The Northern Miner April 2 2018 Issue

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FIRST COBALT: EYES IRON CREEK’S ORE WITH BID FOR US COBALT / 7 Geotech_Earlug_2016_Alt2.pdf 1 2016-06-24 4:27:20 PM

SPECIAL FOCUS

GLOBAL GOLD

Feature site visit to Iamgold’s Rosebel gold mine in Suriname / 9–15

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APRIL 2–15, 2018 / VOL. 104 ISSUE 7 / GLOBAL MINING NEWS · SINCE 1915 / $3.99 / WWW.NORTHERNMINER.COM

Hecla to acquire Klondex for US$462M GOLD

| Hecla gains Nevada foothold with three high-grade mines

Group Eleven drills for zinc in Ireland EXPLORATION

| Funded for up to 11,000 metres across four properties BY RICHARD QUARISA rquarisa@northernminer.com

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ewly public Group Eleven Resources (TSXV: ZNG) has started drilling its 60%-owned Ballinalack zinc property, 50 km west of Boliden’s (STO: BOL; US-OTC: BDNNF) Navan zinc mine in the Republic of Ireland. The property is one of several that Group Eleven could explore this year for zinc. Ballinalack is a joint venture with Chinese mining company Shenzhen Zhongjin Lingnan Nonfemet. It has three known mineralization pods, which form a historic resource estimate pegged at 7.7 million tonnes grading 6.3% zinc and 1% lead based on a 1991 feasibility study by Oliver Resources. Oliver, however, only included the main pod in its 1991 mine plan. Group Eleven CEO Bart Jaworski sees the other two pods as potentially low-hanging fruit. “However, that’s all secondary to See GROUP ELEVEN / 6 PM40069240

Klondex Mines’ Fire Creek gold mine in Nevada, which produces 100,000 oz. gold annually.   KLONDEX MINES

BY TRISH SAYWELL tsaywell@northernminer.com

H

ecla Mining (NYSE: HL) is acquiring Klondex Mines (TSX: KDX) and its Fire Creek, Midas and Hollister mines in Nevada — three of the highestgrade gold mines in the U.S., if not the world — in a US$462-million, friendly cash-and-share deal. “I can’t overemphasize what a

rare set of assets these are in the heart of Nevada — a place where more and more discoveries have been made — and I strongly believe more are to come,” Phillips S. Baker Jr., Hecla’s president and CEO, said during a conference call. “Not only will we have about 110 sq. miles, with some of the highest-grade mineralization on the planet, but it’s along some key trends in Nevada. This is almost as much land as Hecla has in total.” Hecla is buying the Nevada as-

sets and the 162,000 equivalent oz. gold they produce each year using excess cash it has made and 20% of its outstanding stock. “Instead of leaving cash sitting idle, we have put it to work buying this immediate production and long-term potential,” he said. “And we have sufficient liquidity — with the remaining cash in our revolver post-closing — that we can continue to execute our strategy.” At the end of 2017, Hecla had US$187 million in cash and equiva-

lents and $502 million in long-term debt. “When it’s all said and done, we’ll still be cash positive,” Baker said during question and answer session on the conference call. “That’s one of the things that struck us, we can acquire this [and] Nevada itself will be cash flow positive for us — there are no capital outlays that we’re looking to in Nevada that are going to consume all of the cash flow See HECLA / 2

Metals, Minerals, and Society Keystone, Colorado, USA

September 22–25, 2018 | seg2018.org

Registration Now Open

ALIO GOLD: MAKES ALL-SHARE BID FOR PRODUCER RYE PATCH / 3

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