Category: Exploration

MIDDLE Island Resources starts 2020 with the announcement of a major drilling campaign at its Sandstone gold project in central WA. A wholly-owned subsidiary situated 400km NW of Kalgoorlie, Sandstone was acquired by Middle Island in 2016, which had a major interest in its 600ktpa gold processing plant. Originally opened in 1890, the site was acquired by Troy Resources in 1990, which worked the 4.4t open pit of ore grad 3.6g/t until 2010, producing 508,000oz of gold. With near record Australian gold prices, the company has made the decision to target 17 identified prospects and deposits, mainly located on existing permitted tenure and all within 5km of the processing plant. The campaign comprises a sequential series of aircore (AC), reverse…

JUNIOR explorer Aldoro Resources (ASX: ARN) has commenced the maiden drilling at the Penny South project in the Murchison region of WA. This preliminary 5000m aircore campaign will test the magnetic corridor, which has been interpreted as the strike extension of the Penny West Shear by Aldoro’s recent targeting work, which identified seven areas over a 2.5km strike extension of magnetic low greenstone and granodiorite assemblage. The program at Penny South will consist of about 100 holes at 100m x 25m spacing along 2km of strike, with sample analysis for gold and multi-element geochemistry for pathfinder elements known to be associated with mineralisation at the neighbouring Penny West and Penny North deposits. Aldoro managing director Caedmon Marriot said that the…

KIRKLAND Lake Gold has announced new, high-grade results from both its Fosterville Operation in Victoria, and Canadian-based Macassa operations. Recent surface drilling at Robins Hill, Fosterville, has confirmed an extended mineralisation down-plunge of the existing mineral resource, outside of the current resource. Key drilling results that confirmed mineralisation at depth were 3.7mat 24.5g/t gold, including 1m at 82.3g/t gold; and 8.8m at 11.7g/t gold, including 0.5m at 81.7 g/t gold. Kirkland Lake Gold chief executive Tony Makuch said that the company believed there were “more Fostervilles at Fosterville” for a long time, and that Robbin’s Hill had emerged “clearly” as a second potential mining front to provide feed to the Fosterville mill. “Based on current drilling, we have already identified…

CARAWINE Resources (ASX: CWX) has entered into a farm-in and JV agreement  with Fortescue Metals (ASX: FMG) to explore eastern Paterson copper, gold and base metals project tenements in WA. Carawine’s Lamil Hills, Trotman South tenements, near Newcrest’s Telfer gold and copper mine, and Sunday tenement, next door to Metals X’ Maroochydore copper-cobalt deposit, are still in early stages of exploration, with Carawine’s work to date mostly comprising target generation activities based mostly on work by previous explorers. FMG will pay $125,000 cash up front and have a minimum obligation to spend $500,000 within the first 18 months of the agreement. The agreement gives FMG the right to earn up to 75pc interest by spending $6m over two stages. Stage…

RENASCOR Resources (ASX: RNU) has completed the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) at its 100pc owned Siviour graphite project in South Australia. The proposed Siviour mine would be an open pit with an adjacent graphite production plant, which the company said has the potential to be a world-class, low OPEX project. The DFS, completed by Royal IHC and Wave International, has been based on staged development, aiming for an average production of 80ktpa during the first stage, before expansion in year five that would be funded through the expected cash flows, ramping up production to 144ktpa between years five to 10. The projected life of mine operating cost is expected to be about $508/t, which according to the company is amongst…

THE extensive drilling program at Alkane’s (ASX: ALK) Tomingley Gold Project (TPG) has completed the first phase of drilling at the Roswell prospect. The company also continues to drill at San Antonio, and is confident it will release an initial resource by December. Roswell and San Antonio are located to the immediate south of the Tomingley gold operation, where Alkane is conducting an extensive drilling program to define additional resources with the potential for both open pit and underground mining. The additional ore feed would supplement the Tomingley Gold Operation’s 1mtpa processing plant. To date, 18,208m of drilling has been completed, with assays received for a further 8000m of the 60,000m resource definition drilling program at 40m by 40m spacing.…

MINOTAUR Exploration has successfully completed a placement to raise A$1.5m to back its base metals tenements in Queensland and South Australia. New shares will be issued at $0.05 per share, representing around a 9pc discount to last close (on October 30, 2019) and around a 12pc discount to the 15-day volume weighed average price (VWAP) of $0.057. Minotaur managing director Andrew Woskett said that the investor support seen in the placement validated the company’s prospects, with the proceeds to be applied across Minotaur’s base metals exploration projects. “Works will include drilling for the Windsor JV plus drill targeting at Minotaur’s wholly-owned Peake and Denison, and Highlands projects,” Mr Woskett said. Around $0.950m of the placement will be spent at the…

THE Victorian Liberal National Coalition will block the Andrew’s Government’s planned 2.75pc gold royalty when it is tabled in the state parliament. Introduced at the May budget, the royalty shocked the emerging Victorian gold industry which had seen something of a renaissance since 2015, with Kirkland Lake’s (ASX: KLA) Fosterville gold mine becoming Australia’s most lucrative pure-play gold mine. While a gold royalty applies in all other states, there was concern that it would cripple vital early investment in Victoria. Although the industry has said it was not opposed to a gold royalty, it said proper consultation on its structure was needed, and that it be introduced over three years. But successful opposition of the tax will be hard fought.…

NEWMONT Goldcorp’s board of directors have unanimously approved the execution phase of the Tanami Expansion 2 project. The expansion will allow the miner to access the Auron deposit, first discovered in 2008, below the Callie orebody and could extend the mine life beyond 2040. Tanami Expansion 2 includes the construction of a 1460m shaft, additional capacity in the processing plant and supporting infrastructure that would allow the project to remain profitable as the mine heads 2140m below surface. Newmont Goldcorp began commercial production at the expansion project in 2017, and announced in March 2019 that the $245m power station project was complete. The execution phase of Tanami Expansion 2 represents a significant milestone for the operation. Newmont Goldcorp chief executive,…

AFTER launching a $193m takeover bid late in August, Northern Star Resources  (ASX: NST) has closed the deal to acquire the controlling interest of explorer Echo Resources (ASX: EAR). As Echo Resource’s major shareholder, Northern Star offered shareholders $0.33c per share in August (a 39.4pc premium on Echo’s volume weighted average at 19 August) to secure a controlling 59.3pc of Echo’s shares. Echo Resources said the offer implies a fully diluted equity value of about $242.6m, with up to $193m payable by Northern Star for shares it does not already own, or the offer amount. Echo’s Yandal gold project, located 400km north of Kalgoorlie and in close proximity to Northern Star’s Jundee operation, was at the centre of the takeover…

BLACK Cat Syndicate (ASX: BC8) has reported that its Myhree deposit near Kalgoorlie, WA, has uncovered a large gold interval grading 1130g/t. The interval was 0.5m and within a broader intercept of 1.7m grading 335.96g/t gold. Infill drilling is underway at the deposit to update the resource and provide further information on the geological, geotechnical and metallurgical characteristics of the mineralisation. Other assays received to-date included1.7m at 335.96g/t from 52.2m, 7m at 9.84g/t gold from 59.5m, 4.74m at 5.99g/t gold 166.3m, and 3.04m at 3.07g/t gold from 140.6m. Part of the Bulong gold project, the Myhree and Trump deposits are undergoing open pit feasibility studies by Black Cat, due for completion in the June 2020 quarter with extensional RC drilling kicking…