Mining Minerals & Metals Share Discussion Threads

[serpicouk] 01/11/2008 18:31

deka - hard to compare drilling progress across companies as the geology will have different penetration rates.

Chrissey - whilst placings on aim have completely dried up (only £6m last month?) hopefully things should improve into Q1 09. A JV with GEX taking a free ride will lead to only a very minor stake in Komana. If they do take a JV I suspect they will have to find a way to pay their share of the costs. How and when that financing is accomplished is another matter.

Macquarie have been battered by shorters of late. And I'm not sure what state the crisis has left their balance sheet in. Could they spare us $2mil? Suspect any placing might come with a shed load of cheap warrants.

[valentine] 31/10/2008 18:33

It'll be selling Big Issue for me if they don't get a-move on

[chrissey] 31/10/2008 18:26

well, the road to price recovery will be long and strewn with many a 'dead cat bounce' but surely things will pick up with time and we will see previous levels and more.
The big issue is gonna be raising capital in todays fnancial climate, I'm sure they will have to partner or sell.
I don't care which as long as the shareholder gets the best deal.

[valentine] 31/10/2008 16:24

Nooo!? Really?


'bout time!

[deka1] 31/10/2008 07:24

1wave hi here is an extract from the CEY quarterly report, it gives some idea of how much drilling in one qtr can get done, i think this is with 8 rigs on site


* 12,885m of diamond drill ("DD") resource definition and 2,210m of reverse circulation
("RC") exploration drilling completed during the
quarter; over 360,000m of total drilling has been completed to date


* Drilling continues from Wadi Fault, infilling the Hapi Zone for underground mining
studies, targeting the down thrust extension of the
Amun Deeps porphyry block, deeper zones beneath Amun Deeps and Hapi Zone mineralisation in the
southern part of the Pharaoh Zone, moving
north


* Grade Control RC drilling of 3,484m completed for the quarter, and 17,300m to date;
confirming the high grade surface mineralisation
in the Pharaoh Zone from previous resource drilling

[serpicouk] 30/10/2008 20:53

1W - agree with your GF drilling comments.

Haydock - not sure I fully support Hollands rather simplistic assessment of the movement in gold price. I'm sure he has some more in-depth well reasoned thoughts on why it failed to take off and why it will go higher but for the convenience of print I guess his sound bites will serve a purpose.

I'm also not sure about his belief that no one is making money with gold at $800. I believe GFs cash costs are quite high but Randgolds two projects (obviously in Mali) have total cash costs last quarter of $398 and $496. Suspect those will be a fair bit lower this quarter with diesel prices falling significantly. Of course, both project have head grades above the 3g/t criteria.

[haydock] 30/10/2008 17:41

Quite a lot of material on Mineweb re Gold Fields:
Very keen to be cash positive from production , expects & needs $1000/ ounce.
The quote below is generally of interest & significant/ re future supply/ demand, one would think!!!

Holland said the cost of gold production in "dollar countries" around the world was $800/ounce, which implied that some mine closures would take place if the dollar gold price did not rise.

Gold producers in "dollar countries" accounted for the bulk of world gold production and for this reason Gold Fields believed the dollar gold price would strengthen in future.

[haydock] 30/10/2008 08:25

Spot on 1waving, I have said before that i think we are accellerating along with this share, & the GF notes confirm the rapid movement.
With what conclusion & in what time scale are the parameters we can only speculate about.
However increased activity brings us some degree of confidence if nothing else, the aerial survey is now beginning to bear fruit.

[1waving] 29/10/2008 23:05

Serp,
There's a whole load of RAB drilling in that 38,000m, at least 20,000m, which is a whole lot faster than RC/diamond drilling. With maybe 3 RAB rigs and maybe 4 RC/diamond rigs it should be achievable if they still intend to complete that programme.

I think with the 2 releases 3 months apart they both demonstrate the intent for an aggressive drill season --- The initial surveys and drilling have taken place and they can get stuck into known and highly probable deposits.

The results should flow thick and fast this season from all 5 licenses, even considering delays from the assay labs.

.

[bongo bwana] 29/10/2008 22:21

Negotiate with GEX?

[serpicouk] 29/10/2008 21:24

1W - will clarify my concerns over the next few weeks before emailing Hugh.

Are we sure about Goldfields? It does read like that...but:

38,000m in 10 weeks is some 3,800m/week.

To put that into perspective did GEX carry out 50,000m last season? (36 weeks?). If so that's ~1,400m/week.

Which would mean Sankarani is being progressed 170% faster than Komana/Solona?

If true it demonstrates the power of having a major do the work!

And what will they do with the remaining 26 weeks?!

[bongo bwana] 29/10/2008 20:54

This might well lead to good news for GEX when the drill results are known by GF. So, this might translate into good news for GEX shareholders by 2009 AGM time or earlier?

Many thanks once agin 1W

[1waving] 29/10/2008 18:52

Quite a few deka, to get that lot done so quickly !!!

[deka1] 29/10/2008 18:42

cheers wave , GF must have their own rigs operating then eh

[1waving] 29/10/2008 18:06

deka, yes it did --- that's the release which said to me that GF are going to get aggressive this drill season. When you look at that release there is a hell of a lot to complete by December.

[deka1] 29/10/2008 12:03

iwave hi did it mean dec08 qwtr ?

[1waving] 29/10/2008 09:54

From Gold fields Quarterly Report to Sept '08 out today:--

At the 51 per cent owned Sankarani joint venture with Glencar Mining plc
(AIM: "GEX") in south-western Mali, preparations are underway to resume
field work as soon as the rains subside in October 2008. The programme will
advance six target areas (Bada, Fie, FR14, BM East, Sindo, Selen 1) from
target definition to the initial drilling and complete initial drilling on four targets ( Bokoro Main West and East, Fingouana, Sanioumale West and East and Kabaya. )
------------------------------------

Far more targets there than have been released before, probably as a result of the airborne survey. Initial drilling on six target areas and completing initial drilling on Bokoro Main West and East, Fingouana, Sanioumale West and East and Kabaya looks like a very agressive programme and should bring out far more potential from the three Sankarani license areas.

Extract from Gold Field's previous quarterly report to June 08 on Sankarani JV:--

A total of 18,486 metres of rotary air blast (RAB) drilling has been completed to date on five Priority 1 targets to test a cumulative prospective strike length of 55 kilometers. Assay results from drilling the Sindo target outlined gold-in-bedrock anomalism coinciding with a northeast-southwest shear-zone. Visible gold was reported in pan concentrates recovered from the Fingouana and Kabaya South RAB holes, with intercepts of up to 9 metres at 6.5 grams per ton Au.

The upcoming work programme will include trenching and 18,000 metres of RAB/RC and diamond drilling to further test the five priority targets. An additional 20,000 metres of RAB drilling is planned for target definition over the twelve other Priority 2 and 3 areas not yet tested. The above should be completed by the December quarter.
------------------------------------------
Completed by December quarter !!

[1waving] 28/10/2008 10:37

It looks like there may be 3 rigs on Komana by the end of October from checking the releases of 9th and 23rd Oct

The release of the 9th said diamond/RC drilling had started at Komana East, 1 rig, with a RAB rig starting drilling the following week to 'test a series of additional, high priority targets on the Sankarani Shear Zone along strike from the Komana East deposit.'

The release of the 23rd says in a paragraph about Komana East that a 2nd drill rig will arrive on the property by the end of Oct. Is that a 2nd diamond/RC rig making up 2 x diamond/RC and 1 x RAB rig. Would hope so.

[1waving] 28/10/2008 09:51

Gold Miners: Amazingly Cheap ----- From Seeking Alpha
by: Graham Summers October 27, 2008

During the last market rout, the price of gold plunged from $900 an ounce to $690 an ounce. The talking heads, seeing this, announced that gold is no longer a safe haven or a storehouse of value.

They're wrong.

The idea that gold has somehow lost its safe haven qualities due to a temporary drop in price is beyond idiotic. To claim this is to ignore the role gold has played for well over five millennia. What are the odds that this has suddenly changed?

No, this recent drop in gold has come almost entirely from downward pressure in the "paper" gold markets - the COMEX and Gold ETF (GLD). And this downward pressure has come from two trends:

Institutional liquidations
The dollar's rally
Hedge funds, pension funds, and even mutual funds have been slammed with redemptions in the last year - mutual funds alone have experienced $967 billion in redemptions since the beginning of 2008.

In order to meet these redemptions, funds have resorted to liquidating portions of their portfolios. Gold - which the stock-centric crowd never really believed in anyway - was one of the first items to go. And since the "paper" gold market is relatively small - the total value of gold on the Commodity Exchange in New York (COMEX) is roughly $5 billion - it doesn't take much capital to crush gold in the "paper" markets.

As for the dollar's rally, the Feds' interventions and hyperinflationary money printing will put an end to this sometime in the not so distant future. You can't add $6 odd trillion in liabilities to the US balance sheet, start trading in unsecured commercial paper markets - as the Fed did with its TARP facility - and increase the monetary supply at an annualized rate of more than 300% - the pace of money printing maintained by the Feds during the last month - and NOT kick the dollar in the face.

No, the dollar rally will end sooner rather than later. When it does, the last obstacle standing between a raging Bull market in gold and gold mining shares will have been removed.

Speaking of miners...

While gold has been hammered, gold mining stocks, particularly juniors, have been truly creamed. The explanation here is much the same as for gold: liquidations. However, while the gold paper market may be roughly $5 billion, gold juniors as individual plays are even smaller. So it takes even less money to beat these stocks down.

Because of this, today, gold mining stocks are currently trading at levels you only see at the end of BEAR markets. Taken as a whole, the sector is at its second cheapest level relative to the price of gold since 1984.

It's an absurd situation. Gold is undergoing a correction during a bull market... while gold miners - basically real estate companies sitting atop gold - are trading as if they just ended a bear market in gold. This won't last forever. At some point both the institutional liquidations and the dollar's rally will end. When they do, gold miners will explode upwards.
__________________

Looking forward to the explosion !!!

[bongo bwana] 27/10/2008 11:56

Great posts guys and thanks.

GEX needs to be in a position of relative strength (in terms of its finances and good to excellent Komana JORC's) going into negotiations on a possibe JV with another firm - most likely GF.

Interesting that Hugh Mc has not referred to discussions with GF about their progressing the Sankarini Project drilling (in order to achieve the 60%+ rights to the Project) or to the metallurgicals which caused such problems at Wassa.

[1waving] 26/10/2008 20:14

Serp. agree with many of your concerns on the rate of progress in adding resource ounces. There has been just one resource adding rig plus a RAB rig for the last two drill seasons -- progress does need to accelerate. There were strong noises made to say we would have 4 rigs on the go this year, the start of drilling RNS implied there were 2 rigs on the go but the latest RNS says there is only one. Still, early days so definitely one on the way and hopefully more.

SRK comments on Komana East seem to say we need a lot more drilling to be confident of continuity, consistency of grade etc
"given the limited drilling completed to date and the relatively limited area drilled to date, we believe that additional drilling, currently underway, is likely to lead to a significant increase in both the resource ounces and the resource grade when the next review of the Komana East deposit is carried out."
Comes back to not enough rigs/drilling to give confidence. Am still confident of major deposits at Komana.

Am expecting one more placement for funds to take us to the end of this drill season at least but it would be good if we got some more good drilling results from Komana East to boost the share price and reduce the dilution effect.

Found that minesite article very speculative and am cautious on what was said in it. Am getting very cautious about minesite articles across the board, they are not reliable.

On the occasions I have had concerns I have emailed Hugh Mc and have always got a prompt reply answering all I have asked in a pleasant and friendly manner.
Suggest you email Hugh with your concerns Serp.

.

[ukgeorge] 26/10/2008 19:25

Orsu Metals Corporation is a dual listed (AIM and TSX) new base and precious metal mining, production, exploration and development company which is operating an open pit copper-gold mine at the Varvarinskoye deposit in northern Kazakhstan and exploring advanced staged gold deposits in the Tien Shan gold belt in the Kyrgyz Republic and Rudny Altai belt in the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The 100% owned Varvarinskoye copper-gold mine is located 130km southwest of Kostanai in Northern Kazakhstan. The mine is currently in the development and ramp-up phase and produces for sale copper-gold concentrate and gold doré. Subsequent to the formation of the Company during mid June 2008, Orsu's main focus has been the ramp-up of mining operations at Varvarinskoye. The project is 100% owned by Orsu Metals Corporation and currently has measured, indicated and inferred the following resources:
Gold 5.01Moz
Copper 607Mlb

Current proven and probable reserves:
Gold 2.2Moz
Copper 254Mlb

At metal prices of US$525/ounce for gold and US$1.30/pound for copper.
Construction of the processing plant has been completed, and the initial production of gold concentrate commenced in December 2007. By the end of Q2 2008, shipping of the first two lots of copper-gold concentrate totalling 5,000 tonnes were completed, with an estimated contained value of over US$9m. The sale of Varvarinskoye's gold doré is continuing and as of July 2008 9,514 ounces have been sold, with a total value of over US$7m.
Subsequent to a cash injection of US$25 million by Lero Gold Corporation during April 2008 (from the CAD$66 million Lero Gold raised), essential operational equipment and mining supplies are now arriving at Varvarinskoye which will allow operations to continue with minimal interruptions while ramping towards nominal capacity.
10 September 2008
Director Share Purchase
Orsu Metals Corporation ("Orsu", or the "Company") (AIM: OSU, TSX: OSU) announces that on 10 September 2008, the Company was notified that Executive Chairman, Dr Sergey V Kurzin, purchased 100,000 ordinary shares in the Company.

5 September 2008
Director Share Purchase
Orsu Metals Corporation announces that on 5 September 2008, the Company was notified that Executive Chairman, Dr Sergey V Kurzin, purchased 350,000 ordinary shares in the Company as per the table below.

4 September 2008
Director Share Purchase
Orsu Metals Corporation announces that on 3 September 2008 Executive Chairman, Dr Sergey V Kurzin, purchased 750,000 ordinary shares in the Company.

26 September 2008
Orsu Metals Project and Corporate Update
Orsu is pleased to provide a corporate and project update of ongoing work at the Varvarinskoye copper-gold mine, Kazakhstan and the Company's exploration projects in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.


24 Oct 2008 4:30 PM UKT
Exchange : OSU (AIM) OSU (TSX)
Mid Price : 5.00 0.10
Volume : 20,000 786,365
0.00
0.01


456,934,226 SHARES IN ISSUE


Executive Chairman - Dr Sergey V Kurzin - Dr Sergey V Kurzin is a Russian-born (1960) research engineer who moved to the United Kingdom in 1990 and has played a key role in initiatives to acquire and progress several important Former Soviet Union mining assets. These include Julietta (a high grade gold deposit in Magadan, Russia with Bema Gold), Kupol (a high grade epithermal gold deposit in Chukotka, Russia also with with Bema Gold), the Varvarinskoye copper and gold skarn deposit in Kazakhstan with European Minerals Corporation. He also played a key role in establishing UrAsia Energy Ltd, a uranium producer with mining operations in The Republic of Kazakhstan. He was founder of Oriel Resources Plc and held the position of Executive Chairman.

He also holds the position of Executive Chairman of Everfor Diamonds Plc.

Sergey has been an officer and consultant for the following companies active in the FSU:

• Bema Gold - consultant on Kupol and Julietta gold developments
• Arian Resources Corp. (acquired by Bema) – ex. VP Corporate Development
• European Mineral Corporation - ex. VP Corporate Development
• Consolidated Puma Minerals Corp. - PGM in Kola Peninsula, Russia
• Zincox - Zinc project in Kazakhstan
• Eurasia Mining plc - PGM projects in Russia