Metals X buys out Rio Tinto

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Metals X Limited (ASX: MLX) has completed the acquisition of Rio Tinto Exploration’s interests in the Mt Davies Joint Venture in South Australia.

The consideration for the acquisition is $500,000 and 870,000 fully paid ordinary shares and is subject to the normal provisions for the transfer of titles, agreements and rights with the SA government and the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara.

“This acquisition further consolidates the foundations for the Wingellina project,” Metals X chief executive officer Peter Cook said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Metals X said the acquisition consolidates its ownership of the Wingellina layered intrusive complex in the Central Musgrave Ranges.

The tenement is situated within the company’s 100 per cent-owned tenement EL4751.

This tenement was previously subject to a farm-in agreement with Rio Tinto in which Metals X was earning a 51 per cent interest.

“For the first time for many decades the entire Wingellina Layered intrusive has been consolidated into one entity,” Cook explained.

“Despite the enormous resources that already reside at Wingellina and Claude Hills, the potential for additional resources is significant and so is the potential for a virgin nickel and/or copper sulphide discovery.

“Although the current nickel price is depressed, these projects are extremely long-life and of a magnitude that means they will definitely be developed at some time in the future.”

The tenement hosts part of the Claude Hill deposit, which consists of an Inferred Resource of 33.3 million tonnes grading 0.81 per cent nickel and 0.07 per cent cobalt.

Claude Hills will now be 100 per cent-owned by Metals X.

The deposit is located approximately 25 kilometres to the east of the Wingellina deposit which hosts a Total Mineral Resource of 183.2 million tonnes at 0.98 per cent nickel and 0.08 per cent cobalt, containing almost 1.8 million tonnes of nickel and a Probable Mining Reserve of 167.5 million tonnes at 0.98 per cent nickel and 0.08 per cent cobalt.

Metals X said the consolidation of the tenure in the region provides it with an opportunity to extend its known nickeliferous limonite deposits in the region.

The company considers the move could also boost Wingellina to possibly become the largest undeveloped and independently owned nickel deposit in the world.

In the past year, Metals X has focused its exploration efforts in the Musgrave region on the discovery of nickel and copper sulphides.

It explained this has been due to many known deposits within the world having been located within similar geological settings.

The company recently completed an airborne electro-magnetic survey (Spectrum) covering 5,370 line kilometres, which defined a number of conductors considered to potentially be buried nickel and/or copper sulphides.

Iron Road’s Central Eyre iron project declared major State development

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Iron Road Limited (ASX: IRD) has had the infrastructure component of the company’s Central Eyre iron project (CEIP) located on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula declared a major development by the South Australian Minister for Planning.

The company said the declaration recognises the importance to the state of South Australia of its integrated iron export project, which is anticipated to export 20 million tonnes of high-grade iron concentrates annually.

Iron Road believes the declaration ensures project approvals will occur in a co-ordinated and timely fashion across all State Government departments.

“I am very pleased that the Minister shares our recognition of the significance of this infrastructure development for the State,” Iron Road managing director Andrew Stocks said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“As the biggest active resource development in South Australia, we look forward to continuing to work co-operatively with both State and regional authorities, alongside local communities.”
 
Major development status may be declared by the SA Government if a development is considered to be of major economic, social or environmental importance to the State.

The declaration was made by the Minister for Planning, John Rau, and followed a submission by Iron Road, which established the importance of the infrastructure component of the CEIP, which links the proposed mine to the proposed port at Cape Hardy on the eastern Eyre Peninsula, and the expected benefits of the infrastructure for the State and Eyre Peninsula region.

Iron Road is working to create an integrated iron export operation on the Eyre Peninsula, exporting 20 million tonnes per annum of high-grade iron concentrates.

Iron product for CEIP will be mined and concentrated on the central Eyre Peninsula, then shipped by rail to the proposed Cape Hardy deep sea port.

The port is expected to have 30 million tonnes per annum of export capacity, with 10 million tonnes per annum available for third party users.

Iron Road said it would now prepare its Development Application for consideration by the Minister.

The Development Application will cover the proposed Cape Hardy deep water port and an associated infrastructure corridor, both of which are essential to enable the export of iron concentrate from Iron Road’s proposed mine and to enable third party exports.

The proposed 150 kilometre infrastructure corridor will include a standard gauge rail line, service road, power supply and a seawater pipeline to supply processing water to the mine site.

Mining operations are not included in the scope of the declaration as this will be applied for separately under the Mining Act.

Elvis has left the building

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: The regular game of musical chairs continues within the boardrooms across the resources industry.


CMW welcomes new appointments

The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia has announced two key appointments – Julie Hill to the position of general manager, corporate services and Anne Dawson to the position of coordinator, events and communications.

Prior to joining CME, Hill was chief financial officer and company secretary for a number of ASX-listed minerals and exploration companies.

Dawson brings to CME six years’ experience in marketing and communications.  Her previous role was senior marketing coordinator with an engineering contractor firm.

She recently completed a Masters of Communications and Media Studies.


Board restructure

MRG Metals (ASX: MRQ) has appointed Chris Gregory to its Board following the company’s recent acquisition of Sasak Resources Australia.

MRG highlighted Gregory’s technical and executive global minerals industry experience, which includes 22 years with Rio Tinto.

MRG expects his appointment will assist it in developing the company’s Kalgoorlie East and Xanadu projects, as well as new projects in the East Yilgarn and Fraser Range of Western Australia and IOCG projects in Queensland.

The company indicated the current difficult markets for junior exploration companies as the catalyst behind its decision to restructure its Board.

Albert Pietrzak is resigning from the position of chairman and the role is being assumed by current non-executive director Andrew van Der Zwan.

This change will take effect from 30 September 2013, to allow for transition to the new structure.

The company said the restructure of the Board is part of its commitment to reduce costs in reaction to current market conditions.

MRG directors have also volunteered to take reduction in remuneration and fees, also effective from 30 September 2013.


New chairman appointed and Board re-shuffled

Mamba Minerals (ASX: MAB) has appointed Michael O’Keeffe as the company’s chairman.
 
Mamba also advised Richard (Dick) Wright has been appointed as a non-executive director and Niall Lenahan as director and company secretary.
 
O’Keeffe has served on the Board of Riversdale Mining as chief executive and executive chairman.

Prior to his involvement with Riversdale Mining, O’Keeffe was managing director of Glencore Australia.

He is currently Chairman of Riversdale Resources, an emerging coal development company in North America.
 
Wright has held various executive and director level roles for both private and publicly listed companies in Australia, Europe and the United States, including being project director of Roy Hill at Hancock Prospecting, managing director of Fluor Daniel and executive chairman of Adrail and Paladio Ltd.
 
Lenahan has served as a CFO and company secretary of Riversdale Mining from 2006 -2011, including a period as finance director.
 
Greg Burns has resigned as director and will continue in the position of country manager for Mamba based in Canada.
 
Neville Bassett has resigned as a non-executive director and Robert Hyndes has resigned as a director and company secretary.


New company director joins Proto Board

The Board of Proto Resources & Investments (ASX: PRW) has announced the appointment of Andrew Heap as a non-executive director.

Heap has been on the Board of the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for three years and has held the position of chairman for the past twelve months.

He will be tasked with managing Proto’s Barnes Hill nickel-cobalt project, located northwest of Launceston in northern Tasmania.

Heap will be based in Launceston.
 
 “The Board and I are very pleased to have this extremely high level appointment,” Proto R&I managing director Andrew Mortimer said.

“Mr Heap is a strong advocate and supporter of the Barnes Hill project and its parent company, Proto.

“We look forward to developing the mine with his help.”


Director resignation

WPG Resources announced the resignation of Heath Roberts from the company Board and as an employee to pursue new opportunities in a family run business.

Roberts had been a director of WPG since 2004, a year before the company listed on the ASX.

WPG said Roberts had played an important role in the start-up and listing of the company, even to the point of acting as company secretary in the early years.

He was involved in the 2006 acquisition and growth of Southern Iron, up to the successful sale of those iron ore assets in 2011, and the company’s current comprehensive review of mining investment opportunities.

WPG said it regretted Roberts’ decision to resign, but understand his reasons.

Mining Group to acquire Chilean copper project

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Mining Group Limited (ASX: MNE) has entered into an option agreement to acquire up to 90 per cent of the El Roble copper project concessions in Chile.

The El Roble project is located within the world-class Atacama IOCG province approximately 25 kilometres east of the Chilean port city of Caldera.

The project area covers approximately 6,000 hectares of what Mining Group described to be “highly-prospective, unexplored geology”.

 

El Roble project location and the port of Caldera. Source: Company announcement

 

“We are very excited by the potential acquisition of the El Roble copper project in Chile,” Mining Group managing director Zeffron Reeves said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“This project has the potential to deliver near term production and generate cash flows to fund further exploration activities and enable us to become self-funded within a short time frame.”

Mining Group claims high-grade copper mineralisation occurs at El Roble within a strike extensive vein system that has had historical production of approximately one million tonnes of ore grading more than nine per cent copper.

Two small underground mines are currently in small scale production at Descobridora and Veta Gruesa producing direct smelter copper ore at over nine per cent copper.

“Copper mineralisation at El Roble has been mapped over a six kilometre strike length with some startling copper grades being mined from small scale mining activities, with regularly shipped grades to local toll plants being in excess of 12 per cent copper and our due diligence work has confirmed this,” Reeves said.

“In addition, the El Roble copper project is close to existing world class producing mines, but it is also within close proximity to transport and processing infrastructure.

“As a result, this project has the potential to provide near term, high-grade copper production with limited capex spend.”

Mining Group has conducted surface due diligence over the project, from which the company has ascertained the vein system to be strike extensive, well mineralised with potential to host further high-grade copper orebodies.

“Mining Group’s strategy is to become self-funded through the discovery of economic widths of high-grade near-surface copper at the El Roble project using modern exploration techniques,” Reeves said.

“If we can succeed in executing our strategy, this project will be transformational to Mining Group.”

Mining Group explained the project has, at this stage, been unexplored using modern techniques.

The company indicated the interpreted strike extent of the system to the south west is covered by sand dunes and is untouched.

Australian-American Mining calculates Blue Bell maiden resource

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Australian-American Mining Corporation (ASX: AIW) has released a maiden JORC-compliant resource for the company’s Blue Bell VMS project in Arizona.

The maiden inferred mineral resource calculated using a 0.5 per cent copper equivalent cut-off.

The numbers have come in at 6 million tonnes at 1.2 per cent copper equivalent (0.84 per cent copper, 0.41 grams per tonne gold and 12.5 grams per tonne silver).

The initial inferred resource is based upon 26 RC drill holes, covering approximately 750 metres of strike length of the Blue Bell mineralised system, of which a further 900m remains to be tested.

 

Location of resource and VTEM conductors. Source: Company announcement

 

Aus-American has been encouraged by the success of the drilling and subsequent maiden resource at Blue Bell and has now set a revised exploration target for the Blue Bell open pit.

The company believes the project has the potential for an additional 7.5 to 12.5 million tonnes at 0.7 to 0.9 per cent copper, 0.3 to 0.5g/t gold and 10 to 20 g/t silver.

A separate exploration target of 1 to 3 million tonnes at 2 to 4 per cent copper, 2 to 4g/t gold and 30 to 60g/t silver has been developed for the underground potential of the Blue Bell project.

The company has based this target on a review of historical mining information and recent drilling results.

“The maiden resource at Blue Bell has certainly exceeded our expectations,” AusAmerican Mining managing director Richard Holmes said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Both copper and gold grades were higher than the initial exploration target and the drilling has highlighted further areas where exploration potential is very high.

“Drilling has only been undertaken on 45 per cent of the Blue Bell system and the recent VTEM survey, combined with historical mining information, highlights the significant potential of the remainder.

“This optimism is reflected in the updated exploration target.”

Southern Cross Goldfields and Polymetals merger close to completion

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: The proposed merger between Southern Cross Goldfields (ASX: SXG) and Polymetals Mining (ASX: PLY) is set to be completed early next week.

Southern Cross said it anticipates the ‘New SXG’ shares will commence trading on the Australian Securities Exchange on Wednesday 21 August 2013, as scheduled after all required shareholder and court approvals were obtained last week.
 
The company claims the merger will create a strengthened Australian junior resources company, well placed for growth with a diversified asset base and strong balance sheet.

As at 30 June the combined entity boasted of $11 million, liquid assets of approximately $3 million and debt of approximately $7 million.
 
The company considers this provides it with flexibility and optionality in terms of exploration and development pathways, as well as the ability to take advantage of the growing amount of acquisition and divestment opportunities the current market is presenting.
 
The key assets of the enlarged Southern Cross Goldfields include advanced gold projects at Marda in Western Australai and Mount Boppy in New South Wales.

There is also a fully-permitted 600,000 tonnes per annum CIL gold plant at Sandstone in WA, a 1.6 million ounce Mineral Resource inventory and a prospective combined exploration portfolio covering 4,930 square kilometres in WA and NSW.
 
The combing parties consider the decision to combine their businesses five months ago has positioned them ahead of their contemporaries, especially given recent concerns for the gold sector and the difficulty many companies are having raising cash.

“Shareholders in both companies have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the key elements required to complete the merger, recognising that it represents a compelling combination of two companies with complimentary assets,” Southern Cross Goldfields managing director Glenn Jardine said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The result is a company which is in a unique space in the current market – with cash and liquid assets of around $14 million, strong assets and a highly regarded management team who have widely recognised skills in developing and operating junior gold projects.”
 
Jardine said the merger was one of several significant transactions completed by both companies in recent years and cemented the newly-merged entity’s position as an emerging gold producer.

He pointed to the acquisition of the Sandstone gold plant and completion of the Marda Feasibility Study and Mt Boppy studies as examples as well as other regional transactions, which have resulted in the company’s gold resource inventory climb from 0.3 million ounces to 1.6 million ounces in the space of two years.
 
“The merger represents the culmination of an active period for Southern Cross Goldfields and Polymetals and the beginning of a new phase of growth,” Jardine said.

InterMet Resources acquires new projects and announces capital raising

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: InterMet Resources (ASX: ITT) has signed a binding Heads of Agreement for the acquisition of privately-owned company Lancaster Resources.

To fund ongoing exploration activities, InterMet has also executed a capital raising with Merchant Group to place 100 million shares at an issue price of 0.5 cents per share, with a free 1:2 attaching option exercisable at one cent per share on or before 1 July 2016.

The company indicated the placement will be to sophisticated investors and will raise a total of $500,000 before costs.

Lancaster Resources has four Australian mineral exploration projects, including an option over a large landholding around the Rox Resources (ASX: RXL) Mt Fisher East nickel project and the Cullen Resources (ASX: CUL) Mt Eureka nickel project.

The company also holds cash assets of approximately $450,000.

The four Lancaster projects are targeting nickel sulphides, tungsten and gold, which InterMet considers to be a synergistic fit with its existing projects.
 
The Mt Jewell project is located 65km north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and has been subjected to historical drilling, which has intersected nickel sulphides.

InterMet considers there to also be potential for gold mineralisation.

The Wilks Creek project is located in Victoria and is centred on a historical tungsten mine.

Previous exploration has defined a large tungsten anomaly that has been advanced by Lancaster to a drill ready target.

The Royal Tasman project in Tasmania is targeting granite related, sediment hosted gold and greisen hosted tin mineralisation in an area of historical gold and tin mining.

At the Nickel First project in WA, Lancaster has an option to acquire a 100 per cent interest in four tenements totalling 463.99 square kilometres located and adjoining Rox Resources’ Mt Fisher East project near Wiluna.

“The projects are prospective for disseminated and semi massive Kambalda style nickel mineralisation as well as gold,” InterMet Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“The proposed transaction will see InterMet acquire 100 per cent of the share capital in Lancaster by way of a share sale agreement with existing Lancaster shareholders.

“The acquisition price for 100 per cent equity in Lancaster is $700,000 payable by the issue of 140,000,000 fully paid InterMet ordinary shares, which will be escrowed for three months.

“The acquisition of Lancaster would provide a further cash injection for InterMet, and a significant exploration portfolio, which would complement InterMet’s 8 Mile Creek and Calypso projects.”

Both the acquisition of Lancaster and the proposed placement are subject to InterMet shareholder approval, and a NOM will be lodged once InterMet has received acceptance from Lancaster shareholders.

Toro Energy to acquire Maitland uranium project

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Toro Energy (ASX: TOE) is to acquire the Lake Maitland uranium project in Western Australia from Toronto-listed Mega Uranium (TSX: MGA).

The deal will result in Mega receiving 415 million fully paid ordinary shares in Toro, giving it a 28 per cent holding, just below that of major shareholder OZ Minerals with 28.5 per cent.

Toro said the acquisition would allow it to increase the operational life of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Wiluna uranium project.

“Lake Maitland adds significant scale to our Wiluna Project and further strengthens the Wiluna investment case,” Toro Energy managing director Vanessa Guthrie said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We believe the characteristics of the Lake Maitland deposit will provide significant operational and financing benefits to Wiluna.”

Lake Maitland is located 90 kilometres south-east of the proposed site of the processing facility at Wiluna.

Toro anticipates the acquisition to provide a number benefits for the development of Wiluna, such as:

A larger combined resource base.
Lake Maitland will expand Wiluna’s JORC categorised total Mineral Resource base by 42 per cent from 54 million pounds of uranium to 76 million pounds of uranium, which Toro indicated could be potentially sufficient for a minimum 20 year project life at Wiluna.

An improvement in grade and potential to support Wiluna capacity expansion.
The Lake Maitland Mineral Resource includes high-grade material comprising 6.4 million tonnes at 881 parts per million (ppm) – using a 500ppm cut-off – which Toro expects to improve the overall blended head grade from the Wiluna deposits. The increased resources provide an opportunity to investigate an expansion to the planned Wiluna project, subject to government approvals.

Potential to improve Wiluna project economics.
The increase in the Wiluna regional resource (both in tonnes and grade) has the potential to significantly improve the overall project economics, in particular through decreased operating costs particularly in the first 10 years of operations.

Benefit from pre-existing strategic partner relationship.
The existing Lake Maitland strategic partners – JAURD International Lake Maitland project and Itochu Minerals & Energy of Australia (IMEA) – have an option to acquire a 35 per cent interest in Lake Maitland and participate in its financing and development. Toro will inherit the strategic and financial benefits of this pre-existing relationship.

$3.5 million of additional capital committed with the transaction.
$1.5 million of cash reserves are included in the Lake Maitland assets, which will be acquired from Mega as part of the acquisition. In addition, OZ Minerals and Pinetree Capital have each committed to provide $1.0 million in equity subscriptions to Toro to provide further financial flexibility to meet transaction and ongoing costs.

“Upon successful completion of the acquisition we will welcome Mega as a strategic cornerstone investor in Toro and look forward to working closely with JAURD / IMEA as development of Wiluna and Lake Maitland is progressed to a final investment decision,” Guthrie said.

Chesser Resources releases maiden Resource at Kestanelik

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Chesser Resources (ASX: CHZ) is swaggering with confidence following the release of a maiden Indicated Mineral Resource.

Chesser said the new Indicated resource was part of an increase to the total mineral resource for the company’s Kestanelik gold project in north western Turkey.

The maiden Indicated Mineral Resource has come in at 1.6 million tonnes at 3.53 grams per tonne gold and 2.6 grams per tonne silver totalling 183,000 ounces of gold.

The new JORC Mineral Resource update has resulted in a 52 per cent increase in the Total Mineral Resource at Kestanelik to 703,000 ounces of gold, comprising 10.2 million tonnes at 2.15g/t gold and 1.9g/t silver.

Chesser said 65 per cent of Total Mineral Resource lies within 50 metres of the surface at a grade of 2.54g/t gold.

The company has also updated a previous Scoping Study for Kestanelik based on the updated mineral resource estimate, which has calculated annual throughput of 844,000 tonnes per annum producing 63,000 ounces of gold per annum over an eight year mine life.

The Study has determined the project will need total construction capital of US$88 million including 30 per cent contingency with average Life of Mine (LOM) C1 cash costs of US$415 per ounce and average LOM all in sustaining costs of US$546 per ounce.

Chesser has now commenced a Prefeasibility study.

“We are extremely pleased with a significant increase of over 50 per cent in gold ounces from the previous mineral resource estimate with a high percentage of the mineral resource located within 50 metres of the surface,” Chesser Resources managing director Dr Rick Valenta said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The additional drilling has increased our confidence in the presence of the near-surface high-grade gold mineralisation and combined with excellent metallurgical results, these positives will form the backbone of a mining and milling operation at Kestanelik.

“In addition, we have numerous areas both within and outside the current mineral resource, which remain open for further resource expansion.

“The Scoping Study Update benefits from the presence of multiple high-grade zones, which should be accessible at a low strip ratio early in the life of the mining operation.

“A prefeasibility study has commenced based on the favourable outcomes of the Scoping Study Update and will consider a number of alternatives for the development of Kestanelik, including staged development aimed at minimising upfront capital expenditure.”

Cassini Resources raises $1.3 million

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Cassini Resources (ASX: CZI) has been buoyed by shareholder support during a recent Share Purchase Plan (SPP), which raised $834,000.

Cassini has undertaken a placement of approx. 4.6 million fully paid ordinary shares at 10 cents per share to raise $466,000 (before costs).

Cassini said it had received strong demand for the Shortfall Placement, which closed oversubscribed.

 


Watch Cassini Resources managing director Richard Bevan explain the outcome of the company’s recent fund raising activities

The Shortfall Placement shares will be issued on or around Friday 9 August 2013.

The total capital raised under the SPP and the Shortfall Placement is $1.3 million.

The Shortfall Placement was made to sophisticated and professional investors, including clients of Hartleys, Blackswan Equities, and Shaw Stockbroking.

Although directors of Cassini participated in the SPP, the company explained they were unable to participate in the Shortfall Placement due to timing restrictions associated with shareholder approval.

The funds raised from the SPP and Shortfall Placement will be used to:

–    Progress the company’s 100 per cent-owned West Musgrave project beyond its current exploration program;

–    Fund other ongoing exploration expenditure, to be used on a discretionary basis, depending on the results of the current exploration program at the West Musgrave project; and

–    Strengthen the company’s balance sheet and provide for the general working capital requirements of the company.

Cassini has commenced the maiden drill program at West Musgrave, during which the company will be targeting the most advanced of its nickel and copper sulphide targets, the Pandora Target.