Canada’s RNC Minerals just keeps digging up thousands of ounces of gold south of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia’s outback and this week it showed off its stash at a conference in Perth.
These big beauties — the biggest of which is a 95kg specimen containing some 2440 ounces of gold — are so popular they are going on tour.
“We’ve been approached by a number of museums, a number of collectors who are obviously very interested in seeing specimens,” chief Mark Selby said on the sidelines of the Precious Metals Investment Symposium in Perth.
“These are among the largest ever found. We’ve had a lot of interest from all over the world. So we will be taking them on tour.
“We’re applying for permission from the government to take them out of the country and we’ll promise to bring them back.”
Mr Selby says the tour will continue through February next year and then sometime in the first quarter the valuable rocks will be sold at auction.
In early September, RNC unearthed more than 9000 ounces of gold worth about $15 million from 500m below surface at its “Beta Hunt” mine in Kambalda, 60km south of Kalgoorlie.
Mr Selby says it has now grown its gold stash to around 35,000 ounces, which at today’s gold price would be worth almost $60 million.
“These are the largest and these are the prettiest of the bunch,” Mr Selby said of the specimens on display at the conference.
There are several other specimens sitting at the Perth Mint and RNC is in the process of digging more specimens out — including one that looks like a “golden rose”.
While most miners would be pretty chuffed with gold grades over 2 grams per tonne (g/t) in Australia — RNC is pulling grades of up to 15,000g/t.
“Most of that 30-35,000 ounces was direct ship material that went to the Mint with an average grade of probably somewhere between 40-50 per cent gold,” Mr Selby explained.
“You don’t use per cent very often when your referring to gold. That’s like 15,000 grams per tonne.”
The Toronto-based miner is now considering an ASX listing.
“I think an ASX listing is something that’s definitely on the table,” Mr Selby said.
“We are working through when and how we do it. I would say in the next month or so we would make our mind up as to whether or not that makes sense going forward.”
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