Tagged with: PayDirt

May 2007 - Gold Mineralisation

Flat Gold Mineralisation

We find that our (ERA) research often has a common theme within a particular year, be it nickel or China or this year (2007) so far, flat gold mineralisation.

Jun 2007 - VMS or VHMS

The latest “buzz” word - VMS

Move over IOCG, or IOCGUs (iron-oxide copper-gold uranium) orebodies, the VMS’ or VHMS’ (volcanogenic-hosted massive sulphide) orebodies are coming!

Jul 2007 - Nickel Lava Channels

Divergent Nickel Lava Channels

Sally Malay’s recent discovery of the Deacon orebody (probably >60,000t Ni @ at Lanfranchi @ 2.6%Ni, being still open at depth with intersections of 93m @ 2.24%Ni & 72m @ 2.95%Ni), appears to be another diverging nickel lava channel, raising the question as to whether they are more common than envisaged.

Aug 2007 - Consmin Tragedy

The Consmin Tragedy

In February 2007, Consmin (Consolidated Minerals or CSM) embarked on a plan to become a major resource company by entering into a deal with Pallinghurst (Pall), which may still occur, just not for most of its original loyal shareholders. Why is it a tragedy? Well if it hadn’t embarked on this path, it would probably be trading at closer to A$5/share with a very rosy future for all its shareholders, whereas instead it appears almost certain to rise as a very different phoenix from the ashes.

Sep 2007 - Widgiemooltha NI

The Case for a New Ni Concentrator at Widgiemooltha

In June 2007, the BHPB nickel concentrator at Kambalda reached its nameplate capacity of 1.5mtpa, only the second time it has done so (the first being in 1988/89). It has been estimated that debottlenecking of the circuit could add another 200,000tpa of ore capacity, and spending ~A$25m on the front end could increase the capacity by a further 400,000tpa to 500,000tpa, or a total of 2.1mtpa to 2.2mtpa.

Nov 2007 - China Secrets

China Starts to Reveal its Geological Secrets

At the China Mining Conference in Beijing (13-15 November 2007), China’s Geological Survey (CGS) unprecedentally made public a mass of geological data including 9 national plan releases ranging from geochem to spatial to database to age (isotopic) and ~3000 related geological reports and maps that can be accessed through two new websites, namely www.cgs.gov.cn & www.ngac.cn being the CGS and the national geological archives respectively. Some data is also available on the MLR website.

Nov 2007 - Footwall to Hanging

Grade Variability in Orebodies – Footwall to Hangingwall

The variation of grade in orebodies from higher grade footwall through to lower grade hangingwall is well-known when based on komatiite lava flows or VMS feeders, however, during the past year we have observed this phenomena where there is no clear feeder zone resulting in a subaqueous flow or classic lava flow.

Jan 2008 - China Consuming

China Continues Steady Consumption of Metal

This column is based on observations made during our (ERA) 2-week visit to China in November 2007 when we attended the China Mining Conference in Beijing. Before the conference we visited the properties of Golden Tiger (GTX) in western and eastern Guangxi, so gaining experience of what is happening in some of the rural areas of China, besides Beijing and Guangzhou.

Feb 2008 - Demise of US $

The Demise of the US$

It should be emphasised that this column is based on observations, and hence may violate some standard economic theories. Having said that, the US$ looks like yesterday’s currency, now is the day of Euro as shown in Figure 1. This results in a significant impact on any metal price forecasting in that the assumed exchange rate is likely to be just as much, if not more, relevant.

Mar 2008 - Small Gold Mines

The Re-emergence of Small Gold Mines

The history of gold mining shares often follows a well-known path from artisanal mining, through to collectives and smaller mines, discoveries to larger >100,000ozpa or >500,000ozpa producers, followed by larger companies taking over smaller companies. And eventually by those larger companies dropping the small mines (usually <50,000ozpa, occasionally <75,000ozpa) as they are too small to have any impact or occupy too much management time.

Apr 2008 - Mid-Tier Gold

Australia’s New Mid-Tier Gold Sector

In their presentation at Paydirt’s April 2008 Australian Gold Conference in Perth, Integra stated that the historical mid-tier of Australian gold shares that was taken over by the South African and North Americans, was now beginning to re-emerge.

Jun 2008 - Iron Ore Bubble

When is the Iron Ore Bubble Going to “POP!” ?

We have been through a number of popped bubbles in the past year such as nickel, most of the base metals, uranium and possibly even gold and are currently in the iron ore, coal and oil bubble, which like the previous ones that have burst has the media and some analysts predicting ever greater heights.

Jul 2008 - Boom Not Over

The Commodity Boom is NOT Over Yet!

Returning from China on 22 June 2008, we read in the FT that the Brits had sold out of commodities because they believed that the commodity boom was over. The following day, RIO announced iron ore price increases of 79.9% to US$144.66/t for its Pilbara fines and 96.5% to US$201.69/t for its Pilbara lump ore and RIO’s share price fell because even higher price increases had been expected.

Aug 2008 - Fly Away in May

Fly Away in May...

The old stockmarket adage of “fly away in May – return in August” based on a mix of the FA Cup, Wimbledon and the Northern Hemisphere holidays usually meant that due to a lack of traders on desks, the market usually drifted sideways, if not slightly down.

Sep 2008 - Diesel Fuel

Diesel Fuel Alternatives

The rising price of diesel fuel at one stage raised the cost of diesel power stations to the 35USc/Kwh to 38USc/Kwh region, prompting remote company operations to seek (where possible) alternative fuel sources to reduce power costs.