pd280-Mar20-mag-web_Neat

Barnard with Prospect security
officer James Joseph

ingness to engage with the “We also have the special economic
country. zone licence and will likely have a Eu-
Now, with the most difficult ropean customer base,” he said. “That
challenge looming, project means the bank we will get a receipt of
finance, Prospect has turned payment from the European customers
to African sources. which will be enough to cover our debt
“We are talking to a num- repayment. That is why securing Euro-
ber of DFIs and there is a lot pean offtake is the priority.”
of interest from African DFIs The company expects a 65/35 debt/
in particular,” Barnard said. equity split for funding of Arcadia’s
“They all have a Zimbabwe $US162 million capex. Hosack said the
allocation in their book so entry of Afreximbank would smooth the
there is a willingness to in- path for the equity component.
vest in the country.” “All the equity investors were con-
In December, Prospect cerned with the debt component but now
mandated African Export- we have Afreximbank in those concerns
Import Bank (Afreximbank) are eased.
to manage a $US143 million The company is also engaging with its
syndicated project finance proposed European customer base over
facility. Afreximbank is pro- funding contributions.
posing to hold $US75 million That Prospect can still retain such op-
itself. portunity despite being buffeted by both
“Afreximbank is one of the market and jurisdictional headwinds
largest and most present DFI speaks volumes about the business
in Southern Africa and their case. Hosack is confident a change in
regional centre is situated in wind direction could see it through to de-
While the country continues to rank Harare,” Hosack said. “It delivers invest- velopment.
poorly in international comparisons. It ment decisions for projects across 24 “Zimbabwe and lithium both capitu-
has consistently finished in the bottom countries in Africa out of Harare as they lated last year so it was a challenging
10 globally in the Fraser Institute’s Pol- find Zimbabwe to be an easy and appro- period for us but, we see economic sta-
icy Perception Index and placed 140th priate operations base in the southern bility in both situations in the year ahead
of 192 jurisdictions in the World Bank’s countries area.” which is a good sign for the company.”
Doing Business 2020 report. Prospective financiers will demand
While Hosack readily admits Zimba- clear evidence of Prospect’s ability to – Dominic Piper
bwe’s reputation is still low, he points service debt with export revenue gen-
to the market support Prospect has erate. Hosack said the SEZ status pro-
enjoyed as evidence of investors’ will- vided investor comfort.










































aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 51

InDABA ReVIeW



Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan


Alert miners



needed to sense




nationalism





he days of outright asset expropriation environment. But
Tmay be over, but miners must remain host communities
vigilant about local and nationwide moods also want a spe-
if they are to avoid value eroding resource cial claim on the
nationalism. resource.
Resource nationalism has never felt “It is a delicate
far from the surface across the African balance and I
continent since the end of colonialism as don’t think any
governments battle to balance the needs country has ever
of poor, under-serviced populations with got it right.”
the desire to attract international capital Gatare said the
to their often-abundant natural resources. balance was further disrupted “Companies made an effort to tackle
The issue has flared up multiple times during periods of tension. the perception which had grown but the
in multiple jurisdictions on the continent “This could be either when there are response was clearly insufficient and cre-
and while it is rare for a government to di- windfall profits [due to higher commodity ated a landscape where political capital
rectly confiscate mining assets, there are prices] and asset transactions, or when could be gained from bashing foreign
many examples of indirect expropriation the market is down and revenue is not companies,” Litvin said.
which has strangled economic growth. forthcoming.” Vedanta Resources plc group chief
Speaking on a panel at Mining Indaba, Daniel Litvin, managing director at executive Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan
World Bank practice manager, energy advisory group Critical Resource said (Venkat) said the mistake too many gov-
and extractives Christopher Sheldon said companies eager to avoid the ravages of ernments made was assuming there was
it was understandable that governments resource nationalism should look for fa- a binary choice between private and pub-
wanted to maximise their natural resourc- miliar signs in their host countries. lic benefits, that their policies would mere-
es for their country’s economic develop- “A lot of the time it is foreseeable but, a ly decide who received the larger slice of
ment, “but there are multiple stakeholders bit like predicting markets, the challenge the pie.
and need to work together if goals are to is knowing exactly when things will hap- “There is a thought that it is a zero-sum
be achieved”, he said. pen,” Litvin told Paydirt. “A growing level game,” he said. “There is not enough dis-
“We not seeing a trend for governments of popular dissatisfaction at the local and cussion about enlarging the pie.”
operating mines but there has been a national level is a strong indicator.” Venkat said promises were often bro-
trend for governments to rethink regula- Litvin pointed to Tanzania – where ken on both sides of the government-in-
tory frameworks – participation, equity, President John Magafuli introduced ag- vestor relationship, leading to deep mis-
fiscal regimes – because of disappoint- gressive resource nationalist amend- trust.
ments over how the benefits have flowed,” ments to the Mining Act in 2017 – as an Litvin sees this mistrust only increasing.
Sheldon said. “Getting the balance right example of the course resource national- “There is deep mistrust, which may be
is the tricky thing but interest in doing so ism could chart. unfair, and a lack of understanding of the
will rise because we believe the future will “It often ties in with election seasons, industry,” he said. ‘The level of stakehold-
be more mineral intensive.” you see a surge in resource national- er trust continues to weaken because of
Rwanda set its stall out at this year’s ism as politicians vie to look like they are domestic political pressures; inequality,
Mining Indaba to entice more foreign in- standing up to foreign companies,” he populist leaders, environmental impact,
vestment into its resources sector. The said. “For many years prior to Magafuli’s etc.”
Government has reworked its investment election there was deep disquiet about According to international dispute
framework to attract international miners foreign investment and the perceived lack resolution expert Sam Luttrell, the mix
but according to Francis Gatare, chair- of benefits for Tanzanians. The result was of mistrust with misunderstanding about
man of the Rwanda Minerals Board, strik- this extreme form of resource national- the economics of mining creates a potent
ing the right tone was difficult. ism.” resource nationalism cocktail.
“Mineral resources can only be utilised International miners were subsequently “Naivety is part of the problem. Coun-
when private capital is deployed so capi- caught out by Tanzania’s political tide with tries make the mistake of thinking geol-
tal must be rewarded,” Gatare said. “The the country’s largest operator, Acacia ogy alone is enough and misunderstand
promotion of private sector investor is crit- Mining, ending up in a legal dispute with the role that law and regulation play in
ical, so you must have business reforms the Government which was only resolved the feasibility of mining projects,” he said.
that give comfort and provide a welcome last month (see pages 33-34). “My impression is that the Tanzanian leg-



Page 52 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

islation was informed by a strong and
reasonable desire for government and
its people to get more value from its geol-
ogy. But the new framework did not account
properly for sensitivity of mining investment
to sovereign risk and the needs of the busi-
nesses that finance such projects.”
Litvin advises companies to work harder
at explaining their position to government
and other stakeholders in-country if they are
to insulate themselves against resource na-
tionalism.
“In more extreme cases it is based on
misconceptions on the profits companies
are making,” he said.
“Companies have increased their efforts
to build trust but the situation is getting worse
so I believe miners will have to redouble their Daniel Litvin
efforts again and become more sophisticat- “Juniors don’t have those resources,
ed about it,” he said. but they can be very good at building
Work at the community level is also es- strategic relationships at both the lo- be vigilant about other forms of national-
sential for companies’ mitigation efforts, Lit- cal and national level,” he said. “Often ism.
vin said. it is the CEO dealing with a minister or “Indirect expropriation, where the gov-
“CSR is certainly essential to get a com- local leaders. So, on one level juniors ernment takes a measure that does not
munity onside and that provides some insu- are disadvantaged but they do have the deprive the investor of ownership of the
lation to a degree but it’s not everything,” he personal touch and commitment to com- investment but does cause a substantial
said. “Sometimes companies assume that munity programmes. They don’t have to deprivation of value or expected economic
if communities are onside it protects them be expensive it is about bringing the com- benefit or the loss of use of the investment,
against resource nationalism but there are munity what they want, not what you think is more common,” he said.
many examples where they have suffered they need.” “These are often based in policies
regardless of their community engagement. Luttrell believes investors’ response around downstream processing and
“A lot of work needs to also take place to Tanzania’s new policies would likely value-addition on local content require-
at the national level, particularly in capac- prompt other countries on the continent ments which show a naivety in host gov-
ity building and helping the government to consider how effective their policies ernments about the economics of the in-
strengthen its ability to spend revenues ef- are in attracting capital. ternational mining industry.”
fectively.” “Other African states will see Tanza- Luttrell and Litvin agreed that capital
Such levels of engagement may be nia’s changes as an opportunity [to cap- flight was inevitable once Tanzania in-
achievable for multinational majors who can ture more foreign investment],” he said. troduced the amendments in 2017 but
afford entire external affairs departments “All governments need to understand that following the Government’s formalised
but in junior miners and explorers it is often they are in a very competitive business agreement with Barrick Gold Corp in
the executive management which is tasked when it comes to attracting mining invest- February, both retain positive outlooks
with the job of government and community ment.” for its future.
relations. While Tanzania’s move was at the more “In many ways, what Tanzania did do
Litvin doesn’t see this as necessarily a radical end of the resource nationalism was more hazardous than full expropria-
disadvantage. spectrum, Luttrell warned companies to tion from a sovereign risk perspective
because it creates so much uncertainty
for investors,” Luttrell said. “It is a positive
and I’m optimistic about Tanzania now,”
Luttrell said. “The fact the Government
has been able to do a deal within the le-
gal framework bodes well for Tanzania as
a host of mining investment.”
Litvin believes there is a mix of enthusi-
asm and trepidation about Tanzania.
“It can turn quickly,” he said. “Investors
are very nervous when things go wrong
but if it is a good asset and the Govern-
ment is plausible and genuine in wanting
reform and makes an investment-friendly
climate capital will come back quickly. I
think capital is nervous but also excited
by many of the resources prospects in
Tanzania.”
– Dominic Piper

Francis Gatare

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 53

InDABA ReVIeW




South32 energised for next move




































Mike Fraser



ot on the heels of striking an agreement development. role in Eskom’s grid stability and disaster
Hto divest its South African Energy Coal “Our Hillside and Mozal aluminum smelt- management plans.”
business, South32 Ltd is considering a po- ers have experienced an increase in load- Fraser insisted South Africa was improv-
tential sale of its manganese alloy smelters shedding each year for the past three years. ing as a credible mining jurisdiction but said
as the country’s power crisis continues. In FY2019, for instance, Hillside was load- “urgent” steps were still required to further
According to chief operating officer Mike shed 52 times, so approximately once per boost the country’s attractiveness for future
Fraser, South32 is on track to complete the week on average, and consistently through- resource and industrial development.
sale of its shareholding in SAEC to Seriti Re- out the year. Therefore, it highlights the un- “We would like to see further and rapid
sources Holdings Pty Ltd – a black-owned reliability we are experiencing with Eskom action on fiscal policy to stabilise the fiscal
and operated South African mining compa- power supply.” deficit and state debt,” he said.
ny – during the second half of the year. Fraser said while reliability of power sup- “Regulatory and structural reforms that
The transaction, which includes an upfront ply remained an ongoing concern for both can revitalise South Africa’s economy are
payment of almost R100 million, is subject to South32 and South Africa more broadly, his needed. One example would be to encour-
a number of conditions, including approval company’s power agreements with Eskom age private investment in power genera-
from troubled power utility Eskom and South do include a load-shedding provision which tion…and enable access to the national grid,
Africa’s Minister of Mineral Resources and allows for the smelters to be used as addi- which we think is an important next step.
Energy. tional capacity when technical issues arise. “Stabilising our state-owned entities will
Fraser said the company was pleased “Therefore, we plan for load-shedding mean that hard decisions need to be taken
with the divestment process so far and was and ensure the smelters are running at peak to close or sell those which are uncom-
now turning its focus to options for its man- performance to minimise the impact of load- petitive. State-owned enterprises that are
ganese alloy smelters in both South Africa shed events on production,” he said. “We key enablers of economic growth such as
and Tasmania. are also deploying new energy efficiency Transnet and Eskom must instill and deploy
“The options under consideration include technology at the Mozal smelter that will policies which are supportive of developing a
looking for potential new owners for those boost production with no additional power competitive industrial economy.
operations who may be able to benefit from consumption. “Urgent action to address Eskom’s techni-
synergies with their existing businesses,” “Hillside and Mozal are baseload custom- cal performance to ensure a low cost and
Fraser said. ers, which means their demand can be met reliable supply of coal will help stabilise the
“The Metalloys smelter in Gauteng is not from lower cost baseload power generation utility.”
immune to the challenges around cost and plants without the need for significant trans- Fraser added that reducing Eskom’s pri-
reliability of power supply which we have mission infrastructure. Therefore, the rate mary fuel costs would come from procur-
heard about in the ferrochrome industry in paid by Hillside is reflective of the low cost ing less from high-cost coal suppliers rather
recent weeks. And in the past few years, to Eskom of delivering bulk power to the than slashing the prices paid by long-term,
we’ve seen new alloy smelting capacity smelter. stable feeders.
emerging in Malaysia after producers were “A stable baseload supports the reliable – Michael Washbourne
offered attractive power deals to incentivise operation of the grid and Hillside plays a key


Page 54 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

Bold opportunity for Africa





frica and its materials stand at the the solution towards a low carbon econo- having a sustainable and renewable
Aforefront of the world’s transition to my, it needed to consider a more “active power sector,” he said.
a low carbon economy, according to Rio and deliberate” role in reducing emis- “Across our [global] operations, 71%
Tinto Ltd’s Bold Baatar. sions for future generations. of our electricity now comes from renew-
However, the chief executive of the “Meeting this challenge will drive struc- able sources, including hydro. This rep-
major’s energy and minerals division tural changes across the industry,” he resents significant investment and fore-
warned that opportunity could be quickly said. sight, but there is much more to do.
lost if the resources industry did not fully “Host governments and communities “As an industry, to really make a step
embrace sustainable practices, including want to build downstream industries that change in reducing our carbon footprint,
improved engagements with local com- process raw materials in their country, we have to rely on government collabo-
munities and host governments across as these beneficiation processes create ration and support not just in a financial
the continent. far more jobs than the mining industry sense, but also as the author of forward-
“We believe this is a ‘make or break’ can alone. However, an essential build- looking policies, fair and equitable rules
moment facing our industry and our busi- ing block of the processing industry is of the game and effective licensing au-
ness,” he said. reliable, efficient and affordable power thorities.”
“How we adapt, operationalise and generation and that, inevitably, is capital Baatar also highlighted that business-
integrate sustainability will define suc- intensive. es only survive by finding ways to provide
cessful mining companies in the years “Ever more, power solutions that are sustainable benefits for shareholders,
ahead.” fossil fuel-based will become increas- host communities and governments.
Baatar singled out sustainability as ingly difficult to finance and fund. The “We still need to do more in our en-
one of three “global forces” reshaping the energy and mining sectors are largely gagement with people, politicians and
resources industry, alongside geopolitics intertwined but the collaboration, co- civil society as part of communicating
(in particular, its impact on free trade) ordination and integration are too often and delivering the positive economic im-
and disruptive technologies. not aligned.” pact we have,” he said.
The Mongolian-born executive split Baatar said Africa’s abundance of hy- “This includes job creation and em-
sustainability into two categories – the dro resources were also part of the solu- ployment, royalties, shared benefits, to
environment and the social compact with tion for a low carbon economy. name but a few. But, we will also need to
host communities and beyond. “If those resources are harnessed, ensure we collaborate and engage more
On the environment, Baatar said while developed and utilised on an industrial effectively with those that host our pres-
the industry was unquestionably part of scale, Africa will be at the forefront of ence.
“Rio Tinto has been working and in-
vesting in Africa, in some shape or form,
for more than half a century. Over these
many years, the model that we sought to
develop was one of shared value. The
expectation was that companies like
ours create profit, and then invest some
of that profit into the communities and
countries where we operate.
“Collectively, we poured hundreds of
millions of dollars into programmes that
aimed to spur economic development.
Not all have been successful, but some
of these programmes had a significant
and enduring impact. However, we are in
the business of continuous improvement
and this model can be improved and
must be improved.”
Baatar did not provide an update on
the operating performance of Rio Tinto’s
African-based assets, including Rich-
ards Bay (South Africa) and QIT Minerals
(Madagascar).
– Michael Washbourne







Bold Baatar


aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 55

InDABA ReVIeW





Market



circumspect



on PGM



price surge











utgoing Anglo American Platinum Ltd
O(Amplats) chief executive Chris Grif-
fiths has called for calm on rising PGM
prices. Chris Griffiths
PGM producers are salivating with pal- changes. In his eyes, the key mistake
ladium and rhodium prices, in particular, made by the industry was not reacting
surging in recent months on the back of sooner. shrinking for the third consecutive year in
a global supply shortage and increased “I think the platinum industry needed to 2020. However, the impact may be cush-
demand from China. respond to the increase in demand; you’ll ioned by the fact that China produces only
Palladium soared past $US2,500/oz in recall at that time demand was increasing a quarter of the world’s auto-catalysts.”
January to be valued higher than gold – by 5% per annum and it grew like that for Speaking alongside Griffiths during a
a fact pointed out by Ivanhoe Mines Ltd 20 years,” he said. panel session at Mining Indaba, Nedbank
co-chairman Robert Friedland during his “Of course, the guys that extrapolated CIB mining analyst Arnold van Graan at-
keynote presentation to Mining Indaba that for another 20 years might have been tributed the global PGM supply shortage
last month. a bit ambitious, but I think three key things to there not being enough metal in the
In what is likely to be his last public ap- happened to that structural change in de- market.
pearance at the helm of Anglo American’s mand; first of all, platinum was substituted However, he warned many investors
platinum division after more than seven out of the auto-cats and more palladium were still hesitant around the sector, par-
years in the role, Griffiths warned the was used; the second structural change ticularly in South Africa, which accounts
PGM industry not to repeat the mistakes was rhodium was substituted out and the for 80% of the world’s PGM production.
of a decade ago. third structural change was the increase “A lot of shareholders and investors we
“Certainly, for the next 10 years you’ve in recycling which went from 500,000oz speak to are still nervous about the PGM
got to watch structural changes and mega to 2 moz. market…and that’s why we’re not seeing
trends effecting supply, but in this case, I “Those were big structural changes to these multiples running up progressively,”
think PGMs are going to be a winner in demand and what the industry was slow van Graan said.
structural changes,” Griffiths said. to react. What the industry should have “I think there is more upside in the equi-
“The world needs us to cut emissions done is [react] much, much quicker to ties over a long-term period, but I am just
and therefore we are increasing loadings cutting that supply because at that stage concerned we’ve done a bit too much too
on every auto-catalyst and it’s using more about half the industry was loss-making, quickly. I’m not saying it’s going to fall in
palladium and more rhodium. Those met- yet the industry just kept on pumping out a heap, but the market tends to get over-
als can’t be substituted out, but what they more metals; they made the problem heated.
can do is substitute with other PGMs and worse.” “Fast money comes in fast and it goes
the answer to that is platinum.” In its latest research note at the time of out even quicker, so just be wary of that.”
Preceeding Mining Indaba, Griffiths an- print, ANZ said the demand for palladium Public Investment Corporation mining
nounced his intention to step down from was expected to “hold up” despite ongo- and resources portfolio manager Mdu
the top job at Amplats to pursue other ing concerns the coronavirus epidemic Bhulose also urged the industry to exer-
business interests. It was subsequently will further soften an automotive sector cise caution.
confirmed that Natascha Viljoen – cur- still in the midst of a two-year slowdown “When commodity prices rally in a short
rently group head of processing for Anglo in global vehicle sales. space of time, you start seeing manage-
American – would take over his role from “China’s auto production is likely to ment getting adventurous with money,”
next month. shrink by 17% in Q1 2020 due to shut- Bhulose said. “The question is, ‘is it the
Griffiths is widely credited with steer- downs,” the ANZ research note said. “As right time to build?’ It must be measured
ing Amplats through one of the division’s China is the integral part of auto supply so that value is not destroyed.”
toughest periods after the PGM mar- chains, global auto production will also be
ket collapsed due to multiple structural impacted. We see global auto production – Michael Washbourne



Page 56 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

Revenge of the DRC copper miner




obert Friedland is making it his per- in Chile as the single biggest producer of be at least identical. I think there may be
Rsonal mission to help the DRC re- the red metal. some implicit racism in the high discount
claim the title of world’s No.1 copper pro- Last year’s feasibility study flagged rate applied to Congolese assets.
ducer. production of more than 700,000 tpa “We’ve operated in the Congo for 25
In his annual keynote address to Min- copper from the combined Kamoa-Kaku- years and never had a business interrup-
ing Indaba delegates, the Ivanhoe Mines la development, although the former de- tion. It’s amazing the things people say
Ltd founder questioned why so many posit remains a growing resource for the about the DRC having never been there.
investors, analysts and sections of the time being. So, I am here to defend the vision of the
mining community continued to shun the First production from Kakula is slated Congolese people.
DRC over apparent “safer” jurisdictions for Q3 2021, although Friedland suggest- “Our mission is to restore the DRC’s
such as Chile. ed mine development was “way ahead of position as the No.1 producer of copper
“It’s absolutely silly to think that Chile schedule” and the maiden copper con- metal in the world – and the world needs
is a safe place to mine and should have centrate would be delivered a lot sooner. it.”
a 3-4% discount rate and somehow the Friedland, who will turn 70 in August, Friedland’s discussion on Ivanhoe’s
DRC should have a 12% discount rate,” brazenly described Chile’s copper mines activities in the DRC was once again
Friedland said. as “like a little old lady laying in bed wait- preceded by his annual overview of the
“There’s this fiction that somehow Afri- ing to die”. world’s growing air pollution problem and
ca is dangerous and it’s safe for industry “The biggest copper mine in the world, why copper was the answer.
to go to Chile or Peru; I challenge that. which belongs to Rio Tinto [plc] and BHP “The Revenge of the Miners is opening
Having been working with my African [Ltd], had an average resource grade of soon at a theatre near you,” he quipped.
brothers and sisters for 25 years, I would 1.72% only 12 years ago and today the “We are the answer to the problem.
rather be in Africa; I would rather be in remaining resource grade is 0.52%; that Copper demand for electric cars is going
the DRC. is a stunning two-thirds decline in re- to rise 900% in the next five years. Cop-
“We have hungry young people that source grade at the world’s largest cop- per is a major commodity for the growing
want to make a difference and they’re per mine,” he said. EV market.
very bright. We can make copper with “So, how do you overcome that? You “Our company is going to produce
hydroelectrical power and, of course, make it bigger – you put in bigger mills, green copper. Our underground mines
Katanga [province] was the world’s larg- you increase the capacity, you grind will have a very small surface footprint;
est source of copper metal until Chile got more and more rock, you use more and 55% of the tailings we generate will be
invented in the 1970s. more electrical energy per unit of copper entombed forever underground. And
“With the deepest of respects, money produced and you make bigger and big- since our ore is such high grade, we’ll
is a coward; it runs away at the first sign ger tailings dams. People are going to have a very small tailings dam compared
of trouble. But, just as you catch more look at that and say, ‘is this truly sustain- to the monsters in the porphyry copper
flies with honey than vinegar, when you able? Maybe it’s a better idea to go find industry and we will use less electricity
get a success in the country, money fol- copper in the Congo’. per unit of copper.”
lows.” “Everybody thought Chile a very safe Prior to Friedland’s presentation, Ivan-
Ivanhoe is developing the world’s sec- place until it descended into chaos...I hoe announced an updated resource
ond largest copper mine in the DRC at believe the discount rate assigned by of 256mt @ 4.15% copper (based on a
Kamoa-Kakula, trailing only Escondida analysts for Chile and the Congo should 3% cut-off grade) for the undeveloped
Kamoa deposit, lifting the combined Ka-
moa-Kakula resource to 423mt @ 4.88%
copper.
An initial estimate of 1.5mt @ 10.7%
copper (5% cut-off) was also unveiled for
the Kamoa North ‘bonanza’ zone.
“We have 1,400bt of ore, but 1-2bt of
bonanza grade can recover the entire
capital cost of the Kamoa-Kakula devel-
opment,” Friedland said.
“The structure that controls it is more
than 20km long. When a ship disappears
at sea through the curvature of the earth,
from one ship to the other, that distance
is 26km.
“Why would you want to go to Chile
to look for copper? There’s a shortage
of power, there’s no water…there’s very
restive labour unions, yet it’s fashionable
to say Chile is the greatest place to mine
copper. I am rooting for the Congolese.”
– Michael Washbourne
Ivanhoe Mines co-chairman Robert Friedland (right) with Ivanplats chairperson Patricia
Makhesha on the Mining Indaba stage
aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 57

InDABA ReVIeW




















Serendipitous



Sovereign







overeign Metals Ltd managing direc- Market headwinds forced Sovereign to to get to this point where those deposits
Stor Julian Stephens is oozing with park further technical efforts on its Ma- are clearly there, but we’re now ready to
confidence after a year spent uncovering lingunde graphite project early last year go drill them out to a JORC resource.”
a new rutile province in Malawi and get- until a viable partner prepared to commit Sovereign’s decision to pursue a fu-
ting up to speed on all things related to funding to the next stage of development ture in rutile bucks the common trend of
the rare titanium mineral. emerges. Perhaps rather fortuitously, the companies chasing flavour-of-the-month
Previously focused solely on graphite company had an alternative opportunity commodities when they hit the wall in
in the same country, Sovereign is now right at its doorstep to almost immediate- their current field.
gearing up for what Stephens believes ly begin pursuing. As far as Stephens and the team at
will be a “company-defining year” during “It was a little serendipitous the way we Sovereign are concerned, rutile is a fla-
which it plans to report maiden resource discovered rutile,” Stephens told Paydirt vour-of-the-month commodity. For the
estimates for at least two of the key ru- following a site visit to Malawi last month. past 18 months, rutile – a high-grade ti-
tile prospects identified within its growing “These projects were, in fact, initially tanium mineral produced as a by-product
3,700sq km ground package. pegged for their graphite potential. When or co-product of zircon and ilmenite min-
we were doing some of the ing, and a key ingredient for the pigment
metallurgical work on the industry – has been in structural deficit,
graphite, we noticed some as described by primary producer Iluka
rutile was occurring in the Resources Ltd.
graphite tailings, so we de- Rutile prices have essentially doubled
cided that we would have a to around $US1,200/t over the past four
bit of a go at trying to recover years and forecasters such as TZMI
a rutile product out of those see no reason why that won’t continue.
graphite tailings. Ilmenite prices, meanwhile, are fetch-
“From a bit of rudimentary ing as low as $US200/t due to its lower
metallurgical testing, we were titanium content and pre-processing re-
able to recover a relatively quirements.
significant amount of rutile at Iluka indicated its rutile volumes were
a relatively good grade. That fully sold throughout 2019 and is an-
got us thinking that maybe ticipating continued strong demand this
rutile was more widespread year. The company recently signed a
than just within the graphite sales take-or-pay agreement with Kro-
deposit which we had taken nos Worldwide Inc for 75% of standard-
through to a PFS and pilot grade rutile produced from its Sierra Ru-
plant, so we went back and tile operation in Sierra Leone, effective
looked at a select number of through to December 2022.
our historical hand auger drill- “Rutile really is a scarce commod-
ing holes, but spread over a ity,” Stephens said. “There are very few
very wide area, and discov- rutile-dominant projects in the world,
ered rutile in many areas. probably the only two being Iluka’s Sierra
“We then decided that we Rutile and Base Resources Ltd’s Kwale
would do some exploration for deposit in Kenya.
rutile to see if we could find “A number of these existing mines are
some larger, higher-grade ar- becoming mature, their grades are de-
eas. It’s taken us 1-1.5 years clining and there’s generally been a lack
Julian Stephens

Page 58 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

A number of these existing mines are
for sampling. Drill pads are also not re-
becoming mature, their grades are quired.
declining and there’s generally been a lack of Metallurgical test work has confirmed
the samples that Sovereign is recovering
“ new rutile-rich deposits to fill this gap. from its ground in Malawi can produce a
“highly favourable and premium” rutile
product, according to Stephens.
of new rutile-rich deposits to fill this gap. get the highest-grade rutile towards the “This has quite high titanium content
If you look at Base’s Kwale project, for in- base of the drilling,” Stephens said. “Most at 96% TiO2, all the critical impurities
stance, that’s been operating for around of those original hand auger holes re- are very low, it’s got an excellent grain
a decade now, however, they are close to main open at depth because we weren’t size distribution which is quite important
exhausting their reserves, they only have able to penetrate past the water table. in rutile products, and it’s comparable to
about 3-4 years of mine life remaining. “We’ve completed about 90 holes alto- other products out there, particularly Si-
Once that operation closes down that is gether. In addition to that, we are testing erra Rutile’s,” he said.
going to create an additional 80,000 tpa some new saprolite-hosted targets so at “These specifications show we have
supply gap into the market.” some stage we’ll have an announcement something suitable for all major end mar-
Sovereign’s search for rutile opportu- on those new targets as well.” kets, being about 60% pigment market,
nities delivered more than the company Stephens also praised the effective- 30% welding and other markets, and
bargained for in its first year focused ness of hand auger drilling which his about 10% into the titanium metal mar-
on the commodity, with not one but two company has been able to undertake ket, which is excellent news. It gives us
discrete styles of rutile mineralisation for less than $US1/m, with a substantial significant confidence going forward with
discovered and multiple high-grade de- amount of core collected by single crews the project that we’ll have a good recov-
posits identified.
Three prospects – Kasiya, Railroad
and Railroad West – were identified in
the same residual saprolite material that
hosts the Malingunde graphite deposit.
More recently, the Bua Channel prospect
was uncovered in sand-hosted fluvial ru-
tile mineralisation.
“We believe we’ve discovered a new
rutile province in Malawi,” Stephens said.
“And with two styles of mineralisation, we
think we have double the opportunity.”
Sovereign initially focused on the Rail-
road and Railroad West prospects where
a mineralised footprint at least 1.6km
long and 500m wide has been defined.
Best grades from hand auger drilling
were 13m @ 1.08% rutile (including 6m
@ 1.25%), 8m @ 0.92% (including 5m @
1.06%), 5m @ 1.16% and 7m @ 0.86%.
However, it is 15km to the north at
Kasiya where Sovereign is licking its lips.
Results from hand auger drilling across
this promising large soil anomaly were
pending at the time of print.
“This prospect looks like it could be
very large,” Stephens said.
There are also high hopes for Bua
Channel which Sovereign suspects could
be at least 50km long. Only 8km of that
sand-filled channel has been drilled to
date with best results from drilling includ-
ing 7m @ 0.81% rutile, 1% ilmenite and
0.11% zircon from surface, 5m @ 0.72%
rutile, 0.9% ilmenite and 0.09% zircon
from 2m and 5m @ 0.64% rutile, 0.9%
ilmenite and 0.1% zircon from surface.
More recent drilling results were also
pending at the time of print, while explo-
ration over the newly awarded licence
stretching 40km to the north-east of that
area was to begin late last month.
“Our previous results showed that you
Rutile mineralisation has been identified in soft-weathered saprolite

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 59

InDABA ReVIeW



“Because the commodity is in structural
deficit and there does not appear to be any
new deposits coming on any time soon,
that [supply] gap in the market will naturally
create offtake and sales opportunities for
us,” he said.
“Unlike some other industrial commodi-
ties which can be difficult to market, we
think rutile – I won’t say it will be easy – will
be a bit more straightforward than some
other industrial commodities in terms of
marketing.”
A geologist with extensive experience in
Africa, Stephens has been focused on Ma-
lawian projects for almost 15 years, work-
Kyanite has proven to be an indicator mineral for rutile
ing closely alongside Sovereign’s country
erable grade of rutile and excellent prod- the lowest-cost graphite producers in manager Andries Kruger for much of that
uct specification.” East Africa. time.
While definition of JORC resources While no further technical work is Malawi is not a known mining jurisdiction
for its key rutile prospects remains the planned for Malingunde, Sovereign still and to date only one commercial operation
main game for Sovereign in 2020, Ste- wants to market the project heavily this – the Kayelekera uranium mine (built by
phens said the company also intends to year in a bid to land a development part- Paladin Energy Ltd, currently on care-and-
kickstart technical studies on potential ner. maintenance and subject to sale to Lotus
mining methods and tailings disposal op- “Many different industries use graphite Resources Ltd) – exists in country.
tions. One potential scenario under con- and traditionally graphite has not been Development of a resources sector is a
sideration is hydro mining of the saprolite bought on long-term contracts, so it’s high priority of the Malawian Government
material using a high-pressure water gun quite difficult to get long-term graphite as it looks to diversify away from an agrar-
which could deliver potential cost advan- sales contracts and therefore difficult to ian economy.
tages over more traditional mining meth- finance these projects through traditional “Recently the Government passed a
ods. means,” Stephens said. new mining act and to us that’s an indica-
Sovereign will have confidence it can “We’re not doing any more technical tion of how serious they are on mining,”
deliver viable economics for a future work, but we are marketing the product Stephens said.
rutile operation given its early achieve- really hard. We’ve got samples out with “I can’t say enough about the support
ments in the space appear to mirror its about 15 different prospective offtake we’ve had from the Government over a
success in graphite. In late 2018, the partners, mainly in the refractory indus- long period of time and that continues to
company released the findings of a PFS try, but also in a couple of other industrial this day. Notwithstanding the Government
which supported production of circa sectors, and we are trying to get MoUs has relatively limited resources, they pro-
52,000 tpa graphite concentrate from and sales agreements with those groups. vide absolutely all the support and encour-
Malingunde over an initial mine life of “Once we have some significant en- agement they can.”
16 years. Capex was estimated at just couragement or certainty around sales, Stephens said his company was also
$US49 million. then we can restart things and potentially benefiting from Lilongwe’s established la-
Average production costs of $US323/t start seeking finance for that project.” bour pool of industrial services and con-
over that period – dropping as low as As for when the time comes to start tractors. Malawian universities are also
$US284/t in the seventh year – posi- marketing its rutile products, Stephens among the most respected in southern
tioned Sovereign as potentially one of is not anticipating the same challenges. Africa.





























Sovereign has identified two styles of rutile mineralisation on its ground package: Saprolite-hosted rutile (left) and sand-hosted rutile (right)

Page 60 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

“ Recently the Government passed a new mining act and to us that’s an





indication of how serious they are on mining.

The country boasts a raft of modern in-
frastructure, including sealed roads and
the possibility of grid power in the com-
ing years. Fresh water sources are also
readily available. Sovereign’s ground
package wraps around the north, south
and western borders of Lilongwe.
An established rail network that comes
within 20km of Sovereign’s tenure ulti-
mately connects to the Nacala deep wa-
ter port over the border in Mozambique.
“There’s plenty of capacity on that rail
line and we have a MoU at the moment Hon Bintony Kutsaira
with the rail concession there for trans-
port of our commodities out to the port,”
Stephens said. “It was signed during the Hon Bintony Kutsaira – Malawi’s Minister of Natural
graphite days and we’re in the process of Resources, Energy and Mining – reaffirmed his country’s
converting that to a rutile MoU and then commitment to developing more mines over the next
full agreement.
“So, we think 2020 will be a company- decade during a panel session at Mining Indaba.
defining year for Sovereign. We have a
lot of work going on and there’s a lot of Despite boasting some of the best infrastructure in southern
great work going on in Malawi, generally.” Africa, Malawi is yet to be recognised by the broader investment

– Michael Washbourne community as an attractive mining jurisdiction. To date, the
Kayelekera mine (currently on care-and-maintenance due to low
uranium prices) is the only commercial operation to have been
developed in country.
Speaking during the conference’s dedicated battery metals
day, Kutsaira said his door was open to any investor interested in
providing funding support to developing Malawi’s mineral potential.
“The Government is ready to provide any type of assistance as
long as the investors are committed to working with us to develop
our mining sector,” he said.
“We want to have more mines producing more of these minerals
we have, including rare earths, graphite, nickel and cobalt.”
Mkango Resources Ltd president Alexander Lemon reiterated
how supportive the Malawian Government had been during the
company’s decade-long presence in the country.
Listed on both the LSE and TSX-V, Mkango is advancing the

Sovereign has incorporated a makeshift Songwe Hill rare earths project in Malawi’s south-east and is fully
laboratory at its Lilongwe base, including funded through to completion of a BFS. The company is also
a shaking table and other mineral confident it can tap into the country’s available infrastructure and
separation processes
produce a high-value product over a long mine life.
“Malawi is a fantastic jurisdiction,” Lemon said. “It’s known as
the warm heart of Africa, it’s a stable country and has many major
infrastructure developments taking place as we speak.
“It’s an emerging mining destination and it’s certainly a premier
African rare earths mineral province within the Chilwa Alkaline area.
Infrastructure investment is also unlocking the mineral potential of
the country.”
Mkango’s Malawian subsidiary owns 51% of Songwe Hill, with the
remaining interest held by Singapore-based investment firm Talaxis.
Talaxis can increase its stake to 75% by arranging project
finance. Mkango is then free-carried at 25% interest through to first
production.


aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 61

sAReIc PReVIeW










SA Government




backs explorers





again














































he 18th South Australian Resources &
T Energy Conference (SAREIC) will take
place at the Adelaide Hilton Hotel on April
1-2. Over nearly two decades, SAREIC has
charted the course of the SA resources
sector from the boom in exploration in
the middle of the 2000s, to the opening
The Carrapateena deposit
was found using collaborative of Prominent Hill in 2009 and the energy
drilling funding through the crisis of the mid-2010s. At the start of a
PACE initiative. Can the new decade, the SA mining industry has
SA Government’s new ADI
programme repeat that success? some major questions in front of it.





Page 62 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

hen the Carrapateena copper-gold “There are some
Wproject in South Australia produced good projects and
its first saleable concentrate in December, companies, but I
it was the culmination of nearly 15 years of think it needs a bit
more energy.”
exploration effort.
SA Government open in the State since mining started at the Government pro-
The operation is the first major mine to
In December 2019,
vided the sector with
stablemate Prominent Hill in 2009. The
that
much-needed
question the entire SA mining sector is now
backs explorers asking is whether there will be another dec- energy boost with the
announcement of a
ade-long wait for the next opening.
new $10 million Ac-
Much could depend on the approach of
the State Government. The Carrapateena
celerated Discovery
again discovery hole was drilled in 2005 by re- Initiative (ADI) for the to drill targets and discoveries,” Pearce
Dan van Holst Pellekaan
State.
nowned private explorer Rudy Gomez’s
The three-year programme will see
RMG Services. The programme was 50%
funded through the State Government’s
co-funded grants awarded for drilling pro-
newly introduced five-year, $22.5 million
“Mineral exploration is the lifeblood of the
Plan for Accelerated Exploration (PACE) grammes in new terrains, the promotion of said.
collaborative innovation and technology to
programme. generate new exploration ideas, logistical mining industry and each economic discov-
PACE was the first initiative of its kind in support in remote greenfield areas and new ery creates a new mine with jobs, royalties
Australia, particularly with the inclusion of geophysical programmes. and benefits for the local community.
co-funded drilling grants. A 2014 Depart- In addition, the State Government has “The ADI and the Explore the Gawler
ment of Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, committed $250,000 to the ExploreSA: The challenge are part of a suite of responses
Resources and Energy analysis of the pro- Gawler Challenge, the first crowdsourced needed to boost South Australia’s growth in
gramme found the economic benefits had exploration challenge in Australia. mineral exploration. This year the Depart-
been profound with SA lifting its share of “A strong resources sector is an essential ment of Mining is 125 years old, and the Ge-
national mineral exploration expenditure in component of South Australia’s prosper- ological Survey is 135 years old; it is great
the 10 years the programme had been ac- ity and accounts for more than 35% of the to see pioneering programmes such as
tive. state’s exports,” Minister for Energy and the Challenge and the ADI being launched
The report conservatively estimated that Mining Dan van Holst Pellekaan said. to grow mining and mineral exploration in
an extra $700 million had been generated “Previous government-funded mineral South Australia.”
in private mineral exploration expenditure exploration focused on drill targets but the Just as PACE was in 2004, the Gawler
and state mining revenue increased by $2.4 expanded scope of the ADI will have mul- Challenge is a first-of-its-kind, encouraging
billion off the back of less than $50 million tiple environmental and social benefits, as participants from different fields to pick over
of expenditure by the Government through well as driving significant economic gains.” the Geological Survey of South Australia’s
the initiative. “The ADI also recognises the importance vast historical records, primary data and re-
Oz Minerals Ltd’s Carrapateena was the of the state’s regional communities by tar- search to identify new potential drill targets
jewel in PACE’s discovery crown but the geting remote water sources and boosting across central SA.
programme could also lay claim to a further job opportunities.” “This state-of-the-art competition has the
14 significant exploration successes result- Industry groups responded positively to potential to unearth the next Olympic Dam
ing from the collaborative drilling initiative. the announcement with South Australian or Carrapateena by encouraging global
When the new Coalition State Govern- Chamber of Minerals and Energy chief ex- thinkers and innovators to interrogate our
ment cut PACE funding in 2018, the local ecutive Rebecca Knol saying the ADI was open-file data and generate new explora-
exploration industry was left wondering the most innovative co-funding programme tion models and ideas for targeting,” Minis-
where the next discovery would come from. in Australia. ter van Holst Pellekaan said.
Exploration rates have slowed over the “Exploration incentives are a proven eco- Unearthed Industry Lead – Crowdsourc-
last five years as investors choose to refo- nomic multiplier, with $23 million in returns ing, Holly Bridgwater said the competition
cus discovery efforts on brownfield districts generated for each $1 million invested,” she served to leverage data science to reverse
such as the Eastern Goldfields of Western said. “This means the ADI could potentially the trend of falling discovery rates.
Australia. generate around $230 million in benefit to “This… will attract a global community
The SA exploration sector, it seems, is in South Australia as untapped resources are of innovators, some of whom won’t have
dire need of a shot in the arm. identified and unlocked. worked in the mining industry before,” she
“Carrapateena is a good piece of news “This is good news for the State’s explo- said.
happening at the moment and there’s been ration sector and we welcome the Govern- “We can’t wait to see how they will ap-
a good discovery around Oak Dam West but ment’s decision to open the EOI phase ply their diverse skills, fresh ideas and novel
I think we’re still trying to get off the ground today. It will play a major role in the es- approaches to mineral exploration to accel-
and it feels like some energy is needed to tablishing a pipeline of new developments erate discovery in South Australia.”
get a bit more happening in SA,” Associa- which will be vital in supporting the State The ExploreSA: Gawler Challenge will
tion of Mining and Exploration Companies Growth Agenda.” open on March 2 and run until July 31.
(AMEC) chief executive Warren Pearce told Pearce welcomed the innovative nature Competitors’ efforts will be assessed by
Paydirt. “The State Government has start- of both the ADI and the ExploreSA: Gawler a panel of expert judges to determine the
ed doing some good things, including intro- Challenge. winners of multiple prize categories. The
ducing the Accelerated Discovery Initiative “AMEC called for a competition to attract targets produced will be made available to
and hopefully that will help charge some of fresh ‘out of the box’ thinking to unlock the the public, to incentivise exploration across
the exploration that has been sleeping. geological potential of the Gawler and lead the Gawler.


aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 63

1 - 2 April 2020 1 - 2 April 2020 REGISTER NOW


Hilton Adelaide





South Australia’s premier mining forum








































Now is the time to strengthen


your ties in South Australia!















saresourcesconf.com

REGISTER NOW







































The South Australian Resources and Energy Investment Conference (SAREIC)
provides a dedicated platform for mining companies to showcase their projects in front
of key decision-makers within the state’s mining scene.

Participation at SAREIC will bring you face to face with some of the best companies in
the industry and allow you to secure viable prospects for sales, promote developments,

products and services - all while networking with key contributors; including mining
executives, government, financiers, support service representatives, and the media.




Sponsors and supporters to date:

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To present, exhibit or attend as a delegate please contact
saresourcesconf.com Christine Oelschlaeger on (+61) 9321 0355 or email [email protected]

sAReIc PReVIeW







Coda



eyes Arcoona



hotspot
































t is shaping as a big 2020 for Coda Min- “We’ll maintain a very strong focus on other factors driving the current spate of
Ierals. these [Zambian-style copper] sediment- exploration activity in SA.
Despite the coronavirus knocking the hosted sulphides and the tenements along “Obviously it doesn’t hurt that there are
share market around, Coda is confident the Arcoona exploration corridor. We are world-class, Tier 1 deposits in the area. I
of becoming a publicly listed company by targeting 1.5mt of contained copper this think exploration was always going to be
mid-year, while also defining 1.5mt con- year. Work-wise, that is progressing very an area that was going to come back into
tained copper in South Australia within the well, we expect to be out in the field doing focus for people. Great copper deposits
next 10 months or so. seismic, which will support the next round are few and far between, they are harder
Already with a 240,000t copper equiva- of drilling.” to find, global grades are depleting and
lent resource at Mt Gunson, comprised of An exploration target of 43-72mt @ this is an area that is showing excellent
the Windabout and MG14 deposits, there 0.34-1.5% copper, 0.02-0.06% cobalt and world-class grades and sizes of deposits,”
will be a heavy focus expanding further 5-19 g/t silver has been set along a 3.3km Stevens said.
into the Arcoona exploration corridor this strike drilled. “South Australia is probably the best
year with substantial potential upside rec- A strike of 10km has been defined by place to be working in the world right now.
ognised at Emmie Bluff. pronounced MT anomalism, with 70% of You have got fantastic support from the
Coda chief executive Chris Stevens (pic- the Arcoona exploration corridor targeted Department of Energy and Mines and fan-
tured) heaped praise on the SA Govern- by Coda, which demerged from Gindal- tastic support from the Government. Every
ment for the work committed to providing bie Metals Ltd last year and has $7 million time tenure comes up there are a number
useful data to aid exploration in the State. cash, yet to be drilled. of parties going up for them. There is an
“We have been very fortunate with the “It is such a strong project, so the poten- enormous amount of competition for new
data that came out of the SA Govern- tial coming out of the Arcoona exploration tenure in the area and there is a lot of work
ment’s recent MT surveys and we have area alone is very interesting and we have going on in the area. BHP is very active in
been very fortunate with the excellent con- received very strong feedback from the the area, but also smaller players like DGO
sultants at Resource Potential’s interpreta- market,” Stevens said. Gold Ltd [Pernatty Lagoon, Stuart Shelf]
tion of that data, which has given us a solid Copper has faced pricing challenges are very active. At the end of the day it is
exploration area to work on in the Arcoona since the GFC, but Stevens said the uni- elephant country and there is a very sup-
exploration corridor area of tenements,” versal view was that the commodity was portive framework in place, and it is a very
Stevens told Paydirt. due to rise and there was no better place convenient place to be working with great
“We’re continuing to work through exist- to be for exploration than SA. infrastructure.”
ing geophysical data and we’ll collect more BHP Ltd and Oz Minerals Ltd continue – Mark Andrews
data as we explore for IOCGs in a fantastic to draw attention to the State’s mining sec-
part of the country to find those things. tor, however, Stevens believes there are


Page 66 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

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Siviour’s tale of pursue a downstream
Renascor continues
to aggressively

two paths strategy for its Siviour
graphite project on
South Australia’s Eyre
Peninsula
























he type of offtake Renascor Resources strategy. Following completion of the con-
TLtd secures for its Siviour graphite pro- centrate DFS, the company confirmed pu-
ject will determine its ultimate path to devel- rification tests on Siviour material had suc-
opment. cessfully produced battery-grade graphite
Locking down an offtake agreement has with purities of up to 99.98% total carbon.
been a top priority for Renascor managing Before the end of 2019, the company David Christensen
director David Christensen since his com- also entered into a non-binding MoU with
pany published a robust DFS on production Sicona Battery Technologies to jointly de-
of graphite concentrate from Siviour last velop battery anode material. $77 million expansion to 144,000 tpa.
November. Under the first phase of the MoU, Renas- Siviour’s estimated operating costs of
The critical question Christensen and his cor will provide samples of purified spherical $508/t ($US355/t) are understood to be
team have been grappling with, however, graphite from Siviour for high-performance among the lowest for any graphite project
remains whether to deal with a concen- testing in both standard-energy anodes globally.
trate-based customer or someone seek- and next-generation silicon-composite an- Up to 80% of the capex is expected to
ing a value-added downstream spherical ode materials using Sicona’s proprietary qualify for in-principle support from Dutch
graphite product. Renascor has previously technologies. export credit agency Atradius, subject to
stated its preference to enter the lithium ion “Sicona has a next generation anode Renascor finalising a procurement strategy
battery anode market. technology that they’re trying to develop with its likely EPC contractor Royal IHC.
Christensen spent much of December in and they’d like to develop that anode capac- “We feel reasonably comfortable on the
North Asia meeting with potential custom- ity here in Australia,” Christensen said. finance side because banks will be willing
ers and was due to head overseas again at “We’d like nothing better than to see a to come in if we get the export credit [fi-
the time of print for the next round of offtake homegrown anode business here, so we’re nance approval],” Christensen said.
discussions. quite happy to work with them. They’re “But, we can only get the export credit
“We got a pretty good reception to the still in the development stage, but it’s quite if we have good offtake. So, where’s the
DFS from some of the offtake partners promising and if they’re successful then I best offtake? Well, the best offtake is in
we’ve been talking to, particularly on the suspect you’ll see them racing ahead very the anode sector and some of the people
anode side,” Christensen told Paydirt. quickly. we’re talking to are telling us ‘look, we’d like
“People are interested in the product we “They’ll be taking our material and testing a spherical graphite product, so we want
can make, either as a concentrate or as a it in coin cells. This is going to be quite use- the downstream product, we don’t want
downstream product, so that’s really the top ful for us, too, because it gives validation the concentrate product because then that
priority for us, to put an offtake contract in the graphite ore and spherical graphite we needs to get shipped to China’. These are
place. produce is going to work in anode cells. So, all the critical questions we’re looking at
“We think the DFS really positions our- it helps us de-risk the project even more.” right now.
selves potentially as one of, if not the best According to the concentrate DFS pub- “For us, what’s going to happen over the
positioned companies to provide spherical lished in November, Renascor will need next month, it’s really going to be focused
graphite to people who want non-Chinese $114 million to fund an initial 80,000 tpa on offtake, getting ourselves ready for due
supply.” operation at Siviour, about 15km west of diligence and looking much more closely at
Renascor completed a PFS on a down- Arno Bay on South Australia’s Eyre Penin- that downstream.”
stream option for Siviour early last year sula. Cash flow from the first four years of – Michael Washbourne
and continues to aggressively pursue that production will then be used to underpin the



Page 68 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

Leigh Creek expands portfolio





ast year’s strategic decision to hunt for opportunities, as the large Leigh Creek were very close to having the thing final-
Loil and gas opportunities complemen- energy project in SA continues down the ised,” Leigh Creek managing director Phil
tary to its existing projects reached culmi- development path. Staveley told Paydirt.
nation for Leigh Creek Energy Ltd in Feb- Courting a strategic partner from China “We are not getting a response at the
ruary with a farm-in agreement struck with to JV at the Leigh Creek energy project re- moment with everything that is going on,
Queensland’s Bridgeport Energy Pty Ltd in mains an option for the company. but there are other pluses with another
the Cooper and Eromanga basins. “We are a long way down the track, but big international firm coming to see us on
The deal was done through Leigh unfortunately we don’t know how long this more or less the same terms.”
Creek’s wholly owned subsidiary Leigh coronavirus is going to hold us up. We Gas and/or nitrogen fertiliser products
Creek Oil and Gas Ltd (LCOG). from remnant coal resources at Leigh
LCOG has the opportunity to acquire Creek using in-situ gas technologies is the
a 20% participating interest of Author- strategy being pursued by the company.
ity to Prospect (ATP) in ATP 2023 and The company is working towards having
ATP 2024, south-west Queensland, from all approvals ticked off for seismic activi-
Bridgeport. ties at Leigh Creek.
Leigh Creek’s first JV outside its name- “Then the drilling will follow to prove that
sake project area in South Australia re- there is no fluids or cracks in our ground
mains subject to ministerial approval. and then we can work towards starting a
Taking an interest in the Cooper and commercial EIS,” Staveley said.
Eromanga basins gives Leigh Creek port- “We have to know the ground we are
folio diversity and potential to tap into mul- going to be starting a commercial project
tiple revenue streams. on is suitable. That is what the seismic and
The rationale behind Leigh Creek’s for- drilling is for. Once that has proven up the
ay into Queensland was to add assets in right basis to operate, we will be starting
known petroleum systems containing both the commercial EIS.”
oil and gas prospects with the potential for
short to medium term revenue and growth – Mark Andrews
Phil Staveley












• Coda’s highly prospective tenure in the heart of the
Olympic Copper Province provides multiple
pathways towards Coda’s goal of 1,500,000 tonnes
of Copper Eq. in 2020.


• Coda’s top priority is to test the magnetotelluric
anomalism at Emmie Bluff which defines the
Arcoona Exploration Corridor. Less than 30% of
this 10km long anomaly has been drilled with the
host formation consistently mineralised in all holes.

• In addition to it’s Zambian-style Copper-Cobalt
deposits, Coda is also exploring for IOCGs, applying
cutting edge geophysical techniques to its 739 sqkm of
ground in the world’s premier IOCG province.

Arcoona Exploration Corridor
Targeting 1.5 million tonnes of
• Up to 10 km of strike defined by pronounced MT anomalism.
• Approximately 70% of Exploration Corridor is undrilled to target depth. Copper Equivalent
• Potential to expand to the east and southeast of established
mineralisation. www.codaminerals.com






a
aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 69USTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 69

sAReIc PReVIeW





Poochera positioned for 2021




PFS on the Poochera halloysite-kaolin JV is on track for com-
A pletion in Q2, with production from the Carey’s Well deposit
potentially online mid next year.
“Our project is a lot different from others because of the short
timeline to production we are trying to achieve, 1.5 years com-
pared to a gold project which is about 10 years,” Andromeda man-
aging director James Marsh told Paydirt.
A 2019 scoping study on Carey’s Well indicated an initial pre-
production capex of $9 million would be required to kick-start a
DSO operation with material from shallow open pit mining sent to
China or Japan for toll wet refining.
However, studies are underway to determine if a wet process-
ing plant at Poochera is a viable option for the Andromeda/Mi-
notaur Exploration Ltd JV to pursue with results expected to be
known during the March quarter.
The scoping study estimated $28 million for installation of a dry
plant at site during the second year of operations, a figure slated
to be funded via cashflow.
Halloysite-kaolin demand is driven by mature markets in ce-
ramics and catalysts (for fluid catalytic cracking), while new and
emerging markets include HPA production and halloysite nano-
tube technologies.
“There happens to be a world shortage of halloysite-kaolin
material and we have a chance to fill that gap. Kaolin has been
used for 2,000 years and there is strong demand for that, but we Andromeda was close to securing 51% of the Poochera JV project
also have the halloysite where there is huge interest in hi-tech at the time of print. The company will move to 75% ownership once
triggering a decision to mine















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Page 70 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

applications, including batteries, hydro- play in China and
gen storage, water purification, carbon will look to convert
capture and medical applications. There those into binding
are all these new areas and no one sup- agreements this
plies this material in the world at the mo- year.
ment. I get people probably on a weekly China is eager to
basis from around the world asking for it,” overcome its deficit
Marsh said. of halloysite-kaolin
It is believed that pure halloysite can material with prod-
fetch up to $5,000/t compared with DSO uct from Poochera
material’s (50% sand) $115-140/t value and while Marsh is
and refined kaolin-halloysite hybrid’s keen to continue
$350-1,000/t price tag. with sales and other
Marsh said there were no other depos- budding opportuni-
its in the world hosting the type of hal- ties emanating from
loysite Poochera was endowed with. the country, he said
“There are currently about 8,000 re- Andromeda had op-
search papers in the world into high pu- tions at its disposal.
rity halloysite applications going on and “China can see the
there were 80 patents issued last year in benefits of halloysite There are no other deposits in the world hosting the type of
new applications. But halloysite material in new technologies, halloysite Poochera boasts
is little, naturally occurring nanotubes which they want to
and what we have is nanotubes with ex- capture, but we want
tremely high functionality. You can only to capture those opportunities in Australia approvals process and decision to mine
get that by manufacturing things like car- as well,” Marsh said. to follow.
bon nanotubes, which are hugely expen- “For the time being we are also focused “At the point of decision to mine, we will
sive synthetic products. We have natural in areas like Japan, Europe where we jump to a 75% interest and we will have
products that occur in the right dimen- have a lot of interest but haven’t pushed discussions with Minotaur about what we
sions naturally,” Marsh said. on with any opportunities yet, and possi- do going forward,” Marsh said.
“South Australia seems to have the bly India and the Middle East. The whole “An initial $9 million is not a lot to get
world’s biggest and only significant de- world wants this material, but China is going, especially when you consider we
posit of this material, so we are in a very the first cab off the rank because they have over $8 million worth of options that
strong position. There are people claim- have a huge supply shortage.” will be exercised by November this year.
ing to be finding it throughout the rest of Considering the timeline to production, “Financially we are in a strong posi-
Australia because they have seen our locking away an offtake partner sooner tion, project-wise we are also strong with
success and want to jump on the back rather than later would be handy for An- a small capex, short timeline to produc-
of it, but we are pretty sure we have a dromeda, which was closing in on 51% tion and some significant short-term and
very solid case after scanning the whole ownership of the Poochera JV at the time long-term demand for our material.”
of the country; there is nothing significant of print. – Mark Andrews
around other than what we have tied up.” The PFS on Poochera is likely to be
Andromeda has non-binding MoUs in finished sometime in late April, with the


































Pre-production capex of $9 million would be required to kick-start a DSO operation at Poochera

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 71

sAReIc PReVIeW





Marmota squirrels away some cash




Aurora Tank was found using calcrete sampling,
however, Marmota is having tremendous
success detecting potential gold using tree
sampling in the Gawler Craton





60m from surface,” Rose said.
The positives for Marmota of finding
shallow gold at Aurora Tank is currently
being matched by metallurgical outcomes,
according to Rose.
He said column leach testing was deter-
mining that the metallurgy at Aurora Tank
was amenable to potential heap leach
processing.
“That means we wouldn’t have to build
a special plant or toll treat through some-
one else’s plant giving us the possibility of
a very low-cost capex operation without
needing a big mill,” Rose said.
“There are lots of people around that
have gold deposits and in some cases
they are close to surface, but they still
have to come up with $100 million to build
a plant and go through the whole process.
We are of the view that things are lining up
and we would not need to do all of that.”
Rose said it was still too early in the ex-
aising money has not been the done was much more highly supported than we ploration cycle at Aurora Tank to be con-
Rthing in the past at Marmota Ltd. were expecting,” Rose told Paydirt. sidering resource numbers or studies.
A handful of SPPs ($300,000 in Au- “Three years ago, we were a much In the meantime, and with no pressure
gust 2016 and $500,000 in August 2017) more greenfields explorer without having to raise money, Marmota will continue to
topped up by a $1 million placement to something of substance in gold and that back the exploration techniques and strat-
sophisticated investors almost 12 months has changed. The presence of the JMEI egies that continue to open up the Aurora
ago has largely allowed the company to incentive taxation credit has been helpful Tank project.
thrive in greenfields exploration at Aurora and a bit like icing on the cake.” “We don’t know how large it is going
Tank, north-west of Challenger in South A high gold price environment has no to get because every time we do a drill-
Australia’s Gawler Craton. doubt helped pique interest in Aurora ing programme we are finding more gold.
In challenging days for juniors trying to Tank, while Rose is adamant Marmota of- Even with this latest programme the best
court investment from the market, Marmo- fers investors a point of difference in the result we got from the first batch was from
ta’s effort at Aurora Tank has also been current bustling gold sector. the most outwardly extensional hole in the
aided by the Federal Government’s Junior “Something that distinguishes us from basalt area, right on the edge and contin-
Minerals Exploration Incentive (JMEI). the many other gold explorers around is uing along strike of the north-west flank,”
Using the JMEI taxation credit effec- that the gold is very close to surface; most Rose said.
tively and maximising its small bundles of it is within 50m from surface,” Rose “We actually identified that area us-
of cash, Marmota has made some good said. ing tree sampling, which is very good
inroads at the Aurora Tank gold project, Interestingly for Marmota, the first batch validation of our tree sampling methodol-
which is probably best reflected by the of assays from drilling completed in late ogy where we sample tree leaves as an
uptake for the SPP launched in late 2019. January returned 4m @ an average 24 g/t indicator of what might be below the sur-
The SPP announced in November to gold from 68m downhole. face. Calcrete sampling told us there was
raise $750,000 was overwhelmingly sup- The company indicated the result of 24 nothing there [north-west flank], so don’t
ported, with Marmota receiving $2.67 mil- g/t gold is an average of two assays, the bother drilling there. We are very happy
lion. first of which generated 31 g/t over 4m and with calcrete sampling, but sometimes
The company scaled back the taking to a duplicate composite (different spear) you have different tools, not everything is
$2.5 million but chairman Dr Colin Rose 17.5 g/t over 4m. perfect and it is nice to have a whole bag
said Marmota was in the strongest finan- “It was for the first time for us below 50m of things to look at.”
cial position he can remember. and that was interesting. The intersection
“We’re in a good position on the explora- was at 68m down-hole, but because we – Mark Andrews
tion side and on the financial side it [SPP] are at an angle it is actually only about



Page 72 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

Boss wedded to Honeymoon



ather than chasing further resources at dream to be realised. According to some uranium analysts,
Rits Honeymoon uranium project, Boss Boss has a lead debt mandate with a long-term (2023) uranium sport price in
Resources Ltd has drawn a line in the sand Tribeca Investment Partners (one of the the mid-$US40/lb will incentivise restarts,
and produced a feasibility study on the back company’s largest shareholders) for the while new projects would need $US60/lb to
of a 36 mlb uranium resource. full capital amount estimated to restart the justify a build.
There is a further 36 mlb uranium be- project. “When the market turns, restart projects
lieved to exist outside the immediate restart “There must be 40% institutional holding are ahead of the curve and because of the
area at Honeymoon where the broader ex- in us, as well as a number of large retails. low capital outlay at Honeymoon it is not
ploration target is some 290 mlb. They have taken a longer-term view of the insurmountable. There are other projects
For now, Boss has settled on a resource market and it is what I call patient capital; out there that need $500 million-$1 billion;
that sits on a granted mining licence ac- they know the project and a lot of them where do you get that kind of money from?”
companied by an export permit, making have been to site,” Craib said. Craib said.
Honeymoon fit for a restart when uranium “They are comfortable with manage- “We have all the pieces of the jigsaw we
market dynamics demand it. ment and know sentiment can swing pretty are just waiting for the price to rise.”
“We have historical drill results out there quickly. The uranium market can move There appears to be better acceptance
and geophysical work to prove up addi- pretty quickly and when it does, they will for the uranium industry, particularly in
tional resources, but it just doesn’t make be able to enjoy a decent return on their Australia, where the SA, Western Aus-
sense to me in the current uranium market investment.” tralia, Queensland and New South Wales
prices [$US25/lb] to keep diluting share- Some pundits have predicted a bull mar- governments are seemingly onboard with
holders and pursuing a bigger resource,” ket for uranium this year as primary pro- the sector.
Boss managing director Duncan Craib told ducers pull back on output and oversupply There are almost 30 countries using nu-
Paydirt. is curtailed putting pressure on spot prices. clear power, which accounts for about 11%
“The market is not supporting that and Spot prices for uranium showed promise of the world’s energy mix.
that is why we did what we did and hope- in the first half of 2019 and were nearing Craib said nuclear power needed to be
fully prices will pick up and we can lock the $US30/lb mark, which is believed to be considered as part of any country’s energy
in an offtake agreement or term contract somewhat of a catalyst for renewed inter- make-up and encouraged greater consid-
which would underpin the debt in the next est in the sector. eration from Australia to adopt the option.
12 months. If it takes a bit longer than that, However, the strength in spot pricing “If 28 countries around the world have
then so be it, but in the meantime we are tailed and is currently about $US25/lb, with got it wrong then we are right to do nothing,
getting ourselves prepared for a restart.” average all-in cost at Honeymoon over the but we need to be pragmatic about it and it
Fast tracking to production at Honey- life-of-mine estimated to be $US32.30/lb. needs investigating,” he said.
moon can be done given there is $170 mil- Operating costs at Honeymoon are con- “I am not saying it is the be all and end all,
lion worth of infrastructure in place, includ- sidered at the lowest end of any project but base load power and carbon-free wind,
ing a plant. worldwide. solar, hydro and nuclear have a role to play.
Capital expenditure estimated to reju- There are few projects in the world ready In the US, nuclear accounts for 20% of their
venate Honeymoon, which was placed on to react to the need for uranium on demand energy mix, 60-65% in France, its used in
care-and-maintenance in 2013 without be- like Honeymoon is. Sweden, Finland and the UK is building
ing fully commissioned, is $US63.2 million It is expected that Honeymoon ISR two big nuclear power plants. Furthermore,
for a two-staged run-up to an initial life-of- project, 80km north-west of Broken Hill in it is being driven in developing countries
mine production of 12 years at 2 mlbpa. South Australia, can be brought into opera- like India and China; why can’t Australia at
Boss has Federal Government approval tion within 12 months of a decision to pro- least engage and analyse it to see if it is
to export up to 3.3 mlbpa and has all per- ceed. a viable option, particularly as we have a
mits in hand for production and export. A conservative base case of $US50/lb significant amount of the world’s [uranium]
As has been the case for several years, a uranium price was used in the Honeymoon reserves.”
change in sentiment in the uranium sector feasibility study, with pre-tax cash flow over
is the trigger needed for the Honeymoon project life of $492 million guided. – Mark Andrews
























aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 73

sAReIc PReVIeW Investigator’s Maslins Project: 6500000mN surface
View looking north-east
surface
EL5705 Whittata
Silver stream 6486000mN to top of residual
Proposed Drill Hole
Locations, from surface
gravity shell
(Between
350 and 750m)
6km strike length
dreams and Oz 5km depth Maslins modelled EL5705 Whittata
(to 5km depth)
on the go 728000mE residual gravity shell 4km N


IVR’s EL5705 (OZ MInerals earning in)
IVR proposed Diamond Drill Holes
series of conferences in Vancouver to start line and we are not surface Historic drill holes (tails indicate depth)
A the new year has put a spring in the step of far away from that,”
Investigator Resources Ltd managing director McIlwain said at a By mid-July, Oz needs to have spent $1.4 million at Maslins to fulfill
Andrew McIlwain. time silver was trad- stage one earn-in requirements. Under a heads-of-agreement signed
The coronavirus outbreak in China has ob- ing at about $26/oz. in 2019, Oz can earn up to 70% interest in Maslins through a three-
viously had some impact on global markets, Silver’s steady stage programme and expenditure of $10 million over five years
however, McIlwain is confident the tide will be appreciation has not
high for resources companies in 2020. been lost on punters
“People were suggesting that it was the in North America, with McIlwain indicating a the top 500m.”
best it has been in Vancouver for 8-10 years. handful of streaming and royalty groups were He said the earn-in JV with Oz had ena-
Money is coming out of marijuana and tech taking some interest in Investigator. bled Investigator to “hit the ground running
stocks and looking for a home. Whilst we see “Unashamedly, going to Vancouver was this year”.
an added benefit of the gold price here in Aus- to get in amongst investors who understand “I can’t speak highly enough of the relation-
tralia, they are talking heavy gold prices in US silver because in Australia it is a bit ho-hum ship that we have been able to generate with
terms as well. There is an air of optimism that I given there are only a couple of explorers and Oz Minerals,” he said. “They have been very
came away with,” McIlwain told Paydirt. people don’t go chasing silver investments,” supportive of this programme, the rig that we
“The coronavirus took a bit of sting out the McIlwain said. are using is the rig Oz was using to finish a
market, but I think this year is going to be a “Americans and Canadians understand hole before Christmas. They earmarked it to
cracker for us and the resources sector. You that space and part of what I was looking for come straight to us when the drillers came to
wouldn’t like to think that zinc or copper are was whether we would find a partner to be work, so it has come together well.”
going to be any worse off than they are now. involved in Paris and how that might be struc- Investigator is effectively being paid to drill
It is undeniable that the EV market is march- tured, whether it is a royalty or streaming deal. Maslins and success will only see Oz contin-
ing on. The renewable energy generation is We are starting to circle the wagons to see ue to fund exploration there, taking the pres-
marching on and if you look at what goes into what needs to be done to push Paris forward.” sure off the former’s cash at bank.
cars, wind turbines and things; it is all going to The success of Wheaton Precious Metals To the end of December, Investigator was
come out of the ground somewhere.” Inc, Sandstorm Gold Inc and Osisko Mining well poised with $4.5 million, comfortably
Despite the typically cold Vancouver Janu- Inc has spurred other groups to follow suit enough to continue its search for a gold pro-
ary weather, McIlwain said he was outside with similar streaming-based business ap- ject.
enough to notice the particularly high vol- proaches. Given the strength of the gold price, McIl-
umes of EVs on the road. McIlwain said about nine streaming/royalty wain said some vendors were being over-
“It is happening,” he said of the EV revolu- parties have requested more information on zealous when it came to pricing projects,
tion. Paris. which has kept Investigator at bay for now.
Also evident to McIlwain was the increasing “I think it is a more palatable investment “They might come back to us, so we’ll clear-
number of non-traditional financing options decision, it is not dilution of equity and not sell- ly be involved in something and I suspect that
becoming available to companies like Inves- ing down a percentage of your project. If it is it might happen this quarter,” he said.
tigator, which has persevered at the Paris sil- structured appropriately everyone benefits,” “Our target area is not greenfields, but ad-
ver project in South Australia’s northern Eyre he said. vanced exploration, early development type
Peninsula. As the options start to open up at Paris, projects.”
Recent work on Paris – 9.3mt @ 139 g/t sil- Investigator is kicking on with drilling at the Just where Investigator lands a gold pro-
ver and 0.6% lead for 42 moz contained silver Maslins IOCG project in the Olympic Dam ject remains to be seen, but in the meantime,
and 55,000t contained lead – has included Domain of the Stuart Shelf, Gawler Craton. McIlwain is happy to be among the vibrant ex-
a geological structural review plus ongo- Maslins, subject to an agreement whereby ploration sector in South Australia.
ing work on improving capital and operating Oz Minerals Ltd is earning in, is south of Car- “The Government is waving the flag and
costs to help deliver a robust economic model rapateena and 85km south along trend from trying to progress a number of things. I think
for the project. BHP Ltd’s Oak Dam. they are releasing 11-12 tenements under
There is also confidence within the com- At the time of print, Investigator was on tender and they are fairly disparate tenements
pany that if further drilling was carried out the track to hit the basement about 700m deep and not in one particular province, but every-
trend of improving grades would continue at and anticipated its targeted drill depth of one has a spring in their step,” McIlwain said.
Paris. 1,000m would be achieved in mid-February. “Oak Dam drilling has got people’s juices
Drilling will remain idled at Paris for the time “We are [diamond] drilling at about 30m per flowing; the rising tide lifts all boats although
being, as Investigator keeps a watching brief shift, but that will slow down as we get deep- we haven’t seen it from a share price point of
on the gradual improvement of the silver price. er,” McIlwain said. “It was always going to be view yet.”
“My throwaway line is that $30/oz [$US17.5/ pretty boring, bland rocks at the top and that
oz] silver is something that sees Paris over the is what we have seen and expected to see in – Mark Andrews



Page 74 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

Tasman hardened for SA tilt



ong-time South Australian resources tentially there is some form of sulphide,” form like multiple additives rolled into one,
Lsector resident Tasman Resources Ltd Tasman chairman Greg Solomon told boosting among other performance char-
has often revelled in the attention of big Paydirt. acteristics surface abrasion resistance,
companies. “They are not super strong magnetic and produces extremely low permeability
Rio Tinto Ltd was once a partner at the responses and they are not super strong while improving strength properties.
Vulcan IOCGU project, 30km north of gravity responses, so we don’t expect that Solomon said developing and marketing
Olympic Dam, which is now subject to the they’re going to be very high in iron ore, EdenCrete® had taken longer than antici-
Lake Torrens farm-in/JV between Tasman but in the area we are in, the similarity be- pated but having committed to the cause
and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. tween some of these other deposits and Eden now had a product like no one else.
Fortescue can earn an initial 51% inter- the responses we have got – it is arguable “It would take any other competitor a
est in EL6416 by spending $4 million on that it may be similar. long time to get where we are today. We
exploration within three years, with a mini- “Until we drill it, we won’t know but it has expected the development process to be
mum of $1 million to be committed before a reasonable chance that it could be sul- complex but not take this long,” Solomon
it can withdraw without equity. phides. If it is copper-gold sulphides that said.
Work on the Lake Torrens JV will focus would be very interesting, as the model- “It is cleaner, greener, cheaper and
on developing a comprehensive tene- ling suggests that it is reasonably shallow, stronger and the market is potentially co-
ment-wide geological model to define drill which is obviously important,” he said. lossal. We managed to get some of the
hole targets this year. Meanwhile, Tasman Modelling suggests that the elevated largest institutions to invest in us in 2016
also places a high priority on drilling at its concentration of sulphides may occur as there is nothing like it in the market.”
100%-owned Pernatty IOCG project. between 250m and 500m depth, with It was a “euphoric rise” for Eden on the
As far as real estate goes, there are Solomon saying if that was the case then back of the carbon nanotubes in concrete
few places as hot as Pernatty’s location Tasman’s two potential deposits may be concept back in 2015/16, with the com-
– 20km south-east of Carrapateena and sighted at about 370-400m. pany market capped at $330 million and
on a trend of the Gawler Craton hosting Pernatty presents an opportunity for trading at 23c/share in late 2016.
discoveries in the ilk of Fremantle Doctor, Tasman to single-handedly achieve some The last few years has seen interest
Khamsin, Oak Dam and BHP Ltd’s recent results, given the much shallower nature of grow in EdenCrete® through trials and
Oak Dam West find. the prospective ground compared with the now there are signs of suitors recognising
For Tasman, 12 months of toil complet- terrain it holds to the north with Fortescue. the potential and starting to materially con-
ing an extensive EM survey over the Pern- “Trying to do exploration up in that north- vert their interests.
atty licence has delivered five targets. ern area; each one of those holes was “There were different roadblocks that
“It is 40km from Mt Gunson which was costing somewhere between $350,000- arose and it has been hard to find ways
mined from the 1880s up through until the 500,000 and the basement wasn’t even around them. It hasn’t been easy, but I
late 1990s. This licence came up and was starting until 600-700m, so it is a tough think we are very close to having a good
directly in that corridor where all the bor- place for a small company,” Solomon said. number of channels open up and we can
nite is largely found and all the deposits in “This [Pernatty] is much shallower and expand rapidly. I think in the next 3-6
the corridor occur where bornite is found. can possibly be accessed with RC drilling. months we will really start to see a pipeline
There has never been any drilling on the We are hoping by mid-year or thereabouts of things come through. I can’t say which
licence and it is totally unexplored. We’ve to be drilling, everything is lining up to do one exactly will be the catalyst for us,” Sol-
come up with conductors, which are dif- so.” omon said.
ficult to explain other than to say that po- As much as Solomon would like to dem- At the time of print, the Town of Breck-
onstrate showings of the next enridge, Colorado, announced it would in-
Carrapateena at Pernatty, clude EdenCrete® in the concrete its uses
the glint in his eye suggests for construction and renovations (side-
a value-boosting announce- walks, driveways, walls).
ment from Eden Innovations Eden has received good traction in the
Ltd is not far away. US with 18 states providing D.O.T. approv-
Tasman owns nearly 40% als for EdenCrete® for standard concrete
of Eden, the outfit respon- mixes. Twelve states are also onboard
sible for EdenCrete® prod- with EdenCrete® Pz which is used in en-
ucts, which are currently be- riched pozzolanic concrete mixes, which
ing trialled worldwide. often include a high percentage of flyash
Solomon said there were a or blast furnace slag and lower volumes of
number of trials at advanced Portland cement, meaning potentially low-
stages testing EdenCrete®; er costs and higher performing cement.
a carbon nanotube-enriched While the US interest in Eden is strong,
liquid additive which ele- India, which has huge quantities of very
vates concrete structures to cheap flyash, is also a key market, as is
new levels of strength and Korea and countries in Europe and the
toughness. Middle East, giving Eden the opportunity
Eden is ahead of the curve to participate in the global cement industry
in this type of innovation. that is edging towards $US1 trillion a year.
When added to concrete
mixtures it is said to per- – Mark Andrews
Drilling at Pernatty is poised for the first half of 2020

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 75

ReGIonAL RoUnDUP





Tesoro gold hunt in Chile




n an area largely known for hosting big eralised, with gold mineralisation starting news flow.”
IIOCG deposits, Tesoro Resources Ltd is from surface and continuing to a depth of With some suggestions that gold could
having some success identifying gold at 200m at El Zorro. reach $US2,000/oz in the near future,
El Zorro in Chile’s coastal Cordillera. Gold mineralisation is open in multiple emerging gold stories with a path to pro-
Although there is evidence of porphy- directions along a strike length in excess duction could be on the receiving end of
ry-related epithermal gold mineralisation of 4km and 2km-wide, with significant due attention from investors.
about 60km to the north-east of El Zorro, near-surface mineralisation determined Tesoro’s projects are just 10km from
it is mainly associated with copper. by intercepts in the ilk of 98m @ 1.58 g/t the Pan America Highway and near
“El Zorro is quite unique in the fact that gold. Chile’s mining town of Copiapo, while
it is only gold, there are no base metals Highlights from previous drilling also there is a port about 55km away.
at all in it,” Tesoro managing director Zeff include 84.3m @ 1.3 g/t gold (including Having infrastructure to work with
Reeves told Paydirt. 4m @ 8.5 g/t), 98.3m @ 1.58 g/t (includ- means there will be cost advantages in
Tesoro, formerly Plukka Ltd, relisted ing 30.3m @ 3.03 g/t and 11m @ 4.7 g/t) capex when the time comes for Tesoro
on the ASX in early February after rais- and 58.8m @ 1.7 g/t (including 20.3m @ to consider building a mine.
ing $4.63 million. 4.5 g/t and 6.7m @ 12.21 g/t). In the meantime, delivering good ex-
El Zorro, where Coquetas is being Reeves said the “ease” of working in ploration results will be key for Tesoro.
drilled, is the flagship in a portfolio also Chile, meant Tesoro could quickly gener- “We’ll always weigh up the options, ob-
hosting the Espina gold project. ate some momentum in the market from viously if we think we can get 1 moz out
“The style of deposit certainly hasn’t El Zorro and expected to receive assays of it for example we’d probably keep drill-
been described in Chile before, so we from drilling by late March/early April or ing up to 1 moz,” Reeves said.
have our guys on the ground looking at even sooner. “Alternatively, if the resource is there to
some other areas showing similar char- Meanwhile, results from 2,200 outcrop start pushing along into feasibility stud-
acteristics to [potentially] pick up some and rock chip samples subject to as- ies and get something built reasonably
more ground,” Reeves said. saying are also expected sometime in quickly [we can]. They are all good prob-
“With 50-100m intersects, we have a March. lems to hopefully have in the future. If
very good handle on the geology now “That will keep plenty of market inter- we are still drilling and the deposit is still
and what’s controlling the mineralisation. est in the company I think at El Zorro. We open, then we would probably continue
If we get similar results, we’ll certainly have also got early-stage work ongoing to grow it into quite a significant deposit.
be able to fast-track the resource and at Espina [maiden drilling planned for There is certainly enough gold in that dis-
could be aiming for somewhere around 2020]. But, from the point of view of get- trict from what we have done to suggest
the middle of the year, dependent on re- ting the market’s attention, this is some- there could be a significant gold resource
sults.” thing new, it is not a re-hashed WA gold- to come out of Coquetas initially and then
Immediately upon re-listing Tesoro fields play,” Reeves said. some of the other targets as well.”
was following up on a 16-hole diamond “We are not chasing geochem anoma- – Mark Andrews
drilling campaign at Coquetas with a fur- lies on a map or geophysics anomalies,
ther 10 holes. we know where the gold is, we think we
While Tesoro brings a fresh story to are onto a significant size system. There
the ASX, a total of $3 million on early is potentially a resource there already,
exploration work had been spent on El it is just a matter of getting a resource
Zorro three years prior. ready and expanding and defining it to
The company has been able to garner move it into this next stage of develop-
from previous work that all holes are min- ment and with that goes good steady




















Zeff Reeves is in familiar territory in Chile with Tesoro Resources.
Reeves is managing director of Tesoro, with John Toll as chairman
and Geoffrey McNamara non-executive director



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Tesoro gold hunt in Chile Chile greenlights Maricunga




ndrew Phillips expects construction of
Athe Maricunga lithium brine JV project
in the Atacama region of northern Chile to
start soon.
“We are looking at putting a spade in the
ground for construction in Q3, so between
now and then there will be a lot of work
done to get the construction of the mine
under way,” the Lithium Power Internation-
al Ltd (LPI) executive director said.
Phillips spoke to Paydirt in light of Min-
era Salar Blanco S.A. (MSB), LPI’s Chil-
ean-based JV company at Maricunga,
announcing environmental approval was
granted for what is believed to be Chile’s
highest grade and most advanced lithium
project outside the Salar de Atacama.
LPI currently owns 51% of MSB, with the
JV partners confident Maricunga will be-
come a major lithium producer.
“We have been working on this for the
last five years and LPI for the last three
years; we are way ahead of any project LPI has received environmental approval for the Maricunga lithium project in Chile.
in Chile. We believe it is one of the most LPI has a 51% stake in the project
advanced pre-production lithium projects,”
Phillips said. to provide guidance on project finance op- diligence of MSB’s records and technical
“If you look at the market-place there is tions, including negotiations with potential data associated with the project, which
no project as advanced as us in the Mari- offtake partners and strategic investors. has scope to be expanded through con-
cunga or elsewhere. We believe we will be “We have always believed that lithium solidating mining concessions.
up and going to become the third major brine is a very strong commodity and we The maiden Maricunga reserve base of
Chilean lithium mine in the next year or have been pushing hard to get to where we 742,000t LCE is apt for a mine life in ex-
two.” are today; this is a very good step forward cess of 20 years. However, the resource
Chile hosts almost half of the world’s lith- for us as we look to take this to production. is only defined to a depth of 200m, with
ium reserves, according to its Mines Minis- The Chilean Government doesn’t just give deep borehole results indicating potential
try which has been advocating for greater [EIAs] away you have to work hard for it, for an additional 1-2.5mt of new resources
development of its resources downstream and we have,” Phillips said. between 200-400m on ground held under
through promotion of organisations such “It would be foolish to think that it [glob- the Maricunga JV alone.
as the Clean Technologies and its produc- al uncertainties such as coronavirus] Having enjoyed a solid JV with partners
tion development body CORFO. wouldn’t impact on any sector, but we can’t in Chile, LPI hopes to repeat the trick in Ar-
With an estimated 20,000 tpa LCE pro- control that. We can control our internal gentina where discussions on a potential
duction over 20 years, Maricunga will be- stuff and what we have and that is a pro- JV concerning the development of lithium
come Chile’s third most significant lithium ject that is something very special. Now it brine projects in the Centenario Salar (LPI
mine at a capital cost of $US563 million. is a matter of getting these last few things 70%, Marquee Resources Ltd 30%) were
A traditional debt/equity framework will squared away.” reportedly nearing a conclusion.
likely feature in the make-up of capital Battery makers and vehicle manufactur- LPI’s geographical spread is not limited
costs, while offtake agreements could also ers, most notably Tesla which has prom- to Latin America, with the company also
come into the equation. ised to step on the gas in the roll out of active in the famed lithium-bearing region
“We have been working through all of its EVs, have reported strong quarterly of Greenbushes in Western Australia’s
that along with the EIA. The EIA is the reporting seasons and indicated business south-west and the Pilbara in the state’s
cherry on top of the process to attract the growth as objectives moving forward. north.
right people,” Phillips said Such commentary will no doubt help the LPI’s interests lie north and south of the
The lithium market might have softened cause of companies like LPI which are at Greenbushes mine run by Tianqi Lithium
in the past 18 months and Chile experi- the pointy end of project development. and Albermale.
enced some civil unrest in the latter part of Concerning the path forward for Mari- The company carried out laterite and
2019, however, stability on both fronts ap- cunga, an agreement was signed in Au- soil sampling at Greenbushes in the last
pear to be prevailing, adding to LPI’s confi- gust whereby an MoU defining terms for quarter, where it also has approval for
dence of locking away project financing in the potential formation of a JV between drilling activities once it defines the most
a timely fashion. Codelco and MSB to see the Maricunga prospective areas to explore for lithium
The EPC bidding process for Maricunga Salar thrive under a private-public owner- pegmatites.
is expected to be completed in April, as ship structure. – Mark Andrews
Treadstone Resource Partners continues Codelco continues to advance its due


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ReGIonAL RoUnDUP




FQM extends with Latin available to the company, and consistent Aguia scopes outs
with the company’s prudence regarding
Resources in Peru its debt position, the board believes that phosphate
a combination of the proceeds of the
Latin Resources Ltd and JV partner placing, operational cash flow and exist- Scoping study results from Aguia Re-
Antares Peru SAC – a wholly-owned ing debt facilities will allow the company sources Ltd’s Tres Estradas in Brazil
subsidiary of First Quantum Minerals Ltd to fully fund the construction of Salares indicated Phase 1 capex of $9.72 mil-
– will start drilling the MT03 Pachaman- Norte,” Gold Fields said in a statement. lion would be needed for a 300,000 tpa
ca copper project in Peru once drilling The company, which operates produc- phosphate project lasting 18 years.
permits have been approved. ing gold mines in South Africa, Ghana, Payback on the initial start-up capital
Drill hole targets have been confirmed Australia and Peru, said headline earn- was estimated to take three years for the
and a 4,000m programme planned by ings per share (HEPS) rose to 20c for the Phase 1 saprolite project based on a re-
Antares at Pachamanca, where Latin full year ending December 31, from 7c in source of 5.1mt @ 8.79% phosphate.
will be free-carried through to a mining the year prior and in line with the com- A direct application natural fertiliser
decision by Anatres, which has the right pany’s guidance. (DANF) from the high-grade oxidised
to earn 51% of the project by completing HEPS is the main profit measure used ore would be produced and marketed to
the 4,000m drilling programme within six in South Africa that strips out certain local buyers.
months of Latin receiving permitting. one-off items. Aguia managing director Dr Fernando
After it was announced that Antares “Gold Fields had a strong finish to Tallarico said the project was receiving
would extend acquisition terms for Pa- 2019, reporting higher production and great interest from potential domestic
chamanca, Latin received noticed from lower costs for the last quarter of the and international financiers.
the Government that official drill permit- year,” Gold Fields chief executive Nick “They are attracted to our phased ap-
ting by Antares could start. Holland (pictured) said in a statement. proach to developing Tres Estradas, its
The company reported 590,000oz of potential scale, its status as the only
Orocobre to take attributable gold production for the final local phosphate mining operation in
southern Brazil and its environmentally
Advantage quarter of the year from 523,000oz a credentials. These discussions are ad-
year earlier. Attributable equivalent gold
production for the miner for 2020 is ex- vancing most favourably,” Tallarico said.
Orocobre Ltd has entered into a defini- The scoping study indicated that no
tive agreement to acquire the outstand- pected to be between 2.275 moz and tailings disposal or use of water resourc-
ing shares of Advantage Lithium Corp. 2.315 moz, it said. es in the processing at Tres Estradas
Taking control of Advantage means Gold Fields declared a final dividend would be required.
Orocobre will have full exposure to 6.3mt of R1/share, giving a gross dividend of The company is targeting production
of LCE at Cauchari, Argentina, devel- 160c/share. in the first half of 2022.
oped under JV between the two parties. R e u t e r s
Cauchari will be considered within the
future plans of the Olaroz lithium facil-
ity, with the integration of both deposits
enhancing Orocobre’s position as a low-
cost producer of lithium chemicals in the
region.
Salares Norte to start

in 2023

Gold Fields Ltd reported a jump in
2019 profits as the gold miner benefited
from increased production and a higher
gold price.
Gold Fields also said it intended to
place new shares to raise about $US269
million to help fund its new Salares Norte
mining project.
The share placing, which is around
5% of the company’s existing issued or-
dinary shares, will be done through an
accelerated bookbuild.
Salares Norte is expected to have a
life of around 11 years and an average
annual production of 450,000oz gold
over the first seven years.
The Chilean gold-silver project is ex-
pected to begin producing in the first
quarter of 2023.
“Following a review of the alternatives



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Project financing for Borborema is close to being completed


Titan had secured over 90% of Core
shares by mid-February and plans to acquire
the remaining shares it does not own via a
seconds-step transaction.
Core – currently the largest gold producer
in Ecuador – has the underground Zaruma
mine and complimentary Portovelo process-
ing plant nearby, while it also holds ground in
the country’s south mainly on the Peruvian
Andean copper-belt.
Core’s assets will sit well in Titan’s portfolio
which includes a copper and gold business in
southern Peru, where commissioning of the
Big River dreams 142.2m (including 0.6m @ 47.44 g/t from Vista gold plant is under way.
Titan also controls the highly prospective
143.5m), 0.55m @ 21.44 g/t from 93.45m,
on the way 0.75m @ 10.17 g/t from 92.67m. Torrecillas gold project, while it can acquire
an 85% interest in Las Antas, which is within
It is the first time diamond drilling has
An opening ceremony for Big River Gold been targeted on the Arakaka Main Trend, trucking distance of Vista.
Ltd’s Borborema gold project in north- with Alicanto and Nord Gold kicking on with
eastern Brazil was hosted last month and planning phase two drilling to start this year. Los Cerros cashes in
attended by dignitaries including Governor
Prof Maria Fàtima de Bezerra as well as the Los Cerros Ltd, formerly Metminco, has
deputy governor and local mayor. Berenguela in discussion completed the sale of the Mollacas project,
A DFS for development and construc- for Valor/SSR Chile, for $1.3 million.
tion of Stage 1 of the Borborema open pit Cash from the non-core asset provides a
indicated a mine life of 10 years producing Valor Resources Ltd was in discussions timely cash injection for Los Cerros, which
729,000oz gold. with SSR Mining Ltd regarding an exten- raised $2.1 million in a placement in early Feb-
C1 cash costs of $US642/oz and AISC of sion to the cash instalment of $US1.8 mil- ruary.
$US839/oz were guided. lion, due to the latter. The company is now well poised to start drill-
Once in operation the project will employ Valor was expected to make the payment ing at the Quinchia gold project in Colombia.
375 people (directly and indirectly), with any under acquisition terms for the Berenguela “In Q2 we are planning to follow up what are
additional services and contractors to be copper-silver project in Peru to SSR on arguably some of the strongest gold porphyry
pulled from the local area. February 11, with the next cash instalment intercepts by ASX explorers in recent years
Furthermore, about 65% of the $US105 likely to be extended to February 29. given plus-300m width, near surface gold
million construction costs will be garnered Earlier, Rio Tinto Ltd had informed Valor mineralisation intercepts at both Tesorito and
from within Brazil and $US2.7 million spent that it would not pursue JV participation in Chuscal prospects1,” Los Cerros managing
on wages each year. It is expected that the Berenguela. director Jason Stirbinskis said in a statement.
$US46 million spent on annual operating “It is the expectation of Valor and SSR Quinchia is in the mid-Cauca gold-copper
costs will be done within the region. that an agreement will be reached for SSR belt of Colombia, where Los Cerros has a
Big River is looking to have project fi- to accept a transfer of the shares in the gold resource of 877,000oz at the Miraflores
nancing completed in Q2 with construction entities which hold the Berenguela project deposit.
to start in Q3. from Valor to SSR [or nominee] on terms Tesorito and Chuscal prospects are within
where the consideration for the transfer is 2kms of the proposed development site for the
Arakaka cracks the discharge of Valor’s obligations under Miraflores deposit.
the share sale and purchase agreement,
six ounce gold including the outstanding debt of $US10.8 Caucharí-Olaroz on
million and relevant security interests,” Val-
Just as Alicanto Minerals Ltd was signing or stated in an announcement. track for 2021
off on the option to acquire the Oxberg and Meanwhile, the company will continue
Naverberg VMS projects within the Berg- to maintain 5,900ha of tenements in Peru Lithium Americas Corp has entered
slagen mining district, southern Sweden, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Ki- into definitive agreements with Ganfeng
it was also lapping up drilling results from wanda SAC. Lithium Co. Ltd in respect to their Minera
Arakaka. Exar S.A. JV company.
Drilling at Arakaka, north-west Guyana, Minera Exar fully owns the Caucharí-
is being funded by Nord Gold SE with al- Titan to flex in Ecuador Olaroz lithium project in Jujuy, Argen-
most 10,500m of shallow diamond drilling and Peru tina, which is scheduled for production in
for 51 holes completed on the Arakaka early 2021.
Main Trend. The path is becoming clearer for Titan Ganfeng Lithium has increased its in-
Highlights from initial results included Minerals Ltd to emerge as a Latin American- terest in Minera Exar to 51% from 50%
9.05m @ 7.43 g/t gold from 260.75m (includ- focused gold player. for cash consideration of $US16 million,
ing 0.5m @ 202.4 g/t gold from 263.8m), It was announced last month that Titan had with Lithium Americas retaining 49%.
6m @ 11.15 g/t from 69m (including 0.5m received overwhelming support for its takeo- The JV partners remain committed to
@ 111.89 g/t from 71.5m), 0.54m @ 160.13 ver of TSX-V company Core Gold. the 2020 funding schedule, including in-
g/t gold from 239.8m, 6.5m @ 5.44 g/t from vestment of up to $US400 million.


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Seeing is believing in South Korea




































nterest in Southern Gold Ltd’s South Kore- and pegged more projects in its own right. companies and with Ausino we can seri-
Ian gold assets took off in late 2019 follow- “We also started to investigate the data- ously lift our drilling rate; the more holes you
ing a series of site visits whereby analysts base and chase up all sorts of opportunities drill, the more things you find,” Mitchell said.
and investors roused to the opportunities in that have come through the Doug Kirwin “Ausino understand what they are deal-
country. connection. This has given us an effective ing with and are the perfect group to come
Southern Gold managing director Simon head start in hitting the ground running,” in and assist us.”
Mitchell said the group visiting South Ko- Mitchell said. As the harsh wintry conditions start to
rea, which included major shareholders of “What has happened with those projects dissipate in South Korea, follow-up deeper
the company, were surprised at the country is that we have discovered epithermal min- drilling at Beopseongpo (0.96m @ 5.7 g/t
itself, but more importantly the technically eralisation in more than one location with a gold from 36.45m) and Deokon (0.15m @
savvy contingent were “blown away” by the small team and a relatively modest budget. 4.59 g/t gold and 708 g/t silver) was being
geological potential. The logical extension of that, by being fully planned.
“What we are uncovering there, and the funded, is being able to drill a lot more. With Meanwhile, the company was also keen
quality of the technical opportunity is sec- a lot more people out on the ground we can to drill at Weolyu South (0.92m @ 13.55 g/t
ond to none. That is why people like Terry put the exploration play on steroids and re- gold and 447 g/t silver from scout drilling)
[Grammer] want to be involved; they can ally hit it hard.” and Neungju (31.8 g/t gold and 6.6 g/t silver
see straight away that we’re onto something The recruitment of private Australian drill- from a sub-crop sample) this year.
pretty special there,” Mitchell said. ing company Ausino will aid in Southern “We have this unique window at the mo-
Mitchell spoke to Paydirt following Gold’s aggressive approach to exploration ment and no competitors in country and we
Southern Gold’s $10 million institutional initially at the high-grade gold-silver discov- have all the right technical crew. We really
placement at an issue price of 14c/share. eries at Beopseongpo, Weolyu South, Ne- have to get our teeth into it. The gold price is
London investment group Metal Tiger plc, ungju and Golden Surprise, Deokon. good for sentiment, but really it is about the
of which award-winning explorer Grammer Although South Korea has a proud his- fact that we are starting to get some runs on
is a non-executive director, came in heavy tory of manufacturing drill rigs, there are the board in terms of actually understand-
on the placement with $3.3 million and now few groups equipped to execute mineral ing what is going on in the country,” Mitchell
holds 14.9% of Southern Gold. exploration drilling like Ausino. said.
Grammer joins Southern Gold as a direc- Therefore, with Ausino on board, South- “We have a very full pipeline of things to
tor, while Douglas Kirwin comes on board ern Gold will look to ramp-up drilling efforts investigate. We have only really investigat-
as a non-executive director after serving from 4,000m to 15,000m a year. ed the first dozen or so of over 100 targets
the company in a technical advisory capac- Ausino has been established in China for in our schedule.”
ity previously. the best part of 15 years and had to over- In the next three months, Mitchell hopes
Kirwin has been instrumental in helping come similar issues to those Southern Gold to have a second rig running and two pro-
Southern Gold expand in South Korea in is currently experiencing in South Korea. jects being drilled in parallel in south-west
the past 18 months. “South Korea doesn’t have a big explora- South Korea where there is potential to un-
Mitchell said the company had lifted its tion business; we are really the only west- earth world-class epithermal precious met-
tempo in South Korea during the period and ern group that is seriously active there. It als deposits.
had doubled its field teams on the ground can be quite hard to attract quality drilling “When we talk about the discoveries in



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the epithermal field in this part of the world, why it is a bit of a surprise even to technical Merchant Ventures (BMV).
I tell people it is a bit like the epithermal pro- experts, so when they come on site visits, “We mainly talk about the exploration
jects in the Drummond Basin in Queens- they are blown away by the rocks we are plays and the reason for that is we have a
land or Santa Cruz in South America when uncovering. We’re doing something similar feeling that we are going to be making dis-
they were first being discovered,” Mitchell albeit at an earlier stage.” coveries which may be somewhat bigger
said. Making new discoveries will be the day- than what we are talking about, particularly
“People know about Vera-Nancy and to-day “engine room” of the company, de- when it comes to Kochang. Kochang and
things like that. This is the Korean equiva- spite the near-term production prospects at Gubong will continue on as we move for-
lent and it is fair to say that Korea has not Kochang and Gubong. ward,” Mitchell said.
been well recognised in academic circles The Kochang and Gubong JVs are oper-
for this epithermal mineralisation. That is ated by Southern Gold’s partner Bluebird – Mark Andrews





Southern Gold has recruited the
services of Ausino to conduct
drilling for them in South Korea
























Barrick sees no rival for Grasberg




arrick Gold Corp chief executive Mark Rio Tinto sold out its Grasberg stake in Guinea, where Barrick has struggled with
BBristow last month said he saw no 2018. unrest and the Government is seeking
competition from rivals in his pursuit of “It’s reckless to go and do a hostile in increased benefits from the Porgera JV
Freeport-McMoran Inc’s Grasberg cop- a complicated jurisdiction or a complex, with China’s Zijin Mining.
per-gold mine in Indonesia but cautioned old corporation, because the embedded Resolving that impasse would give Bar-
any deal for the asset would take time to liabilities are significant,” Bristow told Re- rick licence with investors to expand in In-
pull off. uters at Barrick’s Toronto headquarters donesia, Bristow said.
Bristow has fanned speculation that after the company reported a better-than- “How that works out under my manage-
Barrick, the world’s No.2 gold miner, is expected quarterly profit. “So, it’s got to ment is going to be important on whether
poised to deepen its exposure to copper be something that works out for the best the market will give me that slack to con-
and expressed interest in acquiring Free- interests of everyone.” tinue to pursue world-class assets in that
port’s flagship Grasberg mine. A Freeport representative did not im- environment,” he said.
Grasberg ranks as the world’s second- mediately respond to a request for com- Barrick has a full geological team and
largest copper mine and largest gold ment. has signed a handful of confidentiality
mine and would enable Barrick to take Bristow said there was no deal on the agreements to access data at some of the
advantage of rising demand for copper in table but said his comments were aimed more entrepreneurial miners in Canada,
the electric vehicle industry. at sending a message to the market. Any Bristow said, declining to provide names.
In an interview, Bristow ruled out a hos- transaction could take years to execute, “We’re hunting in Canada, but we are
tile approach for Freeport while reiterat- he said. very clear about our investment filters.”
ing interest in Grasberg. Barrick has been selling its less pro- Barrick boosted its dividend by 40%,
“There’s no competition for Grasberg,” ductive mines to focus on Tier 1 assets benefiting from higher gold output and
he said. “First of all, it’s held in a US com- following the acquisition of Rangold Re- improved prices.
pany so no Chinese company can access sources a year ago. Bristow is also seek- – Jeff Lewis, Reuters
it. Secondly, Rio Tinto [Ltd] sold out of it.” ing to resolve a dispute in Papua New



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Rafaella ready for resource








nother round of positive drilling re- in the mid-1980s, previous owners in- confident that is going to be repeated,”
Asults should be enough to embolden stalled new processing facilities in 2012. Turner said. “History also says recov-
Rafaella Resources Ltd to move straight The project boasts existing processing eries are around 70% from the under-
into construction on its Santa Comba facilities including screens, conveyors ground.”
tungsten project in northern Spain later and a 100 tph jaw crusher and is well The company’s offtake agreement with
this year. supported by sealed roads, grid power, HC Starck also affords Rafaella flexibility
In late January, Rafaella produced a tailings facilities and onsite office and in grades.
string of impressive drilling results from workshop buildings. “The HC Starck arrangement allows us
the Quarry prospect at Santa Comba, “This is not an exploration project,” to deliver a lower tungsten concentrate
including hits of 6.7m @ 1.19% tungsten Turner explained. “It is already permitted without attracting penalties,” Turner said.
and 295 ppm tin from 31.4m and 1.5m and a lot of the back-end work is done “That, along with relatively inexpensive
@ 3.62% and 67 ppm from 96.7m. The – road, power, tailings and other infra- transport costs, will give us a lot of flex-
results will form the base of an updated structure – and there is an aggregate ibility in the kind of concentrates we can
resource estimate for Santa Comba quarry there already. The permits are out deliver.”
which the company hopes will deliver an to 2068, and a substantial amount of the Once resource and metallurgical drill-
economically viable indicated resource. process plant is in place. ing is complete, Rafaella can begin to
“We are very happy with the results,” “Our focus is on the front end, defin- step up feasibility work.
Rafaella managing director Steven Turn- ing the open pittable, near-surface min- “Our feasibility study manager John
er said. “We set out back in August with eralisation. We will complete that drilling Webster came back from Spain recent-
a simple strategy of converting the 5mt of and do some metallurgical testing. We ly,” Turner said. “He had met with the
inferred resources into indicated. The re- are reasonably advanced with the metal- independent geologists and is getting a
sults coming out are in line with that and lurgy. Initial results are looking good. We feel for how the resource will shape up.
are sometimes exceeding expectations.” also sent samples to Tomra for ore sort- We are already planning the geotechni-
Given Quarry encompasses two-thirds ing test work; those tests showed there cal holes.”
of the Santa Comba resource, the drill- was very clear definition of the wolfram- The resource update is set for release
ing results have provided Turner with ite.” in April, paving the way for completion
confidence the company can confirm the The met work has also supported his- of the feasibility study in the September
historical numbers and kick-start devel- torical accounts of good recoveries and a quarter, according to Turner.
opment in coming months. clean product from Santa Comba. European projects often reach the fea-
Advantages in this regard are numer- “It produced a very clean concentrate sibility stage before floundering under-
ous. Although Santa Comba was closed when it was mined in the 80s and we are neath the continent’s heavy regulatory



Page 82 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

eURoPe
Results from the 26-hole programme will form the basis of an
updated resource at Santa Comba, due for release in April



burden. Turner sees no such obsta- located] is generally pro-mining and we HC Starck’s offtake agreement comes
cles at Rafaella. are fortunate that there are no issues or with pre-approved German Government
“The reputation Spain has devel- competing land uses, even from agricul- project credit funding however Turner
oped [for red tape] is off the back ture. We have had the Galicia Depart- said the potential capex – Rafaella be-
of Berkeley [Energia Ltd] and High- ment of Mines and the local mayor out to lieves start-up could cost around $10 mil-
field [Resources Ltd]. I worked for site and they are both supportive,” Turner lion – is small enough to warrant equity
Berkeley and it is clearly restricted said. “The local town of Santa Comba is funding.
because it is uranium. Highfield is a keen to see employment. And, we’ve had “For that figure it is more logical to dip
bulk mining scenario and because it a lot of positive local press coverage. into the equity market and we also have
straddles two provinces, approvals There are always groups which could Transamine as the largest shareholder.
had to go through Madrid which can jump up and down, but we haven’t had They do fund development so it there is
be difficult. any yet.” no reason to think they wouldn’t be in-
“Our existing permits cover under- With the regulator and local govern- volved here. It should be straightforward
ground mining and the processing ment seemingly onside, Rafaella is turn- financing.”
plant and we have a partial permit ing its attention to convincing investors it If the company is to successfully entice
over the open pit – from the quarry can bring Santa Comba into production. investors, it will have to buck recent mar-
operations,” he said. “We will have Turner said the market response since ket trends. The last ASX-listed company
to submit a mine plan to authorities, the acquisition had been positive. to build a tungsten mine in Europe – Wolf
once the feasibility study is com- “There has been a very good investor re- Minerals Ltd – struggled with operational
pleted.” action to the story,” he said. “We have met and regulatory issues as well as a down-
Spain’s federal structure also al- with several interested parties who indicat- turn in tungsten prices at its Drakelands
lows for individual regions to de- ed they were watching the story and waiting project in the UK before closing the mine
velop their own pro-mining policies, for it to get a bit further along the develop- in 2018.
giving Rafaella a distinct advantage. ment path. Everyone says the share price is Turner said he did not expect Rafaella
“Galicia [where Santa Comba is undervalued given the asset. to encounter the same problems.
“This is a very different project to
Rafaella ready for resource Hemerdon [Drakelands],” he said. “We
are much higher grade and Wolf had re-
strictions around when it could operate
which made it difficult to get the costs
down. The process plant design and
met work also had holes in them and
they were struggling under a mountain
of debt.
“We have been to the UK to look at
funding options and a lot of funds who
had invested in Wolf are still interested in
us. The Australian funds are of the same
opinion.”
Driving that enthusiasm is a growing
confidence around the tungsten mar-
ket. Prices for APT ferrotungsten grew
steadily last year and hit $US270/mtu in
January. The price has not breached the
$US260/mtu mark since it collapsed in
2014.
The rise is being driven by steady de-
mand and curtailed production in China,
responsible for 80% of global supply.
“China is continuing to close produc-
tion and that will increase pressure on
supply,” Turner said. “In 12 months, we
believe it will be around $US300/mtu. But
even at today’s prices Santa Comba still
makes money.”

– Dominic Piper




Rafaella has three drill rigs in
operation on its Santa Comba
tungsten project in northern Spain



aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 83

SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED



GR takes Abra lead lead The scope of works involves a discrete gan basalt domes.
two-month programme focused on site Funding of the research project is
GR Engineering Services Ltd has been clearance activities for infrastructure supported by a grant recently approved
awarded a conditional EPC with Galena and services, plus the excavation of the by the Federal Government’s Depart-
Mining Ltd’s subsidiary, Abra Mining Pty box-cut at Cassini. Hamptons had a pre- ment of Industry, Innovation and Sci-
Ltd, for the supply of a 1.2 mtpa lead sul- vious successful association with Min- ence through the Innovation Connec-
phide floatation process plant and ancil- cor, undertaking open pit mining at its tions scheme of the Entrepreneurs’
lary infrastructure for the Abra base met- Widgiemooltha gold operations. Programme. Navarre will also contribute
als project in Western Australia. The award of the early works contract funding to the research project.
The contract is worth $74 million and comes prior to completion of the Cassini
will be undertaken on a guaranteed DFS scheduled for later this quarter. M&A talk and contracts
maximum price basis, with the contract
subject to GR Engineering being issued Rio Tinto points for Perenti
with a full notice to proceed.
Abra continues to work towards Southern Cross to NT As it mulls over a decision to acquire
achieving financial close on its proposed the mining services division of Downer
project financing facilities. Nevertheless, Southern Cross Electrical Engineering EDI, Perenti Ltd continues to bolster its
early engineering works up to a capped Ltd has been awarded a contract in ex- own book with subsidiary Barminco se-
amount has been started by GR Engi- cess of $18 million for work at Rio Tinto lected as preferred contractor by Pano-
neering. Ltd’s refinery site on the Gove Penin- ramic Resources NL at the Savannah
sula, North East Arnhem Land, Northern nickel project in the Kimberley.
The underground contract is worth
Mali Lithium hits the Territory. about $200 million, with Barminco’s
The works are part of Rio Tinto’s reha-
highway with CIM bilitation of the site and will include the scope of work to include mine develop-
isolation and re-routing of electrical and ment, production, and haulage over a
Mali Lithium Ltd has entered a MoU hydraulic services to the refinery. Mobi- three-year term.
with CIM Metal Group, through its Cote lisation is expected to commence in Q1 Work is expected to start this month,
d’Ivoire subsidiary KANI CI. 2020 with completion by March 2021. with Barminco indicating it will employ
Under the MoU, Mali Lithium and CIM about 170 people and use predominately
will evaluate operational opportunities Navarre and CSIRO new equipment, which has been includ-
that could benefit both parties, including ed in the capital guidance previously pro-
the potential to backload CIM trucks re- to spot gold vided, to deliver the project.
turning to Abidjan with bulk spodumene
concentrate from Goulamina and to Navarre Minerals Ltd and CSIRO will DRA gets spinning
backload the trucks with other goods collaborate in a research project at the
such as provisions, spare parts and con- Stawell Corridor gold project in western with Nova
sumables on their way from Bamako to Victoria.
Goulamina. CSIRO will coordinate research in Nova Minerals Ltd has engaged DRA
The CIM Metal Group Cote d’Ivoire- Perth, with completion of data collection Global to conduct Phase 1 and 2 ore
based entities operate in the cement and and computer modelling expected to be sorting test-work to continue its progres-
transport industries. completed next month. sion of the Korbel deposit towards a fu-
The research project will use the latest ture low strip, bulk minable, heap leach
Mincor sticks with advanced technologies, including super- operation.
computer-based simulations of deforma-
Nova has established a 2.5 moz in-
Hamptons tion-fluid flow transport processes in- ferred gold resource at Korbel blocks A
volved in the formation of gold deposits. and B, within the Estelle gold district in
Mincor Resources NL has awarded a The aim of the project is to aid explora- Alaska.
contract for early works at the Cassini tion by highlighting potential drill targets
nickel project in Kambalda to Hampton on the flanks of the Irvine and Langi Lo-
Mining and Civil Services Pty Ltd.



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Page 84 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

ESG matters for NRW steels for Iron Bridge Meanwhile, construction of Mesa K non-
Perth Mint NRW Holdings Ltd will do the bulk earth- process infrastructure facilities for Rio Tinto
Ltd will also be done by Primero.
works required for the Iron Bridge magnet- These facilities form part of Rio Tinto’s
The Perth Mint and Australian block- ite project, which is a JV between Fortes- Robe Valley Sustaining group of projects.
chain company Security Matters Ltd cue Metals Group Ltd’s subsidiary FMG Primero will construct the mining infra-
will team up to develop the world’s first Iron Bridge and Formosa Steel IB. structure, including ammonium nitrate and
mine-to-marketplace ethical gold supply The contract award remains subject to emulsion mixing and storage facilities, and
chain. finalisation of several outstanding contrac- associated administration and access fa-
Security Matters’ technology enables tual items but in the meantime, NRW has cilities, as well as electrical design of vari-
any object in solid, liquid or gas form to be been directed to start mobilisation. Iron ous scope additions. Work has started and
permanently marked verifying its origins Bridge is expected to produce 22 wmtpa scheduled to be completed in Q3 2020, with
and making it possible to track it through magnetite, with NRW’s scope of work in- 80 Primero people committed to the project
the supply chain. cluding bulk earthworks and drainage for at its peak.
The global gold supply chain is esti- roads, processing plant and infrastructure
mated to employ around 15 million people for the new mine site development. The
and has been plagued with environmental contract value is circa $70 million with Up to the Challenge
and humanitarian issues for centuries. about 200 site-based personnel required at Menzies
It is hoped the Perth Mint and Security for the project at its peak.
Matters initiative will lead the way for the Kalgoorlie-based Challenge Drilling will
commercialisation of a worldwide supply conduct RC drilling at the Menzies gold
chain integrity solution for global mining Christmas goes on project for Kingwest Resources Ltd.
companies, refiners, vault operators, de- for Primero With high-grade mineralisation open at
positories, mints, wholesalers and retails. depth at Menzies, a drilling programme de-
Primero Group Pty Ltd has been award- signed to extend these mineralised zones
ed the EPC contract for the Christmas at depth has been planned.
Creek wet high intensity magnetic sepa- RC drilling for relatively shallow infill
ration project by Fortescue Metals Group (about 250m down-hole) and RC pre-
Ltd. collars for deeper diamond drill holes is
The project includes the complete en- planned to test the Yunndaga and Lady
gineering design, procurement and con- Shenton lodes as priorities at Menzies. Ad-
struction of a wet iron ore beneficiation ditional targets will also be tested, with tar-
plant that will process and upgrade fines gets and locations to be determined upon
material from the Christmas Creek 2 ore arrival of the rig.
processing facility.

Recent contract wins for Primero have
increased its total committed order book to
record levels of about $195 million (FY2020)
and $170 million (FY2021)











Security Matters chief executive Haggai Alon



NUCLEUS















+27 (0)10 593 0509 [email protected] www.nucleusml.co.za



aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 85

DRILL BITS bostech.com.au
ReGIonAL RoUnDUPExploring together for success




Jaguar shows some bite HUD001 returned 54m @ 0.84 g/t gold permits for drilling, camp, environmental
from 116m (including 5m @ 5.76 g/t from and other necessary approvals from the
Drilling by Centaurus Metals Ltd at the 128m and 23m @ 0.76 g/t from 224m). Alaska Department of Natural Resources
Onça Rosa prospect, part of the Jaguar Both holes intersected a broad package (DNR).
nickel project in Brazil has intersected of strongly altered volcaniclastic rocks with Nova is targeting extensions at Estelle,
semi-massive to massive sulphides, re- associated zinc and lead sulphides, con- on the Tintina belt, where an inferred re-
turning 9.3m @ 3.13% nickel, 0.19% cop- sistent with McPhillamy’s style gold miner- source totalling 2.5 moz at Korbel blocks
per and 0.08% cobalt from 281.8m in JAG- alisation. A and B (one of 15 known occurrences) is
DD-20-017. Mineralisation in HUD002 was visibly open in all directions, with drilling focused
The intersection confirms the continu- stronger and included visible gold. The on block B, which is the potential starter
ity of mineralisation 40m down-dip from company said the results from HUD002 in- pit.
historical Vale drill hole PKS-JAGU- dicated the potential for a high-grade gold Nova aims to increase the size and up-
DH00158, which intersected 7.9m @ system at the Hume, with follow-up drill grade the resource to measured and in-
5.27% nickel, 0.26% copper and 0.11% planned. Sky was trading at 24c/share in dicated status, while additional resource
cobalt from 247m. mid-February after starting the year at 9c/ development drilling will also be carried
JAG-DD-20-020, which is more than share. out on blocks A, C, D, Cathedral, and the
100m along strike from JAG-DD-20-017, RPM prospect.
has intersected 8m of semi-massive sul- Croydon on the board Exploration at Shoeshine and other
phides, providing further evidence of the with maiden drilling satellite prospects will also continue to ad-
strike continuity and significant growth po- vance the pipeline of projects across the
tential at Onça Rosa. Maiden drilling at Croydon in the Mal- district.
Onça Rosa is a largely untested 600m- lina Basin has resulted in a high-grade
long FLEM conductor plate coincident with intercept of 8m @ 10.2 g/t gold (including Oklo close to Seko
a ground magnetic anomaly and high nick- 1 m @ 66.1 g/t), as reported by CozIron resource
el-cobalt soil geochemical ratios, which Resources Ltd.
are indicative of nickel sulphides. Downhole intercepts greater than 0.3 Assays from two step-out diamond
Three rigs are on site operating on dou- g/t gold were reported in 11 of the 13 RC holes from the expanded drilling pro-
ble-shift at Onça Rosa as well as at the holes drilled during a recent exploration gramme over the northern portion of SK1
Jaguar South and Onça-Preta prospects. programme. at Seko have been reported by Oklo Re-
CozIron Ltd plans follow-up drilling on sources Ltd from Dandoko in west Mali.
Sky high results this discovery in Western Australia’s north Down-dip continuity of the high-grade
and other emerging prospects in the Mal- gold mineralisation was confirmed in both
Sky Metals Ltd’s share price surged last lina Basin after an encouraging start. holes, with significant intersections includ-
month on the back of potential McPhilla- “The abundance of intercepts underly- ing 30m @ 8.54 g/t gold from 135m (in-
my’s style gold mineralisation reported at ing the broad area of surface gold anomal- cluding 7m @ 30.69 g/t from 142m) and
the Hume prospect within the Cullarin pro- ism indicate the potential for a large gold 13m @ 15.8 g/t from 91m (including 4m @
ject, 20km west of Goulburn, New South system that includes anomalism extending 46.65 g/t from 92m).
Wales. into the adjacent Middle Camp and Bottom Oklo has now confirmed gold minerali-
Results from two diamond core holes Camp prospects that are hosted in similar sation down dip to 170m (vertical depth of
drilled about 200m apart to test and ex- geology,” CozIron chairman Adam Siera- about 130m) and remains open at depth.
tend the scale and tenor of gold minerali- kowski said. Results from the expanded programme
sation recorded in historic drilling included over the northern part of SK1 and deeper
HUD002: 93m @ 4.24 g/t gold from 56m Nova heads for B block RC and diamond resource drilling at SK2
(66% recovery), including 36m @ 2.88 g/t and SK3 were expected at the time of
from 56m (28% core recovery), 14m @ at Korbel print, with all new Seko results to be incor-
20.2 g/t from 92m (63% core recovery) Nova Minerals Ltd is clear to start ground porated into the maiden resource estimate
and 43m @ 1.3 g/t from 106m (about 95% activities on its Estelle gold project in Alas- scheduled for completion in Q2 2020.
core recovery).
ka after receiving all necessary regulatory Meanwhile, reconnaissance aircore
















Exploring together for success







Page 86 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

Exploring together for success bostech.com.au



drilling was underway between Seko and Follow up RC drilling at the Creasy 1 ing will test the Harmonic VMS prospect
the recently discovered Koko prospect to gold and Harmonic VMS prospects were where grades of 14m @ 1 g/t gold (includ-
the immediate south. among the plans for the money raised. ing 2m @ 3.3 g/t gold and 21.2 g/t silver
A RC programme conducted late last from 26m) and 9m @ 1.4 g/t gold (includ-
A geo’s dream shaping year at Creasy 1 intercepted up to 1m @ ing 1m @ 7.3 g/t gold from 58m) were in-
for De Grey 51 g/t gold which the company is keen to tersected.
investigate further. Meanwhile, RC drill-
De Grey Mining Ltd has reported sub-
stantial thick and high-grade gold minerali-
sation intersected on two sections 640m
apart, with mineralisation open in all direc-
tions and at depth at Hemi in the Mallina
gold province, Western Australia.
Section A was highlighted by 30m width
@ 3.7 g/t gold, with 7.5 g/t defined to 100m
depth, while plus-60m width and all holes
ending in mineralisation was reported from
section B.
Section A assays included 24m @ 7.5
g/t gold from 126m (including 18m @ 8.6
g/t EOH; 49m @ 3.7 g/t gold from 65m (in-
cluding 18m @ 6.6 g/t) and 36m @ 4 g/t
from 39m (including 11m @ 8.9 g/t).
Section B included 24m @ 4.2 g/t gold
from 36m (including 10m @ 7.4 g/t EOH);
15m @ 2.5 g/t from 33m EOH and 21m @
2.5 g/t from 36m EOH.
Additional thick and high-grade gold
mineralisation was intersected on section
A, which consolidates a significant 30m-
wide gold zone to 130m depth open in all
directions. Highlights included 44m @ 5.1
g/t gold from 40m (including 13m @ 8.8
g/t) and 46m @ 6.6 g/t from 92m (includ-
ing 21m @ 8.3 g/t).
There was a brief pause in drilling due to
cyclonic conditions, however, aircore, RC
and diamond rigs are available and ready
to go for De Grey to follow-up on the po-
tential demonstrated.
Droves come for Rover

drilling
There was strong demand for Twenty
Seven Co Ltd’s placement to raise $1.6
million to fast-track exploration at the Rov-
er project in the Eastern Goldfields.
A placement for $1.6 million will assist Twenty Seven Co with drilling at the Rover project



Industry leaders in Aircore


Deep hole Reverse Circulation

Experienced in complex remote exploration drilling



29a Clayton St, Bellevue WA 6056

www.bostech.com.au 08 9250 4252





aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT MaRCH 2020 Page 87

coMInGs AnD GoInGs




om McGrouther, an expe- hina Magnesium Corp Ltd ue to increased fam-
Trienced corporate financi- Cwill appoint a new non- Dily commitments arising
er who once completed equity executive director as soon as from the recent arrival of twin
raisings for the likes of Ana- possible to replace Antony daughters and growing other
conda Nickel, Legend Mining Tolfts. Meanwhile, director executive commitments in
Ltd and Sipa Resources Ltd, Peter Tay has also assumed Queensland, Sam Duddy has
has been appointed as a di- the role of company secre- tendered his resignation as
rector of the National Stock tary. a non-executive director of
Exchange of Australia. Freehill Mining Ltd.
on-executive chair Bron-
ormer head of investor Nwyn Barnes will transition onathan Guinness has re-
Frelations and business de- to executive chair at Indiana Jsigned as a non-executive
velopment with Northern Star Resources Ltd to lead ac- director of Aguia Resources
Resources Ltd Luke Gleeson tivities to protect the rights of Ltd to pursue other business
has joined Bellevue Gold Ltd shareholders in the current interests.
as head of corporate develop- dispute with the Tanzanian
ment. Elizabeth Gaines Government. Barnes’ execu- am Bains will start as
tive priorities will include work- Pgroup executive, network
atascha Viljoen, Anglo s DownUnder GeoSolu- ing closely with the specialist at Aurizon Holdings Ltd on
NAmerican plc’s group Ations seeks diversified investment arbitration law March 9. Bains, formerly the
head of processing, will be- clients for its supercomputing firm appointed to represent company’s chief financial of-
come chief executive of An- technology, the company has Indiana’s interests in potential ficer and group executive
glo American Platinum next appointed former West Aus- arbitration proceedings, while strategy, replaces Michael
month following Chris Grif- tralian chief justice Wayne she will also take responsibil- Riches who resigned in De-
fith’s decision to step down Martin as chairman. ity for the ongoing engage- cember.
after more than seven years ment with litigation funders to
in the role. Griffiths is leaving finalise financial support for rrow Minerals Ltd has ap-
the company to pursue other legal proceedings and liaise Apointed Howard Golden
career opportunities. with the other shareholders as managing director, while
of Ntaka Nickel Holdings Ltd Steven Michael has resigned
ormer Cristal senior ex- (UK). Meanwhile, Simon Cox- as executive director.
Fecutive Simon Morten will hell will continue in his current
transition to a non-executive role as general manager, ex- aladin Energy Ltd has ap-
director role with TNG Ltd. ploration for Mali, while lead- Ppointed Ian Purdy as chief
Morten was previously gener- ing exploration and key pro- executive officer.
al manager, titanium produc- ject review activities for West
tion and will continue to ad- Africa. ndrew Penkethman will
vise in a consulting capacity. Anow hold the dual roles of
Meanwhile, John Davidson managing director and chief ex-
has stepped down as a non- ecutive of Ardea Resources Ltd.
executive director at TNG to
focus on developing a vana-
dium redox battery business Wayne Martin
for the company and his own
alternative energy business rian Harvey will start as
interests. Bchief financial officer of
ASX and JSE-listed coal pro-
inmar Resources Ltd is ducer Resource Generation
Won the hunt for a new Ltd on June 1.
director following Thomas
Durr’s resignation due to avid Woodall has taken
increased commitments in Don the role of managing Bronwyn Barnes
North America. director at Australian Strate-
gic Minerals (ASM), a wholly rcher Materials Ltd has Andrew Penkethman
ortescue Metals Group Ltd owned subsidiary of Alkane Aappointed halloysite-ka-
Fchief executive Elizabeth Resources Ltd. ASM was olin expert Andre Zeitoun as reat Western Explora-
Gaines has been presented formed to develop the multi- an advisor to the company. Gtion Ltd has announced
an Honorary Doctorate of commodity Dubbo project in Zeitoun is an experienced Jordan Luckett has stepped
Commerce by Curtin Univer- the Central West region of senior executive in corpo- down as managing director
sity. Gaines is the first woman New South Wales. Woodall rate finance and mining and for personal reasons. Luckett
to head a major Australian will be responsible for opera- specialty industrial minerals. will remain with the company
mining company, having been tions, marketing, product de- He was recently president of as a technical director, while
promoted from non-executive velopment and external rela- Applied Minerals Inc, which Justin Barton has been pro-
director to chief executive of tions of ASM, which could be is the owner-operator of the moted to the chief executive’s
Fortescue in 2018. demerged from Alkane in the Dragon mine halloysite clay position. Barton was the com-
first half of 2020. deposit in Utah, US. pany’s chief financial officer
and company secretary.

Page 88 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

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LeftfIeLD





Lizard leads mine site



restoration effectiveness



urtin University scientists attached a porting use by the perentie, these restored
Ctracking device to the back of a per- landscapes appeared to lack key resourc-
entie, Australia’s largest goanna species, es such as refuges, a critical resource for A perenite, Australia’s largest goanna
in order to assess the native animal’s re- reptiles which rely on their environment to species, played a key role in research
sponse to and use of a restored former regulate their body temperature. analysing how it moved through habitats
mine site in the Mid West of Western Aus- Lead author, PhD candidate Sophie and behaved in its home environment
tralia. Cross, from the ARC Centre for Mine Site PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Cross
The study, published in the Australian Restoration (CMSR) in Curtin’s School of
Journal of Zoology, successfully applied Molecular and Life Sciences, said under- derpinning the responses of animals to
the Time-Local Convex Hull method to an- standing how animals respond to habitat habitat change, increasing conservation
alyse how the animal moved through habi- change and restoration was key to facilitat- outcomes of restoration projects from a
tats and behaved in its home environment. ing their conservation into the future. range of degrading processes, such as
Using this method, the study found that “Our research found that the Time- mining, agriculture and forestry,” Cross
although restoration of degraded land- Local Convex Hull method will aid in un- said.
scapes following mining activities was sup- derstanding the complex processes un-


InDeX

Advantage 78 Core Gold 79 Leigh Creek 69 Rio Tinto 5, 18-19, 25, 27, 29,
African Minerals 36 CozIron 86 Lithium Americas 79 42, 55, 57, 75, 79, 81, 84, 85
Afrique 20 Lithium Power 77 RosCan 41
Aguia 78, 88 De Grey 5, 87 Los Cerros 79
Albermale 77 DGO 66 Lotus 60 Sandfire 16
Alicanto 79 Lundin 42 Saracen 16, 18-19
Alita 48 EcoGraf 34, 41 Seriti 54
Alkane 5, 88 Evolution 18-19 Mali Lithium 84 Sipa 88
Amplats 56, 88 Magmatic 5 Sky 5, 86
Andromeda 70-71 First Quantum 10, 42, 78 Marmota 72 South32 14, 54
Anglo American 4, 23, 27, 29, Fortescue 75, 85 Marquee 77 Southern Gold 80-81
56, 88 Freehill 88 Mincor 84 Sovereign 58-61
AngloGold 33, 38, 42 Freeport 81 Minotaur 70-71 Spectrum 5, 8-9, 18-19
Antipa 5 MinRes 48 Stavely 5
Applied 88 Galena 84 Mkango 61
Arc 41 Gangfeng 79 MMG 20-21 Talison 48
Archer 88 Gindalbie 66 Tasman 75
Ardea 88 Glencore 34 Navarre 5, 84 Teck 42
Arrow 88 Gold Fields 16, 78 Newcrest 5, 20 Teranga 32
Greatland 5 Newmont 34 Tesoro 76
B2Gold 46 Nord Gold 79 Tianqi 77
Base 58-59 Fortescue 88 Northern Star 13, 18-19, 88 Tietto 41
Barrick 4, 25, 29, 40, 53, 32, Nova 84, 86 Titan 79
33-34, 81 Harmony 38 TNG 88
Bellevue 5, 88 Highfield 83 Oklo 86-87 Twenty Seven 87
Berkeley 83 Orion 31 Twiga 33
BHP 4, 18-19, 25, 27, 29, 40, IGO 13 Orocobre 78
42, 57, 66, 74, 75 Iluka 58 Oz 16, 63, 66, 74 Vale 42, 86
Big River 79 Impala 50 Valor 79
Boss 73 Indiana 34, 88 Panoramic 84 Vedanta 52
Investigator 74 Paladin 60, 88
Cape Lambert 36 Ivanhoe 42, 56, 57 Perseus 25 Walkabout 34
Cassini 16 Ivanplats 57 Pilbara 25, 48 Winmar 88
Catalyst 5 Prospect 48-51 Wolf 83
Centaurus 86 Kingwest 85
China Magnesium 88 Kirkland Lake 5 Rafaella 82-83 Zijin 81
Cobre 13 Ramelius 8-9, 18-19 Zimplats 50
Coda 66 Latin Resources 78 Renascor 68
Codelco 77 Legend 88 Resource Generation 88



Page 90 MaRCH 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT

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Diverse Path We cordially invite you to contact us by phone or email so we can learn more about your project and requirements, and to discuss how our small team of the right people can bring a different perspective to your operations! Aurora Australis Network ABN 55 008 922 530 8/95 Canning Highway South Perth, 6151 Western Australia Tel: +61 8 6363 5030 Email: [email protected] Web: aurora.net.au











Primary Link through to The within ~3 your network, private vehicle whilst and IOT : Cost effective including systems the appropriate balance size and cost, link
Inherently diverse system design; 256kbps Link speeds from greater than 100Mbps; Comms on the Pause (COTP) : ability to “stop and prop”, and gain your network minutes via an auto-acquire antenna Comms on the Move (COTM) : The ability maintain access to even whilst moving on land, sea or air. With systems designed to handle up to 130km/h on land, extending a into a network directly on the move opens up new operational solutions




















access to system; to possibilities; Telemetry selecting between
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make sense to spare without a remote sites are on a IP network, we figures reliability jointly the best possible outcome for also provide a communications and technologies, Western in with direct access to both Pacific and Region










A spare. It wouldn’t site to 4WD tyre; yet countless operating with just a single satellite link; when it stops, the whole site is affected. With so many core business systems and operational systems relying “always-on” strongly believe in the value of delivering a robust satellite comms architecture overall delivers that approach the mythical 100%. The use of two or more satellite systems, landing at different teleports an






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