News for tradies today, the AFR reporting the federal government will today announce $2 billion to subsidise the jobs of an extra 100,000 apprentice and train or reskill 340,000 school leavers, The end of Jobkeeper and Job seeker in September could have an impact on hard state border closures according to the Grattan Institute senior associate Matt Cowgill – he told the ABC and twitter accounts have beeb hacked of Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Bill Gates and Apple.
- Moho Resources has completed phase 1 of its RC Drilling at East Sampson Dam. 16 RC holes were drilled for total of 1,426m, with these samples now sent for fire assays. Results should be known in August, with the commencement of phase 2 and diamond drilling expected to start in the 2nd quarter 20/21. According to Moho Managing Director Shane Sadlier “Moho is expediting the gold exploration programs and mining studies around East Sampson Dam as they are important steps for the Company’s future development and growth” East Sampson Dam is north of Northern Star Resources Kanowna Belle operation and adjacent to the Silver Swan mine.
- Quarterly production of 20,707oz has been recorded for Red 5 as its looks to scaled down its underground mining at King of the Hills and transition into a new production strategy. Managing Director Mark Williams said “The transitional production strategy articulated towards the end of the June 2020 Quarter will see underground mining at KOTH progressively scaled-down in the second half of this year. The strategy provides a roadmap for our operations over the next 12-18 months while we complete the KOTH Final Feasibility Study and move towards the proposed construction and development of a significant new Australian gold mine at King of the Hills. We believe that the operational measures implemented and the new transitional production strategy will put us in a strong position to deliver on our production and cost targets.” Red 5 had one LTI from a rolled and fractured ankle from an underground operator during this time, but still maintains a Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate of 6.49. Also to note for production figures was a 50% reduction in production due to the failed drive shaft on the tertiary crusher, which lasted several days. This had an impact due to time spent sourcing parts and having them transported to site. This reduction had an impact on around 3,200oz during this time. With lower than expected gold production a review has taken place and has seen production at Darlot increase back to guidance once guidelines had been implemented.
- Roswell and San Antonio has delivered significant infill results for Alkane Resources south of its Tomingley Gold Operations in Central New South Wales. Roswell highlights includes 22.0 metres grading 5.41g/t Au from 208 metres; incl 2.0 metres grading 19.8g/t Au from 226 metres and 11.0 metres grading 1.14g/t Au from 355 metres and 9.0 metres grading 1.93g/t Au from 374 metres. While San Antonio has delivered 41.0 metres grading 2.51g/t Au from 57 metres. This drilling has confirmed the continuity to the defined resources as earlier released by Alkane Roswell Deposit: 7.02 Mt @ 1.97 g/t Au for 445 koz and San Antonio 7.92 Mt @ 1.78 g/t Au for 453 koz. Drilling at Roswell is nearing completion and an updated resource calculation for Roswell is anticipated to be released along with preliminary mine plans for Roswell and San Antonio in Q4 2020.
- Alumina Limited has announced its 2nd quarter results with results at record production despite COVID-19. Alumina prices have risen in recent times and global demand is having an impact on stockpiles with market sentiment improving and economic recovery. Alumina Limited’s CEO, Mike Ferraro, said “AWAC has achieved record quarterly daily alumina production for the current system despite the challenges from the COVID 19 pandemic. The joint venture continues to focus on the safety of AWAC employees and the wider communities. The strong production performance and lower caustic soda input costs and energy prices resulted in the cash costs of alumina production falling by $11 per tonne. External market factors drove the overall Alumina Segment result lower with the lagged alumina index price falling 10% from the previous quarter. Alumina Limited received $58.6 million of net cash distributions in the second quarter, up from $31.3 million for the previous quarter. AWAC continues to focus on cash saving strategies as it seeks to navigate the challenging market conditions. Alumina prices have risen from their lows of $225/t in April following increased importing of alumina by China and are now at $284/t. Global demand for smelter-grade alumina so far in 2020 is slightly higher than 2019 volumes. Market sentiment globally has improved and there are signs of a promising economic recovery in China. However, it is still to be seen how the economic impact of the pandemic will pan out.”
- King River Resources will commence it’s 2020 gold exploration program next month following delays with COVID-19. King River Resources has two high grade gold projects – Mount Remarkable in WA and Tennant Creek in the NT. A 2,500m RC drill program is slated for Mount Remarkable which has shown results of 4m @ 113.29g/t Au including 1m @ 346g/t Au and 6m @ 60g/t Au including 2.8m @ 108g/t Au previously will be actioned with a look at further regional drilling. While at Tennant Creek, a 2,000m RC drill programme to follow up on positive geophysical results from its 2019 ground magnetics and gravity surveys will take place. According to a directors statement “At Mt Remarkable, the drilling will initially target potential high-grade extensions of the Trudi vein, where our previous drilling had intersected gold mineralisation of up to 4 metres at 113 grams/tonne. Numerous other shallow gold targets in the general vicinity of the main Mt Remarkable area are also targeted based on anomalous surface sampling and structural mapping. At Tennant Creek our drilling will be targeting copper-gold mineralisation at two well defined co-incident magnetic-gravity anomalies, the first being the Lonestar target (which is ~700 metres along strike from the Emmerson Resources Mauretania deposit where 20m @ 38.5g/t Au was returned in 2019), and the other being the Commitment prospect.”
