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REGIONAL NEWS - U.S. & CANADA AuRico Pours First Gold at Young-Davidson Open-pit operations at Young-Davidson. The mine was commissioned in March and owner AuRico Gold expects to produce 35,000 mt/d by mid-year 2012. AuRico Gold poured the first gold at its Young-Davidson mine in the Abitibi gold belt of northern Ontario April 30, 2012. Open-pit mining rates averaged about 24,000 mt/d of ore and waste during April, and AuRico is targeting 35,000 mt/d by the end of the second quarter. Commercial production will be declared once the mill averages a minimum throughput of 5,100 mt/d over a 30-day period and the open-pit averages 29,750 mt/d over a 30-day peri- od. AuRico expects to achieve these oper- ating rates early in the third quarter. Wet commissioning of the Young- Davidson mill was essentially complete on March 22, at which time ore was intro- duced into the circuit and ore commission- ing began. During the following three weeks, the mill moved to 24-hour continu- ous operation, and mill throughput began to ramp-up steadily. Between April 19 and April 29, the mill averaged about 5,000 mt/d, well above the budgeted throughput rate for the month, and a number of days saw throughputs near the 2012 design capacity of 6,000 mt/d. As of April 29, 963,000 mt (approxi- mately six months ore supply) had been stockpiled ahead of the mill for processing. Current estimates are call for production of 65,000 to 75,000 oz of gold during 2012, 135,000 to 155,000 oz during 2013, and 165,000 to 190,000 oz during 2014, with an ultimate target of 250,000 oz by 2016. Young-Davidson's proven and probable reserves at year-end 2011 totaled 3.8 mil- lion oz of gold in 46.6 million mt grading 2.56 g/mt gold. The mine is located near the town of Matachewan, about 60 km west of Kirkland Lake, Ontario. The property consists of con- tiguous mineral leases and claims totaling 11,000 acres and is situated on the site of two past producing mines. 14 E&MJ; • JUNE 2012 Iamgold Acquiring Trelawney and Its Côté Lake Deposit Iamgold and Trelawney Mining and Exploration announced an agreement in late April 2012 whereby Iamgold will acquire Trelawney in a transaction valued at about C$505 million. Trelawney is a Canadian junior company focused on the development of the Côté Lake deposit located adjacent to the Swayze green- stone belt in northern Ontario, about 200 km by road northwest of Sudbury and 120 km by road southwest of Timmins. The transaction is expected to close by the end of June. In February 2012, Trelawney announced an updated mineral resource estimate for Côté Lake, comprising 35 million mt of indicated resources grading 0.82 g/mt gold, for 0.93 million oz of contained gold, and 204 million oz of inferred resources mt grading 0.91 g/mt gold, for 5.94 million oz of contained gold. Mineralization at Côté Lake has been intersected over a strike length of 1,200 m, a horizontal width of 100 to 300 m, and a depth extent of more than 500 m. Current planning indicates a potential start of construction in 2015. Trelawney also has a large land package that has significant explora- tion potential. Iamgold's largest operating properties are its Rosebel gold mine in Suriname, its Essakane gold mine in Burkina Faso, and its Niobec niobium mine in Quebec. It also has joint venture interests with AngloGold Ashanti in the Sadiola and Yatela gold mines in Mali, and it owns and operates its Doyon division gold mines in Quebec, where it is developing its Westwood pro- ject. In June 2011, Iamgold sold its minor- ity interests in the Tarkwa and Damang gold mines in Ghana to Gold Fields Ltd. for $667 million in cash. Iamgold President and CEO Stephen Letwin said, "The acquisition of Trelawney creates a larger and more geographically balanced portfolio of long-life gold assets for Iamgold. This transaction provides an accretive return on invested capital, as we are effectively redeploying the cash pro- ceeds from the sale of non-core assets last year into a Canadian gold project that sig- nificantly strengthens our future gold pro- duction profile. "This is consistent with our strategy to invest in development projects that we own and operate so we can derive maximum benefit from leveraging our operational and development expertise. Trelawney is an excellent strategic fit with our existing Canadian portfolio, and we look forward to advancing this promising property." Trevali Buys Caribou Mine and Mill in New Brunswick Trevali Mining announced an agreement in mid-May 2012 to acquire Maple Minerals Corp., a private company that owns the cur- rently inactive, 3,000-mt/d Caribou mine and mill in the Bathurst mining camp of northern New Brunswick. The milling operation includes a metallurgical and geochemical laboratory and a permitted tailings treatment facility. Trevali paid for the purchase with Trevali shares valued at about C$23.8 million The Caribou mine and mill operated for approximately 13 months prior to going into receivership in 2008 due to depressed commodity prices. Trevali will use the mill to process ore from its nearby Halfmile underground zinc-lead-silver-copper-gold mine, which started up in January 2012 and which has ramped up to a mining rate of 2,000 mt/d. Halfmile ore is currently being processed at Xstrata's Brunswick 12 mill, but that operation is scheduled for closure in 2013. www.e-mj.com