This week’s Canadian mining news was dominated by the gold stocks, with junior gold miners in particular preparing for the arrival of the drilling season in the north.
Aben Resources (TSX-V:ABN) announced details of its hotly awaited exploration programmes in both Yukon and the Golden Triangle. The junior gold miner plans to extend its drilling season by a month by initiating a 2000-meter drill program at the Justin Gold Project in Yukon, starting early June. This program will entail 1350 meters of diamond drilling and 600 meters of Rotary Air Blast drilling along with prospect-generating field work.
“This program should take 3-4 weeks to complete which will coincide with the commencement of the Forrest Kerr Project 2019 drill program at the end of June [in the Golden Triangle or British Columbia]. The Forrest Kerr drill program is on track to complete a planned 5000 meters but has the ability to add to the size and scope of the program if results warrant. Aben is well funded and looks forward to the onset of exploration on both of these high-quality Canada-based gold projects,” the firm’s CEO Jim Pettit said.
Among the larger Canadian gold stocks, McEwen Mining (TSX: MUX) put out a barrage of news on its mining operations this week, most notably stating that commercial production had been achieved today at the Gold Bar Mine in Nevada, USA.
McEwen said that gold recoveries from the heap leach at Gold Bar are tracking well compared to its design criteria. “Production is steadily increasing since our first gold pour on February 16th, as more ore is placed on the heap leach pad,” it added. It estimates production should hit 50,000 gold ounces this year at an AISC of $975 per oz.
The company has hired former Goldcorp Mining and Geotechnical chief Jack Henris as General Manager of Nevada to drive operational improvement at its mines there.
Chris Stewart, President and Chief Operating Officer of McEwen, said: “I’m pleased to see that the mine has operated at 125% of our planned 7,200 tons per day production rate on several days during the past month.”
Another Canadian gold miner to be in the news was Vancouver-based B2Gold Corp. The firm, which far from being a junior gold stock styles itself as “the world's new senior gold producer”, is apparently considering adding to its portfolio of African and Latin American gold mines by picking up a bargain in Zimbabwe.
B2Gold is said to be interested in Metallon’s Shamva gold mine. The catch is that it would have to negotiate an exemption from a law that requires producers to sell all the metal to the country’s central bank. It is this problem that has seen the country’s main producers shutter their mines in recent months because of the bank’s insistence on paying partly in the unstable local currency. If it can pull that off, B2Gold could pick up the mine for around a third of its book value before making significant investments in the prospect, according to various reports.
Gold itself, the object of all this toil in Canadian wildernesses and boardrooms, saw its price finally start to move north this week as stock markets showed signs of worry about the global political landscape.
Peter Grosskopf, CEO Sprott Inc, was among those recommending a solid exposure to the yellow metal to protect investment portfolios from any fallout - from trade wars, recessions or the generosity of central banks.
Among a long list of arguments, he noted: “The digitization of gold is particularly important because it has ushered in the technology and platforms that address the final frontier for gold: allowing gold to be used within the financial system as a viable household-level payment currency which can credibly replace cash.”
Tokenised crypto-gold is all very well, but perhaps the mines are the safest place to be?