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Gold and Silver

Barrick Gold executive shuffle sees John Thornton moved to chair – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – February 15, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The power structure at the upper tiers of the world’s second biggest gold company is shifting with the diminution in the role played by long-term Barrick Gold Corp. executive chairman John Thornton. Toronto-based Barrick on Wednesday announced that Mr. Thornton has moved from the role of executive chairman to chairman, a position that carries fewer responsibilities, lower pay, and much more clearly-defined parameters.

Barrick said the change in Mr. Thornton’s role was driven in part by governance considerations. In a regulatory disclosure alongside its latest quarterly earnings, Barrick said that considering Mr. Thornton had achieved key objectives following the company’s 2019 acquisition of Randgold Resources Ltd., this was both the right time for him to transition to chairman, and for the company to do away with the executive chairman role.

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Alaskan tribes seek historic legal recognition from B.C. gov’t for review of mining project – by Caitrin Pilkington (CBC News Canada North – February 07, 2024)

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

Coalition wants to be part of environmental review for Eskay Creek gold mine

An Alaska-based coalition of Indigenous governments has applied to be part of a B.C. environmental review process. Representatives of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission say they’re concerned about the environmental impacts of a proposed project that would see work resume at Eskay Creek, a former open-pit gold mine. The mine, which mining company Skeena Resources hopes to revive, lies about 85 kilometres northwest of Stewart, B.C.

Skeena’s proposal would see workers make use of some of the old mine’s existing facilities, extracting up to three million tonnes of gold and silver ore per year. The proposed mine would be in operation for nine years.

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Copper Giant Freeport-McMoRan Names Kathleen Quirk as CEO – by Kevin Orland (Bloomberg News – February 7, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Freeport-McMoRan Inc., the world’s largest listed copper producer, has named veteran Kathleen Quirk to succeed Richard Adkerson as chief executive officer, a shift set to signal continuity at the top at a time of industry consolidation and heightened focus on metal supply.

The change is effective June 11, the company said. Adkerson, an industry heavyweight who has been at the helm for more than two decades, will remain chairman.

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Canadian-owned mine, seized by Russian mercenaries in Africa, is helping fund the war in Ukraine – by Joseph Coppolino (Globe and Mail – February 2, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A Canadian-owned gold mine in central Africa has emerged as a key source of financing for Russia’s global military operations, leaving its owners fighting for compensation.

Four years after its biggest African gold mine was seized by Russian mercenaries, Vancouver-based Axmin Inc. is seeking a cash settlement and a possible share of the mine’s royalties from the government of the Central African Republic (CAR), which allegedly allowed the mercenaries to grab the mine.

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Activists, Hollywood take down top 50 mining company – by Frik Els (Mining.com – January 31, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

The ranks of the most valuable mining companies in the world were throughly scrambled in 2023 as governments intervened, lithium and nickel prices tumbled, gold hit records and a new listing went ballistic.

At the end of 2023, the MINING.COM TOP 50* ranking of the world’s most valuable miners reached a combined $1.42 trillion, up a healthy, if far from spectacular $48.7 billion over the course of 2023. Mining’s top tier is also worth $330 billion less than in March 2022.

Metal and mineral markets are volatile at the best of times – the nickel, cobalt and lithium price collapse in 2023 was extreme but not entirely unprecedented. Rare earth producers, platinum group metal watchers, iron ore followers, and gold and silver bugs for that matter, have been through worse.

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Rob McEwen Seeks $100 Million for Argentina Copper Mine as Milei Boosts Prospects – by James Attwood and Jonathan Gilbert (Bloomberg News – January 30, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Canadian entrepreneur Rob McEwen is in talks to raise about $100 million for a copper project in Argentina, at a time when miners are betting that deregulation by the new government of Javier Milei will boost prospects for the industry.

His closely-held firm, McEwen Copper Inc., is speaking with existing holders — which include automaker Stellantis NV and a Rio Tinto Group venture — as well as prospective new investors, he said in an interview.

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After the gold rush: The rise and fall of Ontario’s own Eldorado – by Jamie Bradburn (TVO Today – January 30, 2024)

https://www.tvo.org/

You might blink and miss it if you’re travelling along Highway 62 today, but in the late 1860s, thousands went there in hopes of striking it rich

“Eldorado is one of those cities which American genius calls into existence in some emergency of speculation, which rise like a mushroom, sometimes attaining a world-wide celebrity, and often sinking as mysteriously as they have risen.” — “Orlando,” Hamilton Spectator, September 10, 1867

For a brief moment in the late 1860s, central Ontario provided visions of riches for thousands of prospectors, speculators, and others caught up in the province’s first gold rush. While our own Eldorado still exists as a small hamlet you might blink and miss while driving along Highway 62 between Madoc and Bancroft, it has yet to fulfil the dreams that continue to this day.

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OPINION: Franco-Nevada shares offer a reliable dividend plus considerable upside potential – by Balkar Sivia (Globe and Mail – February 1, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Seymour Schulich says “a free option is a terrible thing to give up, and a wonderful thing to own” in his book Get Smarter: Life and Business Lessons. His success as the co-founder to the predecessor to Franco-Nevada Corp. can be credited to optionality, a concept often misunderstood and undervalued.

Two primary types of optionality come into play with a minerals royalty business model like Franco-Nevada’s – price optionality and land optionality. However, there is now a third option associated with Franco-Nevada – the potential reopening of the shuttered Cobre Panama mine option – and investors are currently getting this option for free.

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At this open-pit gold mine in northeastern Ontario, the trucks drive themselves – by Jonathan Migneault (CBC News Sudbury – January 24, 2024)

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

When it reaches full production, Côté Gold mine will have 23 autonomous trucks hauling ore

A new open-pit gold mine in northeastern Ontario has turned to automation — including nearly 300-tonne hauling trucks that drive themselves — in a bid to increase productivity and worker safety. The Côté Gold project near Gogama, halfway between Sudbury and Timmins, is expected to produce around 440,000 ounces of gold a year over the next 18 years.

To extract the precious metal, massive Caterpillar mining trucks will haul more than 30,000 tonnes of ore every day so they can be processed. The mine currently has 14 of the mining trucks, which can carry around 200 tonnes of ore in a single load, and will have 23 when production fully ramps up.

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More than 70 are dead after an unregulated gold mine collapsed in Mali, an official says – by Baba Ahmed (Associated Press – January 24, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — An unregulated gold mine collapsed late last week in Mali, killing more than 70 people, an official said Wednesday, and a search continued amid fears that the toll could rise. Karim Berthé, a senior official at the government’s National Geology and Mining Directorate, confirmed the details to The Associated Press and called it an accident.

There were around 100 people in the mine at the time of the collapse, according to Abdoulaye Pona, president of the Mali Chamber of Mines, who was at the scene.

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Gold Riches Fuel Sudan Militia’s War to Rule Nation, UN Says – by Simon Marks (Bloomberg News – January 21, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group is using large-scale proceeds from gold mining to fund its devastating war against the nation’s army, according to United Nations investigators.

The UN report also described as “credible” allegations that the United Arab Emirates has helped supply the RSF via neighboring Chad, citing local witnesses — something the Gulf nation denies. And it said violence by the RSF and allied militias may have killed as many as 15,000 people in one city in the Darfur region in 2023 — a figure that would outstrip the UN’s previous toll for the entire nine-month conflict.

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Long-Lost Ship Found in the Desert Laden With Gold – by Tasos Kokkinidis (Greek Reporter – January 21, 2024)

https://greekreporter.com/

The discovery of a ship that disappeared five hundred years ago and was found in a desert in southwest Africa with gold coins aboard has been one of the most exciting archaeological finds of recent years.

The Bom Jesus (The Good Jesus) was a Portuguese vessel that set sail from Lisbon, Portugal on Friday, March 7, 1533. Its fate was unknown until 2008 when its remains were discovered in the desert of Namibia during diamond mining operations near the coast of the African nation.

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Kuya Silver taps into high-grade system in historic Cobalt mining camp – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 18, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

What the old silver miners left untouched, Toronto exploration outfit sees opportunity for new deposits

Toronto’s Kuya Silver is discovering new zones of silver veins in its re-exploration of the historic Cobalt mining camp.

High-grade silver is showing up in the assay results from a drilling program the company is running at its Silver Kings Project near the town of Cobalt. Kuya is drilling on the northern part of its 16,000-hectare property, just south of the town, where eight mines produced 60 million ounces of silver between 1905 and 1950 around Kerr Lake.

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Gold miners bring fresh wave of suffering to Brazil’s Yanomami – by Ueslei Marcelino and Anthony Boadle (Reuters – Janaury 18, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

Brazil is losing the upper hand in its battle to save the Yanomami Indigenous people, who are dying from flu, malaria and malnutrition brought into their vast, isolated Amazon rainforest reservation by resurgent illegal miners.

A year after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared a humanitarian crisis among the Yanomami and vowed zero tolerance for illegal mining, environmental enforcers warn that Brazil is jeopardizing last year’s hard-won progress, when about 80% of roughly 20,000 wildcatters were ousted from the Portugal-sized reservation.

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Alamos Gold bumps up the exploration budget at northeastern Ontario mines – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 16, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Consistent gold production, huge upside at Island Gold, Young-Davidson reaps budgetary rewards

Exploration means longevity to a mine’s operating life. Alamos Gold is making substantial investments to extend the successful runs with its two underground operations in northeastern Ontario.

The Toronto gold company’s Island Gold Mine, near Dubreuilville, and the Young-Davidson Mine, outside Matachewan, show no signs of slowing down, and the exploration budget for both underground operations is being boosted this year. Alamos released its fourth-quarter and 2023 year-end production results on Jan. 10, showing record gold production of 529,300 ounces, up 15 per cent from the prior year.

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