gmj124-July-September16mag-web

are both similar styles of Newcrest the manager
mineralisation.”
of exploration activity at
Oro Verde can lev-
erage from the strong Rahu.
knowledge and intelli-
gence Newcrest has to In the interim, 20% of
offer Topacio the best
chance of potentially be- the Rahu project will be
coming a multi-million
ounce project. held on trust by Newcrest

The Oro Verde and on behalf of New Talis-
Newcrest agreement was
signed in November with man subject to ministerial
the first phase of work
completed in June. consent.

Woolfe said initial re- The deal with New Tal-
sults from soil sampling
were starting to trickle in isman follows other re-
at the time of print, how-
ever, with the entire 93sq cent activity in New Zea-
km Topacio concession
sampled in 400m by land for Newcrest after
400m grids it was too
early to release any re- it signed an agreement
sults.
to earn 80% of Laneway
“We’re also covering
45 different elements so Resources Ltd’s Southern
there is a lot of different
variability and ratios we Coromandel project.
need to be looking at be-
fore we make any judge- New Talisman chief ex-
ments on the results,”
Woolfe said. ecutive Matthew Hill told

While results are await- Gold Mining Journal it
ed, Woolfe said geochem
and geological work was an exciting time for
conducted earlier in the year
would be built on with an air- the company, particularly
borne geophysical survey to
be flown in July. in light of Chinese outfit

It is hoped that more explo- Amer International Group
ration targets will be revealed
through the current work, with – ranked 247 in the For-
analysis from geology results
indicating four to five different tune Global 500 – enter-
target areas demanding fol-
low up at Topacio which hosts ing into a MoU to acquire
an inferred resource of 2.7mt
@ 3.9 g/t gold for 340,345oz a 70% stake in the com-
(1.5 g/t cut-off).
pany.
“We would hope to be drill-
ing in the second half of this New Talisman has all
year. Obviously, there is bit of
water to go under the bridge approvals and a rights
in terms of reviewing all of
that data first,” Woolfe said. issue completed to start

Under the terms of the bulk sampling operations
agreement, Newcrest and
Oro Verde are incentivised to at its Talisman mine – one
move quickly with exploration
activities and with gold prices Newcrest has struck a deal with New Zealand explorer New Talisman Gold of New Zealand’s most
rising, the companies find
themselves in a sweet spot productive mines – at Ka-

to forge ahead with planned nored as a gold hotspot but rangahake Gorge.

programmes at Topacio. signing a strong agreement It has raised $4.7 million to

Additionally, ground im- with Newcrest, I think, has fund its ambitions.

mediately north and east of quite a few people starting to “It is about a six-month

Topacio is under application keep an eye on what we are ramp up [to production] from

and will be entwined in the JV doing,” Woolfe said. when we officially get the first

if it is approved. Another ASX junior hoping ore trucks out of the mine.

“We are definitely taking a to elevate its status through The bulk sampling is a small-

look at other projects in the a deal with Newcrest is New scale extraction of ore to

country as well,” Woolfe said. Talisman Gold Mines Ltd. give us the data we need to

“We believe the country to be The New Zealand-focused complete the DFS which has

under-explored and having company discovered the been started and requires a

substantial potential for mul- Rahu project and has held a bit more data. Also, during

timillion ounce deposits and permit over the ground for 19 the bulk sampling phase we

we believe there is potential years. open up areas of the mine in

for more. We think that it is a However, an application by preparation for what we call

good jurisdiction to be in.” New Talisman for the exten- stage two of operations,” Hill

Nicaragua largely flies un- sion of land over the permit said.

der the radar as a hot spot for area was declined earlier this During the bulk sample

gold mining activity, however, year. Subsequently, New- phase, New Talisman hopes

with the Golden Triangle of crest applied for, and was to open up the Dubbo zone,

La Libertad ( 2moz), El Limon granted title under terms of a which was last mined in the

(3.5 moz) and La India (2.9 binding agreement. 1990s and is where samples

moz) there is obvious poten- Should Newcrest spend as high as 10,000 g/t have

tial for large-scale mining op- $NZ5 million a JV will be es- been reported.

portunities. tablished and 20% interest – Mark Andrews
“Nicaragua is largely ig- given to New Talisman, with

July – September 2016 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 51

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Mines under review in Philippines

The Philippines will part of the administra- mining, including a
review all mines tion of Rodrigo Duterte. 1996 tailings leak
operating in the coun- at Canadian-owned
try, the new mining “I do want to evaluate Marcopper Mining
minister said in July, if the country is safe Corp’s copper mine
from mining,” she told in Marinduque that
a briefing where videos

as the committed en- were aired showing contaminated rivers.

vironmentalist vowed environmental harm Miners say hard-
to determine whether from mining along with line policies could
the industry is hurting testimonies from farm- backfire particularly
the South East Asian ers and fishermen op- as the Philippines
posed to the industry. has become the big-

nation. Lopez said the re- A review of all operating mines in the Philippines gest nickel ore sup-
view would take a will be conducted to determine whether operations plier to China after
Regina Lopez’s appoint- month. are hurting the environment previous top exporter
ment to head the Department
Her stance sug- Indonesia banned

of Environment and Natural gests a tough regulatory road not be lifted if the minister’s shipments of unprocessed

Resources has sent shock- ahead for Philippine miners, review drags on. minerals in 2014, shipping

waves through the mining whose nickel ore producers “Our concern is that if Sec- 34.3mt last year.

sector, which fears a nation- are the biggest suppliers to retary Lopez’s initiative to re- Recidoro said metal output

wide crackdown. China. view all mining operations will could drop if no new mines

“I’m not against the mining A mining industry lawyer take another four years, and are allowed.

industry but I’m against suf- said he was worried a ban on no new mining permits are is- “If we do not get new mines

fering,” Lopez told reporters new mining development per- sued, that will effectively kill online then there will be a gap

on her first day in office as mits in place since 2012 may the industry,” Ronald Recid- as the older mines run out of

oro of the Chamber of Mines ore,” he said.

LATIN of the Philippines said. Mining contributes less
President Duterte has than 1% to the Philippine
AMERICA economy. Of 9 million ha
warned that he could cancel identified by the Govern-
projects causing environmen- ment as having high mineral
tal harm, though he told busi- reserves, only 3% is being
ness leaders in late June that

he was not against mining per mined.

29-30 May 2013, Sydney se. The challenge is how to
The country’s mining sec- lure back foreign investors.

tor, one of the world’s larg- Commodities giant Glen-

est in the 1970s, has since core plc last year quit the $5.9

struggled partly due to envi- billion gold-copper Tampakan

ronmental rules and policy project in the southern Mind-

flip flops, missing much of the anao island, that has failed

mining boom in recent dec- to take off after the province

ades and now facing much where Tampakan is located

lower commodity prices. banned open pit mining in

Lopez has described as 2010.

“madness” even to consider There are only a handful

open pit mining – a method of foreign investors involved

used by many miners in the in mining currently, including

Philippines and elsewhere – Australia’s Oceanagold Corp

The CD-Rom of Paydirt’s 2016 because of the environmental and Canada’s B2Gold Corp.
impact. It’s going to take some time

Latin America Down Under Conference The minister declined to to reassure foreign investors,
ORDER NOW! say on Friday whether she which have the capital and
would ban it, but said the in- technology, that “the risk is

dustry “has to shift its method not too high,” business con-

CD-Rom – $80 (inc. GST) of operations.” sultant Peter Wallace said.
Phone (+61) 8 9321 0355 or email [email protected] The Philippines has suf- – Reuters

fered a number of environ-

mental disasters caused by

Page 52 GOLD MINING JOURNAL July – September 2016

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REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Geopacific in Woodlark Island JV

Anew JV farm- About 220,000m of drilling has been completed on the Woodlark Island stripping ratios, meaning
in deal has the project but there has been no exploration since Kula listed in 2010 the pit could go deeper and
potential to deliver cash costs could be lowered.
Asia Pacific-focused “The original feasibility he said. “Because of the There are also hits of 12m @
Geopacific Resources 5 g/t and 1m @ 4.7 g/t at the
Ltd an expanded study was done on $US1,600/ way the project was pushed bottom of the pit shell. That
footprint in the region mineralisation is not included
and a shorter route to oz but when it was revised to through during that period, only because there is no drill-
production. ing underneath it.”
$US1,200/oz, not enough there wasn’t enough drilling
The deal, announced in Heeks also thinks an over-
mid-July, will see Geopa- ounces converted into re- done [for the conversion to all sharpening of the project
cific earn up to 80% of the could produce a more bank-
Woodlark Island gold project serves,” Heeks said. “Our first reserves].” able outcome.
in Papua New Guinea from
fellow ASX-listed junior Kula challenge is to find the easi- Among the most obvious “There are certainly a lot
Gold Ltd by spending up to of opportunities for optimi-
$18.65 million. est place to convert inferred targets for the additional re- sation; particularly around
the mining,” he said. “Even
Kula defined a 2.2 moz ounces into measured-indi- serve ounces are 400,000oz tightening the pit walls at the
resource at Woodlark Island Busai deposit by 14º would
and completed a BFS in 2012 “cated and then into reserves.” of inferred resources sitting probably give us an additional
but development stalled over This is not an exploration pro- 300,000oz.”
the last four years as the gold ject at all. There is already a 2.2
price fell and project financ- moz resource and 760,000oz reserve Heeks pointed to Dacian
ing dried up. at Woodlark Island. It is fully permitted, Gold Ltd as an example
has a completed BFS and has had $150 of what could be achieved
Geopacific managing di- million spent on it down the years. through a concerted effort to
rector Ron Heeks said the project development.
deal presented the company Heeks doesn’t see the task on the bottom of the Kuluma-
– which has earlier stage as insurmountable. dau pit shell. “I think what Dacian has
copper-gold and gold pros- achieved at Mt Morgans is a
pects in Cambodia and Fiji – “There has been 220,000m “As it is inferred it didn’t good comparison to what is
with an immediate move into of drilling on this project but make it into the optimisa- possible at Woodlark Island,”
project development. there has been no exploration tion studies. Including those Heeks said. “This project
since Kula listed [in 2010],” ounces could reduce the probably suffered from a lack
“This is not an explora- of communication between
tion project at all,” Heeks the various professionals
told Gold Mining Journal. working on it so there are big
“There is already a 2.2 moz gaps and our task is to bring
resource and 760,000oz re- the whole thing together.”
serve at Woodlark Island.
It is fully permitted, has a He highlighted mine sched-
completed BFS and has uling as one such area.
had $150 million spent on it
down the years.” “If you look at the BFS mine
schedule, the head grade
Kula’s BFS on the project was consistent through-
in 2012 indicated a pre-tax out the nine-year mine life
NPV of $US237 million and [2.14 g/t in years 1-6 and
IRR of 34%, however, the 1.7 g/t over the life-of-mine]
company struggled to se- when it should be consider-
cure finance for develop- ably higher during the early
ment. years in order to reduce the
payback period.”
Heeks believes a fresh ap-
proach will deliver a more Ensuring a rapid payback
robust project with Geopa- was critical to building a
cific’s first task to convert an bankable project, Heeks
additional 500,000oz into re- said.
serves. “If you have a 10-year mine
life, you must achieve pay-
back within 18 months to be
ticking all the boxes for the
banks,” he said.

Page 54 GOLD MINING JOURNAL July – September 2016

Having completed the and 5.27 g/t silver for

BFS at the height of the 51,200t copper equiva-

resources boom, Kula lent came from the Pros-

was also hostage to pect 150 and Prospect

cost pressures; a situa- 160 deposits.

tion which has reversed Heeks said it was a

in the intervening years. good start to the project.

“We expect lower “We will continue to

costs, particularly on la- build the overall resource

bour,” Heeks said. “We inventory, adding min-

think we can achieve eralisation from other

half the fuel costs of the zones and moving the

feasibility study. Fuel project towards develop-

accounts for 50% of ment,” he said.

cash costs that is a lot The arrival of Woodlark

of material under the Island into the company’s

cut-off grade that can portfolio would not de-

come back in.” tract from Geopacific’s

Kula’s progress Geopacific can earn up to 80% of the Woodlark Island project, PNG, Cambodian work, Heeks
from fellow ASX-listed junior Kula Gold said.
stalled as the market “We won’t shy away

turned and cash dried

up, but Heeks is confident ey but our major sharehold- “major re-rating” of its stock. from Cambodia but Woodlark

Geopacific will not encounter ers – RCF and Tembo Capital Geopacific shares had al- is a more advanced project

similar problems. – are on board and they have ready risen 30% earlier in and goes straight into the

“I think we were successful been with us throughout the July when it announced a development timeline. It is a

in negotiating a deal because negotiations.” maiden resource for its Kou project with a lot of money al-

the Kula team realised Ge- The company plans to re- Sa copper-gold project in ready spent on it.”

opacific brought money be- turn to the market in the next Cambodia. – Dominic Piper
two months but hopes that The resource – 3.84mt @
hind it,” Heeks said. “We will

still have to raise some mon- will occur on the back of a 0.77% copper, 0.66 g/t gold

July – September 2016 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 55

REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Drill bit does the talking for
Xanadu in Mongolia

Xanadu Mines Ltd rising star,” Xanadu chief there,” Stewart said. “If
has rattled the
tin for $12.2 million executive Andrew Stewart you go back over a dec-
to follow up on some
exciting gold hits in told Gold Mining Jour- ade, having a strategic
Mongolia.
nal from his Mongolian position in Mongolia was
In early June, diamond
drilling at the Oyut Ulaan base. “It’s advancing rap- considered a necessity for
copper-gold project intersect-
ed high-grade, near-surface idly and this latest drilling all major copper and gold
gold mineralisation, including
headline intercepts of 6m @ shows we have some sig- companies. In our view,
21.57 g/t gold from surface
and 6.3m @ 6.67 g/t from nificant mineable widths not a lot has changed.
15m.
with some real bonanza “I think you’ll see Mon-
Xanadu then went to the
market and raised $12.2 mil- grades. golia come back on the ra-
lion via a placement to exist-
ing shareholders and some “It’s something we’ve dar. The licencing system
new institutional investors be-
fore striking more high-grade been working at for the is opening up now and
oxide gold mineralisation be-
low surface trenches. last 12 months. I think there’s a lot of activity in

Some of the best hits re- that’s why we’re in Mon- South Gobi. We’re seeing
ported in late June were 9.5m
@ 21.06 g/t gold from surface golia because it’s a terrain a lot of people from mid-
(including 3m @ 47 g/t from
2m) and 6m @ 15.43 g/t from that’s very underexplored. tiers and majors in Mon-
surface. Trenching samples
of 32m @ 3.75 g/t and 18m @ It would be like going to golia doing their due dili-
1.53 g/t identified new zones
of gold mineralisation, but Kalgoorlie 150 years ago.” gence, looking at projects
have not yet been drilled.
Xanadu’s cash injection and trying to understand
Xanadu believes miner-
alisation is hosted in multiple came just six months after the geology.
stacked arrays with coarse
visible gold. The full extent the company raised $8.8 Exploration success has helped Xanadu “Where a company like
of this new high-grade gold million via a similar place- raise $21 million in the past six months Xanadu fits in is our abil-
discovery remains unknown,
with mineralisation open ment and SPP to existing ity to get projects, explore
along strike and down dip.
Further exploration work is in and new sophisticated and the potential for small start- them and progress them
the pipeline.
institutional investors. The ups in gold and oxide gold.” through the system. We see
Oyut Ulaan has emerged
as a project of growing inter- company’s stock has more Analysts are expecting ourselves as being that lead-
est to Xanadu, having largely
played second fiddle to the than doubled during that pe- Mongolia to re-emerge on the ing copper-gold explorer.
Kharmagtai copper-gold pro-
ject, also in Mongolia’s South riod, peaking at 26c/share in radars of investors and min- Our resource at Kharmagtai
Gobi region, until very re-
cently. late May. ing companies following the [203mt @ 0.34% copper and

“Oyut Ulaan is a bit of a Stewart said both raisings Government’s decision to ap- 0.33 g/t gold] is the first since

showed investors were still prove Rio Tinto Ltd’s $US5.3 the Oyu Tolgoi resource.”

hungry for junior exploration billion expansion of the Oyu Stewart expected his com-

stories, particularly projects Tolgoi copper mine in May. pany would continue to be

which offer both scale and It took almost three years rewarded for its success with

grade. of prolonged negotiations for the drill bit.

“With these types of pro- Rio Tinto and the Mongolian “We’ve maintained activity

jects, there are gold-rich caps Government to come to an despite the tough market and

to them and there’s good agreement over costs and I think there are rewards for

scale,” Stewart said. taxes, among other terms, companies that continue to

“I think when you look at but the long-awaited approval provide good exploration re-

some of the larger institu- is seen as a potential catalyst sults and remain active,” he

tional investors, they’re look- for renewed foreign investor said.

ing for projects that obviously interest. “It’s really a two-pronged

have that scale and that abil- Xanadu is leading the way approach to get one of these

ity for a higher-grade start- for Australian juniors in Mon- two projects to the next level

up at the same time. I think golia, having been based in and that’s our focus in the

the projects we have really the country for more than five short-term. We’ve got some

do lend themselves to those years and now controlling two exciting opportunities here

types of investors. major mineral districts in the and certainly we’re going to

“We’re targeting big dis- South Gobi. continue to be very focused

coveries here in Mongolia – “No one has ever ques- on putting money in the

transformational discoveries tioned the prospectivity of ground.”

– but along the way we’re de- Mongolia or really doubted – Michael Washbourne
risking the project by showing the ability to build a mine

Page 56 GOLD MINING JOURNAL July – September 2016

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TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE

GBM cleans up gold in Bendigo

Although it is one A thorough clean out of the Kangaroo Flat plant delivered a 1.94kg gold dore bar to
of Australia’s GMB Gold in Victoria
most significant gold
producing regions, (1.94kg) gold dore bar. dam sand and recover in the expansion.
the Central Victorian The plant is designed to re- order of 7,000oz gold from Through multiple produc-
Goldfields has been the processing plant, while
stagnant as a produc- cover gold via gravity meth- selling the sand product into tion centres in the Harvest
tion hub for some ods, with gold captured in the local market. Home goldfield, 60,000oz
time. parts of the plant in the pro- gold has been produced with
cess. In addition to the Kanga- a number of discrete smaller
However, GBM Gold Ltd roo Flat sand dam project, prospects hosted within the
has had some luck at the Over the next 2-3 years, GBM’s other focus is the tenement.
Bendigo gold project. GMB will look to process Harvest Home open pit mine
about 425,000t of coarse
The company took over
the Bendigo goldfield from
Unity Mining Ltd in May, with
the acquisition including the
Kangaroo Flat gold plant.

GBM’s first item of work
was to clean out the mill, an
exercise which enabled the
company to produce a 62oz

INDEX

Alloy 8-9 Gascoyne 29 Mincor 15 Resolute 29
AngloGold 10 Geopacific 54-55 Musgrave 44 Riedel 40
Anglo American 14 Glencore Rio Tinto 44, 56
Apex 36 GME 52 New Talisman 51 Royal Nickel 15
Apollo Consolidated 50 Gold Fields 41
Atlas Iron 22 4, 14-15, Newcrest 4, 18, 29, 48,
Australian Mines 40 Gold Road 16-17, 29
Gold Standard 29 50-51 Sandfire 49
Gryphon 49 Saracen 29, 41
Newmarket 29 Silver Lake 4, 41, 44
4 Southern Gold
Newmont 4, 8, 49 Syrah 6
48
B2Gold 52 Norton Gold Fields 43

Barrick 4, 15, 18, 16, 26 Northern Star 4, 8, 27, 32-33,

Blackham 29, 36-37 Independence 29, 46 38, 40
Intermin 37
Nu Legacy 49 Talisman 20
Taruga 50
Capricorn 29, 46 Kidman 29 OceanaGold 48-49, 52 Teranga
Cardinal 40 Oro Verde 50 Tungsten Mining 4
Centamin 4 Kin 30-31 Oz 48 Tyranna 43
6-7
Kingsgate 4, 6

Dacian 9, 13, 54 Kula 54-55
Diversified 6
Doray Panoramic 15, 41 WPG 4, 6-7
8-9, 29, 44, 46 Pantoro 41
La Mancha 26 Primary Gold 29
Laneway 51 Xanadu 56
Lucapa 49
Emmerson 27, 40

Evolution 4, 24-27, 38, 40, 48 Ramelius 40, 44 Zeta 41
Randgold 25
Excelsior 42-43 Metals X 38, 44 Regis
Millennium 18-23 29, 38-39, 46

Page 58 GOLD MINING JOURNAL July – September 2016