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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Alamos Gold to acquire Quebec-focused junior Orford Mining in all-share deal – by Bruno Venditti (Northern Miner – January 15, 2024)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Alamos Gold (TSX: AGI; NYSE: AGI) announced on Monday that it will acquire Quebec-focused junior Orford Mining (TSXV: ORM) in an all-share transaction valuing the company at $24 million or 10¢ per share.

Alamos already owns 27.5% of the company’s shares. If the acquisition is approved by Orford shareholders at a meeting scheduled for March, they will receive 0.005588 of an Alamos share for each Orford share held.

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Mining the Northwest: Former Pure Gold shareholders take management to task over Red Lake fiasco – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 12, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Investors of insolvent gold mining company expanding class action suit

The former management team and underwriters of a collapsed Red Lake gold mining company are being held to account by out-of-pocket shareholders.

A proposed securities class action suit filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against the former directors and officers of Pure Gold Mining of Vancouver is being expanded to seeking compensation for damages and losses incurred from their investments in Pure Gold Mining.

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Fired Endeavour CEO had checkered work history before joining British mining company – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 6, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Ousted chief executive Sébastien de Montessus had a history of going behind the backs of his superiors and conducting unauthorized business, well before the British gold mining company fired him for cause this week.

London-based Endeavour on Thursday said it terminated Mr. de Montessus after accusing him of “serious misconduct” related to a payment he authorized without the board’s knowledge. Mr. de Montessus admitted he authorized a payment of US$5.9-million to a creditor in exchange for security services without getting permission from the board, and called it a “lapse in judgment.”

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Barrick considering new takeover offer for First Quantum, report says – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 4, 2024)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. is reportedly considering a fresh takeover bid for embattled Canadian copper miner First Quantum Minerals Ltd., after making an earlier approach in the middle of last year.

According to a report on Wednesday, Toronto-based Barrick contacted some of First Quantum’s biggest shareholders late last year to ascertain their interest in a takeover. Barrick would need their support in the event of a transaction.

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Barrick sounds out First Quantum holders on possible bid – by Thomas Biesheuvel, Dinesh Nair and Alfred Cang (Bloomberg News – January 3, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Barrick Gold Corp. has spoken with some of First Quantum Minerals Ltd.’s major investors to gauge their support for a potential takeover, after the sudden closure of its flagship mine left the Canadian copper producer reeling and wiped out more than half its market value.

Barrick chief executive officer Mark Bristow approached some of First Quantum’s largest investors late last year, according to people familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified as the talks were private. It wasn’t immediately clear if Barrick has made a fresh approach to First Quantum, and there’s no guarantee it will make a formal offer.

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2024 belongs to an offbeat pairing — uranium and gold – by Alisha Hiyate (Mining.com – January 2, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

As demand for EV and base metals is expected to slow along with global growth in 2024, two very different metals are likely to stand out from the commodity pack: gold and uranium.

Gold, prized throughout human history, is virtually indestructible. That means most of the over 6.7 billion oz. of the metal the World Gold Council estimates has ever been mined is kicking around somewhere, whether as a wedding ring or in a 400-troy-oz. gold bar stored behind blast-proof gates at the ultra-secure Fort Knox gold vault in Kentucky.

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No takers for long-lost gold in sunken ship found off of B.C. coast – by David Carrigg (Vancouver Sun – January 1, 2024)

https://vancouversun.com/

An estimated $11 million worth of gold bullion and dust is believed to have gone down with the SS Pacific in the Salish Sea in 1875.

No one has laid claim to any of the 4,000 ounces of gold believed to be on board a ship that sank off of the B.C. coast in 1875.

According to Matt McCauley, spokesman for the Northwest Shipwreck Alliance, there were no supported claims made by the descendants of any of the passengers or crew of the SS Pacific that sank on Nov. 4, 1875, carrying at least 275 souls, including crew, paying passengers and children. Only two survived.

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