RESOURCE STOCKS

Havilah gold about to flow

Its Biblical namesake was “the land of gold” and this company is joining the ranks of gold producers as the first of its eight diverse JORC resources hits paydirt.

MiningNews.Net
Havilah gold about to flow

Havilah Resources managing director Dr Chris Giles will soon witness the company’s first gold pour at its low-cost, South Australia high-grade Portia gold project.

The pour is expected in April, three months ahead of schedule and at a prime time for Australian gold producers thanks to lower costs and a premium local dollar gold price.

Yet this milestone and progressing the neighbouring North Portia copper-gold project is merely paving the way to develop Havilah’s flagship Kalkaroo copper-gold project 20km to the south.

The company has a total JORC mineral resource metals inventory of 2.4 million ounces of gold, 915,000 tonnes of copper, plus an iron ore resource greater than 450 million tonnes with a yield of 160 million tonnes of premium 63%-plus iron product.

It also has cobalt, molybdenum, uranium and tin deposits, in 8,000sq.km of contiguous tenements in the pro-mining state of South Australia.

Kalkaroo has the lion’s share of the JORC mineral resource estimate, containing 622,500 tonnes of copper and almost 2 million ounces of gold and significant associated molybdenum.

“It’s our flagship project,” Giles said.

“Our ultimate aim is to get Kalkaroo underway as soon as we can.

“We’re about to get cashflow from Portia and then we’ll move next door to North Portia, but we’re already in the process of obtaining the mining lease for Kalkaroo and updating the mineral resource and economic model.

“It’s quite a substantial project with a likely 15-20 year mine life and it requires at least A$300 million in capital, so we’re looking for a development partner to assist us.”

Giles said Kalkaroo had many attributes that favoured its development. Its resource remains open along strike and at depth, it has a projected long mine life, Havilah owns the land at Kalkaroo, the mining conditions would be similar to Portia and North Portia, the company has numerous promising prospects nearby, and it is just across the border from the mining centre of Broken Hill.

Havilah’s planned copper developments also dovetail neatly with the SA state government’s recently-announced copper strategy, which aims to treble the state’s copper production within two decades.

“It’s a supportive state to operate in,” Giles said.

“We have also identified a number of other copper-gold prospects within 20km of Kalkaroo, so once we build the processing plant, that will allow us to develop other smaller deposits.

“That’s our long-term copper-gold mining future.”

Beyond copper and gold, Havilah has numerous development options at its fingertips, depending on favourable market conditions.

“If the iron ore price improves, we’ve got a large deposit we could bring into production,” Giles said.

/

Gold production is three months ahead of schedule at the Portia gold mine.

“Similarly we’ve got a uranium resource and significant amounts of cobalt, molybdenum and tin.

“So we’ve got lots of flexibility but to remain focused, we aim to develop Kalkaroo as soon as we can, because that will be our main long-term operation.”

Gold production is three months ahead of schedule at the Portia gold mine

In the meantime, Havilah is ready to enjoy the culmination of a decade’s work that has led to the gold pour at Portia.

“It’s been more than 10 years since we drilled the first hole there and established a resource then the global financial crisis hit in 2008 and stopped us dead in our tracks,” Giles said.

“It’s taken us time to get back up and have another go, so it’ll be very exciting to see that first gold pour at Portia.”

Havilah has developed Portia through a savvy partnership with Broken Hill-based contractor Consolidated Mining and Civil Pty Ltd (CMC).

The partners have a 50:50 shared risk and revenue arrangement which should see Havilah receive almost A$40 million in cash flow from Portia in the second half of 2016.

Under the partnership, CMC is responsible for funding and performing the mining operations while Havilah’s wholly-owned subsidiary is responsible for processing the ore and producing dore gold ingots for delivery to a refiner.

“CMC have performed exceptionally well,” Giles said.

“You couldn’t fault anything they’ve done and they’re a pleasure to work with.

“We’ve been very fortunate being able to fund Portia with our contracting partner, and as a result we were able to obtain a A$6 million loan facility from the Investec Group which allowed us to build the plant and provide working capital until we get our own income.”

Portia has a JORC mineral resource estimate of 720,000 tonnes at 2.9gpt of coarse gravity recoverable gold but within the optimised pit design, there is 355,000 tonnes at 4.7gpt gold for 53,600oz.

High-grade drilling results from the bedrock beneath the known Portia resource include 26m at 15.4gpt gold and represent enticing upside to further investigate in future pit floor exposures.

“Portia is going to transform us,” Giles said.

“As a very successful explorer, we have built up a large JORC resource metal inventory and are now just starting down the road of production that will see cash coming in the door for the first time.

“We picked Portia as our first project to develop because it’s small and comparatively simple.”

Portia contains mostly coarse, free gold which can be separated with a simple gravity plant. 

Havilah has also installed Knelson concentrators in the processing circuit to efficiently recover the finer gold component that is not included in the published JORC resource and will be a further bonus to the company.

On the same mining lease, North Portia has a JORC mineral resource estimate of 11.3 million tonnes of 0.89% copper, 0.64gpt and 500ppm molybdenum, starting 50m below surface.

“We’re doing some infill drilling at the moment to allow us to better optimise the mine design and get samples for metallurgical testing and it’s looking quite promising,” Giles said.

Drilling results released to date under North Portia’s fast-tracked feasibility study have confirmed ore continuity and excellent copper grades. 

Giles said the company was entering an exciting period as it cemented its aim of becoming a new mining force in South Australia, with a targeted annual production of 34,000 tonnes of copper and 100,000oz of gold over the next six years. 

“Our gold production is imminent and we have a big, contiguous tenement holding with good infrastructure access,” he said.

“We have significant JORC Resources drilled out that we can progressively develop, including our large-scale Kalkaroo copper-gold project.

“It’s going to be an exciting time for us and our shareholders.”

 

Havilah Resources – at a glance

alt=''

 

 

/

Dr Chris Giles.

 

HEAD OFFICE: 31 Flemington St, Glenside SA 5065
Ph: +61 8 8338 9292
Fax: +61 8 8338 9293
Email: info@havilah-resources.com.au
Web: www.havilah-resources.com.au
DIRECTORS: Dr Chris Giles (left), Kenneth Williams, Paul Mertin
QUOTED SHARES ON ISSUE: 168 million
MAJOR SHAREHOLDERS: S Towasi,10.6%; Trindal, 9.9%; IFG Trust, 7.4%; Glencopper, 6.2%; D Sunadar, 4.5%

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining News Intelligence team.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining News Intelligence team.

editions

MiningNews.net Research Report 2024

Access a multi-pronged tool to identify critical risks and opportunities in Australia’s mining industry.

editions

Mining Journal Intelligence Investor Sentiment Report 2024

Survey revealing the plans, priorities, and preferences of 120+ mining investors and their expectations for the sector in 2024.

editions

Mining Journal Intelligence Mining Equities Report 2023

Access an exclusive, inside look on the quarterly mining IPOs and secondary raisings data and mining equities performance tables with an annual Stock Exchange Comparisons supplement.

editions

Mining Journal Intelligence World Risk Report 2023 (feat. MineHutte ratings)

A detailed analysis of mining investment risks across 121 jurisdictions globally, built on 11 ‘hard risk’ metrics and an industrywide survey.