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May 2017 - Centennial Mining

Centennial Mining Ltd (CTL) – Ramping up to higher grade gold production of >20,000ozpa

    • Centennial Mining was renamed from the A1 Gold Limited Company (AYC) in November 2016, partly because it does not expect to solely mine from the A1 mine. Its main asset is still the A1 gold mine near Gaffney’s Creek in the Woods Point goldfield of Eastern Victoria. The Woods Point goldfield covers a NW/SE striking dyke swarm in which the dykes have periodically bulged along their length. Within the dykes there are flat, mostly east dipping and some west dipping lodes, comprised of visible gold in quartz or gold mineralised breccias. The host rock appears to vary between some of the dykes.
    • In the past 12 months, AYC (now CTL) has undergone a dramatic transformation resulting in the replacement of most of its board and senior management, changing direction to become profitable. The new focused approach has resulted from progressing the decline used to develop the mine, together with relatively detailed exploration, targeting the areas in the “gaps” between the previously mined zones/lodes within the A1 dyke bulge.
    • This new approach has resulted in a mining mix of long-hole mechanised open stopes focusing on the dilation breccias, plus gun air-leg miners focusing on the higher grade areas in the “gaps” (including old developed/stoped areas that were not taken to their limits). The resulting increased tonnage has enabled CTL’s plant at Maldon to operate on a 24/7 basis increasing its treatment rates and targeting >20,000ozpa gold from mid-2017.
    • In the June Qtr of 2017, the current large >5g/t dilation breccia area was expected to provide sufficient cashflow to materially reduce the debt, plus finance exploration into 3 key targeted areas, namely: depth extensions to the current breccia being mined, a second (possibly higher grade) expected dilation breccia target area in the vicinity of 20 Level, and the area under the Victory Stope structure as a possible parallel structure following up the 2.75m @ 36.3g/tAu intersection (reported in DQ16).
    • CTL’s next mine could be re-opening its Maldon area, with a significant ~2g/t to 3g/t grab sampled mullock pile at Nuggetty ~5km from the plant, a decline at the old Union mine that ignored the old workings, & AGS’ non-JORC ~182koz resource of ~473kt @ 12g/t; all early stage developed and not requiring to pay the transport cost from the A1 mine to Maldon.
    • After Maldon, CTL may focus on the already underground equipped Eureka dyke bulge near Walhalla, as underground examination of it suggested possible deeper extensions based on inferred continuation of the alteration areas of some of the historical stopes, plus encouraging vein structures in the northern areas of the Eureka dyke bulge.

Other Key Points: :

  • Centennial has numerous drill-ready targets at all of its operations, the issue is to prioritise their order of exploration, for an optimal outcome.
  • Maldon has been overlooked after closing because Alliance (AGS) had a cash call in November 2008, and may be capable of filling the plant for at least 3 to 5 years. • CTL became cashflow positive in MQ2017 and began reducing its debt while achieving 4.6koz in the quarter (vs 0.25koz in MQ16).
  • The Tubal Cain prospect is viewed as probably needing re-interpretation, plus possibly further drilling as the previous drilling orientation for the perceived orebody interpretation may have been incorrect.
  • Written by: Keith Goode
  • Monday, 01 May 2017