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Game-changing discovery at St Ives

GOLD Fields believes its Invincible discovery at St Ives might be one of the best Western Australian gold finds in some time.

Speaking at Diggers & Dealers 2014, St Ives exploration manager Julian Woodcock said it was certainly the most significant discovery in the long history of the mine.

Gold Fields, which has four WA gold mines, has already pledged to spend $US50 million on exploration in Australia this year.

"I can also disclose that we've just had approval for another $5 million at St Ives," Woodcock said.

The focus of that will be the Invincible discovery.

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Rex falls on Hillside rethink

INVESTORS dumped shares in Rex Minerals this morning after the company confirmed ongoing Hillside development delays, plans to reduce project scope and the resignation of its managing director.

Stock in the company was trading as much as 25% down this morning.

Rex MD Mark Parry resigned, effective today, with the company citing changes in its strategy to develop the Hillside copper project in South Australia.

In the interim period, Rex chairman David Carland will move from a non-executive role to operate in an executive capacity.

"Given the delay to the feasibility study to concentrate attention on a smaller-scale start-up, the managing director's role will take on a new focus during this period," Carland said.

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Northern Star unveils exploration push

NORTHERN Star Resources will spend at least $A50 million on exploration in the next 12 months to extend the lives of its five gold mines.

Speaking at Diggers & Dealers 2014 in Kalgoorlie yesterday, Northern Star managing director Bill Beament said every year of additional mine life added would boost the company's share price by A30c.

"This gives great leverage for Northern Star shareholders," he said.

The company announced further drilling results from the Pegasus discovery at Kundana and the Paulsens mine.

New hits from Pegasus include 3.2m at 11.5 grams per tonne gold and 1.2m at 18gpt gold and extend the known mineralisation to 100m below surface and expand the strike length by 150m to 850m.

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Alacer ignored Aussie gold: Cook

ALACER Gold's North American board didn't pay enough attention to their Aussie gold mines, and a hands-on approach has helped turn around the assets, according to Metals X CEO Peter Cook.

Metals X acquired the Higginsville gold operations in September for $A40 million, with Alacer unloading the underperforming mines to focus on its Copler operation in Turkey.

The Higginsville operations comprised of the Trident and Chalice underground mines, a 1.35 million tonne per annum plant and associated infrastructure.

"We've always bought unloved assets," Cook said at Diggers & Dealers in Kalgoorlie yesterday.

"All we're doing different is love. We want to own them.

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New tech aids DeGrussa exploration

SANDFIRE Resources boss Karl Simich says new technology has played a key role in ongoing exploration around the DeGrussa mine in Western Australia.

Speaking at Diggers & Dealers in Kalgoorlie late yesterday, Simich said some of Sandfire's exploration initiatives had changed substantially over the years.

"Certainly some of the tools and techniques that we're utilising now, compared to even two years ago, are significantly different. They're the same concepts, but they're significantly improved." he said.

Simich said new advances in electromagnetic exploration, in particular, had allowed Sandfire to map the region's geology at far greater depths.

"We're now able to see now down something in the order of 300-500m below the surface, where previously we were only able to look down, in some areas, in the order of 100-120m," he said.

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