GOLD-COPPER | CEO Bristow focuses on tier-one assets
BY COLIN MCCLELLAND
When Barrick Gold took over Randgold in 2019, its marketing dropped Gold from the name to reflect wider interests like copper and appeal to new investors. But it didn’t bother to change its registered moniker. Gradually, the Gold crept back in.
Now, the Gold has been guillotined, like a statement Barrick Mining (TSX: ABX; NYSE: B) means business this time.
“Most of the gold companies sort of have grasped at the opportunity
to talk about copper,” CEO Mark Bristow said in an interview with The Northern Miner in May. “But we actually pointedly said, ‘if you really want to be a big player in the gold business, it makes a whole lot of sense to focus on these big assets.’”
And so it is. Barrick is developing the $9-billion (C$12.5-billion) Reko Diq gold-copper project over two stages in Pakistan for 2028 output and spending $2-billion to double the Lumwana copper mine production in Zambia. Projects that aren’t big enough may face the chopping block, like part of its name. Selling
“The real gap that we’ve got in our industry is a lack of generalist investors and we want to attract those.”
MARK BRISTOW BARRICK MINING CEO
the Tongon mine in Cote d’Ivoire is well advanced, the CEO said.
Another candidate, despite the company’s surging interest in the red metal, is Barrick’s stake in the Zaldívar copper mine in Chile. The 50-50 joint venture with Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO) that produced 80,000 tonnes of cathodes last year is said to be for sale, according to Bloomberg.
Like Hemlo Officials approved Zaldívar’s environmental impact assessment early this year, extending the mine’s life to 2051. Bristow sidestepped a question on whether Zaldívar is for sale, only saying the team is focused on achieving a new mining licence. But the work at Zaldívar resembles how Barrick prepped the Hemlo mine in Ontario before putting a “For Sale” sign on it in May.
Upgrades and drilling over the last three years expanded Hemlo’s pit and gave it a 10-year mine life, though its production remains short of Barrick’s tier one hurdle, the CEO said.
“It’s one of those assets that, if you work hard at it, it continues to deliver,” he told a May conference call. “But it’s at a stage where we can defend its viability, and it will be an attractive asset for a midsized mining company.”
Hemlo is Barrick’s last mine in Canada. And the company has mulled about moving its primary stock listing to New York from Toronto. Bristow says he’s aware of how these issues tug at sentiments about industry legend Peter Munk founding Barrick in Canada 40-odd years ago, all amid an “elbows up” attitude now among Canadians eager to defend their country.
“The last thing we want to do is offend anyone and remember, these things are moments in time,” he said in the interview, referring to frosty U.S.-Canada relations.
“We’ve participated as a major Canadian player in the economy.”
Above: Barrick’s Hemlo mine near Lake Superior in northern Ontario. BARRICK MINING
Left: Bristow speaks at the Reko Diq site in Pakistan.BARRICK MINING
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inbrief
DEPARTMENTS
SPECIAL SECTIONS » Gold and Silver 19
n Rescue teams compete
Eight provincial districts are advancing to the Ontario Mine Rescue (OMR) competition this month where only one team will return home with the coveted gold hard hats. At district competitions that ended on May 9, each team began its scenario with a vehicle crash blocking the way to a fuel bay on fire, no water available, and a casualty trapped by their seatbelt. Too hot to use a fire extinguisher, they worked quickly to free the casualty and pull the vehicle out of the bay’s doorway.
Once completed, a built-in fire suppression system activated and extinguished the fire, allowing the team to search for the next casualty.
“Paying attention to your surroundings, problem-solving under pressure, and adapting as the situation unfolds is critical in mine rescue work,” Shawn Rideout, chief mine rescue officer at Workplace Safety North (WSN), said in a release. WSN is among four sector-based associations designated by the province to provide specialized training. OMR is an emergency response program for protecting workers in the mining industry, formed in 1929 following the Hollinger mine fire in Timmins that claimed 39 lives.
Teams will face a new scenario at the OMR provincial competition set to take place June 3 to 5 at Glencore Kidd Operations in Timmins.
BY CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL STAFF
n Orca to mine seaweed
earths from seaweed farms.
Orca, located in San Jose, Calif., is partnering with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to test biomass strains for how well they absorb minerals from seawater. Orca is to work with an unidentified European metallurgy partner on secondary refining, CEO Beau Perry told The Northern Miner
“A drop of seawater has everything on the periodic table in some quantity in it,” Perry said. “We know seaweeds take up a lot of arsenic, lead and cadmium so we know that they’re hyper accumulators.”
U.S. policy makers are racing to secure domestic critical minerals. Conventional refineries often face strong local resistance over acid leach and solvent use.
Perry argues an “algal ore” feedstock could cut the physical and toxic footprint of downstream plants, no regulator has yet approved a farm-to-refinery flowsheet.
Seaweed farms don’t have a published mass balance or clear purity targets, meaning they can’t provide the measured grades that miners show under NI 43-101 standards in Canada or S-K 1300 in the U.S. But Orca still plans to build a pilot facility by 2027 and start commercial output by 2028, Perry said.
BY HENRY LAZENBY
n ‘Stars created gold’
The origins of the Earth’s heaviest elements like gold have eluded astrophysicists for decades. The prevailing scientific view is that neutron star collisions created the elements, but one study points to another theory for their formation.
Explosions of highly magnetized neutron stars, or magne-
A blast at Kaiser Resources’ coal mine, Sparwood, B.C., 1976. See more historical photos in our 110th Anniversary insert.
11 Eye on Australia
12 Mining, Metals & Markets
tars, caused the heavy metals to form in space, according to the study published in early May in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
The conclusion follows an analysis of 20-year-old archival data from NASA and the European Space Agency. It showed that the magnetars in a seismic event like an earthquake, can unleash giant flares, an explosive event that releases high-radiation gamma rays. The researchers found the magnetars would unleash material into the universe, though they could not explain the ejection of the star’s mass.
“It’s a pretty fundamental question in terms of the origin of complex matter in the universe,” said Anirudh Patel, a doctoral student at Columbia University in New York, as quoted in an article on the NASA website.
The answer may lie in the elements’ atomic structures, said Patel and colleagues. The heavy metals’ formation could have happened through a “rapid process” of neutrons forging lighter atomic nuclei into heavier ones, the authors said. BY MINING.COM STAFF
n Kidnappers kill 13
Thirteen security guards kidnapped from one of Peru’s largest gold mines were found dead on May 4, underscoring the worsening security crisis in the country’s Amazonian Pataz province, local media reported.
The victims, employed by security firm R&R, had been dispatched to confront illegal miners at the site operated by Compañía Minera Poderosa, which produced 300,000 oz.
PHOTO
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EDITORIAL
Golden highs, critical crossroads at 110
BY COLIN McCLELLAND
As The Northern Miner marks its 110th anniversary with a special 36-page insert this month, the mining world stands at a crossroads — not unlike the one it faced in 1915, when war, politics and supply shortages shaped the metals landscape.
Today, it’s gold and critical minerals caught in the global churn. High prices for the former reflect deep economic and geopolitical anxiety. Rising demand for the latter stems from a new era of electrification, trade conflict and energy transition. History may not repeat, but it sure echoes, and there are lessons worth recalling as we head into the next century of mining.
As if on cue for our annual gold and silver issue, the intraday spot gold price touched a record $3,500 an oz. in late April and hovered around US$3,275 per oz. during May. The 27% gain this year has been driven by sustained central bank buying, inflation concerns and a litany of U.S. tariff threats and actions. The metal’s appeal isn’t just psychological; it’s political. Central banks from China to Poland are shedding U.S. dollars in favour of bullion, wary of volatility and the U.S. using the dollar as a financial weapon. Investors, meanwhile, are dusting off the “own gold just in case” playbook. For an industry that’s spent the last decade justifying its relevance to generalists, the justification now lies in the headlines. Barrick CEO Mark Bristow mentions (see page one) how the company has dropped Gold from its name to attract more generalists.
If gold reflects fear, critical minerals reflect ambition – the ambition to electrify, decarbonize and out-compete.
Price lift
Large gold equities like Newmont, Barrick and Agnico Eagle are benefiting from the lift even as their production fell during the first quarter. Developers are updating resources and eyeing construction. Majors are consolidating, like Gold Fields buying Gold Road for $2.4 billion (see page 8). Exploration is reviving in historic camps like Quebec’s Abitibi and B.C.’s Golden Triangle. If there’s a complaint, it’s that valuations haven’t kept up with bullion’s move — a familiar frustration for miners – but interest is returning.
Silver, too, has regained its shine. It’s up more than 30% over the past year, breaching US$34 per oz. in late March. Investors view it as gold’s cousin; the green economy sees it as irreplaceable. Solar panels, electronics and EVs are gobbling up silver (see page 20). The result: industrial demand hit a record 680 million oz. in 2024 and the supply deficit widened again. Unlike lithium, silver still gets little political attention, but its dual role is drawing a more diverse investor base.
If gold reflects fear, critical minerals reflect ambition — the ambition to electrify, decarbonize and out-compete. Canada, the U.S., the European Union and others are trying to build secure supply chains for lithium, nickel, copper, rare earths and more. But as a new report from the International Energy Agency shows, it’s China that still dominates processing, even gaining market share in the past four years.
Fast-tracking
The response from Ottawa has been steady, if overdue. The feds extended the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit. Infrastructure funding is flowing to northern roads and power lines. Most notably, there’s real talk of fast-tracking mine approvals — a rare political consensus, as was on display in the recent federal election. The motivation? Donald Trump’s return to the White House and his reinstated steel and aluminum tariffs have reminded Canadians, again, that trade alignment doesn’t mean tariff exemption.
A recent column on The Northern Miner website (Opinion: Canada can fast-track critical minerals and dodge US tariffs) by metallurgical legend
Phillip Mackey, a Canadian Mining Hall of Fame member who co-developed widely used copper smelting processes, made the historical comparison to World War II. Then, Canadian mines produced critical materials at unprecedented scale. He’s right to draw the parallel. Back then, it took coordination and urgency. Today, it will take the same – with the added challenge of doing so sustainably and with Indigenous partnership.
Timelines
The good news is that the projects are there, and some are finally approaching production. Taseko Mines’ Florence copper mine in Arizona is nearing construction completion, output from Thacker Pass by Lithium Americas in Nevada is due in late 2027, and Canada Nickel’s Crawford project in Ontario is targeting production around the same time. Permitting, infrastructure, skilled labour — these aren’t new problems, but they’re now front and centre. The timelines must compress.
In our archives, which we’ve skimmed for the anniversary insert, themes recur: discoveries, politics, developments, scandals. What changes are the players and the minerals. In 1915, silver from the Cobalt camp was making headlines, giving the town its name and the industry a newspaper. Gold roared in the ’30s. Uranium mattered in the ’40s and ’50s, and is back again. It joins battery metals, rare earths and copper. Plus gold and silver, of course.
One hundred and ten years in, The Northern Miner has seen the industry ebb and flow. But we’ve never doubted the sector’s central role in building the future. And in a world that needs more metal — for batteries, bridges or bullion — mining’s relevance is only growing. TNM
COMMENTARY
Clearing Australia’s debt with unmined gold
BY JAMES COOPER
According to the U.S. government’s financial statements, the country owns over 8,100 tonnes of gold, the highest amount of any nation. But while most countries revalue their gold reserves annually, quarterly, or sometimes monthly, the U.S. hasn’t done so since the 1970s! Its reserves are stuck at a set rate of about $42 an oz., giving it a book value of just $11 billion. As you probably know, gold is worth much more than that, now well over $3,000 per ounce. A revaluation would push up the market value of those holdings to nearly $765 billion.
Why undervalued?
The U.S. has long opposed a gold revaluation, as this would damage the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. (Revaluing gold from $42 an oz. signals that paper money has depreciated and would suggest that trust in fiat currencies, especially the U.S. dollar, has eroded.)
How it has maintained this twisted fantasy for so long is anyone’s guess. According to some sources, the U.S. dollar has lost more than 96% of its value since 1913.
However, under Trump, the U.S. has flagged the idea of revaluing its gold reserves. That will push up its assets, leading to a one-off windfall gain for the US Treasury and a significant increase in the Fed’s balance sheet.
So, with that in mind, what if Australia and other gold-rich countries underwent their own gold revaluation?
Debt-erasing power
Australia holds the world’s largest gold reserves. But when I say ‘reserves’, I don’t mean gold sitting in a vault, like the U.S. example; I mean the untapped bounty
Correction
lying beneath the ground. Gold that we know exists but, for whatever reason, hasn’t been extracted. Geoscience Australia says these “unmined” gold reserves total a staggering 9,500 tonnes. That’s about 17% of the world’s total estimated “unmined” reserves.
If Australia extracted and stored all this gold (rather than sold it to customers), it would hold more bullion than the U.S. government! However, it would take significant capital investment to extract all that wealth.
So, let’s play a hypothetical. What would Australia’s untapped gold bounty be worth after deducting the costs to extract and process it, turning gold that’s locked up in the ground into pure bullion?
Gold miners have devised a neat measure that accounts for all the processing and mining costs associated with extracting gold. We call it the all-in-sustaining cost. That averages to around $1,200 per oz. across global gold mining operations. So with a conservative gold price of $3,000 per oz., by my calculations, Australia’s untapped 9,500-tonne bounty would be worth around $600 billion! Or about $940 billion in Aussie dollar terms.
Now, here’s the real kicker. According to the Treasury Department, Australia’s gross debt is estimated to be precisely that — $940 billion in 2025!
That means Australia could hypothetically extinguish its national debt if it mined and sold its known gold reserves. Of course, the rights to mine that gold are held by private corporations, not the taxpayer.
But as gold gains more attention in the months ahead, will investors start to price in a country’s untapped reserves when accounting for its national balance sheet health? TNM
James Cooper is a geologist based in Australia who runs the commodities investment service Diggers and Drillers. You can also follow him on X @JCooperGeo.
In the uranium Spotlight of our May issue, Global Atomic’s Dasa project was incorrectly stated as being in Mali. It is in fact in Niger. The Northern Miner regrets the error.
GOLD & SILVER PRODUCERS VS RESERVES
By Blair McBride
2023 PRODUCTION TOTALS & GEOLOGICAL RESERVES BY COUNTRY (TONNES)
Pan American signs $2.1B deal to buy MAG Silver
MEXICO | Buy extends industry consolidation
BY FRÉDÉRIC TOMESCO
Pan American Silver (TSX, NYSE: PAAS) agreed to buy
MAG Silver (TSX, NYSE: MAG) for about $2.1 billion (C$2.93 billion) in cash and stock to gain a stake in Mexico’s large-scale Juanicipio mine. MAG shares jumped on the May 11 announcement while Pan American’s plunged. MAG shareholders will receive the equivalent of $20.54 per share, based on the previous closing price on the New York Stock Exchange, according to a release. The deal, which calls for Vancouver-based Pan American to pay $500 million in cash and 0.755 share for each share of MAG, is expected to close in the second half of the year. Pan American expects to issue about 60 million shares to MAG shareholders at closing.
Adding MAG will let Pan American — the operator of 10 mines in seven countries — boost its revenue and give it a chance to benefit from ongoing exploration efforts in Mexico. Juanicipio, which is 44% owned by MAG, generated free cash flow of $77.4 million in the first quarter, almost triple the year-ago level. MAG shareholders, meanwhile, will benefit from becoming investors in a larger, more diversified silver producer, according to Scotia Capital mining analyst Ovais Habib.
“This deal is a strategic transaction and logical fit for both companies,” Habib said in a May 12 note to clients.
‘Overdue’ consolidation
The transaction builds on M&A activity in the silver mining industry since September. It follows First Majestic Silver’s (TSX, NYSE: AG) $970 million purchase of fellow Canadian explorer and developer Gatos Silver (TSX, NYSE: GATO), Coeur Mining’s (NYSE: CDE) $1.7 billion acquisition of Canadian precious metals producer Silvercrest (TSX: SIL; NYSE: SILV) and Endeavour Silver’s (TSX: EDR) $145 million deal for Peruvian miner Minera Kolpa, which closed last month.
Consolidation among silver miners was “arguably long overdue,” MAG Silver founder Peter Megaw told The Northern Miner via email.
“This is a great step into one of the world’s great silver companies,” he said of MAG Silver’s sale to Pan American. The deal “gives investors a geologically and jurisdictionally diverse silver giant to invest in at a level comparable in scale, if not dollar value, to the gold giants.”
MAG stock jumped 6.8% to C$25.18 ($17.99) in Toronto trading following the announcement, before easing to $24.65 a week later, giving the company a market value of about C$2.6 billion. Pan American plunged 16% to C$31.98, and were at C$31.76 near press time, cutting the company’s market value to about C$11.5 billion.
Silver and gold
Acquiring MAG will also allow Pan American to increase cash flow generation and lift mineral reserves. Juanicipio is expected to generate free cash flow of about $200 million this year.
Juanicipio produced 4.5 million oz. of silver in the first quarter, as well as 10,200 oz. of gold, 10,600 tons of lead and 16,900 tons of zinc. It had all-in sustainable costs of $10.64 per silver equivalent ounce.
For all of 2025, Juanicipio is forecasted to produce between 14.7 million oz. and 16.7 million oz. of silver.
Mexico City-based miner Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) controls Juanicipio with a 56% stake. It also operates the mine, which is located in Mexico’s Fresnillo silver trend.
MAG reported net income of $28.7 million, or 28¢ a share, in the first quarter.
21% premium
Pan American’s offer represents a 21% premium over MAG’s May 9 closing price in New York. It also represents a 27% premium on the 20-day volume-weighted average price of the stock on the NYSE through May 9.
Two-thirds of MAG shareholders will need to approve the deal at a special meeting, which will probably be held in July.
Approval of the deal by Pan American’s shareholders will not be required, nor will the transaction require review and approvals under the Investment Canada Act, according to the company.
While a rival offer from a third party “is always a possibility, we
believe the potential of an interloper scenario is less likely as the interloper will need to scale the hurdle of getting the buy-in of the Juanicipio and Fresnillo management teams,” Scotia Capital’s Habib said. “A superior offer will require a larger deal premium with a better cash consideration.”
14% ownership
Once the acquisition has been completed, existing MAG shareholders will own about 14% of Pan American shares on a fully diluted basis.
“Our acquisition of MAG brings into Pan American’s portfolio one of the best silver mines in the world,” Pan American CEO Michael Steinmann said in a statement. “Juanicipio is a large-scale, high-grade, low-cost silver mine that will meaningfully increase Pan American’s exposure to high-margin silver ounces. Furthermore, we see future growth opportunities through the significant exploration potential at Juanicipio as well as MAG’s Deer Trail and Larder properties.”
Exploration could further boost Juanicipio’s potential, since only 10% of the property has been explored, Pan American said. MAG also holds exploration rights for the Deer Trail project in Utah and the Larder project in northern Ontario. TNM
Exxaro’s $640M buy adds manganese
SOUTH AFRICA | Majority stakes held
BY CECILIA JAMASMIE
South African coal miner
Exxaro Resources (JSE: EXX) has struck a 11.7-billion rand (US$640 million) deal to acquire controlling stakes in two key manganese mines, marking a major step in its shift towards critical minerals.
The move, announced May 13, gives Exxaro majority ownership of the Tshipi Borwa and Mokala mines in South Africa’s Kalahari Manganese Field — home to the world’s largest land-based manganese deposit, with over 4.2 billion tonnes of exploitable high-grade ore. Both mines have long-term contracts with customers in China and India, where Exxaro already sells coal.
Exxaro is to hold 60% of Tshipi and 51% of Mokala. Tshipi, the country’s largest manganese mine and top ore exporter, has the capacity to produce up to 3.5 million tonnes of manganese ore annually.
Mokala can produce as much as 1.5 million tonnes per year and is currently operated by a Glencore (LSE: GLEN) affiliate, which owns the remaining 49% stake. Glencore holds various rights, including the option to sell its share to Exxaro. The final transaction value could reach up
to 14.6 billion rand.
Strategic foothold
Exxaro gains a strategic foothold in manganese — used mainly in steelmaking and increasingly in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. South Africa, the world’s largest manganese producer, accounts for about a third of the 20 million tonnes of annual global output. The deal is expected to close by early 2026.
Exxaro CEO Ben Magara, who took the helm in April, said the acquisition aligns with the company’s push into “future-facing minerals” while reaffirming its commitment to coal. “Coal remains a priority for us and vital to South Africa’s economy and energy needs,” he said.
Exxaro has been expanding beyond coal over the past two years, with moves into iron ore and renewable energy. It has also targeted copper, but it lost a bid for Botswana’s Khoemacau mine to Chinese miner MMG. Shares in Exxaro Resources traded for about 147 rand apiece near press time in Johannesburg, valuing the company at 51.3 billion rand.
South Africa, Gabon and Australia account for more than two-thirds of the world’s manganese production. TNM
The Mokala mananese mine in South Africa. NTSIMBINTLE HOLDINGS
MAG Silver’s Juanicipio mine in central Mexico. MAG SILVER
donedeals
Gold Fields to buy Gold Road in $2.4B deal
AUSTRALIA
| Major continues foreign moves
BY KRISTIE BATTEN
Gold Fields (JSE: GFI) has reached a deal to purchase Australia’s Gold Road Resources (ASX: GOR) for A$3.7 billion ($2.4 billion). The companies are joint venture partners in the Gruyere mine in Western Australia.
The agreement follows Gold Road’s rejection of a lower A$3.3 billion offer in late March. In late April, the miner’s managing director Duncan Gibbs signalled potential for renewed talks, telling analysts it was “for Gold Fields to re-engage” if they wished to. Negotiations resumed shortly after, culminating in early May.
“For us, this represents a strategically logical and low-risk opportunity to enhance Gold Fields’ portfolio through consolidation of the Gruyere mine, which Gold Fields already operates,” Gold Fields CEO Mike Fraser told reporters on May 5.
“As the Gruyere mine is a producing asset, the company’s cashflow profile is immediately enhanced, and full ownership of Gruyere will enable us to streamline decision making and increase flexibility with respect to its operation and the future development opportunities.”
The acquisition marks another move by Gold Fields to focus on its operations abroad, following its $2.2-billion acquisition last October of Osisko Mining and its Windfall project in Quebec. Just over a year ago, Gold Fields started production at its Salares Norte project in Chile.
“With this transaction Gold Fields further expands its exposure to Australia,” BMO Capital
Markets analyst Raj Ray said in a note on May 5. “The transaction is net asset value-accretive at the outset with potential for further value accretion from exploration properties that Gold Road owns that is not subject to the 50:50 JV agreement that the company has with Gold Fields on the Gruyere asset.”
Gold Road’s under-explored Yamarna greenstone belt is a particularly attractive opportunity as a satellite deposit to Gruyere, Gold Fields said in a release.
Gold Fields’ shares traded for 383 rand apiece before press time in Johannesburg, for a market capitalization of 343 billion rand; while Gold Road traded for A$3.24 in Sydney, giving it a market capitalization of A$3.53 billion.
Gold Road backing Gold Fields is to acquire Gold Road via an Australian scheme of arrangement, offering a fixed cash payment of A$2.52 per share plus variable consideration tied to Gold Road’s indirect stake in Northern Star Resources (ASX: NST). This stake arose from Gold Road’s 17% holding in De Grey Mining, now converted to Northern Star shares.
As of early May, the total offer equated to A$3.40 per share — a 43% premium to Gold Road’s undisturbed closing price on March 21 and 12% above the original bid. Ray also noted the offer is 11% higher than the previous one of A$2.27 per share.
Gold Road plans to declare a fully franked special dividend once the scheme becomes effective, with the amount dependent on its franking account balance. That dividend, the Australian equivalent of Canada’s eligible dividend, includes tax credits.
“This represents a strategically logical and lowrisk opportunity to enhance Gold Fields’ portfolio.”
MIKE FRASER CEO, GOLD FIELDS
Fraser said this would add around A14c per share in additional value, not reflected in the headline offer. He called the deal a “unique liquidity event” for shareholders, offering full value at a premium amid a volatile gold market.
The transaction has secured unanimous support from Gold Road’s board. Institutional investors holding 7.5% of the register have also committed to vote in favour, pending the absence of a superior offer and a positive independent expert’s report. Shareholders will vote on the deal in September, with completion
expected in October.
Gruyere, located about 600 km east of Perth in the northeastern Goldfields region, was discovered by Gold Road in 2013 and quickly developed into a multimillion-ounce asset. In 2016, Gold Road sold 50% of the project to Gold Fields for A$350 million, retaining a net smelter royalty. The mine began production in mid2019 and has since produced 1.52 million oz. of gold. Output guidance for 2025 stands at 325,000 to 355,000 ounces.
First quarter production — at 71,226 oz. — was lower due to maintenance issues, down from a record 91,631 oz. in last year’s fourth quarter. Gold Road had dismissed Gold Fields’ initial proposal as opportunistic, as it came just days after this dip and ahead of promising early results on Gruyere’s underground potential.
Fraser acknowledged the underground opportunity but said it was a longer-term consideration.
“The increase in the offer price was more about getting the deal done than pricing in the underground,” he said. “Once we made the strategic decision to consolidate
the asset, sooner was better than later.”
Australian presence Gold Fields is increasingly focused on Australia, where it already operates four of its nine global mines — Gruyere, St Ives, Granny Smith and Agnew. In 2024, Australian operations contributed 48% of total production and free cashflow, generating 992,000 oz. and $552 million, respectively. Nearly all of the company’s $72 million exploration spend also went into its Australian portfolio.
“We’re privileged to have such a strong presence in a stable jurisdiction,” Fraser said. “This deal further strengthens that position and reflects our commitment to grow here.” TNM
Dundee in talks with Adriatic
BY CECILIA JAMASMIE
Adriatic Metals (LSE: ADT1) said May 20 it was in takeover talks with Canadian miner Dundee Precious Metals (TSX: DPM).
The discussions, first reported by Sky News, could value the U.K.based company at around £700 million (US$935 million), according to unnamed banking sources cited by the outlet. Under U.K. takeover rules, Dundee has until June 17 to make a formal offer or walk away.
Adriatic Metals said it has granted Dundee limited access to its due diligence materials. If a deal proceeds, Dundee would acquire the Vares silver-zinc mine in central Bosnia, currently Adriatic’s flagship mining operation. The company is also advancing the Raška zinc-silver project in Serbia, aiming to revive two past-producing mines.
Gold Road’s Gruyere mine in Western Australia. GOLD ROAD RESOURCES
Adriatic Metals’ Vares mine in Bosnia and Herzegovina. ADRIATIC METALS
projectupdates
West Red Lake Gold extends Madsen
ONTARIO | Commercial production by year-end
BY HENRY LAZENBY
West Red Lake Gold Mines’ (TSXV: WRLG) latest drill results confirm the Madsen mine’s South Austin zone remains among the hottest targets in northern Ontario’s Red Lake district. Shares rose.
Highlight hole MM25D-12-4669024 cut 18.7 metres grading 48.97 grams gold per tonne from a depth of 5 metres, including 2 metres at 428.8 grams gold, the company reported May 13. The hole, part of a 50,000-metre underground drill program, extended high-grade mineralization roughly 40 metres down plunge of the bulk-sampled Stope 6 panel. Red Lake is located about 560 km northwest of Thunder Bay.
“We find the results positive as they continue to confirm WRLG’s resource model,” Raymond James analyst Craig Stanley wrote in a note to clients. “This is notable in areas close to existing infrastructure that should benefit mining rates early in the mine life.” The analyst expects the company’s shares to outperform with a $1.59 target price.
The Red Lake camp remains one of Canada’s highest-grade gold districts. Today, the camp’s core producers are Australia’s Evolution Mining (ASX: EVN), Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) at the Great Bear project and West Red Lake looking to start mining at Madsen later this year. Juniors such as Renegade Gold (TSXV: RAGE; US-OTC: TGLDF) are expanding the district’s footprint in search of discoveries.
Permits done
With permitting complete and a crusher online, the mill restarted on March 10. And with a new drift feeding directly to the plant,
West Red Lake says it’s on track to resume commercial production before year-end.
West Red Lake, backed by Canadian Mining Hall of Famer Frank Giustra, raised $30 million in equity late last year to fund tunnel drives and mill commissioning. At this year’s annual general meeting, management reaffirmed guidance for 40,000 — 50,000 oz. next year and pledged to deliver a full feasibility study by mid-2026.
Company shares gained as much as 11¢ or 15% to close at 85¢ apiece on May 13, the highest since September, before easing to 80¢ near press time. It has a market capitalization of $274.3 million.
Bulk sample
The underground drilling was unlocking significant value within the orebody, company CEO Shane Williams said in news release.
“Tight-spaced drilling provides the resolution needed to properly
quantify and realize further upside potential from the very high-grade pockets of gold mineralization ahead of stope design,” Williams said.
The team feels strong support from a rising gold market as they prepare to boost production at Madsen in this year’s second half, the CEO said.
Rich mineralization
The South Austin deposit already hosts 1.81 million indicated tonnes at 8.7 grams gold for 506,000 contained oz. and 227,000 oz. of a probable reserve at 8.2 grams gold, making it the district’s second-largest zone by contained ounces.
West Red Lake bought the Madsen mine in 2021. It conducted bulk sampling and underground work. A pre-feasibility study outlined a $315 million after-tax net present value at $1,700 per oz. gold. Gold was about $3,230 an oz. near press time. TNM
Sitka assays suggest ‘significant’ deep tonnage
YUKON | Summer drilling under way
BY FRÉDÉRIC TOMESCO
Canadian explorer Sitka Gold (TSX-V: SIG; OTCQB: SITKF) said assay results from drilling at its RC Gold project in Yukon suggest the deposit could contain significant tonnage at greater depths than first thought. Hole 76 in the project’s Blackjack zone returned 94 metres grading 1.15 grams gold per tonne from 437 metres downhole, including 12.2 metres of 4.55 grams, Sitka said last month. A separate interval cut 25 metres of 5.04 grams gold from 591 metres downhole, including 1.8 metres of 54.7 grams within 86.4 metres of 1.65 grams gold.
The results on May 8 came about four months after Sitka more than doubled the gold resource for Blackjack. Resources in the indicated category at Blackjack are now estimated at 1.29 million oz. at a grade of 1.01 grams from nearly 40 million tonnes.
While the results seem promising, investors may have been anticipating higher grades after
Sitka last month reported drilling results from Hole 75, which intersected 352.8 meters of 1.55 grams gold, including 108.9 metres of 3.27 grams gold and 45 metres of 4.52 grams gold. Investors might also be waiting for a formal update to the mineral resource estimate to assess the RC project’s value.
“We think tighter spaced drilling will be required to demonstrate lateral continuity of mineralization for a potential underground mining scenario,” Michael Gray, an analyst at Agentis Capital, said in a note.
Fully funded
Hole 76 — part of a fully funded 30,000-metre diamond drilling program planned at RC for 2025 — is the deepest hole drilled to date at Blackjack. It was drilled to a length of almost 811 metres – about 100 metres deeper than any previous drilling.
“The results from Hole 76 are very encouraging, confirming that the higher-grade gold mineralization intersected at depth in Holes
68 and 75 extends both laterally and to depth and could represent a large, continuous zone of significant tonnage,” Sitka CEO Cor Coe said in the statement. “We are now extending Hole 76 further into the depths of this gold system to continue tracking this promising highgrade gold zone as we push towards what could be the source of the Blackjack gold deposit.”
Sitka in April raised $11.8 million (US$8.5 million) and said it would use the proceeds on exploration at RC. The bought deal financing was led by a group of underwriters including Agentis Capital, Paradigm Capital and Cormark Securities.
Four rigs
Summertime drilling at Blackjack is under way, with the first of four planned drills now turning, Sitka said. As many as three more drill rigs should start turning.
Located in Yukon’s Tombstone gold belt, RC covers about 431 square kilometres. It sits about 100 km east of Dawson City. TNM
BY STAFF WRITER
Lundin Mining (TSX: LUN)
says an initial mineral resource estimate shows its jointly owned Filo del Sol project in Chile’s Atacama region would rank among the world’s 10 largest producing copper mines.
The project is held under a 50/50 venture with BHP (ASX: BHP), which was formed after the companies spent about C$4 billion ($2.9 billion) in January to acquire Canada’s Filo Corp.
The venture, called Vicuña, also includes Lundin’s more advanced Josemaría project in San Juan, Argentina, located about 11 km away. As part of the JV arrangement, the two projects are being integrated into a single mining complex to save on costs.
Lundin’s estimate includes a first resource for the Filo del Sol high-grade sulphide core, totalling 606 million tonnes in the measured and indicated categories with a copper-equivalent grade of 1.14%, for contained metal of 4.5 million tonnes of copper, 9.6 million oz. of gold and 259 million oz. of silver. Lundin also updated the oxide resource to 434 million tonnes at 0.34% copper (1.5 million tonnes), 0.28 gram gold (3.9 million oz.) and 2.5 grams silver (35 million ounces).
CEO Jack Lundin hailed Filo del Sol as “one of the most significant greenfield discoveries in the last 30 years,” with potential to be developed into “a world-class deposit” to support a globally ranked mining complex.
Oxide resources
Filo had advanced the project to a pre-feasibility stage based only on the oxide resources at surface. A technical report from 2023 outlined a potential 13-year mine operation with average annual production of 66,000 tonnes of copper, 168,000 oz. of gold and 9.26 million oz. of silver.
Lundin also released an estimate for the Josemaría project, totalling 196 million tonnes measured and indicated at 0.73% copper equivalent, for contained metal of 978,000 tonnes of copper, 2.4 million oz. of gold and 11 million oz. of silver. The project has a previous feasibility study suggesting a 19-year mine yielding average annual production of 136,000 tonnes of copper, 231,000 oz. of gold and 1.16 million oz. of silver.
The combined resources would make Vicuña one of the highest grade undeveloped open-pit copper projects in the world, according to Lundin. It would also rank as one of the largest gold and silver resources globally.
Compared to previous estimates, total measured and indicated resources rose by 29%, while the inferred resource grew by 7.5 times. Lundin sees expansion potential at Filo del Sol, as the mineralization has only been defined over a total area of 10 sq. km.
“The mineral resource is a key milestone and will form the basis for the integrated technical report that will outline a combined project,” Lundin said. “This report is on schedule for completion in the first quarter of 2026.” TNM
West Red Lake’s Madsen mine in northern Ontario. WEST RED LAKE GOLD MINES
Best Irish assays since Beatles Help!
SILVER | Highest metal cuts in decades
BY HENRY LAZENBY
Group Eleven Resources’ (TSXV: ZNG; US-OTC: GRLVF) May 8 exploration update at its Ballywire discovery returned among the highest-grade silver intercepts in Ireland in more than 60 years, the company said. Shares rose.
One highlight intercept in hole 25-3552-31 returned up to 1,880 grams silver per tonne and 10.45% copper over less than 1 metre from 358 metres depth. It was among results indicating a copper-silver feeder system lies below the zinc-lead-silver lens at Ballywire. It’s part of the PG West project, about 20 km southwest of Limerick in the Irish midwest.
“Intersecting spectacular copper-silver grades over significant thicknesses is a pivotal moment for the Ballywire discovery,” CEO Bart Jaworski said in a release.
“These results not only strongly point to a stratigraphically deeper copper-silver horizon but also represent a proof of concept that substantial grades and thicknesses of copper and silver exist at the discovery, in addition to excellent grades of zinc and lead.”
Ireland’s key metals
Europe’s race for critical minerals needed for the green energy transition — copper for electrification, silver for solar panels and zinc for galvanized steel in wind turbines — positions Ballywire as a potential key source. The project sits within a 6-km prospective trend on the PG West licence in County Tipperary, the country’s second most prolific zinc camp outside
Navan in eastern Ireland.
The company’s Toronto-quoted shares have gained two-thirds of their value since the year’s start to 30¢ apiece near press time for a market cap of $67.9 million.
Bonanza results
Hole 25-3552-31, a 65-metre stepout, also intersected two mineralized horizons. The copper-silver horizon cut 19.9 metres grading 1.5% copper and 356 grams silver from 348.7 metres depth. It included a section of 12 metres at 2.3% copper and 560 grams silver. Within that was a higher-grade intersection of 6.4 metres of 3.7% copper and 838 grams silver.
The zinc-lead-silver zone cut 47.1 metres at 3.1% zinc, 1.4% lead and 22 grams of silver from 297 metres depth. A sub-section of 12.9 metres graded 7.7% zinc, 3.2% lead and 151 grams silver.
Group Eleven has two rigs exploring north-east extensions. A third rig is now testing deeper targets. The company aims to prove the presence of large copper-silver system beneath the zinc-lead-silver zone.
Geological potential
The copper-silver horizon sits along the base of the Waulsortian Limestone, next to a fault structure. It appears dominated by tennantite-tetrahedrite with accessory chalcopyrite, sphalerite and galena, the company said. Higher antimony — up to 0.27% antimony inside a 6.4-metre interval — raises the project’s profile as a source of so-called critical metals,
Greenheart’s Majorodam shines
SURINAME
| Guiana Shield potential
BY BLAIR MCBRIDE
Drilling by Greenheart Gold (TSXV: GHRT; US-OTC: GHRTF) at its Majorodam project in northeast Suriname has returned results as high as 6 metres grading 9.34 grams per tonne.
That result, from hole MAJR25003, was part of a wider intersection of 13 metres at 4.37 grams gold from 53 metres depth, the company reported on May 7. Another highlight result, from hole MAJR25010, returned 30 metres grading 2.06 grams gold from 96 metres depth, including 8 metres at 3.66 grams gold and 11 metres at 2.27 grams gold. The road-accessible Majorodam is about 130 km south of the capital Paramaribo.
The 2,128 metres of reverse-circulation (RC) drilling across 20 holes delivered an encouraging firstpass result at Majorodam’s Heuvel target, SCP Resource Finance analyst Brandon Gaspar said in a note.
‘Potentially large system’ “Gold mineralization confirmed in saprolite near surface and rich grades in deeper fresh rock point to a potentially large system,” Gaspar said.
“Though early, [the] results highlight the team’s proven ability to efficiently advance exploration in the Guiana shield — a stable jurisdiction with potential for more than 5-million-oz. discoveries that can be permitted and developed quickly, as this experienced team has successfully demonstrated in the past.”
More diamond drilling, planned for this August, is needed to form a clearer picture of the site, he added.
Guiana Shield targets Greenheart Gold, spun out last July from G Mining Ventures (TSX: GMIN), is among several companies exploring for or mining the yellow metal in the prolific Guiana shield across most of northeast South America. Majorodam is about 12 km south of Zijin Mining’s Saramacca deposit, and sits on its fold structure. Saramacca is part of Zijin’s Rosebel gold mine.
In Suriname, Greenheart joins fellow-Canadian explorer Founders Metals (TSXV: FDR; US-OTC: FDMIF), which has its Antino project in the country’s southeast, as well as Newmont (TSX: NGT; NYSE, ASX: NEM) which operates its Merian mine.
Greenheart shares have gained 41% from the start of the year to 82¢ apiece before press time in
Toronto, for a market capitalization of $125.4 million. Its shares traded in a 12-month range of 45¢ to $1.06.
Another noteworthy hole at Heuvel, MAJR25-015, cut 40 metres grading 1.49 grams gold from 24 metres depth, including 8 metres at 3.36 grams.
The reconnaissance RC drilling was focused on testing some of the strong soil geochemistry results from Heuvel, Greenheart said. The gold mineralization in the highlight intervals appears to be hosted within mafic volcanics, volcaniclastics and fine grained clastic sedimentary rocks.
In Suriname, Greenheart is conducting soil sampling at its Igab project, and in the Dutch-speaking country it also holds its Tosso project. In Guyana, it has the Abuya and Tamakay projects. TNM
Talon surges on ‘historic’ discovery
MINNESOTA | High-grade nickel, copper
BY STAFF WRITER
Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO)-backed Talon Metals (TSX: TLO) on May 12 announced an “historic” discovery at the Tamarack nickel-copper project in central Minnesota. Shares of the company hit their highest level in almost a year.
Drill hole 25TK0563 cut a cumulative 34.9 metres of nickel — the longest ever recorded on the property — starting at 762.34 metres depth, Talon said. The assays haven’t been graded yet. The previous record intercept was 23.4 metres from drilling in 2022.
The sulphide in the new hole could be similar to the massive sulphide found in the older drill hole 16TK0250, suggesting grades may be similar, Talon said.
Hole 16TK0250, which was re-examined and extended from 649 metres depth, cut 8.25 metres grading 12.62% nickel, 13.88% copper and 17.95 grams platinum group elements and gold per tonne at a depth of 707.75 metres, Talon said.
“In my 19 years working on the Tamarack project, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Talon chief exploration and operations officer Brian Goldner said in a press relelase. “This 34.9-metre intercept of high-grade massive sulphide isn’t just the longest ever recorded at Tamarack — it’s a defining
moment. It confirms what we’ve believed all along: that Tamarack is a truly world-class system.”
Shares of Talon soared 29% to 13.5¢ apiece in Toronto on May 12 and were at 15¢ near press time, the most since last June, for a market capitalization of about $141 million.
Since early February, Talon’s in-house exploration team has been drilling infill and step-out holes on the Tamarack resource area in support of a feasibility study. Its first discovery from that work was a massive sulphide intercept measuring over 8.25 metres.
The latest discovery, however, is four times that length.
The deposit has an indicated resource of 8.6 million tonnes grading 1.73% nickel and 0.92% copper for 326 million lb. nickel and 441 million lb. nickel equivalent, according to a 2022 update. It hosts another 8.5 million inferred tonnes grading 0.83% nickel and 0.55% copper for 154 million lb. nickel or 223 million lb. nickel-equivalent.
Talon is the majority owner (51%) and operator of the Tamarack project, with mining major Rio Tinto as its joint venture partner. TNM
Talon Metals’ drill results point to the discovery of a new sulphide system at Tamarack, in Minnesota. TALON METALS
Greenheart Gold’s Majorodam project in northeast Suriname. GREENHEART GOLD
eye on australia
Minerals 260 eyes 2028 gold output at Bullabulling
BY KRISTIE BATTEN
Minerals 260 (ASX: MI6) is starting its own studies at the newly acquired Bullabulling project in Western Australia’s Goldfields, targeting a final investment decision next year and first production in 2028.
The company, a 2021 spinout of lithium producer Liontown Resources (ASX: LTR), closed in April the A$166.5-million (US$106-million) acquisition of the 2.3-million oz. brownfield project outside Coolgardie, a small town founded off the back of the state’s late 1800s gold rush. It’s located about 550 km east of Perth.
Within nine days of taking ownership of Bullabulling, Minerals 260 completed a heritage study and kicked off an 80,000-metre drilling program — the first meaningful exploration program at the project since 2011. Managing director Luke McFadyen says it may cost A$70 million to A$80 million to reproduce the previous exploration and study work on the project.
“We’re building off that,” McFadyen said during a site visit in May. “That’s why we can have a 15-month study period, because we’re not starting from scratch.”
About 40% of the drilling program will be infill around the five existing pits, while the remainder will focus on strike and depth extensions. The results are to feed into a resource update at the end of the year. More than 530,000 metres of drilling had previously been completed at the site.
Five times Minerals 260 paid more than five times its market capitalization at the time, requiring the company to raise A$220 million.
“Some people were surprised when we announced it, because at that time, we were only capitalized at A$30 million and they
thought that it was beyond audacious,” Minerals 260 chairman Tim Goyder said. “But once they started looking at the project and saw the opportunity like we did, they became interested, and ultimately we raised the A$220 million as we said we would.”
Bullabulling has a current pit-constrained resource of 60 million tonnes at 1.2 grams per tonne gold for 2.3 million oz. of gold over an 8.5-kilometre strike, which the company is confident of growing.
“An underexplored asset starting at 2.3 million oz. is rare,” McFadyen said. “And when you put someone like Tim, who will say he’s got exploration in his DNA, that’s why we’re drilling 80,000 metres, because there’s a lot more gold to be found with the ownership of the asset in a company like this.”
Bullabulling was acquired from Chinese major Zijin Mining, which owns the nearby Paddington gold operation but had carried out little work on Bullabulling in the past decade. Junior Bullabulling Gold had delineated a resource of 3.9 million oz. and completed a feasibility study before Zijin bought it in 2014.
The site was briefly in production in the late 1990s, producing 179,000 oz. of gold under Reso-
lute Mining (ASX, LSE: RSG), but it was suspended due to the weak gold price at the time.
Crown jewel Goyder described Bullabulling as the “jewel in the crown of Coolgardie.” Its acquisition was the result of a process that assessed 60 projects.
The well-known Australian mining entrepreneur, who founded and also chairs Liontown, subscribed for A$12 million worth of shares in the placement and holds just under 7.3% of the company.
After finalizing the acquisition in April, Minerals 260 had A$50 million cash on hand to advance Bullabulling. While Resolute operated Bullabulling as a heap leach, Minerals 260 is contemplating a carbonin-leach plant.
The Great Eastern Highway, the main road from Perth to Kalgoorlie, runs through the project. The entire resource already sits on granted mining leases.
A Native Title Land Use Agreement is in place with the Marlinyu Ghoorlie People, the same group that has the claim over Northern Star Resources’ (ASX: NST) nearby KCGM operation.
“They’ve been good to work
Ausgold solves Katanning ‘puzzle’ DISCOVERY | Drilling suggests district scale
BY HENRY LAZENBY
Ausgold’s (ASX: AUC) stepout drilling at the Katanning gold project (KGP) suggests a possible gold district, according to executive chairman John Dorward.
Among the highlight intersections at the Zinger target are 10 metres at 4.75 grams gold per tonne from 23 metres depth and 51 metres at 0.37 gram gold from 17 metres downhole. Another interval measured 38 metres at 0.47 gram gold from 68 metres depth. Results showed continuous mineralization over 6 km at Stanley Hill, Moulyinning and McDougalls along Western Australia’s Stanley Thrust.
The new assays are “the last piece of the puzzle” in Ausgold’s exploration campaign, Dorward said in a mid-May news release.
The results “show a mix of highgrade and shallow bulk mineralization — all within 40 km of the main KGP pit,” SCP Resource Finance
mining analyst Brandon Gaspar wrote in a note. The regional upside “points to further discoveries” ahead of the definitive feasibility study (DFS) due this month, the analyst said.
The company controls over 3,500 sq. km of tenements in the southwest Yilgarn region of Western Australia, covering more than 100 km of underexplored greenstone strike. That tenure exceeds peers De Grey Mining (ASX: DEG) with 10,000 sq. km, Regis Resources (ASX: RRL) with 2,635 sq. km and Gold Fields (JSE: GFI) takeover target Gold Road Resources’ (ASX: GOR) 3,039 sq. km of staked lands. Ausgold is looking to feed its mill from both the KGP and emerging satellite deposits.
Ausgold’s Sydney-listed shares rose 44% this year to 66¢ (C$59¢) apiece near press time, having tested 25¢ and 68¢ in the past 12 months. Market capitalization was at $216 million.
Funded study
By linking regional discoveries to a funded feasibility study at KGP, 275 km south-east of Perth, the company is aiming to become Australia’s next mid-tier gold producer. The study may promote a 3.6 million tonne per year carbon-in-leach plant with a 10-year mine life. Project permitting and land access are advancing in parallel.
In-fill drilling at Dingo returned 10 metres at 10.6 grams gold from 42 metres depth and 22 metres at 2.2 grams from 117 metres, exceeding the existing resource grade. Diamond drilling at Datatine is testing down-plunge shoots with results due this quarter.
The 19,000-metre drill program includes 7,000 metres of in-fill drilling at the Central Zone. There are also 5,000 metres of drilling in the Southern Zone, while another 7,000 metres are planned across Ausgold
with,” Goyder said. “We speak to them every week.”
Growing resource
“Clearly, this is the most exciting period for gold for the last 70-80 years,” Goyder said. “The gold price has risen since we’ve done the deal by about A$700 an oz. in a matter of three months, so it is exciting.”
McFadyen described Bullabulling as a great project held by the wrong owner, given Zijin’s lack of work over the past decade. Despite the period of inactivity, he said the project’s technical merits were well understood.
“What’s not understood is, what does it look like in today’s gold price environment? So again, recutting everything in a different setting, in a different context, means you would assume it’s going to be upside,” McFadyen said.
Even so, Minerals 260 sees the opportunity with Bullabulling as more than a gold price story.
“You build a plant, spend your
A$450 million for a 15-year operation. You’re going to go through some cycles, so you need a project which can handle those cycles,” Goyder said.
“We won’t be using A$5,000 an oz. for our studies – we’ll be using something more realistic or long term. We’ve really got to do the work so that we can then set up the sizing of the plant, and what’s best suited for the project, but our aim would be producing in the order of 150,000 oz. per annum.”
The original acquisition comprised 127 sq. km, but with an option secured last week over Belararox’s (ASX: BRX) neighbouring Bullabulling project and recent tenement applications, Minerals 260 has already increased its tenure to 577 square kilometres.
“A lot of the region is not welltested,” McFadyen said. “Unless you owned Bullabulling, everything else was too hard. You need Bullabulling to make those satellite pits work.” TNM
The Bullabulling gold project in Western Australia. MINERALS 260
Inspecting core samples at the Bullabulling project. KRISTIE BATTEN
mining, metals & markets
May 12 – 16, 2025
Trade policy rally sends TSX to record, S&P 500 back in the black
By Henry Lazenby
Trade policy news drove markets in the week of May 12 – 16 as United States-China ties improved and tech trade rose, sending the TSX to a new high and the S&P 500 back into positive territory.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1,405.36 points or about 23% in the week to 42,654.74. The S&P 500 gained 298.47 points or about 5% to 5,958.38. In Canada, the S&P/TSX Composite Index increased 614.19 points or about 3% to 25,971.93, while the S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index fell 10.56 points or about 2% to 672.84.
The S&P/TSX Global Mining Index fell 3.8 points or about 3% to 128.91, and the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index fell 38.51 points or almost 8% to 450.31. Gold fell by $141.60 per oz. or 4% to $3,182.95 per ounce. The S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index added 4.73 points or almost 3% to 180.06, with copper down 6¢ at $4.55 per pound.
On the NYSE mainboard, the week’s biggest value gainer was Core Natural Resources, created earlier this year from the $5.2-billion merger of Arch Resources and Consol Energy. The stock gained $7.80 to close at $75.03.
In Toronto, potash producer Nutrien was the top TSX value grower, adding C$3.45 to close at C$80.93. The company reported a 76% year-on-year fall in its headline earnings to C11¢ per share for the three months ended March.
On the S&P/TSX Venture Exchange, Los Andes Copper added C36¢ to C$5.86. It recently expanded its holdings at the Vizcachitas project in Chile.
Delivering
fit-for-purpose solutions across the entire project life cycle
Delivering
fit-for-purpose solutions across the entire project life cycle
Delivering fit-for-purpose solutions across the entire project life cycle
Delivering fit-for-purpose solutions across the entire project life cycle
Our fit-for-purpose solutions encompass the skills of qualified geologists, geostaticians, analytical chemists, mineralogists, metallurgists, process engineers and mining engineers and inspectors brought together to provide accurate and timely mineral and process evaluation services across the entire project life cycle.
Our fit-for-purpose solutions encompass the skills of qualified geologists, geostaticians, analytical chemists, mineralogists, metallurgists, process engineers and mining engineers and inspectors brought together to provide accurate and timely mineral and process evaluation services across the entire project life cycle.
Our fit-for-purpose solutions encompass the skills of qualified geologists, geostaticians, analytical chemists, mineralogists, metallurgists, process engineers and mining engineers and inspectors brought together to provide accurate and timely mineral and process evaluation services across the entire project life cycle.
Our fit-for-purpose solutions encompass the skills of qualified geologists, geostaticians, analytical chemists, mineralogists, metallurgists, process engineers and mining engineers and inspectors brought together to provide accurate and timely mineral and process evaluation services across the entire project life cycle.
COAL: Powder River Basin, 8,800 Btu, 0.8 S02-R, W: $14.20
COBALT: $9.95/lb.
COPPER: $4.56/lb.
COPPER: CME Group Futures May 2025: $4.598/lb.; June 2025: $4.637/lb.
GOLD: $2,934.58/oz.
IRIDIUM: $4,250/tr oz.
IRON ORE 62% FE CFR CHINA-S: $109.50
LEAD: $0.911/lb
LITHIUM CARBONATE: $10,495/tonne
NICKEL: $7.199/lb.
RHODIUM: $4,675/tr. oz.
RUTHENIUM: $505 per oz.
SILVER: $32.93 per oz.
TIN: $15.276/lb.
URANIUM: U3O8, Trading Economics: $64.70 per lb.
ZINC: $1.3283 per lb.
TNM DRILL DOWN: TOP ASSAYS OF THE MONTH
Our TNM Drill Down features the top five gold and silver assays of the past month. Drill holes are ranked by grade x width.
April 17, 2025 — May 15, 2025
evmetals
As the world fractures into competing spheres of influence—American, Chinese, Russian, the Coalition of the Willing , and a still “ Undrafted ” bloc of unaligned nations—the battle for control over critical minerals intensifies. This infographic shifts the focus from copper extraction to copper processing, revealing which power blocs dominate the capacity to refine raw copper into copper anode and cathodes. In the age of electrification, processing power—not just resource access—determines geopolitical advantage.
CHINESE SPHERE
Equinox, Calibre form Canada’s 4th-largest gold miner
BY BLAIR MCBRIDE
The combination of Equinox Gold (TSX, NYSE-A: EQX) and Calibre Mining (TSX: CXB) should move the new company up to the fourth largest gold producer in Canada even as it looks to trim its portfolio of non-core assets.
The $2.56 billion (US$1.83-billion) all-stock deal, set to close this month will bring to nine the number of producing mines under Equinox from the current seven, as well as Calibre’s Valentine project in Newfoundland that’s currently under construction. Calibre operates one mine in Nevada, and its three sites in Nicaragua are counted as one under the company’s hub and spoke model. Equinox will have gold reserves of about 24 million ounces.
“It makes sense where one and one is what becomes three,” Equinox board chair Ross Beaty told The Northern Miner in an early May phone interview. “We should graduate to a subset of gold producers that are very large, as opposed to mid-cap. To the extent that we end up producing more than 1 million oz. [of gold] a year, we expect to trade at a higher multiple as a result of getting bigger. We also have the effect of having many operational synergies to drive our costs down.”
The combination, approved by shareholders on May 1 will create the newest large Canadian producer.
It will also bring two low-cost assets under the same umbrella — Equinox’s Greenstone openpit mine in northern Ontario, which achieved commercial production last November; and Valentine, where the first gold pour is expected at the end of the third quarter. The move gives Equinox exposure to Canada’s east coast and further expands its reach into Latin America.
The deal follows a series of other gold sector transactions over the past year, including Gold Fields’ (NYSE, JSE: GFI) purchase of Osisko Mining, Newmont’s (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM) Newcrest purchase and AngloGold Ashanti’s (NYSE: AU) acquisition of Centamin.
Rise to fourth place
With targeted annual output of more than 1 million oz., the new Equinox could end up in fourth place among Canadian gold producers — between Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) in the third spot and B2Gold (TSX: BTO; NYSE-A: BTG; NSX: B2G) in fifth. Kinross produced 2.13 million oz. last year, compared with B2Gold’s 804,778 ounces. Equinox booked 621,893 oz. in 2024 and Calibre logged 242,487 ounces.
At a hypothetical market cap of $5 billion to $7 billion, and if analysts re-rate Equinox at a higher valuation due to better profitability or less risk, it would again rank fourth between Kinross and B2Gold. Equinox is currently valued at just over $4 billion, and Calibre at $2.64 billion.
The integration of the Calibre assets will be key to achieving a re-rate, Canaccord Genuity analyst
Jeremy Hoy said in a note.
“The combined company provides investors with increased exposure to tier-one Canada, a larger and more diversified platform with a coherent focus on the Americas, enhanced capital markets profile, and a strengthened team,” he said in April.
Projects pending
Producing more than 1 million oz. a year will “certainly” happen within the next five years, Beaty said. Equinox is awaiting permits on a few projects, such as Castle Mountain in California, where a second stage expansion will add 200,000 oz. to production.
Equinox had planned a growth project at its Los Filos mine in southwest Mexico that would have extended the mine life by four years and raised production to 280,000 oz. per year, a 64% increase from its current capacity. However, the
company suspended the mine in April after it managed to reach land use agreements with only two out of three local communities.
“We’re [waiting] for one of the communities to agree with a revised agreement that we’ve put in front of them,” Beaty said.
A March letter signed by almost 100 community and human rights groups from Mexico, Canada and internationally alleges various threats against the local Carrizalillo community. The letter, addressed to Equinox CEO Greg Smith, claims the community has lost agricultural lands and water sources to the mine, and it decried the company’s alleged inflexible stance in negotiations for an agreement.
Another factor likely to impact its ranking is streamlining of operations.
“We’ll end up with nine or 10 mines,” Beaty said. “We’ve built bought and sold mines. We’ll do
that again in the next while once we complete the Calibre merger. I won’t say what they’ll be, but they’ll improve our cost structure, and we’ll use the proceeds to retire our debt even more than quickly. We’ll make a call on which operations to look at over the next six or nine months.”
Gold rally
As the yellow metal has risen 27% this year, touching an historic high of $3,500) per oz. on April 22, the shares of Canada’s top producers have gained at least 20%. Equinox has gained by 22% and Calibre rose by 42%.
“The rise in the gold price is nothing but positive for the entire gold space,” Beaty said.
“It’s particularly good for the larger producers, because the larger production you have, the more leverage you have to higher gold prices. I don’t think it’s over. I can’t predict how high it’s going to go
and when it’s going to peak out, but it is on a glorious run right now.”
Goldilocks zone move
While Equinox is taking on some political risk by acquiring the Nicaragua assets, the merger differs from much of the M&A activity during the gold super cycle of 20012011. At $2.56 billion, the Equinox merger is smaller than the super cycle deals, includes low-cost producing mines and being all-stock it reduces balance sheet risk.
Beaty said he’s not leery about the rising price of gold pushing up the costs of M&A for producers.
“The gold price normally would bid up all companies but not this time because of the disconnect between the gold price and the equities,” he said, pointing to the under-valuing of both junior explorers and major producers over the last two and a half years amid rising gold prices.
Meantime, Beaty believes gold’s current bull run could be set to benefit all players in the metal’s exploration and production space.
“As cash flows are generated and returned to shareholders, you’re going to see a significant market pickup amongst the big gold producers, followed by the intermediate gold producers, followed by the junior explorers,” he said. “That is what has always happened, and when that happens, I expect you’re going to see quite a significant bump in the valuations being afforded to the junior explorers in Canada and internationally.”
Equinox’s Greenstone mine in northern Ontario EQUINOX GOLD
Calibre’s Valentine mine in central Newfoundland CALIBRE MINING
Can mining meet green transition?
SILVER | Supply deficit widens
BY ANDREW SEALE
Silver’s unique industrial role in solar panels, electric vehicles (EVs) and grid infrastructure is pushing demand to record highs, but miners and analysts are at odds over how to address the growing supply deficit.
Demand is forecast to hit around 1.15 billion oz. this year, a moderate decrease from the previous year, according to data from the Washington, D.C.-based Silver Institute, an industry body of miners and manufacturers. Meanwhile, supply is anticipated to increase around 2% to 1.03 billion oz., buoyed by mine production. This leaves a 117.6-million oz. deficit for the year, part of an unsustainable five-year trend that has amounted to an 800 million oz. erosion of silver supply.
Mine production, projected to contribute 835 million oz. to supply in 2025, may not be a solution to the green transition-fuelled deficit as production peaks in 2026 and several projects near end-of-life.
Production has hovered in the 800-to-850-million oz. range for the last decade, said Keith Neumeyer, CEO of First Majestic Silver (TSX, NYSE: AG).
“If miners could supply more metal, they would but you know, there are no new big mines coming, and it takes a lot to affect the price,” Neumeyer said. “There are some juniors out there that are working on getting small mines up and running…that’s great, but it’s not going to be enough, you need a hundred of these mines coming up to really affect the supply.”
Silver plays a critical role in the
green transition, particularly as a key material in photovoltaic cells, the building block of solar panels. It is also used to produce EV batteries, electronic devices like computers and mobile phones, and sensors for green grid development. The continued growth of data centres is expected to contribute to demand.
Byproduct Around 70–80% of the silver mined
globally is a byproduct, often produced while mining metals such as copper, gold, lead and zinc. Recycling, including silverware, photographic equipment, industrial scrap and electronics, contributes moderately to supply, accounting for 193.9 million oz. in 2024, a 12-year high.
But the recycling sector relies on high prices to remain attractive, Neumeyer said. Refineries are having a hard time finding supply, and
the electronic waste they do find is not cheap to extract the metal from.
“I’ve invested in three recycling companies myself — two are bankrupt and one is basically bankrupt.”
“There was a spike in 2011 when silver hit $50 an oz. and recycling hit 250 million ounces.”.
Silver started 2025 under $29 per oz., climbing to $34 in mid-March before sliding back down to $32 in May. Alongside demand from the
Santa Ana project in west-central Colombia have confirmed wide, high-grade zones inside the Los Mangos vein system.
Highlight hole DH464 cut 3.86 metres grading 433 grams silver per tonne and 2.51 grams gold from 225 metres depth, including 1 metre at 984 grams silver and 3.37 grams gold, Outcrop reported on May 14. The project is located near Falan, Tolima Department, about 200 km west of the capital Bogota.
The results are along strike of hole DH459, which cut 18.3 metres grading 736 grams silver and 3.41 grams gold from 193.7 metres depth, one of the highest-grade intercepts ever at Santa Ana, the company reported in early May. It included 5.2 metres at 1,809 grams silver and 9.7 grams gold.
“Every new intercept at Los Mangos strengthens the case that the central portion of Santa Ana can add meaningful tonnes and grade in short order,” CEO Ian Harris said in a release. “These results validate our fully funded 24,000-metre drill program, which is laser focused on converting discoveries into ounces for the next resource update.”
Outcrop shares traded for 20¢ apiece before press time in
Toronto, for a market capitalization of $76 million. The stock has traded in a 12-month range of 16¢ to 34¢.
Silver price tailwinds
The latest results from Santa Ana come as silver prices have gained about 14% this year to $32.60 per oz. before the Miner went to press. The rise has been driven by increasing industrial demand for the precious metal in electronics, solar
Ana
west-central
panels and electric vehicles. Its price has over most of the past year touched highs last seen in 2013.
The Los Mangos vein system sits in the southwest area of the 17-km mineralized Santa Ana corridor. It’s located more than 8 km south of the resource area.
Top silver district
The 270-sq.-km Santa Ana project is located in the Mariquita District, known as the country’s biggest and
green economy, geopolitical uncertainty is also expected to increase interest in silver as a safe haven investment.
Higher price
“Whether it’s industrial demand only or industrial demand and increased monetary demand, we’re going to push the silver price higher because there’s just not enough being mined and recycled to meet the total demand,” said Spokane, Wash.-based David Morgan, precious metals analyst and publisher of The Morgan Report
For miners, the price of silver would have to be $35 per oz. or higher to make starting a new project attractive, Morgan said.
“No one’s interested, they’re not funded, there’s not enough margin in the business, and they’re kind of the underdog.”
Blue Lagoon Resources’ (CSE: BLLG; US-OTC: BLAGF) sees it differently. The junior miner, which recently completed permitting for its Dome Mountain gold-silver mine in British Columbia with production slated for July 2025, sees itself as the front line to meeting silver demand.
“In reality, it’s the junior miners who take the risk, right? We make the discoveries, we advance the projects that majors eventually rely on, we’re the ones who go where others won’t, and we’re the first to spot the resources that basically power the future,” Rana Vig, president and CEO of Blue Lagoon, said in an interview.
Permitting process
However, to meet the green transition’s appetite for silver, Vig said governments should improve the permitting process for responsible precious metal projects like Dome Mountain.
“We got our permit in five years, which I thought was four years too long.”
Yannis Tsitos, chair of the mining committee for Blue Lagoon, said more consolidation in the fragmented silver sector could help fast-track the pathway from discovery to permitting to production.
“(The combination of) higher input prices and higher demand creates an environment where there’s increased M&A activity,” Tsitos, with 35 years of industry experience, including 19 with BHP, said in the same interview.
Future demand, led by the green transition, is already driving consolidation. Theo Yameogo, EY Americas’ metals and mining lead, points to First Majestic’s acquisition of Gatos Silver’s primary silver projects in September, Coeur Mining’s (NYSE: CDE) US$1.7-billion deal for SilverCrest in October, and Pan American Silver’s (TSX, NYSE: PAAS) $2.1-billion cash and stock deal for MAG Silver (TSX, NYSE: MAG).
highest-grade silver region. Mining activity in the district stretches back to the 16th century.
Santa Ana hosts 1.22 million indicated tonnes grading 446 grams silver and 2.3 grams gold for 17.5 million contained silver oz. and 88,800 oz. gold, according to a 2023 initial resource. Inferred resources total 966,000 tonnes at 312 grams silver and 1.6 grams gold, for 9.6 million oz. silver and 50,900 oz. gold. TNM
Pan American Silver’s acquisition of MAG gives it access to both the Juancipio high-grade silver mine in Mexico and Deer Trail Exploration, a silver-rich carbonate replacement deposit project in Utah, positioning the company for future demand.
Yameogo sees it as a signal of progress toward managing the deficit.
“Companies are trying to improve their reserve base and also get more production,” Yameogo said. “Obviously, the market participants believe in the longer-term view of silver.” TNM
Outcrop’s Santa
project in
Colombia. OUTCROP SILVER AND GOLD
Snowline takes crown for largest resource on Tombstone gold belt
YUKON | Tailwinds push imminent economic study
BY BLAIR MCBRIDE
Snowline Gold’s (TSX-V: SGD; US-OTC: SNWGF) Valley project in eastern Yukon has emerged as king of the Tombstone gold belt despite infrastructure headwinds and concerns about responsible development.
Its resource update on May 15 lifted it above Banyan Gold’s (TSXV: BYN; US-OTC: BYAGF)
AurMac project, giving Valley 3.15 million contained oz. grading 1.41 grams gold per tonne in the measured category. The indicated resource almost doubled to 134.3 million tonnes over the initial estimate a year ago this month.
“It’s the kind of deposit that you could build a major around,”
Snowline CEO Scott Berdahl told The Northern Miner in early May. “We’re very fortunate to have found something like it and so pushing [the project] ahead is exactly what we’re doing.”
The update comes after months of strong drill results for Valley and a 37% rise in the share price this year to date. Snowline, backed by B2Gold (TSX: BTO) with a 9.9% stake, intends to file a preliminary economic assessment this month.
Tombstone’s golden crown
Valley, part of Snowline’s larger Rogue project about 380 km northeast of Whitehorse, hosts 204 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 1.21 grams gold for 7.94
tained ounces.
Banyan’s AurMac in west-central Yukon holds 347.5 million inferred tonnes grading 0.63 gram gold for 7 million ounces.
The deposit at Victoria Gold’s former Eagle mine site is third largest, with 234 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 0.59 gram gold for 4.4 million contained ounces; and 36 million inferred tonnes at 0.63 gram gold for 700,000 ounces.
Valley’s quality is highlighted by consistent conversion to higher categories, including 40% of the total measured and indicated tonnage now classified as measured, BMO capital markets analyst Brian Quast said in a note.
“This compares to the previous
[estimate] which had no previous measured resource,” he said.
Pointing to Snowline’s grade analysis for the resource update, Quast also noted its low sensitivity to cut-off grades. Snowline states that its break-even price of gold for the 0.6 gram gold cut-off would be US$1,225 per ounce. The update’s baseline cut-off grade is 0.3 gram gold.
“This continues to demonstrate the deposits’ resilience to increased cost assumptions and/or a decrease in the gold price,” Quast said.
Challenges
While it could be years until the specifics of a mine at Valley take
Revival Gold bets on Mercur, Beartrack-Arnett
CARLIN TREND | Utah asset on fast-track
BY HENRY LAZENBY
Revival Gold’s (TSXV: RVG, US-OTC: RVLGF) Mercur project in Utah offers a quicker route to first gold than the more developed Beartrack-Arnett property in Idaho, CEO Hugh Agro said.
“It’s about stacking the deck in our favour,” Agro told The Northern Miner May 12 in an interview. “Mercur is a near-term opportunity with a two-year permitting horizon, heap leach production potential and exceptional leverage to the gold price.”
As gold goes from record to record, miners like Revival are looking for ways to cut development times to capture favourable market conditions.
While Beartrack-Arnett holds a larger and more advanced resource, Mercur is closer to production because of its simpler open-pit, heap-leach design, its history as a past-producing mine and its location on patented land with existing infrastructure. In contrast, Beartrack-Arnett’s scale and sulphide component require more complex engineering, permitting, and capi-
tal investment, pushing its development timeline further out.
Companies such as Liberty Gold (TSX: LGD), Integra Resources (TSXV: ITR), and Perpetua Resources (TSX, NASDAQ: PPTA) are developing oxide heapleach and sulphide deposits in the northwestern part of the Carlin Trend. Beartrack-Arnett offers longer-term scale and exploration upside to push the company towards eventual mid-tier status, Agro said.
Dundee funding Revival published a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) in March on Mercur, about 60 km by paved road from Salt Lake City. It described an open-pit, heap-leach operation with a $295-million (C$406-million) after-tax net present value at a gold price of $2,175 per oz., producing about 95,600 oz. gold annually over 10 years. All-in sustaining costs came in at $1,363 per ounce.
The PEA followed a $3.7-million private placement led by Dundee (TSX: DC-A).
Revival shares have gained 50% since the start of the year to 45¢
near press time. Shares have ranged between 22.5¢ and 52¢ over the past 12 months, giving the company a market capitalization of $94.4 million.
Gold revival Mercur holds the distinction of being the first Carlin-type gold deposit identified in the western United States, placing it within a region known for major mineral systems, Agro said. The Oquirrh Range hosts the famous Bingham Canyon copper-molybdenum-gold mine.
Osisko Development (TSXV, NYSE: ODV) and Ivanhoe Electric (TSX, NYSE: IE) are moving forward with their respective Trixie Mine and Tintic projects, highlighting the area’s active exploration and production scene.
The Mercur project, bought through the $21.9 million all-stock takeover last May of Ensign Minerals, taps into a historic gold camp. It produced 2.6 million oz., including 900,000 oz. at an average grade of 7 grams gold per tonne. Revival’s PEA models mining 66 million tonnes at 0.6 gram gold per tonne with 75% average recovery.
Mercur sits on patented land, has grid power, water access and is only 57 km from Salt Lake City, Agro pointed out.
“We have a large gold system, straightforward metallurgy and the benefit of a past-producing site with an excellent environmental record,” the CEO said. “You don’t get that combination very often.”
Permitting is expected to take about two years — relatively fast by North American standards.
Mercur hosts an indicated resource of 35.3 million tonnes grading 0.66 gram gold per tonne for 746,000 oz. gold, and an inferred resource of 36.2 million tonnes grading 0.54 gram gold for 626,000 oz. of metal. The deposit has over 3,000 drill holes, covering 280,000 metres.
Revival plans to drill nearly 20,000 metres starting in June. The company aims to complete an updated resource estimate and release its permitting schedule by late September.
Beartrack-Arnett repositioned At Beartrack-Arnett in Idaho, Revival has a resource of 4.1 million ounces. The company changed its earn-in deal with Pan American Silver (TSX, NYSE: PAAS) and extended bonding requirements to 2027. While the project once carried Revival’s growth ambitions, it now plays a supporting role.
“Beartrack-Arnett remains critical to our portfolio,” Agro said, “but with Mercur we have a clearer path to first gold.”
Including heap-leachable and
underground sulphide material, Beartrack-Arnett has total resources of 86.2 million tonnes. The measured and indicated grade is 0.87 gram of gold per tonne, totalling 2.4 million ounces. It also has 50.7 million tonnes inferred at 1.34 grams gold per tonne for 2.2 million ounces.
A passionate cyclist, Agro likens managing a junior miner to grinding up a long climb.
“It’s about patience, pacing yourself and knowing when to push,” he said. “We’ve been patient — now it’s time to push.” TNM
Members of the Utah Geological Survey visited Mercury in recent months. REVIVAL GOLD
CEO Scott Berdahl at Valley. BLAIR MCBRIDE
Agnico drilling drives growth in Canada’s North, Boyd says
THE ARCTIC | ‘Sovereignty is presence, the ability to control your future’
BY HENRY LAZENBY
Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX, NYSE: AEM) increased its Nunavut drilling budget this year by 56% to more than half a billion dollars across its assets, propelling the local economy and Canada’s stake in the Arctic.
The country’s largest gold miner by market capitalization is spending $525 million (C$733.8 million) compared with $337 million last year to advance the Hope Bay project to an updated feasibility study in December followed by a construction decision. The budget also covers shoring up reserves at its Meadowbank complex and the Meliadine mine, which together already produce nearly 750,000 oz. a year.
“We’re expanding now and we’re still adding ounces,” chair Sean Boyd said in an interview with The Northern Miner. It helps the company stay focused on its goal of “growth through the drill bit,” he said.
Nunavut is enjoying a surge in mining interest with claim-staking increasing by a third this year, according to research by DigiGeoData, an arm of Northern Miner Group owner Earthlabs. B2Gold (TSX: BTO, NYSE-A: BTG, NSX: B2G) crews are on track to pour first gold this month at the Back River project. Canadian North Resources (TSXV: CNRI; US-OTC: CNRSF) is drilling to expand its Ferguson Lake nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum group project. Fury Gold Mines (TSX, NYSE: FURY) has found three drill-ready targets at its Committee Bay project.
Exploration and deposit appraisal spending in the territory is expected to jump 47% this year, compared with just 6.8% growth in neighbouring Northwest Territories, according to a February Natural Resources Canada report.
40 years
Since entering Nunavut in 2007, Agnico has invested more than $10
billion in the territory, according to Boyd, who celebrated 40 years working with the company in May. Its operations account for some 22% of Nunavut’s economy.
At Hope Bay in the Kitikmeot region, Agnico has secured permits for a 4,000-tonne-per-day mill and ramped up drilling past 60,000 metres at the Doris, Madrid and Boston deposits. Recent assays continue to expand high-
grade envelopes near surface and will help increase the Hope Bay resource in the year-end feasibility study, Boyd said.
“We’re still getting really good drill results at Meadowbank, Detour [in Ontario] and Hope Bay,” Boyd said. “Even though we’re a big company, we haven’t lost track of how we got here, which was making calls on geological upside and proving those theories.”
Things have not always been smooth sailing for Agncio in Nunavut. The company recorded an after-tax impairment loss of US$645 million on its Meadowbank gold mine in the fourth quarter of 2011. The write-down was primarily due to persistently high operating costs and lower-than-expected ore grades, which led to a reduction in the mine’s projected lifespan by three years.
Amaruq deposit
However, the discovery and development of the Amaruq deposit, located about 50 km northwest of the site, provided a new source of ore. In 2024, it poured the site’s five-millionth ounce of gold. Agnico has extended Amaruq’s life to 2028, and the company is focusing on underground opportunities to add more years.
Another challenge facing the company is a skilled labour shortage, which shows across the industry, but perhaps more readily in
the sparse Far North. In Ontario, Agnico sponsors Mexican mechanics at its Macassa mine and plans to extend that program across its operations. Boyd expects the need for workers to define Canada’s mining outlook.
“We don’t have a lot of turnover, but the industry needs more highly skilled workers,” the mining veteran said. “There’s a retirement wave coming.”
Agnico stepped-up its Arctic advocacy around 2019 when management gave speeches to the Canadian Club in Toronto and then engaged Ottawa and federal ministries. Boyd suggests establishing mines is the key to securing Canada’s northern lands.
“Sovereignty is presence, the ability to control your future,” he said. “And the best way to create Arctic sovereignty is strong communities and prosperous families in those communities.”
Podcast launched Last year, the Agnico communications team launched a social media campaign called “We make mining work,” aimed at sparking discussion about resource issues. To sharpen that message, they teamed with an outside agency that on May 1 launched The Arctic Edge podcast. The series aims to show listeners the realities about territory and Canada’s Far North, Boyd said.
Guests include Kono Tattuinee, president of the Kivalliq Inuit Association; Dennis Patterson, senator for Nunavut; and Scott Clancy, director general of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Inuit artist and cultural advocate Clara Evalik told Boyd her grandson harvested 39,000 lb. of Arctic char in one month. Evalik said Agnico Eagle’s stewardship had reassured her that traditional ways of life can continue alongside mining.
“Canada needs to tell the story of the North,” Boyd says. “This podcast is just the beginning.” TNM
Grey Fox emerges as McEwen’s growth driver
ONTARIO | Project enters pre-feasibility
BY HENRY LAZENBY
McEwen Mining (NYSE, TSX: MUX) is banking on the Grey Fox deposit to drive production growth at its Fox Complex just outside Timmins, Ont. as it faces output headwinds.
McEwen plans to lift Fox Complex output from roughly 30,000 — 35,000 gold-equivalent oz. today to about 60,000 oz. by 2027 and 120,000 — 150,000 oz. by 2030, the company said in mid-May. That’s about half of McEwen’s projected total output of 225,000–255,000 GEOs by then. The rest is to come from the Gold Bar mine in Nevada and the company’s 49% stake in Argentina’s San José mine.
“We are currently developing a pre-feasibility study for Grey Fox that will better define its potential and production timeline,” chief owner Rob McEwen said in a news release. The study is due this year.
The company has raised $110 million (C$153.2 million) this year
by selling 5.25% convertible notes due in 2030. This funding is to support development of the Stock deposit and boost the Fox Complex project pipeline.
While this improved liquidity, raising cash reserves to $68.5 million, it also increased total debt from $40 million to $130 million. Investors may be concerned about the potential dilution and the company’s ability to manage this increased borrowing.
McEwen’s Toronto-traded shares have fallen 16% this year to $9.95 apiece near press time for a market capitalization of around $550 million.
Production drops
The company’s first-quarter goldequivalent output dropped by 27% year-over-year to 24,131 ounces. The decrease was attributed to issues at multiple sites such as 16% less at the San José Mine due to ore quality issues causing higher cash costs of $2,575 per gold equivalent
ounce (GEO).
Labour shortages and weather-related disruptions at Fox raised cash costs to $2,061 per GEO versus guidance of $1,600–$1,800 per GEO. Costs also rose above forecasts at Gold Bar.
In May, the company secured a closure plan permit for Stock, which positions the company to start mining it next year and for Grey Fox to follow, after mining at
Froome winds down this year.
The developments come as the Timmins mining camp booms.
Discovery Silver’s (TSX: DSV) Porcupine operations — an underground and open‐pit complex that produced 223,000 attributable oz. last year — sits immediately west of the city.
Pan American Silver (TSX, NYSE: PAAS) operates the Timmins West and Bell Creek mines.
STLLR Gold (TSX: STLR, US-OTC: STLRF) is working on tailings retreatment at the Hollinger Tailings project on Timmins’ east side and is drilling at its Tower project within the camp’s area.
Exploration upside
Recent assay results from Grey Fox revealed that hole 25GF1539 intersected 10.7 metres (true width) at 12.4 grams gold per tonne starting from 90.6 metres depth in the Gibson Zone. There is potential to expand the resource
within 300 metres of the surface, the company says.
Drill hole 25GF-1537 intersected 7.8 metres (core width) at 6.2 grams gold per tonne from 575.3 metres deep. It also found 16 metres (core width) at 4.4 grams gold from 607.1 metres. This suggests a new exploration corridor. There could be orogenic-style mineralization below Grey Fox, McEwen noted.
“These encouraging results reinforce our confidence that Grey Fox, our next project in the production pipeline, will become a cornerstone asset for us for years to come,” McEwen said.
Based on figures released in February, Grey Fox’s updated resource stands at 13.1 million indicated tonnes at 3.6 grams gold for 1.5 million oz. of gold and 4.3 million inferred tonnes at 3.3 grams for 458,000 oz. of metal. The indicated and inferred resources increased 32% and 95% respectively over the prior 2021 estimate. TNM
A close-up of the abundant visible gold noted for this intercept in hole 25GF-1563. MCEWEN MINING
Drilling at Agnico Eagle’s Hope Bay project in the Kitikmeot region of western Nunavut. AGNICO EAGLE MINES
Agnico Eagle’s collaboration with local communities, like at the Meliadine mine in Nunavut, is key to working in Canada’s Arctic, Sean Boyd says. AGNICO EAGLE MINES
Resource nationalism redraws map for investors in West Africa, Latin America
RISK | Quick riches dominate junta plans
BY ANDREW SEALE
Heightened state control of natural resources is sweeping across the globe as China limits critical mineral exports and the Trump administration fasttracks projects.
But nowhere is the concept more gripping and volatile than in the high-potential gold mining jurisdictions of West Africa and Latin America. Miners must re-evaluate risk and reward while they dodge ransom attempts and adjust to the new cost of doing business.
In late April, the military-led government of Burkina Faso announced it would expand its control of foreign-owned industrial mines to maximize revenue from the country’s gold reserves, pushing its stake to 30% in some cases while forming a new state mining company. The expropriation follows similar moves in neighbouring Mali and Niger to revise mining codes.
“It’s about a short-term revenue grab from gold companies,” Chris Roberts, president of AfriCan Access Consulting and an expert on geopolitics and the extractive industry, said in an interview. “(They) don’t really care about sending the wrong signals to future investors.”
Record gold
The gold price soared to a record high above $3,500 an oz. in April, driving profits for gold companies and prompting some governments to re-evaluate their stakes with foreign-owned mining companies.
The ‘Birimian belt’, which includes Ghana, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and the Mali-Senegal
border, has been a global hub for gold mining, but violent extremism, political instability and illegal mining activities have made it a high-risk zone.
Another belt is composed of the countries led by coup-triggered governments stretching from Guinea on the Atlantic to Sudan on the Red Sea. Guinea, which holds the world’s largest bauxite reserves, rescinded around 50 mining permits in midMay, while Barrick Mining (TSX: ABX; NYSE: B) said it’s still trying to free seized gold in Mali and settle $440 million in tax arrears claimed by the military government. Resolute Mining (ASX, LSE: RSG) paid Mali $160 million last year to free its CEO. He quit soon after.
The juntas of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger formalized the Alliance of Sahel States last year.
“There is popular support and pressure for African governments to follow the model of Burkina Faso and Mali,” Roberts said.
West African Resources (ASX: WAF), Orezone Gold Corp. (TSXV: ORE), Endeavour Mining (TSX: EDV) and Iamgold (TSX: IMG) all have operations in Burkina Faso. In April, Fortuna Mining (TSX: FVI; NYSE: FSM) opted to sell its interest in the Yaramoko Mine in Burkina Faso, citing the increasingly challenging business climate.
‘Tricky situation’
“If any mining company came to me today and said, look, the geology in Burkina Faso or Mali, or Niger is fantastic, we want to overlook the geopolitical risks and the resource nationalism that we see, I would say don’t do it,” Roberts said. “But
if you’ve already sunk $100 million (or more) and you have an operating mine or expansion that you’re planning, as we’ve seen in some of these countries, then you’re stuck in a really tricky situation.”
However, Raj Ray, managing director of metals and mining research at BMO Capital Markets in the United Kingdom, said he’d hesitate to brand it as resource nationalism.
“A big part of what we are seeing is global fragmentation; we are moving away from globalization,” Ray said in an interview. “Every country around the world is looking at commodities and saying, we need to ensure the security of supply, and you are seeing that play out in Africa pretty significantly.”
The BMO analyst said it’s taking a different shape in other jurisdictions.
“I wouldn’t say every country is looking to nationalize the assets and run it themselves — they don’t have the resources and the means to be able to do that,” Ray said. “They are
being careful who they align with and how that profit gets divided.”
Latin America Mexico, once viewed as a mining-friendly jurisdiction, has become more unpredictable. In 2023, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government introduced sweeping changes to the country’s mining and water laws, including a potential ban on open pit mining, reduction of concession terms from 50 to 30 years, and various higher environmental, social and profit-sharing requirements.
While López Obrador’s successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, hasn’t disavowed his anti-mining policies, she has also refrained from enacting his proposed ban on openpit mining, opting instead for a more measured and consultative approach.
In Peru, the mining sector is also grappling with political insecurity and regulatory shifts. In early May, an illegal mining gang kidnapped
and killed 13 security guards at La Poderosa gold mine. Peru, one of Latin America’s top gold producers, has seen a rise in anti-mining sentiment and pushback surrounding the government’s efforts to regulate small-scale miners.
Ray said in a world where commodity prices are rising and supply is a concern, countries are revisiting mining codes and the way proceeds are divided.
Tradeoffs
For investors, it’s creating uncertainty. Mining safe havens are no longer reliable, and stabilization clauses, explicit pledges made by host states to foreign investors, are being rewritten. However, higher gold prices are generating more profit and giving mining companies more wiggle room to renegotiate.
“When I talk to (mining) companies, they’re taking it in stride,” Ray said. “There are countries that are being reasonable and negotiating with companies.”
In October, Endeavour Mining issued a statement in response to Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traoré’s plans to nationalize some mining activity.
“Endeavour remains a trusted partner to the Government of Burkina Faso and can confirm that it is not currently aware of any plans to revoke any of its mining permits,” the company said.
But Ray says it’s hard for the average investor in the West to overlook the redrawing of the mining map.
“If you don’t see that political stability, then it becomes difficult for any investor to invest in that country.” TNM
Ex-LBMA exec adopts blockchain to trace gold
BY HENRY LAZENBY
Sakhila Mirza must turn a decade of rule-making experience at the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) into real-world systems as incoming president of New York-based traceability platform, Responsible Gold. Her remit is clear: marry hardwon policy with live systems and prove that blockchain can fulfill promises of proving real-time provenance of precious metals. Mirza spent her years as the LBMA’s general council and deputy CEO building industry standards to provide a foundation for trust and integrity, she told The Northern Miner in an interview.
“The standards that industry has developed should always be considered the baseline,” she said. “Garbage in, garbage out. Data integrity is the key differentiator of what makes a good platform.”
Mirza faces the task of embedding those standards in a blockchain network under intense regulatory scrutiny. Tracing gold is increasingly important as investors, regulators and consumers demand greater assurance that the metal is ethically sourced and free from ties to con-
flict, environmental harm or human rights abuses. With reports that $30 billion (C$41.2 billion) of gold was smuggled out of Africa in 2022, the market for all supply chain tracing is forecast to soar to $106 billion by 2037 from $3 billion last year, New York-based Research Nester forecasts.
Transparency By establishing a verifiable chain of custody — from mine to vault — co
mpanies can demonstrate compliance with international standards, reduce reputational risk and meet growing ESG expectations. For miners and refiners, transparent sourcing can also open access to premium markets and responsible investors.
Houston-based Responsible Gold is among a handful of commercial firms including Everledger, Minespider and Circulor that already offer traceability platforms for gems, gold and battery metals.
Past blockchain pilots by the World Gold Council and LBMA under its Gold Bar Integrity Programme of 2019 tested bar tracking on permissioned ledgers. They proved the concept but never scaled beyond limited trials.
“Responsible Gold must bridge that gap,” Mirza said.
Supply chain logbooks
Mirza arrived at Responsible Gold two weeks before her appointment became public. The firm uses distributed-ledger technology to track gold from mine to vault, she explained.
Think of blockchain as a shared logbook: each time a gold bar moves you write its details on a fresh line and everyone keeps a
copy; no one can erase or change earlier lines, so the bar’s journey stays intact and verifiable.
Miners key-in ore source and risk-mitigation data at extraction. Logistics firms log transport events on-chain. Refiners record serial numbers and purity tests. Vault operators log hand-offs. On-chain compliance checks flag missing or inconsistent entries before bars enter downstream markets or tokenization.
Rules matter
For Mirza, governance sits atop the ledger. She must figure out how Responsible Gold is to certify node operators, enforce know-your-customer rules and manage permissions while keeping the network open enough to scale.
Mirza’s challenge is to design layers that protect data and permit diverse participants to join a single trusted ecosystem. The platform must be able to interoperate with existing schemes, Mirza said. It could on-board artisan, small and mid-tier miners, some of which often lack verifiable paper trails.
“Without broad participation, provenance remains a theory,” she said.
Mirza was also appointed as the portfolio manager at Pandion Asset Management, a Securities and Exchange Commission-registered fund closely aligned with the firm’s sourcing principles.
Big task
On the innovation front, Responsible Gold plans tokenization offerings that use the same audit chain to make gold more accessible. Tokenization is the title of ownership with mark-up of the responsibly sourced gold that has travelled successfully from mine to vault.
The Pandion Responsible Gold fund will draw on that provenance data as a performance indicator –linking real-time traceability and investor products, she said. Mirza didn’t downplay the scale of the task. If she succeeds, she will turn gold provenance from promise into practice. She has “a lot to learn,” she said, “but equally a lot for me to hopefully direct” as she brings LBMA standards into a live ledger. The work won’t be simple. “I wish I could say it’s a straightforward path,” she said. “Some of the simplest tasks do become complicated.” TNM
Endeavour Mining’s Houndé mine in Burkina Faso. ENDEAVOUR MINING
Sakhila Mirza, president Responsible Gold. IMAGE SUPPLIED
Q&A on what’s pushing gold prices
MARKETS | Private investors, but it’s seasonal
BY NORTHERN MINER STAFF
The gold price rocketed in 2024 and even more this year on geopolitical tension and tariffs. For a look at the driving forces, whether central banks or China, The Northern Miner podcast host Adrian Pocobelli caught up in May with New York-based Jeffrey Christian, managing partner at commodities research and advisory firm CPM Group. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Adrian Pocobelli: What was the main driver of the latest move we saw in gold, from $2,900 an oz. all the way up to $3,500?
Jeffrey Christian: Our view has been that it’s private investment demand. Central banks have been buying a lot of gold, but they are more price sensitive. Last year, you saw central banks buying 40% less gold, physically, in terms of volume, about 14 million oz. in 2023 and they bought about 8.4 million oz. on a net group basis in 2024.
A couple things affect that. One is the Russian central bank is using its gold reserves to help finance the government and the war effort, and so it’s been buying and selling gold, which has kind of distorted those totals. You really want to exclude Russia to get a better picture.
The second thing is that the price has risen, up 23% from where it had been the year before. Central Banks don’t say “I want to buy X ounces of gold.” They say “I want a certain percentage of my monetary reserves to be in gold, and my monetary reserves are denominated in dollars, so I want to buy X dollars worth of gold.”
If the price is 23% higher than it was the year before, and you’re putting the same amount of dollars to the gold market, you’re buying 20% less gold than you bought before. So that’s one of the factors. And the other thing is that as the gold price rises, central banks are more
value investors than private investors, and they say, “you know, I was a buyer at $2,000 in 2023 I’m less interested in buying at $2,400. If the price fell back to $2,000, I’ll probably be a very aggressive buyer.”
We look at the gold market last year and we see this 40% decline in Central Bank buying, but that was offset by like a 24% increase in private sector buying, which went from maybe 23 million oz. to about 37 million oz. last year. That’s more than a two-thirds increase.
So, the increase in gold prices we saw last year and in the first four months of this year has primarily been driven by private investors around the world. You have not been able to say, oh, it’s Chinese buying, or it’s Indian buying, or it’s European buying, or it’s North American buying. We have seen strong investment demand globally, really, for the last 24 months now.
AP: So on April 2, Liberation Day, when the tariffs came in, there was a surprise in the market. Usually Treasury yields should fall, because there should be more demand for U.S. Treasuries as safety. Instead, the yields went up, and also the gold price seemed to go up along with it. In a sense, there was a bit of a strike on U.S. treasuries, with China putting money into gold rather than treasuries. What is your thought on that?
“The economic and political factors that have caused investors to buy outsized volumes of gold and silver are not going away.”
JEFFREY CHRISTIAN, CPM GROUP
JC: People overplay the idea that the People’s Bank of China or the Chinese government are doing that. You have to understand that the People’s Bank of China owns a tremendous amount of U.S. dollars, mostly held in U.S. Treasuries. And if they want to strike on treasuries or sell treasuries, the person they hurt the most is themselves, right? What we saw on April 2 was really a universal marking down on the credibility of the U.S. government and the U.S. Treasury. And it was really worldwide. The other thing is like, by April 2, it was clear that the Trump administration was spending vastly, much more money than the Biden administration and other previous administrations had done. They were expanding deficits, and they were increasing at a much faster rate U.S. debt growth, federal debt growth, and all of that’s negative for Treasuries.
AP: We are not early, in a sense, on the gold trade. Here we are at record levels. It doesn’t seem like we’re early.
JC: We’re not early, no. I’m not big on sports things, but it occurs to me that we are in the top half of the seventh inning, and the reason I say that is that CPM Group has been projecting for some time that the gold price would rise and silver price would rise sharply in the first four months of this year and then
come off some. They wouldn’t go back to where they were, but they would come off some between May and August. You know, sell in May and go away.
[That] applies to precious metals, oftentimes seasonally over time. The same way it applies to equities, there are seasonal changes in fabrication demand and seasonal changes in investment demand that often cause prices to rise sharply in the first four months of the year and then come off in the middle part of the year and then start rising again in the final three or four months of the year.
We’ve been saying to our clients and to anybody else who wants to listen to us, that we thought that the prices could peak in March or April and then come off, not going back to where they were. I mean, gold started 2025 at $2,662 an oz., and it didn’t go over $3,200 until the beginning of April.
We may see the price move sideways for the next several months, but the economic and political factors that have caused investors to buy outsized volumes of gold and silver are not going away. They’re not being solved, you know, and they’ll be back.
AP: Zooming in on silver just a little bit, what is your sense of the value there? In the sense that we’ve seen gold take off, and silver just seems to be consolidating sideways.
JC: We’re bullish on silver as an investment. We do think that the price of silver probably is going to rise, and perhaps rise significantly over the next year or two, possibly to new record quarterly and annual prices surpassing the prices that they reached in 2011, 2012.
It has lagged gold, partly because it’s an industrial metal as well as a financial asset, and on the industrial side, the price is above $28 to $30, $32. You’re seeing industrial users scale back their silver per unit demand as much as possi-
ble because of the higher prices that you’re already seeing. In addition to that, start looking at who buys gold and who buys silver as investors. There are silver investors in the Middle East and in Europe and in Latin America, but the bulk of physical silver investment demand occurs in North America and South Asia. You have any number of people around the world who say, “I’m worried about the economic environment. I’m worried about global and domestic politics. I want to buy gold.”
There are fewer people who say, “I’m worried about all those things. I want to buy silver.” And that’s what you’re seeing in the silver price lagging the gold price. The gold to silver ratio has gone from 80 to one to 100 to one, and that reflects the fact that more people in more parts of the world see gold as the go-to safe haven, financial hedge, currency hedge, inflation hedge, protection against political and economic problems, than silver.
AP: It seems like industrial metals, even though we may be facing a recession, still seem like an attractive choice from a value point of view.
JC: You have to watch out for what we call the Enron syndrome. As Enron was devolving and heading toward insolvency, there were any number of people who said “Oh wow, Enron, you know, it’s off 40%, this is a great buying opportunity.” And lithium is sort of like that, too. I think $50 was totally unsustainable, $9 may be sustainable, but you have to look at the fundamentals. We’re probably more bullish on nickel and copper and silver, but we’re probably more bearish on lithium and some other metals too. Just because the price has fallen 80% doesn’t mean that the price is going to rebound. What goes up might come down, but what goes down doesn’t necessarily have any reason to rise again unless it’s a rubber ball, right? TNM
Newcore assays reveal Enchi’s growth potential
BY BLAIR MCBRIDE AND FRÉDÉRIC TOMESCO
Newcore Gold (TSXV: NCAU; US-OTC: NCAUF) said drilling at its Enchi gold project in southwestern Ghana encountered multiple wide zones of higher-grade gold mineralization.
Hole KBRC357 in the north-central portion of the Boin gold deposit intersected 4.41 grams per tonne gold over 24 metres from 126 metres downhole, including a higher-grade interval of 10 metres at 9.08 grams gold from 132 metres depth, Newcore said on May 20. Enchi, located near the namesake town, is about 400 km west of the capital Accra, and just east of the border with Côte d’Ivoire.
All 11 holes whose results were disclosed in that statement returned gold mineralization. Hole KBRC360 cut 52 metres at 1.58 grams gold from 75 metres downhole, including a higher-grade interval of 16 metres grading 3.04
grams gold from 96 metres downhole, Newcore said.
“The results from the drill program underway at Enchi continue to highlight the strong continuity of mineralization as well as the potential for resource growth,”
CEO Luke Alexander said. “With most drilling to date at Enchi only completed to an average vertical depth of 100 metres, we believe we have only just begun to define the potential of the project.”
Resource conversion
Newcore’s 35,000-metre drill program at Enchi, which targets near-surface oxide and shallow sulphide mineralization, aims to convert inferred resources to indicated before a pre-feasibility study is commissioned later this year.
Recent drilling was carried out in areas where the previous pit constrained resource estimate was classified as inferred, the company said.
Newcore shares traded for 59¢ apiece in late May in Toronto
as press time neared, giving the company a market capitalization of $147.9 million. The stock has traded between 26¢ and 67¢ during the past 12 months.
May’s high grades
A week earlier, Newcore said drilling at Enchi returned results as high as 15 metres grading 3.83 grams gold.
That result, from 122 metres depth in hole KBRC352 in the north-central part of the Boin deposit, also cut 56 metres at 2.25 grams gold, the company reported on May 14. Another highlight hole, KBRC353, cut 24 metres from surface grading 2.15 grams gold, while hole KBRC355 returned 29 metres at 2.13 grams gold from 26 metres depth.
Newcore’s 248-sq.-km land package covers 40 km of the Bibiani shear zone. The gold belt hosts several multi-million-ounce gold deposits, including Kinross Gold’s (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) Chirano Mine 50 km north and Asante Gold’s (CSE: ASE; US-OTC: ASGOF) Bibiani mine to the northeast.
Boin is among the five deposits that make up Enchi, which hosts 41.7 million indicated tonnes grading 0.55 gram gold for 743,500 contained ounces. Its inferred resource totals 46.6 million tonnes at 0.65 gram gold for 972,000 ounces.
An updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) last April gave Enchi a net present value of $371 million (C$515.7 million) and an internal rate of return of 58% at a gold price of $1,850 per ounce. Initial capital costs were pegged at $106 million. The PEA outlined a nine-year, 8.1 million-tonne-peryear open-pit, heap-leach mine. The all-in sustaining costs are forecast at US$1,018 per ounce. TNM
A drill rig at Newcore’s Enchi project in southwestern Ghana. NEWCORE GOLD
SPOTLIGHT: Global gold and silver projects in view
BY NORTHERN MINER STAFF
Economic and geopolitical uncertainty continues to fuel the gold price rally in 2025, while industrial demand is lifting silver prices. Here’s a look at eight juniors with interesting gold and silver projects in different parts of the world.
n Gold Terra Resource
Gold Terra (TSX.V: YGT) is advancing its Yellowknife City Gold (YCG) project and Con Mine option property near the namesake city in the Northwest Territories and on the Campbell Shear structure. The nearby Con Mine produced 5.1 million oz. grading 16 grams gold per tonne from that shear from 1938 until 2003. It closed due to low gold prices.
Gold Terra reported in April that its first wedge hole at the Con property pierced the Campbell Shear from about 2,665 metres depth in hole GTCM25-056A. Assays are pending. The intersection is about 600 metres below the current depth of the historic Robertson Shaft. The result follows the initial piercing of the shear with hole GTCM23-055 that cut 1.7 metres at 12.63 grams gold from 2,075 metres in November, 2023.
The intersection proves the company’s model showing the high potential for the shear’s continuation at depth and down plunge of the historic deposit that was mined, CEO Gerald Panneton said.
The wedge hole drilling program, which includes branches off
the main hole, comprises about 3,000 metres and started in January. The program aims to expand the September 2022 initial resource that outlined 450,000 indicated tonnes grading 7.55 grams gold for 109,000 oz. of contained gold; and 2 million inferred tonnes at 6.74 grams gold for 432,000 inferred ounces.
Gold Terra’s 918-sq.-km YCG project, located on properties north, south and east of the city, hosts 24.3 million inferred tonnes grading 1.54 grams gold for 1.2 million ounces, according to a 2021 resource.
The company in 2021 signed an option agreement with Newmont (NYSE: NEM, TSX: NGT), expected to last until 2027, that will give Gold Terra the opportunity to acquire Newmont subsidiary Miramar Northern Mining. Gold Terra must spend at least $10.9 million in exploration, complete a pre-feasibility study and pay Newmont $8 million.
Gold Terra has a market capitalization of $24.27 million.
n Lavras Gold Lavras Gold (TSX.VLGC) in April reported drill results that demonstrated the high grades and continuity at Fazenda do Posto deposit, part of its LDS project in southern Brazil. Highlight hole 24BT043 cut 251 metres grading 1.2 grams gold from 208 metres depth, including 100 metres at 2.2 grams gold and 20 metres grading 2.4 grams gold.
In March, Lavras reported similarly strong near-surface results at its Butiá deposit, just 150 metres east of Fazenda do Posto, with hole 24BT034 returning 123 metres grading 1.8 grams gold from 69 metres in hole, including 21 metres at 4.1 grams gold.
The results were from at least 20,000 metres of historic drilling across 78 holes at LDS, near the town of Lavras do Sul, about 1,780 km southwest of Rio de Janeiro. Butiá, its most advanced deposit, hosts 12.9 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 0.91 grams gold for 377,000 contained ounces; and 3.7 million inferred tonnes at 0.97 grams gold
for 115,000 ounces, according to a 2022 resource.
The nearby Cerrito deposit holds 8.3 million indicated tonnes at 0.7 grams gold for 188,000 contained oz.; and 13.2 million inferred tonnes grading 0.69 grams gold for 293,500 oz. of gold.
Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) holds a 5% equity interest in Lavras.
Lavras Gold has a market capitalization of $133.8 million.
n Lion One Metals
Lion One Metals (TSXV: LIO) is looking to double gold production to 600 or 700 tonnes per day by next year at its Tuvatu mine in Fiji.
The underground mine is located on the main island of Viti Levu. The mine produced 31,044 tonnes of high-grade ore with an average head grade of 5.5 grams gold per tonne and overall gold recovery of 82.5% in this year’s first quarter. Mechanized production began in May 2024.
Tuvatu is slated to produce about 331,370 oz. over a five-year life, according to the updated preliminary economic assessment
District scale property straddling 70 kilometres of the Campbell Shear structure in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Infrastructure, roads, airport, service providers, power, and skilled tradespeople.
Focus is drilling the prolific Campbell Shear (past production of 14 Moz) on the Con Mine Option property which produced 6.1 Moz (1938-2003).
For more information, please contact: Gerald Panneton, Chairman & CEO gpanneton@goldterracorp.com
Mara Strazdins, Investor Relations Phone: 1-778-897-1590 | 416-710-0646 strazdins@goldterracorp.co
TSX-V: YGT;
Drilling at Nova’s Estelle gold-antimony project in south-central Alaska. NOVA MINERALS
Drill rigs on site at Southern Silver’s Cerro Las Minitas project in Mexico’s north-central state of Durango. SOUTHERN SILVER EXPLORATION
> Snapshot from P25
(PEA) from 2022.
The project hosts 1 million indicated tonnes grading 8.5 grams gold for 274,600 contained oz., according to the PEA. Inferred resources total 1.3 million tonnes at 9 grams gold for 384,000 ounces. The project has an after-tax net present value (NPV) of $121.7 million (C$169.9 million) at a discount rate of 5% and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 50.9%. The after-tax payback period is pegged at 1.7 years.
Lion One is also exploring at the Tuvatu site, with drilling ongoing at its Alkaline gold project and in the surrounding Navilawa Caldera.
Highlight results from infill and grade control drilling in early May included 1.9 metres grading 54.16 grams gold from 90.2 metres depth in hole TGC-0398, including 0.6 metres at 156.55 grams gold. That result was from 2,701.4 meters of underground drilling focused on the Ura lode system which Lion One is currently mining.
Another noteworthy assay, from the beginning of May included 0.4 metre grading 236 grams gold from 109.4 metres depth in hole TGC0345, That result was from drilling in Zone 5, where the company is also mining.
Lion One has a market capitalization of $83.7 million.
n Nova Minerals
Nova Minerals (Nasdaq, ASX: NVA) is advancing its main Estelle gold-antimony project in south-central Alaska. The project, about 150 km northwest of Anchorage, sits on the prolific Tintina gold belt and surface sampling shows it also hosts high-grade antimony, a byproduct of gold that has defence and clean energy applications.
The project is made up of the RPM, Korbel, Train, Stoney and Stibium targets. Antimony has been found across all targets, particularly in samples grading as high as 61% antimony at Stibium.
The company is working towards completing a feasibility study by the end of the year.
Estelle hosts 244 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 0.3 gram gold for 2.72 million oz. contained gold, according to a resource update from April 2024. Inferred resources total 231 million tonnes at 0.3 gram gold for 2.45 million contained ounces.
While resource expansion drilling is planned this year for RPM, exploration drilling for Train, and initial drilling at Stibium, exploration last October demonstrated the
high-grades at RPM.
Highlight hole RPMRC-24017 cut 29 metres grading 7.1 grams gold from surface, including 22 metres at 9.4 grams gold from surface and 6 metres at 19.9 grams gold from 16 metres depth. Hole RPMRC-24020 returned 28 metres grading 4.5 grams gold from surface, including 23 metres at 5.3 grams gold from 5 metres and 6 metres at 14.3 grams gold from 11 metres.
Those results helped extend RPM’s high-grade core, Nova said.
The feasibility study is to examine achieving production with a scalable operation comprising an initial low-cost, smaller scale mine at RPM, as well as a larger mine with higher gold production.
The study will also look at developing a low capex starter antimony-gold operation, subject to potential funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. Washington has taken a greater interest in antimony since Beijing last December halted exports of antimony and other critical metals to the U.S. Nova Minerals has a market cap of US$58.65 million.
n Prime Mining
Prime Mining (TSX: PRYM; US-OTC: PRMNF) is advancing its Los Reyes gold-silver project in Sinaloa state of western Mexico. The company this year planned a 40,000-metre drilling program to identify new targets at Los Reyes which sits on Mexico’s Sierra Madre belt, about 160-km southeast of state capital Culiacán. However, in February it announced the program was suspended due to security concerns in the state.
The project is in the Guadalupe De Los Reyes mining district, where mining activity goes back to the 1700s. The Guadalupe de los Reyes underground mine opened in the late 1800s and has been the main source of gold production in the district.
An update last October almost doubled the indicated gold-equivalent ounces at Los Reyes, with open pit, underground and heap leach resources totaling 49 million tonnes grading 0.95 gram gold and 34.2 grams silver. Contained metal was estimated at 1.49 million oz. gold and 53.9 million oz. silver. Inferred resources came to 17.2 million tonnes at 0.97 gram gold and 39 grams silver for 538,000 oz. gold and 21.5 million oz. silver. Despite the suspension of its drill program, Prime this year is working towards completing a PEA for Los Reyes and more closely refining the metallurgical, geotechnical and mine planning aspects of the proj-
Westhaven Gold’s Shovelnose property in south-central British Columbia. WESTHAVEN GOLD
Probe Gold’s Beaufor site, adjacent to Novador, near Val-d’Or, Que. PROBE GOLD
A drill rig at Probe Gold’s Val-dOr-East property. PROBE GOLD
Lion One Metals’ Alkaline Gold exploration project at its Tuvatu mine site on Fiji LION ONE METALS
ect, it said. It also completed 1,500 metres of drilling until the end of January and expects to complete the program this year. Drill rigs remain on site and drill contractor crews are on standby to resume work as soon as security conditions improve.
Prime is funded with about $19 million in cash which it expects will support it for this year’s programs, CEO Scott Hicks said.
Prime Mining has a market capitalization of $216.3 million.
n Probe Gold
Probe Gold (TSX: PRB; US-OTC: PROBF) is progressing its Novador project, an open pit and underground gold mine, about 25 km east of Val-d’Or, Que. Novador is among Canada’s top undeveloped multimillion-ounce gold projects due to its resource size and strong
economics. Results of the completed winter infill program aimed at resource conversion are to be incorporated into an upcoming pre-feasibility study, expected by the end of the year.
An updated PEA for Novador, released in 2024, expanded the resource and improved the project’s economics over the initial PEA from 2021. The update demonstrated Novador’s economic viability, even at a conservative gold price. The company is steadily de-risking the project and enhancing its overall value.
Probe posted robust economics for Novador. The updated PEA gives Novador a post-tax NPV of $910 million (US$652 million), a post-tax IRR of 24% at a gold price of $1,750 per ounce. Initial capital costs are estimated at $602 million.
The mine is anticipated to produce 255,000 oz. gold over a 12.6-
year mine life. Novador comprises the Monique, Pascalis, Courvan, and Beaufor deposits, with Monique being the largest. Monique hosts 3.3-million pit-constrained oz. grading 1.33 grams gold per tonne and 543,800 inferred oz. at 1.86 grams gold. Monique’s underground resources total 163,000 measured and indicated oz. and 135,500 inferred ounces.
In early May, Probe announced it had awarded a contract for the environmental impact statement (EIS) documentation to WSP. The federal Impact Assessment Agency, which began the assessment last August, needs the EIS to eventually approve permitting for Novador. Probe hopes its permits are approved by 2027, CEO David Palmer said.
Probe Gold has a market cap of $423.2 million.
n Southern Silver Exploration
Southern Silver Exploration (TSXV: SSV) is advancing its Cerro Las Minitas (CLM) silver-copperlead-zinc project in Durango state of north-central Mexico. The company is engaged in a staged 25,000metre drill program it started last November which is aimed at resource expansion.
The project represents one of the largest and highest-grade undeveloped silver projects in the world, according to a 2024 resource estimate. It hosts 13.3 million indicated tonnes grading 102 grams silver per tonne, 0.07 gram gold, 0.17% copper, 1.3% lead, and 3.1% zinc, for 43.4 million oz. silver, 32,000 oz. gold, 49 million lb. copper, 374 million lb. lead and 921 million lb. zinc.
Its inferred resources total 23.4 million tonnes at 111 grams silver, 0.14 gram gold, 0.21% copper, 1.1% lead and 2.1% zinc, for 83.4 million oz. silver, 104,000 oz. gold, 111 million lb. copper, 582 million lb. lead and 1.1 million lb. zinc.
CLM has an after-tax NPV (at a 5% discount) of US$501 million and an IRR of 21.2% with a payback period of two years, according to an updated PEA from 2024. Initial capital costs are pegged at US$388 million. The underground mine would average 11.4 million silver-equivalent oz. in annual output over a 17-year life. All-in sustaining costs are estimated at US$2.5 billion, at a silver-equivalent price of US$13.23 per ounce.
Drilling at CLM’s South Skarn deposit in February demonstrated the lateral and down dip extensions of shallow mineralization, the company said, with hole 24CLM-198 cutting 8.9 metres grading 97 grams silver, 0.1 gram gold, 0.7% copper, 0.1% lead, 0.7% zinc from 554.4 metres depth.
Southern Silver has a market capitalization of $64.3 million.
n Westhaven Gold Westhaven Gold (TSX-V: WHN) is progressing its Shovelnose gold property, located about 30 km south of Merritt, B.C. The project is advancing a high-grade gold discovery in the Spences Bridge gold belt, one of Canada’s most recently recognized gold districts.
Shovelnose has potential as a lowcost and high margin underground mine with an 11-year life, according to an April 2025 updated PEA. Its average annual life-of-mine production is estimated at 56,000 oz. with an after-tax NPV of $454 million (at a 6% discount) and an IRR of 43.2%. The update doubled the NPV over the initial PEA from 2023.
Initial capital costs are pegged at $184 million, and the payback period is 2.1 years. Shovelnose hosts 3.4 million indicated tonnes grading 6.1 grams gold and 32 grams silver for 677,000 contained gold oz. and 3.5 million contained silver ounces. Inferred resources total 2.2 million tonnes at 3.6 grams gold and 25 grams silver for 270,000 contained gold oz. and 1.8 million contained silver ounces.
Westhaven also drilled the highest-grade gold intercept ever on the Shovelnose property in April 2022 at the FMN zone. This intercept cut 23.03 metres grading 37.24 grams gold and 209.52 grams silver from 94 metres depth, including 1.12 metres at 294 grams gold and 2,110 grams silver.
In February, Westhaven announced its winter drilling program at Shovelnose that was to drill about 2,500 metres at the Certes 1, Certes 3 and Corral targets. That came one year after Westhaven received a five-year, 650-drill hole exploration permit.
The company plans to continue with exploration work at Shovelnose as it advances the project and de-risks it with environmental baseline studies and permitting work, CEO Gareth Thomas said. Westhaven Gold has a market capitalization of $23.5 million. TNM
PRIME
TRACK RECORD OF VALUE CREATION
Trinity (Orla, Atex), Murray John (Osisko, Discovery Silver), Andrew Bowering (venture capitalist, entrepreneur)
EXPANDING GOLD-SILVER RESOURCE
Los Reyes project has significant expansion potential; long-life, high quality analogues in Mexico
TECHNICAL DE-RISKING UNDERWAY
Discovery “de-risked” with C$64M invested over 4 years of drilling; Preliminary Economic Assessment in 2025
RE-RATE POTENTIAL
Stock undervalued as value being built; Trades at <0.25x NAV (Analyst estimates)
Prime’s Los Reyes gold-silver project in western Mexico’s Sinaloa state. PRIME MINING
Exploration work at Lavras Gold’s LDSproject in southern Brazil. LAVRAS GOLD
Q&A with Dundee Sustainable Technologies
The breakthrough of turning toxic arsenic into stable glass
NAME: Jean-Philippe Mai
TITLE: President and CEO
COMPANY: Dundee Sustainable Technologies
BY DEVAN MURUGAN
It is one of Canada’s most toxic legacies. Buried just outside Yellowknife is more than 230,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide, a deadly byproduct from decades of gold mining at the Giant Mine. This poisonous dust is stored underground, and as the permafrost melts, the risk of it leaking into surrounding water systems grows.
The Canadian government has frozen the chambers for now, but that’s a temporary fix. What’s the long-term solution? Well, one Canadian company believes it may have the answer.
Dundee Sustainable Technologies has developed something called GlassLock, a process that turns arsenic into a stable glass-like solid that’s much safer to store.
Mining.com’s Devan Murugan sat down with Jean-Philippe Mai, president and CEO of Dundee Sustainable Technologies, to find out more about the process.
Devan Murugan: Now for those who don’t know, how serious is an arsenic problem like the one we’ve just cited at Giant Mine?
Jean-Philippe Mai: It’s definitely a serious issue because arsenic is one of those contaminants that is very soluble and highly mobile. The one you mentioned at the project in the North, we’ve been involved with for quite some time. The federal government, through a technology assessment study back in 2016, identified GlassLock as one of the best technologies for the permanent and long-term remediation of the Giant Mine project.
DM: In simple terms, how does GlassLock work? And what does it do to the arsenic?
JPM: The objective behind GlassLock is and was always to have a process which can permanently immobilize and stabilize the arsenic into an insoluble product. So essentially what we’re doing at Dundee Technologies with GlassLock is we are converting the arsenic, which can come in multiple forms, into an insoluble glass matrix. We are not encapsulating arsenic within glass. We are incorporating the arsenic within the glass matrix, which gives it stability as an amorphous product and really limits the mobility of the product.
DM: When you compare it to other approaches, how much more effective is GlassLock?
JPM: Well, there are quite a few different approaches to handling arsenic, but none of them have really been focused on permanent and long-term stabilization. And this is really what we’re providing here, a product that will no longer release arsenic into the environment.
We all know glass in different forms, but the great quality of glass is its ability to be insoluble. Other approaches or what the industry has been doing is to temporarily stabilize the arsenic, but there’s always that long-term mobility issue. And that’s really what we’re trying to solve here with GlassLock.
DM: Has it been tested on real arsenic and how safe is the final product in terms of long-term storage because presumably that’s the aim here, right?
JPM: Of course, we have worked with a lot of different arsenic products. We even constructed an industrial demonstration plant back in 2018, which is on the site of an operating copper smelter. The GlassLock plant there was specifically designed and purposed to handle arsenic trioxide generated by the copper smelting operation.
We have a lot of operational
“The objective behind GlassLock is to have a process which can permanently immobilize and stabilize the arsenic into an insoluble product.
data and worked with a lot with various different arsenic sources and arsenic products. The main characterization is, when we submit the glass to the long-term environmental stability testing, we’re able to demonstrate that the glass will be stable for long periods of time, which is effectively the objective.
Once you can demonstrate the stability of the product, then you can look at repurposing the glass: how do we reuse that glass product on site, like for a geotechnical application, for example.
DM: Now beyond the Giant Mine example I cited in my preamble, how big is the global market for this kind of technology? Are there other mines or countries facing the same challenge?
JPM: Yes, arsenic is definitely present in the industry globally.
We have seen arsenic and work on arsenic projects in Asia, in Africa, in South America and in Canada. It is really an industrywide problem, which is sometimes well known, like the Northwest Territories project, but also sometimes a bit more unknown.
As we develop expertise in working with arsenic, we are now being exposed to a lot more projects which have arsenic issues that need remediation. Some projects are generating high arsenic concentrates where we’re able to remove the arsenic and stabilize it before it goes to market or to smelting or metal processing operations.
DM: From an investor point of view, how do you see Dundee’s role growing in the mining operations space and could this technology become the new industry standard?
JPM: Well, we sure hope so. Dundee is a novel metallurgical process provider. What we do is we offer the industry the tools that they need to be efficient, both from an operational and an economic standpoint.
Definitely, there are a lot of upsides to GlassLock. Our role is to be a tool and allow for project developers and operators to properly and viably handle the arsenic within their ore bodies.
DM: Jean-Philippe Mai, president and CEO of Dundee Sustainable Technologies, once again, thanks very much indeed for talking to us.
The preceding Joint Venture Article is PROMOTED CONTENT sponsored by Dundee Sustainable Technologies and produced in co-operation with The Northern Miner. Visit: www.dundeetechnologies.com for more information.
Dundee’s GlassLock process holds dangerous arsenic in glass. DUNDEE SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGIES
Norris drilling
The sale “has no bearing on our commitment to Canada,” Bristow told the conference call. The company has started a “significant” drill program at the Norris project in the southern Abitibi region in Ontario. It’s assembling property and drill permits for the Sturgeon Lake project 270 km northwest of Thunder Bay near the historical volcanogenic massive sulphide Mattabi and Lyon Lake mines.
“We’re exploring some of the gaps between known deposits, but situated on the same big transcrustal faults, both linked to the big historical gold deposits,” Bristow said in the interview at Barrick’s headquarters in Toronto.
“The problem in Canada is that it’s been largely prospected,” he said. “To do really big exploration, like we do in other parts of the world, you need big land packages, and that’s really hard to get.”
Challenges are more acute in Mali where the junta is trying to get local court approval to take over the Loulo-Gounkoto mine. Barrick suspended operations in January at a cost of $15 million a month in upkeep and $1.24 billion a year in lost revenue after the government seized $245 million in gold and four local employees. There appeared to be a $440-million deal, but talks are stymied by the regime’s lack of mining expertise, Bristow said.
Back in North America, Barrick is focused on advancing the now feasibility-stage Fourmile project in Nevada with 16 drill rigs and baseline studies for permitting. Eventually it is to join the joint venture with Newmont (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM), Nevada Gold Mines, on Barrick’s list of tier one assets.
Donlin sale
In Alaska, Barrick sold its half-stake in the Donlin mine — a non-core asset that the CEO said couldn’t compete with Fourmile for capital spending — to hedge fund billionaire John Paulson and Novagold Resources (TSX: NG) for $1 billion in April. Bristow said Barrick would use the money to strengthen its balance sheet, buy back shares
> Snowline from P21
shape, the aftermath of the disaster at Eagle last year still hangs over Yukon, with heap leaching raising major environmental concerns.
Though Valley was envisioned as an open pit and mill scenario, even before the Eagle landslide, Berdahl said the accident raised valid concerns about mining in the territory while also underscoring its value for Yukon.
“There’s a lot of talk about how to replace this and move forward responsibly,” he said. “How to replace this void in the [Yukon] economy? Approaching projects in a measured and responsible way is increasingly important as we move forward.”
Infrastructure optimism
Despite Valley’s mother lode, it lacks reliable road access and power connections. The nearest towns are Ross River, 200 km to the south, and Mayo, 223 km to the east.
But what used to be a major hurdle might prove to be a bump after the Yukon government last October passed its Resource Roads Regulation that allows mining companies to build roads to their projects if they obtain the proper permits from the government. The regulation also provides a clear framework for that purpose, while previously the regulatory framework was less organized. The
and boost the dividend.
The CEO sees the Trump administration helping mining by shortening timelines so projects can avoid litigation, and he appreciates similar efforts in Canada to consolidate approvals among different provincial and First Nations criteria.
“There’s a real effort to streamline that process because it attracts capital easier,” he said. “You’ve got the flow-through shares on juniors, but when you’re attracting big capital, it’s nice to be able to be more clear about the actual permitting growth.”
Attracting capital also concerns the name change. It’s about broadening the type of investor that buys gold company stock from specialists or short-term holders, Bristow said.
“The real gap that we’ve got in our industry is a lack of general-
ist investors and we want to attract those,” he said. “As you lengthen your life of mine, generalists start looking at it because you can look at a business that goes past what most investors are comfortable with.”
Financial markets
Yet the worrisome scenarios of high inflation and tariffs gripping most investors in financial markets these days are of less concern to Bristow. The company doesn’t need the market, he says. Barrick hasn’t had to use financial markets to raise money because it’s watched its balance sheet, sold non-core assets like Hemlo and Donlin, invested in tier one assets and lengthened their mine lives.
“We are not beholden on the market to make us more profit-
companies are responsible for reclamation of the roads after they’re no longer needed.
“That is a huge boom to move a lot of different projects forward,” Berdahl said.
Snowline was also encouraged by Fireweed Metals (TSXV: FWZ; US-OTC: FWEDF) securing more than $35 million from the U.S. Department of Defense and Canada’s Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund last December for roads and power for its Macmillan Pass and Mactung projects. MacMillan Pass is about 150 km northeast of Valley.
“It’s good to see somebody else
working on sort of the same infrastructure challenges in the same district. The potentials for synergies there [would] be more broadly applicable,” Berdahl said.
The wider industry has noticed Snowline’s progress under Berdahl as well, with the Young Mining Professionals last year granting him a Peter Munk Award.
Snowline’s progress with Valley puts it past the “exuberant discovery” stage of the Lassonde curve of mine development, Berdahl said, and is now somewhere in the growth stage.
“We have a clear path, especially in the backdrop of the current world
Reko Diq turned out to be one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits. The scale and grade of the copper-gold system were greater than originally expected, which was a fortunate outcome.
“The one good thing about any business is luck,” Bristow said. “You can’t claim good luck as good business, but you can benefit from it. The real screw up is when you have good luck as a business and you can’t capitalize on it.” TNM
> Group Eleven from P10
Jaworski said. This hole extended the mineralized footprint down-dip by at least 65 metres to 170 metres and remains open at depth, the company said.
able or less profitable. It’s all in our hands,” he said. “The copper price is intriguing, because if you look at the market now, it’s not the perfect storm for a copper price rise, but the copper price is showing strength.”
The red metal has rebounded from a fall after April 2 — President Trump’s “Liberation Day” — and was around $4.70 a lb. near press time. While gold is trading well above its historical incentive price, copper remains just over the economic threshold, with current prices only recently clearing the bar for many new projects.
Reserves replenished
But Bristow isn’t looking for new projects. He says the company has added 111 million gold-equivalent oz. of reserves since 2019 at a cost of $10 per gold-equivalent oz. compared to mining M&A deals averaging over $440 per ounce. While gold was the initial exploration target at Reko Diq, the company soon realized the potential of a large copper-gold porphyry system. The project has proven and probable reserves of 8 billion tonnes grading 0.9 gram gold per tonne for 81 million contained ounces; and 3.9 billion tonnes grading 0.46% copper for 18 million tonnes contained metal.
PG West sits 20 km east of the company’s Stonepark zinc-lead deposit, of which it owns 777% in a joint venture with Arkle Resources. This deposit hosts 5.1 million inferred tonnes at 11.3% zinc plus lead.
It is close to Glencore’s (LSE: GLEN) Pallas Green deposit which hold 45.4 million indicated tonnes at 5.4% zinc and 1.6% lead for 2.45 million contained tonnes zinc and 730,000 tonnes lead. TNM
> Ausgold from P11
seven regional prospects.
A Sept. 2023 KGP resource estimate, reported at a 0.5 gram gold cut-off, stands at 88.9 million tonnes grading 1.1 grams gold for 3.04 million ounces. That comprises 38.1 million tonnes at 1.1 grams gold for 1.4 million oz. in the measured category, 31.8 million tonnes at 1 gram gold for 1.1 million oz. indicated, and 18.9 million tonnes at 1 gram gold for 620,000 oz. inferred.
Probable reserves, reported at a 0.6 gram gold cut-off on the same pit-constrained basis (A$2,200 per oz. gold price), total 32 million tonnes at 1.25 grams gold for 1.28 million oz. of metal. TNM
environment to continue to just de-risk this project at a good pace and continue to add value, slow and steady for our shareholders, or fast and steady, if we can manage it,” he said. “The consistency of Valley is one of its best attributes.”
He declined to say if Snowline is seeking to be acquired.
“There are any number of candidates, B2Gold among them,” he said. “I don’t want to stir any speculation that they are. Any producer interested in a high-quality gold asset is a potential candidate.”
While the gold price has gained about 25% this year, touching an historic high of $3,500 per oz. on
April 22, Berdahl takes a measured approach to its rise.
“It’s great to see,” he said. “We’ve yet to see this bull market really pull up a lot of the junior space. Majors are getting a very nice tailwind from it, and we’re kind of in that area between the haves and the have nots.”
But even if gold lost about half of its current value, he said he would still be excited to push Valley forward.
“It makes what we’re doing that much more valuable. But we’re fortunate to have the kind of asset that doesn’t need that tailwind to move forward.”
A creek at Snowline’s Valley project in Yukon. BLAIR MCBRIDE
The Valley deposit area in eastern Yukon, seen from a helicopter . BLAIR MCBRIDE
The $9-billion Reko Diq project is due to start output in 2028. BARRICK MINING
Barrick’s Lumwana copper mine in Zambia. BARRICK MINING
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