AUSTRALIA: NEWMONT GOLDCORP SELLS ITS STAKE IN THE SUPER PIT / 2 Geotech_Earlug_2016_Alt2.pdf 1 2016-06-24 4:27:20 PM
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Equinox Gold to buy smaller rival Leagold for $770M AMERICAS
| Creating ‘the kind of gold company investors want today,’ Ross Beaty says Pit operations at Teranga Gold’s Sabodala gold mine in Senegal. TERANGA GOLD
Teranga buys Barrick’s Massawa in Senegal GOLD
| Feasibility study of integrated operation to come in 2021
BY TRISH SAYWELL tsaywell@northernminer.com
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arrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) is selling its 90% stake in the Massawa gold project in Senegal to Teranga Gold (TSX: TGZ; US-OTC: TGCDF) for US$300 million in cash, US$80-million worth of shares and contingent payments linked to the gold price of up to US$50 million. The Massawa project is within 25 km of Teranga Gold’s Sabadola mine, the largest producing gold mine in Senegal, 650 km east of Dakar. “You would always prefer to pay less than more for anything, but Massawa is the highest-grade open-pit development project in Africa, and it’s adjacent to our infrastructure, so it makes tremendous economic sense for us,” Richard Young, Teranga Gold’s president and CEO,northern-miner_wide.pdf says in an interview,1
“MASSAWA IS THE HIGHEST-GRADE, OPEN-PIT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN AFRICA, AND IT’S ADJACENT TO OUR INFRASTRUCTURE, SO IT MAKES TREMENDOUS ECONOMIC SENSE.” RICHARD YOUNG PRESIDENT AND CEO, TERANGA GOLD
adding “it won’t take much to bring Massawa into production.” Teranga will start processing free-milling ore from Massawa’s Sofia deposit at its existing carbonin-leach (CIL) plant in the second half of 2020 at a cost of US$5 million to US$10 million. Massawa’s high-grade reserves (2.6 million oz. from 20.9 million tonnes grading 3.94 grams gold per tonne) will be mined and processed on a priority basis, and more than half of the ore processed through the Sabodala plant could come from the Massawa deposits by 2021, the 2019-10-07 2:33 PM
company says. Sabodala, which Teranga acquired in 2010, started commercial production in 2009, and has produced over 2 million ounces. The mine — made up of 10 open-pit deposits — has a remaining 13-year mine life based on reserves of 2.4 million oz. gold from 55.7 million tonnes grading 1.35 grams gold. The combined Massawa–Sabodala operation, along with production from its newest gold mine, Wahgnion, 600 km away in Burkina Faso, will reposition Teranga as the next low-cost mid-tier gold
producer in West Africa, the company says. “It makes us a mature gold producer with very competitive costs vis-à-vis our peers,” Young says. Teranga’s all-in sustaining cost (AISC) guidance for Sabodala this year is between US$825 and US$900 per oz., and Young says the company is targeting first-quarter AISCs for the combined operation below US$800 per ounce. The company plans to complete a prefeasibility study on the integrated Sabodala–Massawa complex within six months of the transaction closing, and a definitive feasibility study in 2021. Massawa was discovered by Randgold Resources, which merged with Barrick in January. About 80% of the ore from Massawa is expected to be processed through Sabodala’s CIL plant, but the other 20%, which is refractory, would be processed through a BIOX circuit.
BY CECILIA JAMASMIE
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Special to The Northern Miner
quinox Gold (TSX: EQX) has become the latest Canadian gold miner to acquire a smaller rival and consolidate portfolios after announcing the acquisition of Leagold Mining (TSX: LMC) for $769.3 million (US$578 million). The offer, which implies a nopremium consideration of $2.70 per share, will add Leagold’s four mines in Mexico and Brazil to Equinox’s portfolio, consisting of two mines in California, U.S., and one in Brazil. As part of the transaction, Leagold shareholders will get 0.331 of See EQUINOX / 3 PM40069240
See SENEGAL / 2
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CLEVELAND-CLIFFS: TO BUY AK STEEL FOR US$1.1B IN SHARES / 3
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