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Abitibi Greenstone Belt

Iamgold suspends production at Quebec gold mine after earthquake – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 2, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Iamgold Corp. has suspended mining at its Westwood gold mine in Quebec after yet another earthquake hit the site on the weekend, the latest in a long list of seismic events over the past few years to affect both production and reserves.

On Monday, the Toronto-based gold company said in a statement that an earthquake occurred at the underground mine around 2:30 p.m. on Friday. All underground employees were safely brought to the surface but Iamgold did not specify how long the process took.

Natural Resources Canada said the quake measured 3.8 on the Richter scale, and was “lightly felt” by residents of Preissac, Que., in the Abitibi region.

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Yamana Gold buying out Northern Quebec’s Monarch Gold in C$152 million deal – by Neils Christensen (Kitco News – November 2, 2020)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Mining activity in Northern Quebec continues to heat up, with Yamana Gold increasing its footprint in the Abitibi region after it announced it would buy Monarch Gold’s Wasamac property and the Camflo property and mill.

Announced Monday, under the agreements of the friendly takeover, Yamana will purchase all outstanding Monarch shares in a cash and equity deal valued at approximately C$152 million.

“The acquisition provides Yamana with a high-quality project with a significant mineral reserve and mineral resource base and excellent potential for further expansion.

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Gatling makes the connection with Larder Lake deposits: Exploration drilling proves three deposits are part of one gold system – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – September 22, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Gatling Resources has connected three high-grade deposits at its Larder Gold Project in northeastern Ontario, and can prove it’s all part of one large mineralized system.

The Vancouver junior miner claims it has successfully drilled gold mineralization between its Fernland and Cheminis deposits.

The company’s Larder Project hosts three high-grade gold deposits – Bear, Cheminis and Fernland – along the Cadillac-Larder Lake Break, 35 kilometres east of Kirkland Lake.

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Kirkland Lake Gold expands exploration footprint into western Quebec – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – September 15, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Wallbridge eyes cross-border joint venture opportunity with Detour East option

Sudbury’s Wallbridge Mining has inked a term sheet to do a joint venture with Kirkland Lake Gold of its Detour East gold property in northwestern Quebec.

Under the agreement, Kirkland Lake Gold can earn a 75 per cent interest in Detour East by spending a total of $35 million on exploration at the property.

Detour East is an early exploration stage property, 11 kilometres east of Kirkland Lake Gold’s Detour Lake gold mine in northeastern Ontario.

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VAL d’OR: HALFBOOTS AND HIGH HEELS – by McKenzie Porter (MACLEAN’S Magazine – December 1, 1949)

https://archive.macleans.ca/

Quebec’s lusty young city of gold defiantly kicks up its heels but progress and plumbing are taming it into respectability

LAST AUGUST police raided Lew Gagnier’s so-called Hunting and Fishing Club in Val d’Or, Northwest Quebec, and seized chips, dice, shakers and gambling machines which had been used in the Yukon 60 years ago.

Not since Dawson City burgeoned to the ballads of Robert W. Service has such a lusty town as Val d’Or been whelped from the strike of a bonanza.

Fifteen years ago it was matted muskeg, the lair of timber wolves, 65 miles east of the then new gold mines in Rouyn-Noranda. Today it is a gilded city of 10,000 glittering in the heart of a forest.

The paradoxes of the old and the new are plain in Val d’Or. You could stand bathed in Neon light at either end of the mile-long main drag and bag a too curious moose in the bush which huddles up to the city limits.

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Quebec’s Cadillac Gold Trend Rich with Opportunity (Gold Investing News – June 15, 2020)

https://investingnews.com/

This INNSpired article is sponsored by QMX Gold https://www.qmxgold.ca/

Located in the heart of the Abitibi greenstone belt, Quebec’s Cadillac gold trend has a storied history as a prolific mining hub for the past century, producing more than 50 million ounces of gold to date.

Despite the long history of extraction, the area is far from tapped out as deposits are still being found and developed. Recently, the historic area has seen something of a renaissance as resource companies look to redevelop past-producing mines with significant potential.

Quebec’s reputation as a mining jurisdiction

The high number of exploration and development projects located in Quebec, including the Cadillac trend, are reflective of the province’s increasing leadership in the mining sector. According to the Fraser Institute’s annual rankings for 2018, Quebec was the fourth-best mining jurisdiction in terms of investment attractiveness.

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Kirkland Lake Gold won’t budge as large Detour shareholder pushes for better offer – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 18, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. has no intention of improving its $4.9-billion all-stock offer for Detour Gold Corp., despite calls from one of Detour’s biggest shareholders for a last-minute sweetener.

Toronto-based Kirkland offered 0.4343 of its own shares for each Detour share, a 24-per-cent premium to the Nov. 22 closing price. “We can’t, and don’t intend to, change the terms,” Tony Makuch, chief executive of Kirkland Lake, said in an interview on Friday. “It’s a full and fair offer.”

Even though no other bidder surfaced with a higher offer for Toronto-based Detour, the market had been been anticipating that Kirkland might improve its bid. Over the past few weeks, shares in Detour consistently traded above Kirkland’s offer, before finally dropping a few cents below it, on Friday.

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Kirkland Lake CEO sees no need to raise Detour Gold bid after stock tops purchase price – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – December 10, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

Speculation that rival bidder could emerge

Toronto-based Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. chief executive Anthony Makuch said on Monday his company is not interested in raising or changing the offer it made last month to purchase Detour Gold Corp., after one analyst speculated that a new bidder may emerge.

In November, Kirkland announced an all-stock buyout that valued Detour shares at $27.50, or about a 24 per cent premium to its prior closing price, and pegged the entire transaction at about $4.89 billion.

Both companies operate gold mines in eastern Ontario, but have had starkly different trajectories over the past three years. Kirkland operates two high grade underground mines, including one in Australia, that produce gold at some of the lowest costs in the sector, and has been one of the best performing stocks on the TSX during that time.

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Eric Sprott says he’ll vote for Kirkland Lake deal to acquire Detour Gold – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – December 5, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Eric Sprott says he intends to vote for Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd’s controversial $4.9-billion takeover of Detour Gold Corp.

Initially undecided on the merits of the deal, Mr. Sprott says he came around after studying up on Detour, and after reflecting on Kirkland’s plans for the struggling low grade miner.

Kirkland has plans to eventually cut Detour’s costs to US$800 an ounce from US$1,100, and materially boost its production. “I think it would be a pretty good cash generating machine,” Mr. Sprott said of Detour.

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Eric Sprott, out $140-million on Kirkland Lake Gold, undecided on deal with Detour Gold – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 27, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd.’s plan to acquire Detour Gold Corp. has been costly for Eric Sprott. How costly?

“I think my loss is $140-million,” the maverick gold investor said of the drop in value of his investment in Kirkland Lake in the two days since it announced its all-stock deal to acquire Detour. Mr. Sprott, who is Kirkland’s second-biggest shareholder, said this is also the biggest investment loss of his career, in such a short time period.

On Monday, Toronto-based Kirkland, one of the world’s most profitable gold companies, shocked the market by announcing it planned to buy struggling low-grade miner Detour Gold Corp. for $4.9-billion. Investors immediately soured on the deal. Kirkland Lake shares have lost about 16 per cent of their value since Monday.

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Detour Gold premium vanishes as investors dump Kirkland Lake shares amid takeover – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 25, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Investors punished Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. after the underground mining company said it will acquire struggling open pit specialist Detour Gold Corp. in an all-stock deal valued at about $4.9-billion. Toronto-based Kirkland Lake is paying 0.4343 Kirkland shares for each Detour Gold share, a 24-per-cent premium to Friday’s closing price.

But that premium all but vanished in trading Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Kirkland Lake closed down 17.3 per cent on the Toronto Stock Exchange to $52.38 apiece. Detour closed up 1.8 per cent to $22.61 apiece.

Kirkland Lake has been the gold industry’s best-performing senior gold miner over the past three years, thanks in part to the spectacular performance of its high-grade Fosterville mine in Australia.

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Kirkland Lake buying Detour Gold in all-stock deal worth $4.9-billion – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 25, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. is buying Detour Gold Corp. in an all-stock deal worth $4.9-billion that sees one of the industry’s best-performing gold companies buy a turnaround play.

Toronto-based Kirkland is paying 0.4343 Kirkland shares for each Detour share, a 24-per-cent premium to Friday’s closing price. The transaction sees Kirkland, which already has mines in Ontario and Australia, add another major asset in a safe jurisdiction.

Thanks to the success of Kirkland Lake’s Fosterville mine in Australia, it has been the best-performing major gold stock in the world over the past few years.

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Junior Explorers Just Scratching the Surface In Northern Quebec’s Abitibi Gold Belt – by Neils Christensen (Kitco News – August 15, 2019)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Northern Quebec is one of the most prolific gold regions in the world; it is home to the Abitibi Greenstone Belt, which has produced 180 million ounces of gold during the last century.

The Val d’Or/Abitibi region is also home to Canada’s largest gold mine: Malartic, which is run by Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE: AEM, TSX: AEM) and Yamana Gold (NYSE; AUY, TSX: YRI). However, junior explorers working in the area are demonstrating that miners have just literally scratched the surface and the region’s potential is limitless.

Since the 1920’s the region has been home to about 100 different mines; at the same time, about 300 gold deposits have been identified in the area. “There is no doubt. This is mining country,” said Philippe Cloutier, president and CEO of Cartier Resources (TSX.V: ECR), just one of the junior explores breathing new life into existing mining camps. “The mines in Northern Quebec shut down because of economics not because they ran out of ounces.”

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[Osisko Mining Inc.]Price surge fuels fresh hopes that Canada’s richest gold country has more to give – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – July 27, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

‘Every time someone says all the mines have been found I laugh’ – John Burzyunski, CEO Osisko Mining Inc.

This spring, John Burzynski, chief executive of Osisko Mining Inc., caught whiff of an opportunity to acquire land near the Cadillac-Larder break — a name that may not ring a bell with most Canadians, but is renowned gold country.

Running from western Quebec to Larder Lake, Ontario, it stands out among the world’s richest geological gold belts; and even today, more than a century after being discovered, it is dotted with mines that pump out hundreds of thousands of ounces of bullion every year.

Burzynski, and his partners have been to the Cadillac-Larder break before: They discovered the deposit that became the Canadian Malartic mine, currently the country’s largest gold mine, which last year produced 697,200 ounces of gold, worth about $1.3 billion at current prices.

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Area Play: The Val d’Or, Quebec Camp in Canada is Heating Up – by David Erfle (Kitco News – July 12, 2019)

https://www.kitco.com/

Full Disclosure: I have purchased shares of ECR.V and BTR.V in the open market and have also recommended them both to my subscribers.

In the early 20th century, the discovery of the Cadillac Fault ushered in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue Gold Rush and the geological anomaly continues to have a major impact on Quebec’s mining history.

The massive fault is roughly 160 kilometers long and extends from the town of Val d’Or, in Quebec, to Kirkland Lake, in Ontario. Its name derives from the township of Cadillac, where it was first discovered.

Although its name in French means “valley of gold,” there is no valley in Val d’Or, however, there is still plenty of gold remaining in the surrounding area. The town of roughly 32,000 inhabitants was founded by miners in 1934 and its economy depends chiefly on mining gold, zinc, lead, molybdenum, and copper. The lumber business is also important to the economy of Val-d’Or, as the forests of the Abitibi region provide 65% of the lumber produced in Québec.

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