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Morning News Bites – July 8

Restrictions tighten to get in to Victoria as blame continues on Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Deloitte cuts staff and tax relief may come soon according to Josh Frydenberg

The creation of an integrated monitoring and governance platform for Tailing Storage Facilities is a cause of Memorandum of Understanding between K2Fly and Decipher. According to Chief Commercial Officer Nic Pollock, the synergy is about best practice and ensuring the stipulations in place by governing bodies are adhered to.  “Our proposed solution will ensure industry has access to a significantly better tool to aid monitoring and governance of TSFs to recognised standards. The solution reflects best practice and will support compliance with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management recently endorsed by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) and other Global Tailings Review convenors, as well as standards set by national regulatory bodies,” he said. Decipher is a Perth cloud based company which helps manage the earth’s resources to be more sustainable and profitable and is part of Wesfarmers

Apollo Consolidated has hit found some significant new gold intercepts at Lake Rebecca Gold Project which will lead to follow up. 6m @ 9.72/t Au (including 1m @ 49.8g/t Au) was located within 2km of the Duchess deposit and has been identified for an immediate follow up. The results of the RC drilling has been found in a prospective corridor north east of the Duchess gold deposit.  The combined drilling along this magnetic/structural corridor suggests excellent potential for significant new gold mineralisation. The drilling program was designed to continue on the February 2020 maiden estimate, which combined in-situ Mineral Resources of 27.1 million tonnes at 1.2g/t Au for 1.035 million ounces of gold. Now results demonstrate potential for new Mineral Resources in broader Project area.

Saracen Minerals have released a June production update which has shown 145,830oz. Of which the KCGM Super Pit (Joint venture with Northern Star Resources) has produced 53,398oz, while Carosue Dam produced 50,315oz and Thunderbox 42,117oz. Results show a FY20 production figure of a record 520,414oz which was around 20,000oz above guidance. Managing Director Raleigh Finlayson said “We have now met or exceeded guidance for seven straight financial years,” he said. “We are also meeting our undertakings to continue driving growth and we expect this to be clearly evident in our strong news flow over the coming months.” Mr Finlayson has recently been featured on an Industry Link Media podcast discussing Saracen and its Super Pit buy.  

Northern Star Resources has announced its June quarter update. The KCGM Joint Venture holder has announced its postponed FY20 interim dividend of A7.5¢ to be paid on July 16, 2020 – fully franked. Northern Star also drew down an additional A$200 million in debt in the March quarter but advised the market today it has repaid that A$200 million on July 6 2020. The Jundee Operation produced 80,666oz for the June quarter and 300,150oz for FY20 while Pogo produced 49,353oz for quarter and 174,307 for FY20. The Kalgoorlie operations produced 83,945oz for June quarter and 318,759oz for FY20 which saw overall milled tonnes increasing by 10%, head grade increasing by 4% and gold production increasing by 13% compared to the March quarter. And as reported the KCGM Super Pit focus turned to expanding the available open pit mining front 53,397oz per June quarter and 111,961oz for the FY 20.  According to Bill Beament, Executive Chairman Northern Star Resources  “The results at our Pogo mine in Alaska were particularly pleasing given the challenging circumstances emanating from COVID-19 where we effectively managed safe operations with 36 confirmed cases through the quarter. Despite the considerable impacts of COVID-19 at Pogo, the underlying trend of rising production and productivity continued. This further demonstrates the huge potential of this asset in more conventional circumstances. The teams at our Jundee and Kalgoorlie Operations excelled and we made strong progress towards our goal of unlocking the significant upside at KCGM.”

3D Resources has announced a maiden drill program for the Adelong Goldfield in New South Wales. Drilling is expected to start on August 10 2020. Initial focus will start on drilling at Donkey Hill and then continue to Currajong, where the inclusion of which has only recently been approved into the amended mine operation plan. 3D Chairman Ian Hastings said “The Company is excited to announce our maiden drilling program at the Adelong Goldfield Projects scheduled to start next month. Concurrently, we continue to progress our strategic review with a focus on maximising impact for our shareholders. We see tremendous opportunity across the Adelong Goldfields Projects and I look forward to working with the Board to unlock the potential in the coming months.”

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Morning News Bites – July 7

Bushfires burn on the Gallipoli peninsula, Chance of COVID-19 restrictions to return to NSW and AfterPay posts a record quarter

St Barbara Mines has announced its June 2020 quarterly production report which has shown 108,612oz for the quarter and pushes St Barbara over the 100,000 oz mark in the quarter for the first time in two years. The Quarterly figure also brought 20FY figure of 381,887 oz. Signature mine Gwalia produced 171,156 oz for the 20FY with 51,297 ounces produced in the quarter.  Overall for the FY20, The company’s Atlantic Gold deposit produced above guidance. While Gwalia was within and Simberi was just outside of FY20 guidance.  Managing Director and CEO, Craig Jetson, said, “The June quarter performance highlights the extraordinary efforts of our people and business partners in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic. We continue to adhere to our COVID‐19 management plan to care for our people and our partners, safely maintain our operations and manage this ongoing risk. This quarter reflects our strong focus on Gwalia’s production profile, the positive impact of the Atlantic Gold operations and the opportunity that remains at Simberi.  We are working hard to deliver on our current assets as we review our business and operating model to ensure an exciting future for St Barbara.  2020 marks a new era in the evolution of St Barbara.”  Mr Jetson also indicated that the production (of over 100,000oz in the quarter) shows the potential for the company and also pointed out Gwalia achieved its highest mill throughput since 2014.

Guidance for 2020 was achieved for Alkane Resources Tomingley Gold Operations in New South Wales. The company earmarked FY2020 production guidance of between 30,000 oz to 35,000 oz with the production of 33,507 oz. Alkane Managing Director, Nic Earner, said: “The team at Tomingley Gold Operations continues to perform very well, consistently meeting or exceeding guidance. With an updated mine plan soon to be released and the great potential being shown very close to the mine, through our exploration at Roswell and San Antonio, we remain buoyant about the longer-term prospects at Tomingley. The Board and management acknowledge and thank the team at Tomingley for their strong and continued safety and production performance.” Alkane also had preliminary all in sustained costs of $1357/oz produced which was within the $1250 and $1400 guidance.

Global mining tech company IMDEX, has acquired AusSpec in a deal worth $8.5m which included $3m in cash and $5.5m in IMDEX shares. AusSpec ia a leading provider of spectral mineralogy through its unique aiSIRIS platform – Artificial Intelligence (AI) Spectral InfraRed Interpretation System. IMDEX CEO Paul House, said “AusSpec is a strong strategic fit for IMDEX that is consistent with IMDEX’s acquisition and development strategies. The acquisition provides a compelling opportunity to build on our total rock knowledge offering for clients – from the rig to the core farm and the mill. Every mine in the world makes decisions on the four components of rock knowledge – location, texture, grade and mineralogy. Our technology stack currently addresses three of these components and aiSIRIS satisfies the fourth – mineralogy.”

Aruma Resources has applied for a bigger footprint for its Saltwater Gold Project. The 463km2 Saltwater Project is on the same structure as Northern Star Resources’ Paulsens Gold Mine and the Mt Olympus Gold Mine in the region. Aruma has applied for a prospecting licence which covers an area of 96 sqkm. There are now priority targets for Aruma and that includes the Saltwater Anomaly, the Atlantis Anomaly and the Monster Anomaly. The Nanjilgardy fault which runs through the project has enhanced the prospectivity of the Saltwater Project alongside the previous mining activities.

Downer Group has been awarded a South Australian contract valued at an estimated $420 million over a maximum term of 13 years. The contract is with the South Australian Government Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (DPTI) for its road maintenance contracts. Downer CEO Grant Fenn said “Downer has been maintaining South Australian roads since 2003, Currently, Downer is providing maintenance and emergency road services to DPTI, but under these new contracts Downer will also deliver a range of other services including maintenance of intelligent transport systems, management of third party works and minor capital improvements. Overall, Downer will deliver reliable road networks to ensure efficient and safe journeys and also provide opportunities for local service providers and suppliers.”

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Morning News Bites – July 6

Labor picks up Eden-Monaro, Possibility the Melbourne CBD could be locked down as COVID-19 spreads in Victoria and ASX tipped for a weaker start.

  • Located around 20km from the Super Pit in Western Australia, Pioneer Resources Golden Ridge Project is set to spring to life again. Field reconnaissance programs are underway and the ongoing Gold Prospectively Review has identified other Company Projects with emerging gold potential. Managing Director Tim Spencer, said: “In recent years, the focus at our Blair Golden Ridge Project has been on nickel, however this has not always been the case – particularly for previous holders of the ground, including WMC Resources. “The thick historical gold intercepts outlined above were probably not as interesting for a company looking for big deposits in a sub-A$600/oz gold price environment, but they are certainly interesting with gold over A$2,500/oz. This ground has been intermittently explored and drilled for over 40 years so there is much work to be done in pulling together and interpreting all the historical data as one dataset. We are encouraged that compelling targets have been identified early in this work.”
  • Krakatoa Resources has announced it has expanded its landholding in the Lachlan Fold Belt in New South Wales through direct license application by taking on the Rand Project. Rand is prospective for multi million-ounce mineralisation-styles, including features similar to De Grey’s Mallina Gold Project. Historical data includes Drill results from a 1988 campaign where the program ended in gold mineralisation preserved near the base of an intensively weathered and leached saprolite at the Welcome Find Reef and Show Day Reef with no subsequent exploration work. The Company will undertake a comprehensive review of the historical work completed and publicly available datasets to generate targets for field reconnaissance.
  • A new exploration drilling program for Venturex Resources has been finalised for its Sulphur Springs Copper-Zinc Project in Western Australia. The program will follow up from the 2019 drilling which identified results such as 18m @ 7.75% Zn, 2.03% Pb, 0.25% Cu and 22.8g/t Ag. Venturex Executive Director, Anthony Reilly is looking ahead with the exploration project and its chance to strengthen growth for Venturex “Any new discoveries along the Panorama Trend will strengthen our growth pipeline and potentially either extend the life or increase the scale of a future base metal processing centre at Sulphur Springs, so we are really looking forward to what this next phase of exploration can deliver, We also plan to test several large EM targets highlighted in the 2017 HEM survey over the northern portion of the Panorama Trend. The first target, XA8, shows potential early-stage indications of nickel sulphide mineralisation quite distinct to the Sulphur Springs Cu-Zn orebody, 1,200m to the east.” He said. There is also a share purchase plan underway at $0.055 per share with free attaching options on the basis of 1 option for every 2 shares subscribed.
  • Results of 85m @ 11.6g/t Au from 7m and 8m @ 99.0g/t Au from 7m have highlighted results from Musgrave Minerals from its RC Drilling at Starlight. Results so far confirm and extend the near surface, high-grade gold mineralisation. Musgrave Managing Director Rob Waugh said: “Starlight continues to produce stunning gold results in near surface drilling. Further RC drilling is underway to infill and extend the Starlight mineralisation with the aim of completing a JORC resource update late in Q3 2020. Drilling is continuing with two rigs on site and we are confident we can extend Starlight and the new White Light lode and make significant new discoveries in the belt.” Follow-up RC drilling on the Starlight lode at Break of Day is continuing with further results to be known within a month.
  • Ausmon Resources has completed the field exploration work at Broken Hill. The logistics and soil sampling has been completed and drilling will test the PI2 pyrite/silica zone at 50 m below the surface and the cobaltiferous orthogneiss at 50 and 100 m below the surface. Ausmon have outlined a 1.5 km cobalt, gold and base metals target at the site.

 

 

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Morning News Bites – July 3

Federal Treasurer Mathias Cormann has suggested there will be further tax incentives for business in the October Budget, but also indicated he will step away from politics after the budget. Afterpay is closing in on an ASX Top 20 spot and reports quarantine hotels let guests out to go shopping in Victoria.

Civmec have been awarded a new contract with a Dry Plant Detailed Earthworks and Concrete package for the Iron Bridge Magnetite Project 145km from Port Hedland. Civmec’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Patrick Tallon, said: “Through our current delivery of works for Fortescue in the Pilbara, we have formed a strong working relationship built on transparency, trust and collaboration and reliable execution. This is an exciting project of a very significant scale with a declared value for the overall project being US$2.6 billion. The Iron Bridge Joint Venture has demonstrated and refined each step of the magnetite ore processing system and conducted full-scale trials to ensure the effectiveness of the process and gain confidence in the overall project success”. The works will commence immediately and are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022. The works are to enable 22 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of high grade, magnetite concentrate product to be produced.

Black Cat Syndicate, who yesterday announced the stake that Silver Lake has now in the company alongside some recent acquisitions, has announced drill results at Mhyree. Drilling intersected mineralisation  and recorded 6.45m @ 9.43 g/t Au from 228.51m, 1.97m @ 11.68 g/t Au from 155.06m and 2.14m @ 21.03 g/t Au from 95.06m. Mhyree is 100% owned by Black Cat Syndicate and continues to deliver strong results. Gareth Solly – Managing Director of Black Cat said “The geotechnical results and positive gold assays will be fed into the Myhree mining study. The recent RC drilling at Bulong has also now been completed and assays are expected in mid-July 2020. Additional diamond holes are currently being drilled at Myhree with results due in late August 2020. RC drill planning on priority targets at Fingals is now underway and will be announced in July 2020.”

Recent Exploration at the Sandy Creek and Tallandoon Goldfields has brought results for Dart Mining in an historical area in Northeast Victoria. Multiple occurrences of disseminated gold-sulphide mineralisation in hydrothermally altered granites have been identified at Sandy Creek. While high-grade gold occurring with antimony-lead-zinc-gold-silver silica-sulphide mineralisation identified at Tallandoon. Further drilling is required at Sandy Creek Goldfield with multiple targets and a workplan for 980m of drilling, which has been approved for first pass RAB or RC drilling of the primary targets identified.

Great Boulder Resources has announced drilling is scheduled to recommence mid July. Drilling will test priority areas within the large, coherent gold-in-soil anomaly identified earlier in the year by auger sampling at its Whiteheads Project north of Kalgoorlie. Great Boulder Managing Director Andrew Paterson said “We’ve been fairly quiet for the past couple of months, conserving cash while the Coronavirus pandemic played out. “Now that things are returning to normal in Western Australia we’re looking forward to testing these priority anomalies at Whiteheads. The bottom-of-hole geochemistry study is ongoing, and a lot more work is planned for the coming months.”

It’s been a big week for Ora Banda Mining. After announcements this week on it’s projects North of Kalgoorlie, including its Davyhurst Definitive Feasibility Study where Managing Director David Quinlivan said “The DFS confirms that the significant existing infrastructure will enable Ora Banda to pursue a rapid and low-capex path to production, with the first gold pour targeted for January 2021”, Ora Banda Mining has entered a trading halt pending a capital rising. It’s anticipated the halt will be lifted on or before Tuesday July 7 2020.

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Morning News Bites – July 2

Woolworths has been fined $1 million for continuing to send emails to recipents who indicated they no longer wanted to receive correspondence, Victoria goes in to postcode lockdown and Tesla overtakes Toyota as the world’s most valuable carmaker.

SRG Global has provided the market with an update on its operations and also outlined bringing forward a half year dividend which was originally posted as being due 29 October 2020. The first half Interim Dividend payment of 0.5 cents per share has been brought forward to 30 July 2020. As part of the market update, SRG announced the Financial Year 20 Underlying EBITDA expected to be $20m – $21m. SGR Global Managing Director David Macgeorge, “SRG Global’s focus has and will remain the safety and wellbeing of our people and accordingly we proactively implemented a range of safety, supply chain and cost mitigation measures to manage the company through the uncertainty caused by COVID-19. With the actions we have now taken, we expect FY21 EBITDA growth to be circa 50% from underlying FY20. We have a strong pipeline of opportunities in excess of $6b, with positive exposure to Government backed Infrastructure investment, high quality commodities, diverse industries and a tier one client base. This has us well positioned for long-term sustainable growth.” SRG has around  $707m as described as work in hand as at 30 June 2020. With this figure, approximately two thirds of work in hand annuity/recurring in nature. The Company continued to invest in growth capital in 2H FY20 including the commencement of five-year contracts with both Alcoa and Saracen Minerals.

Breaker Resources has announced a hit of 4m @ 21.79g/t Au from 172m from one of three RC drill holes as part of the maiden drilling at the Carbineer Prospect. All three drill holes intersected significant gold mineralisation at the project with assay results for another 11 holes pending. Executive Chairman Tom Sanders recapped the drilling results and also eluded to good results around the Kopai-Crescent area – he said “These two emerging discoveries have the potential to materially expand our shallow gold inventory and complement our success extending the Bombora gold deposit at depth, We are still gauging the extent of the mineralisation footprint in each area on very wide reconnaissance drill hole spacings. So to hit high-grade gold at the Carbineer Prospect on the first two single-hole sections 100m apart, is both exciting and unusual. Further drilling is planned to restart in two weeks. In the Kopai-Crescent area we are seeing significant gold up to 2-4g/t over a very large area. I think that the high-grade intersections will come once we finish scoping the areal extent of the mineralisation and then zero in on the structures controlling the gold.”

Black Cat Syndicate has completed the acquisition of the Fingals and Rowes Find gold project.  Fingals is located around 30 kms south east of Bulong and Rowe’s Find is located around 100 km east of Bulong. The transaction has increased Black Cat`s resource by 145%. Also Silver Lake Resources has emerged as a substantial shareholder (8.7%) in Black Cat and will have the first right of refusal on any toll treating arrangements relating to Fingals and Rowe’s Find. Black Cat’s Managing Director, Gareth Solly, commented: “We are extremely pleased to have completed this transformational acquisition and welcome Silver Lake as our largest shareholder. With the acquisition of Fingals and Rowe’s Find completed, we will now focus on converting the JORC 2004 Resources to JORC 2012 Resources, updating the JORC 2012 Resources and identifying our immediate drilling priorities. We will commence releasing the results of this work later in July 2020.”

The awarding of a the Corunna Downs Mining Services’ contract for Atlas Iron Pty Ltd has been awarded to MACA Limited. The project will consist of open pit mining services including drilling & blasting, and loading & hauling. The contract will generate approximately $230 million in revenue for MACA over the 62 month term. MACA CEO Mike Sutton said “We are pleased to have been selected as the Contract Miner for Atlas building on our workload in the Iron Ore Sector with an existing client. We look forward to being part of the successful development of this project”. MACA has previously worked on Atlas Iron projects at Pardoo, Mt Dove, Abydos and Wodgina operations as well as providing Crushing Services for Atlas at its Mount Webber Operations and Civil works at Corunna Downs.

A planned Financial Year 2021 exploration program has been announced by Australian Potash under the Earn-In & Joint Venture agreement by joint venture partner St Barbara Limited for the Lake Wells Gold Project. The exploration program will cover around 30,000m. Managing Director and CEO, Matt Shackleton said “The results of exploration to date by St Barbara generated compelling analogies to the richly endowed Kundana goldfield endowed with in excess of 8M ounces of gold. St Barbara has confirmed the details of the planned FY21 exploration program, including up to 30,000 metres across targets in the Yamarna and Lake Wells joint venture areas. Subject to access, the program is planned to commence in September and is likely to continue through to the end of Q2 FY21.”

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Morning News Bites – July 1

New financial year is HERE! A glimmer of hope after a horrid 6 months for world markets.

  • AMP has sold its Life Insurance business to Resolution life for $3 billion. Broken down that figure is $2.5 billion cash; and $500 million equity interest in Resolution Life Australia, a new Australian-domiciled, Resolution Life-controlled holding company that is now the owner of AMP Life. AMP Chief Executive Francesco De Ferrari said “The sale is a major milestone for AMP demonstrating our ability to execute complex projects including through the difficulties of COVID-19. “It is also a historic moment as AMP ceases to be a life insurer after 170 years. Our Life teams will move to Resolution Life and will continue to support clients who will see no changes in their policy terms or conditions.”
  • Chevron has completed its acquisition of Puma Energy via all shares and equity interests of Puma Energy. As part of this deal, 46 sites in the APN Convenience Retail REIT (AQR or the Fund) portfolio, representing 58% of AQR’s rental income are affected. Chris Brockett, APN Convenience Retail REIT Fund Manager, said: “The portfolio continues to be resilient, notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic, with all sites remaining open and trading and with minimal impact on rental income. The property valuation updates are a strong endorsement of the portfolio and reflect the enhanced credit quality of a Chevron lease covenant for 46 of our properties.” “We expect service station and convenience retail properties to remain highly sought after as a stable and defensive asset class due to their long leases and strong lease covenants.”
  • The key results of the Definitive Feasibility Study for BCI Minerals for its 100% owned Mardie Salt and Potash project have been announced. A positive business case established for production of 4.4Mtpa of high purity salt and 120ktpa of premium SOP fertiliser. There was a Direct capital cost estimate of $580M for all production and port infrastructure. Additional capital cost provision for detailed design, owner’s costs, project management, growth allowances and contingencies of $199M, resulting in total capital cost of $779M. Additional working capital and funding costs are expected to be incurred during construction. According to Managing Director Alwyn Vorster “The DFS delivered positive outcomes in all key project areas and indicates Mardie is technically robust and financially attractive with a potential net present value of more than one billion dollars. An investment of $20M has been made over the past 18 months to deliver the high quality DFS and we will continue to derisk and add value to the Project over the next few months. This should further increase lender and investor confidence, supporting funding solutions.”
  • A drill program has been finalised for Castillo Copper for its Mt Oxide pillar in Queensland. All of the appropriate approvals from the Queensland government has been attained and a up to 12 drilling contractors have been contacted regarding the project with priority given to a crew that is available on short notice at competitive rates. The program is expected to take around 6 – 8 weeks. As part of the proposed program around 3,432m over 14 drill-holes, within an area approx 1,500m by 1,000m, with targets near surface and deeper geophysical anomalies has been identified. Three deep vertical drill-holes, spaced approx 210m apart, will target an interpreted potential massive sulphide bedrock conductor.
  • Meteoric Resources has announced it has completed its acquisition of the Palm Springs gold project south east of Halls creek in the WA Kimberly region. The Palm Springs project contains 60 known gold occurrences over a 20km strike. Previous drill results have heralded 68m @ 2.5g/t Au from 44m and 19m @ 8.8 g/t Au from 56m. An extensive drill program for an area known as Butchers Creek Open Pit gold mine has been submitted to DMIRS with the expected start date to be August 2020.  Managing Director Dr Andrew Tunks said “With this acquisition Meteoric is hopeful of producing some stunning exploration results throughout 2020.  Previous work on  the Palm Springs Project indicates the potential for a substantial untested gold system plunging south, away from the Butchers Creek historic mine yet there has been no  active exploration in the  Butchers Creek area this century!”

 

 

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Morning News Bites – June 30

End of the Financial Year! Business owners are struggling to recruit staff as jobless look to handouts over jobs.

  • Ramelius Resource has announced an extension to its life of mine plan across 6 years to FY2026 with 1.4Moz gold at an average AISC of A$1,250 – A$1,350/oz. Managing Director Mark Zeptner, said “Building on last year’s landmark result of over 1Moz contained within a detailed mine plan, the forward outlook of almost 1.5Moz following a record production year in FY20, is a very pleasing result for Ramelius. It is a further testament to the work done by all our team that we can articulate a longer term plan with production scale, strong margins and an achievable approach to reserve replacement that gives us confidence that this visibility around mine life can be extended going forward.” In a boost to exploration, a $25-30M exploration budget allocated for FY2021, spread across the portfolio. Penny Gold Project Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) results have indicated production of 230koz at an AISC of A$703/oz with development commencing December Quarter 2021. These results have also shown exceptional grade and margins that promise to return significant cashflows to the Company from late FY2022.
  • The Macnaughtan prospect within the Tandarra Gold Project has delivered some highlights in recent aircore drilling with one result – 3 metres @ 94.9g/t Au from 87 metres in drill hole ACT475. The Tandarra Gold Project is around 40km north of Bendigo in Victoria. Catalyst are in a Joint-Venture in the project with Navarre Minerals Limited for the Tandarra Retention Licence, RL006660, which is where the AC drilling has been located. Catalyst Technical Director, Mr Bruce Kay said “The high grades and continuity of gold mineralisation revealed by this AC drilling are highly encouraging, confirming the potential of the southern Macnaughtan prospect to become the second significantly mineralised structure at Tandarra, in parallel with the high grade gold intersections at the Tomorrow Zone, 250 metres to the east.”
  • Manhattan Corporation has announced a further drill program of 5,000m of additional Reverse Circulation (RC) Drilling will take place at New Bendigo commencing in August. The drilling will be targeting the recently discovered shallow high-grade “Western Lode” located 250 metres west of the previously known New Bendigo mineralisation. Recent drilling returned 7m at 18.16 g/t Au from 87m. Drilling is also planned to target between the Western Lode and the Main Zone where there has been no previous drilling.
  • Assays have been received for Legend Mining for its Mawson project.  Legend Managing Director Mark Wilson indicated further analysis would occur before the next step of drilling, “The paydirt grades returned over 35.95m in hole 17 confirm this to be the best hole drilled at Mawson to date. The mineralisation remains open to the northeast, southwest and east of the current diamond drilling and requires further analysis of all datasets prior to planning step out RC/diamond holes.” Hole 17 RKDD017  intersected three significant intervals of massive sulphide, 9.55m @ 2.07% Ni, 1.27% Cu , 0.11% Co from 158.60m, 2.80m @ 2.84% Ni, 2.06% Cu, 0.15% Co from 193.10m and 19.80m @ 2.71% Ni, 1.79% Cu , 0.13% Co from 227.80m. Future plans for Mawson include the continuation of a 3,000m RC drilling programme targeting known sulphide mineralisation, geochemical anomalies and gravity features. and to continue infill aircore drill programme across the greater Mawson area.
  • Results from from Aircore drilling for Yandal Resources has confirm bedrock RC gold targets at Gordons Dam project. Yandal Resources Managing Director Lorry Hughes said “Assay results from 1m re-sampling of anomalous 4m intervals from AC drilling completed in May at Gordons Dam have confirmed the significance of the initial results. Intercepts of +0.5g/t gold were returned from several bottom of drill hole samples where the limit of depth penetration of AC blade drilling into bedrock was reached. These results are similar to those previously drilled east of the palaeochannel mineralisation prior to the discovery of higher grades at depth with RC drilling.” Mr Hughes also gave an indication the funds raised from the current entitlement issues would be directed to RC and Diamond drilling at Gordons Dam which is due to commence in July 2020.
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Morning News Bites – Jun 29

Record approval ratings for the Prime Minister Scott Morrison, The 20th anniversary of the implementation of the GST in Australia is approaching and a cleaning contractor responsible for cleaning the Australia Border Force office at Melbourne Airport has tested positive to COVID19.

  • Fisher and Paykel Health care has posted that operating revenue to March 31 2020 was up 18% over last year. Net profit after tax is expected to be in the vicinity of $287 million.  The increase for the demand with health products related to COVID19 has driven Fisher and Paykel however, Managing Director and CEO Lewis Gradon pointed out that Fisher and Paykel was on track for a strong year without the COVID19 impact “The 2020 financial year was already on track to deliver strong growth before the coronavirus impacted sales, Beginning in January, the demand for our respiratory humidifiers accelerated in a way that has been unprecedented.” Fisher and Paykel product Optiflow nasal high flow therapy demand and hospital hardware sales were also strong.
  • Kin Mining is embarking on Phase 3 drilling for its Cardinia Gold Project in Western Australia. Phase 3 will involve a 45,000m drill program will involve Aircore, Reverse Circulation and Diamond drill with the aim to help identify a maiden Mineral Resource estimate.  Andrew Muckton Kin Mining Managing Director said “The exploration programs conducted over the last 6 months show strong potential to rapidly expand the existing 945,000oz Mineral Resource estimate at Cardinia. The round of drilling just commenced is aimed at delivering maiden Mineral Resource estimates at the most advanced target – Cardinia Hill as well as a second round of resource definition drilling at Comedy King and follow up RC drilling at Faye Marie, Black Chief and Hobby. ” Earlier drilling revealed outstanding results and delivered better understanding of the project.
  • A second diamond drill hole has been completed for Toro Energy at its Yandal Gold Project. The drill hole was to target around 50m beneath a gold, nickel and platinum group anomaly identified in 2018-19.  Drilling has now moved on to the third diamond drill hole to test for continuity of nickel and gold mineralisation at depth. Yandal Gold Project is 50km east of the Mt Keith nickel deposit.
  • A maiden underground Mineral Resource for Ora Banda Mining’s Callion (Indicated and Inferred) has been revealed as 411Kt @ 5.8 g/t Au for 77,000 oz Au. The upgraded Callion Mineral Resource (Indicated and Inferred) increased by 72% to: 680,000 t @ 4.9 g/t Au for 107,000 oz Au for the total resource. Ora Banda Managing Director, David Quinlivan, said: “This update completes the resource estimation process for the imminent DFS. The deeper, high-grade drilling results received to date from Callion indicate there is significant potential for a lower tonnage, higher grade underground mine and we continue to evaluate this opportunity as we believe it could make a significant contribution to the larger Davyhurst Gold Project.”
  • The proceeds of a sale of listed securities has provided additional funding of $430,000 to Discovex Resources. The funds form the sale have enabled Discovex to conduct further exploration, which has commenced with follow-up AC drilling at the highly prospective Hornet West Prospect. Future drilling also includes RC and diamond drilling – anticipated for Aug/Sept this year from the latest round of Aircore drilling that is currently underway. With drill testing of the recently defined priority targets at the Newington Gold Project near Southern Cross in Western Australia also due in the second half of 2020. Hornet West is located within the Edjudina Gold Project, within proximity of the Sunrise Dam and Carosue Dam gold mines.
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Morning News Bites – June 26

It’s Refrigeration Day… Thats pretty cool. Australia New Zealand announced as Host for FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup.

  • Earlier this week details on the final milestone for the Manganese Project, Butcherbird with Element 25 were announced. Today, Element 25 has announced details on a water bore drill program to provide sufficient process water for the beneficiation plant at the Project. Earlier water exploration identified a prospective supply and also  two aquifers, a shallow aquifer in near surface calcretes and a deep aquifer in palaeochannel sands. This project helps de-risk the project and to progress the timeline for production.
  • Qantas has completed its approximate $1,360 million fully underwritten placement of approximately 372.7 million new shares. 94% of the shares were taken by exisiting investors  “The fact that there was significant demand for this offer shows clear support for our recovery plan and confidence in the fundamentals of this business. The plan involves some difficult decisions but we are extremely well positioned to get through this crisis and start growing again on the other side.” Qantas is expected to recommence trading today. As stated previously, the proceeds from the equity raising will be used to accelerate the Group’s recovery, strengthen its balance sheet and position it to capitalise on opportunities aligned with its strategy.
  • Assay results have been received by Aldoro for its Penny South project. The 1m samples include 3m at 2.5g/t Au from 193m, inc. 1m at 6.7g/t Au from 194m and 3m at 2.8g/t Au from 221m, inc. 1m at 5.2g/t Au from 222m. This initial RC program was quite wide and shows a mineralised structure extending for a strike length of over 400m. Aldoro’s Managing Director Caedmon Marriott said: “We are encouraged by the results of the Company’s first RC program at Penny South. This widely spaced program, with lines 100m apart, appears to show a mineralised structure in the southern target area over a strike length of 400m, with assay results not too dissimilar to the Youangarra and Magenta Prospects at Ramelius Resources’ neighbouring Penny Project. The results warrant further follow up drilling hoping to find areas of increased grade and/or thickness.”
  • The commencement of drilling at Mandrake Resources Berinka Pine Creek Gold Project in the Northern Territory will commence in July after approval from the Northern Territory Department of Primary Industry and Resources. Previous drilling has identified intersections of 4m @ 6.6g/t from 32m, 6m @ 3.8g/t from 18m and 5m @ 2.6g/t from 30m. Mandrake Resources also has interest in a Ni-Cu-PGE Project north east of Perth. There is currently field exploration work at the Jimperding Ni-Cu-PGE Project with assay results from 44 rock chip samples to be known in around two weeks.
  • A hit of 4m at 99.5g/t Au, including 1m at 390g/t Au (repeat assay 502g/t Au) has been revealed by Middle Island Resources from drilling at its Sandstone Gold Project. The result comes from the new Ridge deposit as part of initial Phase 2 RC drilling. The particular drill hole that gave the result as mentioned, MSRC530 – is the most northern hole and adjoins the Shillington Gap target, which where exploration drilling will take place towards the end of the Phase 2 campaign. Reports that the drill program has completed 9000m and is running to schedule were also released. The Feasibility Study update is also progressing well for Middle Island.
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Morning News Bites – June 25

An arts funding boost is due to be announced by the Prime Minister today, Military to assist in Victoria`s COVID response and via the AFR – Australia is a star world performer when it comes to the only advanced economy to have its economic outlook upgraded by the IMF.

  • Central Systems PTY LTD which is a subsidiary of Resources Development Group, has been awarded a contract with Fortescue Metals Group construction of an overpass at FMG’s Cloudbreak mine site which is due for completion in late November 2020. While  Crushing  Service  Solutions  Pty  Ltd  which RDG has an 80% interest in has  also  been  awarded a crushing and screening services contract with Tianye SXO Gold Mining Pty Ltd to provide  these  services  in  order  to feed the Minjar Gold Plant near Southern Cross, Western  Australia fro around 12 months.
  • After an announcement yesterday that rocked the market by Red 5 – its share price dropped from .335c to .220c. Today Red 5 has announced a Final Feasibility Study Progress Update. As part of the update it was revealed GR Engineering Services has produced the design and costings for the Process Plant and other on-site infrastructure, A hydrology  study report is completed and a draft Tailings Storage Facility study has been drafted. Approvals for site works have been lodged to conduct early site works. Managing Director Mark Williams said “We continue to systematically progress towards completion of the FFS, with mining and engineering studies well advanced and project approvals on schedule. Strong progress is being made with planning for site early works and ordering of long-lead items, with the delivery of a recently-purchased accommodation village and offices expected to coincide with the planned commencement of site early works in the second half of CY2020. The successful completion of these work streams will put us on track to deliver the FFS on schedule in the September 2020 Quarter, marking a major milestone towards the development of one of Australia’s most exciting new gold development projects.”
  • An approval, key to commencement for Calidus Resources Warrawoona Gold Project in WA has been achieved with the Environmental Protection Authority. The final approval now sits with the Environment Minister Stephen Dawson. Drilling activities have resumed at site, including Pre-Collars for diamond drilling below the existing Klondyke Resource as well as additional water Exploration drilling to further de-risk water supply. Calidus Managing Director Dave Reeves said “The recommendation by the EPA is a key milestone in development of the Warrawoona Gold Project and significantly advances the timeline for permitting the development of the Project. We acknowledge the work of our consultants and the positive dialogue with the EPA throughout the assessment process. With all tenure now in place and the Feasibility Study on track for completion in the coming quarter, Warrawoona is rapidly moving towards development.” Warrawoona is located in the East Pilbara of Western Australia.
  • Qantas has placed itself into a trading halt pending a capital raising. Qantas is seeking to raise $1,860m of equity, comprising: – Approximately $1,360m fully underwritten institutional placement and up to $500m non-underwritten share purchase plan. Placement will be conducted at $3.65 per new share. In terms of passengers and capacity,  group domestic capacity reduced to 5% until mid Jun-20 and now at 15% of pre-COVID-19 levels. Qantas expects average domestic capacity of ~70% in FY21 and 100% in FY22.  There is strong demand for freight, however international service cancellations  have been extended through to late Oct-20.
  • New wide high grade intercepts at depth have been confirmed by diamond drilling outside of current ore reserves at Bardoc Gold`s Aphrodite Deposit. Results included 15.1m @ 6.58g/t Au from 418.1m including 5.3m @ 15.86g/t Au from 418.1m and 6.7m @ 3.01g/t Au from 402m. RC Drilling is underway for Bardoc at Zoroastrian, Excelsior and Aphrodite, with a planned resources update in Q3 2020 planned. The results of RC Drilling at Mayday North are due in coming weeks. Managing Director Robert Ryan said “The strong drilling results from Aphrodite continue to build confidence in our mine plan, which underpins the strong financial metrics within the PFS. The in-fill drilling to date has been a resounding success with widths and grades at all deposits being above modelled expectations. Reverse Circulation drilling has now commenced at Zoroastrian, Excelsior and Aphrodite, as we work towards our next comprehensive Mineral Resource update for the Bardoc Gold Project which we are targeting in the September Quarter. These programs should generate steadily increasing news flow in the weeks ahead.”