Protesters lift blockade at Newmont's Peñasquito mine, putting talks in play
Protesters suspended a blockade at Newmont Goldcorp Corp.'s Peñasquito gold mine in Zacatecas, Mexico, paving the way for fresh talks between Newmont and protest leaders, Francisco Quiroga, undersecretary of mines with the country's Ministry of Economy, told S&P Global Market Intelligence. Newmont also confirmed that the blockade, which started Sept. 14, had ended and said the shutdown had cut Peñasquito's third-quarter production by about 11,000 gold ounces, 1.7 million silver ounces, 13.7 million pounds of lead and 22.8 million pounds of zinc.
Report: IAMGOLD unable to strike M&A deal with Chinese bidders
IAMGOLD Corp. failed to strike a deal with several Chinese bidders over a potential sale of the company, Bloomberg News reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. In May, the news agency reported that IAMGOLD was exploring a full or partial sale of the company amid a string of consolidations in the gold mining industry.
Buenaventura's Q3'19 gold, silver output fall YOY
Peru-focused Cia. de Minas Buenaventura SAA's third-quarter gold output totaled 236,694 ounces of gold in the September quarter, falling from 290,159 ounces in the same period in 2018. Silver output dropped to about 5.0 million ounces from about 6.8 Moz.
DIVERSIFIED
* Aberdeen Standard Investments, one of the biggest shareholders of BHP Group, added to pressure for the miner to cut ties with lobby groups that are at odds with the company's pledges on climate leadership, Reuters reported.
BASE METALS
* MMG Ltd. expects mining operations at the Las Bambas mine in Peru to be affected by blockades that have interrupted logistics to the operation since Sept. 22.
* Red River Resources Ltd. said it resumed full production at the Thalanga base metals operation's processing plant in Queensland, Australia, after completing repairs at the secondary crusher.
PRECIOUS METALS
* Resolute Mining Ltd. suspended the roaster, a key component in its sulfide processing circuit, at its Syama gold mine in Mali due to a crack in its main external shell.
* Endeavour Silver Corp. reported a 34% yearly fall in silver production and a 25% dip in gold output for the third quarter to 948,547 ounces and 9,716 ounces, respectively. Silver sales for the quarter slumped 45% year over year to 835,045 ounces, while gold sales decreased 28% to 9,373 ounces.
* Venus Metals Corp. Ltd. sued Spectrum Metals Ltd. in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, claiming the latter breached its fiduciary duty, violated confidence and misused information in the acquisition of the Penny West gold project in October 2018. Spectrum said the allegations made were without merit and that it would vigorously defend against the allegations.
* SSR Mining Inc.'s third-quarter gold equivalent production exceeded 100,000 ounces, with its Seabee mine in Saskatchewan producing a record 32,345 ounces.
* Caledonia Mining Corp. PLC finished installing and commissioning the new oxygen plant at the Blanket gold mine in Zimbabwe, which is expected to improve metallurgical recovery to about 94% and reduce cyanide consumption.
* GoGold Resources Inc. achieved record production of 580,711 silver equivalent ounces for its fiscal fourth quarter ending Sept. 30, up from 240,939 ounces a year ago.
* Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd.'s third-quarter production surged 38% year over year to a record 248,000 ounces. Output at its Fosterville mine in Victoria, Australia, jumped 75% from a year ago to a record 158,327 ounces, while output at its Macassa mine in Ontario rose 13% to 62,945 ounces.
* Dundee Precious Metals Inc. produced a total of 65,600 ounces of gold in the third quarter from its Chelopech and Ada Tepe gold mines in Bulgaria. The Ada Tepe mine, which achieved commercial production in June, produced 25,300 ounces in the third quarter, while Chelopech produced 40,300 ounces.
* Victoria Gold Corp. made its first shipment of doré from the Eagle gold mine in Canada's Yukon territory Oct. 8. It will be delivered to the Royal Canadian Mint for refining. The shipment contained 2,450 ounces of doré comprising 83.3% gold and 8.7% silver.
* Gran Colombia Gold Corp. completed its acquisition of a 19.9% equity investment in Western Atlas Resources Inc. through the first tranche of a nonbrokered private placement.
* Kingsrose Mining Ltd. extended the life of its Talang Santo to July 2020. Gold production from stockpiled ore at the mine will continue until September 2020. Production from the pit is estimated to be 16,400 ounces of gold for this financial year.
BULK COMMODITIES
* China Hanking Holdings Ltd.'s high-purity iron business resumed production after completing technological improvements on schedule. The enhancements led to an increase in annual capacity to 660,000 tonnes from 560,000 tonnes.
* Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. CEO Elizabeth Gaines warned at a mining club luncheon in Melbourne, Australia, that China will seek alternative iron ore supplies should Australia neglect its relationship with its major trading partner, The Australian reported.
* Shanghai Metals Market estimated that 83 vessels carrying 13.8 million tonnes of iron ore arrived at major Chinese ports from Sept. 29 to Oct. 5, up by 2.5 million tonnes from the week ended Sept. 21.
SPECIALTY
* Russia's Polymetal International PLC will consider investing in Tomtor, the country's largest rare earth project, Reuters reported, citing CEO Vitaly Nesis. Polymetal said in August that it was considering acquiring minority stakes in domestic rare earth mineral projects, tapping into growing demand for commodities used in electric vehicle production.
* An updated resource estimate for Thor Mining PLC's Molyhil project in Australia's Northern Territory outlined 4.7 million tonnes grading 0.28% tungsten trioxide, 0.14% molybdenum, 0.05% copper and 18.0% iron using a cutoff grade of 0.12% tungsten equivalent.
* U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross met with Australian Resources Minister Matt Canavan to discuss their national strategies on critical minerals and the U.S. helping develop and potentially fund Australian projects to expand rare earths production outside of China amid the ongoing U.S.-China trade war, The Australian Financial Review reported.
* Aura Energy Ltd. reported an updated resource estimate for its Haggan vanadium project in Sweden. At a 0.2% vanadium pentoxide cutoff, indicated and inferred resources stood at 2 billion tonnes with an average grade of 0.3% vanadium pentoxide for 13.33 billion pounds contained. Most of the resource is in the inferred category.
* Lucapa Diamond Co. Ltd. reported proceeds of US$10.4 million from its latest diamond sales from the Lulo mine in Angola and the Mothae mine in Lesotho.
* Great Atlantic Resources Corp. was given the approval for a funding of C$25,000 by the New Brunswick Department of Energy and Resource Development for the company's 2019 exploration program on the Glenelg Vanadium Property in southwestern New Brunswick.
* Razore Rock Resources Inc. signed an option agreement with True North Gems Inc. to earn up to a 70% working interest in the True Blue rare earths project in Canada's Yukon territory.
* Workers at Fura Gems Inc.'s Coscuez emerald mine in Colombia are working in unsafe conditions, the Financial Post reported, citing former company employees who said management ignored their repeated requests to provide equipment such as masks and safety glasses.
* Stockbroker Shaw and Partners is booking funds to meet Macarthur Minerals Ltd.'s management next week ahead of an IPO aiming to raise as much as A$7.5 million, the Australian Financial Review's Street Talk reported.
* Diatreme Resources Ltd.'s potential off-take partner for the Cyclone zircon project in Western Australia, Hunan Rare Earth Industry Group, identified the presence of hafnium within the rare earth concentrate samples studied, which may boost the project's value.
* Ardiden Ltd. signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with Rock Tech Lithium Inc. to work together to develop a project to potentially supply spodumene concentrate at 6% to 7% lithium oxide from a combination of their respective lithium projects: Seymour Lake and Georgia Lake.
* Sayona Mining Ltd. assembled a team to support its bidding process for the North American Lithium Inc. operation in Quebec, following the start of the formal asset sale process for the lithium mine.
INDUSTRY NEWS
* Brazilian mining regulator Agência Nacional de Mineração suspended 54 tailings dams, saying the operations were not stable, Reuters reported.
* Sierra Leone's abrupt cancellation of an iron ore license this week raised concerns about a resurgence of resource nationalism across the continent, Financial Times reported, citing Eric Humphrey-Smith, an analyst at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.
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