Latest news with #KristieBatten
News.com.au
13-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Kristie Batten: Theta moves towards gold production in South Africa
One of Australia's top mining journalists, Kristie Batten, writes for Stockhead every week in her regular column placing a watchful eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene. June was an important month for Theta Gold Mines (ASX:TGM), as it put all the pieces in place to build South Africa's next gold operation. Theta owns 74% of the 6.1 million ounce TGME brownfields project, 370km northeast of Johannesburg, which is where South Africa's gold mining industry began almost 130 years ago. The company ticked off a number of milestones last month on its path to production. It received a credit-approved loan facility agreement and indicative funding terms for up to US$35 million from the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa, which will form part of the funding for the TGME underground mine. Specialist South African firm Moore Debt Advisory has been appointed to support the company through the process to secure commercial co-lenders. Theta also made a decision to mine and raised US$4 million via a private placement to existing shareholder Hong Kong Ruihua Green Development, which will allow early works. A report released by RaaS Research Group earlier this month pointed out that Theta traded below the average and median on an enterprise value per ounce basis when measured against 22 ASX developer peers. 'This suggests that the market capitalisation of Theta can materially re-rate should the company successfully enter production,' it said. Also this month, veteran analyst Warwick Grigor, of Far East Capital, suggested Theta represented 'sound value'. 'Better and better' Theta released a feasibility study for TGME in 2022 and an update is due in the current quarter. It's unusual for a company to make a decision to mine before the release of the feasibility study, but Theta chairman Bill Guy told Stockhead the project was profitable at a much lower gold price than today. The 2022 study covered the first four mines, Beta, CDM, Frankfort and Rietfontein, for a 12.9-year mine life to produce 1.24 million ounces of gold. The peak funding requirement was forecast at US$77 million. The 2022 study used a gold price of US$1642 an ounce and returned a pre-tax net present value of US$324 million and internal rate of return of 65%. 'Basically, we expect most of those numbers to improve by between 50% and 100%,' Guy said. 'We probably expect the all-in costs to go up a little bit, because South Africa has a sliding scale for royalties, and the peak capex will probably go up over US$80 million. 'There's no issue with profitability. It's just gotten better and better, so the project's very profitable. It has strong cashflow. Even at US$1642 it's going to make, over US$500 million in free cash, post-tax. We know that's even higher now.' Site work underway 'We've just finished decommissioning the old plant site, getting ready for our bulk earthworks and civil, so we really want to start that next couple of weeks,' Guy said. Equipment has been delivered to site and the quoting process for the engineering work and plant is underway. Guy expects the earthworks to be completed by the end of the year. 'Once we've done that, then we're really only 12 months away from a gold bar,' he said. Guy described the full-scale development process as 'plug and play'. 'Everything is built in the factory, inspected, dismantled and put back on the truck and trucked to site, so we don't have a big civil camp. We don't have all those extra costs,' he said. Being a brownfields site, the existing infrastructure including roads, power and water, keeps capital costs down. 'Roads are incredibly expensive. Tailings dams are incredibly expensive,' Guy said. 'We have no office administration buildings. We have housing.' Licence to operate Last month, the company locked in a 13-year renewal of Mining Right 83 through to 2038, accounting for more than three quarters of the mine schedule under the 2022 study. As per South Africa's Mining Charter, 26% of the project is owned by Black Economic Empowerment entities, comprising local community trusts, an employee trust and a strategic entrepreneurial partner. 'We spend a lot of time and energy on that social licence in the community – the community are our shareholders. They are part of the project as well,' Guy said. 'I think what Theta has done, which is quite unique, it really has built that social licence from the ground up, and that's how we really fight through the paperwork and everything else.' The company quickly got the support of the provincial government. 'Because the community went out and asked for the mine. They signed petitions for the mine,' Guys said. 'They call it their mine, because they will actually benefit … so I think that's made a big difference.'
News.com.au
06-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Kristie Batten: Brightstar maps path to 200,000ozpa of gold
One of Australia's top mining journalists, Kristie Batten, writes for Stockhead every week in her regular column placing a watchful eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene. It's been a busy couple of weeks for Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) as ticks off milestones on the road to its goal of becoming a 200,000 ounce per annum gold producer by 2029. The up-and-comer is already ramping up to become a 35,000-40,000ozpa gold producer from its Second Fortune and Fish underground mines via an ore processing agreement with Genesis Minerals. But the company has bigger aspirations of becoming a gold producer in its own right and in the process, becoming a major player in the Eastern Goldfields. A week ago, Brightstar released a definitive feasibility study for the staged development of its Menzies and Laverton gold projects. Based on a maiden open pit reserve of 210,500oz at 1.63 grams per tonne gold, the project would produce 338,528oz, or an average of 70,000ozpa, over five years at all-in sustaining costs of $2991 an ounce. Using a base case gold price of $4500/oz, the project returned a pre-tax net present value of $203 million and an internal rate of return of 48%. Increasing the gold price to around $5000/oz, which is closer to spot, increases the NPV to $316 million and IRR increases to 73%. The company has signed a memorandum of understanding to process Menzies ore through the Paddington mill for up to two years while the Laverton plant is being built. Total project peak funding requirements for the Menzies and Laverton projects is $120 million, while payback from the commissioning of the plant, expected in early 2027, is one year. Brightstar has received letters of intent or term sheets from multiple domestic and offshore commercial banks, as well as interest from non-bank lenders for debt financing of up to 70% of the capital requirements. The company has also received a non-binding term sheet from an offshore precious metals specialist investment company for a funding package comprising a gold doré offtake and equity financing at a premium for A$120 million. Brightstar managing director Alex Rovira described Laverton and Menzies as 'a really financeable project with great return on investment'. The bigger prize A prefeasibility study is also underway for Brightstar's larger Sandstone project, due for completion next year. Sandstone hosts shallow resources of 1.5Moz at 1.5g/t gold and Brightstar has 80,000m of drilling planned across the project this year. The PFS will consider a 3-5 million tonne per annum open pit development. The company is aiming to move straight into a DFS on Sandstone next year, with the aim of making a final investment decision in early 2027, coinciding with first gold from Laverton and Menzies. Brightstar is aiming to self-fund at least part of the Sandstone development from its other operations. 'We see Sandstone as the flagship, tier one asset within our portfolio and the ability to fund that from existing and near-term operations is important,' Rovira said. Canaccord Genuity analyst Tim McCormack is modelling a $250 million, 3Mpta operation which would pour first gold in the June quarter of 2029. 'We expect the project to support production of around 130,000ozpa at an AISC of $2655/oz for six years,' he said. McCormack maintained a speculative buy rating and $1.50 price target for Brightstar, which is more than three times its Friday closing price of 46c. Deal brewing Brightstar has been one of the more acquisitive juniors in the gold space. Over the past two years, Brightstar has merged with Kingwest Resources, acquired unlisted Linden Alliance, merged with Alto Metals and bought Gateway Mining's Montague project. In October last year, Brightstar revealed it had made an offer to Sandstone neighbour Aurumin (ASX:AUN) over a potential joint venture. Last week, the two companies announced they were in merger talks, which would create a larger Sandstone project with a resource of 2.4Moz. Under the proposed deal, Brightstar would offer one share for every 4.6 Aurumin shares held, implying a value of 11.7c per Aurumin share, a 17% premium to the previous close. The companies are carrying out mutual due diligence. 'For context, Aurumin's ground is encapsulated entirely within our portfolio,' Rovira said. 'They have 900,000 ounces of resources, and importantly, the old mill site where Troy Resources mined and operated, so a potential transaction here delivers some great open pit resources that would be perfect to go through any mill in the district, but also key licences, permits and infrastructure.' Rovira pointed out that there were no major mills within 100km of Sandstone, but there were a handful of other junior companies with resources in that radius. 'We think ultimately there's a lot more consolidation that should happen in Sandstone that will be for the betterment of all sets of shareholders and the market in general,' he said. 'I'd love to have a business here in Sandstone that's underpinned by 3-4 million ounces of resources, on mining leases, that is near-term development. 'That opportunity, in my view, doesn't exist anywhere else in the Eastern Goldfields of WA. 'That would underpin a significant valuation for this business in the future, but also probably importantly, it would be a very opportune target for the mid-tier sector, which is looking for growth opportunities, so we're excited about the opportunity that we can build out here in Sandstone.'
News.com.au
25-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Kristie Batten: Trigg surfs antimony wave amid demand swell
One of Australia's top mining journalists, Kristie Batten writes for Stockhead every week in her regular column placing a watchful eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene. Trigg Minerals (ASX:TMG) is building momentum in its aim to become a major player in the emerging antimony scene. The antimony price reportedly cracked US$60,000 per tonne last week, continuing an extraordinary run spurred by Chinese export restrictions. This month alone, Trigg has welcomed antimony experts Andre Booyzen as managing director and Wiehann Kleynhans as vice president, US downstream operations and acquired a new project in the US. Trigg executive chairman Timothy Morrison said Booyzen had made 'an immediate contribution to the team'. Boozyen was formerly vice president of Mandalay Resources Corp, the operator of Australia's only antimony mine, Costerfield in Victoria. 'We're going to do some great things over the next year or two,' he said on a webinar on Thursday. US footprint secured Last week, Trigg signed an agreement with EV Resources to acquire the Antimony Canyon project in Utah for $225,000 cash, $225,000 in shares and deferred consideration of $450,000 in cash or shares. The project, comprising 49 unpatented lode mining claims, sits 11 km east of the Antimony township. 'What other place do you want to be other than a town called antimony?' Boozyen said. Antimony Canyon has a non-JORC resource of 12.7 million tonnes grading 0.79% antimony for 100,300 tonnes of contained antimony, though that figure has not been updated since 1949. The project also hosts at least nine known historical mines, including the Emma-Albion mine, the largest historical antimony producer in the district. Trigg chief geologist Jonathan King said despite historical production, much of the original mineralisation remained in place. 'We love the prospectivity,' he said. 'We think there's an easy opportunity to grow this resource.' The company will begin fieldwork in the next week and hopes to be drilling by the end of the year or early next year. 'In terms of what is known about this area, it's just in its infancy,' King said. Boozyen said Trigg was hopeful of fast permitting given US President Donald Trump's emphasis on domestic production. He added that it was a good time to be in the US given that it was the largest consumer of antimony in the Western world and the company would look to build on its position over the next 6-12 months. Highest-grade resource Until last week, Trigg's main focus has been the Achilles project in New South Wales. According to Trigg, Achille's Wild Cattle Creek is Australia's highest grade primary antimony resource at 1.52Mt at 1.97% antimony containing 29,902 tonnes of antimony. The company claims it is also Australia's widest antimony resource with average mineralised width of 20m, exceeding typical narrow vein-hosted antimony deposits in the region, which also includes Larvotto Resources' Hillgrove. A recent review of historical sampling returned grades of up to 27.6% antimony outside the resource. Trigg is planning to update the resource. The NSW government recently approved the transfer of the Wild Cattle Creek tenement to Trigg, allowing for field work to get underway. During the March quarter, Trigg also acquired the Nundle, Upper Hunter, and Cobark/Copeland projects, which hosts chip samples of up to 61% antimony and 1045 grams per tonne gold, with over 60 historical gold occurrences and total historical production of more than 300,000 ounces of gold. Shares in Trigg rose by more than 50% last week on the positive momentum. On Thursday, East Coast Research analyst Michael Jarvis lifted its price target for Trigg by 18% to 19.2c, which is still more than three times the current share price. 'This re-rating reflects Trigg Minerals' achievement of key milestones, including compelling MRE upgrades for the Wild Cattle Creek deposit, strategic new high-grade antimony and gold deposit acquisitions in the New England Orogen, and positive corporate changes such as the appointment of a seasoned managing director,' he said. 'These advancements significantly de-risk the company's growth trajectory and enhance its value proposition in the strengthening critical minerals market.'
News.com.au
04-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Kristie Batten: Could this be the most undervalued gold project in WA?
One of Australia's top mining journalists, Kristie Batten writes for Stockhead every week in her regular column placing a watchful eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene. Gold explorer Norwest Minerals (ASX:NWM) has been flying under the radar but that might be about to change after a couple big weeks for the company. The company has been reasonably low key, but the stars appear to be aligning, which should result in an increase in news flow in the coming months. Norwest owns the Bulgera gold project in Western Australia's Mid West region, situated on the same greenstone belt that hosts Catalyst Metals' (ASX:CYL) producing Plutonic gold mine about 40km away. The company picked Bulgera up in 2019 for about $230,000 and Norwest CEO Charles Schaus believes it is the most undervalued gold project in WA. Bulgera has a resource of 6.3 million tonnes at 1.07 grams per tonne gold for 217,600 ounces. At a gold price of $5000 an ounce, that equates to more than $1 billion of gold in the ground – a tantalising prospect for a company with a market capitalisation of just $8.8 million as of Friday's close. When Catalyst started consolidating the Marymia belt around Plutonic, Norwest decided to apply for a mining lease for Bulgera. After a two-year wait, that mining lease was granted last month. 'It's a huge step toward production, because you can't move a tonne unless you have a mining lease,' Schaus told Stockhead. Fresh eyes Norwest hasn't drilled a hole at Bulgera since 2021 and last completed a pit optimisation in 2022 when the gold price was around $2500/oz. 'When we modelled that mineralisation back in early 2022, there was a lot of what we call mineralised waste sitting between surface and 20m, and the model didn't capture that because it was considered waste,' Schaus said. 'Fast forward to 2025 and the gold price has doubled – all of that mineralisation is now economic.' Last week, Norwest started the process of remodelling the mineralisation. 'We're going to see this big increase in near-surface tonnage,' Schaus said. 'We should run pit designs now at $4000 or $4500 and that is going to drive those pits deeper, but it's also going to grab all that new mineralisation sitting at the surface.' Bulgera also hosts a 2.2Mt stockpile dating back to 2004, when the project was last mined. Norwest believes the stockpile grades around 0.25-0.5g/t gold. 'From the late 1990s to 2004 there was about 440,000 tonnes of easy-to-grab higher-grade oxide taken from the Bulgera area and trucked down to the Plutonic mine to blend with their hard underground material,' Schaus said. 'In 2004, a tonne of material going at 1 gram was only worth $16. Now, a tonne going at 1 gram is worth $160. 'That 2.2 million tonnes of waste, at $160 a gram, one tonne of that may be worth $80 and you don't have to mine it, so we have that just sitting there.' Norwest plans to weigh up processing options. While Plutonic is the obvious home for any ore from Bulgera, the high gold price means it can be trucked further. Funded for drilling Last week, Norwest launched a one-for-one non-renounceable entitlement offer to raise $4.85 million at 1c per share. Major shareholders Chaleyer Holdings and Fortress Minerals are underwriting the offer to $3m, while directors and major shareholders have committed to take up their full allocations totalling $1.62m. Schaus said the cash would allow the company to have a real crack at Bulgera in what will be the first meaningful work on the ground in years. 'While we're doing the work and announcing the new model and the new pit designs, we'll also take that $4.85m and start drilling,' he said. 'We'll be drilling near the surface to bring the inferred to indicated, bring the indicated to measured, but also, sitting below that big oxide zone are six lodes. 'Basically, the weathering of these lodes has come together, made this big oxide area, and then below we have these lodes that basically extend down below. 'We've only drilled one of the lodes, which we coincidentally called the Bulgera lode, and we drilled that down to 550m back in 2021. 'It's a shear zone. It kept going – and that holds 89,000 ounces by itself, so we've still got another five to test.' The company has all approvals in place to drill and will kick off the program shortly.
News.com.au
30-04-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
The stocks to watch in the ASX's emerging silver sector
Silver prices have failed to keep up with cousin gold in 2025 But massive deficits suggest higher prices will come eventually to boost a new class of emerging producers Kristie Batten breaks down the key contenders at various stages on the ASX Often dubbed gold's poor cousin, silver has underperformed this year, leaving market participants scratching their heads. After being one of the stronger commodity performers in 2024, silver has largely sat on the sidelines as gold has hit record after record. At its current price of ~US$32.50 an ounce, silver remains well below its 2011 high of US$50/oz. 'It's hard to find a commodity that is still so far off its last high and silver is one that, to us, feels like it needs a big catch-up trade here,' Sprott Asset Management CEO John Ciampaglia told the Bloor St Virtual Silver Conference on Friday. 'It is incredibly frustrating for us and our investors that silver is just not catching more of a bid.' The gold to silver ratio, which is the number of silver ounces relative to one ounce of gold, surged to as high as 105 this month and remains at around 100. 'That is about as extreme as I can ever remember seeing it. Even at 80, it's considered extreme, so 100 is really off the charts,' Ciampaglia said. 'It really does reflect one, gold's incredible run, and two, silver just not participating to the same degree.' The global market for silver exchange-traded funds is about one tenth the size of gold, though Ciampaglia said the difference in inflows so far this year had also shocked him. By Sprott's numbers, about US$25 billion has flowed into gold ETFs this year, compared to just US$500 million for silver. 'Right now, we need more investors participating in silver to give it a boost,' Ciampaglia said. More like copper Ciampaglia described silver as a chameleon or a hybrid metal – both a monetary metal and an industrial metal. 'When the economy is under stress, or there's uncertainty about the economy, you find that silver starts trading more like copper, which is obviously a key industrial metal,' Ciampaglia said. 'Right now, it seems to be more heavily influenced on the industrial side, as opposed to the investment side.' Sprott Asset Management chief investment officer Maria Smirnova said the industrial demand for silver was surging. 'But what silver doesn't have is the buying from central banks. As you know, gold has been gobbled up in the last three years by central banks, over 1000 tonnes per year,' she said. 'Silver is not being accumulated by central banks, so I think that kind of has hurt silver also. 'I think if people are expecting a slowdown in the economy, specifically because of all the tariffs that are being announced, the perception would be to hurt silver as well, because again, it is used in industry.' Silver posted its fourth consecutive deficit in 2024 of almost 150 million ounces and is expected to be in deficit again this year. 'This is a market where we only produce 1 billion ounces per year, so that's between 10% and 20% we're short every year now. That's a lot of ounces to find,' Smirnova said. 'Over the last 10 years, we have not increased silver production – in fact, if anything, we have lost about 50Moz per year of production. 'There's been a lack of exploration and development in the silver market, reserve grades and production grades have been declining, so we have to find bigger orebodies and invest more money to develop these deposits.' ASX silver exposure There are plenty of Toronto-listed silver producers, but Ciampaglia noted that it could still be difficult to get exposure. 'The challenge is that there aren't many left of the silver miners, even though they might have silver in their company name, they are actually gold miners in disguise, and it's increasingly hard to get pure play silver exposure,' he said. While producers are scarce, the number of primary silver companies on the ASX has increased in line with the rise in price last year. The only producer right now is Adriatic Metals (ASX:ADT), which should be declaring commercial production from its Vares operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina any day now after it produced 1.4Moz of silver equivalent in the March quarter and generated positive cashflow. Soon to join Adriatic is Broken Hill Mines, which has acquired the Rasp mine and Pinnacles project in Broken Hill and is raising up to $20 million via a reverse takeover of Coolabah Metals (ASX:CBH). While Broken Hill is known for zinc and lead mining, BHM expects more than 50% of its revenue to come from silver, making it the dominant contributor. Yesterday, Boab Metals (ASX:BML) potentially jumped to the front of the production queue with the $10 million acquisition of Sandfire Resources' (ASX:SFR) DeGrussa plant for use at the Sorby Hills lead-silver project in Western Australia. The latest capital cost for the project was $264 million, including $136 million for a new plant. The company is planning to make a final investment decision later this year. Silver Mines (ASX:SVL) boasts Australia's largest undeveloped silver project, Bowdens in New South Wales, which has reserves of 72Moz. The company is advancing permitting for the $331 million project, which is expected to produce an average of 4.2Moz of silver per annum at 83 grams per tonne at all-in sustaining costs of less than $23/oz in the first 10 years of a 16.5-year mine life. Maronan Metals (ASX:MMA) should have a resource update and scoping study out for its namesake lead-silver project in Queensland in the coming months. Maronan has a resource of 32.1 million tonnes at 6.1% lead and 107g/t silver for 1.96Mt of contained lead and 110.6Moz of silver. Growing resources Sun Silver (ASX:SS1) holds the largest silver resource on the ASX of 480Moz AgEq at 68.29g/t AgEq at its Maverick Springs project in Nevada. Earlier this week, Sun kicked off its 2025 drilling program with the aim of building on the existing resource, as well as providing samples for metallurgical testing. In Chile, Andean Silver (ASX:ASL) has a high-grade resource of 9.8Mt at 353g/t AgEq for 111Moz of AgEq, as well as US$150 million worth of infrastructure, at its Cerro Bayo project. The company currently has three drill rigs spinning. In nearby Argentina, Unico Silver (ASX:USL) has a resource of 16.47Mt at 172g/t AgEq for 91.3Moz AgEq at its Cerro Leon project, as well as a non-JORC historical resource of 16.7Mt at 136g/t AgEq for 73.4Moz AgEq at the Joaquin project. The first drilling program at Joaquin is underway. To the north in Mexico, Mithril Silver and Gold (ASX:MTH) has two rigs working at the Copalquin project in Mexico. The company has the aim of doubling the existing resource of 2.4Mt at 4.8g/t gold and 141g/t silver for 373,000oz of gold and 10.9Moz silver in an update to be released later this year. Argent Minerals (ASX:ARD) completed a drilling program at its Kempfield project in NSW during the March quarter, extending mineralisation outside the resource. Kempfield has a resource of 63.7Mt at 69.75 g/t AgEq for 142.8Moz of AgEq. Earlier stage options Shares in Errawarra Resources (ASX:ERW) spiked in late March when it announced the acquisition of 70% of the Elizabeth Hill silver project and surrounding tenements in the Pilbara region of WA. While Elizabeth Hill doesn't have a resource, it produced 1.2Moz of silver at a head grade of 2194g/t silver in just one year, though it closed in 2000 due to a weak silver price. Errawarra, which is planning to change its name to West Coast Silver, raised $3 million and has already kicked off field work at Elizabeth Hill. The work underway will pave the way for the first drilling program, which is expected to begin later this quarter. In Queensland, Iltani Resources doesn't yet have a resource for its Orient silver-indium project, but it's currently working towards that goal. The company has announced an exploration target of 99-135Mt at 61-73g/t AgEq, including a high-grade core of 32-42Mt at 110-124g/t AgEq. Iltani recently resumed drilling at Orient following the end of the wet season.
