THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Atlantic Gold (ASX: ATV) is celebrating the dismissal of a second appeal brought by a former landowner against the vesting order issued for the final remaining private property required to develop the Touquoy gold project in Nova Scotia, Canada.

The dismissal of the second appeal means the company is now able to move to conclude the project’s financing and development.

The appeal by the former landowner was lodged against the vesting order issued by the Nova Scotia Minister of Natural Resources in relation to the one remaining 3.5 hectare private property required to develop the Touquoy project.

Atlantic Gold said the dismissal of the second appeal confirms the company’s legal right of access to the last of 63 private properties required to move ahead with the development of the Touquoy project in to a gold mining operation.

“The former landholder had already previously unsuccessfully appealed against the vesting order issued (on 18 June 2012) in relation to the one remaining private property required to develop the project,” Atlantic Gold said in its announcement to the ASX.

“The former landholder subsequently appealed to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal and this second appeal was heard on 13 September 2013 by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal and was unanimously dismissed.

“The former landholder has no further opportunity of right of appeal, and the only possible avenue is to seek leave to appeal from the Supreme Court of Canada, which is considered extremely unlikely, as among other things it is not a matter of national importance and the former landholder’s claims have now been forcefully dismissed twice.”

The Touquoy gold project is Altlantic Gold’s most advanced asset and is a near-term development project, which it hopes to develop in conjunction with the nearby Cochrane Hill gold project.

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Australian-American Mining Corporation (ASX: AIW) has entered into a letter of intent to acquire a 50 interest in a copper mine in Nevada in the United States of America.

The Victoria copper mine is located in an established mining region, 120 kilometres southeast of Elko in the eastern part of Nevada.

Location of the Victoria copper mine, Nevada. Source: Company announcement

The mine was discovered and explored underground by Anaconda Copper in the 1940’s, then operated by Anaconda from 1975 to 1977, producing ore from both an open pit and an underground mine.

The mine closed due to declining copper prices in 1977.

It was briefly re-started in 1980 but was soon closed as then operator, Day Mines, was taken over.
 
When producing, the underground at the Victoria copper mine operated at 1,000 tons per day via sub level caving.

“This acquisition represents a significant milestone for the company,” AusAmerican Mining managing director Richard Holmes said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We believe that we will be able to rehabilitate the mine and be in production by mid-2014.

“This project adds significantly to our copper portfolio in the USA, a jurisdiction in which we feel very comfortable given its size, security, infrastructure, cost advantages and importantly, demand for copper.

“The project is highly attractive to AusAmerican due to its relatively low entry cost, near term production potential and excellent exploration upside opportunities.

“This acquisition will enable AusAmerican to self-fund exploration and the further development of the Victoria Mine, Blue Bell and De Soto copper projects.”

AusAmerican considers the project and regional exploration potential to be excellent, highlighting the small Eugenia deposit as an example.

The Eugenia deposit is situated two kilometres from the Victoria copper mine and is described by AusAmerican as a massive sulphide deposit that was discovered using rudimentary geophysics.

The company indicated there to be a number of high-priority targets identified by Anaconda Copper which require testing.

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Blackham Resources (ASX: BLK) has recommenced RC drilling at the company’s Matilda gold project in Western Australia.

The company explained this latest round of drilling is the next step in exploration testing targets at the Matilda and Williamson gold mines.

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“This drilling is critical to progress the project towards future feasibility studies,” Blackham Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“Exploration is currently focussed on short-term, high-impact objectives.

“This program builds on earlier successful drilling with an emphasis on not only increasing the current 1.5 million ounce resource estimate, but also improving the resource confidence which will allow the company to build its gold reserves.”

Plan view of M1 Pit and significant intercepts. Source: Company announcement

Specific targets for the upcoming drilling program include extending high-grade mineralisation in the Central Lode of M1, which encountered previous intersections of 35 metres at 5.05 grams per tonne gold.

Infilling drilling will be conducted at the Western Lode of M1, 300m down-plunge from the base of pit to a previous deep intercept of 13m at 6.76g/t gold.

The drilling will also test for new, oxide mineralisation north of the M4 deposit as well as testing near-surface extensions of the M3 deposit and first deep drilling beneath the M2 pit for high-grade shoots.

Drilling at the Williamson mine is due to commence in early October following the Matilda program and completion of site preparations.

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Antipa Minerals (ASX: AZY) has entered into an agreement with Yandal Investments Pty Ltd, a company owned and controlled by Western Australian prospecting supremo Mark Creasy.

The deal will result in Antipa acquiring 100 per cent Kitchener Resources for the consideration of a one per cent net smelter royalty over the area covered by Kitchener Resources’ applications and the issue of 10 million shares in Antipa at an issue price of 5.5 cents per share.

The outcome of all this will be Yandal owning a 5.1 per cent stake in Antipa Minerals.

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“The acquisition will position Antipa as the dominant tenement holder in the Paterson Province in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, with a combined landholding of 6,300 square kilometres in a highly-prospective area near the world class Telfer gold-copper mine,” Antipa Minerals managing director Roger Mason said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We are pleased to acquire such an exciting exploration package which cements our position as the preeminent landholder in the Paterson Province.

“We also welcome Mr Mark Creasy, through Yandal Investments, as a substantial shareholder in our company and thank him for his endorsement of the huge potential of the company and its exploration skills.”

Kitchener Resources holds 15 exploration licence applications over an area of around 3,367sqkm in the Paterson Province of WA.

Location of Antipa and Kitchener Resources tenements. Source: Company announcement

Antipa explained the Kitchener ground is largely adjacent to and connects with the company’s existing mineral tenements and applications.

The Southern applications include substantial areas around the Telfer Dome, the domal structure upon which the Telfer gold-copper mine is situated.

Antipa said the majority of the southern applications have only thin cover over the geological targets of interest which the company anticipates will assist in the exploration of the ground and, upon success, would facilitate a decrease in pre-production startup costs.

The ground has been predominantly vacant from as early as 1993 with little or no exploration for up to 20 years offering first user advantage for the modern state of the art geophysical exploration techniques, which Antipa intends to use.

The company attributed its exploration success last year, when it discovered its Calibre and Corker projects to the application of these modern techniques.

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Middle Island Resources (ASX: MDI) has announced a maiden Resource for the Tialkam South prospect, situated within the Sirba gold project in Niger.

The Tialkam South gold prospect lies within the southern portion of the Tialkam permit, comprising part of the 1,916 square kilometre Sirba project, which consolidates the central portion of the Sirba greenstone belt straddling the Samira Hill gold mine in Niger.

Watch The Roadhouse’s interview with Rick Yeates now.

The Indicated and Inferred Resource has been estimated at 117,300 ounces of gold and comprises 2.02 million tonnes at 1.82 grams per tonne gold at a 0.7g/t gold lower cut-off grade and a 10g/t gold upper cut-off grade.

The estimate follows a maiden RC resource drilling program, comprising 37 holes undertaken by Middle Island at Tialkam South prospect during the June quarter.

The company was encouraged by the prospect’s proximity to the producing Samira Hill gold mine – 12km to the southwest – to design the program to quantify an initial resource with a view to milling the material through the Samira Hill processing plant.

Results the Tialkam South RC drilling campaign included:

21 metres at 4.89 grams per tonne gold;

26m at 3.29g/t gold;

13m at 4.08g/t gold;

18m at 2.91g/t gold;

11m at 3.15g/t gold;

15m at 2.30g/t gold; and

13m at 2.26g/t gold.

“Notwithstanding exclusion of the primary mineralisation from the maiden Tialkam South resource estimate, the oxide and transitional resources lie in the middle to upper end of our expectations,” Middle Island Resources managing director Rick Yeates said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“What is particularly encouraging is that the resource remains open, with the section at the north-eastern extremity of the initial resource drilling demonstrating the strongest mineralisation identified to date.

“This provides significant opportunity to grow the Tialkam South deposit with further drilling.”

Middle Island Resources entered into a non-binding Heads of Agreement on 18 July 2013 with SEMAFO Inc (SMF) and its wholly owned subsidiary Semafo (Barbados) Limited to acquire, subject to Government approval and other conditions precedent, an 80 per cent interest in the Samira Hill gold mine.

On 26 August 2013, SMF issued a press release advising that it had suspended operations at the Samira Hill mine, noting that employees are to remain on site for maintenance purposes until 30 September 2013 pending sale of the mine.

Indications received by MDI point to the Niger Government being supportive of MDI operating the mine and the transaction generally, although in MDI’s view there will almost certainly be a need to extend the transaction timetable beyond 30 September if the transaction is to close.

“While MDI believes the delay in receiving Niger Government approval for acquisition of SEMAFO’s interest in the Samira Hill project will necessitate an extension to the transaction timetable, we remain optimistic that the acquisition will be effected,” Yeates said.