Newmont can’t get enough of Colombia, buys 19.9% of Orosur – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – September 10, 2018)

http://www.mining.com/

World’s second largest gold producer Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) has acquired 19.9% of Canadian gold junior Orosur Mining (TSX, AIM:OMI), which recently closed operations in Uruguay and Chile to focus on Colombia.

Through a placement worth $2 million, Newmont has acquired 29.2 million commons shares at a price of C9.1c (6.9 cents) each. The exploration and option agreement includes a three-phase earn-in structure that allows Newmont to earn up to a 75% ownership interest in Orosur’s Anzá project, located in Colombia’s Department of Antioquia.

To secure a majority stake in the project, however, the US miner would have to spend $30-million over 12 years, complet a National Instrument 43-101-compliant feasibility study and make $4 million in cash payments, Orosur said in a statement.

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Nevada: Where the World Goes for Gold (Investing News Network – August 16th, 2018)

Investing News Network

This Investing News Network article is sponsored by Fremont Gold (TSXV:FRE).

Nevada may be one of the most geologically diverse mining jurisdictions in the world. Nearly every type of rock known to geologists can be found in the state’s desert landscape.

Nevada has been an important source of many of the world’s most critical base metals including copper, zinc and molybdenum. Today, Nevada leads the country in the production of lithium and, not surprisingly, the Silver State contains a wealth of precious metals, ranking as one of the top 5 global gold producers.

Nevada owes its unique geology and prolific gold production to the complex tectonic history of the northern Great Basin which gave rise to the widespread landscape of fault-dominated mountain ranges and valleys.

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Newmont Mining buys stake in Canadian gold project (Reuters/Globe and Mail – July 26, 2018)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Newmont Mining Corp, which topped Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit, said on Thursday it would acquire a 50 percent stake in a gold project in Western Canada as miners look for new reserves.

Major gold miners are racing to explore, expand and construct new mines as years of belt tightening have left them with diminishing reserves at their existing mines.

Newmont would pay $275 million to Novagold Resources Inc for its stake in the Galore Creek project. The remaining stake is held by Teck Resources Ltd.

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End of the rainbow: The future of gold mining in Nevada – by Suzanne Featherston (Elko Free Press – July 21, 2018)

https://elkodaily.com/

ELKO — Boom. Bust. Rush. Crash. These words are associated with the cyclical nature of the world’s minerals extraction industry known for making and breaking companies, economies, towns and fortunes.

Nevada – where mining has existed before statehood — has witnessed these ups and downs over time but now is experiencing a rather rare phenomenon in the mining industry.

“There has been a gold rush in Nevada for close to 50 years,” said John Muntean, an economic geologist and associate professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, who works for the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology.

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Newcrest Mining moves fast on Cadia dam breach, but problems will linger – by James Thomson (Australian Financial Review – March 12, 2018)

http://www.afr.com/

They are three words the mining industry never likes to hear – tailings dam breach.

Fortunately this latest breach, at Newcrest Mining’s Cadia mine, 25 kilometres from Orange in regional NSW, won’t have nearly the same awful headlines that accompanied the tailings dam failure at BHP’s Samarco operations in Brazil.

No one has been injured, and the tailings that have escaped the northern dam have flowed into Cadia’s southern dam. It’s also worth noting that roads have reopened around that southern dam, so thankfully things as well contained as they can be. Newcrest says cracks in the dam were spotted during a routine inspection on Friday; the dam failed at 7pm that evening.

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The world’s top 10 largest gold mining companies – 2017 – by Frik Els (Mining.com – February 28, 2018)

http://www.mining.com/

According to the World Gold Council primary gold production hit another record in 2017 after nine years of growth in output, albeit at a much slower pace.

Global gold production totalled roughly 105m troy ounces in 2017. Output is up 525 tonnes or nearly 17m ounces since the start of the decade.

The top 10 listed, non-state owned gold miners are responsible for nearly 30% of global output. The ranks of the top producing companies have stayed remarkably stable, but the next few years will shake-up the industry’s top tier.

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Newmont Mining poised for growth in gold sector – by Susan Taylor (Reuters U.S. – February 22, 2018)

https://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO (Reuters) – Newmont Mining Corp (NEM.N) laid out plans on Thursday for new projects to grow gold production and cut costs, while reporting market-beating profits and output forecasts that position it to take the title of world’s largest bullion producer in 2018.

Newmont, whose 2017 production slightly lagged industry leader Barrick Gold (ABX.TO), boosted its 2018 capital budget by $300 million, to $1.2-$1.3 billion, after approving a power project at an Australian mine and expansion of a joint venture mine in Nevada.

Chief Executive Gary Goldberg said Newmont’s efforts to attract a broader investor base, by sweetening its dividend and focusing on shareholder returns, is drawing increased interest from generalist investors.

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Barrick clings to top gold miner title as Newmont falls short by only 125 gold bars – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg/Financial Post – February 22, 2018)

http://business.financialpost.com/

But Newmont reiterated its outlook that exceeds Barrick’s forecasted output for the next four years

A gap of about 50,000 ounces — or about 125 gold bars — is all that stands in the way of Newmont Mining Corp. from claiming the title of world’s biggest gold miner.

The Greenwood Village, Colorado-based miner said Thursday its 2017 gold production was 5.27 million ounces, ending the year in a near dead-heat with industry leader Barrick Gold Corp., which produced 5.32 million ounces.

However, Newmont reiterated its outlook that exceeds Barrick’s forecasted output for the next four years. Goldberg has increasingly highlighted his company’s growth prospects to investors, as well as Newmont’s commitment to lure investors away from ETFs with high dividends.

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Newmont-Barrick Race for Top Gold Crown Comes Down to a Decimal – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – February 21, 2018)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Gold geeks will have to wait for Newmont Mining Corp. to disclose one more decimal place to see if it overtook Barrick Gold Corp. as the world’s biggest bullion producer.

On Wednesday, the Greenwood Village, Colorado-based company said it produced 5.3 million ounces of gold last year, essentially tying the output of Toronto-based Barrick, which last week reported 5.32 million ounces.

Whether that’s enough for it to squeak ahead of Barrick depends on the rounding. A spokesman for Newmont, Omar Jabara, said the more precise number will be given Thursday when the company posts fourth-quarter earnings and updates its production guidance.

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Gold Giant Barrick Faces Grilling After Fall to Bottom of Pack – by Daniel Bochove (February 12, 2018)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. executives will have some explaining to do when the company releases full-year results Wednesday.

Even with rising gold prices and a strengthened balance sheet, the world’s largest gold producer left shareholders with the worst returns among its top North American peers last year and the third-worst performance in the 15-company BI Global Senior Gold Valuation Peers index.

That’s a sharp reversal of the heady gains a year earlier when the Toronto-based company appeared unable to put a foot wrong. In 2016, Barrick’s Canadian shares soared 110 percent as it unveiled a sweeping plan to streamline the company. That same year its biggest rival, Newmont Mining Corp., rose 89 percent.

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Nevada mining industry to spend hundreds of millions in 2018 on expansion – by Rob Sabo (Northern Nevada Business Weekly – January 15, 2018)

Northern Nevada Business Weekly

ELKO, Nev. — Northern Nevada’s largest gold mining companies remain bullish on their operations in Northern Nevada for 2018 and beyond. Newmont Mining Corp. and Barrick Gold North America continue to pour hundreds of millions of dollars of development capital into surface and underground mining operations in Nevada.

The price of gold rose from $1,158 an ounce in January of 2017 to just under $1,350 an ounce in January of the new year — a figure that justifies continued investment in both companies’ Northern Nevada operations. Nigel Bain, executive director of Barrick’s U.S. operations, says the company has several major developments and infrastructure improvements slated for 2018.

CORTEZ HILLS UNDERGROUND EXPANSION

Workers on Barrick’s Deep South project will continue developing deeper access declines underneath the company’s existing underground mining activities at Cortez Hills, part of the Cortez mine area, which is the largest gold mining complex in the state of Nevada.

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Newmont Poised to Oust Barrick as World’s Top Gold Producer – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – December 6, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Newmont Mining Corp.’s Gary Goldberg has the title of world’s biggest gold producer within his grasp. The chief executive officer raised his 2018 production forecast to a range of 4.9 million to 5.4 million ounces.

That exceeds Barrick Gold Corp.’s 2018 guidance of 4.8 million to 5.3 million given in February, which doesn’t include the impact of the sale of 50 percent of a mine in Argentina.

While Newmont is already ahead of Barrick by market value, the midpoints of the two companies’ 2017 guidance indicate Barrick will keep Newmont at bay this year in terms of output. That’s not the case in the following years.

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Can Markets Save the West’s Most Controversial Bird? – by Daniel Rothberg (Bloomberg News – November 30, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Agee Smith’s Cottonwood Ranch is tucked away in rural Nevada, about 450 miles from Las Vegas and not far from the Idaho border. The area is prime habitat for the greater sage grouse, an imperiled bird found in 11 western states. The male grouse is known for his eccentric mating dance—involving strutting, chest puffing and the inflation of two yellow air sacs on his neck.

Over the past two years, Smith worked to improve areas that are crucial habitats for sage grouse. He has planted sagebrush and improved the grass density in his meadows. If a new conservation method works as planned, Smith could make some money off his work.

Nevada, along with Colorado and Wyoming, has been working to create statewide markets for the conservation of the bird. In the simplest terms, these markets let developers—mining and energy companies, mainly—offset their impact on sage grouse by purchasing “credits” from ranchers who conserve an equal amount of habitat.

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Barrick’s Digital Reinvention Takes Shape in a Nevada Desert – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – October 30, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Elko, Nevada is no Silicon Valley. A recent front-page story in the local paper hailed inductees to the Buckaroo Hall of Fame, a nod to the town’s cowboy past. Inside, a full-page spread detailed the aspirations of the kids vying for homecoming king and queen.

Yet it’s here, in an unremarkable warehouse in the foothills of the Ruby Mountains, that Barrick Gold Corp. has created an in-house coding hub to design software for its nearby Cortez operation — one step in its plan to use technology to revolutionize the business.

From underground WiFi to sensors that track the output of every miner, it’s all part of what Cisco Systems Inc. Executive Chairman John Chambers calls an “audacious goal” by his Barrick counterpart John Thornton to drag gold mining into the 21st century.

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Australia Just Ramped Up Super-Pit Fight Between Top Gold Miners – by Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News – September 25, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

A tax hike in Western Australia stands to lower the value of a massive gold deposit and further drive apart its owners: the world’s biggest producers of the metal who have spent the last two years debating what the mine is worth.

Newmont Mining Corp., the second-largest gold miner, has been interested in buying Barrick Gold Corp.’s 50 percent stake in the Kalgoorlie Super Pit since at least 2015. Newmont already owns the other half and operates the mine for Barrick, the No. 1 producer of the metal. The only reason a deal hasn’t been done, the two sides say, is price.

Now, the royalty increase could further the gap between how much the companies think the operation is worth. The higher tax “adversely” affects the value of Kalgoorlie, said Gary Goldberg, Newmont’s chief executive officer.

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