Gold and Silver – Page 277 – Republic of Mining

NEWS RELEASE: PRIMERO TO ACQUIRE BRIGUS GOLD AND CREATE A DIVERSIFIED, AMERICAS BASED MID-TIER GOLD PRODUCER

December 16, 2013

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Dec. 16, 2013) – (Please note that all dollar amounts in this news release are expressed in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated.)

Primero Mining Corp. (“Primero” or the “Company”) (TSX:P)(NYSE:PPP)(ASX:PPM) and Brigus Gold Corp. (“Brigus”) (NYSE:BRD)(TSX:BRD) today announced that they have entered into an arrangement agreement (the “Arrangement Agreement”) whereby Primero will acquire all outstanding common shares of Brigus pursuant to a plan of arrangement (the “Arrangement”) to create a diversified, Americas based mid-tier gold producer.

Pursuant to the Arrangement, Primero will acquire each outstanding Brigus common share for 0.175 of a Primero common share (the “Exchange Ratio”). In addition, Brigus shareholders will receive 0.1 of a common share in a newly incorporated company (“SpinCo”) for each Brigus common share as part of the Arrangement. SpinCo will hold Brigus’ interests in the Goldfields project in Saskatchewan and the Ixhuatán and Huizopa projects in Mexico and will be capitalized with approximately C$10 million in cash.

Upon completion of the Arrangement, Brigus shareholders will hold, in aggregate, a 90.1% interest in SpinCo and Primero will hold the remaining 9.9% interest in SpinCo. All outstanding options to purchase Brigus common shares will be exchanged for options to purchase Primero common shares based upon the Exchange Ratio pursuant to the Arrangement.

Now is the time to be focusing on exploration – McEwen – by (Mineweb.com – December 13, 2013)

December 13, 2013

http://www.mineweb.com/

In an interview with Tekoa Da Silva, McEwen Mining CEO, Rob McEwen, discusses the current state of the market and how one should be approaching it.

BULLMARKETTHINKING.COM – During a time of continued stagnation in both share prices and sentiment in the mining sector, Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner of McEwen Mining, was kind enough to share a few comments.

Of particular interest to investors, Rob noted that the next move higher for the sector will likely be driven by a combination of rising gold prices, combined with new discoveries. The mantra of “growth for growth’s sake” is still alive according to Rob, but the companies who implement “big data” within their operations will likely generate better returns for investors going forward.

Here is his full interview commentary with Bull Market Thinking’s Tekoa Da Silva:

Tekoa Da Silva: Rob, I remember during the summer months the team there at McEwen Mining began adding language into company statements which basically read, “We’re looking to put together smart deals with other companies and if you’ve got something in mind, give us a call.”

Black Hills are lined with gold – by Russell Noble (Canadian Mining Journal – December 2013)

December 12, 2013

Russell Noble is the editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication.

Historic U.S. gold belt offers new opportunities for Canadian miners

With a name like “Holy Terror,” one can only speculate what the founders of this mine in The Black Hills of South Dakota were thinking when they named it in the late 1890s?

Even to this day, visitors to the Keystone area of the historic mining communities in the famed Black Hills still wonder where the name came from and why was the mine tagged with such a menacing monicker?

Sketchy historical documents and old wives’ tales* spell out some of the myths behind the name but nevertheless, the mine is real and the name lives on as a legally registered claim with the U.S. Bureau of Mines.

The Holy Terror Mine is located in the Keystone Mining District of the Black Hills, about 35 km southwest of Rapid City and is one of no fewer than a dozen high-grade mines that formed a chain along the historical Keystone gold belt. Mining in the Keystone district dates back to 1874, with the most notable deposit being the famous Homestake Mine which produced nearly 40 million ounces of gold, making it the richest, deepest and most successful gold mine in U.S. history.

NEWS RELEASE: Golden Band To Suspend Mining Operations at La Ronge

December 11, 2013

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, December 9, 2013 – Golden Band Resources Inc. (“Golden Band” or the “Company”) (TSX.V-GBN; OTCQX-GBRIF) reports that its mining operations, including its operations at the Roy Lloyd and Golden Heart mines and the Jolu mill, will be suspended for an indefinite time beginning January 1, 2014.

Further to the Company’s news release dated August 7, 2013 wherein the Company announced recommencement of operations having completed certain upgrades of infrastructure; and despite restructuring operations and significant cost cutting, declining gold prices and lower than anticipated ore grades from both the Roy Lloyd underground mine and the Golden Heart surface mine have hindered the Company’s ability to return to profitability. At the present time, the Company anticipates the shutdown period will be approximately 6 months although there is no assurance when mining operations may resume.

In order to preserve cash, the Company will place the operation into care and maintenance mode and mining and milling operations will be shut down in a systematic manner so that they are available for start-up in as short a time as possible. During the shutdown, the Company will be evaluating all of its options to return the mining operations to profitability. In order to improve our economic performance, the Company intends to engage external consultants with the necessary expertise to develop more effective mining plans. Engineering plans will focus on priority targets, specifically Decade, Komis, Golden Heart and Greywacke.

Silver’s slump even worse than gold – by Lisa Wright (Toronto Star – December 10, 2013)

December 10, 2013

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

“Poor man’s gold” was the worst of the metals bunch in 2013 — and next year still a question mark for precious metals, says PWC annual report.

There’s a silver lining to the beating gold took this year: sidekick silver suffered the worst slump of any other metal in 2013. “Silver has had a terrible year,” says PwC Canada’s year-end mining report Metals Mired in Global Uncertainty.

Known as “poor man’s gold”, the lower-profile metal – used in everything from the auto industry to electronics and jewelry – has tumbled 40 per cent compared to a 30 per cent price drop in bullion, notes the annual study released Monday.

Silver started 2013 trading at $32 per ounce but sank to a low of $18.60 by mid-year. That’s a complete reversal from 2012, when silver was the best-performing metal overall, ranging in price between $26 and $37.

MUST READ: Gold – the race for the world’s most seductive metal – by Frik Els (Mining.com – December 10, 2013)

December 10, 2013

http://www.mining.com/

When it comes to putting together a book on a storied subject like gold, the hardest task for the writer is not gathering the material.

It is which tales to leave out. Matthew Hart, author of Gold: The Race for the World’s Most Seductive Metal, does a splendid job of transporting readers from one defining moment in the history of gold to the next. Hart, author of seven books including Diamond and a veteran journalist who has appeared on CNN and 60 Minutes and contributed to Vanity Fair, Globe & Mail and others, had to pick his targets carefully to fit into Gold’s brisk 233-page narrative.

Hart does not find the space to chronicle India’s ongoing love affair with gold, the Bre-X scam of the late Nineties, or today’s headline-making dispute over Europe’s largest gold project in Romania, but the omissions provide Gold with admirable pacing and cohesion.

He often jumps back and forth hundreds or even thousands of years to create an arc that spans from the first gold jewellery created more than 6,000 years ago through vivid descriptions of how Inca gold transformed the European financial system, the “Nixon shock”, the game-changing creation of gold-backed ETFs and right up to how the centre of the gold universe has shifted to China.

Yorbeau has strong financial backer for Quebec mining projects – by Robert Gibbens (Montreal Gazette – December 6, 2013)

December 10, 2013

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

MONTREAL — The Abitibi region of Northwestern Quebec has produced about 250 million ounces of gold since mining began there almost a century ago and the story is still unfolding despite a steep drop in bullion prices.

Many junior exploration companies have been searching in vain for capital, sending the drilling rigs back home, as investors cite high risks and favour only those projects with adequate reserves and well-defined development plans.

But Montreal’s Yorbeau Resources Inc., with a promising gold property four kilometres south of the historic Horne copper-gold mine at Rouyn-Noranda, is among the more fortunate.

Johannesburg-based Gold Fields Ltd., one of the world’s biggest gold miners and recent buyer of three Barrick Gold mines in Australia for $270 million U.S., has signed an option and joint-venture agreement with Yorbeau.

This winter, it is funding a drilling program on Yorbeau’s property 600 kilometres northwest of Montreal. Rouyn-Noranda is the heart of the Abitibi’s mining industry.

Peter Munk’s lament: Barrick’s spiral started with formation of gold ETF – by Peter Koven (National Post – December 7, 2013)

December 9, 2013

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

Peter Munk admits it: he is not handing over his pride and joy in the best of condition. “If I were to [look at it] as a photograph, a snapshot in the moment of time, I would be unhappy,” he said in a detailed interview in his office this week.

If he’s in the dumps, there’s good reason. This last year has been one of the worst in the history of Barrick Gold Corp., and plenty of the damage was self-inflicted. Fixing up the company during a bear market for gold will be a major challenge for John Thornton, his handpicked successor.

Mr. Munk, 86, announced his retirement from Barrick on Wednesday. The lifelong entrepreneur will finally step aside next spring, paving the way for Mr. Thornton to put his China-influenced stamp on the company.

Mr. Munk’s accomplishments at Barrick are too lengthy to list. In three decades, he took a company that started with US$20-million in the bank and built the world’s biggest gold producer, acquiring several industry stalwarts along the way and beating the Oppenheimers at their own game. Mr. Munk had the time of his life as he built Barrick into a powerhouse.

The man with the key to China: Barrick Gold’s quest to open new doors – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – December 7, 2013)

December 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.

Incoming Barrick Gold Corp. chairman John Thornton has friends in high places in China – including the country’s premier, central bank chief and anti-corruption czar, to name a few.

Now Mr. Thornton’s job is to turn those connections into new business opportunities for the gold miner as it seeks to turn the corner on a string of costly setbacks.

Mr. Thornton’s clout in China is the key reason Barrick founder and outgoing chairman Peter Munk chose him as his successor and persuaded the company’s board to award a $11.9-million (U.S.) signing bonus – an amount that became a flashpoint for shareholders already upset with the company’s performance. Barrick’s stock price has dropped sharply amid nearly $14-billion in writedowns tied to two major projects and a recent $3-billion share issue to help pay down its $15-billion debt load.

Since becoming Barrick’s co-chairman in a June, 2012, management shakeup, Mr. Thornton said he has been laying the groundwork with the Chinese.

Gold fever still burning among fanatics despite plummeting prices – by Paul Luke (The Province – December 8, 2013)

December 9, 2013

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

The yellow-eyed horde that overruns the Vancouver Convention Centre next month will look like 9,000 shiny Gollums escaped from The Hobbit, all chanting “precious metal” in unison.

It’s going to resemble an epidemic of 24-karat zealots, a gang of metallic cheerleaders, an orgy of apocalyptic paranoia. Most of all, it’s going to look like a swarm of golden insects finally come home. Because that’s what these people are – gold bugs.

And Vancouver is the gold-bug capital of the world. Next month, 8,000 to 9,000 gold bugs will storm the Vancouver Convention Centre for two days of what is billed as the world’s largest investment conference dedicated to resource exploration.

These gilded zealots are unfazed by gold’s tumbling price this year. For a gold bug, lower prices simply mean you can buy gold and gold stocks more cheaply, and wait for them to resume their inevitable climb.

From simple gold-buying hobbyists to dogmatics who despise Richard Nixon for taking the U.S. off the gold standard in 1971, the conference will be glittering heaven.

Investors dismayed as new Barrick chairman talks diversification – by Euan Rocha (Reuters U.K. – December 6, 2013)

December 6, 2013

http://uk.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – Barrick Gold Corp investors have taken in stride news that the world’s largest gold producer may consider hedging its gold exposure, but they are roundly panning its plan for more diversification into other commodities.

John Thornton, who was confirmed after markets closed on Wednesday as Barrick’s next chairman, told reporters he would consider revisiting a hedging strategy for selling the company’s output because of the volatility of gold prices.

He also said he thinks Barrick, which already has a copper sideline, is well placed to look more at copper and perhaps at other commodities, once it puts its recent troubles behind it.

That pronouncement stung some Barrick shareholders, many of whom are invested in the Toronto-based miner only because they see a bright future for the gold price.

“It’s like saying to the market, once I recover from all the bad decisions I have made and paid back the mountains of debt I incurred doing it, I am going to go out and do it all over again, but not in the commodity I’m in right now,” said John O’Connell, the head of wealth management firm Davis Rea Ltd.

Mega agreement signed for northern Manitoba gold mine – by Martin Cash (Winnipeg Free Press – December 6, 2013)

December 6, 2013

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

Contract could inject $40M into Monument Bay project

A mineral exploration company trying to develop a gold reserve in northern Manitoba it believes could become “Canada’s next great gold mine” has landed financing that could see it through the development process.

Mega Precious Metals Inc. has signed a deal with Australian-based Pacific Road Resources Fund that could see the mining-focused fund invest as much as $40 million in the Thunder Bay-based exploration company.

The project in question is a gold resource called Monument Bay, located about 60 kilometres north of Red Sucker Lake, which is about 700 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. The company’s exploration work to date estimates the resource could contain 3.6 million ounces of gold.

In February, Mega announced there may also be tungsten deposits. Tungsten is a rare metal with strategic value. Much of the world’s current supply comes from China. Glen Kuntz, CEO of Mega, said the arrangement with Pacific Road is the kind of deal junior mining companies dream about.

From pay package to history of losses, Barrick chair John Thornton has a lot to overcome – by Peter Koven (National Post – December 6, 2013)

December 6, 2013

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

John Thornton admits it: building relationships with Barrick Gold Corp.’s shareholders did not go as smoothly as he planned this year. “I can think of better ways to start,” he quipped in a wide-ranging interview at the Toronto-based miner’s head office on Thursday.

But controversies over pay are the least of his problems now. As Barrick’s next chairman, he becomes leader of a company with falling production, excess debt, a stock price near a 20-year-low, and retained earnings of minus US$4.7-billion to show for its 30-year history.

Turning around this company will be a massive feat, especially given that the falling gold price is putting serious strain on Barrick’s cash flow.

Mr. Thornton, like his predecessor Peter Munk, believes that forming Asian partnerships is key to overcoming Barrick’s challenges and ensuring its future growth. But even he acknowledged that potential partners will have reservations about Barrick after seeing how badly the company screwed up the now-idled Pascua-Lama project.

Barrick Chair John Thornton plots overhaul for post-Munk Era – by Peter Koven (National Post – December 5, 2013)

December 5, 2013

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

John Thornton has laid out his vision for Barrick Gold Corp.: a more diversified mining company that can tackle big projects by accessing capital and partners in Asia. With his leadership, he thinks Barrick is in position to become a world-leading company, not just in gold but in “a range of minerals.”

“That’s where I’d like to see Barrick go,” he told reporters. His comments indicate that the world’s biggest gold producer could undergo a significant facelift in the years to come. Mr. Thornton even suggested that hedging, an extremely unpopular strategy among gold investors and one that previously backfired on Barrick, is something the company should be “carefully following at all times.”

Mr. Thornton was officially declared the Barrick’s next chairman on Wednesday after Peter Munk, 86, retires at next year’s annual meeting.

In a joint meeting with reporters, Mr. Munk talked about how he feels the world’s centre of gravity has shifted from West to East, and that Barrick needs a leader who can access capital and key business leaders in that country.