Morning News Bites – August 20

In Today’s Morning News Bites for August 20. Qantas profits fall 91% as 6000 jobs are axed. Wesfarmers slashes the value of Target by $525 million. Pantoro reports Scotia Mining Centre has been expanded once again due to new zone discovery. 

The Scotia Mining Centre has once again been expanded with the discovery a new zone of near surface mineralisation at Green Lantern, south east of the existing Scotia open pit, located approximately 25 km south of Norseman in Western Australia. Commenting on the results Pantoro Managing Director Paul Cmrlec said, “We are excited about the long-term potential of the area, and continue to test additional surface targets while we commence the drill out of depth extensions to the existing high grade orebodies.”

Impact Minerals Limited announces that drilling has now commenced at the Platinum Springs Prospect at the company’s Broken Hill nickel-copper-platinum group metal (PGM) project in New South Wales. Three prospects to be drill tested to follow up previous drill intercepts such as: 2.75 metres at 3.5 g/t platinum, 7 g/t palladium, 0.4 g/t gold, 2% copper, 1.9% nickel and 11.6 g/t silver from 55 metres down hole; and 1.5. metres at 1.7% nickel, 1.3% copper, 4.3 g/t palladium, 3.05 g/t platinum and 1.08 g/t gold.

Minotaur Exploration and Avira Resources Ltd have signed a binding Terms Sheet under which, subject to it satisfying its due diligence requirements, Minotaur may acquire 100% ownership of the Pyramid tenement group located 180km south of Townsville. The project, covering 150km2, embraces two main areas prospective for gold, being the West Pyramid Range and East Pyramid Range. Historic high-grade gold drill intercepts, such as 35m @ 6.1g/t and 15m @ 5.65g/t, with ground electrical geophysics to refine mineralised trends.

Field work activities are underway at its 1,050km2 Kurnalpi project 50km east of Kalgoorlie, according to Riversgold Limited. Field crew have mobilised to site and commenced work, with Simon Bolster coordinating sampling activities on site and validating remote sensing regolith interpretation. Initial work will focus on the infill and extension of Farr-Jones and Cutler geochemical surveys where historical gold intercepts include highlights of; 10 metres at 11 g/t Au (Cutler) and 3 metres at 17.8 g/t Au (Farr-Jones).

Mandrake Resources Limited provides a progress update on drilling currently underway targeting gold mineralisation at the Berinka Pine Creek Gold Project in the Northern Territory. The reverse circulation (RC) drilling programme is focused on strong gold anomalies derived from historic soil, rock chip and trench sampling across four separate prospects – Vegetation Anomaly, Terry’s Gap, Cross and Sandy Creek.

 

 

Morning News Bites – June 26

It’s Refrigeration Day… Thats pretty cool. Australia New Zealand announced as Host for FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup.

  • Earlier this week details on the final milestone for the Manganese Project, Butcherbird with Element 25 were announced. Today, Element 25 has announced details on a water bore drill program to provide sufficient process water for the beneficiation plant at the Project. Earlier water exploration identified a prospective supply and also  two aquifers, a shallow aquifer in near surface calcretes and a deep aquifer in palaeochannel sands. This project helps de-risk the project and to progress the timeline for production.
  • Qantas has completed its approximate $1,360 million fully underwritten placement of approximately 372.7 million new shares. 94% of the shares were taken by exisiting investors  “The fact that there was significant demand for this offer shows clear support for our recovery plan and confidence in the fundamentals of this business. The plan involves some difficult decisions but we are extremely well positioned to get through this crisis and start growing again on the other side.” Qantas is expected to recommence trading today. As stated previously, the proceeds from the equity raising will be used to accelerate the Group’s recovery, strengthen its balance sheet and position it to capitalise on opportunities aligned with its strategy.
  • Assay results have been received by Aldoro for its Penny South project. The 1m samples include 3m at 2.5g/t Au from 193m, inc. 1m at 6.7g/t Au from 194m and 3m at 2.8g/t Au from 221m, inc. 1m at 5.2g/t Au from 222m. This initial RC program was quite wide and shows a mineralised structure extending for a strike length of over 400m. Aldoro’s Managing Director Caedmon Marriott said: “We are encouraged by the results of the Company’s first RC program at Penny South. This widely spaced program, with lines 100m apart, appears to show a mineralised structure in the southern target area over a strike length of 400m, with assay results not too dissimilar to the Youangarra and Magenta Prospects at Ramelius Resources’ neighbouring Penny Project. The results warrant further follow up drilling hoping to find areas of increased grade and/or thickness.”
  • The commencement of drilling at Mandrake Resources Berinka Pine Creek Gold Project in the Northern Territory will commence in July after approval from the Northern Territory Department of Primary Industry and Resources. Previous drilling has identified intersections of 4m @ 6.6g/t from 32m, 6m @ 3.8g/t from 18m and 5m @ 2.6g/t from 30m. Mandrake Resources also has interest in a Ni-Cu-PGE Project north east of Perth. There is currently field exploration work at the Jimperding Ni-Cu-PGE Project with assay results from 44 rock chip samples to be known in around two weeks.
  • A hit of 4m at 99.5g/t Au, including 1m at 390g/t Au (repeat assay 502g/t Au) has been revealed by Middle Island Resources from drilling at its Sandstone Gold Project. The result comes from the new Ridge deposit as part of initial Phase 2 RC drilling. The particular drill hole that gave the result as mentioned, MSRC530 – is the most northern hole and adjoins the Shillington Gap target, which where exploration drilling will take place towards the end of the Phase 2 campaign. Reports that the drill program has completed 9000m and is running to schedule were also released. The Feasibility Study update is also progressing well for Middle Island.

Morning News Bites – June 25

An arts funding boost is due to be announced by the Prime Minister today, Military to assist in Victoria`s COVID response and via the AFR – Australia is a star world performer when it comes to the only advanced economy to have its economic outlook upgraded by the IMF.

  • Central Systems PTY LTD which is a subsidiary of Resources Development Group, has been awarded a contract with Fortescue Metals Group construction of an overpass at FMG’s Cloudbreak mine site which is due for completion in late November 2020. While  Crushing  Service  Solutions  Pty  Ltd  which RDG has an 80% interest in has  also  been  awarded a crushing and screening services contract with Tianye SXO Gold Mining Pty Ltd to provide  these  services  in  order  to feed the Minjar Gold Plant near Southern Cross, Western  Australia fro around 12 months.
  • After an announcement yesterday that rocked the market by Red 5 – its share price dropped from .335c to .220c. Today Red 5 has announced a Final Feasibility Study Progress Update. As part of the update it was revealed GR Engineering Services has produced the design and costings for the Process Plant and other on-site infrastructure, A hydrology  study report is completed and a draft Tailings Storage Facility study has been drafted. Approvals for site works have been lodged to conduct early site works. Managing Director Mark Williams said “We continue to systematically progress towards completion of the FFS, with mining and engineering studies well advanced and project approvals on schedule. Strong progress is being made with planning for site early works and ordering of long-lead items, with the delivery of a recently-purchased accommodation village and offices expected to coincide with the planned commencement of site early works in the second half of CY2020. The successful completion of these work streams will put us on track to deliver the FFS on schedule in the September 2020 Quarter, marking a major milestone towards the development of one of Australia’s most exciting new gold development projects.”
  • An approval, key to commencement for Calidus Resources Warrawoona Gold Project in WA has been achieved with the Environmental Protection Authority. The final approval now sits with the Environment Minister Stephen Dawson. Drilling activities have resumed at site, including Pre-Collars for diamond drilling below the existing Klondyke Resource as well as additional water Exploration drilling to further de-risk water supply. Calidus Managing Director Dave Reeves said “The recommendation by the EPA is a key milestone in development of the Warrawoona Gold Project and significantly advances the timeline for permitting the development of the Project. We acknowledge the work of our consultants and the positive dialogue with the EPA throughout the assessment process. With all tenure now in place and the Feasibility Study on track for completion in the coming quarter, Warrawoona is rapidly moving towards development.” Warrawoona is located in the East Pilbara of Western Australia.
  • Qantas has placed itself into a trading halt pending a capital raising. Qantas is seeking to raise $1,860m of equity, comprising: – Approximately $1,360m fully underwritten institutional placement and up to $500m non-underwritten share purchase plan. Placement will be conducted at $3.65 per new share. In terms of passengers and capacity,  group domestic capacity reduced to 5% until mid Jun-20 and now at 15% of pre-COVID-19 levels. Qantas expects average domestic capacity of ~70% in FY21 and 100% in FY22.  There is strong demand for freight, however international service cancellations  have been extended through to late Oct-20.
  • New wide high grade intercepts at depth have been confirmed by diamond drilling outside of current ore reserves at Bardoc Gold`s Aphrodite Deposit. Results included 15.1m @ 6.58g/t Au from 418.1m including 5.3m @ 15.86g/t Au from 418.1m and 6.7m @ 3.01g/t Au from 402m. RC Drilling is underway for Bardoc at Zoroastrian, Excelsior and Aphrodite, with a planned resources update in Q3 2020 planned. The results of RC Drilling at Mayday North are due in coming weeks. Managing Director Robert Ryan said “The strong drilling results from Aphrodite continue to build confidence in our mine plan, which underpins the strong financial metrics within the PFS. The in-fill drilling to date has been a resounding success with widths and grades at all deposits being above modelled expectations. Reverse Circulation drilling has now commenced at Zoroastrian, Excelsior and Aphrodite, as we work towards our next comprehensive Mineral Resource update for the Bardoc Gold Project which we are targeting in the September Quarter. These programs should generate steadily increasing news flow in the weeks ahead.”