Mexico’s proposed higher mining royalties could block nearly $7bn in investments
The Mexican government proposed raising mining royalties under the argument that metal prices have risen in recent years.
In October 2013, independent conusltant Strathcona Mineral Resources walked away from Pretium Resources’ Valley of the Kings resource in British Columbia, claiming there were “no valid mineral resources” there.
Following the announcement, Pretium (TSX:PVG) saw its share price sink from over $7 per share to barely above $3.
Srathcona’s President Graham Farquharson said Pretium’s statements about probable and mineral reserves and future gold production are “erroneous and misleading,” the Financial Post reported at the time.
Not long after, Pretium released the results of its bulk sample program, revealing 5,865 ounces of gold from 10,302 dry tonnes of excavated material, surpassing the company’s targets and shooting the share price up back to October levels. The miner is now preparing an updated feasibility study to reflect these results.
MINING.com recently spoke with Pretium Resources’ CEO Bob Quartermain who says the remaining consultant from Snowden have “continued to validate and stand by the resource.”
Watch the interview here
Opposing views
Strathcona claimed that the “infrequent high-grade intercepts” reported by the miner “have been shown in the underground exposures of the bulk sample program to usually be of very narrow width (0.5 meters) and associated with narrow geological structures that occasionally have mineable continuity.”
In a recent interview with the Gold Report, geologist Lawrence Roulston said that Pretium had a “high-grade deposit in a favourable jurisdiction.”
“Nobody doubts that there is a lot of gold in the ground,” Roulston said. “But it is necessary to be able to predict the distribution of gold within the deposit in order to develop a reliable mine plan.
