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Gold and Silver

Gold price sets new high as traders bet on Fed rate pivot – by Staff (Mining.com – July 17, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Gold steadied after setting another record on Wednesday as traders upped their bets on Federal Reserve rate cuts while weighing the uncertain political outlook in the US. Spot gold climbed to an all-time high of $2,483.73 an ounce before paring gains. By 12:45 p.m. ET, it had retreated to $2,455.71 an ounce. US gold futures are also down slightly at $2,460.70 per ounce.

Gold rallied as much as 1.9% on Tuesday to surpass a record high set in May as traders piled into bets for more aggressive rate cuts from the Fed amid increasing signs that inflation is cooling toward the central bank’s target.

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‘Drug Disneyland’ part of lax safety culture in shadow of Victoria Gold accident, workers say – by Blair McBride (Northern Miner – July 17, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

A landslide that’s stopped production at Victoria Gold’s (TSXV: VGCX) Eagle mine in the Yukon may have been inevitable due to the company’s weak approach to safety protocols, current and former employees say.

Individuals who approached The Northern Miner to share their experiences of working at Eagle, told of neglected incidents and repairs, attempts to subvert injury reports and widespread drug and alcohol use in a supposedly dry camp. They asked not to be named to avoid career repercussions.

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Recent spill stirs speculation about future of Yukon mine – by Sara Connors (APTN News – July 16, 2024)

https://www.aptnnews.ca/

Victoria Gold recently indicated it’s facing financial uncertainty

Some environmental advocacy groups are speculating the company behind the Eagle Gold Mine – site of a cyanide spill in Yukon last month – may soon go bankrupt. Mine owner Victoria Gold released a statement on July 12 indicating it is facing uncertainty regarding the future of the mine.

“There can be no assurance that the Company will receive authorizations necessary to restart production,” it said, “or that the Company will have the financial resources necessary to repair damage to equipment and facilities or remediate impacts caused by the incident or restart production.”

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‘We now face guns’: Small-scale miners fear Wagner’s advances in CAR – by Philip Obaji Jr. (Al Jazeera – July 10, 2024)

https://www.aljazeera.com/

Local miners in the Central African Republic face eviction and violence as the Russian group takes over gold and diamond mines.

Beloko, Central African Republic – When Sadock arrived in the northwestern Central African Republic (CAR) town of Koki in November 2022, he thought he had finally found a safe place to live and work. For years, small-scale miners like him have been displaced and forced to relocate over and over again whenever foreigners entered a local area, seized surrounding gold mines and evicted local miners.

“Some of us [artisanal miners] decided to move to Koki because we thought at the time that no one was disturbing artisanal miners in the [northwest] region,” Sadock, who wanted to be identified by only his first name for fear of retribution, told Al Jazeera.

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Yukon gov’t orders Victoria Gold to provide plans aimed at treating, monitoring contaminated water – by Julien Greene (CBC News North – July 10, 2024)

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

Government spokesperson says company submitted plans, which aren’t public

The Yukon government has given Victoria Gold marching orders to deal with toxic chemicals in and around its Eagle mine, following last month’s major failure of a heap leach pad at the site.

A new report written by a government inspector states there’s “reasonable grounds” to believe the company has violated laws that govern water use.

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Wawa gold explorer ready to move beyond assay tampering scandal – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 12, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Red Pine Exploration resets Wawa Gold Project with a clean assay database, new CEO, and hopes for an underground mine

After a drill data tampering scandal in May, Red Pine Exploration said it’s scrubbed its assay library clean and is ready to move on with new CEO to steer its Wawa Gold Project. The Toronto junior miner endured a harrowing two months when it retracted years of reported drill results, dating back to Red Pine’s acquisition of the project in 2014.

The company points the finger of blame at former CEO Quentin Yarie for having selectively altered results coming back from the assay lab, recording them as higher grade than they actually were, and then filing them into the company’s drill database.

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Can Frank Callaghan strike gold twice in B.C.’s Cariboo? – by Nelson Bennett (Business In Vancouver – July 8, 2024)

https://www.biv.com/

The Barkerville prospector-promoter is again staking a claim in a region he helped develop

Frank Callaghan, the colourful and effusive prospector-promoter who assembled B.C.’s Barkerville Gold mine district, is back.

Several years after his company, Barkerville Gold, was acquired by Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. (TSX,NYSE:OR) for $338 million, Callaghan has come out of retirement to promote a new gold project 70 kilometres north of Osisko’s Cariboo Gold mine.

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Yukon minister says cyanide found in creek near mine spill, after firm issues denial – by Ashley Joannou, (Bloomberg/Canadian Press – July 5, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Elevated levels of cyanide have been detected in a waterway after an equipment failure and slide of ore at Victoria Gold’s Eagle Mine last week, the Yukon’s minister of energy, mines and resources said.

A government expert said at the same briefing on Thursday that 300 million litres of cyanide solution had escaped containment in the June 24 incident and there was “significant” risk of a further slide at the mine.

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Canada’s gold exports to China rise, shining through the trade tensions – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – July 9, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Precious metals now represent Ontario’s largest export to the country

China’s demand for gold has risen in the past few years, helping to usher in record-breaking prices and a growing trade relationship with Canada for the shiny metal.

In the past, interest rates in the United States and flows into or out of gold-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were used by many analysts as a quick way to predict the direction of the gold price. In recent years, though, U.S. interest rates rose and gold-backed ETF holdings contracted, which should have softened gold prices, but the price of bullion reached all-time highs, currently at US$2,371 per ounce.

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Ekati boss envisions another 25 years of mining – by Derek Neary (NNSL.com – July 4, 2024)

https://www.nnsl.com/

Agnico Eagle hits new marks at Meliadine and Meadowbank

The Northwest Territories’ economy continues to lean heavily on diamond production, which is waning overall, and, to a lesser extent, rare earths. In Nunavut, gold and iron ore are the backbone of GDP. Here are some noteworthy occurrences from operating mining companies in both territories.

Burgundy Diamond Mines

Burgundy Diamond Mines, owner of Ekati, reported a major jump in carats sold in its first quarter report for 2024. Its 1.32 million carats sold played a central part in the $117 million (U.S.) in revenues generated for the quarter. The total yield was 1.15 million carats, down from 1.18 million a year earlier.

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First Nation concerned Victoria Gold, Yukon government playing down impact of Eagle mine rockslide – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – June 29, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Dawna Hope, chief of the Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation, is particularly worried about possible contamination of drinking water

The First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun is concerned that Victoria Gold Corp. and the Yukon government are soft-pedalling the impact of a suspected large-scale cyanide spill this week at a gold mine in the territory.

Giant piles of cyanide-laced rocks collapsed on Monday at an outdoors heap leach gold processing facility at the Eagle gold mine in central Yukon, triggering a landslide that likely released the toxic chemical into the environment.

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‘Cold War 2.0’ just one reason why gold will outperform silver, base metals in H2 2024 – Bloomberg’s McGlone – by Ernest Hoffman (Kitco News – June 25, 2024)

https://kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – The ramping up of “Cold War 2.0” between China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea against the United States and its allies is a big reason why gold will likely outperform the broader metals complex in the second half of 2024, but there are plenty of other indicators which also support this view, according to Mike McGlone, Senior Commodity Strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence.

“That copper made a new high in 1H and crude oil didn’t may show the tilt of the metal outperforming the fossil fuel in the longer term,” McGlone wrote in his Midyear Metals Outlook on Tuesday. “Yet gold appears to have the upper hand vs. most commodities in 2H.

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A tale of two territorial economies: Generator versus stabilizer – by Derek Neary (NNSL.com – June 27, 2024)

https://www.nnsl.com/

Nunavut’s qamutik hitched to growing mining revenues; NWT accentuates upside of big government

The tale of two territories remains divergent. Nunavut’s 3.4 per cent growth in gross domestic product in 2023 was the strongest in the country, according to initial data from Statistics Canada in May.

The usual players were front and centre. Mining’s share of Nunavut’s GDP continues to expand, reaching a record high 46.7 per cent in 2023, up significantly from 28.5 per cent in 2019. All of that gold and iron extraction — and the related spin offs — represented $1.37 billion for the economy last year, a slight increase from $1.33 billion in 2022.

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Failure of Victoria Gold processing plant in Yukon spurred by rock collapse inside gold mine – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – June 27, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

An internal rock collapse at a gold mine in the Yukon was a major factor in the collapse of a gold processing plant operated by Victoria Gold Corp., The Globe and Mail has learned.

Whitehorse-based Victoria Gold on Monday said that its heap leach pad had failed at its Eagle gold mine, and that part of the infrastructure had breached the containment region, raising the possibility of environmental damage from cyanide leaking into the environment.

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Gold and silver prices struggling to find any kind of momentum – by Neils Christensen (Kitco News – June 25, 2024)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Gold and silver prices continue to churn in the middle of their respective ranges with little momentum on either side of the trade.

Analysts have said that they expect gold and silver to remain range-bound as traders will be hesitant to take any significant positions ahead of Friday’s Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Index.

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