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Gold and Silver

Gabriel Resources seeks Romanian clarification on key gold mine – by Bertrand Marotte (Globe and Mail – September 9, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Gabriel Resources Ltd. is frantically trying to confirm statements by Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta and other ministers regarding rejection of a draft bill allowing the company to build Europe’s largest gold mine.

The Canadian mining company said Monday that it is “urgently seeking confirmation of the actual statements made and clarification of the impact on the proposed permitting of the Project.”

Media reports on Monday quoted Mr. Ponta as saying that the Rosia Montana gold-and-silver project in a small Romanian town is “case closed” after a week of protests by environmentalists and citizens throughout the country concerned over the use of cyanide in the extraction process.

The project, which Gabriel has been pursuing since the late 1990s, would also involve the razing of four mountains to allow for a giant open pit mine. Backers of the project say the mine would help boost the economically deprived region of northwest Romania and create much-needed jobs.

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Shawn Ryan’s new Yukon vision – by Gwen Preston (Northern Miner – September 4, 2013)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. 

DAWSON CITY, YUKON — Shawn Ryan could have retired. Ryan and his wife, Cathy Wood, are the Yukon prospecting team whose dedicated soil sampling led Underworld Resources to the million-ounce-plus White Gold deposit in 2009, a discovery that sparked a new Yukon gold rush. They also get credit for Kaminak Gold’s (TSXV: KAM; US-OTC: KMKGF) Coffee project, already at 3.2 million oz. and growing, and have at least another dozen soil anomalies on option to explorers across the White Gold district.

After years of scraping by on government grants and prospecting contracts, Ryan and Wood made it to the big leagues when Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) acquired Underworld for $138 million. With that payday, plus a steady stream of option payments, the team could easily have stepped back from the grind and enjoyed their just rewards.

Instead, Ryan and Wood spent the last 18 months figuring out how to make exploring for gold in the Yukon less expensive and more reliable. “I could see the crash coming and I could see there was so much money being wasted up here,” Ryan says in an interview in Dawson City. “So we took a step back and thought, ‘If we’re going to keep this momentum alive, we need to add something new — we need to figure out some simple new tools that will increase drilling confidence without costing millions.”

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EXPLORING for GOLD: Lac Seul holds shares in junior explorer AurCrest Gold; Webequie part owner of Cyr Drilling – by Bryan Phelan (Onotassiniik – Fall 2013)

 Onotassiniik is Wawatay’s new mining quarterly.

Ian Brodie-Brown’s first contact with Lac Seul First Nation stood out. Then CEO of Tribute Minerals, a junior exploration company, Brodie-Brown hadn’t just sent a letter to the band. He had sent it voluntarily. “He was the first guy that I’d ever seen – the first company representative – approach a First Nation without being told to by the Crown,” recalls Chris Angeconeb, Lac Seul’s lands and resources co-ordinator at the time.

The introductory letter arrived almost seven years ago. Exploring for base metals at Confederation Lake, in Lac Seul’s traditional territory, Tribute was “basically trying to drum up support for a micro-mine with small output; a little underground project,” Angeconeb says.

Brodie-Brown says he expected new provincial rules for mineral exploration and consultation with First Nations would come eventually (regulations for exploration plans and permits, under a modernized Mining Act, finally took effect this spring). Instead of waiting, “We just decided to take a proactive role,” he says.

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REFILE-UPDATE 5-S.African gold miners’ union offers some compromise as strike bites – by Xola Potelwa (Reuters India – September 5, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

WESTONARIA, South Africa, Sept 4 (Reuters) – A strike for higher pay hit production at most of South Africa’s gold mines on Wednesday, but the main union behind the stoppage said it was willing to relax some of its demands.

The stoppage, called by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), began at the evening shift on Tuesday, with many miners refusing to go underground.

Producers grouped in the Chamber of Mines said output at 16 of the 23 mines currently involved in talks was partially or severely affected on Wednesday morning. The operators of the mines include South Africa’s main producers AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony Gold and Sibanye Gold.

“The majority of Harmony’s operations have been severely affected, although all essential services personnel are at work,” the company said in a statement.

However, the NUM, which represents two thirds of the country’s gold mine workers, has already opened the prospect of a compromise, saying it was prepared to lower its pay increase demands for some specific employee categories.

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U.S. hedge fund demands breakup of Barrick, additions to its board – by Canadian Press (Vancouver Sun – September 5, 2013)

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

A U.S. hedge fund is making a renewed call for changes at Barrick Gold, calling for the breakup of the company and the addition of a mining engineer and geologist to its board.

Mike Morris, principal and founder of Two Fish Management, said Wednesday that there is no compelling reason for Barrick to own a worldwide conglomerate of gold mines. “The market is essentially assigning a massive conglomerate discount to the company,” he said Wednesday.

Since Two Fish first wrote to Barrick demanding changes in April, the gold miner has agreed to sell off its Barrick Energy subsidiary in a series of deals worth a total of $455 million and three high-cost mines in Western Australia to South Africa-based miner Gold Fields Ltd. for $300 million.

But Morris and Two Fish wants more and to that end, the fund has produced a new 78-page presentation detailing the changes it thinks are needed. “This is Canada’s company and this is the world’s largest gold-mining concern and it doesn’t have a geologist or an engineer on its board,” he said.

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Gabriel Resources’ Rosia Montana gold mine rests in Romanian parliament’s hands – by Peter Koven (National Post – September 5, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

After years of delays and political turbulence, Gabriel Resources Ltd. may finally be on the cusp of building Europe’s biggest gold mine.

Gabriel’s saga has been one of the longest and most disappointing in Canada’s gold sector. The Whitehorse-based company has been trying to develop the Rosia Montana gold project in Romania since the 1990s, but has faced vicious opposition from anti-mining activists, which spread rhetoric against the project. Successive governments were reluctant to give Gabriel the go-ahead amid such a heated environment.

Things have changed. Current Prime Minister Victor Ponta won a convincing victory in last year’s election, and has majority control over parliament. That has allowed him to be far more aggressive than his predecessors in approving large capital projects that can boost the economy.

One of his priorities is Rosia Montana. Last week, his government approved a draft law that sets out a course for development of the mine. It now needs to be approved by parliament.

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South African gold miners ease some wage demands as strike slams troubled industry – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – September 4, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

JOHANNESBURG — The vast majority of South Africa’s biggest gold mines have been severely affected by a national strike that began on Tuesday night by nearly 80,000 mine workers.

Of the 23 gold mines targeted by the strike, 17 have been forced to halt operations or have less than half of their workers on duty, according to reports on Wednesday as the strike entered its second day.

There was a glimmer of hope on Wednesday as the leading mine worker union reportedly offered to compromise by cutting its wage demands below its original call for a 60 per cent wage increase, although the details of its new demand were unclear. The seven gold mining companies – including AngloGold Ashanti and Harmony Gold – have insisted that they cannot offer anything more than a 6.5-per-cent wage increase.

The strike, expected to cost the South African economy about $60-million a day, has dealt another blow to a beleaguered industry that already suffers from rising costs and shrinking production. Some analysts predict that it could become the costliest strike in the country’s history. With the two sides far apart, a lockout is also possible.

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Europe’s Biggest Planned Gold Mine May Face Romanian Referendum – by Irina Savu (Bloomberg News – September 2, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Romania’s President proposed a vote on allowing development of Europe’s largest gold mine project following protests against technology that made the country home to one of the continent’s worst environmental disasters.

A day after thousands of demonstrators rallied against the use of cyanide in gold mining, President Traian Basescu said he may call a referendum next year on the Rosia Montana mine. That may delay the project, for which Canada-based Gabriel Resources Ltd. (GBU) said it could “hopefully” receive approval by November.

The rallies followed the government’s unveiling last week of a draft law to raise the state’s stake in the project, rekindling anger over the 2000 Baia Mare spill. Listed by the United Nations Environment Programme alongside Chernobyl as one of Europe’s major human-caused disasters, the spill happened when a dam holding back mine debris burst, flooding the Somes, Tiza and Danube rivers with tens of thousands of tons of cubic meters of cyanide-contaminated water.

“The biggest scare about the Rosia Montana mine is the cyanide process, which should have been discussed with experts,” Basescu said on newspaper Adevarul’s website. He said “society is rightfully reacting to this” because Romania had suffered from the Baia Mare spill.

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Lancaster Co. proposal could affect future gold mining – by Sammy Fretwel (Herald On Line.com – September 2, 2013)

http://www.heraldonline.com/

That’s why plenty of people are watching Romarco Minerals Inc. these days. The fate of gold mining in South Carolina is tied to an ambitious plan by the company to offset wetlands damage at a huge mine it plans near Kershaw – and how well Romarco navigates the environmental permitting process, observers say.

More than 20 years after one of the state’s most prolific gold mines closed, Romarco Minerals Inc. of Canada is trying to persuade state and federal regulators to let it dig up and substantially expand the Haile mine in Lancaster County.

To do that, Romarco must convince regulators that the company has done all it can to avoid unnecessary damage to wetlands, streams, rivers and groundwater – and Romarco must offer compensation for the environmental impacts the mine will have. The company recently offered a wetlands offset package that could cost it $32 million.

Romarco’s efforts are expected to guide future company work in South Carolina, as well as those of other gold-exploration companies on whether to dig new mines. Some of Romarco’s competitors have been searching for gold in the Carolina Slate Belt, a rocky area that in South Carolina is largely between Columbia and Charlotte.

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Fears grow about Reko Diq Gold mines…Baloch senator says deal offered to China; government denies – by Shaheen Sehbai ([Pakistan] The News International – August 28, 2013)

http://www.thenews.com.pk/

WASHINGTON: While major world mining and investment companies are preparing to invest big time, big money in Balochistan, specially in the mining sector, suspicions and doubts that the biggest gold mine of Reko Diq may be quietly handed over to China as part of the growing economic ties are also coming to the fore.

Official and business circles have been wondering for some time what will happen to the multi-hundred billion dollar Reko Diq gold and copper mines after the world’s largest mining company, Barrick Gold of Canada, was thrown out of Pakistan by the Supreme Court of Pakistan during the PPP regime.

But after the recent visit of high level government delegation to China and a flurry of quick MoUs and super-paced exchange of visits, an important leader from Balochistan, former Senator Sana Baloch has alleged publicly that the government has promised these mines to China in a year or so.

While the Government leaders strongly denied any deal or any promise made during the Beijing visit, an official Pakistan Government statement assuring that the Reko Diq mines will be given to the highest bidder in an international tender is still awaited.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH NEWS RELEASE: Tanzania: Hazardous Life of Child Gold Miners AUGUST 28, 2013


http://www.hrw.org/home

Government, World Bank, Donors Should Address Child Labor in Mines

Click here for full report: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/tanzania0813_ForUpload_0.pdf

(Dar Es Salaam) – Children as young as eight years old are working in Tanzanian small-scale gold mines, with grave risks to their health and even their lives, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Tanzanian government should curb child labor in small-scale mining, including at informal, unlicensed mines, and the World Bank and donor countries should support these efforts.

The 96-page report, “Toxic Toil: Child Labor and Mercury Exposure in Tanzania’s Small-Scale Gold Mines,”describes how thousandsof children work in licensed and unlicensed small-scale gold mines in Tanzania, Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer. They dig and drill in deep, unstable pits, work underground for shifts of up to 24 hours, and transport and crush heavy bags of gold ore. Children risk injury from pit collapses and accidents with tools, as well as long-term health damage from exposure to mercury, breathing dust, and carrying heavy loads. A 17-year-old boy who survived a pit accident told Human Rights Watch, “I thought I was dead, I was so frightened.”

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NEWS RELEASE: A Letter from Brigus Gold’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

HALIFAX, Aug. 27, 2013 /CNW/ – (NYSE MKT: BRD; TSX: BRD)

Dear Fellow Shareholders:

Given the recent volatility of the precious metals markets, I would like to share my perspective on what’s occurred in the sector, while reviewing our progress at Brigus and outlining our strategy and outlook for the quarters ahead.

The second quarter saw a precipitous drop in precious metal prices, including gold’s one day dip of ~9% in April. Lower gold prices led to reduced financial results for gold mining companies compared to the previous quarter, and a significant reduction in the valuation and equity prices for virtually all gold mining companies, including Brigus.

Since hitting a 46 month low of $1,179 on June 27th, spot gold prices have now rebounded to the $1,400 level and equity prices are also beginning to recover. Investor sentiment for the sector, having reached extreme negative levels, is in the process of reverting to a more reasonable range.

Regardless of the short term volatility over the past few months, we at Brigus remain steadfast in our belief that gold will continue to play a very important role as a store of value for investors. We believe high quality gold mining companies will prove to be a worthwhile investment for years to come.

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Centerra reports ‘progress’ in talks over Kumtor mine in Kyrgyzstan – by Peter Koven (National Post – August 24, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

TORONTO – After months of political turmoil, Centerra Gold Inc. may finally be closing in on a resolution to one of the mining industry’s most volatile disputes. Reports out of Kyrgyzstan suggest the government and Centerra are nearing agreement on a joint venture to operate the Kumtor mine. The Kyrgyz prime minister said they are discussing a 50-50 split of the project, according to one report.

Centerra cautioned that no deal has been reached, and warned investors not to speculate on the potential terms of a settlement. However, it indicated that talks with the government over its flagship mine are going well. The two sides have been discussing a transaction that would convert the government’s 32.7% stake in Centerra into a direct stake in the project.

“Centerra believes that progress has been made in those discussions,” the company said in a statement Friday. A settlement would be a relief for investors, who have feared the prospect of outright nationalization of Kumtor for more than a year.

The trouble started in June of last year, when a Kyrgyz parliamentary commission released an 800-page report on Kumtor that accused Toronto-based Centerra of massive environmental destruction.

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Environmental review wraps up for New Prosperity mine (Canadian Press/CBC News Business (August 23, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/

Open pit gold and and copper mine to be located 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake

It’s the tenth largest undeveloped gold-copper deposit in the world — at least nine-million wedding rings’ worth — and for half a century since its discovery, the deposit has remained buried among the pristine lakes and mountains of British Columbia’s wild Chilcotin region.

Opponents of a billion-dollar plan to develop the site want it to stay that way. The company behind the proposal that has already been rejected once says it has a new plan that will save a lake of cultural significance to First Nations — contrary to the original plan — and put millions of dollars into provincial coffers.

Public hearings on the New Prosperity mine proposal wrap up today following five weeks of hearings in nearby communities, and the proponent and opponents remain deeply divided.

“What it is we propose to do is not unusual. It’s an engineering exercise, not a science experiment,” John McManus, senior vice-president of operations for Taseko told the panel on the opening day of the latest set of hearings.

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Resource Nationalism Speech – by Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland (Johannesburg – August 15, 2013)

http://www.goldfields.co.za/

This speech was give by Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg on
15 August 2013.

Thank you and good evening, it is certainly good to be here and I’m glad that we’ve mentioned the fact that it’s the eve of the anniversary of the Marikana tragedy. I guess some of the things I’m going to talk about tonight are probably going to be appropriate in the context of that terrible tragedy of over a year ago.

A lot of debate has been raised on resource nationalism. It has been rated the number one risk in various surveys. I guess what is interesting is maybe that risk has been somewhat overshadowed of late by the decline in metal prices across the mining industry, which in of itself I think presents another challenge.So the reason that we’ve decided to look at this topic is to spark some debate. And I think there are going to be a lot of different views on resource  nationalism. What is it really? Is it good? Is it bad? And the other thing I just want to highlight is this is not a South Africa centric presentation.

Many of the problems that we’re currently experiencing in the South African mining industry are not unique to South Africa. The same issues present themselves around the world.

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