Archive | Gold and Silver

‘They were just tired’: Embattled Tahoe Resources sells out to create world’s biggest silver miner – by Garbriel Friedman (Financial Post – November 15, 2018)

November 15, 2018 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Latin America Mining

https://business.financialpost.com/

In a deal that highlights the importance of social licence in mining, Vancouver’s Pan American Silver Corp. announced Wednesday it will purchase Tahoe Resources Inc., seizing the moment to buy a company whose stock has been in freefall amid ongoing controversies in the communities in which it operates.

Under the terms of the US$1.1 billion deal, Pan American will pay up to US$275 million in cash and an additional US$800 million in shares. That values Tahoe shares at US$3.40 — a 35 per cent premium on its 20-day volume-weighted average price — or 0.2403 of a Pan American share per Tahoe share.

Pan American said in a press release that the acquisition would create the largest silver company in the world, and pointed to its own track record of building mines and operating in Latin America — an area where Tahoe has been beset by violent conflict and legal challenges. Continue Reading →

Mine Tales: Del Pasco Mine brought fortune seekers in the 1870s – by William Ascarza (Arizona Daily Star – November 12, 2018)

November 15, 2018 in Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, United States Mining History

https://tucson.com/

The Bradshaw Mountains in Central Arizona near Prescott produced a series of big strikes in the 1870s and ’80s. The earliest to be developed in the range was the Del Pasco Mine.

It was discovered by Jackson McCrackin, James Fine, Charley Taylor and T.G. Hogle on July 4, 1870. Within a month, two arrastras were employed to extract gold with an initial processing of 112 ounces totaling $1,904. The former placer mine was further developed to access the Del Pasco vein (running 2 to 3 feet in width) which, later heavily worked, necessitated the establishment of a tunnel 1,000 feet in length and stoped to the surface.

Located in the Pine Grove District of Yavapai County on the rugged southern slopes of Tower Mountain overlooking Crown King, the Del Pasco vein, between 6,300 feet and 7,300 feet, strikes north-northeast. The local geology is diorite intruded by rhyolite porphyry and a primary quartz vein with galena, pyrite and sphalerite. Continue Reading →

Vancouver’s Pan American Silver to acquire struggling Tahoe Resources in US$1.1-billion deal – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 15, 2018)

November 15, 2018 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Latin America Mining

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Vancouver’s Pan American Silver Corp. is buying U.S. competitor Tahoe Resources Inc. in an unusually structured US$1.1-billion deal aimed at resurrecting struggling Tahoe.

Nevada-based Tahoe’s shares soared nearly 50 per cent after the deal was announced Wednesday. The company’s shares had been trading near an all-time low and it has been under severe selling pressure from shareholders since last year when it was forced to stop production at its flagship mine in Guatemala after a legal setback.

In July, 2017, the Supreme Court of Guatemala suspended Tahoe’s licence at its Escobal silver mine after ruling local Indigenous populations weren’t adequately consulted before the licence was issued. Continue Reading →

Western Nunavut gold mine project gets review board’s final approval – by Jane George (Nunatsiaq News – November 13, 2018)

November 14, 2018 in Canada Mining – North of 60, Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Gold and Silver

http://nunatsiaq.com/

Project now needs licence from Nunavut Water Board

TMAC Resources Inc. can move ahead with plans to expand its existing gold mine in western Nunavut, now that it has received a project certificate from the Nunavut Impact Review Board for Phase 2 of its Hope Bay Belt Project.

But the project certificate, issued on Nov. 9, comes with a caveat: TMAC will report and examine “barriers and opportunities to achieving high levels of Inuit employment.” The certificate follows the board’s review of the project’s potential environmental and socio-economic impacts. This was accepted, with some recommendations, by the responsible federal ministers in October.

The project certificate applies to the development of three gold mines and related infrastructure at Hope Bay, located about 150 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay and 700 km northeast of Yellowknife. Continue Reading →

NEWS RELEASE: Pan American Silver and Tahoe Resources Create the World’s Premier Silver Mining Company (November 14, 2018)

November 14, 2018 in Canada Mining, Gold and Silver

https://www.panamericansilver.com/

VANCOUVER, Nov. 14, 2018 /CNW/ – Pan American Silver Corp. (NASDAQ: PAAS) (TSX: PAAS) (“Pan American”) or the “Company”) and Tahoe Resources Inc. (NYSE:TAHO) (TSX:THO) (“Tahoe”) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Pan American to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Tahoe pursuant to a plan of arrangement (the “Transaction”), creating the world’s premier silver mining company.

Shareholders of Tahoe will be entitled to elect to receive common shares of Pan American and/or cash in exchange for their shares of Tahoe. Additional consideration will be in the form of the right to a contingent payment in common shares of Pan American tied to the restart of the Escobal mine in Guatemala.

Highlights of the combined entity:

  • World-class primary silver asset portfolio, diversified across the Americas.
  • World’s largest silver reserve base and silver measured and indicated resource base.
  • Largest publicly-traded silver mining company by free float.
  • Superior operating metrics with industry-leading production, growth and margins. Continue Reading →

Amid mining slump, industry veteran Sean Roosen sees light at the end of the tunnel – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 12, 2018)

November 13, 2018 in Abitibi Greenstone Belt, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Sean Roosen’s motto is “SUDS.” It stands for “shut up and drill, stupid!” The mining executive says it’s a message his industry needs to embrace as it battles through another slump.

Environmental protectionism has gone too far, mining permits need to be more easily obtained and there’s too much interference from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which he says “do nothing” for the economy.

The loud, burly career miner is no slick Bay Street executive. He calls himself a “hillbilly.” But he’s someone who people listen to. Mr. Roosen heads up one of a handful of Canadian mining royalty companies, but he’s best known as part of a trio who founded, developed and built Canadian Malartic, Canada’s biggest gold mine. In the process he pioneered a new method of mining that revolutionized the notoriously slow-to-innovate industry. Continue Reading →

What lies at the bottom of one of the deepest holes ever dug by man? – by Bill Whitaker (60 Minutes/CBS News – November 11, 2018)

November 12, 2018 in Africa Mining, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/

A South African gold mine that goes two miles beneath the Earth’s surface holds far more than just precious metals

Over the years at 60 Minutes, we’ve been in more than a few tunnels. We explored Mexican drug lord El Chapo’s subterranean escape routes, burrowed through a Roman villa buried by Mt. Vesuvius and traveled the depths of the New York City subway. But nothing prepared us for a place called Moab Khotsong, a South African gold mine that extends nearly two miles beneath the surface.

In their pursuit of gold, South Africans have dug the deepest holes on Earth. The country was the world’s top gold producer for decades. Now the gold is running out, just as these ultra-deep mines have attracted a new breed of miner — on a very different quest. We went along for the adventure.

In the early morning light, tall mine shafts loom over the Vaal River basin two hours southwest of Johannesburg. This once was a booming gold field, now most mines lie abandoned but Moab Khotsong is bustling. Long before the sun rises, thousands of miners start lining up for the triple-deck elevator called “the cage.” It’s jammed but more always push on, and early one morning, so did we. Continue Reading →

Asia Gold-Key festivals light up Indian demand – by Rajendra Jadhav and Karen Rodrigues (Reuters Africa – November 9, 2018)

November 12, 2018 in Asia Mining, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles

https://af.reuters.com/

MUMBAI/BENGALURU, Nov 9 (Reuters) – Demand for physical gold gathered steam during a key festival week, shrugging off a recent downtrend going into the traditional busy wedding season, while other major Asian hubs saw limited activity.

India, the second biggest bullion consumer after China, celebrated the Dhanteras and Diwali festivals this week, when buying gold is considered auspicious.

“We were initially sceptical about Diwali demand but it jumped this week, despite higher prices,” said Harshad Ajmera, the proprietor of JJ Gold House, a wholesaler in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata. Continue Reading →

BHP’s ‘measured creep’ of risk appetite – by Matthew Stevens (Australian Financial Review – November 11, 2018)

November 12, 2018 in BHP Billiton, Copper, Glencore, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, Junior Exploration Sector, Latin America Mining, Oil and Gas Sector-Politics and Image

https://www.afr.com/

Ivan Glasenberg wondered recently how it was the BHP had moved into mining frontier of Ecuador when management at Australia’s Smart Thinking resources house was supposedly content to sustain and grow its business around its existing sites. This bemusement is well founded.

Among the themes consistent through Andrew Mackenzie’s evolving reformation of BHP are that it has little or no appetite for investment in frontier opportunities and that the company’s growth aspirations will be best afforded through a laser focus on the Global Australian’s existing six-strong fleet of mega-resource basins.

But that message is in the process of being massaged into something more nuanced, and not just because BHP’s two-stream play to possibly shape Ecuador’s future in copper stands an obvious test of the past house line in emerging mining sovereignties. Continue Reading →

The silver kings of the Comstock – by Darold Fredricks (San Mateo Daily Journal – November 11, 2013)

November 12, 2018 in Gold and Silver, Nevada Mining, United States Mining History

https://www.smdailyjournal.com/

Although gold had been taken out of the streams around Virginia City in 1850, it didn’t create much excitement in San Francisco immediately.

The gold tailings were worked when there was water in the streams that ran east from Mount Davidson, a peak from the Virginia Range in western Utah Territory. As more prospecting produced other catches of gold tailings, word spread that there might be a bonanza in the hot and forbidding area. A few took the bait and they left after the gold strike from Coloma panned out and they were left high and dry in San Francisco.

In 1857, Henry Comstock lucked upon an area where he and some others found some gold and silver veins that were promising for riches. Henry acquired the area after the Grosh brothers died before filing claims. Henry took over the cabin and land and enlarged his holdings by claiming more land around the cabin after hearing of a gold strike at Gold Hill. Continue Reading →

Novel research method reveals small-scale gold mining’s impact on Peruvian Amazon – by Mike Gaworecki (Mongabay.com – November 9, 2018)

November 12, 2018 in Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, Latin America Mining, Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution and Abandoned Mines

https://news.mongabay.com/

According to research released yesterday, small-scale gold mining has led to the destruction of more than 170,000 acres of primary rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon over the past five years.

Scientists based in Peru’s Madre de Dios region at Wake Forest University’s Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation (CINCIA) say they’ve developed a new method for detecting artisanal-scale mining that is 20-25 percent more accurate than the tools used in the past.

The researchers combined the CLASlite forest monitoring technology with Global Forest Change datasets on forest loss, both of which use lightwaves to identify changes in the landscape, to arrive at their estimate of rainforest destruction driven by small gold mining operations in Peru, which they say is 30 percent higher than previous estimates. Continue Reading →

Randgold CEO Says New Barrick to Focus on Cash-Generating Assets – by Rupert Rowling (Bloomberg News – November 6, 2018)

November 8, 2018 in Africa Mining, Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Randgold Resources Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow said the company formed by its merger with Barrick Gold Corp. will focus on high-quality assets to generate cash to boost dividends and shareholder value.

The merger between Barrick and Randgold will also provide momentum for further consolidation within the gold industry, which needs to better compete for global investors, Bristow said in an interview after the release of his company’s third-quarter results.

Key Insights

It’s clear that Bristow, who will become CEO of new Barrick, will employ the same game plan that made Randgold the darling of gold-mining investors. That means focusing on the five tier-1 assets the enlarged company will have in its portfolio and sweating them for cash. Continue Reading →

Timmins mine the good news story in a tough quarter for Tahoe – by Len Gillis (Timmins Daily Press – November 7, 2018)

November 8, 2018 in Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications, Gold and Silver, Ontario Mining, Timmins

https://www.timminspress.com/

Like other gold companies across the North, the third quarter of 2018 was not kind to Tahoe Resources Inc., the parent company for Tahoe Canada which operates the Timmins West mining complex and the Bell Creek Mine and Mill in Timmins.

Like other gold companies across the North, the third quarter of 2018 was not kind to Tahoe Resources Inc., the parent company for Tahoe Canada which operates the Timmins West mining complex and the Bell Creek Mine and Mill in Timmins.

The company has reported a third quarter earnings loss of $190 million, which compares with a loss of only $8.4 million for the same period last year. This represents a $0.61 loss per share. Continue Reading →

For Tahoe Resources, Guatemala troubles underscore tense outlook – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters U.S. – November 6, 2018)

November 7, 2018 in Gold and Silver, Latin America Mining, Mining Conflict and Opposition, United States Mining

https://www.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – A years-long fight over the future of the world’s second largest silver mine between Tahoe Resources Inc and opponents of the project shows no signs of abating, creating uncertainty for the U.S. miner and its investors.

With environmental and indigenous opponents of Tahoe’s Escobal mine vowing it will never again produce silver, the tension is top of mind for Wall Street, and analysts expect the company to post its fifth consecutive quarterly loss on Tuesday.

Guatemala’s Supreme Court suspended Tahoe’s license to operate Escobal last year, ruling for an anti-mining organization that accused the country’s Ministry of Energy and Mines of failing to properly consult surrounding Xinca indigenous communities about the project. Continue Reading →

Large Canadian gold miners ‘to finish year strong’ despite lower prices – EY (MiningWeekly.com – November 7, 2018)

November 7, 2018 in Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

http://www.miningweekly.com/

Despite lower gold prices in the second and third quarters of the year, Canada’s large-cap gold companies are trending towards a stronger second half and most of them are looking to finish the year strong, EY Canada Mining and Metals transaction leader Jay Patel said on Tuesday.

The gold price decreased by 5% in the third quarter, consistent with the decline in the second quarter, mainly owing to the strong US dollar and the recent Federal Reserve rate hike in September.

Patel said that improving grades and production ramp-ups helped senior gold companies to maintain their production guidance for the year, following a challenging second-quarter performance. Continue Reading →