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OCTOBER 30-NOVEMBER 12, 2017 / VOL. 103 ISSUE 22 / GLOBAL MINING NEWS · SINCE 1915 / $3.99 / WWW.NORTHERNMINER.COM
Pretium ramps up GOLD
| Shares up 28% on Brucejack results
BY LESLEY STOKES
COAL M&A
| Adverse developments ‘hidden’
lstokes@northernminer.com VANCOUVER
P
retium Resources’ (TSX: PVG; NYSE: PVG) new 8.7 million oz. Brucejack gold mine in northwestern B.C.’s Golden Triangle district is “well on its way” to becoming a 500,000 oz. per year gold producer, president and CEO Joseph Ovsenek says. During the third quarter, the company produced 82,203 oz. gold from 261,262 tonnes grading 10.52 grams gold per tonne. News of the results drove company shares up 28% to peak at $15.48, before settling to $14.98 at press time. “I’m fairly confident that our quarterly results beat the expectations on the street,” Ovsenek tells The Northern Miner during a phone interview. “There’s also a Credit Suisse research note that talked about a large short position on Pretium, and how this is forcing some of those to cover. So I expect that’s a big part of our recent share price gain as well.” In July, at the onset of the quarter, 16,882 oz. gold was produced largely from low-grade stockpiles and development muck. As the ramp-up progressed into August, the mill processed stope ore at grades of 12.36 grams gold, which led to 65,321 oz. gold production. The underground operation surpassed the mill’s nameplate 2,700-tonne-per-day capacity, hav-
‘I’M FAIRLY CONFIDENT THAT ARE OUR QUARTERLY RESULTS BEAT THE EXPECTATIONS ON THE STREET.’ JOSEPH OVSENEK CEO, PRETIUM RESOURCES
SEC charges Rio Tinto with fraud BY TRISH SAYWELL tsaywell@northernminer.com
T
he U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LON: RIO) and two of its former executives with fraud for inflating the value of coal assets the company acquired in Mozambique for US$3.7 billion in 2011 and sold for US$50 million in 2014. The SEC’s complaint alleges that Rio Tinto, its former CEO Thomas Albanese and its former chief operating officer Guy Elliott did not follow accounting standards and company policies to accurately value and record its assets. “Instead, as the project began to suffer one setback after another resulting in the rapid decline of the value of the coal assets, they sought to hide or delay disclosure of the nature and extent of the adverse developments,” the SEC noted in its Oct. 17 press release.
Flotation cells in the mill building at Pretium Resources’ Brucejack gold mine in British Columbia. PRETIUM RESOURCES
ing processed 2,840 tonnes per day during the quarter. “We’re really pleased with the way things are going and we’ll continue to ramp up at a measured pace through the quarter. We expect to be steady state at the end of the year,” Ovsenek says. During initial start-up, Pretium experienced problems with gold recoveries, largely at the mill’s gravity circuit and gold room. Ovsenek says the issues have since been resolved, and recoveries for the quarter stood at 96.5%, just shy of the 96.7% recovery stated in the company’s 2014 feasibility study. “We knew that once we got the bugs worked out of the mill, and See PRETIUM / 2
See RIO TINTO / 2 PM40069240
Gold bars produced at the Brucejack gold mine. PRETIUM RESOURCES
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