Q. You’ve recently had great drilling results at Black Hill – what’s the next step at this prospect?
The results at Black Hill were especially encouraging because we intersected up to 42pc manganese at a prospect we discovered, and assays from drilling suggest the grades of ore are good enough for direct shipping to smelters in Malaysia, which is an outstanding outcome in a short time.
Our aim is to consolidate these discoveries with further explorations and assays to demonstrate the feasibility of a manganese mine.
The outlook is positive – manganese is invaluable – it helps turn iron into steel and it is the planet’s fourth most consumed commodity, behind iron, aluminium and copper.
Bryah Resources has now drilled previously untested sites, including Black Caviar and Brumby Creek, and we believe we’ve identified several resources with potential to be part of a broader manganese mining operation.
High-grade results at Black Hill were achieved with just two drill holes to date.
We plan to undertake additional drilling this year to extend our understanding of mineralisation to the north of the prospect.
Overall, it’s a pleasing outcome when you consider Bryah Resources was formed in 2017 as a copper-gold explorer.
With tenements situated just 60km from Sandfire’s DeGrussa copper-gold mine, naturally, our initial focus was copper-gold.
That changed when I saw dark patches on satellite imagery of our ground.
I ordered geological sampling which returned rock-chip readings around 48.5pc manganese.
We secured options on the disused Horseshoe South manganese mine, which had produced more than 1mt of high-grade ore since the 1940s and as recently as 2011, and we formulated the strategy that manganese production could support copper-gold exploration.
Yet we still had to find suitable quantities of ore but we’re well on the way towards realising that ambition, thanks mainly to an agreement we signed in April with OM (Manganese) Limited (OMM), which has funded the manganese drilling program.
As soon as we signed that agreement, we exercised our option to buy the Horseshoe South mine.
Q. What about at Brumby Creek? How does that prospect compare?
Again, Brumby Creek was a prospect we identified.
In drilling results under stage one of our agreement with OMM, we found multiple horizons of high-grade manganese over a wider area than Black Hill.
The nature of this mineralisation is shallow and, in some areas, flat lying.
That is conducive to development using shallow open-pit mining methods, generally a low-cost form of mining.
Q. Both drill programs were funded by OMM). Could you explain how the $7.3m Manganese Farm-In and Joint Venture agreement with OMM came to be? Was this a key strategic step for Bryah?
OMM is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore-based and ASX-listed OM Holdings Limited (ASX: OMH), which mines, smelts and markets manganese.
OMM is a manganese miner in Bootu Creek in the Northern Territory, which aims to replenish their dwindling supplies of ore from within Australia.
They approached Bryah Resources and were interested only in manganese, which meant Bryah Resources could form an agreement based solely on manganese exploration which excluded Bryah’s copper-gold explorations (Bryah Resources retains 100pc interest in its copper-gold and other mineral assets).
That approach could de-risk Bryah’s manganese strategy and offered OM Group another potential source of manganese ore.
Under the agreement, OMM funded $500,000 of exploration expenditure, which Bryah completed in July.
OMM was then required to elect by the end of August whether to proceed to Stage Two, which gives 10pc joint venture interest in the manganese rights.
By proceeding, they agree to fund manganese exploration valued at $2m, to be completed by June 2022.
Completion gives OMM a 51pc joint venture interest.
At that point, Bryah can elect to dilute its stake in manganese in return for payments of $1.8m and $2.5m from OMM, which would raise OMM’s total investment to $7.3m and a 70pc interest in the manganese rights, with Bryah retaining 30pc.
Yes, the agreement was a strategic step for Bryah because it de-risked project development cost and product marketing – these issues are addressed by the agreement.
OM Group has smelters in Sarawak in Malaysia and a network for marketing and distributing manganese.
Q. What is the proposed timeline for further drilling and feasibility studies at your manganese prospects? Is this reliant on securing Stage Two funding from OMM?
Assuming OMM commit to Stage Two, we expect additional drilling in several areas by the end of 2019 and into the first half of 2020.
The timetable for feasibility studies will depend on those results, so, the next 12 months are critical.
Our program of drilling and assaying will be intensive and the first round will include trial geophysical surveys to establish cost-effective exploration techniques that identify concealed manganese deposits.
Q. Can you tell me about exploration plans for high-grade copper-gold deposits in the Bryah Basin? Do any prospects stand out?
We will focus on areas identified during explorations completed by Bryah Resources in 2018.
A standout is Windalah Prospect, where high-grade gold results were defined in drilling – our best interval was 5m at 6.6g a tonne from 79m.
We are excited that this could be analogous to the nearby Horseshoe Lights copper-gold mine and indicative of a volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) system, often associated with copper and gold.
We expect to learn more through the next round of drilling.
We also intend to undertake first pass drilling at the Wongawar Prospect and several other areas – at Wongawar we identified a significant copper-gold anomaly which requires further testing.
Q. Where do you see Bryah in the next three to five years?
We see Bryah in a joint mining venture with OM Holdings and exporting manga
nese.
A manganese mine has low capital cost, and OMM brings relevant mining expertise.
As well, we expect to have identified the next copper-gold deposit in the Bryah Basin and be well on our way to developing it.
