THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Black Range Minerals has had a detailed preliminary technical and economic evaluation of mining conducted on the company’s Hansen uranium deposit located in Colorado in the United States using an engineered hydraulic borehole mining technology.

Location of Black Range Minerals’ Hansen/Taylor Ranch uranium project in Colorado, USA. Source: Company announcement

Black Range said the study indicates Borehole Mining could be a low cost method of mining the Hansen deposit.

Probable mine operating costs have been estimated at US$27 per pound of uranium including cemented backfill but excluding processing costs.

The recent evaluation included the assessment of the Hansen deposit’s geotechnical and geological parameters, to allow the company to develop a suitable approach for extracting mineralised material.

“The result of this preliminary evaluation indicates that Borehole Mining could be an alternative method of mining the Hansen deposit” Black Range Minerals managing director Tony Simpson said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Previous feasibility studies for both open pit and underground mining methods are currently being updated.”

Black Range said the Borehole Mining technique presented it with a number of many advantages over conventional mining methods.

These advantages include:

–    Environmentally protective;

–    Low capital requirements;

–    Low operating costs;

–    Small surface impact;

–    Selective, high-grade mining if required; and

–    High mining recoveries.

Resources conference doyen and managing director of Symposium, Kerry Stevenson dropped into The Roadhouse this week to run the measuring tape across our Lang Hancock room as a potential site for one of her upcoming events.

A quick glance at the calendar on your website tells me you’re in for a fairly busy year.

The upcoming year is going to be very busy and that can most probably be credited to the meteoric rise we have had.

Symposium was established at the end of 2009, right in the middle of the GFC, but my view is that if you’re really passionate about what you’re doing it makes life a lot easier.

I love the resources industry, but I can also see where roadblocks exist in terms of how companies market themselves and how they might need to approach things a bit differently than how they have in the past.

Saying that then, what was the first conference, or event, Symposium organised that you feel set you apart from the rest of the pack?

The first event we organised was taking five, fairly well-known Australian mining identities up to China to meet some interesting investment types.

From a Symposium point of view, Australia has a population of 23 million and we have to look beyond our shores for investment.

Having said that there also needs to be a bit of support from, not just the Government, but also the Australian people, who need to realise that we do live in a resource-rich country and we should be doing everything we can to support that.

There is a disconnect from those that work in the resources industry and those that would like to know more.

One of our passions is to help educate all Australians about the industry and the opportunities

We should also be encouraging investment from overseas without, ultimately selling off the farm.

So how does what you do make that difference and help educate Australians?

As a company, Symposium works hard to encourage better dialogue and understanding between industry and the general population.

We look to provide the industry with the opportunity to not continually talk to industry people but to look at everyday Aussies that are keen to understand the industry but just haven’t felt comfortable asking basic questions.

As an industry we need to communicate better with all Australians not just those that work or currently invest in the industry.

When we ran the Gold Symposium in November 2011, which you attended Wally, you would have noticed that there was a lot of people, who I like to describe as, ‘not the usual suspects’, in attendance.

There were people there who wanted to learn more about how and what to invest in, in regards to the gold sector.

People, who hadn’t made the connection before, walked away from that conference understanding that investing in a gold exploration or mining company was another way of investing in gold itself. That’s what makes us feel that we have done our job.

As successful as the Gold Symposium was, the conference world is one where you’re really only as good as your next show, so what do you have in the offing?

We don’t rest on our laurels, Wally. We will be taking clients up to North America at the end of February but not to the usual places but to San Francisco and Denver.

These are areas with real money and a true understanding of the industry and they are thirsty to know more about Australian companies.

We have our monthly roadshows in Sydney and Melbourne and then we have the flagship event “The Resources and Energy Symposium 2012” in Broken Hill from the 21-23 May.

We ran that conference for the first time last year and received amazing feedback.

We hold the event in Broken Hill for two reasons: first because once delegates arrive they are there for the duration of the conference. They can’t just slip back to their offices. That way deeper relationships develop that enable deals to be done.

Secondly, Broken Hill was the town that started the industrialisation of Australia. It was the birth place of some iconic mining houses, as we know.

The whole premise behind the Resources and Energy Symposium, which is a slow-growing gorilla in the room as we move forward this century, is the consumption and cost of energy and you can’t run a mine unless you have access to energy.

It’s not just a conference it is a think tank of some real issues facing the industry such as the coal seam gas issues and the mining and farming debate that needs to be given a good platform. We have an extraordinary line up of speakers.

But more importantly and something we are very proud of is that this Symposium gives back by putting funds aside for scholarships for students. If we don’t look to keep educating the next generation then we are not doing our best to help educate the community.

As big and as bold as the Broken Hill event may become, it may not be as glitzy or as glamorous as your upcoming foray into Las Vegas with the Australian pavilion at MINExpo.

That is an interesting story. We, as one of the world’s leading resources nations, were very close to losing out on having Australian representation at the largest mining expo on the planet, which is only held every four years.

But it has turned out that we will have a market stall in the big tent?

We were delighted that we were able to acquire space at MINExpo and we will be running the Australian pavilion for 40 or so Australian supply companies.

If Symposium hadn’t have put its hand up to take on the task that would not be happening.

This is the largest mining expo in the world and is only held every four years. There will be close to 40,000 visitors over the three days and a fantastic opportunity for Aussie supply companies to market themselves to an international audience.

It sounds like your feet aren’t going to touch the ground for a while, but it will certainly be a fun ride?

It is going to be an interesting ride, but we have the right team on board, and I think we can safely say that we are starting to come of age.

Especially given there were a number of naysayers around when you launched, who doubted that you would get off the ground let alone fly.

You’re right. I heard all the naysayers. I guess that’s a good lesson to be learnt by all business owners.

If you truly believe in what you do and you are passionate about it, just don’t listen to the negative comments.

We get phone calls every day now from people who have heard about what we are doing and want to be involved.  I think they like our can do attitude.

As a company we love the resources industry and we look forward to working with more companies and helping them communicate through our Symposiums.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Gascoyne Resources has completed an update to the Resource Estimate for the company’s 100 per cent-owned Glenburgh gold project in the Gascoyne province of Western Australia.

Gascoyne Resources project locations. Source: Company announcement

The combined Indicated and Inferred Resource for the Glenburgh gold project now stands at:

–    17.4 million tonnes at 1.3 grams per tonne gold for 703,000 ounces of gold.

Gacoyne indicated the highlights from the upgrade to include:

–    A 35 per cent increase in total resource;

–    An increase in global gold grade by 8 per cent over previous estimate;

–    A 26 per cent increase in global resource tonnes over previous estimate;

–    Inclusion for first time of resource in the Indicated category of 1.6 Mt at 2.0g/t gold for 103,500 ounces of gold;

–    First Resources from the Torino deposit, contributing 1.3 Mt at 1.5g/t gold for 65,000 ounces of gold;

–    Plunging high grade shoot at Zone 126 includes Indicated Resource of 200,000 tonnes at 4.5g/t gold for 32,000 ounces of gold; and

–    An increase of gold grade with depth.

“This is a significant achievement by the Gascoyne team to discover and add over 500,000 ounces to the resource base since listing two years ago,” Gascoyne Resources chairman Graham Riley said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The potential of the Glenburgh Field is still to be fully realised.”

Gascoyne said it will commence a program of diamond and RC drilling at Glenburgh later this month that will include follow up RC drilling at the Torino prospect.

The company also intends carrying out follow up RC and diamond drilling at the plunging “shoot” at Zone 126 as well as RC drilling down plunge of modelled plunging shoots similar to the one identified at Zone 126.

Additional RC drilling will be testing the down dip, down plunge and strike extensions of the known gold deposits at Glenburgh, while exploration RC drilling at the South Western target zone, will be undertaken to define additional targets along strike from the Torino prospect.

The company will also conduct infill Resource RC drilling to allow further resource conversion from the Inferred to Indicated categories.

Gascoyne has commenced a Feasibility Study on the Glenburgh project.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Pan Aust has claimed drilling results from the company’s Nam San copper‐gold deposit and LCT gold and copper‐gold prospect in Laos have confirmed the Phu Kham district to be a high priority target for exploration and resource development.

Phu Kham district. Source: Company announcement

The latest drilling conducted by Pan Aust at the Nam San copper‐gold deposit has extended the lateral continuity of mineralisation to at least 500 metres.

Drilling conducted in one hole intersected:

–    42 metres at 1.71 per cent copper, 0.38 grams per tonne gold and 6 grams per tonne silver from 522 metres, including 12 metres at 2.83 per cent copper and 0.31 grams per tonne gold from 538 metres; and

–    44m at 1.10 per cent copper, 0.28g/t gold and 2g/t silver from 620m.

Pan Aust said it would be increasing drilling at the Nam San deposit over the next six to twelve months with the objective of defining an inaugural inferred mineral resource in the second half of 2012.

The company has commenced conceptual studies to investigate possible portal locations for underground access, mining methods and mining rates.

Aust said the latest drill results have confirmed a continuous zone of primary gold and copper-gold mineralisation with a strike length of 400m with results including:

–    27m at 1.26g/t gold and 4g/t silver from 108m;

–    22m at 3.20g/t gold and 1g/t silver from 139m; and

–    12m at 0.71 per cent copper, 0.70g/t gold and 44g/t silver from 231m.

“Several types of mineralisation are evident at the prospect including gold‐rich quartz‐carbonate vein sets which is overprinted by a later poly‐metallic copper and silver rich massive sulphide and vein type mineralisation,” Pan Aust said in its ASX announcement.

“Step‐out drilling is continuing at LCT, targeting strike extensions of the mineralisation.”

PanAust said it has established a brown‐fields exploration team to investigate potential extensions to the Phu Kham mineral resource envelope.

These including Nam San, and repeats of Phu Kham‐style mineralisation along the corridor which runs at least seven kilometres along strike of the northern boundary of the Phu Kham deposit.