Atlantic Gold boosts resource, exceeds 2018 production guidance

Canadian Natural Resources said on Tuesday its Horizon oil sands operation has resumed production after a seven month gap caused by a fire. The Calgary-based company said expects to reach full capacity of 110,000 barrels per day of syncrude – a light oil manufactured from bitumen – by next week. The Horizon outage led to a shortage of syncrude which helped Alberta’s producers attract a premium of $18 above benchmark US oil. That premium is now shrinking and is set to return to normal levels of a slight discount. Last week the spread between US crude and North Sea Brent reached a record margin of $26 a barrel. Western Canada Select in turn trades at $13 a barrel below US levels which on Tuesday was $84 a barrel.

While miners in Chile, South Africa, Indonesia and Mexico downed tools recently to strike for higher wages, those working in the Canadian mining sector can take comfort in knowing that their pay packets are expected to grow fatter than workers in other Canadian industries. According to a report by consulting firm Hay Group, which surveyed 660 Canadian employers, companies expect to see wages climb 2.8 per cent on average across their work force in 2012, with salary gains of 3.8 per cent in the mining sector and 3.7 per cent in the oil and gas field.

Tawsho Mining Inc. (TAW.V) is now surging 32%, hits a new year high of about 37 cents earlier, after announcing results from its summer 2011 drill campaignon its Whisker Valley Gold Project.

The platinum miner said Monday it was still in talks with the Zimbabwean capital over a key deadline after its indigenization plan was rejected last week.

Canadian company Silvercorp Metals Inc. said Monday it is buying a controlling share in two Chinese mining companies for about $10.4 million, including debt. Silvercorp will hold a 90 percent stake in Zhongxing Mining Co. Ltd. and Chuanxin Mining Co. Ltd. It will pay $4.3 million cash for the two companies and assume $6.1 million in debt. Silvercorp is making the purchase through its majority-controlled Henan Found Mining Co. unit.

Caledonia Mining, which owns Blanket Mine near Gwanda, on Friday said Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere acted outside his ambit in asking the ministry of mines to cancel the company’s operating licence. The company noted that the mine was operating normally. The move follows reports that Kasukuwere had rejected various foreign-owned companies plans for “indigenising” their operations in the country, or transferring at least 51% ownership to locals. The news knocked 17% of Caledonia’s share price on the TSX, which fell to C$0,075 by close of trade on Friday.

Zimbabwe's government has given foreign companies including miners and banks a 14-day ultimatum to submit plans on how they propose to transfer majority stakes to local owners or risk losing permits, state media reported on Friday. However, immediately thereafter the country's central bank governor Gideon Gono launched a scathing attack on the minister responsible for the indigenization policy saying the threats “could irreparably harm the nerve-centre of the recovering economy.” Before a new unity government in 2009 Zimbabwe economy had shrank by as much as half over the preceding decade amid hyperinflation, property seizures and civil unrest. The country is the number two platinum producer in the world and rich in gold and diamonds.

Gold futures on the COMEX traded above $1,800/oz on Thursday as bad economic news continues to mount and market sentiment turns. On Thursday, the S&P/TSX Composite index fell nearly three percent. The S&P/ASX 200 was off 3.51%. Markets worry that Europe could pull the world economy down due to a spreading euro-zone fiscal crisis.

Bloomberg reports prices in the $150 billion fertilizer market are lagging behind gains in food costs, providing farmers another incentive to boost production and leaving a gap for potash producers to further increase prices which have already surged 29% this year. Potash is 36% cheaper than in June 2008 when corn rose to a record, according to data from ICIS, a commodity-pricing company. In contrast food prices gained 4.3% over the same period, an index of the United Nations shows.