Barra Resources Initiates Burbank Mining Study on Back of Resource Upgrade

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Barra Resources (ASX: BAR) announced a maiden Inferred Mineral Resource for the Burbanks North Trend at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Burbanks gold project, south of Coolgardie in Western Australia.

Barra Resources reported the Inferred Mineral Resource of approximately 20,400 ounces at 1.76 grams per tonne gold in accordance with the 2012 JORC Code.

The Burbanks North Trend is located just 700 metres north of the company’s Burbanks Mining Centre which includes the Birthday Gift and Main Lode Underground Mines and several open pits that are currently in care and maintenance.

Barra has been steadily increasing Mineral Resources at its Coolgardie gold projects following a strategic update to its gold strategy ahead of a sustainable re-start in mining operations.

Adding the Burbanks North Mineral Resource together with existing Resources at Birthday Gift and Main Lode, the Burbanks project total Mineral Resource now spans over 2.8 kilometres in strike length along the Burbanks Shear and is fast becoming an extensive mineralised system still with vastly untested depth potential.

Barra explained that the maiden MRE for Burbanks North adds an additional 16 per cent of Mineral Resources to the company’s Global Mineral Resource which now stands at 145,700 ounces.

“Barra’s commitment to its gold strategy to grow the Mineral Resources at Burbanks is delivering results,” Barra Resources managing director and CEO Sean Gregory said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“With gold now trading above $2,000 per ounce and with Burbanks status as a granted mining lease, Barra now has an outstanding opportunity to consider mining options for this historically productive high-grade gold mining centre.”

The combination of an increased resource base at Burbanks and recent increases in gold prices above $2,000 per ounce has provided the impetus for Barra to commission Snowden Mining Consultants to conduct a desktop mining study to consider a near-term restart in mining operations.

The study will consider:

The potential for open pit mining at Burbanks North;
The potential to access the shallow Mineral Resource discovered at Main Lode during 2018, potentially via an underground development launched from the adjacent Christmas open pit;
Remnant Mineral Resources at Birthday Gift in the Hadfield and Dahmu lodes at level 4 and above that was accessed and developed by Kidman Resources, but never mined;
Toll treatment at one of several nearby mills; and
Dewatering solutions and ongoing reserve definition drilling, to enable future development at deeper levels.

Barra anticipates receiving results from the study during the current quarter.

The company acknowledged that further detailed studies and reserve definition drilling would then be required, but believes Burbanks has the advantage of being a granted mining lease with some approvals already in place, potentially paving the way to a rapid restart in mining operations.

 

Email: info@barraresources.com.au

Website: www.barraresources.com.au

 

Red 5 Confirms KOTH Bulk Mining Opportunity

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Red 5 Limited (ASX: RED) released a maiden 1.45 million ounce open pit Ore Reserve for the company’s 100 per cent-owned King of the Hills (KOTH) gold mine in Western Australia supported by a Pre-Feasibility Study on a stand-alone bulk open pit mining and processing operation.

The maiden open pit Probable Ore Reserve for the KOTH gold project has come in at 36 million tonnes at 1.25 grams per tonne gold for 1.45 million ounces of contained gold.

A maiden open pit Probable Ore Reserve for the satellite Rainbow deposit was also calculated at 1.4 million tonnes at 1g/t gold for 44,000 ounces of contained gold.

Red 5 is currently undertaking a supporting Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), which it said is an important part of the long-term bulk mining strategy for KOTH, holding key components of:

A bulk open pit mining operation, underpinned by a maiden 1.45Moz Probable Ore Reserve;

Construction of a new 4Mtpa CIL processing plant on site, which will provide processing capacity for the integrated KOTH bulk mining strategy, consisting of the KOTH open pit, satellite starter pits, as well as maintaining or expanding output from the existing bulk underground mine;

Average annual gold production of 140,000 ounces over a mine life of 10 years. The company believes the current higher-grade underground mining operation is likely to be able to be reconfigured to add additional annual production ounces, to be assessed as part of studies for the Final Feasibility Study (FFS);

Forecast capital cost of $218 million, which includes pre-strip costs of $24 million and owners’ costs;

Estimated average all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of $1,167 per ounce over the life-of-mine (LOM); and

Technically low-risk project development, with extensive mining history providing well-established metallurgy and recovery metrics.

The Red 5 Board has given approval to proceed with a FFS on the integrated bulk open pit opportunity and underground mining operations at KOTH.

The FFS is scheduled for completion by mid-CY 2020, with an estimated cost of $4 million.

Additional elements to be included in the FFS include Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource of 17.5 million tonnes at 2g/t gold for 1.11 million ounces of contained gold (1.0g/t Au cut-off) outside of the current KOTH optimised pit shell, which will be the basis of the underground mine.

Underground exploration upside exists with a large proportion of the prospective Eastern Margin Contact remaining largely untested by drilling.

Regional satellite deposits, including Severn, Centauri and Cerebus-Eclipse, also offer the opportunity for early gold production and cash-flow.

Regional exploration targets include Cavalier, Puzzles and other prospects along the Ursus and Tarmoola Fault Zones.

These and other targets are being systematically explored.

“The delivery of this maiden JORC 2012 open pit Ore Reserve and the supporting PFS is a significant milestone for our shareholders,” Red 5 managing director Mark Williams said in the company’s announcement to the AUSTRALIAN Securities Exchange.

“It marks a key step towards realising our objective of transforming Red 5 into a substantial mid-tier gold producer with a diversified production base and production profile.

“To put the PFS numbers into perspective, King of the Hills now has a bulk Mineral Resource for the Eastern Margin contact zone of 3.11 million ounces, inclusive of a maiden open pit Ore Reserve of 1.45 million ounces, and has the potential to become Western Australia’s next significant gold mine.

“This open pit PFS is a key stepping-stone, setting a firm foundation for us to unlock the broader value at King of the Hills by developing an integrated open pit and underground bulk mining operation.

“The PFS confirms a technically robust, long-life project based on the open pit mine development, underpinned by maiden Ore Reserves of 1.45 million ounces, with annual average gold production of 140,000 ounces per annum at an average all-in sustaining cost of $1,167 per ounce.

“The initial capital cost of $218 million includes the construction of a 4 million tonnes per annum CIL processing plant on site, which provides sufficient processing capacity for an integrated bulk open pit and underground mining operation and is the significant component of the expected total upfront cost.

“We will now use this PFS as the basis for a Final Feasibility Study (FFS) that will also incorporate concurrent bulk underground mining as well as satellite starter pits to provide a more complete picture of the project.

“The FFS will also include the bulk underground Resource, which currently stands at 1.1 million ounces, the regional oxide resources, as well any additions to the Resource base as a result of ongoing underground and regional exploration programs.

“We are confident the project will continue to enjoy growth in both Resources and Reserves over the next 12 months and we are focused on advancing the KOTH project towards development over the next 18 months.

“In parallel with the continued successful operation and growth of our Darlot operations, King of the Hills has the potential to quickly elevate Red 5 in the ranks of Australia’s mid-tier gold producers.”

 

Email: info@red5limited.com

Website: www.red5limited.com

 

Piedmont Lithium Increases By-Product Mineral Resources

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Piedmont Lithium (ASX: PLL) provided an update to the initial by-product Mineral Resource estimate the company reported in September 2018.

Piedmont Lithium announced updated Mineral Resource estimates for mineral by-products quartz, feldspar and mica from spodumene bearing pegmatites on the company’s wholly-owned Core property located within the Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt (TSB) in North Carolina, USA.

The company said the by-product Mineral Resource estimates were based on normative mineralogy compositions from 326 drill holes previously analysed for lithium.

Source: Company announcement

In June 2019, Piedmont reported an updated lithium Mineral Resource for the Core property of 25.1 million tonnes at 1.09 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O).

Piedmont explained that the by-products and lithium Mineral Resource estimates utilise the same geologic model and that it was now updating the project’s Scoping Study, which will include the updated by-product resources and the June 2019 lithium resource.

“The historic lithium mines in the Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt generated a material portion of their economics from the sale of by-product minerals quartz, feldspar and mica to the large, local south-eastern US industrial markets,” Piedmont Lithium president and CEO Keith D. Phillips said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“These markets have continued to grow and are currently served in part by high-cost imported material.

“We expect by-products to represent a significant – and unique – opportunity for Piedmont, and I would note that in our Scoping Study dated September 12, 2018 the by-product credits effectively reduced our cash production costs of lithium hydroxide by more than US$750 per tonne, and we expect a similar impact in our study update due next week.”

 

Email: info@piedmontlithium.com

Website: www.piedmontlithium.com

 

Black Cat Syndicate Gets Busy at Bulong

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Black Cat Syndicate (ASX: BC8) has been busy at the company’s Bulong gold project in Western Australia.

Black Cat Syndicate recently completed an RC drilling program at the 100 per cent-owned Boundary project with the aim of extending mineralisation to the south of SAM Targets 1 and SAM Target 2 and to test the deeper parts of the system at Boundary and Boundary South.

Depth extension drilling to Boundary and Boundary South intercepted multiple mineralised structures with results including:

Boundary
19BORC032
16m at 2.18 grams per tonne gold from 159m; and

Boundary South
19BORC029
3m at 2.11g/t gold from 51m.

Exploration drilling on SAM Target 1 returned encouraging results, including:

19BORC028
2m at 2.13g/t gold from 59m and 2m at 2.09g/t from 66m; and

19BORC023
6m at 1.2g/t gold from 64m.

Further exploration drilling on SAM Target 2 also returned encouraging results, including:

19BORC035
3m at 3.93g/t gold from 90m.

Black Cat Syndicate expects these results will add to the current Resources when updated later this quarter.

The mineralised strike across the Myhree and Boundary deposits now totals around 1,250 metres, while the untested area between the deposits has been reduced to approximately 150m.

Black Cat indicated it plans to assess the updated Boundary Resource with the current Feasibility Study underway at Myhree and Trump, which is due for completion in the June 2020 quarter.

Other work involved geological interpretation of the SAM data collected in the Greater Woodline region that resulted in high priority drill ready targets identified, including Anomaly 38, Woodline, Fenceline and Solitaire.

“The drilling results at Boundary and the SAM Targets are encouraging and have increased the known strike of the Boundary system to 900 metres, not including SAM Target 2 which may prove to be a link to Myhree,” Black Cat Syndicate managing director Gareth Solly said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The extensions at Boundary provide encouragement of a larger scale system at depth.

“Mineralisation remains open in all directions and has the potential for additional high-grade zones, similar to Myhree.

“The Myhree/Trump Feasibility Study will also incorporate Boundary mineralisation.

“In addition, we are excited about the high priority targets from the Greater Woodline SAM survey.

“Greater Woodline already contains numerous high-grade drilling intercepts spread amongst a very large soil anomaly.

“The delineated targets will be drill tested during the December 2019 half.”

 

Email: admin@blackcatsyndicate.com.au

Website: www.blackcatsyndicate.com.au

 

Meteoric Resources Immediately Identifies Novo Astro Drill Targets

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Meteoric Resources (ASX: MEI) announced the commencement of an initial work program at the company’s Novo Astro project in Brazil.

The Novo Astro project is located approximately 30 kilometres to the east of Meteoric Resources’ Juruena gold project.

Meteoric described Novo Astro as a large area (in excess of 15 square kilometres) that contains many Garimpiero workings from the 1980s, several of which are still actively being mined.

Despite previous explorers defining a large soil anomaly and carrying out grab sampling returning grades up to 264 grams per tonne gold, Novo Astro has never been drilled.

“The Novo Astro project demonstrates the potential to be a stand‐ alone gold field that could deliver real value to the company,” Meteoric Resources managing director Andrew Tunks said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We have only just begun our work here and already we have identified walk up drill targets to test.

“When we commenced our initial program at Juruena, we already had in mind the possibility of testing the Novo Astro drilling in tandem, this was a key component in our decision to order two rigs from Geosol.

“It’s a fantastic result for the company that our initial Novo Astro work has been so positive that we can commit to drilling on both of our key Brazilian projects in our maiden drill program.

“Contained within Novo Astro are a multitude of historic workings, some of these pits exploit the modern river systems and are therefore alluvial in nature and not of interest to us.

“However, there are many open pits that have previously mined gold from the bed rock and our recent field work has shown us thick zones up to 50 metres of intensely brecciated and veined rocks with substantial alteration zones.

“Despite the fact the rocks are partially weathered, abundant sulfides (dominantly pyrite) can be found.

“We know from Juruena that the gold is closely related to the presence of pyrite and we know from previous sampling and the extensive mining that these zones are clearly gold bearing.

“Our first batch of 36 samples from Novo Astro have been dispatched to the lab and we should have results within weeks.

“Of course, this is all happening simultaneously with the Juruena drilling program, which has already kicked off at the first targets at the high‐grade Dona Maria prospect.

“This is a very exciting time indeed for Meteoric.”

 

Website: www.meteoric.com.au

 

Predictive Discovery Encouraged by Soil Sampling Results

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Predictive Discovery (ASX: PDI) announced encouraging results from initial soil sampling at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Nonta roject in Guinea.

Predictive Discovery identified the Nonta project area after carrying out a terrain-scale assessment of the Siguiri Basin in late 2018 using the company’s trademarked Predictore gold targeting system.

Predictive collected a total of 446 soil samples with peak values of 1250ppb and 325ppb gold in two separate zones.

The first, a plus five-kilometre-long anomalous zone (mostly 20-50ppb gold) oriented north-south with a peak value of 1250ppb gold (1.25 g/t gold).

The second, a north-north-west oriented 400m-long zone, open to the north, with numerous elevated values (>50ppb gold) and a peak value of 325 ppb gold.

Predictive said these were coincident with the Nonta prospect, from which earlier rock chip sampling obtained up to 29g/t gold.

Most of the samples were collected on a broad spaced (800m x 100m) grid covering plus 20ppb gold stream catchments identified from a previously completed Bulk Leach Extractable Gold (BLEG) geochemical survey.

A closer spaced grid (100m x 25m) was subsequently completed over the Nonta prospect.

The survey indicated some complexity in the regolith (i.e. surface materials: soil, laterite etc).

Predictive explained it is currently investigating gold distribution in the weathered profile by mapping and profile sampling and plans to start infill soil or power auger sampling in September-October once this work is complete.

“These new results confirm the Nonta project’s gold prospectivity,” Predictive Discovery managing director Paul Roberts said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Values of up to 29 grams per tonne gold in rock chip samples and up to 1.25 grams per tonne gold in soils indicate potential for economically valuable gold mineralisation.

“Over the next few months, we will focus on understanding the complex regolith at Nonta and infill sampling to vector in on targets for a possible RC drill campaign in late 2019 or early 2020.

“We are excited by the exploration potential of the Siguiri Basin and specifically of our Nonta, Kankan and Kaninko projects.

“We have been welcomed warmly by the Guinea’s Mining Ministry, which has helped us greatly in acquiring this high potential ground so quickly.”

 

Website: www.predictivediscovery.com

 

Rox Resources Starts Youanmi Drilling

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Rox Resources (ASX: RXL) announced drilling has commenced at the company’s Youanmi gold project Joint Venture in Western Australia.

Rox Resources, along with JV partner Venus Metals (ASX: VMC) kicked off the 14,000 metre program that is to continue throughout August and September and is the first major and systematic exploration program carried out at the site since 1997.

The company said the drilling is testing both: (1) new conceptual targets that have the potential to open up new areas of mineralisation and (2) drilling out extension positions of the Youanmi gold deposits or areas where the JV considers there is potential for repeats.

Key focus areas for this campaign are the high-grade Commonwealth prospect and areas proximal to existing pits where there are likely extensions or repeats of mineralisation not mined in a $400 per ounce mining scenario (i.e. targeting a super pit concept).

Rox pointed out that many of the targets have been developed using technology that wasn’t otherwise available to earlier operators in the 1980s and 1990s.

“Following the completion of the Youanmi transaction only five weeks ago I am very excited to be embarking on the first major exploration campaign in this very prospective area since the 1990s,” Rox Resources managing director Alex Passmore said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Rox and its JV partner see real potential for new high-grade discoveries in the area and also for strong resource growth close to existing infrastructure at Youanmi.”

The undeveloped Commonwealth-Connemara deposits and mineralised trend is centred only four kilometres northwest of the Youanmi plant.

Gold mineralisation is from surface and hosted within a 3 metre to 10 metre wide zone of sheared quartz-veining and highly altered mafic volcanic rocks.

The series of shallow historical open pits at Youanmi were mined over 20 years ago under a much lower gold price environment.

Part of the existing Mineral Resource Estimate at Youanmi is derived from mineralisation near these pits, however limited drilling constrains the resource potential.

Rox indicated that the current drilling program will test for extensions both down dip of existing mineralisation and between the old pits.

 

Email: admin@roxresources.com.au

Website: www.roxresources.com.au

 

Metalicity Confirms Kookynie Mineralisation

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Metalicity (ASX: MCT) announced promising intercepts from an initial drilling program at the company’s Kookynie project in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

Metalicity said the results had confirmed mineralisation extends past previously developed and drilled areas for the Kookynie project.

The Kookynie project is host to six, prospective prospects; Champion, McTavish, Leipold, Diamantina, Cosmopolitan and Cumberland.

The company reported that drilling had confirmed mineralisation at Champion, McTavish and the DCC (DiamantinaCosmopolitan-Cumberland) Trend.

Cosmopolitan
2 metres at 22.1 grams per tonne gold from 76m;

McTavish
4m at 6.4g/t gold from 67m, including 1m at 15.47g/t gold from 67m;

Cumberland
2m at 1.4g/t gold from 72m; and

Diamantina
mineralised zone over 9m with:
0.72m at 3.1g/t gold from 167m,
0.21m at 8.8g/t gold from 173.07m,
1.15m at 1.5g/t gold from 174.85m.

Channel sampling of the exposed DCC Trend structure in the Cumberland Pit returned: 1.85m at 4.3g/t gold, including 0.68m at 7.1g/t gold.

Four of the six holes completed returned healthy intersections.

Metalicity’s structural model confirmed, large (approximately 2.6 kilometres) strike extents of known mineralisation at DCC plus a further three kilometres at McTavish and Leipold were also identified and are yet to be tested.

The company declared this initial program reaffirms the excellent exploration potential of the Kookynie gold project.

“Our drilling program was designed to test whether the historical drilling has defined the limits of the known mineralisation,” Metalicity managing director Jason Livingstone said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Having stepped out and targeted the gaps, we have confirmed that mineralisation is present well past the constraints of the previously drilled areas.

“This program has allowed us to reach a substantiated decision point to start planning for a high-grade resource development phase.

“The high hit-ratio of mineralised intercepts for holes drilled is testament to the prospectively of the project.

“With a more substantial drill program, more higher-grade results can be expected.

“This is exceptionally exciting to confirm and extend the mineralisation at the known prospects, our drilling, especially the diamond core drilling, and mapping, has highlighted the significant strike extents of the untested DCC Trend.

“In addition, the parallel structure, the Altona historical workings, has received little to no modern exploration attention whilst having historically produced nearly 90,000 ounces.

“Together with our farm-in partner, Nex Metals Explorations Ltd, we have the opportunity to move quickly into a systematic, resource development phase on the areas of known mineralisation, coupled with testing the strike extents of all the prospects.

“To the north of Cumberland, we have 2.6 kilometres of structure to test, to the south of Diamantina, 1.8 kilometres, let alone the Altona area which hosts 3.7 kilometres of structure.

“To juxtapose this against that the main DCC Trend, where 360,000 ounces has been produced, is hosted in 1.4 kilometres of this structure.

“We have not only confirmed that mineralisation exists and extends in the historical areas, but still have around eight kilometres of the same or similar structure to explore.”

 

Website: www.metalicity.com.au

 

St George Mining Commences Drilling of Mt Alexander Nickel-Copper Targets

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) has kicked off a major drilling program at the company’s Mt Alexander project in the north eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.

St George Mining is planning to carry out more than 6,000 metres of diamond drilling on nickel-copper sulphide targets on a continuous 24-hour basis over two 12-hour shifts per day.

The company said it expected additional targets to be added to the program as results from ongoing EM surveys are reviewed.

“With a large number of high priority EM targets to test, this is the most exciting drill program we have launched at Mt Alexander to date,” St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Many of the EM conductors to be drilled represent a large step out from known massive sulphide mineralisation, so there is excellent potential for this program to significantly extend the footprint of high-grade nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation.

“In addition, ongoing EM surveys are identifying new EM targets in underexplored areas of the Cathedrals Belt – providing further support to the emerging large-scale mineral potential at Mt Alexander.”

A high-powered fixed loop EM (FLEM) survey was recently completed over the northern section of the Cathedrals Belt at Mt Alexander, where ultramafic units have been interpreted to extend down-dip to the north and northwest.

The company considers this area to have potential to host a continuation of high-grade mineralisation at depth in the down-dip direction.

The FLEM survey recorded several anomalous responses, which are now being reviewed and interpreted in conjunction with previous EM data for this area.

Close spaced follow-up MLEM surveys will be used to help refine the modelling.

Drill targets for this area are expected to be added to the drill program currently underway.

 

Website: www.stgm.com.au

 

Calidus Resources Drilling Intercepts Underpin Resource Upgrade

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Calidus Resources (ASX: CAI) received results for the remaining 32 RC and AC drillholes of a 42-hole RC program aimed at expanding the current Resources at the company’s Warrawoona gold project in Western Australia.

The total program comprised 35 RC drillholes within the current Klondyke/St George pit designs, as well as four initial shallow holes to test a section of the Highway Shear chargeability anomaly.

Eleven RC holes were drilled into the St George PFS pit designs to assist in converting these resources to an Indicated category.

Assays from this drilling included:

19SGRC078
13 metres at 11.1 grams per tonne gold from 30m, including 1m at 107.16g/t gold from 36m;

19SGRC081
13m at 5.58g/t gold from 46m; and

19SGRC075
12m at 1.73g/t gold from 23m.

Drilling on the eastern side of the Klondyke PFS pit design was planned to increase resources in an area that had limited drill density and as a result allow the PFS pit design to be driven deeper.

Calidus has been encouraged by the intercepts received that appear to have achieved their aim.

Highlights from this part of the resource included:

19KLRC192
10m at 6.81g/t gold from 47m, including 1m at 50.77g/t gold from 49m;

19KLRC193
5m at 3.16g/t gold from 126m;

19KLRC201
22m at 2.13g/t gold from 19m; and

19KLRC195
15m at 1.71g/t gold from 41m.

“With the completed PFS showing a robust six-year initial mine life, we are now focussing growing the mine life and continuing to de-risk this quality WA gold development story,” Calidus Resources managing director Dave Reeves said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“This drilling was planned to build confidence in the resource categories and potentially add further open pit reserves by increasing pit depth in areas of low drill density.

“The high-grade tenor of the results confirms that areas of the pit will contain bonanza grades.

“With one rig on site and a second rig to be mobilised for the remainder of this calendar year, there will be strong newsflow as we continue to add mine life and increase confidence in the resource and reserves at Klondyke.”

 

Email: info@calidus.com.au

Website: www.calidus.com.au