Ardiden Limited (ASX: ADV) Explorers 2020

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Ardiden has declared its main focus to be progressively building gold resources at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Pickle Lake gold project in Ontario, Canada.

In September 2019, Ardiden announced a maiden Inferred high-grade 790,000 tonnes at 4.3 grams per tonne gold for 110,000 ounces of gold Resource for the Kasagiminnis gold deposit.

The Kasagiminnis deposit represents only a small section (600m) of a potential 20 kilometres strike length at the Pickle Lake gold project.

Subject to necessary approvals, Ardiden plans to recommence drilling at Kasagiminnis in winter 2019/20 to extend this resource.

In November 2019, Ardiden finalised interpretation of an airborne geophysical survey at the West Pickle prospect.

The West Pickle gold prospect includes more than 5km of prospective geological setting directly along strike to the nearby Central Patricia underground mine, which produced more than 600,000 ounces of gold at 12.5g/t gold.

The survey identified several priority targets for gold mineralisation, which may have been a bit surprising for previous owners who gave the deposit very little historical exploration attention, despite its location directly along strike of the high-grade Central Patricia and Pickle Crow gold mining centres.

The geophysical survey undertaken by Ardiden highlighted hidden structural discontinuities and multiple possible conduits for hydrothermal fluids at West Pickle.

These included two large and highly conductive geophysical responses detected at West Pickle in proximity to iron formations.

This gave the company encouragement as strong conductors are typically associated with pyrrhotite and gold mineralisation along strike at the Central Patricia Mine.

The survey also highlighted multiple magnetic lows at West Pickle in prospective Iron Formations that again raised company eyebrows as magnetic lows can indicate that gold-mineralising fluids may have altered the rock.

The West Pickle property has been explored by previous owners, however these searches focused mainly on nickel and copper.

Ardiden’s recent airborne magnetic and EM survey discovered complex geological structures which will form the base of future gold exploration by the company on the West Pickle property.

Concurrent with the West Pickle survey, Ardiden reviewed the historical drilling data available at South Limb gold prospect located immediately south of the Dona Lake underground gold mine that is currently being assessed by TSX-V listed Metals Creek Resources.

Ardiden owns eight kilometres of favourable geological formation directly along strike from the Dona Lake mine.

From the historical data at South Limb, Ardiden has outlined multiple targets that may provide opportunities for similar deep mineralised gold systems.

Drill targets are planned in a fold nose near drill hole 172-007, which reported 7.8g/t gold from 8m.

Drill targets are also planned on the southern iron formation to test known sulphide mineralisation.

Ardiden recently expanded its landholding at Pickle Lake by signing an earn-in agreement with Exiro Minerals Corp over that company’s New Patricia gold prospect.

New Patricia extends over 30km of prospective geological setting directly along strike from the Golden Patricia gold mine that was previously operated by Barrick Gold.

It also adjoins Ardiden’s Dorothy-Dobie gold prospect.

By acquiring the New Patricia gold prospect Ardiden will effectively more than double the prospective ground position it controls in the area, taking it from 123 square kilometres to 257sqkm.

The earn-in agreement will result in Ardiden forming a contiguous belt of highly-prospective gold claims over a total width of 90km to form a dominant position in the Pickle Lake gold camp.

“Our collaboration with Exiro’s well-respected management team has been put together in the true spirit of exploration, where stakeholders are only significantly rewarded through smart exploration work and ultimately, discovery,” Ardiden CEO Rob Longley said.

“Exiro has invested significant time and applied expertise in identifying highly prospective segments of the Uchi Geological Subprovince.

“The New Patricia package fits perfectly within Ardiden’s existing 100 per cent-owned holding and gold aggregation strategy.

“We look forward to a productive collaboration with Exiro in the region for the benefit of our respective shareholders.”

During 2019/20, Ardiden aims to build on the Resource at Kasagiminnis with further drilling as well as exploration activities at the West Pickle, South Limb and Dorothy-Dobie prospects planned.

Ardiden also wholly-owns the Seymour Lake lithium project in Ontario that has a Mineral Resource Estimate of 4.8 million tonnes at 1.25 per cent lithium oxide and 186ppm tantalum pentoxide.,

Ardiden has made it known that it is looking for a partner or alliance to draw value from the Seymour Lake project, as well as its other lithium interests in Ontario including the Root Lake and Wisa Lake lithium projects.

 

Email: info@ardiden.com.au
Web: www.ardidien.com.au
Directors: Neil Hackett, Dr Michelle Li, Pauline Gately, Rob Longley

 

Venture Minerals (ASX: VMS) Explorers 2020

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: There has been plenty of action at Venture Minerals’ 100 per cent-owned Riley DSO iron ore mine in Tasmania as the company made serious moves to cash in on the current high demand and price for iron ore.

Venture completed an updated Riley Iron Ore Mining Study with an associated Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) that demonstrated strong returns from a low capex two-year project, the company believes to be well positioned to capture the current higher iron ore price environment.

In addition to completing the study, having previously signed a Binding Terms Sheet for the Riley Iron Ore Mine off-take with Prosperity Steel, Venture signed a full off-take agreement for the Riley product for 100 per cent of the first two years of iron ore production.

“The Riley Iron Ore Mining Study demonstrates the delivery of an exceptional Internal Rate of Return in excess of 300 per cent is possible by leveraging the relatively small capex required to commence production,” Venture Minerals managing director Andrew Radonjic said.

The Riley DSO project is located 10km from the Mt Lindsay tin-tungsten deposit.

The Mt Lindsay project covers 148 square kilometres in north-western Tasmania within the contact metamorphic aureole of the highly perspective Meredith Granite.

The project sits between the world class Renison Bell Tin Mine (Metals X Ltd/Yunnan Tin Group where more than 231,000 tonnes of tin metal has been produced since 1968) and the Savage River Magnetite Mine (operating for around 45 years, currently producing approximately 2.5 million tonnes per annum of iron pellets).

Venture Minerals was able to secure co-funding from the Tasmanian Government to drill test priority EM targets at the company’s Mt Lindsay tin project in 2020.

Venture Minerals enjoyed a successful outcome of submissions it made to the Tasmanian State Government, receiving for co-funding of up to $202,000 for exploration drilling to be carried out at three priority targets the company generated via a recently completed Major EM Survey over the Mount Lindsay project.

The EM Survey identified several strong conductors coinciding with previously gathered exploration data to define priority drill targets, which included Renison Bell-style high-grade tin, Mount Lindsay-style tin-tungsten and nickel sulphide targets.

The Mount Lindsay project is already classified by the Australian Government as a Critical Minerals Project with an advanced tin-tungsten asset, which Venture Minerals believes will only be further enhanced by the delineation of several high-priority drill targets of the same style of mineralisation through the recently completed major EM Survey.

Venture claims Mount Lindsay as being one of the largest undeveloped tin projects in the world, containing in excess of 80,000 tonnes of tin metal and within the same mineralised body a tungsten resource containing 3.2 million MTU (metric tonne units) of tungsten.

Tin is now a fundamental metal to the battery revolution and new technology and the International Tin Association is predicting a surge in demand driven by the lithium-ion battery market of up to 60,000 tonnes per annum by 2030 (world tin consumption was 363,500 tonnes in 2018).

Venture has demonstrated the Renison-style target to be a strong EM conductor supported at the surface by tin in soil anomalism and an alluvial Tin Field mined over 100 years ago, a coincidental magnetic anomaly, and is sitting within the same carbonate units and potentially the same fault zone (Federal-Basset Fault) that hosts the Renison Bell Tin Mine.

“The successful submission for co-funded drilling (in 2020) of some of our priority drill targets generated by the recently completely Major EM Survey at Mount Lindsay validates the strength of all the numerous priority targets at Mount Lindsay that include Renison-style tin, Mount Lindsay-style tin-tungsten and nickel sulphide targets,” Radonjic said.

“With the increased exploration potential at Mount Lindsay combined with its current status as one of the largest undeveloped tin assets in the world, clearly Mount Lindsay is a leading Australian Critical Minerals Project.

“The Australian Government said that global demand for Australian resources has broadened in recent years to include minerals used in a range of emerging high-tech applications across a variety of sectors such as renewable energy, aerospace, defence, automotive (particularly electric vehicles), telecommunications and agri-tech.

“Known as critical minerals, this group of minerals is considered essential for the economic and industrial development of major and emerging economies.”

The company also has projects in Western Australia at the Thor prospect, the Pingaring project, the Odin prospect and the Caesar project.

Drilling at Thor intersected massive sulphides confirming a 20 kilometre VMS style system.

 

Email: info@ventureminerals.com.au
Web: www.ventureminerals.com.au
Directors: Mel Ashton, Hamish Halliday, Andrew Radonjic, John Jetter

 

Image Resources (ASX: IMA) Explorers 2020

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Image Resources kicked off 2019 by loading its first bulk shipment of nominally 10,000 wet metric tonnes of heavy mineral concentrate (HMC) from the company’s 100 per cent-owned Boonanarring mineral sands project, located north of Perth in Western Australia.

From there on the company barely looked back with production and sales results from Booonanarring in line with expectations and meeting its 2019 Calendar Year guidance figures, which were increased twice during the year.

“It is pleasing…preliminary results for our inaugural full year of operations meet guidance and representations to our shareholders and the market and we look forward to our second year of operations and opportunities to further grow the value of the Company,” Image Resources managing director and CEO Patrick Mutz said.

“In 2020 we will seek to build upon our operational successes by prioritising the addition of new Ore Reserves from existing and new Mineral Resources, while maintaining profitable operations and striving for continuous improvement of our safety, environmental protection and community support programs.

“We have already commenced a robust and systematic exploration program which is designed to extend the mine life at Boonanarring and we are focusing on areas within economic pumping distance of the existing Wet Concentrate Plant.

“We will also continue to assess opportunities to add further incremental value to our high-quality HMC product.”

2019 was not just about production and shipping targets and the company made great advances in exploration from drilling aimed at extending the mine-life at Boonanarring by identifying a new mineralised shoreline trend to the west of and parallel to the Boonanarring Ore Reserve area.

Based on drill sample assays and ground based magnetic survey results, it is believed this trend may potentially extend for up to 40 kilometres.

These results came in addition to an independent program of close-spaced drilling conducted across the eastern strand of the Boonanarring Ore Reserve for the purpose of reassessing the current Ore Reserve.

Further drilling aimed at extending the mine life at Boonanarring was conducted in target areas to the north, south and west of the current Boonanarring Ore Reserve.

The early results from this were positive and were what led to the identification of this new mineralized shoreline which was labelled 50mRL Strandline, as mineralised intercepts range from 48 to 55m RL.

The 50mRL Strandline was interpreted to extend up to 40km from south of the town of Gingin to north of the Boonanarring Northern Extension and includes previously identified mineralisation in the western sections of Image’s Gingin South and Gingin North projects, and was subsequently found to include the Boonanarring West mineralisation.

At the time of writing an extensive drilling program of a total 528 holes was being planned over the most promising areas identified along the 40km 50mRL Strandline.

Access for drilling was available for 40 per cent of the planned holes and the company was seeking to complete the remaining access with three landholders.

All planned drilling is within economic pumping distance of the current Boonanarring wet concentration plant and is considered high-priority.

Just before the Christmas break Image Resources updated the Ore Reserves at Boonanarring, resulting in a 24 per cent increase in the total heavy minerals (THM) ore grade and a 50 per cent increase in the in-situ zircon grade.

Ore grade increased to 8.9 per cent THM (up from 7.2% in 2017 Ore Reserve);
Zircon content increased to 27.5 per cent in the THM (up from 22.7%);
In-situ zircon grade in the ore increased to 2.4 per cent (up from 1.6%).

Higher THM ore grade and much higher in-situ zircon grades in the Ore Reserve provides for increased total HMC production for 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Total forecast production for the three calendar years ended 31 December 2022 is now estimated at 830,000 tonnes HMC compared to the 2017 Bankable Feasibility Study updated in July 2018, of 740,000 tonnes HMC over the same period.

“The increase in ore grade, and in particular the significantly higher in-situ zircon grade from the new Ore Reserve reaffirms Boonanarring as one of the highest grade, zircon-rich mineral sand projects in Australia,” Mutz said.

“While the reduction in ore tonnes is disappointing, the improved project economics due to higher overall ore grades and the elimination of marginal ore will almost certainly provide a net positive result for shareholders.

“We are also confident in our ability to add mine life through a robust and systematic exploration program which is already showing great promise on multiple fronts around Boonanarring due to the very high prospectivity of the area.”

 

Email: info@imageres.com.au
Web: www.imageres.com.au
Directors: Robert Besley, Patrick Mutz, George Sakalidis, Chong Veoy (Aaron) Soo, Peter Thomas, Chaodian Chen, Fei (Eddy) Wu, Huang Cheng Li

Breaker Resources (ASX: BRB) Explorers 2020

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Breaker Resources kicked off a major reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling program last year, designed to grow the one million-ounce Bombora Resource within the company’s Lake Roe gold project, east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

The Lake Roe project is located between two large gold deposits, the 3.5 million-ounce Carosue Dam mine and the 0.9 million-ounce Karonie gold deposit, located 60km north and 40km south of Lake Roe respectively.

The main focus of the drilling is intended for extensions and discovery outside the Resource envelope, both along strike and at depth.

Drilling is expected to continue throughout 2020, using at least three drill rigs.

Diamond drilling at Bombora South is looking to extend the 3.2-kilometre-long gold system to the south with the objective to discover and extend the main mineralised structures (faults) controlling the gold mineralisation observed at Bombora, prior to follow-up resource drilling.

RC and diamond drilling earmarked for Claypan will test a 2.5km by 500m gold anomaly identified by earlier aircore drilling 1.3km southeast of Bombora.

The Claypan anomaly is partially coincident with a newly identified, Bombora Sill-like quartz dolerite and has a geochemical signature comparable with that associated with the Bombora and Crescent primary discoveries.

As with Bombora South, the initial objective is discovery and to pin down the main structures controlling the mineralisation to guide further drilling.

The diamond and RC drill rigs were scheduled to drill up to Christmas and then resume early in the New Year.

Drilling undertaken earlier in the year had led to the discovery of a new steep lode with abundant coarse visible gold approximately 420m below surface in the southern part of the Bombora gold deposit.

Drill hole BBDD0086 encountered a 160m step-out hole that also hit a strong intersection of the high-grade Tura Lode, extending its known strike length to over 800m.

This result was considered important by the company, which interpreted it to further highlight the potential to increase the existing 1.1-million-ounce Resource at depth, and collectively reinforces the emerging underground mining potential at the Lake Roe project.

Breaker reported the Tura Lode intersection in hole BBDD0086 intersected 4.44m of sheared and altered lode with 2 per cent to 20 per cent sulphide, approximately 320m below surface.

“Of the ten wide-spaced, exploratory drill holes that have tested a significant thickness of the favourable quartz dolerite below the current Resource (250m below surface), four have intercepts exceeding 30 gram-metres and a further two intercepts exceed 15 gram-metres,” Breaker Resources executive chairman Tom Sanders said.

“This is an outstanding strike rate for reconnaissance-style drilling, and it says that the long-term underground mining potential is wide open.”

2020 will see a third diamond drill rig targeting the down-plunge extensions of the Tura, Daisy and Mindil lodes below the current Resource where reconnaissance drilling has previously identified high-grade gold mineralisation.

The initial hole in this area will be a deep (~1,200m) diamond drill hole at the southern end of the Bombora deposit and will be conducted as part of a Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety’s Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) co-funded drilling program.

“The drilling campaign was designed to accelerate the unlocking of the immense exploration potential at Lake Roe,” Sanders said.

“Our team has done a great job unravelling the geology and believes there is huge scope to grow the one-million-ounce Resource based on a good understanding of the geology after 225,000 metres of drilling and detailed modelling.

“We are now applying this understanding outside the 3.2-kilometre Resource area to the rest of the 8.5 kilometre mineralisation system.

“The targets are a mix of prospects, some of which have already yielded strong reconnaissance intersections but which are poorly understood and inadequately drilled due to the early focus on Bombora (Bombora South, Bombora Deeps, Crescent).

“Other targets have compelling geochemistry with significant aircore drilling intersections that elevate the probability of fresh discovery (Claypan, Claypan North).

“I think this will translate into cost-effective extensional ounces and further discovery but it is now time to let the drill bit do the talking.

“The business case for our strategy is sound and simple.

“Our discovery cost at Bombora is approximately $18 per ounce…and the market is valuing resource ounces like ours at around $65 per ounce, rising to over $250 per ounce in many cases as projects develop.

“We believe drilling to expand the resource base is likely to add significant value and expand our development options.”

 

Email: breaker@breakerresources.com.au
Web: www.breakerresources.com.au
Directors: Tom Sanders, Mark Edwards, Mike Kitney, Linton Putland

Blackstone Minerals (ASX: BSX) Explorers 2020

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Blackstone Minerals took a lot of market pundits by surprise when it announced it was entering a binding term sheet for the exclusive option to acquire a 90 per cent interest in the Ta Khoa nickel project.

The Ta Khoa nickel project is located 160 kilometres west of Hanoi in the Son La Province of Vietnam and includes an existing modern nickel mine built to Australian Standards that was under care and maintenance.

The Ban Phuc nickel mine operated as a mechanised underground nickel mine from 2013 to 2016 and its previous owners invested more than US$136 million in capital and generated US$213 million in revenue during a 3.5-year period of falling nickel prices.

The project was placed into care and maintenance in mid-2016 during some of the lowest nickel prices in the past 10 years.

Existing infrastructure associated with the project includes an internationally-designed 450,000 tonne per annum processing plant connected to local hydro grid power with a fully-permitted tailings facility and a modern 250- person camp.

Blackstone Minerals had its eyes on the potential the project offers with the 150 square kilometre land package hosting more than 25 advanced stage massive sulphide vein (MSV) targets and many large disseminated sulphide (DSS) targets including the unmined Ban Phuc DSS.

Blackstone also signalled its interest in investigating the potential to develop downstream processing infrastructure in Vietnam to produce a downstream nickel and cobalt product to supply Asia’s growing lithium ion battery industry.

“Blackstone will be the first company to explore Ta Khoa for both MSV and DSS nickel sulphide deposits all the while investigating downstream processing opportunities to meet the demands of the growing Asian lithium ion battery sector,” Blackstone Mineral managing director Scott Williamson said.

Blackstone wasted little time in getting the drills spinning on site at Ta Khoa and produced a steady stream of intersections of disseminated nickel sulphide.

The project also demonstrated potential for substantial platinum group element (PGE) credits with Blackstone becoming the first company to assay the Ban Phuc DSS for PGEs, which resulted in the recent uncovering of what the company considers as a previously unrecognised opportunity.

Previous operators focused on the Ban Phuc MSV, which has relatively low PGE grades, and hence did not consider or investigate the full potential of the PGEs throughout the Ta Khoa project.

Blackstone’s maiden PGE assays combined with the abundance of disseminated nickel sulphide targets, leading the company to think PGEs associated with disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation could greatly improve the economics of the Ta Khoa nickel project.

Blackstone ended 2019 on a high by entering a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Korea’s largest electric vehicle (EV) battery cathode manufacturer.

Blackstone inked a non-binding MoU with Ecopro BM Co Limited that outlines an alliance structure whereby Ecopro BM and Blackstone will work in partnership to develop a downstream processing facility in association with the company’s Ta Khoa nickel project in northern Vietnam.

The MoU is a boon for both entities in that Blackstone wishes to engage a development partner to provide funding to commercialise the Ta Khoa nickel project, while Ecopro BM has indicated its willingness to enter into an alliance with Blackstone with a view to formalising a Joint Venture on the downstream processing infrastructure project in association with the project.

The intention of the MOU is for the parties to enter into an alliance to form a JV with the intention to develop a suitable nickel, cobalt or other battery mineral product for lithium-ion battery manufacturing.

“Our Ta Khoa nickel project has significant potential to deliver the critical raw materials required for Ecopro’s cathode manufacturing process and meet the ever-increasing demand for high-nickel content cathodes driven by the imminent electric vehicle (EV) revolution,” Williamson said.

Blackstone is very keen to deliver a maiden resource on the disseminated sulphide (DSS) at Ban Phuc as it investigates the potential to restart the existing Ban Phuc concentrator through focused exploration on both massive sulphide veins (MSV) and DSS deposits.

The company commenced a scoping study on the downstream processing facility at Ta Khoa, the purpose of which is to provide detail for potential JV partners to formalise a binding agreement.
Blackstone also commenced metallurgical testing on the Ban Phuc DSS orebody with an aim to develop a flow sheet for a product suitable for the lithium ion battery industry.

In addition, Blackstone intends to investigate the potential to develop downstream processing infrastructure in Vietnam to produce a downstream nickel and cobalt product to supply Asia’s growing lithium ion battery industry.

 

Email: admin@blackstoneminerals.com.au
Web: www.blackstoneminerals.com.au
Directors: Hamish Halliday, Scott Williamson, Andrew Radonjic, Steve Parsons

Matador Mining (ASX: MZZ) Explorers 2020

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Matador Mining is looking for gold in Canada, specifically on the company’s 80 kilometres of continuous strike along the highly prospective, yet largely under-explored Cape Ray Shear in Newfoundland.

To date, only a 14km zone of that 80km package that makes up the company’s 100 per cent owned Cape Ray gold project has been drilled, but this has already established a JORC code-compliant Resource of 14.25 million tonnes at 2.2 grams per tonne gold for 1.02 million ounces of gold.

Matador Mining believes the exploration opportunity it has at Cape Ray to be extensive, something that could be considered a fair assumption, give only a small portion of the 80km strike has been drilled, and numerous high-grade gold occurrences have been observed along trend.

Indicative of this potential was the results the company achieved in the latter part of 2019 from a drill program focused on shallow resource extensions at Window Glass Hill (WGH) (currently 134,000 ounces at 1.2g/t gold).

This program consisted of 30 drill holes drilled at an average depth of 118m that substantially expanded the strike of mineralisation at WGH from approximately 500m to around 1.2km and remains open.

The drilling determined that hat mineralisation to the north is trending in an up-dip trajectory from the existing resource, with the average depth between 30m to 70m from surface.

This shallow mineralisation encountered in drilling aligned with the company’s strategy of targeting open pittable gold.

“The 2019 drill program at Window Glass Hill provides further confirmation of the importance of this deposit to the company’s overall long-term exploration and development strategy,” Matador Mining executive director Keith Bowes said.

“To have expanded the mineralisation of this single deposit to 1.2 kilometres, which remains open along strike and identified numerous new drill targets in close proximity, is a great result for our exploration team.

“We look forward to 2020’s program, which we expect will further add to this resource that is likely to become an integral part of our mining strategy at Cape Ray.”

Matador Mining has identified a number of ‘walk up’ drill targets for 2020, the testing of which will be focused on further growing the WGH resource.

Two step-out drill targets have been identified from interpreted mineralisation extensions.

The northern extents of the Central Shear 2, combined with drill results highlights the potential for further resource growth in these areas.

Three brownfield targets were identified through a combination of structural mapping, high-grade rock chips as well as historical drill results.

Exploration will initially include additional mapping and sampling prior to reconnaissance drilling later in the season, although the company is already confident in the potential of these targets, given the similarities to the current resource surface geology.

Matador believes there is plenty of untested greenfield potential about the place, withits eyes initially on the WGH granite contains the WGH deposit as well as the PW deposit, which is located on the southern extension of Central Zone.

Outside of the interpreted mineralised area, only three drill holes have been drilled on the southern portion of the granite unit on this area that stretches for approximately 2km of potential strike.

The company also completed the first soils program over the nearby Granites prospect during 2019, results from which were expected in early 2020.

Infill sampling, structural mapping and rock-chipping are planned for this area prior to potentially testing with drilling later in the season.

Matador Mining has appointed DRA Pacific to carry out a Scoping Study that will assess gold production at the Cape Ray gold project and the potential for an open pit gold operation with ore processed through a standard carbon in leach (CIL) facility.

Metallurgical testwork completed early 2019 determined average gold recoveries of 96 per cent across all deposits.

Key inputs for plant and infrastructure design have been sufficiently progressed to accurately scope the work required by the engineering consultancy.

The Study will be based on an updated mineral resource that was expected to be released early in 2020.

The mineral resource update will incorporate results from the extensive 2019 exploration program that involved the largest program at the project in more than 30 years.

“We have taken the time to complete a comprehensive review of the project so as to understand how to extract the optimum value from the asset and have ensured the key input data is available for the Study so as to limit assumptions and reduce risks going forward,” Bowes said.

“We…are confident that we will achieve a highly positive and robust result”

 

Email: info@matadormining.com.au
Web: www.matadormining.com.au
Directors: Keith Bowes, Adam Kiley, Grant Davey

Northern Minerals (ASX: NTU) Explorers 2020

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: The enormity of Australian heavy rare earths producer, Northern Minerals’ Browns Range project is difficult to encapsulate in such a short feature, however we will try.

The Browns Range project is centred on the Browns Range Dome, a geological feature in the northern Tanami region, straddling both Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

The landholding has proven highly prospective for heavy rare earth mineralisation with plenty of potential for further discoveries.

Northern Minerals has 100 per cent ownership and marketing rights for all but three of the Browns Range Dome tenements and is earning up to an 80 per cent interest in the remaining three that are in Joint Venture with Toro Energy.

The company has substantial deposits of heavy rare earths, particularly the high value element, dysprosium, which became the leading commodity in the development of the project.

Northern Minerals is positioned to become the world’s first major producer of dysprosium outside of China.

Accounting for 60 per cent of Browns Range revenue, dysprosium is the key value driver of the project and is at the core of Northern Minerals’ marketing strategy.

With a high-value, high-purity, dysprosium-rich product, the company is set to become a long term and reliable supplier of dysprosium and other critical heavy rare earths to world markets.

Dysprosium is an essential element in the production of neodymium permanent magnets as it makes them long lasting and able to retain efficiency at extremely high temperatures.

We are slaves to technology and REs enable that technology to be smaller, lighter and more efficient, being a key component in the manufacture of clean energy and high-end technology solutions.

The role REs play in the manufacturing of hybrid and electric vehicles and other high-tech applications has prompted countries to seek long term sustainable supplies to support domestic industries.

Recent work at Browns Range has involved a separation study by US-based K-Technologies (K-Tech).

The study is investigating the possibility of applying separation technology on intermediate mixed rare earths materials produced at Browns Range.

If it works, the technology will enable Northern Minerals to produce separated rare earth oxides that currently require separation in China—including dysprosium oxide and terbium oxide.

The company has partnered with (K-Tech) to assess the suitability of separating Browns Range intermediate mixed rare earth materials with the latter’s proprietary technology.

“It’s exciting to see positive results from the first stages of bench scale testwork being undertaken at K-Tech,” Northern Minerals managing director and CEO George Bauk said.

“If successful, we would have a clear pathway to advance downstream in the supply chain to supply separated products to a much wider customer base.

“We have moved quickly to advance the ore sorter project, identified as a potential game changer for the project.

“Higher grades going into the plant would result in higher production rates and lower operating costs, a double win in terms of improving the economics of the Browns Range project.”

The Browns Range is the first xenotime-hosted rare earth project to be developed anywhere in the world, which means the company needs to fully understand metallurgical processes involved before committing to a full-scale development.

To carry out the appropriate testing the Browns Range Pilot Plant Project has been developed to assess the economic and technical feasibility of a larger scale development.

A staggering 271 individual R&D projects have been planned for the three-year pilot plant stage to conduct experiments on most areas of the plant, including fine grinding, magnetic separation, flotation, leaching, purification and ion exchange, with a focus on improving the efficiency and operation of the sulphation bake kiln.

Although the company is targeting full-scale steady state production by in H1 2020, the variable nature of the R&D program means it is unlikely it will be in a position to forecast production rates during the program.

Northern Minerals was recently able to strike a new offtake agreement with thyssenkrupp Materials Trading Gmbh for 100 per cent of offtake from the Browns Range Pilot Plant Project.

Under the terms of the agreement, all heavy rare earth carbonate will be purchased by thyssenkrupp from the Pilot Plant project, while supplying future flexibility for Northern Minerals to supply heavy rare earths as separated products.

Importantly, the agreement also allows for the sale of the mixed heavy rare earth carbonate product as well as separated rare earth oxides, should Northern Minerals decide to move to product separation during the Pilot Plant project.

The offtake agreement includes all stockpiled product from current and future Pilot Plant project production.

 

Email: info@northernminerals.com.au
Web: www.northernminerals.com.au
Directors: Colin McCavana, George Bauk, Adrian Griffin, Yanchung Wang, Ming Lu, Bin Cai

 

Azure Minerals (ASX: AZS) Explorers 2020

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Azure Minerals moved from explorer to miner in 2019 when it commenced mining operations at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Oposura zinc-lead-silver project, located in Sonora, Mexico.

Azure completed the first phase of a small-scale, multi-phase mining program at Oposura that delivered impressive results.

Open pit mining selectively extracted near-surface, high-grade, massive zinc and lead sulphide mineralisation, from which ore tonnages and grades far exceed the Mineral Resource estimate Azure had determined for this part of the deposit.

“To be getting more tonnes and much higher grades than we had expected gives us great confidence in the project as we advance Oposura toward large-scale mining and on-site processing,” Azura Minerals managing director Tony Rovira said.

Azure commenced mining at Oposura in August and within two months had mined and stockpiled 6,100 tonnes of high-grade ore.

Based upon close-spaced Reverse Circulation (RC) grade control drilling and systematic stockpile sampling, the company estimated average grades of the mined ore to be 13.4 per cent zinc and 10.7 per cent lead, surpassing the estimated average East Zone open pit mine grade from the 2018 Oposura Scoping Study of 5.1 per cent zinc and 2.6 per cent lead, laying a solid foundation for a future large-scale mining and processing operation.

An extended refurbishment program delayed the commencement of operations at the third-party San Javier processing plant; however, Azure was able to locate a second plant in the district that may be suitable for processing Oposura ore and trial processing of a small batch of ore at that plant was undertaken.

Steady state toll treatment of the Oposura ore was due to commence in December to produce separate zinc and lead-silver concentrates, which Azure expects to sell on the spot market to locally-based metals traders or smelters, several of which expressed strong interest in these products.

Azure has indicated it plans a second phase of open pit mining to be undertaken following a successful processing operation producing saleable concentrates.

This mining is expected to provide a stable western face for portal access for the planned underground mining operation.

The portal and subsequent drive will access the historical Tunnel D which will be side-stripped to provide mechanised access to the western high-grade zone.

Underground development will be undertaken in ore to offset establishment costs prior to selectively mining the high-grade ore zone by the room and pillar method.

Azure was also able to regain 100 per cent ownership of the Alacrán silver-gold project from Minera Teck S.A. de C.V., a subsidiary of Canadian mining company Teck Resources Limited, which became a substantial shareholder of Azure.

Azure’s previous exploration activity on Alacrán in 2015 and 2016 discovered the near-surface, high-grade Mesa de Plata silver deposit and the adjacent Loma Bonita gold-silver deposit.

These deposits boast resources totalling:

Mesa de Plata: 10.5 million tonnes at 82 grams per tonne silver for 27.4 million ounces of silver that includes an at-surface high-grade zone of 1,8 million tonnes at 275g/t silver for 15.5 million ounces of silver; and

Loma Bonita: 5.4 million tonnes at 0.9g/t gold and 28g/t silver for 150,000 ounces of gold and 4.8 million ounces of silver.

Azure commenced drilling at Alacrán before Christmas, reporting encouraging surface sampling results from a strongly gold-mineralised breccia located in a road cutting approximately 400m southeast of the Loma Bonita resource boundary.

Channel sampling of the exposed mineralised zone returned 35.5 metres grading 3.6g/t gold and this zone has been earmarked for drill-testing in the current program.

The company is also planning drilling to test the Cerro San Simon prospect where previous drilling returned several wide intersections of low to moderate grade gold mineralisation.

While all this was happening, Azure completed the acquisition of the Sara Alicia II mineral concession that adjoins the company’s 100 per cent-owned Sara Alicia property in the northern Mexican state of Sonora by overturning an historical cancellation of the Sara Alicia II mineral concession.

The acquisition, when combined with the original Sara Alicia concession, brings the total project area to 49 hectares, strengthening Azure’s position in a gold and cobalt-rich district.

“Sara Alicia II adjoins our current holding and, importantly, the combined area covers the full footprint of the body hosting the high-grade gold and cobalt mineralisation,” Rovira said.

“We have been working on acquiring this very strategic concession for over two years and exploration at Sara Alicia was suspended so as not to generate further interest in the area and to ensure the acquisition of Sara Alicia II was completed without interference or competition.”

 

Email: admin@azureminerals.com.au
Web: www.azureminerals.com.au
Directors: Peter Ingram, Tony Rovira, Dr Wolf Martinick

Hot Chili (ASX: HCH) Explorers 2020

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Hot Chili received its Christmas presents early in 2019 when it encountered, what the company described as, “one of the best global drill results of 2019”.

Hot Chili hit the intersection at the company’s Cortadera copper-gold porphyry discovery in Chile that returned:

CRP0020D
972 metres at 0.5 per cent copper and 0.2 grams per tonne gold from surface.

The intersection included the widest zone of high-grade the company had recorded at Cortadera of:

412m at 0.7 per cent copper and 0.3g/t gold from 436m.

“Cortadera is continuing to outperform expectations the company had set following our announcement of a deal to acquire the privately-held discovery in February this year,” Hot Chili managing director Christian Easterday said.

“We have recorded many stand-out drill results this year, but this 972 metres drill result from surface firmly announces Cortadera’s arrival on the global copper stage.

“In little over nine months we have transformed the growth trajectory for our company and outlined what could become the world’s next Tier-1 copper-gold discovery.”

Cortadera is a major copper-gold porphyry discovery located along the Chilean coastal range, 14 kilometres from the company’s large-scale Productora copper development and adjacent to its high-grade El Fuego satellite copper projects.

Hot Chili acquired 100 per cent ownership of Cortadera in February 2019, after which it quickly commenced a confirmation drilling program that confirmed and extended areas of surface enrichment and wide, higher-grade, copper-gold sulphide mineralisation at depth, which had not previously been closed off by 23,000m of historical diamond drilling.

A key to Hot Chili’s initial success at Cortadera was the discovery and definition of a large and robust high-grade core to the largest of Cortadera’s four porphyry centres – Cuerpo 3.

The average grade of drill intersections recorded by Hot Chili within the high-grade zone of Cuerpo 3 ranges between 0.7 to 0.9 per cent copper and 0.3 to 0.4g/t gold.

The combined copper-gold drill intersection grade of the Cuerpo 3 high-grade zone compares well to the reserve grade of other large-tonnage underground mines.

Hot Chili followed up the above intersection with further drill results that outlined a second large source of bulk tonnage, high-grade copper and gold at the Cortadera discovery.

The results demonstrated that the drilling being carried out is continuing to grow the discovery, and just as importantly, is also providing strong encouragement for both open pit and underground, high-grade, development options.

The company kept both diamond and Reverse Circulation (RC) drill rigs spinning, the latter testing the extent of shallow chalcocite enrichment zones across three of the four Cortadera porphyry centres it has discovered to date.

Thirteen shallow Reverse Circulation (RC) drill holes were completed, from which results were available for seven across Cuerpo 2, the second largest porphyry at Cortadera.

These results confirmed and extended a bulk tonnage zone of high-grade copper and gold from surface.

The highlight drill result came from hole CRP0021 that recorded:

80m at 0.8 per cent copper and 0.3g/t gold from surface, including a high-grade chalcocite zone of 26m at 1.7 per cent copper and 0.7g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 54m.

High-grade zones related to chalcocite enrichment were drill confirmed at Cuerpo 1, 2 and 4, from surface and from shallow depth, with drill intersection copper grades ranging between 0.7 to 1.6 per cent and gold grades ranging between 0.3 to 0.7g/t gold.

The results achived to date show Hot Chili has a project in Cortadera that is shaping up as a globally important standalone copper-gold project, which can utilise the Productora project resources, while leveraging from a central processing and combined infrastructure approach along the coastline of Chile.

The company believes its recent discovery and addition of a higher-grade bulk tonnage underground development opportunity at Cortadera places it in a unique position amongst potential large-scale global copper-gold developments.

Hot Chili has received regulatory approval provides access to expand its phase 2 drilling program, which is expected to include first drill testing of two large growth targets identified close to the Cortadera discovery window: Cuerpo 3 North and Cortadera North.

Further results from the shallow RC drill program and expansion diamond drill program are anticipated for release in the New Year.

Hot Chili is well positioned to capitalise on the numerous world-class drill results that have established Cortadera as one the stand-out global copper-gold discoveries of 2019.

Drilling activities are set to accelerate in 2020 toward a first resource estimate with hopes of advancing various future funding discussions with several large domestic and international groups.

 

Email: admin@hotchili.com.au
Web: www.hotchili.com.au
Directors: Murray Black, Christian Easterday, Dr Allan Trench, Michael Anderson, Roberto de Andraca Adriasola, Randall Nickson

 

Ardea Resources (ASX: ARL) Explorers 2020

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Ardea Resources boasts a large portfolio of 100 per cent-controlled West Australian-based projects.

The company’s flagship is the Goongarrie nickel-cobalt project, that forms part of the broader Kalgoorlie nickel-cobalt project in Western Australia.

Ardea claims Goongarrie to be part of the largest nickel-cobalt Resource in the developed world with potential to be a multi-generational mine offering outstanding multi-commodity exposure which includes cobalt, nickel, scandium, vanadium, chromium, aluminium and gold.

Ardea’s other WA projects include Bedonia West, comprising E63/1827 and E63/1828 covering 358 square kilometres to complete Ardea’s coverage of the Jimberlana Dyke west of the existing Bedonia prospect.

Ardea has confirmed previously identified anomalous nickel-copper-PGM soil auger geochemistry is coincident with a specific intrusive phase of the Jimberlana Dyke lopolith.

The Perrinvale E29/1006 covers 175sqkm along the eastern strike continuation of the ‘Cathedrals’ Proterozoic Dyke complex.

The application was based on Ardea recognising lopolith mineralisation controls at Bedonia.

The company hopes to secure similarly endowed lopolith geological settings, as well as the northern strike continuation of the domain boundary Ida Fault hosting the Mt Ida gold mining centre.

Goongarrie is readily global-scale project, which Ardea is developing with the aim of becoming a long-term producer of high-quality nickel-cobalt sulphate.

The project currently hosts a Resource of 773 million tonnes at 0.71 per cent nickel and 0.05 per cent cobalt and offers plenty of upside with only five per cent of the company’s Kalgoorlie nickel-project landholding being factored in to the current resource.

Ardea is positioning Goongarrie to be a supplier of high-purity cobalt and nickel sulphate to the lithium-ion battery to meet the burgeoning demands of the growing automotive electrification, a market expected to account for 14 per cent of new car sales by 2025, whilst the cobalt sulphate market is forecasted to reach US$9.5 billion by 2025.

Increased demand for cobalt sulphate is driven by the higher energy density it provides to both electric vehicle and energy storage system batteries.

A Pre-Feasibility study demonstrated Goongarrie to be a highly valuable development project and Ardea is determined to continue to advance the project toward a final investment decision.

Recent work undertaken close to Goongarrie included rock chip sampling of old workings and sporadic outcropping that confirmed gold mineralisation over an area of at least 400 square metres at the Mulga Plum gold prospect.

The mineralisation encountered is mostly vein-hosted, returning up to 17.1 grams per tonne gold in selective quartz lode material.

All rock types assessed returned an average grade of 1.8g/t gold for all samples taken, which the company interpreted to suggest the presence of bulk tonnage potential within a dominantly granite host.

Ardea is evaluating Mulga Plum as a bulk-tonnage gold system as part of its broader aim to prove up and mine gold from its suite of projects near the Goongarrie project and these results bolstered its confidence in the project to proceed to early stage drill evaluation of the project.

A systematic shallow RC drill program of 26 angled RC holes of 50 to 70m each to define extent and orientation of near-surface gold mineralisation was being planned at the time of writing.

Much of Ardea’s 2019 was focused on the spin out of the company’s New South Wales Lachlan Fold Belt gold-base metal projects into Godolphin Resources (ASX: GRL).

This was completed in December, after which Godolphin’s development focus will be the Lewis Ponds gold-zinc and Mount Aubrey gold projects associated with the Lachlan Transverse Zone (LTZ) of the Lachlan Fold Belt (LFB) in central NSW.

Since its listing in 2017, Ardea quickly became the second largest mineral tenement holder in NSW amassing a dominant land position it acquired through detailed project scale and regional data compilation and analysis.

Work completed by Ardea advanced these NSW projects towards defining four separate JORC Code-compliant mineral resources.

Work programs completed include land-holder access agreements, digitally capturing historic exploration data, geological mapping and soil auger geochemistry, leading to the definition of drill-ready targets across granted Godolphin tenure.

“We understand that different investors in Ardea have preferences for different asset exposure and with the Godolphin spin-out, we can clearly separate the WA Goongarrie nickel cobalt project nickel production opportunity from the New South Wales gold production opportunity with ancillary gold/base metal exploration,” Ardea Resources CEO Andrew Penkethman said.

“This will drive superior value for shareholders in both entities.

The New South Wales assets being in a separate fully independent vehicle will crystallise their value and allow them to be advanced independently of Ardea’s West Australian exploration and development initiatives.”

 

Email: ardea@ardearesources.com.au
Web: www.ardearesources.com.au
Directors: Andrew Penkethman, Katina Law, Ian Buchhorn, Wayne Bramwell