Rising Resource Nationalism And Precious Metal Prices Could Lead To An Important Year For Companies Like American Pacific Mining

This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice.

As economies recover from the pandemic and simultaneously follow through on climate commitments, some emerging trends are dramatically changing the face of many industries, and the mining sector is no exception. 

While many of these trends point to continued upward price momentum for metals and minerals, demand is increasing at such a rapid pace that even major mining companies could soon struggle to meet it. 

That’s where domestic companies, such as American Pacific Mining Corp. USGDF with its growing portfolio of exploration sites across the United States, come in. 

Here are some of the biggest trends in mining today and how the exploration company says it is preparing to adapt. 

1. Gold And Silver Might Make A Strong Recovery Throughout 2022

Investor demand for gold is finally up after skyrocketing global inflation in 2022, stagnating economic growth, and a share slump in 2021, while enduring a reputation as a hedge against bear markets. 

Silver is enjoying a similar upswing in price, albeit for different reasons. While gold’s price grew from $1,724 per ounce at the end of 2021 to $1,904 at the end of April, silver rose from $21 to $26 in the same time period. 

Analysts predict silver prices could surge past $30 this year — not just because of investor interest but because of its role in electronics, batteries, solar panels and other tech leading the green revolution across industries.

Given these upward pricing trends, it may make sense that American Pacific Mining’s most recent private placement was oversubscribed. After announcing a $5 million Canadian dollars ($3.9 million) private placement last November, the exploration company upsized their finances to $10 million just a few days later after investor interest reportedly exceeded the initial CA$5 million. 

By the time the private placement closed on Dec. 13, the company had raised just over CA$10 million, bringing its cash position to a total of about CA$16 million. American Pacific reported that the capital will not only help fund the drilling planned for this year at its Gooseberry Silver-Gold project and its Tuscarora Gold-Silver project, but also leave extra capital available for strategic acquisitions. 

This year’s drilling has already begun at the Tuscarora site, an area historically yielding approximately 7.5 million ounces of silver and around 500,000 ounces of gold. After optioning the site from Novo Resources Corp. NSRPF, American Pacific finalized a deal to gain 100% ownership of its Tuscarora Gold Project last year. 

Meanwhile, the Madison project — American Pacific’s flagship asset — is ramping up after 2021 drilling yielded promising signs of gold and silver. American Pacific’s operating partner on the project, Kennecott Exploration, a division of Rio Tinto Ltd. RTNTF, has commissioned a skarn expert to  create a comprehensive 3D model of the area’s skarn environment that will help identify drilling exploration targets for 2022. 

2. Rising Resource Nationalism To Renew Urgency For Ramping Up Domestic Mining?

According to Deloitte’s Tracking the trends 2022 report published earlier this year, resource nationalism is expected to pose a serious risk to mining companies around the world. As economies move to recover from pandemic-related losses, at least 34 countries are expected to recoup some of those losses by hiking taxes on mineral exports or even nationalizing mines. 

That means finding domestic sources of important metals and minerals may end up being more important than ever. American Pacific, with its five exploration projects across Montana and Nevada, is already positioning itself as a potential source of domestic gold, silver and copper. 

3. The Green Revolution Could Be Considered Both A Boon And A Strain On Mining Sector

As momentum builds toward a fossil fuel-free future, tons of metals and minerals are required to meet the increasing pace of manufacturing sustainable technology like solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles.

That means mining companies are seeing a rapidly growing demand for a broad range of metals and minerals. While that demand hasn’t outpaced supply everywhere, some metals are already starting to see a shortage looming.

For example, copper is one of the best conductors of electricity and is found in just about every renewable tech available. A single onshore wind farm requires about 4.3 tons of copper per megawatt of energy output. Meanwhile, a solar plant needs 5 tons per megawatt.

The high demand is fueling fast-growing prices in the copper market and as the cost of the metal rises, the margins on renewable projects are rapidly dwindling — a counterpressure that could derail some of the most promising clean energy projects. 

To prevent derailment from happening, the mining sector is under pressure to find new copper sources to help supply the green revolution. This has led some companies to partner with exploration companies like American Pacific Mining to identify new copper projects and advance them toward production as quickly as possible.

American Pacific Mining’s flagship asset, the Madison project, showed strong signs of copper mineralization in its latest round of drilling. As the company finalizes its plans for this year’s exploration, it hopes to find even more copper at the project that  has historically produced high grades of between 20% to 35% copper.

This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice.

Image provided by American Pacific Mining