Mountain Province Diamonds (MPV-T) CEO Patrick Evans opened his breakfast talk at Roundup Monday morning with a macro look at global diamond supply and demand, through the lens of Canadian production. Evans painted a somewhat dire picture, saying that Canada’s No. 3 position as a diamond producer is threatened because of “paltry” dollars being spent… Continue Reading
Robert Friedland was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame earlier this month, and this morning`s news out of Ivanhoe Mines (IVN) offered another demonstration why he belongs there. Ivanhoe announced a major new copper discovery, Kakula, about 5 kilometres west of its existing Kamoa resource in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Kamoa is… Continue Reading
Deep below the surface of Mongolia’s southern Gobi desert, men and machinery are laying the foundation for a mining enterprise that will drive the country’s economy for decades to come. Shaft 2 at Oyu Tolgoi’s underground mine expansion is 1.3 kilometres deep and will provide access to some of the largest stores of copper and… Continue Reading
Several Athabasca Basin uranium plays announced their winter exploration plans this morning, including Fission Uranium, CanAlaska Uranium, Purepoint Uranium and ALX Uranium Corp. For CanAlaska’s (CVV-V) plans, check out Tommy’s article. It’s an interesting time in the Basin, with leading explorers Fission Uranium and NexGen Energy very active on the financing and resource fronts. Fission… Continue Reading
Streaming company Sandstorm Gold (SSL-T) has made one of its biggest forays into the royalty business yet, acquiring 56 royalties from diversified miner Teck Resources for US$1.4 million in cash and $20.6 million in shares (at $3.57/share). The assets offer diversification geographically (33 are in North America) and across various project stages. Four of the… Continue Reading
There was a strong sense of déjà vu to the horrific news from the West African country of Burkina Faso on Friday night: Islamic terror attack on a hotel frequented by Westerners, many dead. For mining investors, it was another unwelcome geopolitical jolt from the poor, landlocked and prolific gold-producing country where many Canadian companies are… Continue Reading
Skeena Resources (SKE-V), Ron Netolitzky’s British Columbia gold developer, published an updated resource estimate Thursday morning for two deposits on its GJ property, purchased from Teck and NGEx last October. GJ adjoins Skeena’s flagship Spectrum project in B.C.’s northwestern Golden Triangle, providing a valuable land bridge between Highway 37 and Spectrum. The Donnelly and North… Continue Reading
Sabina Gold & Silver (SBB-T) Bruce McLeod’s Nunavut gold developer was one of Canada’s strongest-performing junior miners in 2015, more than doubling from 35 cents to 73 cents as it advanced its high-grade Back River gold deposit through two feasibility studies as well as permitting. The stock has since pulled back, and CEO McLeod was… Continue Reading
“Royalty” – the term touches on the right of kings, as well as a legal claim on revenues or profits. It can also be a great business model, as shown by Franco-Nevada over the past several years. And Franco-Nevada has indeed been royalty in the mining space through a period of shareholder value destruction. The… Continue Reading
These are treacherous times for public market companies and nowhere more so than in the hard-hit energy space. Oil prices have fallen through the floor, with both Brent crude and WTI trading around US$31 – levels last seen in 2003. With the Saudi and American taps still on, and Iran’s oil production coming onstream, many… Continue Reading
It’s an active start to the week for Athabasca Basin uranium plays, and NexGen Energy (NXE-V) is leading the way with another batch of stellar assays from its Arrow project. Also in the southwestern Basin, Fission Uranium (FCU-T) announced a final agreement and offtake deal with China’s CGN Mining on its Triple R deposit. The… Continue Reading
Two of Canada’s stronger mid-tier gold producers were out of the gate today with positive 2015 production reports. Timmins miner Lake Shore Gold (LSG-T) produced 178,700 ounces of gold in 2015, compared to a record 185,600 in 2014. However, the treasury has grown to $100 million (in cash and bullion) compared to $60 million a… Continue Reading
Probe Mines (PRB-V) The insider purchase was small, but the names of the buyer and the company are familiar – Jamie Sokalsky because he used to run Barrick Gold (ABX-T) and Probe Metals because it’s a cash-rich spinout of Probe Mines, purchased by Goldcorp in one of the few M&A transactions of note in 2015… Continue Reading
Kaminak Gold (KAM-V), a popular gold play among junior mining investors, halted the stock then released a Feasibility Study just after the close today. The FS details a 10-year, open-pit heap-leach mine yielding an after-tax internal rate of return of 37% and NPV of $455 million (at a 5% discount). The economics have improved since… Continue Reading
Some insider transactions of note from overnight, with a focus on stock purchases in the public market. Did I miss anybody interesting? Let me know, and track what the insiders are doing using the black Insiders tab at CEO Chat. Uracan (URC-V): Chairman Clive Johnson picked up more shares Tuesday, buying 312,000 shares at 2… Continue Reading
