Tag: BHP

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What You Missed in the News This Week

Weeks after the West Australian Government raised concerns that Alcoa’s mines posed a risk to the Serpentine Dam and 1/5 of Perth’s drinking water, it has been discovered that the US miner has risked another WA dam.

Alcoa applied for approval to build pipelines over WA’s Waroona Dam to pump PFAS contaminated water from firefighting foam, and despite not yet receiving approval, has already built the pipeline.

The Water Corporation worries a leak in the pipeline could contaminate the dam and said Alcoa built it without their knowledge.

A spokesperson from Water Corp said “It is Water Corporation’s view that such a pipeline would, along with other concerns, present an unacceptable risk to drinking water quality, therefore, Water Corporation does not support Alcoa’s proposal in its current form.”

Anon via WA Today

 

BHP has announced it is selling its Daunia and Blackwater mines in Queensland, citing a 9.3B (32%) drop in its half-year profits and increased royalties.

BHP Mitsubishi Alliance asset president Mauro Neves said the Queensland Government’s decision to raise cola royalties had made the state uncompetitive.

 

 

Mineral Resources has entered into two binding agreements with Albemarle Corporation, the first to change their 40% ownership of the joint owned Wodgina Mine to 50% and the second to increase investment in lithium in China.

MinRes managing director Chis Ellison said “We are delighted to have reached these binding agreements, which cement MinRes’ place as a world-leader in lithium mining and leverage our partner Albemarle’s strong track record in battery chemical production.

“By growing our battery chemicals business and expanding into global chemical marketing, MinRes will become one of the world’s largest fully integrated lithium chemical suppliers to auto manufacturers, capitalising on the increasing demand for sustainable battery mineral products.”

 

 

The Federal and West Australian governments will invest $565m into expanding and upgrading the port at Port Headland.

In the first stage, two seawalls and a causeway will be constructed, increasing the port’s capacity to export lithium and copper.

MGN Civil will complete the construction works, with 90 per cent of materials and suppliers being sourced within the Pilbara region along with partnerships with First Nations businesses.

Anthony Albanese said “Demand is growing locally and overseas for clean energy sources and our Government’s investment in the Lumsden Point expansion will help position northern Australia to take advantage of the economic opportunities this demand presents.”

 

Town of Port Hedland

 

Magnis Energy Technologies has entered into an agreement with Tesla to supply them with critical minerals for electric vehicles.

Tesla will buy a minimum of 17,500 tonnes per annum of lithium and other critical minerals from February 2025.

Magnis chairman Frank Poullas said “We are really excited to bring our high-performing AAM to market that requires no chemical or thermal purification throughout the whole process, which differentiates this sustainable material in the market and provides great value to all parties.”

 

Tesla

 

The S&P/ASX200 markets have continued its month-long downward path. The week started at 7,354 points, falling sharply on Tuesday and Wednesday, before raising slightly to 7,307 points at close of day Friday.

The All Ordinaries saw similar drops on Tuesday and Wednesday. The index lost 0.52% for the last 5 days.

 

 

Gold had a somewhat disappointing week, dropping from $1,848.42USD on Monday to $1,828.95USD on Friday, continuing the downward trend for the month.

Silver stayed steady at the start of the week, though stumbling at the end of the week to finish off at $21.58USD.

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What You Missed This Week in the News

BHP has offered Oz Minerals a takeover offer of $28.25/share, including $9.6B, three months after their initial unsolicited offer.

BHP offered a$25/share, $8.4m takeover offer in August, which Oz Minerals rejected, saying it failed to properly value the company’s portfolio.

The offer comes after the two renewed talks on Thursday, and Oz Minerals board have accepted the offer, OZ Minerals Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Cole said: “BHP’s Revised Proposal is a clear reflection of OZ Minerals’ unique set of highly strategic, quality assets in quality jurisdictions. We look forward to working with BHP in a collaborative way to progress the Revised Proposal in the best interests of OZ Minerals’ and its stakeholders.”

 

MetalsGrove Mining has announced that drilling contractor Topdrill has mobilised its drill rig in preparation to commence the inaugural drilling at their Upper Coondina Lithium Project.

The project is located 100km south of Marble Bar, near Port Hedland.

 

Town of Port Hedland

BHP, Curtin University and Greening Australia have partnered to trial vegetation barriers to improve air quality and capture dust in the West End scheme in Port Hedland as part of BHP’s Pilbara Air Quality Program.

Phase 1 which involved planting 80,000 seedlings, has been completed and another 80,000 is scheduled to be planted in the next few months.

 

The ”What’s Down the Track” Forum was held in Kalgoorlie Boulder on Thursday. The event, run by the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Chamber of Commerce, provides a 12-month forecast into the drivers that support the growth and opportunities that exist within the region.

The event included speakers and exhibitions from BHP, Kai Rho Contracting, Deep Yellow Limited, St Ives, Northern Star, Lynas Rare Earths, Evolution Mining and Epiroc.

 

Kalgoorlie-Boulder Chamber of Commerce

The S&P/ASX200 markets stumbled at the beginning of the week, starting off on the month’s high of 7,196 points before falling to 7,106 points on Wednesday. The markets made a comeback to finish the week at 7,152 points. Oz Minerals was the top performing stock, up 3.92% after their takeover offer from BHP.

The All Ordinaries us up too, finishing the week on 7,355 points.

 

Gold is trading at $1,765.52USD after a stable week, and silver at $21.35USD, after peaking early on Tuesday at $22.28USD.

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What You Missed This Week in the News

 

Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest

 

Mining magnate Twiggy Forrest at the Egypt COP27 climate summit this week, is pushing to restrict seabed mining until it has the same protections as land mining.

In sentiments echoed by conservationist groups, Forrest voiced concerns about the environmental impact of seabed mining – which could begin as early as mid 2023.

“The deepest seabed supports some of the least understood ecosystems on the planet.” He said and argues that seabed mining should not commence “until we can match existing regulations placed on mining on land.”

 

QX Resources is scheduled to commence drilling at their Turner River hard rock lithium project by the end of the month. The project is located in the Pilbara Region, Southeast of Port Hedland.

 

OD6 Metal’s share price skyrocketed on Wednesday by 97.84% to $0.459 after announcing outstanding results from their recently completed drilling campaign at their Splinter Rock project northeast of Esperance.

 

BHP have announced record shipments from their iron ore in WA for the third year running. In their AGM this week, BHP released their income figures, including $33.9B EBITDA from iron ore.

 

 

In the AGM, BHP CEO Mike Henry and Chairman Ken MacKenzie also announced their commitment to a total elimination of sexual harassment, racism and bullying in BHP workplaces.

“That is why I want to apologise to all those who have experienced or continue to experience, any form of sexual harassment, racism or bullying anywhere at BHP,” MacKenzie said.

“We are determined to eliminate these harmful behaviours. At BHP, we are committed to providing a safe, inclusive, and supportive workplace culture where everyone can bring the best of themselves to work.”

 

The S&P/ASX200 jumped sharply today to 7,143.10 points, jumping 2.79% (194.0 points). The markets rounded out the week by following the upward trend that started on the 11th of this month.

 

ASX

 

All Ordinaries followed suit, gaining 204.40 points (2.86%) to 7,350.10

Gold had a good week, ending on a high compared to the start of the week. The spot price rose 2.45% from $2591.72oz t to $2655.23oz t.

Silver rose from $32.36oz t to $33.37oz t this week.

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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.

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Morning News Bites – September 9

In Today’s Morning News Bites for September 9. BHP conforms to hard borders and aims to hire from WA only and Oxford COVID-19 vaccine trial on hold over ‘potentially unexplained illness’. 

Western Australian nickel company St George Mining Limited is pleased to announce further strong drill results at its flagship Mt Alexander Project, located in the north-eastern Goldfields. Multiple intersections of mineralised mafic-ultramafic units across a 4km-long east-west strike of the Cathedrals Belt with a target horizon open to the east and west. Outstanding potential for the discovery of further nickel-copper sulphide deposits along strike to the east and west of these drill holes as well as up-dip and down-dip of the mineralised intercepts.

Lithium Australia announces its Share Purchase Plan, which launched on 12 August 2020, closed on 7 September 2020 with applications for $4.5 million. Managing Director Adrian Griffin commented, saying “We are very pleased that our shareholders backed the Company’s vision of sustainability in the energy metals space. The additional funds raised will allow all debt to be retired, improving the Company’s balance sheet and accelerating the expansion of Envirostream, our battery recycling subsidiary.”

Mincor Resources NL report highgrade massive and matrix nickel sulphide mineralisation at its Cassini North prospect, located 700m to the north of its cornerstone Cassini Main deposit at Kambalda, Western Australia. This is the first diamond hole drilled at Cassini North following a recent reassessment and geological re-modelling of the area completed by Mincor’s exploration team. MDD350 returned a significant intercept of 2.5m @ 6.6% Ni (including a higher-grade core of 2.0m @ 7.7% Ni), comprising a mix of high tenor massive and matrix nickel sulphides. Mincor’s Managing Director David Southam said, “This is a really exciting development which stems directly from the systematic approach which the geology team has adopted to nickel sulphide exploration.”

The Hamilton Copper Project in north-west Queensland has been successfully completed with a total of seven holes for 2,098m drilled under AusQuest Limited Strategic Alliance Agreement with South32. The drilling program has provided an approximate 500m spatial coverage around earlier drillholes, which provided strong indications of alteration
and the potential for nearby copper mineralisation. Managing Director, Graeme Drew, said the successful completion of the Hamilton drilling program was pleasing, particularly given that travel restrictions are still in
place due to COVID-19. “We are now eagerly awaiting assay results so we can identify potential ‘vectors to ore’, given that the holes were drilled so far apart to cover the large scale of the prospect,” he said.

Cyprium Metals Limited has provided an update, announcing granting of the mining lease at the Cue Copper Project, which replaces the Hollandaire exploration tenement and a portion of the Rapier exploration tenement. Cyprium has applied for exploration tenements to the west and east of the Nanadie Well CopperGold Project, to expand our regional presence in the area and increase the projects exploration prospectivity. The Nanadie Well Copper-Gold Project also has the Stark Cu-Ni-PGE prospect along with a number of drill ready targets that offer excellent exploration upside. Executive Director Barry Cahill commented, saying “We are pleased that the mining lease has been granted to remove any uncertainty over the timing of when mining operations could potentially commence, following the successful completion of favourable Cue Copper Project scoping and feasibility studies.

 

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Morning News Bites – September 3

In Today’s Morning News Bites for September 3. Tax relief on the cards for employees and businesses as Australia records a recession. 92 per cent of West Australians backing Mark McGowan on his hard border policy. BHP will pay investors around a 76.6c dividend on Sep 22.

Gold and base metals explorer Carawine Resources Limited today announced the acquisition of a major new gold exploration project in the world-class Tropicana region of Western Australia’s north-eastern goldfields. Managing Director Mr David Boyd said the acquisitions will create a dominant landholding in the northern Tropicana region of Western Australia, marking the start of a new and exciting stage in the Company’s history. “On completion of these two acquisitions and assuming all Phantom and Carawine tenement applications are granted, Carawine will have secured a large, highly prospective ground position in one of Australia’s premier gold exploration addresses and further strengthened its position in the emerging
Fraser Range nickel province,” Mr Boyd said.

Macarthur Minerals Limited is pleased to provide an update on its continued progress towards completing its route to market for the flagship Moonshine magnetite deposits at Lake Giles. Macarthur and RCR Mining Technologies have completed a site visit to the Port of Esperance in conjunction with representatives from Southern Ports Authority and Arc Infrastructure. Subject to approval by Southern Ports Authority, RCR MT’s cutting edge ‘Helix Dumper Wagon’ (“Helix Dumper”) transport solution for Lake Giles Iron Project can be developed within the Port envelope at Esperance. Macarthur’s market-lead proposal for the development of the Helix Dumper solution will allow optimisation of existing Berth 3 ship-loader capacity at the Port of Esperance, enhancing its current performance from the current 2,220tph throughput to over 4,500tph capacity.

An update on RC drilling activities at the Bulong and Fingals Gold Projects has been provided by Black Cat Syndicate Limited. The first 18 holes (~1,904m) at Fingals Fortune have been completed, targeting shallow extensions to the Fingals Fortune open pit. Results were encouraging with almost every hole intersecting multiple mineralised veins, with highlights including; 3m @ 17.81 g/t Au from 69m (extensional) and 3m @ 40.99 g/t Au from 79m (extensional). Managing Director, Gareth Solly said: “Early results from Fingals Fortune are looking good and provide confidence in the potential for rapid growth of the existing Resource and extensions to the Fingals Fortune open pit.”

Marmota is pleased to provide an update on the current drilling program at Aurora Tank. The first batch of drilling assays from the July/August drilling has yielded an excellent 4m intersection averaging over 25 g/t gold (from 52m downhole). Marmota is expanding this program from approximately 7500m to over 11000m
(still being finalised), with extra holes added at a number of locations including the NW flank and eastern
extensions. Drilling is expected to be completed next week.

Kaiser Reef Limited announce that it has commenced the company’s inaugural drilling programme at the Stuart Town gold project. The drilling will initially test several targets, including the Rockdale mine and the Specimen Hill mine and will commence with RC drilling with some diamond drilling later in the programme. The programme has been targeted with the assistance of geophysical investigation and will initially investigate a few of the prospects within the prolific numbers of historic gold workings in the region. The project has enjoyed very little modern investigation since the main gold mining periods commenced in the mid 1850’s, with the geological model and source of the gold remaining a subject of conjecture.

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Morning News Bites – August 18

In Today’s Morning News Bites for August 18. KCGM release their reserves, resources and guidance update for FY21. 

KCGM have set an FY21 guidance of 440,000 – 480,000oz at AISC of A$1,470 – 1,570/oz3, growth capital budget at A$198m (A$12m on exploration), and an expectation of production to rise to +675,000ozpa.  Further growth is supported by a large quantity of significant drill results across the KCGM portfolio that sit outside of current Reserves, including at Fimiston South open pit, OBH open pit, Fimiston South underground and Mt Charlotte underground.

Saracen Mineral Holdings report a new 7 year group production outlook. It was underwritten by 8.6Moz in Reserves and resources of 320Mt @ 1.7g/t for 17.0Moz as of FY20. Group production guidance for FY21 of 600 – 640,000oz at an AISC of A$1,300 – A$1,400/oz. Saracen Managing Director Raleigh Finlayson said Saracen was on track to continue the Company’s long record of growing its production and expanding its inventory, saying “Saracen’s strategy of making opportunistic acquisitions and then unlocking their full value through exploration and development has created substantial value for shareholders for many years.”

Northern Star Resources report further increases in forecast production and more growth in reserves and resources as a result of the review conducted at its half-owned KCGM joint venture in WA. Production is forecast to rise to 1.15Moz in FY22 and 1.25Moz in FY23. The increased production is expected to drive down AISC by 10 per cent over the next two to three years. Following the inclusion of KCGM, Northern Star’s total Reserves have risen 102 per cent, or 5.5Moz, to 10.8Moz. Resources are up 67 per cent, or 12.7Moz, to 31.8Moz.

FY20 results are in for BHP. US$8.0 billion and Underlying attributable profit of US$9.1 billion broadly in line with the prior year. Net operating cash flow of US$15.7 billion, above US$15 billion for the fourth consecutive year, and free cash flow of US$8.1 billion. Capital and exploration expenditure within guidance at US$7.6 billion. Chief Executive Officer, Mike Henry: “BHP delivered a strong set of results for the 2020 financial year that reflect the strength, resilience and quality of our people and our portfolio. In a year marked by the challenges of the global COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest in Chile and commodity price volatility, we were safer, more reliable and lower cost.”

Golden Swan assays confirm exceptional drill intersection, with assays received returning: 9.0m (4.5m true width) @ 10.46% Ni on basal contact including 4.6m (2.3m true width) @ 13.8% Ni. Managing Director and CEO Peter Harold said, “The latest assay and drill results confirm the significance of the Golden Swan discovery. The thick, high grade nickel intersections in combination with favourable geological setting is pointing to something very exciting. Should Golden Swan continue to evolve and prove to be economically viable, the close proximity to the existing Silver Swan decline would allow mining operations be commence in a very short time-frame.”

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Morning News Bite – July 21

Job support for Australians extended at a reduced rate, Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan says mining companies need to stop relying on FIFO and face mask purchases restricted at major supermarket chains.

  • Downer EDI is starting trade in July 21 in a trading halt as an acquisition is on the cards. The company made the announcement about the acquisition and fully underwritten accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer of ordinary shares on a pro-rata basis to existing eligible shareholders of the Company. The trading halt is expected to last until the earlier of either the Company making an announcement to the ASX in relation to completion of the institutional component of the Entitlement Offer or the commencement of trading on Wednesday, 22 July 2020.
  • BHP has released is quarterly report with Iron Ore in Western Australia achieving record production. Increased petroleum production at Bass Strait due to higher seasonal demand, partially offset by lower volumes at Atlantis due to planned maintenance and preparation work for Phase 3 project commissioning, and lower demand in Trinidad and Tobago was the difference in Mar – Jun Qtr reports. Other highlights included Olympic Dam completing a quarter of higher production due to improved operating sustainability, Higher volumes at Queensland Coal including record production at Poitrel mine and higher nickel volumes due to the ramping of full capacity at the Kwinana refinery and Kalgoorlie smelter during the prior quarter. BHP Chief Executive Officer, Mike Henry also commentated on the impact of COVID19 in its operations  “BHP safely delivered a strong operational performance in the 2020 financial year, achieving record production in a number of our operations, and an improved cost base. This performance, achieved in the face of COVID-19 and other challenges, is a result of the outstanding effort of our people and the support of our communities, governments, customers and suppliers. We have sought to support those who rely on BHP through the pandemic with increased hiring, shorter payment terms for small, local and indigenous suppliers, support for contract workers and community funding for health and social services” He said. “We expect to continue to generate solid cash flow through the cycle and we remain confident in the outlook for demand for our products over the medium to long-term. We continue to focus on becoming even safer, delivering exceptional operational performance, maintaining disciplined capital allocation, creating and securing more options in future facing commodities and building social value. We have learned new ways of working, both internally and with others, through the COVID-19 pandemic. We will seek to embed these in a way that helps to reinforce these priorities.” according to Mr Henry.
  • An expanded drilling program for Gateway Mining is set to be undertaken after a $7m capital raising. Gateway are set to embark on a program of 5,000m of Reverse Circulation (RC) and 10,000m of air-core (AC) drilling to be completed at priority targets around the Montague Dome. CEO at Gateway Mining Peter Langworthy commented on the drill program by saying “We have positioned the Company to the point we can effectively accelerate our drilling programs to unlock the true potential of what we believe to be an emerging large-scale gold system. Having sufficient funding in place means that we can maintain a fast pace of drilling activity, with drill programs set to be maintained continuously right through to the end of the year and into 2021.” “The current program of RC drilling is making excellent progress and already approaching the halfway point of the expanded 4,500m of drilling. This will be followed by one of our biggest programs of air-core drilling to date, before we embark on what will be a crucial program of RC and diamond drilling through to the end of the year.” he said

 

Silver Lake Resources – Rothsay Mine (pic via Silver Lake Resources LinkedIn)

  • Quarterly group production was a record 71,291 ounces gold and 494 tonnes copper with sales of 64,593 ounces gold and 416 tones copper at a sales price of A$2,300/oz and AISC of A$1,344/oz for SilverLake Resources. Mount Monger mining camp produced 45,333 ounces and 42,331 ounces recovered, of this 38,017 ounces were sold at an AISC of A$1,471/oz with record annual sales from Randalls of 154,900 ounces at an AISC of A$1,414/oz. Deflector has a record quarterly gold production of 28,960 ounces and 494 tonnes of copper with record annual gold production of 104,376 ounces gold and 2,356 tonnes copper. Average mill grades at Deflector were also higher for the quarter. Meanwhile the Box Cut for Rothsay has commenced this month as significant approvals progress has taken place with mining camp and occupation taking place on July 1.
  • Image Resources has reported a strong quarter at its high-grade, zircon-rich Boonanarring mineral sands project, located 80km north of Perth. Image has increase to production  in the June quarter of 83kt, on pace with guidance Heavy Minerals Concentrate sales increased substantially quarter on quarter to 65kt and sales volumes are expected to further increase in the second half to achieve guidance. Managing Director and CEO of Image Resources Patrick Mutz said “In the first half of 2020 Image has demonstrated strong operational performance with production of 167kt Heavy Mineral Concentrate, despite the significant adjustments to daily work practices aimed at minimising the potential spread of COVID-19. The June quarter represents a turning point for our sales volumes which were up sharply from the prior quarter. It was therefore particularly pleasing, subsequent to period end, to receive a sales agreement with our off-take partners for 100kt of HMC to be delivered over the next 3-5 months to monetise our HMC inventory, while keeping open the opportunity to sell additional material to others outside of the off-take agreements. The Company remains in a very strong position to achieve our original guidance and we have a strong balance sheet, solid underlying assets and exciting opportunities for future growth.” he said.