Twitter

Gold and Silver

Gold mining in the Amazon poisoning scores of threatened species – by Gloria Dickie and Jake Spring (Japan Times – August 7, 2023)

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/

LOS AMIGOS BIOLOGICAL STATION, PERU – In a camping tent in the Peruvian jungle, four scientists are crowded around a tiny patient: An Amazonian rodent that could fit in the palm of a human hand.
The researchers placed the small-eared pygmy rice rat into a plastic chamber and piped in anesthetic gas until it rolled over, asleep.

Removing the creature from the chamber, they fitted it with a miniature anesthetic mask and measured its body parts with a ruler before gently pulling hairs from its back with tweezers. The hairs, bundled into a tiny plastic bag, would be carried to a nearby lab at the Los Amigos Biological Station for testing to determine whether the rat is yet another victim of mercury contamination.

Read more

Gold production grinds to a halt at White River mine – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – August 1, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Silver Lake Resources shuttering operations to ‘reset’ mine plan and figure out the area geology

The Australian owners of the Sugar Zone Mine at White River said it’s halting mining operations and hitting the “reset” button.

In its quarterly activities report, Silver Lake Resources announced the mine will be shuttered for the current 2024 fiscal year in order to get a better handle on the geology, to fix a raft of inefficiencies, and come up with a new operating model. The company’s fiscal 2024 year ends next June 30.

Read more

[Historical Profile] The Pike’s Peak Gold Rush and Colorado Territory – by Steven F. Mehls (Legends of America – 1984)

Legends of America The mountains of northeastern Colorado held vast treasures of silver and gold, and it was here that initial discoveries of those metals were made. While fur trappers used the area’s animal wealth, they did not know about or were not interested in the resources beneath the ground. Some mountain men like James …

Read more

Bolivian indigenous group declares local emergency over protected area zoning – by Florence Jones (Mining Technology – July 31, 2023)

https://www.mining-technology.com/

The group has criticised the environmental and social impact of small-scale gold mining operations.

The Indigenous Peoples of La Paz Central Group (Central de Pueblos Indígenas de La Paz, CPILAP) have declared a local state of emergency following an attempt by gold mining cooperatives to modify the zoning of protected areas in Bolivia.

Areas in the north of the La Paz region are rich in gold. Production in the area is largely conducted by small and medium-sized operations known as cooperatives. These enterprises receive certain privileges from the state, including low royalties for the gold they mine.

Read more

Agnico Eagle touts exploration success at Detour and Kirkland Lake – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 28, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Toronto company sets record gold production in second quarter results

The Abitibi Gold Belt of northeastern Ontario and western Quebec continue to be the happy, high grade hunting grounds for Agnico Eagle. The seemingly never-ending gold potential of the Toronto miner’s Detour and Kirkland Lake operations were among the highlighted items in the company’s second quarter results released this week.

Agnico Eagle reported an adjusted profit of $322.4 million this week, up 11 per cent from a year earlier, on the back of record gold production of 873,204 ounces from its mines in Ontario, Quebec, Nunavut Territory, Mexico and Finland. Its all-in-sustaining cost is US$1.150 per ounce.

Read more

Alaska asks US Supreme Court to undo EPA Pebble mine veto (Reuters – July 26, 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

The state of Alaska on Wednesday asked the US Supreme Court to vacate a Biden administration veto blocking Northern Dynasty Minerals’ proposed Pebble copper and gold mining project, arguing the move violated a decades-old land swap deal and the state’s sovereignty.

The lawsuit asked the high court to reverse the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act veto. The agency’s January decision determined the Pebble project would cause large-scale loss and damage to the Bristol Bay watershed, and prohibited the project from dumping mining waste into those waters.

Read more

German police find melted-down gold after theft of Celtic coins, seek rest of treasure – by Geir Moulson (Associated Press/Toronto Star – July 23, 2023)

https://www.thestar.com/

BERLIN (AP) — Investigators looking into the theft of hundreds of ancient gold coins from a German museum have found lumps of gold that appear to have resulted from part of the treasure being melted down, but still hold out hope of finding the rest intact, officials said Thursday.

Four suspects were arrested on Tuesday over the Nov. 22 break-in at the Celtic and Roman Museum in the Bavarian town of Manching in which 483 Celtic coins discovered during an archaeological dig in 1999 were stolen. The coins date to around 100 B.C.

Read more

Brazilian Gold Rush 1693 (Minas Gerais) – A Defining Moment in Brazil’s History – by Liam Williams (Gold Fundamentals.org – June 12, 2023)

https://goldfundamentals.org/

Brief Overview of the Brazilian Gold Rush

In 1693, a significant event unfolded in Brazil, then a Portuguese colony – the Brazilian Gold Rush. This period was more than just a discovery of gold; it was a transformative era that shaped the nation’s destiny.

Ten Facts about the Brazilian Gold Rush

The Discoverer of Gold: It’s believed that the Brazilian Gold Rush began in 1693 when a group of bandeirantes, Portuguese colonial scouts, found gold in a tributary of the Rio Doce. Bartolomeu Bueno de Siqueira is often credited as the initial discoverer.

Read more

Mali catastrophe accelerating under junta rule (Africa Center for Strategic Studies/Defence Web – July 20, 2023)

https://www.defenceweb.co.za/

The threat of militant Islamist groups is spreading to all parts of Mali as the military junta stakes its claim to stay in power indefinitely. The threat from militant Islamist groups in Mali continues to escalate in tempo and scale. With the military junta’s continued exclusion of other domestic political actors and alienation of regional and international security partners, the prospect of Mali’s collapse grows increasingly likely.

Mali is on pace to see over 1 000 violent events involving militant Islamist groups in 2023, eclipsing last year’s record levels of violence and a nearly three-fold increase from when the junta seized power in 2020. Approximately 6 150 km2 of Malian territory were swept up in militant Islamist violence in the first 6 months of 2023, compared to 5,200 km2 in the previous 6 months (an increase of 18 percent).

Read more

33 Incredible Photos From The California Gold Rush, The Mining Craze That Captivated The World – by Kaleena Fraga (All That’s Interesting – January 26, 2023)

Lion Heart Film Works and Mill Creek Entertainment Video Production About California Gold Rush (Above)

https://allthatsinteresting.com/

The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in January 1848 sparked a mass migration to California — but not everyone was lucky enough to strike it rich.

In 1848, a carpenter building a sawmill near Coloma, California, caught a glimpse of something glittering along the banks of the American River. It was gold. And his discovery would launch the California gold rush, a frantic, hopeful, and transformative period in American history.

Seeking riches, hundreds of thousands of people — mostly men, but some women, too — flooded the territory. Borrowing money or using their life savings, they came from the East Coast, Europe, and even China. From roughly 1848 until 1855, they mined for gold across the state, eventually extracting some $2 billion worth of the precious metal.

Read more

Homegrown junior miner finds its footing in the Dryden gold camp – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – July 19, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Dryden Gold takes to the field to probe former mining camp for high-grade mineralization

The search is on for high-grade gold in the Dryden area by a new exploration player in the northwest. Dryden Gold, a privately-held company, plans to enter the market this fall with an initial public offering to raise money to drill a substantial land package, 30 kilometres east of the city near Dinorwic.

The Dryden-based junior miner holds a property package of almost 40,000 hectares on a promising greenstone belt with the potential to harbour high-grade gold. “We have the same kind of rocks you see in the Red Lake camp two hours away,” said company president Maura Kolb in a recent interview with Crux Investor.

Read more

Yukon Gold Miners Just Stumbled Across A Rare Trove Of Hundreds Of Woolly Mammoth Bones – by Kaleena Fraga (All That’s Interesting – Updated February 10, 2023)

https://allthatsinteresting.com/

The fossils belonged to three woolly mammoths that lived some 30,000 years ago. They were likely even part of the same family.

Agroup of miners in Dawson City, Yukon hoped to strike gold. Instead, they came across another sort of treasure. As they sifted through the dirt, they uncovered a stunning trove of woolly mammoth bones.

“It’s probably one of the best days I’ve had working,” said Trey Charlie, who came across the bones alongside another miner at Little Flake Mine. “It’s so much fun to discover these things.” Charlie and his fellow miner discovered the bones while excavating mud from a mine site. As they worked, they uncovered an enormous tusk.

Read more

B2Gold hunting for more assets after Sabina Gold deal – by Felix Njini (Reuters – July 2023)

https://www.reuters.com/

B2Gold Corp said it would consider further opportunities to acquire gold assets to accelerate growth even after its recent purchase of Sabina Gold, which gave it its first project in home country Canada.

B2Gold’s C$1.1 billion ($832.1 million) acquisition of Sabina Gold, completed in April, included Sabina’s untapped mineral-heavy Back River Gold district in Nunavut, Canada, which is expected to start production in 2025.

Read more

Long-lost Ship Found in the Desert Laden with Gold – by Tasos Kokkinidis (Greek Reporter – July 12, 2023)

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.

When it sank in a fierce storm, it was on its way to India laden with treasures like gold and copper ingots. Two-thousand pure gold coins and tens of thousands of pounds of copper ingots were discovered on the Bom Jesus, almost all intact.

Read more

Woman who helped discover the Klondike – by A.J. Roan (North of 60 Mining News – June 30, 2023)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

For over a century, the men of the Discovery enjoyed the reputation, renown, and riches; now, Kate Carmack will be remembered too.

Tales of the original Klondike discoverers that opened the floodgates for tens of thousands of stampeders to make their way North in search of gold often forget a First Woman of the Yukon that supported them through the challenging times of the early 20th century.

A person of quiet stoicism and dutiful integrity, this figure weathered a time where the fairer sex saw anything but fair treatment; she was Shaaw Tláa – a Tagish First Nation woman who was a member of the party that discovered gold in the Klondike in 1896 – or as history recalls her, Kate Carmack.

Read more