Azumah Resources Strikes Big Dollar Earn-In Deal

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Azumah Resources (ASX: AZM) has struck a binding Term Sheet deal with Perth-managed private equity group, Ibaera Capital GP Limited.

The deal enables Ibaera, to earn in two stages, up to a 47.5 per cent interest for an expenditure of US$13.5 million ~($17M) in the company’s Wa gold project in Ghana, West Africa.

Azumah Resources explained the objective of the deal is to boost The Wa project gold resources and reserves above the present 2.1 million ounces and 624,000 ounces respectively and deliver within a two-year time frame, or less, a revised Feasibility Study to support the funding and development of the presently proposed 90,000 ounces per year gold operation.

Azumah recently reported an exploration targeting review by CSA Global that highlighted an opportunity to achieve Azumah’s expectations of a lift in resources and reserves.

The study identified over 140 target areas, of which 18 were designated very high priority.

“This transaction represents a game changer for the company and another important step in unlocking fundamental value and achieving a market rerating,” Azumah Resources managing director Stephen Stone said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“It’s been a tough environment in which to build new projects and having carefully considered several options, we are very pleased to be partnering with Ibaera.

“We are looking forward to working with its team of focused and highly regarded mining industry professionals who have a proven capability in discovery and for driving major projects to production whilst employed at WorleyParsons Ltd, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd and BHP Billiton Limited.”

Ibaera Capital manages an existing $85 million investment entity backed by European investors and has invested in six Australian assets since its inception in 2013.

Through its new closed-end private equity fund Ibaera Capital Fund LP, the investment group is mandated to invest in and develop international gold and base metals projects alongside their Australian corporate owners.

It’s proposed investment in Azumah’s Wa project is to be funded by US natural resources focused institutional investors with more than US$1 billion of funds under management.

Website: www.azumahresources.com.au

Carbine Resources Signs Mount Morgan Chinese Offtake Agreement

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Carbine Resources (ASX: CRB) has signed a binding offtake agreement for pyrite production from the company’s developing Mount Morgan gold-copper project in Queensland.

Carbine Resources inked the deal with Chinese Trading company IKing International Limited.

The agreement with IKing contains a guaranteed floor price for all the pyrite concentrate delivered with a profit sharing mechanism for prices achieved greater than the floor price, which will be negotiated on an annual basis.

The agreement is for a minimum of 85 per cent of the concentrate produced for the first three years.

Carbine explained the detailed pricing terms associated with the IKing agreement remain confidential due to its commercial sensitivity, however, based on the current and forecast market conditions, the company said it expects to receive at least US$50 per tonne for the first two years of the project and greater than US$70 per tonne for the remaining years.

The pyrite price expected to be received will impact the project’s AISC of $549 per ounce determined by the Feasibility Study released in December 2016.

“The contract achieves one of the more significant milestones in Carbine’s work to bring Mount Morgan into production,” Carbine Resources managing director Tony James said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The focus on the Chinese pyrite market provides the company with greater confidence in selling the entire pyrite concentrate production at a price beneficial to the project economics.

“With the project approvals process now well advanced with two of the three major approvals completed, we are progressively ticking the boxes and gaining some momentum towards finalising project funding and start up.

“China consumes approximately 16 million tonnes of pyrite a year and the shipping distance from Australia makes it a logical destination for the Mount Morgan concentrate, which will initially start at 200,000 tonnes per annum of premium unroasted iron pyrite.”

According to Carbine’s release, China’s 10 major pyrite-consuming iron and sulphuric acid plants have the capacity to consume more than five million tonnes of pyrite concentrate on an annual basis.

Two of those companies have already offered preliminary support to IKing by the way of letters of intent for the Mount Morgan concentrate following customer testing of supplied samples produced during the feasibility stage of the project.

Email: admin@carbineresources.com.au

Website: www.carbineresources.com.au

S2 Resources Sets Investment Feet in USA and Canada

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: S2 Resources (ASX: S2R) has struck an agreement with TSXV-listed Renaissance Gold to earn in to three of that company’s properties located on some of the major known gold mineralised trends in Nevada, USA.

S2 Resources also announced it has made a C$1 million investment in another TSXV-listed company, GT Gold, which the high-grade Saddle gold discovery in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia, Canada.

S2 described Renaissance Gold as a company that specialises in generating prospects and Joint Venturing these with larger partners at the drilling stage, adding that its personnel have been involved in several major discoveries, including the Long Canyon deposit, which was ultimately bought by Newmont for US$2.3 billion.

S2 Resources believes the deal delivers several drill-ready, Carlin-style gold targets defined by geology, geophysics and geochemistry, located in compact land packages.

The Ecru property is located adjacent to Barrick Gold’s Cortez Pipeline-Goldrush deposit cluster, which hosts approximately 50 million ounces of gold.

The Pluto property has up to 13.1 grams per tonne gold in outcrop, despite the main target zone (most receptive host rocks) interpreted to be at greater depth.

The South Roberts property comprises a Carlin-style target located under cover and along trend from several world class Carlin-type gold deposits.

S2 Resources will be required to spend a minimum of US$200,000, on each property, within two years and, can earn a 70 per cent interest by spending US$3 million within five years.

“After a patient search for high quality exploration opportunities in favoured jurisdictions we are pleased to have reached agreement to earn into these very compelling projects,” S2 Resources managing director Mark Bennett said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Each property comprises a compact land package with well-defined and thought out drill-ready targets.

“Some of these targets are deep but their potential scale is very significant.

“The drill-ready nature of these opportunities complements the longer term strategic value we believe we can add to our other exploration projects in Sweden and Finland.

“Importantly, the deal structure enables us to drill test and either earn-in or move on to new targets.

“It is a good fit for both parties because it matches S2’s exploration capability and capacity with RenGold’s proven expertise in defining and discovering significant gold mines in an established mining friendly state.

“We are looking forward to working with Rengold and plan to hit the ground running.”

S2’s investment of C$1 million in TSXV-listed gold explorer GT Gold was made via a placement at C32 cents per share.

GT Gold announced a high-grade gold discovery at its Saddle property, situated in an area of British Columbia known as the Golden Triangle, in July 2017.

The Golden Triangle hosts a number of world class gold deposits including Eskay Creek (formerly mined by Barrick) and the new seven million ounce Brucejack mine (being developed by Pretivm).

Email: admin@s2resources.com.au

Website: www.s2resources.com.au

Kin Mining Lifts Mill Capacity at Leonora Gold Project

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Kin Mining (ASX: KIN) announced another crucial step towards development of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Leonora gold project (LGP) in Western Australia.

Kin Mining has secured an option to purchase a used 2.5 megawatt (MW) ANI-Ruwolt ball mill from Macca-Interquip.

The company considers the acquisition of such a key long-lead item to boost upfront mill throughput and reduce life-of-mine CAPEX.

Kin Mining said the installation of a 2.5MW ball mill at the LGP will provide single-stage primary grinding of the Cardinia ores at an annualised throughput rate of 1.2 million tonnes per annum.

As the project transitions to mining of the harder primary ores, mill throughput will be maintained with the inclusion of the Lawlers 600 kilowatt ball mill the company recently acquired as part of the Lawlers plant purchase from Gold Fields.

Kin pointed out that the purchase of an equivalent new 2.5MW ball mill would cost an estimated $4.5 million with spares and take up to 40 weeks from order to delivery.

However, the total cost of the 2.5MW ANI- Ruwolt ball mill, fully refurbished is expected to be approximately $0.9 million and will take an estimated 12 weeks to be ready for installation.

Kin explained the 2.5MW ball mill provides both certainty of throughput and grind size to maximise metallurgical recovery at the LGP

The LGP Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), completed last year, proposed a new 750,000 tonnes per annum processing plant for the first two years followed by an upgrade to 1.2 million tonnes per annum for an additional estimated capital cost of $16 million.

“This larger ball mill is a key long lead and expensive item for any project,” Kin Mining managing director Don Harper said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We have secured this critical piece of equipment in very good condition along with critical spares.

“Importantly we have provided certainty of grinding power to the operation and increased initial mill throughput.

“The purchase of the 800,000 tonnes per annum Lawlers plant and the opportunity to secure the used 2.5 megawatt ball mill allows Kin the ability to achieve our construction schedule of approximately nine months from project funding.

“We also now expect to see a reduction in Life-of-Mine capital cost in comparison to the 2016 PFS.”

Email: info@kinmining.com.au

Website: www.kinmining.com.au

Explaurum Raises $4.5M to progress Tampia Gold Project

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Explaurum (ASX: EXU) informed the market of the completion of a bookbuild to raise up to $4.5 million through a placement of up to 42.9 million shares at an issue price of 10.5 cents per share.

Explaurum said the raising, brokered by Hartleys, involved sophisticated and institutional investors.

The company outlined the expected uses for the funds raised, which include completing an updated JORC Resource for the Tampia gold project in August 2017 following completion of a current drill hole resource program.

Other activities include regional exploration, involving auger soil sampling followed by reverse circulation (RC) drilling across over 20 regional gravity/geochemical targets including 3 high priory targets within a 15 kilometre range of the known resource.

An updated Tampia gold project Scoping Study is anticipated to be delivered in Q3 2017 with a Feasibility Study to be completed the end of H2 2017.

“We are pleased to have successfully completed this heavily oversubscribed placement to enable the rapid progress at the Tampia gold project to continue,” Explaurum managing director and CEO John Lawton said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The placement was very well supported by our existing shareholders and new institutional and sophisticated investors.

“Explaurum is on the cusp of completing a major resource drilling program at the Tampia gold project and we are on target to deliver an updated JORC Resource in late August 2017, which will be the basis of the recently commenced feasibility study due for completion at the end of 2017.

“During this process, we plan to update the 2016 scoping study in September to provide shareholders and investors with an indication of the project’s potential viability as a standalone operation. 

“In addition, there is exciting regional potential based on a 400 square kilometre airborne gravity program completed earlier this year.

“This program discovered three major and 21 other exploration targets with similar geophysical characteristics to the known Tampia deposit, although the three major targets are considerably larger than Tampia.

“Assessment of these targets will commence immediately and proceed in parallel with the feasibility study.”

Email: info@explaurum.com

Website: www.explaurum.com

Rox Resources and Marindi Metals Settle Reward Dispute

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Rox Resources (ASX: RXL) announced that Marindi Metals (ASX: MZN) has agreed to discontinue the Supreme Court proceedings it commenced against the company.

The court proceedings stem from the sale of Rox Resources’ interest in the Reward project, for which Marindi had originally made an offer.

However, under the terms of an Earn-in and Joint Venture Agreement between Rox Resources and Teck Australia, the latter retained a pre-emptive right over Rox’s interest in the project, which meant Rox was obliged to offer to sell its interest in the Reward project to Teck on the same terms and conditions.

Under the newly-struck settlement terms a payment of $300,000 cash will be made to Marindi by Rox (equivalent to the Break Fee in the original Marindi offer).

Each party will bear its own costs up to this point, and will have no further claims against the other.

“We are pleased to have resolved this matter,” Rox Resources managing director Ian Mulholland said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We can now get on with our core business of mineral exploration and development.”

Email: admin@roxresources.com.au

Website: www.roxresources.com.au

Cassini Resources Progressing West Musgrave FSS

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Cassini Resources (ASX: CZI) provided an update regarding Further Scoping Study (FSS) activities at the company’s West Musgrave project (WMP), located in Western Australia.

Cassini Resources explained the current program of work represents the first stage of the Earnin/JV Agreement it has with OZ Minerals (ASX: OZL).

The stated outcomes of the FSS are to increase confidence in metallurgical performance of a full range of mineralisation types within the Nebo-Babel deposits.

These results will then be used to update previous mining and processing studies in order to determine optimal size of the operation.

In addition, all capital and operating costs are being reviewed and updated for inclusion in the current study.

Cassini explained that testwork in the initial scoping study was focused on the relatively high head grade ore domains, which would be processed through a 1.5 million tonnes per annum treatment plant.

The scope of the FSS testwork program has been designed to cover whole ore composites and variability samples which are representative of the ore domains and average head grades within the deposits, all of which are aligned with the increased project size development options.

“Two master composite samples, each representing typical run of mine material, of the early and later years of a likely mine schedule, respectively, have also been tested,” Cassini Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“The program is progressing well with the completion of all testwork expected by the end of July.”

The FSS work included a Resource extension drill program at Babel targeting a number of modelled down hole electromagnetic conductors (DHEM), primarily outside the existing Resource.

“There are a number of zones where mineralisation remains open, and these could provide future resource extensions,” Cassini said.

The company believes the program has demonstrated this potential with a best result of:

CZC0160
8 metres at 0.50 per cent nickel, 0.40 per cent copper, 0.01 per cent cobalt and 0.28g/t PGE, including 2m at 1.21 per cent nickel, 0.22 per cent copper, 0.03 per cent cobalt and 0.41g/t PGE.

“This hole is located near the northern ‘roll-over’ contact at Babel which has returned numerous high-grade results in previous drilling,” Cassini said.

“Geological interpretation and modelling of Nebo and Babel is completed and results are used in a resource update which is underway.”

Email: admin@cassiniresources.com.au

Website: www.cassiniresources.com.au

Musgrave Minerals Takes Up Silver Lake Cue Interest

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Musgrave Minerals (ASX: MGV) announced it has elected to exercise its pre-emptive right to acquire Silver Lakes Resources’ (ASX: SLR) remaining interest in the Cue Project Farm-in and Joint Venture.

Musgrave Minerals will acquire a 100 per cent interest in the Break of Day and Lena deposits where the company recently announced Minerals Resources more than 350,000 ounces of gold.

The purchase price for the JV interest is cash consideration of $1.5 million.

“Musgrave sees considerable value in the opportunity to acquire SLR’s interest and move to 100 per cent ownership of the resources,” Musgrave Minerals managing director Rob Waugh said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Drilling is set to resume at Break of Day in early August to extend the high grade gold mineralisation outlined to date.”

Email: info@musgraveminerals.com.au

Website: www.musgraveminerals.com.au

Blackham Resources Reinvigorates Production at Wiluna

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Blackham Resources (ASX: BLK) announced lower than expected gold production for the recently completed June 2017 quarter.

Blackham Resources said that although improvements in crusher and mill performance were seen during the quarter at the company’s 6.4 million ounce Matilda/Wiluna gold operation, a lower grade profile resulted in lower than forecast production of 15,709 ounces.

This was however, an improvement on the previous  March 2017 quarter, when the company produced 14,920 ounces.

Blackham indicated gold production for the September 2017 quarter is expected to increase due to both higher tonnes processed and a higher-grade profile from the open pits.

The company explained that the Matilda open pits have experienced slow ore dig rates due to recent wet conditions and wall slips reducing the total ore mined.

Strip ratios during the June 2017 quarter were reduced to 11.9 times – compared to the March 2017 quarter ratios of 15.2 times – but, as the company indicated, are still higher than the 8:1 life of mine strip ratio.

Blackham expects stripping ratios to be reduced next quarter.

“The higher investment in waste stripping this half has allowed access to expected higher-grade ore in the September 2017 quarter,” Blackham Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“Mining at the higher-grade Galaxy pit started in early April.

“Access to the higher-grade zones in the M4 pit are expected to be achieved during July.”

Email: info@blackhamresources.com.au

Website: www.blackhamresources.com.au

Kin Mining Consolidates LGP Tenure

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Kin Mining (ASX: KIN) has embarked upon a land tenure application and acquisition frenzy surrounding the company’s Leonora gold project (LGP) in Western Australia.

Kin Mining lodged applications with the WA Department of Mines and Petroleum to consolidate its tenure at and surrounding the LGP as well as finalising the acquisition of tenements from Kazoo Nominees, and the remaining 20 per cent interest from Jindalee Resources (ASX: JRL) and Mr Vladimir Nikolaenko at the Cardinia Mining Centre.

Cardinia – Mertondale Link

Kin mining has applied for 14 new prospecting licences covering an approximate area of 2,757 hectares linking the LGP areas from North to South.

“The new applications provide continuous tenure for Kin between the Mertondale and Cardinia Mining Centres,” Kin Mining said in its ASX announcement.

“Both Mining Centres contain greater than 100,000 ounces of gold and the region between these two centres is considered to be excellent exploration tenure.”

South of Cardinia

Kin has applied for 13 new prospecting Licences covering an approximate area of 2,274ha south of the Lewis deposit in the Cardinia Mining Centre which are strategic to the current holdings in the area.

“The new applications secure for Kin the southerly strike extensions of the geological formations that host gold mineralisation at the Cardinia Mining Centre,” the company said.

“A number of the new leases adjoin the Mining Leases held by Kin which contain the Helens-Rangoon Mineralised Corridor.”

Gambier Lass Extension

Kin has applied for 22 new prospecting Licences covering an approximate area of 4,260ha, immediately adjacent to the Gambier Lass Mining Lease, and secure an area along strike to the south-east of this gold deposit.

Kazoo Nominees

Kin has acquired eight prospecting licences within the Mertondale-Cardinia link area from Kazoo Nominees for $8,000, with Kazoo retaining the rights to alluvial gold within the tenements.

This tenement package consists of two separate blocks covering an approximate area of 1,579ha.

“The group of tenements in the north potentially contains the southern strike extension of the Mertondale Shear Zone, which hosts the company’s Mertondale Mineral Resources (395,000 ounces of contained gold),” Kin said.

“The group of tenements in the south immediately adjoin Kin’s Mining Leases of the Cardinia Mining Centre.

“The leases are of exploration interest, due to the fact that Kin is aware of gold mineralisation extending up to the boundary of the Mining Leases where they adjoin the newly acquired tenements.

Randwick Extension

Kin has applied for nine new prospecting licences covering an approximate area of 1,717ha, adjoining the existing Kin tenement block at Randwick, and surround the historic Randwick Mine, from which over 10,000 ounces of gold are historically reported to have been recovered.

The new tenements also contain several historic workings for which there do not appear to be production records.

Jindalee/Nikolaenko Tenure

Kin Mining’s 100 per cent-owned subsidiary, Navigator Mining has agreed terms with Jindalee Resources (11%) (Jindalee) and Mr Vladimir Nikolaenko (9%) (Nikolaenko) to acquire the remaining 20 per cent interest in five tenements that form part of the Cardinia Project Area.

“This acquisition secures for Kin the area along strike to the south of the high-grade primary gold mineralisation recently discovered at Lewis,” the company explained.

“The southern tenements…also contain the Pride of the North historic workings, which are reported to have produced 45 ounces Au from just 5.3 tons of ore.”

Email: info@kinmining.com.au

Website: www.kinmining.com.au