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Morning News Bites – October 14

It was another great day at Diggers with a diverse range of miners presenting. We will give you a snapshot of some presentations, which will include iron ore and nickel.

Mount Gibson Iron (MGX) was the first of the iron ore producers to kick off proceedings with Peter Kerr, their CEO, presenting. With their Koolan Island operations now in full swing the mine is producing the highest grade hematite at 65.2% and on track to export between 1.8 – 2.1Mwmt this financial year.  With cash costs expected to be around $65/Mwmt they will be looking at ways to reduce this in case the price of iron ore comes off its highs in the next year or two.  They are bullish though and looking at ways the mine life can be increased beyond the current five year plan. CAPEX has been high this year and some of that was the building of the new airstrip on the island.

Their Mid-West operations are low grade but the company is making the most of the high iron ore prices and mining continues in this region.  Extension Hill sales will continue into next year and the Shine project is expected to progress to targeted sales in mid 2021. With the company cash flow positive, debt free and providing a dividend, shareholders must be very pleased with how they are positioned in the market.

Fortescue Metals (FMG) presented and their CEO Elizabeth Gaines delivered. Elizabeth is taking the company to new highs and not just in production values. It is how they are achieving those production levels that is of some interest.  But first lets look at the eye watering figures.

178.2mt was shipped in FY19 up a healthy 6% on the previous year. C1 costs were just under US$13/wmt and a healthy dividend of A$1.76 per share was paid to lucky shareholders. Billions of dollars are to be spent on capital works across several projects, but with high prices and low costs you would expect the payback time to be small. The forecasts for production and costs in FY21 are very similar to the last financial year.

Fortescue is investing heavily in its personnel and the diversification of the workforce is opening up opportunities for people that may otherwise find it difficult to obtain work in this sector.  As an example there is a 14% employment rate of aboriginal workers across their Pilbara operations.  For a company of this size it is a credit that they are offering so many opportunities to aboriginal people.  Like other companies they are also experiencing higher participation rates with women in the workforce and currently 19% of the workforce is women.  Who better to lead this company than Elizabeth herself who is overseeing exciting times in the iron ore sector.

Legend Mining (LEG) had Managing Director, Mark Wilson present at Diggers and he was keen about the prospects of this junior nickel explorer. They are currently focused on the Fraser Range area, north of the Nova mine now owned by IGO.  They have some big players supporting them, mainly the Creasy Group and IGO, who have substantial holdings on the share registry.

They have nearly 3,100 square kilometres of land to explore and some early results are promising.  In one hole they have 19.8 metres at 2.71% nickel from about 230 metres below surface. Mawson and Hurley projects are showing a lot of promise and they believe that in these areas the resource will be bigger than what was modelled.  From current visual drill results they believe Mawson is open to the East and West.

The company is bullish on the future of nickel and believe they are in the right sector, with the right resource at the right time to make the most of the EV and battery storage market.

Poseidon Nickel (POS) presented at Diggers with Peter Harold the Managing Director addressing the attendees. It seems that nickel explorers and producers are more upbeat than they have been for a long time and Poseidon is no exemption. The presentation included a quote from Elon Musk which said: “I’d just like to re-emphasize, any mining companies out there, please mine more nickel”, and Poseidon is keen to do just that.

Their current projects include the Mt Windarra mine near Laverton, Black Swan and Silver Swan just outside Kalgoorlie and Lake Johnston near Norseman. A study is currently underway to check the feasibility of recommencing mining at the Emily Ann mine site that feeds into the Lake 1.5Mtpa Lake Johnston Mill.  Historically it has produced nickel at 3.5% and they believe they have a resource there that could produce 52kt.

The Windarra project is interesting because they believe they are sitting on 180,000oz of gold in the tailings from historical mining in the area. If they can turn those ounces into money they believe that it will pay for ongoing exploration and mining activities at the other sites.

Poseidon could be one nickel play to keep an eye on if all the plans fall into pace.

Listening to the presentations it is apparent that nickel just could be the new gold.  All the nickel companies that have presented so far have been very bullish on their outlook. Talk of the EV market about to take off, battery storage to be an even bigger market and the price slowly creeping up augers well for nickel miners.  Could we see nickel prices reach the highs of just over a decade ago or will it be a lot more subdued this time around, if it happens?  If I can be parochial, it would be great to see nickel surge and breathe new life back into towns like Kambalda. It is well placed for it to happen and if Kambalda booms, Kalgoorlie rockets.

Gold has been and looks like being a strong performer as well for miners and what were less than optimal projects are being looked at. Depending on who talk to there is still mutterings about gold hitting $10,000 per ounce. Good luck if that happens but I feel that in general the economy will be down the gurgles if that occurred.

Iron ore prices are high and the trifecta of nickel, gold and iron ore will see the WA economy bustle along, even when economies in other states are suffering.  Good luck to all the miners and their projects.  May they prosper and I hope that all of WA will benefit because of it.

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Tonight’s Top Story – Is Nickel The New Gold?

David Southam, Managing Director of Mincor Resources gave a lively presentation about their Kambalda operations and positioning themselves to be a major player in the Nickel sector.

He boldly declared that: “Nickel is the new gold!”, which raised a few eyebrows before going on to give a compelling case. David is sure that we are moving into a third wave of nickel in the Kambalda region. The first was the boom that put Kambalda on the map in the 60s and 70s.  It wasn’t until the 90s, when WMC divested themselves of the mines in the same region that the second wave occurred.  He believes that 2020 is the start of the third wave and Mincor will be well positioned to make the most of it.

They currently have an ore reserve of ~71,000t of contained nickel, they are fully funded to production and have appointed Pit N Portal as their mining contractor. The company has some exciting prospects with Cassini emerging as a major site for them. The Cassini Main site has a mineral resources of1.5Mt @ 4.0% Ni for 58.7kt of contained nickel and Ore Reserves of 1.2Mt @ 3.3% Ni for 40.1kt of contained nickel.

The newly discovered Cassini North site is showing a lot of promise with an Intercept of 2.5m at 6.6% Ni from the first hole.  David believes that it will be very similar to Cassini Main when fully explored.

David got excited when he spoke of the “Golden Mile” which is untested ground between the Durkin North and Long sites. This ground is now controlled by Mincor and David is keen to explore this ground that has yet to be explored and sits between two very lucrative sites.

As you would expect, David was very bullish on Mincor’s prospects, but this is based on his belief that nickel is about to shine again.  With low production costs and a rising nickel price, maybe it is Mincor’s time to have some time in the sun.

Bardoc Gold:

CEO Rob Ryan outlined Bardoc’s operations 40 kilometres North of Kalgoorlie. They currently have a 3Moz resource, a pre-feasibility study completed earlier this year and are well funded with AU$30M cash in bank.

Bardoc have pulled together a series of small projects that now come under one banner. It is anticipated that at current resources they have a mine life of eight years with a production target of 1.02Mozs.  A low cost of production will make the mine a lucrative money spinner for the company.  The plan is to sell 50% of the gold as a concentrate and the remainder in Dore from their Aphrodite.

Bardoc is sitting on ground that is ripe for exploration as there has been insignificant drilling carried out in the area.  This will see the resource grow and a low cost operation could be a going concern for many years to come.

Ramelius Resources.

It seems to be the year for records for this miner.  Production up 17% to 230koz.  Record net profit up $20% to A$113M.  The return to shareholder in dividends doubling from 1c to 2c and the company is now on the ASX200 bourse.

Ramelius is currently operating at about A$1,250 per Oz across its sites after working hard to get their cost management to a satisfactory level.  They have a series of mines around the Mt Magnet area including Vivien, Penny , Galaxy and Morning Star.  The Penny mine has proven to be a high grade resource with average grade of 15g/t.

These are complimented by the Edna May plant at Westonia in the wheatbelt.  Gold from Marda Gold and Edna May mine currently feed this plant.  Tampia mine will be up and running soon with long lead items ordered.  Meanwhile, Symes Find which is nearby is being drilled to prove up resources.

This is a snapshot of what occurred on day one of Diggers and we look forward to bringing you more valuable information from those presenting on day two.

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Morning News Bites – October 13

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.

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Morning News Bites – October 12

The largest mining conference in Australia has kicked off today, with Diggers and Dealers now underway. KCGM set to recruit 700 jobs in Kalgoorlie Boulder as the Premier announces a mining extension has been granted at Super Pit special event.

Beacon Minerals Limited provided an update of activities at the Jaurdi Gold Project, announcing that it  produced 2,790 oz of gold during the month of September 2020. Beacon exceeded its production target from Jaurdi for the September 2020 quarter of 6,400 to 6,800 oz’s, with 7,453 ozs produced during the quarter, approximately 10% above the high‐end guidance and expects production from Jaurdi for the December 2020 quarter to be 6,600 to 7,000 oz’s. Debt $18.0 million (in the form of debentures) to be repaid today one year ahead of the repayment due date. On repayment of the debentures the company will be debt free.

Thomson Resources Ltd has managed to secure the RC drilling rig that undertook the Company’s maiden drilling program at the Yalgogrin Gold Project, for a short follow up drilling program commencing towards the end of October 2020. COVID-19 restrictions and the increased mineral exploration activity has meant that access to drilling rigs has become tight. The Company is pleased that Australian Mineral & Waterwell Drilling Pty Ltd were able to make the drilling rig available for Thomson between commitments to other customers.
Thomson’s drilling program in July 2020 discovered thick low-grade gold mineralisation from surface as well as deeper high-grade lodes, essentially on one north-south drill section. The follow up drilling program is proposed to extend the mineralisation by drilling sections either side of the first drill section and following the
mineralisation east and west. Samples will be analysed for gold and results should be available in November-December.

Ardea Resources Limited has announced that their first ever metallurgical testwork has been undertaken on four metallurgical samples selected from Ardea’s Big Four Gold resource, located on a granted mining lease within the Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project (GNCP), 65km north west of Kalgoorlie. It reports very high gold
recoveries from Big Four Gold deposit, with overall gold extractions of 97.7%. Significant proportion of gravity-recoverable gold revealed with potential for stand-alone toll treatment or incorporation into Ardea’s
broader gold strategy.

Terrain Minerals Limited updated the market of the drilling results from Terrain’s maiden RC Drilling Program at Smokebush Gold Project. A total of 12 RC holes (11 holes at the Monza prospect and 1 hole at Target
13) were completed for a total 981 metres as part of this first pass exploration program. The RC Drilling program was carried out over a 200-250m area to improve confidence in grade continuity and orientation identified in historic drilling and to test interpreted extensions to mineralisation. The drilling was concentrated at the Monza prospect area because this was identified as the most advanced target within the Smokebush project for hosting significant gold mineralisation. Multiple significant intersections were returned from drilling associated with shearing and alteration within meta-dolerite and felsic intrusive host rock.

Lefroy Exploration Limited reported initial results from the multi target drill program that Gold Fields Limited commenced in July 2020 on the company’s tenements over Lake Lefroy. The program is a follow up to the extensive foundation AC drilling that commenced in late January 2019 and is part of the AUD25 million Farm-In and Joint Venture (JV) agreement between Lefroy and Gold Fields that commenced in June 2018. The results from the ten initial RC holes continues to reinforce and advance understanding of the geological prospectivity beneath Lake Lefroy. Significant results include, 9m @ 3.58g/t Au from 96m including 1m @ 18.55g/t Au from 97m. 3m @ 3.25g/t Au from 82m including 1m @ 7.88g/t Au from 82m.  Gold Fields has completed the AUD4 million minimum exploration spend and is required to fund an additional AUD6 million for AFY2021 to earn a 51% interest in the Western Lefroy Joint Venture, which is part of the wholly owned greater Lefroy Gold Project (LGP) located 50km south east of Kalgoorlie.

 

 

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Morning News Bites – October 9

Morning News Bites for October 9

Newcrest Approves Cadia and Lihir Projects

The Newcrest Board has approved two projects moving to the Execution phase, being Stage 2 of the Cadia Expansion Project and the Lihir Front End Recovery Project.

The Cadia project primarily comprises the addition of a second Coarse Ore Flotation circuit in Concentrator 1 and equipment upgrades in Concentrator 2, which are projected to result in: Plant capacity increasing from 33mtpa to 35mpta, LOM gold recoveries increasing by 3.5% and LOM copper recoveries increasing by 2.7% and finally AISC reducing by an estimated $22 per ounce.

Estimated capital cost for Stage 2 is $175m, $5 million lower than the October 2019 estimate with the project scheduled to be completed by late FY22.  If all goes to plan the project will be paid back in a little over four years.

The Lihir front end recovery project comprises the installation of flash flotation and additional cyclone capacity, as well as cyclone efficiency upgrades, to improve grinding classification and reduce gold losses through the flotation circuits. This is projected to result in: LOM gold recoveries increasing by 1.2% and incremental LOM gold production increasing by 244koz.

Newcrest Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sandeep Biswas said “It is an exciting time at Newcrest as we advance our growth pipeline with both of these projects adding value to our existing large scale, long life operations while we pursue the development of Red Chris and Havieron and exploration opportunities globally.”

Wet Screening Plant Construction Commences at Riley Iron Ore Mine.

After the recently completed initial stage of mining and dry screening operations at the Riley Iron Ore Mine the Board of Venture Minerals (VMS) has given the go ahead to proceed with the construction of the Wet Screening Plant with site works (Stage One) having already commenced.

In addition, as part of the Wet Screening Plant construction phase, all required long lead items have been ordered.

Commenting on this major development for the Company at its Riley Iron Ore Mine, Venture Minerals’ Managing Director Andrew Radonjic, said:  “Venture’s Board has committed to stage one of the Wet Screening Plant construction as part of its continued ramp up towards full scale production. The iron ore price remains strong, and the Company remains focused on determining the best mining and Screening method at the Riley mine to reduce costs and environmental impact so that we can generate jobs, contracting opportunities and returns to our shareholders.”

The Board’s decision to commence Stage One of West Screening Plant construction ensures that progress towards wet Screening continues while finance is finalised for subsequent stages.

The Company continues to work through several advanced financing proposals for completion of the Wet Screening Plant which will enable nameplate production at Riley.

Mount Gibson Iron Ore Updates Shine Iron Ore Project

Mount Gibson Iron Limited (MGX) has released an update on the planned development of the Company’s Shine Iron Ore Project, located 375km northeast of Perth, in the Mid-West region of Western Australia. Shine represents a near term, low capital production opportunity that will further extend Mount Gibson’s 16-year operational presence in the Mid-West region, facilitated by the Company’s established export infrastructure and logistics arrangements.

Mount Gibson has declared Proved and Probable Ore Reserves of 2.8 million dry metric tonnes grading 59.4% Fe, using a 55% Fe cut-off, within an initial “Stage 1” pit development, for a mine life of two years. Mine life could potentially be extended a further two years by developing a “Stage 2” pit subject to market conditions remaining supportive, based on Measured and Indicated Resources within the modelled pit shells.

The Company is currently finalising commercial and permitting requirements to commence development and achieve targeted first ore sales in mid-2021.

Mount Gibson Chief Executive Officer Peter Kerr said: “We are pleased to be able to capitalise on the positive iron ore market conditions by progressing the Shine Iron Ore Project in order to extend our significant presence in the Mid-West, where we have been an established iron ore exporter since 2004. Our detailed review of the project has confirmed Shine as an attractive production opportunity that can be quickly brought on line and appropriately staged to suit market conditions. Importantly, it will also provide continuing employment and export revenue for the Mid-West region.”

Middle Island Resources Release Impressive Results From Drill Campaign.

WA and Northern Territory explorer and aspiring gold developer, Middle Island Resources (MDI) released further significant gold results emerging from the Company’s Phase 2 reverse circulation drilling campaign at its 100%-owned Sandstone gold project in the central goldfields of Western Australia.

More than 50,000m of drilling in Phase 1 and Phase 2 to date in 2020 has been completed, extending several existing Sandstone deposits and identifying five new satellite open pit deposits.

The Phase 2 RC and diamond drilling program predominantly focused on upgrading existing deposits and infilling and extending the five new satellite open pit deposits, McClaren, McIntyre, Ridge, Old Town Well and Plum Pudding, identified by the Phase 1 RC drilling campaign in the first half of CY2020. All new deposits are located on existing Mining Leases within 2.5km of the Company’s 100%-owned gold processing plant, as shown in Figure 1 below.

The Phase 2 drilling campaign was designed to upgrade existing deposits and infill and extend the five new satellite open pit deposits to an Indicated Mineral Resource classification (nominal 20m x 20m drill pattern). Reconnaissance RC drill traverses were also completed across elements of the 1.1km-long Shillington Gap target, interpreted from high resolution airborne magnetic data to lie beneath shallow transported cover between the Shillington and Ridge gold deposits.

Visible Gold at Core Lithium’s Pickled Parrot Prospect.

Visible gold was discovered on the eastern side of Core Lithium’s (CXO) Pickled Parrot Prospect following up higher soil anomalies from earlier results. Additional samples relating to that area have been submitted to a laboratory for assay and will be reported in due course. A new set of quartz veins has also been mapped and sampled immediately to the southeast where there is currently no baseline geochemical data.

PPP was initially identified at the eastern end of a regional soil line originally sampled for lithium in 2019. Based only on moderately elevated Arsenic and Bismuth, re-assay of conventional soil samples collected by Core resulted in an impressive 828ppb Au anomaly.  Further soil sampling over recent weeks has improved the prospectivity of the area with the gold in soil anomaly now peaking at close to 2g/t gold.

PPP has also been geological mapped by Core over recent weeks and found to be the focus of a series of quartz veins in an area of least 300m in length and 100m wide. These veins vary between 1 cm and 10m wide and individually up to 100m long.

Core Lithium’s Managing Director, Stephen Biggins, commented: “To have discovered visible gold at surface at the Pickled Parrot Prospect, in one of the first geological mapping campaigns, is another very promising indication that we are on the right track with this exciting new prospect. We look forward to updating the market as further assay results come to hand.”

 

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Morning News Bites – October 8

Morning News Bites for October 8

High Grade Hits at Bellevue.

Bellevue Gold (BGL) has reported that it has discovered a new shallow high-grade shoot at its Bellevue Gold Project in Western Australia.

Bellevue Managing Director Steve Parsons said: “The drilling results on the new Armand lode are outstanding, with high-grade mineralisation intersected near existing development hosted within the Bellevue Shear.

With mineralisation outlined over 450m and remaining open along strike and down dip, Bellevue will press ahead with drilling with a view to including Armand in the next resource upgrade.

The company has also hit some high-grade results close and east of their Deacon lode.  This was discovered when drilling a new location, which was partially financed by the Exploration Incentive Scheme

Bellevue has been aggressive in its drilling campaign while still maintaining the project development.

Mr Parsons said:  “We have earmarked $35 million for exploration spending on a full program of drilling and project development work over the next 15 months.

“This substantial investment is central to our dual-track strategy of driving growth in our inventory through aggressive exploration and resource drilling while also advancing the project towards development and cashflow.

“These parallel work streams will maximise our ability to continue creating value for shareholders in both the short and long term.”

Grades included:  6.1m @ 14.5g/t and 3.7m @ 26.2g/t

Dreadnought Announces Encouraging Drill Results.

Dreadnought Resources Limited (DRE) has announced further results from the 17-hole (1,767m) RC drill program at Metzke’s Find, part of the Illaara Gold-VMS-Iron Ore Project. The latest drill program tested extensions of lode mineralisation at depth and along strike confirming mineralisation along ~280m of strike and to a vertical depth of ~100m.

Dreadnought Managing Director, Dean Tuck, in a statement said: “Metzke’s Find continues to deliver high-grade intercepts while we steadily increase our understanding of the system. Identifying the flat lying offset now indicates that the first five drill holes drilled to the north probably ended short. This learning is significant and reopens ~80m of potential mineralised strike. We look forward to redrilling the main structure to the north as well as diamond drilling to further advance our structural understanding of the mineralised lodes. Furthermore, results from Longmore’s Find and Black Oak should be released in mid-October 2020.”

Illaara is located 190km northwest of Kalgoorlie in the Yilgarn Craton and covers 75kms of strike along the Illaara Greenstone Belt. The land was previously under the control of Newmont and until Dreadnought took over the lease, had very little exploration carried out.  The land was previously earmarked for iron ore exploration, but Dreadnought has focused on the gold potential in the area.

Yandal Releases Further High-Grade Results.

Yandal Resources (YRL) released further results from its current drilling program that shows high-grade gold mineralisation at shallow depths in their Gordons Dam prospect.  36 holes from the RC drill program are still pending and the company is keen to include them in their maiden resource estimate.

A further 10,500 metres of air-core and diamond drilling is expected to be completed in the December quarter.

When releasing the latest results Managing Director Mr Lorry Hughes said: “The potential to define an initial shallow Mineral Resource and subsequent open pit development is becoming clearer as infilling wide-spaced reconnaissance holes with high quality RC holes is proving successful. Very high grades can be a common feature of palaeochannel hosted deposits in the region and they are quite often located close to a primary source or structure.

High grades have been intersected beneath parts of the palaeochannel previously and the exploration plan is to continue to explore for deeper extensions utilising geological and structural observations from the pending diamond core drilling.

In the meantime shallow Air-core drilling will continue to explore for new palaeochannel and bedrock hosted gold trends in order to provide new targets for RC testing”.

Some of the results included:  1m @ 73.12g/t Au within 8m @ 11.03g/t Au from 36m and 1m @ 15.13g/t Au within 7m @ 3.48g/t Au from 38m.

Wiluna (WMX) Updates Sulphide Development

Wiluna Mining is advancing its $58m stage-one sulphide expansion project at its Wiluna gold mine, which it said will increase production from circa 60,000 ounces of gold a year to 250k ounces a year by late 2023 when the stage 2 expansion is completed.

In a statement to the ASX the company said that at its last board meeting it was approved the concentrator construction works to be completed by GR Engineering Services.  Construction is planned to start in March next year according to the company’s timetable with commissioning commencing in October.

Milan Jerkovic, Wiluna Mining’s Executive Chair commented: “I’m pleased to report that significant progress has occurred surrounding the sulphide development plan. A significant hurdle was met when the Board of Directors approved the construction of the concentrator and the appointment of GR Engineering to undertake the EPC contract for construction. The timetable is confirmed and the capital requirements for Stage 1 will be fully funded with the expected draw down of the Mercuria second tranche debt facility and work will commence immediately with commissioning planned for September 2021.

The challenge now is to deliver on Stage 1 and scope out the optimum size for Stage 2 given the considerable size of the Wiluna orebody. This will take shape in the Feasibility Study which is currently being undertaken. We are now exactly halfway through our 24 months strategy to turn the Company around, deliver real value to our shareholders and maximise the true potential of the Wiluna Mining Complex. We are delivering on our promises and we plan to execute with precision. The sheer size of Wiluna, which is now the 7th largest gold district under single ownership in Australia, based on JORC Mineral Resources, throws up challenges but nothing worthwhile comes easy and we believe the prize for shareholders of developing this project in a systematic, thorough and staged manner to become a Tier 1 asset in a Tier 1 jurisdiction will be worth it”.

Granny Smith Mine Powered by Renewables.

Continuing its push with renewable energy after its Agnew mine became the first in Australia to be powered with wind-generated electricity, operating a 56MW renewable energy grid, Gold Fields has built a solar system to help power capacity at its Granny Smith operations.

The system has 20,000 solar panels attached to a 2megawatt – 1megawatt battery system to store the energy produced by the panels.  It is expected the solar array will help reduce fuel consumption on the site by more than 10%.

Gold Fields Executive Vice-President Australasia Stuart Mathews is quoted as saying:  “Here in Australia and globally our company is committed to addressing climate change impacts by transitioning towards an energy mix that increasingly embraces renewables and lower carbon fuel sources,” Mathews said.

“The Granny Smith microgrid and the renewable energy solution at our Agnew mine are a clear demonstration of the innovative steps we are taking to ensure the ongoing sustainability of our operations.”

The system was installed by Aggreko and becomes part of the self-contained system on site.

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Morning News Bites – October 7

Morning News Bites for October 7

De Grey (DEG) Releases Infill Drill Results.

Commenting on encouraging drill results at the Hemi Gold Discovery, De Grey Technical Director Andy Beckwith said:

“The plunging high grade zone at Aquila continues to grow to the west and downdip toward Falcon. Mineralisation at Aquila and Crow has been intersected to approximately 500 vertical metres and remains open.”

 The Hemi Gold Discovery is located approximately 60km south of Port Hedland in Western Australia.

The Aquila and Crow zones are located adjacent and to the north of the large Brolga intrusion at Hemi.

The infill drilling program will continue over the coming months at all the Hemi zones to enable a robust resource estimate targeting a high level of JORC 2012 Indicated category resources. The initial Hemi resource estimate is planned for the middle of 2021.

Black Cat Acquires More Projects.

Black Cat Syndicate (BC8) has entered into a binding agreement to acquire the Trojan, Slate Dam and Clinker Hill gold projects from Aruma Resources , subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions.

Black Cat’s Managing Director, Gareth Solly, said: “This acquisition accelerates Black Cat’s move towards a target of more than 1Moz of Resources. The Trojan deposit has strong synergies to our Fingals Gold Project, presents a near-term mining opportunity with 115,000oz in Resource on a granted mining lease and will become part of our larger Fingals Gold Project. The acquisition increases our total Resources to 826,000oz.”

The Trojan deposit is located 65km SE of Kalgoorlie on mining lease M25/0104. The deposit sits just 15km (via the all-weather Trans-access road) east of the preferred site for Black Cat’s planned processing facility.

Great Northern Minerals Confirms Significant Drill Results

Great Northern Minerals (GNM) has released the final one metre resplit samples (BRRC1012 to BRRC1033) from the Reverse Circulation (‘RC’) drilling programme at the Company’s Big Rush Gold Project in Northern Queensland.

The total recent drilling at Big Rush comprised 22 RC holes for 3,634 metres spread over approximately 900 metres of strike underneath the southern, central and northern previously mined shallow open pits.

GNM Managing Director, Cameron Mclean said when releasing the results: “The one metre results have confirmed the potential for very high grades to extend to significant vertical depth, particulary underneath the Central Pit. Results from underneath the Northern Pit are pointing to excellent further potential in this area and the planned deeper diamond drilling program which is about to commence is designed to test for extensions of the higher grade gold results.”

Victory Mines Confirms Commencement of Drilling Program

Victory Mines Limited (VIC) has announced that drilling has commenced at the Company’s Bonaparte Project in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Victory is conducting a 10 hole drilling program which will include twinning historical drill holes with modern drilling methods and sampling techniques. Drilling is expected to be completed and assays returned to the company for interpretation by late November 2020.

Down Hole Electromagnetic Magnetic (DHEM) tools will be used to help determine the presence and orientation of primary sulphide conductors. The DHEM survey is scheduled for the second quarter of 2021 following the end of the wet season.

Gold – What Goes Up Must Come Down

Gold has continued its roller coaster ride with a significant drop in price over night.  After hitting $1920USD yesterday during trade, this morning it opened about $1877USD.  The drop is attributed to US President Trump calling off talks with the Democrats about any stimulus package for the nation.  At time of writing gold was trading at $2642AUD.

With the US elections about a month away the next few weeks could see more volatility in the sector as the price fluctuates on predictions of the outcome.

Gold stocks on the ASX are down and it has taken back a little of the large gains from yesterday that Northern Star and Saracen experienced after the announcement of the two companies merging to form a B$16.1AUD company.

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Morning News Bites – October 1

Morning News Bites for September 30. PM to announce $1.5 billion manufacturing boost to bring 80k jobs to Australia, experts predicting that half of Australian university researchers face the axe and Victoria COVID-19 death toll reaches 800.

Cyprium Metals Limited commenced analysing the potential of the Nanadie Well Copper-Gold Project, which is located 75km east-northeast of its existing Cue Copper-Gold Project, in Western Australia. The supergene mineralisation has been intersected in shallow drilling over a strike length of 750 metres and remains open along strike in both directions. Typical supergene intersections include, 6m @ 4.79% Cu, 0.36 g/t Au, 1.83 g/t Ag from 1m and 8m @ 2.53% Cu, 0.69 g/t Au, 3.88 g/t Ag from 33m in drill hole. Executive Director Barry Cahill commented, saying “We are pleased to announce the preliminary results of the geological interpretation that we have undertaken at the Nanadie Well Copper-Gold Project. There is significant potential for shallow supergene copper-gold mineralisation above the sulphide mineralisation at Nanadie Well.”

Thomson Resources Ltd has advised that it has completed due diligence on the Hortons gold tenement it is acquiring from private company, Syndicate Minerals Pty Ltd to Thomson’s satisfaction. The Hortons gold tenement is situated 30km of Tenterfield in Northern NSW and has high potential for Intrusion-Related Gold System type gold mineralization. The tenement covers 58 sq. km and has several gold anomalies. This is the first of the key Conditions Precedent to Thomson’s acquisition of the Hortons gold project. The next steps towards completion of the acquisition will now be proceeded with, including, obtaining Thomson shareholder approval to the issue of the equity consideration, this will be sought at the AGM on 26 October 2020 and with Ministerial approval of the transfer of the tenement to Thomson.

Further to its announcement of 16th July, AusQuest Limited reported that drilling of several compelling gold-copper targets at the Gunanya Project in the Paterson region of Western Australia is set to commence in early October under its Strategic Alliance Agreement with South32. The reverse circulation drilling program will consist of 6 to 9 drill-holes for a total of ~1,800m, and will provide an initial test of three magnetic targets to determine their potential to host large-scale gold and copper mineralisation, similar to that found at Winu (by Rio Tinto) and Havieron (by Newcrest). AusQuest Managing Director Graeme Drew said the Company was pleased that drilling of the Gunanya targets was able to get underway this late in the season. “These are compelling targets based on analogies that we have been able to draw with new discoveries in the Paterson Region from both a gold and a copper perspective,” he said. “We are looking forward to reporting on the drilling at Gunanya once the program gets underway.”

Bellevue Gold Limited is pleased to announce that extensional and infill exploration drilling at the Bellevue Gold Project in Western Australia has intersected high-grade mineralisation both outside and within the existing know resource boundary. Drilling has been continuing on site and has included infill drilling to upgrade the indicated resource later in the December quarter and the resumption of exploration step out drilling at the project. Hits up to 163g/t also point to extensions of the Deacon, Deacon North and Bellevue
Lodes; Indicated Resource upgrade set for this quarter. Managing Director Steve Parsons said the Company’s investment in exploration drilling continued to create significant value for Bellevue stakeholders.
“We have hit more high-grade mineralisation in previously-untested areas,” Mr Parsons said. “These results extend the known limits of the mineralisation. At the same time, our infill drilling continues to return strong results which should help drive an increase in the Indicated Resource.”

Barra Resources Limited is pleased to advise that reverse circulation and diamond drilling is scheduled to commence mid-late October at the Burbanks Gold Project. The drilling program will specifically follow-up encouraging RC drill results from 2019 which intersected high-grade mineralisation to depths of 100m below the surface, along 600m of prospective strike along the Burbanks Shear Zone between the Main Lode underground mine and the Burbanks North deposit. Mineralisation is open at depth and the planned program aims to test the prospective 600m of strike to depths between 130m and 350m below surface where mineralisation is open and untested. The drilling program is estimated to take between 4 and 6 weeks with results to be announced within 2 weeks of program completion.

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Morning News Bites – September 30

Morning News Bites for September 30. Hydrogen boom set to hit $11 trillion USD, national contact tracing network unlikely to be in place until 2021 and Trump is about to go head to head with Biden in the first presidential debate. 

TSC Limited announced the commencement of RC drilling at the Rover Project in WA’s Goldfields. Around 33 holes for 1,800m is planned, to test four main areas. The RC drilling campaign is designed to follow up on previous significant results. Notably, the focus is to test new anomalous gold results at the Rover Project, following on from TSC’s auger drilling and soil geochemical programs. Results to be released progressively over the coming weeks as they come to hand.

Superior Resources Limited reported an update on the second batch of assays from the Resource Drilling
Program at the Steam Engine Gold Deposit, located approximately 210 kilometers west of Townsville, Queensland. The results further boost the consistently strong intersections returned in the first batch of assays from both the Steam Engine and Eastern Ridge Lodes. The second batch of assays returned a thick, high grade gold intercept at Steam Engine Lode, with highlights including; 14m @ 4.9 g/t gold from 0m (surface), incl 7m @ 9.2 g/t gold from 7m and incl 1m @ 47.5 g/t gold from 7m. Upcoming revised Mineral Resource Estimate expected to be upgraded from current 1.27 million tonnes @ 2.3 g/t gold (approximately 94,000 ounces), followed by completion of a scoping study.

Initial reconnaissance fieldwork programs at the recently-acquired Jimblebar and Pincunah gold projects in the Pilbara region of Western Australia have returned positive results for Trek Metals Limited, confirming strong prospectivity for gold mineralisation. The fieldwork program comprised mapping and sampling programs across both project areas and included the reprocessing of geophysical data to assist with geological interpretation. This work delivered a series of maps that combined airborne magnetic and radiometric data, as well as aerial photography, topography and processed satellite imagery. In combination with historical drilling results, these maps were then used to prioritise targets for sampling programs and later interpretation.

Toro Energy Limited reported that the reverse circulation drilling programme at the Golden Ways Target Area on the company’s owned Yandal Gold Project has been successfully completed. The Project is located in the Yandal Greenstone Belt some 15km NE of the world class Bronzewing Gold Mine and some 50km east of the world class Mt Keith Nickel Deposit in Western Australia. A total of 35 RC drill holes for 2,416m were completed in the programme over the Golden Ways target area, being 416m more than the 2,000m planned. Geological assessment of the drilling program is now underway. Drill chip samples have been selected for geochemical analysis and sent to the laboratory for assaying. It is expected that assay results will be returned in October.

Sultan Resources Limited provided an update on results from extension soil and rock chip sampling returned from ongoing exploration programs at the Big Hill AuCu porphyry project in the Company’s Lachlan Fold Belt. The ongoing exploration program is designed to identify drill targets with high potential to host
porphyry-style Au-Cu and/or epithermal gold mineralisation across the three highly prospective targets at Big Hill, Ringaroo and Tucklan. Jeremy King, Chairman of Sultan Resources commented saying, “Sultan’s methodical approach and boots on the ground exploration strategy has again paid off, revealing Razorback Ridge: outcropping chalcopyrite, malachite, chalcocite with good gold over a kilometre long, and unreported by previous explorers. It is testament to the quality our now expanded ground position that such outcropping
mineralisation can still be discovered walking the ground half way between Cadia and Boda. Razorback adds even more compelling ingredients to our Big Hill Porphyry Target, giving us more confidence to fast track further exploration not only around Big Hill and Razorback, but at Ringaroo and Tucklan where we eagerly await IP and soil results, as we turn toward drilling.”

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Morning News Bites – September 29

Morning News Bites for September 29. Thousands of people impacted by the Office 365 outage, Sydney to Auckland travel bubble is looking likely and the Hotel Quarantine failures “caused 768 deaths”, inquiry told. 

Alto Metals Limited provided an update on the final 1m fire assay results from its latest phase of RC drilling targeting high grade gold mineralisation beneath the Lord Nelson open pit and at the new Orion gold lode discovery, located 200m south of Lord Nelson, within the Company’s flagship Sandstone Gold Project 600km north of Perth in the East Murchison Mineral Field of Western Australia. The update relates to results received for a total 5,562m of RC drilling, which included infill and step out drilling at the new Orion Lode and infill drilling beneath the Lord Nelson pit. Infill drilling at the Orion Lode confirms excellent continuity of the shallow high-grade gold mineralisation from oxide and transitional zone, with highlights including, 29m @ 3.5g/t gold from 49m, incl.7m @ 7.9g/t gold from 53m and 13m @ 3.3g/t gold from 83m, incl.2m @ 8.8g/t gold from 85m. Alto’s Managing Director, Matthew Bowles commented saying, “It is a really exciting time for Alto with our next drilling program about to commence to follow up on these latest results. The 30,000m of drilling we have planned is the biggest drill program Alto has undertaken in a number of years and we are keenly anticipating ongoing results.”

Torian Resources Limited announced that drilling on the Mt Stirling Gold Project has now commenced, located 40km northwest of Leonora in Western Australia. The approximately 15,000m drilling campaign kicked off today at the Diorite East prospect on the Diorite Block. 9 holes comprising of approximately 1,000m of drilling have been planned for this prospect to follow up on a number of historical gold-in-soil anomalies which were recently uncovered. Phase 1 drilling has demonstrated Mt Stirling Project as a potentially large gold system with ore grade Au now intercepted over 100m below previous drilling and extends over 1,000m strike length. Assays from Phase 1 drilling returned grades of up to 4m @ 8.84 g/t (including 1.0 m @ 33.10 g/t) and 24m @ 1.26 g/t (including 7.0 m @ 2.89 g/t). Torian Executive Director Mr Peretz Schapiro said, “Today’s announcement ushers in an exciting phase for our company and our shareholders as we embark on one of our largest and most comprehensive drilling campaigns in recent times. I would like to thank our geological team and fellow Directors for all their hard work over the last couple of months to ensure that the program goes ahead and that it is given the greatest opportunity to succeed.

Drilling is underway at the Gum Creek Gold Project in Western Australia for Horizon Gold Limited. The drilling program will comprise a total of 38 RC holes for 4,680 metres. The program will consist of infill and extensional drilling to improve definition of the modelled mineralisation and to target potential extensions to the Swan and Swift Mineral Resource. Horizon Executive Director, Jamie Sullivan, said: “It is great to be drilling again at the Gum Creek Gold Project, with the initial program targeting the high-grade Swan and Swift deposits. This marks the start of a new phase of exploration for the company in this highly prospective belt. Along with our comprehensive review of previous geological data, which is well underway, we look forward to planning a more expansive drill program leading into 2021”.

West Australian kaolin and silica sand exploration company, Suvo Strategic Minerals Limited announced that it has executed a mining access agreement with the private land owner and occupier of the tenement that contains its maiden Inferred JORC Resource of 31.5mt of bright white kaolinized granite at its 100% owned White Knight Kaolin Project in Gabbin, Western Australia. Drilling contractors and associated support personnel are scheduled, and the drilling campaign will commence shortly. The purpose of the drilling program is to determine a JORC Compliant Measured Mining Reserve which is expected to be completed in December 2020. Bulk samples of raw product will be sent to the United Kingdom for further metallurgical test work, the results of which will further define enduser specifications and potential product pricing.

Dampier Gold Limited has detailed an update on further Aircore drilling has commenced at Paradigm East on the Zuleika Gold Project tenements under the joint venture with Torian Resources Limited. The Zuleika Gold Project sits within the gold rich Kundana district of the Kalgoorlie Goldfield with an extensive land holding along significant regional structures and within highly prospective stratigraphy Following on from the successful Phase 1 RC (Reverse Circulation) program at Paradigm East, phase 2 Aircore drilling of 1200m testing 400m further along strike on the mineralised structure is underway. The program is testing for the extension of the gold system to then be later infilled and tested with RC drilling. Dampier has identified the Paradigm East prospect as a high priority target within the granted tenements of the Zuleika Gold Project. Previous results include 7m @ 9.8 g/t Au including 2m @30.9 g/t Au. There are several strong intercepts over a 250m strike length and the zone is open in most directions. Phase 1 RC drilling program at Paradigm East completed in September 2020 returned significant intercepts from 11 of 12 drill holes with best results including repeats of up to 7.97 g/t Au over 1m from 117m.