Harmony Gold has announced an initial, JORC-compliant inferred mineral resource for its Kili Teke copper-gold deposit in Papua New Guinea. The resource totals 128 million metric tons (mt) grading 0.4 % copper, 0.3 g/mt gold, and 170 ppm molybdenum, with contained metal coming in at 506,000 mt of copper, 1.2 million oz of gold, and 22,000 mt of molybdenum.
The Kili Teke deposit is the first new porphyry copper-gold deposit defined in Papua New Guinea since the Golpu discovery in the early 1990s. The resource has been defined over a zone 600 m long, by 300 m wide, by 400 m deep. The mineralization remains open at depth and along strike. High-grade zones of copper-gold skarn mineralization have not yet been included in the modeling.
The mineralization extends to surface and is accessible to open-pit mining. Preliminary metallurgical test-work has produced good copper and gold recoveries and clean concentrates. The project benefits from proximity to key infrastructure, including roads and power.
Diamond drilling is ongoing at Kili Teke, with two rigs on-site to accelerate infill and extension drilling. Recent intercepts not included in the resource estimate include 144 m grading 0.53% copper and 0.23 g/mt gold from 610 m and 374 m grading 0.51% copper, 0.27 g/mt gold, and 173 ppm molybdenum from 391 m.
Alacer Gold reported that exploration drilling in 2015 successfully identified oxide mineralization in several prospects within convenient haulage distance of its Çöpler heap-leach gold mine in eastern Turkey. The mineralization occurs in a series of potential satellite open pits within 5 km to 7 km of existing operations, and preliminary metallurgical test work indicates that the mineralization has the potential be processed through the existing crushing and agglomeration circuit and stacked on the existing heap-leach pad.
The 2015 Çöpler drill results also indicate that the prospects may be connected through a greater mineralized system, potentially leading to additional discoveries. Alacer President and CEO Rod Antal said formal reporting of the 2015 exploration discoveries as resources is a key objective for the company in 2016.
The Çöpler mine was scheduled to produce between 190,000 and 210,000 oz of gold in 2015 at all-in sustaining costs of $700 to $750/oz. Alacer has a mid-term objective of increasing this production rate through exploration in the Çöpler district.
Newcrest Mining has entered into a farm-in agreement with Oro Verde Ltd. to explore for large, high-grade epithermal gold deposits on the Topacio gold project in southeastern Nicaragua. The project has an historical NI 43-101-compliant inferred resource of 2.7 million mt grading 3.9 g/mt gold, containing 340,345 oz of gold at a 1.5 g/mt gold cut-off.
Newcrest will sole fund an initial minimum commitment of $500,000 of direct expenditure on the Topacio project within the first 12 months to test the potential for a large-scale, mineralized epithermal gold system. Once the minimum commitment is satisfied, Newcrest may elect to continue to farm-in by sole funding additional expenditure on the project of $2.2 million by August 25, 2017.
If all terms of the agreement are satisfied, Newcrest may eventually earn a 75% interest in the project through expenditures of $7.9 million.
Oro Verde Managing Director Trevor Woolfe said, “We are delighted to have attracted a partner of the calibre of Newcrest. Its technical expertise in exploration and discovery of epithermal deposits is first class, and its track record of taking projects from exploration through to development and production will provide the best possible chance for Topacio to be a success.”
Nevsun Resources’ drilling on its Harena mining license 10 km south of its Bisha processing plant in Eritrea, East Africa, continues to produce encouraging results. The Harena mineralization displays a consistent metal zonation pattern, with a sphalerite and pyrite, zinc-rich upper zone and a chalcopyrite and pyrite, copper-rich basal zone. Several holes penetrating the basal zone have returned grades in the range of 2% to 4% copper, including a 24.2-m intercept grading 2.31% copper.
Nevsun CEO Cliff Davis said, “Our drilling at Harena continues to produce excellent results. We are very encouraged by the higher zinc grades being encountered at depth in addition to the continuous copper-rich zone. Harena remains open at depth, and there is still considerable potential along strike to the north and south.”
