Have we seen the bottom in the Goldies this year ?
Shareholders in Ramelius Resources (RMS) have seen their holdings go from a 52-week high of 91c to 31.5c on Friday. Nevertheless, the company is persevering with attempts to keep output at its Mt Magnet operation above 100,000oz a year. Mining has now begun at the Western Queen South project 90km away where over 12 months it is intended to scrape out another 23,000oz.
This is part of the historic Western Queen deposit which was mined between 1926 and 1937 by Western Queen NL until the mine shaft collapsed and water inflows made mining impossible. The average grade was a handsome 17.23 grams/tonne. The former Western Mining Corp in 1990 thought about reopening the mine, estimating the resource to be 500,000 tonnes at 11g/t. But the gold price in the 1990s hardly encouraged thoughts of ploughing capital into brownfield projects.
----keen to BUY back in low 30's .....
Brought back in 18.5c >>>>
Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) has agreed new terms for the acquisition of the advanced Vivien gold project in Western Australia from Agnew Gold Mining Company, a subsidiary of Gold Fields Limited.
Ramelius will still acquire the Vivien project for a total of A$10 million, of which A$500,000 has been paid.
Ramelius and Gold Fields have agreed that Ramelius will make two staged payments of A$5 million initially on or before 31 October 2013, and A$4.5 million on or before 30 June 2014, to complete the acquisition.
Ramelius will have access to the Vivien tenements for exploration purposes once it has completed the first payment, with infill and extensional drilling to commence shortly thereafter, expected in December.
The Vivien gold project is a high grade vein style deposit located near the Agnew gold mine in the northern goldfields of Western Australia, and carries a current Indicated Mineral Resource of 579,000 tonnes at 8.3 grams per tonne for 154,000 ounces of gold.
Ramelius has also agreed to place 25 million new ordinary shares at $0.20 to Sprott Asset Management to raise A$5 million, with the funds being directed towards finalising the acquisition.
The significant injection of funds by Sprott, a leading Canadian Fund Manager and substantial shareholder in Ramelius, demonstrates a high level of confidence in the new project.
Ramelius' strategy of adding a synergistic, low cost, high grade gold mine to its portfolio appears sound.