There’s a giant play taking place up in PNG with a doubtlessly big prize and the $9m ASX listed Augustus Minerals is within the thick of it. After years of dispute, courtroom instances and controversy, the gold-rich Mt Kare venture, that sits about 600kms north-west of Port Moresby, is about to be awarded to somebody by the Papua New Guinea Authorities’s Mineral Sources Authority, or “MRA”.
Brian Rodan, Government Chairman of Augustus Minerals holding drill core from Mt Kare in PNG.
The venture has an extended and arduous historical past that reads like a little bit of a cleaning soap opera.
Initially found by CRA, now Rio Tinto, one million ounces of alluvial gold was rumoured to have been pulled out of it simply by way of unlawful mining within the late eighties and early nineties.
For the subsequent twenty years it was explored with nice success by a number of events, nonetheless historic landowner points compelled its proprietor into administration in 2008 when the venture was subsequently awarded to PNG native firm Summit.
Quick ahead to 2011 and Summit was taken out by ASX listed firm Indochine.
By 2015 some $125m had been spent on the bottom and at the moment, Indochine set tongues wagging on the Diggers and Sellers convention in Kalgoorlie when it revealed the stellar useful resource on the venture. That useful resource was 42.5m tonnes going 1.54 g/t gold and 13.5 g/t silver for a whopping 2.11m ounces of gold and an extra 18.4m ounces of silver. Put slightly in another way, Indochine stated on the time it was sitting on 2.45m gold equal ounces at Mt Kare and there’s no proof that any of that has been mined to this present day.
By early 2015, Indochine was in some monetary troubles that had been exacerbated when the PNG Authorities refused to resume its leases for Mt Kare in the direction of the top of that yr. Indochine sought a courtroom ruling to overturn that call in 2018, misplaced that battle and saddled up once more for an attraction which was thrown out once more in 2021.
That ultimate courtroom decision attracted purposes from a flood of hopefuls, all in search of to land the grand prize of the Mt Kare leases. Since then, the PNG MRA has been working its approach via them, in search of a celebration with each cash and mining experience at hand it to.
It’s coping with every software within the order by which it was lodged and has already summarily dismissed the primary in line. It’s now onto hopeful No 2, a personal firm by the identify of Tribune Mt Kare Gold Ltd.
‘If we’re profitable in securing this floor, it might place Augustus on the doorstep of world-class geology…’
Augustus Minerals CEO James Warren
If Tribune can’t meet the excessive cash and experience bar being set by the MRA, ASX listed Augustus Minerals, run by Perth mining man Brian Rodan and James Warren – who has a PHD in Geology no much less – is subsequent in line for the two.45m ounce gold equal prize – and that’s the place issues begin to get attention-grabbing.
Rodan may as nicely have a mining tattoo stamped on his brow. He was considered one of a handful of people that initially arrange large mining contractor Eltin Mining a few years in the past. Eltin, which was domiciled in Kalgoorlie, dominated the Australian mining scene for many years across the late 1990’s early 2000’s. Rodan then went on to construct giant mining contractor ACM which he subsequently bought for tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
Since that point he has based, invested in and nonetheless continues to regulate a number of ASX-listed exploration corporations. He has been the driving drive behind capital raises for all of them totalling within the many hundreds of thousands of {dollars} over time.
Curiously, Rodan – who has been within the mining recreation for half a century – has some kind at Mt Kare. He was the managing director of mining contractor ACM PNG when it was awarded a contract again in 2012 to do the stage 1 underground drilling and mine growth on the venture. For numerous causes that contract by no means went forward and to this present day the venture stays unmined, nonetheless on the time Rodan supplied his experience to create the mine design and he labored out what gear was essential to mine it and even mobilised that gear to website. So not like among the different hopefuls shaking their tail feathers at PNG’s MRA, Rodan has been down and soiled with this venture earlier than.
By any measure Mt Kare sits within the land of the giants. It’s about 15 kilometres southwest of Barrick’s world-class Porgera mine, which boasts a large endowment of over 32 million ounces of gold. Additional north once more is the revered Okay Tedi with its 16m ounces of gold and 11 billion kilos of copper. To the south-east of Mt Kare is Newmont/Concord’s loopy Wafi Golpu website, host to 22 billion kilos of copper and 23m ounces of gold.
Geologically Mt Kare is an Alkalic Epithermal deposit. Alkalic sort deposits are a subset of low-sulphidation epithermal deposits and kind among the mega mineral deposits all over the world. Their drill outcomes are like eye-candy to a geologist and Mt Kare is not any exception. Up to now, Mt Kare has thrown up coffee-spitting drill hits like 111m at 9.8 grams per tonne gold from simply 4m and 17.7m at 100 g/t gold from 59m – or possibly strive 20m at 443 grams per tonne gold for measurement! These type of numbers would have the West Perth mining glitterati leaping off the bed on daily basis.
Augustus Minerals CEO James Warren stated lately; “If we’re profitable in securing this floor, it might place Augustus on the doorstep of world-class geology and provides shareholders publicity to a venture with real scale potential.”
For now nonetheless, Augustus’ official language on Mt Kare stays measured, because it ought to. “Quietly assured” is about as robust because it will get.
And whereas the PNG story gives the blue-sky narrative, Augustus is way from idle on residence soil. The corporate is already advancing on a number of fronts throughout its West Australian portfolio, most notably the Music Nicely gold venture which sits about 35 kilometres north of Leonora the place early fieldwork has delivered outcomes robust sufficient to raise eyebrows throughout the gold belt.
The corporate has accomplished greater than a thousand surface-geochemistry samples and unearthed seen gold in quartz veins grading as excessive as two ounces to the tonne from the St Patricks prospect.
The maiden drill program will check undercover extensions on the Clifton East, Dodd’s, St Patricks and Black Cat prospects, all of which Augustus has ranked as high-priority greenfield targets.
Offering one other string to the bow, the corporate additionally retains the Ti-Tree Undertaking within the Gascoyne area of WA – a 1,700-square-kilometre package deal potential for copper, gold, lithium, uranium and uncommon earths. Whereas not the present focus, the Gascoyne floor provides a critical-minerals dimension that might achieve traction as the corporate’s gold tasks mature.
For now although, the large blue sky for Augustus comes within the type of Mt Kare. The PNG Authorities is in search of somebody that has mining experience and the power to boost cash to run it and while the credentials of the primary hopeful in line, little identified personal firm Tribune, are unsure, Augustus has loads of each.
And who is aware of, possibly no 1 and no 2 will be a part of forces. Augustus may carry its public itemizing, cash elevating means and mining experience to the desk and Tribune may carry its No 1 ticket holder standing. And with 2.45m ounces of gold equal already found, it seems like there’s going to be loads to go round.
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