Warriedar Resources (ASX:WA8) is an advanced gold and copper exploration company backed by a highly skilled team of experts, Warriedar maintains an incredibly strong and stable portfolio of gold assets in both Western Australia and Nevada. Between its three projects – Golden Range, Fields Find and Big Springs – it currently holds more than 2 million ounces of high-grade gold resources with blue-sky potential for growth, and a robust pipeline of high-quality drill targets. Warriedar is well-funded for its planned 2024 drill programs focused on rapidly building its gold resources.
Two of its brownfield projects – Golden Range and Fields Find – are located in Western Australia's Murchison Province, widely known as an active mining and exploration region. Both projects are situated on previously mined and underexplored land, and surrounded by successful, operating gold and base metal mines. Golden Range hosts approximately 950,000 oz gold resource and an existing 800 ktpa processing plant and associated infrastructure (placed on care and maintenance during 2019 by its previous owner). To the east of Golden Range is the Fields Find project, which contains significant levels of gold, copper and nickel.
Warriedar’s Big Springs gold project in Nevada, USA, is adjacent to First Majestic Silver’s Jerritt Canyon gold mine complex, an operating mine with a production history of over 10 Moz gold. Big Springs has an existing resource base of approximately 1 Moz gold within a granted mining licence, surrounded by approximately 93 square kilometers of prime exploration ground prospective for Carlin-style gold.
Warriedar also prides itself on the expertise and experience of its leadership team, driving the company towards successfully achieving its goals and increasing shareholder value. Geophysicist Dr. Amanda Buckingham serves on Warriedar's board of directors, bringing three decades of experience to her role. Mark Connelly, Warriedar’s non-executive chairman, is a financial and commercial executive with extensive experience in the resource industry. Dianmin Chen, a seasoned mining engineer, completes the complementary skill set of the board.
Situated in the middle of Western Australia's highly active Murchison exploration and mining province, the Golden Range project is strategically positioned between several major operating mines and advanced exploration projects. Together with the nearby Fields Find project, it represents a belt-scale opportunity, covering a combined area of 813 square kilometres.
A brownfields project with considerable past exploration and development, Golden Range hosts a gold resource of 945,000 ounces along a dominant central shear corridor. Existing on-site infrastructure includes an 800-ktpa oxide processing plant, which was placed on care and maintenance by the project's previous owner in 2019. This provides Warriedar with an accelerated, low-capital-intensity pathway to future gold production pending the success of an ongoing exploration program.
The Ricciardo deposit, an existing 476-koz resource in the middle of the Golden Corridor along the main shear. Assay results from drilling undertaken at the Ricciardo deposit confirmed the presence of high-grade shoots below existing oxide open pits and demonstrated the excellent exploration potential for further discoveries at Ricciardo
The Fields Find Project and the location of key prospects.
Located just to the east of Golden Range, Fields Find is most notable for its highly irregular geology. Due to an intrusive complex within the greenstone sequence, the area is known to contain elevated levels of nickel, copper and gold. Although the brownfields project has been the site of previous exploration, the focus was exclusively on gold with one notable exception.
At Fields Find's southwest corner stands the historic Warriedar copper mine, which is located at the end of Warriedar's target zone, known as the Warriedar Corridor. It is also worth noting that the Murchison Province is generally known to be rich in copper with both the Golden Grove and Deflector copper mines in geological proximity.
Located in the prolific Nevada Gold Trend, the Big Springs Gold Project stands adjacent to First Majestic Silver's (TSE:FR) Jerritt Canyon Gold Mine Complex, which has a production history of more than 10 Moz gold. The project itself has an existing resource base of roughly 1 Moz gold and is surrounded by approximately 93 square kilometres of exploration ground prospective for Carlin-style gold.
Warriedar is currently collecting the necessary geoscience data to optimise its drill targets while also advancing its exploration permitting. It plans to recommence its drilling program upon approval of expanded permits, with a suitable partner.
The company believes the tenement package offers enormous untapped potential for growth in existing gold resources.
Mark Connelly is a seasoned financial and commercial executive with extensive resource industry experience in management leadership and board roles. His direct operational and capital markets experience spans many jurisdictions including Australia, North America, South America, Africa and Europe.
Connelly’s North American operating and development experience includes several years based in the U.S. working for Newmont Mining, one of the world’s leading gold mining companies. This included extensive exposure to and knowledge of Newmont’s flagship Nevada gold operations.
Connelly also has an outstanding track record of shareholder value growth and realisation, particularly over the last decade. This includes the development and eventual sale of Papillon Resources for approximately US$570 million and the US$597 million consolidation of Endeavour Mining with Adamus Resources.
Dr. Amanda Buckingham is a geophysicist who has been involved in mineral exploration for 30 years. She co-founded award-winning and industry-leading geophysical consulting firm Fathom Geophysics in late 2007, based in both Australia and the United States.
Buckingham has extensive exploration experience globally. Her early career involved work as a geoscientist and project manager at majors such as Rio Tinto, listed juniors in both Canada and Australia and several years consulting at SRK.
She also co-founded Cygnus Metals (ASX:CY5) and Desert Minerals (ASX:DM1). She is currently a director of several private companies and a research fellow at the University of Western Australia.
Dr. Dianmin Chen is a mining engineer with more than 35 years of experience in metal mining. He has held a wide range of roles in the mining industry including technical, production and management positions in Australia, China and Canada.
Chen held executive roles with Sino Gold (general manager), Citic Pacific Mining (chief operating officer), CaNickel (executive director and CEO) and Norton Goldfields (managing director and CEO) and served as a non-executive director for several publicly listed companies in Australia and Canada, including Kalgoorlie Mining, Bullabulling Gold Mines, Sherwin Iron, Norton Goldfields, NKWE Platinum and CuDeco. He is currently a non-executive director of Global Lithium Resources (ASX:GL1).
Chen holds a Bachelor of Engineering in mining, a PhD in mining geomechanics and a WA First Class Mine Manager’s Certificate of Competency.
Stuart Burvill is a legal, commercial and compliance manager and civil and structural engineer with over 30 years of experience in mining, petroleum, energy, shipbuilding, defence and civil infrastructure development including rail, roads, bridges and tunnels.
Burvill has extensive experience in M&A, corporate and project finance, capital raising, ownership and funding structuring, joint ventures, construction contracts and disputes, corporate governance and administration and enterprise risk management. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons), Bachelor of Laws, MBA and Grad Dip in Applied Corporate Governance.
Graeme Morissey joins Warriedar from previous director-level roles in the audit divisions of global accounting firms EY, KPMG and Grant Thornton. He has over 15 years of direct experience in servicing clients within the mining exploration and development sector. This includes specific expertise extending across compliance with Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and Department of Mines regulation.
Morissey has also consulted directly with CFOs within the Australian mining sector, which has included optimisation of internal reporting processes on performance, cash flow forecasting, and adherence to budgets. He is a chartered accountant and a fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia.
Morissey holds a Bachelor of Commerce from McMaster University in Canada.
David Palumbo from Mining Corporate is a chartered accountant and graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors with over 14 years of experience across company secretarial, corporate advisory and the financial management and reporting of ASX-listed companies. He currently acts as company secretary for a number of ASX-listed companies and serves on the board of Krakatoa Resources (ASX:KTA) and Kaiser Reef (ASX:KAU).
Steve McMillin is a highly experienced and well-respected exploration geologist. He has over 35 years of practical mineral exploration experience in the United States, with particular expertise in Carlin-style gold projects in Nevada.
Before joining Warriedar Resources, McMillin was at Jerritt Canyon Gold for seven years, including as chief mine geologist. The producing Jerritt Canyon Gold Mine is located only 20 kilometres away from Big Springs along the same mineralisation trend. During his time there, he led underground near-mine exploration and resource development, helping to discover 12 new economic deposits and develop several.
Prior to 2016, McMillin was chief mine geologist at Fire Creek with Klondex, senior exploration geologist with Midway Gold at the Spring Valley and Pan-Goldrock deposits, senior mine geologist at Jerritt Canyon with AngloGold and Queenstake Resources and project geologist with Newmont Exploration in Nevada.
He is a certified professional geologist with American Institute of Professional Geologists, and member of the Geological Society of Nevada and the Society of Economic Geologists.
Thomas Dwight has worked in mineral exploration for several years across Australia and within multiple commodities. He has previously focused on Western Australia gold exploration, including the development of the Tampia Hill Resource with Explaurum Operations, but also has experience in porphyry copper mineralisation managing exploration for Duke Exploration in Queensland.
During his time in the industry, his focus has been exploration, project development and database management. Dwight holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours from the University of Otago, majoring in geology/earth science.
Peng Sha is a geologist with more than 12 years experience in the exploration and evaluation of copper, gold, lead, zinc, silver, rare earth and lithium mining and exploration projects. He has extensive expertise working with several different deposit types across prospective mining jurisdictions, including Australia, Serbia, China and Latin America.
Sha held senior geologist roles in Global Ore Discovery, Ballarat Gold Mine and AuKing Mining. He was also the exploration manager for Zijin Mining Serbia, where he led the exploration team in the development of annual greenfield and brownfield exploration programmes for world-class porphyry, high and low sulphidation epithermal gold and copper deposits and VMS lead-zinc-silver deposits.
Sha holds a Master of Applied Science, Geology and an Honours Degree in Economic Geology (first class) from James Cook University. He is a member of the Society of Economic Geologists and AusIMM.
HIGHLIGHTS:
The results reported in this release are for a further eight (8) of the diamond holes and the first nine (9) of the RC holes drilled in the current program (representing all outstanding results received to date). Results for the first four (4) diamond holes were previously reported (refer WA8 ASX release dated 3 July 2024). The new results continue to demonstrate the outstanding Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) growth potential that exists at Ricciardo, M1, and along the broader ‘Golden Corridor’ trend.
Figure 1: The Golden Range and Fields Find Projects. Mines and projects within trucking distance of the Warriedar tenure are shown. The location of the Ricciardo deposit within the 25km-long ‘Golden Corridor’ at Golden Range is annotated.
M1 deposit
The M1 deposit is located 7km north of the Ricciardo deposit, and right alongside the existing processing plant (refer Figure 2); within the 25km long Golden Corridor trend.
Initial results have been returned from diamond tails drilled at the M1 deposit, with significant intersections returned in both holes. The holes were planned to test the existing MRE model,
Figure 2: The Golden Corridor within the Golden Range Project. The M1 deposit is located 7km north of the Ricciardo deposit. The image on the LEFT is gravity over shaded residual magnetic RTP.
potential parallel lodes and gaps within the MRE area. This drilling represents the first time this deposit has been revisited and drilled since 2013.
Hole M1RC191 was drilled in the centre of the modelled resource area and returned significantly higher grade than expected (refer Figure 3). This is an excellent result and aids Warriedar in the larger goal of building high-priority MRE areas for rapid development.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Warriedar Resources 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.
HIGHLIGHTS:
This is the first diamond drill program at Ricciardo since 2014, when just three (3) diamond holes were drilled by the previous operator.
The results reported in this release are for four (4) (255m) of the 16 (1420m) diamond holes drilled to date. Approximately 2,200m of diamond drilling is planned as part of the current phase of combined RC and diamond drilling at Ricciardo and M1.
The results from these initial four diamond holes extend the high-grade shoot below the Silverstone North pit and infill a previous gap in the high-grade zone of the MRE below the northern part of the Ardmore pit (adding confidence and continuity to the MRE in this area).
These outcomes, while stemming from only a small part of the overall current phase of drilling, continues to demonstrate the outstanding MRE growth potential that exists at Ricciardo and along the broader ‘Golden Corridor’ trend.
Figure 1: The Golden Range and Fields Find Projects Mines and projects within trucking distance of the Warriedar tenure are shown. The location of the Ricciardo deposit within the 25km-long ‘Golden Corridor’ at the Golden Range Project is annotated
The Ricciardo gold system (within the Golden Range Project) spans a strike length of approximately 2.3km, with very limited drilling having been undertaken below 100m depth. Ricciardo possesses a current Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 8.7 Mt @ 1.7 g/t Au for 476 koz gold.1 The oxide material at Ricciardo has been mined by previous operators.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from Warriedar Resources 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.
“Applying a peer-based EV/resource multiple approach, we derive the valuation of AU$0.09 in a base case scenario and AU$0.11 per share in a bull case scenario,” analyst Behzad Golmohammadi wrote in the report.
Warriedar Resources is an advanced gold and copper exploration company with an existing resource base of about 2 million ounces of gold between its projects in Western Australia (Golden Range and Fields Find) and Nevada, USA (Big Springs). The analyst report cites Warriedar’s successful exploration to date of Golden Range and Fields Find with highly encouraging results suggesting a potential for high-grade gold discoveries and a porphyry system hosting polymetallic mineralisation, including gold, copper, molybdenum and silver.
“Successful resource expansion from the upcoming aggressive drilling campaigns, enhanced by
positive metallurgy and new discovery potential could drive a substantial rerating, in our view,” Golmohammadi wrote.
The report also cited the current positive gold outlook that is expected to drive gold prices higher, adding to the upside potential of Warriedar Resources.
For the full analyst report, click here.
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All amounts in US dollars
Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE:GOLD)(TSX:ABX) Despite the operational challenges presented by the recent Mulitaka landslide, Porgera Gold Mine has met or exceeded its targets since resuming mining in December last year, with gold production for the first half of the year above guidance and all-in sustaining costs trending lower.
Barrick president and chief executive Mark Bristow, who is in the country to review New Porgera Limited's (NPL) second quarter results, said keeping Porgera open in the wake of the landslide allowed for a swift response by the mine to the collective recovery effort while sustaining the mine's contribution to the provincial and national economies.
"Reacting rapidly to the disaster, our teams put into operation an air bridge and a temporary pipe across the slip to be able to supply fuel and essential goods not only to the mine but to local businesses serving the tens of thousands of residents of the Porgera valley. The cooperation of the Mulitaka community is essential to keeping these lifelines open until the permanent bypass road can be completed," Bristow said, expressing his deepest sympathies to the families and friends of victims of the landslide and reaffirming NPL's commitment to impacted communities.
"Porgera employees have been on the ground in Mulitaka daily and are embedded at the Enga Provincial Government's disaster relief center in Wabag to assist with all aspects of the rehabilitation effort. These include the delivery of essential goods and fuel while contributing geotechnical expertise to assist with ground stabilization and the design of the new bypass road. Barrick and JV-partner Zijin also jointly contributed $1 million towards relief efforts, approximately half of which has already been deployed."
During his visit, Bristow met with Prime Minister James Marape, Enga Governor Sir Peter Ipatas and Provincial Administrator Sandis Tsaka to exchange views on the Mulitaka recovery, the New Porgera Community Development Agreement (CDA) negotiations, and other issues of common interest. It was agreed that the CDA must be consistent with the New Porgera project agreements and ensure that fair and equitable benefits reach all eligible landowners and the wider Porgeran community, as well as provincial and national stakeholders.
"NPL stands ready to pay benefits directly to landowner households, without going through middlemen, once the CDA is executed. The mine would make additional infrastructure contributions to the project footprint area through effective use of the tax credit scheme in collaboration with local and provincial authorities," Bristow said.
NPL currently employs 2,500 people, of whom 57% are from Porgera and Enga, 40% from the rest of Papua New Guinea and 3% expatriates. First gold, following the resumption of operations at the mine, was poured in January, electricity from the Hides power plant in Hela Province was restored in April and a throughput performance test agreed to with Papua New Guinea was achieved in June, four months ahead of schedule.
Bristow singled out the lack of law and order as the greatest threat to the continued operation and profitability of the mine, requiring the active support of all stakeholders to ensure that Porgera could continue to deliver benefits in line with its potential as a Tier One 1 asset.
Enquiries:
Investor and Media Relations
Kathy du Plessis
+44 20 7557 7738
Email: barrick@dpapr.com
Website: www.barrick.com
Endnote
Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information
Certain information contained or incorporated by reference in this press release, including any information as to our strategy, projects, plans, or future financial or operating performance, constitutes "forward-looking statements". All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. The words "remain", "on track", "continue", "guidance", "target", "potential", "could", "will", and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. In particular, this press release contains forward-looking statements including, without limitation, with respect to: Barrick's partnership with Papua New Guinea; forecasted production from the Porgera mine; the potential for Porgera to achieve Tier One status; the sharing of projected economic benefits from Porgera with Papua New Guinea stakeholders under the Community Development Agreement; and Barrick's future plans, community investments and overall strategy in Papua New Guinea.
Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions including material estimates and assumptions related to the factors set forth below that, while considered reasonable by the Company as at the date of this press release in light of management's experience and perception of current conditions and expected developments, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Known and unknown factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements and information. Such factors include, but are not limited to: fluctuations in the spot and forward price of gold, copper, or certain other commodities (such as diesel fuel, natural gas, and electricity); the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development; changes in mineral production performance, exploitation, and exploration successes; changes in national and local government legislation, taxation, controls or regulations and/ or changes in the administration of laws, policies and practices, expropriation or nationalization of property and political or economic developments in Papua New Guinea and other jurisdictions in which the Company or its affiliates do or may carry on business in the future; risks related to disruption of supply routes which may cause delays in construction and mining activities, including disruptions in the supply of key mining inputs due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and conflicts in the Middle East; risk of loss due to acts of war, terrorism, sabotage and civil disturbances; risks associated with new diseases, epidemics and pandemics, including the effects and potential effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic; litigation and legal and administrative proceedings; employee relations including loss of key employees; increased costs and physical and transition risks related to climate change, including extreme weather events, resource shortages, emerging policies and increased regulations related to greenhouse gas emission levels, energy efficiency and reporting of risks; and availability and increased costs associated with mining inputs and labor. In addition, there are risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining, including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations, pressures, cave-ins, flooding and gold bullion, copper cathode or gold or copper concentrate losses (and the risk of inadequate insurance, or inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks).
Many of these uncertainties and contingencies can affect our actual results and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, us. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. Specific reference is made to the most recent Form 40-F/Annual Information Form on file with the SEC and Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities for a more detailed discussion of some of the factors underlying forward-looking statements and the risks that may affect Barrick's ability to achieve the expectations set forth in the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.
Barrick disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.
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