Morning News Bites for September 17. The ASX has opened weaker as Fortescue, Commonwealth Bank and Afterpay weigh on the index, Victoria reports lowest COVID-19 cases in 2 months as NSW eases border restrictions for regional communities.
Mincor’s Board approves development of the Kambalda Nickel Operations. The announcement of a Final Investment Decision for the planned re-commencement of nickel mining at Kambalda by Mincor is supported by a Credit Approved Terms Sheet which has been agreed with two Tier-1 international banks to provide a secured $55 million project finance facility. The facility, together with the Company’s existing cash reserves of more than $100 million, will allow Mincor to efficiently execute the delivery of its nickel restart plan in line with the Definitive Feasibility Study announced in March 2020. Pit N Portal has 60 calendar days to plan and mobilise for commencement of the contract. There are already several Pit N Portal personnel on site following the commencement of an early works program. Mincor’s Managing Director, David Southam commented, saying “It is a great honour to be announcing a Final Investment Decision which heralds Mincor’s return to nickel mining in Kambalda after a hiatus of some four years. “We are now on the cusp of realising our vision to resume profitable and sustainable nickel sulphide mining in the Kambalda district, and to do so in an environmentally responsible and ethical manner that will see this great nickel province return to the forefront of Class-1 nickel production globally.”
Macarthur Minerals Limited informed shareholders that Fe Limited has elected not to earn-in on a 25% Stage 1 Interest in Macarthur Lithium Pty Ltd’s gold and lithium tenements in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, pursuant to the Option Agreement executed between the parties in 2019. Following FEL’s decision, the parties have finalised arrangements for the orderly close-out of the joint venture, with effect from 15 September 2020. Cameron McCall, President and Executive Chairman of Macarthur Minerals commented, saying “Macarthur and FEL have enjoyed working with Fe Limited over the last 12 months. Macarthur continues to retain 26,666,667 shares in FEL and the Company wishes FEL well.”
Torian Resources Limited provided an update on its planned drilling program at the Mt Stirling Gold Project. A review of this area has recently been undertaken resulting in a number of historical gold-in-soil anomalies being uncovered. Up to 15,000m drill campaign to commence in the coming days with new Diorite East Prospect on Diorite Block the initial target. Subsequently, Mt Stirling Block drilling to recommence to test the depth and strike of existing Inferred Resource at Mt Stirling (33,900oz @ 1.45 g/t Au) & define extensions to Mt Stirling Well (16,000oz @ 2.01g/t Au). Phase 1 drilling has demonstrated Mt Stirling Project as a potentially large gold system with ore grade Au now intercepted over 100m below previous drilling and
extends over 1,000m strike length. This will be followed by drilling on the Mt Stirling Block and the main section of the Diorite Block where excellent high-grade gold results have been returned from soils and rock chip samples.
Hastings Technology Metals Limited, announced the first set of results from the 2020 Exploration Drilling Program, concentrated in the Fraser’s area. High-grade and shallow intersections from Yangibana’s highest grade deposit extensional drilling and have confirmed the company’s conceptual modelling for a large coherent zone extending from Fraser’s in the south to Bald Hill in the north, a distance of 7-8 kilometres, with efforts to rapidly expand and define mineralisation in the newly interpreted and discovered mineralised zones. High-grade and shallow intersections from extensional drilling included, 4m @ 1.31% from 4m, 4m @ 1.24% from 11m and 5m @ 1.28% from 52m.
New Ni-CuCo targets have been defined and validated at the Carr Boyd Nickel Project for Estrella Resources Limited. A geophysical survey is scheduled to commence in the coming weeks over the newly identified target areas. Carr Boyd was the first magmatic hosted style of nickel deposit discovered and mined in WA. It was discovered an the late 1960’s and produced 202, 110t of ore at an average grade of 1.43% Ni and 0.46% Cu between 1973-1977. Drill testing is set to commence once the geophysical survey is completed and targets defined.
