Barrick Gold’s (TSX: ABX)(NYSE:GOLD) ongoing push to expand its global portfolio has prompted the company to revisit its presence in the Latin American market.
The world’s second largest gold miner has in the past year been particularly interested in Peru, where it was the second top gold producer until 2018. According to local newspaper Gestión, Barrick recently submitted a request to obtain a mining concession for 400 hectares in the southern Puno district.
https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/
The new Côté Gold Mine in Gogama, Ont., has officially poured its first gold bar. After more than four years of construction and 15 million plus hours of work, IAMGOLD has achieved a memorable milestone at its newest open pit mine that has become the flagship of its Canadian operations.
Company president and CEO Renaud Adams said the achievement represents the culmination of years of hard work by the project team. “An incredible effort for the team on the ground as the project cost to first gold remains in line with the updated budget estimate while maintaining a near impeccable safety record(opens in a new tab),” he said.
(Kitco News) – Bank of America was one of the bullish banks on gold heading into 2024, and everything they have seen this year has only added to their conviction.
In a note published Tuesday, commodity analysts, led by Michael Widmer, reiterated their call for gold prices to push to $2,400 an ounce this year. In December, Widmer said that he was expecting a gold rally when the Federal Reserve actually started cutting interest rates. That stance has only changed slightly.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
IAMGOLD targets third quarter for commercial production at Côté
The new Côté Gold Mine has poured its first gold bar. Almost four years after the sod-turning to begin digging out the open pit, IAMGOLD is marking a memorable milestone of its now flagship operation outside Gogama.
“This achievement represents the culmination of over 15 million hours of work over four years of construction — an incredible effort for the team on the ground as the project cost to first gold remains in line with the updated budget estimate while maintaining a near impeccable safety record,” said company president-CEO Renaud Adams in a March 31 news release.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Barrick Gold Corp. says its subsidiaries have settled a British court case with 10 Tanzanian villagers who alleged that police and security guards had caused deaths and injuries near the company’s North Mara gold mine.
The two subsidiaries in Tanzania did not admit any liability in the case at the High Court of Justice in London, Barrick said in a terse one-sentence statement on its website this week. It gave no other details.
(Kitco News) – Merger and acquisition activity in the mining sector is picking up as Alamos Gold announces its plan to buy Argonaut Gold in an all-shares transaction valued at $325 million.
The two companies announced the friendly acquisition on Wednesday before the North American equity market open. Under the agreement, Argonaut shareholders will receive 0.185 shares of Alamos and one share of a spinoff company.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Federal Impact Assessment Agency launching environmental assessment of Red Lake pit plans
One of Red Lake’s next generation of gold mines is undergoing federal scrutiny. In a March 22 notification, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) has determined that a federal impact assessment of Kinross Gold’s Great Bear Project is warranted.
The agency said its opinion is based on a review of the detailed project description for the mine project and the comments received from Indigenous communities, federal authorities, provincial ministries and the public. Kinross proposes to build an open-pit mine, 23 kilometres southeast of Red Lake, not far off Highway 105. The Toronto-headquartered gold miner finalized its acquisition of the very promising gold project in February 2022.
Down a dimly lit alleyway tucked just inside Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, a few dozen men are packed together, shouting, waving, and frantically speaking on their phones, others nervously pacing. This “standing market” — a low-rent version of a chaotic stock exchange floor — is where Istanbul’s traders come to deal in precious metals and currencies. These days it’s dollars and gold they’re after. Turkish lira, not so much.
“Right now our money is almost worthless. Since people haven’t seen inflation fall, they don’t trust the Turkish lira anymore,” explained Adnan Kapukaya, a trader and market expert. Inflation in Turkey remains sky-high — official figures show prices rose 67% last month compared with February 2023, though unofficial estimates suggest the real number is more than 100%. And this despite the Turkish central bank hiking interest rates to an eye-watering 45% in January — up from a low of 8.5% a year ago.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Barrick Gold says it has found uranium in the drinking water of an open section of its Lumwana copper mine in Zambia, forcing it to halt the water supply and switch to other water sources for its workers in the section.
The Zambian mine has become increasingly important to Barrick’s future. The Toronto-based company has announced plans for a US$2-billion expansion at Lumwana to create one of the world’s biggest copper mines, with construction to begin late this year and production from the project expected by 2028.
HOUSTON, March 20 (Reuters) – Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy called on President Joe Biden on Wednesday to update and streamline the U.S. mine permitting process in order to boost domestic production of critical minerals and reduce dependence on foreign nations.
The push echoes calls from the mining industry for clarity on how permits can be obtained for mines that produce copper, lithium and other energy transition minerals. Executives have long complained the U.S. process can be complex, expensive and opaque due in part to a federal mining law enacted in 1872.
March 18 (Reuters) – Northern Dynasty Minerals, the developer of the proposed Pebble copper and gold mine in southwest Alaska, has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seeking to overturn the agency’s veto of the project.
The developer on Friday filed a lawsuit in federal court in Anchorage challenging the EPA’s 2023 final determination prohibiting the discharge of mining waste in the state’s Bristol Bay over concerns the materials would degrade the watershed and harm important fishing ecosystems.
Investors shave nearly $900 million off market cap in one of swiftest, largest single-day losses for a Canadian junior miner
Yukon-based Gabriel Resources Ltd. once harboured ambitions to build one of Europe’s largest gold and silver mines in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, which has been mined by humans for at least 2,000 years. But the proposed mining area is now on the UNESCO World Heritage list and Gabriel just lost an eight-year legal battle with Romania that has left the company’s future uncertain.
Gabriel’s experience is a cautionary tale that shows how shifting attitudes around resource extraction and an evolving global financial system have changed the business of mining.
Hopes of US rate cuts alone are unlikely to have driven latest leg higher, say strategists
The price of gold has surged 7 per cent in just over a week to hit record highs, leaving longtime market watchers struggling to explain what has been one of the yellow metal’s most curious rallies.
The sudden price move has lifted the haven asset above its previous peak reached in December to hit nearly $2,195 per troy ounce on Friday, according to LSEG data. Some commentators have attributed the move to growing expectations of US interest rate cuts, which would make the non-yielding asset relatively more attractive.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/
Barkerville Gold Mines’ penalty reduced in part because of COVID restrictions on business: report
A gold mining company that discharged contaminants into a B.C. creek more than a thousand times since 2017 has now been fined over $275,000 for its most recent violations of environmental rules, according to a March 2024 report from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.
Barkerville Gold Mines, owned by Osisko Development since 2019, operates two gold mines and a processing mill east of Quesnel, B.C., in the mountainous Cariboo region about 440 kilometres north of Vancouver. The environmental violations took place at its underground Bonanza Ledge gold mine.
Price of gold hitting records but likely more due to central bank stockpiling than film star’s documentary
For several months a one-hour video starring charismatic film and television star Idris Elba has been heavily circulated via YouTube. Titled “Gold: A Journey with Idris Elba,” the documentary-style production never made it to the Oscars for obvious reasons.
Funded by the World Gold Council, the production is a professionally-produced vehicle that clearly aims to portray the gold council’s corporate members — from Canada’s Agnico-Eagle and Barrick Resources to China’s Shandong Gold Group — as leaders of a wondrous industry producing a dazzling product that glitters around the world.
