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Siren Gold Limited (ASX: SNG) (Siren or the Company) is pleased to provide an update on its Auld Creek Project in Reefton.
Highlights
- Three metallurgical samples from Auld Creek were tested for gold and antimony recoveries at ALS in Perth.
- All three samples gave excellent gold flotation recoveries ranging from 95-98%.
- Antimony recoveries are modest (around 64-90%) using copper sulphate as an activator.
- Changing from copper sulphate to lead nitrate as an activator boosted antimony recovery from 71% to 97%.
- The rougher concentrate grade for the lead nitrate test was 44.8g/t Au and 13.2% Sb. Cleaning tests are expected to enhance these grades further.
- Additional optimisation work using lead nitrate as an activator is expected to commence in Q4 of CY2024.
Siren Managing Director and CEO, Victor Rajasooriar commented:
” These are excellent results as we progress our Reefton gold and antimony projects into the future. The commodity pricing outlooks for both metals are excellent and the introduction of antimony as a critical mineral brings additional potential benefits to New Zealand. We are now in the final stages of completing our Auld Creek mineral resource calculations following the drilling program earlier this year and expect to have that completed in the coming weeks. Concurrently, additional metallurgical testwork will be carried out to optimise the recoveries of antimony at Auld Creek.”
Background
Three metallurgical samples were collected from Auld Creek diamond core within the Fraternal Shoot to test for both gold and antimony recoveries into a flotation concentrate. The samples were delivered to ALS Perth in May 2024 for a range of metallurgical tests under the supervision of metallurgist Graham Brock (Leo Consulting Ltd).
AC001 was collected from the top of the shoot that has little or no antimony. AC002 was collected from the middle of the shoot with high grade gold and antimony and AC003 was collected to represent the average resource gold and antimony grades (Table 1 and Figure 1).
Table 1. Auld Creek Metallurgical samples
Figure 1. Long section showing the location of the metallurgical samples (white circles).
AC001 Flotation Tests
Three tests were conducted on the low-grade antimony sample AC001. Test 1 was a standard kinetic rougher test giving a 95.8% recovery of the gold into the rougher concentrate at a grade of 51.2 g/t Au. Antimony recovery was also high, but the head grade was low at 0.05%.
Tests 2 and 3 were kinetic cleaner tests; Test 2 had no regrind and Test 3 included a regrind step. Test 2 produced a high-grade concentrate assaying 120.6g/t Au and Test 3 produced a grade of 136.6g/t Au. Gold recoveries were 91.9% in Test 2 and 87.7% in Test 3.
In summary, if this material was fed to a flotation concentrator 6% by weight would go to a 51g/t Au concentrate at 95.8% gold recovery. To reduce transport costs a cleaner circuit could be introduced such that for a small loss of recovery only 2.6% by weight at a grade of 120g/t Au could be produced. Testing showed little benefit in the regrind step.
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SNG:AU
OPINION — Goldenomics 103: Gold Protects and Performs
By Darren Brady Nelson
US President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs certainly caused quite the stir in the markets on April 2.
Gold dropped about 6 percent, and silver 12 percent. A week later, a pause was announced, which ended on August 1. Gold and silver have since risen approximately 11 percent and 24 percent, respectively.
Six month gold and silver price performance.
Source: Trading Economics (gold) and (silver).
Unless you are a professional, or even amateur, trader, it is best to look at gold and silver investment with a perspective of years or decades, rather than just days, weeks or even months. Since the start of the COVID-19 panic in March 2020, gold and silver have exploded 123 percent and 192 percent.
10 year gold and silver price performance.
Source: Trading Economics (gold) and (silver).
In the shorter term, the gold price is driven by what economist John Maynard Keynes called “animal spirits.” In the longer term, it is driven by “monetary spirits.” And not just as protection, but also for performance. The Presidential Gold Guide highlights both in chapters four and five.
Source: Fisher Liberty Gold.
Gold unsurprisingly protects
Economist and investor Mark Skousen has wisely noted that: “Since we left the gold standard in 1971, both gold and silver have become superior inflation hedges.” Gold has more than countered the results of inflation, as measured by CPI, and the drivers of inflation, as measured by M3.
And the numbers back that up. The Gold Protects chart below compares the gold price, CPI and M3 in terms of cumulative growth of each from 1971 to 2025. That is throughout the whole era of gold as an investment, which officially started in 1974 once private ownership was restored.
During this era, gold grew by 541 percent, CPI by 214 percent and M3 by 384 percent. Annual average growth for gold was 10 percent, CPI at 4 percent and M3 at 7 percent. Maximums were 92 percent, 14 percent and 29 percent, respectively. CPI only failed to grow twice, ie. 0 percent in 2009 and 2015. M3 decreased twice, by -4 percent in 2023 and -6 percent in 2024.
Gold surprisingly performs
The highly respected In Gold We Trust (IGWT) report states: “When dealing with the specific level of gold allocation, it is advisable to differentiate between safe-haven gold and performance gold. The Big Long strategy emphasizes the potential of performance gold in the coming years.”
IGWT thus recommends an investment portfolio "rule of thumb" that includes 15 percent in “safe-haven gold” and 10 percent in “performance gold.” The Gold Performs chart below compares gold price, S&P 500 and nominal GDP in terms of cumulative growth of each from 1971 to 2025.
Gold grew by 541 percent, the S&P 500 by 484 percent and GDP by 339 percent. Annual average growth for gold was 10 percent, with the S&P 500 at 9 percent and GDP at 6 percent. Maximums were 92 percent, 45 percent and 14 percent, respectively. Gold did have a higher standard deviation of 27 percent, compared to 17 percent for the S&P 500 and 3 percent for GDP.
Animal and monetary spirits
Gold protects as a hedge or safe haven, not just from inflation, but from the flip side of that same coin of the boom-bust cycle. Both are driven, in the longer term, not by “animal spirits,” but by “monetary spirits.”
Inflation is when money inflation has a widespread impact as price inflation. A bubble is when money increases have a more concentrated impact such as in certain asset values. The bubble eventually bursts when “monetary spirits” are finally reined in by monetary realities.
I say “monetary spirits” because of the role of fiat money, as indicated by, say, M3. When money supply outstrips money demand in a localized way, then that is a bubble, and when in a general way, that is inflation.
The former shows up in certain asset, wholesale and/or producer prices, whilst the latter shows up in CPI. Asset prices include the S&P 500. But nominal GDP is also "ginned up" as it is ultimately a price times quantity measure as well. Price is expressed in money terms.
Conclusion
Gold can have ups and downs, as standard deviation indicates, due to the “animal spirits” of fear and uncertainty, that tend to be daily, weekly or monthly. Yet gold both protects and performs due to the “monetary spirits” of inflation and boom-bust, which tend to be decennially.
In particular, gold performs when the S&P 500 does not, like in the aftermaths of the 2001/2002 dot-com collapse, the 2008/2009 global financial crisis and 2020/2021 COVID-19 lockdowns.
Therefore, when it comes to gold, “follow the money” of central bank “money printing” and fractional reserve bank “fountain pen money,” for both superior inflation protection and boom-bust performance.
And besides, Skousen rightly "begged the question" as follows: “Gold and Silver have always had value, never gone to zero. Can you say the same for stocks and bonds?”
About Darren Brady Nelson
Darren Brady Nelson is chief economist with Fisher Liberty Gold and policy advisor to The Heartland Institute. He previously was economic advisor to Australian Senator Malcolm Roberts. He authored the Ten Principles of Regulation and Reform, and the CPI-X approach to budget cuts.
Click here to read Goldenomics 101: Follow the Money, and here to read Goldenomics 102: The Shadow Price of Gold.
