THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Mining, so the experts say, is a cyclical industry with the current cycle not pedalling along at quite the same clip as when the boom was in full swing.
Although it has, to my knowledge, never been proved scientifically, it seems that when you place a large number of people from the one industry group in a large room, there is a good chance not all will be happy about being there.
So it seems with mining industry conferences of late.
A couple of short years ago these events were full to the brim with booths, manned by a number of company personnel along for the junket, who were kept busy repeating the details of the latest copper, gold, iron ore, whatever project to hordes of investors ranging from retail mums and dads to sophisticated institutional types.
Managing directors were happy, event organizers were happy, everybody was happy, especially local restaurateurs, bar owners and the top-range hotel chains.
One aspect of this week’s Mines and Money Conference in Hong Kong was the number of companies in attendance who really didn’t want to be there.
.jpg)
A popular line being delivered to The Roadhouse was, “we’re only here because we signed up at the end of last years’ conference.”
Others bemoaned, what they considered to be, “not much traffic”, of visitors to their booths.
That is not to say there weren’t any happy campers, because there were, many in fact, their ranks bolstered by the companies who currently have good stories to tell – ones that investors of all persuasion are eager to learn more about.
There’s no secret the junior exploration sector is currently ‘doing it tough’.
Its cause hasn’t been helped by the new JORC Code 2012 regulations that prevent companies from declaring what potential their projects may hold using an Inferred Resource.
Instead they are forced to spend more money on further drilling to bring it up to the Indicated category, presenting them with a Catch-22 scenario of how do they encouraging investors to participate in a fund raising to continue drilling a project they’re not fully-able to tell the market about?
The industry will be watching the upcoming budget of recently-minted Federal Treasurer, Joe Hockey closely to see whether or not he follows the example set by the Rudd government with its first budget and ignores pre-election pledges to introduce tax concessions for exploration.
Manning the Mines and Money booths were …
Talga Resources (ASX: TLG) managing director was showing everybody who stopped by his booth an example of just how good the company considers the ore from the Nunasvaara graphite deposit is.
The Nunasvaara graphite deposit is within the company’s Vittangi project in Sweden.
Talga claims the deposit to be the world’s highest grade JORC/N143-101 resource at 7.6 million tonnes at 24.4 per cent graphite.
At the company’s booth Thompson had rigged up a torch globe and a couple of batteries to a drill core sample of ore from the project.
His intention was to demonstrate how the ore from the Nunasvaara graphite deposit conducts electricity, something graphite ore, generally is not capable of doing.
Thompson was able to get the point of his demonstration over to some delegates while others seemed somewhat baffled by the exercise.
Somebody must have seen the benefit of his endeavours, however, as the company’s share prices jumped 41.38 per cent the day following his speaking slot with over 3 million shares changing hands.
We also stopped by the booth of Middle Island Resources (ASX: MDI) and caught up with the company’s managing director Rick Yeates.
The company is looking to acquire a majority interest in the Samira Hill gold mine and mill in Niger.
Middle Island currently has a 70 to 100 per cent interest in seven permits surrounding Samira Hill.
In December 2013 SOPAMIN (Niger Government mining agency) picked up the balance of the Samira Hill project from SEMAFO Inc.
Middle Island has opened up discussions with SOPAMIN and the Government with the intention of acquiring a majority stake in the project.
Samira Hill consists of a two million tonnes per annum CIL processing facility with access to grid power and a 6 megawatt power station.
From remaining reserves at the project Middle Island has modelled 2 to 3 years production at around 50,000 ounces per annum with a potential mine life of over eight years, if Inferred Resources are successfully converted.
Doing the rounds of the exhibition space with a spring in his step was Stavely Minerals (Proposed ASX Code: SVY) managing director Chris Cairns.
The smile on his dial was impossible to erase after the company announced the opening of its $6 million Initial Public Offering.
Stavely management is made up of the team of former gold mining company Integra Mining, featuring Cairns, non-executive director Peter Ironside, and technical director Jennifer Murphy.
Integra was a 100,000 ounces per annum gold producer, before being taken over by Silver Lake Resources on the eve of the Diggers and Dealers Conference in Kalgoorlie in 2012.
The company’s key assets include a suite of prospective porphyry copper, copper-gold and gold assets in Western Victoria.
Funds raised through the Stavely Minerals IPO will be used to progress exploration at two key copper deposits in western Victoria, the Ararat and Stavely projects, which were acquired from ASX-listed BCD Resources (ASX: BCD).
The two projects cover an area of 193 square kilometres in Western Victoria, and include JORC resources containing over 130,000 tonnes of copper and 18,000 ounces of gold.
Since the acquisition, Stavely has applied for additional exploration tenure in the region and now holds around 776sqkm of exploration tenements and applications.
These areas are prospective for volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) copper-gold, porphyry copper-gold and Stawell-style gold deposits.
