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Gold and Silver

CEO’s firing puts Kinross investors on high alert – by Pav Jordan and Jacquie McNish (Globe and Mail – August 3, 2012)

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.

Kinross Gold Corp. investors are bracing for more bad news about a troubled expansion in Mauritania, with concern building after the company turfed its CEO ahead of a long-awaited update on the gold project. Kinross stock was down 5.6 per cent to $7.56 a share on Thursday, even as some of its larger peers rose, pointing to market expectations that more bad news may be coming on the Tasiast gold project.

“We do not believe the timing of the CEO replacement and the Tasiast expected guidance update on Aug. 8 is coincidental,” Credit Suisse analyst Anita Soni wrote in a report on Thursday, a day after Mr. Burt was dismissed in the wake of consecutive quarters of disappointing news. Kinross is one of the worst performers among major gold companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

“The timing suggests that an escalation of project costs will be forthcoming,” she said. Kinross says a change in CEO was needed to help guide a reevaluation of capital spending at the company, which has been focused on Tasiast and two other development projects, Lobo-Marte in Chile and Fruta del Norte in Ecuador. Mr. Burt’s last day was Wednesday; he could not be reached for comment.

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Could Kinross CEO shake up end in a sale or break up for the gold digger? – by Liezel Hill (Mineweb.com – August 3, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

Analysts and investors alike are wondering what the CEO shakeup at Kinross Gold possibly means, with some speculating the gold miner will either be broken up or sold.

TORONTO (Bloomberg) –  Kinross Gold Corp. (K)’s switch to a new chief executive officer is fueling speculation Canada’s fourth- biggest gold miner will be broken up or sold.
 
Kinross, which has lost 35 percent of its market value this year, announced Aug. 1 that J. Paul Rollinson, previously vice president for corporate development, would replace Tye Burt. The CEO for more than seven years, Burt led Kinross in four takeovers, including the C$8 billion ($7.9 billion) acquisition of Red Back Mining Inc. in 2010 that led to a C$2.49 billion writedown 17 months later.
 
Gold miners struggling with rising costs at multibillion- dollar projects may be tempted to acquire Kinross or buy parts of it, Adam Graf, a New York-based analyst at Dahlman Rose & Co., said in a telephone interview.
 
“I think the majors have to be scratching their heads and saying, I don’t want to buy anything that’s pre-production because my shareholders don’t have the patience for it,” Graf said.

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Kinross replaces CEO Tye Burt – by BNN.ca staff (August 1, 2012)

 http://www.bnn.ca/

Kinross Gold Corp. ousted chief executive Tye Burt and replaced him with its executive vice-president of corporate development as Canada’s third-largest gold miner contends with a slumping share price. J. Paul Rollinson will take the top job and replace Burt on the board of directors, effective immediately.
 
Kinross shares are down nearly 47 percent in the last year, with the stock closing at $8.01 on Wednesday, before the management change was announced. 

Kinross thanked Burt for his seven years as head of the miner and listed a number of notable achievements during his tenure, including a “significant upgrade” of assets, and a “substantial increase in gold resources and production.” But, the miner also said its board had determined that a change in leadership was essential.
 
“…Board has determined that in view of current market and industry fundamentals, stakeholder interests will best be served by an executive management team focusing on the implementation and oversight of the comprehensive capital and project optimization process that was announced by the Company on January 16, 2012,” it said in a statement.

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Alas, poor Burt! Kinross’ board bids CEO a not-so-fond farewell – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – August 2, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

With the firing of Tye Burt, a second North American gold company head has rolled in less than two months. Is a 3rd cranium in the offing?

RENO (MINEWEB) –  One can anticipate that more than a few folks will shed no tears at the departure of Tye Burt as Kinross CEO.
 
Burt was so unpopular by the end of his seventh year at the helm of Kinross, that, by the end of last month, he inspired the “Tye Burt NEEDS to be FIRED” website, with the oracular address, www.firetyeburt.com.
 
Several months after a nearly $3 billion write-down, Kinross’ board finally listened to a growing chorus of unhappy shareholders and analysts and fired Burt Wednesday. He was replaced as CEO by J. Paul Robinson, Kinross’ former executive vice president, corporate development.
 
As the Kinross board axed its former Caesar, it also praised him, acknowledging “Mr. Burt’s many corporate achievements” including a significant upgrade of the company’s portfolio to nine mines and five development projects in six nations; the building of a “much stronger balance sheet” which allowed the company to pay a semi-annual dividend; and generating “a substantial increase in gold resources and gold production while also improving the overall grade of such production.”

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Stories about people stealing gold in Timmins … New book Bootleg Gold – by Len Gillis (Timmins Times – August 1, 2012)

http://www.timminstimes.com/

Copies of the book can be ordered online at: www.bootleggold.net.

Local author releases new book on high-grading.

For the City of Timmins having been around 100 years, there has to be a thousand stories about high-grading in this city. High-grading, also simply known as stealing gold from the mines, has been going on in Timmins since the day the big mines opened.

It’s no wonder that a local writer has finally made an effort to do some reputable research on the topic and come up with a few of those stories.

Kevin Vincent has authored Volume One of Bootleg Gold, a close look at the impact of high-grading on the gold mining industry here in Timmins, Ontario, — one of the world’s foremost gold mining camps. He has been working on the story and gathering research for 25 years. Vincent has done his homework, starting with exclusive interviews with the late Gregory Evans, the venerable Timmins lawyer who went on to become chief justice of the Supreme Court of Ontario.

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Kinross replaces Tye Burt as chief executive – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – August 2, 2012)

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.

Canada’s third-largest gold company, Kinross Gold Corp., has abruptly replaced its chief executive officer, the second high-profile dismissal of a major gold company president since June.

Kinross shares are trading at about a third of their value of one year ago. The company said on Wednesday that J. Paul Rollinson, who was executive vice-president of corporate development, would replace Tye W. Burt as chief executive officer. Mr. Rollinson has also replaced Mr. Burt on the Kinross board of directors.

The company cited “current market and industry fundamentals,” among the reasons for the change, which comes amid investor discontent over a massive writedown at the company earlier this year.

Mr. Burt led Kinross to the largest acquisition in the company’s 19-year history in the summer of 2010, when it bought Red Back Mining Inc. for $7.1-billion. The deal won it possession of the massive undeveloped Tasiast gold deposit in Mauritania, but it also brought headaches as the company was forced to write down $2.49-billion on the project (the biggest loss in its history) amid soaring costs and changing project parameters.

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Contractor says Detour Gold owes them money – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – August 2012)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

A southern Ontario contractor claims Detour Gold Corp. (DGC) owes them more than $66.4 million for excavation and construction work performed at the company’s flagship Detour Lake gold mine project in northeastern Ontario.
 
North America Construction (NAC) has filed two statements of claim in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Cochrane against the Toronto miner and its affiliated Trade Winds Ventures of Vancouver.
 
NAC claims it’s owed $58 million for concrete work and $8.4 million for excavation work performed at the massive and remote open pit mine and mill project now under construction, 180 km northeast of Cochrane. The Morristown, Ont.-headquartered general contractor has slapped three construction liens for work performed by the company between November 2010 and April, 2012.
 
The project marked the 75 per cent construction completion mark in late June. North America Construction provides master building services to civil, municipal, biofuels, energy, mining and industrial sectors across Canada.

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Ranking the world’s gold mines and deposits – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – July 30, 2012)

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

The report is free, courtesy of National Resource Holdings and may be downloaded from http://www.nrh.co.il/i/pdf/NRH_Research_2012%20World_Gold_Deposits.pdf

The idea of knowing how many ounces of gold exist in situ, or how many gold mines there are in Canada, or how rare are deposits with more than a million ounces is fascinating. Now along comes Natural Resource Holdings of Tel Aviv with all that information and more.
 
For the second year, NRH has pored over public filings from around the world. The information was examined, sifted and compared to highlight trends in future mine supply, depletion, discoveries and in situ grades. The ensuing report makes interesting reading.
 
NRH said it has identified 439 gold deposits around the globe each of which contain over 1 million oz of gold. The 189 producing gold mines operate with an average grade of 1.06 g/t Au, and the world’s undeveloped deposits have an average grade of 0.66 g/t Au.
 
The report also ranks the top 50 producing mines by in situ resources. Unsurprisingly Freeport McMoRan’s Grasberg mine in Indonesia holds top spot among producers with 88.1 million oz. Well behind is the No.2 Lihir mine (56.0 million oz) owned by Newcrest in Papua New Guinea.

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Legal fight tarnishing gold firm – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – July 26, 2012)

 The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – The president of Solid Gold Resources blames the ongoing conflict with Wahgoshig First Nation and the provincial government for his company’s plummeting stock values.
 
“It has completely destroyed it,” said Darryl Stretch. “It’s at three cents, which values my company at less than what it costs to put a shelf together these days. “When we came out with our IPO (initial public offering), it was at 25 cents… For the stock price to be at three cents is unreasonable and outrageous.”
 
Solid Gold holds claims within a 200-square-kilometre area outside the boundary of the Wahgoshig reserve. In January, the First Nation succeeded in having an injunction imposed against the exploration company to stop drilling in that area.
 
In February, Solid Gold filed a Leave to Appeal on the basis that “any consultation and accommodation required should have been completed (with Wahgoshig) by the Crown long before mineral claims were granted to Solid Gold,” said Stretch.

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Soaring costs sting Barrick – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – July 27, 2012)

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.

Barrick Gold Corp. announced a massive cost overrun and one-year delay at its key Pascua-Lama gold project, as the world’s biggest gold miner struggles with soaring industry costs that are also forcing it to shelve other large projects in the pipeline.

Less than two months after it suddenly ousted chief executive officer Aaron Regent, Barrick said it is shifting its strategy to focus more on returns rather than growth in gold production. It slashed its 2015 production target to eight million ounces from nine million previously.

“In my view, rate of return should drive production, not the other way around,” said Barrick’s new chief executive, Jamie Sokalsky, pledging to take steps to reverse the company’s recent slumping stock price.

Shares of Barrick have plunged 40 per cent since September, more than its competitors, amid concerns about its aggressive move into copper and a management shake-up this year.

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Barrick’s new CEO readies for public debut – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – July 23, 2012)

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.

The market will not be especially interested in the bottom line when Barrick Gold Corp. reports second quarter earnings at the end of the week.

Instead, all eyes will be on the new chief executive officer, Jamie Sokalsky, who makes his public debut at the helm of the world’s largest gold company nearly two months after his predecessor, Aaron Regent, was suddenly ousted from the role as the stock price floundered.

“I think his mandate is pretty open-ended, it’s ‘Get our stock price up,’ ” said Jorge Beristain, managing director for metals and mining research at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc in New York. “How he goes about that, he hasn’t really tipped his hand one way or another. Is he going to come out announcing a big share buyback? Is he going to come out and start shutting down some of the higher cost projects? Is he going to double-down and fast-track others?”

By far the world’s biggest gold producer, spanning the globe with stakes in 26 operating mines, Barrick has been challenged in recent years to find new ways to grow as fewer large gold deposits are discovered. Before losing his job, Mr. Regent is said to have clashed increasingly on the issue with the board and co-chairman Peter Munk, particularly after Barrick’s much-questioned acquisition of Equinox Minerals Ltd., a copper company, in 2011 for $7.3-billion in cash.

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Nuggets of value seen in Canada’s mid-tier gold miners – by Julie Gordon (Reuters/Money.MSM.com – July 23, 2012)

http://money.msn.com/

TORONTO (Reuters) – While the world’s top gold miners struggle to contain soaring capital costs at multibillion-dollar mega-projects, their mid-tier counterparts are quietly building output through smaller mines at a fraction of the cost.

That means shares of Canada’s Yamana Gold Inc , Alamos Gold Inc and other mid-tier firms are outperforming the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX Global Gold index, which has fallen more than 24 percent this year as gold prices stagnate and costs rise.

“Investors want to see gold companies stop building projects that don’t make sense,” said Darren Lekkerkerker of Pyramis Global Advisors, a Fidelity Investments company. “They do want to see growth, but they want to see it delivered and they want to see it deliver value.”

The portfolio manager, who co-manages the Fidelity Global Natural Resources fund, is bullish on gold. He said mid-tier miners with low cash costs and affordable, near-term development projects offer good value in the current market.

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Canada & Miners ‘Guilty’ but Economy Thrives – by Jon Nadler (Resource Investor – July 20, 2012)

http://www.resourceinvestor.com/?ref=nav

The final trading session of this once again indecisive week in gold commenced with a price drop. The yellow metal erased Thursday’s gains and retreated to under $1,575 in slow pre-market action as the US dollar picked up some steam following its visit to near two-week lows on the trade-weighted index yesterday. Also contributing to the decline in bullion prices were the softer euro (falling to under $1.22 against the dollar once again) and the losses in crude oil (it fell 1.4% to $91.35 per barrel). As of this writing, gold appeared set to close out the week with a half-percent loss in value but the final tally remains to be ascertained later on in the day.
 
The euro suffered in the wake of once again rising Spanish borrowing costs and declining demand for that country’s bonds. Major Spanish unions have called for a nationwide protest against the government’s drastic austerity measures. The post EU meeting euphoria that was in the air just a few weeks ago appears to have dissipated with the summer thermals over in the Old World.
 
Silver spot prices dropped by almost 40 cents to trade at $26.92 per ounce on the bid-side in New York this morning. Analysts at Standard Bank (SA) note that silver stockpiles remain high (especially in China) and that demand from the industrial sector for the white metal is tepid at best. China has only imported 779 tonnes of silver in the year-to-date as against the 1,153 tonnes that it took in last year in the same timeframe.

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Swansong of a sunset industry or the rise of an SA gold mid-tier? – by Geoff Candy (Mineweb.com – July 17, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

Just like the landscape of Johannesburg, South Africa’s gold mining sector is undergoing a dramatic change, the question is: what will it end up looking like?

GRONINGEN (Mineweb) –  Mine dumps loomed large over my childhood. Growing up in the east rand of Johannesburg, a stone’s throw away from the ERPM mine operations, they were a part of my skyline. When we were kids we went to the drive-in on top of them and, later on, tried to “dune board” down them. But, in the last few years they have gradually begun to disappear.
 
As the gold price has risen and mines have got deeper, so many of these dumps have been re-drilled and reprocessed but, it is not just the landscape that is changing – the industry that gave birth to Africa’s “city of gold” is changing right along with it.
 
“The cynical among us might describe it as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” says Bernard Swanepoel, Joint CEO of Village Main Reef, one of the new class of junior gold miners coming up in South Africa at the moment.

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Timmins plans for the future – by Liz Cowan (Northern Ontario Business – July 2012)

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North.

Timmins 100th anniversary special

While Timmins marks its 100th anniversary this year and celebrates its past, its future is being guided by current needs and challenges. In 2011, a strategic plan – Timmins 2020 – was conceived to provide long-term direction for the city’s economic and community development.
 
“From a timing perspective, it originally started because it related to the loss of Xstrata (Copper’s Kidd Creek Metallurgical Site),” said Mayor Tom Laughren. “We really need to diversify and this plan will give us a bit of a template as we move forward planning for the next 100 years.”
 
The Met site’s closure in 2010 resulted in the loss of more than 600 jobs. “One time in Timmins we had both mining and forestry and that was good since when one was down, the other was up. But forestry has been down for a long time,” he said.

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