Franco-Nevada Corp. is worldwide, but the company still has royalties on gold produced at major mines in Nevada. “Nevada is our middle name,” said Franco-Nevada CEO David Harquail, who described Nevada’s mining industry as “rock solid. It’s been the bedrock of the gold industry. You can make mines in Nevada you can’t anywhere else.”
He predicts Nevada will continue to be a preferred jurisdiction for the industry. Harquail pointed to Barrick Gold Corp.’s Goldrush and Fourmile projects and Newmont Mining Corp.’s operations as examples of why Nevada will still be a mining stronghold.
Franco-Nevada doesn’t have royalties or assets tied with Barrick’s latest projects, but the company does have a royalty on the South Arturo Mine Barrick operates near the Goldstrike Mine north of Carlin. Barrick is 60 percent owner of South Arturo, and Premier Gold Mines Ltd. owns 40 percent.
The Phase I open pit project and the El Nino underground project at South Arturo are slated to begin production in the second half of 2019. “We’re very excited about that,” Harquail said in a phone interview.
According to Franco-Nevada’s third-quarter earnings report, additional work is planned at South Arturo to assess the potential of new opportunities that could include a Phase 3 pit and processing of heap leach material from all the pits.
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