This week’s News Bites is dedicated to news coming out of the Diggers and Dealers’ forum currently underway in Kalgoorlie Boulder.
Day one didn’t disappoint, and it started with what many described as the best welcome to country they have ever heard. Linden Brownley, a proud young Wongutha man, gave the welcome and you could have heard a pin drop in the auditorium. The Premier, Mark McGowan, opened proceedings in a lively manner, which was well received. When presentations started it was Bill Beament and Raleigh Finlayson that had everyone glued to their seats, if they could find one, to listen to what was happening with the proposed behemoth. David Southam from Mincor followed the duo and his presentation was sprinkled with a bit of humour.
Forum Chairman, Jim Walker, welcomed everyone to this years Diggers and looked briefly to the past and what laid ahead for the forum. He announced that next year the date for the forum will move back to the traditional time around the start of August. He also paid tribute to the man who has overseen the logistics of putting Diggers together for the past 29 years. Graham Thomson is hanging his hat up after joining the forum when Geoffrey Stokes kicked it off, and when the Stokes family sold it off the new owners were wise enough to keep him on. Great job Graham, you should be proud of what you have done.
WA Premier, Mark McGowan:
Mr McGowan was quick to get in a jibe about Clive Palmer, even quipping that it would probably mean another lawsuit from the man. He did however get down to the serious business and thanked the resource industry for the way they have behaved through the Covid19 restrictions. He has no doubt that the WA resource sector and associated industries have carried the nation throughout the year, and it has reminded the eastern states of how much the west contributes to the economy. He thinks it will be WA that leads the nation during the economic recovery, and it will be on the back of the sector that has done a lot of the heavy lifting already.
He said in the early days two pieces of information out of all the data he was receiving concerned him the most. The first was the potential health implications of the virus if it was to spread through the community unfettered. The second was the business sectors that would have long lasting consequences from the economic damage wreaked on them if it went unchecked. The premier said it was a conscious decision to keep the resource sector open and that decision has paid dividends. He paid tribute to the CME and its CEO, Paul Everingham, for the cooperation with the government in ensuring companies did the right thing.
The premier noted that WA is the only state not in recession and has committed to keeping the sector going. He quoted some impressive figures concerning investment and growth and noted that the WA government has a good trading relationship with the likes of China. WA exports $AU100B in goods to China, mostly iron ore, and from them we import $AU4B, a $AU96B trading surplus that he does not want to jeopardise.
In signing off his speech, he quipped: “It’s time to bet big on WA.” How many will take the bet on WA and what it has to offer?
Northern Star and Saracen:
Northern Star CEO, Stuart Tonkin, kicked off the presentation running through their operations and production figures for each of their sites. They also anticipate that production will increase to 1.25Moz in the year 2023 at their three main regions they operate in; Yandal and Kalgoorlie (excluding KCGM) in WA and Pogo in Alaska.
Raleigh Finlayson from Saracen took to the stage and gave an overview of their operations as well as talking about expanding on their mill capacity at both Carosue Dam and Thunderbox processing plants.
But what everyone wanted to hear was Bill and Raleigh’s plan for the Kalgoorlie Superpit that is about to become a super Superpit according to Raleigh.
Bill Beament went though some drilling results of new lodes they are finding in the pit. He said it was surprising that they have found these since taking over the operation and these new finds are adding to the mine life of the pit. One grade went 23.8M at 66.1g/t.
Mt Charlotte is having more exploration work and gold is being found in all types of rock structures in the mine. Infrastructure is being upgraded or improved and some of this has already seen an increase in productivity of 50% in the first six months of their ownership. The new ownership of the Superpit had also been well received by the workforce.
Raleigh Finlayson spoke about the merger and said the case was so compelling that the companies were able to make the decision easily. Tier one assets were spoken about and the merged company would continue to look at other tier one assets.
The Superpit has produced an astonishing amount of gold for the size of the area. Raleigh noted that the Superpit has had 85Moz in resource, which is more than all the combined assets of Saracen. The good news is that many more millions of ounces are still in the ground, which will see the Superpit being part of Kalgoorlie Boulder for many, many years to come.
Their presentation was well received and with the positive outlook on the Superpit, other companies’ fortunes turning around and delegates feeling a buzz, the resource sector in WA is showing great signs. The feeling in Kalgoorlie Boulder amongst the locals is that something good is happening and the city is humming more than this correspondent has seen in the last 30 years.