% of MML ~ apols to any for o/t

[juju44] 30/8/2018 15:54

Is it beginning to feel like a bottom

[rhuvaal2] 30/8/2018 14:04

Amazing, stevea, and I shall have to read yr full wording at least one more time! Doesn't it ever reach the minds of senior shareholders to demand an EGM or something to clear out such dead wood at the top for a fresh re-set with crisp new directors capable of powering MML ahead once more. There must be the right people around who could be given magnum incentives. A poor business with good management, to my mind,
is better than a great business with indifferent management...

Glad to have this exchange while HOC is quiet. Thanks again and I trust the Rhino
has produced the goodies and at its full quota, this season

[stevea171] 30/8/2018 12:37

Rhu. HOC will do better if and when the PM prices are allowed to rise. Silver is used as an extra stick to beat gold with if you look at the 2 year gold and silver charts above.

MML. Yes I've seen the results which are an accountant's dream/nightmare. No real news there and I've not sold any as I expect at some point the share price will reverse. The gold is still there - a long life mine. The mill is 100% and the mine is likely just a few months away from completion of years of upgrade so 98%. AISC should drop on E15 shaft completion, whenever that is! No one is happy with the current situation since the CEO, BT resigned. The whole BoD needs sacking imo as they are just sitting in comfort collecting director fees rather than moving the company forward.

Added to which I don't trust AT (not Philippino, but from a Chinese Singapore family I seem to remember, educated in Auz). At a MML Mayfair presentation given by BT there was an opportunity afterwards to speak with the directors present. I didn't waste my time with AT but spoke with BT and Roy Daniel, a non exec now but a former CFO of MML who goes way back to the good old days. That was a turning point to recovery but now we are back in limbo ....

A results analysis:
"They were looking to create the maximum amount of impairments this year, so to do it they would have been using the ASIC from this year(17/18) that has all the cost of the E15 and other mine asset purchases($14.75mil) together with the development costs($27.4mil) and then they added three years on to the mine life (2022-24) where the operating/development costs from working on L16 would be higher.
The production capacity they're using of 50k to 100k also relates to this year(17/18) and previous years and is not forward looking - it even says in 1st para on pg43 that the 'Estimated production is assumed consistent with the capacity constraint of the Co-O mill taken into account while assuming a constant recovery rate.'
So they were able to create impairments of $81mil and knocked down the value of Property, plant & equipment from $41.75mil in 2017 to $12.96mil in 2018 - most of which relates to a knocked down value of the E15 shaft of $11.45mil.
They have also knocked down the value of Development expenditure from $66.44mil in 2017 to $29.88mil in 2018 that equates to the amount spent in the last 12 months.
If ever they finish the E15 shaft and increase production, then they will have little capital cost to depreciate & amortise against the income thereby being able to report larger profits from which they can then pay themselves even larger bonuses."

[rhuvaal2] 30/8/2018 11:53

Hi stevea171, I added to my substantial holding here today on the assumption that KWN will be spot on one of these days !! The gearing should be useful in times to come :)

o/t see MML has dropped on the results: have you sold any shares ? People shy off the Philippines but I suppose the company is bound to employ one of their countrymen
as Chairman. I didn't find news of the new mine shaft and most goldies are so out of fashion at the moment. The acreage in Queensland is something to look forward to but guess that'll be a long way out. You will know the company better than most ~ any comments? for which many thanks.

[stevea171] 29/8/2018 19:49

Rick Rule – We Are Now At The End Of Panic Selling In Gold, Silver And The Shares.
August 29, 2018

Today Rick Rule spoke with KWN about the recent carnage in the gold and silver markets and said he believes we are at the end of the panic selling in gold, silver and the mining shares.

Also, the asset that Turks had that they could sell in order to help with their liquidity crisis was, perversely, gold. And there are rumors that Turkey has sold between 50%-75% of their gold. And while that argues for holding gold as an individual for times of crisis, that much gold coming onto the market was difficult on the price in the near-term.

[stevea171] 29/8/2018 10:08

Tomorrow HOC goes ex div.

[dt1010] 28/8/2018 19:44

I don’t know.

I think a big crash is on the horizon in the next 2-3 years, a big financial crash.

That will pull all assets down in the first instance. Gold will be first out of the blocks after the dust settles.

Now is a time of cash/ buying power preservation. Not trying to eek out gains at the end of one of the longest bull markets in history.

I am a gold buyer at $900-1000. It will come. And only then a gold backed ETF not phys.

Only the gold bullion dealers make money out of that racket.

Can you honestly seriously point to anything right now and tell me it’s good value? Everything from property to shares is over priced. When the debt crisis comes there will be an almighty dash for cash, a liquidation.

You do not want to holding anything but cash when that comes.