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News.com.au
5 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Following in the footsteps of De Grey – who will find the next Pilbara gold monster?
After De Grey's $6bn sale, juniors a lining up to find the Pilbara's next Hemi Soon to be one of Australia's largest gold mines, explorers are confident the region has more to give New Age, Peregrine, Artemis and more among the hot gold hunters in the district The Pilbara is renowned for its world-class iron ore deposits and has more recently become a lithium hot spot. But the rising gold price has put its precious metals cargo on the map as well. While there are existing gold mines in the region, like the Mark Creasy owned Warrawoona, Black Cat Syndicate's (ASX:BC8) Paulsens and Capricorn Metals' (ASX:CMM) Karlawinda, it was De Grey Mining's (ASX:DEG) 2020 discovery of Hemi that really cemented its gold status as a gold hotspot, more than two years on from the flash in the pan 'conglomerate gold rush'. Hemi and the surrounding deposits within De Grey's Mallina project have since grown to 13.6 million ounces of gold at 1.4 grams per tonne. And now, record gold prices and Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) $6 billion acquisition of De Grey has kicked off a swathe of M&A activities in the area this year – shining a spotlight on the Pilbara's gold potential. Gold juniors with a play in the region are all building cases as to why they could be on to the next Hemi. One is New Age Exploration (ASX:NAE), where executive director Joshua Wellisch says the company is so confident it has streamlined its assets to focus on the Wagyu project, which sits adjacent to – and along strike – from Hemi. 'It's the only project that has produced results thus far that look anything like Hemi,' he said. 'With the location directly along strike, we have a very good chance of finding a substantial deposit there.' The company has confirmed Hemi style rocks thanks to recent aircore and reverse circulation drilling, with assays up to 28.6g/t. Wellisch says this reinforces the project's parallels to the discovery process at Hemi, where shallow oxide mineralisation guided targeting of deeper, high-grade zones. 'We were also able to fast track the project in about 9 months, benefitting from DEG's 20 years of exploration work at Hemi,' he said. 'We knew what processes and what steps to take to firm up the initial targets and followed that through with aircore drilling to establish the initial gold mineralisation. 'We're sitting on intermediate intrusive in all of the targets and now what we're seeing is a highly gold mineralised supergene blanket across multiple targets which provides the pathway for us to vector in on where the gold mineralisation at depth is. 'Like Hemi was, we're seeing exactly what they did in the early days.' Earlier this month the company announced the sale of the Lochinvar project in the UK to focus resources on Wagyu. The next round of drilling will aim to expand gold-enriched supergene zones and to further test deeper primary mineralisation. 'As we move into the next stages of drilling we'll be able to push deeper and take a more refined approach in terms of our targeting,' Wellisch said. 'We want to expand on the supergene gold mineralisation, which is shallow – that in itself may represent an economic deposit – and then we'll look to vector in on the gold mineralisation at depth and find ... Hemi 2.0.' Wellisch notes that Hemi is made up of six individual deposits, so even if NAE had 2 or 3 similar deposits you could be talking multiple million-ounce deposits. 'The opportunity is really significant at this market cap,' he said. A number of other companies have active gold drill programs going on in the Pilbara. Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) This year ARV kicked off a fresh exploration strategy with the appointment of new managing director Julian Hanna. He was the brains behind the early growth of Western Areas from an explorer into a leading Australian nickel producer, which was eventually acquired by IGO (ASX:IGO) for $1.3 billion in 2022. That stunning success was followed up by the development and sale of MOD Resources to Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR), now the owner and miner of MOD's Motheo discovery in Botswana's Kalahari copper belt. Hanna previously told Stockhead he was attracted to Artemis' Pilbara portfolio, and he's wasted no time getting exploration up and running at Karratha. He reckons Artemis could have a slice of the Hemi action at the western end of the belt, where the Carlow deposit sits with its resource of 8.74 million tonnes at 2.5 grams per tonne gold equivalent for 704,000 ounces of AuEq, or 374,000oz of gold, 64,000t of copper and 8000t of cobalt. Five diamond holes for 1790m were completed last quarter, and returned hits of up to 15.3g/t gold. A further 3800m of diamond drilling is in the works now, with 1500m of RC drilling underway at the Titan target along with a gravity survey over the Cassowary Intrusion east of Kalgoorlie, where ARV is chasing Iron-Oxide-Copper-Gold mineralisation. Moving to technical studies is the next goal to progress Carlow towards possible feasibility and early development stages. Peregrine Gold (ASX:PGD) At the Mallina project near Hemi, PGD has appointed highly experienced geologist Matt Rolfe as exploration manager. His previous roles include as the senior geologist managing Northern Star Resources' Pilbara exploration program. The company has its eye on a whopping 40 priority targets for intrusion hosted 'Hemi style' and other orogenic gold deposits, as well as 6 targets analogous to Chalice Mining's 'Julimar type' Ni-Cu-PGE deposits. PGD believes there are further Hemi style discoveries to be made in the Mallina Basin and with numerous targets already identified, Matt's expertise and knowledge of the region gives them the best chance to unlock the potential of the project. The company is now in the final stages of planning for a substantial 10,000m Aircore drilling program to test the majority of these priority gold and Ni-Cu-PGE targets as well as other Cu-Zn-Pb-Ag-Au targets identified in historical drilling. Back in Feb, the junior identified 12km of strike at its Tambourah project, with rock chips returning up to 101g/t gold. The project was originally acquired for its lithium potential in the northwest corner of the tenement, but its gold potential is just becoming properly understood. The area has always been highly prospective for gold, with gold being discovered there in 1891, which resulted in a gold rush. The company is planning further rock chip sampling to refine drill targets. Novo Resources (ASX:NVO) Novo was the company that originally inspired the long-forgotten conglomerate gold rush, surging to ridiculous highs in the Canadian market for its theory that watermelon seed shaped nuggets found in the Pilbara were evidence of a historical link between the region and the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa, the world's most productive gold field. Not so, the story didn't hang together. But Novo had collected a massive tenement package it brought directly to the Australian market in a 2023 dual listing. Novo had De Grey (now Northern Star) engaged on a JV at its Egina project next to Hemi, but also holds a host of tenements in the region either 100% or in JV with groups like Peregrine, Creasy and lithium giant SQM. Most recently, the company's attention has been turned to its Tibooburra and John Bull project in New South Wales, but it has been working up gold and antimony targets at Balla Balla and Sherlock Crossing.
Mint
07-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Australian shares steady ahead of RBA rate decision, Trump tariff deadline
July 7 - Australian shares were little changed on Monday, with losses in miners and gold stocks offsetting gains in healthcare stocks, as caution prevailed ahead of the local central bank's policy this week and U.S. President Donald Trump's July 9 tariff deadline. The S&P/ASX 200 index was flat at 8,601.3 points as of 0042 GMT. The benchmark had ended Friday 0.1% higher at 8,603 points, a record close. The U.S. will notify about a dozen countries of higher tariff rates starting Monday, Trump said last week, with the higher rates scheduled to take effect on August 1. "Expect plenty more headlines this week, both positive and negative, as countries negotiate," analysts at ANZ said. Australia faces a 10% duty on all goods entering the United States, matching Washington's baseline tariff on imports even as U.S. exports to Australia are tariff-free. Meanwhile, all eyes are on the Reserve Bank of Australia , which will announce its cash rate decision on Tuesday. Markets are pricing in a 99.7% chance of a 25-basis-points cut. On the local bourse, gold stocks shed 1.5% after losing 3.1% earlier in the session. Northern Star Resources slipped nearly 6% after the miner said gold sales at its Kalgoorlie project were lower than its revised outlook. Evolution Mining fell 1.4%. Energy stocks declined 0.2% as oil tumbled. Woodside Energy lost 0.5%. Miners dropped 0.2%, tracking a fall in copper prices, while rate-sensitive financials were down 0.3%. Bucking the trend, healthcare stocks rose 0.8%, with heavyweight CSL adding 1.3%. New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index fell 0.1% to 12,759.70. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is expected to keep interest rates unchanged on July 9, according to a Reuters poll. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
News.com.au
17-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
ASX flat on Tuesday as Iran/Israel conflicts leaves investors wary
Nervous investors continued to watch the fallout from the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, leading to a cautious trading day on the Australian share market on Tuesday. The benchmark ASX 200 index practically traded flat, losing just 7.10 points or 0.08 per cent to close at 8,541.30. The broader All Ordinaries also slipped 3.90 points or 0.04 per cent to 8,771.10. The Aussie dollar is trading near US65.31c. Initially markets jumped on the opening bell before the Australian market dragged lower in line with US and Europe futures as US President Donald Trump urged people to leave the Iran capital of Tehran. Mr Trump issued the chilling warning to everyone in Tehran to 'immediately evacuate' in a post made on his social media platform Truth Social. 'Iran should have signed the 'deal' I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life,' Mr Trump wrote. Futures markets in the US slid, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.32 per cent, while the S & P 500 futures dropped 0.34 per cent, and the tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures dipped nearly 0.4 per cent. On the local bourse, seven of the 11 sectors finished in the red paring back some of the early gains. Gold miners were the bright spot on the market for a second day running with Northern Star Resources gaining 1.50 per cent to $20.99, Newmont Corporation added 2.49 per cent to $89.29 and Gold Road Resources finished up 0.60 per cent to $3.38. On the other hand, the market heavyweight financial sector dragged on the market. Commonwealth Bank fell 0.15 per cent to $179.14, NAB slipped 0.36 per cent to $38.80, Westpac slumped 0.54 per cent to $33.01 and ANZ finished in the red down 0.47 per cent to $29.46. The major iron ore miners had a mixed day as the price of the commodity traded flat at $US95.23 per tonne. BHP fell 0.37 per cent to $37.30 and Fortescue Metals slumped 0.38 per cent to $15.66. Bucking the trend was Rio Tinto which eked out a tiny 0.04 per cent gain to close at $107.15. AMP chief economist and head of investment strategy Shane Oliver said the market was following its usual process with history showing falls of around 6 per cent during times of geopolitical uncertainty, before rallying by 15 per cent in the corresponding 12 months. 'The Israel/Iran war along with tariff uncertainty poses a high risk of a renewed set back in share markets, if the conflict escalates to the point that it threatens oil supplies from the Middle East,' Dr Oliver said. 'It should also be remembered that conflicts regularly flare up in the Middle East only to settle down, so the key is not to get too negative and look for any opportunities that the conflict throws up.' In corporate news Santos continued its climb higher adding another 0.5 per cent of $7.80 after soaring more than 11 per cent on Monday after announcing an almost $30bn takeover bid.
The Age
17-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
ASX edges lower after Trump's Tehran warning; Gold, uranium stocks advance
The Australian sharemarket was treading cautiously on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump called for the evacuation of Tehran, in comments that contrasted with earlier optimism that Israel's war against Iran wouldn't escalate into a wider conflict. Swinging between minor gains and losses, the S&P/ASX 200 was down 10.8 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 8537.20 as of 1.31pm AEST. It had added just 1 point on Monday. The Australian dollar was up 0.1 per cent at US65.31¢ at lunchtime. US futures were down and oil climbed almost 2 per cent following Trump's comments in a social media post from the Group of Seven leaders' summit in Alberta, Canada. It wasn't clear what he was referring to but hours earlier, Trump had said Iran wanted to make a deal, sparking hopes the fighting could remain contained and pushing Wall Street higher in its session overnight. Trump earlier said Iran wanted to talk about de-escalating the conflict with Israel even as the two sides exchanged fire for the fourth consecutive day. Asked if the US would get more involved militarily, the US leader said he didn't want to discuss it. However, he is cutting short his visit to the G7, according to the White House, and returning to Washington. From the world stage back to the local sharemarket, miners, tech and energy stocks gained, holding up the ASX, while the big four banks and utilities were down. Loading Gold miners rose as Trump's warning boosted demand for havens. Bullion rose as much as 0.4 per cent to top $US3400 an ounce, following a 1.4 per cent slide on Monday, which was the biggest daily decline in a month. Northern Star Resources shares rose 2.1 per cent, Evolution Mining gained 1 per cent and Newmont Corporation gained 2.7 per cent. The iron ore heavyweights were mixed, with BHP down 0.5 per cent, while Fortescue and Rio Tinto up 0.1 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively. A rally in uranium producers boosted the energy sector after Canadian asset manager Sprott said it would buy some $US200 million ($306 million) worth of the metal for its dedicated physical uranium trust. Paladin Energy climbed 6.2 per cent, Boss Energy gained 6.1 per cent and Deep Energy jumped 8.6 per cent.
News.com.au
13-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Barry FitzGerald: Kairos picks right time to ramp up Pilbara gold exploration
'Garimpeiro' columnist Barry FitzGerald has covered the resources industry for 35 years. Now he's sharing the benefits of his experience with Stockhead readers. Garimpeiro's memory is a bit fuzzy on the exact date he had a coffee with Simon Lill in Melbourne's Bank Place. But it was likely early 2019 and Garimpeiro remembers being a bit grumpy that the catch-up with the then executive chairman of De Grey Mining wasn't scheduled for the PM rather than the AM so it could have taken place in the Mitre Tavern just down the alley. Thanks to the cleat head though, Garimpeiro remembers De Grey was trading at less than 10c share for a market cap of about $40 million and that Lill was enthusiastic about growing the company's gold resource at its Mallina gold project in the Pilbara. His enthusiasm proved well placed. Late in 2019, De Grey made the intrusion-related Hemi discovery which has grown to more than 11 million ounces, making Mallina 13.5Moz all up after the pre-Hemi shear-hosted gold resource is included. Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) has just made De Grey and its Pilbara gold riches its own with an agreed $5 billion scrip takeover bid which ended up being a $6 billion takeout due to rising gold prices pushing Northern Star scrip higher. Lill was there all the way through De Grey's journey from an overlooked junior gold explorer in the then unfashionable Pilbara – for gold at any rate – through to the last day when De Grey shareholders voted through the Northern Star takeover in April. Any way it is sliced, the De Grey journey over the last six years has been one of the biggest single valuation creation exercises in the ASX gold space. It wasn't a 10-bagger. It was a 150-bagger, if you don't mind. Lill is the first to say it was a team effort. And it was. Coming from a stockbroking and capital markets background, his main contribution was bringing in the small licks of capital to keep the lights on during the hungry years, and then the big licks needed to advance the Hemi discovery to the point where Northern Star had to buy it. Back in black Garimpeiro would be content after an achievement like Lill's at De Grey to hold court at the front bar at the Mitre and not do much else. But that's not for Lill. He is back as a chairman guiding another Pilbara gold stock – Kairos Minerals (ASX:KAI). For a couple of years, when the Pilbara conglomerate gold story was running hot, and another couple of years when lithium was the thing, Kairos took its eye off its Mt York gold project. Those distractions left the stock with few followers. But starting in May 2022 when veteran geologist Peter Turner became manager director, Mt York is now getting the attention it deserves. And now with Lill as non-executive chairman, Kairos is likely on a re-rating pathway. Mt York deserves attention all right. It stands as a 1.4 million ounce resource in a single pit shell (43Mt grading 1g/t). The mineralisation is of the banded iron formation (BIF) style which makes it different to Hemi, 55km to the north-west. But as experienced miners will tell you, the style doesn't matter as long as there is plenty of gold to be had. Geological comparisons for Mt York include Karlawinda in the Pilbara and Mt Gibson in the Murchison, the two gold deposits that underpin Capricorn Metals (ASX:CMM) $4 billion market cap. Major exploration program Mt York is better grade than both of those but it has a long way to go to catch them in terms of resource ounces. The biggest exploration program ever undertaken by Kairos is now underway, with a likely first target being to grow Mt York to something more than 2Moz. Helping the cause is pending access for Kairos to a 1500m extension of the mineralisation as it trends into its neighbour's ground – Pilbara Minerals, and its Pilgangoora lithium operation. An earlier deal between Kairos and Pilbara involved Pilbara agreeing to a $20 million payment for some non-core Kairos tenements. The first $10m instalment is helping fund the record exploration effort at Mt York. The exploration effort will likely lead to an increased mineral resource estimate update later this year – a sure fire re-rating event. Kairos could certainly do with a re-rating event. At its mid-week price of 2.8c a share it is has a market cap of $73.6 million. Based on the existing 1.4Moz resource estimate, it has one of the lowest enterprise value-to-resource ounce metrics in its ASX peer group. That is despite a scoping study in November last year outlining a $276 million project producing 115,000oz annually at an all-in sustaining cost of $2205/oz. Using a conservative $3500/oz gold price, the pre-tax net present value (NPV) was put at $410 million and capital payback was put at 2.7 years. Gold is now $5100/oz or thereabouts. Plug that into the financial model and Garimpeiro estimates a NPV of around $1 billion and a payback period well short of two years. That makes Kairos' current market look to be on the mean side of things. That's particularly so when Mt York gets juiced up by the additional ounces expected to come from the big exploration push now underway.
