THE DAILY ROADHOUSE

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Rex Minerals Spreads Exploration Across the Globe

THE INSIDE STORY: Rex Minerals’ (ASX: RXM) exploration aspirations cover the search for copper in Australia and gold in the United States of America.

White Rock Minerals Sees Red Mountain Potential in Alaska

THE INSIDE STORY: White Rock Minerals (ASX: WRM) is based in the historic mining town of Ballarat in Victoria, yet is exploring in New South Wales and Alaska.

Superior Lake Firing up Canadian Zinc Project

THE INSIDE STORY: Superior Lake Resources (ASX: SUP) is focused on the redevelopment of the Superior Lake zinc project in North Western Ontario, Canada.

 

White Rock Minerals Sees Red Mountain Potential in Alaska

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THE INSIDE STORY: White Rock Minerals (ASX: WRM) is based in the historic mining town of Ballarat in Victoria, yet is exploring in New South Wales and Alaska.

White Rock Minerals owns the Red Mountain project in central Alaska – a high-grade zinc-silver-lead-gold project – and the advanced Mt Carrington gold-silver project in NSW.

Red Mountain has a Mineral Resource estimate of 9 million tonnes at 13 per cent zinc equivalent.

The company describes Red Mountain as being a quality advanced exploration project in an established mining district with plenty of potential to discover large zinc-silver-lead-gold-copper deposits in addition to extending the known zinc-silver-lead-gold deposits at Dry Creek and West Tundra Flats deposits.

There are already two high-grade deposits at the Red Mountain project, with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 9.1 million tonnes at 12.9 per cent zinc equivalent for 1.1 million tonnes of contained zinc equivalent at Dry Creek and West Tundra Flats.

This VMS polymetallic Resource zinc equivalent grade is made up of 5.8 per cent zinc, 2.6 per cent lead, 157 grams per tonne silver and 0.9g/t gold.

Recent drilling at Dry Creek intersected 1.4 metres at 13.9 per cent zinc, 4.4 per cent lead, 115g/t silver, 0.8g/t gold and 0.3 per cent copper for 21.6 per cent zinc equivalent.

White Rock reported assays from this drill core confirmed high-grade mineralisation had been intersected in massive sulphide over 200 metres down-dip from its previous drilling efforts.

The company interpreted this deepest intersection in the Dry Creek deposit to indicate a possible steeper dip to mineralisation than first interpreted, suggesting the deposit could be wide open down dip along its entire 1,200 metre strike length.

The massive sulphide intersected was interpreted to be the extension to the high-grade Fosters lens, the upper of two lenses in the Dry Creek deposit.

“This aggressive step-out drill hole at Dry Creek has shown that the deposit is wide open with fantastic high-grade zinc and silver persisting over 200 metres deeper than previously drilled,” White Rock Minerals managing director Matt Gill said when announcing the results.

“While this particular intersection is narrow, we know that typical VMS lenses pinch and swell along strike and down dip, as evidenced by previous drilling where true width intersections of up to 40 metres at the Fosters lens have been recorded.

“The majority of the current Inferred Resource is drilled to a depth of just 200 metres so a further step out of over 200 metres suggests considerable upside is possible in expanding the size of the deposit.

“Furthermore, ground conditions and the onset of winter terminated the drill hole prematurely with the high-grade Discovery lens remaining untested at this depth.

“This leaves considerable additional potential to this down dip position in the deposit, especially when considering the Resource footprint extends for 1,200 metres of strike.

“A targeted drill program early in the 2020 field season could unlock just how significant the Resource expansion potential could be.”

White Rock’s Mt Carrington project is underpinned by a Mineral Resource estimate of more than 340,000 ounces of gold and 23 million ounces of silver.

The Mineral Resources are situated in seven surface deposits, all located on granted Mining Leases and with developed infrastructure.

The company completed at Pre-Feasibility Study for Mt Carrington in late 2017, from which it has commenced progressing Mt Carrington through a Definitive Feasibility Study and permitting process prior to a Decision to Mine, at which point a construction and commissioning finance package is available, subject to certain conditions.

 

Email: info@whiterockminerals.com.au

 

Web: www.whiterockminerals.com.au

 

Rex Minerals Spreads Exploration Across the Globe

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THE INSIDE STORY: Rex Minerals’ (ASX: RXM) exploration aspirations cover the search for copper in Australia and gold in the United States of America.

Rex Minerals’ Hillside copper project is located on the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia.

The JORC Code 2012-complaint Mineral Resource estimate for the Hillside project consists 337 million tonnes at 0.6 per cent copper and 0.14 grams per tonne gold, equating to approximately 2 million tonnes (4.3 billion pounds) of copper, 1.4 million ounces of gold.

Of the 2 million tonnes of contained copper classified as a Mineral Resource, approximately 65 per cent has been classified as Measured and Indicated Resources.

The Mineral Resource remains open at depth and towards the north and south.

The company claims the Mineral Resource for the Hillside project to be one of Australia’s largest open pit copper Mineral Resources.

In August 2019, Rex Minerals completed the acquisition of Hog Ranch Group Pty Ltd giving it ownership of the Hog Ranch gold project in Nevada, USA.

The company wasted little time in announcing an Inferred Mineral Resource at Hog Ranch of 44 million tonnes at 0.6 grams per tonne gold for 0.83 million ounces of gold.

The Resource was based on a large historical drilling database containing a total of 2,678 drill holes, a large percentage of which was completed by Western Mining Corporation (WMC) that operated an open pit and heap leach operation there from 1988 through to 1991.

“The acquisition of Hog Ranch and the rapid delivery of a maiden Mineral Resource of over 800,000 ounces of gold (the documentation and reporting of which has been independently peer reviewed by Peter Stoker of AMC Consultants Pty Ltd), demonstrates how positively we view Hog Ranch and its potential,” Rex Minerals managing director Richard Laufmann said when announcing the Resource.

“Hog Ranch offers Rex investors immediate exposure to the gold sector in one of the world’s most well‐ endowed gold regions.

“Nevada is a proven destination for successful gold exploration, discovery and production.

“The current database of 2,678 drill holes, which is included within the Mineral Resource estimate, has a total combined length of over 200,000 metres.

“At replacement, this drill data base alone would cost over $30 million.”

The Inferred Mineral Resource is based on large shallow disseminated gold mineralisation that exists from surface at Hog Ranch and extends to 175 metres below surface as well as on the historic database.

Outside of the Inferred Mineral Resource, Rex has defined a broad alteration system that stretches for over 20 square kilometres, which the company considers to highlight the potential scale and opportunity at Hog Ranch.

Deeper high-grade vein hosted gold targets at Hog Ranch that were intersected by earlier explorers remain untested.

 

Email: rex@rexminerals.com.au

 

Web: www.rexminerals.com.au

 

Near surface high-grade results from Dazzler drilling

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Northern Minerals (ASX: NTU) recently completed infill and step-out reverse circulation (RC) drilling at the Dazzler prospect, part of the company’s Browns Range project in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Northern Minerals has received high-grade assay results for the first 12 (BRDR0037-0048) of the 51 drill holes it completed at Dazzler in September that included intercepts from surface of up to 7.71 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO), including 7,502ppm dysprosium.

The company explained the drilling program was designed to step-out to the north of the previous drilling in order to update the existing Mineral Resource at Dazzler that has been estimated at 144,000 tonnes at 2.23 per cent TREO comprising 3.2 million kilograms TREO using a cut-off grade of 0.15 per cent TREO.

Northern Minerals said it considers the latest results to be of note as many of the intercepts occur at or near the surface, increasing the potential for a low operating cost operation.

It will now use the results achieved from the latest round of drilling to update the Mineral Resource Estimate which it anticipates will be completed in January 2020.

The Dazzler deposit is located less than 15 kilometres from the Browns Range pilot plant on the edge of a small scarp slope.

Further RC drilling at Browns Range is set to commence anon, with exploration and resource definition drilling planned at several different deposits and targets.

“We continue to be impressed and enthusiastic about the potential of Dazzler,” Northern Minerals managing director and CEO, George Bauk said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“As with all mineral deposits ‘grade is king’ and these results continue to deliver on the upside.

“We will now commence updating the Mineral Resource Estimate and investigate mining studies for Dazzler.”

Other recent activities have included mineralogy on four composites at Nagrom from PQ diamond core that was drilled at the Dazzler deposit in May that were made up from four distinct ore bands observed in the core.

These bands varied from three to 13 per cent TREO.

Ore sorting work on coarse fractions of the composites has indicated that these can be effectively sorted.

The test work program at Nagrom has focused on the beneficiation steps of the process, with crushing, scrubbing, grind size optimization and magnetic separation test work completed on the four composites.

The friable portion of the Dazzler material breaks down by scrubbing, with 50 per cent of the ore reporting to the less than 10mm size fraction and this is generally upgraded in rare earths.

Sighter magnetic separation work has been promising.

Flotation and bake tests are planned, and samples will be prepared for environmental test work and radionuclide deportment studies.

 

Email: info@northernminerals.com.au

 

Web: www.northernminerals.com.au

 

Superior Lake Firing up Canadian Zinc Project

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THE INSIDE STORY: Superior Lake Resources (ASX: SUP) is focused on the redevelopment of the Superior Lake zinc project in North Western Ontario, Canada.

The project is a high-grade zinc deposit with a JORC resource of 2.35 million tonnes at 17.7 per cent zinc, 0.9 per cent copper, 0.38 grams per tonne gold and 34g/t silver and a Probable Ore Reserve of 1.96 million tonnes at 13.9 per cent zinc, 0.6 per cent copper, 0.2g/t gold and 26.2g/t silver.

The Superior Lake Zinc project is located east of Thunder Bay in the province of Ontario and covers 175 square kilometres, consisting two deposits – Winston Lake and Pick Lake.

In August 2019, Superior Lake released a Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS), which outlined an operation at Superior Lake that would produce 34,000 tonnes per annum of contained zinc metal with All in Sustaining Operating Costs of US$0.47 per pound, ranking the project in the lowest cost quartile of zinc projects globally.

The BFS assumed mine access via a new decline from surface instead of rehabilitating the old Winston shaft.

The numbers were based on a 1,000 tonnes per day operation, with a total upfront capital cost of US$87 million (plus US$10M pre-production and Owner’s costs).

Superior Lake is expected to produce over life-of-mine an average of 32,000 tonnes per annum of zinc concentrate and 5200 tonnes per annum of copper concentrate.

At this stage, production is expected to commence in 2021 for a mine life of nine years.

The company believes several advanced exploration targets exist that present an opportunity for a potential extension to the mine life.

Key highlights from the study include:

Financial returns:

C1 Cost – US$ 0.35/lb zinc
AISC Cost – US$ 0.47/lb zinc
NPV8 pre-tax US$157 million (A$224M)
IRR 31 per cent (pre-tax)

Key production figures include:

Plant throughput 325,000 tonnes per annum
Total 2.2 million tonnes treated
Average grade: 13.7 per cent zinc
Average zinc recovery: 96 per cent
Initial capital expenditure of US$86 million (A$106M) excluding owners and pre-production
Life of Mine of nine years
Annual production (after ramp-up) of 38,000 tonnes per annum contained zinc and 1400 tonnes per annum contained copper

“The purpose of this BFS was to validate Superior Lake becoming a viable zinc operation,” Superior Lake CEO David Woodall said when the BFS was released.

“This was clearly achieved, as the Study demonstrates the project will generate strong cash flow throughout the nine-year mine life.

“The driving factor for the result was the low AISC (LOM – US$0.47/lb), which, if brought into production, would rank the project in the lowest quartile of producers globally.

“The development of the project has been completed with the future in mind, as the decline will be in close proximity to each of the major geophysical anomalies that were identified in the 2019 exploration program, all of which are expected to be tested in the near future.

“A discovery at any of these anomalies would significantly change the parameters of the project both in terms of mine life as well as production profile.

“In the coming months, the company will focus on finalising off-take, equity and debt financing as well as completing an Optimisation Study whereupon a decision to mine will be made.”

 

Email: info@superiorlake.com.au

 

Web: www.superiorlake.com.au

 

THE DAILY ROADHOUSE

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Pantoro Considers Norseman Processing Plant Options Review Outcomes

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Pantoro Limited (ASX: PNR) has completed a Processing Plant Options Review and Scoping Estimate at the company’s Norseman gold project in Western Australia.

St George Mining Drills Deeper for Thicker Intercepts

THE DRILL SERGEANT: St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) confirmed further extensions of high-grade mineralisation at the company’s Mt Alexander project, located in the north-eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

Image Resources Secures December Quarter Sales

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Image Resources (ASX: IMA) has secured sales agreements from off-take partners for the December quarter 2019.

Virgo Resources to IPO With Namibia-Botswana Projects

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Former Gold Road Resources (ASX: GOR) chairman Ian Murray is about to launch a new company on the boards of the Australian Securities Exchange.

 

Pantoro Considers Norseman Processing Plant Options Review Outcomes

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Pantoro Limited (ASX: PNR) has completed a Processing Plant Options Review and Scoping Estimate at the company’s Norseman gold project in Western Australia.

The study was completed by Como Engineers and considered three options for the processing plant including:

Option A – Refurbishment of existing structures and equipment in the existing location. The existing plant configuration utilises primary crushing, and a high aspect SAG mill and ball mill in series;

Option B – Reconstruction of the processing facility with the same configuration at a new location using a combination of refurbished existing major equipment and new structures, piping, electrical and services in a new location; and

Option C – Construction of a completely new processing facility utilising primary and secondary crushing and a single 2.3MW ball mill.

The review concluded the existing leaching circuit to be extensively corroded and in addition to the large capital repair cost would have a high operating cost due to the historical air operated Pachuca tanks in place.

As such, all options included a new leaching circuit using a modern mechanically agitated CIL circuit.

The review found that Options A and B require similar expenditure, while the Option C capital requirement is approximately $10 million higher.

Option A was noted to be higher risk from both safety and financial perspectives.

Option B was therefore chosen for detailed design and cost estimation prior to construction.

“The outcome of this study provides Pantoro with a clear way forward for reconstruction of the Norseman processing facility,” Pantoro managing director Paul Cmrlec said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The large amount of existing infrastructure at the site provides a major reduction in capital costs for the project, and the review confirms our pre-acquisition cost assumptions.

“We look forward to commencing the definitive plant design and cost calculation in the new year. The project is advancing as expected as we progress towards re-commencement of production.”

 

Email: admin@pantoro.com.au

Web: www.pantoro.com.au

 

St George Mining Drills Deeper for Thicker Intercepts

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) confirmed further extensions of high-grade mineralisation at the company’s Mt Alexander project, located in the north-eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

St George Mining completed hole MAD172 to test the first of seven electromagnetic (EM) conductors it has identified so far by downhole EM (DHEM) surveys in recently completed deeper stratigraphic holes along the Cathedrals Belt.

The company said the EM plate targeted by MAD172 is modelled with conductivity of 25,000 Siemens and was predicted to be intersected at 260 metres downhole.

Instead, MAD172 intersected thick nickel-copper sulphides from 242.5m to 259.78m downhole.

The company considers the disseminated and blebby sulphides intersected by MAD172 to be consistent with mineralisation found close to massive sulphide deposits, supporting the potential for more substantial mineralisation nearby.

“Deeper drilling has already confirmed significant down-plunge extensions of the mineralised ultramafic and now – with MAD172 – we have seen the deepest intersection of nickel-copper sulphides at the Cathedrals Belt to date,” St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The thickness of the mineralised intercept and the style of mineralisation support the potential for further high-grade mineralisation to be present in this area.

“Under the intrusive geological model for the Cathedrals Belt, the larger deposits of mineralisation are likely to be at deeper levels than explored to date, so it is very exciting to see the thickness of nickel-copper sulphides increasing with depth.

“We are increasingly confident that ongoing drilling could discover further significant nickel-copper sulphides down-plunge of the shallow high-grade deposits already established at the Cathedrals Belt.”

 

Web: www.stgm.com.au

 

Image Resources Secures December Quarter Sales

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Image Resources (ASX: IMA) has secured sales agreements from off-take partners for the December quarter 2019.

Image Resources has organised the sale of a nominal total of 65,000 tonnes heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) for the December quarter 2019 with no reduction in zircon pricing.

The HMC will be produced from the company’s 100 per cent-owned, high-grade, zircon-rich Boonanarring mineral sands project located 80 kilometres north of Perth in the North Perth Basin of Western Australia.

The company recently finalised a regular monthly shipment of HMC of nominally 20,000 tonnes, which was purchased by off-taker partner Natfort and sailed at the end of October.

In addition, a sales agreement was secured from off-taker partner Hainan Wensheng for nominally 45,000 tonnes to be delivered over two shipments, one in the latter half of November and the second in December.

Image Resources declared that demand for its HMC remains strong, including from parties other than the current off-take partners.

While the benchmark price for premium grade zircon decreased 2.5 per cent to US$1,580 to 1,590 per tonne in November, Image’s sale price for standard grade zircon contained in the HMC remained unchanged for its scheduled November and December shipments.

Image’s realized price for titanium dioxide (TiO2) contained in the HMC increased approximately six per cent in August and this higher price has continued in the December quarter.

“We continue to receive robust demand for our zircon-rich HMC product,” Image Resources managing director and CEO Patrick Mutz said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The committed sales of 65,000 tonnes in the December quarter, at stable zircon pricing, keeps the company firmly on track to deliver on our updated CY2019 guidance.”

 

Email: info@imageres.com.au

Web: www.imageres.com.au

 

Virgo Resources to IPO With Namibia-Botswana Projects

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Former Gold Road Resources (ASX: GOR) chairman Ian Murray is about to launch a new company on the boards of the Australian Securities Exchange.

Murray is heading up Virgo Resources, a copper focused exploration and mineral project development company based in Perth, Western Australia.

The company is listing on the back of prospective copper and gold interests that include a 2012 JORC code-compliant copper and gold resource in Namibia, as well as prospective copper assets in Botswana.

Virgo has interests in three copper projects:

The company has a 70 per cent interest in the Hope copper-gold VMS project in Namibia where it has an option to increase its stake to 90 per cent.

The Hope copper-gold VMS project comprises EPL5796, EPL6605 and EPL7170 (application), which cover a total of over 1,200 square kilometres within the Matchless Copper Belt in Namibia.

These tenures are located in central Namibia and straddle the boundary between the Erongo and Khomas regions, about 200 kilometres from Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.

Hope is Virgo’s most advanced copper project and contains a large, high-grade JORC 2012 mineral resource of 10.2 million tonnes at 1.9 per cent copper and 0.3 grams per tonne gold.

The Resources estimate lies across the Hope, Gorob-Vendome and Anomaly prospects of containing some 193,000 tonnes of contained copper metal plus 103,000 ounces of gold and possible silver credits.

Virgo likes the prospects for growth of the current mineral resources and further discoveries as no modern, regional-scale exploration has been applied to the area.

Historic drilling was carried out; however, it was not assayed for gold.

Virgo claims newer drill holes and surface rock-chip samples indicate gold grades from 0.1 to 6.8g/t gold.

The project comes with an extensive exploration database that contains 203 diamond drill holes have been completed for 33,500m of drilling.

The Rhinelands copper project in Namibia, in which Virgo has a 90 per cent Interest, is an iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) exploration play with abundant surface copper mineralisation that has not been properly tested at depth.

The Rhinelands project covers approximately 185sqkm to the northwest of Windhoek and includes records of historic exploration by Falconbridge in the 1960 and 70s that identified two copper prospects along the highly prospective Rehderstal Fault.

Over in Botswana, the company owns 100 per cent of the Kalahari Copper Belt project that is located
within an under-explored, emerging copper province that hosts major development projects including Cupric Canyon Capital’s Zone 5 copper-silver deposit and MOD Resource’s T3 copper-silver deposit that now belongs to Sandfire Resources following a $167 million takeover.

Virgo considers its most prospective tenure sits in this region on PL40/2018, which is situated along strike of large copper-silver mineralisation deposits held by other Kalahari Copper Belt explorers and developers.

 

Web: www.virgoresources.com.au