Focus Commences Development of Three New Open Pits at Tindals Mining Centre
• Open pits aimed at increasing Focus’ production by 30,000oz pa
• Pits will form Focus’ third production platform in WA goldfields
• Increase in open pit probable reserves by 31%
• Drilling set to start on additional open pit targets at Tindals
Australian gold producer Focus Minerals (ASX: FML) is pleased to announce that it has started development of three open pits at its Tindals Mining Centre in Coolgardie, Western Australia, putting the Company on track to increase annualised production by 30,000 ounces.
Focus has appointed Kalgoorlie-based mining contractor Barcon to develop the pits and clearing has now commenced.
The open pits at the Tindals Mining Centre will form the third leg of Focus’ growing production strategy, joining its existing underground mining operations at the Tindals Mining Centre and its newly opened mine at The Mount, 80km to the south.
The pits will provide Focus with an important low-cost production base within 5km trucking distance of its Three Mile Hill processing plant in Coolgardie.
“This is another significant step forward in Focus’ plan to ramp-up production to 100,000oz in 2011 and then to 130,000oz in 2012,” Focus Chief Executive Campbell Baird said.
“We started 2011 with just one operating mine and in the space of four weeks we have commenced ore development from the Company’s second mine at The Mount, and now development of the third production centre at the open pits is underway.”
Focus will commence mining at the Empress, Big Blow and Dreadnought pits. Mr Baird said the three pits are among 13 deposits and prospects that Focus is developing across the 5km-long and 2km-wide Tindals Mining Centre.
The start of development coincides with a 31 per cent increase in open pit probable reserves to 505,000t at 2.14g/t for 34,700oz (Table 1). The reserve increase has been driven largely by a modest drilling programme at Big Blow that better defined shallow mineralisation to the south and almost doubled the ounces in reserve (Figure 1).
Reserve increases have also occurred at Empress and Alicia as work, including drilling, continued in preparation for mining and allowing for inferred resources to be converted to indicated and included in reserve statements. A small reserve has also been added at Cookes.
Mr Baird said off the back of the recent capital raising, new drilling programmes were about to start at a number of other targets as part of the plan to grow the open pit reserves and develop additional pits (Appendix 1).
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Nice article in today’s Mineweb that explores Ramelius’ new Western Australia Mt Magnet Mine. Couldn’t be a better time to be markedly increasing Gold production from around 90,000 ozs (Wattle Dam mine) to well above the 160,000 oz mark.
I talked at length with the RMS guys at the Brisbane showcase… they were nice people with a great story. I went home did the sums, looked at the databases and then bought in. It has been a good ride since then and now is the time to buckle up and enjoy the ride…..
Mineweb:
Ramelius gives go-ahead for its 2nd gold mine in WA
Friday , 15 Apr 2011
A second gold project in Western Australia is to be mined under a decision announced today by Australia’s highest grade gold producer, Ramelius Resources Limited (ASX: “RMS”) with mining to start in the second half of this year with first gold pours in the opening quarter of next year.The decision will see an estimated total of 520,000 ounces of gold produced over an initial six years from Ramelius’ wholly owned Mount Magnet operation – a former gold producer located 600 kilometres northeast of Perth in the State’s Murchison district.
Ramelius acquired the project for A$40 million in July last year. It hastotal resources of 3.3m ounces of gold, complementing Ramelius’ high grade >90,000 ounce per annum producing Wattle Dam underground gold mine near Kambalda, also in Western Australia.Ramelius has since announced a revised mineral resource for the Galaxy area at Mount Magnet of 20.3mt at 1.65 g/t Au for 1,075,000 ounces of gold. read the full article
Ramelius is currently around tenth place in our mid level producers and soon will be in the top four.
Looks like RMS will soon be moving markedly to the left.
All aboard the train is leaving the station
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I’ve spent some time looking through IAU’s Indonesian assets….
Most people probably don’t realise that IAU has the second largest gold resource for our ASX listed explorers. See http://australian-gold.com/gold-shares-explorers-10m-ozs-1m-ozs
But having looked over IAU’s recent announcements there still seems to be a lot more to come…
And pleasingly the new resources are in Java itself with good infrastructure and a trained work force and not some far off volcanic outcrop with a separatist political movement.
It seems that others agree….. Below is the latest marketclub analysis for IAU…
UPDATE 20/4/2011
20 April 2011: Intrepid Mines Limited (ASX,TSX: IAU) (the “Company”) is pleased to announce the results of an independently prepared Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) for a potential heap leach, open pit gold mine on the oxide resource of the Tumpangpitu area of the Company’s (80% interest) Tujuh Bukit Project in Indonesia. The PEA was prepared by Kappes Cassiday, of Reno, Nevada, based upon column leach and other metallurgical tests performed at their laboratory.
The heap leach PEA is based on the Company’s December 2010 resource estimate of the near surface oxide resource at Tujuh Bukit (see the Company’s announcement of 14 December 2010) – which is separate from the far larger, underlying porphyry resources – and produced a positive conceptual economic analysis for the project. Significantly, the PEA, based on conservative assumptions, demonstrated a life of project annual average production of 143,000 recovered ounces of gold for 9 years at a cash cost of US$376 per ounce, net of silver credits at US$16.50 per ounce. The project delivers a post-tax cumulative cashflow of US$445 million, an NPV (at a 10% discount rate) of US$180 million and an IRR of 31%, at a gold price of US$1,050 per ounce (Table 1). The production and financial numbers are reported on a project basis (Intrepid Mines Ltd holds an 80% economic interest in the project).
read the announcement
Earlier post on IAU by Sparty
Summary…. this is going to be BIG.
I hold IAU
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GFMS CEO Paul Walker
“…ultra-low interest rates, macro-economic dislocation, fears of global imbalances…the wrath of these things still remain solidly in place and that’s really the bedrock of the gold bull rally.”
I doubt that the situation is much different here in Australia. Being a gold and silver bug I have been following what is happening here on the ground in Australia. Our Silver ETC (ASX: ETPMAG) has a miniscule market turnover as does our Gold ETC (ASX: GOLD).
But just in case I’ve missed something I’ve been asking all of my friends if they own Gold or Silver bullion…. I’ve only found one person and he has a gold scrap business. I’ve yet to find anyone at all that has a few thousand ounces of silver or hundred Ozs of gold. And I haven’t heard a taxi driver or a concierge talk about gold or siler for many years……So to me so far we aren’t in a bubble.
GLD
SLV
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How higher can silver prices go-$50?
Commodity Online
MUMBAI (Commodity Online): How far will silver prices go? $45 or the historical high of $50? In Indian markets silver prices continued to climb on hectic buying by stockist and industrial demand. Silver prices in India have zoomed close to 57000 levels …
Gold and Silver Prices Reach New Records
BusinessNews Express (press release)
Lloyd’s Commodities views the recent gold and silver spike as an ideal time to become a precious metals dealer. “…precious metals prices will continue hitting highs.” – Frank Gaudino, managing partner at Lloyd’s Commodities Gold smashed records the …
Where has Silver come from and where is it going?
SilverSeek.com
Whether we are in a boom or bust silver’s demand will remain robust. It is now needed to make all facets of an economy run well and at all levels, even down to individual needs. This secures its future and assures us that silver prices are well …
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1. An investor update Presentation from Focus Minerals delivered at The Eastern Goldfields Conference download
2. An Analyst report issued by Ord Minnett download off the back of the commencement of mining at The Mount.
3. A report from analyst GoldOz download on the Focus Minerals operations.
“All successful companies do reach a defining point in their evolution where risk is reduced and sustainable growth can be achieved. Mining companies reach this point once their production and cash flows reach a certain level of viability. This is a transition in itself however it can be defined and identified. FML have now reached this point”
Plus a lovely article in miningnews.net.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/28/us-jpmorgan-hsbc-silver-lawsuit-idUSTRE69R2G420101028
Could be one of the big stories of the year…..
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“According to estimates by Shayne McGuire in his new book, Hard Money; Taking Gold to a Higher Investment Level, the typical pension fund holds about 0.15% of its assets in gold. He estimates another 0.15% is devoted to gold mining stocks, giving us a total of 0.30% – that is, less than one third of one percent of assets committed to the gold sector.” read more
I wonder what the situation here in Australia is?
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http://broadcast.ino.com/education/gold31/?blog
Gold to USD$1,800 prediction.
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Lovely Hampton's Inspired Spacious