Past year: ▼ 22%(18.0c – 31.0c CAD)
Each one in plain English, with the numbers worked through for a shareholder.
7 May 2013drilling result● Neutral
First El Cobre results: 106.00 metres at 0.36 g/t gold and 0.23% copper from the first two holes, on one of four porphyry targets. Management said market conditions require it to concentrate on Tuligtic in the near term, so the copper project goes back on the shelf as soon as it is proven interesting.
25 Mar 2013resource reserve update● Neutral
Filed the independent technical report behind the January resource estimate, prepared by APEX Geoscience, Giroux Consultants and BC Mining Research. The same release put cash, gold inventory and equity investments at about $31 million in mid-January, so the company was funded for another year of drilling without raising money.
20 Mar 2013drilling result▲ Good
First results of the 2013 programme: TU-13-248 returned 97.30 metres at 0.44 g/t gold and 20.4 g/t silver, including a 2.30-metre interval at 9.45 g/t gold, headlined as 111.25 metres at 1.78 g/t gold and 54.7 g/t silver in the main zone.
5 Mar 2013asset acquisition disposition● Neutral
Signed a non-binding letter of intent to sell six exploration projects - four in Nayarit and Jalisco, plus the BP and BJS ground in Nevada - to Tarsis Resources for 4 million Tarsis shares and a 2% net smelter royalty on each, with a further 2% royalty on anything Tarsis acquires in agreed areas of influence. BP is the Carlin-trend prospect Almaden had sampled but never drilled; the sale funds nothing in cash and buys focus on Ixtaca and El Cobre.
21 Feb 2013drilling spud▲ Good
First drilling started at the El Cobre copper-gold porphyry project in Veracruz, fifteen months after the Titan 24 survey was run to plan it: one rig, an initial 5,000 metres in five to eight holes deeper than 500 metres, testing one of four targets over a 12-square-kilometre area.
1 Feb 2013resource reserve update▲ GoodMajor
First resource estimate for Ixtaca, two and a half years after the discovery: 56.99 million tonnes indicated at 1.10 g/t gold-equivalent for 2,019,000 ounces, plus 41.53 million tonnes inferred at 1.16 g/t for 1,552,000 ounces, at a 0.5 g/t cut-off. Scoping metallurgy recovered 88% of the gold and 82% of the silver overall, but only 54% of the gold from the volcanic rocks that host about a tenth of the ounces.
24 Jan 2013drilling result▲ Good
The last 2012 holes confirmed the high-grade area found outside the resource shell in November, adding 60.50 metres at 2.21 g/t gold and 35.8 g/t silver on section 11+000E. Fifty metres further east the grade fell away to 100.84 metres at 0.67 g/t gold and 7.5 g/t silver, and the company says the shape and orientation of the new high-grade zone are not yet understood.
22 Jan 2013drilling progress report● Neutral
Year in review and 2013 plans: work stayed almost entirely on Ixtaca, where the main zone has been joined by the parallel Ixtaca North, the perpendicular Chemalaco extension and mineralisation in the overlying volcanics, all still open. Grassroots prospecting continued but nothing else was drilled.
14 Dec 2012drilling result● Neutral
Five holes tested a gold-in-soil anomaly called Tano, 2.4 kilometres southwest of Ixtaca. Only one returned anything worth reporting - 7.00 metres at 0.71 g/t gold, including 2.00 metres at 1.76 g/t - so the first attempt to repeat the Ixtaca discovery elsewhere on the 14,000-hectare property came back thin.
26 Nov 2012drilling result▲ GoodMajor
Four holes from one pad on section 11+000E, fifty metres beyond the edge of the resource being estimated, found a new high-grade volcanic-hosted area: 134.20 metres at 3.76 g/t gold and 18.1 g/t silver, with visible gold logged for the first time at Ixtaca. The maiden resource will therefore understate the deposit from the day it is published.
19 Nov 2012material agreement● Neutral
Seventh amendment to Sunburst Exploration's option over the Merit property near Merritt, British Columbia, in exchange for $5,000 now and $5,000 within fifteen days of approval. Seven extensions in the thirty months since the May 2010 option means the optionee is buying time rather than spending on the ground.
19 Nov 2012drilling result▲ GoodMajor
Drilling for the first resource estimate is finished: 225 holes and 81,971.03 metres since the 2010 discovery will feed it. The final batch included 18.00 metres at 6.36 g/t gold and 14.0 g/t silver on the northeast extension, and TU-12-196 at 152.41 metres of 0.46 g/t gold.
23 Oct 2012drilling result▲ Good
Twenty holes drilled specifically to support a first resource estimate. Chemalaco gave 25.7 metres at 0.86 g/t gold and 127.8 g/t silver, while TU-12-181 in Ixtaca North returned 102.70 metres at 0.32 g/t gold and 60.3 g/t silver including a 3.55-metre interval at 928.4 g/t silver.
6 Sept 2012drilling result▲ GoodMajor
A 100-metre step-out along the northeast extension, now called Chemalaco, held up: TU-12-174 returned 99.80 metres at 1.10 g/t gold and 33.2 g/t silver. The zone that looked marginal in March is now the one growing fastest.
30 Aug 2012drilling result▲ Good
Six holes expanded Ixtaca North across three sections, the best being 15.80 metres at 0.65 g/t gold and 190.2 g/t silver. Mineralisation was also picked up in the volcanic units above, consistent with the step-out drilling reported two days earlier.
28 Aug 2012drilling result▲ GoodMajor
Stepped out to the extreme southwest end of the known mineralisation and found grade in the overlying volcanic rocks rather than the limestone basement: 30.90 metres at 1.65 g/t gold and 145.4 g/t silver. A different host rock matters because the volcanics later prove much harder to recover metal from.
8 Aug 2012drilling result▲ GoodMajor
The widest intercept reported at Ixtaca so far: 188.70 metres at 1.32 g/t gold and 97.8 g/t silver in the main zone. Three holes on one section also showed the northeast extension to be continuously mineralised over 400 metres down dip.
12 July 2012drilling result▲ GoodMajor
A single hole, TU-12-145, extended Ixtaca North and returned unusually silver-rich intervals: 11.00 metres at 1.09 g/t gold and 580.7 g/t silver, and 6.80 metres at 1.13 g/t gold and 860.7 g/t silver. Silver, not gold, is carrying the value in this part of the system.
9 July 2012drilling result▲ Good
Nine holes, with 44.01 metres at 1.04 g/t gold and 95.8 g/t silver on the northeast extension. TU-12-155 was drilled close to perpendicular to that zone, giving a true width for the first time and showing it strikes differently from the main and north zones - a geometry the earlier angled holes had obscured.
26 June 2012drilling result▲ Good
Ixtaca North now traced over nearly 700 metres of strike on the company's interpretation. Best interval was 25.00 metres at 4.22 g/t gold and 15.41 g/t silver in the main zone, with TU-12-138 giving 95.20 metres at 0.54 g/t gold and 61.1 g/t silver in the north zone.
4 June 2012drilling result▲ Good
Eleven more holes, four of them into the newly recognised Ixtaca North zone running parallel to the main zone. TU-12-126 returned 126.1 metres at 1.21 g/t gold and 63.0 g/t silver, including 8.75 metres at 4.09 g/t gold and 228.8 g/t silver.
7 May 2012drilling result▲ GoodMajor
Twenty-two holes, including the first infill sections tightened from 50-metre to 25-metre spacing: TU-12-96 gave 97.9 metres at 0.92 g/t gold and 65.2 g/t silver, including 7.79 metres at 4.76 g/t gold and 277.3 g/t silver. The tighter grid is the first sign the company is drilling towards a resource estimate rather than just chasing extensions.
27 Mar 2012drilling result▲ GoodMajor
The northeast extension improved sharply, with TU-12-103 returning 17.00 metres at 3.74 g/t gold and 67.4 g/t silver - the company says the best grades yet from that zone, two weeks after a hole there ran 0.14 g/t. Ten holes reported in all across the main, southeast and northeast zones.
7 Mar 2012drilling result▲ Good
Four holes reported: TU-11-88 in the main zone gave 75.07 metres at 0.87 g/t gold and 59.5 g/t silver including 7.73 metres at 3.93 g/t gold and 249.5 g/t silver. The two holes testing the northeast extension were much weaker - TU-11-93 returned 43.50 metres at only 0.14 g/t gold - so the good grades remain concentrated in the main zone.
14 Feb 2012joint venture update▲ Good
Optioned the Dill property in British Columbia to Fjordland Exploration, which can earn 100% by paying $25,000 and 250,000 shares up front, the same again a year later, and 1.5 million more shares if it delivers a resource estimate; Almaden keeps a 2% net smelter royalty. The second such deal in three months, after the Westhaven option on Willow.
24 Jan 2012drilling result▲ GoodMajor
The last of the 2011 Ixtaca holes, headlined by 163.45 metres at 1.27 g/t gold and 61.6 g/t silver including 8.00 metres at 9.82 g/t gold and 492.8 g/t silver. A separate hole south of the main zone, TU-11-92, hit 5.57 metres at 1.05 g/t gold before being lost, and that partial intercept is what the company is calling a new Ixtaca South zone.
22 Dec 2011drilling progress report● Neutral
Year-end review of everything outside Tuligtic, where 86 holes for 31,016.64 metres were drilled at Ixtaca during 2011. The rest of the portfolio saw only surface work, including 671 soil samples at the BP project on Nevada's Carlin trend returning gold up to 34.9 parts per billion - encouraging geochemistry, but nothing drilled.
16 Dec 2011drilling result▲ GoodMajor
Seven more Ixtaca holes, led by TU-11-72 at 224.00 metres of 0.95 g/t gold and 57.5 g/t silver, including 28.96 metres at 2.44 g/t gold and 103.1 g/t silver. TU-11-74 stepped southwest and stayed in mineralisation, so the zone is still open in that direction.
30 Nov 2011drilling progress report● Neutral
Started a Titan 24 deep-imaging geophysical survey over the wholly owned El Cobre copper-gold porphyry project in Veracruz, where past drilling had traced mineralisation over four kilometres of strike; the survey also covers the never-drilled Villa Rica zone. Intended to lay out a drill programme for early 2012, so El Cobre is second in line behind Ixtaca.
23 Nov 2011drilling result▲ GoodMajor
Five holes into the main Ixtaca zone at Tuligtic, Mexico, with four rigs turning: TU-11-67 returned 120.70 metres at 1.02 g/t gold and 72.6 g/t silver, including 21.95 metres at 2.75 g/t gold and 210.1 g/t silver. Wide, continuous vein mineralisation with high-grade cores rather than a narrow one-hole hit.
