WHITE GOLD: HITS SHALLOW GOLD AT BETTY IN THE YUKON / 3 Geotech_Earlug_2016_Alt2.pdf 1 2016-06-24 4:27:20 PM
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DELIVERING QUALITY EXPERTISE GLOBALLY ACROSS THE ENTIRE MINING LIFE CYCLE
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Newmont to buy Goldcorp for US$10B M&A
| Will become largest gold company by gold production BY RICHARD QUARISA rquarisa@northernminer.com
N Pretium Resources’ Brucejack gold mine in northwest British Columbia’s Golden Triangle region. PRETIUM RESOURCES
Brucejack, Silvertip among BC’s biggest recent successes BC GOLD-SILVER BY BRIAN SYLVESTER
T
Special to The Northern Miner
he most recent Annual Survey of Mining Companies by the Fraser Institute ranked British Columbia seventh among Canadian mining jurisdictions. But no other province or territory has had two new precious metal mines reach commercial production less than 15 months apart over the last two calendar years. In July 2017, Pretium Resources (TSX: PVG; NYSE: PVG) launched commercial production at its highgrade Brucejack gold mine in B.C.’s Golden Triangle, 60 km north of Stewart, British Columbia. About 14 months later, Coeur Mining’s (NYSE: CDE) Silvertip silver-zinc-lead mine in northwestern B.C. reached the same milestone.
| Ascot tables all-share offer for IDM Mining
And not far from Brucejack, near Stewart, IDM Mining (TSXV: IDM; US-OTC: IDMMF) received its provincial environmental assessment certificate for the Red Mountain gold project, as well as a positive federal environmental assessment decision. Brucejack consists of the Valley of the Kings deposit, which had been discovered in 2009 by Silver Standard Resources. Under the guidance of former Silver Standard president and CEO Robert Quartermain, now Pretium chairman, Pretium had its initial public offering in 2010, and secured the rights to Brucejack. High-grade, gold-silver mineralization at the Valley of the Kings occurs in steeply dipping and predominantly east- to northwesttrending quartz stockwork veins and breccia zones, inside a broader
halo of clay alteration and low-grade mineralization. The result is that the gold mineralization is “nuggety,” which makes it hard to mill with predictable output. The company watched its stock price plummet in 2017, as it struggled to reach planned production levels. But by 2018 gold production numbers climbed closer to expectations, at least until the fourth quarter. Pretium’s Brucejack mine delivered 96,300 oz. gold in the fourth quarter to bring total gold production in the second half of 2018 to 188,983 oz. gold, or 95% of the low end of its 200,000 oz. production guidance. The Brucejack mine produced 376,000 oz. for all of 2018, or 97% of its guidance. In a note titled “Q4 falls short
— again,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Andrew Kaip wrote that the production miss was “attributable to lower-grade reconciliation with the 11.5 gram-per-tonne gold grade achieved during Q4/18, well below our estimate for 14.5 grams. To compensate, PVG looks to have pushed tonnes, as 267,000 tonnes milled was above our expectation for 239,000 tonnes … we now expect Q4 earnings per share, cash flow per share and free cash flow estimates to decline by an average of 30%, and full-year 2018 by an average of 8%.” Pretium seeks to refine its gradecontrol program over the coming quarters to improve short-term grade predictability. One method could include longitudinal longhole stoping.
ewmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) will acquire all outstanding Goldcorp (TSX: G; NYSE: GG) shares in a deal that values Goldcorp at US$10 billion to create Newmont Goldcorp, the companies announced Jan. 14, 2019. Newmont Goldcorp will be the world’s largest gold company by gold production, free cash flow and enterprise value, defined as market capitalization plus net debt. In 2017, the two companies produced a combined 7.9 million oz. gold. The new company is targeting 6 million to 7 million oz. gold annual production going forward, which would put it on par with Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) in that category. Based on 2017 data, the new company will See NEWMONT / 8 PM40069240
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ODDS ‘N’ SODS: THE TREASURE OF LEIJA CAVE / 5
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