RE: Good piece on the Patterson7 Mar 2024 13:20
"Paterson:
Psst…want to get a foot on more than 15 million ounces of gold and 3 million tonnes of copper in the ready-to-develop category via a potential once in a lifetime province play?
That’s what is unfolding in the remote Paterson province in Western Australia, about 400km inland from Port Hedland.
The potential play is a result of Newmont putting its Telfer gold-copper mine and its 70% owned Havieron gold-copper discovery 45km to the east up for sale following its takeover of Newcrest, and Rio Tinto seemingly losing interest in its Winu gold-copper discovery,
The combined resource at Telfer/Havieron stands at 9.3 million ounces of gold and 700,000t of copper, with exploration upside, most notably at depth at the ageing Telfer, and in an around Havieron.
At Winu, the buzz discovery of 2017 which was originally funded by the credit cards of Rio geologists because the London head office was too slow in dispatching funding, the resource stands at 5.87 million ounces of gold and 2.43 tonnes of copper.
Rio hasn’t said it is looking to sell Winu but it did say in its December quarterly report that it was now looking for ‘’alternative development models and partnerships” to carry the project forward.
That is being taken in mining circles as code for “we will entertain offers”. No surprise in that as Winu’s copper component is not up to scratch for a company of its size. And like all of the majors, it struggles to understand how the market values gold assets, so it is better for others to own.
There is nothing to suggest that Telfer/Havieron and Winu will get sold off to the one buyer. But the potential is there, all of which might be of interest to Andrew Forrest through his privately held Wyloo, or Fortescue for that matter.
Wyloo is an 8.5% per cent shareholder in the London-listed Greatland Gold (AIM:GGP), the company that discovered Havieron which it now rates at 8.4 million ounces of gold equivalent. It is a 30% partner in the discovery with Newmont which owns 70% and is the operator (Newmont owns 100% of Telfer).
The idea all along has been for Havieron to feed its higher grade ore in to the hungry Telfer treatment plant to extend its life as a 400,000 gold producer well in to the next decade.
Neatly, Greatland is looking to list on the ASX in the second half of the year. Its current market cap is around the $A660 mark. Given the independent expert in the Newcrest takeover valued Telfer and its 70% Havieron stake at $US500-$US600m, Greatland would need to gear up in a big way to make Telfer/Havieron its own.
Having a shareholder like Wyloo on board would make the task all that much earlier. And in big picture stuff, why not go the whole hog and make a pitch to become the King of the Paterson by bidding Rio for Winu.
Notably, Fortescue is an active explorer in the Paterson in its own right, having taken up a big ground position following the discovery of Winu. So it is not adverse to gold-
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