Regulus Resources' (TSXV: REG; US-OTC: RGLSF) AntaKori project hosts 2.6 billion lb. copper, 2.3 million oz. gold and 61 million contained oz. silver within 250 million indicated tonnes grading 0.48% copper, 0.29 gram gold per tonne, and 7.5 grams silver per tonne.
Inferred resources include a further 2.4 billion lb. copper, 2.2 million oz. gold and 67 million oz. silver in 267 million tonnes grading 0.41% copper, 0.26 gram gold per tonne, and 7.8 grams silver per tonne.
The resource estimate used 17,000 metres of historical drilling and 23,000 metres the company drilled in its Phase I drill program. The company had completed 16,358 metres of a 25,000-metre Phase II drill program, but this was disrupted due to Covid-19 lockdowns.
The company is now financed to complete its Phase II drill program.
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Kinross buys into Eagle Mountain mine in Alaska
Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) announced plans to acquire the Peak Gold project in Alaska, owned by Royal Alaska LLC (40%), a subsidiary of Royal Gold (NASDAQ: RGLD), and Core Alaska (60%), a subsidiary of Contango (US:OTC: CTGO).
The Peak Gold project is located 400 kilometres southeast of Kinross’s Fort Knox mine. The open-pit project, which is expected to start production in 2024, will have its ore trucked into Fort Knox to use the existing mill and infrastructure.
According to a 2018 PEA, the mine could produce a total of about 1 million Au-equivalent ounces over four and a half years at mining grades of 6 grams per tonne.
The company plans to mix the project’s higher-grade ore with the lower-grade ore at Fort Knox to decrease its average life-of-mine all-in sustaining costs “AISC” by about US$70 per Au-equivalent oz.
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Northern Star, Saracen create US$11.5B Australian Gold Producer
Australian gold miner Northern Star Resources on Tuesday offered to Saracen Mineral Holdings in an all-stock deal with USD$4.14 billion deal that will create the eighth biggest gold miner in the world by market capitalization.
This deal would create a ~US$11.5-billion gold company as gold prices are reaching record highs. Under the terms of the proposed merger deal, Saracen shareholders will receive 0.3763 Northern Star shares for each Saracen share held.
The proposed merger will have a portfolio of three large-scale production centres in Kalgoorlie and Yandal in Western Australia, as well as in North America.
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Barrick’s Bristow’s Reserve Crisis Cassandra Cries
In wake of the news of mega-merger between Australian gold companies Northern Star and Saracen, Mark Bristow, CEO of Barrick Gold, told the press he welcomed the merger as a great example of the consolidation needed in the gold industry.
Commenting further on the industry, he noted that there has been a dearth of exploration in the gold sector which has seen the average life of mines drop from 20 years to 10 years with gold production only increasing 1.6% over the past two decades.
This is good news for gold exploration companies as the industry is buoyed by strong metal prices and senior miners with improving balance sheets. Senior mining companies will need to find new reserves to address Bristow’s market insight.
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