JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Kirkland Lake has set its sights on producing one-million ounces a year in the next five to seven years, a target which is built on transforming the Fosterville and Macassa mines into 400 000 oz/y producers.
At Fosterville, in Australia’s state of Victoria, Kirkland Lake is aiming to achieve the 400 000 oz/y target by 2020, as it moves to full production at the Swan zone and starts production from additional mining fronts.
The path to 400 000 oz/y at the Macassa mine, in Ontario, Canada, will take longer and will involve sinking a new $320-million shaft in two phases.
In Kirkland Lake, Ont., Patrick Adams has found happiness. Seven years ago, after graduating from Mohawk College in Hamilton in TV broadcasting, a friend got a job in one of the town’s local mines. Mr. Adams joined him on his trip north – and never left. He started in a job with Canadian Tire and eventually found entry-level mining jobs.
Now he works underground in a mine and pulls in $92,000 a year. “My work schedule is fantastic,” says Adams, who works less than half the year, while banking a fair bit of overtime.
In the past few years, Mr. Adams has married, had two kids, and bought two properties. His 2,000-square-foot home is a cushy bungalow, flanked by his ATV, boat, snowmobile and two vehicles. “It’s very nice that I have this lifestyle up here,” says Mr. Adams. “I have trails right outside my front door. I take it all in up here.”
California’s Artisan Vehicle Systems chooses northeast town for Canadian assembly, R & D hub
A leading edge California manufacturer of battery-powered underground mining vehicles is putting down roots in Kirkland Lake.
Artisan Vehicle Systems announced Oct. 31 that it’s building a 60,000-square-foot Canadian headquarters featuring a service centre, vehicle assembly shop, and product research facility in the northeastern Ontario gold mining town to be closest to its biggest customer, Kirkland Lake Gold.
The company is talking about creating 60 jobs over the next two years as they put shovels in the ground within a year-and-a-half to build a state-of-the-art “Centre of Excellence” in the Archer Drive business park.
A.Mining is a cyclical business, so we always seem to be running into the same roadblocks. Overall, gold prices are doing fairly well, especially in Canadian and AUS dollar terms. When you look at the industry as a whole, 2017 is turning out to be a positive year.
With that said, the industry does have to deal with cost pressures as it relates to capital costs. Thinking about some large joint venture projects in the market, it’s natural to understand that the size, cost, technical and market risks command a delicate balance.
On the investment side, attracting new investors to our industry continues to be challenging. We need to build the infrastructure at our mines during the downturns so that we reap the rewards during the price upswing.
KIRKLAND LAKE, ONT. — It is a scene that could grace the back of the five-dollar bill. Youngsters are playing hockey outdoors, the sounds so familiar – skates scraping over ice, sticks striking pucks, a barking dog – that they even include the winter call of the Canadian mother, once so common now so rare.
“Steeeeeeee-vennnn! Dinnnnnner-timmme!” But it is not real.
It is, instead, a diorama represented what once was, the roots of a game so important to this small Northern Ontario community that Kirkland Lake even has its own impressive Hall of Fame – Hockey Heritage North – that celebrates what Foster Hewitt once called “The town that made the NHL famous.”
It is registration week in Kirkland Lake, Ont., that time of year when the town’s youngsters sign up for a sport that once defined Kirkland Lake every bit as much as the gold the various mines pulled from the quartz and faults of this dense northern bush.
http://www.orefinders.ca/drill-bits/ Stephen Stewart is the CEO of Orefounders Resources Inc. Orefinders Drill Bits are informative videos about ORX & the metals & mining industry.
Exploration program yields new gold systems at Macassa, Taylor Mines
An aggressive exploration program by Kirkland Lake Gold is producing positive results at its two cornerstone mines in northeastern Ontario. The company reported making some high-grade drill intercepts during its exploration campaign at the South Mine Complex (SMC) of the Macassa Mine in Kirkland Lake.
An underground drill program at the mine’s 5300 Level intersected some new gold mineralization to the east with the discovery of a hanging wall system that could expand the mine’s resources.
Some of the results include intercepts of 65.8 grams per tonne (g/t) over 2.1 metres and 160.3 g/t over 0.3 metres. Follow-up drilling is planned for later this year. Drill platforms have been set up on both the east and west ends of the 5300 Level to expand the resource laterally and at depth. Early results are suggesting there is a strong potential to do just that.
A Toronto junior explorer has eyes on putting a former Kirkland Lake-area gold mine back into production.
Orefinders Resources are crunching the numbers on a new resource calculation around a high-grade gold zone they discovered within the former Mirado open-pit mine, and are starting a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) to consider restarting mining operations.
The property, located 35 kilometres southeast of Kirkland Lake, contains three former mines, including the Mirado. Gold was first mined on the property in the 1940s followed by number of companies who subsequently explored, drilled and mined over the years, the last being Golden Shield Resource in the mid-1980s.
Kirkland Lake Gold is moving away from the use of diesel fuel in its mining operations, with the introduction of lithium-ion battery-powered scoops and trucks in its underground gold mines. To date, the company has invested more than $15 million into the development of battery-powered equipment.
On Feb. 27, at Science North in Sudbury, the gold miner showed off its newest addition to the fleet: a ‘153’ load-haul-dump (LHD) truck, manufactured by California-based Artisan Vehicle Systems.
Artisan specializes in battery-powered mining equipment, and Kirkland Lake Gold is operating about one third of its equipment fleet with Artisan battery cells.
An edited version of this list was published in the February/March issue of the Canadian Mining Journal.
Four Americans Made the List!
A few months ago, my dear colleague Joe Martin, who is the Director of the Canadian Business & Financial History Initiative at Rotman and President Emeritus of Canada’s History Society, asked me a very simple question: who would be considered the most important individual in Canadian mining?
Considering Canada’s lengthy and exceptional expertise in the mineral sector, it was not an easy answer and I decided to research and create a top ten list of the most important mining men in Canadian history.
The lack of women on this list simply reflects the fact that for much of our history most women were not given the educational or social opportunities to excel in business, especially in a rough and male-dominated sector like mining. Times have changed, women are playing key roles in mining today and will definitely be included on this list in the future.
However, a few qualifiers need to be established. This is basically a list of mine builders not mine finders. Building a company through takeovers and discoveries is one way but I am also focusing on individuals who have built corporate empires and/or who have developed isolated regions of the country with the necessary infrastructure for mines to flourish and create multi-generational jobs, shareholder wealth and great economic impact.
Nov 24 More than 80 percent of Kirkland Lake Gold shareholders have voted in favor of the mid-tier miner’s takeover of Newmarket Gold, according to two sources familiar with the situation, marking the end of a contentious process.
Over 90 percent of the Newmarket shareholders who voted on the acquisition also backed Kirkland’s all-stock offer, valued at about C$1 billion ($741.34 million) when announced on Sept. 29, the sources said on Thursday on condition of anonymity as the matter is confidential.
Kirkland Lake shares were down 0.3 percent at C$7.34 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday, while Newmarket’s stock was up 0.3 percent at C$3.43. Silver Standard’s stock was down 0.3 percent at C$13.12.
Johannesburg, 18 November 2016: Gold Fields Limited (Gold Fields) (JSE, NYSE: GFI) announces that it and Silver Standard Resources Inc. (Silver Standard) (TSX:SRO, Nasdaq: SSRI) have today withdrawn their latest joint proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. (Kirkland Lake) (TSX: KLG) in a negotiated transaction.
As previously announced by Gold Fields, its wholly-owned subsidiary, Gold Fields Netherlands Services B.V., has made three successive proposals jointly with Silver Standard to acquire Kirkland Lake pursuant to a plan of arrangement for consideration consisting of cash and shares of Silver Standard or a combination thereof.
In response to each proposal, the Kirkland Lake board advised that it had determined that it was not reasonably expected to result in a Superior Proposal relative to Kirkland Lake’s previously announced combination with Newmarket Gold Inc. (Newmarket) (TSX: NMI), and that Kirkland Lake would not be engaging in any discussions with Gold Fields or Silver Standard or providing them with due diligence access.
Kirkland Lake Gold shares rose sharply on Monday on speculation there might be another bid for the Canadian gold miner which has rejected three offers, but at least one potential buyer said it would not jump into the fray.
Kirkland’s stock climbed as much as 9 percent, partly boosted as well by the possibility that its planned takeover of Newmarket Gold Inc, which had put its stock under pressure, will be voted down.
Reuters reported on Friday that South Africa’s Gold Fields Ltd and Canada’s Silver Standard Resources Inc have made three joint bids for Kirkland Lake and recently sweetened their offer to about C$1.4 billion ($1 billion).
VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Canadian miner Kirkland Lake Gold has rebuffed several alternative transactions, including three joint unsolicited offers by South Africa-based Gold Fields and Vancouver-based Silver Standard Resources, valued at up to C$1.44-billion.
In response to media rumours and a request on Friday by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organisation of Canada, Kirkland Lake issued a statement identifying the suitors and provided details of the sweetened offers, reaffirming that the revised proposal was not financially superior to the company’s C$1-billion all-scrip deal with Newmarket Gold, announced on September 29.
Kirkland Lake acknowledged that it recently received a sweetened revised acquisition proposal from Silver Standard Resources worth C$1.44-billion payable in cash and Silver Standard shares. The latest offer represented a premium of about 50% to Kirkland Lake’s market capitalisation Friday.
Kirkland Lake Gold (KLG.TO) has agreed to join forces with Newmarket Gold (NMI.TO 0.83%) in an all-stock deal worth about $1 billion.
Retail and institutional investors are likely to take a shine to both the deal and the new gold company, according to Andrew McCreath, BNN Markets Commentator and founder of Forge First Asset Management.
“This is a deal that is trying to make a stock more interesting to more shareholders … and also to lower the cost of production of the combined entity with a higher production base,” he said on Thursday.
