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Gold and Silver

Northwest mine developer settles dispute with First Nation neighbour – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – June 21, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Cat Lake First Nation accepts government proposal on access road to First Mining Gold’s Springpole Project

First Mining Gold said a resolution has been reached with Cat Lake First Nation involving a disputed temporary access road to the gold company’s exploration camp in northwestern Ontario that halted construction last winter.

In a June 20 news release, the Vancouver company said Cat Lake accepted a settlement offer on June 17 on a proposal from the provincial Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF), thus ending a judicial review process.

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‘Heap leach failure’ leads to slide at Yukon’s Eagle gold mine, no reported injuries (CBC News North – June 24, 2024)

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

Operations halted at Victoria Gold’s Eagle gold mine

A slide after the failure of a heap leach pad at Victoria Gold’s Eagle mine has halted operations at the site in central Yukon.

In a news release on Monday, Victoria Gold confirmed that operations have been temporarily suspended while the situation is assessed. “At this early stage, it can be confirmed that there has been some damage to infrastructure and a portion of the failure has left containment,” the release said.

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Equinox welcomes First Nations, Ontario Premier for gold pour at new Greenstone mine – by Staff (Canadian Mining Journal – June 20, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Equinox Gold (TSX: EQX; NYSE American: EQX hosted First Nation and Ontario government dignitaries at its Greenstone mine for a gold pour on June 18, 2024, at the mine site near Geraldton, Ont.

The Hon. Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario; the Hon. Greg Rickford, Minister of Northern Development and Minister of Indigenous Affairs and First Nation Economic Reconciliation; Yvette Metansinine, Chief of Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan Anishinaabek; Sonny Gagnon, Chief of Aroland First Nation; Sheri Taylor, Chief of Ginoogaming First Nation; and Judy Desmoulin, Chief of Long Lake #58 First Nation, were in attendance.

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Agnico Eagle looks underground at Detour Lake pit – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – June 20, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Agnico Eagle sizes up $1-billion investment to construct underground exploration ramp, expand mill production

Agnico Eagle is on a path to upsize its Detour Lake mine, near the Quebec border, into a one-million-ounce per year gold producer.

The Toronto gold company has posted a preliminary economic assessment and a new mine plan that involves digging beneath its current open-pit operation to tap into a “high-grade core of mineralization” and follow a gold system that tracks west on its property.

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Sean Boyd built Canada’s largest miner. Now he’s fighting for the nation’s Arctic sovereignty – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – June 20, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

The longtime leader of Agnico Eagle is newly focused on his vision of how industry and government can partner to develop the North

Sean Boyd has spent the past four decades building Toronto-based Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. into Canada’s largest mining company and the world’s second-largest gold miner.

Now, having “retired” in December and transitioned to company chair from executive chair, he is making frequent visits to Ottawa to push the federal government to more aggressively assert sovereignty over the Canadian Arctic, where Agnico has built three mines (two are currently producing) and is planning a fourth project.

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London bullion market drops bid to block U.K. trial over allegations against Barrick mine – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – June 17, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

London’s bullion market association is abandoning a jurisdictional challenge to a lawsuit by Tanzanian claimants, setting the stage for a British trial into allegations that the association is wrongly giving human-rights clearance to gold products from Barrick Gold Corp.’s controversial North Mara mine.

The lawsuit was filed in London in 2022 by relatives of two Tanzanian men allegedly killed by security forces at the North Mara gold mine, but the jurisdictional argument had delayed the trial for nearly a year.

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McEwen Mining invests $30 million in Timmins-area exploration – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – June 18, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Toronto gold company funds next mine in its stable of gold properties

McEwen Mining has raised $30 million to fund exploration and development of the next mine in the project pipeline at its Fox Complex, east of Timmins.

The Toronto gold company closed financing last week through a flow-through share offering, which will be earmarked for exploration drilling and construction of an underground access ramp from the surface to reach gold at its Stock East and West properties.

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Gold looks good again next week as both Wall Street and Main Street turn bullish – by Ernest Hoffman (Kitco News – June 14, 2024)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – After last week’s price action was dominated by Friday’s news from China and the employment report, precious metals markets were squarely focused on inflation data and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate path this week.

After kicking off the week trading at $2,293.70 per ounce during the Sunday evening Asian session, spot gold broke above the $2,300 level about two hours before the North American market open, and that level held throughout the rest of the week’s roller coaster ride.

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Former Air Canada manager wanted in gold heist to turn himself in, lawyer says – by Katie Nicholson (CBC News Toronto – June 14, 2024)

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

Simran Preet Panesar wanted in connection with multi-million dollar airport robbery

The former Air Canada manager wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for his alleged role in the largest gold heist in Canadian history is preparing to turn himself in, according to his lawyer.

Simran Preet Panesar is wanted on charges including theft over $5,000 in connection with the April 2023 theft of more than $20 million in gold from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. Panesar is “very confident in the Canadian justice system,” his lawyer, Greg Lafontaine said in a statement to CBC News. “When this prosecution is over, he will have been absolved of any wrongdoing.”

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Mining and murder: One of the world’s best unsolved crime stories – by Karen Bachmann (Bradford Today – June 8, 2024)

https://www.bradfordtoday.ca/

Sir Harry Oakes was murdered in 1943 and his story is still talked about today

Much has been said recently about the Sir Harry Oakes Chateau in Kirkland Lake. Owned by the Ontario Heritage Trust and operated by the Town of Kirkland Lake, the chateau is a monument commemorating the early days of the Northern Ontario gold rushes, the prospectors who made the discoveries and the men who developed the mines and the communities in the region.

Since 1983, the Museum of Northern History, which originally lived in the assay office of the Wright-Hargreaves Mine, has been housed in Sir Harry’s former abode. The chateau was built in 1929 after Sir Harry’s original Kirkland Lake house was destroyed by fire.

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‘You’re always a drill hole away from an immense discovery’: Pirie – by Nicole Stoffman (Timmins Daily Press – June 10, 2024)

https://www.timminspress.com/

Ontario Minister of Mines excited by new prospects in the region

Timmins MPP George Pirie, Ontario’s minister of mines was engrossed in conversations with three promising junior mining operations in the Prospector’s Tent at the 2024 Canadian Mining Expo on Thursday, June 6. “That’s what excites me about the mining industry,” Pirie told the Daily Press before heading off to give the Ontario State of Mining Address. “You’re always a drill hole away from an immense discovery.”

According to the Ministry of Mines, the Timmins-Porcupine gold camp is the largest producer of gold in Ontario. Last year Ontario allocated $6 million to support junior minors (who explore mining deposits), bringing the province’s total investment in their junior mining program to $35 million since 2021.

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Gold rush grips Asia despite near-record prices – by Ashitha Shivaprasad and Brijesh Patel (Reuters – June 11, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

SINGAPORE, June 12 (Reuters) – Demand for gold in Asia is surging despite prices hovering near the record highs it hit in May, industry officials say, as buyers snap up the metal to hedge against geopolitical and economic uncertainty.

Spot gold is trading a little over $2,300 per ounce, up about 12% year-to-date and only about 6% shy of the record high it hit last month. Lower confidence in other investment options, such as real estate and equities, is also a factor behind the demand for gold, analysts say.

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[Bre-X Gold Scandal] Bay Street in the shade – by Rita Trichur (Globe and Mail – June 11, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

What do phony gold, a Russian godfather and a crypto scam have in common? They all illustrate how The Globe plays an important role in exposing corporate malfeasance

It was surely one of the clumsiest attempts ever to rewrite history. In 1996, Calgary-based Bre-X Minerals Ltd. spent months assuring investors it owned most of Busang, a mammoth gold deposit in Indonesia. But the following February, CEO David Walsh flipped the script.

“Some have mistakenly thought that we somehow owned 90 per cent of this property,” Walsh said at the time. “This was never the practical reality, nor was it ever a basis for the valuation of Bre-X stock.”

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Exploring the mystery of the man embroiled in a Canadian mining company’s billion-dollar gold scam – by Lucy Wallis (CBC News – June 7, 2024)

 

https://www.cbc.ca/

New podcast digs into the history of Bre-X Minerals’s claims of gold deep in the Indonesian jungle

On the morning of March 19, 1997, Michael de Guzman, chief geologist at Canadian mining company Bre-X Minerals, boarded a helicopter flight to travel to a remote jungle site in Indonesia. It was a journey he had made many times before, to a place where he had reported finding huge deposits of gold.

But this time, de Guzman never arrived. Twenty minutes into the journey, a rear door on the left-hand side of the helicopter opened and de Guzman plummeted to his death into the dense foliage below.

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Wall Street throws in the towel on gold after Friday’s rout, Main Street optimism likely a pre-selloff snapshot – by Ernest Hoffman (Kitco News – June 7, 2024)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – This week, precious metals markets saved all their drama for the grand finale. Spot gold opened the week trading at $2,325.26, and spent much of the first four days trading in a relatively narrow $25 range.

The expected 25 basis point rate cuts from the ECB and the Bank of Canada came and went, with spot gold eventually setting its weekly high of $2,386.75 just after midnight on Friday.

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