THE BOURSE WHISPERER: ASX-listed powerhouse OZ Minerals has walked away from the San Eduardo Joint Venture with Mexican-focused Azure Minerals.

Exploration to date has focused on the southern part of Azure’s 100% owned San Eduardo project area including geological mapping, surface geochemical sampling, and geophysical surveying.

This activity identified a porphyry copper target, which was subsequently tested by the drilling of one 600 metre deep diamond drill hole.

According to Azure this drill hole intersected wide zones of strongly altered and quartz veined porphyry containing substantial quantities of pyrite, with minor amounts of copper oxide and copper sulphide mineralisation.

The company said OZ Minerals considered that the geophysical and geochemical anomalism which identified the target is explained by the presence of the pyrite and copper mineralisation observed in the drill core, and has advised Azure of its intention to withdraw from the San Eduardo Joint Venture as of the 30th June 2011.

Under the terms of the Joint Venture agreement, OZ Minerals could withdraw at any time following it spending at least US$300,000. This milestone has been met and upon withdrawal, OZ Minerals retains no interest in the project.　

Azure Minerals executive chairman Tony Rovira said in the company’s ASX announcement that although the fact Oz Minerals has opted to walk form the JV, there remains a positive side.

That is that Azure retains 100% project equity in San Eduardo following the substantial amount of work completed by the Joint Venture and expenditure in excess of US$660,000.

“The large amount of technical data collected through the participation and funding of OZ Minerals has highlighted the extensive prospectivity of this property,” Rovira said in the announcement.

“This work identified numerous porphyry-copper and skarn copper-zinc targets in addition to the single one OZ Minerals focused on.

“These targets are untested to date and we remain very enthusiastic about continuing our drilling in these areas. 

“Azure Minerals thanks OZ Minerals for the opportunity to work together on the San Eduardo project.”

Azure remains confident in the exploration potential of San Eduardo, particularly, as it considers the encouraging results being received from the adjoining El Tecolote property, where a JV between Azure and the Japanese Government corporation JOGMEC is undertaking intensive exploration.

Azure is currently reviewing all San Eduardo data with the view to deciding whether to undertake further exploration in its own right or to pursue discussions with several companies who have previously expressed interest in the property.

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Diversified ASX-listed exploration play Talisman Mining has expanded its exploration portfolio by acquiring an 80 per cent interest in the Muddawerrie and Livingstone gold projects, located in Western Australia’s north-eastern Goldfields.

The Muddawerrie project, located 100 kilometres northwest of Meekatharra, contains two mineralised shear zones extending over a strike length of more than 16km within an Archaean greenstone belt.

The Livingstone project is located approximately 25km northwest of the Muddawerrie project.

It consists of three granted Exploration Licenses containing demonstrated gold endowment within the western extension of the Proterozoic aged Bryah Basin.

Talisman Mining managing director Gary Lethridge, said the acquisition was consistent with the company’s strategy of actively targeting quality exploration and business development opportunities in copper-gold, nickel and gold, and moving quickly to secure suitable projects as soon as they became available.

“These projects allow Talisman to expand and diversify its exploration portfolio with two gold- focused projects which we believe have significant potential to deliver near-term drilling opportunities,” Lethridge said in the company’s ASX announcement.

“The company is well structured with a capable and adequately sized exploration team that enables us to undertake evaluation of additional projects such as Muddawerrie and Livingstone while retaining a strong focus on ongoing drilling and exploration activities at our flagship Springfield copper-gold project.

“With exploration gathering momentum at Springfield following recent drilling success, it’s great to be able to broaden our commodity focus into gold.”

Talisman said exploration activities will be initiated at the projects during the second half of the year, subject to obtaining statutory approvals.

This activity will be conducted in parallel with ongoing drilling programs at the company’s flagship Springfield VMS copper-gold project in the Bryah Basin.

Under the terms of the acquisitions Talisman will acquire an 80% interest in the Muddawerrie and Livingstone projects for a combined consideration of 100,000 ordinary fully-paid Talisman shares.

The projects will be held in separate Joint Ventures between Talisman (80%) and Murchison Resources (20%), which will be managed and operated by Talisman.

The interest held by Murchison will be free-carried until a decision to mine is made, at which point Murchison may elect to contribute on a pro-rata basis to the joint venture.

Should Murchison not elect to contribute on a pro-rata basis at this time then it must transfer its 20% interest to Talisman in exchange for a 1% gross production royalty.

Murchison will retain the right to dilute in accordance with an industry standard formula should it elect to contribute on a pro-rata basis to the joint venture from the decision to mine.

Should Murchison’s interest fall below 5%, it must transfer all remaining equity to Talisman in exchange for a 1% gross production royalty.

Leader of the Federal opposition Tony Abbott opened the AMEC conference in Perth with a speech primed for word bingo players.

Abbott was called to the lectern with the news that he had just hit the front as preferred Prime Minister over Julia Gillard in a recent poll.

He opened his address to the representatives of Western Australia’s mining industry telling them that he saw them not as exploiters or polluters but as “people who are vital for the economic future of all of us”.

“Mining is our economic life blood. Mining is essential to what Australia is. Mining is essential to what Australia will and should be,” he said

Abbott went on to tell the miners in attendance pretty much what they already know about what they do and consider themselves to be.

He told them the industry is a world leader setting the standard in innovation, environmental care and respect of indigenous culture.

“The mining industry represents Australia at its best,” Abbott said.

“The industry is about innovation and creativity. It’s about going out there, taking on the world and succeeding.”

All this may be so but the Liberal Party leader said the current outlook for the mining industry isn’t as bright as everybody would like it to be.

“It is not that the miners of Australia have suddenly lost their drive,” he said.

“No. The mining industry is under pressure; under pressure which has been entirely generated by the Australian government.”

Those playing Tony Abbott bingo had their cards ready for some furious marking as they knew what was coming next.

The audience had come for some reaffirmation about how bad the Federal Labor Government’s mining tax is and their man wasn’t about to let them down.

“The mining tax is a bad tax,” Abbott intoned to the silent cheering of the bingo battlers. “Let’s not make any bones about it.”

Being in Western Australia Abbott knew exactly where to pitch his homily.

He even managed to recruit, perhaps hypothetically, Western Australian Labor leader Eric Ripper to his team labelling him as a, “decent Labor person”’ as he realised that taxing miners is probably not a good idea.

“State royalties are, quite rightly, a revenue source for our states and if it is thought by our people, in their wisdom, that the mining industry should pay more for the limited resources that it uses then the right way to deal with that is to have the State Governments appropriately increase royalties,” Abbott said.

“But that is not how the Federal Government has treated the industry. First of all we have seen the first version of a mining tax that if implemented it would have made Australian mining the most heavily taxed mining in the world.

“Now we have a new version of the tax that is currently limited to iron ore and coal, which could easily be extended more widely, and which I regret to say was negotiated with just three big companies.”

Abbott made sure he kept the big three of BHP billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata on side mentioning he held nothing against them personally for the fact they chose to negotiate with the government separately from the rest of the mining community.

Unsurprisingly he held his venom for the current government.

“Serious governments take everyone who will be impacted by a change into their confidence before they make decisions,” he said.

“Serious governments don’t divide our society into insiders and outsiders.

“Serious governments treat all relevant and affected Australians as valuable citizens for the purpose of consultation.

“I want to tell you, on behalf of the opposition, that we are opposed to the mining tax, we will oppose it in opposition and we will rescind it in government.

“That’s what I have said ever since the mining tax was announced. That’s what I say today and that is what I will keep saying as long as the mining tax is a threat to this industry.”

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Drilling at West Africa focused Viking Ashanti’s 100% owned Akoase East gold project in Ghana has provided the company with confidence the existing 500,000 ounce JORC classified gold resource will be increased.

Viking Ashanti recently received assay results from three RC pre‐collared diamond holes and five RC holes from the current program.

At the northern end of the Akoase resource, a step out RC hole, 50 metres northeast of the limit of previous drilling returned highly encouraging intersections of 5m at 1.94 grams per tonne gold and 8m at 2.22 g/t gold.

Viking said the hole combined with previous drilling results to demonstrate multiple zones of mineralization continue northeast immediately along strike of the current resource at Akoase, and that potential exists for extending the resource in this area.

The hole terminated in mineralization and has been extended with a diamond core tail.

“Assay results from the remaining RC and RC precollared diamond holes, drilled to either extend the existing resource at depth, or to test mineralized zones on the eastern margin of main structural corridor, continue to intersect multiple zones of mineralization, at gold grades comparable to the average resource grade,” Viking Ashanti said in its ASX announcement.

Better intersections received from the drilling assays include 18m at 1.30 g/t gold and 3m at@ 2.71 g/t gold, and 4m at 1.92 g/t gold and 1m at 4.87 g/t gold.

Half of the planned 3,000m RC drilling program for the Akoase SW prospect has been completed.

This program has been designed to test 1.5 strike kilometres of the Akoase structural trend immediately to the south west and along strike from the current resource.

A further four strike kilometres of the main Akoase structural trend extending to the southern licence boundary remains to be drill tested.

Viking Ashanti said its primary objective, as it has been since listing, remains to increase the existing 500,000 JORC classified resource at Akoase East and its other Ghanaian gold projects including West Star and Blue River to over one million ounces by mid-2012.