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Canadian Blue-chip Industrial Forum
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Gold Summary - 26thGold Summary for Nov. 26, 2020 2020-11-26 16:46 ET - Market Summary by Stockwatch Business Reporter The New York spot gold market was closed for Thanksgiving, but the TSX-V rose 0.13 point to 746.17 while the TSX gold index gained 2.96 points to 309.27. Most Canadian gold miners moved higher today but much of the market's attention again went to Ronald Thiessen's Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. (NDM), which fell 54 cents to 51 cents on 35.09 million shares yesterday. Northern lost another 5.5 cents to 45.5 cents today on 13.49 million shares as the blowback continues from Wednesday's decision by the U.S. government to deny the company's request for permits that would have allowed the mammoth Pebble project in Alaska to proceed. An appeal will be forthcoming, says Mr. Thiessen, the company's $506,000-a-year president and chief executive officer, against the "politically motivated" decision that was "fundamentally unsupported by the administrative record" developed during the environmental impact process. The denial is yet another roadblock for a project that has already consumed over $800-million (U.S.) in exploration and development expenses since a Cominco Ltd. geologist discovered the deposit in 1987. Over the last third of a century, several major mining companies were sufficiently intrigued to take a look, only to back away based on what they saw. Indeed, the only constant through the last two decades has been Northern Dynasty, which agreed to pay Cominco $10-million (U.S.) for the project in 2001. By then, Cominco had already credited Pebble with a billion tonnes averaging 0.34 gram of gold per tonne and 0.3 per cent copper, making it one of the largest hydrothermal deposits in the world. Northern Dynasty continued to explore Pebble and in 2007, the company landed Rio Tinto as a 19.9-per-cent shareholder, at a cost of $180-million. A few months later, Anglo American PLC agreed to explore and develop Pebble as equal co-venturers. Exploration and lobbying ramped up exponentially, but so did the opposition, citing concerns about Pebble's impact on the Bristol Bay watershed and on the bounty of salmon that call it home. With the opposition growing daily and despite spending over $500-million (U.S.) over the previous six years, Anglo American pulled out in 2013, giving its 50-per-cent share of the project to Northern Dynasty. The following year, Rio Tinto did the same, giving all its Northern Dynasty stock to two Alaska-based charities, the Alaska Community Foundation and the Bristol Bay Native Corp. Education Foundation. (Neither organization owns any stock today.) Northern Dynasty's stock rebounded after the election of Donald Trump in late 2016, getting as high as $4.54 around the time of his inauguration, but despite his pleasing comments about building domestic supply and word that the government would take a new look at the project -- encouragement that persisted into this past summer -- the denial was not a major shock, as an increasing arc of President Trump's inner circle vocally opposed the project. Mr. Thiessen will carry on, of course, as there will soon be a new man in the White House and the Pebble numbers are compelling. The deposit hosts 6.45 billion tonnes measured and indicated at 0.34 gram of gold per tonne and 0.4 per cent copper, and 4.45 million tonnes inferred at lower grades -- over 105 million ounces of gold, 500 million ounces of silver, 80 billion pounds of copper and 5.6 billion pounds of molybdenum. The plan laid out in a 2011 dream sheet proposed a 220,000-tonne-per-day mine that would cost $6-billion (U.S.) to get running, but which supported a discounted net present value of $15.7-billion (U.S.) before taxes. And so, it is back to the hustings for Mr. Thiessen and his crew, as they seek to curry favour with the incoming administration. Dr. David Terry's Genesis Metals Corp. (GIS) jumped 4.5 cents to 25.5 cents on 1.62 million shares on word that it has drilled a 40.5-metre interval averaging 4.56 grams of gold per tonne at its Chevrier project in central Quebec. The thick zone included a 10.74-metre stretch that averaged 13.03 grams per tonne, the best grade produced by the 10-hole program. All 10 holes produced gold, although the promotability of the tests dropped off exponentially. A second hole yielded 2.16 grams per tonne over 34.3 metres, aided by a 4.6-metre zone that averaged 7.49 grams per tonne, and a third managed 1.06 grams per tonne over 17.15 metres, with a 1.6-metre interval containing 5.02 grams per tonne. Dr. Terry, CEO, was "very pleased" with the high grade encountered in the Fox subzone -- the hole that produced the headline hit -- adding that the results are "among the best drilled on the property to date." Genesis, which acquired Chevrier four years ago, has a modest resource defined in the Main and East zones. It lists 8.5 million tonnes indicated at 1.45 grams of gold per tonne and another 6.9 million tonnes inferred at 1.33 grams per tonne, for a total of just under 700,000 ounces. |
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