Welcome back to your weekly mining news recap. At the end of every week we’ll catch you up on the news you might have missed from CIM Magazine and elsewhere around the web. Among this week’s top stories: Cameco extends its suspension of McArthur River and Key Lake and lays off 550; Lundin Mining launches a hostile takeover of Nevsun, and Newmont acquires 50 per cent of the Galore Creek project in B.C.

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Barrick president Kelvin Dushnisky is Johannesburg-bound to head up AngloGold Ashanti. The South Africa-based miner has been on the hunt for a new CEO since April when Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan departed for Vedanta Resources. Dushnisky has been with Barrick since 2002, and, prior to taking the helm as president, served as co-president with Jim Gowans.

Due to a weak uranium market, Cameco said it would extend the production suspension of its McArthur River and Key Lake operations indefinitely and permanently lay off 550 site employees. The announcement came in its second-quarter results on Wednesday, when it reported net losses of $76 million for the quarter. In November 2017 the company said the suspension, which took effect in January, was expected to last 10 months.

A Victoria, B.C. toxicology laboratory developed a novel hair screening tool to measure metal levels in the body, which was piloted over six months at Teck Resources’ zinc and lead smelting and refining complex in Trail. The pilot determined that hair analysis is as sensitive and effective a tool as blood tests. We’ve got that exclusive story here.

On Wednesday, United Steelworkers said that its Local 1-2017 had reached a tentative agreement with Imperial Metals that would get striking Mount Polley employees back to work. Mining operations at the site have been suspended since May 23, when the workers first went on strike. Union members will vote on the agreement on July 31 and August 1.

Newmont Mining will buy NovaGold’s 50 per cent interest in the joint-venture Galore Creek copper-gold-silver project for US$275 million, making it Teck’s new partner on the project. Galore Creek, located in the Tahltan Nation’s traditional territory, has Proven and Probable Reserves of 69 million tonnes at 0.59 per cent copper and 0.32 grams per tonne (g/t) gold. The purchase comes in a year that has seen multiple major miners looking to acquire copper projects due to its role in electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy.

And on that topic, Lundin Mining launched a hostile $1.4-billion takeover bid for Nevsun Resources yesterday after failing to convince Nevsun’s board to take a friendly deal. Lundin has made a total of five offers to get access to Nevsun’s Timok copper project in Serbia.

Industry conferences are attempting to keep up with the needs of young mothers who hope to attend networking events, but struggling with the liability and cost of offering on-site childcare. In the newest installment of our We Are Mining series, we looked at the necessity of having resources like nursing rooms and childcare at mining conferences to help new mothers return to the industry.