At the Subscriber Investment Summit in Vancouver last Thursday, 35 year old Sandstorm Gold CEO Nolan Watson made the case for a new gold standard. “I believe that if you take actual physical gold in a vault and transact it electronically, that will be the first time in my generation that we will have something that… Continue Reading

“Three out of a thousand good looking prospects become mines,” according to Dave Lowell. The octogenarian geologist has discovered 18 ore bodies in his career, likely a world record, including La Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine. In 2013, Lowell founded a new company, Lowell Copper (JDL.v), with the backing of billionaire resource investor Lukas Lundin, to… Continue Reading

Shares of Platino Energy (PZE:TSXV) remain halted this morning after the company announced it would be acquiring Colombia Energy Development Company (CEDCO) for US $50 million in cash. CEDCO is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Global Energy Development Plc. The Rationale: CEDCO holds 100%-interests in three exploration blocks in the Llanos Basin covering roughly 31,000 gross… Continue Reading

Since Lundin Petroleum (LUPE:OMX) began trading in 2001 at an IPO price of 2 Swedish Krona (roughly CAD $0.31) per share, shares have risen 5,265%.  To put that in perspective, the stock market darling Apple is up 3,898% over the same period. The Stockholm-based company which is 1/3rd controlled by the Lundin Family Trust has been making… Continue Reading

An aggressive 8 rig drill program is ongoing at Continental Gold’s Buriticá project in Colombia. Buriticá already contains over 7 million ounces of high grade gold, making it one of the richest deposits not owned by a mid-tier or major mining company. Today Continental announced that ongoing drilling has increased the vertical extent of mineralization by roughly… Continue Reading

Securities Seek Safety Amid Volatile Metal Prices Metal prices fluctuated significantly this week, although typically finished flat to slightly up by Friday. This coincided with the continued slide in mining equities, with junior explorers taking the brunt of the negative wave in sentiment. This was reflected in the S&P TSX Venture, which fell below 850… Continue Reading

The Toronto-based mining private equity firm, Waterton Global loves gold and has $1 billion to deploy.  Probably a good starting point for gold executive to look for money. They have been trying to consolidate gold assets and in May 2013, they closed the acquisition of the Hollister gold mine and Esmeralda Mill in Nevada out of bankruptcy for… Continue Reading

The Cigar Lake mine in northern Saskatchewan is one of the richest uranium mines in the world, but also one of the most complex. It is owned by Cameco (50.025%, operator), AREVA (37.1%), Idemitsu (7.875%) and TEPCO (5.0%) . It took Cameco (CCO:TSX) nearly 10 years and $2.6 billion to build.  The ground in which the ore… Continue Reading

I was researching the history of Glencore (GLEN:LN) today and, specifically, its billion dollar deal making leader Ivan Glasenberg. Glencore is the one of the largest diversified mining companies in the world with a market capitalization of nearly CAD $80 billion and 2013 top-line revenue of US $240 billion.  They produce and trade in over 90 different commodities… Continue Reading

According to legend, during the great California and Klondike gold rushes, it was the service providers — those who sold pans and pickaxes — who made the most money, not the miners. Fast-forward to 2014 and the still-rising shale energy boom is moving the United States ever closer to energy independence. This means drilling activity… Continue Reading

Updated at 5:00pm PST. Benjamin Franklin said there were only two things certain in life: death and taxes. In the high stakes mineral exploration business, another sure thing is that your heros are ultimately fallible. I first met Michael Gunning while he was CEO of Hathor Exploration (HAT) in 2011. He gave me a presentation… Continue Reading

Senior analyst at global research firm Sanford Bernstein, Paul Gait, says a merger between Glencore and Rio Tinto to form GlenTinto makes a lot of sense.  He spoke to Andrew Bell on BNN’s Commodities. “I think the shareholders of both companies (Glencore and Rio Tinto) ought to welcome the deal,” Gait believes. “If you look at… Continue Reading

After much speculation around the world (including CEO.ca), Rio Tinto issued a statement claiming that although they had been approach by Glencore in July 2014 about a potential merger; those talks ended a month later after Rio’s board decided “a combination was not in the best interests of Rio Tinto shareholders.” The fact Rio acknowledged Glencore’s intentions probably… Continue Reading

After being halted for the end of the trading day today, Lundin Mining (LUN:TSX) announced they are purchasing Freeport-McMoran’s 80%  share of the Candelearia mining complex in Chile for US $1.8 billion. The remaining 20% ownership will stay with Sumitomo Corp. Franco-Nevada has reached a tentative deal with Lundin on a $698 million precious metals streaming financing package as part of… Continue Reading

According to preliminary reports today from Bloomberg, Glencore (GLEN:LN) which is the fourth largest mining company by market capitalization is entertaining the idea of merging with iron-ore juggernaut Rio Tinto which would create the world’s largest mining company in a +$160 billion deal. According to the report, Ivan Glasenberg (Glencore’s CEO) has begun talks with Aluminum Corp.… Continue Reading