The Northern Miner Sept 14 2020 Issue 19

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GLOBAL MINING SYMPOSIUM FULL COVERAGE / 6 Geotech_Earlug_2016_Alt2.pdf 1 2016-06-24 4:27:20 PM

The search for money / 12-15 SPECIAL FOCUS

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SEPTEMBER 14–SEPTEMBER 28, 2020 / VOL. 106 ISSUE 19 / GLOBAL MINING NEWS · SINCE 1915 / $5.25 / WWW.NORTHERNMINER.COM

‘GOLD IS BECOMING MAINSTREAM’:

Ronald-Peter Stoeferle on precious metals, mining stocks GMS 2020

| Author outlines bullish case for miners at Global Mining Symposium

BY CARL A. WILLIAMS

Barrick Gold’s 47.5%-owned Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea.  BARRICK GOLD.

Barrick takes Porgera dispute to PNG Supreme Court GOLD

| Tensions escalate after 20-year mining license given to state-backed miner

BY CECILIA JAMASMIE

B

Mining.com

arrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) will take a dispute over mining rights for the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea (PNG) to the country’s Supreme Court after a minor court dismissed the Canadian company’s attempt to regain the licence. The world’s second-largest gold producer and its Chinese partner, Zijin Mining, became embroiled in a dispute with the PNG government in April, when Prime Minister James Marape rejected their application for a lease extension. The companies temporarily halted operations in response. They also served Marape with a dispute notice arguing the refusal of the Porgera license extension violated a bilateral investment treaty between PNG and Australia. The move, they said, also infringed international law governing foreign investment. Barrick said at the time that if the parties were unable to settle the row through negotiations, it would take PNG to international arbitration. This week, PNG’s National Court dismissed Barrick’s request for a review of Marape’s decision, which the miner now plans to take to the country’s top court. “The company disagrees with numerous grounds outlined in the ruling,” Barrick Niugini Ltd. (BNL), which operated Porgera, said in a statement.

It also said that the government’s recent move to grant a 20-year lease for the mine to state-backed firm Kumul Minerals Holdings (KML) was “unlawful” and “invalid”. BNL added that it was unaware of any consultation with local owners about the “non-transparent” and “rushed” decision to cut the company out. The Toronto-based gold giant said it would challenge that move, too, and it has launched a separate complaint with the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes. The fight over Porgera’s lease keeps the mine, which last year produced almost 600,000 oz. gold, in a complete halt. It comes at a time when fears of a global economic collapse triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic have sent gold prices to record highs. In May, Barrick offered an extra 15% stake in the Porgera mine to local landowners, in a fresh attempt to break the impasse with the government over the mine’s future. PNG later threatened Barrick with criminal proceedings, claiming the company’s joint venture in the country was planning to illegally export US$13 million in gold and silver to Australia. BNL refuted the allegations. The ongoing dispute has done to Barrick what the pandemic did not — dent its expected output for the year. It now expects to produce between 4.6 million and 5 million oz. gold this year, which is 200,000

oz. lower than its previous estimate. Barrick revealed at the time that PNG was also asking the company and Zijin to pay US$191-million in See GOLD / 3

T

cwilliams@northernminer.com

he Global Mining Symposium (Sept. 1-3) attracted investors from around the world. One of the highlights of the virtual event was a discussion about gold between Alisha Hiyate, editor of The Canadian Mining Journal, and Ronald-Peter Stoeferle, managing partner and fund manager at Incrementum AG. Stoeferle has co-authored two books: Austrian School for Investors, published in 2016, and In Gold We Trust, an annual report he started in 2007 that has become one of the benchmark publications on gold, money and inflation. Hiyate kicked off the conversation by referring to this year’s In Gold We Trust report, which comes in at a massive 350 pages, asking Stoeferle to explain why he started the publication and how he first got interested in gold.

SASKATCHEWAN PLANS RARE EARTHS PLANT / 3

“SILVER AND GOLD MINERS ARE IN A STEALTH BULLMARKET AT THE MOMENT.” RONALD-PETER STOEFERLE MANAGING PARTNER AND FUND MANAGER AT INCREMENTUM AG

“It’s a long story,” he said. “First of all, in Austria, and I think it’s the same in Germany, we have gold in our monetary DNA — it was normal for me to get those little gold coins from my grandparents for every big occasion, like my birthday or Christmas.” His grandparents, he added, lived through hyperinflation and four currency reforms. So, for them, he continued, it was a form of monetary insurance. It felt natural for them to See GMS 2020 / 10 PM40069240


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