Gold

Chieftain Metals has initiated an important step in its 2011 operations plan by transporting heavy machinery and equipment via barge to the Tulsequah Chief mine site in north-western British Columbia.

Barrick Gold is suing Goldcorp over the El Morro copper mine in Chile, the Globe and Mail reported yesterday. According to the newspaper: Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp., (ABX-T44.24-0.39-0.87%) the world’s largest gold producer, is fighting Goldcorp Inc. (G-T46.82-0.59-1.24%)after the Vancouver company scooped up a majority stake in the El Morro development, one of the largest known copper and gold deposits in South America. Barrick alleges Goldcorp’s deal to buy Swiss miner Xstrata PLC’s 70-per-cent stake in El Morro was done illegally and is suing both parties, along with New Gold Inc., (NGD-T9.09-0.06-0.66%) which has a 30-per-cent stake in the project.

Profit margins for the world’s top 40 mining companies are below the historical peaks of 2006 and 2007 as higher costs outweigh […]

Wesgold Minerals has struck an option agreement with a polymetallic property in Colombia. According to Canadian Press, Wesgold has acquired an option to buy up to 51 percent of a property that hosts iron-oxide-copper-gold deposits: The Vancouver-based junior miner says it bought the option for an initial 11 per cent interest in the property, known as the Cordoba Property, from Minatura International LLC for a total cash cost of $4 million. The property consists of a mining concession contract and several mining claims covering 25,790 hectares, about 200 kilometres north of Medellin.

Ethos Capital Corp. (TSX VENTURE:ECC)(OTCQX:ETHOF)(FRANKFURT:1ET) is pleased to announce that it has acquired option rights to an additional 1,460 claims by staking in the highly prospective White Gold District approximately 120 km south of Dawson City, Yukon. The new claims are contiguous with and adjacent to the Betty Property (see November 30, 2010 news release) and the Bridget Property (see March 3, 2011 news release) acquired by option from Shawn Ryan and Wildwood Exploration Inc. A total of 166 new contiguous claims were added to the Betty property which adds 30% to the area of the property.

Crescent Gold Limited is pleased to announce a maiden probable gold reserve of 54,000 ounces near surface at its newly acquired Apollo Deposit in Laverton, Western Australia. Mining operations have been fast tracked and are scheduled to commence in the third quarter of this year. New drilling results and resource modelling had confirmed the probable gold reserve of 770,000 tonnes and at average grade of 2.2 grams per tonne Au (g/t gold) at the company's newly acquired Apollo deposit, less than 10 kilometres southwest of Laverton. Crescent Gold acquired the project last year from the former owners, Barrick Gold and Carbon Energy.

Minera Andes announced net income of $17.0 million ($0.06 per share basic and diluted) for the quarter ended March 31, 2011, an increase of $19.9 million compared to a net loss of $2.9 million ($0.01 per share loss basic and diluted), as restated, for the same period in 2010. The increase is primarily attributable to the strong performance of the San José Mine where our 49% ownership interest is reflected in our Income from Investment in Minera Santa Cruz S.A. ("MSC") which increased from $0.1 million in Q1 2010 to $11.7 million in Q1 2011. Comparing Q1 2011 to Q1 2010, silver ounces sold at MSC increased from 739,000 ounces ("oz") to 1,342,000 oz and gold ounces sold increased from 14,000 oz to 18,000 oz, reflecting increases of 82% and 29%, respectively.

First Uranium announced total gold sales for its financial year ended March 31, 2011 ("FY 2011") of 142,630 ounces of gold, which is a significant increase over the 91,657 ounces sold at the end of March 31, 2010. The Company's consolidated revenue of $172 million for FY 2011, an increase of 86% from $93 million in revenue for FY 2010, resulted in the Company reflecting a $20 million gross profit margin from operations in FY 2011 compared to a loss of $18 million in FY 2010. Remembering that First Uranium remains in a capital development and growth phase, the consolidated pre-tax loss for the year was $76 million, which is a 19% improvement over the pre-tax loss of $94 million in FY 2010.

The rebranding of former fiery leftist Ollanta Humala apparently struck a chord with Peruvian voters as exit polls Sunday showed the former army commander is leading the race to become Peru's next president. The 48-year-old Humala declared victory late Sunday night in an apparently razor-thin win. He would succeed President Alan Garcia on July 28. Image from Agência Brasil under Creative Commons license.