As gold gets comfortable above $2000/oz, revitalising old and neglected gold mines is very much in vogue.
Just look at the success guys like Spectrum Metals (ASX:SPX) and Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) are having (so far), and it’s easy to see why.
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In May, (very) diverse explorer Greenpower Energy (ASX:GPP) entered an agreement to potentially buy the historic gold mines of Camel Creek, Golden Cup and Big Rush in Northern Queensland.
As part of the ongoing due diligence process, Greenpower has defined a very handy near-surface exploration target of 32,154oz-112,540oz at Camel Creek using historic exploration data.
But the company considers this to be an “interim” target because it’s confined to the top 100m.
Plus the last exploration undertaken at Camel Creek (in 1995) hit grades like 9m at 10.4 grams per tonne (g/t), 6m from the bottom of the pit floor.
Anything above 5g/t is usually considered high-grade.
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These mines were last operated in the mid-1990s and between them produced more than 150,0000 ounces of gold at an average grade of over 2g/t.
These aren’t big numbers, but if they can prove up a decent resource there’s plenty of third-party mill capacity in the region, says Greenpower.
Greenpower will now move on to evaluate exploration data for the Big Rush gold mine — which historically produced 58,000oz — ahead of finalising the due diligence.
In other ASX gold news today:
Emmerson Resources (ASX:ERM) hits more bonanza gold at Tennant Creek. Results like 4m at 158g/t gold — 97m from surface — enhance future development potential at the Mauretania project, Emmerson managing director Rob Bills says. “On a comparative basis, these results exceed those seen during similar stage drilling at our recently commissioned Edna Beryl gold mine, which is one of Australia’s highest-grade gold mines,” he says.
Outstanding gold hits continue to flow at Red 5’s (ASX:RED) King of the Hills mine in Western Australia. An underground drilling program which kicked off in the December quarter has been extended, as Red 5 aims to build on the recently upgraded 3.1Moz bulk resource at KOTH. Broad zones of mineralisation – such as 374.7m at 1.24g/t gold — have been intersected in most recent drilling. Many holes returned “whole of hole” average grades of more than 1g/t gold, “adding further impetus to the current evaluation being carried out on the open pit bulk mining opportunity”, the company says.
African Gold (ASX:A1G) has struck a deal to buy four new gold prospects, collectively known as the Falémé gold project, in Mali. The new projects span 111 sq km of the prolific gold producing Senegal Mali Shear Zone between AngloGold Ashanti ‘s (ASX:AGG) and IAMGold’s Sadiola 15Moz mine and Barrick Gold’s Loulo-Gounkoto 14Moz mine complex. The news sent shares up nearly 13 per cent to 17.5 per cent this morning.
Lithium explorer Ardiden (ASX:ADV) has decided now would be a good time to get busy on its gold assets in Canada with the gold price doing so well. “Over the past two months, Ardiden has completed comprehensive due diligence on the Pickle Lake gold project — culminating in exercise of the option and progress towards delivery of a maiden JORC 2012-compliant gold inferred resource estimate and extension drilling at the Kasagiminnis gold project,” chairman Neil Hackett said. He added that Ardiden had also advanced discussions with potential strategic partners for the Seymour Lake lithium project.
Alto Metals (ASX:AME) has hit 21.5g/t gold, extending mineralisation by 150m at its Vanguard Sandstone project in WA. The company has so far completed 6,300m of its 10,000m program aimed at increasing the indicated and inferred resource of 5.4Mt at 1.7g/t for 290,000oz of contained gold.
Predictive Discovery (ASX:PDI) has expanded its landholding in Guinea’s gold prospective Siguiri Basin. The company told investors it had been granted a new “reconnaissance authorisation” covering 100 sq km of the Kaninko project, which lies 10km from Cassidy Gold’s Kouroussa gold mine. Predictive now has five projects in Guinea spanning 500 sq km.