The Northern Miner November 14 2015 Issue

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Your Exploration Advantage.

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Gold Fields exits Woodjam JV in BC

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Commentary Navigating the Transparency Act

Fission Uranium 4

Gold Standard makes its mark in Nevada SITE VISIT

Strong economics for Triple R

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Tailings dam failures to continue, experts say BY TRISH SAYWELL

BY ALISHA HIYATE

ELKO, NEVADA — Gold Standard Ventures’ (TSXV: GSV; NYSE-MKT: GSV) Railroad project is at the southern end of Nevada’s famous Carlin trend, but co-founder Luke Norman likes to first take visitors to a lookout at the northern end, where a cluster of Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) and Barrick Gold’s (TSX: ABX; NYSE: ABX) mining facilities dot the hilly landscape. “Look at how few trucks there are,” Norman says, who is a junior mining financier. With near-surface resources dwindling after decades of mining the Carlin, operations here are moving underground. “You’ve got massive depletion occurring in this part of the world and it’s not being replaced by discovery,” Norman says. “It’s not being replaced anywhere globally

PHOTO BY ALISHA HIYATE

Mac Jackson, Gold Standard Ventures’ vice-president of exploration, shows off a core sample from the Railroad gold project in northern Nevada. by discovery.” Gold Standard, which has amassed the second-largest land package on the Carlin trend — after Newmont Mining — is

doing its best to fill the discovery gap. The journey hasn’t been easy. Gold Standard’s founders Norman and president and CEO Jona-

than Awde have spent years and completed hundreds of land deals to consolidate the junior’s 115 sq. km Railroad land package at the See GOLD STANDARD, Page 2

AuRico CEO: ‘We’re First Mining pursues well situated for Gold Canyon, PC Gold challenging markets’ to grow its gold base BY MATTHEW KEEVIL

VANCOUVER — Newly minted AuRico Metals (TSX: AMI; USOTC: ARCTF) is poised to hit the ground running with a strong capital position and a portfolio of royalty assets that already make it cash flow positive. The company is a spin-out from the recent US$1.5-billion merger between AuRico Gold and Alamos Gold (TSX: AGI; NYSE: AGI). The new AuRico was bankrolled with US$25 million in cash, and holds a 100% interest in the past-producing Kemess gold-copper project, 250 km north of Smithers, B.C., plus gold royalties that generate between US$7 million and US$8 million per year. Major shareholders include New York-based hedge fund Van Eck Global and streaming company Sandstorm Gold (TSX: SSL; NYSE-MKT: SAND), which hold 15% and 12% equity interests. “We are pretty unique, since we’re generating upside through our royalty portfolio and a stand-

TNM Sep 14 2015 Issue.indd 1

out development project, where we’re looking to deliver a number of important catalysts over the next twelve months,” president and CEO Chris Richter says during an interview. “We’ll definitely see value creation at Kemess, but right now the market is more focused on the royalty business, given the metal price backdrop. We’re more of a royalty company than a developer currently, but we’re keen on maintaining our optionality,” he says. “Even on the royalty side, we’re trading at a significant discount compared to other players in the space.” AuRico generates income from interests in a trio of producing mines: a 1.5% net smelter return royalty (NSR) on Alamos’ Young-Davidson gold mine in Ontario; a 2% NSR on the Fosterville gold mine in Australia and a 1% NSR on the Stawell gold mine in Australia. (The latter two mines were recently absorbed by Newmarket Gold See AURICO, Page 11

BY SALMA TARIKH

First Mining Finance (TSXV: FF; US-OTC: FFMGF) is buying Gold Canyon Resources (TSXV: GCU) and PC Gold (TSX: PKL) in allshare deals totalling $64 million to create a leading gold exploration company. Vancouver-based First Mining went public in April and holds 19 projects in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. In these deals, it is offering one share for each Gold Canyon share, and 0.2571 of a share for each PC Gold share. In total, First Mining will issue 160.6 million shares to Gold Canyon and 27.8 million shares to PC Gold. It should have 300 million shares outstanding once both transactions close. “The total amount paid for these two distressed companies is $64 million, but we are adding over 6 million oz. gold to our inventory. Effectively we are increasing our gold resources by almost 700%, but we are taking a 186% dilution,” Patrick Donnelly, First Mining’s president, said in an email.

The propositions value Gold Canyon at $56.2 million, or 35¢ per share, and PC Gold at $9.7 million, or 9¢ per share, reflecting a 204% and 255% premium over the companies’ 30-day, volume-weighted average price. In exchange, First Mining will get a hold of Gold Canyon’s 100%owned Springpole gold project in Ontario’s Red Lake mining district and PC Gold’s past-producing Pickle Crow gold mine, 110 km northeast of the Red Lake mining camp. A 2013 preliminary economic assessment envisions Springpole as an 11-year mine, producing 217,000 oz. gold a year. The project has 4.4 million oz. gold and 23.8 million oz. silver (from 128.2 million indicated tonnes of 1.07 grams gold and 5.7 grams silver per tonne), and 690,000 oz. gold and 2.7 million oz. silver (from 25.7 million indicated tonnes at 0.83 gram gold and 3.2 grams silver). According to a 2011 resource statement, the Pickle Crow mine

A year after Imperial Metals’ (TSX: III; US-OTC: IPMLF) Mount Polley copper-gold mine released 25 million cubic metres of waste into B.C.’s Fraser River watershed after its tailings dam broke, a new report claims that the worldwide rate of serious tailings dam failures is increasing. The report — produced by the Center for Science in Public Participation, a non-profit corporation that provides technical assistance on mining and water quality to public interest groups and tribal governments — warns there will be 11 “catastrophic” tailings dam failures globally between 2010 and 2019 that will cost US$6 billion to clean up — or an average of US$543 million for each failure. “Unless there is a significant change in the way that the industry does business and have safety drive the construction and design of tailings dams, these accidents are going to continue to happen at an increasing rate,” David Chambers, the nonprofit’s president and coauthor of the report, says in a telephone interview from his home in Montana. Chambers, a geophysicist, and colleague Lindsay Newland Bowker, director of Bowker Associates, Science & Research in the Public Interest, found that half of the 67 serious tailings dam failures See TAILINGS, Page 3 PM40069240 – PAP Registration #09263

See FIRST MINING, Page 13

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