Junior Exploration Sector – Page 33

U.S. agency starts review for Alaska mine project opposed by environmentalists – by Yereth Rosen (Reuters U.S. – Janaury 6, 2018)

January 8, 2018

https://www.reuters.com/

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – U.S. regulators formally launched a review process on Friday that could produce a permit a Canadian mining group needs to build the Pebble Mine copper and gold project in southwest Alaska, which is opposed by environmentalists.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that regulates the development and dredging of wetlands, has published the completed permit application from the Pebble Limited Partnership on its website.

The application will trigger a formal environmental review of the plan to build an open-pit mine in a region with the world’s biggest sockeye salmon runs.

These Are The 3 Companies Brent Cook & Joe Mazumdar Like In 2018 – by Neils Christensen (Kitco News – December 29, 2017)

January 4, 2018

http://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Known as a fan favorite, the Expert Series brings together well-known investors and Kitco regulars to find out where they will be putting their money in 2018.

This year, in a new twist to the feature Kitco News has asked some of the most influential mining sector newsletter writers how they would invest $100K in the mining sector.

While the mining sector has struggled to maintain momentum, 2017 has been anything but boring with new assets like cryptocurrencies making waves in financial markets. What does 2018 have in store? Check out what the mining experts have to say! Experts: Brent Cook & Joe Mazumdar – Claim to Fame: creator and co-editor of Exploration Insights

Deadline approaching for Ontario prospectors to make switch to map staking (CBC News Sudbury – January 3, 2018)

January 3, 2018

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

Prospectors will not be able to stake claims until online system is implemented in April

A deadline is fast approaching that will completely change the way Ontario prospectors do business. In April, the province is rolling in a new Mining Lands Administration System that will see prospectors stake their claims online, instead of on the ground.

As of Jan. 9, no new claims will be filed until the online system is fully functional.Gino Chitaroni, the president of the Northern Prospectors Association, based in Cobalt, Ont. says there’s a push to physically stake a claim before the deadline.

“Everything’s frozen for about four months,” he explained.”If you’ve got something that’s hot, you want to get it now. You don’t want to wait because … once you go to map-staking, anybody can get it. My prediction is it’s going to be hard on the prospecting community to survive.”

Ontario mining prospectors can soon stake claims online (CBC News Sudbury – December 29, 2017)

January 3, 2018

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

Ontario prospectors are getting ready for big changes to the industry. Starting in 2018, they won’t have to venture deep into the bush to stake their claims.

They’ll soon be able to do that with just a few clicks over the internet. The adoption of technology will make it easier for everyone, says Garry Clark the executive director of Ontario Prospectors Association.

“You won’t have to go into the field to acquire the ground.” “If there’s a piece of ground you’re interested in, in Red Lake — and you’re in Sudbury — you can acquire it just by going on the computer and selecting the area and paying a fee for the land you pick,” Clark says. Currently, prospectors have to stake 4-by-4 wooden posts on the corners of their land, plus inscribe their names, the date and time, and the co-ordinates of the property.

Quantum Pebble leap: First Quantum enters $1.5B deal for half of Pebble; permitting begins – – by Shane Lasley (Mining News – December 24, 2017)

January 3, 2018

http://www.petroleumnews.com/

In a framework agreement announced on Dec. 18, First Quantum Minerals Ltd. was revealed as the major mining company that will complete the Pebble Limited Partnership.

“We have made good progress in the partnering process and are very pleased to be in advanced-stage discussions with First Quantum, an industry leader in mine development and management,” Ron Thiessen, president and CEO, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd., currently the sole owner of the Pebble Partnership.

While the final details of an agreement that will provide First Quantum the option to own half of the Pebble Partnership are being hammered out, the US$1.5 billion preliminary agreement announced on Monday includes a US$150 million investment by First Quantum the will involve four equal payments of US$37.5 million to fund the upcoming permitting process for Pebble.

Sabina gets final project certificate, major investment for Nunavut gold mine – by Walter Strong (CBC News North – December 21, 2017)

January 2, 2018

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

Formal approval comes day after company announced it had secured a $66M investment

A day after Sabina Gold and Silver announced it had secured a $66 million investment from a Chinese backer, the company was able to report it had received its final project certificate from the Nunavut Impact Review Board for its Back River gold mine project.

On Monday, Sabina announced Zhaojin International Mining was investing in the project through a share purchase. Once the deal is complete, the Chinese company will hold 9.9 per cent of the company, with the option to increase that holding to 19.9 per cent through future financing.

With the final project certificate in hand, the only regulatory permits remaining are two water licenses for mine construction and operation, and other less significant permits. With $38 million in cash and equivalents on hand and $66 million coming from Zhaojin, the company still has some work to do in financial markets. Sabina pegs capital expenditures to build the mine at $415 million.

Can the electric car industry bring this ghost town back to life? – by Sidney Stevens (Mother Nature Network – December 31, 2017)

January 2, 2018

https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/

Like so many mining towns throughout North America, Cobalt, Ontario has seen better days. The silver rush that transformed the modest community, located 300 miles north of Toronto, into a vibrant boomtown during the early 1900s has long since died away.

Today, the sleepy hamlet — some call it a ghost town — still bears scars from those heady, get-rich-quick days. The borough, built atop a honeycomb of abandoned mining tunnels, is not only littered with waste rock and capped mine shafts but also plagued by poverty.

But its fortunes could soon reverse. Cobalt, population 1,100, is poised to flourish once more due to its rich stores of the metal cobalt. Ironically, the town known for its silver was actually named for this shiny, bluish-gray ore. At the time it was mostly ignored. But not anymore.

Lithium Penny Stock Delivers Dizzying Gain—With Some Promotion Behind It – by Danielle Bochove, Andreo Calonzo and Natalie Obiko Pearson (Bloomberg News – December 21, 2017)

December 21, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

The electric-vehicle revolution is propelling impressive gains in commodity and equity prices around the world, few more dizzying than Liberty One Lithium Corp. The penny stock, which has changed its name twice since 2016 and is years away from an operating mine, surged 250 percent in October, when both the price of lithium and a benchmark of producers posted single-digit returns.

Along with receiving permits to drill in Argentina and rising commodity prices, Liberty One has been boosted by Pyronix Media, one of a number of companies paid in cash and stock to sing the praises of clients through email, websites and social media. Such online promotions have led at least one U.S. exchange to change its disclosure rules.

“There’s a lot of hype and expectation that probably will never be realized, and it’s very hard for small investors to sort those out,” Joe Lowry, a lithium industry consultant and former FMC Corp. executive, said by telephone, without referring to specific companies. “Drilling a few holes doesn’t constitute an ore body. But that doesn’t stop them pumping the stock.”

DOJ Prosecutors Looking into Controversial Obama-era Uranium One Deal – by Jasper Fakkert (Epoch Times – December 21, 2017)

December 21, 2017

https://www.theepochtimes.com/

Department of Justice prosecutors have requested information from FBI agents about an investigation they conducted into the so-called Uranium One deal, NBC News reported on Thursday.

The DOJ prosecutors are currently establishing whether a special council is warranted to look into the controversial deal that gave Russia control over Canadian mining company Uranium One, which at the time controlled 20 percent of uranium supply in the United States licensed for mining.

By giving Russia control over a significant amount of American uranium supplies, it created a potential national security risk. Despite the assurances of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRM) to Congress that the uranium mined by Uranium One would not leave the United States, Uranium has left the country.

He Struck It Rich in Ecuador. Now He’s Looking for the Lost Cities of Gold – by Laura Millan Lombrana and Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – December 20, 2017)

December 20, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

On the hunt with Keith Barron, an Indiana Jones who blends history with geology to dig up treasure in hostile terrain.

Keith Barron is deep inside a Vatican library, hunkered over a 17th century tome bound in Moroccan red leather. “The country is the richest in gold in all the Indies,” reads one passage. “The natives are cannibals and very warlike, and devastated the city of Logroño de los Caballeros, massacring the Spaniards and burning the churches.”

A geologist by training, amateur historian and professional gold hunter, Barron is on a mission. Ecuador’s two “lost cities of gold” exist only in legend and in fragments of old texts like this one, written by a Spanish priest traveling through the region a half century after the settlements were destroyed.

Spain eventually gave them up for lost after dispatching more than 30 failed expeditionary forces to reclaim them. Barron and a team of researchers have spent years sleuthing around the Vatican library, the immense General Archive of the Indies, in Seville, Spain, and in small churches and libraries scattered throughout Latin America.

Chinese investment firm snaps up Giustra-backed Lithium X – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – December 19, 2017)

December 19, 2017

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A Chinese investment firm is buying a Frank Giustra-backed lithium exploration company run by a 29-year-old rookie CEO.

On Monday, Nextview New Energy Lion Hong Kong Ltd. announced it is paying $265-million for Lithium X Energy Corp. – the second investment by the Chinese investment firm in a Canadian-listed lithium company in the past few days.

The latest deal was announced in the midst of an ebullient market for battery metals such as cobalt and lithium, which have soared in price in recent years thanks to demand from the electric car industry.

First Quantum breathes new life into Northern Dynasty’s Pebble project – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – December 18, 2017)

December 19, 2017

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Base metals miner First Quantum Minerals has signed a framework agreement with Northern Dynasty Minerals to work on formalising an option on the controversial Pebble copper/gold project, in south-east Alaska.

The announcement on Monday breathes new life into the project billed as the largest undeveloped copper/gold project in the world, and which faces strong opposition from local conservationists, Aboriginal groups and nongovernment organisations.

Under terms of the framework agreement, a subsidiary of First Quantum will sign an option agreement with Northern Dynasty and pay $150-million, staged over four years, to acquire the option to acquire half an interest in the Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) for $1.35-billion.

NEWS RELEASE: Skeena Secures Option to Acquire Eskay Creek & Announces Strategic Investment from Barrick (December 18, 2017)

December 19, 2017

https://www.skeenaresources.com/

Vancouver, BC (December 18, 2017) Skeena Resources Limited (TSX.V: SKE) (“Skeena” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the signing of an agreement with Barrick Gold Inc. (“Barrick”), granting an option (the “Option”) for the Company to acquire a 100% interest in the past-producing Eskay Creek property (“Eskay” or the “Property”) located in the Golden Triangle of northwest British Columbia. Barrick Gold Corporation will also complete a strategic investment with the Company for gross proceeds of C$1 million.

Skeena’s CEO, Walter Coles Jr. commented, “Eskay Creek was a remarkable discovery that became an extraordinary mine. It produced 3.3 million ounces of gold and 160 million ounces of silver from 2.2 million tonnes of ore from 1994 until closure in 2008. We are honoured that Barrick has given us an opportunity to investigate and potentially revitalize one of Canada’s highest-grade past-producing mines.”

Under the terms of the option agreement, Skeena may acquire a 100% interest in Eskay in consideration for:

Eastmain Resources advances multiple projects in Canada’s newest gold camp – by Trish Saywell (Northern Miner – December 13, 2017)

December 14, 2017

Goldcorp (TSX: G; NYSE: GG) put the underexplored James Bay gold district of northern Quebec on the map as a highly prospective new gold camp in 2014, when it poured the first gold from its Eleonore gold mine. Last year the mine, 800 km north of Montreal, produced 274,000 oz. gold and this year is expected to produce 315,000 oz. gold.

But a number of juniors are active in the area, too, some of them in a joint-venture partnership with Goldcorp on a property called Eleonore South, about 5 km to the south of the Eleonore mine and adjacent to the southeastern border of the gold major’s Eleonore property.

Eastmain Resources (TSX: ER; US-OTC: EANRF) and Azimut Exploration (TSXV: AZM) own 36.7% and 26.6% of the joint-venture project, respectively, with Goldcorp owning the remaining 36.7%.

Lithium stocks have had a dazzling year – are there more profits to come? – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – December 12, 2017)

December 12, 2017

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Lithium, a lightweight metal essential to the latest generation of high-tech batteries, possesses two features most investments lack.

For one thing, future demand is nearly certain to surge as battery-driven vehicles grab an increasing share of the automotive market. For another, a handful of companies now dominate production of lithium.

Combine growing demand with today’s oligopoly of producers and it’s clear why three major U.S.-listed lithium miners have been among the best non-bitcoin investments of 2017. Shares of Sociedad Quimica Y Minera de Chile, the Chilean giant better known as SQM, have surged 80 per cent since January. Over the same period, Albemarle Corp., up 45 per cent, and FMC Corp., up 53 per cent, have also enjoyed dazzling runs.