Premier Gold Central Zone drill plan

Premier Gold Central Zone drill plan (Image: Premier Gold)

A look at a few of the mining news releases for today that caught my eye with some additional comments on each.

Premier Gold Mines (PG:TSX) -  Premier Gold is out with an update on the 100% owned Hasaga project in the Red Lake gold-mining district of Northwestern Ontario. Drill results released this morning include an intercept of 305.5 m of 0.94 grams per tonne gold.

The team at Premier believes the project has potential to host mineralization which would be an open pitiable.

The property has the past producing Hasaga and Howey Gold Mines which previously produced in excess of 600,000 ounces.

Drilling continues on the "Central Zone" and the "Porphyry Zone" with additional assays expected to be released soon.

Completed assaying in the Central Zone target are reporting significant highlight results including:

  • HLD001 - 0.65 grams per tonne gold (g/t Au) across 170.0 metres (m).
  • HLD002 - 0.69 g/t Au over 93.0 m including 1.02 g/t Au across 25.0 m.
  • HLD003 - 0.80 g/t Au over 246.7 m including 2.16 g/t Au across 25.0 m and 1.73 g/t Au across 43.0m.
  • HLD004 - 0.94 g/t Au over 305.5 m including 1.61 g/t Au across 122.5 m.
  • HLD005 - 0.98 g/t Au over 118.0 m including 3.08 g/t Au across 14.0 m.
  • HLD006 - 0.63 g/t Au over 111.0 m, with an additional intercept of 0.52 g/t Au across 279.0 m.
  • HLD007 - 0.67 g/t Au over 108.0 m including 1.12 g/t Au across 25.0 m.
  • HLD008 - 0.76 g/t Au over 111.0 m including 1.07 g/t Au across 52.0 m, with an additional intercept of 0.65 g/t Au across 95.0 m.

"Several holes drilled in the Central Zone have ended in mineralization, including hole HLD006, the most distant hole drilled to the northeast to have received assay results to date. These early results support our belief that the Central Zone represents a viable open-pit exploration target." stated Stephen McGibbon, Executive Vice-President of Premier.

Premier Gold 1 yr chart

Premier Gold stock has held in fairly well over the last year.

The couple times it did sell off lead to an opportunity and nice bounces in the stock.

Premier is one of my top gold development stocks to follow due to the following reasons:

  1. Strong management
  2. Financial strength- approximately $90 million in cash and investments with no debt
  3. Projects - advanced stage projects in great jurisdictions (Nevada and Ontario)

Read: PREMIER INTERSECTS WIDESPREAD GOLD MINERALIZATION AT HASAGA RED LAKE

Related: Tuesday Morning News – Kaizen Discovery and Premier Gold

OceanaGold (OGC:TSX) - OceanaGold has been one of the more active gold companies in the last year making two acquisitions. The first was acquiring Newmont's  Waihi gold mine in New Zealand for $101 million US and a 1% NSR. The second was the transformational merger with Romarco (yet to close) to create a leading global low cost producer.

News this morning included updated guidance with the addition of Waihi. Note that the Waihi transaction is still pending New Zealand regulatory approval.

Waihi is expected to produce 65-75k ounces of gold in the second half of 2015 at an all in sustaining cash cost of $650-$680 per ounce.

Mick Wilkes, Managing Director and CEO commented, "The inclusion of the economic benefit from Waihi not only increases our production but also further reduces our unit cost base. Waihi is a solid asset in a highly prospective gold region that will generate significant free cash flows and further insulate our business in a lower gold price environment." He added, "Upon legal closing of the transaction, we will commence an optimisation study aimed at further reducing costs, increasing productivity, increasing reserves and extending the mine life."

OGC 1 year chart

OGC shares are significantly higher since the beginning of the year.

Management has been aggressive this year making deals buying Romarco and Waihi.

Another deal also involved investing $16.2 million into Nevada gold explorer Gold Standard Ventures (GSV:TSV) for a 14.9% stake in May.

The aggressiveness could potentially pay off for shareholders when we see renewed strength in the gold price.

Oceana states in the most recent presentation in the first half of 2015 free cash flow generation of $36.7 million USD.

Read: OceanaGold Announces Waihi Production Cost Guidance; Lowers Consolidated Cost Guidance for 2015

Related: OceanaGold and Romarco union to create lowest-cost global gold producer

Thanks for reading.

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This is not investment advice. All facts are to be checked and verified by reader. As always please do your own due diligence.