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Gold and Silver

Carlin Trend Co-Discoverer Livermore dead at 94 – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – February 8, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Prospector, geologist, rancher and public resource advocate John Sealy Livermore was the last surviving member of three men considered the fathers of the Carlin Trend and “invisible gold” deposits.

RENO (MINEWEB) – John Livermore–the legendary American geologist who believed new gold mines could be developed from “invisible gold”—died in his sleep in his own bed Thursday after a short bout with cancer.

Guided by the ideas of U.S. Geological Survey geologist Ralph J. Roberts, Livermore and fellow Newmont geologist Alan Coope in October 1961 staked the claims that would become of one of world’s richest gold regions—the Carlin Trend. Livermore and Coope’s discovery was believed to contain 4 million ounces of gold. The entire Carlin Trend has produced well over 50 million ounces of gold.

Livermore remained with Newmont until 1970 when he returned to Nevada to form Cordex exploration. By 1970, only one other gold mine had been discovered in Nevada, the Cortez operation. However, Livermore felt a return to basic prospecting might lead to other economic gold discoveries.

He hired mining engineer Whit “Dee” DeLaMare, whose work led to the discovery of the Pinson, Preble, Sterling and Dee gold mines, as well as the development of the Getchell Trend. The Pinson Mine discovery enabled Cordex to get its capital investment back in 13 months, Livermore recalled in an oral history.

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The U.S. National Mining Hall of Fame & Museum Profile: John S. Livermore – Co-Discoverer of the Nevada Carlin Trend)

 The U.S. National Mining Hall of Fame & Museum – located in the famous 1880’s silver mining boomtown of Leadville, Colorado – is a monument to the memory of the men and women who pioneered the discovery, development and processing of our nation’s natural resources. http://www.mininghalloffame.org/

John S. Livermore, an exploration geologist working for Newmont, provided the drive that led to the 1961 discovery of the Carlin Mine in northern Nevada. Carlin became the first large gold mine on what is now known as the Carlin Trend. John subsequently played an energizing role in exploration that has established northern Nevada as one of the world’s premier gold districts.

Carlin-type deposits are characterized by extremely fine-grained gold — gold that cannot be seen by the human eye nor concentrated by panning. Nevertheless, several small Carlin-type deposits were discovered in northern Nevada and worked as mines prior to the discovery of the Carlin orebody. John Livermore examined one such deposit at the Standard Mine near Lovelock, Nevada in the late 1940s and believed that other, possibly richer, fine-grained deposits remained to be found. Where to look was an open question.

Ralph Roberts, a field geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, provided the answer in a short paper, “Alignment of Mining Districts in North-Central Nevada,” which came to John Livermore’s attention in early 1961. Roberts pointed out that known deposits were associated with windows in the (coincidentally named) Roberts Mountain thrust fault — windows where older, over-riding rocks from the west had been eroded to expose younger rocks below.

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Silver Wheaton-Vale deal underscores opportunity amid mining firms’ suffering – by Peter Koven (February 7, 2013)

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

As mining companies suffer through rough market conditions, their royalty and streaming counterparts are taking advantage and striking the biggest deals in their history.

“We are busier than we’ve ever been,” said Randy Smallwood, chief executive of Silver Wheaton Corp. “And what’s more important is the quality of the assets that are being brought forward to us is better than I’ve seen in the past.”

This week, Vancouver-based Silver Wheaton announced a US$1.9-billion acquisition of gold streams from mining giant Vale SA of Brazil. It is by far the largest metal streaming deal ever done, surpassing the US$1-billion transaction between Franco-Nevada Corp. and Inmet Mining Corp. that was reached less than six months ago. The Vale deal also includes 10 million Silver Wheaton warrants.

Miners are turning to companies such as Silver Wheaton and Franco-Nevada for financing for a couple of reasons: issuing equity is extremely difficult and dilutive in this market, and capital cost pressures have made it more important than ever to share the financing risk on large projects. The fact that an enormous company such as Vale is giving up future cash flow to secure capital shows how challenging it is for the industry right now.

It wasn’t always this way for Mr. Smallwood. When he took over as CEO in April 2011, Silver Wheaton could not get a deal done with anyone. Precious metal prices were soaring at the time, and companies were demanding far too much money in exchange for their future gold and silver output.

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Canada’s Iamgold keen to stay in troubled Mali – by Reuters (MiningWeekly.com – February 7, 2013)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

MELBOURNE – Canadian gold miner Iamgold is committed to Mali despite the conflict in the African nation and poor production performance of its mining joint ventures there, its chief executive said.

While Mali, where French forces have been bombing sites controlled by Islamist insurgents, may appear unattractive to investors, it is one location in Africa where the company is eager to stay as the mines should be highly profitable, CEO Steve Letwin told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

“I just think as an investment it is a good investment if we can all collectively get our heads around it and the Malians can get some semblance of stability,” Letwin said. The situation in northern Mali has not disrupted operations at Iamgold’s joint ventures — the Sadiola and Yatela mines in the south.

But its partner in the ventures, AngloGold Ashanti, is considering getting out as part of a broader revamp of its operations. Letwin said Iamgold is not big enough to take on AngloGold’s share.

“We have people who are interested, but they need to talk to Anglo, and I’m sure they have,” he said, declining to name who was interested. “I want to make it work, because it makes sense. I want to work with the Malians and whomever partner we have.”

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Does reality TV’s gold boom suggest an end to soaring prices? – by Colin Campbell (Maclean’s Magazine – February 5, 2013)

http://www2.macleans.ca/

Gold Rush fans may not want to change the channel just yet

Reality television’s latest obsession is gold. Jungle Gold, Gold Rush, Bering Sea Gold and Gold Fever are all shows documenting miners’ efforts to dig up flakes of the precious metal worth $1,700 an ounce. The last time TV was so caught up in a trend it was in the house-flipping genre (Flip This House, Flip That House), which seemed to hit its peak just before the U.S. housing market crashed. Is there a similar warning sign in the TV gold boom? Does all the mainstream fascination with gold suggest an overinflated interest and price?

Some analysts on Wall Street, at least, seem to think gold’s wild ride may be nearing its end. This week, Morgan Stanley lowered its gold-price forecast for the year by four per cent, to $1,773. Late last year, Goldman Sachs cut its target price for 2013 to $1,800 an ounce from $1,940, citing an improving U.S. economy. “The risk-reward of holding a long gold position is diminishing,” it said.

Gold is the ultimate safe-haven investment and has enjoyed an incredible rise in recent years. A decade ago, gold was worth little more than $300 an ounce. Since 2000, it has gone up every year for 12 years (a record) and in each of the three years after the 2008 crash, gold prices peaked to hit record highs. That gold might be finally losing some of its shine suggests fear of riskier investments may be ebbing. The S&P 500 index last week, for instance, cracked the 1,500 mark for the first time since 2007.

Not everyone is convinced the gold rush is finished just yet. Morgan Stanley said that despite its price cut, it still remains “bullish on the gold-price outlook,” citing an ongoing commitment in the U.S. to low interest rates and government stimulus spending in the face of “a below-par recovery.” Many central banks are also still buying gold. As Goldman admits, “calling the peak in gold prices is a difficult exercise.”

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Mongolia’s “ninja” miners help sate China lust for gold – by David Stanway (Reuters.com – April 19, 2012)

http://www.reuters.com/

Please note April, 2012 date, but a great read!

(Reuters) – In a hot, concrete hut filled with acetylene fumes, an elderly Mongolian miner struggles to contain her excitement as she plucks a sizzling inch-long nugget of gold from a grubby cooling pot and raises it to the light.

Khorloo, 65, and her sons spent the day scrutinizing half a dozen CCTV screens as workers at the Bornuur gold processing plant whittled 1.2 metric metric tonnes of ore down to 123 grams of pure gold that could earn the family as much as $6,000.

Near the plant, separated from Mongolia’s capital, Ulan Bator, by 100 km of rocky pasture and mostly unpaved road, life has remained largely unchanged since Genghis Khan’s “golden horde” rampaged across Asia nine centuries ago.

But Khorloo is a member of a new horde of at least 60,000 herders, farmers and urban unemployed trying to extract the riches buried in the vast steppe with metal detectors, shovels and home-made smelters.

In the last five years, dwindling legal gold supplies and a spike in black market demand from China have made work much more lucrative for Mongolia’s “ninja miners” – so named because of the large green pans carried on their backs that look like turtle shells. For thousands of dirt-poor herders, the soaring prices alone are enough to justify years of harassment, abuse and hard labor.

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Vale strikes gold deal – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star/Reuters – February 6, 2013)

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

Vale agreed Tuesday to sell 70% of the gold produced at its Sudbury mines over a 20-year period to Vancouver-based Silver Wheaton in a deal worth $570 million.

Silver Wheaton will also pay $1.33 billion for 25% of the gold produced at the Salobo mine in Brazil over its mine life, the companies announced. In total, the deal is worth $1.9 billion in cash. The Sudbury gold stream covers six producing mines — the Coleman, Copper Cliff, Creighton, Garson, Stobie and Totten mines — and one development mine, the Victor project.

From 2013 to 2015, the Sudbury mines are expected to average attributable production of approximately 30,000 ounces as the Totten mine gradually reaches full production. Gold production is expected to peak once the high-grade Victor deposit begins production.

The deal will immediately boost Silver Wheaton’s production by adding expected average gold production of 110,000 ounces of gold per year over the next 20 years, or 5.9 million silver equivalent ounces. The move into gold is a departure for Silver Wheaton, which has focused almost exclusively on silver stream financing deals.

“While we have traditionally focused on silver, we have never been averse to strategically adding ‘the right’ gold streams to our portfolio,” said Chief Executive Randy Smallwood in a statement.

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Taxpayer Twain wreck in Timmins – by Dean Beeby (Canadian Press/Montreal Gazette – February 1, 2013)

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

TIMMINS, Ont. — A tourist attraction celebrating country superstar Shania Twain has officially become a $10-million money pit of taxpayer’s cash worthy of a hurtin’ song itself.

The Shania Twain Centre in this northern Ontario community permanently closed its doors Friday — barely a dozen years after its grand opening — and will be demolished to become part of an open-pit gold mine.

A sinkhole of taxpayer money, the centre consumed some $10 million in government funds for its construction in 2000-2001, and racked up more than $1 million in operating deficits in the years since.

Grant applications to the Ontario and federal governments in the 1990s projected annual attendance of 50,000 tourists by 2005. Twain, now 47, grew up poor in Timmins, and got her start singing in local bars before striking it rich on the world stage in 1995.

But the sleek, modern structure — featuring displays of Twain memorabilia along with gold-mining artifacts — has drawn no more than 15,000 people in any year. In the end, every resident of this hardscrabble, century-old mining town of 47,000 was shelling out $7 a year just to keep the lights on. And by 2010, each visitor to the centre was being subsidized to the tune of $33.72.

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South Africa Faces Tax Dilemma as Mining Industry Costs Soar – by Mike Cohen & Paul Burkhardt (Bloomberg.com – February 5, 2013)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

South Africa’s government faces a dilemma: how to help mining companies weather surging costs and depressed commodity prices as the ruling African National Congress seeks to wring more revenue from the industry.

Upheaval has plagued platinum and gold producers since August last year, when thousands of workers staged a series of illegal strikes, winning pay increases of as much as 22 percent. Adding to mining costs, Eskom Holdings Ltd., which supplies about 95 percent of South Africa’s power, is seeking 16 percent average annual tariff increases until 2018 to fund expansion.

While Mining Minister Susan Shabangu says the government is committed to working with the industry, the ruling ANC wants the country to derive greater benefit from its minerals. At a conference in December, the party said a “resource-rent” tax, or higher royalties, were under consideration.

“I’m quite worried,” Nick Holland, the chief executive officer of Gold Fields Ltd. (GFI), Africa’s No. 2 gold producer, said in an interview yesterday at the Investing in African Mining Indaba, a gathering of more than 7,500 industry executives. “We can ill afford to accept any taxes beyond what we have. It’s just going to increase the speed of the decline of the mining industry.”

Mining output slumped 11 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in the three months through November from the prior three months, government data show. Nine loss-making platinum-mine shafts were shut in the second half of 2012, according to the Department of Mineral Resources, while Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (AMS), the largest producer, last month announced plans to idle four shafts, which may result in as many as 14,000 job losses.

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Lassonde lambasts miners, industry for failures in gold hunting – by Kip Keen (Mineweb.com – February 1, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Pierre Lassonde calls on mining industry to fund research into new mining and exploration technologies that could create “paradigm shift” and fuel a much needed round of gold discoveries.

VANCOUVER, BC (MINEWEB) – In a wide ranging speech covering the dearth of gold discoveries in recent years and the case for a higher gold price, Pierre Lassonde, the chairman of Franco-Nevada, reiterated his call for mining companies to invest more in research in order to bring about a “paradigm shift” in mining and exploration technology.

Lassonde, speaking to a near capacity audience at the closing of AME BC’s Mineral Exploration Roundup in Vancouver, BC, was direct, even chastising in tone, as he outlined the crisis facing gold exploration.

The statistics, well circulated at numerous conferences in the past year or so especially, are sobering – perhaps a much needed tonic on the final night of a four-day long mineral exploration marathon.

To outline how bad it has become for gold exploration, Lassonde repeated some of the better known analyses on the success rate in gold exploration over the past few decades. The essence of the issue is this: in the past decade discoveries of multimillion ounce gold deposits – despite record exploration spending and a decade long bull run in the price of gold – have sloughed off to dangerously low levels.

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Gogama mine golden opportunity for Timmins – by Kyle Gennings (Timmins Daily Press – January 30, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Plans and preparation are falling into place for IAMGOLD’s Coté Lake project. The company is edging closer to the realization of its open-pit gold mine south of Gogama.

IAMGOLD representatives made a presentation at the Porcupine Dante Club on Tuesday as part of the Timmins Chamber of Commerce’s Inside Their Business luncheon series.

“We are a mid-tier mining company with many operations around the world,” said IAM representative Steve Wolfenden. “We have operations in Surinam, west Africa and two projects in Quebec and now we are bringing a major focus to expanding our presence in Ontario.

“The Coté Lake project is exactly how we are going to do just that.” Wolfenden spoke to a full house, which included representation from mining contracting and auxiliary services from Timmins.

“At this point in time we are trying to characterize what is to come,” he said. “We are deeply invested in our preliminary feasibility studies at the moment, working to assess what we have, what we need and what government requires of us.

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TIMMINS HISTORY: Mine mishap caused a stir – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – January 27, 2013)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – Every community, from Paris to Timbuktu, from Toronto to Earlton, has its fair share of, for lack of a better word, “colourful characters” and eccentrics.

Kirkland Lake had Roza Brown (a woman way before her time who sure knew how to live). Elk Lake claims John Munroe (war hero, mining man, mayor and surely someone who could have been the first candidate for his own reality programme).

We here in the Porcupine seem to have an unending supply: Tommy Jack, Maggie Leclair, Sandy McIntyre, and, although not purely from the Porcupine, a celebrated priest known as Father Charles Paradis.

Notorious, revolutionary and with a blazing zeal to see the Northland colonized, Paradis has left his mark from Temiskaming up to the Porcupine. Recognized or not, we still live with his influence and his controversial views on land and river management.

Charles Paradis was born in Kamouraska, Que., in 1848. He completed his studies at the seminary in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière and headed to Ottawa where he taught art.

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Mining juniors in crisis – gold explorers particularly badly hit – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – January 25, 2013)

http://www.mineweb.com/

The junior gold mining and exploration sector is currently at a very low ebb – but the better juniors will survive regardless and now provide tremendous opportunities for the savvy investor.

LONDON (MINEWEB) – Feedback from the Vancouver Resource Investment meeting last week suggests the junior mining crisis is really hitting home and unless there is a turnaround soon a significant number of junior gold explorers in particular will no longer be with us even by mid-year, and certainly not by this time next year.

A conference and exhibition primarily involving junior miners and explorers, and particularly one taking place in Vancouver where the largest proportion of North American juniors are headquartered, is an excellent venue for judging the state of the industry.

And on reviewing this year’s Cambridge House event the junior mining sector is in a precarious state at present with companies finding it difficult, if not impossible, to raise new funds to keep themselves afloat.

Stock prices are so low that new share issues are not really an option, while banks and financial institutions are just not prepared to take the risk of lending to companies in a sector that, even in good times, can prove a risky one for which to provide finance.

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India tries to temper the hunger for gold – by Stephanie Nolen (Globe and Mail – January 24, 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.

NEW DELHI — In the glinting showroom of the Gem Palace in the city of Jaipur, Sanjay Kasliwal surveys his family business: strings of rubies, pearls the size of grapes, collars of emeralds and, everywhere, bright yellow gold.

The Gem Palace has supplied princes, prime ministers, socialites and no small number of families preparing for weddings, for hundreds of years. But in the past decade, the price of gold has surged to unprecedented heights – fetching close to $1,700 (U.S.) an ounce on Wednesday. Yet Mr. Kasliwal’s business has not faltered.

“People have a budget, but they’ll still put it in gold,” the jeweller said. “If the price goes up, they buy 490 grams instead of 500 grams, that’s all. The Indian hunger for gold, you can’t change that.”

That hunger for gold has also warped the country’s economy. The Indian government is growing increasingly alarmed about a current account deficit in the July-to-September quarter that accounted for a record 5.4 per cent of gross domestic product. This week it raised taxes on gold imports in an attempt to curb a shopping habit that goes back centuries.

That will be no easy task. Gold purchases make a lot of sense for Indians. Inflation has run at or near 10 per cent annually, while the best rate on a savings product from a bank returns 8 per cent. The stock market has had returns far below that in recent years.

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Iamgold to cut back Mali exploration activity – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – January 24, 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.

A move by Iamgold Corp. to reduce exploration activity in Mali marks the latest move by the Toronto-based company to protect itself from political risk in the region.

Iamgold has operations in Canada, South America and Africa, but half its output comes from mines in Mali, and neighbouring Burkina Faso. In Mali it is a 41-per-cent owner in the Sadiola gold mine and a 40-per-cent owner in Yatela, also a gold mine.

“Although it is business as usual at the Sadiola and Yatela mines operated by the company’s joint venture partner and which are approximately 1,300 kilometres by road from the regions of conflict, the company is reducing its exploration activity in the region at this time as a precautionary measure,” Iamgold stated in a news release on Tuesday.

The company said, however, that production at the joint venture operations had not been disrupted by the conflict in Mali, where Islamic militants have taken over a large swath of the territory.

Iamgold, one of the largest mining companies operating in Mali, has been shifting its focus away from the African continent for the past two years, selling stakes in mines in Ghana in early 2011.

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