Morning News Bites – July 3

Federal Treasurer Mathias Cormann has suggested there will be further tax incentives for business in the October Budget, but also indicated he will step away from politics after the budget. Afterpay is closing in on an ASX Top 20 spot and reports quarantine hotels let guests out to go shopping in Victoria.

Civmec have been awarded a new contract with a Dry Plant Detailed Earthworks and Concrete package for the Iron Bridge Magnetite Project 145km from Port Hedland. Civmec’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Patrick Tallon, said: “Through our current delivery of works for Fortescue in the Pilbara, we have formed a strong working relationship built on transparency, trust and collaboration and reliable execution. This is an exciting project of a very significant scale with a declared value for the overall project being US$2.6 billion. The Iron Bridge Joint Venture has demonstrated and refined each step of the magnetite ore processing system and conducted full-scale trials to ensure the effectiveness of the process and gain confidence in the overall project success”. The works will commence immediately and are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022. The works are to enable 22 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of high grade, magnetite concentrate product to be produced.

Black Cat Syndicate, who yesterday announced the stake that Silver Lake has now in the company alongside some recent acquisitions, has announced drill results at Mhyree. Drilling intersected mineralisation  and recorded 6.45m @ 9.43 g/t Au from 228.51m, 1.97m @ 11.68 g/t Au from 155.06m and 2.14m @ 21.03 g/t Au from 95.06m. Mhyree is 100% owned by Black Cat Syndicate and continues to deliver strong results. Gareth Solly – Managing Director of Black Cat said “The geotechnical results and positive gold assays will be fed into the Myhree mining study. The recent RC drilling at Bulong has also now been completed and assays are expected in mid-July 2020. Additional diamond holes are currently being drilled at Myhree with results due in late August 2020. RC drill planning on priority targets at Fingals is now underway and will be announced in July 2020.”

Recent Exploration at the Sandy Creek and Tallandoon Goldfields has brought results for Dart Mining in an historical area in Northeast Victoria. Multiple occurrences of disseminated gold-sulphide mineralisation in hydrothermally altered granites have been identified at Sandy Creek. While high-grade gold occurring with antimony-lead-zinc-gold-silver silica-sulphide mineralisation identified at Tallandoon. Further drilling is required at Sandy Creek Goldfield with multiple targets and a workplan for 980m of drilling, which has been approved for first pass RAB or RC drilling of the primary targets identified.

Great Boulder Resources has announced drilling is scheduled to recommence mid July. Drilling will test priority areas within the large, coherent gold-in-soil anomaly identified earlier in the year by auger sampling at its Whiteheads Project north of Kalgoorlie. Great Boulder Managing Director Andrew Paterson said “We’ve been fairly quiet for the past couple of months, conserving cash while the Coronavirus pandemic played out. “Now that things are returning to normal in Western Australia we’re looking forward to testing these priority anomalies at Whiteheads. The bottom-of-hole geochemistry study is ongoing, and a lot more work is planned for the coming months.”

It’s been a big week for Ora Banda Mining. After announcements this week on it’s projects North of Kalgoorlie, including its Davyhurst Definitive Feasibility Study where Managing Director David Quinlivan said “The DFS confirms that the significant existing infrastructure will enable Ora Banda to pursue a rapid and low-capex path to production, with the first gold pour targeted for January 2021”, Ora Banda Mining has entered a trading halt pending a capital rising. It’s anticipated the halt will be lifted on or before Tuesday July 7 2020.