WESTERN AUSTRALIA
M 09 / 148 - EL 09/1325 & 1764 - ELA 09/1865 & 1866 - ELA E09/1946 & 1947 Gascoyne Resources Limited 100%
- 300km² tenement area located in the Southern Gascoyne region, 250km East of Carnarvon;
- Current Indicated & Inferred resource 17.4Mt @ 1.3g/t for 703,000 oz gold with gold mineralization contained within shallow and steeply westerly plunging shoots in several deposits within a 20km long shear zone;
- An independent Scoping Study completed in November 2011 concluded that the Glenburgh Gold Project could support viable development.
The Glenburgh Gold Project is situated in the Southern Gascoyne Province of WA approximately 250km East of Carnarvon.
The project consists of a gold mineralised shear system hosted in remnants of Archaean terrain in a Proterozoic mobile belt.
Glenburgh was a grass roots gold discovery by Helix Resources from regional stream sampling in the 1990’s.
The resource estimation for the project is a combined Indicated & Inferred resource of 17.4Mt @ 1.3g/t gold for 703,000 oz of contained gold at a 0.5g/t Au cut-off. This equates to an increase in gold resource ounces of 35% and an increase of 26% in resource tonnage and 8% increase in gold grade over the last resource estimate, which was completed in August 2011.
Significant additional upside exists with several prospects remaining open along strike and down dip. Further drilling is required to bring these areas into a reportable resource category.
The latest upgrade (February 2012) resource has been completed by Runge Limited, an external and independent global resource consultancy. The increase comes as a result of additional drilling.
The Glenburgh deposits outcrop at surface and 94% of the resource is contained in the top 150m. Recent deeper drilling in particular at Zone 126 deposit has shown that grades increase significantly at depth with the resource grade increasing to over 3.6g/t gold in the deeper portions of the resource.
The cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t Au (down from 0.8g/t Au) has been determined considering the increase in the gold price and the assumed mining and processing costs for a Carbon in Leach (CIL) processing plant. If a lower cost alternative processing option is identified, the cut-off grade may be reduced further.
The combined Indicated & Inferred resource for the project stands at 17.4 Mt @ 1.3 g/t Au for 703,000 oz of contained gold at a 0.5g/t Au cutoff.
Resource Statement
| Glenburgh Resource - February 2012 | |||
| Area | Tonnes | Au(g/t) | Ounces |
| Icon | 6,400,000 | 1.1 | 216,700 |
| Apollo | 2,200,000 | 1.5 | 102,800 |
| Mustang | 1,100,000 | 0.9 | 32,700 |
| Shelby | 900,000 | 1.0 | 29,300 |
| Hurricane | 600,000 | 1.3 | 24,800 |
| Zone 102 | 1,500,000 | 1.8 | 86,500 |
| Zone 126 | 1,000,000 | 2.2 | 72,800 |
| NE3 | 500,000 | 0.9 | 15,000 |
| Tuxedo | 1,800,000 | 0.9 | 50,900 | SW Area | 100,000 | 3.8 | 6,200 |
| 17,400,000 | 1.3 | 703,000 | |
An independent Scoping Study was completed by Linton Putland & Associates as well as a number of other independent Consultants in November 2011. Several development options, including CIL/CIP treatment with diesel or gas power as well as a potential heap leach operation were investigated. The Scoping Study examine the key inputs for project development. These include metallurgy, resource and exploration potential, pit optimisations, conceptual pit designs, process flow designs, conceptual mining and milling schedules, hydro geology for both de-watering and process supply, environmental and permitting investigations. These inputs were then incorporated into financial modelling of several development options.
The preferred path forward is for a 1.2Mtpa CIL/CIP processing plant with gas fired power station. Following pit optimisation work an open pit mining inventory of 6.2Mt @ 1.55g/t gold (at 0.7g/t gold cut-off) was used as the basis of the financial modelling.
Major outcomes of the study concluded the following:
- A Pre Tax Operating Surplus of between $90 & $200 Million;
- Life of Mine revenue of between $40 & $525 Million;
- Project cash operating costs of ~$890/oz;
- Capital costs of ~ $53 Million;
- IRR of between 38% & 92%;
- Payback of between 24 & 30 months;
- 1.2Mtpa through put; and
- Production of 292,000oz over 6 years.*
- *Refer to company announcement on 16th November 2011 for Scoping Study details
As a result of the positive Scoping Study outcome the company has commenced a 12 months Feasibility Study.
Details of the Feasibility study will be announced as they become available.
There is significant potential to increase the resources with additional drilling. This could provide significant additional resources within the existing pit optimisations.
Additional drilling is being planned to extend the depth of the resources, to test the strike potential of deposits that remain open and to fully evaluate the extent of the mineralisation within the current pit shells.
Although Glenburgh is an advanced exploration / development project, the potential for new discoveries from regional exploration is high.
From soon after the initial discovery of the Glenburgh mineralisation in 1994 by Helix Resources, the bulk of the exploration has been very focused on or around the gold resources.
As a result, areas of significant potential remaining either untested or poorly tested. This has been highlighted by the recent discovery of significant widths and grade of mineralisation from wide spaced RAB drilling at the South West Target zone and the discovery of the Torino Prospect. RC drilling intersections include 43m @ 2.3g/t Au from 66m including 16m @ 3.8g/t Au from 77m in VRC 571. In addition is the discovery of a high grade gold 'shoot' below the Zone 126 deposit. RC intersections include:
- 20m @ 11.1g/t Au
- 11m @ 10.2g/t Au
- 28m @ 5.0g/t Au
- 14m @ 8.9g/t Au
