Archive | Gold and Silver

OPINION: Canada has plenty of reasons to stand up to China. Arctic sovereignty isn’t one of them – by Michael Byers (Globe and Mail – December 2, 2020)

December 2, 2020 in Aboriginal and Inuit Mining and Oil/Gas, Asia Mining, Canada Mining – North of 60, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Michael Byers is the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia, and the author of International Law and the Arctic.

A Chinese state-owned company wants to purchase a gold mine in Nunavut. Does the Arctic location make the purchase a national security risk?

The Hope Bay gold mine is operated by TMAC Resources, a junior Canadian mining company. Shandong Gold wants to buy TMAC for $208-million, and 97 per cent of TMAC shareholders have approved the sale.

Meanwhile, however, the Canadian government has ordered a national security review; some experts, including retired Major-General David Fraser, have pointed to Arctic sovereignty and security as reasons for blocking the sale. Continue Reading →

China solves Freeport’s $3 billion problem in Indonesia – by John McBeth (Asia Times – November 29, 2020)

November 30, 2020 in Asia Mining, Copper, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles

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JAKARTA – The long drawn-out saga of mining giant Freeport Indonesia’s (PTFI) proposed new copper smelter has taken a new turn with China’s Tsingshan Steel agreeing to build the US$1.8 billion facility at its Weda Bay nickel processing complex in Halmahera, eastern Indonesia.

Maritime Affairs and Investment Coordinating Minister Luhut Panjaitan disclosed in an interview with Asia Times that the deal is expected to be signed before next March. “We are happy with the agreement,” he said, “but the two sides are still in detailed discussions.”

Up to now, the choices have been to either expand Mitsubishi’s existing copper smelter at Gresik, East Java, build a new and much more costly smelter at a nearby industrial estate or shift the whole project to Halmahera as part of an integrated smelting hub. Continue Reading →

Dominican Minister of Mines dismisses rumours that link Barrick’s advanced payments to tailings dam approval – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – November 29, 2020)

November 30, 2020 in Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Latin America Mining

https://www.mining.com/

The Dominican Republic’s Minister of Energy and Mines, Antonio Almonte, rejected rumours that linked Barrick Gold’s recent $108-million advanced tax and royalty payment to the possible approval of a tailings dam at the Pueblo Viejo operation.

In a TV interview broadcasted over the weekend, Almonte said that the advanced payment was the result of negotiations led by the ministry of finance and the national government’s economic team, with the goal of addressing the current fiscal deficit that is a direct consequence of the slowdown caused by the covid-19 pandemic. Continue Reading →

Retired general urges rejection of Chinese takeover of Arctic gold mine – by Robert Fife and Steven Chase (Globe and Mail – November 30, 2020)

November 30, 2020 in Asia Mining, Canada Mining – North of 60, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A former commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan is urging the federal government to reject a takeover of an Arctic gold mine by a Chinese state-owned enterprise.

Retired major-general David Fraser said this rejection should form part of a strategic rethink aimed at keeping China out of Canada’s Far North.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet recently ordered a formal national security review of the proposed acquisition of Toronto-based TMAC Resources Inc. by Shandong Gold Mining Co. Ltd., a Chinese state-owned conglomerate and one of the world’s largest gold producers. Continue Reading →

New diamond and gold deposit found in Nunavut shows similarities to world’s richest gold mine, researchers say – by Brooklyn Neustaeter (CTV News – November 29, 2020)

November 30, 2020 in Canada Mining – North of 60, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Diamond Mining, Gold and Silver

https://www.ctvnews.ca/

TORONTO — A group of Canadian researchers, who discovered diamonds in a small rock sample found in an unrealized gold deposit in Nunavut, say their findings hint at the possibility of new deposits in the area that are similar to the world’s richest gold mine.

According to a press release issued in October, the new research “fills in blanks” about the thermal conditions of Earth’s crust three billion years ago.

The findings are set to be released in two studies at the virtual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union between Dec. 1-17. Continue Reading →

U.S. Rejects Controversial Alaska Pebble Gold, Copper Mine – by Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Steven Frank (Bloomberg News – November 26, 2020)

November 26, 2020 in Alaska Mining, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, Junior Exploration Sector

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg) — The Pebble mine in Alaska was dealt a potentially lethal blow after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rejected an essential permit for the project.

The proposed mine in southwestern Alaska, which would tap one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper and gold deposits, has been dogged by protests for years, as conservationists warn industrial mining operations near Bristol Bay threaten a flourishing sockeye salmon fishery.

The Army Corps issued a record of decision Wednesday denying Pebble’s permit, after determining the project “is contrary to the public interest,” said Col. Damon Delarosa, the agency’s Alaska district commander. Continue Reading →

New Brunswick: Gold prices drive new exploration at Cape Spencer – by Connell Smith (CBC News New Brunswick – November 24, 2020)

November 25, 2020 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/

There are barely a dozen homes at Cape Spencer on the Bay of Fundy coast. But people here are not surprised when strangers quietly appear in their community, about 20 kilometres southeast of Saint John.

The arrivals are often preceded by an upward trend in gold prices. “We’ve always had people looking for gold out here,” said Kimberly Burry, whose home sits atop a hill looking out toward the ocean.

The latest newcomers, a small crew of geologists, caused barely a ripple this fall when they took up residence in a rented house and began their daily trips into the woods to explore the many rock outcrops and other geological features. Continue Reading →

High-profile mining investors pay lavish severance to take control of Caldas Gold – by Tim Kiladze and Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 24, 2020)

November 24, 2020 in Canada Mining, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Latin America Mining

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Veteran Canadian mining investors are joining forces to purchase an obscure junior gold company, agreeing to lavish severance packages in exchange for control of a Colombian mining project.

The group of buyers includes former Goldcorp chair Ian Telfer, former Goldcorp chief executive officer David Garofalo, current Yamana Gold Corp. executive chair Peter Marrone and mining financier Frank Giustra.

Together, the group will buy $38-million in new shares of Toronto-based Caldas Gold Corp. as part of an $85-million private placement, and they will also assume operational control. Continue Reading →

Along Russia’s ‘Road of Bones,’ Relics of Suffering and Despair – by Matilda Coleman (UpNewsInfo.com – November 22, 2020)

November 24, 2020 in Europe Mining, Global Mining History, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, Mining Child and Slave Labour – Historical and Current

https://upnewsinfo.com/

The Kolyma Highway in the Russian Far East once delivered tens of thousands of prisoners to the work camps of Stalin’s gulag. The ruins of that cruel era are still visible today.

The prisoners, hacking their way through insect-infested summer swamps and winter ice fields, brought the road, and the road then brought yet more prisoners, delivering a torrent of slave labor to the gold mines and prison camps of Kolyma, the most frigid and deadly outpost of Stalin’s gulag.

Their path became known as the “road of bones,” a track of gravel, mud and, for much of the year, ice that stretches 1,260 miles west from the Russian port city of Magadan on the Pacific Ocean inland to Yakutsk, the capital of the Yakutia region in eastern Siberia. Continue Reading →

Barrick enters earn-in deals with two juniors near Hemlo – by Simone Liedtke (Mining Weekly.com – November 23, 2020)

November 23, 2020 in Barrick Gold Corporation, Canadian Media Resource Articles, Gold and Silver, Junior Exploration Sector, Ontario Mining

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Canadian major Barrick Gold has entered into two option and joint venture (JV) agreements with junior miners near its Hemlo operation, in Ontario.

The first is with TSX-V-listed Melkior Resources, which has granted Barrick the right to earn-on up to a 75% interest in the White Lake project, 20 km from the Hemlo mine.

Under the terms of the option agreement, Barrick could earn a 75% interest in the White Lake property in consideration for completing $4-million in exploration expenditures over a period of five years. Continue Reading →

Do You Know Where Your Watch’s Gold Came From? – by Victoria Gomelsky (New York Times – November 19, 2020)

November 19, 2020 in Europe Mining, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, Jewellery and Coins, Metals and Manufacturing

https://www.nytimes.com/

A mechanical timepiece is powered by clean kinetic energy and can run, at least theoretically, forever and a day. To support that image of inherent sustainability, many Swiss watchmakers over the past decade have partnered with conservation groups, implemented energy-saving measures at their at their factories and, more recently, experimented with recycled materials for things like packaging and straps.

When it comes to the gold and gemstones used to make watches, however, the industry lags behind other sectors such as electronics in understanding and communicating how its materials are obtained and ensuring their extraction has not harmed people and the environment.

“We always compare the watch industry here in Switzerland to the textile industry 20 years ago,” said Dario Grünenfelder, a consultant to WWF Switzerland and lead author of the WWF Watch and Jewellery Report 2018. “They’re not really tackling the big issues: the raw materials that go into their products.” Continue Reading →

Shopify, Barrick Join Exclusive Canada Club With Big Cash Hoards – by Michael Bellusci (Bloomberg/Yahoo Finance – November 19, 2020)

November 19, 2020 in Barrick Gold Corporation, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles

https://finance.yahoo.com/

(Bloomberg) — The Covid-19 pandemic has made for a rare moment in Corporate Canada: three companies entered this quarter with over C$5 billion ($3.8 billion) of cash.

Shopify Inc. and Barrick Gold Corp. joined Air Canada in reporting a hefty pile of cash and short-term investments at the end of the quarter. It’s the first time that many non-financial companies on the S&P/TSX Composite Index have been so flush in the last 25 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The three companies have seen their war chests balloon for different reasons. Barrick and Shopify are prospering, while Air Canada has gone on a mammoth capital-raising spree to secure the funds to survive the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue Reading →

The Nome Gold Rush and Three Lucky Swedes – by John Matsuzak (Kelly Codetectors – October 23, 2020)

November 19, 2020 in Alaska Mining, Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles, United States Mining History

https://www.kellycodetectors.com/

The California Gold Rush certainly was in a far-off land for the Americans of the time, who had to trek long distances to get to their final destination. But the 49’ers had nothing on those brave adventurers who went to Nome, Alaska to seek their fortunes in 1899. Which brings us to the Nome Gold Rush.

While Nome, Alaska was owned by the United States at the time of the Nome Gold Rush, it might as well have been Mars, both in terms of getting there and in terms of surviving in the harsh and unforgiving climate.

Despite the apocryphal quip often attributed to Mark Twain, that the worst winter he ever saw was June in San Francisco, there is simply no comparison between a miserable Northern California summer and any day of the week in Nome, Alaska. Continue Reading →

QC Copper and Gold injects new life into Opemiska in the Abitibi – by Stan Sudol (Northern Miner – October 29, 2020)

November 19, 2020 in Canadian Media Resource Articles, Copper, Gold and Silver, Quebec Mining, Stan Sudol Columns/Media References and Appearances

Global mining news

The Chibougamau-Chapais region, 750 km north of Montreal, is part of the largest Archean greenstone belt in the world. The belt, better known as the Abitibi, is 150 km in width, and stretches for 650 km from just west of Timmins in Ontario to Chibougamau in Quebec.

Explorers started travelling through the Chibougamau wilderness, a territory with abundant fur-bearing animals, fishing and hunting as early as the mid-1600s, but it wasn’t until the late-1800s that prospectors began to take note of the region’s mineral potential.

While there was some drilling and a small amount of mine construction in the first half of the 1900s, two world wars, a great depression and the region’s isolation prevented any significant mineral development. But in 1950, the Quebec government finished a 240 km road connecting the Chibougamau camp to St.-Felicien in the province’s Saguenay region. Continue Reading →

Gold Is a Hedge Against Bad Government Decisions – by Jared Dillian (Bloomberg News – November 2020)

November 19, 2020 in Gold and Silver, International Media Resource Articles

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg Opinion) — Investors don’t really have a handle on what gold is or what it represents. Many erroneously believe gold is some sort of inflation hedge, because of our experience in the 1970s.

It’s also not a hedge against stock market crashes, as we discovered in March. Gold is a hedge on government authorities making poor economic choices.

Inflation is usually the result of those poor decisions, but people confuse cause and effect here. Gold is a hedge on policy makers screwing up, and there has been a lot of screwing up in the last 20 years. Continue Reading →