Fury Gold Mines (TSX: FURY) (NYSE: FURY) and Newmont Corporation (NSYE: NEM) (TSX: NGT) have come to an agreement for Fury to buy Newmont’s 49 per cent interest in the Éléonore South project in Quebec for CAD$3 million.
Fury also announced on Monday that it would pay CAD$1.3 million to buy 30.4 shares of Sirios Resources (TSXV: SOI) held by Newmont as part of the consolidation for Éléonore South.
Newmont’s Éléonore mine is located to the north, and Sirios’ Cheechoo deposit lies to the east in an area of prolific gold mineralization, encompassing the Éléonore South project. This decision came as part of Newmont’s bid to sell six of its non-core assets.
These assets include Éléonore in Quebec, the Musselwhite and Porcupine mines in Ontario, the Coffee project in the Yukon Territory, and its 70 per cent stake in the Havieron joint venture with Greatland Gold (LON: GGP) in Western Australia. All of the proceeds from the sale will go towards dealing with company debt.
Fury Gold Mines has identified two distinct styles of mineralization within the Éléonore South project through prospecting. These involve structurally controlled quartz veins hosted within sedimentary rocks, similar to the high-grade mineralization at the Éléonore mine, and intrusion-related disseminated gold mineralization resembling that at the Cheechoo deposit.
The company intends to focus on the many untouched gold in-till anomalies throughout the project. Most of these anomalies share characteristics with the Cheechoo style of mineralization.
The JT and Moni prospects at Cheechoo potentially contain higher-grade intrusion-related gold mineralization. Historical drilling intercepted significant grades, some of which remain unexplored. Additionally, Fury Gold Mines is progressing its Eau Claire project in Quebec, with recent drilling yielding promising results at the Hinge target.
Éléonore South overview map. Image via Fury Gold Mines.
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Newmont divestiture is part of a larger trend in Canada
The divestiture and sale came about as a result of Newmont’s 2023 acquisition of Australian-based Newcrest Mining. The company decided to unload some of its underperforming assets to cut costs and ease its debt-load.
In totality, 2023 was an exceptional year for Canadian gold mining acquisitions, with multiple companies expanding into or throughout Canada.
In November, Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE: AEM) (TSX: AEM) and Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE: PAAS) (TSX: PAAS) jointly announced a $4.8 billion acquisition of Yamana Gold. The deal involved Pan American acquiring Yamana’s South American assets, which added four mines to its portfolio. Meanwhile, Agnico secured Yamana’s Canadian assets, notably the Malartic Mine, Canada’s largest open-pit gold mine.
Also, Calibre Mining Corp. (TSX: CXB) (OTCQX: CXBMF) and Marathon Gold merged in 2023, incorporating the top-tier Valentine Project in Newfoundland and Labrador into Calibre’s operations and significantly improving its prospects.
Another example is the B2Gold Corp. (TSX: BTO) (NYSE: BTG) USD$823.66 million acquisition of Sabina Gold & Silver, which opened access to the Back River Rock Gold project in Nunavut as well as the Goose gold project.
Calibre Mining Corp. is a sponsor of Mugglehead news coverage.
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