Weekly Nugget
Ecuador: A New Frontier for Mining?
Recent discoveries and successful mine constructions are changing the fortunes for Ecuador's mining industry and potential investors.
Fortuna Silver Buys US$884M for Roxgold, West Africa
Fortuna Silver Mines (TSX: FVI, NYSE: FSM) and Roxgold (TSX: ROXG, US-OTC: ROGFF) have agreed to a "business combination" in which Fortuna will spend US$884.32 million in shares to wed Roxgold.
Nicholas LePan
Apr 28, 2021
The company will straddle the Atlantic with operations, development and exploration assets in Mexico, Latin America and West Africa.
Fortuna said the combined company would produce about 450,000 gold-equivalent ounces a year at all-in sustaining costs of about US$950 per ounce of gold equivalent.
Roxgold expects its Séguéla gold project in Côte d’Ivoire to be in production in 2023 and produce an annual average of 133,000 oz. gold during the first six years of its expected nine-year mine life.
The company’s Boussoura advanced exploration project in Burkina Faso, meanwhile, is scheduled to have a completed initial resource estimate sometime in the second half of 2021.
Barrick to Open Third Underground Mine at Loulo-Gounkoto, Mali
Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX, NYSE: GOLD) said a third underground mine at its Loulo-Gounkoto gold complex in Mali has reached the first mining level and is scheduled to start delivering to the plant.
Barrick touts Loulo-Gounkoto as a pillar of the Malian economy as well as a force for local economic development. Over the past 24 years, Barrick and its predecessor in Mali, Randgold Resources, have contributed US$7.7 billion to the economy, of which US$3 billion went to the government in the form of dividends, taxes and royalties, according to the company.
Eldorado Gold Receives Approval for Dry Stack Tailings at Skouries, Restarts Construction, Greece
Eldorado Gold (TSX: ELD) has received approval from the Greek Ministry of Energy and Environment has approved the use of dry stack tailings at the Skouries project.
Dry stack technology involves filtering tailings to remove water prior to stacking and compacting the material in a designated space.
This approval will allow the company to restart construction at Skouries. The company plans to complete a feasibility-level update to the capital cost estimate.
Skouries is a high-grade gold-copper porphyry project that is partially constructed and was placed on care and maintenance in 2017.
The mine is estimated to operate for approximately 23 years based on current resources, initially as an open pit and underground mine, followed by underground mining.
Tin Supply Chain Pressures Spike Price
According to Reuters, parts of the world seem to have run out of the material for circuit-board soldering, sending tin prices to record highs.
On Monday April 26, the London Metal Exchange three-month tin price hovered just below February's 10-year high of $27,500 per tonne.
China has stepped up as the supplier of last resort, the country turning from net importer to net exporter of refined tin. China is the world's largest tin producer but the country was a net importer throughout 2019 and 2020.
High prices have so far failed to produce a supply response outside of China.