Rox Resources Outlines 2018 Exploration Strategy

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Rox Resources (ASX: RXL) outlined the company’s proposed exploration activities for 2018.

Rox Resources said its strong financial position means that it can undertake substantial exploration programs while it continues to look for new asset opportunities that will build on its current portfolio.

The company has been focused on the acquisition of a suitable project with a clear path to production over the past six months, but it also has nickel and gold resources in hand, which, in the light of the continued strong performance of the nickel and gold price, it believes deserve to be further progressed.

“We are in an enviable position for an explorer heading into 2018,” Rox Resources managing director Ian Mulholland said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We remain well cashed-up with $12 million at the end of December.

“We have an exceptional portfolio of existing assets with exposure to the nickel and gold markets.

“We will continue to pursue these and monitor market conditions, particularly with respect to where we see nickel in coming years, however, our financial position also gives us the firepower to pursue a near-term growth opportunity and we are looking at numerous projects across a range of attractive commodities that we think can deliver significant shareholder value in the short term.”

The company has designed a program of work to both discover new deposits and increase existing resources at both Fisher East and Collurabbie.

At Fisher East diamond drilling is planned to extend the Musket and Camelwood deposits by testing strong downhole EM anomalies, and at Corktree to test a very strong one-kilometre-long EM conductor, detected from surface.

Aircore drilling at Collurabbie and Fisher East will allow continued definition of geochemical trends to allow targeting of deeper drilling to discover new nickel sulphide orebodies.

“At Fisher East our aims are to make a new game changing massive nickel sulphide discovery, while at the same time increasing resources and continuing to assess development options,” Mulholland said.

“At Collurabbie our ultimate aim is to find more massive nickel sulphide orebodies like Olympia.”

Aircore drilling completed at Mt Fisher in December 2017 returned strong results at a number of prospects over a 10km strike length Rox considers warranting follow-up to add to current gold resources.

A program of RC drilling is planned to test targets at Dam, Dam North, Damsel, Damsel South, Dirks and Shiva.

“With our existing resource base of 86,000 ounces of gold, we see the potential for greater than 500,000 ounces of gold in these targets at Mt Fisher.

“If we can achieve that, it will represent a significant gold development opportunity.”

 

Email: admin@roxresources.com.au

Website: www.roxresources.com.au

 

Emmerson Resources to Retain Gold Projects in Restructure with Evolution Mining

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Emmerson Resources (ASX: ERM) revealed results of discussions on the future of the Tennant Creek Mineral Field (TCMF) JV with Evolution Mining (ASX: EVN).

Emmerson Resources said the discussions had resulted in a proposed new ownership structure that reflects the differing size and corporate objectives of the two companies.

Under the restructure, Emmerson is to retain a 100 per cent (as opposed to 35% under the current terms of the TCMF JV) of all the gold dominant assets, prospects and associated exploration ground.

Emmerson emphasised that the TCMF is one of Australia’s highest-grade goldfields and is where Emmerson (and partners) have made the first new discoveries for over a decade.

The company added that these discoveries have been underpinned by a substantial investment by Evolution in acquiring new data, along with the application of new exploration tools and directly leading to the discovery of a new generation of hematite hosted, high grade gold projects such as seen at Edna Beryl and Mauretania.

Evolution will take a 100 per cent holding in the tenements (or parts of them) that contain the Gecko, Goanna, and Orlando copper-gold prospects.

These comprise some six per cent of the entire TCMF land position and are predominantly copper rich but are considered to have potential for gold grades to increase at depth.

Further exploration of these prospects will require deep drilling and Evolution intends to test these prospects for potential new discoveries of scale at depth and along strike.

“Emmerson is very pleased with the outcome of these negotiations with our partner, Evolution Mining,” Emmerson Resources managing director Rob Bills said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“This proposed restructure better aligns the assets with the respective companies.

“It provides Emmerson shareholders with near term, high margin gold assets and exploration ground that can be more easily developed within the constraints of the Emmerson balance sheet.

“Importantly, the investment in new data during the term of the JV has provided new insights into what we believe is a new generation of high grade, hematite hosted gold deposits.

“Directly leading to discoveries at Edna Beryl West, Mauretania and a string of promising drill intercepts that will now be followed up.

“Emmerson also look forward to accelerating the monetisation of our small mines portfolio given that we are now the 100 per cent owner.”

 

Website: www.emmersonresources.com.au

 

Gascoyne Resources on Schedule for May Gold at Dalgaranga

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Gascoyne Resources (ASX: GCY) informed the market of progress on construction activities at the company’s Dalgaranga gold project in Western Australia.

Gascoyne Resources said that GR Engineering (GRES) has progressed design, engineering and construction of the 2.5 million tonnes per annum Dalgaranga processing plant.

“Design and engineering is complete and construction is well advanced with completion expected in around three months – approximately one month ahead of schedule,” Gascoyne Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“Construction of the project has progressed ahead of the original schedule, and will now see commissioning and first gold production in May 2018.”

Activities to have been undertaken within the process plant so far, include:

Concrete and civil works have been completed;

SAG mill installation is well advanced;

The Crusher and ROM bin have been delivered to site and installation is underway;

CIL tank erection is complete;

Steel erection on Site is nearing completion;

The Elution and gold recovery circuit installation has progressed on schedule with electrical cabling and terminations underway;

Reagent storage area has been completed with the final electrical and piping connections underway; and

Water services area is nearing completion, including reverse osmosis treatment plant, fire system, raw and process water pumps.

Gascoyne advised that electrical and instrument installation is almost complete with commissioning of this portion of the plant scheduled for late February.

“The Mining Contractor (NRW) has commenced site establishment and mobilisation of the mining equipment,” the company said.

“To date one of the excavators, a number of trucks and ancillary mobile equipment has been mobilised.

“NRW are on schedule to commence mining in early March.

“As part of the mining contract, NRW have purchased a number of new truck trays that will increase the payloads of the trucks and improve efficiency.

“A number of these new trays have been fabricated and are scheduled to arrive on site in the next few weeks.”

The Dalgarange gold project contains a Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource of 31.1 million tonnes at 1.3 grams per tonne for 1.32 million ounces of contained gold, which is inclusive of Proved and Probable Ore Reserves of 15.3 million tonnes at 1.3g/t for 612,000 ounces of gold.

 

Email: admin@gascoyneresources.com.au

Website: www.gascoyneresources.com.au

 

Sayona Mining Commences Authier Pilot Plant Program

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Sayona Mining (ASX: SYA) has commenced a pilot plant program for the company’s Authier lithium project in Canada.

Sayona Mining said the pilot program is being completed by SGS Canada (SGS), a company with extensive experience in developing spodumene concentration flowsheets, at Lakefield, Ontario.

The company explained that over the last ten years, SGS has operated pilot plants for several Canadian hard rock lithium deposits.

Sayona collected around 5.5 tonnes of mineralised pegmatite ore during the Phase 3 drilling program carried out in December 2017, from which the diamond drill core was assayed and stage-crushed to the appropriate particle size to feed the pilot plant.

Two composite pilot plant feed samples have been prepared to represent Years 0 to 5 and Years 5+ of the operation.

The pilot plant flowsheet comprises grinding, de-sliming, magnetic separation, mica and spodumene flotation.

The pilot plant is scheduled to operate for 100 hours at a feed rate of 50 kilograms per hour.

The objectives of the piloting program are to produce a six per cent lithium oxide concentrate at recoveries of greater than 80 per cent and confirm:

Finalisation of the flowsheet and processing parameters for spodumene concentrate production developed during the Pre-Feasibility Study;

Produce engineering data for equipment sizing and plant design; and

Generation of spodumene concentrate for downstream lithium carbonate testing and marketing purposes.

Sayona intends using the data collected from the piloting program for a Definitive Feasibility Study, which is expected to be completed during the 2Q 2018.

“The objective of the pilot program is to further refine the design and confirm the operating parameters for the Authier process plant, in order to de-risk the plant construction, commissioning and ramp-up,” Sayona Mining chief executive officer Corey Nolan said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The company is focused on the rapid progression of the project towards production to capitalise on the strong projected price outlook for spodumene concentrates.”

 

Email: info@sayonamining.com.au

Website: www.sayonamining.com.au

 

Middle Island Resources Strikes HoA to Divest Reo Gold Project

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Middle Island Resources (ASX: MDI) has executed a Heads of Agreement relating to divesting the company’s 100 per cent-interest in the Reo gold project in West Africa to Tajiri Resources Corp. (TSX-V: TAJ) via an Option to Purchase Agreement.

Middle Island Resources declared summary commercial terms involve aggregate cash payments to Middle Island of US$335,000 and the issue of 5 million shares, representing eight per cent of Tajiri’s then post-issue expanded capital, plus a two per cent net smelter return (NSR) royalty, which can be purchased by Tajiri for US$5 million.

On completion, the Reo project transaction Middle Island will have divested all of its remaining gold interests in West Africa, allowing the company to fully focus on its advanced Sandstone gold project development in Western Australia.

“The transaction structure allows Middle Island shareholders to retain a significant indirect interest in the upside potential of the Reo project via the Tajiri equity and royalty components,” Middle Island Resources managing director Rick Yeates said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Middle Island looks forward to working closely with Tajiri to facilitate remaining aspects of the due diligence and documentation, in order to complete the transaction and progress the Reo project towards feasibility.

“Middle Island will keep shareholders updated on progress with the Reo project transaction during 2018.”

 

Email: info@middleisland.com.au

Website: www.middleisland.com.au

Southern Gold Expands Bluebird Merchant Ventures Agreements

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Southern Gold (ASX: SAU) announced it has extended its Farm In and Joint Venture arrangement with London listed Bluebird Merchant Ventures (LON: BMV).

Southern Gold said the extension would now include the Kochang project in South Korea with terms for the Kochang gold project being broadly in line with what was previously agreed for the Gubong and Taechang gold projects – being:

A farm-in stage where BMV is to invest US$0.5 million in compiling a high level report on project feasibility targeting capital expenditure of no more than US$10 million, or less than US$5 million each;

The report may or may not provide for several projects to be developed in parallel or potentially as stand-alone operations but Kochang’s relatively high gold and silver grades may enable transport of ore over distance; and

BMV (or one of its associates) is to complete a placement in Southern Gold shares to the value of $0.25 million and at the same price agreed for the other projects, or 38.6 cents per share, by 31 May 2018.

Southern Gold said this takes the potential investment by BMV to US$1.5 million across three projects (Gubong, Taechang and now Kochang) should they take all of them through the farm-in and joint venture process.

It also potentially means a total equity investment in Southern Gold of $0.75 million at the 38.6 cents share price, with $0.25 million having already been completed.

After the completion of the farm-in investment, the share placement and the report on project feasibility, a contributing Joint Venture will be formed with BMV as the operator.

This is expected to occur within approximately 12 months.

“Bluebird is the right group to get underground at Kochang and move this project forward more aggressively,” Southern Gold managing director Simon Mitchell said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Drilling from the steep hills would be expensive but given there is substantial mine infrastructure in place it isn’t necessary.

“We can get to the vein face and work out the system from underground, and given the high grades seen here historically there may be the potential for a low tonnage, very high-grade development.

“Southern Gold acquired the South Korean projects in July 2016 for around $2 million in scrip.

“It is pleasing to extract in excess of this value inside 18 months on only a portion of our Korean portfolio.

“And there is much more value yet to be released – something that will become quite apparent during the course of 2018.”

 

Email: info@southerngold.com.au

Website: www.southerngold.com.au

Intermin Resources Consolidâtes Kalgoorlie Ground

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Intermin Resources (ASX: IRC) has consolidated its ground holding at the company’s Lakewood gold project, south east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia.

The Lakewood project currently comprises 42 prospecting licence applications and one exploration licence application with a total area of 115 square kilometres on the greenstone belt south of Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s Golden Mile and adjacent to the one million tonnes per annum Lakewood toll milling facility.

On final grant of the applications, which Intermin indicated it expects to eceive in the second half of 2018, the company’s 100 per cent-owned project area will increase to 472sqkm.

Intermin has commenced data compilation and initial drill targeting on several high quality targets identified that remain untested.

“We have been extremely fortunate to pick up such a large contiguous block of prospective greenstone belt in the heart of the Kalgoorlie goldfields which is consistent with our strategy of low cost acquisition of assets on major geological structures,” Intermin Resources managing director Jon Price said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Preliminary assessment has highlighted a number of high quality targets that remain untested and we look forward to commencing drilling on the project once the tenements have been granted.”

The company is currently mining and generating cash from its Teal gold mine, which it will use to soon commence a self-funded 50,000 to 60,000 metre new discovery and resource growth drilling program.

 

Email: iadmin@intermin.com.au

Website: www.intermin.com.au

Latin Resources Sells Off Peruvian Copper Projects

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Latin Resources (ASX: LRS) finalised the sale of the company’s Peruvian copper assets to TSX-V-listed Westminster Resources Limited (WMR).

Latin Resources said the sale and transfer will entitle Westminster to 100 per cent ownership of a total of 44 concessions, including the Ilo Norte and Ilo Este projects, spread over 36,000 hectares that are held by Latin’s 100 per cent-owned subsidiary, Peruvian Latin Resources.

Westminster has completed due diligence and the formal Property Purchase Agreement has been executed by both parties with Latin to receive the first instalment of USD$150,000 ($195,000) within seven days.

Based on the current share price of WMR of CAD$0.345 the sale transaction has a total value of more than $6.8 million comprising $6.5 million in shares and US$250,000 in cash.

“The objective of the sale of the projects was to secure material tangible value for Latin’s shareholders given that the projects are no longer a strategic priority of Latin and are surplus to its requirements,” Latin Resources explained in its ASX announcement.

“It will also save the company $140,000 in annual concession costs.”

Latin Resources said the divestment of its copper projects will now allow the company to focus on its lithium and cobalt projects in Argentina, where it has 101,096 Hectares under application or agreement in San Luis Province and over 70,000 hectares in the Catamarca province.

“This is the largest lithium hard rock pegmatite land holding in Argentina,” the company claimed.

“The company remains in discussions with a number of parties in relation to joint venture and offtake opportunities to assist in and fast track the development of its lithium projects.”

 

Email: info@latinresources.com.au

Website: www.latinresources.com.au

Blackham Resources Reports Record Month of Gold Production

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Blackham Resources (ASX: BLK) provided an operational update for the month of January 2018 at the company’s Matilda-Wiluna gold operation in Western Australia.

Blackham Resources indicated that gaining access to high-grade zones in the M4 and Galaxy pits late in the December 20117 quarter was a contributing factor to it achieving record monthly gold production of 6,498 ounces and a low stripping ratio of 3.6:1 (waste: ore) during January 2018.

This resulted in Blackham achieving a record low monthly AISC in January 2018 of $1,158 per ounce, in comparison to an average previous realised gold price of $1,663 per ounce, which the company said demonstrated a clear step change in economics.

Blackham said it expects milled grade and gold production to continue to improve throughout the March 2018 quarter.

The Operation is now building high-grade stockpiles for the first time since March 2017; these high-grade stockpiles currently total 108,000 tonnes at 1.5g/t gold.

During Feb’18, the Operation is expected to mine approximately twice as much high-grade ore as it will process, providing strong operational flexibility.

“With the Operation’s production at record levels and a significant reduction in AISC having already been achieved, the company is clearly demonstrating that its operational turnaround is well underway,” Blackham Resources executive chairman Milan Jerkovic said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“This operational performance, in conjunction with the current strong AUD gold price, is expected to make 2018 a transformational year that is expected to generate significant cash flows and value for Blackham and its shareholders.”

 

Email: info@blackhamresources.com.au

Website: www.blackhamresources.com.au

Gold Road Resources Takes 100% at South Yamarna

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Gold Road Resources’ (ASX: GOR) subsidiary, Gold Road (South Yamarna) Pty Ltd (GRSY), is to acquire Sumitomo Metal Mining Oceania Pty Ltd’s (Sumitomo) 50 per cent interest in the South Yamarna project for $7 million.

Gold Road Resources said the acquisition will consolidate the company’s ownership of the majority of the Yamarna Belt, which currently hosts 6.8 million ounces of gold in resource.

The addition of Gold Road becoming owner of 100 per cent of the South Yamarna project adds to its 100 per cent-ownership of the North Yamarna project and 50 per cent of the Gruyere Joint Venture.

“We established the South Yamarna Joint Venture with Sumitomo in 2013, at a time when Gold Road and most other junior explorers were experiencing severe funding constraints,” Gold Road Resources managing director and CEO Ian Murray said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Since then we have discovered the 6.2 million ounce Gruyere gold deposit, which will be producing gold and significant cash flows from 2019, and our economic circumstance have improved through the joint venture we concluded in 2016 with Gold Fields Limited.

“The partnership with Sumitomo has been an integral part in unlocking the potential of the South Yamarna project which we have shown to be prospective.

“The acquisition of Sumitomo’s 50 per cent interest in South Yamarna gives us greater control of the Yamarna Belt where we will be increasing exploration activities upon completion of the summer targeting and ranking process.”

 

Email: perth@goldroad.com.au

Website: www.goldroad.com.au