Companies of Interest Presenting at Gold Coast Investment Showcase

THE CONFERENCE CALLER: The 2019 Gold Coast Investment Showcase is just two weeks away and The Resources Roadhouse continues its look at companies that will be in attendance.

 

Pioneer Resources (ASX: PIO) informed the market of TSX-listed Novo Resources Corp.’s intention to enter into a US$30 million farm-in and Joint Venture agreement with Sumitomo Corporation of Tokyo, Japan, and its wholly-owned Australian subsidiary.

The aim of the JV is to advance Novo’s Egina project located approximately 80 kilometres south-southwest of Port Hedland in Western Australia.

The Egina project includes Pioneer Resource’s Kangan gold project, where Novo is currently earning an interest under a binding memorandum of agreement that has now been replaced with a new agreement on essentially the same terms that allows Sumitomo to become a party to it.

Pioneer retains a 30 per cent free-carried interest in the Kangan project up to a decision to mine, after which it becomes a contributing JV partner.

Pioneer explained that Sumitomo, via an Australian subsidiary, has agreed to join Novo in spending $460,000 within the next 18 months to earn a joint 70 per cent interest in the Kangan gold project.

Upon Novo and Sumitomo earning their combined 70 per cent interest, Pioneer is free carried up to a decision to mine and thereafter contributes in proportion to its JV interest.

The Kangan gold project, currently held 100 per cent by Pioneer, forms a key part of Novo’s Pilbara exploration portfolio and sits within that company’s Egina project, which lies in the heart of the Pilbara conglomerate gold province.

“The addition of Sumitomo to the Kangan farmin/JV adds significant financial and technical power to support Novo’s efforts at the Kangan JV project, and we look forward to receiving results as exploration programs at Egina and Kangan advance,” Pioneer Resources managing director David Crook said.

The gold deal comes as Pioneer maintains its caesium-focus with drilling underway at the company’s Sinclair lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) Pegmatite at its 100 per cent-held Pioneer Dome project near Norseman in Western Australia.

The drilling coincides with the company’s plans for a third shipment of pollucite scheduled for the third week of June 2019.

The RC drilling, comprising 2,000m, has been designed to discover extensions to the core zone of the Sinclair Pegmatite, which contains the complex array of alkali metal minerals including pollucite, potash feldspar, petalite, lepidolite and cleavelandite.

Drilling will test a zone approximately 150m long both to the north and south of the pit.

A further 500m of diamond core drilling will commence as the RC drilling phase nears completion, targeting pollucite mineralisation extensions and caesium anomalies that occur to the north of the Sinclair Pit.

 

Matsa Resources (ASX: MAT) recently announced the execution of an Ore Purchase Agreement with AngloGold Ashanti Australia (AGAA) for the purchase of ore from the company’s Red October mine.

Matsa Resources informed the market that ore from Red October is to be treated at the AGAA-owned Sunrise Dam gold mine, for up to five years.

The 3.8 million tonne per annum mill at the Sunrise Dam gold mine is located approximately 60 kiloetres from the Red October gold mine and provides Matsa with access to a nearby milling solution for its Stage 1 production ore and for a further 4.5 years thereafter.

Matsa has previously delivered ore from its Fortitude and Red Dog gold mines to Sunrise Dam and is confident in the outcomes of the ore processed there.

Matsa will be responsible for mining and transporting the ore to Sunrise Dam with AGAA taking possession of ore once delivered.

The company said the agreement will allow Matsa to continue to progress mining at the Red October gold mine at a relatively low capital cost.

“The execution of the Agreement with AngloGold Ashanti continues our strong relationship and builds on the MoU both parties entered into in mid-2018,” Matsa Resources executive chairman Paul Poli said.

“Previous mining campaigns at Fortitude and Red Dog have been successfully processed at Sunrise Dam with minimal fuss and we expect this to be no different.

“The fact that AngloGold are prepared to potentially accept all ore from Red October for up to five years is testament to this as Matsa looks to develop a longer term mine plan in the future.”

 

Graphite-focused Renascor Resources (ASX: RNU) has been bust at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Siviour graphite project, located in South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.

Renascor Resources received a Letter of Interest (LoI) for export credit agency (ECA) cover from Atradius Dutch State Business, the Government of the Netherlands’ official ECA

The LoI came after a preliminary assessment of the Siviour graphite project by Atradius on behalf of the Dutch State, confirming in principle project finance support under the Dutch export credit guarantee scheme.

Atradius is the official ECA that administers the ECA scheme for the Government of the Netherlands.

In order to promote Dutch exports, Atradius offers insurance and guarantee products for projects involving the export of capital goods from the Netherlands.

ECA Cover from Atradius is often used to assist Dutch exporters in winning export transactions and increasing the capacity to raise finance from banks for projects involving Dutch exports.

The Dutch ECA scheme was identified as applicable to Renascor’s Siviour project based on the sourcing of Dutch content through Renascor’s Dutch strategic engineering partner, Royal IHC.

Renascor has estimated that up to approximately 60 per cent of project capital expenditure is expected to qualify under the Atradius ECA Cover.

Renascore also had a Mineral Lease for the Siviour graphite project granted by the South Australian Minister for Energy and Mining.

The grant came on the back of three-years of preparation and review of all potential environmental, social, economic and technical aspects of the project.

A positive Pre-Feasibility Study confirmed the opportunity to unlock further value from Siviour through Australia’s first integrated graphite concentrate and spherical graphite operation.

Renascor believes the project economics of the Spherical PFS highlight Siviour’s potential to achieve high economic returns through the vertically integrated development of a mine and flake graphite concentrate operation, plus downstream production of spherical graphite.

The company also upgraded the JORC Mineral Resource estimate for the Siviour project after completion of an infill drill program, which was conducted to improve the confidence in the Siviour Indicated Resource

This resulted in a Measured Resource estimate of 15.8 million tonnes at 8.8 per cent total graphitic carbon (TGC) for approximately 1.4 million tonnes of contained graphite.

The total (Measured, Indicated and Inferred) Siviour Mineral Resource estimate now consists of 87.4 million tonnes at 7.5 per cent TGC for 6.6 million tonnes of contained resource (with 64 per cent classified as Measured or Indicated).