The world’s second largest gold producer by market value, Goldcorp Inc (GG) is acquiring gold miner Canplats Resources Corp for about C$238 million ($229 million) to establish a network of satellite mines around its Penasquito gold project in Mexico. Each Canplats share would be exchanged for 0.074 of a common share of Goldcorp and an interest in a new exploration company. The offer values Canplats at about C$3.60 ($3.46) per share based upon the closing price of Goldcorp shares on Nov. 13. The offer represents a premium of about 41% over the C$2.55 million ($2.45 million) closing price of Canplats shares. The transaction is expected to close in January 2010. The Boards of Directors of both Goldcorp and Canplats have approved the deal. However, a two-thirds majority of Canplats outstanding shareholders are required to vote in favor of the offer for it to conclude. Canplats has ...

Leading gold producer, Goldcorp’s (GG) adjusted net profit in the third quarter of 2009 more than doubled to 19 cents from last year’s 9 cents on higher gold prices and lower cash costs per ounce of gold. Reported earnings were also higher than the Zacks Consensus estimate of 15 cents.  However, on a GAAP basis, net earnings dropped 62% to 16 cents from 42 cents in the previous year due to a foreign exchange loss of $28.1 million. Revenues were up 25% to $691.9 million from $552.2 million in the previous year driven by a 12% rise in average realized prices to $968 per ounce from $865 per ounce in the year-ago quarter and a 9% increase in gold sales volumes to 601,500 ounces.  Gold production increased by 11% year over year to 621,100 ounces compared with 557,400 ounces in 2008 following higher production at the Red ...

Lake Victoria Mining Company yesterday reported the recent use of a new trenching program for locating new quartz veins at the company’s Singida Gold project in central Tanzania. The company has announced that detailed mapping and trench wall sampling has commenced as the new project suggests that three new veins may have been exposed in the trenches.

Roger Newell, Lake Victoria’s president stated, “Within only 20 meters to the north east of the already defined 5km gold vein trend we encountered 3 new veins within 1 to 2 meters of the surface, right where our interpreted magnetic images had indicated. So far, all our exploration work at Singida has provided positive results, and these latest trenches suggest that new veins appear to be present and running parallel to the main structure that we sampled from underground shafts. This could in fact mean that our potential resource could expand by 2 or

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The world’s largest gold producer, Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) and its wholly owned subsidiary, Barrick Australia Finance Pty Ltd., are planning to issue $1.25 billion in debt securities comprised of $400 million of 4.95% notes due 2020 and $850 million of 5.95% notes due 2039. The offering is expected to close on Oct 16. Barrick plans to use the net proceeds from the offering to further reduce the liability related to its floating spot price (fully participating) gold contracts. In September this year, Barrick had raised about $3 billion representing 81.2 million common shares at a price of $36.95 per share as a part of its plan to eliminate gold hedges. Barrick’s gold sales contracts -- which comprise gold hedges and floating contracts -- totaled 9.5 million ounces with a mark-to-market position of negative $5.6 billion. Barrick Gold intends to use $1.9 billion of the net proceeds to

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Capital Gold Corp. increased its estimates of gold reserves by 67% over the previous level. The company estimates that the El Chanate open pit mine contains 1.5 million ounces of proven and probable reserves of gold, up from the 913,000 ounces at the previous update.

The mine is located in Sonora, Mexico, and is 100% owned by the Capital Gold Corporation. The mine began operations in August 2007, and has produced 100,000 ounces of gold since that time.

John Brownlie, the President of the Capital Gold Corporation said, “This reserve increase is encouraging and improves the platform for Capital Gold to continue its growth to a mid-tier gold producer…. we plan to conduct additional drilling within the deposit to attempt to identify additional resources outlined by our new block model and study the options for further production increases while maintaining the longer mine life.”

The reserve estimates were conducted by

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AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU), the world’s third largest gold producer, plans to expand output through exploration. The company aims to produce up to 6 million ounces annually, up from 4.98 million ounces in 2008, largely by improving its mines and expanding through exploration. AngloGold expects the dollar price of gold to rise. The company has forecasted gold prices of $950 to $1,100 per ounce in 2010. It expects gold prices to rise beyond $1,100 if the downtrend in the US economy continues and investment demand for gold increases further. Although electricity costs and new wage settlements have put pressure on the company's bottom line, it has no plans to lay off workers to save costs. AngloGold is also planning to develop its La Colosa project in Colombia. In July this year, AngloGold had teamed up with African miner Randgold Resources to buy Moto Goldmines, which owns ...

Continental Minerals Corporation announced today that a private placement agreement was entered into with a wholly owned subsidiary Zijin Mining Group Co. In the agreement, Continental will sell 21,121,495 common shares of their company and receive $22,599,999.65 in gross proceeds with the balance of the Offering being subscribed by other non-related parties. A commission equal to 6% of the proceeds from the Offering is payable.

One of the key details to the agreement is that Zijin will provide support to the Xietongmen Project and will also be entitled to appoint one director to the Continental Board. The proceeds of the Offering shall be principally used for development and engineering of the before mentioned Xietongmen Project in China.

Zijin is a young company based in China that has quickly become China’s largest gold producer. When asked what this agreement will mean to Zijin, Company Chairman Chen Jinghe was quoted as

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U.S. stocks dropped moderately, reversing earlier gains in the final hour of trading as concern grew that efforts to lift the economy out of stagnation will be withdrawn prematurely.  Stocks got some boost following the central bank’s widely-expected decision to hold interest rates steady but the rally faded soon after as traders found few surprising revelations in the Fed statement.

Although the Fed, in its policy statement, contended that it would continue to employ a wide range of tools to stimulate the economy, investors saw little reason to rejoice, wondering if the stocks were too expensive at current levels.  The Fed reiterated that it will slow its purchase of mortgage-backed securities, signaling its confidence that an economic recovery is indeed underway.  However, there was no talk of exit strategy methods and timetables.  Nevertheless, the FOMC minutes, released at 2:15 ET, maintained the Fed's intentions to keep "exceptionally low levels

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Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM), the largest U.S. gold producer, is emphasizing on exploration near its existing mines in Nevada to bolster its reserves. Newmont is exploring 18 deposits near its existing mines, which could add 4 million to 7 million ounces to its gold reserves.

Based in Colorado, Newmont is trying to boost reserves to benefit from historically high gold prices. In June, the company concluded its purchase of the remainder of the Boddington gold project, the largest in Australia, from AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU). The $2.9 billion mine will have an annual capacity of about 1 million ounces at a projected cost of $300 an ounce.

Newmont’s gold sales fell 5.7% to 1.2 million ounces in the second quarter. After which the company lowered the higher end of its 2009 gold sales forecast range to 5.4 million ounces from 5.5 million ounces. The company sold 5.2 million ounces of

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On September 8th, Canadian gold producer, Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited (AEM) released an update on its 2009 exploration program. The company stated that new discoveries have increased the size of the mineralized envelopes of several deposits. The company expects to increase its total gold reserves and resources by the end of this year. Agnico-Eagle stated that new discoveries at Pinos Altos in Mexico , Meadowbank and Kittila mines, have resulted in an increase in the size of the mineralized envelopes. The $54 million exploration program begun in 2009 is currently 85% complete through July, with 190 kilometers of the planned 221 kilometers drilled. However, the company now expects to add further funds to the budget due to the encouraging results to date. At the Cubiro zone of the Pinos Altos discovery, Agnico-Eagle notifed that drilling has totaled about 3,600 meters from 19 holes taken with ...