Astral Resources (ASX:AAR) is a gold mineral exploration company with three gold projects in tier 1 mining jurisdictions of Western Australia. The three assets are the Mandilla gold project, the Feysville gold project, and the Carnilya Hill gold project. The flagship and 100 percent owned Mandilla gold project has a mineral resource containing 1.27 million ounces (Moz) of contained gold. The other key project, 100 percent owned Feysville, hosts a mineral resource estimate of 3 million tons (Mt) at 1.3 grams per ton (g/t) gold for 116,000 ounces (oz) of contained gold. Feysville could potentially become a satellite source of high-grade ore feed for the flagship Mandilla gold project.
The scoping study completed at Mandilla unveils robust project economics. The cornerstone of the scoping study is the Theia deposit, which alone accounts for 81 percent of the total Mandilla mineral resource estimate. The deposit hosts a mineral resource estimate of 29 Mt at 1.1 g/t gold for 1.02 Moz of contained gold in one large open pit. The scoping study indicates a mine life of 11 years with an annual production of 100,000 oz in the first seven and a half years, dropping to 41,000 oz for the remaining three and a half years. The study outlines compelling financial metrics, including NPV@8 percent of AU$442 million, free cash flow of AU$740 million, and a payback period of nine months.
Astral Resources intends to increase production further. The assay results from the six-hole 1,832-metre drilling program completed at Theia deposit last year indicate a high potential for converting inferred resources to higher confidence indicated resources. Feysville presents another exciting opportunity, which is evident from the recent assay results at the Kamperman prospect. In 2023, Astral drilled 10 holes at Kamperman intersecting high-grade gold, including 4 metres at 94.8 g/t gold, 21 metres at 4.16 g/t gold, 35 metres at 2.19 g/t gold, 10 metres at 4.57 g/t gold, and 5 metres at 5.89 g/t gold.
The presence in Western Australia, a tier 1 mining jurisdiction, is encouraging and should comfort investors. Western Australia has world-class infrastructure and a skilled workforce. The Fraser Institute ranked it fourth globally and first in Australia as the most attractive jurisdiction for mining investment in 2023.
Astral benefits from a team of professionals boasting extensive expertise in geology and mining. The company is led by managing director Marc Ducler, who has more than two decades of experience in the mining industry. The management team has a proven track record of executing several successful exploration and development projects, as well as M&A.
The Mandilla gold project is located within the northern region of the Widgiemooltha greenstone belt, approximately 70 kilometers to the south of the prominent mining hub of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Mandilla includes four deposits namely, Theia, Iris, Eos and Hestia. The cornerstone of the project is the Theia deposit, constituting 81 percent of Mandilla's resources, totaling 29 Mt at a grade of 1.1 g/t gold, amounting to 1.02 Moz of contained gold in a single open pit. We note that Mandilla has a total mineral resource estimate of 37 Mt at 1.1 g/t gold for 1.27 Moz.
The scoping study indicates a mine life of 11 years with an annual production of 100,000 oz in the first seven and a half years, dropping to 41,000 oz for the remaining three and a half years. Astral estimates the pre-production capital spend at AU$191 million, and the project is anticipated to generate a free cash flow of AU$740 million (assuming a gold price of A$2,750/oz). The project’s NPV @8 percent is estimated at AU$442 million, and the IRR at 73 percent.
Drill collars at Theia deposit
Astral continues to advance exploration and resource expansion efforts at Mandilla. The company completed a six-hole 1,832 metre drilling program at Theia deposit last year. The assay results have been released and indicate a high potential for the conversion of inferred resources to higher confidence indicated resources. The assay results include: 39 metres at 5.4 g/t gold, 29 metres at 2.8 g/t gold, 28 metres at 1.4 g/t gold, 8 metres at 8.8 g/t gold.
Astral is planning to commence a pre-feasibility study at Mandilla.
The Feysville project is situated in Australia's premier gold belt, merely 14 km south of the Golden Mile deposit, which boasts 70 million ounces, located in Kalgoorlie. The project has a mineral resource estimate of 3 Mt at 1.3 g/t Au for 116,000 oz of contained gold. The project could potentially become a source of satellite ore feed to Astral’s flagship Mandilla gold project.
At Feysville, Astral is focusing on the high-grade Kamperman prospect. A recent 19-hole 2,459 reverse circulation (RC) drilling program at Kamperman returned encouraging assay results. The latest drilling program yielded significant assay results in 14 out of 19 RC holes. This high success rate continues to indicate that Kamperman has the potential to be a substantial source of high-grade satellite ore for the Mandilla processing plant. A further 2,500-metre follow-up RC program is planned to extend known mineralization at Kamperman beyond the current 350-metre strike length.
Mark Connelly is a mining industry veteran who has held positions of CEO and managing director with several multinational companies across many jurisdictions, including Australia, North America, South America, Africa and Europe. He has a proven track record in deal making and was principally responsible for the merger of Papillon Resources and B2 Gold Corp in October 2014 (value US$570 million), as well as the key person responsible for the merger of Adamus Resources and Endeavour Mining for US$579 million. He is currently the non-executive chair of Calidus Resources, Omnia Metals Group, Alto Metals, Warriedar Resources and Nickel Search.
Marc Ducler has more than 20 years of experience in the mining industry. He has held senior operational management roles with GoldFields, BHP, Fortescue Metals, MRL and Roy Hill. He was also the managing director of Egan Street Resources (a gold exploration and development company) until it was acquired by Silver Lake Resources (ASX:SLR).
Peter Stern has experience in corporate advisory, specializing in M&A and capital raising. He has spent six years with Macquarie Bank and three years with UBS and Deutsche Bank. He is a graduate of Monash University with a Bachelor of Science (geology major). Stern is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the chairman of Troy Resources.
David Varcoe is a mining engineer with over three decades of experience. He has extensive operational and managerial experience across various commodities, including gold, iron ore, copper, diamonds, coal, uranium and rare earths. His expertise spans board positions, operations management, project management and consulting. Varcoe is a principal consultant with the leading Australian firm AMC Consulting.
Justin Osborne is a geologist with over 30 years of experience in exploration. He was previously the executive director at Gold Road Resources (ASX:GOR), where he played a crucial role in developing the world-class Gruyere gold deposit (6.6 Moz gold). Osborne also held senior positions on the exploration executive team at Gold Fields. He was instrumental in developing the Damang Superpit project in Ghana and achieved significant discovery success at the St Ives gold mine.
Brendon Morton has over 20 years of experience, particularly in the global resources sector across Australia, Africa and Asia. He has held several executive financial and company secretarial roles with ASX-listed and unlisted companies in the resources industry.
Jed Whitford is a mining engineer with over 20 years of industry experience. His expertise primarily encompasses gold and base metals operations, having worked with companies such as Western Mining, Gold Fields, Golder Associates, Xstrata and Glencore.
Julie Reid has 36 years of experience working across Australia, Vietnam and Indonesia, covering a variety of commodities in diverse geological terrains. She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from Curtin University of Technology.
Kalgoorlie Gold Mining (ASX:KAL) (‘KalGold’ or ‘the Company’) has commenced aircore drilling at two new exploration target areas within the Pinjin Gold Project on 9 October 2024 (Figure 1).
Figure 1 – New drill areas (pink labels) that are the focus of the new drill program at Pinjin. Projection: MGA 94 Zone 51.
Testing Two New Gold Target Areas
The aircore drill program currently underway focuses on two new exploration target areas at Kirgella West and Kirgella East (Figure 1). The target areas are both located near to the Kirgella Gift and Providence deposits where the Company recently defined a JORC (2012) Inferred Mineral Resource of 2.34 Mt at 1.0 g/t Au for 76,400 oz (ASX: KAL 25 July 2024). Both target areas show promising structural and geological complexity that has potential to host gold mineralisation. These targets have not been previously drill-tested and so are undergoing first-pass, widely spaced drilling in this program.
The initial program is scheduled to run for two weeks, drilling up to 4,500 m across key target areas in priority order.
KalGold Targets Untapped Potential in Southern LTZ
This marks KalGold’s first systematic assessment of the gold potential of the greater Pinjin Project area. For the first time, we are moving beyond historic efforts at Kirgella Gift and Providence, and the Wessex prospect adjacent to the Anglo Saxon gold mine.
KalGold believes the southern part of the Laverton Tectonic Zone (LTZ) holds significant potential, comparable to its northern end, which hosts major gold deposits like Sunrise Dam, Granny Smith, Wallaby and the Laverton Goldfield (Figure 2). The southern LTZ, remains underexplored due to poor surface exposure and limited historic exploration efforts. However, recent discoveries like Rebecca in the LTZ and Breaker/Lake Roe in the adjacent Celia Tectonic Zone show the area’s potential. KalGold aims to make similar discoveries on its LTZ tenure.
Figure 2 – KalGold’s Pinjin Gold Project within the Laverton Tectonic Zone, showing current targets, work programs and other major deposits of the region. 50km grid. Projection: MGA 94 Zone 51.
KalGold believes that drilling is the only effective way to test the LTZ on our Pinjin Gold Project, given transported cover over much of the area. Typically this approach results in several misses, but it also has the potential for significant discoveries. By applying a scientifically rigorous approach, KalGold is increasing its chances of success, focusing on key target areas that display geological, geophysical and geochemical hallmarks of gold mineralisation.
Progress will be driven by results, as well as logistics. Currently, KalGold is working to secure a new heritage survey over the area, with a focus on E28/3134. Heritage clearance of the unexplored eastern areas is important for on-ground investigation where the high-grade metamorphic rocks of the Rebecca sequence are interpreted to be juxtaposed by the LTZ against the host sequence of the Pinjin Goldfield. Additionally, known palaeochannel distributions are considered, allowing for initial exploration of shallow targets before potentially pursuing targets at depth as the palaeochannels can be over 100m deep.
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This article includes content from Kalgoorlie Gold Mining Limited, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
Barrick (NYSE:GOLD)(TSX:ABX) will release its Q3 2024 results on Thursday, November 7, 2024. President and CEO Mark Bristow will host a live presentation of the results that day in London, UK, at 11:00 EST 16:00 UTC, with an interactive webinar linked to a conference call. Participants will be able to ask questions.
The company will release its preliminary production, sales and cost information for Q3 2024 on October 16, 2024.
Q3 RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT
The webinar will remain on the website for later viewing and the conference call will be available for replay by telephone at 1 855 669 9658 (US and Canada toll-free) and +1 412-317-0088 (international toll), replay access code 8607451.
The Q3 2024 presentation materials will be available on Barrick's website at www.barrick.com.
Enquiries:
Claudia Pitre
Investor Relations and Corporate Access
+1 416 307 5105
Email: cpitre@barrick.com
Kathy du Plessis
Investor and Media Relations
+44 20 7557 7738
Email: barrick@dpapr.com
Website: www.barrick.com
News Provided by GlobeNewswire via QuoteMedia
Highlights:
These high-grade gold assays continue the trend found in our original rock chip discoveries at Titan1 by emerging from quartz-iron veining and are therefore not analogous to conglomerate mineralisation. This veining structure will vary throughout Titan but the structure continues to demonstrate its potential. We are looking forward to further gold exploration at Titan and over the greater Carlow tenement.”
Titan Prospect
The Titan prospect is located towards the northern part of the Carlow tenement E47/1797, in the West Pilbara region of Western Australia. Titan has had minimal exploration work conducted previously other than broad spaced soil sampling and a constrained moving loop transient electromagnetic survey (MLTEM).
Figure 1. Artemis West Pilbara tenements with current known prospects named
The Company has followed up the preliminary ground reconnaissance undertaken in August 2024 with a second phase of sampling. This second phase has confirmed the previously reported over-limit assay results and also identified further potential mineralised areas through the discovery of additional high grade, previously untested quartz/iron-oxide veins. In total, 97 samples were collected and sent to the laboratory for processing. The majority of samples were collected from in-situ veining with some sub-crop and three float samples.
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This article includes content from Artemis Resources, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
HIGHLIGHTS
Figure 1: Geophysical interpretation has identified five high priority targets.
This survey complements the previous magnetic and IP/resistivity surveys completed over the Chacon grid, some 5km to the north-west. Both surveys highlight the strong structural controls, the intense alteration, and the coincident geophysical signatures.
Previously the Chacon Grid had been mapped and sampled over a strike length of two kilometres, but recent reconnaissance has indicated the structure may extend for a strike length of up to six kilometres. It is expected that further mapping, geochemistry, geophysics and drilling along strike and between both the Chacon Grid and the La Javiela vein systems will highlight a mineralised structural corridor up to 10km in length.
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This article includes content from Piche Resources, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
Highlights:
Completion of the Acquisition remains subject to formal documentation being executed and shareholder approval by Tartana’s shareholders for the purposes of ASX Listing Rule 10.1, 10.11, and 7.1 (further detailed below), amongst other conditions precedent. There can be no assurances that the transaction will complete until such time that all conditions precedent have been met. A summary of the terms of the non-binding agreement is set out at Annexure A.
Acquisition Rationale
QSM’s EPMs and ML are located Far North Queensland and are complementary to Tartana’s existing exploration portfolio with two copper projects with high grade copper surface mineralisation as well as several EPMs covering critical mineral prospects. The critical mineral EPMs are in proximity to Tartana’s own Herberton (Emuford) EPM Application (EPMA 27220) and are part of move by Tartana to increase its exposure to tin, tungsten and silver and other critical metals.
With Tartana’s Copper Sulphate production continuing to produce healthy cash flows, the Company has also been focused on investigating the development of primary copper mineralisation at the Tartana open pit as well as increasing its exploration portfolio to incorporate additional and complementary projects targeting copper and critical metals. While the former has involved drilling a metallurgical hole (D15) and completing metallurgical test work (flotation recoveries and ore sorting), the opportunity to acquire QSM addresses the latter.
About QSM
QSM has, over the course of recent years aggregated ten EPMs and one ML covering 771 km2 in Far North Queensland (See Figure 2). QSM has acquired the tenements through a series of transactions with tenure holders with a focus on discovery of hardrock critical and strategic metal projects, particularly tin, tungsten and copper.
In some cases the vendors of these tenements have held them for a significant period of time with a focus on alluvial mining over hard-rock exploration. QSM was able to secure attractive terms to acquire these tenements by leaving the alluvial rights in the hands of the vendors or Queensland Alluvial Resources Pty Ltd (further detailed below).
QSM has 7 project areas which are listed in Figure 1. Each project area contains prospects recorded by the Queensland Department of Resources and these are listed under each project/EPM. The dominant metal associated with each project is colour coded with many relating to the minor metals; tin, tungsten and antimony.
While there are many prospects in several of the permits, QSM has completed site visits and discussed the various prospects with ‘old time miners’ to establish which particular projects offer potential scale and potential unmined mineralisation. These projects are in bold in Figure 1.
Figure 1. QSM tenure and various prospects. QSM has prioritised the projects which are identified in bold.
Figure 2. Tartana and QSM EPMs.
A detailed project review has been provided at Annexure B.
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