By Christian Granholm

A US Coast Guard icebreaker clears a passage through the vital St. Lawrence Seaway.

On this day in Canadian history, April 25, 1959: the St. Lawrence Seaway is open for business. Construction of the 306-kilometer stretch between Montreal and Lake Ontario is recognized as one of the most challenging engineering feats in history. Seven locks were built in order to lift vessels 75 meters above sea level.

The first vessel to enter the new shipping route is the icebreaker D’Iberville. The official opening ceremony will take place the following day in St. Lambert, Quebec, with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Prime Minister Diefenbaker, and President and Mrs. Eisenhower in attendance.

Currently, as climate change transforms the arctic, new channels and shipping routes are being opened for the first time in modern history. However, the race is on to claim that new territory; Russia, the US and China are all competing with Canada for that space.

April 22nd

Irving  Resources  Inc.  (CSE:IRV) update  on  drilling  at  its  100%-controlled  Omu Gold Project in Hokkaido, Japan.

To date, approximately 786 meters of diamond core drilling have been completed in two holes at Omu Sinter.

Drilling is expected to continue over the next few weeks. Eight holes are planned as a first test.  Beyond  the  initial  eight  holes,  fifteen  additional  drill  holes  have  been  permitted  within  the  target area. Logging and sawing of core is underway.

Because there are no rock sample preparation laboratories in Japan, all drill samples must be shipped overseas for processing.

April 23rd

Explorex Resources Inc. (CSE:EX) update on their exploration plans for the Buena Vista Hills Cobalt – Iron Oxide Copper Gold project in Nevada.

Key Highlights:  phase 1 drill program with initial three holes will require no permitting; objective is to confirm previously reported cobalt grades and extent of mineralization; at surface, thick and well developed oxidized cobalt target; near surface semi-massive to massive high-cobalt tenor ‘Cobaltoan’ pyrite target.

MedMen Enterprises Inc. (CSE:MMEN)  has entered  into definitive  agreements  in  respect  of a  US$250 million secured convertible  credit  facility with Gotham Green Partners, aninvestor in the global cannabis industry.

American Pacific Mining Corp (CSE: USGD) has staked the historic gold and silver Gooseberry Mine in Nevada.

The property was staked for a total of USD$20,000 and includes 42 unpatented claims encompassing the prospective 708 acre property.

Pacific Rim Cobalt Corp. (CSE: BOLT) announce results from its ongoing shallow vertical diamond drilling program at its flagship Cyclops, nickel/cobalt development project, Indonesia.

Highlights: drilling consistently confirming elevated nickel and cobalt values; shallow mineralization from surface; 6‐metre intercept containing 1.93% nickel equivalent.

April 24th

Go Cobalt Mining Corp. (CSE:GOCO) update on the optioned Barachois Project in Quebec.

Highlights are: two types of mineralization identified and surface showings in carboniferous sediments line up with Troisième Lac fault.

The following  phase includes a field visit with detailed mapping, chip and possibly channel sampling. Based on the results of the field visit a geophysical survey will be designed to target the vanadium mineralization. This geophysical survey is the third phase of the planned work.

AREV Brands International Ltd. (CSE: AREV) have modified their Fast Freeze Extraction systems to be fully scaleable to handle tonnes of biomass on a continuous bases and has developed a patentable method that increases the ability to separate waxes from biomass on the fly.

AREV, a cannabis IP and integrator company through its strategic partnership with Alternative Extracts Inc. announce a strategic collaboration between the company and AEI., an extraction technology company focused on projects working with materials including ginseng, sea cucumber, hemp, frankincense, agarwood, turmeric and other exotic plant material from Asia.

April 25th

Delrey Metlas Corp. (CSE:DLRY) has mobilized a team of exploration geologists and samplers to its wholly-owned Star, Porcher and Blackie properties located near Prince Rupert.

The crew will be ground-truthing several kilometer-scale, high amplitude (up to 7,200 gamma) magnetic anomalies highlighted by the recently completed high-resolution geophysical surveys on its projects.

Valens GroWorks Corp. (CSE: VGW) has entered into a binding multi-year extraction services agreement to  provide  cannabis  and  hemp  extraction  services  to HEXO Corp.

Valens is a multi-licensed, vertically integrated provider of cannabis products and services focused on  various  proprietary extraction methodologies,  distillation, cannabinoid  isolation and purification, as  well as  associated  quality  testing.

Plymouth Rock Technologies Inc. (CSE: PRT) has been accepted as a member of the CADSI, The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries.

“In line with our mission and as part of our on-going commitment of complete focus on the needs to our clients CADSI will provide an invaluable platform for our team to interact and showcase our technologies on a global scale”, stated Carl Cagliarini SVP Business Development. “We believe the recently launched Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) Program will become the nucleus of the Canadian government defence policy; Strong, Secure, Engaged,” says  Carl Cagliarini at Plymouth.

April 26th

Zanzibar Gold Inc. (CSE:ZBR) has initiated acquisition  of  the  Mkuvia  Gold  Property and  the  Fakawi Gold property in Tanzania.

The Mkuvia  property  has  had  small  scale local  placer  operators  mining  gold  from  the  property  since 2005. In 2009, a 43-101 report was calculated on the central portion of the  main  gold  producing  area,  that  outlined an  inferred  reserve  6  million  grams  of  gold.  A  preliminary operation plan was drawn up but never put in place, so most of the reserve is intact.

The potential of a low-cost extraction of placer gold from part of an extensive gold bearing placer alluvium will be investigated.

The Overall

Phew! It’s been another interesting week at the CSE, with brisk trading and a lot of gains and corrections. The market climbed to a peak of 940.38 and then dipped down to close Friday at 906.88.

Always Be Closing

If you are a fan of movies, you may have seen Avengers Endgame this past weekend.

Or if you are a fan of money news, you may have heard that it shattered all the previous records, taking in over US $1.22 billion in it’s first 5 days of release.

With a shooting budget of US $356 million, it’s a shame we didn’t see any of that trickle up here to Hollywood North – the film shot back-to-back with Infinity War at Pinewood Studios in Georgia, with a few scenes shot in New York.

Doesn’t everyone in Hollywood know that Vancouver and Toronto make a better, cleaner, cheaper New York on film?