Tag: Zinc

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Morning News Bites – August 31

In Today’s Morning News Bites for August 31. PM Support has slipped as states get behind their Premiers. The latest newspoll shows a 50-50 two party preferred, from August 5-8’s 52-48 TPP. Cadia Mine in NSW takes number one spot for 2019/20 production 843,338oz and IOOF set to grab NAB`s MLC.

The FY20 results are out for Swick, with its drilling business reported revenue of $149.6 million, up on FY19 ($142.9 million), and EBITDA of $24.6 million, slightly down on FY19 ($28.2 million). This is in line with the Company’s announcement on 30 July 2020, with FY20 earnings impacted by some temporary rig suspensions related to COVID-19 and ramp up costs from the Pogo contract in Alaska. Managing Director Kent Swick said, “FY20 has presented a unique and challenging set of circumstances with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The business has quickly adapted during this difficult period, ensuring we maintained continuity of operations and protected our people on site both internationally and locally. “I am pleased with the ability of our Drilling Business to deliver robust earnings in this environment and secure new work with existing clients, including our two largest contracts for Northern Star and BHP, which provide a strong platform for the business as we enter the 2021 financial year.”

Downer EDI Limited has been awarded a Unified Field Operations (Network) contract by NBN Co Limited valued at an estimated $320 million over a maximum term of eight years. The contract begins in September 2020 with an initial four year term, with two extension options of two years plus two years. Under the contract, Downer will provide services including network restoration, copper rehabilitation, alternate power system activities, network performance and capacity enhancement, urgent field service work and site maintenance across Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. CEO Grant Fenn, said Downer was very pleased to be extending its relationship with NBN. “Downer has been working closely with NBN for over a decade and we have earned a reputation as a high quality delivery partner,” Mr Fenn said. “A lot of NBN construction work is coming to completion and Downer is now transitioning to delivering NBN maintenance services. We look forward to continuing our partnership with NBN and optimising the national broadband network.”

Alto Metals Limited provided shareholders with an update on further drill results at the new shallow gold lode (“Orion Lode”) discovery, located 200m south of the Lord Nelson pit, within the Company’s flagship Sandstone Gold Project (Sandstone Gold Project). This announcement relates to results received for a total 2,132m of RC drilling, (11 holes), including further infill and step out at the new Orion Lode discovery and infill drilling beneath the Lord Nelson pit. A total of approximately 5,500m of RC drilling of the planned 10,000m program has now been completed, since drilling commence in early July, and another 2,000m is expected to commence in the coming weeks.

An update on recent exploration activities for the Lake Rebecca Gold Project for Apollo Consolidated Limited, located 150km east of Kalgoorlie in WA has been posted. Ongoing exploration drilling is occurring concurrently with continued infill and extensional drilling at the flagship Rebecca deposit. Highlights: Cleo joins the Rebecca family, returning best results to date and pointing to excellent potential for a new deposit to take shape: 38m @ 2.00g/t Au incl. 2m @ 20.4g/t Au and 5m @ 2.75g/t Au and 2m @ 9.39g/t Au incl. 1m @ 17.2g/t Au. Drilling will continue around the three key deposits throughout the remainder of the year. Diamond drilling will also continue to test specific high-grade step-down exploration targets at the Rebecca deposit.

Established Australian copper and gold producer and explorer, Aeris Resources Limited provided results from the recent near-surface Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program on the Roses Pride deposit at the Company’s Cracow Gold Operations (Cracow) in NSW. 48 hole near-surface drilling campaign at Roses Pride deposit completed with assay results returned for 44 holes with gold mineralisation intersected over a 400 metre strike length. Significant drill intersections include: 9.0m @ 5.45 g/t Au (true thickness 10.1m), 15.0m @ 4.10 g/t Au (true thickness 6.1m), 5.0m @ 5.33 g/t Au (true thickness 3.3m) and 10.0m @ 5.13 g/t Au (true thickness 4.7m). Executive Chairman, Andre Labuschagne, said, “During due diligence the Roses Pride deposit was identified as a priority exploration target with near-term potential to be added to the Life of Mine plan. The results from the drill program confirm this view and we will now expedite the work required to convert the drill results into a Mineral Resource.

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Morning News Bites – August 26

In Today’s Morning News Bites for August 26.  Kalgoorlie-Boulder wakes to a 3.1 magnitude earthquake at around 3:15am local time this morning. Seven Group Holdings report Westrac’s FY20 revenue up 15 per cent. PM raises concerns about Victoria’s state of emergency extension with Daniel Andrews.

Conglomerate Seven Group Holdings has reported a 12 per cent rise in full year revenue to $4.56 billion. This was facilitated by the Groups Caterpillar equipment business and its work associated with the mining industry. However (on a statutory basis) its net profit after tax fell 42 per cent to $115.8 million, primarily due investments associated with Seven West Media (a major shareholder) and a $117 million impairment of a US oil and gas operation. WesTrac’s FY20 revenue was up 15 per cent, with strength across both product sales and product support. This was encouraged by WesTrac’s strong product sales results supported by the delivery of equipment to major mining projects. In addition, WesTrac’s product support revenue improved 10 per cent driven by a record 6.6 million parts lines shipped in WA and NSW. Chief Executive Ryan Stokes commented, saying “In particular our Industrial Services portfolio has delivered solid growth with WesTrac executing a standout performance, reflecting the strong demand from customers who remain active in mining production and construction.”

Macmahon Holdings Limited delivered record financial results for FY20, in-line with the increased guidance provided at the half year result. Revenue grew by 25% over the prior year to $1,380.4 million, this was primarily driven by driven by increased activity across the company’s projects in Australia and Indonesia from predominantly Gold and Copper/Gold operations, the eleven-month contribution of the acquired specialist underground contractor GBF Group and successful ramp up at the Tropicana Boston Shaker contract. This growth in revenue underpinned record earnings for Macmahon in FY20. To date, there has been minimal net impact on business performance from COVID-19.

An exploration update of the Saxby Gold Project has been provided by Strategy Energy Resources. The drill rig has commenced mobilisation in northwest Queensland with drilling scheduled to commence in early September. A cultural heritage survey has cleared the area and a drill contract has been executed with DDH1 Drilling. Recent structural, alteration and geophysical work have upgraded the prospectivity of the surrounding district and Strategic Energy Resources has now pegged the entire belt. A comprehensive regional geophysical review with a view to commencing district-scale geophysical data collection in the near future.

Paterson Resources report that planning is underway for the validation diamond drilling recommended in the report on an estimate of Gold Mineral Resources at Hackneys Creek and Lucky Draw located at the Burraga Copper Gold Project in the Eastern Lachlan Fold Belt in NSW. The diamond drilling is designed to validate the existing drill assay data used in the inferred resource estimation at Hackneys Creek by twinning approximately 6 holes. A further 10 diamond drill holes recommended to validate the existing drill assay data at the remnant Lucky Draw inferred resource are also planned. Validation of this drill data along with the collection of additional geological and structural information will enable the upgrading of the current resource from inferred to a higher category. Highlights from past drilling carried out by RGC Exploration at Hackneys Creek that were included in the inferred resource estimation are: 21.3m @ 9.19 g/t Au from 89m, including 4m @ 40.38 g/t Au, 33.6m @ 2.27 g/t Au from 71.4m, including 5m @ 5.83 g/t Au, 25.0m @ 3.57 g/t Au from 20m, including 4m @ 7.48 g/t Au.

5,000m drill program commences at Pilbara Gold Project by Kairos Minerals. Reverse Circulation drilling has commenced as its 2020 exploration program continues to gather momentum. The program, comprising 5,000m of RC drilling in total, has commenced at the large Fuego gold target (located on the Croydon Project), with the initial reconnaissance program expected to be completed there over the next 2-3 weeks while drill pad preparations are completed at the Mt York Project. The rig will then relocate to Mt York to complete the balance of the program. Kairos’ Executive Chairman, Terry Topping, said, “Our 2020 exploration campaign across the Pilbara Gold Project has now stepped up a gear with drilling underway, which is a really exciting development for our team and for our shareholders. Due to logistical considerations including timing of heritage clearances and drill pad preparation, we have commenced the program at the exciting Fuego target first rather than Mt York, as previously advised.”

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Morning News Bites – August 25

In Today’s Morning News Bites for August 25. Resolute confirms supply lines to the Syama Gold Mine continue, despite political tension in the south of Mali. Largest diamond unearthed this year discovered in Africa. Victoria report another 9 COVID-19 related deaths. 

SRG Global provided results for FY20, with revenue at AU$545 million. The impact of the global pandemic is mentioned and the negative effects on key drivers are explained. These include a repositioned and simplified business – core business, clients and geographies, continued plan to execute strategy to transition business mix to annuity earnings, significant liquidity with available funds of $73m (banking facilities renewal not due until FY22), net debt reduced in 2H to $8.4m (inclusive of $26m of equipment finance debt) and final fully franked dividend of 0.5 cents per share (total FY20 dividend of 1 cps). Despite this, Managing Director David Macgeorge maintained a positive outlook into the future, saying ““The decisive actions taken in FY20 has us well positioned for long-term sustainable growth, underpinned by an earnings profile of two thirds annuity-based in FY21 and beyond.”

Breaker Resources announces more strong drilling results which confirm the presence of extensive mineralisation over 2km between the Kopai and Crescent prospects within its Lake Roe Project, 100km east of Kalgoorlie. The latest results are from 40 reconnaissance reverse circulation (RC) drill holes for 5,202m, and two diamond drill holes for 269m. Breaker Executive Chairman Tom Sanders said the latest results are significant particularly given the reconnaissance nature of the drilling.“This 2km stretch of mineralisation sits just 3km north of our existing 1Moz Bombora deposit and highlights the outstanding growth potential of a rare emerging greenfields gold district on Kalgoorlie’s doorstep,” Mr Sanders said.

Significant new assay results from the ongoing resource drilling programme at the shallow high-grade copper-gold discovery at the Thursday’s Gossan prospect for Stavely Minerals Stavely Copper-Gold Project in Victoria. Very broad zone of copper mineralisation including a significant shallow intercept of 18m at 1.11% Cu intersected in the interpreted near-surface position of the parallel Copper Lode Splay (CLS) in drill hole SMD093: 299.7m at 0.40% Cu from 35m down-hole, including 64m at 0.68% Cu from 35m and 18m at 1.11% Cu from 36m in the interpreted Copper Lode Splay.

Buxton Resources informed shareholders that IGO Limited has commenced on-ground activities for the West Kimberley JV 2020 season. Diamond drilling has commenced at Merlin and ground EM will commence this week at Quick Shears. IGO has provided the following updates to Buxton which includes a new EM plate has been identified from the 2019 low temperature SQUID survey at Merlin. This anomaly is directly down plunge from the high tenor magmatic sulphide intersection (2.19m @ 4.6% Ni, 1.37 % Cu & 0.12 % Co from 236.0m). Modelling of this anomaly has returned two overlapping targets, a 125m x 90m 10,000S conductance plate and a 110m x 90m 9,700S conductance plate.

Horizon Minerals provides an update on the Nimbus silver-zinc project, adjacent to the Boorara gold mine, 15km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in the goldfields of Western Australia. Past production between 2003 and 2007 recovered 3.6Moz silver from the processing of 320kt grading 352g/t Ag with the plant now decommissioned, removed and the site rehabilitated. The current global Mineral Resource estimate stands at: 12.1Mt grading 52g/t Ag for 20.2Moz of Silver and 0.9% Zn for 104kt zinc. A high grade lode exists within this resource immediately below the historic Discovery Pit and has a Mineral Resource estimate of  260kt grading 774g/t Ag for 6.4Moz silver and 12.8% Zn for 33kt zinc.