As copper is riding at 9 year highs lately, Golden Arrow Resources (GRG.V, GARWF.US, G6A.FSE) acknowledged this fact and recently made an adjustment to their exploration strategy, which previously focused predominantly on their gold projects Tierra Dorada in Paraguay and Flecha de Oro in Argentina, and to a lesser extent on their Rosales Copper project in Chile.

1. Introduction

Kenorland Minerals was mentioned to me at the end of 2019 by mining legend Rick Rule, departing CEO of Sprott US Holdings, and more specific he extensively expressed his admiration for the young CEO of Kenorland, Zach Flood. According to Rule, who recently announced his retirement, Flood is a top category prodigy, who is probably destined to go places.

After Avrupa Minerals (TSXV: AVU) commenced drilling last December at its Sesmarias target at the flagship copper-zinc Alvalade project in Portugal, which is operated together with JV partner MATSA (joined company of Trafigura and Mubadala, two commodity giants), the company completed two drill holes so far for 874m of drilling, part of the 7-8,000m program.

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.

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.

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).

As 2020 keeps unfolding as one of the most remarkable years of the last decade with COVID-19 disrupting almost everything, resulting in unprecedented drops in economic activity and considerable volatility in the markets, and a second wave of the pandemic seems to be around the corner, the mining industry seems to be looking forward, on the back of a recovering economy, especially China returning back close to normal during the summer.