Morning News Bites – August 27

Woolworths recorded boom sales, but the impact of COVID-19 and one off costs have added up, Independence Group record a 12.5% increase to revenue and Flight Centre recorded a $510m underlying loss before tax.

Drilling services provider Boart Longyear has announced revenue of US$309M down around US$79M this morning. Net cash flow from operating activities though was up US$10M to US$30M due to Net Working Capital initiatives. Jeff Olsen CEO said “Management implemented plans in March that would ensure the Company would be able to continue to support the mining industry when normal activity levels resumed. The actions taken, including significant pay reductions across the world, ensured the business would generate positive EBITDA and cash from operations and were vital in supporting the company with having the required liquidity to support a growing business through the second half of 2020.”

Diamond drilling is now underway at Galileo`s Fraser Range prospect in Western Australia. Three diamond drill holes with planned depths from 200 to 380 metres will be directed to test an EM conductor, a structural target, and the known disseminated sulphide mineralisation. Brad Underwood, Managing Director said this is an exciting opart of teh exploration process underway and will look forward to updating the market when results are known. He also said “This is our first diamond drilling program at our northern Fraser Range project. It is also the first diamond drilling program ever to be undertaken looking for nickel in our project area. As such, this greenfields project has great potential and is also very well located within the emerging new nickel province of the Fraser Range. We have approximately 500 metres of diamond drilling planned across three separate areas with each zone showing potential for sulphide mineralisation.”

Drilling at Capricorn’s Karlawinda Gold project – Supplied

Capricorn Metals has announced MACA limited are the preferred mining contractor for its Karlawinda Gold Project. The five year deal is worth around $400m with Preproduction mining activities to commence in the December 2020 quarter. Capricorn Executive Chairman Mike Clark said “The selection of a preferred mining contractor is the culmination of a competitive process that included a number of very competent Australian mining services providers. MACA was selected as the preferred contractor after submitting a compelling bid both in terms of price and execution. We look forward to partnering with MACA in the successful operation of the Karlawinda Gold Project.”

A maiden two hold diamond drill program for Talisman Mining`s Lucknow Gold Project has been completed. The program was targeting the interpreted high-grade lode offset position of the historical Lucknow gold mine. The second drill hole of the program delivered a zone of strong foliation and quartz veining from 297m to 303m downhole. According to Talisman the recent drilling, supported by a structural and geological interpretation, suggests that the ultramafic stratigraphy and prospective contact has been offset to the north-west by a sinistral fault – indicating a potential target to the north-west of recent drilling.

Results from Cardinia Hill RC drilling with Kin Mining have revealed the presence of two north-plunging shoots of higher-grade mineralisation within the main lode. Kin Mining Managing Director Andrew Munckton said the RC program had provided a good base for Kin “The follow-up phase of RC drilling at the northern end of Cardinia Hill has been successful in intersecting the northern shoot of mineralisation at depth, further improving our understanding of the geometry and scale of the deposit – and providing a solid foundation for planned resource drilling. The diamond drill core is also providing strong insight for our exploration team in terms of understanding the internal detail of the deposit.” he said.

Morning News Bites – July 22

ASX drops on early trade after a four month high yesterday, Josh Frydenberg has eluded to a hit on the Federal Budget bottom line from wage subsidies and loss of tax revenue and Prince George turns 7!

  • Resolute Mining has produced 107,183oz for the June quarter at an All In Sustain Cost of US$1,033/oz. This figure has met expectations and results to deliver a full year guidance of 430,000oz according to Managing Director and CEO John Welborn “Production of 107,183oz of gold during the June quarter meets our expectations and results in year to date production to 217,946oz placing the Company in a strong position to deliver our full year guidance of 430,000oz. I am particularly pleased with the performance of the Syama Underground Mine and Syama Sulphide operations during the June quarter where we produced 35,248oz of gold based on achieving our targeted mining and processing outcomes including an improved overall recovery rate of 80%. We continue to focus on further improvements to Syama Underground and Sulphide operations while ensuring the positive performance in the June quarter is sustainable and sets a benchmark for quarterly performance from now on. We expect to continue to improve production and deliver lower costs at Syama in the second half of 2020 while we evaluate further value enhancements and exciting exploration opportunities. “Mako continues to deliver consistently strong results and cashflows. The announcement of an extension to mine life and an increase in expected life of mine production from 700,000oz to 900,000oz is a positive outcome for Resolute and Senegal. We continue to evaluate opportunities to generate additional value demonstrating that Mako is an outstanding Resolute gold mine.”
  • Contracting Group MACA has announced an extension to its contract with Ramelius Resources at Mount Magnet. MACA began working with Ramelius on the project back in 2017, with the extension consisting of open pit mining services including drilling & blasting, and loading & hauling. MACA CEO and Managing Director Mike Sutton said ‘We are pleased to continue our relationship with Ramelius Resources at Mt Magnet for a further 3 years. The services we provide at Mt Magnet and Edna May for Ramelius make up an important part of MACA’s Work in Hand in the gold sector’. It is expected the project extension will generate approximately $130 million in revenue for MACA over the 3 year term.
  • Legacy Iron Ore has received outstanding intersections at Mt Celia from a recent drill programme. The Significant intersections include 4m at 4.21g/tAu from 86m,  2m at 6.49g/tAu from 88m and 1m at 10.1g/tAu from 63min. Of 29 drill holes, 27 delivered mineralisation. Legacy will commence approx. 4,000m RC drilling to test numerous early-stage targets with potential for subparallel mineralisation within 100 m of the Kangaroo Bore resource, and an extension of Blue Peter resource along the strike. There is also approx.1,000 m of core drilling is planned in the month of September and October.
  • Galileo Mining is well positioned to continue its exploration programs, revealing it has $8.7m in cash as of the end of the 19/20 financial year. According to Brad Underwood, Galileo Managing Director, the recent quarter was incredibly important  “This was an important period for Galileo in which we laid the groundwork for the next round of RC drilling which is to be followed by the first ever diamond core drilling at our Fraser Range Lantern Prospect. Our aircore drilling outlined the prospective ultramafic unit at Lantern South and this target is now ready for advanced drilling. We also undertook electromagnetic (EM) surveying to define subsurface zones prospective for nickel sulphide mineralisation.” When it comes to the financial position, Mr Underwood said “During the quarter, we strengthened our cash position via a well-supported $5 million placement allowing us to effectively explore the entire area around our Lantern Prospect over the next six to twelve months. He also welcomed the investment by Independence Group and also the shareholding of the Creasy Group. Galileo will now commence RC Drilling at Lantern South and East targets later this morning and commence Diamond Drilling in August.
  • A major drilling program for Metalicity has commenced at Kookynie Gold Project. Managing Director of Metalicity, Jason Livingstone, says it is excited to be back at Kookynie  “It is exciting to be heading back out to Kookynie to follow up on the Phase One June 2020 drilling programme. The results we received were incredibly consistent and high grade. The Company is well funded to execute this programme and I sincerely look forward to presenting the results over the coming period.” The follow up on the previous drill results in June forms this programme. The Kookynie Gold Project is around 60km south of Leonora in Western Australia and includes the historic Cosmopolitan mine which produced 360,000oz at head grade of 15g/t