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Mining News
Barrick is aiming for a 30% increase in gold-equivalent ounces by the end of the decade. How do they plan to achieve this?
The company intends to enhance production at its existing operations, particularly at the Pueblo Viejo project in the Dominican Republic. Additionally, it plans to advance one of the world’s largest undeveloped projects, Reko Diq in Pakistan. Barrick is also moving the Fourmile project in Nevada forward to the prefeasibility study stage.
Over the past few years, the company has been quietly developing these projects, and it appears to be exploring newer, untested regions like Pakistan to compensate for any lost production.
Barrick Chairman John Thornton said this : “We improved our financial performance, despite higher costs, with an increase in net earnings of 69% — the highest in a decade — operating cash flow growth of 20%, and a doubling of free cash flow relative to 2023,” Thornton said in a news release.
He also said Barrick has developed its portfolio to achieve sustainable production and profitable growth. It is ramping up the Pueblo Viejo project in the Dominican Republic, conducting prefeasibility work at Fourmile in Nevada, and in the process of restarting the Porgera mining operation in Papua New Guinea.
Thornton also said the miner has completed feasibility studies for Reko Diq in Pakistan, one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits, and the Lumwana expansion project in Zambia.
“Both projects will support our goal to organically grow our production volumes, particularly in copper, and as such we are proposing to change our name from Barrick Gold Corporation to Barrick Mining Corporation, to reflect the company’s changing production profile,” the company chair stated.
Thornton noted that despite rising metal prices, mining equities around the world have underperformed, and the Toronto-based Barrick was no exception.
“We viewed our equity as undervalued and consequently repurchased $498 million of shares in 2024 and we will continue to pursue share buybacks whenever we believe our shares are trading below their intrinsic value,” he said.
Robex Gold signs a a US$130 Million Syndicated Facility Agreement With Sprott to finance the construction of the Kiniero Gold Project in Guinea
The key terms of the Debt Facility are:
Principal amount: US$130 million
Maturity date: 5 years from the Closing Date of the Debt Facility
Interest:
- Interest rate of 6.50% per annum over a SOFR reference rate, with 50% of interest capitalised during the construction period; and
- An additional interest payment based on a gold price participation formula currently equivalent to approximately $300/oz vis-à-vis the current consensus gold price forecast, applicable on 4,457 oz of gold per quarter for 15 quarters, with the ability to prepay on early repayment of the Debt Facility
- Original Issue Discount: The principal amount will be advanced net of an original issue discount equal to 2.00% upon the funding of each utilization.
- No mandatory gold hedging or royalties
- No additional cost overrun funding, debt service reserve account or cash sweep requirements
- No commitment fee payable
- Security: To include senior security over all the assets of the obligors under the Facility Agreement.
Kiniero is a gold mine located in central Guinea that produced just under 500,000 ounces of gold from 2002 to 2014. There are an additional 1.5 million ounces of gold remaining in reserves. Robex is looking to capitalize on this opportunity and will be using funding from Sprott to do so. The plan is to produce 105,000 ounces per year for the next 29 years, with an average grade of just over 1 g/t gold. With an expected All-In Sustaining Cost (AISC) of $980 per ounce and current gold prices above $3,000 per ounce, the project appears to be profitable.
Exploration
RUA GOLD is an exciting company engaged in the exploration of gold and antimony in New Zealand, focusing on extensive targets surrounding a closed mine that has produced 1 million ounces of gold.
Kiwi gold has gained popularity in the exploration industry, partly due to the country’s implementation of new guidelines for exploration and mining, and partly because of the exceptional grades emerging from orogenic deposits. After previously achieving impressive results at several other targets, Rua has now shifted its drilling efforts to the Cumberland gold target, which is located near the Globe Progress mine. This mine has also produced 1 million ounces of gold and was last operated by Oceana Gold. The company has re-assayed historic core samples, confirming a significant intersection of 20.7 meters that assayed at 62.2 g/t (2 oz/t) gold.
What stands out is that the VRIFY AI targets appear to be assisting in the discovery of gold, possibly acting as a catalyst for unlocking the potential of the region.
Maple Gold Mines Impresses with New Drill Results at Douay
This news has likely caught the market’s attention, as the company experienced strong buy signals following their press release.
The notable intercept was 2.05 g/t Au (gold) over 108.6 meters. Although this intercept is quite deep, at around 530 meters below surface, it is still exciting for the deposit and the company’s future prospects.
The company has approved a 10,000-meter drill campaign, primarily aimed at de-risking the asset and moving closer to production. This grade is above the current resource grade of 1.03 g/t Au, suggesting there may be a potential to improve the grade. Typically, a profitable gold mine requires a grade of around 2 g/t Au, especially before price spikes in the market.
Greenfields Exploration
Mogotes Metals Vicuña District Update – Trenching Results
Surrounded by Giants like Filo del sol, Josemaria and Lunahuasi
Mogotes is located immediately south of Filo del Sol and along the Macho Meutro fault zone, which runs east-west. This week, the company published trenching results, highlighting a significant intercept of 33 meters at 0.64 g/t Au, which includes 3 meters at 2.41 g/t Au and 12 meters at 0.7 g/t Au, including 2 meters at 1.67 g/t Au.
Mogotes has identified a strong electromagnetic (EM) anomaly on the property, which has been partially confirmed to contain gold. The last sample showed 2 meters of 1.67 g/t Au in close proximity to the anomaly. In fact, it seems that the gold becomes richer as you get closer to the EM conductive body. See the attached image for reference.
Decade Resources Ltd Announces strong Polymetallic grab sample results at the “Nobody Knows” claim
With a highlight of 40 g/t Au with 108 g/t Ag, 0.86 % Cu and 0.76 % Zn+Pb
Addiotnal assays include
28.62 g/t Au with 58.9 g/t Ag
39.03 g/t Au with 169 g/t Ag and 1.2 % Cu
The company reported that 15 out of 16 grab samples contained gold concentrations greater than 10 g/t Au, along with silver content ranging from 50 to 100 g/t Ag and approximately 1% Cu. The samples were primarily composed of arsenopyrite, with minor amounts of pyrite and chalcopyrite. This project is located in the Golden Triangle region of British Columbia. It consists of 59 contiguous mineral claims, covering a total area of 28,723.18 hectares, which includes the Treasure Mountain and Dardanelle (farmed out) properties, as well as Nobody Knows and Excelsior claims.
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