Auroch Minerals Shuffles Boardroom Setting Following Chairman Resignation

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Auroch Minerals (ASX: AOU) advised that it has given current non-executive director Edward Mason a bigger seat at the Boardroom table by appointing hm as non-executive chairman.

Auroch Minerals said it believes Mason to have the necessary skill that will complement the next phase of development of the company, with its primary focus on the exploration of its 100 per cent-owned Saints and Leinster nickel sulphide projects.

Mason’s appointment follows the resignation of Glenn Whiddon as chairman and director of Auroch.

“On behalf of the company, I would like to thank Glenn for his commitment, support, dedication and guidance over the years and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours,” Auroch Minerals managing director Aidan Platel said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

The Auroch Board will now comprise Aidan Platel as managing director, Mason as non-executive chairman, and Chris Hansen as non-executive director.

“I have known Ed for more than 10 years in various roles in the natural resources capital markets arena in Australia and globally, and believe that together with Aidan and Chris Hansen, the company has an experienced board and senior management team to build and grow Auroch over the coming years as a base metal explorer and developer in Australia,” Glenn Whiddon said in response.

 

Web: www.aurochminerals.com

 

THE DAILY ROADHOUSE

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Musgrave Minerals Recommenced Mainland Drilling After Hitting More High-Grade Lena Gold

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Musgrave Minerals (ASX: MGV) has recommenced drilling at the Mainland area, part of the company’s 100 per cent-owned tenure at the Cue gold project in the Murchison district of Western Australia.

Graphex Mining Provides Valuable Insights into Graphite

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Graphex Mining (ASX: GPX) released an announcement to the ASX relating to the company’s ‘markets first’ strategy as it develops its Chilalo graphite project in south-east Tanzania.

Altech Chemicals Progressing HPA Plant Construction in Malaysia

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Altech Chemicals (ASX: ATC) kept the market abreast of progress of construction at the company’s high purity alumina (HPA) plant site in Johor, Malaysia.

Mincor Resources Eyes Cassini Ore Reserve after Encouraging Nickel Hit

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Mincor Resources (ASX: MCR) has commenced an updated Mineral Resource for the company’s Cassini nickel sulphide deposit after recent diamond drilling yielded a further thick zone of high-grade nickel sulphide mineralisation.

Hillgrove Resources Announces Kavanagh Underground Minerals Resource Estimate

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Hillgrove Resources (ASX: HGO) completed a JORC Code 2012-copliant Mineral Resource Estimate for the Central and East Kavanagh underground area at the company’s Kanmantoo copper mine in South Australia.

 

Hillgrove Resources Announces Kavanagh Underground Minerals Resource Estimate

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Hillgrove Resources (ASX: HGO) completed a JORC Code 2012-copliant Mineral Resource Estimate for the Central and East Kavanagh underground area at the company’s Kanmantoo copper mine in South Australia.

Hillgrove Resources said the underground Mineral Resource Estimate has incorporated 2019 diamond drilling results with the earlier 2006 diamond drill results.

Source: Company announcement

The company said the copper grade of the resource estimate indicates that the grade and dimensions of the orebodies may be suitable for underground mining.

“The resource estimate only covers a portion of the Central and East Kavanagh areas and there is considerable opportunity to increase the resource with further drilling on Central and East Kavanagh and drilling of the identified West Kavanagh Exploration Target,” Hillgrove Resources said in its ASX announcement.

Hillgrove indicated the Mineral Resource Estimate will now be subjected to mine design, optimisation and feasibility studies, as permitting, finance and an agreement with AGL over mine life are finalised.

 

Mincor Resources Eyes Cassini Ore Reserve after Encouraging Nickel Hit

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Mincor Resources (ASX: MCR) has commenced an updated Mineral Resource for the company’s Cassini nickel sulphide deposit after recent diamond drilling yielded a further thick zone of high-grade nickel sulphide mineralisation.

Mincor Resources drilled an ‘up-wedge’ hole (MDD334w1) that returned a high-grade intercept of 8.1 metres at 5.7 per cent nickel that was encountered within a targeted 72m down-plunge gap situated between previously reported high-grade intercepts.

Mincor explained that MDD334w1 was drilled on the Inferred/Indicated Resource boundary within the current Mineral Resource envelope in the recently delineated CS5 channel.

The company said this new intersection is higher grade and thicker than currently estimated in the Resource block model and demonstrates the continuity, thickness and high grade nickel sulphides contained within the CS5 surface and clears the way for the completion of an updated Mineral Resource which will be used by the Operations Team to establish a Maiden Ore Reserve for the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS).

The anticipates an Ore Reserve will be released as part of the DFS in the March 2020 quarter.

“The intersection from the up-wedge hole announced today is the icing on the cake of what has been a remarkably successful drilling campaign,” Mincor Resources managing director David Southam said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“During this period, we’ve drilled six diamond holes, all which have been mineralised, with four of those intersecting very thick and high-grade nickel sulphides, which is an exceptional result by any measure.

“Our focus now turns to completing an updated Mineral Resource in November, building further on the last update in August.

“In the meantime, the exploration story at Cassini will continue to evolve.

“The diamond rig moves firstly to the adjacent magnetic anomaly and then the CS1 channel.

“Success at either of these locations could further open up the prospective horizon at Cassini along strike to the north and potentially further elevate the significance of this remarkable greenfields nickel discovery.”

 

Email: mincor@mincor.com.au

Web: www.mincor.com.au

 

Graphex Mining Provides Valuable Insights into Graphite

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Graphex Mining (ASX: GPX) released an announcement to the ASX relating to the company’s ‘markets first’ strategy as it develops its Chilalo graphite project in south-east Tanzania.

Graphex Mining highlighted its recent efforts in developing and enhancing its ‘markets first’ strategy, with a strong focus on non-Chinese markets to complement the company’s existing customer relationships in China.

A key development in this strategy has been the advancement of a low-risk, low capital-intensive, value-added products strategy to enhance the value of its concentrate sales to be included in the upcoming definitive feasibility study (DFS).

What caught our eye, however, was the company’s analysis of the graphite market and the inherent differences within that most punters are probably not, but should be, aware of.

Below is pretty much a word-for-word lift from the company’s ASX announcement.

EXPANDABLE GRAPHITE

Over the past four years, Graphex has engaged numerous end users as well as three independent laboratories to evaluate the use of Chilalo flake graphite (in various mesh sizes) for the production of expandable graphite and to determine how Graphex expandable graphite would perform when compared to other expandable graphite producers and products.

Evaluations have consistently concluded that Chilalo flake graphite, using two different intercalation / oxidation compound formulas, meets the performance characteristics for graphite foils and fire-retardants.

Due to its unique chemistry markers, Chilalo flake graphite meets critical parameters that are required for fire-retardant manufacturers.

Sales of natural flake graphite into value-added markets will achieve higher prices than selling the same graphite into applications such as refractories which generally don’t require any performance qualifications other than meeting minimum purity requirements.

Refractories can formulate to any flake graphite signature in the world to ensure a consistent supply of natural graphite.

This is another reason why reference to ‘graphite prices’ is irrelevant without further defining other characteristics, even if, for example, it is the same product (ie. a +895 product, which is +80 mesh, 95 per cent loss on ignition (LOI), will sell for a higher price as a fire-retardant pre-cursor material than it would selling to a refractory manufacturer).

Source: Company announcement

MICRONISED GRAPHITE

Micronised graphite is a processed form of natural or synthetic graphite, produced by fine grinding flake graphite concentrate into specific micron particle size distributions.

This process allows smaller mesh sizes (- 100 mesh or -200 mesh) to be used as raw material feedstock, creating a high potential margin for producers.

The key requirements of micronised graphite are achieving a range of micron particle size distributions (PSD) and PSD axis variances to meet the various specifications and performance metrics for targeted applications.

There are multiple applications which use micronised graphite products including lubricants, dispersions, pencil, friction, carbon brush, automotive seals, industrial polymers, and Hot Metal Forming (HMF).

The strategy to pursue micronised graphite has a number of advantages:
• Natural flake graphite feedstock to produce micronised graphite is -100 mesh, 95 per cent LOI, which is also a graphite product competing with Chinese suppliers and Syrah Resources Limited and is therefore more likely to attract low prices;

• Micronisation equipment is relatively low capital cost (even so, it is proposed as a second phase following commissioning of the main Chilalo plant); and

• Significant value uplift achievable (weighted average sales price for standard purity micronised graphite based on Graphex’s targeted product mix increased to US$2,800/t FOB Port compared with significantly lower prices for selling -100 mesh concentrate into China).

COARSE VS FINE FLAKE GRAPHITE – A TALE OF TWO MARKETS

Graphite is unlike mainstream commodities in that independent market information is scarce and prices are set between the buyer and seller, rather than by reference to an index or exchange.

There is also no single price that applies to all graphite, with the graphite market comprising a multitude of different applications and specifications.

Furthermore, pricing is impacted by many factors outside of purely flake size and purity.

Coal companies will be quick to point out the differences between coking coal and thermal coal given the different uses and resultant pricing.

Thermal coal is used to generate electricity and currently sells for approximately US$50-65/t depending on quality, while metallurgical or coking coal is used to make steel and currently sells for approximately US$150/t.

The differences in uses, supply/demand and hence pricing are even more pronounced between coarse and fine flake graphite and it is therefore critical to distinguish between these two categories rather than simply talking about ‘graphite’ as a single market.

The table below shows several key differences between coarse and fine flake graphite.

Source: Company announcement

Graphex believes that the major difference comes down to supply and notes that separating Table 1 into coarse flake and fine flake only is an oversimplification due to the complexities of specifications, applications and markets within each category however it broadly demonstrates the substantially different dynamics impacting each size category.

Since the initial discovery of Chilalo in 2014, Graphex has worked to develop its understanding of end markets while seeking to partner with strategic investors to enable delivery of the project.

The Chilalo project is underpinned by a high proportion of large flake material with expansion characteristics, which has taken the company down the expandable graphite market road due to expandable graphite’s attractive growth and value characteristics as well as the size and growth expectations of the expandable graphite market applications, the premium prices for large flake graphite in general and the suitability of Chilalo graphite for the production of expandable graphite applications.

This has resulted in Graphex prioritising supplying the expandable graphite market as its primary focus.

 

Email: info@graphexmining.com.au

Web: www.graphexmining.com.au

 

Altech Chemicals Progressing HPA Plant Construction in Malaysia

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Altech Chemicals (ASX: ATC) kept the market abreast of progress of construction at the company’s high purity alumina (HPA) plant site in Johor, Malaysia.

Altech Chemicals recently carried a final site inspection of the Stage 1 construction works that have now completed on budget and on schedule.

The stage 1 facilities have been formally handed-over to Altech by the EPC contract consortium (SMS group and Metix), consisting of a maintenance workshop building, all site retaining walls, and the on-site detention (OSD) storm water tanks at the rear of the plant site.

Altech indicated that Stage 2 engineering was in train, with SMS group having placed orders with various vendors for the commencement of engineering packages covering approximately 50 per cent of the long lead items.

“Completion of the packages will position SMS group to proceed to final detailed engineering of structures and piping in readiness for plant construction,” Altech Chemicals said in its ASX announcement.

“Also, construction of the on-site electrical substation has now commenced.

“Preliminary excavation, earthworks and the pouring of concrete foundations were recently completed.

“Construction of the substation structure is expected to commence during November 2019, once various off-site fabrication works are complete.”

 

Email: info@altechchemicals.com

Web: www.altechchemicals.com

 

Musgrave Minerals Recommenced Mainland Drilling After Hitting More High-Grade Lena Gold

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Musgrave Minerals (ASX: MGV) has recommenced drilling at the Mainland area, part of the company’s 100 per cent-owned tenure at the Cue gold project in the Murchison district of Western Australia.

Musgrave Minerals reported the drilling at Mainland had recommenced to follow-up high-grade gold drill results that were achieved in August and surface high-grade rock-chip sampling in October.

The company executed an Option Agreement to acquire the Mainland tenements near Cue in March, after which it quickly completed an initial Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program at the Mainland-Consols target that intersected:

3m @ 5.4g/t Au from 74m down hole (19MORC008)

The Mainland-Consols target is open to the south and down dip and follow-up drilling that has commenced is aimed at further testing this area along with other high-priority targets including the area where a high-grade (3,499.4g/t gold) rock-chip sample was identified.

Musgrave indicated that there has been no historical drilling carried out in the area of this high-grade rock-chip sample.

“We are excited to recommence drilling at Mainland in areas where we have previously identified high-grade gold,” Musgrave Minerals managing director Rob Waugh said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“There is significant untested gold potential within the Mainland tenements and we are only just getting started in terms of applying modern exploration techniques in the area.”

The current program will consist of up to 18 RC drill holes for approximately 1,000m before the rig moves to Break of Day and Lena.

Musgrave also received further high-grade gold assay results from diamond drilling at the Lena deposit that returned high-grade gold over potentially mineable widths below the current JORC resource boundary and confirm the continuity of the mineralisation at depth.

Lena has an existing JORC 2012 resource of 2,682,000 tonnes at 1.77 grams per tonne gold for 153,000 ounces of gold.

Two of the three recent diamond drill holes completed at Lena (19MODD020 and 19MODD021) intersected high-grade gold lodes over potentially minable widths.

Results include:

19MODD021
6 metres at 4.4 grams per tonne gold from 191m down hole, including 2.2m at 10.6g/t gold from 194.8m

This intersection was encountered approximately 30m vertically beneath the existing resource boundary on the eastern high-grade lode; and

19MODD020
2.8m at 4.8g/t gold from 384m down hole, 140m below the existing resource on the western lode.

The mineralisation is open down plunge on all lodes.

Musgrave explained that hole 16MODD019 that was drilled at the southern end of the high-grade plunging main shoot at Lena, lifted above the intended target position and intersected the lode above and outside the south plunging high-grade shoot at this location without intersecting any mineralisation of note.

That being said, the company acknowledged the new drilling had supported its re-interpretation of historical drill data that identified a southerly plunge on the high-grade gold lodes that remain open at depth below the current JORC resource boundary.

Musgrave has been encouraged by the drilling program, saying it has improved its geological confidence in the continuity of the mineralisation beneath the current resource.

The results will be incorporated into the geological model to facilitate a re-estimation of the Lena gold resource.

Further RC drilling is scheduled to commence at Lena in early November to support an updated JORC compliant resource estimate in early Q1 2020.

“At Lena we continue to define high-grade extensions to the gold mineralisation below the existing JORC resource boundary,” Waugh continued.

“The drilling has improved our confidence in the continuity of the high-grade mineralisation at depth and will likely add high-grade ounces as we continue to drill to upgrade the existing resource at Lena.”

The Mainland area and Lena deposit are 100 per cent-owned by Musgrave and are excluded from the Earn-in and Exploration Joint Venture with Evolution Mining (ASX: EVN).

On the new JV area over Lake Austin at Cue, Musgrave and Evolution are planning follow-up drilling programs at Lake Austin North and other lake targets where there is evidence of a potential large gold system.

 

Email: info@musgraveminerals.com.au

Web: www.musgraveminerals.com.au

 

THE DAILY ROADHOUSE

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Encounter Resources and Newcrest Drilling at Tanami JV

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Encounter Resources (ASX: ENR) announced the completion of the first phase of RC drilling at Hutch’s Find in the Tanami region of Western Australia that is held in Joint Venture with Newcrest Mining (ASX: NCM).

Red 5 Scores Big Hits Assaying Historical KOTH Core

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Red 5 Limited (ASX: RED) is continuing to produce encouraging results from ongoing assaying of historical diamond drill core from the King of the Hills (KOTH) gold mine, located in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia.

Southern Gold to Commence Drilling at Bonanza Zone

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Southern Gold (ASX: SAU) is set to commence a diamond drilling program on the Bonanza Zone, within the company’s 100 per cent-owned Deokon project in South Korea, having secured land access and regulatory approvals.

St George Mining Encounters More Step-Out Results at Mt Alexander

THE DRILL SERGEANT: St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) released more results from ongoing exploration programs underway at the company’s Mt Alexander project in the north-eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

 

St George Mining Encounters More Step-Out Results at Mt Alexander

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) released more results from ongoing exploration programs underway at the company’s Mt Alexander project in the north-eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

St George is concentrating on shallow, high-grade nickel-copper sulphides it has discovered at the Cathedrals Belt to date, which it believes to be associated with mafic-ultramafic intrusions interpreted to have passed upwards from the Earth’s mantle through structures located in the northern margin of the Belt.

Deeper drilling to track the mineralised intrusive units down-plunge of the shallow deposits has intersected these units in their interpreted down-dip extension.

Subsequent downhole EM (DHEM) surveys the company has underway in these deeper holes have now identified multiple off-hole EM conductors, which St George consider to be excellent targets for the discovery of further nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation.

“These new EM targets from the deeper holes indicate that the large, high-grade mineral system at the Cathedrals Belt is ‘live’ at depth,” St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“With all EM conductors drilled in the Cathedrals Belt confirmed as nickel-copper sulphides, the new EM conductors present a tremendous opportunity to make further discoveries and to confirm the continuation of mineralisation down-plunge.

“We are seeing increasing potential for significant mineralisation at depth, and are excited to be escalating our drill program to more intensely test this priority target area.”

MAD168 is the latest deep stratigraphic hole St George has completed at the Cathedrals Belt.

The hole was drilled to a downhole depth of 301 metres where it intersected 6.5m of nickel-copper sulphides from 227.1m downhole.

The sulphides were intersected in the interpreted down-dip continuation of the Investigators ultramafic unit.

MAD168 is a large 95m step-out to the north of the previously known mineralisation in MAD123 that St George claims has confirmed a large extension of the down-plunge strike of high-grade mineralisation at Investigators.

The breccia and stringer sulphides intersected by MAD168 suggest remobilisation from a larger and proximal source of massive nickel-copper sulphides.

This interpretation is given additional weight by the high chalcopyrite content of the sulphides in MAD168, a further indicator of proximal remobilised mineralisation.

 

Web: www.stgm.com.au

Southern Gold to Commence Drilling at Bonanza Zone

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Southern Gold (ASX: SAU) is set to commence a diamond drilling program on the Bonanza Zone, within the company’s 100 per cent-owned Deokon project in South Korea, having secured land access and regulatory approvals.

Southern Gold explained the drilling would be a first pass scout program initially to test the Bonanza Zone outcrop and will involve close spaced drilling to determine the currently unknown true width of the mineralised zone and quantify representative gold and silver grade.

The initial program will involve four diamond drill holes, three of which are designed to intersect around 25 metres below the identified outcrop at around 40m apart, with a fourth planned to intersect the structure at depth, approximately 50m below surface.

A second drill pad along strike is also planned to follow with stage 2 holes.

The Bonanza Zone is part of the Golden Surprise Trend that Southern Gold claimed discovery of in July 2019.

At that time the Bonanza Zone returned a peak of 32.4 grams per tonne gold and 1,095g/t silver in outcrop and 78.6g/t gold and 13,000g/t silver in float.

“We are extremely pleased to have secured the required approvals in a timely manner in order to drill the first program into the compelling target at Bonanza Zone this year,” Southern Gold managing director Simon Mitchell said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Our 100 per cent-owned Deokon project with bonanza grade gold and silver on surface, including visible native silver in hand specimen, is a genuine ‘walk-up drill target’, which has never been tested before.

“Deokon is an exciting project and is just one part of the enormous exploration potential that is unfolding in South Korea.”

Other recent work in South Korea has included a maiden diamond drilling program at the Beopseongpo project, involving four holes for 653.63m at Lotus North and three holes at Hand of Faith for 556m, totalling 1,209.63m of drilling.

Southern Gold anticipates final assays during November at which point the company said it would will summarise the program in more detail.

“At Beopseongpo we are highly encouraged by the intersection of the target structure at the Hand of Faith target, including multiple wide intercepts of epithermal quartz veins,” Mitchell said.

“We now await the assays but are already planning the next stage of drilling there, including at Golden Palm where we have sampled high grade gold on surface.

“Beopseongpo continues to evolve as a high-quality project of exceptional scale.”

 

Email: info@southergold.com.au

Web: www.southerngold.com.au