Triple Flag sets $550 million agreement for gold and silver from Australian-based mine

Triple Flag Precious Metals Corp. announced Sunday that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Triple Flag Mining Finance Bermuda Ltd. has entered into a stream agreement with certain subsidiaries of China Molybdenum Co., Ltd. (CMOC), to receive gold and silver from the Northparkes copper-gold mine located in New South Wales, Australia. Northparkes is operated by CMOC on behalf of the Northparkes Joint Venture, an unincorporated joint venture between CMOC (80 percent), SC Mineral Resources Pty Ltd. (6.7 percent) and Sumitomo Metal Mining Oceania Pty Limited (13.3 percent). Triple Flag Bermuda will make an upfront cash payment of $550 million and on-going payments equal to 10 percent of the spot gold price and spot silver price at the time of delivery for gold and silver equal to 54 percent of the gold and 80 percent of the silver produced at Northparkes.

Northparkes is a well-established producing copper and gold mine located in central New South Wales, Australia, approximately 27 kilometers north-northwest of the town of Parkes.  Discovered in 1976, the mine has been operating since 1993 and is one of the lowest cost copper mines in the world.

“This is a globally recognized mine with an excellent track record of safety, operations, reserve replacement and community involvement further bolstering and diversifying our portfolio," commented Shaun Usmar, founder and CEO of Triple Flag.

On Friday, the gold spot price closed at $1,798.60 an ounce with silver closing at $18.68 an ounce.

Palladium mine expansion announced as spot price passes gold

Toronto-based North American Palladium Ltd. announced Thursday it has signed a contract with Redpath Canada Limited of North Bay, Ontario, Canada, for underground mine development at its Lac des Iles mine. This is part of a major mine expansion that will take the mine from its current rate of just over 6,000 tons per day (tpd) to 12,000 tpd. The Redpath scope of work consists of approximately 6550 meters of lateral development and 560 meters of vertical development to access ore reserves in the upper mine beneath and around the perimeter of the dormant Roby open pit. The contract is expected to be approximately two years in duration.

The Lac des Iles mine development crews will continue with their work to sustain ongoing production, which is expected to rise to over 7,000 tpd by the end of 2019.

North American Palladium is the only pure play palladium producer in the world.

Meanwhile, the palladium spot price closed above gold at $1,243.00 on Thursday. Gold closed at $1,241.70.

'Adverse geological conditions' suspends operations at Pennsylvania coal mine

Cumberland Coal Resources LP, a subsidiary of Alpha Natural Resources, has temporarily suspended production at its Cumberland underground longwall mine in Greene County, Pa. due to adverse geological conditions in the mine's headgate area.

While mine employees work to mitigate the conditions that halted operations, the mine is on idle status as of Monday, and coal shipments have ceased, the company said in a press release. "Cumberland's management currently anticipates that it will be at least several weeks before production resumes." During this period the mine will maintain a reduced workforce of employees who are key to bringing the longwall back into production.

Alpha Natural Resources is one of the largest and most regionally diversified coal suppliers in the United States. With mining operations in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Wyoming, Alpha supplies metallurgical coal to the steel industry and thermal coal to generate power to customers on five continents.

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