As the shortest day for the Southern Hemisphere passes, Victoria COVID cases spark second wave fears and big miners back a decarbonising future.
A manganese project has reached the final milestone for the granting of a mining lease for Element 25 for its Butcherbird project. An access agreement has been signed between Element 25 and and the owner of the Bulloo Downs Pastoral Lease, Ms Chandra Ridley. The Agreement allows Ms Ridley appropriate contracting opportunities, contains certain milestone cash payments as well as setting up a cooperative framework to foster a strong working relationship going forward. Managing Director Justin Brown said “E25 is very pleased to be able to report this important milestone in what we hope will be a long and mutually beneficial relationship. Importantly, it paves the way for the grant of a Mining Lease over the planned production area and is a critical development step for E25”. The Butcherbird Project has a reported current JORC resource in excess of 263 Mt of manganese ore.
A record quarter is on the cards for Ramelius Resources with current production figures of 74,371oz and a production guidance upgrade for the financial year. Production for the quarter will still include two gold pours and is expected to reach over 80,000oz. While for the annual figures, previous guidance showed around 210,000 to 220,000oz will likely reach over 225,000oz. Mark Zeptner has said “We are obviously delighted by the operational performance in achieving records in both quarterly and annual gold production, particularly against the backdrop of COVID-19 and the additional administrative requirements the pandemic has necessitated. We remain confident that Ramelius, with its high-performing team, excellent cash generation and enviable balance sheet, is very well positioned for the next stage of growth.”
RC Drilling is set to commence in three weeks for Marmota at its Aurora Tank Gold project. Recent test results have show mineralised lodes can be expected to geologically continue to depth below the zone currently drilled. Around 85 holes for 7,500m is earmarked for the RC program which is fully funded and expected to take around 3 – 4 weeks. Marmota Chairman Dr Colin Rose said “This is Marmota’s largest ever RC drill program at Aurora Tank and with a special focus on primary mineralisation extensions. It is shaping up as one of our most interesting, varied and exciting drill programs to date.”
Another announcement of RC drilling has occurred today with Legend Mining commencing RC drilling at the Mawson prospect at Fraser Range. Legend Mining Managing Director Mark Wilson said “This RC programme is an important step in the development of the Mawson story. “The new aircore assays show a developing eastern geochemical footprint. There is now a cluster of holes around holes 823 and 825 with assay results equal to or better than the best ones in the western footprint. These assays have upgraded the prospectivity of the Mawson eastern footprint.” Around 3000m of RC drilling will occur at Mawson.
A Queensland project has revealed high grade copper and gold for Zenith Minerals. Flanagans results include – gold to 5.3 g/t Au, silver to 100 g/t Ag and copper to 8.0% Cu. Flanagans is around 100km from Cracow. While another prospect – Great Blackall, revealed– gold to 3.4 g/t Au, silver to 273 g/t Ag and copper to 13.9% Cu. CEO Mark Clifford said “These are very early stage soil and rock-based results at the Flanagans Project. We are however encouraged by them particularly given that we were following up on some historical positive third-party results. This work follows on from some more advanced positive drill results at our nearby 100% owned Red Mountain Project. This geological region in Queensland has a history of commercial gold and base metal discoveries and we feel that we have given ourselves a good shot at success. Both Projects (Flanagans and Red Mountain) require a significant amount of follow up work to test and validate.”