Past year: ▼ 40%(2.50c – 5.00c CAD)
Each one in plain English, with the numbers worked through for a shareholder.
26 Feb 2020registration revoked▼ BadMajor
NorZinc will file a Form 15F to end its US registration and reporting, saying the cost outweighs the benefit. The shares keep trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange and are expected to stay quoted on OTCQB, so this ends the SEC record rather than the shareholding - and it ends this database's view of a company that had permits, a feasibility study and no mine.
23 Dec 2019capital raising announcement● NeutralMajor
The C$8 million royalty sale to RCF closed and the proceeds went straight back out to repay RCF's US$6 million interim loan with 8% interest. Prairie Creek now carries two net smelter royalties, Sandstorm's 1.2% from 2013 and RCF's new 1%, and RCF holds about 41% of the shares.
30 Sept 2019debt financing▼ BadMajor
RCF agrees to buy a 1% net smelter royalty on Prairie Creek for C$8 million and to lend up to US$6 million in the meantime. It is the second royalty sold on the same mine, after Sandstorm's 1.2% for US$10 million in 2013, and Sandstorm holds a right of first refusal over this one. The stated purpose is to fund the company through completion of permitting.
25 Oct 2018resource reserve update● Neutral
The Lemarchant technical report itself, 2.2 MB, effective 20 September 2018 and prepared by Mercator Geological Services' Michael Cullen and Matthew Harrington with NorZinc's Michael Vande Guchte, filed with the SEC the day after the announcement.
24 Oct 2018resource reserve update● Neutral
The technical report behind September's Lemarchant estimate is filed. The company restates its Newfoundland strategy as either a stand-alone mine on the model of the past-producing Buchans and Duck Pond operations, or several smaller deposits processed through one central mill.
20 Sept 2018resource reserve update▲ GoodMajor
Mercator's new Lemarchant estimate, the first since 2012: 2.42 million tonnes indicated at 6.15% zinc, 1.60% lead, 0.68% copper, 1.22 g/t gold, 64.0 g/t silver and 23.5% barite, plus 0.56 million tonnes inferred, drawn from 165 holes of which 91 were drilled by the company between 2013 and 2017. Contained zinc in the indicated category is up 123% on 2012, and bench tests produced a 97.75% barite concentrate. Filed under the company's new name, NorZinc.
11 July 2018capital raising announcement● NeutralMajor
The $20 million closed on 10 July, and the proceeds repay RCF's own US$10 million bridge loan from December 2017. The investor agreement was amended at the same time to let RCF nominate additional directors and take project oversight rights, and RCF VI L.P. transferred its shares into RCF VI CAD LLC. RCF ends up holding about 41% of a company that has never produced, having also been its lender.
5 July 2018capital raising announcement● NeutralMajor
Shareholders approved the RCF placement and a corporate reorganisation at the annual meeting, and Don MacDonald was confirmed as chief executive. On closing, RCF and its associates will hold about 41% of the shares, or 48% if the warrants are exercised.
25 May 2018capital raising announcement● Neutral
The formal material change report for the 15 May RCF financing. It describes the deal as 100 million units, each one share plus half a warrant, where the news release called it 100 million shares with 50 million warrants attached; the economics are identical.
15 May 2018capital raising announcement● NeutralMajor
Resource Capital Fund VI, already the largest shareholder, agrees to put in $20 million for 100 million shares at $0.20 plus 50 million warrants at $0.25 expiring 31 December 2018. The price is a 61% premium to the ten-day average, but part of the money simply repays a US$10 million bridge loan RCF itself advanced in December 2017. Don MacDonald is appointed president and is to become chief executive, ending John Kearney's run in that role.
5 Mar 2018drilling result● Neutral
The remaining results from a large 2017 Lemarchant campaign of 48 holes for 12,422 m, which extended the Main Zone up-dip by up to 80 m over 250 m of strike and the Northwest zone by up to 50 m along strike. The headline number in this final batch is a narrow one, 14.5% copper over 0.6 m in LM17-161. A new resource estimate was promised for the first quarter of 2018.
28 Feb 2018drilling progress report▼ Bad
The 2017 Tulks South program drilled 4,961 m in 14 holes, six of them at Boomerang-Domino, and extended the deposit 50 m up-dip on one section with 3.35 m at 2.75% zinc, 2.30% lead, 0.20% copper, 70.9 g/t silver and 1.5 g/t gold. That grade is well under the 7.1% zinc of the 2007 indicated resource, which remains the estimate on the books for this deposit.
13 Nov 2017drilling result● Neutral
Two more Lemarchant holes: LM17-146 returned 2.9 m at 10.97% zinc, 1.31% copper and 1.7 g/t gold and extended the sulphide horizon 25 m up-dip, while LM17-145 found only footwall stringer mineralisation where the deposit appears to be cut by the Lemarchant thrust fault. The 2017 Main Zone total reaches 32 holes and three extensions for nearly 7,500 m, with a structural study and a resource update now under way.
6 Nov 2017resource reserve update● Neutral
The 4.6 MB NI 43-101 feasibility study technical report for Prairie Creek, effective 28 September 2017, prepared by AMC Mining Consultants with Ausenco, Global Mineral Resource Services, F. Wright Consulting and Allnorth, filed in full.
28 Sept 2017resource reserve update▲ GoodMajor
The full feasibility study lands: mining rate up 18.5% to 1,600 tonnes a day, mill throughput up 25%, lower operating costs, power from the territorial utility with an integrated LNG supply, and an all-season road. Pre-tax net present value is $344 million at 8% with a 24% return, and $188 million at 18% after tax, over an initial 15-year life - better economics than the corrected 2016 figures of $284 million and 23%, but on a shorter mine life than the 17 years then assumed.
25 Sept 2017drilling result▲ Good
Results from the last ten holes of a 21-hole, 4,275 m summer program at Lemarchant, nine of the 21 carrying significant sulphide. The best is LM17-130 at 2.25 m grading 29.26% zinc, 1.91% copper, 168.3 g/t silver and 7.1 g/t gold. The Main Zone has now been extended up-dip by up to 80 m over 150 m of strike, and a new resource estimate was commissioned on the strength of it.
18 Apr 2017drilling result▲ GoodMajor
Ten holes and three extensions for 3,070 m pushed the Lemarchant deposit 25 to 65 m further up-dip. LM17-116 returned 6.0 m at 14.06% zinc, 6.27% lead, 1.88% copper, 382.9 g/t silver and 2.01 g/t gold, and LM17-115 7.1 m at 10.23% zinc, 148.4 g/t silver and 2.41 g/t gold.
14 Feb 2017material agreement▲ Good
A memorandum with the Northwest Territories Power Corporation to examine supplying electricity to Prairie Creek, and to evaluate liquefied natural gas as the fuel. It is an agreement to study the option, not to supply power.
7 Feb 2017debt financing● NeutralMajor
HCF International Advisers of London is appointed to arrange project debt for Prairie Creek. No debt is committed: HCF is at the first of three stages, building a funding strategy and sounding out potential lenders, against the 2016 study's $250 million capital cost, of which the company hopes to borrow up to 70%.
2 Feb 2017drilling progress report● Neutral
A 5,000 m, 16-hole winter program starts at South Tally Pond, testing extensions immediately up-dip and along strike of the Lemarchant deposit and drilling a new electromagnetic target at Spencers Pond about 2 km to the southwest.
30 Jan 2017resource reserve update● NeutralMajor
AMC and Ausenco are engaged to take Prairie Creek from prefeasibility to a definitive feasibility study, expected by mid-2017. The stated reason is that talks with financial institutions confirmed a bankable study would be needed before project debt could be raised.
6 Dec 2016capital raising announcement▼ Bad
A C$2 million non-brokered flow-through placement at $0.30 a share, five months after the $10.2 million offering at $0.25, with a 6% finder's fee to Secutor, Canaccord Genuity and Paradigm. Flow-through proceeds can only be spent on eligible Canadian exploration, not on general corporate purposes or the feasibility study.
3 Oct 2016resource reserve update▼ BadMajor
The corrected technical report is re-filed, closing out the September disclosure. The base case now shows a pre-tax net present value of $284 million at 8% with a 23% return, and $155 million post-tax at 18%, against the $509 million and 32% published in March.
14 Sept 2016resource reserve update▼ BadMajor
An error was found in the 2016 prefeasibility study's own economic model, five and a half months after it was published: gross smelter revenue over the 17-year life had been overstated at $3.7 billion instead of $3.3 billion, because by-product metals in the primary concentrates were credited as payable when they may not be. Resources, reserves, mine plan and costs are unchanged, but the pre-tax net present value falls to $284 million from $509 million, the return to 23% from 32%, and payback stretches from three years to four.
7 July 2016capital raising announcement▼ BadMajor
A $10.2 million offering closed with the over-allotment taken in full: 34,135,000 common shares and 6,665,000 flow-through shares, all priced at $0.25. That is well below the $0.35 unit price of the July 2014 raise, and the proceeds are for feasibility and development work at Prairie Creek and exploration in Newfoundland.
16 May 2016resource reserve update● Neutral
The full 4.2 MB Prairie Creek prefeasibility update technical report, effective 31 March 2016 and prepared by AMC Mining Consultants with Tetra Tech, filed with the SEC together with the six qualified persons' consents.
13 May 2016resource reserve update▲ Good
The technical report behind the 2016 prefeasibility study is filed. It records a 32% rise in measured and indicated resources and a 46% rise in proven and probable reserves against the 2012 estimates, and average annual output of roughly 86 million lb zinc, 82 million lb lead and 1.7 million oz silver over an initial 17-year life.
31 Mar 2016resource reserve update▲ GoodMajor
The 2016 prefeasibility study turns the enlarged resource into a 17-year mine life, with a pre-tax net present value of $509 million at an 8% discount rate and a 32% return, or $302 million and 26% after tax, using US$1.00/lb for zinc and lead and US$19/oz silver. Planned output is about 60,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate and 55,000 tonnes of lead concentrate a year.
13 Nov 2015quarterly activities report▼ BadMajor
Third-quarter 2015 results: $7.0 million spent on Prairie Creek in nine months, and working capital down to $2.66 million from the $16 million reported a year earlier, with a further $1.55 million posted with the territorial government as reclamation security. The resource is a third bigger and the treasury is close to empty.
17 Sept 2015resource reserve update▲ GoodMajor
The 2015 underground drilling paid off in the estimate: measured and indicated resources rose 32% to 8.7 million tonnes from 6.6 million, the Main Quartz Vein indicated tonnage up 48% to 4.2 Mt at 11.6% lead, 9.2% zinc and 168 g/t silver, and stockwork indicated up 40% to 2.0 Mt. Total inferred tonnage is unchanged because vein tonnes upgraded to indicated were replaced by newly inferred stockwork, and as in March the added tonnes carry lower grades than the ones they join.
