Junior Exploration Sector – Page 35

The Canadian Ghost Town That Tesla Is Bringing Back to Life – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – October 31, 2017)

October 31, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com

Renewed demand for cobalt, the metal, is breathing new life into Cobalt, the town.

Ironically, Cobalt, Ontario—population 1,100—was built on silver. Remnants of a boom that transformed the town more than a century ago are everywhere. A mine headframe still protrudes from the roof of the bookstore, which was previously a grocery.

The butcher used to toss unwanted bones down an abandoned 350-foot shaft in the middle of the shop floor and keep meat cool in its lowered mine cage.

While the last silver mines closed almost 30 years ago, a global push for the village’s namesake metal is promising to breathe new life into the sleepy town 500 kilometers (300 miles) north of Toronto.

Small mining companies turn to TSX after flopping on LSE – by Clara Denina and Barbara Lewis (Globe and Mail/Reuters – October 26, 2017)

October 26, 2017

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/

Lacklustre performances by small mining companies on the London Stock Exchange are driving rivals in need of cash to find alternative ways to raise capital, either by merging or turning to other markets such as Toronto.

Six small miners have listed in London this year, up from two last year, but four of those are now trading below their offer price despite a rally in metals, led by a 27-per-cent jump in copper and aluminium prices and a 10-per-cent rise for gold.

London hosts the world’s biggest mining companies, including Rio Tinto Ltd. and BHP Billiton Ltd., but the poor performance of newly listed miners and other small miners trading in London is pushing some to change their plans.

Juniors oppose Barrick’s plans to turn an old mine into a ski resort – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – October 24, 2017)

October 25, 2017

http://www.mining.com/

Junior miners say they oppose Barrick Gold’s (TSX, NYSE:ABX) idea to transform its old Mascot Giant nickel mine located near Hope, British Columbia, into a ski resort.

In an email sent out to the media, J.A. Chapman Mining Services Engineer, John Chapman, stated that his and other companies “are still actively conducting mineral exploration in and around the old Giant Mascot mine and are therefore against Barrick’s recreation proposal.”

Chapman attached a letter he sent back in 2012 to Gordon Hogg, the MLA for the B.C. riding of Surrey-White Rock, asking the provincial government to stop Barrick’s plans. He believes that the giant’s attempts to enter the hospitality business is just a way of turning a non-performing asset into a positive cash-flow operation.

Robert Friedland-backed cobalt company considering Canadian listing: sources – by Niall McGee and Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – October 14, 2017)

October 16, 2017

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/

An Australian cobalt company backed by mining financier Robert Friedland is considering a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange, sources familiar with the matter said, as demand for the battery-making metal soars amid supply shortages.

The company, called Clean TeQ Holdings Ltd., is already public in Australia and has seen its stock hit a record high thanks in part to a spike in cobalt prices this year.

Clean TeQ is talking to investment banks Macquarie Capital Markets Canada Ltd. and BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. about a number of options, including raising additional funds through a Canadian offering, or a straight listing on the TSX, without raising new money right away, sources said.

A Gold Mine on Yellowstone’s Doorstep? – by Aaron Teasdale (Sierra Magazine – October 13, 2017)

October 13, 2017

http://www.sierraclub.org/

“People come from all over the world just to fish this river,” says Max Hjortsberg, a local ecologist and poet, as his fly arcs through the warm July air. Beyond our drifting boat, a broad bottomland rises to alpine summits. Vaulting a vertical mile from the valley floor, one mountain dominates the rest—Emigrant Peak.

If the scenery seems like something out of a movie, that’s because it is. Much of A River Runs Through It (1992) was filmed here in the aptly named Paradise Valley, and the anglers and summer-getaway builders have been flooding in ever since. They come here because the country is big and wild and beautiful; when people imagine Montana, this is what comes to mind.

What they’re probably not thinking of is industrial-scale gold mining, which is what two companies wanted to do just over the border from Yellowstone National Park. Environmental groups feared that the resource-extraction-friendly Trump administration would OK the projects. It did not, and now Paradise Valley’s experience looks like a model for successful land conservation in the Trump era.

Finalists gather in the race for graphite production – by Christopher Ecclestone (InvestorIntel.com – October 11, 2017)

October 11, 2017

https://investorintel.com/

The “Big Beasts” of the Canadian mining scene are neither as evident nor as prominent as they used to be. Some have reconfigured their activities for the new reality of markets since 2011. One of the “Big Beasts” that temporarily disappeared from the scene and has now resurfaced is Sheldon Inwentash.

He is famed for his management of Pinetree Capital which, at its peak, commanded a market cap of over $1 billion and held a rather daunting 400 plus names in its portfolio. Pinetree Capital can be said to be the proto-mining hedge fund in the Canadian space and it revolutionized the resource investment model.

Pinetree veterans are spread across Toronto, churning out deals, raising hundreds of millions of dollars, and managing funds and mining companies themselves. In its heyday Pinetree was famous for having seeded companies such as Queenston Mining (acquired by Osisko Mining Corp. for $550mn), Aurelian Resources (acquired by Kinross for $1.2bn), and Gold Eagle Mines (acquired by Goldcorp for $1.5bn).

In Bre-X Country, Junior Miners Can Crash or Post 1,000% Gains – by Kristine Owram and Natalie Obiko Pearson (Bloomberg News – October 11, 2017)

October 11, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

It had the trappings of a Hollywood hit: greed, gold, love, treachery. No wonder the titanic hoax that was Bre-X Minerals Ltd. of Canada got a little star treatment this year, with the inspired-by-actual-events movie “Gold,” starring Matthew McConaughey (reviews were mixed).

Bre-X, which collapsed 20 years ago, may be the craziest story that ever came out of the wild west of the junior mining world — but it’s hardly the only one.

Unproven penny-stock companies, in Canada or anywhere else, are never for the faint of heart. But add to that the strike-it-rich ethos of energy and mining, major drivers of the Canadian economy, and the results can be explosive.

Gold, zinc explorers spearhead reversal of five-year global exploration downturn – by Samantha Herbst (MiningWeekly.com – October 10, 2017)

October 10, 2017

http://www.miningweekly.com/

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Boosted by increased exploration efforts in the gold and zinc sectors, the global nonferrous exploration budget is up in 2017 – for the first time since 2012 – by more than 14%, year-on-year, to $7.95-billion, according to new analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The twenty-eighth edition of the firm’s ‘Corporate Exploration Strategies’ (CES) report reveals that global gold budgets are up 22% year-on-year, while zinc-focused producers and junior explorers have boosted the zinc budget by 29% year-on-year to $489-million, based on improved zinc prices since early 2016.

“We know that the juniors have endured the worst of the downturn since 2012, accounting for most of the 40% drop in the number of active explorers over the past five years.

Mining juniors increase exploration spending – by Paul Garvey (The Australian – September 25, 2017)

September 25, 2017

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Australia’s junior resources sector has started to crank up its spending as it continues to shake off the post-downturn funk and capitalise on the increased amounts of cash available to it.

The latest quarterly analysis of the financial health of the country’s listed exploration companies by accounting and advisory firm BDO, to be released today, shows a big increase in the amount spent by the nation’s small-caps on investing and exploration as well as doubling in the number of $10 million-plus capital raisings.

The amount spent by the nation’s juniors on investment during the quarter more than doubled from $133m in the March quarter to $269m in the June quarter, in another reflection of improved confidence and a brighter outlook for the junior exploration sector.

Mining Capital Can’t Win as Canada Stocks Lag Metal Gains – by Kristine Owram (Bloomberg News – September 6, 2017)

September 7, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Industrial metals have posted their longest run of weekly gains since 2006 and gold’s had its best month since January, but the commodity-heavy equity benchmark in the world’s mining capital just can’t seem to gain any traction.

It’s the latest frustration for Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite Index, which has lagged all but one of its developed-market peers this year even as base metals have rallied on stronger Chinese demand and gold has gained amid geopolitical uncertainties.

Chalk it up to the previous base-metal slump from 2011 to early 2016 which has shrunk the industry and scarred investors. The materials sector, dominated by miners such as Barrick Gold Corp. and Teck Resources Ltd., is about half as important as it was to Canada’s equity benchmark six years ago.

In its third year, North American Nickel’s Maniitsoq drill campaign casts a wider net – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – August 30, 2017)

August 31, 2017

http://www.miningweekly.com/

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Drilling productivity at base metals explorer North American Nickel’s (NAN’s) Maniitsoq project, in south-west Greenland, has been lower than expected, prompting the company to add another drill rig and extend the drilling programme by two weeks to late September, to achieve as many metres as possible.

The TSX-V-listed junior is entering its third year of a strategic drilling campaign at its flagship nickel/copper/cobalt/platinum group metals project, focusing on step-out drilling at the Imiak Hill Complex (IHC), Fossilik and P-013SE.

The programme makes use of borehole electromagnetic surveys, surface induced polarisation geophysical surveys, mapping, structural geological studies and three-dimensional modelling.

The gilded South: OceanaGold writes the latest chapter in the long history of South Carolina’s Haile mine – by Ryan Bergen (CIM Magazine – August 25, 2017)

August 31, 2017

http://magazine.cim.org/en/

Located a few minutes from the small town of Kershaw, South Carolina, Haile has the distinction of being the only gold mine in the United States east of the Mississippi River. More to the point, unlike many new operations it is, if traffic cooperates, just an hour and a half from both an international airport and a domestic hub for air cargo.

It also has the advantage of a deep labour pool nearby and easy access to power and roads, which helped OceanaGold build the 6,300- tonnes-per-day operation for an estimated US$400 million.

Past to present

Gold was first discovered in the area in the 1820s by tenants clearing the land owned by Benjamin Haile. The first placer operations evolved to include a stamp mill, and the gold extracted helped fund the losing Confederate effort in the American Civil War. Legendary Union General William Sherman made a point of destroying Haile’s mine facilities as he and his troops returned north and operations only resumed in the 1880s when New York investors brought it back into production.

Under Obama, a gold mining firm was fine with a Mojave Desert monument. Under Trump, an about-face – by Louis Sahagun (Los Angeles Times – August 28, 2017)

August 29, 2017

http://www.latimes.com/

Less than a year ago, President Obama’s designation of a new national monument in the eastern Mojave Desert — featuring a row of jagged peaks rising above native grasslands and Joshua trees — was hailed as a compromise that served the goals of conservationists and the mining industry.

The 20,920-acre monument surrounded, but did not include, an open-pit gold mining operation at the southern end of the Castle Mountains. That allowed Newcastle Gold Ltd. of Canada to proceed with plans to excavate 10 million tons of ore from its 8,300-acre parcel through 2025.

“The company appreciates that it has been consulted throughout this process,” Newcastle said at the time. “The new land designation reflects a compromise position that meets our needs as well as respecting the interests of other stakeholders in the area.”

Eager for red-hot cobalt gains, investors think small – by Nicole Mordant (Reuters Canada – August 24, 2017)

August 24, 2017

https://ca.reuters.com/

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Institutional investors hoping to profit from cobalt, this year’s high-flying metal, are buying into companies that are smaller than their usual fare to gain exposure to an industry supplying the burgeoning electric car market.

Prices for cobalt CBD0, a key ingredient in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, have spiked 83 percent this year on forecasts that demand will double in the next decade as consumers switch to less-polluting cars. Nearly all cobalt, which prolongs battery life, is mined as a by-product of copper and nickel, making it difficult for investors to get direct exposure.

Much like the recent boom in lithium, another battery ingredient, cobalt’s surge has resulted from heady forecasts for ownership of electric vehicles. UBS in May said it expected them to account for 3.1 percent of global car sales in 2021 and 13.7 percent in 2025, up from 1 percent this year.

A Cosmic Theory and 2-Inch Lump of Gold Spur 500% Novo Surge – by Natalie Obiko Pearson (Bloomberg News – August 21, 2017)

August 21, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Quinton Todd Hennigh has spent 13 years scouring the Earth for clues to back a hunch: that the world’s biggest gold resource has lost siblings elsewhere on the planet.

Now the president of Novo Resources Corp. thinks he may have found a counterpart of South Africa’s Witwatersrand in the ancient red rocks near Australia’s northwest coast. In July, his company zeroed in on a gold find that’s confounded geologists and sparked a 500 percent surge in the explorer’s share price.

The first test on land south of the coastal town of Karratha looked good. Employing two men, a metal detector and a jack hammer, Vancouver-based Novo extracted gold nuggets as long as 4 centimeters (1.6 inches) from an exploration “trench” little more than a half-meter deep. That tiny sample hinted at ore grades that could be among the highest of any operating mine in the world.