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Elixir Energy Limited (“Elixir” or the “Company”) is pleased to provide an operations update on the work currently underway in its 100% owned Nomgon IX Coal Bed Methane (CBM) Production Sharing Contract (PSC) in the South Gobi Basin, Mongolia.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Nomgon Pilot Project returns to managed flare
- Nomgon-10 pilot well to spud at end of month
- Big Slope-7 intersects thick coals with good desorption and DST completed
Operations at the Nomgon Pilot Project continue, with the pilot plant now returning to managed gas production. During the last month, both wells have been produced intermittently whilst the production team varied casing pressures, pump rates and water levels. Water production throughout this has remained relatively static at rates of 110-120 barrels of water per day. Whilst the gas rate is still lower than the original flowrates at the beginning of the test, a clear increasing trend is now emerging.
The previously announced additional pilot well, called Nomgon-10, will spud towards the end of this month, using international drilling contractor Major Drilling. The existing pilot wells will be shut in during the drilling operation. At the completion of this new pilot drilling, the lesser performing Nomgon- 8 will be temporarily suspended, with the Nomgon-10 production well to replace it in the production system.
Recent flare at the Nomgon Pilot
The Big Slope-7 appraisal corehole has now been completed. The well was drilled to a depth of 666 metres, with drilling curtailed slightly ahead of the originally planned total depth due to difficult hole conditions. A total of 35 metres of coal and 7m of silty coal was intersected, with 1 Drill Stem Test (DST) conducted. The interpretation of the results of the DST will be announced in due course.
The well was drilled by Mongolian drilling contractor Erdene Drilling LLC and is the first of a number of wells it is contracted to Elixir for drilling in the region. The rig has now moved to a nearby location to the West of the previous well to drill a corehole: Big Slope Shallow-1, where it will appraise the shallower coals at deeper locations.
Erdene drilling rig at Big Slope 7
Erdene Drilling has also brought a second rig into the basin and will replace Top Diamond Drilling as the Company’s primary exploration drilling contractor. Top Diamond Drilling completed the drilling of the Bluebill-1S exploration well recently, with the well intersecting gaseous coal in cuttings.
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This article includes content from Elixir Energy, 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.
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Elixir Energy
Overview
Elixir Energy (ASX:EXR) is a gas exploration and development company currently focused on its portfolio of natural gas assets in Queensland, Australia and Mongolia. As an early mover in both areas, Elixir Energy has been the first company ever to free-flow gas from the deep Taroom Trough in Queensland and flow gas of any description in Mongolia.
Elixir Energy’s Grandis Gas project in Queensland is located in the Taroom Trough in the Southern Bowen Basin, where Australia’s premier physical and commercial gas hub – Wallumbilla – is immediately adjacent. Market factors are now driving new rounds of drilling in the Taroom Trough contributing to its reputation as an emerging energy super basin with major electricity as well as gas infrastructure.
A successful free-flowing test was conducted on the Lorelle Sandstone and has indicated it could produce a commercial flow rate of gas, with the breakeven commercial initial flow rate estimated at 2.5 million cubic feet per day.
Gas flow from Stage 1 Lorelle Sandstone post stimulation
Elixir Energy’s Nomgon coal-bed methane (CBM) project is located in Mongolia.
The Nomgon CBM project is in the South Gobi region of Mongolia and on the Chinese/Mongolian border. The ideal location of the asset provides access to excellent infrastructure, including planned pipelines and local mines as customers. The Nomgon project includes a CBM pilot production plant, which flowed gas in its early stages and is now moving to progressively de-water with a view to building up a sustained gas flow rate.
The company is led by a highly experienced team with direct histories in Queensland, Australia and Mongolia and expertise in the natural resources industry, community engagement and working with government stakeholders.
Company Highlights
- Elixir Energy (ASX:EXR) is an exploration and development company with energy assets in Australia and Mongolia, targeting natural gas and renewable energy/hydrogen.
- The company’s Grandis Gas project in Queensland is located in an established gas and oil region, with exceptional access to existing infrastructure and high gas prices.
- The region is currently hosting multi-operator activity, including by Shell.
- Elixir has discovered a deep free-flowing gas zone in Grandis – the first of its kind.
- The company was also the first to flow natural gas in Mongolia, pioneering production in the country.
- A management team with a wide range of expertise in the natural resources sector provides leadership for maximising the value of Elixir Energy’s assets.
Key Projects
Grandis Gas Project
The company’s asset in Queensland, Australia, covers approximately 1,000 square kilometers in an established oil and gas province. The project is well-suited for cost-effective transportation to domestic and international gas markets.
Project Highlights:
- Strong Local Infrastructure: The region's long history of oil and gas production has resulted in a robust infrastructure, including gas transportation and electricity transmission access – and community support for the industry.
- Adjacent to Current and Proposed Pipelines: The asset is located close to existing – and proposed gas pipelines to assist in efficient and low-cost transportation as production commences.
- Impressive Initial Flow Test Results: After a successful suite of DFITs, free-flowing test on the Lorelle Sandstone has been successfully stimulated. Elixir’s technical and economic modeling indicates the Lorelle Sandstone alone could produce a commercial flow rate of gas, with the breakeven commercial initial flow rate estimated at 2.5 million cubic feet per day.
Daydream-2 Lorelle Sandstone Flow Testing*
Nomgon CBM Project
Elixir Energy’s 100-percent-owned coal-bed methane (CBM) project is ideally located in the South Gobi region of Mongolia. This location gives the asset access to robust local infrastructure and close access to Chinese energy markets – the world’s largest.
Project Highlights:
- CBM Pilot Project In Production: The pilot plant passed a key production milestone of 200,000 square cubic feet per day in its early stages. Water production has progressed since these early flows with a view to de-pressuring the CBM reservoir, leading to sustained gas flows.
- District-scale Asset: The Nomgon project covers a significant 30,000 square kilometers in Mongolia. Initial exploration campaigns have been promising and indicate the potential for the asset to become a significant producer of regional energy markets.
Management Team
Richard Cottee - Non-executive Chairman
Richard Cottee was appointed as the non-executive chairman of the company on April 29, 2019. Cottee was the managing director of coal-seam-gas(CSG)-focused Queensland Gas Company (QGC) during its growth from a $20-million market capitalization junior explorer through to its acquisition by BG Group for $5.7 billion. QGC’s CSG assets are now operated by Shell and produce gas that is sold to China and other LNG markets.
Originally a lawyer, Cottee has spent the vast majority of his career in senior executive roles in the energy industry, including as CEO at CS Energy, NRG Europe, Central Petroleum and Nexus Energy. A 32-year veteran of the industry, Cottee is a strong business development professional and a graduate of The University of Queensland.
Neil Young - Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Neil Young was appointed to the board of Elixir on December 14, 2018, as its chief executive officer. Young has more than 20 years of experience in senior management positions in the upstream and downstream parts of the energy sector, focusing on business development, new ventures, gas marketing and general commercial functions. He has worked for a range of companies in the UK and Australia, including EY, Tarong Energy and Santos. Young founded Golden Horde Ltd in 2011 to explore gas on the Chinese border in Mongolia. He has also developed various new ventures in other countries including Kazakhstan, Japan and the USA. Young has an M.A. (Hons) joint degree in economics/politics from the University of Edinburgh.
Stephen Kelemen - Non-executive Director
Stephen Kelemen was appointed as the non-executive director of the company on May 6, 2019. Kelemen led Santos’ coal seam gas (CSG) team from its inception in 2004 and drove the growth in this area that allowed Santos to become one of Australia’s leading CSG companies.
An engineering graduate from Adelaide University, Kelemen served Santos for 38 years in multiple technical and leadership roles.
Kelemen is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland’s Centre for Coal Seam Gas and also acts as a non-executive director on the boards of Galilee Energy (ASX:GLL) and Advent Energy.
Anna Sloboda - Non-executive Director
Anna Sloboda was appointed as the non-executive director of the company on October 1, 2020. Sloboda is a joint Belarusian/Australian citizen and has more than 20 years of experience in corporate finance, and in developing junior resource companies operating around the world.
Sloboda is currently an executive director of Red Citadel Resources Pty Ltd, a privately owned mineral resources exploration company with a range of projects in Africa and South America.
She also serves as an advisory committee member, maritime archaeology, at the Western Australian Museum.
Previously she was a co-founder of Trans-Tasman Resources and in that capacity had substantial experience in dealing with Chinese off-takers and partners. Other prior employers include Lehman Brothers, Clough and Curtin University.
Sloboda has a Master of Economics from Belarusian University and an executive MBA from Melbourne Business School.
Victoria Allinson - Company Secretary and Chief Financial Officer
Victoria Allinson is a fellow of The Association of Certified Chartered Accountants, a fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and an NSX-nominated advisor. She has more than 30 years of accounting and auditing experience, including senior accounting positions in a number of listed companies and was an audit manager for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. Allinson has gained professional experience while living and working in both Australia and the United Kingdom.
Her previous experience has included being company secretary and CFO for a number of listed companies, including ASX-listed: Kiland, Safety Medical Products, Marmota Limited, Centrex Metals, Adelaide Energy, Enterprise Energy NL, and Island Sky Australia as well as several unlisted companies.
Maiden Mukinbudin Quartz Processing Testwork Achieves Premium HPQ Product
Highlights
- Exceptional Processing Testwork results received from North Carolina State University’s Mineral Research Laboratory (NCSU-MRL), an industry leading independent High Purity Ǫuartz lab.
- Ǫuartz sample T1-C, a maiden sample from the Mukinbudin Project, achieved >99.991% SiO2 from a simple processing flow sheet that included attrition, flotation and magnetic separation treatment, opening opportunities for early stage offtake.
- All samples sent to NCSU-MRL, from both Pippingarra and Mukinbudin demonstrated outstanding purity levels, confirming the exciting potential of IND’s quartz deposits and their suitability for high-end applications.
- In parallel with the numerous ongoing offtake discussions and ongoing end customer testing, IND now plans to undertake further comprehensive independent testwork at leading industrial minerals consultancy ANZAPLAN in Germany to further assist in finalising product offtake.
IND is exploring for High Purity Ǫuartz (“HPǪ”) at several of its projects in Western Australia, and the testwork was completed on samples from IND’s Pippingarra Ǫuarry Project and Mukinbudin Ǫuartz/Feldspar Project.
Jeff Sweet, Managing Director of Industrial Minerals, commented:
“We are extremely encouraged by achieving +99.99% SiO2 purity through to the acid leaching stage of our process testwork. These results are incredibly promising for our HPǪ production. With calcination and hot chlorination stages yet to be tested, we anticipate even greater purity levels can be achieved. This progress underscores our confidence in achieving premium quality in our final product.
“The Mukinbudin quartz was purified to 99.991% SiO2 through magnetic separation and flotation process work alone. This simple flowsheet will allow IND to pursue early-stage offtake opportunities into a broader range of HPǪ applications.
“Given the large price differential at the premium end of the HPǪ market as illustrated in Figure 1, IND’s ultimate goal is to now test the maximum purity level achievable across the Company’s quartz projects with the aim to be a recognised long term supplier of quality HPǪ products.”
Figure 1: High Purity Ǫuartz raw ore pricing CIF China based on industry feedback2
Processing Testwork Results
North Carolina State University’s Minerals Research Laboratory is a world leader in research, development and implementation of mineral processing techniques. The main focus of NCSU- MRL’s research is the beneficiation of industrial minerals.
Ǫuartz Ore Samples
IND sent three 20kg quartz ore samples to NCSU-MRL for the purpose of assessing the potential to use as feedstock for the production of High Purity Ǫuartz. Test samples T1_A and T1-B were sourced from IND’s Pippingarra Ǫuarry Project (Figure 2) and test sample T1_C was sourced from the Mukinbudin Project (Figure 3).
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This article includes content from Industrial Minerals 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.
Jeffreys Find Gold Mine Toll Milling of 150,000 Tonnes Commenced, Second 2024 Campaign
HIGHLIGHTS
- Processing of 150,000 tonnes commenced at Greenfields Mill.
- 75,600 tonnes on ROM Pad at Greenfields as of 23 July 2024.
- Second campaign expected to finish early September 2024.
- On target to process 300,000 tonnes at Greenfields Mill in 2024/2025.
- BML expects to mine well in excess of 300,000 tonnes in 2024/2025.
- First cash distributions to Auric this quarter.
MANAGEMENT COMMENT
Managing Director, Mark English, said: “We have the good fortune of pouring gold just as the price firms. It happened last year when the price went to $3,000 an ounce, this year it’s around $3,600 an ounce.
“The ever increasing gold price will result in Auric and our joint venture partner generating cash surpluses well in excess of what we had budgeted and anticipated.
“150,000 tonnes is a sizeable parcel of ore for this campaign. While it will take six weeks or so to mill, we expect it to generate well in excess of $25 million through gold sales for the joint venture.
“The mill contract is to process 300,000 tonnes in 2024. This 150,000 tonnes parcel will be the largest for Stage 2 of mining of Jeffreys Find. That leaves an additional 120,000 tonnes for milling at Greenfields towards the end of 2024.
“Jeffreys Find will be a substantial cash producer for Auric in 2024. We are on target to receive our first distribution within about a month.” said Mr English.
The Jeffreys Find Pit as of 16 July 2024
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This article includes content from Auric Mining, 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.
Viani - Low Sulphidation Epithermal Gold Project License Renewed
Highlights
- MRD notified Alice Queen on Friday 19 July 2024 via email that its Viani license (SPL1513) has been renewed for a further three years with effect from Wednesday 3 July 2024.
- Viani, located on the Pacific Rim of Fire on Vanua Levu in Fiji, covers an area greater than 200km2 and is largely under explored (see Figures 1 and 2).
- The Dakuniba prospect within Viani has been previously sampled where epithermal gold mineralisation has been recorded in outcrop samples over a >3km strike length.
- Multiple epithermal veins within the Dakuniba prospect area, 5km by 1.5km surface gold-in- soil geochemical anomaly - the footprint of the epithermal mineralisation is comparable to other economically productive gold epithermal deposits globally.
- Previous drilling by Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 1997 focused on a small, shallow part of the overall system and intersected high grade epithermal gold mineralisation.
- (Hole MJFV-5 (see Figure 3) over 6 vein zones at 50 to 100m below surface with best results, 0.6m @ 27.6 g/t Au & 900 g/t Ag and 0.4m @ 11.7 g/t Au1 and remains open in all directions.
- The JICA drilling was limited to only 600m of strike-length of the 5km long gold-in-soil anomaly (>10ppb Au) supported by epithermal geochemistry i.e., Ag and As.
- Based on discovery knowledge from epithermal systems worldwide, it is apparent the historical drilling was an inadequate test of the Viani gold system.
Alice Queen’s Managing Director, Andrew Buxton said,
We are delighted the SPL1513 license has been renewed for a further three years and look forward to continuing to work alongside the Fiji Mineral Resources Department as we commence our next phase of exploration activities. The Viani Gold Project is a tremendous prospect which has demonstrated it has the potential to become a significant epithermal system. With the license now renewed and the Company fully funded for its Fiji exploration plans, Alice Queen will continue the systematic exploration of the Viani Gold Project with the Company having commenced planning for its upcoming exploration programs.
Viani
Figure 1. Fiji Project locations.
Figure 2. Location of the Dakuniba Prospect in relation with SPL1513.
The Viani project (SPL1513) covers an area greater than 200km2 on the Caukadrove Peninsula on the Pacific Rim of Fire, Vanua Levu, Fiji. It is well serviced from Savu Savu on Vanua Levu and is highly prospective for a high-grade LSE gold system (see ASX releases 2 December 2022, “VIANI UPDATE” and 6 March 2023, “ALICE QUEEN UPGRADES VIANI EPITHERMAL PROJECT”.
Following a renewal process for Viani (SPL1513) which the Company commenced earlier this year (including as announced in the Quarterly Activities Report released to ASX on 23 April 2024), MRD notified Alice Queen on Friday 19 July 2024 that the license had been renewed with effect from Wednesday 3 July 2024 for a further three years. The renewed license includes typical terms for a license of this nature, including minimum work program and expenditure requirements.
Whilst the greater project area remains under explored, extensive sampling, trenching and (historic) limited drilling of the Dakuniba prospect area has been previously completed.
Previous drilling by JICA in 1997 returned multiple epithermal gold intersections in shallow drilling. Hole MJFV-5 (see Figure 2) intersected 6 vein zones at 50 to 100m below surface (best results include 0.6m @ 27.6ppm Au & 900ppm Ag, 0.4m @ 11.7ppm Au & 4.3ppm Ag)1. The JICA drilling was limited to only 600m of strike-length of the 5km long gold-in-soil anomaly (>10ppb Au) supported by epithermal geochemistry i.e., Ag and As.
Further details in relation to upcoming exploration plans at Viani will be announced in due course.
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This article includes content from Alice Queen 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.
Elixir Energy Investor Kit
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