Morning News Bites – October 20

Significant Assays at Bardoc’s Zoroastrian Site

Bardoc Gold Limited (BDC) has reported significant new assay results from recent exploration and in-fill drilling at the cornerstone 526koz Zoroastrian Deposit, part of its 100%- owned 3.03Moz Bardoc Gold Project, located 40km north of Kalgoorlie in WA.

New drilling results from the northern end of the Zoroastrian Deposit have extended the mineralisation further to the north outside of the current Mineral Resource model and have provided the impetus to expedite a diamond core rig to site to further evaluate this emerging area.

The drilling has identified a significant zone with a standout intercept of 89m @ 1.43g/t Au from 192m, which is interpreted as the development of multiple footwall lodes within the Royal Mint Lode.

This intersection is the broadest zone of mineralisation recorded at Zoroastrian and highlights that the cornerstone deposit still has areas that can yield significant widths of strong gold mineralisation, providing considerable upside for future mining and exploration activities.

Bardoc Gold’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Robert Ryan, said the standout intercept of 89 metres at 1.43g/t, including several higher-grade zones, is the widest seen at Zoroastrian to date and one of the better exploration results to be generated across the Bardoc Gold Project.  He said, “Importantly, our recent drilling has shown that the northern end of the deposit is shaping up as an important growth opportunity for the Company. We are seeing broad widths of mineralisation rarely seen at Zoroastrian, with the recent results clearly demonstrating that there is significant potential to extend the Mineral Resource well beyond the current 526koz.

BHP Releases Quarterly Report

BHP (BHP) announced in their September 2020 quarter, Atlantis Phase 3 achieved first production ahead of schedule and on budget. Given this, the progress of Atlantis Phase 3 will not be reported in future Operational Reviews.

The Jansen Stage 1 project in Canada is expected to be presented to the BHP Board for Final Investment Decision in the middle of the 2021 calendar year. As a consequence of the challenges encountered earlier with placement of the shaft lining and then the more recent impacts from our COVID-19 response plan, the Board has approved additional funding of US$272 million for the completion of the shafts, resulting in a total budget of US$3.0 billion (previously US$2.7 billion).

Jansen Stage 1 remains well positioned with attractive medium to longer-term commodity fundamentals, and is set to be a high-margin, low-cost, long-life asset, with multiple, basin-wide, expansion opportunities. As always, we will be disciplined about our entry into the market and it must pass our strict Capital Allocation Framework tests.

At the end of the September 2020 quarter, BHP had five major projects under development in petroleum, copper, iron ore and potash, with a combined budget of US$10.9 billion over the life of the projects.

BHP Chief Executive Officer, Mike Henry:  “BHP has started the new financial year with a strong first quarter of safety and production performance. Group production rose two per cent from a year ago driven by solid results in metallurgical coal and iron ore, our major growth projects made good progress, and we secured more options in copper, nickel and oil.”

Vango Release Significant High-Grade Intersections at Marymia Gold Project.

Vango Mining (VAN) has released new, high-grade, drilling results. The new lode intersections both confirm and extend the recent K1 lode discovery, in the PHB Corridor, to potentially over one kilometre, open at depth.

The results are from the final eight of 11 broad spaced reverse circulation holes at K1, part of the current 36,000m drilling program on the Marymia Project, and are in addition to the previously reported 6m @ 8.66 g/t Au, incl 2m @ 23.8 g/t Au from 128m, that lies 500m to the southwest along strike within the targeted Mine Mafic unit.

Managing Director, Mr Andrew Stocks, commented: “These results are highly significant as they validate our approach to targeting mineralised structures where they intersect the highly prospective Mine-Mafic unit at what is still a relatively shallow depth. These results give us confidence that we will continue to expand our open pit and high-grade underground resource base at the Marymia Project.

Vango Mining is an exploration mining company with ambitions of becoming a high-grade WA gold miner by developing the 100% owned Marymia Gold Project (Marymia) located in the mid-west region of Western Australia, consisting of 45 granted mining leases over 300km2.  Marymia has an established high-grade resource of 1Moz @ 3 g/t Au, underpinned by Trident – 410koz @ 8 g/t Au3, with immediate extensions open at depth/along strike.

Estrella Shares Up ~50% on Release of Survey Result.

Estrella Resources Limited (ESR) released an update to the market with results of the highly anticipated Down-Hole Transient Electro-Magnetic (DHTEM) survey of diamond core hole CBDD030 which intersected significant massive Ni-Cu (and PGE) bearing sulphides deep below the T5 discovery zone at the Company’s flagship Carr Boyd Project. The T5 Prospect is located 1.1km NE of the historic Carr Boyd nickel mine and was identified in 2019 following successful RC drilling of a HP FLTEM anomaly.

Chris Daws, CEO stated “This has been an astonishing result for the Company and its shareholders who have all been rewarded through patience, persistence and belief. The results of the DHTEM now support the mineralised sulphides seen in the drill core, which is currently in the laboratories being cut, sampled and priority assayed. It is open in all directions and will be chased by immediate further drilling.

“The core was only recovered from the field by the Company’s consulting geologist Neil Hutchison last weekend and showcased the next day at the Diggers and Dealers conference. The results of the DHTEM have put to rest any of my concerns about scale and we are now eagerly awaiting the assay results to get a clear understanding of the potential of this discovery.

“Planning and scheduling of the next round of holes to further test this zone is well underway, as we await the completion of hole CBDD031 which is the final hole of the Stage 1 drill program. It is being drilled 600m north of the discovery hole into a blind basal contact position in the same manner as CBDD030 and will provide critical geological and geophysical data to assist in unlocking and understanding the potential of the T5 Prospect discovery zone”

Venturex Resources Gets Exploration Back on Track

After experiencing an unavoidable delay to exploration drilling Venturex Resources (VXR) has advised that the contactor is now on site and first hole will commence on the 21st October 2020.

The Sulphur Springs Project is located south-east of Port Hedland and includes the proposed Sulphur Springs and Kangaroo Caves mines, together with tenements covering ~27km of the Panorama trend that contains numerous advanced VMS-style exploration targets. The Sulphur Springs Project hosts a total Mineral Resource (Sulphur Springs + Kangaroo Caves) comprising 17.4 million tonnes grading 1.3% copper, 4.2% zinc and 17g/t silver.

The planned program is designed to follow-up on the exceptional results generated from 2019 drilling at the advanced Breakers Prospect as well as to test the Heli-borne Electromagnetic target XA8, where previous drilling intersected anomalous Ni-Cr mineralisation.

The program will commence at the XA8 prospect with two drill holes planned to test the down- plunge and along-strike continuation of a DHEM target and associated Ni-Cr mineralisation previously intersected at the XA8 Prospect.

Following XA8 they will target the Breakers prospect where four drill holes are designed to follow-up the along-strike and down-plunge continuation of massive sulphide mineralisation intersected at the Breakers Main Gossan, including the thick, high-grade intersection within (18m @ 7.75% Zn).

An additional two drill-holes will also be completed to follow-up zinc-rich mineralisation intersected in BKR007 (8m @ 3.37% Zn) at the Breakers North target, located approximately 1.1km NNE of the Breakers Main anomaly.

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.

Morning News Bites – September 8

In Today’s Morning News Bites for September 8. NSW, VIC and TAS brace for severe winds and dust storms, Victoria hires Salesforce for contact tracing, WA still with below average home builds despite housing grants. 

Legend Mining Limited reported an update from diamond drillhole RKDD023, which was designed to test the 25,000-30,000S conductor at the Mawson Prospect within the Rockford Project, Fraser Range, Western Australia. Legend Managing Director Mr Mark Wilson said: “The discovery of another 12.95m of massive nickelcopper sulphide in diamond drillhole 23, circa 200m from the previously announced massive sulphides, is a quantum boost for the potential of the Mawson Prospect. The nature of the mineralisation suggests we are closer to the intrusive source but we are not there yet. Downhole EM from this hole, which is now underway, is designed to provide data to assist in planning future diamond holes in this immediate vicinity.”

Shree Minerals Ltd has completed an initial desktop review of historical reports relating to Shree’s tenement application in the East Lachlan Fold Belt in New South Wales. The Turondale Project covers an area of 129.9 km² and is located 15km north of Bathurst. It is prospective for orogenic, porphyry and skarn related gold mineralisation. Commencement of exploration fieldwork is awaiting granting of the exploration licence, expected over coming few months. The East Lachlan Fold Belt has a long history of mineral production including gold (80 Mozs), copper (13 Mt), lead, zinc, silver and tin. It contains several large operating copper and gold mines including Evolution Mining’s Lake Cowal Gold Mine, Newcrest Mining Ltd’s Cadia Mine and Alkane Resources Tomingley Gold Mine. Also located within the East Lachlan Fold Belt is Alkane Resources’ 2019 Boda discovery with a reported drill intersection of 502 metres at 0.2% copper and 0.48 g/t gold from 211 metres.

High-grade gold mineralisation at shallow depths in its maiden Reverse Circulation (RC) drill program at the Kashmir prospect, has been reported by Gateway Mining Limited. The reports form part of its Gidgee Gold Project in Western Australia. Grades of up to 8.8g/t Au returned from initial reconnaissance Reverse Circulation drilling within the extensive Kashmir gold-in-soil anomaly, providing an outstanding target for follow-up work. Significant intersections have been returned from structures within both mafic volcanics and veining within the granodiorite. These mineralisation styles are consistent with those observed on the northwestern contact zone of the Montague Dome, which is the focus of Gateway’s exploration activities. Managing Director, Mr Peter Langworthy, said: “Intersecting these sorts of grades 1km apart in our very first drill program within a 1.8km long gold anomaly is an extraordinary result! This shows the scale of the opportunity at Gidgee and highlights the vast range of targets we have across the project – from resource-growth opportunities at Whistler and Montague to vast new gold anomalies such as Kashmir which are wide open for new discoveries.”

ScandiVanadium Limited announced an update on the progress of the Gnama Nickel Project in the Fraser Range of Western Australia. Review of existing geophysical database including 15.1 line kilometres of MLEM and FLEM ground based electro-magnetic (EM) survey data identifies key area for follow up. Planning underway for ground EM survey to test up to 550m depth over historic nickel and copper anomalous drilling. Executive Chairman, David Frances, said “The Gnama Project has significant elevated nickel and copper in previous drilling analogous to Nova and Mawson pre-discovery. The ability to run a higher-powered ground EM over our project compared to previous surveys completed in 2005 allows us to investigate deeper parts of the system that have not previously been tested. We are planning a SQUID survey to test up to 550m depth and potentially identify the source of the 20m thick Ni-Cu-Co anomaly in historic drilling.”

Bardoc Gold Limited announced that recent Reverse Circulation drilling at the Excelsior Deposit, part of the company’s 3.02Moz Bardoc Gold Project located 40km north of Kalgoorlie in WA, has intersected broad zones of gold mineralisation which confirm the existing resource model and highlight strong potential for future growth and upside at the cornerstone deposit. The latest assay results from the 320koz Au Excelsior Deposit are from areas of lower confidence material outside the current Ore Reserves. The results demonstrate the mineralisation remains open down-plunge at depth below the current open pit design, highlighting future growth opportunities at this large-tonnage, low strip ratio deposit.

Morning News Bites – July 27 GOLD GOES BANG!

Sherwood Mining - Laneway Resources

Today’s morning news bites – GOLD GOES BANG!!!! Gold closes in on a new record high trading at $1918US/oz ~ $2700 AUD.

  • Bardoc Gold moved into a Definitive Feasibility Study during Quarter 2 and has stepped up the exploration and drilling efforts which will see Bardoc move to an emerging mid tier producer. Managing Director of Bardoc Gold Rob Ryan said “With the lifting of COVID-19 related travel and other restrictions during the Quarter, we were able to move rapidly to escalate key work programs, launching straight into the Definitive Feasibility Study, which has already shifted into top gear, while at the same time stepping up our exploration and drilling efforts. We also enjoyed significant early success with the drill rig during the quarter. Resource in-fill drilling at the cornerstone Zoroastrian and Aphrodite deposits during the quarter delivered some exceptional high-grade results, confirming the potential for reserve growth at both deposits. Exploration drilling also delivered very positive results at the Mayday North satellite deposit, which is emerging as a high-priority target for Resource and Reserve growth.” Bardoc have shown that the DFS is on track for delivery for Q1 2021.
  • A focus on the Wellington North Project as part of the Northern Molong Belt in NSW has been in place for Magmatic Resources for the June 2020 Quarter. Magmatic was awarded a New Frontiers Cooperative Drilling grant during the June 2020 Quarter, which will contribute $35,250 towards drill testing at the Lady Ilse North porphyry gold-copper target north of the lucrative Cadia Mine. After a diamond drill hole showed similar signs to the first drill at Boda, The results provided the Company with increased confidence in the potential for a large gold-copper porphyry discovery at Lady Ilse, where RC drilling is underway.
  • Wiluna Mining has released drill results from its Calvert target at the Wiluna Mining Centre. A highlight of 76.5m @ 1.77g/t intersection demonstrates a large-scale gold system according to Wiluna Mining’s Executive Chair Milan Jerkovic. “These ongoing results from drilling ‘under the headframe’ are continuing to deliver into our Stage 1 sulphide strategy as we pursue shallow high-grade resource development targets. Our initial sulphide resource drilling programme commenced at the Wiluna Mining Centre at Bulletin and Essex and has progressed to Calvert and the East Lode. We have had exceptional drilling results from all these areas and this has given us great confidence that Wiluna remains one of the largest undeveloped gold systems in Australia.” he said. A Mineral Resource update is due to be released in late September 2020.
  • A major multi target RC drill program is underway for Lefroy Exploration at Lake Lefroy with JV partners Gold Fields. Gold anomalies were uncovered in 2019 data as part of a wide-spaced foundation of aircore drilling and geophysical programs. Lefroy Exploration Managing Director, Wade Johnson said “This is an exciting phase of exploration to provide a deeper evaluation of the multiple, large regolith gold anomalies in Lake Lefroy. The priority gold targets generated are the culmination of a systematic and methodical exploration approach by Gold Fields over 2 years that has both generated multiple broad regolith hosted gold anomalies and confirmed the rock package as being similar to that at St Ives”  Drilling is expected to be completed in August 2020 with results known by September 2020.

 

Sherwood Mining - Laneway Resources

  • Encouraging gold drill results for Laneway Resources has been announced from its Sherwood resource area at Agate Creek in Queensland. The RC program took in 34 drill holes for 2,068m of drilling with intersects of 5m @ 5.80 g/t Au from 27m & 1m @ 40.64 g/t Au from 36m & 7m @ 15.08 g/t Au from 59 m including 1m @ 54.72 g/t Au. According to Laneway Resources, Once all assay results are received and evaluated, an updated pit design and mine plan will be completed. Finalisation of mining contractor, ore transportation and processing arrangements will occur after finalising the pit design and mobilisation of a contract mining fleet will then be able to commence.