Essential Metals Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Industry Link Media Blog

August 28, 2020August 28, 2020

Morning News Bites – August 28

Specialised pilots not being allowed to fly in to WA due to the hard border closure could affect iron ore exports out of Port Hedland, Tesla hit a new high overnight and according to one leading analyst we need to rethink where our stocks are with banks not the best option according to Jefferies’ Brian Johnson

Late yesterday Caeneus Minerals has announced that it will commence detailed Aeromagnetic survey to commence first week of September on Mallina Tenements. These tenements are located in close proximity to the northern tenement boundaries of the De Grey Mining Limited’s Shaggy, Mt Berghaus, Scooby and Hemi gold discoveries. According to Caeneus there was a 10 day field orientation visit to Roberts Hill and Mt Berghaus with the aim for making vehicular access for future drilling programs and to review flight survey specifications for the Company’s upcoming airborne magnetic survey, which is as per above.

Essential Metals have identified numerous targets at its Juglah Dome gold project, situated near Silver Lake Resources Daisy complex around 60km south-east of Kalgoorlie. Recent rock chip sampling and compilation of historic exploration has confirmed that numerous drill targets are present within the Project. Managing Director Tim Spencer, said: “We are keen to commence a drill program at Juglah Dome. Multiple exciting gold and VHMS targets have been identified, some of which are considered drill-ready. The Gards Prospect is one such target, where previous drilling by Placer Dome in the late 1990s and early 2000s intersected gold mineralisation, however it was not followed up”.

GWR Group has secured approvals for its C4 Stage 1 iron ore project from DMIRS and the Federal Government Department of Agriculture, Environment and Water. GWR Chairman Gary Lyons said this represents a significant milestone and the strong prices of iron ore give a unique opportunity to GWR. “These approvals represent a significant milestone for the Company and pave the way for the commencement of commercial iron ore production at the Wiluna West Iron Ore Project. Current strong iron ore prices provide a unique opportunity for the Company and the Wiluna West Iron Ore Project, an exceptional, DSO iron ore development project, which will produce a high grade, low impurity iron ore.” he said. C4 Stage 1 project is west of Wiluna in the northern Goldfields of WA.

Announcing their FY details, Boral has reported sales revenue of $5,728 million down 2% on FY2019 and sales revenue from continuing operations of $5,671 million down 1%. EDITDA was down 30% to $710 million and NPAT before significant items of $181 million, down 57% on the prior year. Boral’s new CEO & Managing Director, Zlatko Todorcevski, said: “Boral’s FY2020 results reflect a particularly challenging year. Following the lower than expected first half result from Boral North America, Boral had a difficult start to the second half of FY2020. Boral Australia was impacted by bushfire and flood-related events in Australia, resulting in significantly lower volumes and higher costs. This was quickly followed by COVID-19 disruptions, resulting in higher costs and production curtailments, which substantially reduced earnings for all divisions. “Overall, second half margins were substantially down, as flagged in the Company’s market update in May, due to lower sales and even lower production volumes together with an unfavourable shift in the sales mix and costs”.

Mining, Gas and Oil services provider Civmec has reported Net Profit margin of 4.5%, up from 1.4% in FY19 and also recommends a full year dividend of 1.0 Australian cents, increased by 43% . Revenue was down around 20% but EBITDA was up for the FY around $14m and NPAT was up 149% to $17.5m. According to Chairman James Fitzgerald the year was of consolidation and the order book strengthened “Following a year of consolidation in FY19, Civmec’s order book continued to strengthen in FY20, enabling the Group to grow revenue and profits throughout the year. Strong cashflow from operations allowed the Group to fund the completion of the new Assembly and Sustainment Hall in Henderson Western Australia while also reducing borrowings by $35.7 million during the year. This places the Group in a strong financial position as we enter FY21, with a A$900 million strong order book, an extensively improved balance sheet and a significantly reduced capital investment requirement in FY21. This disciplined approach has allowed us to recommend an increased final dividend payout to 1.0 Australian cents.” he said.

August 10, 2020August 10, 2020

Morning News Bites – Aug 10

In Today’s Morning News Bites for August 10. Victoria has recorded its deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 19 deaths overnight. EY forecast a fresh wave of mergers an acquisitions for the Australian mining sector, with companies making most of high priced commodities. Mader Group FY20 results are out, up 20% from FY19 ($274m). Aurizon report another strong year, with FY20 up 10% on the previous year ($909m).

Strong gold hits in first air-core program at Whiteheads for Great Boulder Resources. Initial assays define gold mineralisation over 400m of strike at the Blue Poles prospect at Arsenal including: 6m @ 2.03g/t Au from 48m to EOH and 23m @ 0.54g/t Au from 32m to EOH, including 4m @ 1.69g/t. Great Boulder Managing Director Andrew Paterson commented that the company is excited by the initial assays. “It’s extremely encouraging to get such good numbers in the first batch of assays. This bodes well for further work on the Arsenal trend.”

Encouraging signs for the Rover Project for Twenty Seven Co., with assay results for the first half of the shallow auger and soil geochemical sampling program undertaken. The Harmonic target size has more than tripled to ~650m long, with a 1.77g/t Au rock chip sampled 400m north-west along strike from the nearest drill-hole, with a new soil sampling also confirming a gold anomaly ~650m long at Harmonic

Bryah Resources Limited release the results of leaching test-work undertaken on samples from the Windalah Gold Prospect, located within its Bryah Basin Project, north of Meekatharra in central Western Australia. A highlight of 12 metres @ 4.32 g/t Au from surface, including 2 metres @ 17.19 g/t Au from 3 metres was confirmed by 15 one metre residual drill samples (0-15m depth), that were
delivered for testing for gold recovery by cyanide using a 6-hour bottle roll leach test at a laboratory
in Perth.

Essential Metals confirm plans for major new field exploration programs, set to commence at the Kangan JV Gold Project, near the Pilbara region in Western Australia. Novo Resources Corp and Sumitomo Corporation are earning a 70% Joint Venture interest in the Kangan Project by spending $460,000 on exploration by December 2020. Managing Director, Tim Spencer, said: “The sheer scale of the Novo’s Pilbara Gold Project was brought home to me during my visit to the region. The gold endowment in the Pilbara appears to be widespread and very significant.”

Potential for large-scale high-grade Sulphate of Potash Project at Lake Throssell for Trigg Mining, with results from the helicopter-supported rotary drilling program have confirmed the presence of a high-grade surficial aquifer over an extensive area, with favourable host lithologies.

July 23, 2020

Morning News Bites – July 23

Today’s Industry Link Media Morning News Bites :

Blow out in the Federal Budget – WA and Mining holding it together. Gold reaches over $1870US/oz overnight and this is set to lift the market in open.

Northern Star Resources has announced its Quarterly activities report with a record 262,717oz of gold sold at an AISC of A$1,475/oz, which included the KCGM Operations. Regional exploration for Northern Star was largely suspended due to COVID-19 and this affected Jundee/Yandal, Kanowna, Pogo and South Kalgoorlie, however at Paradigm a short surface RC resource definition drilling program was completed. The Pogo operations were affected by 36 COVID-19 cases and Northern Star expects Pogo volumes to remain around the levels seen in the June quarter, equal to ~25% lower than would otherwise be the case. Northern Star’s A$10M Community COVID-19 fund has provided significant funding to assist local health services, communities and businesses in the areas Northern Star operate. The option to acquire Newmont’s Power Business has lapsed and as such multiple future power options for KCGM now being explored. Executive Chairman of Northern Star Resources Bill Beament, said “Our quarterly sales of 262,717oz was not only a record, but also very solid given the imposts stemming from the COVID-19 measures we moved quickly to put in place,” When speaking about Pogo, Mr Beament said “Pogo sold 50,251oz in a quarter during which we managed 36 cases of COVID-19, We now have a strong insight into the impact of the virus on Pogo and it is clear that this asset will continue to produce at about 75 per cent of its potential while the virus remains in Alaska. However, the 18-month transition to long-hole stoping is finished and the benefits of this new mining method are being reflected in the results, albeit somewhat restricted by COVID-19″ Northern Star is also looking to reduce its hedging to increase margins and free cashflow. On July 16, Northern Star paid a fully franked interim dividend of 7.5cps.

Essential Metals (previously Pioneer Resources) has announced drill intercepts at its Cade deposit at the Dome North lithium project. A thick shallow high-grade intercept of 21m at 1.79% Li2O was discovered from recent RC Drilling. Essential Metals Managing Director, Tim Spencer, said “The outstanding shallow intercept of 21m @ 1.79% Li2O shows the Cade Deposit contains high lithia grades near surface, while drilling across the project has identified a number of other prospective areas for follow-up. The metallurgical test work is important for us to understand the best development route for the Dome North Lithium Project. The test work completed so far bodes well for achieving good recoveries in a DMS-flotation process route and we await completion of the second phase of test work to see if this is the case.” The Dome North project targets a 20 km strike length around 130km south from Kalgoorlie Boulder.

Copper production of 25,041 tonnes exceeded guidance for Aeris Resources as the company recorded a June quarter production of 6,672 tonnes which is a 10% increase on the previous quarter. The Acquisition of the Cracow Gold Operations was completed on July 1 which has a FY21 gold production guidance of 70,000oz – 75,000oz. with the first Aeris gold poured in early July. The copper production guidance at Tritton Copper Operations for FY2021 is between 23,500 tonnes and 24,500 tonnes. According to the company, there is cash and receivables of $69.4m at quarter end.

Record operating cash flow of A$352M, net mine cash flow A$225M and free cash flow A$188M has been reported by Evolution Mining as a June quarter highlight. Evolution produced group gold production increased to 218,104 ounces at an ASIC of A$1,088 per ounce. A breakdown of some highlights includes Cowal produced 60,594oz at an AISC of A$941/oz generating net mine cash flow of A$59.3 million. Ernest Henry produced 28,183oz at an AISC of A$(617)/oz generating record net mine cash flow of A$68.3 million. Mungari produced 37,178oz at an AISC of A$1,089/oz generating record net mine cash flow of A$39.8 million and Mt Rawdon produced 25,982oz at an AISC of A$1,305/oz generating record net mine cash flow of A$32.3 million The acquisition of the high-grade, long-life Red Lake gold mine in Ontario, Canada has added 27,428 ounces at an AISC of A$1,943 per ounce. A maiden Underground Ore Reserve and updated Mineral Resource at Cowal was made with a Maiden Underground Ore Reserve of 804koz and Mineral Resource increased to 2.9Moz Evolution Executive Chairman, Jake Klein, said: “This outstanding outcome has resulted in the potential to bring forward first production of higher-grade ore from the Cowal underground which will provide a step change to the operation’s production profile. Importantly, the Maiden Underground Ore Reserve is only a starting point on which to build on in the coming years. Our work at Cowal continues to demonstrate that this is a world class mineral system.”

Wrapping out a big day for gold operators as part fo the Morning News Bites June quarterly updates, Newcrest has released its figures for the quarter. There was a record annualised mined ore and mill throughput for the quarter at Cadia, which has been a top producer in Australia as reported by Surbiton Associates. Gold production was 7% higher for the quarter for Newcrest, Cadia again the shining light with a 21% increase in gold production compared to the prior quarter. Newcrest Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sandeep Biswas, said “Newcrest has safely delivered a strong fourth quarter enabling us to meet our Group gold production guidance for the year, notwithstanding the challenges of addressing the risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Cadia exceeded the top end of its production guidance range and achieved record annualised mine and mill throughput rates in the quarter, further highlighting the strength of this world-class asset.”