gmj127-April-June 17 mag-web

April – June 2017 VOLUME 1. ISSUE 127
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OreCorp:

Defining Nyanzaga

• Africa focus • Australia review • Minjar’s Super Pit bid

ISSN 1324-4396
02

9 771324 439005



CONTENTS

5 20 42

5 NEWS 28 AFRICA

Minjar Gold has added another Australian asset to its A change in sentiment in the resources space has
portfolio with the acquisition of Hanking’s Southern rejuvenated the Australian junior sector on the ground
Cross operations for $330 million. However, mystery in Africa. West Africa continues to be a hotspot for
still surrounds Minjar’s bid for a 50% stake in the Super explorers, however, the spread of Australian compa-
Pit, Kalgoorlie. Michael Washbourne asked industry nies is not limited to that particular region. Gold Mining
insiders their opinion on the future of the Super Pit Journal takes a look at the companies thriving in Africa
amid strong gold prices

20 COVER 42 AUSTRALIA
Despite good times in the gold sector, there are few
ASX-listed companies in a position to think about pro- Australian gold producers have been favourites with in-
ject development. Through a farm-in arrangement with vestors and their success has seen a flurry of hopefuls
Acacia, Australia’s OreCorp is on a fast-track to defin- pick up ground with near-term production capabilities,
ing the economic viability of the 3.34 moz Nyanzaga while the thirst for exploration has returned, as Gold
gold project in Tanzania. The company released a Mining Journal found out
PFS on the project in March, but all eyes will be on the
release of a DFS later this year which will determine
the ownership structure of Nyanzaga. Mark Andrews
reports

COVER PHOTOGRAPH:

OreCorp chairman Craig Williams and managing director Matthew Yates at Nyanzaga, Tanzania

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EDITORIAL

The North Americans are
coming… again

Overpriced, overvalued and over controlled by Newmarket founder Chris Bradbrook.
here; the phrase once used to In March, Plutonic formed the centrepiece of Superior Gold
describe US servicemen in Britain
during the Second World War could Inc’s listing on the TSX-V following a $US32 million IPO; not bad
for a project sold off twice in the space of two years.
now be used to describe the North
American gold sector’s increasing PCF Capital was involved intimately in the deal and manag-
bargain hunting of ASX-listed gold ing director Liam Twigger used his LinkedIn profile to encourage
companies. Australian companies to court North American investors.
The trend for North American gold
companies picking off Australian peers is not necessarily a new “[It is] great to see North American investors getting behind
one. The domestic gold sector was decimated in the mid-to-late Australian gold projects. There is a lot more to come in this space
1990s as the likes of Newmont Mining Corp, Barrick Gold Corp and ASX gold companies should be targeting North American
and Placer Dome snatched up most of Australia’s largest gold funds to hold around 40% of their share register.”
miners.
A reverse of this trend was witnessed over the last four years And, it is not only Australian assets to which North American
with both Newmont and Barrick retreating from their Australian markets attribute higher value; in West Africa the trend for TSX-
portfolios as they moved to restructure their balance sheets. listed acquisitions of Australian-owned assets is even more ap-
However, recent corporate activity suggests the shift is back parent.
on, with juniors from the TSX enjoying strong market support for
their Australian portfolios. The last five years has seen almost half a dozen TSX-listed
In November, Kirkland Lake Gold Inc announced a merger miners grow into mid-tier players on the back of a string of ASX-
with Newmarket Gold, which brought the Fosterville, Stawell listed acquisitions. While the examples of Kirkland Lake and
(both in Victoria) and Cosmo (Northern Territory) mines into the Superior Gold suggest an enhanced value of assets, the TSX’s
company. The combined group is a 500,000 ozpa producer, with advantage in West Africa is around access to capital.
the Australian assets expected to contribute up to 210,000 ozpa.
Kirkland Lake’s market cap of more than $US2 billion com- Since the ASX’s West African gold rush started in the middle
pares favourably with Australian peers, particularly when both of the last decade, a number of Australian juniors have started
Cosmo and Fosterville have developed reputations as being “dif- brightly but failed to get to the production line.
ficult” assets in challenging jurisdictions.
There hasn’t been an Australian company take a serious look Gryphon Minerals and Ampella Mining were leading lights of
at Victorian gold assets due to intransigence from the State Gov- the sector but both ran aground as they struggled to fund what
ernment and a perception that the nuggety gold mineralisation looked like marginal projects. Ampella was eventually acquired
makes accurate reserve modelling and reconciliation difficult. by London-listed Egyptian miner Centamin plc, while last year
Kirkland Lake has been able to dispel some of those percep- saw Gryphon absorbed into TSX-listed Teranga Gold Corp. Both
tions, with Fosterville performing well in the first quarter under its new owners can boast the balance sheet strength to fund devel-
stewardship, producing 44,406oz @ $US645/oz AISC. opment and get the projects into production, something Gryphon
Performance at Stawell and Cosmo has not been as strong and Ampella could never emulate.
but the fact a company can build itself a $US2 billion market
cap when nearly half of group production comes from mines with Even the biggest ASX-listed West Africa success stories have
damaged reputations in Australian gold circles suggests North been gobbled up by North Americans. The likes of Orbis Gold
American investors are once again looking on gold companies and Papillon Resources were apparently flying high when Ca-
more favourably than their Australian equivalent. nadian companies (Semafo Inc and B2Gold Corp respectively)
It was anticipation of this change in sentiment and the oppor- took them off the market with sizeable cash bids.
tunity it presented for a rerating which spurred Northern Star
Resources Ltd on its ambitious growth plans in 2014. The sin- Orbis and Papillon were travelling well when they were ac-
gle-asset junior quickly became an important mid-tier gold miner quired but neither’s share price represented the full value of their
after sweeping up most of Barrick and Newmont’s West Austral- projects. When offers from the Canadians came in, the manage-
ian portfolio. ment teams of both companies recognised their suitors’ ability to
The Plutonic gold mine was part of that deal and despite man- access funding from North America was far superior to their own
aging director Bill Beament continuing to preach a turnaround prospects in Australia.
story on the mature mine throughout 2015, it always appeared to
be the weakest part of the deal. The Australian gold sector may have changed dramatically in
In August 2016, Northern Star announced it was selling Plu- the last 20 years but one constant remains; the North Americans
tonic in a $66.2 million deal to Billabong Gold Pty Ltd, a company hold all the cards.

[email protected] @DominicPiper

Page 4 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

NEWS

Minjar’s Super Pit bid stalls

Minjar Gold Pty Ltd The future ownership structure of the Super Pit remains unclear
has swooped on
another Australian as- at Barrick. Maybe they don’t es of 34.72mt @ 4.1 g/t gold ern Australia,” he said. “The
set while its bid for a want to go through that expe- for 4.57 moz and reserves of group obviously has confi-
stake in the Super Pit rience again, but it’s still an 8.74mt @ 3.4g/t for 0.96 moz dence in the operating regime
remains up in the air. unusual strategy to leak the at the end of December 2016. within WA and it has recently
price of the bidder. secured Foreign Investment
Chinese-backed Minjar is Few people expected Review Board approval for its
acquiring the Southern Cross “I don’t think anyone has Hanking to fetch such a large offer.”
operations from Hanking any doubts there are deep sum for Southern Cross,
Gold Pty Ltd for $US253.1 pockets of capital in China mostly due to the mine’s Intermin Resources Ltd
million ($330 million). The and they are prepared to pay chequered history, but Twig- managing director Jon Price,
transaction was being final- full value for Australian as- ger said the company’s work who has operated projects
ised at the time of print. sets. The challenge that peo- over the past four years had in the Kalgoorlie region for
ple have is the time it takes proven the naysayers wrong. more than 30 years, said his
It is the second major pur- to get that money out and preference was for Newmont
chase by Minjar in the last whether there will be any red “It was a big number for a Mining Corp to assume full
eight months, having also faces here in Australia.” mine that has had some chal- ownership.
picked up the Pajingo gold lenges in the past, but they
mine in Queensland from Minjar’s purchase of South- [Hanking] have invested a lot “I think that it will be better
Evolution Mining Ltd for $41 ern Cross – a troubled for- of money and brought it into for the company, its share-
million in August. mer St Barbara Ltd asset production at a time when the holders and definitely the
which Hanking acquired for gold price has rallied,” Twig- Kalgoorlie-Boulder regional
However, Minjar’s bid for $20 million in 2013 – did not ger said. community to have it in New-
Barrick Gold Corp’s 50% come as a surprise to many mont hands 100%,” Price
interest in the Super Pit re- in the industry given the obvi- “A lot of companies who said.
mains the talk of the sector, ous Chinese connection and moved into production in that
reportedly offering $US1 bil- Hanking’s failed bid to list on time have had a revaluation, “Having it under the man-
lion ($1.3 billion) for a non- the ASX. such as Blackham [Resourc- agement of Newmont has
controlling share. es Ltd].” been a positive move, rather
Hanking opted for a sale of than the previous split com-
No formal arrangements its only gold asset after the MineLife Pty Ltd senior re- pany deal. I think the better
have been announced since Hong Kong Stock Exchange source analyst Gavin Wendt result going into the future will
the bid was first reported in prevented the Australian spin- said Minjar’s acquisition of be if it’s owned by one group.”
December amid persistent off when its parent company Southern Cross could have
rumours Minjar’s parent com- China Hanking Holdings Ltd positive implications for its – Michael Washbourne
pany, Shandong Tyan Home suffered a calamitous share pursuit of Barrick’s interest in
Co Ltd, has encountered price collapse last April. the Super Pit.
some difficulty raising the re-
quired funds to complete the Southern Cross was report- “The deal demonstrates
transaction. ed to have untapped resourc- Minjar’s positive view on the
gold industry within West-
“They’re still a mystery,”
an industry insider told Gold
Mining Journal. “All we re-
ally know is that they’re a real
estate company who wants to
have a gold presence in Aus-
tralia.”

PCF Capital Group man-
aging director Liam Twigger
said it was strange Minjar’s
offer was made public.

“Barrick got left at the al-
tar with their African assets
when they were put up for
sale,” he said. “Chinese Gold
Corp offered them $3-4 bil-
lion, which was a great price
at the time, then couldn’t de-
liver, so there were red faces

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 5

NEWS

Acacia reacts to Tanzania

export ban

Tanzania’s largest Tanzania is on a drive to add value to its exports rather than send raw materials abroad
gold miner – Aca-
In early March, after Magu- centrate or mineral sands for to power in November 2015.
cia Mining plc – has fuli’s repeated calls for ex-
ports of copper concentrate processing abroad. Opponents, however, ac-
ceased exports of to be halted, Tanzania’s En-
ergy and Minerals Ministry Magufuli’s call to build a cuse him of becoming in-
gold-copper concen- announced an immediate
ban on sending copper con- smelter in Tanzania to pro- creasingly authoritarian,
trates from its opera-
cess gold was criticised in undermining democracy by
tions in the country.
November by the Tanzania curbing political activity and
Acacia is seeking clarifica-
tion regarding a ban on ex- Chamber of Minerals and En- cracking down on dissent.
ports of gold-copper concen-
trates imposed by Tanzania’s
Ministry of Energy and Min-
erals following a directive by
President John Magufuli.

In 2016, gold-copper con-
centrate amounted to ap-
proximately 30% of Acacia’s
revenues.

ergy, which said it showed a “The President ... has or-

lack of understanding of how dered that the passport of ...

the industry worked. Rajendra Kumar, should be

Major gold mining compa- seized along with the travel

nies in Tanzania include Aca- documents of his assistants

cia and AngloGold Ashanti until they complete the water

Ltd. project,” Magufuli’s office said

Like other African nations, in a statement.

Tanzania is on a drive to add- The statement described

value to its exports rather Kumar as the representative

than send raw materials of Overseas Infrastructure Al-

abroad. liance (India) Private Ltd. The

The new Government Delhi-based infrastructure

banned imports of coal and company was not available

gypsum in November to boost for comment.

its mining sector, saying it “Magufuli has warned that

had abundant reserves of the if the project is not completed

minerals. within four months, he will

Furthermore, Magufuli or- take more stringent meas-

dered the confiscation of ures against those supervis-

passports (March 3) belong- ing the construction work,”

ing to foreign employees of the statement said.

an Indian infrastructure com- The $US13 million water

pany managing a water pro- project in the southern town

ject that is running late. of Lindi was expected to be

Magufuli, nicknamed finished in March 2015 but re-

“The Bulldozer” for pushing mains incomplete, the Presi-

through his policies, has been dent’s office said.

praised by Western donors – Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala,
Reuters with Paydirt staff
for an anti-corruption drive

and cutting wasteful govern-

ment spending since he came

Page 6 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

OPINION BRENDAN RYAN

Gold Fields more than

just South Deep

Gold Fields Ltd’s departure as a material is- the most successful opera-
management has
finally delivered its sue for the future of South tors in Australia churning
latest strategy to “re-
base” its problematic Deep. Muller said he had profits and extending the
South Deep mine in
South Africa. left a good team in charge economic lives of the vari-

The group is forecasting and, in reply to an analyst’s ous mines it has acquired
South Deep will ramp up to
a steady state production of question, said he would not there.
500,000 ozpa gold over the
next five years at an all-in be “poaching” staff from But the reason for the an-
cost of below $US900/oz in
2017 money terms. that team once he was at alysts’ pre-occupation with

That’s the good news. The Implats. South Deep is that Gold
bad news is that vice presi-
dent Nico Muller – who has Reaction from analysts Fields has poured some
been heading up the rebase
exercise since 2015 and has was mixed both at the re- R28 billion into buying and
managed to restore South
Deep to a positive cash flow sults presentation and developing the mine which
of $12 million in the year to
end-December 2016 – is following a subsequent has, so far, failed abysmally
about to leave to become
chief executive of Impala mine visit held on March Gold Fields chief executive Nick Holland to live up to expectations.
Platinum Ltd (Implats). 9. Reason – of course – is provides a timely reminder to analysts South Deep also con-
the chequered track record that South Deep is not the only mine in tains some 75% of Gold
That makes him the second
senior Gold Fields executive at South Deep since 2007 the company’s portfolio Fields’ total ore reserve
to have left the group for the
top job at Implats as Muller when Gold Fields bought base worldwide so achiev-
follows in the footsteps of
former chief operating officer control of it from the former price and equity rating since ing a successful turnaround
Terence Goodlace, who left
Gold Fields to run Implats Western Areas. 2015. We believe these risks at the mine would have a
several years back.
The mine was shut down are now excessively priced. huge beneficial impact on the
Goodlace did not enjoy his
time at Implats and became for four months in 2014 and, We identify Gold Fields’ 20% group.
seriously stressed by the
group’s poor safety perfor- over the past two years, has equity discount to closest That’s what O’Kane now
mance, which caused a num-
ber of fatalities. He stepped undergone a complete over- peer AngloGold [Ashanti Ltd] seems to be sizing up follow-
down as chief executive last
year and, ironically, is now haul of the mining system and 60% discount to US gold ing the return to positive cash
involved again at Gold Fields
but as a non-executive direc- which was changed from a peers as excessive and re- flow at South Deep.
tor.
low profile (2.2m) destress gard the company as under- “Gold Fields’ share price
Both Muller and Gold Fields
chief executive Nick Holland mining method to a high pro- valued.” represents mispriced risk/
stated at the group’s results
presentation in February that file (5.5m) layout. There is no question that reward, in our view. At a very
they did not view Muller’s
The new production target South Deep has been a drag basic level we think the shares

is well below the previous on the Gold Fields share now offer a very cheap op-

guidance of 700,000 ozpa price but the constant cross- tion on even limited success

prompting Nedbank analyst questioning about that mine at South Deep or marginally

Leon Esterhuizen to suggest from analysts got to Holland higher future gold prices than

to Holland that he had crafted during a presentation he gave spot,” O’Kane noted.

a plan so that he could “under in Johannesburg last August. Key issue for “South Africa

promise and over deliver”. Clearly irritated, he com- Inc” is that a successful South

Other analysts – includ- mented that: “There is a com- Deep will be the “last mine

ing JP Morgan Cazenove’s pany beyond South Deep, standing” in the country’s rap-

Dominic O’Kane – believe the believe it or not”, and pointed idly ageing gold sector which

500,000 ozpa target is “am- out that 85% of Gold Fields’ is dying as it gets deeper.

bitious” and there will still be production and all of its cash South Deep has some 37

problems over the five-year had been generated outside moz of gold reserves – mak-

ramp-up period but that Gold South Africa in the six months ing it one of the world’s larg-

Fields will succeed, a fac- to end-June 2016. est remaining gold deposits

tor not currently priced into Holland added: “South – and giving it a 70-year life

the share which is trading at Deep should not be the only of mine.

rock-bottom levels. barometer to use to look at So there’s a lot riding on a

Reason is the high level Gold Fields. You need to look successful outcome at South

of risk that investors are still at where we have come from Deep for the country and

attributing to South Deep. on the international opera- Gold Fields.

O’Kane sums up the situation tions as well.” Brendan Ryan is a freelance
as: “South Deep has been a That’s fair enough and writer, based in Johannesburg

key drag on Gold Fields share Gold Fields has been one of

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 7

NEWS

Appetite for greenfields
gold grows in NZ

New Zealand has a still keenly felt by geo- to concerns of Waihi
magnetic attrac-
tion for geoscientists scientists young and townsfolk.
and a handful of new
gold seekers but the old. There were explo-
quests on the North
Island are distinctively Rob Smillie, head ration challenges to
different to those on
the South. of regional geology be tackled, including

The North Island is noted for GNS Science, told noise issues which
for its epithermal gold-sil-
ver deposits in the Hauraki conference delegates required encasing drill
goldfield while on the South
Island are the big Orogenic the dramatic growth in rigs in containers to
deposits, ideal for bulk min-
ing with a sprinkling of higher sophisticated data and mute the noise and to
grade zones and, on the West
Coast, the small alluvial gold geological information ensure at-night func-
miners.
could pave the way for tions were restricted,
However, red and green
tape can prove debilitating. an explorer to unearth including not using
Unlike Australia, there are
no state governments to add a major new gold find hammers on drill
to any federal interference.
Rather, powers are vested in NZ. steels or rods.
in regional councils who are
generally supportive but There are only two Streiff said Mar-
this is aligned to a structural
system which places power significant gold mining tha’s development
of veto and other approvals
mechanisms in the hands centres now operating; had been followed by
of government departments
and Maori groups that can Macraes in the South underground discov-
see projects cut off at an ad-
vanced stage. Island’s Otago prov- eries including the

On the North Island radical ince and Waihi in the Moonlight-Favona
green-activist enclaves on
the Coromandel Peninsula North Island’s Hauraki deposit, Trio and Cor-
see mining as a big, nasty
trespasser. For some, even goldfield. renso, now the current
exploration can expose thriv-
ing marijuana crops. Mean- There has not, ac- mining focus. Discov-
while, on the South Island,
the alluvial miners have prob- cording to Smillie, ery of Correnso came
lems with landowners and
also the tax office. been a major green- when exploration near

However, the recent fields gold discovery the Reptile Vein hit an
Gold17 Conference in Roto-
rua proved that despite the in 150 years with both The Correnso underground mine is giving new intersection that ap-
regulatory challenges, New Macraes and Waihi life to OceanaGold’s Waihi operations peared to be “some-
Zealand’s gold potential is having had important thing else”.

developments in or prior to ton of Western Australia a Streiff said modern mining

that period. good example of what could at Waihi has seen about 2

Brownfields exploration be achieved. Gold produc- moz gold produced at Mar-

has shown up extensions or tion in NZ is now dominated tha and roughly about 1 moz

new deposits in existing min- by OceanaGold Corp. The coming from underground

ing areas but there has not company started in NZ in the mines. The ratio of silver var-

been a find in a previously 1980s through a corporate ies, with Martha having had

untested area. predecessor at Macraes and 10:1 silver to gold and Favona

Smillie said there were ex- two years ago returned when 1:1.

citing developments for dis- it bought the Waihi assets GNS Science veteran Dr

coveries thanks to sophisti- from Newmont Mining Corp. Tony Christie, who would

cated new data and greater A consultant to Oceana- have walked the length and

understanding of NZ’s geol- Gold working at Waihi, Rick breadth of NZ, said the North

ogy and mine-finding tech- Streiff, told delegates the Island’s Hauraki goldfield had

niques. There had been an social licence was important, produced a recorded 12 moz

“explosion” of new airborne given the big Martha open cut gold and 50 moz silver and

data linked to advances with mine has operated within the was considered to still have

radiometric data. town and the latest under- enormous scope for new tar-

Smillie said GNS Science ground operations go under- gets.

had looked at what other neath some housing. Proof of this is develop-

countries were doing with Streiff, who previously un- ment of Correnso as the new

new data with the holistic dertook work at Waihi for breadwinner for Waihi and

approach taken to identify- Newmont, said it was clear the potential for OceanaGold

ing deeper mineral depos- from the outset that mining to find a commercial deposit

its on the vast Yilgarn Cra- companies needed to listen in the large WKP target. The

Page 8 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

Waihi goldfield is 200km long The Frasers open pit is still a major contributor to Macraes’ had grown during the period.
and 40km wide, represent- 200,000 ozpa production profile He said successful gold
ing 2% of NZ’s land mass.
Deposits are volcanic-relat- nored region by prospectors ore, hard rock mining in Ota- exploration had fuelled para-
ed and there are Adularia- today. go had passed the 10 moz digm-changing growth in NZ
sericite types of systems and mark to eclipse the largely and Australia in the 1980s
already contains the world- The Blackwater mine historic alluvial gold mining in and this was followed by con-
class Martha. at Waiuta in the southern the province which has pro- sistent production.
Reefton field was probably duced about 8 moz.
Between 2000 and 2010 NZ’s highest-grade mine be- Vearncombe said compa-
a total of 50 prospects were fore it closed in the 1950s. He cited gold in several se- nies had been successful
tested by drilling and 900 OceanaGold has recently quences and now, thanks to in finding half-million ounce
drill holes undertaken by 30 taken up exploration in the a warmer climate, gold min- deposits which had potential
companies. Exploration suc- area, drilling as deep as eralisation in the Southern to grow, through brownfields
cesses in the period included 1.5km to identify the reef sys- Alps was now evident, having exploration, into world-class
ongoing prospecting at Waihi, tem underneath the old mine been previously masked by deposits.
Neavesville, WKP, Waitekauri workings. ice and snow. They appear
Valley, Rahu and Muirs. to be small but field studies This had led to Australian
Craw said despite all the have indicated visible gold. gold production soaring in
“The success of recent ex- tough times the Macraes subsequent years – helped by
ploration suggests that there mining centre had been a Mackenzie also covered technological advances in the
is plenty of exploration poten- success story, given it had the Otago gold geology and treatment of oxide and refrac-
tial in the Hauraki goldfield,” produced resources and his- pointed to the growing explo- tory ore – with Australia now
Christie said. torical production totaling 10 ration focus away from Mac- ahead of South Africa, the
moz. Today, it is producing raes in the Otago Schists. United States and Canada in
E2 Metals Ltd’s launch of about 200,000 ozpa from the gold production numbers.
an $8 million IPO to take on Frasers open pit and Corona- New Otago explorer New
the Neavesville project is an tion mine, with the Corona- Age Exploration Ltd is under- The big media coverage
example of the latent poten- tion North mine now gain- taking field work, including on geology in New Zealand
tial. ing resource consents. The mapping and shallow sam- was the viral global coverage
Frasers underground mine pling. Mackenzie is a con- to revelations about Zealan-
E2 plans to list on the ASX produces about 50,000 ozpa sultant to New Age Explora- dia; the mostly submerged
in April, with Neavesville – at a grade of plus-2 g/t gold, tion on its two permits in the continent which sits east of
which already has an inferred helped by high-grade reefs at southern Otago Schists on Australia, up into the Pacific
resource of 1.489mt @ 2.58 depth. generally greenfield targets. and south of New Zealand’s
g/t gold and 9.69 g/t silver South Island.
and the Trig’s Bluff prospect Craw said the first 10 years Key convenor of Gold17,
– to be its flagship asset. at Macraes were challenging, Julian Vearncombe of Perth- Dr Mortimer, based in GNS
The company also has the with the complex refractory based SJS Resource Man- Science’s office in Dunedin,
Mt Hope copper-gold project ore causing erratic recover- agement, said that contrary was lead author in the study
in New South Wales’ Cobar ies, sometimes in the 60% to many views in Government on Zealandia that involved
goldfield. range, but the introduction of and industry observers, Aus- scientists from GNS Science
an autoclave changed that, tralasian gold exploration has and Victoria University in
Also on the conference lifting gold recoveries above been a successful business Wellington.
agenda were presentations 85% range. The autoclave over the last 30 years.
on Macraes and other Ota- was also a catalyst for de- He told delegates: “You
go targets by the University veloping the now mothballed Despite facing negatives, know you’ve made it when the
of Otago’s head of geology, Globe-Progress mine at including the decreasing satirists get into it.” Mortimer
Professor Dave Craw, and Dr Reefton and sending a con- probability of mineral discov- said there was nothing new in
Doug Mackenzie. centrate to the Macraes pro- eries with costs increasing, the Zealandia concept; New
cess plant. companies having a com- Zealand geoscientists had
Noted for his knowledge pulsion for only world-class known about it for years.
of geological origins, Craw Craw told delegates that finds, and the need to replace
pointed to the break-up of thanks to Macraes’ orogenic explorers with digital technol- It contains three large and
Gondwana eons ago where ogy, the region’s gold output several small islands and is
parts of New Zealand were 94% submerged. It covers a
fused to parts of Antarctica total of 4.9 million sq km. In
and the coastline of Queens- comparison, Australia is 7.7
land – which shows a corre- million sq km.
lation between the geology
of the rich Gympie goldfield Mortimer told Gold Min-
of north Queensland and ing Journal three countries
Reefton on the West Coast. already had territorial rights
Linked to the same sequenc- to Zealandia – New Zealand,
es are the Brook Street Ter- New Caledonia and Australia
rane below Reefton and the – with Australia’s claim evi-
Longwood Range which de- denced by Lord Howe Island.
spite having PGM and old
gold shows, is a relatively ig- – Ross Louthean,
who attended Gold17

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 9

NEWS

New kid on the Kiwi block

Upcoming float E2 Neavesville will be the flagship project in E2’s portfolio
Metals Ltd hopes
to put New Zealand you’ve got some highly pro- recorded at Ajax and the up- smooth sailing for the com-
gold back on the re- spective ground that is now coming campaign will look to pany since relaunching the
sources map. of interest to some pretty big follow up these results along process in early March, ac-
players in the industry.” a 600m exposed strike length cording to Peters.
E2 is set to list on the ASX of epithermal veining.
on April 4, pending a suc- Newcrest is earning up to “In the last couple of weeks
cessful IPO of up to $8 mil- 80% of Laneway Resources E2 recently undertook a everything has all fallen into
lion, with the Neavesville pro- Ltd’s Southern Coromandel review of historical drilling place pretty well, so we’re
ject on the North Island to be project for an undisclosed results at the Trig’s Bluff de- quite comfortable we’ll be
its flagship asset. exploration spend on tene- posit and subsequently con- on the board come April,” he
ments adjacent to Waihi, with firmed an inferred resource said.
Neavesville – an epither- no significant results record- of 1.49mt @ 2.58 g/t gold and
mal deposit in the historic ed to date. 9.69 g/t silver for 123,600oz Also part of the E2 pro-
Hauraki goldfields – has been gold and 509,100oz silver. spectus is the Mount Hope
in the company’s portfolio for Evolution picked up the Proposed drilling for later copper-gold project, about
the past three years, but lim- Puhipuhi project, north of this year or in early 2017 is 90km south of Cobar in New
ited exploration success and Auckland, in 2015 but has expected to upgrade this re- South Wales. The company
a tough environment for new battled to complete any major source, pending agreements currently has a 51% interest
gold projects forced E2 to exploration work due to per- with the Maori landowners. in the project, but intends to
wait until recently to go pub- mitting issues and strong re- use some of the funds raised
lic. buttals from local community “We obviously have to do from the IPO to purchase the
groups. the work, but having a data- remaining 49%.
Very few juniors are cur- base there that we can build
rently exploring or operating E2 progressively acquired upon has been quite benefi- A drilling programme at
in New Zealand, although the Neavesville tenements off cial,” Peters said. Mount Hope to upgrade the
recent exploration plays by Eurasian Minerals Inc over existing resource to JORC
Newcrest Mining Ltd and Evo- the last three years, with the “There will be a lot of revali- 2012 standards is slated for
lution Mining Ltd, and Ocean- TSX-V listed company to re- dation of data and then ex- later this year.
aGold Corp’s ongoing suc- coup its fee from ongoing roy- tensional drilling both up and
cess at the Waihi gold mine, alty payments. down dip of these mineralisa- “There’s a lot of mineral-
have encouraged investors to tions and historic resources.” ised trends that exist there
take a closer look at some of Permits have been granted and warrant follow-up,” Pe-
the country’s prospects. to E2 to complete a drilling E2 initially targeted an IPO ters said.
programme at Neavesville’s for late 2016, but withdrew its
E2 managing director Si- Ajax prospect, with Peters prospectus towards the end “Our investors can look for-
mon Peters said having a expecting a rig to be commis- of the year when it became ward to drill campaigns and
New Zealand project was sioned within weeks of the apparent the planned listing drill results for both projects
proving to be a point of differ- IPO being completed. would fall within the tricky this year, working towards a
ence for his company. Christmas/New Year period. maiden resource in NSW as
Rock chip samples of up well as some higher-grade re-
“New Zealand has really to 1,605 g/t gold have been However, it has been source additions at Neaves-
given a different dimension
to the company,” Peters told ville.
Gold Mining Journal. “We’ve got some

“There’s not that many theories to prove up,
small companies operating in so now is the time to
New Zealand, but that’s not list these projects and
because there’s not the pro- hopefully do them jus-
jects there. It’s more a tice.”
function of who is lucky
enough or who has – Michael
been prudent enough to Washbourne
stake ground that is pro-
spective. We’ve been Trig’s Bluff hosts an inferred resource of 1.49mt @ 2.58 g/t gold for 123,600oz
lucky enough to do that.

“You’ve now got Evo-
lution, Newcrest and
OceanaGold all oper-
ating in that space, so

Page 10 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

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NEWS

Australian gold M&A standout

It comes as no sur- EY Oceania Mining & Metals “Plutonic was eight times Canadian project, but from
prise that gold was transaction leader Paul Murphy oversubscribed, we have the float of the Australian Plu-
the most transacted never had an IPO eight times tonic gold mine via Superior
commodity in Aus- change in the bulk commodi- oversubscribed,” PCF Capi- Gold which raised $32 million
tralia last year. ties space in 2017 as regional tal Group managing director and listed the week before
demand for high quality prod- Liam Twigger said in Perth PDAC. As it turned out, that
Australian gold producers uct was capitalised on. earlier this year. was very good timing as sen-
revelled in high prices do- timent took a knock during
mestically in 2016 and also Unlike players in coal and Twigger, who attended PDAC with gold equities fall-
had the benefit of favourable iron ore, gold companies PDAC, said it was great to ing during the week and the
labour and services costs. have enjoyed solid prices and see North American inves- gold price testing support at
built balance sheets capable tors get behind Australian $US1,200/oz come the end of
“There was a lot of small of entertaining various types assets and expected more the conference.”
value, with a lot of volume and of growth scenarios, includ- activity in this space.
that was basically attributable ing M&A, however, transac- Gold, copper and cobalt
to gold,” EY Oceania Mining tions in the gold space are However, Australian com- are all commodities com-
& Metals transaction leader unlikely to be easy, Murphy panies angling for exposure mentators are bullish on and
Paul Murphy said about min- told Gold Mining Journal. to North American funds companies with such assets,
ing M&A’s in 2016 on release needed strong IR teams in particularly those close to
of the firm’s Mergers, acqui- “There are a couple of big place, preferably located in production, can expect some
sitions and capital raising in deals out there already, the North America, to drive ambi- attention this year.
the mining and metals sector Super Pit for one, but nothing tions in the region.
quarterly report. has happened there yet. All The role Chinese inves-
the Australian mid-tiers have IR types not completely on tors play in project acquisi-
“Gold represented both the pretty significant war chests top of their game have caused tions will also be interesting
highest outbound and high- at the moment, all of them are much angst for Australian to watch this year. In 2016,
est inbound deals from an looking to grow or extend re- mining companies in the past China more than doubled the
Australian perspective; there serve life and all of them are and navigating through this value of domestic and cross-
was $926 million worth of looking at deals. The issue for to achieve positive outcomes border acquisitions, account-
gold deals last year and the them is that there are just not will need addressing, accord- ing for 19% of global deal
next closest commodity was viable options out there at the ing to Twigger. volume.
industrial minerals with $353 moment,” Murphy said.
million. “I like to attend PDAC as To shore up copper sup-
Perhaps one opportu- it provides a good proxy for ply, Chinese acquirers were
“In the inbound space, it nity not grasped in the local the state of the North Ameri- keen on the red metal in 2016
[gold] was the most transact- market was Northern Star can capital markets and from and overall were responsible
ed commodity both in value Resources Ltd’s Plutonic that, one can form a view for four of the top 10 deals in
terms as well, $289 million, gold mine which was instead on what the next 12 months the Asia Pacific region, with
and the next closest was a snapped up by new Canadian might have in store for us. China Molybdenum involved
$20 million potash deal. Gold float Superior Gold Inc. The vibe wasn’t great, there in $US4.3 billion worth of ac-
was the real standout in M&A hadn’t been a new mining and quisitions alone.
activity in Australia last year Superior started trading on exploration IPO for 2 years
and it was a similar story in the TSX-V in February after a on the TSX and the drought Murphy said the Chinese
Canada, incidentally.” heavily oversubscribed IPO was broken, not by a new acted on some pretty sensi-
on the principal asset of the ble buying opportunities and
Australia’s gold sector has 80,000 ozpa Plutonic gold PCF Capital Group managing expected the trend to con-
been the bright spark in what mine. director Liam Twigger tinue.
is now becoming a resurgent
mining industry buoyed by Murphy also expects deal
rising prices for coal (coking: activity in Australia to in-
$US158/t, thermal: $US82/t) crease in 2017 after min-
and iron ore ($US92/t). ing and metals deal value in
2016 fell 73% (year-on-year)
Murphy said the rapid rate to $US3.5 billion. The drop in
in which iron ore and coal value was somewhat offset
rebounded in 2016 created by a 31% increase in volume,
a value gap between buyers with 96 deals struck in 2016,
and sellers of the bulk com- compared to 68 in 2015.
modities.
– Mark Andrews
That meant potential deals
had been kept on the table,
a trend Murphy expected to

Page 12 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

Canadians grow African
influence through ASX discovery

West Africa’s gold potential was opened up by Australian juniors but it is now Canadian miners who are taking up the front-running

Agroup of emerg- gold,” Teranga Gold Inc chief said. Teranga’s bid for Gryph- of the Nzema mine in Ghana
ing Canadian gold executive Richard Young said on was the latest in a growing and is now preparing to build
miners are vying to at the BMO Metals and Mining list of Australian acquisitions its Hounde project in Burkina
become West Africa’s conference in Miami in March. by TSX-listed African miners Faso as it heads towards pro-
next Randgold Re- and each of them are now duction of 900,000 ozpa by
sources Ltd, most of Teranga operates the Sa- running hard on development. 2020.
them through acqui- bodala gold mine in Sen-
sitions of Australian egal. Sabodala produced Semafo Inc – which pro- The rise of the TSX-listed
juniors. 217,000oz in 2016 but with duced 240,000oz from its mid-tier has been the prevail-
$95 million in cash, the com- Mana Mana mine in Burkina ing trend in the West African
London-listedRandgoldhas pany has ambitions to in- Faso last year – has begun gold sector over the last five
been the gold sector’s strong- crease its production profile construction on the 228,000 years but even Teranga’s
est performer over the last by at least 50% by 2019. ozpa Natougou mine, having Young admitted the contin-
decade, growing into a top 10 picked up the mine as part of ued exploration and develop-
global producer off the back Key to achieving that goal its $178 million purchase of ment success in the region
of canny acquisitions and ex- will be successful develop- Orbis Gold in 2015. – its annual production of 8.5
ploration success. Now, with ment of the Banfora project moz is now almost equal to
capital markets once again in Burkina Faso, acquired B2Gold Corp spent even North America – is likely to
warming to gold equities, half through the $84 million acqui- more on Papillon Resources attract even larger players.
a dozen TSX-listed miners are sition of ASX-listed Gryphon – $615 million – to put its foot
hoping to emulate Randgold’s Minerals last year. on the Fekola project in Mali, “Like most frontier regions,
achievements. its first project on the conti- its development was led by
Young said the company nent. The company said at the explorers and junior min-
“Our cornerstone investor would be ready to make a de- Mining Indaba first gold was ers but as it moves forward
[David Mirman] certainly sees velopment decision on Ban- expected from Fekola in Oc- you will see more large cap
us as being the next Rand- fora by mid-2017. tober this year (see page 32). producers move in,” he said.

“We expect to complete Back in 2011, Endeavour – Dominic Piper
the feasibility study by mid- Mining Corp had absorbed
year, with board approval and Australian gold miner Ada-
financing to follow and mobi- mus Resources to get hold
lisation later in the year,” he

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 13

NEWS

Gold Road doubles down
on Yamarna

Special dividends Gold Road is chasing further gold camps across the Yamarna belt Yamarna belt and to do that
and major ac- you need critical mass of 1
quisitions are off the least two years after project of having only one 1 moz de- moz gold or more.”
agenda for Gold Road development. Thanks to the posit on the belt are rare; the
Resources Ltd, which deal we are totally focused on chances of finding another of It is the North Yamarna
will instead stick to its the Yamarna project. “We are the same size as Gruyere are ground where the majority of
longstanding explora- chasing further gold camps even rarer. But, there could the exploration budget will be
tion strategy when across the belt and the Gold be one half the size and when spent. Gold Road plans to un-
it comes to applying Fields deal means we can you remember the size of dertake 13,800m of diamond
the proceeds from its now clearly focus on deliv- Gruyere [6.8 moz resource drilling, 42,300m of RC drill-
recent windfall. ering that and we have got with further delineation to ing and 126,700m of aircore
more than enough targets to come this year from under- drilling on an area which has
Half-year results showed test on that ground.” ground] that is still sizeable.” already presented five priority
Gold Road in an enviable po- targets.
sition in March, with the jun- It is far from a hollow boast. Gold Road has set itself a
ior boasting a bank balance Gold Road has more than $22 million exploration budg- “The $15 million budget for
(including term deposits and 6,300sq km of ground in the et for the year – with JV part- North Yamarna is split in two;
receivables) of $434.2 mil- belt comprising a mixture of ners contributing a further between diamond and RC
lion following the posting of a JVs and solo projects and it $8 million – and has already drilling on five priority targets
$232.5 million after tax profit believes the belt’s ultimate identified priority areas for and then also first-pass air-
for the period. prospectivity will add up to the next 1 moz discovery. core drilling for new targets
more than just one plus-1 for follow up in 2018.”
The profit was achieved moz deposit. “We may get results that
thanks to Gold Fields Ltd’s are positive but if the scale At Corkwood, RC and dia-
entry into the Gruyere pro- “We are drilling to confirm isn’t there we would walk mond drilling will be focused
ject; the South African gold the discovery of more mul- away from them,” Murray on already defined bedrock
major paying $US350 million timillion ounce deposits,” said. “We want to set up a mineralisation over 2km of
for a 50% slice of Gruyere in Murray said. “The chances second production unit on the strike at the Ibanez prospect
November. and previously identified mul-
tiple high-grade structures
The company described in flexure around the granite
the half-year results as intrusive at the Washburn
“transformational” but while prospect.
the cash injection had many
market observers suggest- The aircore programme will
ing it would be either return- continue earlier work which
ing capital to shareholders or has seen Gold Road meas-
buying a new asset, manag- ure the ground for camp-
ing director Ian Murray told scale deposits.
Gold Mining Journal the
transformation would occur “At Corkwood, we would
much closer to home. need 1 moz to build a plant
and related infrastructure,”
“When we started look- Murray said. “The aim by the
ing at the development of end of the year is to have
Gruyere, we set ourselves confirmed a new discovery in
the objective of becoming a North Yamarna. We’ve nar-
self-funded explorer and we rowed 100 identified targets
have actually achieved that into 47 ranked targets and
now, four years ahead of from those we’ve chosen our
schedule,” Murray said. “Be- top five.”
fore the Gold Fields deal we
were looking at not being able Expenditure on the South
to fund the exploration for at Yamarna JV with Sumitomo
Corporation is set to be only
$3.3 million this year but Mur-
ray flagged an increase fol-
lowing the recent cash injec-
tion.

“There is potential for a

Page 14 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

further $1 million subject to Gold Road has set a $22 million exploration budget for 2017, with JV partners
the exploration results but we contributing a further $8 million
had agreed the budget before
striking the deal with Gold “We are not worried about South Deep are expansion sage out more,” he said.
Fields and now we will look to their priorities. Everything is projects,” he said. “With all the focus on the ex-
increase the budget for next agreed in the JV, including ploration, people forgot about
year,” he said. the construction schedule Both companies have work Gruyere a little bit.”
and the feasibility study num- to do to convince the invest-
Closer to Gruyere itself, the bers. Any changes can only ment community of the value The Gold Fields deal
JV exploration team – run by be implemented by agree- of their investment. Murray may have put a price tag on
Gold Road – will be using the ment through the JV. admitted Gold Road’s pub- Gruyere – the miner paid
$11 million budget to chase lic focus on the next bout of $US350 million for a half-
up the Attila and Alaric de- “Gruyere is actually their exploration had somewhat share – but the fact has not
posits (combined resource only development project; diluted its message about the been reflected in the Gold
of 270,000oz @ 15.8 g/t) as Salares Norte is only a pro- value of Gruyere. Road share price which left
it looks to find further high- ject study and Damang and it capped at around $450 mil-
grade feed options for what “We need to get the mes- lion at the time of print.
is certain to be a hungry 7.5
mtpa Gruyere mill. Before striking a deal with Gold Fields over Gruyere, Gold Road was “It is an absurdly low price
looking at the possibility of not being able to fund exploration for at given the quality of the as-
On the Gruyere develop- set and the quality player we
ment, Murray said the re- least two years after project development have involved in develop-
lationship with Gold Fields ment,” Murray said.
– which took over project
management in mid-Febru- The share price perfor-
ary – was going smoothly. mance has meant Gold Road
remains an M&A target.
“The relationship with Gold
Fields is very good, we have “We’re not looking to do
very similar company cul- deals but the current share
tures and everything appears price does make us vulner-
to be going well,” he said. able and if any other min-
“We will be awarding the EPC ing executive isn’t looking at
contract as well as contracts us, they are not doing their
for bulk power, catering and job,” he said. “The best way
security before the end of to avoid being vulnerable is
March and the project is still to get fully valued and show
on track for first gold by the the market the quality of
end of 2018 with ramp-up oc- a 165,000 ozpa operation
curring in 2019.” which will have no debt, low
opex and a $700/oz margin.”
Gold Fields chief execu-
tive Nick Holland took some – Dominic Piper
heat from analysts during his
quarterly results presentation
for the company’s capital-in-
tensive development pipeline
which sees it spending big
on development or expan-
sion at Gruyere, South Deep,
Salares Norte and Damang in
coming years.

When questioned about
the risk involved in simulta-
neous development, Holland
said the company would con-
sider timing.

“We have to look at the
pace at which we develop
projects,” Holland said. “I
wouldn’t rule out slowing
down our developments if
the price of gold went to
$US1,000/oz.”

Murray, however, has no
concerns over the Gruyere
development plan.

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 15

NEWS

Australian gold hits 17-year high

Australian gold Australian gold production reached 298t in 2016, with the likes of Blackham Resources
production has starting to play a significant part in the tally
reached its highest
level since 1999, ac- continued at the same pro- num gold operation and has Ltd] revamped Wattle Dam
cording to gold mining duction level, despite the plans to revive Big Bell, both plant in April, while Canadian
specialists Surbiton apparent stalling of the sale in Western Australia. Its cur- company RNC Minerals [plc]
Associates Pty Ltd. of Barrick Gold Corp’s 50% rent operations in Higgins- has plans to increase output
share to Minjar Gold Pty Ltd, ville, South Kalgoorlie and from Beta-Hunt substantially,”
Gold production from Aus- a subsidiary of Shandong the Central Murchison are Close said.
tralian mines totalled 298t Tianye Group, for $US1.3 bil- continuing to ramp up.
in 2016. The full year’s pro- lion. Looking ahead, Close said
duction was worth over $15 Blackham, which poured unfavourable weather condi-
billion at the current price of Close said there were its first gold from the rejuve- tions could hamper produc-
about $1,600/oz. some good stories to tell nated Wiluna mill in October tion in the short term.
among the small to mid-size 2016, is considering options
The 2016 total is still mark- local companies. to double that plant’s capac- “Given all the recent rain
edly short of the all-time re- ity. Saracen has continued to in WA and other states, gold
cord of 314t, set in 1997. But “Metals X Ltd continued its boost production at its Caro- output in the March quarter
considering Australian pro- long-term strategy with the sue Dam plant and Thunder- may well be down,” Close
duction has seen an increase December 2016 spin-off of box operation. said.
of 10t, or about 3.5%, from Westgold Resources [Ltd],
2015, and an upward trajec- while companies such as Close said there were other “Output early in the year
tory from only 220t in 2008, Saracen Mineral Holdings start-ups in the pipeline as is often affected by rain from
it appears that momentum is [Ltd] and Blackham Resourc- well. summer cyclones that disrupt
building. es [Ltd] are also contributing mining in open pits and cre-
to the increase in gold pro- “Around Kalgoorlie, these ate problems during process-
Australia is the world’s sec- duction,” Close said. include start-ups at Eastern ing due to the sticky nature
ond largest gold producer Goldfields’ [Ltd] refurbished of the ore. Also, the March
after China, whose estimat- Westgold is currently re- Davyhurst plant in March quarter is only 90 days, which
ed production was 455t in commissioning the old Fort- and Maximus’ [Resources reduces output by around 1.5t
2016, according to the United compared with the 92-day
States Geological Survey. In Australia’s largest gold producers for 2016 December quarter.”
third place was Russia, fol- Operation Ounces Owner
lowed by the US, Canada, Despite the adverse effects
and Peru. Boddington 800,000 Newmont Mining Corp of weather conditions, Close
said Australia’s annual gold
Surbiton director Sandra Super Pit – JV 754,000 Newmont Mining Corp 50%, production would continue to
Close said the Australian dol- Barrick Gold Corp 50% rise in the near term.
lar gold price had continued
to be attractive, thanks to Cadia East 732,288 Newcrest Mining Ltd “The local gold price re-
both the US dollar gold price mains reasonably attractive
and favourable exchange Tanami 459,000 Newmont Mining Corp despite some ups and downs
rates. but I cannot predict the future;
Telfer 440,519 Newcrest Mining Ltd anything can happen and of-
“This has encouraged ten does.”
the redevelopment of previ-
ously mined areas and the
refurbishment of mothballed
plants, thereby pushing Aus-
tralian gold output higher,”
Close said.

During 2016, several large
gold producers maintained
or slightly increased output.
Newcrest Mining Ltd’s Ca-
dia East mine has all but re-
placed production from the
company’s ageing Cadia and
Ridgeway mines.

The Kalgoorlie Super Pit

Page 16 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

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NEWS

Look long for gold: WGC

Increasing gold’s siderably since the 1970s
appeal to the insti- and 1980s from about
tutional investment 1,200t across the period to
more than 4,000t in 2016.

community is an order “It is a lot bigger market

of business for the and the growth is some-
World Gold Council what driven by bigger fac-
tors. It is driven by big de-
this year.
mographic shifts, the big

markets for gold – India

China and India view gold and China – also happen

as a mainstream asset, how- to be those markets that

ever, there is potential to have furthered income

broaden the precious metals’ growth up the chart in the

exposure in other markets, developed world,” Mulligan

WGC investor relations man- said.

ager John Mulligan told Gold “In the case of India, its

Mining Journal. population is urbanising,

Changing attitudes will be there are huge shifts of

a challenge though, as the World gold demand increased by 2% in 2016 to people and it happens to
non-yield bearing aspect of a three-year high of 4,309t be the market where gold
gold has seen it remain on
is embedded in the culture

the periphery when investors ket and the interest from for- motivator for investment, it is but also to some extent seen

weigh up the balance of their ward thinking and larger insti- not the only factor to be con- as an asset.”

portfolio. tutions in the US meant gold sidered. Convincing investors While gold is embedded

“That is a very key obsta- would always be attractive in around the world to incorpo- culturally in India and China,

cle for many of them and the that country, while Japan’s rate gold into their investment there are some restrictions,

question is: ‘What is gold’s heavy reliance on govern- strategy is not easy, as many particularly in China, prevent-

role and do we have a ration- ment bonds has put the coun- houses and commentators ing investors from more expo-

ale and improved base case try’s economy in a lacklustre tend to take a short-term sure to gold.

for gold’s role in institutional state. view. For example, it is currently

portfolios?’” Mulligan said. “The negative yield of Mulligan said this was difficult for the Chinese insur-

“We would argue that there Japanese bonds is going up something the industry need- ance industry, which is very

is a need for better balance quite a long way and that has ed to overcome, particularly aligned with the provision of

and risk in most portfolios and meant investment strategies pension funds, which need pensions, to invest in gold.

we have seen what happened are finding it difficult to find to look at gold’s value 10- Mulligan said the WGC

to the bond market with inter- any source of growth. In fact, 20 years down the line, with was implementing initiatives

est rates [rising]; gold can they’re being corroded and many focusing primarily on to break down such barriers.

play a role there. Then you are looking for stability in their the immediate future. “We’re talking with the in-

have the question of longer- portfolios,” Mulligan said. “Looking beyond the imme- dustry associations in China

term return expectations, so “In the US, if we can get diate price is key,” Mulligan and with the governments

it is about [us] edu- some of the larger said. and regulators in China,” Mul-

cating, performing institutions mak- “The way most institutions ligan said.

and making sure ing an allocation to have invested has been pure- “Basically, we are saying

all the data is avail- gold, it is a lot eas- ly modelled on something like to them that we think gold

able. That is abso- ier to make a case interest or inflation rate ex- elsewhere in your system is

lutely key and I also for gold elsewhere. pectations. They model it as a mainstream investment as-

think overcoming There are some an asset without looking at its set and we think it should be

some of the previ- pension funds in fundamental structure.” accepted as a mainstream

ous mindset issues the US allocated During times of extreme asset within your [broader]

is also key.” to gold; they are risk or uncertainty, the value investment strategy.”

So far, Mulligan John Mulligan talking to us more of gold is hard to ignore and – Mark Andrews
said, there was un- than they ever can sometimes obscure or

precedented inter- have before.” distract investors from other

est in gold from sections of Gold demand grew 2% factors driving the market.

the investment community in in 2016 and was trading at Mulligan said people often

Japan and the US. $US1,226/oz at the time of failed to remember that de-

The scale of the gold mar- print and while price is one mand for gold has grown con-

Page 18 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

LATIN REGISTER NOW

AMERICA

17-18 May 2017

Perth,Western Australia

Highlights:

KEYNOTE ADDRESS: HE Sir Peter Cosgrove AK, MC, Governor General, Commonwealth of Australia
HE Javier Córdova Unda, Minister for Mining, Republic of Ecuador
HE Aurora Williams, Minister for Mining, Republic of Chile

HE César Navarro Miranda, Minister for Mining and Metallurgy, Plurinational State of Bolivia
Hon Raphael Trotman, Minister for Natural Resources, Co-operative Republic of Guyana
Minister TBA, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Minister TBA, Argentine Republic
David Gonzalez,Vice President of Promotion, National Mining Agency of Colombia
Walter Spurrier, Economist/Columnist/Advisor, Spurrier Group, El Comercio, El Universo
& Guayaquil Chamber of Commerce
Chris Gale, Managing Director, Latin Resources Limited
Christian Easterday, Managing Director, Hot Chili Limited
Tony Rovira, Managing Director, Azure Minerals Limited
Paul Stephen, Managing Director, Crusader Resources Limited
Travis Schwertfeger, Managing Director, Alicanto Minerals Limited
Jaime Alvarez, Regional Manager - The Americas, Globe 24-7

Conference sponsors &
supporters to date:

www.latinamericadownunder.com

To present, exhibit or attend as a delegate please contact
Melita Fogarty on (+61) 8 9321 0355 or email [email protected]

COVER

OreCorp on the
fast-track to

Nyanzaga DFS

The results of Under the terms of the than $US200 million, Acacia interest, handing OreCorp
feasibility studies farm-in deal, within 60 days can pay a multiple between the option to increase its
define the future of all of OreCorp signing off on three and six times of ex- stake to 51% through staged
mining projects but a DFS project owner Aca- penditure to retake the reins payments; $US3 million on
in the case of the 3.3 cia Mining plc will determine and retain 75% of Nyanzaga. election; $US2 million on
moz Nyanzaga gold what level of interest it will re- The price tag is on a sliding construction start and $US10
project, OreCorp Ltd’s tain in Nyanzaga. scale dependent on final NPV million as a capped produc-
tabling of a DFS at the numbers; from $US45 million tion royalty.
end of this year will OreCorp paid an initial based on a $US200
deliver more than just commitment of $US1 million million NPV to $US90 Geologist Jim Brigden
economic parameters. to enter the farm-in agree- million based on a
ment with Acacia and by sole $US1 billion NPV.
OreCorp started farming funding the DFS and regional
into the project in 2015, with exploration in the range of If NPV is less than
the market responding well to $US14 million, it can earn $US200 million, Aca-
the initial deal. The scarcity 25% of Nyanzaga. cia can elect not to
of near-term gold producing retain its participating
assets on the ASX means If NPV in the DFS is greater
Orecorp’s PFS, managed by
Lycopodium Ltd, was highly There are few ASX-listed companies with projects able to
anticipated among investors. boast the grade and scale OreCorp can with Nyanzaga

Ultimately, the market is re-
ally awaiting completion of a
full DFS which will attach a
set value to Nyanzaga and
clarity on future ownership of
the project.

Page 20 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

According to the PFS on “ All OreCorp staff in Tanzania are based on site at Nyanzaga
the 3.34 moz @ 3.5 g/t pro- We have always said that if there was an opportu-
ject in Tanzania’s north, a 4 nity to do something earlier on, OreCorp would like
mtpa CIL plant could produce to hold a larger percentage of the project and I think all of
213,000 ozpa gold @ life-of
mine all-in costs of $US858/ our shareholders would as well.
oz over 12-year mine life
based on 88% recoveries. An OreCorp chairman Craig Williams with investor Carmel Daniele at Nyanzaga
IRR or NPV was not included
in the PFS, which was opti-
mised utilising a gold price of
$US1,250/oz.

Base load material for life-
of-mine will come from open
pit operations, with under-
ground mining to start in year
one. A total of 1.16 moz is ex-
pected to be extracted from
the underground which will
be developed to 800m below
surface and mineralisation
remains open at depth.

New equipment has been
assumed, however, with a
slew of nearby mines – some,
such as Acacia’s own Bu-
zwagi, with uncertain futures
– there is potential to source
second-hand gear.

“We are not aware of any
firm decision on Buzwagi
made by Acacia but we will
be keeping our eyes on all
mines in the region,” OreCorp

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 21

COVER

More than $US100 million had been spent and 237,000m drilled
at Nyanzaga before OreCorp’s involvement

Geologist Mary Krekamoo has a busy time ahead with OreCorp finish the PFS and people will the ASX, while Dacian Gold
looking to aggressively explore satellite targets recognise that.” Ltd and Gascoyne Resources

managing director Matt Yates one thing everybody wanted Judging by the calibre of Ltd have the type of pre-de-

told Gold Mining Journal. resolved was the ownership investors and analysts host- velopment projects of scale

OreCorp hopes to break structure. At the end of the ed at Nyanzaga during Feb- – Mt Morgans 1.2 moz and

ground at Nyanzaga in May day, the ownership structure ruary, there appears to be Dalgaranga 100,000 ozpa,

2018, with a DFS triggered at will be clear following com- some love for OreCorp in the respectively – attracting in-

the time of print and investors pletion of the DFS at the end market. vestors’ attention.

somewhat closer to knowing of the year; one year ahead West African Resources However, there are few

whose hands Nyanzaga may of schedule. All things be- Ltd and Cardinal Resources other ASX companies with

rest in. ing equal we want to move Ltd have been African gold projects as advanced as

““We have always said that straight into DFS when we stocks closely followed on West African, Cardinal, Da-

if there was an opportunity cian and Gascoyne, and
to do something earlier on,
OreCorp would like to hold At the end of the day, the ownership the idea of OreCorp fill-
a larger percentage of the structure will be clear following com- ing that space is begin-
project and I think all of ning to dawn on the mar-
our shareholders would as
well,” Yates said regardingpletion of the DFS at the end of the year; ket with the company’s
one year ahead of schedule. All things shares climbing more
than 350% in the last 12
the company’s ownership being equal we want to move straight into months.
stance on Nyanzaga. DFS when we finish the PFS and people “Investor confidence
“In Cape Town [during will recognise that. is steadily increasing
in Nyanzaga as we are
Mining Indaba week], the

Page 22 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

Early success at Bululu has OreCorp excited about the
regional potential at Nyanzaga

working hard to get our mes- Metals & Mining conference Steady state mining of 1.1 mtpa from underground from
sage out there,” Yates said. in Miami to capitalise on two year five onwards is anticipated at an average
things; momentum the com- diluted grade of 3.7 g/t gold for nine years
“As long as there are good pany is building and heat in
levels of consistency in oper- the gold sector.
ating and capital costs in the
PFS we will be well placed. Starting the year below
We haven’t really cracked the $US1,200/oz, gold has ral-
North American market yet; lied and was worth about
we are going to have another $US1,260/oz at the time of
try at that this year. As we de- print.
liver the PFS that is another
tick in the box. That should Many commentators, ana-
augur well for OreCorp and lysts and industry experts tip
we expect that investor senti- gold to have a solid run this
ment will increase going for- year against a backdrop of
ward.” geopolitical uncertainty.

Yates and chairman Craig Yates said it was not quite
Williams received good feed- boom times for the gold in-
back from visits to the Denver dustry just yet but the signs
and Beaver Creek gold shows were good.
late last year and recently re-
turned to North America for “I feel this is very similar to
BMO Capital Markets’ Global how things were in the early
noughties – 2003/04 – when
the market was starting to get

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 23

COVER

OreCorp VP project development Henk Diederichs is a A return of optimism and Delivering consistency in
member of the team which has been professionally money to fund good projects the upcoming PFS and DFS
connected on-and-off for many years in the gold sector is the plat- was key to keeping the mar-
form from which OreCorp is ket happy, Yates said, as well
the hunger. It will only take a year ago. From the rout of presenting Nyanzaga’s cre- as rapidly progressing both
one or two catalysts to push January 2016, things have dentials. the issue of Nyanzaga own-
us back up there; for exam- vastly improved and people ership was being addressed
ple if the gold price shoots have made money. Prior to However, recent history ahead of time to give inves-
to $US1,400/oz and stays this most investors that dab- suggests the market re- tors a degree of certainty.
there,” Yates said. ble in this industry probably mains fickle with the likes of
went through five years of Cardinal (Namdini, Ghana) “I don’t think anyone can
“There is definitely money continual losses.” and West African Resources accuse OreCorp of sitting
around which there wasn’t (Sanbrado, Burkina Faso) on its hands. We have a re-
marked down by investors source-to-reserve upgrade
upon milestone announce- coming up later this year with
ments from their respective the DFS. In addition, there is
projects, having previously an EM survey and possibly
been market darlings. more drilling in Mauritania
which is also very exciting.
“There are groups around There will be no shortage of
which have been putting news flow, so we will keep
money into the West Afri- trickling information out into
can space but this is yet to the market and making sure
filter across the continent to that the word gets out there.”
East Africa. Having said that,
OreCorp is probably one of While Australian and Eu-
the few juniors out there with ropean investors are taken
a gold project that has the po- by the story, courting North
tential to be built and people American interest remains a
just need a level of comfort matter of perseverance for
with it and that process has OreCorp, as Yates’ past ex-
begun,” Yates said. periences have taught him.

Page 24 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

A geologist with over 20

years experience in the in-

dustry, Yates knows Tan-

zania and the sector well

enough and is best placed to

sell company and country in a

constructive manner.

“At Mantra it took 6-9

months before we got people

from North America investing

in us,” Yates said of the ura-

nium explorer he previously

led.

“You need to build a pat-

tern, you need people talk-

ing about it. We will do some

focused marketing as well.

It is a huge market and their

appetite for risk is starting to

come back. They have had

a rough time of it and if you Diederichs, Yates and Williams have the task of delivering a DFS on Nyanzaga in
thought it was bad here in the back end of the year
Australia, they have had it

worse,” Yates said, referring resident exploration manag- zaga, which includes VP board level, we are all an in-

to the North American invest- er at Tanganyika Gold Ltd, project development Henk tegral part of the team. We

ment community. it gave Yates exposure to Diederichs and geologist function a bit like a watch;

Yates shared managing Tanzania’s gold sector. Jim Brigden, have connect- there is always a face to the

director duties at Mantra The managing director is ed off-and-on professionally watch but at the end of the

and brought the Mkuju Riv- just one critical ingredient of for many years. day if one cog is missing

er (Tanzania), Kariba (Zam- the tight-knit OreCorp team at “We want to invite like- the watch doesn’t always

bia) and Mavuzi (Mozam- Nyanzaga. minded people to work with work and building a com-

bique) uranium projects into Yates has a 25-year his- us,” Yates said. pany is no different.”

the stable. Mantra also had tory of working with chair- “From the least experi- Also driving the OreCorp

the Buhemba gold project man Williams, while the enced employee in Africa story are the likes of Euroz,

and together with his role as group assembled at Nyan- to the most experienced at Canaccord Genuity and Blue

Ocean Equities, which have

shown support in the market.

“So, from the top to the bot-

tom we have got good people

and the right blend,” Yates

said.

But does the company

have the right project to at-

tract $US248 million in debt

and equity funding?

It appears so.

Nyanzaga is in the gold-rich

Lake Victoria goldfields of

Tanzania, and previous own-

ers have spent $US100 mil-

lion and completed 237,000m

of drilling on the project.

OreCorp has added to that

base with a further 266 sterili-

sation and exploration aircore

and RAB holes and 13,000m

of RC drilling.

An updated resource and

reserve report – being pre-

pared by CSA Global – is

expected in conjunction with

the DFS. Meanwhile, Mitchell

An average strip ratio of 2.5:1 has been guided in the scoping study on Nyanzaga Drilling Services (Tanzania)

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 25

COVER

The Busisi ferry is 35km by road from Mwanza, Tanzania’s second largest city. Nyanzaga is about 50km by road from Busisi

continues to be engaged in and along strike. imity. What we have done so A maiden drilling pro-
exploring the regional poten- Some of the better drill in- far at Nyanzaga has taught gramme intersected peak
tial with three rigs on site at us a lot about the mineralisa- values of 1.34% nickel and
Nyanzaga in February. tercepts to date include: 16m tion and geology and what we 1.29% copper at Anomaly 5.
@ 2.84 g/t gold from 48m, in- need to be looking at to find
There is believed to be cluding 8m @ 4 g/t from 56m; other gold mineralisation and OreCorp hopes to define
about 40 moz of gold re- 8m @ 1.51 g/t from 24m and I’d be bitterly disappointed if more drill targets at Akjoujt
serves and resources within a 4m @ 1.1 g/t gold from sur- we didn’t.” South this year and potential-
100km radius of the 3.34 moz face. ly awaken a sleeping giant in
Nyanzaga gold project which Results from a soil geo- the base metals space.
covers an area of 271km. The onset of the wet sea- chemistry programme and
son has made mobilising data from aeromagnetics “Independence Group [NL]
Geita (13.8 moz gold), rigs around site challenging, will be pulled together by paid about $1 billion for Nova-
Bulyanhulu (17.1 moz) and however, OreCorp intends OreCorp during the wet sea- Bollinger and that is the style
Buzwagi (2.7 moz) are some to push on with exploration son and Yates is confident of mineralisation we are look-
of the mines nearby in Tanza- drilling when the rain stops in additional targets will be ing for out there in Maurita-
nia’s north. May. generated and resources de- nia,” Yates said.
fined.
OreCorp hopes Nyanzaga “The recent drilling at Bu- “Independence also has a
can join that esteemed crowd lulu was a brilliant start to our OreCorp is hoping its Tan- 30% interest in the Tropicana
and is also confident of explo- regional target testing and zanian exploration success gold mine, so we see our-
ration success in a regional emphasises we are in one of is replicated across the con- selves as an evolving and po-
context. the most productive green- tinent in Mauritania. tential parallel to them in Af-
stone belts on earth,” Yates rica. That is where we would
Satellite target drill testing said. The company is conduct- like to see the company in a
at Bululu, 6km from Nyanza- ing an EM survey at the Ak- few years time. And, I believe
ga, has whet OreCorp’s appe- “If you look at how many joujt South project where we have the wherewithal, the
tite for exploration with a peak square kilometres we have the Anomaly and Anomaly 5 board, the people and the
gold value of 5.35 g/t over 4m and that the main focus has nickel-copper prospects are backing to do it.”
and mineralisation confirmed always been Nyanzaga, there rapidly evolving base metals
over a 250km strike with min- is a lot of potential for a new discoveries. – Mark Andrews
eralisation open down dip discovery within close prox-

Page 26 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

Several hundred people will need to be relocated to accommodate OreCorp managing director Matt Yates speaks
the Nyanzaga gold mine with community liaison officer John Bwana at

the Nyanzaga camp site

Nyanzaga is considered of that. There is a prescribed OreCorp community liaison “We want to make sure that
a potentially nationally process and once we know officer John Bwana has been we manage these relation-
significant development in where everything is going instrumental in engaging with ships so that we don’t have
Tanzania, however, there to be located and there is a the local communities and any problems arise as we
are nearby communities that logical timeframe then we will people in the area and has move towards development.
need to be looked after to implement the Relocation Ac- established a highly-regard- We have to be respectful in
achieve that outcome. tion Plan [RAP].” ed rapport for OreCorp. what we are doing, where we
are doing it and I intend to
“There will be several hun- The RAP outlines the level “Our team at site has make sure we adhere to eve-
dred people to relocate,” of compensation required to worked incredibly hard and rything we need to.”
OreCorp Ltd managing direc- be paid, where the local resi- we are steadily building a
tor Matt Yates said. dents are going to be moved fantastic relationship with the
and how that action is to take local community and we want
“This is their home and you place. to maintain that,” Yates said.
have to be totally respectful

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 27

AFRICA FOCUS

Bristow urges exploration rethink

Africa is the most suitable destination for the next generation of Tier 1 gold deposits to be found, according to Bristow

Randgold Re- sector was outperformed by “reckless behaviour” during in its own survival,” Bristow
sources Ltd chief the spot gold price during this the super-cycle had left it said.
executive Mark Bris- period, leading to accusa- heavily indebted with many
tow has delivered tions from investors that the of the investments made at Randgold has been a
yet another damning industry had blown the once- the peak having been written leader of African gold mining
indictment of the gold in-a-lifetime opportunity. down or completely discard- developments over the last
sector, telling Mining ed. This process had eroded decade with its latest mine,
Indaba both industry “The entire gold mining in- the market’s opinion of gold the Kibali JV with AngloGold
and governments dustry is in the same boat, it equities, a shift in sentiment Ashanti Ltd in DRC, hitting
had squandered “the has delivered no value, badly which would have further ef- 585,000oz gold production in
finest opportunity underperforming the gold fects on the sector in coming 2016.
for value creation in price,” Bristow said. “The years.
memory” and is now top 12 gold producers since Bristow said more Tier 1
back where it started 2005, with a few exceptions, “Investors are now de- gold deposits would have to
in 2005. are all trading below their pre- manding better cash returns be found if the sector was
cycle levels despite the fact and this will impair the indus- to reverse the depletion of
“There’s no doubt the past we’ve seen significant move- try’s ability to invest in the reserve ounces and he iden-
few years have been an in- ments during 2016.” replacement of reserves and tified Africa as the most suit-
teresting time for the industry resources; to be able to invest able exploration destination.
but after the ups and downs He said the industry’s
I feel like saying: ‘the more Mark Bristow “Growing expenditure on
things, change the more it exploration is delivering few-
remains the same’,” Bristow er returns and since the turn
said in Cape Town. of the century the industry
has failed to replace the gold
Randgold was a clear win- it mined,” he said. “It is bad
ner during the last commod- enough that the world gold
ity super-cycle, posting share inventory is shrinking, what
price gains of more than is even worse is the steady
960% between January 2005 deterioration in the quality
and October 2012. However, of those reserves. The only
the vast majority of the gold way to reverse the decline
in grades is to revisit Africa
as the world’s premier gold
destination and start explor-
ing new deposits with world-
class credentials. Without
that you can see what is

Page 28 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

going to happen to the their traditional hunting
world’s supply of gold.”
grounds has caused a
Sub-Saharan Africa’s
share of global gold re- decline in new discover-
serves and resources has
grown throughout the last ies and new gold produc-
decade to 12.5% thanks to
growing political stability in tion.”
the region and subsequent
increased investment. Bristow doubted the

“Africa is a continent ability of senior mining
endowed with vast min-
eral wealth,” Bristow said. company management
“For a long time, all but the
bravest investors were de- to change the falling re-
terred by the risk perceived
here but that changed with serve levels, pointing to
the end of the Cold War,
liberation in South Africa the results of an EY sur-
and the advent of govern-
ments which were more vey which suggested the
stable, democratic and busi-
ness friendly. lack of reserve replace-

“In gold and copper, you ment was not a priority
can see how production has
flourished in this congenial cli- for industry.
mate; a fact reinforced when
you look at global reserves “[This] single biggest
and resources. Sub-Saharan
Africa now boasts as many threat to the industry, lit-
reserves and resources as
Australia and more than the erally a matter of life or
US and Canada.”
Sub-Saharan Africa boasts as many reserves and resources as death… didn’t make it
However, Bristow urged Af- Australia and more than the US and Canada into the top 10 [of major
rican governments not to lose risks to the mining indus-
sight of the policies which
had led to the continent’s as a model for the rest of Af- December 2015 prior to walk- try] in the last few years,” he
increased standing in gold.
He said governments were rica. Randgold reiterated its ing away from a proposed said.
guilty of mimicking the bad
practices of industry during desire to expand its footprint JV over AngloGold’s Obuasi Clearly Bristow sees the
the peaks of the commodi-
ties cycle. in the West African country mine in the country, before risk as very real and he called

“Governments’ reluctance – where it already operates adding: “South Africa? It is on industry and government
to manage the cycle and
their readiness to match the the Tongon gold mine – in its sad what is happening to the to work together to arrest the
industry’s short-term outlook
negatively impacts the indus- quarterly report presentation industry; I would hate to be descent.
try,” he said. “Our continent
desperately needs to unlock earlier in the day. operating there.” “[The only way] to halt the
the value of our resources
[but] investors want stabil- Bristow also praised DRC African jurisdictions gen- decline and create real value
ity and consistency, they
don’t want to have the rules for “retreating from changes” erally have a higher rev- is not by doing dubious deals
changed halfway through the
game.” to its mining code after a enue take than other large or over-promoting marginal

Eleven African countries backlash from industry and gold-producing nations and assets, or enacting another
have either changed or are
considering changes to their acknowledged that anoth- Bristow said that until those swathe of legislation; it is by
mining code and Bristow said
the instability was causing in- er major copper producer, funds were applied into pro- making long-term commit-
vestors to pause. He pointed
to Cote d’Ivoire’s mining code Zambia, had also reformed grammes designed to ensure ments to the hard but reward-

“its “very aggressive code”. the long-term sustainability ing labour of discovering sub-
The only way to reverse the de- stantial gold deposits and
cline in grades is to revisit Africa converting them into profit-
as the world’s premier gold destination able mines,” he said.

and start exploring new deposits with “I believe we need to work
world-class credentials. Without that together to find and develop
you can see what is going to happen to new mines. In order to do
that we have to attract inves-
the world’s supply of gold. tors by proving to them Africa
is the place which is capable
of delivering real returns,
higher than you could get in

other parts of the world, in an

environment which supports

Africa’s two largest gold pro- of national mining industries, fiscal security and good gov-

ducers, Ghana and South investors would place capital ernance.

Africa, are both reviewing elsewhere. “In return, the investors will

their mining codes. While “Until that prompts long- deliver tax revenues, employ-

he didn’t mention either dur- term infrastructure develop- ment and substantial GDP

ing his speech at Mining In- ment, for example, investors contributions. Each of us has

daba, Bristow had previously will prefer to take the chances a role to play but it all starts

told Paydirt South Africa re- in much less prospective but with a mutual commitment to

mained difficult or impossible more stable goldfields else- the long term.”

to work in. where in the world. So, while – Dominic Piper
“Ghana is a tough place to Africa is still the place with

work and no-one has made a the most prospective mineral

lot of money there,” he said in value, the miners’ retreat to

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 29

AFRICA FOCUS

Resolute at home in Africa

Resolute Mining value for shareholders.” the orebody that aren’t
Ltd is more likely Welborn said develop-
to turn to Africa in currently defined,” Wel-
search of project op- ment of the decline and
portunities, according box cut for the Syama born said.
to managing director underground were both
John Welborn. progressing ahead of “It will be very inter-
schedule, with the com-
Welborn has made no se- pany targeting full oper- esting when we get the
cret of his desire to add new ating capacity from the
assets to Resolute’s portfolio, underground by Decem- results back from our
which includes the Syama ber 2018.
and Ravenswood gold mines current programme as
in Mali and Queensland and Resolute is currently
the Bibiani development in processing oxide and to how many of the hits
Ghana. sulphide stockpiles from
the Syama open pit, are within the existing
Resolute also holds stra- which concluded mining
tegic investments in DRC- in May 2015, with under- inferred envelope and
focused Canadian explorer ground ore to soon be
Kilo Goldmines Ltd and ASX- added to the processing how many, if any, are
listed Manas Resources Ltd, chain.
which recently acquired a outside of that, and
gold project in Tanzania. A DFS completed in
mid-2016 forecast pro- whether we can find
With the long-term futures duction of 250,000 ozpa
of Syama and Ravenswood over an initial 12-year un- some nice, new, high-
secured and the development derground mine life, for a pre-
of Bibiani on track, Resolute production capex of $US95 grade areas which
is entertaining new project million and life-of-mine AISC
acquisitions, particularly with of $US881/oz. might have the potential
gold running hot.
New automated technolo- to significantly improve
Welborn, who has been gies have been integrated
with the gold miner for almost into the underground mine the economics of any
two years, said the compa- plans and are contributing to
ny’s extensive experience in its rapid development. future development.”
Africa had put opportunities
on the continent at the fore- Resolute’s recent Nafolo Welborn returned
front of future planning. discovery, about 250m south
of the current limit of mining from February’s Mining
“A key part of our portfolio at Syama, is also being fac-
is Ravenswood in Queens- tored into optimisation stud- Indaba conference in
land, but the most obvi- ies. Nafolo returned discov-
ous area where we’ve got a ery intercepts of 19m @ 2.57 John Welborn Cape Town full of op-
strong competitive advantage g/t gold and 18m @ 3.02 g/t
and where the most opportu- late last year and drill rigs are timism about Africa’s
nity is, is in Africa,” Welborn currently testing the full ex-
told Gold Mining Journal. tent of the find. ing forward to informing the gold mining sector, with his

“Personally, I’m a big be- Welborn has brought an market once we have a better company still following up on
liever in the broader oppor- increased focus on explora-
tunity of being part of what I tion to Resolute and has high idea of how big that opportu- potential operational and po-
see as a global opportunity hopes for what else could
to participate in the advance- possibly exist along the Sy- nity could be. litical leads, project opportu-
ment of the African continent, ama belt, of which the com-
most obviously from a re- pany controls 80km. “Nafolo is a real example nities and investor meetings
source development point of
view. “There is no drilling 15km of actually looking for more of at the time of print.
south of the main orebody, so
“But, in the end, we’ll look we really are at a very early what the geology holds and The former investment
anywhere where we can add stage of what could be a
continuing exploration story,” where we might add value. banker is also excited about
Welborn said. “We’ve added
rigs and we’re really look- That is, removing the blink- what lies ahead for the broad-

ers we might have had and er gold industry.

changing the focus of our “I am really excited about a

exploration team from trying business that effectively cre-

to solve the problems of the ates its own currency, as I

operators to creating oppor- see being a gold miner as be-

tunity from what is in front of ing a bit like modern day al-

them.” chemist, where we go out and

At Bibiani, Resolute is cur- find orebodies and turn them

rently undertaking a 30,000m into bullion,” Welborn said.

drilling programme in a bid to “It’s a magic act and some-

upgrade the existing reserves thing that’s incredibly exciting

to support a mine life beyond to be a part of, that process

the five years estimated in from first geological opportu-

last year’s feasibility study. nity through discovery, to de-

Welborn is also keen to velopment, to effectively the

explore outside the initial re- creation of a currency in the

serve (5.4mt @ 3.7 g/t gold form of bullion.

for 640,000oz) and inferred “The underlying business

resource (4.5mt @ 4.1 g/t for that we’re in is the mining

1.8 moz). of gold, hence, our mission

“The real opportunity to add statement; mine gold, create

value to that project is finding value.”

some of the high-grade ore – Michael Washbourne
near surface, in potentially

new stopes or new areas of

Page 30 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

15 YEARS OF ADU

6 - 8 September 2017

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AFRICA FOCUS

Cardinal spreads wings again

After having its disappointed investors and but optimistic since the met-
wings clipped late saw its share price slump to
last year upon an- as low as 23c/share in the allurgical update,” Cardinal
nouncing a maiden ensuing days.
4 moz resource at its managing director Archie
Namdini gold project, Internally, the company
Cardinal Resources has remained confident Koimtsidis told Gold Mining
Ltd looks set to take and has been steadily win-
flight again. ning back market support to Journal.
be trading at 42.5c/share at
The company was trad- the time of print. “Their cautious approach
ing at 76c/share before the
resource announcement in The positive vibes to- has been minimised as their
November, as investors an- wards Cardinal come on
ticipated something special the back of a number of optimism has grown. As one
from Namdini, Ghana. encouraging results deliv-
ered this year, including an significant shareholder said:
While 110mt for 4.1 moz interim metallurgical update
@ 1.2 g/t (average) gold was revealing the potential for a ‘The lights are back on and
somewhat in-line with mar- conventional crush-grind-
ket expectations, metallurgi- float-regrind-CIL circuit to we are waiting patiently for
cal results from a single hole produce gold recoveries in
tested were not. the range of 80%. the high beams to fully shine

Cardinal felt the brunt of Oxide gold recoveries re- again’.”
ported in the update are now
at about 90%, with metallur- Koimtsidis said inves-
gical samples from the whole
tors were definitely back on

board with early-stage ex-

plorers, however, they were

more selective in the com-

panies they supported.

Archie Koimtsidis “The appetite is for pro-

jects that have promise of

orebody subject to further op- a bright future,” Koimtsidis

timisation test work. said.

“Since the start of the year, Namdini is one of a few

investors have been cautious ASX-listed projects consid-

Page 32 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

Cardinal plans to conduct resource drilling at Namdini until Q3

ered to have serious devel- market buying. The permitting and approv- The results confirm the
opment potential despite the “I do believe Dynamic als process is under way at mineralised corridor at Nam-
rough end to 2016. Namdini, while Cardinal plans dini extends to depth and with
Fund’s increase in sharehold- to conduct resource drilling four rigs in operation, Cardi-
In a show of support for ing is a testament to their abil- until Q3. nal hopes to define the depth
what it has managed so far ity to see future, longer term and strike extensions of the
in 2017, particularly on the value. And, it also reinforces Assays reported from project.
metallurgical front, 1832 As- what the serious technical NMDD062 have intersected
set Management LP – Dy- teams have already worked the Namdini corridor down – Mark Andrews
namic Fund from Toronto has out about the Namdini depos- dip with results including,
increased its holding in Car- it – it will be mined,” Koimtsi- 25m @ 2.16 g/t gold, 30m @
dinal to 10.85% through on- dis said. 4.27 g/t and 37m @ 2.88 g/t.

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 33

AFRICA FOCUS

West Wits looks for more

from Sol Plaatje

Protracted negotia- West Wits chairman Michael Quinert (pictured) expects series of small open pit oper-
tions have slowed development studies for the company’s wider Soweto Cluster ations West Wits has lined up
progress but West for its Soweto Cluster project
Wits Mining Ltd’s plan project to begin later this year and while keen to maximise
for its Soweto Cluster cash flow from the off, getting
project in South Africa the plant call factor Mintails Mining has continued de- the contracts and mining ap-
remains on-track, ac- is applying to the Sol Plaatje spite the impasse and Quin- proaches right for the rest of
cording to chairman ore. ert said that while negotia- the portfolio are just as vital.
Michael Quinert. tions were ongoing West Wits
“We had accepted all the reserved the right to talk with “We are in the process of
West Wits began mining at call costs but there now ap- other parties. securing the mining licence
Sol Plaatje – part of the wider pears to be a disconnect be- for the second project on the
Soweto Cluster project on the tween their metallurgists and “The fall back option is Main Reef and we are talking
Central Rand goldfield – late accountants when working to use another contractor to other contractors about
last year and despite slower- out the gold recoveries,” he or even change processing that,” Quinert said. “They’ll
than-expected mining rates, said. “Much of the material plant entirely. There are plen- put up the money for the
the company is still receiving processed through that plant ty of options and people have trenching and validation of
cash flow from the venture. is from tailings dumps and approached us. There are the resource and they’ll take
other sources which are of- actually six plants with 20km it through the permitting pro-
West Wits received ten contaminated by organic and some of them are closer.” cess.”
$165,000 in the December carbon, thus reducing recov-
quarter from the mining con- eries.” Quinert admitted the call West Wits’ ultimate aim is
tractor, Mintails Mining SA factor was not the only chal- to use the cash generated
Pty Ltd, despite the operation Mintails applies a discount lenge in front of the company. from the modest open pits to
failing to hit the envisaged 14- (the plant call factor) based While reconciliation between fund full feasibility work on its
15,000 tpm mark. on the total recoveries but the block model and the feed entire 1.37 moz resource.
West Wits is demanding sep- grade at the plant has gener-
The mining agreement – arate calls for the ore it pro- ally been good, mining rates “The goal is to develop a
which saw Mintails take on all vides. and execution are still slug- 100,000 ozpa underground
mining, transport, processing gish. operation through a JV or
and rehabilitation costs with “We are insisting on a fixed the like,” Quinert said. “We
West Wits receiving 0.6 g/t rate call factor for the Sol “There have been prob- haven’t been able to push the
gold of ore mined – is being Plaatje ore because it is clean lems when there has not button on the wider develop-
renegotiated to better reflect and fresh and has consistent- been proper supervision of ment work while we are still
the material coming out of Sol ly good recoveries, as high- the sub-contractor in the pit. waiting for the cash flow to
Plaatje’s Pit 1. lighted in the bottle-roll tests. If they are going in too far into pick up. It is a big job which
Obviously, we lose some of the next reef, you can dilute requires up to $1 million. I did
“That was the deal but the gold in the normal re- the grade which is a prob- hope to have been pushing
once mining started we soon covery process but they are lem at these levels. It comes ahead with that now but the
acknowledged that would taking another chunk on top down to better pit manage- delays haven’t changed the
cause the contractor issues of the proven recoveries but ment and supervision of the proposition.”
because it became apparent we think there should be an sub-contractor and we know
we could mine a lot more ore agreement on a fixed recov- we can do better.” Excess cash would also al-
but at lower grades,” Quinert ery rate,” Quinert said. low the company to revamp
said. “However, that made Sol Plaatje is the first of a exploration on its Derewo
the deal uncommercial for River gold project in Indone-
them so we agreed to a 50/50 sia.
JV with Mintails taking all the
third-party risk; they would “If we get enough cash we
deduct the costs and then would like to go back into In-
distribute cash.” donesia,” Quinert said. “Our
new partner is well-connect-
Operations have continued ed and there has been pro-
“in good faith” during the re- gress behind the scenes,
negotiation but, according to just no milestones to report
Quinert issues remain over yet. But we definitely haven’t
given up on it.”

– Dominic Piper

Page 34 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

Stonewall’s breakthrough study

After releasing a “We need to technically
robust scoping
study on its Rietfon- define Rietfontein to raise
tein project in South
Africa’s Mpumalanga the capital but there is
province, interest from
potential financiers an existing process plant
has risen sharply, ac-
cording to Stonewall – albeit it needs a bit of
Resources Ltd man-
aging director Rob fixing up – and it is fully
Thomson.
permitted so it sets us for-
Speaking to Gold Mining
Journal ahead of a whirlwind ward quite dramatically,”
tour of Australia, London
and Hong Kong to meet with Thomson said.
brokers, Thomson said the
number of approaches was “In no respect is Stone-
fuelled by Reitfontein’s com-
pelling metrics, based around wall a greenfields com-
a production profile of 60,000
ozpa @ $US417/oz. pany with greenfields

“What people see is that projects. The TGME plant
it is a lowest quartile-type
project. It needs more defini- has operated before, and
tion but there are very few of
these projects around glob- a trial of the pre-mined
ally, so it has got people’s at-
tention,” Thomson said. residue out of the Beta

“The interest in Stonewall With permits and approvals in place, plus existing infrastructure to work mine has gone well. Dur-
has increased significantly with, Stonewall plans to be producing gold in South Africa from 2018 ing that process, BEE has
and rather than compare it
against the whole resources been [established] and will
sector, I’d say the fundamen-
tals – high-grade, potential equity) would be required to gold for 905,000oz indicated be with us as we move for-
low operating cost – gets
people’s attention. I think we upgrade and refurbish the and inferred] is so strong it ward.
are starting to see ourselves
distinguished from the pack CIL plant and elution circuit will take the initial funding “I want to be a little cau-
and that is our intention when
profiling the company and Ri- at TGME, undertake under- for sure – those high-grade tious here, but when we sit
etfontein.”
ground development and zones beg to be drilled – so down and do our metrics, we
Rietfontein, part of Stone-
wall’s larger 3.4 moz TGME build related infrastructure. clearly, we will be focusing on think it is just about the best
gold project, near Pilgrims
and Sabie, 300km east of Jo- Initially, throughput of that,” he said. undeveloped gold project
hannesburg, is billed as the
underground starter project 200,000 tpa is in the plan- “We will probably know in in South Africa. That is our
for the company to launch
its ambitions of becoming a ning, however, if extensional about 4-6 weeks time, when view because of a number
100,000 ozpa gold producer.
drilling down dip is successful we have all three projects of factors, including the fact
The scoping study on Ri-
etfontein suggested $US31 and more high-grade mate- in front of us and the scop- that we are not refurbishing a
million (potentially in debt and
rial is unlocked, there is po- ing study work in front of us. high-grade mine a couple of

tential to increase production Then we can mix and match kilometres underground; ac-

to 250,000-300,000 tpa for and work it out.” cess is via an adit. It is quite

70,000-80,000 ozpa gold. At a time when there is unique, we feel, certainly in

While production will defi- much conjecture hanging South Africa.”

nitely start at Rietfontein in over the South African re- How investors feel about

2018, subject to economically sources sector, particularly Stonewall’s strategy and am-

viable studies and funding with changes to the Mining bitions will be known shortly,

locked in, Stonewall has the Charter up in the air, Stone- with Thomson expected to

high-grade Beta mine with its wall can proceed with some start flagging potential financ-

pre-mined residue (PMR) po- certainty at TGME, given a ing options to market.

tential to also consider. mining right registered with What the market can be

Resource numbers are the DMR sees a mining per- assured of is that Stonewall

yet to be released at Beta mit in place until 2028, with has moved beyond the sticky

but early indications point to options to extend. situation involving a failed

grades in the range of 6-8 g/t Therefore, while discus- takeover/merger bid from a

gold. sions around financing Ri- Chinese group which has sty-

Thomson expects to know etfontein – which boasted a mied progress at TGME for

by mid-year what kind of pro- NPV of $US114 million in the the past few years.

duction profile Stonewall can scoping study – continue, “That will be resolved and

contemplate next year. Stonewall has also started it will be very nice when that

“We will have all three pro- engaging with potential con- happens but the strength of

jects [Rietfontein, Beta and tractors. Rietfontein means we can

PMR] in front of us and we Thomson said there was in- push forward now much

will work out what combina- terest from groups in Botswa- more independently,” Thom-

tions are needed. Regard- na about becoming involved son said.

less, the high-grade nature of in the historic operations at – Mark Andrews
Rietfontein [2.55mt @ 11 g/t TGME.

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 35

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AFRICA FOCUS

Interest builds for Oklo

Oklo Resources Oklo will continue drilling until the wet season in July
Ltd has under-
gone somewhat of a than 1,300sq km of ground in from Fekola, had never been barou and Disse.
transition in the past Mali, with the likes of Yanfo- drilled but Oklo has since Taylor told Gold Mining
two years and is now lila, Kolondieba, Sirakourou embarked on an aggressive
well positioned to and Solabougouda in the campaign at the property. Journal drilling would con-
take advantage of the country’s south-east and So- tinue for a few more months,
renewed interest in caf in the north all to play sec- The company has com- with a 25,000m aircore/RC
the West African gold ond fiddle to Moussala and pleted over 50,000m of au- programme advancing at the
space. Dandoko, near Fekola. ger drilling at Moussala and time of print.
Dandoko, with about 8,000m
Simon Taylor took on the A year ago, Moussala, 15km of RC drilling finished at Dia- “We have ongoing drilling
position of managing direc- all the way through to the wet
tor in March 2015, with Dr With country manager Madani Diallo, chief geologist season in July,” he said.
Madani Diallo and Andrew Djibril Diakite and technical consultant Andrew Boyd,
Boyd joining him on the board “We are cashed up to com-
of Mali-focused Oklo at the Oklo now has the team in place to thrive in Mali plete these programmes and
same time. we don’t need to raise money
to complete that. The trigger
Diallo is well-known in min- [for more investor interest
ing circles after a stint as BHP in Oklo] will be getting more
Billiton Ltd’s exploration man- holes into things like Seko
ager, while of more relevance and proving that the gold ex-
to Oklo is his “knighthood- tends into the bedrock and
like” recognition in Mali for his then we can start drilling out
contribution to the country’s a resource.”
gold sector.
Infill drilling at Seko, within
Diallo played a key part in the Dandoko project, has
the discovery of Sadiola (13 started with auger results in-
moz), Morila (8.5 moz), Sy- dicating the trend extends for
ama (7.9 moz), Essakane (5.3 1.6km with grades up to 3.28
moz) and other gold deposits, g/t gold. Meanwhile, at Seko
providing a fountain of knowl- East, the gold trend extends
edge to Oklo as director and over 2km with grades up to
country manager. 2.44 g/t gold.

Companies will be hard Also at Dandoko, signifi-
pressed to find a similar cre- cant gold-in-soil anomalies
dentialed individual in Mali
as Diallo, however, Oklo ap-
pears to have found a geo-
physicist in Boyd with a com-
plementary skill set.

Boyd was the general man-
ager for Papillon Resources
and has over 20 years experi-
ence in the mining and explo-
ration sector.

Boyd’s form with Papillon at
the 5.15 moz Fekola gold de-
posit prior to the merger with
Canada’s B2Gold Corp will
be critical in Oklo’s success.

Oklo is exploring a pack-
age, about 30km east of Fe-
kola, which is pretty much
virgin territory.

The company has more

Page 38 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

identified from drilling at Dia- Assay results returned from seven RC holes at Disse at the the 121 Mining Investment
barou (29m @ 10.42 g/t gold, time of print further enhanced the Seko discovery. Conference in Cape Town
6m @ 53.77 g/t, 28m @ 3.9 recently.
g/t); Disse (21m @ 5.67 g/t Step-out drilling along the interpreted south-east trending
and 13m @ 4.69 g/t) and the zone on 150m spaced lines over a strike of 550m included 16m “There were funds there
6km-long Selingouma (18m @ 3 g/t gold including 3m @ 10.12 g/t; 3m @ 22.67 g/t including that wouldn’t normally look at
@ 1.75 g/t) have attracted 1m @ 64.8 g/t; 4m @ 8.39 g/t including 2m @ 15.85 g/t and 16m you unless your market cap
new attention to Oklo. @ 1.21 g/t including 2m @ 5.1 g/t. is above $50-100 million but
they are looking down the
“With the new shallow au- Meanwhile, infill auger drilling at Seko has dileneated a new curve at some of the up and
ger results that we have been gold trend at Seko West over 1.2km. coming explorers,” he said.
putting out next to big gold
deposits... the size of the Furthermore, new gold anomalies at Dabia, Dabia West and The momentum continued
auger anomalies that we are Seko South compare favourably with those already outlined at for Oklo in Perth recently
finding are the potential size Seko. with an assumed one-on-one
for the next big discovery. We meeting with Euroz turning
now have to put some deeper Oklo was conducting a range of drilling programmes at a num- into something much bigger
aircore holes in to test these ber of prospects at the time of print as part of the phase two with a dozen people from the
new zones,” Taylor said. 25,000m programme at Dandoko and Moussala projects. The firm attending the meeting.
phase one programme completed included 40,000m of drilling.
“We have seen some With enough cash – $7.2
changes on our share regis- At the time of print Oklo was trading at six-month highs of million and market cap of
ter and I think companies like 20.5c/share. $45.9 million – Oklo is fo-
Chalice [Gold Mines Ltd] are cussed on drilling in Mali,
starting to recognise that we drilling done with potential to GP Securities Pty Ltd are rather than raising money.
have a really good team in find some very big deposits.” other major shareholders in
place and very underexplored Oklo, while non-executive Oklo had managed to pull
ground. We are producing Earlier in the year, Chal- chairman Michael Fotios ex- $10 million into the coffers
very coherent, robust results ice bought almost 8% of ecuted a right to 1 million in May 2016 and a further $3
and there are not many plac- Oklo stock on-market and options exercisable at 12.5c/ million worth of listed options
es in the world where you can sits behind 1832 Asset Man- share (which was due to ex- due in June will keep Oklo
have an area with very little agement (8.78%) as a major pire June 30) in February. well-funded this year.
shareholder.
There is definite interest – Mark Andrews
Ack Pty Ltd, Hawkestone building in the Oklo story,
Group, Pershing Australia with Taylor also swamped at
Nominees, Terra Capital and

Fekola tracking ahead of schedule

B2Gold Corp is set to bring B2Gold also reported re- and 595,000oz gold, includ- projected production (about
its Fekola gold project in cord annual consolidated ing 45,000-55,000oz of pre- 51,600oz) to be delivered
Mali online before the end of gold revenue of $US683 commercial production from this year and 6% (also about
the year. million from the sale of Fekola alone, at $US940- 51,600z) slated for delivery in
548,281oz at an average 970/oz AISC this year. 2018.
On the opening day of Min- price of $US1,246/oz.
ing Indaba in Cape Town, That output is expected to “I’ve always said through-
B2Gold revealed construction Speaking to delegates at exceed 900,000oz in 2018 as out my career that bold initia-
at Fekola was tracking three Mining Indaba, B2Gold presi- production at Fekola ramps tives, by definition, are done
months ahead of schedule dent and chief executive Clive up. by the few, not the many,”
and first production was now Johnson said the next 12 Johnson said.
set for October 2017. months would be an exciting B2Gold has also signed a
time for the company and its €71.4 million equipment facil- “We were able to [fund
Fekola was acquired by shareholders. ity with Caterpillar Financial Fekola] through some great
B2Gold from Australia’s SARL for a series of upcom- financing work. Not only are
Papillion Resources in mid- “Our job today is to create ing work programmes at Fe- we very good at building
2014 and will become the value for our shareholders kola, subject to satisfaction of mines, we’re very creative at
company’s second operat- and the best way to do that the conditions precedent. how we go about financing
ing mine in Africa, alongside is to develop mines, including these mines.”
Otjikoto in Namibia. the finish of construction at The TSX-listed company,
Fekola,” Johnson said. which is also the operator Johnson was confident
News of first production of gold mines in Nicaragua Fekola would one day head
from Fekola came on the “We had licence from our and the Philippines, landed underground, citing some
same day the company re- shareholders to do the con- a $US350 million revolving recent exploration results to
ported record gold produc- trarian thing and acquire credit facility to fund construc- support that belief.
tion of 550,423oz for the these projects and build tion of Fekola, with $US150
2016 calendar year, including them. We’ve done it ahead of million drawn last September. – Michael Washbourne
record output of 166,285oz the pack.”
from Otjikoto, up 14% on the Gold pre-payments were
previous year. B2Gold expects to pro- also arranged as part of the
duce between 545,000oz financing package, with 9% of

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 39

AFRICA FOCUS

Supporters predict a discovery

Predictive Discovery Predictive Discovery has market support for its exploration work in Cote d’Ivoire
Ltd continues to
win support to unearth early phase work on other means if you find something erts said.
a major new discov- projects,” Roberts said. in the adjacent area you can “At this stage, I think people
ery in West Africa. truck it to a central mine.
“Subject to being prudent, Many of the deposits you find are just waiting to see how
Ahead of what looms as we’re not going to stop look- in the Birimian of West Africa the story shapes up; looking
another busy year on the ing for new opportunities in are in clusters, not single de- for the bright spots anywhere
ground for the junior explorer, gold in West Africa either. We posits. across the portfolio and see-
Predictive managing director haven’t got anything in the ing what comes out best. I
Paul Roberts told Gold Min- pipeline, we’ve got no current “We’re planning to be drill- think they’ve realised the Pre-
ing Journal his company had applications, however, we’re ing by the middle of April. dictive story is about a port-
all but secured the required actively doing project gen- We’re certainly looking at oth- folio of opportunity, not just a
funding packages for its key eration in West Africa. We’re er areas to aggregate ground single project.
projects in Cote d’Ivoire and not going to be afraid to put around as well. As soon as
Burkina Faso. money into the ground.” the licence is granted, we’ll “There’s always a group of
be on the ground.” people who realise the big
A 1,500m diamond drilling Predictive recently added win on a junior stock is that
programme recently kicked six new permit applications in Roberts said the initial transition from nothing to
off at Boundiali (Cote d’Ivoire) Cote d’Ivoire, totalling about work at Boundiali would focus something. Greenfields dis-
to follow up on some promis- 1,160sq km and lifting the on improving the company’s covery is where you make the
ing RC hits – including 29m company’s overall land pack- understanding of the geol- most money and we’re ori-
@ 10.5 g/t gold from 38m age in the country to more ogy before switching to infill ented towards meeting that
(including 1m @ 144.5 g/t) – than 6,000sq km. drilling which may lead to a need.”
recorded at the Nyangboue resource calculation.
prospect during last year’s It is expected the company Roberts said his company
campaign. will seek out JV partners to However, Roberts noted was also working with of-
help fund exploration work that a maiden resource esti- ficials in Burkina Faso to re-
Drilling is also planned on should the permits be grant- mate for what is shaping as solve some permitting issues
other Cote d’Ivoire projects, ed. the lead project in the com- at Bongou to enable scop-
including Ferkessedougou pany’s extensive portfolio of ing study work to begin once
North and South, and Kok- “We have met with the Min- assets was not necessarily a funds are secured from a JV
oumbo/Beriaboukro, during ister and the Ministry about key driver for shareholders. partner.
the current field season. those and we’re quite hope-
ful some will be granted rea- “It’s quite interesting be- Predictive’s stock was trad-
Work on the above pro- sonably soon to enable us to cause in the past there used ing at 1.4c/share at the time
jects, excluding Bobosso start work,” Roberts said. to be a lot more interest in of print, up more than 450%
and Bongou, falls under a JV when a resource was coming on the same time a year ago.
with UK-based Toro Gold Ltd. “This is in line with our out and there was certainly
Roberts said his company strategy. We like to find large, pressure in Burkina Faso on – Michael Washbourne
was expecting to receive a contiguous or semi-contigu- that a few years ago,” Rob-
notice from Toro confirming ous permit blocks because it
it had passed the $2.5 million
expenditure commitment to
acquire a 65% interest in the
ground.

According to Roberts, his
company has “every inten-
tion” of contributing 35% to-
wards future exploration work
unless unforeseen circum-
stances intervene. Predictive
had about $2.5 million in the
bank in late February.

“Our cash will soon start
flowing out the door and into
the ground, but we’re quite
well funded to keep up with
that [expenditure commit-
ment] as well as doing this

Page 40 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

Tietto to float

Tietto Minerals Pty back was good. We are by Ity (5 moz), Bonikro (1.3
Ltd aims to list now working with brokers
on the ASX later this on moving towards a list- moz) and Yaoure (6.3 moz).
year, giving investors ing,” Wang told Gold Min-
another option in the ing Journal. “In the first quarter we
West African gold
space. The company has a total plan to do geophysics and
of five gold projects in Cote
A potential $10 million IPO d’Ivoire and Liberia and finish a scoping study [at
could be on the cards for Ti- while it would like to fast-
etto, with managing director track all of them to produc- Abujar],” Wang said at Min-
Caigen Wang returning to tion, Abujar in Cote d’Ivoire
Perth from Mining Indaba in is the most advanced as- ing Indaba.
Cape Town full of optimism. set.
“In the second and third
One of the takeaways from In December, the com-
Mining Indaba and 121 Min- pany reported a maiden re- quarter, we plan to do re-
ing and Investment was the source of 10.4mt @ 2.1 g/t
return of risk appetite for a gold for 703,600oz from a source definition drilling.
range of investors, which small portion of known ar-
bodes well for companies tisanal working areas mid- We hope to complete the
such as Tietto. tenement.
PFS in the fourth quarter
“Investment-wise, the feed- With only 5% of the 1,118sq
km Abujar project, compris- of 2017 and look at listing
ing three tenements, explored
so far and four of eight targets sometime this year.”

Wang said a large body of

exploration work had been

completed at Abujar and

Caigen Wang while pleased with results

thus far, he was eager to

drilled, Tietto is excited about switch his company’s atten-

the upside potential. tion to mining engineering

The company is targeting work as part of the PFS.

a resource of 2 moz gold at – Mark Andrews
Abujar, which is surrounded

Decision time for Newmont in Africa

Newmont Mining Corp has projects forward for invest- investment in the country is mont geologists,” he said.
promised to make key in- ment decisions in the first half valued at $US3.2 billion and “Exploration is a core com-
vestment decisions on two of of 2017,” Newmont Africa re- is widely regarded as one of
its enhancement projects in gional senior vice-president the premier businesses in petency for Newmont and is
Ghana by mid-year. Alwyn Pretorius told Mining Ghana. still the most effective way
Indaba. to add high quality ounces
The Ahafo mill expansion In 2016, Newmont was to our reserve base. Around
project and the development “These projects will add crowned “Best Company” by 70% of our exploration budg-
of the Subika underground at 225,000-300,000 ozpa and Ghana’s Investment Promo- et is allocated to near-mine
Akyem are forecast to deliver lower Newmont’s AISC. Both tion Council, having received drilling campaigns, with the
production lifts of 75,000- of these projects will increase a similar award from the remainder earmarked for
100,000 ozpa and 150,000- our production profile in Af- country’s Chamber of Mines greenfields and early-stage
200,000 ozpa respectively. rica and maintain our position one year earlier. development.”
as Ghana’s largest gold pro-
Subika is likely to be the ducer. Newmont recently celebrat- Newmont has flagged a
first to come online, with com- ed two production milestones likely drop in annual produc-
mercial production slated for “Improving the business is in Ghana – 5 moz poured at tion from 715,000-775,000oz
the second half of 2017, with a never-ending journey.” Ahafo and 1.5 moz at Akyem. in 2017 to 650,000-750,000oz
the Ahafo expansion to follow in 2018 as softer ores and
in 2019. The African arm of New- Pretorius said the compa- higher-grade stockpiles are
mont’s portfolio is focused ny’s long list of achievements depleted at Akyem. How-
Capex for the Subika un- entirely in Ghana, with the in the country could largely ever, this should increase to
derground is estimated at New York-listed company be attributed to its exploration 825,000-925,000oz in 2019
$US140-180 million, with responsible for almost 30% success. when higher-grade ore from
$US40-50 million required of the West African country’s Subika is reached.
in 2017, while $US150-200 total gold production. “Our exploration team has
million is needed for Ahafo, discovered 123 moz of gold – Michael Washbourne
including $US80-90 million Newmont established itself reserves by the drill bit over
this year. in Ghana in 2002 for a total the last 15 years. In fact, about
investment of about $US500 60% of the gold we mined in
“We will bring two of these million. Today, the company’s 2016 was discovered by New-

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 41

AUSTRALIAN GOLD REVIEW

Newcrest picks Alice Queen

Newcrest Mining is made, Newcrest
Ltd’s thirst for
plans to do more geo-
exploration has been
physics and sharpen
a boon for a con-
up potential drill tar-
tingent of explorers
gets.
around the world.
“Once that hap-
In recent times, Newcrest
has entered a variety of pens, we believe
agreements with the likes
of Oro Verde Ltd (Nicara- there are six targets
gua), SolGold plc (Ecua-
dor), New Talisman Gold that make sense to
Mines Ltd (New Zealand)
and Laneway Resources get into during the
Ltd (New Zealand), while in
Cote d’Ivoire it has interests first phase of drilling,”
with Randgold Resources
Ltd, Apollo Consolidated Buxton said.
Ltd and Cape Lambert Re-
sources Ltd. With Newcrest’s

Closer to home, Newcrest balance sheet clout,
has the ongoing alliance in In-
donesia with ANTAM, while in initial success could
Australia Alice Queen Ltd has
also caught the eye of one of see exploration pro-
the world’s largest gold com-
panies. grammes acceler-

“I think they are feeling pret- ated at a much great-
ty bullish at the moment – of
course I don’t want to speak er pace than Alice
on their behalf – but their
enthusiasm for exploration With Newcrest farming into its gold projects in NSW, Alice Queen can focus Queen could have
at the moment is there and on its flagship Horn Island project, Queensland, where an exploration target managed on its own.
there seems to be plenty of
opportunity on foot for New- of 8.5-10mt @ 2.7-3 g/t gold for 800,000-880,000oz has been guided Also, Alice Queen
crest,” Alice Queen managing is now in a position
director Andrew Buxton said.
From there, Newcrest must chief geotechnical advisor at to push ahead with work at
Buxton spoke to Gold Min-
ing Journal in light of sign- spend $3 million to earn a the company. its flagship Horn Island gold
ing a heads of agreement
with Newcrest over the Men- 51% interest over 24 months It is Holliday’s connections project.
dooran and Looking Glass
projects in New South Wales. and by committing a further with majors in the industry Met test work completed

The proposed farm-in is $5 million in the following five that brought attention to Alice by Gekko Systems Pty Ltd
conditional on due diligence
being conducted with the years, Newcrest can earn Queen’s portfolio and while based on a maiden drilling
deal expected to be triggered
at the beginning of April. 80% of Alice Queen’s pro- fielding some interest, New- programme at Horn Island

A total of $2 million within jects in NSW for a total of $10 crest prevailed as the right fit. revealed headline 91.2%
two years needs to be spent
by Newcrest to obtain a right million. “We were pretty confident gravity-only gold recovery.
to earn an interest in the ten-
ements, with at least $1 mil- In a recent company pres- that at some stage we would With the addition of flotation,
lion committed prior to with-
drawal. entation, Newcrest stated attract the eye of one of the 95.1% gold recovery was

there was no imperative for majors. For us, we probably achieved, while the combina-

M&A at the moment, and it got the one we really wanted tion of gravity, flotation and

was therefore looking at ex- given Newcrest’s contacts leaching increased overall

ploration to build on its cur- and proximity to this ground – recovery to as high as 98.1%

rent reserve life of 27 years. Cadia is about 150km south gold.

And, in Mendooran and of there – these tenements Further work is being car-

Looking Glass, Newcrest are along the same geologi- ried out on the process flow

sees potential to find another cal structure,” Buxton said. sheet to determine the eco-

Cadia; one of Australia’s big- “The idea for Newcrest is nomic viability of gravity and

gest – 50 moz gold and 9mt it could easily quite rightly be flotation.

copper – and most profitable described as brownfields ex- “Horn Island is another

gold mines. ploration, given their biggest brownfields opportunity, it

Helping the Newcrest/Alice asset is 150km away. They was an operating mine in the

Queen drive towards finding have all the resources and 1980s. It got into a bit of strife

another Cadia is the exper- all the infrastructure already but they were in production

tise of John Holliday. there.” for 18 months before they

Holliday was a principal For a company like New- got into trouble. We will focus

discoverer of Cadia Valley in crest, the initial $1 million our resources back on Horn

1992 and went on to be chief spend to access new ground Island and we are hoping to

geoscientist with Newcrest. is pocket change and with announce a maiden inferred

When Alice Queen was aeromagnetics covering most resource there later this year,”

started, Holliday was respon- of the tenements already, Buxton said.

sible for bringing the NSW as- drilling may not be far away. – Mark Andrews
sets to the table and remains Once a decision to proceed

Page 42 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

Evolution secures Cowal’s future

Evolution Mining Evolution has extended Cowal’s mine life to at least 2032 the mine, Evolution holds
Ltd is looking even 100% of the gold rights and
further ahead after se- additions to that 2032 time- to extend operations to 2032 30% of the copper and silver
curing the long-term line and we’ve already looked was granted one week before rights from an agreed min-
future of its prized at and committed to a dual Evolution formally committed ing area. Based on FY2016
Cowal gold mine. leach recovery process that to both initiatives, with all 65 output, Evolution would have
will improve gold recoveries community submissions ex- generated cash flow of $145
The company’s board re- by 4-6%, which is 10,000- pressing support for a longer million over that 12-month
cently gave the green light to 14,000oz additional gold. mine life. period had it owned the asset
a key mine life extension pro- pro forma.
ject – the E42 Stage H cut- “We’ve also looked at co- “One of the great things
back – which will keep Cowal treating some oxide material, Barrick left us as a legacy Cowal ($97.1 million), Mun-
in operation until at least 2032 which we haven’t commit- was an absolutely fantastic gari ($42.7 million) and Mt
and allow Evolution to explore ted to but we believe will be record of environmental man- Carlton ($39.1 million) were
other opportunities outside its possible through this dual agement,” Klein said. the biggest cash flow gen-
existing reserve base. leach process, which has the erators during the half-year.
potential to deliver an addi- “The mine was run to the Evolution also reported group
Evolution’s hierarchy also tional 10,000-12,000oz, and highest of standards, and C1 cash costs of $667/oz and
approved investment in a we’re looking at a throughput we’re continuing that. I think an average AISC of $978/
dual leach project targeting a change from its current 7.5 the community has also rec- oz, down from $700/oz and
4-6% increase in gold recov- mtpa configuration to 9-9.5 ognised that some of the con- $954/oz respectively.
eries at the mine, about 40km mtpa. cerns they might have had
north-east of West Wyalong prior to the development of “One news source listed
in New South Wales. “All of those upside oppor- this mine have been scien- us as the second lowest cost
tunities would probably have tifically mitigated by the bund gold producer in the world for
The E42 Stage H cutback not been implemented if the wall and the impact on the the last quarter,” Klein said.
will add another eight years mine life could not be extend- actual Lake Cowal has been
to Cowal’s mine life and is set ed.” nothing.” “For Australia to have six
to lift production by 1.2 moz. of the top 10 lowest cost gold
Cowal’s reserves now stand Klein said his company Meanwhile, Evolution re- producers in the world today
at 3.2 moz, up 145% (prior to would invest about $230 mil- ported a record half-year is a very positive reflection
mining depletion) since Evo- lion over the next four years profit of $136.3 million, up on the changes that have
lution purchased the former to complete the cutback and 26% on the previous six- occurred in our industry and
Barrick Gold Corp asset in implement the dual leach pro- month period, from produc- I’m not sure that achievement
July 2015. ject. tion of 423,120oz at $978/oz has yet been recognised by
AISC across its portfolio of the international gold invest-
When Evolution took con- With all existing reserves assets. ment community.”
trol of Cowal, the mine was confined to the E42 pit and
only permitted until 2024 and time now on its side, Evolu- The half-year return in- Evolution also recently en-
contained just 1.6 moz in re- tion no longer needs to rush cluded the first contribution tered the S&P/ASX 100 Index
serves. the environmental impact from Evolution’s economic for the first time, continuing
study, which can take at least interest in Glencore’s Ernest the company’s rise from re-
Evolution executive chair- five years to complete and Henry copper-gold operation liable mid-tier producer to
man Jake Klein said his com- have approved, required to in Queensland, with the land- Australia’s second largest
pany had moved quickly to convert regional resources mark acquisition completed gold miner over the past two
shore up the long-term future into reserves. in November. years.
of its cornerstone asset.
NSW regulatory approval While not the operator of “It’s pleasing recognition
“We now find ourselves of our progress, but certainly
with a mine life out to 2032 from a strategy and business
and we’ve already generated perspective it doesn’t change
$253 million of cash flow, or anything,” Klein said. “We’re
36% of the original purchase still committed to trying to
price [$US550 million], and build a very successful gold
we still have at least 3.2 moz company that can prosper
of reserves, done at a very through the cycle and not just
conservative gold price of be successful when the gold
$1,350/oz,” Klein told Gold price is going up.”
Mining Journal.
– Michael Washbourne
“A longer mine life allows
you to have more strategic
thinking around any potential

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 43

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AUSTRALIAN GOLD REVIEW

Middle Island places funds for
Sandstone exploration

Middle Island has returned to drilling in an effort to find higher grade ore to push through its Sandstone mill

Middle Island Re- a PFS on what he called a ments of the PFS give us a near term. I am very confi-
sources Ltd has “modest starter project”, with very good idea of what our dent we will be able to dem-
recently completed a a view to getting the ball roll- other costs will look like. That onstrate success on the back
$1.76 million place- ing and enhancing the pro- in turn allows us to determine of that. There is plenty of po-
ment to advance its duction profile off the back of precisely what we need to get tential within the tenement,”
exploration and devel- the initial production. the project over the line. That Yeates said.
opment strategy at its allows us to then focus our
wholly-owned Sand- “The PFS didn’t come up exploration on achieving that As a part of its develop-
stone gold project in trumps for us. We just need outcome.” ment strategy, Middle Island
Western Australia. a slightly higher grade earlier is negotiating with third party
in the schedule, so it is back Drilling started in March, owners of stranded deposits
The funding will allow Mid- to the drill bit for the moment. with RC testing of greenfields situated 150km of the Sand-
dle Island to proceed with We have got a multi-faceted targets, including the Mac- stone mill.
its plans for 2017, which in- strategy in place to achieve intyre, Shillington West and
cludes the refurbishment that. It is really a case of Turley prospects. In addition, “We are in discussions
of the Sandstone mill and bringing forward some of the diamond core drilling will as- with two parties on stranded
further exploration within its work we were looking to do sess deeper elements of the deposits. There are other de-
tenement, 12km south of the out of cash flow, to get the three BIF units, intruded by posits there, but we haven’t
township of Sandstone. project over the line,” Yeates the Two Mile Hill tonalite. got the attraction on those to
said. date,” Yeates said.
Middle Island managing di- At the time of print, drill rigs
rector Rick Yeates told Gold “We have got a very good were lined up and, according – Jonathon Daly
Mining Journal the com- handle on precisely what it to Yeates, it was just a mat-
pany had recently completed is going to cost to do the re- ter of finding the personnel to
furbishment. We have had manage them.
detailed engineering work
done on that. The other ele- “We have got four or five
drilling programmes in the

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 45

AUSTRALIAN GOLD REVIEW

Exploration success for ABM

ABM Resources A resource update at Suplejack has increased ABM’s confidence that the project
NL believes could potentially be a standalone operation
the cobalt potential
emerging at Lake has, including the resources to increase indicated and in- ABM’s North Arunta project.
Mackay compares and exploration results that ferred resources at Suplejack Interest in Northern Terri-
favourably with other are out. As we do more drill- by more than 50% to 4.51mt
projects in the sector. ing on Grapple I think peo- @ 2.1 g/t for 309,900oz gold tory’s mining sector has been
ple will see the opportunity,” above 0.8 g/t cut-off within static of late, with Briggs en-
Lake Mackay – a JV with Briggs said. 180m of surface. gaging with government to
Independence Group NL, work on ideas to attract more
400km north-west of Alice As the market digests the The resource announced investment into the State.
Springs – is shaping up as a Grapple opportunity at Lake in February included an initial
unique opportunity, with con- Mackay, which is comprised indicated resource from Su- The Association of Mining
tinued exploration success at of 7,200sq km of exploration plejack of 930,000t @ 2.34 and Exploration Companies
the Grapple target. licences adjacent to the West g/t for 70,200oz gold. (AMEC) is also on the case.
Australian border, ABM’s
“We have had some suc- portfolio also boasts the Su- Briggs said the resource “I see that the recent
cess at Grapple and that has plejack project. boosted the company’s con- Fraser Institute Survey didn’t
quite high-grade gold results fidence that the camp-scale paint the Northern Territory
up to 13 g/t, 40m down but The company managed Suplejack project – which in- in the best light for new play-
also high in zinc and cobalt. cludes the Seuss, Hyperion- ers coming in, which is to do
There are a lot of cobalt play- Matt Briggs Tethys and Hyperion South with getting agreements with
ers putting results out and deposits – could become a government, getting permits
ignoring the other elements. standalone operation. through the Government and
The cobalt we have at Grap- receiving Native Title,” Briggs
ple is almost on par with a few RC drilling is planned to said.
of the cobalt players. I think it continue with testing of strike
is a real unrecognised oppor- extensions of Seuss and “We already have those
tunity that I genuinely believe structures parallel to Hype- agreements in place so we
we have,” ABM managing di- rion-Tethys to start once the are fine but that can be a
rector Matt Briggs told Gold wet season is over. challenge for new players to
Mining Journal. get their heads around ini-
In the meantime, discus- tially, compared to the ease
“We believe it is a VMS de- sions remain ongoing around of doing things in Western
posit that we are drilling out divestment and potential JV Australia.”
but the style of deposit we opportunities at the Bucca-
have is typically high copper- neer and Old Pirate mines – Mark Andrews
zinc and cobalt style. Other on the Bonanza project, and
styles of deposits like this
in Japan and Canada can
sometimes come with gold
and sometimes they don’t;
we’re just lucky to have one
of the deposits that comes
with gold.”

Drilling was expected to
continue at Grapple in the
first half of 2017, after eight
of 11 RC holes intersected
anomalous mineralisation,
including 9m @ 1.8 g/t gold,
49.1 g/t silver, 3.26% copper
and 3.63% zinc from 85m and
6m @ 9 g/t gold, 23.5 g/t sil-
ver, 1.45% copper and 1.4%
zinc from 116m.

“Hopefully people will see
the full potential the company

Page 46 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

Millennium poised to cash in

Emerging producer Millennium is likely to tip more funds into exploration in 2017 met work is basically to move
Millennium Miner- away from having solely ox-
als Ltd is looking to tip times in 2016, having initially the equation, so it provides ide ore sources and to having
more funds into re- outlined a campaign focused both a very healthy balance both oxide and fresh mate-
gional exploration. on resource to reserve con- sheet and the opportunity to rial, which we would expect to
version. reinvest back into the busi- bump our mine life up to five-
Millennium has flagged ness through organic explo- plus years,” Cash said.
an exploration spend of $15 “It was nice to finish the ration,” he said.
million for 2017 after putting year with a greater mine life “It’s important to under-
$13.9 million into the ground than what we started, as well “We also invested quite stand that while we’re only
last year and ultimately lifting as generating over $40 mil- heavily into capital expansion doing this assessment on the
reserves at its Nullagine pro- lion of free cash flow,” Cash last year. We built a tailings fresh material that sits in our
ject by 48% despite mining said. storage facility that will last for current mineral inventory, we
97,000oz. six years and we’ve also gone actually haven’t drilled to try
“It really was a watershed through a significant tank re- and expand on that fresh ore,
However, success with the year, given the challenges the furbishment programme to so that will form a part of the
drill bit last year – headlined company faced previously, so ensure the tanks will last for strategy throughout this year.
by a discovery cost of $87/oz the ability to turn the drill rigs that 5-6 year period.
– has Millennium considering back on was key to solidify- “While we know there’s
a bigger budget for regional ing the future of the business. “While our current mine 850,000oz currently catego-
work around the Pilbara- It has certainly set us up for life is only 2.5 years, we’ve rised as fresh, we haven’t
based operation. 2017.” actually reinvested back into been exploring for it and so
infrastructure in the business there’s tremendous upside
“Some of the ounces we Despite exceeding pro- with the view that we’re go- once we turn our attention to
discovered last year will come duction guidance last year, ing to expand our mine life to drilling a bit deeper and try-
into the mine plan this year, Millennium resisted the beyond somewhere north of ing to find higher-grade fresh
so that instant monetisation temptation to tinker with the five.” ore sources that we can put
really validates an increased projected output from Nul- through the plant, either in
spend,” Millennium chief ex- lagine in 2017, maintaining a With production and explo- its current configuration or
ecutive Peter Cash told Gold forecast of 80,000-85,000oz ration set to again dominate through the construction of a
Mining Journal. at $1,190-$1,220/oz AISC. headlines for Millennium in float circuit.”
2017, the company will con-
“If you look at some acqui- Cash said Nullagine’s full- tinue quietly working on stud- Millennium has seen its
sition opportunities, the aver- year return of 86,325oz at ies to unlock the value of the stock soar more than 100%
age price per reserve ounce $1,213/oz AISC was also a fresh material at Nullagine. over the past 12 months on
is anywhere from $300/oz all catalyst for the company’s the back of its stunning turna-
the way up to $800/oz. A re- proposed aggressive explo- Preliminary test work has round at Nullagine, with the
turn of $87/oz from organic in- ration plans. begun to determine the opti- market also keeping a close
vestment is quite compelling.” mum processing route for the eye on any potential M&A
“While we’re still focused fresh material, with the instal- play by the company.
The first exploration results on purely oxide ore sources lation of a bulk sulphide float
reported by the company through the plant, we think circuit one option under con- “Now that we’ve estab-
in 2017 would justify an in- we can perpetuate that for at sideration. lished ourselves as both a
creased spend, with drilling least the next 3-4 years with- credible business and as a
at Majuba Hill (18m @ 2.47 out bringing any fresh ore into “The whole purpose of this relevant Australian gold pro-
g/t from 36m, including 2m ducer, we’re seeing a lot of
@ 13.83 g/t) and Little Annie opportunities brought to us,”
(12m @ 6.69 g/t from 36m, in- Cash said.
cluding 9m @ 8.62 g/t) offer-
ing some early intrigue. “We’re in the pack now, as
opposed to in the past poten-
Millennium drilled close to tially being a bit behind our
220,000m last year, increas- peers. We’re at the coalface
ing reserves to 185,900oz of opportunity and I think
and resources to almost 1.3 that’s a great position to be in
moz, with 75% of the latter right now.”
now classified as measured
or indicated. – Michael Washbourne

In what proved to be a
watershed year for the com-
pany, Millennium increased
its exploration budget three

April – June 2017 GOLD MINING JOURNAL Page 47

AUSTRALIAN GOLD REVIEW

Intermin readies for first gold

First gold from In- Intermin has been mining the Teal deposit since October
termin Resources
Ltd’s Teal project is planned for multiple pros- generating $8-9 million cash A maiden resource for Pe-
imminent. pects on Intermin’s 380sq km and our in-the-money options yes Farm was also due at the
land package in the WA Gold- will be expiring. time of print after a string of
Mining activities at Teal, fields. strong drilling results, includ-
12km north-west of Kalgoor- “We could be a stock in six ing 13m @ 5.42 g/t gold from
lie, have been ongoing since These prospects include months time that has $12-13 55m, 9m @ 5.14 g/t from 82m
October, with first ore set to Peyes Farm, Jacques Find, million in the bank, which at and 6m @ 5.1 g/t from 44m.
be delivered to the third-party Teal Deeps, Blister Dam and today’s market cap would be
Paddington mill at the time of Baden Powell. Intermin has 60% cash backing. If you’re Other impressive hits were
print. also formed JVs with the 60% cash backing and you’re also recorded at Jacques
likes of Evolution Mining Ltd, drilling, mining and finding Find (11m @ 7.75 g/t gold
Intermin managing director Eastern Goldfields Ltd, Sara- gold, then we would hope from 51m and 9m @ 6.99 g/t
Jon Price said his company cen Mineral Holdings Ltd and that starts to be reflected in from 89m) and Goongarrie
remained on track to become Mithril Resources Ltd over the price. You just have to be Lady (11m @ 5.36 g/t from
Australia’s newest gold pro- various pieces of prospective patient.” 29m and 2m @ 5.91 g/t from
ducer despite heavy rain fall- ground in WA. 33m) late last year.
ing in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Intermin added yet more
region during the first quarter. Despite the progress Inter- ground to its portfolio in Price said the results were
min has made over the past March, picking up Echo Re- testament to his acquisitive
“Everyone has been six months, the company has sources Ltd’s Anthill project team of geologists.
screaming a bit about how seen its share price stuck for $300,000 plus a capped
much rain we’ve had – I think around the 10c mark, having production royalty. The com- “We’ve got a good balance
there was 10-11 inches re- reached at an eight-year high pany has now added about of near-term development
ported through our part of of 15c last August. 180sq km of prospective projects, resource growth
Kalgoorlie – so a lot of water ground along the Zuleika prospects and grassroots ex-
to deal with,” Price told Gold “It’s always a little bit per- shear from eight acquisitions ploration ground, where we’re
Mining Journal. plexing, but you can’t take since early 2016. looking for that ‘million ounc-
these things personally,” er’,” he said.
“We’ve had to manage that Price said. Price, who joined Intermin
as best we can, it was good to in early 2016, said the com- “There is a hell of a lot of
see the pits dewatered quick- “If you look across the pany was currently assessing gold to be found yet and re-
ly. There was no damage to sector at the small caps and the potential of another four ally it’s about getting hold of
anything, it was just a matter mids, everyone is taking projects in the region. the ground as cheaply as you
of getting the water out and a little bit of a hammering. can, doing some systematic
getting back into mining. Why that is, is very tough to “We’ve pegged where we detailed geology and then hit-
answer…so you just have to can peg and applied for ex- ting it hard with the drill rig.
“We hope to be firing up set your model, stick to it and ploration licences where we
production in the next couple eventually you will get the can,” he said. “We’ve spent about
of weeks. First gold is pretty recognition. $900,000 to $1 million on
much imminent.” “We’ve been endeavouring exploration [since January
“I think, for us, we’re still a to acquire as much as we can 2016] and for a $10/oz discov-
Intermin will continue min- relatively unknown stock that on the major geological struc- ery cost we’re looking at add-
ing the 170,000oz Teal de- trades very tightly – so very tures and the Zuleika shear is ing significant amounts to the
posit grading 3.2 g/t gold low liquidity – but I think that pretty hot property at the mo- resource base. It’s there to be
until the end of June before will change over time. If we ment with all the majors now found, you’ve just got to drill.”
switching attention to other fast-forward six months, we’ll settling in and spending a sig-
advanced projects in the have more resources, we’ll nificant amount of money on – Michael Washbourne
region such as Goongarrie have Teal in production and in-ground exploration.”
Lady.

Mining of Teal is expected
to deliver about $8-9 million
cash (based on a $1,600/oz
gold price) to the company for
an investment of just $3.9 mil-
lion and all-in costs of $905/
oz.

Cash generated from gold
sales will be tipped back into
the ground, with optimisation
studies and resource drilling

Page 48 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017

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17 October 2017
Pan Pacific Perth

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AMERICAS

Newmont joins gold

‘staking rush’ in fabled Yukon

Newmont Min- by ounces, started off
ing Corp has the mini-stampede last
become the latest May when it paid $C520
of the world’s big- million for Kaminak
Gold Corp and its Yu-

gest gold miners kon-based Coffee gold

to invest in Cana- project. A month later it
da’s Yukon terri- acquired an almost 20%
tory, the site of a stake in Independence
Gold Corp, which owns

famous gold rush a neighbouring property.

120 years ago, as In December, Agnico
miners hunt for Eagle, the world’s ninth
rich, new deposits biggest gold producer,
bought a stake in a Yu-

in safe regions. kon-focused miner.

The Klondike region

US-based Newmont, of the Yukon was the

the world’s No. 2 gold centre of a stampede of

producer, unveiled an Goldcorp started a mini-stampede of companies entering Yukon territory for some 100,000 treasure
agreement with small ground, when it acquired Kaminak for the 2.8 moz Coffee project in May 2016 seekers between 1896
explorer Goldstrike Re- and 1899 after gold was

sources Ltd to spend $39.5 Mines Ltd last year into the “It’s a stable mining ju- discovered in the area. For-

million to explore and develop north-western Canadian terri- risdiction with high-quality tunes were made but many

Goldstrike’s Plateau property tory at a time when gold min- gold prospects,” Newmont left empty-handed, with some

in the Yukon. ers are loosening their purse spokesman Omar Jabara heading to Alaska after gold

With this deal, Newmont strings after five years of belt- said. was discovered there in 1899.

follows moves by rivals Gold- tightening when bullion prices Goldcorp, the world’s – Reuters
corp Inc and Agnico Eagle fell. fourth biggest gold producer

Dark Horse bolts from US

Dark Horse Resources Ltd While Dark Horse has seams were traced 8km later- where government reforms
has exited the US. closed out its interests in the ally along strike in the north- are transforming the econo-
After reaching an in-prin- US, it has not left the Ameri- ern Chenqueniyen deposit. my and opening up significant
ciple settlement agreement cas entirely. With gold in the resource and energy oppor-
with Genesis Gold Corp over US no longer in the portfolio, Pico Quemado is an im- tunities, for which Dark Horse
the New Mexico and Carlin Dark Horse can focus its ef- portant part of Dark Horse’s continues to be well placed,”
East gold projects in Nevada, forts on its Argentine assets. strategy in Argentina, with re- the company said in a state-
Dark Horse has no remaining sources defined at the project ment.
interests in the country. Since the uplift in sentiment intended to support its flag-
and prices in the coal sector, ship 100MW clean-coal fired, To capitalise on the Gov-
Ownership of Carlin East Dark Horse has been particu- ultra-supercritical Pico power ernment’s willingness to sup-
had been in dispute when larly active at the Pico Que- station. port the mining sector, Dark
Genesis started court pro- mado project in the Rio Ne- Horse has expanded its inter-
ceedings in September 2016. gro province and kick-started Dark Horse’s power play is est in Argentina by executing
the first phase of a drilling in-line with the Government’s an option agreement over the
In March, Dark Horse in- programme in March. strategy to develop 8,000MW Los Domos gold project in the
formed the market that it had of new thermal electricity Santa Cruz province, while
agreed to waive all rights and Drilling follows a compre- generation in the next dec- work remains ongoing at the
title to any equitable interest hensive geological mapping ade. Oronegro lithium exploration
it may have earned in Carlin programme completed over plays.
East. several months, where coal “We continue to focus our
efforts in the ‘new’ Argentina,

Page 50 GOLD MINING JOURNAL April – June 2017