1. Introduction

Last year has been a quiet year with the COaVID-19 pandemic restricting most exploration activities in Argentina, but the situation has changed since November 2020, and Blue Sky Uranium (TSXV: BSK; US-OTC: BKUCF) is back in business again, ready to advance their flagship Amarillo Grande uranium project.

After drilling their flagship Haldane project in the Yukon 1.5 years ago, and coming up with decent but not spectacular results (October 2019: 2.35m @ 125 g/t Ag, 4.4% Pb from 154m depth, November 2019: 10.7m @ 125.6 g/t Ag including 1m @ 455 g/t Ag, and 1m @ 180 g/t Ag), Alianza Minerals (ANZ.V,

As Golden Arrow Resources (GRG.V, GARWF.US, G6A.FSE) was sidelined for most of last year due to COVID-19, their exploration programs were basically halted. The project that first got underway again was the Tierra Dorada Gold project in Paraguay. The story on this project is a testament to the strong network of Golden Arrow in Latin America.

1. Introduction

Despite COVID-19 gearing up for a second wave, Standard Lithium (TSXV: SLL) (OTCQX: STLHF) (FRA: S5L) continues to raise money in very significant quantities for a typical lithium developer. I continue to be impressed by CEO Robert Mintak, who raised C$34.5M in December of last year, after completing a heavily oversubscribed C$12.1M round in February of that same year.

1. Introduction

KORE Mining (TSXV: KORE, OTCQX: KOREF) is a pretty unusual gold junior, as it started trading after the RTO in November 2018 owning 2 advanced heap leach gold projects in California, and an interesting gold exploration project in British Columbia, together containing no less than 4.9M oz gold.

With a second wave of COVID-19 in full swing now across the globe, Avrupa Minerals (TSXV: AVU) has finally commenced drilling at its flagship copper-zinc Alvalade project in Portugal, which is operated together with JV partner MATSA (joined company of Trafigura and Mubadala, 2 commodity giants).

During a year full of COVID-19 surprises and -distractions, Alianza Minerals (ANZ.V) was able to continue with their drill programs, funded by either partners like Hochschild or themselves. As the results at the Horsethief project disappointed (best result was 76m @ 0.185g/t Au), Hochschild elected to terminate the option agreement, so the project was returned to Alianza again.

1. Introduction

After exploring and evaluating their Kootenay Arc based zinc and gold projects in 2017 and 2018, results were disappointing for Cassiar Gold’s (GLDC.V) predecessor Margaux Resources, and didn’t justify the spending of much more precious cash in a lacklustre market.

As Avrupa Minerals (AVU.V) finalized the Definitive Agreement with MATSA, a 50:50 joint venture company of Mubadala Investment Company, a pioneering global investor, and Trafigura, one of the world’s leading independent commodity trading and logistics houses, on November 20, 2019, exploration programs are being prepared now.

As I discussed recently in other articles, 2020 is shaping up to be a remarkable year, with COVID-19 disrupting the markets and real economy, prompting central banks around the world with huge stimulus packages to perform damage control. The negative real interest rates combined with a devaluating US Dollar appeared to be the perfect storm for precious metals, including silver, the metal of focus for Alianza Minerals (ANZ.V).