[Canadian Gold Mining/Exploration During Depression] The Trails of `34 – by Leslie McFarlane (MACLEAN’S Magazine – September 15, 1934)

https://archive.macleans.ca/

THE CARIBOO, the Yukon, the Porcupine—these fields have been the scenes of epic Canadian gold rushes. In each case the stage setting was colorful, the action dynamic. Each field had its peak year of raw drama. They were spectacular rushes, with an element of madness and frenzy. They belong to history.

And yet in sheer enormity, in point of men involved, money expended, wealth produced and in sight, not one of them could hold a candle to the great gold rush of ’34.

Men still speak of the Cariboo Trail and the Klondyke Trail. There can be no such convenient designation for the scene of this year’s great gold trek unless one refers in a general way to the ‘Trails of ’34. Because the scene is all Canada, and the trails lead to new fields and old. The effort is not concentrated upon a single area. The stage is so wide, so crowded with effects that the term “rush” may seem at first glance a misnomer. And yet from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, across the whole breadth of the Dominion, one of the greatest gold treks of all time is in full swing.

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Mistango River starts exploration at Eby-Baldwin project in Ontario – by Carl A. Williams (Northern Miner – June 8, 2020)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Mistango River Resources (CNSX: MIS) has developed a geological model for its 34-sq.-km Eby-Baldwin project, located 10 km west of Kirkland Lake in the historic “Mile of Gold” of the Kirkland Lake district in Ontario.

The model considers Eby-Baldwin in the broader context of the Kirkland Lake district and how the project relates to the adjacent Macassa mine owned by Kirkland Lake Gold (TSX: KL; NYSE: KL).

The company has been acquiring parcels of land in the area for some time and recently purchased two additional landholdings, the most significant of which is the 21 sq. km Teck-Kirkland property, purchased from Hinterland Metals (TSX: HMI). The acquisition in late March effectively doubled the size of the Elby-Baldwin project.

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How Gold Thieves Get Away With Millions – by Don Delaplante (MACLEAN”S Magazine – July 15, 1950)

https://archive.macleans.ca/

The high-grading racket has its roots deep in the rich mines of northern Canada. The payoff is sometimes in New York, or even Morocco, at the end of a trail of graft, hijacking and murder

ON JUNE 2 thieves blew the vault at the Delnite mine in Ontario’s famous Porcupine camp and carted off three newly poured gold bars worth $74,000. It was the biggest single robbery in Canadian mining history. And it was pulled off in spite of rumors of the coup which had been rampant for six weeks.

No single incident could more strikingly underline the great high-grading racket. The theft and smuggling of high-grade ore and gold cost Canadian mines more than $2 millions each year. It is bizarre, spectacular, cunning thievery marked by graft, hijacking and calculated murder. Its practitioners are masters of the double-cross; news of newly planned thefts often leaks out beforehand.

Its ramifications are international. Stolen Canadian gold usually winds up in the free world market in Paris or is sold privately in Central Europe or the Middle East at $40 an ounce. Three years ago (before Russia flooded the market) the price hit $100.

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Kirkland Lake remains a gold exploration hotbed – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – June 3, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Three gold exploration outfits working the Abitibi Greenstone Belt between Kirkland Lake and Larder Lake have drill rigs deployed this month in anticipation of more high-grade showings this summer.

Vancouver’s Gatling Exploration reported its highest grade of gold to date coming out of an ongoing exploration program at its Larder Lake Gold Project.

The company has been running an aggressive campaign since last September in establishing a mineral connection between three gold deposits on its property, 35 kilometres east of Kirkland Lake.

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Kirkland Lake Gold invests in Melkior Resources – by Carl A. Williams (Northern Miner – May 21, 2020) https://www.northernminer.com/

https://www.northernminer.com/

Kirkland Lake Gold (TSX: KL; NYSE: KL) has struck a strategic partnership with Melkior Resources (TSXV: MKR), which is advancing its flagship Carscallen gold project in the Timmins gold camp of Ontario.

The Toronto-based gold miner, whose high-grade mines in Canada and Australia produced 974,615 oz. of the precious metal last year, is investing $1 million in a non-brokered private placement for up to 1.25 million units of Melkior at 80¢ per unit, giving it a 9.9% stake in the junior on a fully-dilutive basis.

“We are extremely proud to announce this landmark equity investment and potential joint-venture agreement with one of the world’s most respected gold mining companies,” Jonathon Deluce, CEO of Melkior Resources, said in a May 20 press release.

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Kirkland Lake Camp Gold Production Hits Almost 42 Million Ounces to Date (December 2019)

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The Abitibi is the largest Archean greenstone belt in the world. It’s roughly 150 km wide and stretches from just west of Timmins in Ontario for about 650 kms. to Chibougamau, Quebec. The Kirkland Lake camp stretches from Matchewan on the western side, through the town of Kirkland Lake to the Ontario/Quebec borber where the lengendary Kerr/Addison mine – the biggest historic gold producer in the camp – was found beside Larder Lake.

By the end of 2019, the Kirkland Lake camp had produced approximately 41, 550,000 ounces of gold from 36 mines historic mines. Only the Macassa Mine, owned by Kirkland Lake Gold and the Young Davidson Mine, owned by Alamos Gold Inc. are currently producing.

This makes the camp the second richest in Ontario after the Timmins region which has produced about 76 million ounces of gold by Dec/2018 and the third most productive in Canada, the national number two spot going to the Val d’Or/Rouyn-Noranda camp next door in the province of Quebec which has produced 72 million ounces of gold to date (Dec/2019).

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New high-grade gold discovery at Macassa Mine: Kirkland Lake Gold looking to expand its South Mine Complex – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – April 22, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Kirkland Lake Gold has found a large “corridor” of high-grade gold, east of its Macassa Mine. The discovery is close to where construction is taking place on a new shaft in the town of Kirkland Lake.

In an April 22 news release, the Toronto-based mining company said this looks to be part of a new corridor of high-grade mineralization – about 700 metres long and 300 metres high – appears to provide an opportunity to expand its workhorse South Mine Complex to the east.

One of the drill holes yielded an eye-popping result of 141.1 grams of gold per tonne over a 2.4-metre length of core. While all exploration drilling at Macassa is currently on hold due to the pandemic, these latest results came from the last round of drilling and from reinterpreting some old drill data.

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Eric Sprott bets on Orefinders Resources – by Trish Saywell (Northern Miner – March 5, 2020)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Financier Eric Sprott is putting some of his money behind Orefinders Resources (TSXV: ORX) and the junior explorer’s properties in the Kirkland Lake district of Ontario. Sprott has taken an 8.01% of the company’s issued and outstanding common shares on a non-diluted basis and about 11.64% on a partially diluted basis.

“He’s had tremendous success in the Kirkland Lake camp and that’s clearly what got his attention about us,” Stephen Stewart, Orefinders’ president and CEO, said in an interview. “He is obviously interested in our neighborhood.”

“Eric’s a seasoned investor who has seen it all, has lived through all the cycles, and understands it’s a long-term game, writes significant cheques and he brings eyeballs, which is important,” Stewart continued. “He’s probably the best shareholder you can have and it’s also nice to have money to execute on our plan.”

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Kirkland Lake Gold’s Tony Makuch our Mining Person of the Year for 2019 – by Trish Saywell (Northern Miner – February 20, 2020)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Tony Makuch, president and CEO of Kirkland Lake Gold, is The Northern Miner’s Mining Person of the Year for 2019. Under his leadership, Kirkland Lake Gold has outperformed its peers in the last 24 months. The company’s shares rose by 60% last year, it raised its dividend twice and more than doubled its cash position, ending 2019 with US$707 million in cash and equivalents.

Kirkland Lake Gold operates two of the highest grade gold mines in the world and produced a record 974,615 ounces of gold in 2019, a 35% year-on-year increase, anchored by its Macassa mine in Ontario, Canada and its Fosterville mine in the state of Victoria, Australia. It also produces gold at its Holt complex – a trio of mines (Holt, Taylor and Holloway) in Ontario.

Consolidated operating cash costs fell 22% year-on-year to US$284 per oz. sold, while all-in sustaining costs declined 18% to US$564 per oz. sold. Net earnings jumped 104% year-on-year to US$560 million or $2.67 per share, and free cash flow totalled US$463 million, an 81% increase over 2018.

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“Bit of a quiet year” for Northern Prospectors Association, says President – by Brad Sherratt (Kirkland Lake Northern News – February 10, 2020)

https://www.northernnews.ca/

The President of the Northern Prospectors Association says his group “had a bit of quiet year In as much as that most of our meetings and discussions were not so much based on being reactionary in context when compared to dealing with the past provincial Liberal government and its hostility toward exploration and mining.”

During the association’s recent Annual General Meeting, Gino Chitaroni said “since the Ford Government took over, there has been serious relief from government stress and pressure on our industry as a whole. Yes, the MMAC government committee is gone and many of us are quite happy it is. Nonetheless, exploration appears to be somewhat forgotten even though the Ontario Government created the Mining Working Group.

“This working group is heavily slanted toward red tape reduction at the mining development and operations stage. At least this group is trying to bring in “Made in Ontario” solutions for flow through financing, renewed JEAP financing and early stage engagement with First Nations and for exploration permitting.

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Kirkland’s $4.9-billion purchase of Detour Gold wins shareholder approval – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 28, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Shareholders at both Detour Gold Corp. and Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. voted decisively in favour of Kirkland’s $4.9-billion acquisition of Detour on Tuesday, in a deal that sees the world’s most profitable large gold mining company buy a struggling single-asset producer smack in the middle of a turnaround.

The all-stock acquisition was announced in November and was initially greeted with shock on the part of many of Toronto-based Kirkland Lake’s shareholders, with its stock plummeting by 17 per cent on the day the deal was announced.

Some big stakeholders, such as Eric Sprott, weren’t immediately convinced of the logic of Kirkland, a low cost, high grade miner, buying Detour, a high cost, low grade operator.

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Kirkland Lake Gold won’t budge as large Detour shareholder pushes for better offer – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – January 18, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. has no intention of improving its $4.9-billion all-stock offer for Detour Gold Corp., despite calls from one of Detour’s biggest shareholders for a last-minute sweetener.

Toronto-based Kirkland offered 0.4343 of its own shares for each Detour share, a 24-per-cent premium to the Nov. 22 closing price. “We can’t, and don’t intend to, change the terms,” Tony Makuch, chief executive of Kirkland Lake, said in an interview on Friday. “It’s a full and fair offer.”

Even though no other bidder surfaced with a higher offer for Toronto-based Detour, the market had been been anticipating that Kirkland might improve its bid. Over the past few weeks, shares in Detour consistently traded above Kirkland’s offer, before finally dropping a few cents below it, on Friday.

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The Agenda with Steve Paikin Interviews Charlotte Gray about her new book – A Millionaire’s Murder Mystery (December 2, 2019)

https://www.tvo.org/ Sir Harry Oakes, a major figure in 19th-and-early 20th century northern Ontario, made millions in mining. He was mysteriously murdered in the Caribbean in 1943, with no clues as to the culprit. The Agenda explores Oakes’s intriguing life, and the mark he made on Kirkland Lake with historian Charlotte Gray, who chronicled his activities …

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Excerpt from Murdered Midas: A Millionaire, His Gold Mine, and a Strange Death on an Island Paradise – by Charlotte Gray (November 30, 2019)

A terrific Christmas gift! To order a copy of Murdered Midas: A Millionaire, His Gold Mine, and a Strange Death on an Island Paradise: https://bit.ly/2lHTbYt 

Charlotte Gray is one of Canada’s best-known writers of non-fiction, specializing in history and biography, and her books have been nominated for or won most major non-fiction literary prizes. Murdered Midas is her eleventh book, and her second study of a great gold rush. In 2010, she published Gold Diggers: Striking it Rich in the Klondike which was the basis for both a PBS documentary and a Discovery Channel mini-series. She lives in Ottawa and is an adjunct research professor at Carleton University and a Member of the Order of Canada.

Excerpt from Murdered Midas: A Millionaire, His Gold Mine, and a Strange Death on an Island Paradise 

Had Harry Oakes once again arrived too late for a big strike? In Toronto in the spring of 1911, the thirty-six-year-old stared at the geological charts and topographical maps in Ontario’s Department of Mines, noting the extensive grid of prospectors’ claims superimposed on the region north of North Bay, bang in the centre of the immense expanse of Canada.

On paper, Northern Ontario looked as though government surveyors had already outlined its features and its potential. By now, the provincial bureaucrats suggested, the land had been “tamed.” Oakes traced with his stubby, stained finger the settlements strewn across the grim monotony of forest, rock, water, and muskeg swamp.

The charts recorded only mining camps; the cartographers had ignored the numerous Indigenous communities, although their presence showed up in the Ojibwa or Cree names of several features, such as Lake Temagami. Most of the network of links connecting mining camps consisted of rough, winding trails, but there were also newly laid railway tracks, punctuated at regular intervals by stations.

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Detour Gold premium vanishes as investors dump Kirkland Lake shares amid takeover – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – November 25, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Investors punished Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd. after the underground mining company said it will acquire struggling open pit specialist Detour Gold Corp. in an all-stock deal valued at about $4.9-billion. Toronto-based Kirkland Lake is paying 0.4343 Kirkland shares for each Detour Gold share, a 24-per-cent premium to Friday’s closing price.

But that premium all but vanished in trading Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Kirkland Lake closed down 17.3 per cent on the Toronto Stock Exchange to $52.38 apiece. Detour closed up 1.8 per cent to $22.61 apiece.

Kirkland Lake has been the gold industry’s best-performing senior gold miner over the past three years, thanks in part to the spectacular performance of its high-grade Fosterville mine in Australia.

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