Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Spratt1982 you've done the calculations? Please let us see them. :-)
Unfortunately it seems Havieron is closed off to the south. But Paddy's latest image shows two more holes to the north so you could be right. They seem pretty agressive stepouts after an agressive stepout - 100m - at HAD23 so Newcrest obviously emboldened by what geos are seeing. Perhaps these are the last holes before the Christmas shutdown.
You're welcome Gino73. I'm not convinced there will be a battle for Cascabel as much as Nick would like one. His/SOLGs bid for CGP.v was meant to flush out another player IMO but nothing has happened hence a return to BHP so as to balance NCM but I think that NCM & BHP will do some sort of deal that ends in a 50:50 JV. Maybe everything is on hold until the BHP standstill agreement expires. In the meantime everyone knows CGP is a seller at the right price.
Looking at Fig.2 & 3 (50m apart) it's easy to forget the "discovery" hole HAD5 which, east of the dyke had an interval of 128m @8g/t Au equiv. Beside & below it is HAD21 with 128m @4g/t Au equiv. Continuing below HAD21 is HAD14, 75m @4g/t Au equiv and then HAD17 with 124m @2g/t Au equiv.
It's a shame Newcrest can't fill in the historical data in each update.
Newcrest: "Our Havieron drilling returns are out today with high grade results. Drilling is set to increase over the first half of FY2020".
https://twitter.com/NewcrestMining/status/1201327696682176512
GET ON BOARD!
NB Sept Qtr Exploration report: "Drilling has defined up to 4 sub-vertical zones of higher-grade mineralisation".
2 Dec NR: "To date the Havieron drilling has defined a series of higher-grade zones".
Is a "series" >4? :-)
Look at holes 28 & 25: HAD28 - 46m at approx 7.5g/t Au equiv from 543m depth; HAD25 ~200m beneath HAD28 - 39m at 7g/t Au equiv. Midway between 25 & 28 is HAD18 which had zone of 16m at approx 7.5g/t Au equiv. That is USD350 p/t rock!
but there's more! Look again at Fig.4. HAD12 is another ~130m deeper below HAD25 and returned an interval of 43m @ 7.9g/t Au, 0.83% Cu (9g/t Au equiv) from 900m.
A rough calc on all of that? It could be 300koz of gold. (Just having fun!)
I'm quite optimistic after HAD23. Last report showed HAD15 as the most northerly hole. It appears to have been collared too far east and drilled below the high grade zones. HAD23 hit high grade only ~200m into the Yeena Supergroup, the sedimentary host rocks for Havieron. Assumng it continues north then there could be another 200m of vertical strike which is why those NW holes have appeared on the satellite images.
PG, the puzzle with HAD19 is that it didn't go very deep, only 530m so only about 100m into the rocks that hosts the copper & gold. I wonder why NCM gave up so quickly. There must be signature rocks - breccia, skarn - that were absent.
Another puzzle as you say are those two holes to the SW. Images tomorrow will add more interest!
Thanks for the new 3D model.
Hey CB, have you had hands-on experience with TruScan and it application to gold? I guess it is expensive and not everyone can afford it but obviously NCM can. It may be a favoured client of BLY.
This is fascintating for Havieron given that Au is the driver rather than Cu and NCM is trying to track the high grade zones which would take forever if it had to wait for assays to come back from the lab.
Truly amazing in terms of locating follow-up drill collars .
Hopefully PGs image tomorrow shows some clear indications of new rig locations. It seems to have slowed up somehwat in the last couple of weeks.
Gino73
Timok in Serbia. Initial bid by Lundin, trumped by Zijin. https://www.mining.com/chinas-zijin-clears-last-regulatory-condition-1-41b-nevsun-takeover/
Thanks smickster. I don't know about the others but Frieda river in PNG won't happen anytime soon i.e. next 20 years or more!
Alpala will be a mine in 5 years with BHP & Newcrest joint operators. And there's a lot more copper & gold to be found on the Cascabel concession.
I thought I'd start a thread in case someone going to the AGM was prepared to ask the questions if they weren't answered during the meeting. Hopefully some will post their notes here.
My three are:
1. will drilling continue thru the summer/wet season;
2. when will you know true widths of downhole intersecitons; and
3. what does Newcrest mean when it refers to high grade mineralisation.
Thanks in advance,
T
NCM was prepared to spend a lot of money for 70% of Red Chris so seems to indicate it doesn't need 100% ownership. NCM and many other majors & bigger miners are relying on junior exploration companies to do grassroots exploration and then approaching them about JVs. If NCM does the wrong thing and loses the trust of these JECs there are many other big players willing to play game.
NCM & other majors are run by beancounters a.k.a accountantants and career managers a.k.a bureaucrats and these people are not interested in being heroes, rather they want to make sure they are not zeroes, so they will be very careful about acquisitions and would rather wait for scoping studies, PEAs, PFSs and other TLAs.
Just enjoy the ride that we are currently on. With Paddy's excellent images and other finds we are being kept up-to-date much better than most other shareholders in JECs.
In recent days I've heard two Aussie fund managers say they would invest in GGP if it was listed in Australia. One even opined that he thought <5% of FMs worldwide had the ability or inclination to invest on AIM.
We all love speculating on the model for Havieron, the tonnage, grade etc. Unfortunatley there is not enough data. NCM says it does not yet know true width in its holes. We need more info so Paddy can update his 3D model.
KB007, yes that is true but it is a red herring that Nick likes to raise. Think thru what that means. Under what scenario is it a possibility? If CGP is still in the game at that point there would be no shortage of investors willing to help fund its 15% equity position. At that point it will definitely be a world class project.
"Cornerstone will fund its 15% after Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) - If the BFS is positive, we will raise our nominal share, which is only $150 million for every $1 billion in capex". Slide 13.
RIO has its hands full in Mongolia and doesn't want to be the junior partner to BHP.
If there were others interested in tipping in $22m I'm sure Nick would have found them. The fact is that despite Alpala being a great inter-generational project, there are other prospects around the world and also some might be cautious about Ecuador. Finally, I had thought China Inc. might be interested but it seems the Ecuador Govt. is cool on that idea.
All good fun speculating on how the endgame will play out. I'm quite long CGP so I am probably biassed. Whether CGP management is committed to Newcrest is not something I'm not convinced about. It has serious skin in the game so I'm sure it will do what's best for CGP.
Chartbuster: feeding the chooks?!
"Havieron is a mine.....simple as that." That is an easy thing to say to a room full of fans . :-) Yes, probably, but when? Would it be better to say Havieron WILL be a mine. Do you care to put a date on it?
Nothing Newcrest is doing should surprise anyone. Taken to its conclusion, Newcrest will spend ~AUD100m at Havieron so we are seeing that money being spent in systematic fashion as each step of exploration is successfully achieved. Take the core shed. It's being made out to be a major surprise development. But now that Newcrest has 6 rigs and hundreds of thousands of metres of core to process & store, it's just another step in the evolution of the project.
You rightly point to a decline as another step in the exploration cycle. That would be a significant signal of intent by Newcrest IMO.
Tom E's original question was "Is there enough info to begin mine planning?"
There's enough info/progress for the feelgood factor to be sky high re Havieron without speculating on mine planning and there's more to come in the Paterson Range. It's the exploration success that will drive the SP, not entering the development phase. Hence why some of us are impatient to get Scallywag drilling underway.
Newcrest knows what's required in terms of the Telfer mine timeline. Trust it to get it right at Havieron because a lot rests on it for its s/holders but even more for us!
Cheers,
A (timid) Havieron bull :-)
Hey Cookie, Alpala requires a certain type of player. BHP is there because it is big. Newcrest has a seat at the table because it is a world leader in the type of mining technique likely to give the best OPEX.
I agree with addicknt that Cascabel will end up with BHP & Newcrest but whereas addicknt thinks BHP won't work with anyone I think otherwise. My guess is SOLG could not find anyone else to cough up $22m. What does $22m buy? Not much, about 6 months. Both BHP & NCM know enough to make a move at any time. I think they are waiting for Nick Mather to submit. He has put up a great fight but the end is nigh in trms of cascabel. Of course SOLG has a bright future apart from Cascabel.
A lot of b/s being written here. RIo is not interested in this project. Cornerstone has no long term interest in SOLG or Cascabel - " Cascabel is the type of asset that will end up under the control of a major mining company". See Slide 14 here: http://www.cornerstoneresources.com/i/pdf/Presentations_0919_CRICorporate.pdf
"No one has a right of first refusal or other pre-emptive right on Cornerstone the listed company - Any buyer of Cornerstone would simply step into our shoes with the carried interest". Slide 13.
BHP will quite happily work in a JV with Newcrest. Its only insistence will be on being the operator e.g. Escondida.
Sit tight, be patient.
Shares of Newcrest Mining are unlikely to hold on to their current premium as cash flow is consumed by capital investment and earnings falter, Macquarie says, lowering its target price by 26% to A$23. That implies further downside to the current A$30.63 share price even after the 12% decline so far this quarter which has eaten into 2019 gains. Approval to expand the Cadia mine in Australia heralds a decade of projects Macquarie estimates could total US$10 billion. While Newcrest's balance sheet capacity can handle that, Macquarie notes earnings are set to decline as production at Cadia falls and cash flow goes toward projects.
BTW, look at Slide 14 -http://www.solgold.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/SolGold_Corporate_PPT_Munich-.pdf
Replace Imperial Metals (deal done) & Solgold with Newcrest and you get the picture! Newcrest sitting pretty on some assets that align with its block-caving expertise and stated aim of looking for deep orebodies. And then there's exploration in the Patterson Range in JV with Greatland Gold but enough said about Newcrest. It's coming, just like winter. :-)
Does BHP have technical staff who can help at Cascabel? Who cares! That's not the basis for Newcrest making a bid! Cascabel is an inter-generational asset that WILL be owned by majors. Who knows how it will play out but management at Solgold, BHP, Newcrest & Cornerstone know how to value this project and they won't be using the current market price as a guide! BTW, $22m pays for a lot of drilling at Cascabbel in the next six months. Have a look at all of the targets at Cascabel on slide 13 http://www.solgold.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/SolGold_Corporate_PPT_Munich-.pdf