The good news keeps on pouring in for Ramelius.

( I think we can start to imagine that Saturn and Mars may be part of a giant system…. )

The post down the page talks about the area outlined in red dots… and that gave the bonanza grade of 7.15m at 43.7 gm/ton.

Today’s announcement is about the area we have shaded in yellow in the image below.

Additional High Grade Gold Intercept at Mt Magnet
The Board of Directors of Ramelius Resources Limited (ASX: RMS) is pleased to announce a further significant high grade gold intersection in drill hole GXRC1109 adjacent to the Mercury Lode and beneath the Mars pit at the Mt Magnet gold project (WA). The intersection returned the following grade from 115m downhole:

26m @ 8.83 g/t Au (including 6m @ 31.1 g/t Au and including 1m @ 86.3 g/t Au)

Reverse circulation drill hole GXRC1109 was part of a continuing RC and diamond drill hole programme designed to scope the resource potential of a new blind high grade ore shoot adjacent to the Mercury Lode. The high grade (plus 60 gram x metre) Mercury Lode has been intersected from 100m below surface and 50m below the existing Mars open pit.
The drill hole intersection in GXRC1109 is significant because it vindicates the search and successful discovery of buried high grade banded iron mineralisation 40m west of the previously reported Mercury Lode intersections at shallow depths below the base of the Mars Pit. The intersection remains open down dip and along strike to the north.

Ramelius Resources Limited (ASX: “RMS”) is pleased to advise it has produced the 100,000th ounce of gold from its underground Wattle Dam gold mine, 25 kms west of Kambalda in Western Australia, bringing to 150,000 ounces, the total gold output from the mine’s former open pit and current underground operations.
This achievement represents a significant milestone for the Company with the 100,000 ounces produced since the commencement of underground operations at Wattle Dam in late 2009.. Average mined grade for the underground operations to date has been in excess of 20 grams per tonne (g/t) Au with total costs of production at less than
AUD$500/oz.

This result has cemented Ramelius as the highest grade and one of the lowest cost gold producers in Australia.
Ramelius’ Managing Director, Mr Ian Gordon, said: “This strong production performance at a time of record gold prices has vindicated our faith in the Wattle Dam orebody to deliver shareholders a consistent, profitable mining operation. Our original underground mine plan only anticipated production of 68,000 ounces, a figure which has been easily surpassed with grade overcall and significant exploration success at depth, including a new high grade zone discovery.”

Wattle Dam production will continue as Ramelius moves to commence its maiden production next year at the 100% owned, multi‐million ounce Mt Magnet gold project under the Company’s growth strategy to produce 200,000 ounces of gold by 2013/2014.

For further information please contact:
Ian Gordon
Managing Director
Ph: 61 8 9202 1127

Wattle Dam underground gold mine specimen

As previously mentioned in this blog Focus Minerals Limited (Focus) operates gold mines in the famous historical gold district of Coolgardie in WA where the company has built up the largest ground holding and embarked on a program of renewal and expansion with a large upgrade to output due in 2011.

Ord Minnett: “The company’s shares are currently trading at a 38% discount to OML’s base case valuation of Focus and at a 122% discount to OML’s upside valuation. In OML’s opinion this is mainly due to the market’s residual concerns over the quality of Focus’ asset base and the company’s ability to consistently achieve the planned gold production and operating costs for its Coolgardie operations and to be able to successfully unlock substantial value from its large gold resource base.” Read the Ord Minnett Report

Having amalgamated most of the Coolgardie gold district and having completed the refurbishment of its treatment plant FML is headed for a marked increase in gold production up from 62,000 ozs in 2010 to over 100,000 ozs in 2011.

“Gold, tin head for stars” & INVESTORS clearly have the gold bit between their teeth.

Gold’s rise to $1424 clearly has Robin excited.. but he does ask a valid question: How will the world’s gold miners meet the demand now that it is soaring? Over the last few weeks there has been a steady stream re China’s gold imports and China’s governments change to their gold importation policy and ownership that now allows for individual Chinese to buy and hold gold and how that has resulted in a massive surge in Chinese gold imports. In Bromby’s story he outlines how Vietnam is restricting exports of gold via the introduction of an exports tax. Bromby’s answer is that the miners will NOT be able to meet the new supply demands.

Once demand exceeds supply we should see a massive lift off in the gold price that may eclipse the recent gold rises…. some more adventurous Gold bugs are predicting that we will see inflation adjusted new highs that will take gold past $2000 an ounce.

Yesterday I read an interesting article that suggested that silver may be about to return to its historical silver gold ratio of 16:1. And that in troubled times that may come (Korea/Iran et al) silver may do as it did in what it did in the past and return to the 16:1 ratio seen during WW11… Interestingly the ratio of silver to gold in the earth’s crust is 16:1 but perhaps more tellingly nearly all of the gold mined (since gold mining began) is still in existence whereas the vast majority of silver mined has been consumed, and is being consumed at an ever increasing rate. Put another way: What would happen if all the gold in the world suddenly vanished? (very little apart from the financial dislocation). But if silver were to suddenly disappear our modern world would come to a total halt. No cars, no electronic devices etc as silver is a vital component that cannot be replaced.

So yes buy gold… but buy some silver as well…..

What a lovely heading by Bloomberg:Gold Imports by China Soar Almost Fivefold as Inflation Spurs Investment

China’s gold imports jumped almost fivefold in the first 10 months from the entire amount shipped in last year as concern about rising inflation increased its appeal as a store of value, said the Shanghai Gold Exchange.

Imports gained to 209 metric tons compared with 45 tons for all of 2009, Shen Xiangrong, chairman of the bourse, told a conference in Shanghai today. China, the world’s largest producer and second-biggest user, doesn’t regularly publish gold-trade figures and rarely comments on its reserves.

“The central bank may now be approving all gold import” applications, Albert Cheng, managing director of the World Gold Council’s Far East department, said in an interview. “The government hasn’t officially said that China is encouraging private gold investments, but we in the industry suspect it. And you can see the big jump in the delivered gold imports through the exchange has to be approved by them.”

So it looks like our Australian listed Gold Companies are going to have a nice time going forwards as may our Gold bullion and coin dealers… http://www.australian-gold.com/ is a site dedicated to Australian Gold and covers in depth the subjects listed below:

• ASX listed Australian gold explorers
• ASX listed Australian gold producers
• Australian gold bullion
• Buying Gold
• Gold Charts in Australian Dollars
• Mining Gold
• Australian gold warrants
• Australian gold bullion securities
• Australian gold bullion & coin dealers
• Australian gold nuggets
• Gold, Mining & Investment Resources
• Gold Charts in Australian Dollars : U.S. Dollars

GXDD0013A 7.15m @ 43.7 g/t Au (including 1m @ 300 g/t Au)
Diamond hole GXDD013A was part of a three diamond hole program drilled beneath the Saturn pit. The drilling program was co‐funded through the West Australian State Government’s Royalties for Regions Program and was designed to test for deep high grade gold mineralisation associated with Banded Iron Formation (BIF), adjacent to the historic Hill 50 Gold Mine.

The drill hole is significant because it demonstrates the continuation of high grade banded iron mineralisation at significant depths below the base of the Saturn Pit. The Saturn Pit previously produced 210,000 ounces to a depth of 148m below surface. This new high grade intersection sits outside the previously reported (July 2010) Mt Magnet JORC compliant Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource containing 3.3 M oz of gold. The intersection occurs at a vertical depth of 390m below surface and 232m below the base of
the pit. The intersection remains open down dip.

From the image it isn’t hard to imagine that there is a whole lot more to come!
RMS summary by www.australian-shares.com

Australian gold miners are now expanding their gold production at a remarkable rate. Our gold industry had been severely bashed about by Peter Costello when he was the Federal Govt Treasurer. Costello sold off Australia’s a lot of our gold reserves for ~$350 dollars and shredded Australia’s gold miners in the process. http://www.australian-gold.com/decline.html . (Gordon brown made an even bigger mistake when he sold off Britain’s Gold)

Now with the price of gold on a sustained high Australian Gold producers have outperformed over the last quarter with a 22% (12t) rise in production from both old mines and new mines. Moreover our explorers are again actively hunting and several explorers are making the transition to production.

The merger of Lihir into Newcrest has given Australia one of the world’s biggest gold miners and their is a large gap between NCM and the next rank of producers….

For many Gold investors the action for outstanding gains is in the explorers that are heading into production….Australia has literally hundreds of companies involved in gold exploration and near term production – the so called emerging producers.

* Australian Gold Explorers with 10m – 1m ozs resource

* Australian Gold Explorers with 1m – 100000 0zs resource

* Australian Gold Explorers with resources of 100,000 ozs of gold or less

* List of producers

High-grade gold outlined over 200m strike length at Treasure Island
Latest results provide more evidence of potential for substantial outcropping resource

Highlights
 Rock chip sampling returns more high grade gold results including 58.9g/t, 48.4g/t, 41.3g/t and 39.8g/t
 Results stem from sampling conducted at regular intervals over 200m strike length of the eastern quartz vein array
 Numerous high-grade samples, up to 33g/t, were also collected from the quartz vein array at the southern edge of the island over 140m of strike
 Significant evidence of fine visible gold disseminated throughout samples
 Drilling program to follow-up sampling results scheduled for early in new year

“These results are extremely exciting and highlight the substantial upside at what is already emerging as a highly desirable address in geological terms,” Mr Baird said.