Archive | Gold and Silver

Gold! Gold! Gold! What is it about this precious metal that causes such a rush among human beings? Throughout history, the discovery of gold veins has sparked mass movements of people and capital to hitherto unknown parts of the world. Gold rushes have been documented as far back as ancient Rome, but most of the major gold rushes occurred during the modern era, which runs roughly from 1500 AD to the present.

The most famous gold rush in American history is the California Gold Rush of 1849, (RealClearHistory covered it recently), but the history of gold rushes deserves a bit more scrutiny. Why on earth would a precious metal cause so much upheaval in population transfers, in spending on infrastructure, and on violence and property rights adjudication? Here are 10 gold rushes in history that deserve more attention:

10. Klondike Gold Rush (1896-99), Yukon Territory, Canada. Let’s start with Canada’s most famous gold rush. While gold was discovered in 1896, the Klondike was so hard to reach (the Canadian government required each potential miner to travel with a year’s worth of supplies before embarking on the journey) that the gold rush didn’t really get going until 1898. Continue Reading →

Barrick set to take full control of Acacia after raising bid – by Nichola Saminather, Barbara Lewis and Zandi Shabalala (Reuters Canada – July 19, 2019)

July 19, 2019 in Africa Mining, Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://ca.reuters.com/

TORONTO/LONDON (Reuters) – Barrick Gold Corp has struck a deal to buy out its fellow shareholders in Acacia Mining with a higher bid than originally proposed, raising expectations Acacia’s long-running tax dispute with the Tanzanian government will finally be resolved.

The original buyout proposal from Barrick, which owns 63.9% of Acacia, drew accusations from minority shareholders that Barrick was taking advantage of the Tanzania-focused company’s woes to buy it on the cheap. But Acacia acknowledged that a takeover would be the best solution to its problems.

The improved bid was welcomed by the company and investors, with Acacia shares jumping as much as 20% on Friday. They were trading at 222 pence, their highest since April, at 1453 GMT (10:53 a.m. EDT). Continue Reading →

Acacia faces Tanzanian roadblock as Barrick bid set to expire – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 18, 2019)

July 18, 2019 in Africa Mining, Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Acacia Mining PLC is facing a new threat to its African gold-mining operations, as it pushes for a higher takeover offer from parent company Barrick Gold Corp.

In a statement on Wednesday, Acacia said that Tanzania’s environment regulator has ordered it to close the tailings management facility at its North Mara mine by Saturday morning, citing a “failure to contain and prevent seepage.”

The directive threatens to cripple production at the mine, which accounted for about two-thirds of Acacia’s gold output last year. The development isn’t coming entirely out of the blue. In May, Acacia was fined for environmental breaches at North Mara, and in January, Tanzania told Acacia it must completely rebuild and redesign the facility. Continue Reading →

Barrick Gold just won a US$5.83B arbitration award, but getting paid may be a different story – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – July 16, 2019)

July 16, 2019 in Asia Mining, Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Latin America Mining

https://business.financialpost.com/

Collecting such high-value awards is far from simple or guaranteed

The World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes has ordered the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to pay US$5.83 billion to a Barrick Gold Corp. joint venture subsidiary for blocking a mining project nearly a decade ago.

It marks the latest in a string of high-value arbitration awards that Canadian resource companies have won against foreign countries in recent years, although collecting such awards is far from simple or guaranteed.

Barrick, which jointly owns the subsidiary with Chilean copper company Antofogasta Plc, long ago dropped the project from most of its investor materials. On Monday, both companies signalled an interest in settling the matter with Pakistan, which is set to receive billions of dollars in loans from the International Monetary Fund as it struggles to revive its economy. Continue Reading →

Canada’s Belo Sun touts procedural win but Brazil gold mine still on hold – by Christian Plumb and Jake Spring (Reuters U.S. – July 12, 2019)

July 16, 2019 in Canada Mining, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, Latin America Mining

https://www.reuters.com/

SAO PAULO/Brasilia (Reuters) – Belo Sun Mining Corp (BSX.TO) said on Friday it had won a legal victory in its push to mine the country’s largest undeveloped gold deposit in the Amazon rainforest, which has drawn criticism from environmentalists and indigenous advocates.

But the public prosecutor’s office that is seeking to block the mine disagreed with that interpretation of the ruling.

Felicio Pontes, a federal prosecutor on the case, said the appeals court had merely rejected a request for a preliminary judgment and the merits of the case have yet to be judged. Continue Reading →

Golden blunders: How a string of technical mishaps has hampered Canada’s junior gold miners – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 13, 2019)

July 13, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Junior Exploration Sector

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Reports overestimating the amount of gold led to junior miners flying high, but the gold was ‘never there’

Junior gold-mining executive Scott Caldwell was in a jovial mood as he sat down for a national television interview in February, 2016. Even though the price of gold bullion had tumbled by more than a third from its 2011 peak, and many of his competitors were struggling, his company was defying the odds.

Guyana Goldfields Inc. had managed to raise US$700-million from investors and put a high-grade gold mine into production in early 2016.

Mr. Caldwell, an avuncular mining engineer with a soothing tone, was happy to promote the company’s Aurora mine, located in a remote Guyanese rainforest, as a cash machine. Indeed, at the prevailing gold price of US$1,200 an ounce, Guyana looked like a surefire winner. Continue Reading →

Gold executives promise to ‘stick to their knitting’ and practice prudence as bullion prices soar – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – July 12, 2019)

July 12, 2019 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://business.financialpost.com/

Peter Marrone, chairman of Toronto-based Yamana Gold Inc., isn’t betting that a bull run is just around the corner even as gold prices soar to their highest point in a half-decade.

His cautious attitude about rising bullion prices is not unusual in a sector that is still suffering the hangover effects from the last time prices broke out. That was in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, and gold mining companies used the added revenue for a shopping spree that left many with debt that has still not been fully paid down.

Now, after several weeks in which gold prices have hovered around US$1,400 per ounce — a threshold not crossed since 2013 — some gold bugs believe a United States-China trade war and continuing low interest rates will push prices even higher in the immediate future. Continue Reading →

Marathon Gold ‘prime takeout candidate’: National Bank of Canada analyst (Northern Miner – July 11, 2019)

July 12, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Junior Exploration Sector, Newfoundland and Labrador Mining

Northern Miner

Marathon Gold (TSX: MOZ) is on track to release a new resource estimate in September for its Leprechaun deposit in the company’s Valentine Gold camp in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The latest drilling has expanded the high-grade area within Leprechaun’s Main Zone corridor to a strike length over 480 meters with a width of 30 to 100 metres and extending to a depth of 350 metres.

Leprechaun is one of four near-surface deposits, mainly pit-shell constrained, at Marathon’s Valentine Gold camp, and remains open at depth and along strike. The four deposits stretch over a 20-km system of gold-bearing veins. Continue Reading →

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

July 12, 2019 in Abitibi Greenstone Belt, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Junior Exploration Sector, Quebec Mining

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. Continue Reading →

Dushnisky sets sights on shaping AngloGold Ashanti for a new gold industry order – by David McKay (MiningMX.com – July 10, 2019)

July 10, 2019 in Africa Mining, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles

MiningMX.com

Outside, Johannesburg is thronging with activity. One of Dushnisky’s predecessors, Mark Cutifani, once confided that in his early days at AngloGold he was trepidatious about the drive over Nelson Mandela bridge that leads into Ntemi Piliso Street where AngloGold’s Turbine Hall office is located in downtown Johannesburg, with pedestrians giving new expression to jay-walking.

The view of Dushnisky, however, is that the chance to run AngloGold was too good an opportunity to let pass. “I don’t regret a day I was at Barrick (where he was president), but I also knew that I was at a point in my career where there wouldn’t be a lot of opportunities to shape the future of a company that was of Barrick scale.”

One of the facts of AngloGold’s corporate life is that it’s the world’s third largest gold producer, but ranks 14th in terms of market capitalisation. Continue Reading →

Acacia Mining, independent consultant push Barrick Gold to increase takeover offer – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 10, 2019)

July 10, 2019 in Africa Mining, Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. has been given more time to table a formal takeover bid for Acacia Mining PLC, as its London-based subsidiary pushes for a materially higher offer.

On Tuesday, just hours before a deadline set by a British takeover panel was set to expire, Barrick was granted a 10-day extension to consider a report by an independent mining consultant that argues Acacia is worth about 38 per cent more than Barrick is willing to pay.

In a release, Acacia said that SRK Consulting (UK) Ltd. has calculated the “preferred” value for Acacia to be 271 pence ($4.45) a share. In May, Toronto-based Barrick said it was willing to pay 0.153 of its own shares for each Acacia share it doesn’t already own, or roughly 197 pence a share. Continue Reading →

COLUMN-India gold tax hikes add unexpected headwind to price rally – byClyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – July 9, 2019)

July 9, 2019 in Asia Mining, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles

https://www.reuters.com/

LAUNCESTON, Australia, July 9 (Reuters) – Gold’s recent rally to a six-year high is suddenly looking a little more fragile after India, the world’s number two buyer, unexpectedly hiked import duties.

The increase in the duty to 12.5% from 10% on July 5 caught gold traders and jewellery manufacturers off guard as some had been expecting the government to lower the tax instead.

The Indian government wants to reduce its fiscal deficit as well as the trade deficit, and since gold is the second biggest import by value behind crude oil and fuels, it is an obvious target for increased taxation. Continue Reading →

That Giant Asteroid of Gold Won’t Make Us Richer – by Noah Smith (Bloomberg News – July 8, 2019)

July 9, 2019 in Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, Space Mining

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg Opinion) — Rejoice, people of Earth! News outlets are reporting that NASA is planning to visit an asteroid made of gold and other precious metals!

At current prices, the minerals contained in asteroid 16 Psyche are said to be worth $700 quintillion — enough to give everyone on the planet $93 billion. We’re all going to be richer than Jeff Bezos! OK, now for the bad news: This isn’t going to happen. Yes, 16 Psyche and other asteroids will probably be mined for their metals.

But once those metals start hitting the market in large quantities, they’re unlikely to be precious for much longer. As any introductory economics student knows, price is a function of relative scarcity — flood the market with gold, and it will go from being a rarity to being a common decoration. Supply goes up, price goes down. Continue Reading →

Still trust London with your gold? Poland latest to repatriate its bullion from the Bank of England (RT.com – July 9, 2019)

July 9, 2019 in Europe Mining, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles

https://www.rt.com/

Poland is repatriating gold from overseas, after it more than doubled its bullion holdings in the past year. Central banks all over the world have been stocking up on gold in recent years, shifting away from the US dollar.

The National Bank of Poland (NBP) has bought 100 tons of the precious metal since the beginning of this year, nearly four times more than it added to its reserves in 2018.

Now Warsaw wants to bring a significant part the precious metal back home, repatriating it from the Bank of England. The NBP wants to transfer at least 100 tons and store the repatriated bullion in its vaults. The Polish central bank noted that the repatriation comes on account of central banks’ need to diversify the storage of their gold reserves “to limit geopolitical risk,” which, it says, could result “in losing access to or restriction of the availability of gold resources held abroad.” Continue Reading →

Sculptor helps gold mining town celebrate 100 years – by Marc Montgomery (Radio Canada International – July 8, 2019)

July 9, 2019 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Canadian Mining History, Gold and Silver, Kirkland Lake, Northern Ontario History, Ontario Mining

Radio Canada International

Northern Ontario’s history is tied to that of mining. It was back in 1919 that a rush for silver in the north led instead to a discovery of gold and a another sort of rush.

This led to the development of several mines and creation of the township of Teck, eventually renamed Kirkland Lake in 1972. Renowned bronze sculptor Tyler Fauvelle has created a lifesized recreation of a period prospector which has been placed near the Toburn mine, the first of several which once flourished, and are now gone.

“Although the artwork is a tribute to all of the Kirkland Lake Gold Camp prospectors, I did include some features representing some of Kirkland Lake’s legendary prospectors. I hope visitors will enjoy looking for those symbols, and learning about the local history behind them,” says Fauvelle. Continue Reading →

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