Industry Link Media Blog

Gold production in Australia fell by 10 tonnes or more than 12 % for the March quarter. This is compared to the previous December quarter which was a record quarter, as Surbiton Associates released their latest gold production figures for the March quarter.

The Newcrest Cadia East mine near Orange in New South Wales, kept the mantle as the leading producer in Australia. Cadia produced 195,181oz in the March quarter. Kirkland Lake Gold’s Fosterville Mine was the next best producer with 158,84oz, followed by Western Australia’s Newmont GoldCorp’s Boddington mine which was down 54,000 oz on the previous quarter to 142,000oz. Saracen/Northern Star JV Kalgoorlie Super Pit reported its first full quarter figures under new ownership and produced 117,127oz up around 3000oz. Newmont Goldcorp’s Tanami rounding out the top five produced 116,000oz.

In summarising the reduction on this report, Dr Sandra Close, a director of Surbiton Associates said “The reduction in output is no cause for alarm, it is no great surprise that the March quarter 2020 gold production is down,” said Dr Close “I think record Australian dollar gold prices were a significant contributing factor.”

There were some reports of increased production and that included at Beta Hunt. The Beta Hunt mine is the home of the famous Fathers Day vein discovered in 2018, The RNC Minerals mine was up 12,400 ounces. While Mt Carlton, Qld (Evolution Mining), is up 4,200oz.

Mincor Resources has announced Pit N Portal has been awarded a five year contract for its Cassini Nickel Mine as well as a 3-year contract (plus one 2-year option) at the Northern Operations. Early works at Cassini have been completed and on budget. These works incorporated excavation of the box-cut, construction of the site office pad, magazine and waste areas and construction of the surface settling dams and haul road.

Pit N Portal was acquired by Emeco earlier in 2020 and has since helped propel Pit N Portal into a nationwide company and a key driver in hard rock underground and open pit, working with companies from juniors to international renowned miners.

According to Mincor’s Managing Director David Southam, “We selected Pit N Portal based on a wide range of criteria including safety, performance, contract cost, experience and capability, ability to meet our mobilisation timelines and the size and quality of their contract fleet,” he said. “Their equipment fleet suits our proposed style of mining and, as one of Australia’s largest hard-rock underground mining equipment solutions providers, we will have access to a large range of equipment options and high-class maintenance and rebuild capacity – giving us significant operational and strategic flexibility, which is important when operating a number of underground mines.”

Mr Southam also added “The award of this contract fulfils another commitment we made to shareholders as part of our capital raising last year and puts us in a strong position as we move into the advanced stages of project financing.”

The importance of supporting local was also a point Mr Southam mentioned as he seeks to fulfil Mincor’s commitment to maximise local content and local communities.

SpaceX and NASA have scrubbed an historic launch due to weather conditions. Aborted 17 minutes before lift off.

• Agricultural land around 100km from Perth has produced some visually encouraging signs of Ni-Cu sulphide intercepts in the first two drill holes. Cassini Resources Yarawindah Brook Project is part of an emerging new nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE province 20km south of New Norcia. A third drill hole is underway testing a new EM anomaly 1km along strike to the north of Ovis prospect. Scott Wilson, a Kalgoorlie based prospector holds 20% a interest in the project.
• A Rio Tinto backed exploration program has commenced at Citadel Joint Venture Programme with Antipa Minerals. An approximate 13,000m (i.e. 5,000m diamond plus 8,000m reverse circulation) resource drilling programme to test potential extensions and further define and improve ore body knowledge at the Calibre deposit which is located 45km from Rio Tinto’s Winu copper-gold project; Two diamond rilling rigs and an RC rig have been mobilised to site.
• A desktop review of Boss Resources Honeymoon Project in South Australia is underway as a review of all historical data is set to be completed by July 2020. Boss Resources Managing Director and CEO Duncan Craib realises the potential for the review of historical data and the reassessing of information “South Australia’s proactive initiatives to support the mineral exploration industry provide a golden opportunity for Boss to thoroughly research and compile the wealth of historical information from previous explorers. Industry experience shows comprehensive reviews of all historical information often results in new exploration discoveries and significant increases in mineral resources. Initial results are already revealing exciting new information that is proving to be of huge benefit for the advancement of the Honeymoon Uranium Project.”
• An update of drilling at the Tibooburra Gold Project site north of Broken Hill in NSW has been provided. Historic RAB drilling results of up to 22m at 4.94 g/t Au from 8m (TIBRB-12) that has never been followed-up with either RC or diamond drilling. The area has been described by geoscientists as an area where ‘mineralisation styles and structural development in the Tibooburra Goldfields are very similar to the Victorian Goldfields in the Western Lachlan Orogen”
• The Reserve Bank of Australia’s Governor Lowe is appearing before the Senate Select Committee on Covid 19 today. he has commented on job data and the economic downturn. According to Governor Lowe – “It is possible that the economic downturn will not be as severe as earlier thought” he said. Governor Lowe also said that April jobs data was a “shocking set of numbers” but not as bad as he feared.

The Prime Minister has called for state border closures to be justified saying they were never national advice

• Pointsbet has entered an agreement with (Fox Sports) Fox Footy to be its exclusive wagering parter for the 2020 season. Pointsbet is set to expand its offerings in Australia in line with the recommencement of the AFL and NRL competitions.
• Macarthur Minerals has announced its Joint Venture partner for its Koolyanobbing Iron ore mine, FE Limited, is entering an agreement for the sale of its Evanston royalty interest to TRR Services. FE limited will used funds from the sale to further exploration projects  such as the follow up drilling to its Pilbara interest – Hillside Copper and Gold Project.  According to President and Executive Chairman Macarthur Minerals Cameron McCall “We are excited by the news that Fe Limited is adding $7 million to its bank balance and will be fully funded for further exploration activities on Macarthur’s Pilbara tenements encompassing the Hillside, Panorama, and Strelley projects. All results so far have been very encouraging.” TRR Services is a subsidiary of Trident Resources.
• Cohiba Minerals has overcome some initial hurdles and is looking forward to working with Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation (KAC) for its Horse Well and Pernatty C projects in South Australia. 3D inversion modelling has confirmed Iron Oxide-Copper-Gold targets at the project   “The work conducted by CGG Geoscience, a world-class provider of geophysics modelling and interpretation, provided strong confirmation for the NW-SE trending conductive zone at Horse Well area and provided evidence of a moderately deep-seated drill-ready target. The target zone, from around 400 metres below the surface, is located in the same area that was identified as a major interest – from historical gravity, magnetic and magnetotelluric surveys. Cohiba has overcome all previous hurdles in relation to the Kokatha Aboriginal Corporation (KAC) and is looking forward to working with them as we finalise the drilling contracts at both Horse Well and Pernatty C for early June.”
• Avira Resources are in a trading halt for a capital raising process. Avira has interests in Queensland – in particular the Pyramid Gold Project in the north eastern part of the state.
• Infill drilling has resulted in exceptional results for Bellevue Gold Limited from its Deacon Lode. The Inferred Resource stands at 410,000oz at 12.3 g/t gold. This is part of the total Inferred Resource at Bellevue of 2.2Moz at 11.3 g/t gold. Managing Director of Bellevue, Steve Parsons gave details of the results “The Deacon lode is emerging as a repeat of the adjacent Bellevue deposit, which was well-known for its extensive high-grade mineralisation. The mineralisation at Deacon is also characterised by consistent free visible gold and high pyrrhotite percentages.” Mr Parsons also outlined plans to look ay dewatering of the exisiting underground mine will assist further exploration. “Drilling from underground will enable us to drill at twice the pace and significantly less cost than drilling from surface, Underground access will also allow us to explore the deposit from different drill positions.” Results from the program at Deacon include

5.3m @ 54.5 g/t gold from 650.9m

1.5m @ 168.8 g/t gold from 651.7m including 0.5m @ 499.1 g/t gold

2.5m @ 49.2 g/t gold from 527.8m

10.3m @ 10.7 g/t gold from 566.9m

The stacks at the decommissioned Hazelwood Power Station came down yesterday near Morwell in Victoria in sensational style.

• While in Victoria, Stavely Minerals has received correspondence from the Earth Resources Regulation informing of the grant of two key Retention Licences for the Stavely Copper Gold Project and the Ararat Copper Project. A Retention license is considered transitional from exploration to mining licence. Chris Cairns, Executive Chairman of Stavely did still earmark further drilling needed to take place and said “While there is plenty of drilling still to do, the grant of these key Retention Licences gives us the security of tenure we need to progress our key western Victorian Projects through the various stages of evaluation required before we get to a decision to mine. “If these technical programmes and studies ultimately demonstrate a positive financial outcome resulting in a decision to develop a mining project, the investment that follows is likely to have a material impact on the local regional economy and for well-paid skilled employment in the region.”
• Blackham Resources has reported exceptional high grade results from its resource development drilling at its Wiluna Mining Project. The results highlight the strategy Blackham have for the high grade sulphide resources.There are currently seven drill rigs Drill rigs in operation with a resource upgrade due in September quarter. Drilling will continues at Golden Age, to extend free milling cashflow and to continue and grow resources and reserves beyond the 10Moz geological endowment. Highlights from the Essex and Bulletin lodes includes :

BULP0025: 14.45m @ 17.16g/t from 18.95m, incl. 7.45m @ 31.22g/t

BULP0026: 12.4m @ 7.93g/t from 31.4m

WURC0835: 12m @ 7.01g/t from 184m, incl. 4m @ 16.59g/t

WURC0846: 6m @ 53.73g/t from 109m, incl. 1m @ 283g/t

• The initial assay results of the recently completed Air-core drilling at the Tambellup Kaolin Project have been received by Accelerate Resources. Significant results include 73.1% yield and up to 30.64% Al2O3 in hole TBAC037. The Tambellup project is west of Tambellup in the Great Southern region of Western Australia.
• Bardoc Gold has identified broad high grade gold intercepts out side of ore reserves at Zoroastrian deposit. All holes from the recent six diamond core holes which were designed to test areas outside of the known Ore Reserve, however all hit targets. Managing Director Robert Ryan, spoke about Zoroastrian recently in our Crib Room Podcast,  says the broad results support a long life underground operation “The Zoroastrian in-fill drilling program has delivered some fantastic intercepts and, coupled with an already robust Resource, we will expect to see an increase in the Mining Reserve as part of the DFS due for completion in Q1 2021. “While we push towards the delivery of a DFS, our goal is to develop a project with a long operational life, underpinned by a diversity of open pit and underground ore sources that will provide maximum flexibility in terms of our mining schedule and grade profile whilst reducing risk.”

• Senex Energy and GNLG will be set to supply Roma North natural gas to the domestic market in Queensland. Senex will reduce its natural gas supply to GNLG by around 1PJ over winter following a request by GNLG. Both GNLG and Senex have agreed to redirect these volumes to the Wallumbilla natural gas supply hub.  Managing Director and CEO Ian Davies said, “In October 2018, Senex reached the Final Investment Decision for our $400 million capital program in the Surat Basin. Less than two years later, the transformational Roma North and Atlas natural gas development projects have established Senex as an important producer of gas for the east coast market.”

Western Australia suffers widespread damage with the SES receiving calls every 3 minutes or so as a former Tropical Cyclone and low pressure system causes damage from Onslow to Esperance. Around 50,000 residents without power.

• A Western Australian Government initiative is set to help kickstart drilling at South Bronzewing Gold project. The Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) has granted Hammer Metals $150,000 to help partly fund drilling. Drilling was previously underway before COVID-19 pulled resources back in March, The next step will allow Hammer to get drilling back up in June. According to Managing Director Daniel Thomas, the announcement of the EIS grant is proving Hammer is receiving the recognition deserved. Mr Thomas said: “The quality of exploration targets within Hammer’s portfolio continues to be recognised and rewarded as evidenced by our successful funding applications to various state governments. The Western Australian government EIS program has a tremendous history in contributing to the discovery of valuable ore deposits. The grant will enable deeper drill-testing for a potential repetition of the Bronzewing Deposit within Hammer tenements.” 
• Chalice Gold Mines has received assay results for its Julimar Ni-Cu-PGE project around 70km east of Perth.

5.1m @ 6.2g/t Pd, 1.7g/t Pt, 1.7% Ni, 0.7% Cu and 0.10% Co from 34.9m, including:

9.8m @ 7.0g/t Pd, 0.8g/t Pt, 3.3% Ni, 1.2% Cu, 0.18% Co from 34.9m (massive sulphides);

20.4m @ 11.1g/t Pd, 1.1g/t Pt, 3.1% Ni, 1.0% Cu, 0.16% Co from 47.7m (massive sulphides);

33m @ 5.1g/t Pd, 3.0g/t Pt, 1.0% Ni, 0.6% Cu and 0.06% Co from 68.0m

The forward plan for Chalice includes further diamond drilling, Downhole EM, SQUID EM, RC Drilling and Mineralogy metallurgy test work is set to continue.

• Former General Manager of the Fosterville Gold Mine – Ian Holland, has been appointed independent non executive director of Navarre Minerals. While the General Manager of the Fosterville Gold Mine, Mr Holland help transition the mine from around 100,000oz gold production to over 619,000 with the development of the Swan and Eagle ore bodies.
• Sky Metals has given an exploration update on it’s Cullarin project in New South Wales. The assay on HUD003 indicated 20m @ 0.95 g/t gold from 37m including: 7.3m @ 2.08 g/t gold from 49.3m. The Cullarin project near Goulburn in NSW is showing plenty of positive signs for Sky, CEO Mark Arundell said “The diamond drilling program in progress at the Hume Target has enabled SKY’s geological team to rapidly determine the controls on high grade mineralisation This means SKY can more accurately site drillholes that will enhance the size, grade and thus value of the Hume Target. The scale of alteration and mineralisation observed is significant and SKY greatly anticipates the next round of assays.”
• A heavily oversubscribed private placement has advanced drilling for Argent Resources. Proceeds from the placement will be used for exploration drilling across the company’s projects. Argent also received $255,000 from the New South Wales government for drilling grants which adds to the long term exploration drilling program.  Among Argent`s assets, The Kemp field project drilling program is located around 40km from the Cadia mine in Central NSW. A 3000m RC drill program will target rock chip samples from March 2020. Drilling at Argent`s other assets include 3000m RC and 1500m diamond drilling at West Wyalong towards a Cowal gold mine style deposit, 2200m RC drilling at Pine Ridge targeting high range gold potential on the same belt as McPhillamy`s Gold Project and 2000m RC Drilling at Loch Lily gold project.

Caltex is renamed Ampol today, Westpac announces key executive changes, while consumer confidence is growing according to the ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer Confidence Index.

• The development of new nickel targets for Galileo Mining at Fraser Range has revealed three intrusions which have been named, Think Big, Backwood and Green Moon. Galileo Managing Director Brad Underwood said: “Our recent $5 million placement has allowed us to expand the amount of exploration we are undertaking in the Fraser Range. We have now substantially increased the search space around our Lantern Prospect and have the funds to effectively explore the entire area over the next six to twelve months. Our Fraser Range ground has never before been explored for nickel and the significant chance of a high value discovery makes this is an exciting time to be investing in the area.” An aircore drilling program around the Lantern prospect is over half way with around 5,500m of 8000m drilled so far.
• Alkane Resources have issued an update on the Boda drilling program. Modelling of the recent drilling shows a subvertical zone of significant gold-copper mineralisation; approximately 500 metres north-south strike length, 400 metres wide and >1100 metres vertically. According to Alkane Resources Managing Director Nic Earner, the results show promise for a gold copper project. ” These results further demonstrate the prospectivity of the Northern Molong Porphyry Project and the world-class nature of the Boda discovery. From what we have seen of the mineralisation to date, we believe Boda has genuine potential to be a large, tier one gold-copper porphyry project. “We’ve initiated a substantial program to both increase the drilling density at Boda and adding to our knowledge of regional targets, including testing the Boda South and Kaiser prospects and Boda’s high-grade core.”
• Dreadnought Resources has raised $500,000 for testing nine high quality gold and VMS targets at Illaara and Rocky Dam. Drilling will commence later this month. Dreadnought Managing Director Dean Tuck pinpointed how active the company had been since its inception “Dreadnought, in its first 12 months of operations, has been extremely active, with over 80% of its funds going into the ground. Dreadnought has acquired and consolidated significant landholdings over prospective under explored terrain and defined thirty drill ready targets while drilling nine previously defined targets. This funding will be used specifically to test nine of our highest ranked targets commencing in late May 2020.” Illaara is located 190km northwest of Kalgoorlie Boulder – Western Australia and covers 75kms of strike along the Illaara Greenstone Belt, while Rocky Dam is 45km east of Kalgoorlie Boulder.
• Power at times has been a premium in South Australia, MPower has announced that it is proceeding with the full design and construction of a second 5MWac solar farm in South Australia with a subsidiary of Astronergy Solar Australia Pty Ltd. MPower commissioned two solar farm projects at Mannum and Port Pirie last year and is very keen to be in the niche space of renewable energy. Chief Executive Officer of MPower – Nathan Wise outlined the future direction of MPower in renewable energy. “It is very pleasing to further develop our relationship with a blue chip company like Astronergy. Solar farm projects of this size are directly in line with MPower’s stated strategy and core competency. MPower has a market leading capability in the successful delivery of 5MW solar farms and continues to strengthen its order book in the growing renewable energy sector.”
• A significant resource upgrade at Resources and Energy Group’s Mount McKenzie Gold and Silver project has occurred. Total Indicated 1,700Kt @ 1.21g/tAu and 11g/t Ag with Total Inferred 1730kt @ 1.15g/t Au and 4g/t Ag was announced to the market today. This update is a 48% increase in inferred resource and is a result of a change in gold price since the 2015 mineral resource estimate. An overall 29% increase in contained gold and 38% increase in contained silver is over the previous mineral resource estimate. The updated mineral resource will be used for ongoing mine planning and advancing the project which will include drilling and metallurgical studies.

COVID-19 has closed 12 restaurants in Victoria for deep cleaning following a delivery truck driver testing positive.

• New reverse circulation drill results has revealed shallow gold intercepts for Kin Mining near Leonora. The latest results confirm shallow mineralisation over a 500m strike length at Cardinia Hill, where recent drilling returned outstanding results such as 15m at 4.41g/t Au from 34m and 17m at 3.29g/t Au. Results from Helens East and Helens South were also received. Managing Director Andrew Munckton said “While the assay results in CH20RC020 and CH20RC021 are not spectacular, they have confirmed the geological continuity of the mineralisation over at least 500m of strike length. “At Helens South and Helens East, air-core drilling has so far defined several new zones of mineralisation down to approximately 30m (the depth of penetration of the AC drill) which are co-incident with gold-in-soil anomalies generated from the recently completed Auger drilling program.”
• Diamond drilling has commenced at Top Camp gold prospect in the Pilbara, Western Australia. Coziron Resources has identified that the first part of this program involves 600m core drilling. Since drilling and the results published in late 2019, other tenements in the area have identified the location to be highly prospective of gold.
• Andromeda Metals has commenced drilling in South Australia for high-grade halloysite-kaolin mineralisation at the Condooringie Prospect. Mineral was previously identified and infill drilling will take place between the two high grade halloysite zones identified and potentially to define Bright White halloysite-kaolin over 2 kms of strike at Condooringie should the two zones be shown to be linked.
• Empire Energy has independently assessed prospective resource estimates for its 100% owned Northern Territory Beetaloo sub Basin and Macarthur Basin properties. Empire is working with the NT Government on a return to work program following COVID-19 restrictions, while the discussions continue with drilling companies. Availability of rigs and field service has improved based in the recent price decline in Oil and Gas which reduced activity.
• Ramsay Health Care has confirmed to investors it finalised comprehensive agreements with the Western Australian and NHS England to have its services and facilities available during COVID-19.

Unemployment figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show an increase of 600,000 during April attributed to Coronavirus.

• Legend Mining’s Mawson prospect within Rockford project drill results are in. Results have shown two significant nickel-copper sulphide zones in one particular drill hole. Managing Director Mark Wilson said “These results support Legend’s previous statements that Mawson is a large mineralised system. The 21.6m intercept from hole 11 is material in both width and grade. “The new air core assay results received, point to a developing story northeast of the current diamond drilling programme with air core hole RKAC744 a few hundred metres from the collar of diamond hole 11.” Continued diamond drilling targeting extensions and infill air core drilling are still on the horizon for Legend for the Mawson prospect
• Additional nickel and cobalt prospects have been identified at Sconi,  North Queensland with Australian Mines. 14 nickel and cobalt exploration target areas have been identified and a possible update to Mineral Resource and life span could take place.
• The Chairman of RPMGlobal has resigned – Allan Brackin. Mr Brackin has resigned from his Chairman and also non executive director role with the technology company. RPM Managing Director Richard Mathews said “On behalf of both Ross and I and the RPM business as a whole, we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to Allan for his stewardship and highly-valued contribution to chairing the Board over the last eight and a half years.” RPMGlobal provides the provision and development of mining software solutions, advisory services and professional development to the mining industry.
• Milling operations close to Kalgoorlie Boulder are in high demand. The Lakewood mill in Boulder is fully booked until at least 2021, while Paddington has a larger company signed up until the new year as well. ALT Resources has sought milling availability asFind Gold Deposit is scheduled to start operating in July 2020, however with capacity at Lakewood not available, ALT has sought processing at Paddington, this was approved, however now ALT has been advised this is not possible due to a contract to a larger company. The demand for milling capacity is high based on current gold prices, while the short term lack of availability for milling is adding costs to toll treatment cost per ore tonne. ALT will not commence mining without a contract milling operation solution.
• Bluescope has been the latest large company affected by cyber incident. The incident has taken place at one of the companies United States businesses According to Chief Financial Officer Tania Archibald, “We are taking this event extremely seriously. Our people are working diligently to protect and restore our systems, and we are working with external providers to assist us. Our focus remains on being able to service our customers and to maintain safe and reliable operations,” Ms Archibald said.