AXG - Antipodes Gold [formerly GEL - Glass Earth]

[elZorro]

It's an interesting business, mining. While the big operators are extracting tonnes of gold and silver (Macraes OCG, approx 200,000oz gold p.a., Martha Hill Newmont previously at least 100,000oz gold p.a.) with the attendant big budgets, a smaller operator like GEL is hoping to use the latest technology to find another of these huge gold depositions.

When you think that Martha Hill produced 5 Billion dollars worth of gold (at current prices) between 1882 and 1954, it's a big operation if you get it right.

As Miner commented, show us the money. They've looked all over the country and chosen Ida Valley as the first test site for a placer operation. While this is a stopgap cashflow measure, it's also a test of their detection technology. I presume they can start giving the market some more news soon. Maybe a revamp of the website would help, GEL..have a look at NZO's.

-elZorro-

[elZorro]

Remember having stuff in the ground and getting it out are two different things,more so for hard rock,I know of a place that runs at 2.5 ounces a ton(assayed) but will never get it out,should start a company drill it and sell you guys heaps of shares on the results :-).

Here's something for you Miner:

How about up to 13oz/tonne historically reported at the Rise and Shine Prospect? That's 370g/tonne for a small part of the diggings, and an RC drill showed 28g/tonne over a 1 metre interval. Newmont were happy to expand Martha Hill for 3g/tonne average.

http://www.glassearthlimited.com/pdf...PR_10Jun09.pdf

-elZorro

[elZorro]

No response from Miner yet.. but someone has been buying a lot of GEL shares at a good price.. hmmm..

A little bit of extra information for us all about Glass Earth, in this new link:

http://www.minesite.com/nc/minews/si...ash=d2a2941e7d

The next few months are going to be really interesting, lots of irons in the fire.

-elZorro-

[elZorro]

My apologies, I thought the new link would bypass the login requirement. This article is giving a good history of the last year or so for Glass Earth, and some new info on how they are going to carry out placer mining at no risk and minimal cost.

July 03, Minesite.com: The third of our trio is Glass Earth Gold from New Zealand which was hit even harder than most in the fall-out during the second half of the year because its major shareholder, Canadian-listed St Andrews Goldfields , sold out. It sold its first batch of shares in April 2008 which brought its holding down to 30.5 per cent and more followed. Another parcel of shares was given by St Andrews in payment for a debt and the recipient could not get on the telephone quick enough to his stockbroker to sell them. The result was that the shares fell in an almost straight linefrom C13`cents to C2 cents and though there has been a bit of recovery to C4 cents, chief executive Simon Henderson is certainly not happy to do a placing at this level.

Instead he is going to generate cash flow in short order from alluvial gold and hard rock gold targets in the Otago region of the South Island where his company has a massive land position. The seven million ounce Macraes gold mine operated by OceanaGold Corporation is on the eastern side of the Otago mesothermal gold district. It has produced two million ounces of gold in its lifetime and exploits gold mineralization without quartz veins in a ductile –brittle shear zone. Simon Henderson describes the terrain on the property controlled by Glass Earth, which adjoins Macraes, as ridgey – the ridges are where the hard rock mineralisation outcrops, while the valleys contain alluvials. The secret is that Glass Earth has a 50:50 deal with Bob Kilgour, a veteran of 30 years alluvial mining in the region. Bob has all the equipment and Glass Earth has a mass of geological data and technical know-how. Together they make a good team.

Glass Earth has a history of operating at the cutting edge of exploration technology, hence its name, and as far back as 2005 it conducted the largest airborne geophysics campaign ever undertaken in New Zealand. Its expertise is in understanding the 3D nature of ore-forming systems. The location of placer or alluvial gold is a rather different matter, but about eight million ounces are said to have been recovered in the Otago region over time, and geologists from Glass Earth have identified that the vectors to the main mineralising structures, recognised to host significant hard rock, lie directly under placer gold deposits. In other words the gold has not moved far from its primary position. Simon Henderson has picked the McAdie prospect as an initial target following the completion of 175 shallow RC holes in the Ida Valley region. Bulk testing will start as soon as water and land use permits are in place and production could commence in October.

Other work in the Otago region has highlighted that Macraes-style low angle shear related mineralisation is often overprinted by small multiple high grade quartz veins which host coarse gold. These shallow oxide ore systems are proving to be amenable to the mining and recovery methods used in placer mining. All that is needed is a mobile crushing and separation plant. If the vein quartz shows a recalcitrance in releasing the coarse gold Simon says “you just bring in a crushing contractor and take it down a size or two”. This is gold mining as it used to be in the old days and there is nothing wrong in that. Two initial targets – Ophir and Sparrowhawk – have been identified and tests on both show that they are amenable to gravity separation. There are plenty of others which need further testing, but this simple style of hard rock mining is expected to start before the end of the year.

In the meantime on the North Island the expertise of the company is being put to good use in a joint venture with Newmont Mining around the Martha gold mine which produces around 150,000 ounces of gold per year. The most advanced prospect is Goldwyn on the Hauraki project 16 kilometre north of Martha, and here a high level epithermal gold system is the target. Already a two kilometer long soil anomaly has been identified and drilling is in progress. Epithermal gold systems similar to Martha are the targets, and another has been identified at Wharekiriponga which lies between Goldwyn and Martha. Drill testing is planned once the programme at Goldwyn has been completed. The historic Muirs Reef gold deposit some 60 kilometres to the south of Martha is also being explored around the old workings. It also has similarities to Martha as a complex epithermal alteration system.

The ultimate object of Glass Earth is to discover a large hard rock gold deposit, but the company only has around C$1.4 million in the bank. If gold production from placer deposits and from the shallow oxide ore systems at Otago proves viable the cash flow will be used to accelerate exploration. At least Glass Earth avoids any signficant capital expenditure through its joint venture there, so it could be onto a modest winner.

Does anyone have some more detail they can share?

-elZorro-

[elZorro]

Apparently not...

I did find this link about the latest Newmont Waihi work on Glass Earth's permit.

http://www.crownminerals.govt.nz/cms...archterm=glass

I also watch the Canadian listings for GEL, this is where the bigger action happens. You'll see the SP trend is steadily upwards, and some shareholders have obviously done very well already, as the share climbed back to something sensible from its artificial low. There is now a small number of shares on offer, and about 10x more volume on the buy side. The NZ market is back in synch with those prices (the shares are identical).
http://cxa.marketwatch.com/TSX/en/Ma...EL&sid=3034331

GEL seems to keep the market informed, and there should be a press release out soon, to mark July's progress.

-elZorro-

[troyvdh]

EZ.....please do not be put off by the lack of response to your postings...i have been there...i raved about SMM...ABA...in the early days before they took off....I have been trying to get a response for GRD....on the Oz site....virtually nix.....just hang in there...cheers...

hold 10000 GEL

[elZorro]

No worries Troyvdh, it's just a bit embarrassing having no reply posts. Maybe you and I should just ping messages back and forth for a few days and I'll cheer up..

But seriously, I think GEL is entering an interesting phase, and with fingers in lots of new areas it's a no-brainer that sooner or later a great big pile of money will be made (and shared by the shareholders). And wouldn't it be good for the NZ mining industry.

Drill results conducted by Newmont Mining on Glass Earth’s behalf as part of the joint venture agreement should be finalized (assays including) around the end of July, beginning of August -attributed to Lindsay Carpenter email around 22 July 2009-

Thanks for the reply Troy! (DISC prev. held SMM shares)

-elZorro-

[elZorro]

OK, an update from Lindsay Carpenter overnight, who is the CHF Investor Relations agent for GEL in Canada. She states:

Press releases are normally issued on a monthly basis and there will be an operations update in the coming weeks. With the Canadian summer happening right now, news flow tends to be slower.

If you want the press releases first thing (they are posted in Canada first) then follow the Glass Earth link on their website to get on this distribution list.

CHF have a profile for Glass Earth which may include some extra data. For instance:

At SparrowHawk, in-situ rock chips assaying up to 131 g/t gold in intermittently outcropping 1m wide veins over a width of 125m, and striking out over 800m, were the focus of a two-hole drill program which delivered valuable stratigraphic information, pointing to a promising zone in SparrowHawk South.

Placer Mineralization: Bulk testing of the McAdie placer (alluvial) prospect commenced on June 16, 2009; purchase of a 75 Cu M/hr GRU (gold recovery unit) will allow fast tracking to mining if resource testing and feasibility studies are positive.

Here is a link to that profile.

http://www.chfir.com/content/clientprofile.aspx?cid=68

I'm not sure if this means that Bob Kilgour's team is already camped at the McAdie site and running material through their own equipment, or not.

-elZorro-

[delboy]

Thanks for the updates EZ, Im a novice(learning as I go) and appreciate the info found on this site as it gives me hints on where to look and what to look for. Do your own research is a great tip...but handy to know where to look.

[elZorro]

Thanks Yankiwi and Delboy, no problem. I'm a novice too Delboy, so take everything I say with a grain of salt..

I stuck my neck out a bit far, but here's the emailed word from Peter Liddle (GEL CFO, Auckland) yesterday:

A press release is imminent.

-elZorro-