THE BOURSE WHISPERER: ASX-listed uranium hopeful Energy Ventures has acquired the Coyote Basin uranium project located in northwest Colorado by the assignment of an existing State of Colorado Uranium Mining Lease from VANE Minerals.

The Coyote Basin project area is located close to Energy Ventures’ other projects at
Maybell and Skull Creek and has been subject to historical exploration.

The new project give Energy Venture’s portfolio a decent boost as it currently comprises a single State of Colorado Uranium Mining Lease and 522 federal lode claims located in Moffat and Rio Blanco counties in northwest Colorado.

The project is close to infrastructure and is located approximately 35 kilometres to the northwest of the town of Meeker; and some 40 km to the southwest of the Maybell uranium project.

According to an Energy Ventures announcement the Coyote Basin project area covers a thick, folded sequence of sedimentary rocks dominated by sandstone, with interbedded finer-grained rocks and conglomerates.

“Previous exploration indicates that uranium mineralisation exposed at surface is associated with both altered sandstones and carbonaceous shales of the lower Wasatch Formation, and with carbonaceous shales and lignitic units within the Fort Union Formation,” the company said.

“Widely-spaced exploration drilling completed in the late 1970’s is reported to have intersected shallow uranium and associated vanadium mineralisation hosted by lignitic units.”

The company went on to say that it has obtained summary reports of this work and is currently attempting to verify the historical drilling data. More recent exploration information, generated by VANE has also been obtained for the area.

Energy Ventures is currently compiling historical information for the Coyote Basin project in order to plan further exploration and evaluate the resource potential of the project area.

“Subject to obtaining statutory access permits, the company plans to undertake a surface exploration and drilling program to confirm the presence of high grade mineralisation and to obtain samples for bench-scale metallurgical testing,” the company contiunued.

“If the results of this work are encouraging then additional drilling to confirm the historical resources will be undertaken.”

Energy Ventures, through its wholly owned US subsidiary Oregon Energy LLC, now owns five uranium exploration and development projects located in the western USA, all of which have been subject to significant historical exploration and have historical resources.

The most advanced of these projects is the Aurora uranium deposit located in southeast Oregon which has a total resource base of 38 million pound uranium equivalent comprising an Indicated Resource of 36.7 Mlb uranium equivalent at a grade of 253 parts per million uranium equivalent, and an Inferred Resource of 1.2 Mlb uranium equivalent at a grade of 151 ppm uranium equivalent (grade cut-off 100 ppm equivalent uranium).

Energy Ventures is also currently advancing feasibility studies for the Aurora project, exploring other project areas and actively evaluating other uranium opportunities in the western USA.

THE DRILL SERGEANT: ASX-listed gold play Crescent Gold has announced a maiden probable gold reserve of 54,000 ounces near surface at its newly acquired Apollo Deposit in Laverton, Western Australia.

New drilling results and resource modelling carried out by Crescent confirmed the probable gold reserve of 770,000 tonnes and at average grade of 2.2 grams per tonne gold at the Apollo deposit, located less than 10 kilometres southwest of Laverton.

The company acquired the project last year from former owners, Barrick Gold and Carbon Energy.

All of the reserve at Apollo is located within 75 metres of surface and is extractable by open pit mining methods.

Subject to approvals, Crescent is hopeful of commencing mining at the Apollo deposit during the coming September quarter.

“The deposit is the most western deposit yet identified for mining by Crescent at Laverton and will supplement the company’s existing gold production from a number of Laverton pits, including Craiggiemore, Mary Mac South and North, Fish, and Pieces of Eight, all located to the east, northeast and southeast of Apollo,” Crescent Gold said in an announcement.
 
“The new reserve milestone is contained in an upgraded JORC-compliant Measured, Indicated and Inferred ounce resource upgrade for Apollo that is 59% higher in ounces than previous.

“The new resources stand at 2.47 million tonnes for a contained 179,000 ounces at an average grade of 2.2 grams per tonne gold, using a 0.8 grams per tonne cut off.”

Crescent said the new resource estimate compares to the most recent previous resource estimate for Apollo from June last year under the project’s previous ownership of an Inferred-only resource of 1.4 million tonnes at 2.4 g/t gold for 109,000 ounces using a 1.0 g/t cut off.

The resource upgrade, including the maiden Reserve estimate, follows more than 10,500 metres of Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling and 604 metres of diamond core drilling, undertaken across the acquired western tenements by Crescent, since acquisition, between mid-2010 and the end of the March quarter this year.

Permitting of the Apollo deposit with the Department of Mines and Petroleum of Western Australia is now underway.

Waste characterisation studies have been completed, and other studies advanced. Results from a stage of trial mining in 2005, indicate a metallurgical recovery of 94%.

Crescent plans to commence during June reserve definition work on the Eclipse and Calypso deposits, both north of Apollo, and anticipates processing the ore from Apollo at the nearby Granny Smith plant where the Company has an ore purchase agreement with Barrick Gold Corporation.

 

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Subiaco-based vanadium hopeful TNG Limited has reported encouraging results from a recently commenced program of diamond drilling at its flagship Mount Peake Iron-Vanadium project in the Northern Territory.

The Mount Peake project boasts a large-scale resource of 140 million tonnes grading 0.3% vanadium pentoxide, 23.66% iron, 5.34% titanium dioxide, with outstanding exploration upside through an additional Exploration Target of 500-700 million tonnes grading 0.2-0.4% vanadium pentoxide, 25-35% iron and 6-9% titanium dioxide.

A total of four diamond drill holes have been completed to date through the central part of the resource for a total of 510 metres.

The HQ sized core has been photographed and logged by TNG’s geologists, and magnetic susceptibility and NITON1 readings have been recorded.

These holes have returned consistent vanadium grades of up to 0.6% vanadium pentoxide in magnetite, compared with average grades of 0.29% – 0.4% vanadium pentoxide reported from previous drilling.

Titanium and iron grades are consistent with previous results.

“Whilst these are preliminary results, very significant widths of magnetite mineralisation with good vanadium grades continue to be intersected,” TNG managing director Paul Burton said in an announcement.

“They confirm and support the scale and quality of the Mount Peake deposit giving the potential for an increase in the JORC resource estimate which would further cement Mount Peake as one of Australia’s largest vanadium projects.”

The company went on to say that logging of the core indicates continuous magnetite mineralisation has been intersected over down-hole widths of up to 144 metres, which are the widest intersections seen at the project to date.

These grades and widths are expected to provide support for an increase in both tonnes and grade in the next JORC resource upgrade for the Mount Peake project.

Four additional diamond holes will be completed and core will be used to provide a representative sample for metallurgical and pilot plant test work on the company’s patented hydrometallurgical process for the Mount Peake project.

The diamond drilling is proceeding on schedule and is expected to be completed by mid-June.

The current program of diamond drilling will be followed by 2,000m of Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling, which is expected to commence in July.

TNG also indicated that Pre-Feasibility work is progressing on schedule for completion in October, with engineering, process design, hydrology, Native Title and environmental studies all underway.

 

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Having just listed in December 2010 one of the ASX’s newest gold plays in West Africa has wasted little time making itself noticed by moving into an area dominated by some of the bigger players in the field.

Middle Island Resources has entered a five year, US$5 million joint venture agreement to secure the Nuon River project, a significant semi-contiguous gold prospective landholding covering 2,918 square kilometres of eastern Liberia.
 
Some of its new neighbours now include the likes of BHPB, Arcelor-Mittal and China Union.

 “The project is one of the most technically prospective gold terrains in West Africa, being located at the boundary between the Archaean (Man Shield) and Proterozoic (Birimian) components of the West African Craton,” Middle Island Resources managing director Rick Yeates said in a company announcement.

“The Nuon River project lies immediately along strike from La Mancha Resources’  five million ounce gold deposit in adjacent Côte d’Ivoire – so the joint venture seals a long-held objective of Middle Island to secure a major land package in the most prospective emerging gold frontier of West Africa.”

The newly-announced Nuon River expansion is centred on the right for Middle Island to earn from private company, Superior Mineral Resources, an initial 75% interest in the 657 square kilometre Grand Gedeh permit within the project area.

The terms include an initial US$100,000 cash payment, and aggregate staged exploration expenditure of up to US$5 million, comprising:

– Year 1 – US$500,000 for an initial 15% participating interest
– Year 2 – US$1.0 million for the second 15% interest (30%)
– Year 3 – US$1.5 million for the third 15% interest (45%)
– Year 4 – US$1.0 million for the fourth 15% interest (60%)
– Year 5 – US$1.0 million for the fifth 15% interest (75%), or
–  The completion of a positive feasibility study, whichever is the earlier.

The new ground, which has not been subject to modern exploration, also includes a 100% interest in a further four adjacent Liberian permit applications recently granted to a wholly-owned Middle Island subsidiary.

These four permits comprise: Cestos Shear, (781sqkm), Zwedru, (856sqkm), Zwedru North, (301sqkm), and Putu, (323sqkm).  

The Cestos Shear, Zwedru and Zwedru North permits completely envelop the Grand Gedeh permit, collectively representing a cohesive block of tenements some 2,595sqkm in area, securing what Yeates described as, “what is considered to be the highest priority area of exploration interest”. 

The fourth permit, Putu, lies some distance to the south, in a similar geological environment, covering a considerable number of gold occurrences mapped by the US Geological Survey.

Yeates said the Grand Gedeh permit includes a long history of significant artisanal alluvial and saprolite gold mining activity with numerous significant stream sediment anomalies identified throughout the permit.

One readily accessible prospect, Big Hill, was defined by a broad, 2km long, open ended, high tenor soil anomaly the company said is pock-marked by abundant active and historic artisanal shafts down to 40 metres depth.

Yeates said Liberia had emerged in recent years as a well-run west African democracy that was keen to attract foreign investment, and had sound, well administered mineral legislation in place.

The expansion is the first for Middle Island since its listing on the ASX year following an oversubscribed A$12.5 million IPO.

Significantly, the world’s largest goldminer, Newmont Mining Corporation, emerged as a 10% stakeholder in the company, and, with a primary exploration focus on developing gold plays in West Africa’s Burkina Faso and Niger.

“Importantly, the move into Liberia is part of our original growth plan,” Yeates continued.

“We had wanted to move into eastern Liberia and include any such assets in our portfolio for the successful IPO and ASX listing but were prevented from doing so while permitting and other project approval processes awaited finalisation.

“Middle Island plans to acquire further Liberian assets as part of our overall tenement consolidation activity.

“However, our primary focus remains exploring for and identifying major new gold deposits in the three west African countries hosting our total asset portfolio.”

 

 

As the interminable wait for third party rail access lingers in Western Australia Gindalbie Metals has opted to look outside the square.

Gindalbie Metals has actually looked further than outside the square and has broadened its view to beyond state borders and conformity to sign a 10-year above rail haulage agreement with QR National for up to 10 million tonnes per annum.

Gindalbie described the signing of the deal with the Queensland-based rail operator as, “a key component of the long term logistics solution for the Karara iron ore project in Western Australia.”

Gindalbie Metals managing director Tim Netscher said the signing of a long-term commercial agreement with the above rail operator represented a major milestone for the Karara project as it locked in the ore haulage component of the logistics chain.

An iron ore train stretches across the Pilbara of Western Australia

Netscher also said he expected the below rail contract for the project to be concluded shortly.

“This represents the culmination of commercial negotiations which commenced last year following the Heads of Agreement signed in April for bulk haulage services for the Karara Project,” Netscher said in a company announcement.

“This is an important step in the long term commercial relationship between QR National Freight and the Karara project and we look forward to working constructively and cooperatively into the future.”

“Work on the Karara project is moving very rapidly with approximately 1300 people currently working on the construction of the processing plant, mining operations and all of the supporting infrastructure such as the rail spur, high voltage power line, water pipeline and Geraldton Port.

“This work not only sets up Karara for its start-up and expansion phases but brings vital infrastructure to Gindalbie’s doorstep in the Mid West and enhances the opportunities to develop standalone projects on the company’s 1900 square kilometre tenement holding.”

The rail haul agreement (RHA) has been signed by Karara Joint Venture company, Karara Mining Limited with QR National Freight’s subsidiary Australia Western Railroad to transport up to 10Mtpa of magnetite concentrate and/or hematite direct shipping ore (DSO) over a period of 10 years.

KML’s tonnage obligations commence on a staged basis from January 2012 through to May 2012.

With escalation, the RHA will generate approximately $900 million in revenue for QR National.

Under the agreement, QR National Freight will invest in excess of A$200 million in new locomotives, wagons and upgraded administration and maintenance facilities at the Narngulu East facility near Geraldton.

Once ramp-up is completed, the rail haulage services provided by QR National Freight will involve four trains per day with 100 wagons per train.

Conditions precedent to the RHA are the signing of rail access agreements with rail owner Westnet and a direct agreement with KML’s security trustee, all of which are in advanced stages of negotiation, and KML obtaining the consent of its financiers to the final form of the RHA.

KML and QR National Freight have also signed a separate Relationship Agreement to work together on any future expansions.

QR National Freight executive vice president and CEO Ken Lewsey said the rail operator had a long-standing presence in Western Australia where it currently employs about 1000 people.

“We have a strong capability in the iron ore market in Western Australia, as the largest haulier of iron ore outside the Pilbara,” he said in the Gindalbie announcement.
 
“This is a major milestone in the iron ore growth strategy for QR National Freight. We’re on track to treble our iron ore tonnages in the next three years and we’re focussed on a strong growth trajectory beyond that.

“QR National Freight is committed to growth in the Mid West region. The Karara rail haulage task is creating valuable jobs and economic development for the region.”

KML recently commenced railing and shipping operations for hematite ore under an initial sales agreement with Sinosteel Midwest Corporation as part of a trial mining exercise.

More than 100,000 tonnes of DSO has so far been hauled by QR National Freight and since May haulage has exceeded the 60,000t per month target.