Gold, Gold, Gold for Lithium at Diggers & Dealers Awards Night

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: If the mining industry was a dysfunctional family, then sibling rivalry reached new heights at Diggers & Dealers this week.

Gold traditionalists were feeling pushed to the side at this year’s Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie, and then the awards at the Gala Dinner left them in no doubt lithium is the new favourite.

Walking around the Big Top, The Roadhouse bumped into many old gold-focused chums who couldn’t hide their chagrin at the attention being heaped upon the family’s younger sibling lithium.

For the first time ever, lithium companies outnumbered the usual gold presentations and the exhibition area basked in a bluish haze as the spruiking from the battery essential permeated the atmosphere.

If there had been any rhinoplasty surgeons in attendance at the Gala Dinner, they would have been kept busy throughout proceedings as gold noses were put out of joint when all company awards went to companies that had achieved lithium greatness throughout the past 12 months.

First electric cab of the rank was the 2023 Dealer of the Year Award, which went to Allkem (ASX: AKE) for striking a 16 billion dollar merger with Livent Corporation to create a global lithium chemicals producer to be known as NewCo.

Livent comes to the pairing as a global leader in lithium processing technologies with nearly eight decades of experience producing a diverse range of lithium chemicals for energy storage and other specialty applications.

Allkem brings complementary expertise in conventional brine-based lithium extraction, hard rock mining, and lithium processing.

With Livent’s technical and commercial capabilities and its deep customer relationships, and Allkem’s large and diverse resource base and significant growth pipeline, NewCo will be well-positioned to capitalize on the expected growth in lithium demand from electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage solutions.

The Digger of the Year Award is presented each year to a company considered by the judges to have achieved exceptional results from its operations over the past 12 months.

The winner of the 2023 Digger of the Year award was Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS) on the back of a healthy year at the company’s Pilgangoora lithium project near Port Hedland.

In the 2022/23 financial year, Pilbara Minerals increased its sales volumes by 68 per cent, which when factored into strong lithium prices, saw revenues increase 238 per cent to a lazy 4 billion dollars, giving the company a cash balance of 3.3 billion dollars.

In the last quarter alone, Pilbara increased production of spodumene concentrate by 10per cent to 162,8000 tonnes in Q4 FY23, the highest quarter it has achieved since commissioning.

The gold bugs sat with trepidation for the announcement of the Dealers Emerging Company award, hoping for a bone to be tossed their way, but alas it was not to be with lithium enjoying a D&D clean sweep.

The Emerging Company award recognises the venture the judges deem to have the greatest potential to develop into a substantial project.

This year the 2023 Emerging Company award went to Patriot Battery Metals (ASX: PMT).

Patriot Battery Metals is a hard-rock lithium exploration company focused on advancing its Corvette Property in northern Quebec, Canada.

The project currently boasts a maiden mineral Resource estimate of 109.2 million tonnes at 1.42 per cent lithium oxide, which is the largest lithium pegmatite mineral resource in the Americas and the 8th largest globally.

 

 

Gold Tailwinds: Noah’s Rule’s Sean Russo at RIU Sydney

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Noah’s Rule principal and managing director Sean Russo painted a positive picture for gold in the final presentation to the 2023 RIU Sydney Resources Round-up on Thursday.

“We’ve got a great background,” he told delegates.

“[Gold’s] not got its dual headwinds it often has … of underperforming equities and the US dollar being stronger, so things are good.

“And the world it seems, to some extent, is coming our way.”

His charted research indicated Australia was in a similar situation to the 1970s when gold was “strongly outperforming general equities”.

“And when that happens, general equity investors get really freaked out and they rush in and buy gold,” he said.

“I think this looks incredibly similar,” he continued, referring to the current point in time on the chart and citing factors including interest rate woes and financial repression.

“The gloss has come off central bankers, which is why the gloss has come on gold,” he said.

Russo noted gold had achieved a new all-time high in many currencies, including the Australian dollar and the yen, but he didn’t agree with those who thought the precious metal looked pricey.

“Gold is not expensive relative to lots of other things that most other people invest in,” he said.

“And a lot of those other things they invest in are probably challenged – and if they start to run out of that and come running to where we already are, that’s pretty exciting.”

He did suggest not going “all in” on gold, saying other commodities were even cheaper and potentially poised for a lift.

One of his charts indicated strong similarities with the lead-up to the previous commodities bull market.

“As I said last year, Goldman Sachs has talked about … the electrification of the world will require the equivalent of three times the impact of China being allowed into the WTO [World Trade Organization],” he said.

As for gold equities, Russo said the sector needed to see new buyers entering.
“We all believe … but we need to get a new group of people to come in and buy the stocks that we believe in,” he said.

“They’ve got to get the stacks on the mill, right, you’ve got to get the other people here.”

Fortitude North Assays “Dramatically” Add Potential at Matsa’s Lake Carey

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Matsa Resources (ASX: MAT) executive chairman Paul Poli had a spring in his step at the 2023 RIU Sydney Resources Round-up today, with fresh assay results he believes help demonstrate the multimillion-ounce potential at Fortitude North.

The latest results included 6m at 5.1 grams per tonne gold, within 14m at 3.4g/t from 113m.

“We think these are absolutely massive results for a [potential] open pit mine,” Poli, who is the company’s second-largest shareholder, told the conference.

The “gold company with a twist of lithium” believes Fortitude North could dramatically build the resource at its 886,000 ounce Lake Carey gold project in Western Australia’s Goldfields.

Poli told Resources Roadhouse on the sidelines it was early days at Fortitude North, where drilling has only gone to 200m deep, but they were seeing “quite substantial” similarities to AngloGold Ashanti’s nearby Sunrise Dam open pit and underground operation.

A 2021 feasibility study on Fortitude, not including Fortitude North, indicated positive cash flow of about $95 million using a $2,400/oz gold price.

Poli told delegates this would increase to $200 million using the current $3,000/oz price.

“It just needs a home for its ore and that’s what we’re addressing,” he said.

Lithium is Matsa’s second focus, added about 18 months ago, and Poli said testing had shown the company’s lepidolite and polylithionite samples were “easily processable” by Yongxing Special Materials Technology, one of China’s largest lepidolite miners and processors.

Matsa arguably holds the largest tenement applications for lithium exploration in south-east Asia of circa 2,000 square kilometres and Poli expected the granting process to begin “soon”.

 

 

Silver Demand Skyrocketing, Investigator Tells RIU Sydney

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: “Silver demand is skyrocketing” due to increasing industrial and green energy demand, Investigator Resources (ASX: IVR) managing director Andrew McIlwain told the 2023 RIU Sydney Resources Round-up.

The silver price has risen about 20 per cent over the past year to circa US$26 an ounce or A$38 per ounce.

The silver market was going through structural changes, McIlwain told Resources Roadhouse on the sidelines, referring to recent figures from the Silver Institute showing the market had achieved its second consecutive annual structural deficit.

Demand reached a new high of 1.24 billion ounces in 2022, according to the Institute, while global mine production fell to 822.4 million ounces, creating “possibly the most significant deficit on record”.

Investigator is advancing the Paris project in South Australia, which it describes as the country’s highest-grade undeveloped silver project.

Paris contains 53 million ounces of silver and 98,000 tonnes of lead, which McIlwain said in gold terms equated roughly to a 700,000oz gold project.

Recent results from Paris South included “the highest 1m silver assay” from Investigator’s 2022/23 drilling program, of 1m at 2,410 grams per tonne silver within 25m at 207g/t form 73m.

The company expects to announce a resource update in June and a definitive feasibility study early next year that will include Paris’ lead potential, unlike a 2021 prefeasibility study which focused on silver only.

Investigator has also stepped into the critical minerals space, recently gaining the option to earn into Thor Energy’s Molyhil tungsten and molybdenum project in the Northern Territory.

McIlwain told the conference the molybdenum price had risen substantially from the US$15 a pound used in Molyhil’s 2018 DFS, to about $60/lb.

 

St George Mining Enjoying Support For Lithium Quest

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) is receiving plenty of encouragement for its focus on lithium opportunities, executive chairman John Prineas said on the sidelines of the 2023 RIU Sydney Resources Round-up.

Prineas told Resources Roadhouse the company’s initial drilling to test the pegmatite potential at its flagship Mt Alexander project in Western Australia in 2022 had returned “very positive” results.

The company recently reported assays with a peak value of 1.8 per cent lithium oxide, while earlier rock chip samples from outcropping mineralisation had returned up to 3.25 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O).

“That’s given us a lot of encouragement to go out harder this year and do a 20,000 metres program,” Prineas said.

St George had also received “great validation and support” through strategic relationships with three of the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery heavyweights, with two providing $2 million each to help fund the drilling program, Prineas said.

Mt Alexander is along strike from Delta Lithium’s (previously Red Dirt Metals) recently-established Mt Ida lithium resource, comprising 12.7 million tonnes grading 1.2 per cent Li2O.

Delta took 60,000m of drilling to establish its resource, Prineas said, while St George had only done about 5,000m so far.

“Hopefully as we continue drilling, we’ll establish a resource similar to them – we have basically the same geological setting, right next to the Copperfield Granite which is the source of the mineralised pegmatites,” he said.

Two rigs were in action at Mt Alexander this week.

St George recently expanded its lithium focus, acquiring seven projects in the Yilgarn.

Prineas said the area had been described as a “super province for lithium”, given several companies had established resources and the tussle for control of Essential Metals and its Pioneer Dome lithium deposit.

St George is also investigating the nickel-copper-platinum group elements (PGE) potential in its portfolio.

 

Warriedar Exploring for the ‘Next Mine in the Murchison’

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Warriedar Resources (ASX: WA8) has launched into an exploration strategy to determine where the next gold mine will be in the Murchison, managing director and CEO Amanda Buckingham said on the sidelines of the 2023 RIU Sydney Resources Round-up.

The company opened a new chapter this year, changing name from Anova Metals and adding two Murchison projects containing almost 1 million ounces of gold to its portfolio, which already holds 1.01 million ounces in Nevada.

The Fields Find and Golden Range projects host 10 deposits along a 70km mineralised shear in a “commanding land position” in Western Australia’s north of 813 square kilometres.

Buckingham said surrounding operations in the Murchison “tap deep” such as Golden Grove being mined at 1,800m, indicating the potential on its holdings where the average drilling depth was 42m.

The company has drilled 25,000m so far at the projects this year but received less than 20 per cent of the assays, however Buckingham said they showed the exploration plan was working, revealing two significant high grade deposit extensions.

At Windinne Well, extensional drilling returned results including 4m at 5.17 grams per tonne gold, while highlights from Rothschild included 11m at 3.39g/t.

“We are uncovering more gold, we are learning which of our deposits are likely to turn into a significant resource and moving into the third quarter, once we get all the assays back, we will design a deeper diamond drilling program to really answer the question ‘Where will the next mine be in this belt?’” she said.

The Fields Find project contains the former Warriedar copper mine and the company was looking forward to soon drilling high-priority copper targets as well, Buckingham said.

Overseas, Warriedar was in the process of acquiring a larger exploration permit for its Big Springs project in Nevada, a state Buckingham described as “the land of giants” as it hosted individual deposits of up to 40 million ounces.

“Our focus is on WA [this year] but we still consider it to be an extremely important asset and we will work on it or will commercialise it in some way at the appropriate time,” Buckingham said.

 

Hammer Well-Positioned with Kalman MRE Update

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: A resource update this week for its polymetallic Kalman project in Queensland positions Hammer Metals (ASX: HMX) with a baseload of material to push towards development, managing director Daniel Thomas said on the sidelines of the 2023 RIU Sydney Resources Round-up.

Drawing from his experience at Sandfire Resources, Thomas also pointed to comparisons between Kalman and the project that Sandfire acquired from MOD in Botswana that contained a reserve at the time of 22 million tonnes at 1.1 per cent copper-equivalent.

He said the open pit component of the updated Kalman resource contained 27.7 million tonnes at 1.1 per cent copper-equivalent, adding there was a difference between a resource and reserve but saying Kalman was in a great jurisdiction surrounded by mining operations and established infrastructure.

Kalman’s contained metal has increased 39 per cent from a 2016 Mineral Resource Estimate to about 500,000 tonnes copper-equivalent.

The total updated resource comprises 39.2 million tonnes grading 0.53 per cent copper, 0.27 grams per tonne gold, 0.1 per cent molybdenum, 1.5g/t silver and 2.1g/t rhenium.

“We’ve had aspirations for some time to grow our resource base to a number of 600,000 tonnes of copper-equivalent metal,” Thomas told Resources Roadhouse.

“When you combine Kalman now with our other resources – Elaine, Jubilee and Overlander, we’re very close to that figure if not exceeded that figure.”

He said one of the key questions, in a capital constrained market, was how to advance the project near Mount Isa.

“Our focus as a company is on growing this mineral inventory,” he said.

A rig was expected to turn up within weeks to start testing high-priority targets.

“More copper, more inventory, more people taking notice,” Thomas said of the company’s plans.

“Above all else, delivering that shareholder uplift through good exploration results as we’ve seen with our neighbours.”

Hammer also has a joint venture with Sumitomo Metal Mining in Queensland and the Yandal gold, lithium and nickel projects in Western Australia.

 

Black Cat Grows Paulsens MRE, Eyes First Gold in 2024

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Black Cat Syndicate (ASX: BC8) announced a 25 per cent boost to its high-grade Paulsens gold resource today but managing director Gareth Solly told the 2023 RIU Sydney Resources Round-up he expects it to further expand. By Ngaire McDiarmid

The mothballed Paulsens, in Western Australia’s Pilbara, is the mine that proved a company-maker for Northern Star Resources and was acquired by Black Cat less than a year ago.

Since then, the company has increased the underground resource 360 per cent to the current 322,000 ounces grading 10.1 grams per tonne gold.

Along with the Coyote underground resource near the Northern Territory border comprising 356,000oz at 14.6g/t gold, Black Cat has two of Australia’s highest-grade gold deposits.

The company also has a 1.3 million ounce gold resource at its Kal East project in WA’s Goldfields.

However, Paulsens is the frontrunner, thanks to its existing infrastructure including a 110-person camp and 450,000 tonne per annum mill.

A restart study is underway and a decision is slated for mid-year, with Solly eyeing the prospect of a first gold pour at Paulsens in 2024.

“It’s a great time to be in gold,” he told delegates.

The company can draw from the experience of Silver Lake Resources founding members Paul Chapman and Les Davis, who are on Black Cat’s board.

“We do expect to continue to grow the [Paulsens] resource,” Solly said, and pointed to the “potential transformational discovery opportunities” at the Lower Gabbro.

He also said the project hosted regional potential, including the possibility of “another Paulsens?” at the Belvedere deposit 5km away, plus the polymetallic growth headlined by the project’s 1.2 million tonnes Mt Clement resource containing Australia’s third-largest antimony deposit.

 

Toweranna Adding More Allure to De Grey’s Mallina

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: De Grey Mining (ASX: DEG) has reported “outstanding” intercepts from infill and extensional drilling at its Toweranna deposit, ahead of a presentation to the 2023 RIU Sydney Resources Round-up today. By Ngaire McDiarmid

Resource definition drilling results at Toweranna, the initial intrusion that led to De Grey’s large-scale Hemi discovery, included 2m at 64.2 grams per tonne gold, within 10m at 13.2g/t from 288m.

A highlight from drilling outside the existing resource was 41.5m at 4.7g/t gold from 12m.

Executive technical director Andy Beckwith said the results would be included in the definitive feasibility study underway, and the extensional results offered a longer-term new focus.

“That’s probably a structure on the margins of the intrusion,” he said.

“Now we want to try and track that around the deposit and along strike.”

Toweranna currently hosts a Mineral Resource of 525,000 ounces, part of the overall 10.6 million ounces at the Mallina project in WA’s north which De Grey is advancing towards production.

Mallina is expected to produce 540,000oz annually for the first 10 years, according to a 2022 prefeasibility study.

The PFS presented “compelling financial metrics” post-tax including undiscounted free cash flow of $4.2 billion, an internal rate of return of 41 per cent and a 1.8-year payback period.

The DFS is due mid-year.

Beckwith told Resources Roadhouse that test work showed Toweranna’s mineralisation could be optimised by ore sorting, which the company had been investigating “well before the Hemi discovery”.

He believed ore sorting could optimise the deposit – “it’s not needed to make it work” – and cited potential benefits, including reduced haulage, a higher-grade feed and improved financial metrics.

“The technology has leapt in the last five years and now, I think the benefits it can bring is going to be immense in the next 10 years,” he said.

 

REE Results “Exciting” But Meeka Focused on Advancing Gold Project

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Meeka Metals (ASX: MEK) announced the highest rare earth grades yet at its Circle Valley project, the same day as it presented to the
2023 RIU Sydney Resources Round-up this week, but the company’s focus remains on its advanced Murchison Gold Project. By Ngaire McDiarmid

Speaking to Resources Roadhouse on the conference sidelines, managing director Tim Davidson said it was really exciting to receive results of up to 7,475 parts per million Total Rare Earth Oxides (TREO) from Circle Valley, near Esperance in Western Australia.

“They’re the highest grades we’ve seen in the drilling at Circle Valley, ever,” he said.

“Generally, you see rare earth grades in the 1,000-2,000ppm … we saw grades from individual samples over 7,000ppm, so five to seven times what you’d expect as a high-grade result.”

He said that set the stage for next phase of work which includes the initial resource estimate, slated for June, understanding the metallurgy and assessing how to monetise the resource.

“We’re getting great results and we’re advancing it but we’re not losing sight of how important the gold is to us,” Davidson said.

“It’s the most important part of our portfolio.”

Meeka is advancing its flagship gold project towards “production ready” and expects to release a prefeasibility study in June.

The Murchison Gold Project has a 1.2 million ounce resource grading 3 grams per tonne across several deposits.

The 1.2 million ounces includes the initial St Anne’s Indicated Mineral Resource of 25,000oz, announced last week.