After a day of rest for the market for the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, here is a spread of the market news on opening. Plenty of news across the mining and resources sector today.
- Vimy Resources have requested a trading halt pending a capital raise. The company has projects in WA – at the Mulga Rock project in the far Eastern Goldfields and the Alligator River project is in the Northern Territory.
- Pioneer Resources are looking at their Sinclair Caesium mine after a review moves into Stage 2.
Additional resources have been identified 80m north of the pit shell. The focus on the next stage of review will identify Further drilling options and further mining methods. Tim Spencer, Managing Director of Pioneer Resources said Stage 2 would take around three months to complete, but he was quite pleased with the results so far. “The Sinclair Mine paid off handsomely for the Company. While the Stage 2 mine would likely be smaller in scale, it could yield an even higher margin per tonne of caesium oxide extracted and generate additional cash so that we can continue to self-fund our exploration activities for lithium, gold and nickel.” He said. - A unaudited March quarter update has been released from AngloGold Ashanti. The report has shown a production figure of 716,000oz in Q1 2020, supported by strong performances from Kibali, Geita and Iduapriem. AngloGold Ashanti has interests in Australia with the Tropicana Gold Mine and also Sunrise Dam, combined for the March Quarter, the Australian Operations produced 130,000oz. Tropicana produced 73,000 oz which is down 15% in year on year variance and Sunrise Dam 57,000oz which is down 20% YOY. Production was down at Tropicana due to lower grades through the mill with a higher throughput on waste ore from Havana Stage one cutback also underway. While exploration continues at Sunrise Dam to deliver development and drilling to grow ore reserves. A lower head grade made its way through the mill in the first quarter of the 2020 year as per previously planned. All in sustained costs with the Australian operations were up 29% year on year.
- After Kogan`s 100% increase on gross sales reported on Friday, Wesfarmers has released an increase of 89% in online sales for the calendar year for its retail operations with Officeworks and Bunnings leading the charge. Sales momentum in the businesses Kmart and Target stores has improved as availability in home and living stock became highly regarded. Bunnings has spent over $20 Million on cleaning, security and protective equipment under the COVID-19 restrictions. Although restrictions have started to ease across Australia, Managing Director of Wesfarmers Rob Scott said “Each of our businesses remains vigilant in prioritising the safety of team members and customers. Safety measures, including restricting the number of people in store, may at times result in some inconvenience and we are grateful for the patience and understanding of customers.”
- A drilling update has been issued for De Grey Mining at its Aquila zone in the Hemi Discovery around 60km from Port Hedland in the Western Australian Pilbara region. Technical Director for De Grey Mining Andy Beckwith said “At Aquila, we still have not reached the limits of mineralisation. Step out drilling shows we are still in strong broad and high grade mineralisation along the length of the deposit. Deeper RC and diamond drilling is planned to target approximately 100m below mineralisation as well as further extensions along strike.” Aquila has been extended to the east with the following drill results,
41m @ 6.8g/t Au from 181m in HERC086 inc.
14m @ 10g/t Au from 206m (Hole ends in mineralisation)
16m @ 1.6g/t Au from 144m in HERC085
While there were significant depth extensions for
69.5m @ 1.3g/t Au from 80m in HERC031D
30m @ 1.7g/t Au from 125m in HERC093