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Auguries — Inertia Creeps
September 16, 2011
By Kevin Michael Grace
Three years after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the beginning of the global economic crisis, it is remarkable how little is different. Many of our world leaders have changed, but they get their marching orders from the same bankers and economists, with the result that there is a continuity in their policies—nominal interest rates, stimulus direct and indirect, a vast increase in the money supply, a vast accretion of debt.
Despite this intervention, the recovery has stubbornly refused to appear, and unemployment remains stubbornly high. This is regrettable, according to the bankers and economists, but there was no alternative to their policies, as the consequences of their failure to act would have been unthinkable. Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they? Even so, one detects a note of dread in their recent pronouncements.
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Auguries — Globalists Bearing Gifts
September 22, 2011
By Kevin Michael Grace
The Ben Bernanke’s “Operation Twist” was DOA yesterday, and the market erupted in chaos today. The Dow fell 391.01 (-3.5%) to 10,733.83; the S&P/TSXV fell 105.54 (-6.2%) to 1,598.24; gold fell $63.10 (-3.5%) to $1,745; and silver fell $4.11 (-10.2%) to $36.36.
In response, a shell-shocked Peter Hillyard, ANZ head of metal sales in Europe, told Reuters, “The textbook ideas, the things we follow, the things we believe to be so are being shot to pieces for the moment.” For today, there is apparently only one thing investors believe in. “Everyone says they’re concerned about economies everywhere, but I suppose it’s dollar strength. That’s what I’m putting it down to.” He doesn’t seem convinced, but in a world whether nothing financial makes sense, Hillyard’s explanation is as good as any other.
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Auguries-The Unspeakable Truth
September 29, 2011
By Kevin Michael Grace
Until this week, one was only dimly aware of what a “viral video” is. Apparently, these Internet sensations that so captivate the kiddies always seemed to involve cats eating spaghetti, Hitler ranting about some current controversy or cats that look like Hitler. On Monday, however, a TV interview involving global finance, of all things, went viral within minutes, and within days had shocked, angered and frightened millions.
BBC News presenter Martine Croxall had asked trader Alessio Rastani about the prospects for the Euro bailout. Instead of dispensing the usual soothing balm, Rastani lowered the boom. The bailout was dead, he said. Why? “The economic crisis is like a cancer. If you just wait and wait, thinking this is going to go away, just like a cancer it’s going to grow, and it’s going to be too late.” It got better—or worse. As Croxall gaped in horror, Rastani declared, “The market is toast.” When asked for a solution, he replied that he didn’t care, as averting disaster was not his job: “Our job is to make money from it.” In any event, “This is not a time for wishful thinking that the governments are going to sort things out. Governments don’t rule the world; Goldman Sachs rules the world.”
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Auguries — Observe The Fundamentals
October 6, 2011
By Kevin Michael Grace
Tom Wolfe once said the press was not like vultures but more like fruit flies, descending en masse onto one thing, then departing just as quickly and for no apparent reason. Surveying the global economic situation, as this space is compelled to do, the media (as we call them now) appear more like children, endlessly drawn to the latest bright, shiny object.
It was not that long ago that the American deficit constituted a “crisis.” We hear little about that now, even though no serious action has been taken to reduce it. Instead, all our attention has been directed toward Greece, and the markets tumble up and down according to the latest rumours, even as the Greeks themselves give every indication they will reject whatever “rescue plan” the European Central Bankers cook up.
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Auguries — Fort Potemkin
By Kevin Michael Grace
In the film version of Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger, the eponymous supervillain has a problem. Even assuming that he can somehow overrun the “impregnable” Fort Knox and secure its gold, how is he going to get it out? As James Bond reminds him, the bullion is so heavy it would take a week to actually move the stuff. Turns out Goldfinger is content to leave it in Kentucky, as he intends to explode a neutron bomb within the vault, irradiating the treasure and making it immobile for half a century. This would render the US gold worthless and vastly increase the value of Goldfinger’s own hoard.
Needless to say, Agent 007 disables the bomb, saves the world and gets the girl. But let’s suppose Goldfinger’s nefarious scheme had succeeded. What difference would it have made? Sure, the gold would be radioactive, but it would still indisputably exist. It wouldn’t be merely putative, like the gold held at Fort Knox today.....
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Auguries — Waiting For The Other Shoe To Drop
October 20, 2011
By Kevin Michael Grace
Precious metals had a bad week, with (at press time) gold down $56.20 (-3.4%) to $1,612.90 and silver down $1.20 (-3.8%) to $30.56. The decline was attributed to “escalating worries about Europe’s inability to resolve its debt problems.” The latest on that is not reassuring. “Standard & Poor’s is to warn that a double-dip recession in Europe would imperil France’s AAA rating and set off a string of downgrades across Southern Europe, undermining the EU’s debt crisis strategy,” Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports.
It’s unclear why fears of an EU collapse are bad for gold, but that’s today’s “narrative.” Perhaps next week we’ll have a different narrative, and this process will be repeated until the Eurozone’s fate is revealed. Worldwide, markets are now characterized by a generalized anxiety that is not assuaged by continuous assurances that our best and brightest will somehow find a way out of our mess.
Read the rest of this featured commentary: http://bit.ly/uGDD6U
Auguries — One Size Fits All
November 3, 2011
By Kevin Michael Grace
It was a modestly good week for gold, up (at press time) $18.30 (+1%) to $1,765.10 and a modestly poor week for silver, down
.73 (-2.1%) to $34.50. It was an anxious week for the markets, as it seemed hoi polloi (literally!) were to decide whether to accept the EU’s “rescue” plan for Greece.
Back when the referendum was ON, Sonali Verma of the Globe and Mail reported, “Greece pulled the rug out from under investors’ feet.” Indeed, the investors’ outrage was something to behold. Will no one rid us of these turbulent Greeks? they howled. Don’t they realize it’s their duty to make us more money?
The founder of Athens was Theseus, son of Aegeus. Padraic Colum relates that in his great quest for glory, Theseus faced many robbers. One of the most vicious was Procrustes, who “had a great iron bed on which he made his captives lie; if they were too long for that bed he chopped pieces off them, and if they were too short he stretched out their bodies with terrible racks. On him…Theseus had no mercy; he slew Procrustes and gave liberty to his captives.”
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BC’s New Prosperity Inches Forward
Taseko’s Federal Review Could Take A Year
By Greg Klein
November 7 was the deadline, yet supporters and opponents alike were kept on tenterhooks as the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency waited until late afternoon Pacific Time to release its New Prosperity decision. Now both sides face up to a year of further uncertainty while the controversial gold-copper mine proposed by Taseko Mines Ltd TSX:TKO for south-central BC works its way through another review.
This marks the third review since the process started in 1993 and the second since November 2010, when a CEAA panel’s report prompted the federal cabinet to reject Taseko’s last proposal, which was called Prosperity. The review largely focused on 118-hectare Fish Lake, which Taseko initially planned for a tailings dump. Taseko’s revised proposal, New Prosperity, moves the tailings two kilometres upstream.
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Int’l Tower Hill CEO James Komadina on Alaska gold assays of 1.56 g/t over 76.2m
International Tower Hill Mines Ltd TSX:ITH announced assays from its Livengood Project near Fairbanks, Alaska. Highlights include
1.56 g/t gold over 76.2 metres (including 8 g/t over 4.6 metres)
1.31 g/t over 74.7 metres (including 3.11 g/t over 12.2 metres)
3.34 g/t over 30.5 metres (including 17.27 g/t over 4.6 metres)
0.87 g/t over 106.7 metres
1.04 g/t over 61 metres
0.71 g/t over 85.3 metres
1 g/t over 51.8 metres
Using a 0.7 g/t cutoff, the project has an August 2011 resource estimate of 149 million tonnes grading 1.09 g/t for 5.2 million ounces gold measured, 42 million tonnes grading 1.1 g/t for 1.5 million ounces indicated and 39 million tonnes grading 1.1 g/t for 1.4 million ounces inferred.
Read the rest of this article: http://bit.ly/soQTcq
Old Mine, New Lustre
MAX Drills Nevada’s Historic Majuba Hill
By Greg Klein
“We’re excited,” says MAX Resource Corp TSX:MXR President/Director Stuart Rogers. “We can’t call it a new discovery because it used to be a mine. But we’re just thrilled with the results.” The object of his enthusiasm is the Majuba Hill Copper-Silver-Gold Property, now the focus of the company’s foray into Nevada.
“We’ve got long intervals of high-grade mineralization, and we now have gold in the system that hadn’t been identified before,” Rogers continues. “We’ve identified other areas to the east and northwest where we can explore. We’re permitted now, and we’re starting the drill up again now. The next step will be to prove up the size of this resource.”
Read the rest of this article: http://bit.ly/sTQax5
Old Mine, New Lustre
MAX Drills Nevada’s Historic Majuba Hill
By Greg Klein
“We’re excited,” says MAX Resource Corp TSX:MXR President/Director Stuart Rogers. “We can’t call it a new discovery because it used to be a mine. But we’re just thrilled with the results.” The object of his enthusiasm is the Majuba Hill Copper-Silver-Gold Property, now the focus of the company’s foray into Nevada.
“We’ve got long intervals of high-grade mineralization, and we now have gold in the system that hadn’t been identified before,” Rogers continues. “We’ve identified other areas to the east and northwest where we can explore. We’re permitted now, and we’re starting the drill up again now. The next step will be to prove up the size of this resource.”
Read the rest of this article: http://bit.ly/sTQax5
Who Owns BC?
Indian Mining Rights are Powerful, Yet Vague
By Greg Klein
“We’re sure trying hard to have discussions,” says Brian Battison, VP of Corporate Affairs for Taseko Mines Ltd TSX:TKO. “We’re having discussions with two native bands, the Canoe and the Esketemc. The TNG [Tsilhqot'in National Government, which represents five bands totalling about 3,100 people], however, refuses to talk with us despite repeated offers from us to talk about the project and let us answer questions.”
The discussions, were they to occur, would concern Taseko’s New Prosperity gold-copper project, a $1.1-billion mine proposed for south-central British Columbia. A previous proposal met BC’s environmental review only to be rejected in November 2010 by the federal Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. Now a revised proposal has come before the CEAA. The agency will decide by November 7 whether to accept New Prosperity as is or spend up to 12 months on another study. That’s the latest step in a project that began its environmental permitting process in 1993 and has so far cost Taseko over $110 million. If approved, New Prosperity may advance to the permitting needed to begin construction.
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Prosperity For Whom?
Taseko’s BC Mine Hangs in the Balance
By Greg Klein
“The message is simple,” the Vancouver Sun quoted Grand Chief Edward John of B.C.’s First Nations Summit last August. “If you’re going to develop a mine or oil and gas, you need to ensure First Nations people are involved.”
That’s been the guiding principle of resource development in British Columbia for several years now. But a proposal by Taseko Mines Ltd TSX:TKO shows how the extraordinary rights—and additional potential rights—of a few thousand aboriginals might block a project that could provide jobs for themselves and many thousands of others.
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Luna President John Blake on Brazil gold assays of 2.57 g/t over 53m
Luna Gold Corp TSXV:LGC announced results from its Piaba gold deposit in northeast Brazil. Assays include
1.54 g/t gold over 36 metres
1.64 g/t over 31 metres
1.24 g/t over 24 metres
2.57 g/t over 53 metres
2.61 g/t over 14 metres
4.32 g/t over 31 metres
2.22 g/t over 54 metres
2.03 g/t over 35 metres
2.49 g/t over 55 metres
3.64 g/t over 22 metres
1.11 g/t over 25 metres
2.6 g/t over 41 metres
2.01 g/t over 52 metres
1.21 g/t over 38 metres
1.51 g/t over 65 metres
President/CEO John Blake tells ResourceClips.com, “We’re a producing gold mine. We hit our feasibility study production levels in August this year, and we’re producing at the rate of 60,000 ounces per year—we’ve been steady on that for the last three months. We’re working along the Piaba pit, which is a three-kilometre strike length of greenstone orogenic structure.
Read the rest of this interview: http://bit.ly/sInyX8
Discovery Rediscovered
Tyhee Nears NWT Gold Production
By Ted Niles
It’s at a daunting latitude, yes, but those who fear Tyhee Gold Corp’s TSXV:TDC Yellowknife gold project is too remote might be surprised to find that the property has already produced over a million ounces of gold. Staked by prospector AV Giauque in 1944, the Discovery Mine ran from 1950 to 1969 and turned out roughly one ounce of gold for every ton of ore mined. Employing what has proved for so many junior miners to be the impeccable logic that what was uneconomical then is likely to be economical now, Tyhee bought the property in 2001 (by that point expanded to include six additional claims), and it hasn’t looked back.
President and CEO Dave Webb gives a brief timeline: “We acquired the property in 2001. In 2005, we commenced baseline studies for permitting. In 2008, we completed a preliminary assessment that showed the project was economic, and we filed our first request to the regulators for licenses to operate. In 2010, we completed a prefeasibility study. It was quite positive, and we submitted a revised operating license request. In May 2011, we went into the final part of the environmental assessment report and started our feasibility study. We expect to be through everything in another six to eight months.”
Read the rest of this article: http://bit.ly/tNYhmP
A $26 Per Oz Bargain
Seabridge Shares Are Cheap at the Price
By Ted Niles
Rudi Fronk believes Seabridge Gold Inc TSX:SEA is one of the cheapest gold stocks in the world. A glance at the numbers would seem to support this. At a market cap of roughly $1 billion, with proven and probable reserves at its KSM project in BC of 38.5 million ounces gold, Seabridge stock is now trading at approximately $26 per ounce. And that’s ignoring considerable additional reserves at the project, including 10 billion pounds copper.
The President and CEO notes that the nearest comparable company, NovaGold Resources Inc TSX:NG—with advanced-stage projects in Alaska and BC—is “trading at five to six times our valuation on a reserve basis.” He explains the inconsistency, “The big difference between NovaGold and Seabridge is they already have sponsorship in their projects with big joint venture partners [i.e. Barrick Gold Corporation ABX:CA and Teck Resources Limited TSX:TCK.B]; we don’t yet. When we get that sponsorship through joint ventures, we would expect to see a pretty significant re-rating in our share price. I’d say we’re getting close to that point now.”
Read the rest of this article: http://bit.ly/sulH2p
MAX President Stuart Rogers on Nevada assays of 39.2 g/t silver over 96m
MAX Resource Corp TSXV:MXR announced assays from its Majuba Hill Copper-Silver Project in Nevada. Results include
39.2 g/t silver, 0.57% copper and 0.1 g/t gold over 96 metres (including 71 g/t silver, 1.14% copper and 0.15 g/t gold over 44.2 metres)
50.8 g/t silver, 0.31% copper and 0.31 g/t gold over 50.3 metres (including 100.1 g/t silver, 0.53% copper and 0.56 g/t gold over 19.8 metres)
15.4 g/t silver, 0.56% copper and 0.07 g/t gold over 45.7 metres (including 39.3 g/t silver, 0.54% copper and 0.11 g/t gold over 9.1 metres)
3.08 g/t silver and 0.06% copper over 111.2 metres
President/Director Stuart Rogers tells ResourceClips.com, “We’re excited. We can’t call it a new discovery because it used to be a mine. But we’re just thrilled with the results. We’ve got long intervals of high-grade mineralization, and we now have gold in the system that hadn’t been identified before. We’ve now identified other areas to the east and northwest where we can explore. We’re permitted now, and we’re starting the drill up again now. The next step will be to prove up the size of this resource.
Read the interview: http://bit.ly/uFI8hc
MAX President Stuart Rogers on Nevada assays of 39.2 g/t silver over 96m
MAX Resource Corp TSXV:MXR announced assays from its Majuba Hill Copper-Silver Project in Nevada. Results include
39.2 g/t silver, 0.57% copper and 0.1 g/t gold over 96 metres (including 71 g/t silver, 1.14% copper and 0.15 g/t gold over 44.2 metres)
50.8 g/t silver, 0.31% copper and 0.31 g/t gold over 50.3 metres (including 100.1 g/t silver, 0.53% copper and 0.56 g/t gold over 19.8 metres)
15.4 g/t silver, 0.56% copper and 0.07 g/t gold over 45.7 metres (including 39.3 g/t silver, 0.54% copper and 0.11 g/t gold over 9.1 metres)
3.08 g/t silver and 0.06% copper over 111.2 metres
President/Director Stuart Rogers tells ResourceClips.com, “We’re excited. We can’t call it a new discovery because it used to be a mine. But we’re just thrilled with the results. We’ve got long intervals of high-grade mineralization, and we now have gold in the system that hadn’t been identified before. We’ve now identified other areas to the east and northwest where we can explore. We’re permitted now, and we’re starting the drill up again now. The next step will be to prove up the size of this resource.
Read the interview: http://bit.ly/uFI8hc
Seabridge President Rudi Fronk on BC assays of 1.03 g/t gold and 0.1% copper over 182m
Seabridge Gold Inc TSX:SEA announced results from the Sulphurets Zone of its KSM Project in northwestern BC. Highlights include
1.03 g/t gold and 0.1% copper over 182 metres
0.96 g/t gold and 0.1% copper over 150 metres
0.93 g/t gold and 0.51% copper over 143 metres
0.74 g/t gold and 0.3% copper over 105 metres
0.8 g/t gold and 0.47% copper over 86.5 metres
0.38 g/t gold and 0.27% copper over 152 metres
1.57 g/t gold and 0.04% copper over 36.6 metres
President/CEO Rudi Fronk tells ResourceClips.com, “KSM is the largest undeveloped gold-copper project in the world today in terms of reserves. Contained within four separate deposits we have 38.5 million ounces of proven and probable gold reserves and 10 billion pounds of copper reserves. We’ve completed a prefeasibility on it that shows a very viable and robust project at current and even lower metal prices.
Read the rest of this interview: http://bit.ly/u1zvC0
Eastmain Exploration Manager Catherine Butella on Quebec assays of 49.9 g/t gold over 2m
Eastmain Resources Inc TSX:ER announced assays from its Clearwater Project in northern Quebec. Results include:
49.9 g/t gold and 0.67 g/t tellurium over 2 metres (including 84.8 g/t gold and 1.08 g/t tellurium over 1 metre)
3.8 g/t gold and 4.8 g/t tellurium over 17 metres (including 19.5 g/t gold and 23 g/t tellurium over 2.5 metres)
9.25 g/t gold and 10.7 g/t tellurium over 4.3 metres (including 22.6 g/t gold and 25.9 g/t tellurium over 1.5 metres)
6.77 g/t gold and 0.57 g/t tellurium over 4 metres (including 52.8 g/t gold and 0.01 g/t tellurium over 0.5 metres)
The project has an April 2011 resource estimate of 3.35 million tonnes grading 5.39 g/t for 582,000 ounces gold measured and indicated, and 5.32 million tonnes grading 5.96 g/t for 1.02 million ounces inferred.
Read the interview: http://bit.ly/sUaxQq
Tulsequah Revived
Chieftain plans 2014 BC polymetallic production
By Greg Klein
Progress is now rapid at Chieftain Metals’ TSX:CFB Tulsequah polymetallic project, located 100 kilometres south of Atlin, BC, and 65 kilometres northeast of Juneau, Alaska. “We have pretty much all the major permits, licences and authorizations to move forward,” says Jamie Frawley, Chieftain’s Director of Corporate Communications. “We can start construction any day now.”
Gold-silver-zinc-copper-lead production is slated to begin in 2014. This will be the culmination of a long struggle. Plunging metal prices in 1957 shut down Cominco’s northern BC polymetallic operation after six years of operation. Resuscitation attempts by Redcorp Ventures a half-century later were dogged by local and environmental opposition. As a result, the company gave up on a plan to build a 160-kilometre road to Atlin. An alternate plan, to ship concentrate by barge to Juneau, also faced resistance. Environment Canada ordered the company to build a water treatment plant to clean up toxins left flowing since 1957.
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The Golden East
Olympus Pacific Expands in SE Asia
By Greg Klein
It was 1996. While struggling to revive an inactive Vancouver Stock Exchange-listed company, David Seton encountered two formidable forces—legendary mining promoter Robert Friedland and the Vietnamese government. Now Friedland is the billionaire CEO of Ivanhoe TSX:IVN, Vietnam has two additional gold mines, and the once-inactive company, Olympus Pacific Minerals Inc TSX:OYM, runs those mines as it advances another Southeast Asian project to feasibility.
“We bought the first property in central Vietnam from Robert Friedland when he was Indochina Goldfields,” says James Hamilton, VP of Investor Relations for Olympus Pacific. “When we took over, we didn’t realize what he’d been telling the Vietnamese. We walked in there and only had a small resource. But they expected a full gold factory to be built right away. We said, ‘You can’t do that, you have to do all this drilling and go into feasibility.’ They said, ‘We don’t care, Friedland told us we’re going to get a gold-processing plant.’ We were kind of coerced into building a plant. It was very premature to what we’d planned to do. But it did pay off because we got access to a second property where we’ve just commissioned a state-of-the-art facility. It’s a fairly high-grade deposit and it’s a real cracker of a plant. It’s been in commission since July and we’re already over 90% recoveries.”
Read the rest of this article: http://bit.ly/oeoIxM
The Golden East
Olympus Pacific Expands in SE Asia
By Greg Klein
It was 1996. While struggling to revive an inactive Vancouver Stock Exchange-listed company, David Seton encountered two formidable forces—legendary mining promoter Robert Friedland and the Vietnamese government. Now Friedland is the billionaire CEO of Ivanhoe TSX:IVN, Vietnam has two additional gold mines, and the once-inactive company, Olympus Pacific Minerals Inc TSX:OYM, runs those mines as it advances another Southeast Asian project to feasibility.
“We bought the first property in central Vietnam from Robert Friedland when he was Indochina Goldfields,” says James Hamilton, VP of Investor Relations for Olympus Pacific. “When we took over, we didn’t realize what he’d been telling the Vietnamese. We walked in there and only had a small resource. But they expected a full gold factory to be built right away. We said, ‘You can’t do that, you have to do all this drilling and go into feasibility.’ They said, ‘We don’t care, Friedland told us we’re going to get a gold-processing plant.’ We were kind of coerced into building a plant. It was very premature to what we’d planned to do. But it did pay off because we got access to a second property where we’ve just commissioned a state-of-the-art facility. It’s a fairly high-grade deposit and it’s a real cracker of a plant. It’s been in commission since July and we’re already over 90% recoveries.”
Read the rest of this article: http://bit.ly/oeoIxM
New Gold consolidates and expands with takeovers of Silver Quest, Geo Minerals
New Gold Inc TSX:NGD plans friendly takeovers of Silver Quest Resources Ltd TSXV:SQI and Geo Minerals Ltd TSXV:GM. The acquisitions will give New Gold a 100% interest in the Blackwater Gold-Silver Project in central BC and an adjacent 42,470 hectares of property, as well as other properties.
For each Silver Quest share, shareholders will receive 0.09 of a New Gold share and one share in a new spinout company, McIntyre Minerals Inc. For each Geo Minerals share, shareholders will receive $0.16 and one-fifteenth of a share in a new, unnamed spinout company.
Read the rest of this article: http://bit.ly/oLWRQn
A Healthy Hybrid
B2Gold Grows With Auryx Buy
By Ted Niles
It is a rare company that hasn’t seen its share price take a beating this year. Rarer still, one that has seen the steady growth that B2Gold Corp TSX:BTO has. President and CEO Clive Johnson puts it down to strength of management, “beating your projections” and growth through exploration and acquisition. He adds, “Most explorers don’t produce; and most producers don’t find a lot. In our case, we’re a bit of a hybrid company. We’re producers, but we’re also very good at exploration. We always have been.”
True enough, as anyone familiar with B2Gold and its predecessor, Bema Gold, will attest. When Bema—a company which began as a grassroots explorer—was acquired by Kinross Gold Corporation TSX:K in 2006 for $3.1 billion, it had nine mines in five countries with reserves and resources of 50 million ounces gold, 80 million ounces silver and 2.9 billion ounces copper. Founded in 2007 (and retaining Bema’s executive and management team), B2Gold now has two producing mines in Nicaragua—La Libertad and Limon, with combined production in 2010 of 108,700 ounces gold—as well as other properties in Latin American and now, after its October 11 acquisition of Auryx Gold Corp TSX:AYX, Namibia.
Read the rest of this article: http://bit.ly/pWT2i5
Queenston President Charles Page on Ontario assays of 2.41 g/t gold over 98m
Queenston Mining Inc TSX:QMI announced results from its Upper Beaver Deposit in Kirkland Lake, Ontario. Highlights include 2.41 g/t gold and 0.1% copper over 98 metres (including 4.97 g/t gold over 26.5 metres), 13.15 g/t gold and 1.14% copper over 13.5 metres (including 17.74 g/t gold and 1.4% copper over 9.5 metres), 21.42 g/t gold and 0.54% copper over 6 metres (including 61.14 g/t gold and 1.18% copper over 2 metres), 122.82 g/t gold over 1 metre and 5.61 g/t gold and 0.52% copper over 10.3 metres (including 6.8 g/t gold and 0.69% copper over 3 metres).
President/CEO Charles Page tells ResourceClips.com, “The Upper Beaver is a past-producer—it has produced about 140,000 ounces of gold with a substantial copper credit—but everything shut down there in 1972, when a lot of the mines were abandoned in the Kirkland Lake gold camp.
Read the rest of this interview: http://bit.ly/q9blAj
Linking to the article and giving credit to the writer would be the smart thing to do. http://bit.ly/qWQiH9. Cheers.
Channel CFO Cyrus Ameli on Burkina Faso gold assays of 1.99 g/t over 70m
Channel Resources Ltd TSXV:CHU announced assays from its Tanlouka Gold Project in Burkina Faso. Results include 1.99 g/t gold over 70 metres (including 6.47 g/t over 13.5 metres), 1.1 g/t over 108 metres (including 2.32 g/t over 20 metres), 0.92 g/t over 98.7 metres (including 1.15 g/t over 30 metres), 1.2 g/t over 52.5 metres (including 5.67 g/t over 4.5 metres) and 0.77 g/t over 64.5 metres (including 1.32 g/t over 11.3 metres).
CFO Cyrus Ameli tells ResourceClips.com, “Tanlouka is actually a property that Channel has had for quite a number of years. We gradually did all the ground proofing that was necessary to delineate some drill targets on it during the market difficulties leading up to last year. Last year, we managed to raise enough money to do a very short drill program. That was enough to make our discovery at a number of different areas on the Tanlouka project, but principally on the Mankarga 5 zone, which is our main focus right now. We’ve been following that up and have been quite fortunate in being able quickly to delineate what is, right now, a 1.85-kilometre-long strike length. We haven’t yet completed any of our geological modelling on it, but we’re fairly confident that we have between a 150- and 200-metre-long width on it as well. That’s something that we’re starting to put together with this transition to the core drilling, the first results of which we put out this morning.
Read the rest of this article: http://bit.ly/mTCcqV
Atlanta Gold CFO Bill Baird on Idaho gold assays of 7.79 g/t over 19.8m
Atlanta Gold Inc TSXV:ATG announced drill results from its Atlanta property in Idaho. Assays include
7.79 g/t gold over 19.8 metres (including 25.92 g/t over 4.6 metres)
11.58 g/t over 10.7 metres (including 24.32 g/t over 4.6 metres)
8.14 g/t over 6.1 metres (including 11.83 g/t over 3 metres)
4.51 g/t over 13.7 metres
A September 2011 43-101 estimates 6.83 million tonnes grading 3.45 g/t gold for 686,600 gold ounces and 9.04 g/t silver for 1.8 million silver ounces indicated and 1.79 million tonnes grading 5.42 g/t gold for 282,400 gold ounces and 8.16 g/t silver for 425,400 silver ounces inferred. The gold-equivalent numbers are 719,000 ounces indicated and 290,100 ounces inferred.
Read the interview: http://bit.ly/r4NPPR
Mineral Mountain President Nelson Baker on Ontario gold assays of 45.9 g/t over 1.4m
Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd TSXV:MMV announced assays from its Straw Lake project in northwestern Ontario. Results include
1.4 g/t gold over 1 metre
1.4 g/t over 14 metres (including 2.8 g/t over 4 metres)
45.9 g/t over 1.4 metres
1.2 g/t over 1 metre
3.2 g/t over 1.4 metres (including 13.5 g/t over 0.3 metres)
1.4 g/t over 2 metres
2.4 g/t over 1 metre
2.7 g/t over 2 metres
27.5 g/t over 1 metre
President/CEO Nelson Baker tells ResourceClips.com, “We’d been looking at the area since 2006 when we acquired the Straw Lake project. We liked the area because it’s at the intersection of three major regional breaks or faults. Within that area, our property package consists of an area four kilometres wide by eleven kilometres long. It hosts three different styles of gold mineralization. One is the mine horizon, which is typically a Red Lake or Kirkland Lake-style gold occurrence, where you tend to get high grade. Straw Lake was mined between 1938 and 1941. The old-timers went down on a vertical shear zone that was about a metre wide, and the grades were quite high—anywhere between 0.35 ounces per ton to 0.4 ounces per ton—so the miners focused on that one-metre zone. They put a shaft down to 723 feet and established several levels, and they started production on the first couple of levels. About that time, they needed to get extra electrical power to go deeper with their mining operations, and the Second World War broke out, so they had to stop mining.
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MAX President Stuart Rogers on Nevada assays of 16.5 g/t silver and 0.28% copper over 89.3m
MAX Resource Corp TSXV:MXR announced results from its Majuba Hill Project in Nevada. Hole MM-05 shows
16.5 g/t silver and 0.28% copper over 89.3 metres
(including 30 g/t silver and 0.47% copper over 13.7 metres)
(including 71.6 g/t silver and 0.95% copper over 1.5 metres)
Hole MM-03, released September 27, 2011, shows
37.5 g/t silver and 0.38% copper over 42.7 metres
(including 90.2 g/t silver and 0.93% copper over 10.7 metres)
(including 364.6 g/t silver and 2.23% copper over 1.5 metres)
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Out Of Many, Goliath
Treasury Moves Toward Feasibility in Ontario
By Greg Klein
It began as a case of fragmented ownership, explains Treasury Metals President/CEO Martin Walter. Teck Resources made the discovery in the early 1990s while exploring Ontario’s Kenora Mining District. Corona Gold came in as a JV partner. Then Laramide Resources staked the down-dip portion of the project. “Corona Gold and Laramide decided to put both parts of the project together, and that’s what constitutes Treasury Metals today,” Walter says. And, as if completing an Old Testament genealogy, Treasury begat Goliath.
The Goliath Gold Project, that is. Once the properties were assembled into a single 49-square-kilometre entity, Treasury began drilling in earnest. A resource estimate came out in 2009 and a PEA in 2010. An updated resource is scheduled for November with full feasibility to follow.
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North Of 60
Sabina Faces a Huge Challenge in Nunavut
By Ted Niles
The Canadian Arctic contains the largest reserve of unexploited natural resources in the world. But they have remained unexploited for good reasons: savage weather and nominal infrastructure. Even as talk of climbing temperatures and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s commitment to the region excite interest, the cost of development remains a dauntingly high barrier to entry for such as Sabina Gold & Silver.
In response to this challenge, Sabina announced June 2 that it had sold its Nunavut Hackett River Project and some Wishbone Greenbelt Belt claims to Swiss mining giant Xstrata for $50 million and a silver production royalty equal to 22.5% of the first 190 million ounces of payable silver and 12.5% thereafter. President/CEO Tony Walsh explained that the deal “transforms Sabina into a purely precious metals company… Our goal is to become a mid-tier gold company producing between 300K to 400K ounces of gold per year from Back River, a project scope we believe we can expedite.”
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Curing A Hiccup
Great Panther Recovers from its 2Q Report
By Ted Niles
“In this kind of a market,” says Bob Archer, “people have kind of a show-me attitude.” The President and CEO of Great Panther Silver is referring to the blow the company suffered last month after its 2Q financials were released. He explains, “We had a little hiccup in the second quarter in terms of our concentrate sales from our Guanajuato operation. Our primary buyer said they weren’t going to accept any more concentrate, and that forced us to scramble to find another buyer. Which meant that we had a little bit of a buildup of inventory at the end of the quarter—our revenues and earnings for the quarter were substantially below what they normally would have been.”
Hiccup certainly seems like the appropriate word. Short-lived, innocuous but still irritating. Great Panther shares lost 25% before the proverbial paper bag burst on August 18 with the announcement that the company had found a new Mexican buyer for its concentrate. Indeed, says Archer, “We have resolved the problem such that as we draw down on the inventory to a new buyer the revenues in 3Q and 4Q will be higher than they normally would be and will balance out by the end of the year.” He adds, “It’s a bit of a non-issue for us, but the market is saying I want to see those numbers. I think largely because of that we’re undervalued relative to our peers right now.”
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Curing A Hiccup
Great Panther Recovers from its 2Q Report
By Ted Niles
“In this kind of a market,” says Bob Archer, “people have kind of a show-me attitude.” The President and CEO of Great Panther Silver is referring to the blow the company suffered last month after its 2Q financials were released. He explains, “We had a little hiccup in the second quarter in terms of our concentrate sales from our Guanajuato operation. Our primary buyer said they weren’t going to accept any more concentrate, and that forced us to scramble to find another buyer. Which meant that we had a little bit of a buildup of inventory at the end of the quarter—our revenues and earnings for the quarter were substantially below what they normally would have been.”
Hiccup certainly seems like the appropriate word. Short-lived, innocuous but still irritating. Great Panther shares lost 25% before the proverbial paper bag burst on August 18 with the announcement that the company had found a new Mexican buyer for its concentrate. Indeed, says Archer, “We have resolved the problem such that as we draw down on the inventory to a new buyer the revenues in 3Q and 4Q will be higher than they normally would be and will balance out by the end of the year.” He adds, “It’s a bit of a non-issue for us, but the market is saying I want to see those numbers. I think largely because of that we’re undervalued relative to our peers right now.”
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Full Feas Ahead
Woulfe Fast-Tracks Tungsten and Gold in South Korea
By Greg Klein
He’s not so much having it both ways as hedging it both ways—gold against a bear market and tungsten against a bull. That helps explain Woulfe Mining CEO/President Brian Wesson’s excitement about his company’s two South Korea properties, the Sangdong Tungsten-Molybdenum Project and the Muguk Gold-Silver Project.
“If you look at tungsten and gold, they’re based on totally different fundamentals,” he says. “If the world tanks, our company’s got gold. If the world keeps going as it is, we’ve got both. If the world comes right, tungsten will climb because it runs the GDP.”
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Rapid Resource Development
Marathon Moves Quickly In Nfld and Idaho
By Ted Niles
In November 2010 Stillwater Mining Company TSX:SWC.U acquired Marathon PGM Corporation for its eponymous copper-palladium project in northwestern Ontario. The transaction earned Marathon PGM shareholders $118 million and saw the company’s remaining gold assets spun out into Marathon Gold Corporation TSX:MOZ. “Our background is rapid resource development,” says President and CEO Phillip Walford, “developing resources, then into reserves. We did that at Marathon PGM and, if anything, we’re doing it faster here.”
“Here” being the new company’s flagship Valentine Lake gold project, located 55 kilometres south of the town of Buchans, Newfoundland, which Marathon holds in 50/50 joint venture with Mountain Lake Resources Inc TSXV:MOA. Prior to Marathon, the property’s other joint venture partner was Richmont Mines Inc TSX:RIC. “Richmont looked at it from an underground mining point of view and basically walked on it,” Walford comments. “Then we came along and had a look. While Richmont was looking at Valentine from an underground-mining perspective, what I could see there was really, to start with anyway, an open pit. That was our concept, and it seems to be working.”
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One Out Of Two Ain’t Bad
Orezone Sees 2015 Burkina Faso Gold Production
By Ted Niles
The 2008 acquisition of Orezone Resources Inc by IAMGOLD Corporation TSX:IMG was, in President/CEO Ron Little’s view, less a takeover than it was “a take-under.” The junior mining company was within reach of production at its Essakane gold project in Burkina Faso when the market crash dealt it a decisive blow. “We were about a third of the way into Essakane in terms of construction when it hit,” Little laments. “We got it fully permitted on our own; we had a debt facility approved; it was the biggest capital investment ever in Burkina Faso.”
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Three Companies In One
Probe Has Gold, Chromite and an AEM NSR
By Ted Niles
Between Probe Mines Limited’s TSXV:PRB Borden Lake gold project, its Black Creek chromite project, and a 5% Net Smelter Royalty on a portion of Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd’s TSX:AEM Goldex Mine, David Palmer considers the company to be something of a steal at its current share price. “There’s probably a bit of a disconnect because we have disparate commodities. You never see chromite-gold companies,” Probe’s President and CEO says. “We’ve got these three very valuable assets, and I don’t know if the market values them all together. In terms of our market value now, it’s almost like you’re getting Borden Lake for free.”
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Back in Burkina
Channel Finds Gold, Stability in W Africa
By Ted Niles
Mining interest in Burkina Faso has grown remarkably over the last two decades. Channel Resources Ltd TSX:CHU has been there from the beginning. “Several significant projects iin Burkina were early Channel discoveries,” says Senior Vice President Cyrus Ameli. “When the price of gold and the whole exploration market really came off in the late 1990s-early-2000s, it was impossible for Channel to properly finance the exploration of these projects. There was a period where the company had to pull back from the projects and optioned a number of them away to different companies. Orezone Gold Corporation’s TSX:ORE Bomboré project was the last one.”
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