US markets mixed, Oct. 14-18: Agnico Eagle, AngloGold Ashanti, Newmont Goldcorp

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.17% to 26,770.20, while the S&P 500 Index rose 0.54% to 2,986.20. Gold stayed relatively flat at US$1,489.60 per oz., up 0.05% for the week.

Agnico Eagle Mines gained $1.96 to $54.18 per share. The gold miner recently announced commercial production at the Amaruq satellite deposit, 50 km northwest of its Meadowbank mine in the Kivalliq district of Nunavut. Development was approved in February 2017 and the wholly owned deposit will supply ore to the Meadowbank mill, 110 km north of Baker Lake.

Shares of AngloGold Ashanti rose $1.26 to $20.84. The company updated investors on its advanced exploration projects in Colombia: Gramalote and Quebradona. The company announced that its joint-venture partner at Gramalote, B2Gold, will fund an investment and exploration program at the project next year worth $13.9 million to earn back a fifty-fifty partnership. B2Gold will also assume management of the project effective Jan. 1. B2Gold owns a 48.3% stake in the project and AngloGold owns the rest. The companies have agreed to complete a feasibility study on Gramalote by the end of 2020. A feasibility study of its 100%-owned Quebradona copper and gold project is already underway. Both projects are in Colombia’s department of Antioquia.

Newmont Goldcorp’s shares advanced 82¢ to $38.44. The company reported that its Ahafo mill expansion in Ghana achieved commercial production on schedule and within budget for US$175 million. The expansion project increases mill capacity more than 50% to nearly 10 million tonnes a year, with the addition of a crusher, grinding mill and leach tanks to the circuit. The mill expansion, combined with the Subika underground mine completion in November 2018, could lift Ahafo’s average annual gold production to between 550,000 and 650,000 oz. gold per year through 2024, while lowering life-of-mine processing costs. Tom Palmer, the company’s president and CEO, said the mill expansion at Ahafo is the company’s “third profitable project delivered on schedule and within budget in 2019,” after the Borden mine in Canada and the Tanami power project in Australia. He also noted that the mill expansion “is expected to generate an internal rate of return of more than 20% at a $1,200 gold price, while also extending profitable production at Ahafo through at least 2029.”