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Gold and Silver

Gold mine to benefit Sudbury, North: Company [Iamgold] – by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – April 12, 2013)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

A proposed gold mine in Gogama will see a lake in the area lost for the 15 years the mine is expected to operate, representatives from Iamgold Corporation told city councillors in Sudbury this week.

“(We) will lose Cote Lake during the life of the mine, and until the pit is filled, that water will be gone,” said Steven Woolfenden, Iamgold’s manager of Corporate Environmental Assessment and Approvals.

The Cote Gold open pit mine is still in the early stages of the government’s approval process, but the company hopes to start construction in 2015 and open the mine in 2017.

An estimated 1,200 people will work at the mine, 170 km from Sudbury, in the construction phase and 500 once the mine is up and running. “We’re excited to have this potential opportunity in Ontario, Cote Gold,” said Woolfenden. “We’re really hoping to establish ourselves in this region.”

Iamgold has mining operations in South America, Africa and Quebec. Cote Gold was previously owned by Trelawney Mining. The company was bought by Iamgold last June for $608 million.

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Mountain of Gold Sparks Battles in Greek Recovery Test – by Jonathan Stearns (Bloomberg.com – April 9, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

A mountain of gold has divided Aristotle’s birthplace in northern Greece. Violent opposition to Eldorado Gold Corp. (ELD)’s $500 million project to develop the site prompted Mayor Christos Pachtas to flee the county’s seaside capital for his home village in the highlands. In some communities, locals shun each other because of the planned mine. Torched heavy equipment on the mountaintop area cordoned with barbed wire testifies to the dispute.

For Greece’s devastated economy, the fight is more than a conventional standoff between the forces of development and environmental protection. Authorities’ ability to navigate the conflicting demands in the nation’s biggest-ever metals project provides a telling clue to how soon Greece emerges from six years of recession, a pair of bailouts and the biggest sovereign debt restructuring ever.

“This dispute is very significant because it will determine whether Greece can attract foreign investments in the future,” George Tzogopoulos, a research fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy in Athens and the author of a book on media coverage of the Greek debt troubles, said by telephone on April 4. “This is the type of project that the country needs to overcome the economic crisis.”

Since 2008, Greece’s gross domestic product has shrunk by about a fifth and unemployment has soared to a record 27 percent, underscoring the urgency of investments like Vancouver- based Eldorado’s. Overall in Greece, Eldorado plans to invest more than $1 billion.

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Barrick’s woes in Chile deepen as Pascua Lama is suspended – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – April 11, 2013)

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.

Barrick Gold Corp. has suspended construction in Chile on its massive Pascua-Lama gold and silver project, responding to a court order that further delays work on a mine already a year behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.

Barrick stock fell 8.6 per cent to a new 52-week low of $24.81 per share on Wednesday after the appeals court said Pascua-Lama should be halted amid allegations the project is polluting precious groundwater and rivers in the Atacama desert region, one of the driest areas on earth.

The allegations have not been proven in court, but they mark the latest roadblock to a project that has been more than a decade in the making, enduring intense environmental scrutiny that has reverberated from Santiago to Toronto.

The complaints are also another instance of communities demanding more control over their environment amid building resource nationalism.

Less than a year ago, Barrick raised the development price tag on Pascua-Lama to more than $8-billion, compared to estimates of around $3-billion when the company launched the project in 2009. A significant portion of higher costs were attributed to a year-long delay in building the mine.

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Mackenna’s Gold – (Mining Movie – 1969)

 

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Mackenna’s Gold is a 1969 western film directed by J. Lee Thompson, starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas, Camilla Sparv, and Julie Newmar. It was photographed in Super Panavision 70 by Joseph MacDonald, with original music by Quincy Jones.

The film is based on the novel of the same name by Heck Allen using the penname Will Henry, telling the story of how the lure of gold corrupts a diverse group of people. The novel was loosely based on the legend of the Lost Adams Diggings, crediting the Frank Dobie account of the legend (Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver) in the Author’s Note.

Plot

An old legend tells of a fortune in gold hidden in the “Cañon del Oro,” guarded by the Apache spirits. Along with several others, a man named Adams found it when he was a young man, only to have the Indians capture and blind him, leaving him stranded in the desert after killing his companions. Years later, Marshal MacKenna (Gregory Peck) wounds an old Indian shaman named Prairie Dog (Eduardo Ciannelli) who tried to bushwhack him; Prairie Dog subsequently dies, despite MacKenna’s attending to him.

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Gold – Full Movie (Mining Movie – 1974)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Gold is a 1974 thriller film starring Roger Moore and Susannah York and directed by Peter R. Hunt. It was based on the 1970 novel Gold Mine by Wilbur Smith. Moore plays Rod Slater, General Manager of a South African gold mine, who is instructed by his boss Steyner (Bradford Dillman) to break through an underground dike into what he is told is a rich seam of gold.

Meanwhile he falls in love with Steyner’s wife Terry, played by York. The film was only released as part of a double bill in the United States and is nowadays notable only as a period piece, being part of a propaganda effort to make Apartheid South Africa look ‘glamorous’ to European and American audiences.

Plot

The film begins with a tunnel collapse at the Sonderditch mine, in a scene that establishes the courage of Slater and his chief miner, ‘Big King’, and the bond of trust between them. This is contrasted with the contempt with which some other white managers treat the black miners.

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OMA NEWS RELEASE: Powering for the future: New company connects benefits to communities, mining company and the environment

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Ontario Mining Association member Goldcorp and 13 First Nations in Northwestern Ontario have formed a partnership to create Wataynikaneyap Power. This new electricity company plans to develop a transmission line to connect remote First Nations to the provincial grid and provide more reliable power to communities and companies already linked to Ontario’s electrical network.

“We have partnered with Goldcorp to establish Wataynikaneyap Power with the goal of First Nations eventually owning 100% of this important infrastructure that will better serve our communities,” said Margaret Kenequanash, representing the 13 First Nations partners in Wataynikaneyap Power. “I look forward to the day we can connect our communities to the provincial power grid – it is safe, reliable and provides cleaner energy.”

“Wataynikaneyap Power is an example of how industry and First Nations can work together on projects that are good for the economy and the environment while benefitting communities in the region for years to come,” said Gil Lawson, Mine Manager for Goldcorp’s Musselwhite Operation. Goldcorp plans to facilitate the completion of phase one of the project and leave the Wataynikaneyap Power partnership once a long-term transmission partner is on board.

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NEWS RELEASE: 13 First Nations and Goldcorp incorporate new electricity transmission company


Northwestern Ontario transmission project will replace diesel generation and provide cleaner, more sustainable power to First Nation communities and industry

THUNDER BAY, ON, April 4, 2013 /CNW/ – Thirteen First Nations and Goldcorp today announced they have signed an agreement formally incorporating Wataynikaneyap Power. This new company is developing a transmission line that will connect remote First Nations communities currently powered by diesel generation, and will provide more reliable power to local communities and industry.

“We have partnered with Goldcorp to establish Wataynikaneyap Power with a goal of First Nations eventually owning 100% of this important infrastructure that will better serve our communities. I look forward to the day we can connect our communities to the provincial power grid – it is safe, reliable and provides for cleaner energy,” said Margaret Kenequanash, representing the 13 First Nations partners in Wataynikaneyap Power.

The company is proposing a single project with a two-phase development process. The first phase, a 300-km transmission line, will reinforce electricity transmission into Pickle Lake, including servicing Goldcorp’s Musselwhite mine. The second phase will extend transmission north of Pickle Lake to service 10 remote First Nation communities.

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Gold and silver – one step forward, two steps back: Plus ça change – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – April 4, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Cyprus gave a shortlived boost to gold and silver prices but they have since declined sharply even though the Eurozone continues to face serious problems and tensions are rising in the East. What is going on in the markets?

LONDON (MINEWEB) – A perhaps misleading perception that the immediate Eurozone crisis regarding Cyprus has been brought under control led initially to stagnation in the gold price, and subsequently a sharp fall, with a number of observers feeling that prices could yet fall further quite dramatically in the short to medium term with any upwards momentum absent for the time being – or until the next crisis!

Silver has, perhaps, been even more disappointing, slipping back below the $27 mark and to a gold silver ratio of around 58. It seems that yet again bad news is not reflected in positive reaction in the precious metals sector.

One suspects that Eurozone economics are in a sufficiently difficult state that something similar to the Cyprus event could crop up again at any time, but it is also apparent that the EC is desperate not to allow the single currency experiment to falter and die and is prepared to do whatever it takes to prevent any country, however small, from being forced to exit from European Monetary Union.

Those countries which use the Euro are too heavily entwined within the system to give it up willingly, even if it would mean they would be much more in control of their own destinies if they could operate with their own currencies and, if necessary, devalue their way out of the principal problems.

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INSIGHT – Young nation Kyrgyzstan fights over gold at top of the world – by Dmitry Solovyov (Reuters India – April 3, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

KUMTOR, Kyrgyzstan – (Reuters) – In an impoverished young nation with a habit of overthrowing its rulers, the future now balances on a mountain of gold at the top of the world, where the air is so thin collapsing visitors may be rushed to a pressure chamber for oxygen.

After two revolutions in eight years, nationalists in Kyrgyzstan are threatening to return to the streets to topple another government unless it expropriates the Kumtor goldmine, a treasure they say was sold off too cheaply to foreigners.

Parliament in the remote ex-Soviet Central Asian state has set a deadline of June 1 for the government to renegotiate – or repudiate – a deal struck in 2009 with Canadian firm Centerra Gold (CG.TO) to operate the mine.

A state commission said the Canadian firm has been paying too little to run the mine, and accused it of inflicting environmental damage leading to $457 million in fines.

Three lawmakers were convicted last week of trying to seize power in the country by force after leading demonstrations late last year demanding the mine be renationalised.

Prime Minister Zhantoro Satybaldiyev, who took his job last September as a technocrat pledging to alleviate poverty in the country of 5.5 million, says compromise is vital and banishing Centerra would dash hopes of winning more foreign investment.

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Giant Mine to cost billions to cleanup and look after for thousands of years – by Jack Caldwell (Mining.com – April 3, 2013)

http://www.mining.com/

The news wires are alive with reports of a billion dollar estimate for remediating the Giant Mine in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Here is an extract from one report:

Documents obtained by northern environmentalists show the government expects the cost of cleaning up the Giant Mine just outside Yellowknife to be nearly a billion dollars – perhaps the largest single environmental cleanup in Canada and paid for entirely by taxpayers. Initial estimates for safely dealing with the huge site, which includes a toxic smorgasbord of buildings, tailings ponds and a quarter-million tonnes of arsenic stored underground, were about $488 million. A federal progress report on the project says costs have increased as more has become known about the scale of the problem.

“The increase in estimated costs occurred as a result of the normal progression through the preliminary phases of the remediation project (… increased site information and detail obtained over time),” the report says. Rising labour and equipment costs are also part of the problem. So is the current state of the mine, which is so bad that emergency measures need to be taken this summer before large amounts of arsenic start escaping from collapsing buildings. The official price tag of $903 million could get higher yet.

The 2010 764-page Giant Mine Remediation Project Developer’s Assessment Report is available at this link:

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Banro Leading Miners in Worst Drop Since 1990 – by Eric Lam & Christopher Donville (Bloomberg.com – April 2, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Canada’s raw-materials stocks are forecast to extend their longest losing streak in more than 20 years, as companies such as Banro Corp. (BAA) and Teck Resources Ltd. (TCK/B) struggle with falling metals prices and concern China’s growth will slow.

The Standard & Poor’s/TSX Materials Index of 60 stocks posted its fifth monthly drop in March, the longest string of declines since April 1990. The index has plunged 18 percent over that period, led by a 62 percent slump in gold miner Banro. Teck, the country’s largest diversified miner, has tumbled 22 percent this year.

Producers of raw materials from copper to coal and gold have slid amid concerns China is settling into a slower growth path, mining companies face escalating costs and gold’s status as a safe haven is diminishing as the U.S. economy gains momentum.

“China’s economy is growing, just not fast enough, and it’s hard to see a lot of upside for mining and materials companies,” John Stephenson, a fund manager with First Asset Management, said April 1 by phone from Toronto. Stephenson helps manage C$2.8 billion ($2.8 billion), including Teck shares.

Growth in China, Canada’s second-biggest trading partner, grew at an average quarterly pace of 8.5 percent from 2011 to 2012, down from 9.4 percent in the previous eight quarters. Growth fell to a three-year low of 7.4 percent in September, before rebounding to 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.

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Gold ‘Bubble’ Seen Turning to Bear Market by SocGen on Recovery – by Nicholas Larkin (Bloomberg.com – April 2, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Gold is in a “bubble” after the best annual run in at least nine decades and will head into a so-called bear market as a stronger U.S. economy helps increase interest rates and cut bullion demand, Societe Generale SA said.

Investors are unlikely to raise gold holdings because inflation has remained low, signs that the economy is improving may spur the Federal Reserve to curb stimulus and the dollar has strengthened, the bank said today in a report. Bullion is down 4.6 percent this year after 12 straight annual gains and would need to drop another 4.8 percent to mark the common definition of a bear market.

Prices fell this year as Fed policy makers debated the pace of asset purchases. Billionaire investor George Soros, who called bullion the “ultimate asset bubble” in 2010, cut his stake in the biggest gold exchange-traded product by 55 percent in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in February that bullion’s cycle has probably turned as the U.S. economy recovers and Credit Suisse Group AG has said the metal is unlikely to return to the 2011 record of $1,921.15 an ounce.

“The gold price is, in our view, in bubble territory,” Societe Generale analysts including London-based Robin Bhar wrote in the report. “Rising interest rates, driven in part by a positive view of the U.S. economy with an associated improvement in the dollar, could be the perfect storm to start a longer-term bear market.”

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Yellowknife’s Giant Mine cleanup costs to double – CBC News North (March 27, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/north/

New documents show arsenic-contaminated site will take close to $1B to remediate

n the Northwest Territories, new documents show the cleanup costs for Yellowknife’s arsenic-contaminated Giant Mine site will be close to a billion dollars.

That’s double what officials with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development have said it would cost to remediate the former gold mine. The cleanup plan is currently in the final stages of an environmental review.

Kevin O’Reilly is with Alternatives North and was one of the people who pushed for an environmental assessment of the cleanup plan. He obtained the new information through an access to information request.

The documents show the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development revised its cost estimate in March of 2012 — six months before public hearings on the cleanup. But during the public hearings, federal officials never said they expected the cleanup to cost that much. Officials repeatedly said it would cost half that amount.

The document attributes the jump in price to a combination of inflation, additional maintenance, as well as fast-tracking some of the work to stabilize the site. O’Reilly questions why they’re not being more transparent.

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Who’s next? Munk focuses on Barrick’s big question – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – March 27, 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.

Peter Munk, the iconic chairman of Barrick Gold Corp., is looking for a successor to the one person who has been a constant during the company’s tumultuous 30-year history: himself.

In a message to shareholders in the company’s annual report for 2012, Mr. Munk said he has been working with directors to find someone with the drive, ambition, global experience and contacts to lead the board, and strongly hinted that his co-chairman, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive John L. Thornton, might be that man.

“A vital prerequisite for the future is a new generation of qualified and developed leadership,” Mr. Munk said in the letter. He did not provide a timeline for succession but lauded the achievements of Mr. Thornton. His appointment as co-chairman last year was part of a larger corporate shakeup that also saw the instalment of a new CEO, Jamie Sokalsky.

“It is indeed our great fortune that John has reached a point in his spectacular career at the same time when our need for someone of his exceptional qualifications, credentials and experience also reached a decision point,” Mr. Munk said.

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Mongolia investment slump pushes govt to move on new rules – by Sonali Paul (Reuters India – March 27, 2013)

http://in.reuters.com/

MELBOURNE, March 27 (Reuters) – Mongolia is starting to take steps aimed at arresting a slide in investment in its crucial mining sector, looking to curb uncertainty over regulations that has been blamed for stalling copper and coal projects. Even so, miners remain cautious.

Regulatory concerns peaked last month when Rio Tinto threatened to delay the start-up of the $6.2 billion Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine, until it resolves a dispute with the government over their investment agreement.

The mine is due to start selling copper in June and could make up a third of Mongolia’s economy by 2020, producing 425,000 tonnes of copper and 460,000 ounces of gold a year.

“At the higher echelons…there’s at least the recognition that something’s wrong and needs to be fixed,” said Elisabeth Ellis, Ulan Bator-based partner at law firm Minter Ellison, which advises mining and mining services firms.

Foreign direct investment dropped 17 percent to $3.9 billion in 2012, according to the Bank of Mongolia’s balance of payments, coinciding with a string of moves by the government that deterred investments in copper and coal.

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