Archive | Canadian Media Resource Articles

Barrick doubles down on risky African mining sector in $6-billion acquisition of Randgold – by Niall McGee and Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – September 25, 2018)

September 25, 2018 in Africa Mining, Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. has agreed to acquire rival gold miner Randgold Resources Ltd. for roughly US$6-billion in an all-stock deal that some investors said runs counter to the Canadian gold producer’s conservative strategy and adds political risk by sharply increasing its exposure to Africa.

The combination of Barrick, one of the worst performing senior gold companies of the past decade, with Randgold, one of the best operators, was announced early on Monday, after The Globe and Mail reported on the weekend that a deal was imminent. Barrick, founded in 1983 by the late Peter Munk, was once worth in excess of $54-billion but its value plummeted after the price of gold bullion went into a tailspin in late 2011 and in the aftermath of a number of corporate blunders.

As executives at both companies extolled the virtues of the deal to investors on Monday, investors and analysts also raised concerns about Toronto-based Barrick doubling down in the very region in which it has struggled the most in recent years. Continue Reading →

Nutrien’s new head of potash optimistic as industry enters ‘mode of recovery’ – by Alex MacPherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – September 24, 2018)

September 25, 2018 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Potash/Phosphate, Saskatchewan Mining

 

https://thestarphoenix.com/

Sitting in her office on the 11th floor of the Scotia Centre, her back to a wrap-around view of autumn bursting along the banks of the South Saskatchewan River, Susan Jones contemplates her new position as head of the world’s largest supply of potash.

It’s a big job: Jones is responsible for six of the 10 potash mines currently operating in Saskatchewan, as well as a supply chain that carries the pink-hued fertilizer from the Canadian prairies to India, China and 40 or so other countries around the world.

But Nutrien Ltd.’s new president of potash — a lawyer from Calgary who spent 13 years with Agrium Inc. before its blockbuster merger with Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. earlier this year — seems more interested in the people who actually use potash. Continue Reading →

Randgold CEO Mark Bristow a seemingly odd fit as new Barrick Gold chief – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – September 25, 2018)

September 25, 2018 in Africa Mining, Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp.’s proposed new chief executive officer, Mark Bristow, is a larger-than-life character: a former conscript soldier in South Africa’s apartheid army whose hobby is riding motorcycles across the most dangerous and remote corners of the African continent.

Mr. Bristow has a long record of success in some of Africa’s toughest mining regions, but he could be an odd fit in Barrick’s buttoned-down corporate environment. He is notoriously outspoken, often making blunt pronouncements on the perceived errors of investors, politicians and other mining companies.

The 59-year-old miner has manoeuvred shrewdly through Africa’s challenges, building his Randgold Resources Ltd. into a multibillion-dollar empire with major projects in Mali, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Continue Reading →

Mining myth-buster Charles Nyabeze wants the mining industry to tap into new skill sets – by Renee Sylvestre-Williams (CIM Magazine – September 24, 2018)

September 25, 2018 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles

http://magazine.cim.org/en/

Charles Nyabeze, vice-president of CEMI, says mining should look to innovation in other industries. Part of our We Are Mining series

There are a lot of myths around mining: it’s dirty, it’s homogenous and it’s unchanging. Charles Nyabeze thinks the industry is in a good position to dispel these myths and take advantage of innovation happening in other industries.

Nyabeze, vice-president of business development for the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI), has been championing economically and environmentally feasible mining activities in Canada and internationally. He advocates for gender, racial and physical diversity in mining because the industry can only move forward when it opens up to more people. Nyabeze spoke with CIM Magazine about how the industry can encourage more people to consider mining as a career and the next steps for the CLEER mining supercluster.

CIM: How did you get into mining? Your sister Theresa also works in the field so it sounds like a bit of a family business. Continue Reading →

Barrick’s hiring of Mark Bristow sets up potential clash of strategic visions – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – September 25, 2018)

September 25, 2018 in Africa Mining, Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. executive chairman John Thornton has been a great admirer of Randgold Resources Ltd. CEO Mark Bristow and has circled him for years. On Monday, the bromance triggered Barrick’s US$6-billion takeover of Randgold.

It was an effective – though expensive – way for Mr. Thornton to fill the vacant chief executive position at Barrick; Mr. Bristow is to become the head of the enlarged company. Now we know why Mr. Thornton was tempted to leave that position open for four years. As far as he was concerned, there was only one candidate for the job, and that candidate was Mr. Bristow.

It’s a safe bet to assume that both men see eye to eye on many levels. If they had not, the deal to create a gold-mining colossus with a market value of more than US$18-billion surely would have fizzled. Continue Reading →

Barrick bets on Africa with $6-billion Randgold merger – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – September 25, 2018)

September 25, 2018 in Africa Mining, Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://business.financialpost.com/

But Randgold the company faces a wave of potential disruptions

In a move that would allow Barrick Gold Corp. to regain its crown as the world’s largest gold producer and tie the company’s future more closely to Africa, the Toronto-based miner on Monday announced a US$6 billion plan to purchase Randgold Resources Ltd.

If the all-share, no-premium deal closes as expected in 2019, Barrick shareholders would control two-thirds of the company while Randgold would control the rest.

In a conference call on Monday afternoon, John Thornton, executive chairman of Barrick Gold Corp. said Randgold has a track record of success in the “most challenging environments in the world,” namely Africa, where Barrick’s subsidiary Acacia Mining Inc. has been struggling through a years-long tax dispute with the Tanzanian government. Continue Reading →

Mining financier Robert Friedland hopes to strike box-office gold – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – September 22, 2018)

September 24, 2018 in Africa Mining, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Mining and Oil Sector Image, Mining Movies

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

If you are rich, restless and want to reinvent your career as, say, a movie mogul, Villa TreVille can provide plenty of inspiration. Plastered on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, next to the village of Positano, it was the home of famed Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli, who played host to some of the greatest artistic talent of the sixties, seventies and eighties – Federico Fellini, Elizabeth Taylor, Leonard Bernstein, Rudolf Nureyev, Maria Callas, Leonard Cohen, the Beatles – in the villa’s fairy-tale gardens and terraces.

Today, the great muses have largely disappeared from the villa’s guest roster, but the artistic tradition remains. The villa is where Robert Friedland, the Canadian-American founder and executive co-chairman of Vancouver’s Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., is contemplating his new career as a film producer and celebrating the success of Crazy Rich Asians, the new hit movie co-produced by Ivanhoe Pictures. He happens to own Villa TreVille.

“This is heaven,” he says, perched on a high terrace that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea, the town of Positano – which cascades like a waterfall down impossibly steep cliffs – and the Amalfi Drive, the narrow, terrifying road that was built by Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte, the king of Naples and Sicily and older brother of the emperor. Continue Reading →

[Nova Scotia mining] Gold mining’s toxic legacy raises concerns about Eastern Shore project – by Frances Willick (CBC News Nova Scotia – September 23, 2018)

September 24, 2018 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution and Abandoned Mines

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/

A proposed gold mine on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore has dredged up concerns about mercury and arsenic contamination in the area from 125 years ago. Toronto-based Anaconda Mining Inc. wants to develop a 125-hectare surface and underground mine just outside Goldboro, N.S., about 250 kilometres east of Halifax.

The company submitted its environmental assessment last month, and on Sept. 19, Environment Minister Margaret Miller said it was not detailed enough for her to make a decision whether to approve the project.

Public and government feedback on the project shows that some are worried the mine’s activities will disturb sites contaminated by gold mining as far back as 1893. Continue Reading →

Barrick Gold agrees to buy rival Randgold in all-stock deal – by Danielle Bochove, Dinesh Nair, Scott Deveau and David Stringer (BNN/Bloomberg News – September 24, 2018)

September 24, 2018 in Africa Mining, Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Barrick Gold Corp. agreed to buy Randgold Resources Ltd. in a deal valuing the combined company at US$18 billion, creating a gold mining behemoth with a focus on Africa.

The all-share transaction values Randgold at US$5.4 billion, making it the biggest gold mining deal of the past three years. The deal will help Barrick boost output at a time when its stock has been punished for a stagnant pipeline. The company’s shares have about halved from a February 2017 peak.

“Randgold has a proven ability to operate successfully in some of the most challenging environments in the world,” Barrick Executive Chairman John Thornton said on a conference call. “The combined company will have five of the world’s top 10 tier-one gold assets.” Continue Reading →

Barrick swallows Randgold in $18.3-billion deal to create gold mining giant – by Eric Reguly and Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – September 24, 2018)

September 24, 2018 in Africa Mining, Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canada’s Barrick Gold is swallowing African operator Randgold Resources in a takeover worth roughly US$6-billion that will ensure its status as the world’s biggest gold company, and bring in a chief executive officer for the first time since 2014.

The all-share, no premium deal, which will value the combined company at US$18.3-billion, seems designed to overcome Barrick’s problems in Africa, where it controls mines through its 64-per-cent ownership of Acacia (formerly African Barrick), and perceived weakness among its senior management ranks. Barrick has no CEO and lost its president, Kelvin Dushnisky, last month.

The deal marks the first big expansion move by Barrick executive chairman John Thornton after four years of shrinking the company through mine sales, mine closures and the recruitment of Chinese partners at some of its operations. Continue Reading →

Canadian and Australian mints resolve legal battle over ‘Possum Magic,’ Remembrance Day coins – by Marie-Danielle Smith (National Post – September 11, 2018)

September 20, 2018 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Jewellery and Coins

https://nationalpost.com/

OTTAWA — The royal mints of Canada and Australia resolved a row over colourful coins on Monday, agreeing to end an escalating court battle.

After years of arguing about intellectual property concerns to do with colour printing methods, and months of back-and-forth in the Federal Court of Australia, the two mints have come to a cross-licensing agreement.

Trouble had been brewing since almost three years ago, when the Canadian mint, a Crown corporation, first accused its Australian counterpart of using a special, patent-protected method to print red poppies onto $2 million worth of commemorative Remembrance Day coins. Last December, after about two years of talks did not result in any agreement, the Royal Canadian Mint filed a lawsuit. Continue Reading →

How Indigenous communities can make the most of the lull in the minerals market – by Daniel Bland (CIM Magazine – September 20, 2018)

September 20, 2018 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles

http://magazine.cim.org/en/

Daniel Bland is coordinator of the Cree Employability Skills Development Partnership, a training to employment initiative of Cree Human Resources Development.

s mining and resource extraction companies across the north continue to ride out a worldwide slump in commodity prices, there are several things remote First Nations close to large mineral deposits could be doing to maximize the benefits that will eventually come their way once mining operations begin in earnest.

While there has been considerable attention paid to the labour market demands of the Ring of Fire’s mining projects, there has been much less attention paid to developing an employability profile of the residents of the remote reserves most people agree will supply much of the labour force needed to meet those demands.

To be sure, accurate labour force information about remote aboriginal reserves is hard to come by. Although Statistics Canada conducts a monthly labour force survey in provinces and territories across the country, it does not include Canada’s on-reserve aboriginal population. Continue Reading →

Copper Cliff Superstack dismantling will begin in 2020, Vale says (CBC News Sudbury – September 19, 2018)

September 19, 2018 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Green Mining, Ontario Mining, Sudbury Basin, Vale

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

380-meter chimney has loomed over city since 1970

Mining giant Vale says that the Superstack will be standing on Sudbury’s skyline until 2020, at which point the iconic structure will be slowly taken apart.

Angie Robson, Vale’s manager of corporate affairs, told CBC News that with recent pushes by the company to reduce emissions, the stack has simply outlived its usefulness. “It’s simply too big for our needs, given the reduction in emission we’ve been able to achieve,” Robson said. “So it’s going to stay in service until 2020.”

The 380-metre high stack was built in 1970 to disperse sulphur gases and other byproducts of the smelting process away from the city. “It’s simply too big for our needs, given the reduction in emission we’ve been able to achieve,” Robson said. “So it’s going to stay in service until 2020.” Continue Reading →

Kirkland Lake Gold raises stake in Osisko Mining – Staff (Northern Miner – September 19, 2018)

September 19, 2018 in Abitibi Greenstone Belt, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Ontario Mining, Quebec Mining

http://www.northernminer.com/

Kirkland Lake Gold (TSX: KL; NYSE: KL) has boosted its ownership in Osisko Mining (TSX: OSK) from 8.58% to about 13.61%.

The mid-tier gold producer reported it has invested about C$25 million to acquire 14.71 million Osisko shares at $1.70 apiece, bringing its total shares in the company to 32.63 million.

Kirkland Lake’s president and CEO, Tony Makuch, said the strategic investment increases its ownership interest in northwestern Quebec’s Urban Barry area, which he believes “has become a new, highly prospective mining camp in the prolific Abitibi Greenstone belt.” Continue Reading →

Eldorado claims €750m from Greek State over permit delays – by Marleny Arnoldi (MiningWeekly.com – September 18, 2018)

September 19, 2018 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Europe Mining, Gold and Silver, Mining Conflict and Opposition

http://www.miningweekly.com/

old and base metals producer Eldorado Gold’s Greek subsidiary Hellas Gold has filed an application for payment with the Hellenic Republic, requesting about €750-million for damages suffered by the company, arising from delays in the issuance of permits for the Skouries project, in northern Greece.

The damages include out-of-pocket costs and loss of profits incurred. The application is a non-judicial request for payment and does not initiate legal proceedings.

Eldorado president and CEO George Burns stated on Tuesday that the application represented a good-faith attempt to resolve the matter with the Greek State. “We hope that this matter can be resolved in an amicable manner without needing to go down the route of arbitration.” Continue Reading →