David Southam, Managing Director of Mincor Resources gave a lively presentation about their Kambalda operations and positioning themselves to be a major player in the Nickel sector.
He boldly declared that: “Nickel is the new gold!”, which raised a few eyebrows before going on to give a compelling case. David is sure that we are moving into a third wave of nickel in the Kambalda region. The first was the boom that put Kambalda on the map in the 60s and 70s. It wasn’t until the 90s, when WMC divested themselves of the mines in the same region that the second wave occurred. He believes that 2020 is the start of the third wave and Mincor will be well positioned to make the most of it.
They currently have an ore reserve of ~71,000t of contained nickel, they are fully funded to production and have appointed Pit N Portal as their mining contractor. The company has some exciting prospects with Cassini emerging as a major site for them. The Cassini Main site has a mineral resources of1.5Mt @ 4.0% Ni for 58.7kt of contained nickel and Ore Reserves of 1.2Mt @ 3.3% Ni for 40.1kt of contained nickel.
The newly discovered Cassini North site is showing a lot of promise with an Intercept of 2.5m at 6.6% Ni from the first hole. David believes that it will be very similar to Cassini Main when fully explored.
David got excited when he spoke of the “Golden Mile” which is untested ground between the Durkin North and Long sites. This ground is now controlled by Mincor and David is keen to explore this ground that has yet to be explored and sits between two very lucrative sites.
As you would expect, David was very bullish on Mincor’s prospects, but this is based on his belief that nickel is about to shine again. With low production costs and a rising nickel price, maybe it is Mincor’s time to have some time in the sun.
Bardoc Gold:
CEO Rob Ryan outlined Bardoc’s operations 40 kilometres North of Kalgoorlie. They currently have a 3Moz resource, a pre-feasibility study completed earlier this year and are well funded with AU$30M cash in bank.
Bardoc have pulled together a series of small projects that now come under one banner. It is anticipated that at current resources they have a mine life of eight years with a production target of 1.02Mozs. A low cost of production will make the mine a lucrative money spinner for the company. The plan is to sell 50% of the gold as a concentrate and the remainder in Dore from their Aphrodite.
Bardoc is sitting on ground that is ripe for exploration as there has been insignificant drilling carried out in the area. This will see the resource grow and a low cost operation could be a going concern for many years to come.
Ramelius Resources.
It seems to be the year for records for this miner. Production up 17% to 230koz. Record net profit up $20% to A$113M. The return to shareholder in dividends doubling from 1c to 2c and the company is now on the ASX200 bourse.
Ramelius is currently operating at about A$1,250 per Oz across its sites after working hard to get their cost management to a satisfactory level. They have a series of mines around the Mt Magnet area including Vivien, Penny , Galaxy and Morning Star. The Penny mine has proven to be a high grade resource with average grade of 15g/t.
These are complimented by the Edna May plant at Westonia in the wheatbelt. Gold from Marda Gold and Edna May mine currently feed this plant. Tampia mine will be up and running soon with long lead items ordered. Meanwhile, Symes Find which is nearby is being drilled to prove up resources.
This is a snapshot of what occurred on day one of Diggers and we look forward to bringing you more valuable information from those presenting on day two.
