AMEC 2016 Day Two
THE CONFERENCE CALLER: The Crown Perth Convention Centre was the venue for the 2016 Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) Convention.
Day Two continued with more investor-focused company presentations.
Neometals (ASX: NMT) chief operating officer Michael Tamlin woke up the after-lunch crowd by declaring the present time to be, “a very exciting time for the company”, with the development of the Mt Marin lithium mine.
Mt Marion is in Joint Venture (Neo 13.8%) with Minerals Resources (43.1%) and China’s second largest lithium producer, Jiangxi Gangfen Lithium Co. Ltd (43.1%).
The mine is fully-funded with offtake secured for the life-of-mine.
The project has a JORC-compliant Resource of 23.14 million tonnes at 1.39 per cent lithium oxide.
The much-anticipated appearance of Metals X (ASX: MLX) CEO Peter Cook was not to be as he was elsewhere.
However, his stand in, executive director Warren Hallam provided some insight into the company’s activities.
The company has a raft of gold deposits dotted round the regional centre of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
The company has five key gold projects with the Fortnum gold mine and Rover 1 gold-copper project both in the development stage.
It has three producing gold mines.
The first is the Higginsville mine producing 100,000 to 200,000 ounces of gold per annum at a cost of $1250 per ounce.
The South Kalgoorlie mine yields 80,000 to 100,000 ounces per annum at a cost of $1180 per ounce.
The Central Murchison project produces 100,000 ounces and is expanding to produce more thatn 200,000 per annum at a cost of $1250 per ounce.
The company currently classes as a diversified miner, however once the recently-announced purchase of the nifty copper mine is finalised, Hallam suggested it could split to focus on the gold and base metals as separate entities.
Next to the podium was Peel Mining (ASX: PEX) managing director Rob Tyson.
The company’s main focus is the Mallee Bull project in the Cobar Superbasin New South Wales, where it has a 50:50 JV with CBH Resources.
The company acquired Mallee Bull in 2011 and calculated a Resource in 2014 of 3.92 million tonnes at 2.3 per cent copper, 2.3 grams per tonne gold, and 0.3g/t silver for 2.7 tonnes contained copper equivalent.
Peel also made a further high-grade copper discovery on its NSW tenements on the Wirlong deposit.
Drill highlights from Wirlong include:
WLDD001
9m at 8 per cent copper, 17 g/t silver, 0.21 g/t gold from 616m, including 2.82m at 21.85 per cent copper, 46g/t silver, 0.62g/t gold from 619.68m, and 38m at 1.18 per cent copper, 4g/t silver from 450m;
WLRC015
4.9m at 4.3 per cent copper, 13g/t silver from 402.1m, including 0.9m at 19.5 per cent copper, 58g/t silver from 402.1m, and 22m at 1.0 per cent copper, 4g/t silver from 332m.
WLRC005
4m at 3.04 per cent copper, 12g/t silver, 0.19 per cent zinc from 196m; and
WLRC006
2m at 2.99 per cent copper, 1.08g/t gold, 16g/t silver, 0.41 per cent zinc from 322m.
Tyson said the company had an aggressive drilling program lined up for Wirlong for the second half of 2016, which it was very keen to get out and commence.
Blackham Resources (ASX: BLK) is getting very close to pouring gold and managing director Bryan Dixon was as animated as anybody has ever seen him before as he cogitated on the timing of the Wiluna gold plant start up in terms of the current gold price.
History – he said – tells us that this is the best time, as far as operating margins for gold producers since the heady days of the boom, in fact he suggested they were even better.
The company is spending $32 million to bring the Matilda gold project to fruition with anticipated cash flow of $271 million over the initial eight years of operation with EBITDA predicted of $63 million per annum.
Metalicity (ASX: MCT) managing director Matthew Gauci always has a tale to tell, and today was no exception.
It seems the company has anew major shareholder with RCF Capital having sold out just last week.
The new shareholder emerged to be Shanghai Metals with a 10.1% stake.
The final presentation came from Doray Minerals (ASX: DRM) managing director Allan Kelly.
Doray has recently poured gold at its Deflector gold mine, which it acquired in 2014 from Mutiny Gold.
The first production from Deflector in May this year came ahead of schedule.
Kelly declared Doray to be on the cusp of a big increase in gold production with the inclusion of Deflector’s production.
The company has funded, permitted and commissioned two new high-grade gold projects within four years.
It is forecasting production of 140,000 ounces per annum targeting All In Sustaining Costs of less than $1000 across the two projects.
This means it will have the capacity to generate impressive free cash flow after debt repayment, exploration and other overheads.