Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
London South East prides itself on its community spirit, and in order to keep the chat section problem free, we ask all members to follow these simple rules. In these rules, we refer to ourselves as "we", "us", "our". The user of the website is referred to as "you" and "your".
By posting on our share chat boards you are agreeing to the following:
The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. As a user you agree to any information you have entered being stored in a database. You agree that we have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic or board at any time should we see fit. You agree that we have the right to remove any post without notice. You agree that we have the right to suspend your account without notice.
Please note some users may not behave properly and may post content that is misleading, untrue or offensive.
It is not possible for us to fully monitor all content all of the time but where we have actually received notice of any content that is potentially misleading, untrue, offensive, unlawful, infringes third party rights or is potentially in breach of these terms and conditions, then we will review such content, decide whether to remove it from this website and act accordingly.
Premium Members are members that have a premium subscription with London South East. You can subscribe here.
London South East does not endorse such members, and posts should not be construed as advice and represent the opinions of the authors, not those of London South East Ltd, or its affiliates.
As an afterthought on visibility of REEs - across the border in South Africa, the large and geologically complex Phalaborwa carbonatite has been mined for decades, originally for its copper resource. Last year it was discovered that one of the mine waste dumps (mostly apatite) contained 1-2% TREOs. Rainbow Rare Earths (LON:RBW) has signed up to reprocess the spoil heaps in order to extract & separate the REEs, which no one had previously spotted, even though it is known that REEs are associated with apatite. Assays at Ditau are a must.
Indicators that there may be REEs, in order of visual obviousness (is there such a word?), high to low:
1. Carbonatite - looks like light coloured larger crystal marble
2. Fenitization - multi-pulse of hot alkali fluids change the mineralisation in the rocks around the carbonatite intrusion, most noticeable where the carbonatite intrusion is in direct contact with the host rocks.
3. Minerals associated with REEs possibly visible within both the carbonatites and fenites, especially in veins related to fractures and brecciation.
4. REEs occur as replacement of other more common elements within these minerals, so assay will be needed to confirm the indicators 1 - 3 above.
That’s very helpful indeed. Thanks JP2K!
They will identify carbonatites (source of REE ) very quickly by visual inspection because they're distinctive and you would think a geo could put a small sample through a local mass spectrometer to identify the composition but they won't release any composition/grade without assays.
The clues for PIs will be:
Core photo's the more the better
Possibly core under UV light can be quite distinctive
Might say they found XXX meters if its a continuous & distinct rock formation
Expedited assays = good, no mention of assays (i1) probably not so good
BT's body language/excitement level although remember TA2DD002 (KSZ) which was important enough to warrant an out of hours RNS and presentation but we've still not had the results after 9 months.
Drilling much deeper than expected, can either mean the modelling didn't match the core, geos following a hunch (like TA2) and they have multiple targets from AMT etc, or they found something and want to maximise the amount of core/data.
Presumably we will have to wait for assays before we can say there are REEs? Or can visual inspection give us any clues?
On 1st June, I posted:
" I have previously speculated here about three possibilities -
* that the I10 'intriguing' core is similar to one I have seen that contained Carlin-type finely disseminated gold in the pyrite.
* that the coincident magnetic and gravity anomalies at I10 are similar to those at the GRS - perhaps another smaller IOCG, this one haematite, rather than magnetite, based.
* a little more speculative is that the apparent layering of mafic & ultramafic rocks may be similar to that seen in the Bushveld Complex, which is the world's largest source of Platinum."
Gold & PGEs don't show up reliably on hand held XRF, mostly due to the likely very low concentrations and fine dissemination. The main value of XRF when looking for precious metals is to identify elements that commonly occur together with gold - the 'pathfinder' metals. As Metalhead has noted, maybe they have seen a Carlin-type pathfinder metal on the XRF, these include not just arsenic, but barium, mercury & antimony. There are different groups of pathfinder metals for different gold deposit styles.
A while back I had some brief correspondence with Ben on the likelihood of this being Carlin-type, clearly the KAV geos are aware of this possibility, equally clear is that he is unable to go into details at this stage. I should point out that most Carlin-type deposits are overprinted on to carbonates, whereas to me the I10 'intriguing core' looks like metamorphosed BIF (banded iron formation), brecciated, then overprinted with silica and pyrite in two different stages.
fyi, the original Carlin trend in Nevada is believed to contain over 500M oz of Au - I don't want to be accused of ramping, so I won't point out that the Carlin in-ground value is over a $Trillion.
From the latest geophysics, I8 does look like a classic carbonatite, the first hole must be at the increased target depth by now, so we will find out soon what the structure is, and if there is likely to be any REE mineralisation.
I suppose they might have Arsenic on the xrf, but not gold. Would certainly be nice if we had a Carlin type trend at Ditau :-)
Hi Metalhead,
I agree it sounds like 'we think that we have found some level of precious metal' but they daren't say that. I know precious metals heve been discussed here multiple times but I tend to put more emphasis on info from RNS rather than interviews, hence my post. It does sound promising.
Hi JP2000,
From POW RNS
'The target conforms to an idealised model for a carbonatite. The composition of this is now being tested by drillhole DITDD006, planned to a depth of 400m.' I assume REEs are being targeted by the current drill hole.
I would love to know *why* they think i10 has precious metal potential. The only thing they really point to is the pyrite but I would have thought that by itself was more of a Ni-Cu sulphide lead? Perhaps they have xrf and are just keeping it to themselves?
Not sure I've read anything that specifically says one or the other for that specific hole JP. Obviously (as you're probably aware) Ditau campaign is targeting / prospective for both REE and base metals so I'd imagine it's potentially both.
Is i8 targeting base metals or REE?
An extract from the annual report
'Kavango’s original exploration model at Ditau focussed on 12 geophysical targets, which the Company believed represented potential “ring structures” and could be prospective for rare earth elements and base metals. As with the KSZ, the Ditau PLs are covered by relatively thick sand cover that obscures the regional geology from view. As such the current Ditau drill programme is expected to provide important physical geological data to guide future exploration.
To this end, and as of writing this report, the Company has already noted the precious metal potential at the i10 target and is actively pursuing this as an exploration lead.'
The BOD including Ben are already significantly invested in the company and the founders probably have their life savings invested in KAV. ‘Demanding’ that the BOD buy more shares in the open market just because the share price has fallen and to ‘validate’ our own investment for us IMO is quiet pointless. Furthermore, we don’t know what Ben, Hillary or Mike’s personal financial situation is and not should we. For me it’s fine that they have made such significant investments in the past including MIke’s purchase of some 10million shares @4.5p just a few months back. Putting unnecessary pressure on Ben like this on a public forum is unlikely to do any good.
When can we expect BT to buy some shares himself on the open market? Not sure if/when he last did so (but will check). I appreciate that BOD will have been in a closed period for some time, but given that they are proclaiming how undervalued KAV is, it would be good to see BT put his money where his mouth is?
Definitely something to look out for in this bear market - how many Directors are going to back their own companies during share price lows?
Particularly since Ben currently has Covid (for the 4th time). I don't see too many people continuing to work whilst ill.
Nice to see Ben putting the hours in FK
I think we are onto a good thing here at Kav
Very happy to be invested
Atb
Interesting little update from Ben via Market Bull esp. comment re the accuracy of the CSMAT down to 500m which as predicted by some here is the depth they have probably gotten through on i8.
https://twitter.com/TheMarketBullAU/status/1540096401832804352
Nice 0.5million shares buy at end of day!
The 28m 'zone of interest' (Carlin-type finely disseminated gold within the pyrite?) was from I10, not I8. I8 is obviously proving to be interesting in its own right, since they are drilling deeper than initially planned. We will possibly hear something next week.
From 26:15 - will be putting out an announcement very soon on the B1 conductor and hope to be drilling there soon - very interesting stuff going on …
As Keith has eluded to previously it does appear that their hands have been tied as to what they have been able to tell us so far on the B1 conductor maybe because they are bound by exclusivity conditions. Looks like we may finally get an answer on this ‘very shortly’ fingers crossed!
Enjoyed the presentation
Whole market sentiment is low.
My view has always been long term hold... so this low sp does not worry me...
JV would be good...good Core would be good too.
Either way...its cheap ATM..... with compelling upside if the dice role our way....
ATB
Ditau hole 004 core: "28 metres..... of a rock no one has been able to identify which we believe is a precious metal lead"
From 12.50 in preso.
FK79 - I guess what troubles me about the messaging and the whole POC labelling is that BT has said that the NEXT drilling at the KSZ will not be about POC, but will be about going for mineralisation (i.e. making a discovery). Now, correct me if I am wrong, but the objectives of this next campaign will be exactly the same as the last one, namely, to drill through the conductor(s), in the hope that we hit mineralisation (i.e. make a discovery)? So I don't really see a major difference here that merits a different labelling exercise.
Put differently, what will be different about our objectives at the next KSZ campaign, as compared to the last one, such that one was about POC and the other was about finding mineralisation? To me, it just seems like they are trying to create a secondary objective (POC) to give a sense of achievement nonetheless, when the primary objective (hitting mineralisation) hasn't been achieved. Not sure it will work either in this unforgiving market.
Overall, this kind of approach, is just leaving me with a slight sense about whether we can trust KAV to just openly admit to negative outcomes, as opposed to sugar coating or melting them away under layers of complex geology/POC type of talk?
Ditau is a case in point. Are we still in the search for rare earth minerals, or has some new objective emerged from the campaign results to date, which we will be presented with in due course, even if they don't find what they were originally drilling for?
Link is on here BCB...few posts down. Unless you mean from somewhere else?
Legal I agree it was a good presentation and Ben did well to hold frustrations back. Personally I think the reasons Ben has had to keep discussing the POC is because he is getting asked questions that show many don't understand the process here.
Hopefully many see the point he has now tried to reinforce. That being, they have sand cover over the ground. That's good as it's meant less exploration has been done in many areas and has meant KAV have managed to get acces to and a strategic hold on these under explored areas/licenses.
However its challenging as they have no visibility of surface other than sands and therefore the models have been built on new techniques, required multiple exploration methods and more assumptions.
While the high siemens is encouraging and could have led to hitting a mineralised area during early stage POC KSZ drilling (which was obviously a hope all investors had) IMO I always felt Ben reiterated it's a POC primarily to validate and to refine their models.
They strategically drilled into what they modelled was the conductor in the KSZ with a hope it may be an early win but ultimately they identified it was actually two targets. Foremost though it was always a POC hole.
All that aside they've moved onto the next stage now as they take this data and feed it into their understanding and identify targets. Which obviously takes time to build in and then plan around.
As they define plans and drill to target mineralisation and discoveries next it will be an exciting time. Hopefully the market conditions pick up before this gets underway in ernest.
Atb all
Nice one, thank you FK