RNC MINERALS: UNEARTHS MORE HIGH-GRADE ORE AT BETA HUNT / 3 Geotech_Earlug_2016_Alt2.pdf 1 2016-06-24 4:27:20 PM
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West African gold remains a target for explorers / 9–15
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Amex Exploration drills highgrade gold at Perron NW QUEBEC
| ‘Highgrade, continuous and homogenous’ gold zones, chairman Jacques Trottier says BY TRISH SAYWELL
A The Mid-Tier Excellence panel at The Northern Miner’s Canadian Mining Symposium at Canada House in London, U.K. in May, from left: Peter Marrone, Yamana Gold executive chairman; Steve Letwin, Iamgold president and CEO; and moderator Trish Saywell, The Northern Miner senior staff writer. PHOTO BY MARTINA LANG FOR THE NORTHERN MINER
Iamgold’s Letwin, Yamana’s Marrone speak on fate of mid-tier gold miners GOLD
tsaywell@northernminer.com
fter setting up Sulliden Exploration in 1995 and opening an office in Lima in 1996, Jacques Trottier wrote a personal cheque in 2002 to acquire a gold property from a family in the Cajamarca region of northern Peru. Trottier was interested in the property based on historical data, and reinterpreted it to determine that there was potential for a multimillion-ounce gold deposit. His theory turned out to be right when he found the Shahuindo deposit, which he grew to 3 million oz. gold. Shahuindo went on to become a gold-silver mine in 2016, and is See AMEX / 2 PM40069240
| ‘Mid-tier Excellence’ panel session at Canadian Mining Symposium
BY TRISH SAYWELL tsaywell@northernminer.com
A
t The Northern Miner’s Canadian Mining Symposium, held at Canada House in London, U.K., Iamgold (TSX: IMG; NYSE: IAG) president and CEO Steve Letwin and Yamana Gold (TSX: YRI) executive chairman Peter Marrone participated in a panel session entitled “Mid-Tier Excellence,” with Northern Miner senior staff writer Trish Saywell as moderator. Below is the full transcript of the session, held on May 22, 2019. The Northern Miner: We’re delighted to introduce two of our most exciting CEOs in the business in Canada. Steve Letwin was appointed president and CEO of Iamgold in November 2010. Before joining Iamgold, Steve worked in the oil and
“THERE’S A BIT OF INSANITY IN THE GOLD SPACE WHERE IF WE DON’T DO SOMETHING DIFFERENTLY, WE’RE GOING TO CONTINUE TO WITHER AWAY.” STEVE LETWIN PRESIDENT AND CEO, IAMGOLD
gas sector for many years, including as an executive vice-president at Enbridge; president and chief operating officer of TransCanada Energy; and chief financial officer of TransCanada Pipelines, Numac and Encor Energy. Peter Marrone founded Yamana Gold in July 2003, and serves as its executive chairman. Peter founded Yamana Gold in July 2003, and before that was the head of investment banking at a major Canadian investment bank while practicing corporate law in Toronto, with a focus on corporate and securities law and international transactions. To start off, earlier this month
during Barrick Gold’s first-quarter conference call, president and CEO Mark Bristow described the gold mining industry as in being in “disarray.” Would you each agree with that characterization? Why do gold miners endemically have lower return on equity than miners of other metals, or other resources? Steve Letwin: I’m not sure I would use “disarray,” but I think the point Mark was trying to make is — it’s probably good just to give a little comparison. The 10 top gold companies in the world have a total capitalization of US$120 billion, while Microsoft alone is US$960
billion. In the mid-tier section where I live and work, there are 16 mid-tier companies. We totalled 25% of the total market cap and the market is shrinking the capital pools. It’s a lot more challenging to raise money. The five top cannabis companies in Canada now over two years have a total market cap of more than $80 billion. Mark Bristow and John Thornton did a very good deal there for the industry, as did Newmont and Goldcorp. We do need to consolidate. I’ve been saying this for two years, at least: there are too many of us with too little capital. And that may change, but right now, we’re competing for the same dollar, and unfortunately, those dollars are shrinking. We literally have a lot of general and administrative expenses spread across — in my opinion — too many companies with too few new investors. See MID-TIERS / 6
MIDAS GOLD: MORE MAJOR MONEY FLOWS INTO JUNIOR / 8
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