AMEC 2016 Day One
THE CONFERENCE CALLER: The Crown Perth Convention Centre was the venue for the 2016 Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) Convention.
Day One of the AMEC Convention presented a number of investor-focused company presentations.
Kicking off the post-prandial investor presentation session Rox Resources (ASX: RXL) managing director Ian Mulholland spoke about the recently announced Teena deposit zinc Resource.
Rox recently declared the Inferred resource to have confirmed the Teena deposit represents the largest and highest grade zinc-lead mineral resource discovered in Australia for over 20 years.
Utilising a six per cent zinc-lead (Zn+Pb) cut-off, the JORC (2012) Inferred Mineral Resource is:
58 million Tonnes grading 12.7 per cent Zn+Pb (11.1 per cent zinc, 1.6 per cent lead) for 7.4 million tonnes of contained zinc and lead metal (6.5Mt Zn and 0.9Mt Pb).
Mulholland assured those who may think the Teena deposit is too deep showing it to be starting at a depth of 400 metres down to 1000 metres.
“Contrary to a lot of chatter about the deposit, it’s not deep,” he said.
“There are no known impediments to mining with the bulk of the ore body sitting between 600 to 900 metres.”
Next up was Independence Group (ASX: IGO) managing director and CEO, Peter Bradford.
Bradford explained the strategy for the Tropicana gold mine – IGO 30% / Anglogold Ashanti 70% – located 370 kilometres from Kalgoorlie would be to stockpile lower grade gold ore to concentrate on pushing the higher-grade material through the plant.
This, he said, would result in a much quicker repayment of the capital outlay on the project.
The intention would then be to only refine enough material per annum to satisfy the needs of the processing plant.
Encounter Resources (ASX: ENR) managing director, and AMEC president Will Robinson assured there to be no present danger associated with the company’s Yeneena project between Marble Bar and Newman in WA.
Robinson intimated the type of discoveries that can be made in the region have potential to be Tier One deposits.
He held up the company’s BM7 copper discovery to have such potential.
BM7 is a large minerals system containing high-grade copper sulphide.
Drilling at the deposit has encountered:
5 metres at 2.5 per cent copper from 388m;
52m at 0.6 per cent copper from 42m;
9m at 1.5 per cent copper from 42m;
74m at 0.4 per cent copper from 74m; and
140m at 2 per cent copper from 144m.
Robinson also spoke on the company’s recent Millenium zinc discovery where drilling hit high-grade zinc mineralisation.
At the north-west target zone hole EPT1854 hit 0.7m at 36.7 per cent zinc, in the Central Zone EPT2260 returned 70m at 2.3 per cent zinc and hole EPT218 in the South-East Zone returned 7m at 4.8 per cent zinc.
He indicated these three zones would be high-priority drilling targets during 2016.
Sandfire Resources (ASX: SFR) chief operating officer understatedly said his company, “like copper”.
He went on to say that now is a fantastic time to be involved in copper mining with current price increases, albeit small, provide the company an opportunity to continue to grow its business.
This potential growth is highlighted by Sandfire’s recent Monty discovery, which was recently bestowed a maiden JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource estimate of:
Total Indicated and Inferred Resources of 1.05 million tonnes at 9.4 per cent copper and 1.6 grams per tonne gold for 99,000 tonnes of contained copper and 55,000 ounces of contained gold.
This includes a high-grade massive sulphide resource of 763,000 tonnes at 12.1 per cent copper and 2.1g/t gold for 92,000 tonnes of contained copper and 52,000 ounces of contained gold.
Stepping up to the podium, Musgrave Minerals (ASX: MGV) managing director Rob Waugh took the audience through the company’s new Cue project in Western Australia.
The Cue project is a Joint Venture with Silver Lake Resources (ASX: SLR) with existing and new gold targets.
These include 126,900 ounces at Moyagee and 34,000 ounces of gold at Hollandaire and Rapier.
Copper Resources include 38,800 tonnes of contained copper at Hollandaire, which also has Reserves of 14,700 tonnes of contained copper.
Waugh said the intention was to grow the current gold resources at the project with the ultimate view being to bring it through to development.
Vimy Resources (ASX: VMY) managing director Mike Young took the audience down a uranium path.
“Uranium is a high density energy source,” Young said.
He stressed that many sectors are now looking for a way to offset CO2 emissions.
Uranium is a much-used energy source in Europe, where Young suggested a hungry market exists as the region is always, “looking for a reliable source of uranium”, to keep its generators pumping.
At 75 million pounds with a 17 year mine life Vimy’s Mulga Rock project is Australia’s third-largest undeveloped uranium deposit.
Southern Gold (ASX: SAU) managing director Simon Mitcell encouraged punters to hang in for his final presentation of the session teasing them by declaring his company to be a gold explorer with a gold mine, basically providing investors with, “the best of both worlds”.
Southern Gold is an active gold producer from its Cannon open pit gold mine just outside Kalgoorlie in partnership with Metals X (ASX: MLX).
The company’s deal provides a large cahs margin with around 50,000 ounces of gold recovered to date at a total cost of $1030 per ounce with a current gold price of around $1700 per ounce providing a $650 per ounce margin on the good side of the ledger.
The company anticipates earnings for the next nine months of approximately $14 million.
This will fund the company’s exploration on the Bulong, Glandore, and Cowarna gold projects, all located within 50km of its home base at Cannon.