Tagged with: PayDirt

Jun 2015 - Bottomed Yet?

Have Resources Bottomed Yet?

Following the positive RIU/Vertical Events explorer's conference in Freo in late February 2015, and Stewart McDonald proclaiming that "the commodity bear market is over, the commodity boom has restarted again". The resource market slipped along with the weakening iron ore price into an even deeper funk, with many explorers focusing on devising methods to slow their dwindling cash reserves.

Aug 2015 - Done it Again?

Have the ex-Avoca Team Done it Again ?

Many people can recall the Avoca gold company that started as a $7m minnow and evolved under Rohan Williams' leadership into the extremely successful Alacer with at one stage a market cap exceeding $2.6bn. ERA's last report on Alacer was in July 2011 (available on www.eagleres.com.au) at a share price of A$8.75 (or US$9.45) being over 30 times higher or in market cap times, over 80 times higher than ERA's first report on Avoca in April 2005 (also available on the website) at a share price of 26c and market cap of $33m.

Sep 2015 - Bun Fight

Bun Fight at the OK (Old Kalgoorlie) Corral (Goldfields)

A delegate remarked at Diggers 2015, "what we need is some action, to liven things up a bit. That banter between you and Cooky was great, it woke everyone up!". Just like Diggers, a "bit of action" has livened up the market being an emerging bun fight over Phoenix Gold Limited (PXG.ax), between the ~27.4% China SOE Zijin (with its ~$20bn market cap, 21.6bn shares and ~1.0mozpa annual gold production, plus copper, silver and gold refineries and other metals etc) and 0% Australia SOE Evolution (with its ~$1.5bn market cap, 1.4bn shares and ~ 0.85mozpa annual gold production).

Sep 2015 - Focusing Alteration

Exploration Focusing on Alteration

This month's Paydirt GMJ column has been based purely on observation as so far this year of the companies ERA has visited I have noticed an increasing trend focusing on alteration compared to conventional gold mineralisation in quartz or other host rocks.

Oct 2015 - Metal Cycle

Has the Base Metal Cycle Restarted ?

Doom, gloom, the end of the resources world is nigh - sound familiar. commodities continue to collapse, the A$ falls to US60c, and China continues to slow to only 6%pa GDP growth within the next 2 years (or as some forecasters have it). Or in other words, it could now take about 3 years before China's growth can rise by Australia's total GDP per year.

Nov 2015 - One Belt One Road

OBOR (One Belt One Road) but not in China's GDP.

While the western world presenters at China Mining's October 2015 conference in Tianjin focused on standard supply and demand forces holding back commodity prices, the Chinese presenters focused on the new normal (of lower commodity prices) and OBOR (One belt one road).

Dec 2015 - Geoparks & Green...

Geoparks and Green Mines

You may not have heard of a geopark, because despite Australia's geological historical potential for them, Australia does not have any, probably because one of the key criteria to qualify is government funding. Australia apparently tried to have one but UNESCO disqualified it for failing to meet requirements (probably government funding), and one of Italy's 9 geoparks was recently yellow carded for having lost government support.

May 2016 - WIMnet's Mentoring

What is WIMnet's Mentoring Programme?

On Friday 6 May 2016, I with Chris Sabin (from the Sydney Mining Club) attended what I thought was a Wimnet launch at Ernst & Young's offices in Sydney. Our attendance came about from my sitting next to Fiona Robertson (who I knew as the former CFO of Delta Gold just a few years' ago [20?]) at a Sydney Mining Club lunch the day before, and Chris said to me (with Fiona there), "I assume you are going to the launch tomorrow ?".

Jun 2016 - Gold and Lithium

2016 - The year of Gold and Lithium

The theme of the conferences and behaviour of the stocks so far this year has clearly been focused on gold and lithium. While it was still doom and gloom in January, the revival of the gold price and its reluctance to fall below US$1050/oz (as predicted at the Tianjin conference in October 2015) caused many speculators to realise that no, gold was not going to meet many expectations of a fall through US$1000/oz to US$800/oz.

Jul 2016 - Horse Well

A Forgotten Gold Mine

Alloy has 40% of the Horse Well JV that Doray has farmed into and earned a 60% holding so far by paying $2m in about 1.5 years. Doray could increase to 80% by spending another $2m by December 2016, however, Alloy can retain its 40% if it contributes its 40% of the $2m, ie $0.8m and recently raised $1.3m at 1.1c per share, so AYR can retain its 40%.

Aug 2016 - Buyer or Finder?

Buyer or Finder?

Delta Gold (DGD) was a classic finder, eg Granny Smith, Kanowna Belle, Wallaby, and the Zimbabwean Great Dyke. One of the Delta geos (Alastair Cowden), then went on to discover the Nimbus silver mine under Archaean, next to Kalgoorlie (now owned by MRP) and establish Vulcan (VCN) and then Altona adjacent to Outokumpu in Finland, and is now developing Little Eva near Cloncurry in Queensland, and interestingly VCN once held the Lords prospects' tenement (Lord Henry and Lord Nelson) at Sandstone; while another DGD geo discovered Nimary when he was with Eagle Mining.

Sep 2016 - Valhalla?

Woods Point is not Valhalla

In reply to a broker that ERA's next report was to be on Morning Star at Woods Pont, he remarked "oh no, not Walhalla, if you are talking about Walhalla then the gold market has to have peaked, no one has made money out of Victoria for many years". Yes the gold market was at a peak, but not necessarily for that reason.

Jul 2017 - Drones are Coming

Drones Transforming Exploration Mapping

Many of us have seen the videos taken by drones of mine and exploration properties presented at conferences in about the past two years by companies such as Carbine (CRB) etc, however in mid-June I saw the next stage, namely that of mapping being used by Alto Metals (AME) at their almost wholly owned Sandstone goldfield in WA.

Jul 2017 - Read Old Workings

Learning how to Read Old Workings

As the Australian gold mining industry passes through another phase of goldfield revival, I continue to be amazed that many do not seem able to read the old workings, but have to admit that I have never seen a course on that subject.

Nov 2017 - High Grade Thrusts

Some Orebodies may have two High Grade Plunge Directions

The following comments are based purely on observation, but to some degree what started this was my observation that an old black & white section by Dominion through Meekatharra closely resembled that of its section through the Westralia pit of Mt Morgans.