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Its quarterlies season again as the ASX market announcements page becomes increasingly flooded with earnings lodgements.
To save you the trouble of trudging through it all, we’ve wrapped up the highlights from some of the reports that caught our eye.
DEG released the prefeasibility study (PFS) for its Mallina gold project during the quarter, which also included a JORC Probable Ore Reserve for Hemi discovery of 103Mt at 1.5g/t gold for 5.1Moz.
The PFS highlighted that the project would be a low-cost producer compared with current Australian producing gold mines, with a projected average AISC of $1,220/oz over the first five years and $1,280/oz over the first 10 years, placing the project in the lowest quartile of Australian producing gold mines with production above 200,000ozpa.
It would have an average total annual gold production of 540,000ozpa over the first 10 years and a total production of 6.4Moz over a 13.6 year life of mine.
Plus, it had solid economics, with a Net Present Value (NPV5%) of $3.9 billion pre-tax and $2.7 billion post-tax, Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 51% pre-tax and 41% post-tax, a payback of 1.6 years pre-tax and 1.8 years post-tax.
Capital cost for the 10Mtpa plant and site infrastructure is estimated to be $985 million. Additional mine preproduction pre-strip capital cost of $68 million.
The current focus is starting the DFS in parallel with formal project construction funding discussions, with an FID expected mid-2023.
The company ended the quarter in a healthy cash position with cash reserves of A$36.9 million.
The company made solid progress in the September quarter, completing a strategic A$25m farm-in agreement with Newcrest (ASX:NCM) to advance its Mt Coolon Gold Project in the Drummond Basin in Queensland.
NCM can acquire up to 75% of Mount Coolon by spending up to $25m and completing a series of exploration milestones – including 23,000m of drilling – over six years.
The deal frees up GBZ to focus its efforts (and money) on the nearby Twin Hills and Yandan gold projects, which have a combined resource of ~1.38Moz.
Notably, drilling at the 309 deposit at Twin Hills during the quarter returned a peak result 1 m at 42.01 g/t gold from 426 m in an interval of 28 m at 4.06 g/t Au from 408m.
Newcrest will have a first right of refusal over the Twin Hills and Yandan Projects should GBM look to sell or joint venture these assets.
The company saw record quarterly production at its Mineral Hill gold and copper mine in NSW of 3,359oz gold and 1,708oz silver.
Plus, resource extension drilling returned some solid results, including 12m at 3.68 g/t gold, 9 g/t silver from 14m.
Feasibility work programs are well progressed for processing plant refurbishment to produce copper concentrate and commence mining from Pearse pits and SOZ underground – where resource updated are expected this quarter.
At the Misima Gold Project in PNG, the company is finalising the full ESIA report for submission with the studies required for the mining licence application nearing completion.
During the quarter, NickelSearch expanded its portfolio of nickel sulphide targets with two additional high priority exploration sites – the Sprint and Relay targets – which have been classified as highly prospective greenfield exploration sites.
The highly prospective corridor has a strike extent of 6km which the company says is indicative of nickel sulphides at depth.
Notably, earlier exploration of the area has been restricted to search for nickel laterite only and the few fences of drill holes that cross parts of the target areas were shallow, generally less than 30m in depth.
The company has also upgraded the John Ellis West target and progressed land access and a heritage survey with traditional owners at the Carlingup tenements, with a program of drilling expected to kick off in Q4 2022.
NIS had a cash balance of $3.6 million at 30 September 2022.
The company wrapped up the phase 2 RC drilling program at the Highway nickel-cobalt-copper-palladium deposit at the Pardoo Nickel project during the quarter.
The program comprised 20 new drill holes for a total of 4157 m, bringing the total number of metres drilled by the company at Highway to 34 RC drill holes for a total of 5865m, with results expected in December.
Further work on the Mallina gold project will be announced in the coming weeks and the company is continuing to evaluate the Columbus Marsh and Rhodes Marsh lithium projects in Nevada.
Also, during the period, Caeneus appointed Dean Tuck as non-executive director, and Nick Poll as executive director.
Coolabah listed in July, following its $6 million IPO, and has hit the ground running.
The company completed a A 996-line km HeliTEM2 survey at its Coolabah copper project and an airborne gravity survey at its Nymagee gold-copper-lead-zinc project, both in NSW.
Plus, at the Gunpower Creek project in QLD, rock chip sampling flagged high grade gold up to 21 g/t.
CBH has now commenced RC Drilling following up high grade gold results and wrapped up the quarter with $4.8m cash at bank.
During the September quarter, Peregrine Gold progressed its Newman project with the company noting in early August that visible gold had been identified in drill core within a quartz-ironstone breccia vein at the Peninsula prospect.
A 92 hole reverse circulation drill program totalling 5,377m was completed in September with a focus on the Birdsnest, Peninsula and Tin Can prospects to better understand the structural controls on the gold deposition.
Separately, the company has also hunting Hemi-style targets at its Mallina project in WA’s Pilbara region with a recent airborne survey finding 84 late intrusive features in clusters.
The basement has also been interpreted to have similarities in structural and lithological character as De Grey’s Mallina Basin gold camp, which hosts the Hemi discovery.
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While De Grey Mining, GBM Resources, NickelSearch, Caeneus Minerals and Peregrine Gold are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
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