Hemlo Mining Corp. (HMMC:TSXV) — formerly Carcetti Capital Corp. (CAET:TSXV) — has acquired the prolific, past-producing Hemlo gold complex in northern Ontario from Barrick Mining Corp. (ABX:TSX; B:NYSE), for a total consideration of up to US$1.09 billion. The deal closed over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and the new company officially began trading today, December 2, 2025. It is currently trading around CA$4.50 at the time of this article.
In a revamped David-and-Goliath story, junior explorer Hemlo Mining has acquired a legendary gold complex that has produced over 25 million ounces since 1985 from CA$56 billion mining giant Barrick. The US$1.09 billion transaction has the potential to transform an obscure shell company into Canada's newest mid-tier gold producer.
"The acquisition of Hemlo establishes the foundation for the next leading mid-tier Canadian growth-focused gold producer," said Jason Kosec, incoming president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Hemlo Mining in a September 10 news release, when the proposed deal was initially announced.
For the Hemlo project, Hemlo Mining is paying Barrick US$875 million in cash, plus US$50 million worth of shares upfront. Also, starting in January 2027 and for five years, Hemlo Mining will pay the global mining, exploration, and development company up to US$165 million in cash payments contingent upon mine production and the gold price.
Upon the close of the deal, Kosec stated, "The Hemlo acquisition immediately launches a new, mid-tier Canadian gold producer, bringing meaningful gold production supported by an experienced management team and a well-funded operation . . . We welcome the Hemlo mining team to Carcetti and look forward to leveraging their operational experience as we pursue our objectives of maximizing the value of Hemlo's existing infrastructure while unlocking new opportunities through brownfield exploration."
The company told Streetwise, "To build this mine today would cost over US$1 billion. And building a mine comes with a lot of risks. By acquiring a well-established mine, we remove a lot of risk that is associated with building a mining company."
Barrick, with operations and projects on four continents and in 18 countries, has been divesting its non-core assets recently, and Hemlo is the latest in a series of projects, after Donlin and Alturas. The company's goal is to build value solely through its Tier 1 gold and copper assets. With the Hemlo sale, Barrick generates capital to bolster its balance sheet and return capital to shareholders.
Jefferies Analyst Fahad Tariq wrote in a note that Barrick is selling the Hemlo project at an attractive valuation and that stock buybacks from the Hemlo proceeds are likely, reported The Globe and Mail's Niall McGee on Sept. 11. Tariq added that buybacks make sense given that Barrick is trading at a deep discount to peers.
According to McGee, a rumor is swirling that Barrick might make a rival bid for Teck Resources Ltd. (TECK:TSX; TECK:NYSE), the latter company looking to merge with Anglo American Plc (AAUK:OTCQX; AAL:LSE).
Also, on December 1, 2025, Barrick announced its board has authorized management to explore an initial public offering of a subsidiary that will hold Barrick's premier North American Gold Assets.
Acquisition Fully Funded
In an October 7 release, Hemlo Mining announced it had increased the size of a previously announced bought deal private placement of subscription receipts and successfully closed both the brokered offering and a concurrent non-brokered private placement of subscription receipts to pay for the purchase of the project. Investors included Jonathan Awde, cofounder and former CEO of Dakota Gold Corp. (DC:NYSE American), and Marin Katusa, founder of Katusa Research, and major banks led by Scotiabank.
Under the brokered offering, the company issued 339,268,500 subscription receipts at a price of CA$2.00 per receipt, generating gross proceeds of CA$678,537,000.
For the non-brokered offering, the company issued 38,725,330 subscription receipts with terms substantially similar to those of the brokered subscription receipts at a price of CA$2.00 / US$1.441 per receipt, resulting in gross proceeds of CA$77,819,325.
Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. Gold Stream
Another source of financing for Hemlo Mining is a US$300 million gold stream to be acquired by Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (WPM:TSX; WPM:NYSE), detailed in a Wheaton news release. This company is an investment vehicle whose revenue mostly comes from byproduct precious metals production streams.
"Hemlo offers a unique opportunity to add immediate, accretive gold ounces from a politically stable jurisdiction, backed by a long history of production and a capable operating team," Wheaton's CEO Randy Smallwood said in the release. "We are proud to support [Hemlo Mining] in its acquisition of a mine that has long been considered a cornerstone of Canada's mining industry while also contributing to strategic M&A momentum across the sector."
The Hemlo stream is forecasted to generate about 20,000 ounces (20 Koz) of gold per annum over the 14-year life of mine (LOM), explained CIBC Analyst Cosmos Chiu in a September 11 research report. With this stream, the annual production of 1 Moz for Wheaton Precious Metals is within reach. Minus the upfront cash consideration for this stream, the company has about US$600 million in cash and about US$2.6 billion in total liquidity.
The Hemlo transaction "enhances Wheaton's exposure to Canada, and, in our view, should be viewed positively by investors," Chiu wrote.
Experts Like the Deal
Katusa, an expert on the resource exploration sector and an investor, as said above, is bullish on the Hemlo deal. He expects Hemlo Mining management to decrease costs and increase production, in turn yielding higher economics and resulting in a large rerating of the company's share price, he wrote in the Private Placement Alert.
"We're getting this asset that is already fast-forwarded and [has] been derisked, permitted, and built. We know the geology. We know the metallurgy," he said in his interview with Kosec. "And it's at the same pricing as we did at Osisko Development Corp. (ODV:TSX.V), which was over a double about a year ago. And we don't have to take those risks."
Even if the spot gold price were to drop to US$2,000/oz, Katusa still is comfortable with Hemlo, he wrote.
"The whole gold market will sell off, but this mine will still produce gold and make money," he noted. "This IS a risk, and anything can happen."
Katusa said he intended to invest a minimum of US$5 million in Hemlo Mining and visit the project after the acquisition closes.
Chen Lin, in the September 15 edition of What is Chen Buying? What is Chen Selling?, reminded readers that they had gotten free CARTh (the old ticker from Hemlo Mining Corp.'s name, Carcetti Capital, before the transaction) shares from their previous Cub Energy Inc. (KUB:TSX.V) investment. KUB paid out CA$0.03 per share, then did a 300:1 reverse split in December 2022 as part of a large corporate reorganization. At that time, it changed its name to Carcetti Capital Corp. and began trading under CARTh. Lin pointed out that he still owns shares of KUB and CARTh and urged his readers to find out if they do, too.
"If you held KUB before and didn't sell the free spinoff, you should own some CARTh for free," he added. "I am excited to see CARTh start trading again and see how much I can make out of it!"
At that time, the trading of CARTh was suspended. It opened under the new Hemlo name and symbol (HMMC:TSXV) on December 2, 2025.
The last share price of Carcetti was CA$0.82.
On December 1, 2025, Chen Lin updated his readers on the company, saying, "CART/HMMC.v IPO is tomorrow. Again, I acquired "free" CART shares from the final spin off of the Ukraine energy play. I think my 10 million shares became ~30K free shares after the reverse split. I will happily watch the IPO tomorrow. Remember the last financing is at 2 CAD."
More Than 25 Moz Gold Since 1985
The Hemlo project, 35 kilometers east of the town of Marathon in Ontario, is on the traditional territories of the Biigtigong Nishnaabeg and Netmizaaggamig Nishnaabeg First Nations, explained Hemlo Mining. The Canadian mine has historically produced more than 25,000,000 ounces (25 Moz) of gold since 1985 from underground and open-pit operations.
As of December 31, 2024, Hemlo's Probable reserves are 41,200,000 tons (41.2 Mt) of 1.75 grams per ton (1.75 g/t) gold for 2.3 Moz of contained gold. The Measured and Indicated resource is 71.3 Mt of 1.58 g/t gold for 3.6 Moz of contained gold. The inferred resource is 9.8 Mt of 1.98 g/t gold for 624 Koz of contained gold.
The recent prefeasibility study of Hemlo, detailed in the Hemlo Mining release, outlines an operation producing 154 Koz per year at an all-in sustaining cost of US$1,541 per ounce (US$1,541/oz) over a 14-year LOM. At consensus gold prices, the project is estimated to generate a US$1.1B after-tax net present value (NPV) discounted at 5% and US$1.49B of LOM after-tax free cash flow.
"If you look at the NAV sensitivity to gold price table, when you're looking at US$3,500 gold, you're looking at a US$1.8 billion asset," Kosec told Katusa during a recent interview. "We see a tremendous amount of value to be unlocked. If gold pulls back to US$2,750, you're still looking at a billion-dollar NAV."
US$5,000 Gold?
Yet, gold does not seem to be pulling back at all. According to a November 30 article by Mining.com, citing Goldman Sachs, "Almost 70% of global institutional investors expect gold prices to post additional gains next year." This was based on a recent poll where 36% of respondents said they believe gold will surpass US$5,000 by the end of next year.
Goldman Sachs' Daan Struyven also said in a recent podcast that gold is now in a multi-year bullmarket.
Shad Marquitz of Excelsior Prosperity highlighted the remarkable technical picture for gold on November 28, observing that on Black Friday 2025, "gold futures closed November at US$4,254.90, the highest monthly close ever," he stated, while "silver futures closed November at US$57.165, [also] the highest monthly close ever." He argued this is highly significant because a lot of generalist and institutional investors will not be able to ignore the strength of these longer-duration monthly charts.
Von Greyerz's Matthew Piepenburg, on November 24, took a more macro-focused view, warning about liquidity stress in the financial system. According to his analysis, rising repo rates signal tightening liquidity, which, for bankers, is like the appearance of a rising shark fin for a weekend ocean swimmer. He noted that even before nervous bankers met at the New York Fed, the Fed had already injected US$125 billion through short-term funding operations to keep repo rates "controlled," but with little success. This backdrop, he argued, strengthens the case for gold as a protection against systemic risks.
Solid Leadership Team
Hemlo Mining's leadership consists of individuals with experience operating mining assets in Canada. To name a handful, Kosec, its president, CEO, and a director, has experience with both a merger with Integra Resources Corp. (ITR:TSX.V; IRRZF:OTCQB) as the founder and former president and CEO of Millennial Precious Metals Corp., and an acquisition in 2024, acting in the same role for the combined company.
Awde, the company's executive chairman, cofounded Dakota and Gold Standard Ventures Corp. (GSV:TSX.V; GSV:NYSE) (sold for CA$242 million in 2022). Robert Quartermain, to be a Hemlo Mining director, is the former 25-year CEO of SSR Mining Inc. (SSRM:NASDAQ) and founder of Pretium Resources Inc., whose Brucejack mine was sold for US$2.8 billion in 2022. He played a key role in the discovery and delineation of Hemlo when working as a geologist for Teck. Dr. Raphael Dutaut, to be the company's vice president of exploration, previously worked in similar roles at Millennial Precious Metals and Integra.
"We are confident that (Hemlo Mining's) experienced management and the existing Hemlo team will be excellent stewards of the asset, unlock its future potential and continue to deliver benefits for all stakeholders," Mark Bristow, former CEO of Barrick, said in the September release.
According to Katusa, members of management participated in the recent financing. Awde, for example, invested US$6.5 million, and Kosec put in US$2 million, half of his net worth.
The Catalysts
Hemlo Mining will carry out the following three initiatives at the Hemlo project within the next 12 months, Katusa reported in a KRO Private Placement Alert, all of which should positively catalyze the company's stock price.
- Optimize the mine and maximize the existing infrastructure. The mill is currently at ~40% capacity, and the hoist is at ~60% capacity
- Hemlo Mining will increase the economic gold cutoff to US$2,100, which in turn will boost the amount of ore going into the mill. Despite a mill capacity of 10,000 tons per day (10 Ktpd), only 3.8 Ktpd are being fed into it.
- Commission one of the largest drill programs in Canada next year. Drilling ~100km, aiming to expand the resource and extend the life-of-mine (LOM).
"Our business objective is clear: to maximize the value of Hemlo's existing infrastructure through a fit-for-purpose operating approach, while unlocking new opportunities through an aggressive brownfields exploration strategy," Kosec said in the September release.
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Important Disclosures:
- Dakota Gold Corp. is a billboard sponsor of Streetwise Reports and pays SWR a monthly sponsorship fee between US$3,000 and US$6,000.
- As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Barrick Mining Corp., Dakota Gold Corp., Hemlo Mining Corp., and Wheaton Precious Metals Inc.
- Steve Sobek wrote this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an independent contractor.
- This article does not constitute investment advice and is not a solicitation for any investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her personal financial adviser and perform their own comprehensive investment research. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company.
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