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New Gold sells Blackwater to Artemis for $190M in cash M&A
Rio Tinto destroys 46,000-year-old Aboriginal site in Australia
| Proven and probable reserves of the project are 8.2 million oz. gold and 60.8 million oz. silver
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| Cave shelters were older than Stonehenge, the Colosseum or Machu Picchu
BY CECILIA JAMASMIE
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An aerial view of New Gold’s Blackwater gold project, 160 km southwest of Prince George, British Columbia. NEW GOLD
BY NORTHERN MINER STAFF
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ew Gold (TSX: NGD; NYSEAM: NGD) is selling its Blackwater project in central B.C. to Artemis Gold (TSXV: ARTG) for $190 million in cash. Under the deal, New Gold will be paid $140 million upon closing and $50 million in 12 months. It will also receive a stream on 8% of the gold produced at Blackwater and $20 million in Artemis shares for a 9.9% stake in the company. The gold stream falls to 4% once New Gold receives the first 280,000 oz. gold. “We believe that surfacing value for Blackwater today, while retain-
ing exposure to the project through a retained gold stream and an equity position in Artemis, allows the company to transition to the next phase of our growth plan as we continue to reposition the company for shareholder value creation,” Renaud Adams, New Gold’s president and CEO, stated in prepared remarks. The project is 160 km southwest of Prince George and 446 km northeast of Vancouver and has 8.2 million oz. gold in proven and probable reserves and 60.8 million oz. silver. The project’s measured and indicated resource, exclusive of reserves, stands at 1.4 million oz. gold and 8.9 million oz. silver.
Artemis plans to update a 2014 feasibility study on Blackwater that forecast a 17-year mine life with direct processing for the first 14 years, and the processing of stockpiled ore thereafter. The study outlined production of 485,000 oz. gold per year over the first nine years at total cash costs of US$555 per oz. and all-in sustaining costs (AISCs) of US$685 per ounce. Life-of-mine gold and silver production was estimated to run to 7 million oz. gold and 30 million oz. silver, respectively. The study envisioned a convenSe e M&A / 2
Mining.com
io Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO) has apologized for accidentally blowing up a 46,000-year-old sacred indigenous site with dynamite while carrying out work to expand its iron ore operation in Australia’s Pilbara region. The world’s second-largest miner destroyed two ancient caves last month in Juukan Gorge, 1,075 km north of Perth. The rock shelters contained artifacts considered evidence of habitation dating back thousands of years. Among them, there was 4,000-yearold plaited human hair with genetic links to the present day traditional owners, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) peoples, ABC News (Australia) reported. “They were not only extremely important sites for Aboriginal communities, but also they were extremely important sites for archaeological understanding of the distant past in Australia,” Peter Stone, the UNESCO chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace at Newcastle University in the U.K. told the news outlet. Rio was granted approval for work at the Brockman 4 iron ore project in 2013. Subsequent archaeological excavation revealed ancient artifacts at the site, including grinding stones and a bone sharpened into a tool. “We are sorry for the distress we have caused,” Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive, Chris Salisbury, said in a statement on May 31. “Our relationship with the PKKP matters a lot to Rio Tinto, having worked together for many years,” Salibury said. “We will continue to work with the PKKP to learn from
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what has taken place and strengthen our partnership. As a matter of urgency, we are reviewing the plans of all other sites in the Juukan Gorge area.” Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the country’s first leader to apologize to generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children forcefully taken from their parents by white Australians last century, said Rio Tinto’s “corporate arrogance had robbed all Australians.” “Juukan Gorge’s shelters [are] nine-times older than Stonehenge, 23-times older than the Colosseum and 75-times older than Machu Picchu,” he posted on his official Twitter account. The state government hopes to pass its new Aboriginal cultural heritage bill this year, although the coronavirus pandemic has delayed the consultation process. TNM — This article first appeared in our sister publication, MINING.com. P M 4 0 0 6 9 2 4 0