For Ian Ball, President and CEO of Abitibi Royalties (TSX-V: RZZ), the type of mining activities taking place a the Canadian Malartic mine represent a paradigm shift, who talked to MINING.com in March at PDAC.
Abitibi is focusing its efforts on one of Canada’s largest gold mines, which is located 25 kilometres west of Val d’Or in Quebec’s Abitibi region.
“There have been well in excess 10-million-ounces-discoveries and they are making new discoveries every year, which is increasing the value of our royalty. You want to be in big mining camps and Malartic is one of the biggest in Canada,” said Ball.
Abitibi’s royalty is a 3% net smelter return royalty on the eastern portion of the mine, which is owned and operated by Agnico Eagle (TSX, NYSE:AEM) and Yamana Gold (TSX:YRI) (NYSE:AUY).
The executive explained how, based on the returns of this major asset, he has switched the way investors are treated.
“When I joined Abitibi I did not have the financial means to buy 20 per cent of Abitibi but I was willing to take all of my salary and invest it back into the company on the open market each week.
“So for four years now, I’ve been taking all of my salary and investing it into the shares so I’m literally walking in the same footsteps as my shareholders. And two years ago, I went to the board and told them that I didn’t think we should be issuing any stock options and share units, people should be paid in cash so they can use that cash to go buy stocks in the market,” he said.
Creative Commons image of northern lights in Quebec courtesy of Image Editor
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Source: Mining.com
