Most-clicked stories of 2019

As 2019 draws to a close, we take a look at the most-clicked stories on our website this year, in descending order.

No. 1: Interview: The LME’s new cobalt contract

By Anthony Milewski, Special to The Northern Miner, April 11, 2019

An interview by Cobalt 27 Capital chairman Anthony Milewski with the London Metal Exchange’s Product Development department to discuss the LME’s electric-vehicle battery materials initiatives and the launch of its new cobalt contract.

Anthony Milewski: What is the London Metal Exchange and what does it offer as a platform?

London Metal Exchange: The London Metal Exchange is the world centre for industrial metals trading. The prices discovered across the LME’s three trading platforms — the Ring, the inter-office “telephone” market and LMEselect, our electronic trading platform — are used as the global reference price, and both the metal and investment communities use the LME to transfer or take on risk, 24 hours a day.

AM: The LME has had a cobalt contract since 2010. Why is the Exchange launching a new cobalt contract now?

LME: The LME launched its physically settled LME Cobalt contract in 2010, which has been a steady performer amongst a core group of supporters for a physically settled contract. That said, the LME has also seen growing appetite for a cash-settled contract over recent years, with the rise in demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and battery metals.

Last year, we consulted the market to find the best risk-management solutions. After extensive engagement with the market, on March 11, 2019, we launched a cash-settled LME Cobalt (Fastmarkets MB) contract to complement our existing physically settled offering.

This new cash-settled contract is settled against the Fastmarkets MB Standard Grade index, allowing market participants who have exposure to the aforementioned price in their physical contracts to hedge across the cobalt value chain with no basis risk.

No. 2: Andrée St-Germain, José Vizquerra named ‘Young Mining Professionals of the Year’

By John Cumming, Feb. 4, 2019

The Young Mining Professionals (YMP) — a non-profit group with chapters in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Sudbury, Perth, Brisbane, Johannesburg and London — has given its Mining Professional of the Year awards for 2018 to Andrée St-Germain, chief financial officer of Integra Resources (TSXV: ITR; US-OTC: IRRZF) and José Vizquerra, executive vice-president of strategic development and a director of Osisko Mining (TSX: OSK; US-OTC: OBNNF).

The YMP Awards, presented in association with The Northern Miner, are intended by the YMP to “recognize two young mining professionals, a male and a female, who over the past year, and during the course of their careers, have demonstrated exceptional leadership skills and innovative thinking to provide value for their companies and shareholders, as well as for themselves.”

Nominees were under 40 years of age in 2018 and active in some aspect of the mining industry anywhere in the world. Voting on a selection of nominees was held in January by a committee representing YMP branches and The Northern Miner.
St-Germain has been awarded the Eira Thomas Award (female), named after the iconic mining executive who first gained prominence for her role in growing the diamond miner Aber Resources, while Vizquerra has been awarded the Peter Munk Award (male), named after the legendary founder of Barrick Gold.

The YMP Awards Gala to present St-Germain and Vizquerra with their awards will be held on the evening of March 2 at the Shangri-La Hotel in downtown Toronto, the day before the start of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada convention.

No. 3: Taiga Gold, SSR Mining report visible gold at Fisher

By Trish Saywell, Oct. 30, 2019

In May 2016, Silver Standard Resources, now called SSR Mining (TSX: SSRM; NASDAQ: SSRM), acquired Claude Resources and its Seabee gold operation in Saskatchewan for $337 million in cash and shares.

Five months later, SSR Mining optioned Taiga Gold’s (CNSX: TGC) Fisher project, whose property boundary lies 1.5 km south of Seabee’s Santoy mine.

The Santoy mine is hosted by the Santoy shear, a regional, north-trending shear zone that has been traced over much of the Fisher property.

“It’s an important structure, and that’s where the focus of much exploration has been for the last several years,” says Mike Labach, Taiga Gold’s head of investor relations.

Fisher and SSR Mining’s Seabee complex, 125 km northeast of La Ronge, are within the Pine Lake Greenstone belt and located along eastern Saskatchewan’s Tabbernor fault structure.

Results from SSR Mining’s 7,640-metre drill program this year included visible gold over a 7-metre interval at the Mac target. Drill hole 19-035 returned 13.72 grams gold per tonne over 1 metre from 366 metres downhole and 7.15 grams gold over 2 metres.

“Hole 35 represented the first occurrence of a mineable width at above cut-off grade mineralization,” Labach says.

No. 4: AME Roundup: Rio Tinto on the lookout for BC porphyry deposits

By our sister publication, Mining.com, Special to The Northern Miner, Jan. 30, 2019

British Columbia is known for its coal and copper-gold deposits, with a storied history of mining all three commodities. Now the second-largest mining company in the world is looking to add a B.C. copper porphyry deposit to its portfolio of development properties.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Association for Mineral Exploration’s Roundup 2019 convention in Vancouver, Rio Tinto’s (LON: RIO; NYSE: RIO) exploration director for the Americas Region, Chris Welton, said his company is scoping out B.C. for a copper play.

“We would like to be exploring in B.C., but we just need to find the right project,” Welton said. “My exploration manager reminds me that to balance our portfolio in Canada, he wants a B.C. porphyry.”

Porphyry deposits are sought after because they are low grade but very large, allowing for bulk mining and economies of scale. Copper porphyries typically contain 100 million to 5 billion tonnes of ore with grades between 0.2% and 1% copper. Rio Tinto’s Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah produces an annual 300,000 tonnes of copper.

Gold, copper, molybdenum, silver and lead are among the metals found in porphyries.

Some of B.C.’s largest copper and gold deposits are porphyries, including the Highland Valley Copper Mine, KSM, Prosperity and New Afton.

No. 5: Monarch Gold targets multiple projects

By Trish Saywell, March 18, 2019

Since the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference wrapped up in early March, Monarch Gold (TSX: MQR; US-OTC: MRQRF) has fielded calls from three mining companies about possible joint ventures to explore its Croinor gold project, 55 km east of Val-d’Or in Quebec.

The project has a fully permitted past-producing mine that is open at depth, and the junior has already found mineralized zones northeast of the main deposit on the 151 sq. km property.

“We hold all of it, and are seeking partnerships because it’s too vast for us,” Jean-Marc Lacoste, Monarch Gold’s president and CEO, says. “We have had three serious enquiries — two majors and a mid-tier. They knocked on our door because of the potential of the Croinor deposit.”

The deposit has 236,000 oz. gold in the measured and indicated category (804,600 tonnes grading 9.12 grams gold per tonne) and 38,400 oz. gold in the inferred category (160,800 tonnes averaging 7.42 grams gold), but the known resource has been chased down only to a depth of 350 to 400 metres, Lacoste says, and is open at depth.

“It needs a lot of exploration to potentially double or triple the resource by drilling much deeper, and following different vein systems,” he says. “We also discovered some very interesting potential within the vicinity of the main deposit in January 2017, when we found a 25-metre zone of 8-gram material sitting about 500 metres from the current deposit.”

That discovery to the northeast is named Gold Bug, and Lacoste is confident that more exploration will find mineralization on other parts of the property.

“We have hit several targets within 2 to 3 km of the deposit, so, with a property of this size, which is roughly 15 to 20 km long by 4 to 5 km wide, it gives you an idea of how big this property could be.”

Lacoste also notes that mining entrepreneur Rob McEwen invested in the company in May 2016 — largely on the upside he saw at Croinor — and holds 5% of the junior.

No. 6: SolGold’s Nick Mather our Mining Person of the Year for 2018

By John Cumming, Feb. 27, 2019

Nicholas Mather, president and CEO of Australian junior SolGold, is The Northern Miner’s Mining Person of the Year for 2018 in recognition of his role as the driving force behind the wildly successful grassroots team that has drilled off the world-class Alpala gold-copper deposit at its Cascabel project in Imbabura province in northern Ecuador, with potentially many more discoveries to come in the region.

The past year was a pivotal one for Toronto- and London-listed SolGold. In November 2018, it tabled an updated resource for Alpala that tallied a staggering 2.1 billion indicated tonnes grading 0.41% copper and 0.29 gram gold per tonne, or 0.60% copper equivalent (at a 0.2% copper-equivalent cut-off), plus another 900 million inferred tonnes grading 0.27% copper and 0.13 gram gold, or 0.35% copper equivalent, at the same cut-off. These numbers are based on 133,600 metres of drilling.

That translates to a contained metal content of 8.4 million tonnes copper and 19.4 million oz. gold in the indicated category, and another 2.5 million tonnes copper and 3.8 million oz. gold in inferred.

SolGold notes that Alpala has returned “some of the greatest drill hole intercepts in porphyry copper-gold exploration history,” as seen in hole 12 (CSD-16-12) returning 1,560 metres grading 0.59% copper and 0.54 gram gold per tonne, including 1,044 metres of 0.74% copper and 0.54 gram gold.

Originally formed in 2006 and involved in a high-grade gold discovery in the Solomon Islands, SolGold took its present name in 2012 and signed a fateful agreement with TSX Venture Exchange-listed Cornerstone Capital for the Alpala copper-gold project in northern Ecuador. SolGold has since boosted its stake to 85%, and this year launched a hostile offer to buy Cornerstone and consolidate ownership of the project.

Along the way, SolGold has attracted some big names as shareholders, including Australian mining giants BHP Group and Newcrest Mining, and yet has retained firm control over the asset — at least for now.

No. 7: Commentary: Innovation is needed in processing of battery raw materials

By: David Anonychuk, Jane Spooner and Reiner Haus, Special to The Northern Miner, July 5, 2019

With the increasing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage technologies, there is little doubt demand will grow for battery raw materials that must be sourced from the mining industry.

We expect automotive companies and battery manufacturers to invest US$300 billion in the sector in the next 10 years, and they will require new battery mineral deposits to be developed.

However, given the current climate of underinvestment in the mining sector, will future supply be able to meet these projections of rapidly increasing demand? The answer is not clear.

Over the next 10 years, we expect demand related to battery raw materials to increase four times for lithium, five times for cobalt, and up to seven times for graphite.

Beyond that, vanadium will be required in increasing volumes for use in stationary batteries for energy storage in renewable energy installations, while rare earths already have a place in high-performance magnets widely used in electric motors and wind turbines.

Against this background of anticipated growth in demand, technology is continuously improving in the battery sector, as manufacturers lower costs and improve performance in an effort to encourage higher adoption rates.

For example, EV battery manufacturers face pressure to increase energy density, decrease recharging time, reduce weight, and improve cold weather performance and safety.

Battery raw materials currently make up half the cost of battery cell manufacturing costs.

No. 8: American Pacific grows Tuscarora property near Elko, Nevada

By Trish Saywell, Feb. 6, 2019

Geologist Eric Saderholm and venture capitalist Warwick Smith started looking for a mining project to collaborate on two years ago.

The pair had worked together for five years at Western Pacific Resources (TSXV: WRP), which Smith co-founded in 2009, and where Saderholm served as president, before they brought in a financial partner and management team to run the company in 2014.

“It was a great partnership and we think we have different skill sets that match up quite nicely, so we kept in touch over the years,” Smith says of his colleague Saderholm.

After their stint at Western Pacific Resources, Smith took some time off while Saderholm rejoined Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) as the major’s exploration manager for the Western United States. He had previously worked for Newmont for 12 years.

When the men learned in mid-2017 that Novo Resources (TSXV: NVO; US-OTC: NSRPF) might option its wholly owned Tuscarora project at the foot of Mount Blitzen — 50 km northwest of Elko, Nev., and 35 km northeast of the Carlin trend — they jumped at the chance.

At the time, Smith recalls, Novo was focused on Western Australia, where it had found gold nuggets on its Karratha gold project and was open to divesting its Nevada asset, while having a 0.5% net smelter return royalty (NSR) on the project.

“Sometimes, timing is your friend,” Smith says. “Things were parabolic for them … they raised more than US$30 million at $5 or $6 a share, and that changes your mindset fairly quickly, and gave us the opportunity to pick it up with discovery holes in it.”

No. 9: Commentary: Celebrating a century of mining at Yukon

By Anne Turner and Lindsay Wilson, Special to The Northern Miner, Jan. 8, 2019

It was finding gold at Rabbit Creek and along the riverbeds of the Klondike that forever changed one of the world’s final frontiers — the Yukon Territory — and cemented the region’s roots as an inspiring Canadian mining district.

Yukon’s rich mining history continues to provide exciting discoveries, varied commodities and significant opportunities for northerners and investors alike.

As we kick off 2019, we reflect on our history and the last year that has proved — through achievements, advancements and accolades — that Yukon is a mining district to follow and to celebrate.

In 1896, a hundred-thousand stampeders journeyed north, following the news of “Gold, gold, gold!” and “The Klondike gold rush begins” in papers from Seattle to San Francisco.

Kate and George Carmack, Skookum Jim Mason, Dawson Charlie and Robert Henderson discovered placer gold at Rabbit Creek (later renamed Bonanza Creek) on Aug. 26.

Shaw Tláa, a Tagish First Nation woman commonly referred to as Kate Carmack, is said to have made the discovery while fishing with her family. The Klondike discoverers staked hundreds of feet of riverbed and recovered US$100,000 in gold — a remarkable sum for 1896.

No. 10: Editorial: Tailings spill at Feijao is Vale’s worst yet, with 84 dead, 276 missing

By John Cumming, Jan. 30, 2019

With memories still fresh of Vale and BHP’s deadly Samarco iron ore tailings disaster in Mariana, Brazil in November 2015 — which killed 19 people — comes news of a smaller but even more deadly tailings dam collapse at Dam 1 of Vale’s Feijao iron ore mine in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state during the early afternoon of Friday, Jan. 25.

The tailings spilled out with no warning to bury several Vale buildings — including a cafeteria, as employees were eating lunch — and then inundated part of the small southeastern city of Brumadinho.

Dead fish and trash extended more than 18 km downstream from the dam along the banks of the Paraopeba River, where Pataxo indigenous members live, catch fish and draw water for cultivation.

At press time on Jan. 29 — in a story that is evolving by the hour — 84 people were confirmed dead and 276 people were missing in Brazil’s worst-ever environmental disaster. Most of the missing are Vale employees.

The rescue and care of the wounded is happening on-site by the fire department and civil defense, with Vale providing assistance, including 40 ambulances, 800 beds and a helicopter.

The dam was built in 1976 using the “upstream method” by Ferteco Mineracao, which was acquired by Vale in April 2001. The dam was 86 metres high and had a crest length of 720 metres. Its waste disposal area was 249,500 sq. metres and the volume of the spill was 11.7 million cubic metres.

Vale says the tailings dam was inactive, with no tailings being added. There was no pond and no other type of operational activity was in progress. A decommissioning project was also underway.