Intermin Resources Making Gold While Vanadium Shines

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THE INSIDE STORY: Intermin Resources (ASX: IRC) is a gold exploration and mining company focussed in the Kalgoorlie area of Western Australia with a lot more happening on the sidelines.

Intermin Resources is developing a mining pipeline of projects to generate cash and self-fund aggressive exploration, mine developments and further acquisitions.

The company currently has the Teal gold mine in production where it commenced open pit mining in 2016 with ore processed at the Paddington mill of Norton Gold Fields Limited and the Lakewood toll milling facility.

The company commenced mining of an eastern cutback (Teal Stage 2) in September 2017, concurrently with Stage 1 to recover approximately 22,000 ounces at plus-three grams per tonne gold from oxide and transitional ore.

This was completed at the end of March 2018.

Intermin’s aim is to grow the current Teal JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate of 1.49 million tonnes at 2.18g/t gold for approximately 104,000 ounces of gold (above 1g/t gold lower grade cut-off and below a 20g/t gold upper grade cut-off).

“The project needs to be self-funded,” Intermin Resources managing director Jon Price told The Resources Roadhouse.

“The mining we completed at the Teal gold mine was very successful in meeting all its Feasibility Study parameters, resulting us sitting on a bank balance of around $10 million.

“That allows us to go and spend $4 million on a drilling program of 55,000 metres, a program that is huge for a company our size.”

Intermin spent a good deal of time and effort throughout 2017 compiling and reviewing a large geological database comprising geochemical, geophysical and historic drilling datasets to prioritise targets for drill testing.

Field reconnaissance investigations were undertaken during the year to confirm these targets and finalise the design of the 2018 drill program.

The company recently released a maiden JORC 2012 Mineral Resource Estimate for its Anthill project of 1.42 million tonnes at 1.72g/t gold for 78,000 ounces with 75 per cent sitting in the Indicated Category and mineralisation open in all directions.

The Resources took Intermin’s Total Mineral Resource to 6.36 million tonnes at 2.12g/t gold for 434,000 ounces.

“We have a number of mantras that we follow, and one of those is that you have to grow the Resource beyond one million ounces,” Price explained.

“That’s what this year is all about.

“The drilling program is split 50 per cent looking for new discoveries and fifty per cent growing the Resource over the one million ounce mark.

“For us that converts to around 400,0000 ounces in Reserves providing four years producing 100,000 ounces per year, which in turn triggers the ability to commission a mill, either bought or built, and operating as a standalone producer.”

In addition to the Teal and Anthill drilling, Intermin will commence testing Blister Dam, a project that sits on the Zuleika Shear that hasn’t been drilled since the 1990s.

“We have done all the preparation work, we have identified the targets, now it’s the drillbit’s turn to tell us what is there,” Price said.

As it focuses on its self-proclaimed specialty of gold, Intermin has several joint ventures in place across multiple commodities and regions of Australia providing exposure to vanadium, copper, PGE’s, and nickel/cobalt.

“The business model has always been based around gold, because that is our core competency – we stick to our knitting, so to speak,” Price continued.

“Having a main gold focus has resulted in us Joint Venturing the other commodity projects we have to some high-quality specialists in those respective fields.

“Our business model remains pretty simple – to grow into being a mid-tier gold producer, then if we get taken over on the way and all our shareholders make money, so be it, that’s all well and good and we’ll go out and do it all over again.

“The recent industry vanadium interest has raised the profile of our Joint Venture – suddenly everybody wants to know what we have and how we can bring it to commercial production.”

Intermin’s Richmond vanadium/molybdenum project is in Queensland and is a Joint Venture with AXF –Vanadium, a company that lends plenty of technical expertise to the project as well as extensive business relationships throughout one of the world’s strongest vanadium markets in Southeast Asia.

An update to the Mineral Resource for the Richmond project has moved it into the ‘world class’ category standing at 2,579 million tonnes at 0.32 per cent vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) at a 0.29 per cent lower cut-off grade.

“It’s a monster Resource and we have Chinese backing in our Joint Venture partners who can deal with taking it to that commercial level and all the offtakers that come with that, because they know them – they have a complete network already in place,” Price said.

China is the logical step for a company with such a vanadium Resource as the Chinese government considers ways of replacing its current coal-fired energy generation while closing steel mills to ease pollution and consolidate environmental controls.

“There’s an enormous gap and supply crunch now, let alone in the future with the growth in vanadium redox flow batteries self-evident,” Price continued.

“We want a seat at that table, we have one of the largest vanadium Resources in the world and it sits just five metres below the surface.”

According to international research house, Roskill, vanadium demand growth is expected across most applications.

Vanadium consumption for steel manufacture will depend on use and growth in steel demand.

Just one area this will play out is in the manufacture of reinforcing bars (rebar), used primarily in the construction industry.

Higher-strength rebar contains more vanadium and, therefore, the more high-grade rebar used globally, the more vanadium is needed.

“This means that construction regulations, such as those introduced recently in China, which mandate the use of certain rebar for key applications can considerably impact vanadium demand,” Roskill observed.

Roskill also noted the rise in interest in the potential of vanadium redox batteries (VRBs).

“As of 2016, Roskill estimates that demand from VRBs accounted for less than 500 tonnes of vanadium pentoxide consumption,” the research house said.

“VRBs will likely achieve commercial success in specific energy storage applications such as load levelling, which will support an increase in market share and in vanadium demand.”

Intermin prides itself as being a gold company, however, it has developed several Joint Ventures across the commodity spectrum, incorporating commodities that are enjoying current success as the electronic revolution buoys the exploration sector.

“That provides the opportunity for our shareholders to have us focus on our gold project without distraction,” Price said.

“We are good at gold, and we don’t pretend to be good at anything else, so we let experts handle the other commodities.

“Our shareholders benefit by having exposure to all those other commodities, in different areas through the percentages of retained ownership.

“We want to participate in those JVs as they progress to commercial reality and we need to be able to fund that, which is where our gold business comes into play.

“We are a small junior gold business, but we have exposure to all those commodities.

“One or two of them may come to fruition, and the others may not, but when one of them does we want to be there maximising our opportunities.”

 

Intermin Resources Limited (ASX: IRC)
…The Short Story

HEAD OFFICE
163-167 Stirling Hwy
Nedlands WA 6009

Ph: +61 (8) 9386 9534

Email: iadmin@intermin.com.au
Website: www.intermin.com.au

DIRECTORS
Peter Bilbe, Peter Hunt, Jon Price

 

 

Venture Minerals Flags Intent to Rattle Tin Market

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THE INSIDE STORY: Venture Minerals (ASX: VMS) has commenced a detailed reassessment of the high-grade tin and tungsten Resource base at the company’s Mount Lindsay project in Tasmania.

Venture Minerals believes that as one of the world’s largest undeveloped tin project, Mt Lindsay is ideally placed to take advantage of the recent rise in both interest and the price of tin.

The 148 square kilometre Mt Lindsay project is in north-western Tasmania within the contact metamorphic aureole of the highly perspective Meredith Granite.

The project sits between the world class Renison Bell tin mine, which has produced more than 231,000 tonnes of tin metal since 1968, and the Savage River magnetite mine that has operated for over 50 years and currently producing approximately 2.5 million tonnes per annum of iron pellets.

Venture owns 100 per cent of the tenure that hosts both the Mt Lindsay tin-tungsten deposit and all surrounding prospects.

Tin hasn’t exactly been in the top ten sexiest metals list for some time, however a recent presentation by global powerhouse Rio Tinto at a battery metals conference in Perth, Australia, drew as much attention to the metal as when Battery King, Elon Musk provided nickel with a boost.

Part of the Rio presentation was a slide showing the metals most impacted by modern technologies, ranked by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Although Rio was using the information to push its Jadar lithium project in Serbia, using the MIT ranking to show lithium as the second most impacted metal, what caught the attention of most people in the room was the metal sitting above the market’s recent hot commodity, separated by a good amount of daylight – tin.

MIT credited the result to tin’s applications across a range of modern technologies, ranging through autonomous and electric vehicles, advanced robotics, renewable energy, advanced computation and information technology.

Mount Lindsay contains more than 80,000 tonnes of tin metal in the same mineralised body that also hosts a globally significant Resources of another, some may say, forgotten contributor to the current world technological advancement in tungsten.

The tungsten Resource contains 3.2 million metric tonne units (MTU) of tungsten trioxide (WO3).

The U.S. Geological Survey Mineral commodity summaries 2018 stated that total mine production of tungsten outside China was expected to be slightly higher than that of 2016.

This met with an expected combined decrease in production from Mongolia, Rwanda, Spain, and elsewhere that was less than the combined increase in production expected from the recently started Hemerdon mine in the United Kingdom and from the largest mine outside of China in Vietnam, which has improved its productivity.

“China was the world’s leading tungsten consumer,” the report said.

“During the first six to nine months of 2017, China’s consumption of tungsten concentrates, and its production and exports of downstream tungsten materials were higher than those of 2016, indicating an increase in global tungsten consumption.

“Prices of tungsten concentrates, and downstream tungsten materials continued the upward trends that began in late 2015 or early 2016.”

The International Tin Association describe tin as “the forgotten EV metal”, emphasising that it is now making ground on its contemporaries, “as a performance enhancing component in all of the three generations of advanced anode materials that have been road-mapped to 2030, plus some solid-state technologies.’”

The current market focus may be on the likes of lithium and cobalt for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, but according to the Association there is a newer generation of cheaper, safer products already in development, including sodium-ion, magnesium-ion, potassium-ion and other products.

“Tin, its alloys and compounds are prominent candidates for anode materials in some of these, and a growing number of developments including tin are noted,” the Tin Association claims.

“Although performance of some prototypes already exceeds commercial lithium-ion products, it is likely that such products will find their own market space and indeed some are already being used in niche markets.”

Other battery technologies are under development, particularly for larger scale utility power storage opening opportunities for tin, possibly in liquid metal technologies or as a catalyst in redox flow batteries.

Other recent work on ion-exchanging technologies includes tin as a possible metal-ion candidate.

Venture believes now is the time for Mt Lindsay where it has a large Resource base to draw from.

Tin recently hit around US$21,000 per tonne, an increase of some 60 per cent since January 2016.

Tungsten’s APT price has touched the plus-US$300 per MTU, representing an increase of 90 per cent since February 2016.

Since commencing exploration on the project in 2007, Venture has completed approximately 83,000m of diamond core drilling at Mt Lindsay, from which it has defined JORC compliant Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resources of 4.7 million tonnes at 0.4 per cent tin and 0.3 per cent WO3 with over 60 per cent in the Measured and Indicated categories.

A Feasibility Study completed on the project with comprehensive metallurgical test-work and post feasibility determined a very high-grade 75 per cent tin concentrate result Venture considers to likely attract price premiums.

In 2012, Venture Minerals claimed a major new high-grade tin discovery only six kilometres from the Mt Lindsay project when drilling encountered a 47-metre intersection of tin mineralisation at the Big Wilson prospect that included: 17.4 metres at 2 per cent tin, including 4m at 5.6 per cent tin.

Venture Minerals interpreted the results as being a combination of high-grade skarn style mineralisation and, typically large tonnage, greisen style mineralisation.

The high-grade nature of the earlier Big Wilson drilling opens depth opportunities, as these grades would be amenable to underground mining.

The company has made its intentions clear that it will be considering strategies to optimise the higher-grade portions at Mount Lindsay.

Venture will now look to focus on assessing the underground mining potential of this high-grade resource.

“Knowing that the Mount Lindsay project has a large tin Resource that could be harnessed to meet applications in Electrical Vehicles and renewable energy has refocussed the company to revisit its approach in developing this asset,” Venture Minerals managing director Andrew Radonjic told The Resources Roadhouse.

“Mt Lindsay is a very advanced project in Tasmania that has plenty of Resource tonnes but has a higher-grade core that we could approach from an underground perspective.

“We have a fair degree of confidence in developing an underground operation there.

“Instead of originally looking to maximise the Resource through mostly open pit mining 14 million tonnes of ore we would more likely be looking at mining four million tonnes from purely underground which we believe is the best way of bringing forward tin and tungsten production from Mount Lindsay.

“We also have a number of high-grade targets that we can follow up.”

On top of the Big Wilson target, Venture has successfully defined eight new targets it considers prospective for high-grade tin-tungsten mineralisation.

There are also several targets that appear to be prospective for copper and nickel mineralisation.

These targets are hosted within the broader skarn units identified throughout the Mount Lindsay area of which to date only 10 per cent have been drill tested.

Venture has already completed reconnaissance work designed to identify additional targets in the broader Mount Lindsay area.

 

Venture Minerals Limited (ASX: VMS)
…The Short Story

HEAD OFFICE
Suite 3, Level 3
24 Outram Street
West Perth, WA, 6005

Ph: +61 8 6279 9428

Email: info@ventureminerals.com.au
Web: www.ventureminerals.com.au

DIRECTORS
Mel Ashton, Andrew Radonjic, Hamish Halliday, John Jetter

 

Global Geoscience: Lithium and Boron on Equal Terms

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THE INSIDE STORY: Global Geoscience (ASX: GSC) is developing a unique dual-streamed lithium-boron deposit, ideally located in the United States in proximity to a growing potential customer base.

Global Geoscience’s 100 per cent-owned Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project is in the US state of Nevada is close to existing infrastructure and just 25 kilometres west of Albermarle’s Silver Peak lithium mine and 340km from the Tesla Gigafactory near Reno.

Rhyolite Ridge is one of the largest lithium and boron deposits in North America and has the potential to become a strategic, long-life and low-cost source of lithium and boron.

Being a dual-stream lithium and boron deposit, neither being by-products as they are two co-products, Rhyolite Ridge has the potential of producing equal revenue streams for both commodities, which places the project within a category of its own.

The Rhyolite Ridge project has a total Indicated and Inferred Resource that currently stands at 460 million tonnes at 0.9 per cent lithium carbonate and 2.6 per cent boric acid, containing 4.1 million tonnes of lithium carbonate and 11.9 million tonnes of boric acid.

The high-grade lithium-boron component of the Resource is estimated at 137 million tonnes at 1800ppm lithium (equivalent to 0.9% lithium carbonate) and 1.26 per cent boron (equivalent to 7.2% boric acid), with 75 per cent of the Resource in the Indicated category.

Global Geoscience has already demonstrated lithium and boron can be readily extracted by simple heap leach processing with high recoveries.

The company carried out heap leach processing of Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron mineralisation returning lithium and boron recoveries of 88 to 92 per cent.

Metallurgical and environmental studies are in progress as part of the overall Rhyolite Ridge Pre-Feasibility Study, which is scheduled for completion in the second half of the year.

Global Geoscience is looking at Rhyolite Ridge in terms of it supporting a long-life mining operation at rates of 2 million tonnes per annum to 4 million tonnes per annum.

At present, the company is considering two development paths: the first being a smaller 2 million tonnes per annum starter pit based on a 26 million tonnes resource, and the second, a larger, unconstrained pit based on an 87 million tonnes Resource able to support 4 million tonnes per annum.

The smaller starter pit is winning at this stage as it has the potential to be granted fast tracked permitting by the US Government.

Independent metallurgical testwork has shown that simple, low-cost heap leach processes can be used to extract lithium and boron at high recovery rates into a Pregnant Leach Solution (PLS), from which lithium and boron can be removed through crystallisation and purification steps to produce lithium carbonate and boric acid at the mine.

Being able to extract lithium and boron via heap leaching at modest acid consumption rates means the project can operate using lower capital and operating costs when compared to other forms of acid leaching such as agitation (tank) leaching that require crushing, grinding, filtration and leach tanks.

It also demands substantially lower capital and operating costs to those involved with hard rock lithium deposits (spodumene, mica, clay) that require beneficiation and high-temperature conversion or roasting to liberate the lithium from the lithium-bearing minerals.

Assuming a processing rate of 2 million tonnes per annum of ore, the project would generate revenue of about US$240 million per annum split equally between lithium carbonate (US$8,000/t conservative long-term pricing) and boric acid ($800/t).

The company believes operating margins of 100 per cent are achievable with Rhyolite Ridge producing lithium carbonate and boric acid at roughly half the long-term prices being used.

“It doesn’t really matter how big a deposit is or where it is, if it isn’t going to be economic then it will not be viable,” Global Geoscience managing director Bernard Rowe told The Resources Roadhouse.

“Being a low-cost of production project due to its the unique mineralogy, Rhyolite Ridge allows us to consider heap-leach/vat-leach type options for the extraction of the lithium and the boron.

“Rhyolite Ridge is the only deposit in the world of lithium or boron, certainly of lithium, that has been demonstrated to be processable by heap-leach or vat-leach.

The advantage of either processing route means less preparation is needed before leaching the ore and that the company will basically just need to crush the ore then pour on the acid with no secondary crushing, grinding, or beneficiating required.

“It is a simple operation, we just dig it, crush it, then leach it,” Rowe said.

“At Rhyolite Ridge the minerals containing the boron and the lithium are quite soluble in relatively dilute acid, which we demonstrated by reducing the feedstock crush size to minus 38 millimetres from the minus 150 millimetres in earlier tests.

“Once you put the acid on it you produce a solution, from which you crystallise the lithium and boron, it is a simple flowsheet.

“Realistically, there are no other lithium deposits in the world where utilising this sort of flowsheet is being contemplated.

“Clearly that can’t be done with a spodumene deposit and the other sedimentary types, like lithium clays, also require high-temperature roasting for other reasons, but essentially it is not suitable to try and leach clay deposits with the diluted acid we are talking about at Rhyolite Ridge.”

The United States is the ideal location for such a project with the country being the second-largest market for boric acid in the world, meaning Rhyolite Ridge’s production is likely to have a ready-made customer base in the domestic market.

Currently, there is very little in the way of advanced lithium projects in the United States, apart from one existing producer, which only produces about 4000 tonnes of lithium carbonate per annum.

President Trump has stated the country’s need to establish a supply of critical metals, indicating lithium is one of those metals and if, as many analysts predict, the US is going to embrace the uptake of electric vehicles and power storage, demand is set to grow.

From a boron perspective, the US is currently a major producer of borates, due mainly to a boron mine operated by Rio Tinto in California, however this is an old mine that is getting more expensive to mine as it approaches the end of its life.

Turkey is the country to presently host an abundance of boron with only a few known large boron deposits being either developed or mined elsewhere in the world.

These are Rhyolite Ridge, the Californian deposit mentioned above and the Jadar deposit in Serbia, also owned by Rio Tinto.

“Potential boron production outside of Turkey remains very limited and yet the US is a major consumer of borate products, as is China, which has limited supply of its own,” Rowe continued.

“Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea are all big boron consumers, so the situation exists where Pacific countries are the dominant consumers while future production, other than Rhyolite Ridge – as it currently stands – has to come from Turkey and Serbia.”

Global Geoscience expects to have the PFS completed in mid-2018, which it anticipates will confirm the company’s view that it has an economic pathway to develop the Rhyolite Ridge deposit into a substantial, low-cost, near-term producer of lithium carbonate and boric acid.

 

Global Geoscience Limited (ASX: GSC)
…The Short Story

HEAD OFFICE
Suite 203
161 Walker Street
North Sydney, NSW, 2060

Ph: +61 2 9922 5800

Email: rhowe@globalgeo.com.au
Web: www. globalgeo.com.au

DIRECTORS
James D. Calaway, Bernard Rowe, Alan Davies, Patrick Elliott, John Hofmeister

 

Blackham Resources Returns to Winning Form

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THE INSIDE STORY: Just as a week is a long time in football, Blackham Resources (ASX: BLK) has shown the industry a quarter can be a long time in mining.

If Blackham Resources were to be compared to the fortunes of an Australian Rules Football club it would most likely be Richmond.

Its supporters are fanatical and are quick to let those in charge feel their wrath when things are down and are equally magnanimous when their team starts performing to their liking.

Blackham disappointed its followers last year when its 2017 June Quarterly reported the company had missed guidance of 17000 to 22000 ounces of gold at its 6.5 million ounce Wiluna gold operations in Western Australia, producing an sub-performance 15700 ounces.

This result had followed a lower return from the March 2017 quarter of 14900 ounce.

Blackham provided several reasons for the performances, including wet weather, wall slippages and lower than expected underground grades for missing expectations, however it also signalled a return to form was imminent, flagging a likely increase in grade profile, which would generate better production and Free Cash Flow from the September 2017 quarter.

Although gold production was still down for the September 2017 quarter at 15,619 ounces, there was a noticeable improvement in mill feed due to mining of bigger and higher-grade proportions of Golden Age underground ore.

Mill feed grade was weighed down by 39 per cent of the ore milled during the quarter being from lower grade stockpiles (0.7g/t) and access to a substantial portion of higher-grade M4 open pit ore was delayed into the December 2017 quarter due to the pit wall instability which was rectified during the quarter.

Blackham started showing a return to form during the December 2017 quarter when it reported that extensive waste stripping it had carried out during the calendar year 2017 had provided access to high-grade zones in both the Galaxy and M4 pits, in November and December respectively that would provide up to six months of access to consistent high-grade ore.

Mining at M4 and Galaxy is expected to underpin strong operational cashflows for Blackham in 2018.

Both got off to flying starts during December 2017 with 137000 tonnes of high-grade ore at 1.6 grams per tonne gold mined from the M4 and Galaxy pits and a further 7,887 ounces of gold mined from the two open pits in December.

When Blackham released its quarterly in January the two pits were already ahead of previous results with 11410 ounces of gold mined, more than the entire September quarter.

By kicking off mining of these high-grade M4 and Galaxy pits zones, Blackham began to build high-grade stockpiles, which was the first significant high-grade stockpile build-up the company had achieved since March 2017.

Blackham Resources started its return to Brownlow Medal-form in 2018 producing a strong March quarter at Wiliuna that increased gold production by 38 per cent from the previous December quarter including new monthly record gold production achieved in each successive month of the quarter.

In January Blackham produced 6,498 ounces of gold that was achieved along with a record low monthly All In Sustaining Costs (AISC) of $1,158 per ounce, which compared well to an average realised gold price during the month of $1,663 per ounce, demonstrating a clear step change in economics for the operation.

February’s numbers saw further improvement thanks to a low open pit mining stripping ratio of 1.5:1 (waste:ore).

The company chalked up another record month of gold production, combing with the low stripping ratio to set a record low monthly AISC for February of $912 per ounce with an average realised gold price during the month of $1,670 per ounce.

Rainfall and lightning events during the month threatened to destabilise mining operations once again, however this time the company was able to see them off and increased the high-grade stockpiles to 144000 tonnes at 1.7g/t gold – more than a month’s production.

“February’s operational results demonstrate a continued improvement of the turnaround that commenced in December 2017,” Blackham Resources executive chairman Milan Jerkovic said.

“Record production and further reduced costs from the operation underpinned another month of strong cashflow, whilst maintaining stockpiles with increased grades.”

Blackham completed a premiership quarter with another gold production record for the month of March pumping out 7419 ounces of gold, an impressive 11 per cent increase on February.

AISC were reduced in the March quarter to $1092 per ounce, representing a substantial 42 per cent decrease on the December of $1882 per ounce.

An average realised gold price of $1669 per ounce was achieved for the quarter and the company holds gold forward sales contracts of 29,417 ounces at $1725 per ounce over the next nine months representing approximately 50 per cent of targeted production over that period.

“The March operational results demonstrate a continuation of the step change in project economics that commenced in December 2017,” Jerkovic said.

“Record production and significantly reduced costs underpinned a quarter of strong operational cashflows, whilst building stockpiles.”

As at 31 March 2018, Blackham had improved its net debt position to $10.4 million, a much healthier position than at 31 December 2017 where it sat at $27.4 million.

The company also held cash and bullion of $29.6 million and secured interest-bearing debt of $40 million.

A $14.3 million term loan previously due on 31 December 2017 was refinanced in mid Jan’18.

Blackham’s improved performance was recognised in the form of very strong shareholder support for an underwritten Entitlement Offer that raised approximately $35.9 million.

“The funds raised from the Entitlement Offer puts Blackham in a strong position to execute on its free milling mine plan, as well as to advance exploration focussed on growing our free milling mine life,” Jerkovic said.

“As demonstrated by the strength of our operations in December 2017 and January 2018, the company is at an exciting stage, with 2018 likely to be a transformational year of strong operational and financial performance.”

During March, Blackham’s exploration team drilled a program consisting 84 RC holes that was focused on delineating further free milling open pit reserves over the four kilometres of strike at the Wiluna mine.

This drilling was undertaken to follow up on a program of 77,000m drilling completed during the 2017 financial year.

That drilling had established probable reserves of 669,000 ounces (7.7 million tonnes at 2.7g/t gold), which includes oxide and transitional reserves of 144,000 ounces (2.5 million tonnes at 1.8g/t gold).

The drilling is focused on free milling ores that can be processed through the current plant.

The company has revised Wiluna mining and metallurgical studies that are well advanced in this area following the Wiluna Expansion PFS published in August 2017.

The Expansion PFS confirmed the robust economics for a plus-200,000 ounces per annum long mine life operation.

Key outcomes were life-of-mine AISC of $1,058 per ounce (US$822/oz), IRR 123 per cent and NPV of $360 million before tax at $1600 per ounce gold price.

Blackham is now re-estimating the open pit oxide reserves around the Wiluna mine site as the Blackham management team believes the Wiluna free milling ores are an obvious feed stock for the current operating mill and has a plan to fast track mining approvals.

 

Blackham Resources Limited (ASX: BLK)
… The Short Story

HEAD OFFICE
Level 2, 38 Richardson St
West Perth WA 6005

Ph: +61 8 9322 6418

Email: info@blackhamresources.com.au
Web: www.blackhamresources.com.au

DIRECTORS
Milan Jerkovic, Bryan Dixon, Greg Miles, Greg Fitzgerald

Global Geoscience Reduces Rhyolite Ridge Leach Time and Acid Consumption

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Global Geoscience (ASX: GSC) announced the results of the latest acid-leach testwork carried out at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada, USA.

Global Geoscience said the latest vat leach testwork demonstrated that over 90 per cent of the lithium and boron was extracted into solution in less than seven days.

The company said the decrease in leach time, acid consumption and solution requirements are expected to result in lower capital and operating costs than previously envisaged.

Latest results from the recent optimisation showed:

Much faster leach times of less than seven days – a reduction of more than 50 per cent;

Lower acid consumption of less than 400 kilograms of acid per tonne of feed – a reduction of more than 15 per cent;

Higher lithium and boron concentration in Pregnant Leach Solution (PLS), reducing mechanical evaporation requirements;

Faster, more selective leaching means lower levels of other elements in the PLS;

Continued high recoveries to PLS – greater than 90 per cent for both lithium and boron;

Preparation for vat leaching requires only a coarse crush of 25 millimetres; and

No grinding, agglomeration, high temperature or high pressure required.

“The latest vat leach results represent a significant improvement on already favourable acid-leach results and clearly demonstrate the advantages that vat leaching offers,” Global Geoscience managing director Bernard Rowe said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The rapid leach times, lower acid consumption and lower solution requirements are expected to have a very positive impact on both capital and operating cost estimates.

“The results bode well for the soon to be released trade-off studies being undertaken as Phase 1 of the Rhyolite Ridge Pre-Feasibility Study.

“Sulphuric acid will be the largest reagent cost and reducing acid consumption will have a very positive impact on operating costs.

“Vat leaching allows for much greater control of the leaching processing resulting in faster, more efficient and targeted leaching when compared to heap leaching.

“With a vat leach, we can control temperature, acidity (pH) and solution flow rates and this provides significant advantages over heap leaching.

“This control allows a more selective leach which recovers the lithium and boron, however, does not leach as many of the other elements into solution.

“Lower levels of other elements in the PLS has the benefit of simplifying the crystallisation and purification process steps.

“On-going metallurgical testwork is concurrently evaluating various attractive options to produce lithium carbonate and boric acid on site.”

Global Geoscience reiterated its claim that the Rhyolite Ridge is the only lithium deposit in the world that has been demonstrated to be amenable to simple acid leach processing, reinforcing it as an economically viable alternative to spodumene and brine deposits as a major, low-cost and long-term source of lithium.

 

 

Website: www.globalgeo.com.au

Kalium Lakes Completes Beyondie BFS Drilling Campaign

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Kalium Lakes (ASX: KLL) has completed Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) sonic monitoring bore installation and air-core geological programs at the company’s Beyondie sulphate of potash project (BSOPP) in Western Australia.

Kalium Lakes conducted some 8,504 metres of drilling throughout the program, which it said had continued to confirm the PFS Resource and Reserve Assumptions, reaffirming the project’s high-grade potassium results while indicating new aquifer targets.

The drilling returned potassium results up to 11,100 milligrams per litre (mg/L) – equivalent to a sulphate of potash (SOP) grade of 24,736mg/L.

The company has test pumping activities ongoing, with results being utilised to update the BFS numerical hydrogeological modelling of the project’s Ten Mile and Sunshine Stage 1 production areas.

Kalium Lakes explained the program is aimed at achieving future Measured Resources and Proved Reserves to support project financing requirements.

“The program has continued to confirm the Pre-Feasibility Study Resource model within our initial Stage 1 Mining Lease Areas,” Kalium Lakes managing director Brett Hazelden said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We envisage these results will enable an upgrade of the deposit to include a future Measured Resource and Proved Reserve, which in turn will support the Bankable Feasibility Study and project financing.

“The current assumed Stage 1 Area has a mine life of 23 years at 75,000 tonnes per annum SOP, when utilising our existing Probable Reserve, which has enabled Kalium Lakes to have very detailed discussions with both domestic and international offtake parties and financial institutions.”

 

Email: info@kaliumlakes.com.au

Website: www.kaliumlakes.com.au

 

Cassini Resources Eyes New Targets at Yarawindah Brook

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Cassini Resources (ASX: CZI) has identified new anomalies via results and interpretation of an Airborne Electromagnetic (AEM) survey carried out at the company’s Yarawindah Brook project in Western Australia.

Cassini Resources completed the AEM survey on the early stage nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide Yarawindah Brook exploration project in February.

According to Cassini, the survey identified several new conductive anomalies on the project, the strongest being a pair of anomalies, known as XC05 and XC06, in the western portion of the project.

These anomalies measure approximately 800 metres and 400 metres in strike respectively and are aligned along a strong regional structural trend, closely associated with a mafic/ultramafic intrusion.

The company collected nickel anomalous rockchip samples from outcrops immediately to the east of the conductors, however the anomalies themselves have no surface expression.

A third new anomaly, XC14, has an extent of 100m, and also appears to be associated with a strong NWSE trending structural feature in the centre of the project area.

Similarly, this anomaly has no surface expression.

“The company is highly encouraged by these early results, which supports the belief that the project has excellent potential to host significant bodies of magmatic nickel-copper-cobalt sulphides,” Cassini Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“The exploration team has begun planning for follow-up surface moving loop EM surveys over XC05, 06 and 14 to assist drill targeting.

“Drill testing is likely to occur at several targets including down-plunge testing of YWRC0083, as soon as practical, following the company’s current activities at West Arunta and Mount Squires.

“An RC drill program is due to commence at the West Arunta zinc project in June, pending heritage and environmental clearances.”

 

Email: admin@cassiniresources.com.au

Website: www.cassiniresources.com.au

 

Blackham Resources Confirms Wiluna Transitional Reserves Compatible with CIL Plant

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Blackham Resources (ASX: BLK) kept the market abreast of metallurgical testwork underway on Wiluna oxide and transitional ores at the company’s Matilda-Wiluna gold operation in Western Australia.

Blackham Resources is conducting the Wiluna mining and metallurgical studies following the success of the Wiluna Expansion Preliminary Feasibility Study (Expansion PFS) carried out in 2017.

The company explained the latest testwork confirms the Wiluna oxide and transitional ores are an attractive feed stock for the current operating Wiluna CIL plant.

All the historic open pits were processed through the Wiluna CIL plant except for the 2007 East pit cut back.

Blackham said the metallurgical testwork it has carried out on both the oxide and transitional ores has confirmed that these ores are best processed through the current CIL plant.

In the Expansion PFS it was conservatively assumed that the transitional ores would be processed through the Flotation and Biox Plant (Sulphide Circuit).

The transitional ore can gain higher recoveries through the CIL plant cutting the processing cost by approximately 30 per cent compared to the sulphide circuit.

“Blackham is currently re-estimating the open pit free milling resources and reserves around the Wiluna Mine site,” the company said in its ASX announcement.

“The Blackham management team believes the free milling ores within the existing Wiluna Mine footprint are an attractive feed stock for the current operating mill and allows for fast tracking mining approval.”

 

Email: info@blackhamresources.com.au

Website: www.blackhamresources.com.au

 

Anova Metals Completes First Second Fortune Gold Pour

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Anova Metals (ASX: AWV) completed the first gold pour at the company’s Second Fortune gold project in Western Australia.

Anova Metals said the total gold produced from the pour weighed in at 245 ounces comprising ore from sorted low-grade stockpiles and level 1 development ore.

The company indicated that sorted development ore and stope ore from level 1 will be processed over the next week with a further gold pour proposed soon.

Mining Stoping of ore on level 1 is almost complete while stoping on the level 2 has commenced on the southern end of the development drive with haulage to Burbanks to commence shortly.

“Anova is delighted to have reached this significant milestone for the Second Fortune gold project and join the ranks of WA gold producers,” Anova Metals executive chairman Bill Fry said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We look forward to the continued production from Second Fortune over the coming months.”

 

Email: info@anovametals.com.au

Website: www.anovametals.com.au

 

Kin Mining Extends Gold Mineralisation at Helens Deposit

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Kin Mining (ASX: KIN) released results from recent drilling at the Helens deposit, located within the Cardinia Mining Centre of the company’s Leonora gold project (LGP) in Western Australia.

Kin Mining conducted a total of 15 Reverse Circulation (RC) drill holes on the Helens project areas targeting extensions to the thick, high-grade mineralisation Kin intersected in 2017.

The company said the results from the March 2018 drilling have extended the Helens Main Lode mineralisation a further 75 metres south.

Helens Main Lode results included:

HE18RC160
14 metres at 3.08 grams per tonne gold from 88m;

HE18RCD161
8m at 8.6g/t gold from 88m; and

HE18RCD162
13m at 1.48g/t gold from 106m.

Kin said it is waiting to receive assay results from diamond drillholes targeting the Helens Main Lode, adding that mineralisation was intersected in each of these holes and the program provided insight into the continuity of gold-bearing lodes and the structural and lithological controls on the gold mineralisation.

“The recent drilling has indicated the untapped potential for resource growth within the LGP,” Kin Mining CEO Andrew Munckton said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“In late 2017, wide, near surface intersections at above average grade, signalled that the Helens mineralisation continued further south.

“This recent drilling confirms those earlier results and illustrates the continuity of high-grade mineralisation down plunge towards the south.

“In addition, the discovery of new mineralised positions in close proximity to the established mineralisation at Helens indicates that significant opportunity lies ahead.

“The company will continue to target this lightly drilled area of the project.

“The geological team are continuing to develop the mineralising system model across a number of deposits at Cardinia and the increased use of diamond core drilling is proving invaluable in our understanding of the fundamentals of the mineralisation.

“Further work, is continuing.”

 

Email: info@kinmining.com.au

Website: www.kinmining.com.au