AXG - Antipodes Gold [formerly GEL - Glass Earth]

[Aotea]

Thanks elZorro,
Have watched on for a fair while, and always have plenty to say.

Have quite a lot of experience working for the regional council in Otago, know the river very well.It is what is considered to be overallocated several times over and the only way you could get water is to do flood harvesting or buy a mining right, a historic mining permit for the water take, and then get it fully reassessed by the Council for all the tosh they consider now. Also, the landowners value thier mining rights more than they do their wives as it is the only thing that keeps most farming operations viable there. The entire Manuherikea catchment all all in the calculations by Council, so minor tributaries are in the same position. Could drill very deep bores potentially though....

Holding: hgd, lmp, syft, clv, esi, hfa, kas, tex.

[elZorro]

Thanks elZorro,
Have watched on for a fair while, and always have plenty to say.

Have quite a lot of experience working for the regional council in Otago, know the river very well.It is what is considered to be overallocated several times over and the only way you could get water is to do flood harvesting or buy a mining right, a historic mining permit for the water take, and then get it fully reassessed by the Council for all the tosh they consider now. Also, the landowners value thier mining rights more than they do their wives as it is the only thing that keeps most farming operations viable there. The entire Manuherikea catchment all all in the calculations by Council, so minor tributaries are in the same position. Could drill very deep bores potentially though....

Holding: hgd, lmp, syft, clv, esi, hfa, kas, tex.

This is very handy info Aotea, will help us consider the issues a bit better. I just found some new news!!

http://www.odt.co.nz/print/70735

GEL expect to be totting up bulk testing gold from McAdie and maybe Gun Club by the end of August (this month)

GEL: TSX traded well last night, should be CAN6c by overnight or better.

Any comments?

[elZorro]

Here is a research paper I found on the Crown Minerals site (Simon Henderson lead author) that describes the use of the GeoInformatics system to reduce the time to discovery and increase the probability of success.

http://www.crownminerals.govt.nz/cms..._papers_41.pdf

The very end of the short paper has this passage:

Conclusions
Glass Earth has carried out a structured risk managed process guided by the Geoinformatics Data Intervention to examine the Coromandel Central Volcanic Region as a virtually unexplored epithermal gold province under cover of Recent volcanic ash. Intelligent, intensive, interrogation of digital data had provided a new geological and structural model of the geology of the CCVR.

Compiled with new ultra-detailed geophysical data this has led to the defining of new calderas, structures and temporal relationships between gold and rift developments and enabled direct targeting of signatures representative of potential gold deposits.
This multi-layered strategic approach to exploration has taken green-fields areas of 14,000 sq.km to drill targeting within two years.
21 targets prioritised have alteration, structure and geological characteristics similar to that of the world-class epithermal gold deposit Martha, Waihi. Up to 70 other potential targets have been identified.

I need to do some more research to find out how many of these were drilled or dropped from the list, but that's quite a bit of prospecting to be done, from just one part of the area GEL holds. Remember Martha Hill has yielded over 10Moz so far, an internationally significant resource.

GeoInformatics (Canadian based) are perhaps too good at their job - they have discovered and mapped out a resource called Whistler in Alaska (4.4Moz inferred), and amalgamated with Rimfire to form a new company called Kiska (KSK:TSK) just this month. I'm not sure if that means they will still be offering their services to GEL if needed.

[elZorro]

With GEL now handling real ore, (as pointed out by other posters), just how hard is that going to be? There is no doubt that GEL will find gold in their prospects, but it needs to be enough to be viable, either small-scale or large-scale more hopefully. I googled around a bit and cannot find any numbers as to the probability of a given drill(s) being a positive result. Maybe there are others here who could give an idea. It would depend also on the science being used.

But, if you look at Martha Hill, that can provide some figures. Assuming the average gold grade was 3g/tonne, and it has yielded 10Moz, I assumed the ore moved was twice as heavy as water, so 47 million cubic meters of it was processed (plus overburden moved). But the ore would have fitted into a space about 360mtrs x 360m x 360m. That lines up with a satellite map of Waihi quite well. It's not a big area, quite compact.

I can see now why GEL wanted fairly tight spacings on their electromagnetic and gravity surveys.

[elZorro]

Glass Earth takes 50% stake in Ophir
By Simon Hartley
Created 20/08/2009 - 05:00

Toronto-listed Glass Earth Gold has taken a 50% stake in private gold explorer Ophir Gold Ltd and will spend at least $250,000 on evaluating Ophir's prospect near Omakau in Central Otago.

If a decision to mine is made, the 50:50 joint venture's objective is to undertake open-pit mining at Ophir and process the ore, with Glass Earth's share providing some cash flow for the exploration company.

The joint venture is another step by Glass Earth to move from being a gold explorer to producer and underpin its future with some cash flow.

Glass Earth has raised $24 million in several placements since 2005 and to the end of June this year had about $1.85 million cash on hand, enough to finance it through to July next year, Glass Earth chief executive Simon Henderson has said.

Ophir had numerous highly prospective mineralised reefs, as well as near-surface gold-bearing gravels, contributing to the excellent potential of the overall joint-venture area, Mr Henderson said.

The Ophir tenement covers about 640ha near Omakau, northeast of Alexandra, and had delivered 1200 ounces of gold by 1939.

Test drilling by Ophir Gold in 2006 estimated up to 109,000 ounces averaging 3.99g of gold per tonne of ore mined.

Mr Henderson said should a decision be made to go ahead, Glass Earth would be responsible for funding the design, permitting and installation of a processing plant, but Ophir would reimburse Glass Earth for its share of the plant acquisition from its after-tax profits.

Glass Earth has also undertaken to contribute "additional ground" around Ophir Gold's existing permit.

Mr Henderson said the predominance of coarse gold raised difficulties in adequately testing such mineralisation by drilling, and he preferred to tackle the appraisal for mining by bulk testing of ore around several of the vein systems.

"Irrespective of the smallish scale of the initial mining approach, it may provide positive cash flow for Glass Earth, especially as gold prices remain high," Mr Henderson said.

Privately owned Ophir Gold raised $700,000 in a private placement in mid-2006 and undertook a 17-hole drilling programme, increasing its estimated gold resource more than eight-fold.

Ophir Gold had earlier in the same year completed a similar programme costing $400,000.

The company had in 2007-08 considered raising $2 million in a private placement and also listing on the New Zealand stock Exchanges's alternative NZAX board, but that never went ahead.

In mid-2007, there was a board reshuffle, with founding directors Dr John Scott and Central Otago miner Bob Kilgour standing down from the board, but retaining their shareholdings, and being replaced by Ray Polson, of Dunedin accountancy firm Polson Higgs, and Alistair Ward, of investment bank Campbell McPherson in Auckland.

Since then, Ophir Gold's more than 7 million shares have been held by nine separate companies and 32 individual shareholders - about a third of whom are from Otago.

Ophir Gold Ltd is the 100% shareholder of Ophir Gold Exploration Ltd, whose directors are Mr Polson and Mr Ward.

In a similar cash-generating development, Glass Earth is continuing with a separate project in the Ida Valley, where it is concentrating on two of four gold prospects.

The company has a break-even target of 3000 ounces of alluvial gold and potential for a further 6000 ounces from hard-rock mining in the Ida Valley, but to date there have been no test results released giving a resource estimate.

Among Glass Earth's extensive activities around Otago was a $4 million, 18,000sq km airborne geophysical survey in 2007, under the largest permit ever issued in New Zealand, which was assisted by a $1 million contribution from the Otago Regional Council for collation of water-related data.

Source URL (retrieved on 25/08/2009 - 09:24): http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/7...50-stake-ophir Links:[1] http://www.odt.co.nz/

I missed this article earlier, and it's quite useful in spelling out how the operation near Ophir will be done. An inferred resource of 109,000oz is looking interesting. The breakeven point of 3000oz refers to the alluvial output (nearby Ida valley) needed from one year of operation of some unspecified mining gear, perhaps the GRU.

[elZorro]

Newsletter #12 was posted to the GEL website today, it's already been sent to Otago locals near the prospects, in July/Aug.

Before you have a look at this, remember I have briefly checked a GEL workplace, and they don't spend money unnecessarily..

http://www.glassearthlimited.com/pdf...wsletter12.pdf

The bulk testing gear might be small, but I wouldn't mind being there during the washup . I guess the big GRU is looking a bit more respectable by now, and ready for use.

[JBmurc]

be trail-riding again round the cromwell ranges soon might take me pan next time find me some nuggets

[elZorro]

be trail-riding again round the cromwell ranges soon might take me pan next time find me some nuggets

You might have gold fever JB, better take an aspirin for that

But it does sound like you can find gold all over the place in Otago..don't go stepping on GEL's permits now

[elZorro]

http://www.marketwire.com/press-rele...L-1036532.html

Needs some analysis, but some big positives:

Muirs Reef signalled as encouraging signs of major epithermal gold deposit, more work being done there.

More work at Bendigo/Rise&Shine re farm-in.

The GRU is in fact a 40 tonne alluvial gold dredge that works in its own pond, a bit like this one only smaller perhaps?

http://www.mineralswestcoast.co.nz/dredge.html

It has been purchased with help from someone like Dunstan Mining, and has already been refurbished. It can handle 70-80 cubic metres of ore per hour (about 150-225 tonne/hr).

Some prospects have been dropped and their exploration costs depreciated, but GEL still has 6.3% of the total area of NZ to work with. Big holdings in Otago (esp), CVR and Waihi area still, with Marlborough?

JV with Newmont in progress at Goldwyn (aptly named I hope).

The limited books data shows a frugal outfit (esp. compared to Telecom).

Now all we need are some yield figures for various areas..

[Aotea]

We will get a better idea of what GEL is getting into in the coming months. They will start to surrender 1/3 of thier EP and then another 1/3 (i think) after that. They have certainly overlooked one nice spot, and have gifted me a surrender to seek my own mining permit...