PDAC MEGA ISSUE: GOLD, SILVER, BASE METALS, URANIUM, DIAMONDS & MORE Geotech_Earlug_2016_Alt2.pdf 1 2016-06-24 4:27:20 PM
THE NORTHERN MINER’S
MINING PERSON OF THE YEAR
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MARCH 6-19, 2017 / VOL. 103 ISSUE 5 / GLOBAL MINING NEWS · SINCE 1915 / $3.99 / WWW.NORTHERNMINER.COM
Can Rubicon’s Phoenix rise from the ashes? INTERVIEW BY TRISH SAYWELL tsaywell@northernminer.com
T
he demise of Rubicon Minerals’ (TSX: RMX; US-OTC: RBYCD) Phoenix gold mine in Ontario’s Red Lake camp stunned the industry. Trial mining of the project’s F2 gold deposit was called off in late 2015, when the company realized the geology was more complex than it had thought, and a new resource estimate revealed that contained gold ounces in the indicated resource category had plunged 91% from a 2013 resource estimate, while contained gold
| Investors bet on turnaround specialist George Ogilvie ounces in the inferred category had fallen 86%. The company halted all work and spent the rest of the year and much of 2016 in restructuring mode to stave off bankruptcy. Today, Rubicon’s prospects look brighter. The company has emerged out of a restructuring with a new CEO who has a reputation for turning around companies and having expertise in high-grade, narrow vein gold deposits like F2. George Ogilvie — a mining engineer who began his career in 1989 with AngloGold in South Africa working in the ultra-deep, highgrade gold mines in the Witwatersand basin — stepped into the breach at Rubicon in July 2016,
EXCLUSIVE |
Innovator talks strategies, outlook, and mining in Canada BY MATTHEW KEEVIL mkeevil@northernminer.com VANCOUVER
Rubicon Minerals’ shuttered Phoenix gold mine in northwest Ontario. RUBICON MINERALS
and orchestrated a restructuring with the company’s creditors that culminated in Rubicon raising $45 million to guide exploration over the next 18 to 24 months.
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The world according to Lukas Lundin
Before joining Rubicon, Ogilvie was the CEO of Kirkland Lake G old (T SX : K LG ; US - OTC: KLGDF) from 2013 to 2016, where his management team improved operations at the company’s Macassa mine and guided its acquisition of St Andrew Goldfields. Before joining Kirkland, Ogilvie was the CEO of Rambler Metals and Mining (TSXV: RAB; LON: RMM), where for over seven years he and his team guided the company from grassroots exploration to a profitable junior producer. He sat down with The Northern Miner in the second week of February to discuss his plans for the company. In the third week of February, the company announced that it had raised another $8.5 million for exploration in a boughtdeal financing that could close on March 3.
L
ukas Lundin, chairman of the Lundin Group of Companies, sat down with The Northern Miner via Skype from Switzerland for an in-depth discussion on the current state of mining. Topics include base metal markets — with a focus on recent merger and acquisition (M&A) activity by Lundin Mining (TSX: LUN; US-OTC: LUNMF) — and the dearth of investment in the copper space. Lundin gives an update on progress at Lundin Gold’s (TSX: LUG; USOTC: FTMNF) Fruta del Norte (FDN) gold mine development in Ecuador and discusses strategies for working in other emerging mining jurisdictions. See LUNDIN / 2 PM40069240
The Northern Miner: You are taking on a huge challenge. What were your thoughts when Rubicon approached you in mid-2016? George Ogilvie: I did four months of due diligence myself. The company had been running a strategic process, including the sale of the See RUBICON / 17
unturned.
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