The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
From the world's largest gold company expanding its production profile in British Columbia's Golden Triangle to a 130-year-old silver mining legend strengthening its foothold in the Yukon and a soon-to-be new gold producer in Nunavut, mergers and acquisitions completed in 2023 will forever change the North of 60 Mining News landscape. In fact, if everything goes according to plan, by the time Mining Explorers 2024 rolls off the presses in January 2025, B2Gold will be pouring the first bars of gold at its newly acquired Back River. This milestone will mark B2Gold's first mining operation in Canada and establish a new source of revenue and jobs in Nunavut. Even with its heavy focus on getting the Goose Mine into production , B2Gold is investing heavily in expanding resources around this operation and exploring for the next gold mine on its Back River property. B2Gold's interest in expanding its pipeline of gold projects across Canada's North also includes buying a 9.9% interest in Snowline Gold and its exciting Valley gold discovery in the Yukon. With its investment in Snowline, B2Gold joins Hecla Mining Company, Rio Tinto, and Mitsubishi Materials in showing a major interest in the future of Yukon's mining sector. Hecla, which first moved into the Yukon with the acquisition of Alexco Resource and that company's Keno Hill silver mine in 2022, expanded its foothold in the territory with the 2023 buyout of ATAC Resources. In a unique deal, Hecla kept two of the top precious metals assets and spun the rest of ATAC's portfolio of Yukon and BC exploration properties, as well as the company's management team, out into a new junior named Cascadia Minerals. As Hecla was cementing its position in the Yukon, Newmont was finalizing a deal that solidified its foothold in Northern BC. In a historic deal that bolsters Newmont's position as the world's largest gold producer, while also substantially increasing its annual output of copper needed for the energy transition, the company paid US$19 billion to buy out Newcrest Mining. With this acquisition, Newmont became the new operator of Red Chris and Brucejack, the only large-scale mines currently operating in British Columbia's Golden Triangle. These operations provide a Golden Triangle revenue-generating foundation for Newmont, which also owns the advanced-staged Tatogga gold-silver-copper exploration property and 50% interest in the world-class Galore Creek copper-gold mine project in this prolific copper and gold district in Northern BC. It was not just the majors that shifted the North of 60 Mining landscape during 2023. In Northern BC, a pair of juniors – Thesis Gold and Benchmark Metals completed a merger that consolidated side-by-side gold properties into a single project with the size and grade to attract a future takeout by a producer. "This merger has given rise to an expansive district-scale development and exploration endeavors, characterized by remarkable potential for growth," said Ewan Webster, president and CEO of the new Thesis Gold. Find out more about the companies "Discovering the future of Alaska & Canada's North" in Mining Explorers 2023, the 15th edition of this annual magazine exploring the rich critical, industrial, and precious metals potential across North America's mineral-rich northern frontier. Mining Explorers is part of the Data Mine North family of publications that includes North of 60 Mining News, Metal Tech News, and their annual magazines that provide deep insights into mining, critical minerals, and the cutting edge of mining technologies.
