(Bloomberg) — With gold prices at a record high, mining companies are back hunting for deals while trying to reassure investors that they’ve learned from past mistakes of overspending.
There has been a flurry of activity in recent months, with Gold Fields Ltd.’s $1.6 billion purchase of Osisko Mining Inc. and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd.’s $2.5 billion acquisition of Centamin Plc. That has sparked speculation over what could be next, with signs that more companies are working to ink deals.
(Kitco News) – During periods of easy money, risk assets like stocks tend to outperform as investors chase gains, but during times of economic strife, commodities become the safe haven for many investors. According to one analyst, now is the time to prepare for a commodity supercycle.
“The last [two] times we saw these valuations for commodities was 1971 and 2000,” tweeted MN Consultancy founder Michaël van de Poppe. “Commodities & #Crypto are extremely undervalued and it’s likely that commodities go into a 10-year long bull market.”
(Kitco News) – Gold is set to benefit from several tailwinds in Q4, including this week’s expected Fed rate cut, continued central bank purchases, and a rebound in Chinese demand, while silver prices will gain on standout Indian demand and a weaker USD, according to precious metals analysts at Heraeus.
In their latest precious metals report, Heraeus noted that the kickoff of the Fed’s rate-cutting cycle on Wednesday should be good for gold, even if it’s only a 25 bps cut.
Beaver Creek, Col. – Industry leaders debated the roles of economic uncertainty, inflation and monetary policy in driving gold to a record high this week even as many gold equities have underperformed.
The experts predict gold, which hit an all-time high of US$2,554.78 per oz. on Thursday, to be on a long-term bull run. Some of the sector’s most respected voices, including Sprott’s John Hathaway, mining entrepreneur Frank Giustra, gold fund manager Ronald-Peter Stöferle and investor guru Rick Rule, said central bank gold buying, geopolitical tension and a divergence from traditional asset classes are boosting gold’s price.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Efforts to clean up a massive cyanide spill at the Eagle gold mine in the Yukon have faltered after the receivership of Victoria Gold Corp., potentially posing new threats for the environment, a former top engineer at the company says.
Four million tonnes of cyanide-laced rocks collapsed at the company’s outdoor gold-processing facility in late June, causing massive damage to mine infrastructure and contamination. About two million tonnes of contaminated materials broke through the company’s containment zone and spilled into the local environment, killing fish and raising concerns about groundwater pollution.
Gold prices hit a new record on Thursday after the latest set of US inflation and unemployment figures helped bolster the the chances of a Federal Reserve cut next week. Spot gold climbed 1.6% to a new all-time high of $2,554.78 per ounce, before falling to below $2,500 as of noon ET. Three-month US gold futures were 1.5% higher at $2,580.40 per ounce.
While the producer price index for August was higher than economist forecast, rising 0.2% instead of 0.1% over the previous month, the over the overall trend remained consistent with subsiding inflation.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Kinross Gold paints an open pit and underground mining picture worthy of 500,000 ounces a year
Once the Great Bear project gets rocking and rolling in 2029, Kinross Gold projects its future Red Lake mine can be a 500,000-ounce-a-year producer.
The Toronto gold company released a preliminary economic study (PEA) on Sept. 10 of Great Bear showing a 12-year operating life that will churn out 5.3 million ounces of gold over that span. In the PEA, Kinross paints a picture of mining high-grade material via open pit and underground methods, concurrently.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
The UK-based exploration company sees multi-billion-dollar opportunity to extract gold, clean up mining legacy sites
Gold-enriched tailings piles left behind by two historic mining operations outside Kirkland Lake has attracted a United Kingdom-based company promoting the idea of sustainable mining.
Fulcrum Metals wants to dive into the tailings piles of the historic Teck-Hughes and Sylvanite mines to extract gold contained in the granular waste piles on the surface and eventually remediate the sites.
AngloGold Ashanti (JSE: ANG) (NYSE: AU) (ASX: AGG) is buying Egypt-focused smaller rival Centamin (LON: CEY) in a $2.5 billion (£1.9 billion) stock and cash deal that would see the South African gold miner become the world’s fourth largest producer of the precious metal.
The acquisition hands AngloGold the key Sukari mine in Egypt, which is the country’s largest and first modern gold operation, as well as one of the world’s largest producing mines.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
September is a pivotal month for Red Pine Exploration in seeking to raise $9.5 million
Red Pine Exploration needs a fresh infusion of cash, quickly, to kickstart a drilling program at its Wawa Gold Project. The struggling Toronto junior miner is out of pocket and is looking to raise $9.5 million this fall in order to regain the confidence of the market and lay out the big picture of what a mining operation might look like down the road.
In a Sept. 4 webinar, new CEO Michael Michaud projected confidence and enthusiasm in selling the blue-sky potential of its gold deposit, two kilometres outside Wawa.
https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/
The newest gold mine in northern Ontario has the potential to become the biggest in Canada. Iamgold’s Côté Gold open pit mine had its official ribbon-cutting ceremony at the end of May 2024. The company has declared commercial production at its 60%-owned Côté mine in northern Ontario, the company’s third producing gold mine and second in Canada.
This mine will be one of Canada’s largest gold producers with an 18-year mine life. During the first six years of operation, Côté Gold’s output will be 495,000 oz., and over the life of the mine, it will average 365,000 oz. per year. Construction of Côté began in 2020 and was expected to take three years to build. The mine cost $1.9 billion to build.
(Kitco News) – Gold prices marked another less-than-scintillating string of trading sessions this week, punctuated by a series of moderate highs and lows on both sides of the $2,500 level to ultimately arrive not far from where they began.
Spot gold kicked off the week trading at $2,504.37, before dipping down to $2,490 per ounce during the Asian trading session, and grinding higher to $2,506 through the European and thinly-traded North American session, with most traders observing the Labor Day holiday.
(Bloomberg) — Gold investors returning from their summer holidays will be eager to see whether the precious metal can sustain its record-breaking rally, or if it will succumb to the curse of September.
Bullion has dropped every September since 2017. Over that period, the average decline has been 3.2% in September – easily the worst month of the year, and far below the monthly average gain of 1%.
(Kitco News) – Commodities are often seen as a safer go-to investment than stocks during times of economic strife as they make up the base materials that fuel the engines of society, but according to Goldman Sachs, the current environment is risky for most popular commodities, and gold offers the best protection against the loss of value.
“We strongly believe in the diversifying role of commodities in investment portfolios based on several structural drivers, including commodities’ hedging role against supply disruptions, not an uncommon occurrence in energy, and the potential for sharp rallies in select industrial metals driven by a combination of long supply cycles and structural green metals demand growth associated with energy security and decarbonization investment,” analysts at Goldman Sachs wrote in their recent commodities update.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/
Industry says provincial government is hindering its efforts
A year after Nova Scotia’s only active gold mine shut down, people in the industry say the provincial government is standing in the way of eager prospectors. Others, including environmentalists and Mi’kmaq, are opposed to any new mines and are hoping the closure marks the end of the province’s long history of gold production.
St Barbara, an Australian firm, is the main player in Nova Scotia’s modern gold rush. The company owns the Touquoy mine, which operated from 2017 to 2023, and the company has a vision for three more open-pit gold mines along the Eastern Shore.
