Neometals and Sms Group announced a joint venture to recycle lithium ion batteries, NSW COVID-19 clusters increase concern as Victoria move into stage 4 lockdown.
A formal agreement has been reached between Neometals and SMS group called Primobius, which will commercialise Neometals’ proprietary lithium-ion battery recycling technology. This offers a unique and sustainable method for recovering valuable lithium, nickel, cobalt and other materials from spent and scrap electric vehicle and consumer electronic LiB’s. Recovered and refined product materials will be in a form that can be reused in the battery supply chain. Neometals Managing Director Chris Reed said, “We have a clear path to commercialise this Australian technology, developed by our technical team in Perth, to meet the needs of the burgeoning European lithium battery and EV makers.”
Redstone Resources Limited has presented its report for Q4 and FY20. This includes the successful completion and interpretation of results from the 2019 exploration West Musgrave Project, which has confirmed the significantly improved prospectivity for copper mineralisation across the project tenure.
Drilling has commenced at the Wild-viper Gold Project for Terrain Minerals Limited. This high-quality gold exploration tenement package located 76 km north of Leanora WA and is surrounded by historic gold deposits and is surprisingly under-explored and appears to be highly prospective. Negotiations are progressing, with plans to farm‐in up to 80% interest in privately owned Hannans South Gold Tailings Project, a large scale tailings gold facility, located on the historic Hannans South Gold Mill site in Kalgoorlie, WA.
Jindalee Resources announces the appointment of Mrs Karen Wellman as CEO, effective 12 October 2020. Mrs Wellman is a geologist with almost 20 years’ experience covering all aspects of the mining cycle from early stage exploration, production and mine geology, through to resource definition and estimation. Jindalee’s Chairman Mr Justin Mannolini has welcomed this appointment, saying “We are delighted to welcome Karen as Jindalee’s CEO. Karen’s industry and development experience will be of great value to the Company as we advance our portfolio of gold and nickel assets in Western Australia to further develop and expand our significant lithium resource base in the US.”
Drilling contract awarded for the Mt Stirling Gold Project for Torian Resources. Phase 1 drilling has proven that the Mt Stirling Project is emerging as a potentially large gold system with ore grade Au now intercepted over 100m below prior drilling and extends over 1,000m strike. This extends on assay results released in June of this year, which returned grades of up to: 4m @ 8.84 g/t (including 33.10 g/t over 1.0 m) and 24m @ 1.26 g/t (including 2.89 g/t over 7.0 m).
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.”
