AXG - Antipodes Gold [formerly GEL - Glass Earth]

[elZorro]

There is another July corporate presentation, now available on the Glass Earth website (since about 19th August, just noticed it).

Includes lots of finer detail about the WKP drill sites, but no new assay results.

http://www.glassearthgold.com/i/pres...onJuly2011.pdf

[elZorro]

Armed with a better Topo map of the WKP area from the presentation above, it looks like the area of interest is in a gully area near the junction of two streams.

Here is a 2008 article that disparages the Wharekirauponga site, which had reasonable capital works and 197 staff for a short while over 110 years ago, but very little mining was carried out. The main reason was the rubbish gear they had back then. Stamper batteries and cyanide needed about 1oz/ton of gold to make a profit, and the area of ore wasn't thought to be very big, and was just over the 1oz/ton cutoff grade. There were easier pickings elsewhere at the time.

http://www.thetreasury.org.nz/Wharek...kirauponga.htm

Now, of course, 31 g/tonne average grade would be a bonanza mine, and anything over 0.5g/tonne can be opencast profitably, a bit higher for underground.

Have a look at the map courtesy of Google and NZPost: GEL and Newmont have found a new site called WKP West, roughly where indicated, adjacent to the older workings. And another area called WKP South, the subject of drill WKP30. Across to the right is Whiritoa Beach. See the maps on page 11 and 13 of the report above.

Today, Newmont announced other plans to seek permission to mine under part of Waihi, to extend the mining there until 2020 at least.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/indu...n-gold-jackpot

[elZorro]

From NZResources:

Newmont introduces Correnso as a Waihi mine of the future

Simon Hartley — 24 August 2011
Newmont Waihi Gold has announced an underground exploration programme which could push its mine life out a further six years beyond 2020.
At present Newmont's gold and silver mining in the Martha east layback in the main Martha open pit is due to close in 2014, while its underground operations; Favona and Trio, are due to close in respectively 2011 and 2014.
Newmont Waihi Gold general manager, Glen Grindlay, said yesterday that the ongoing exploration activities had indicated "promising" deposits of gold and silver.
The historic mining township of Waihi and wider district are reliant on Newmont for up to about 700 jobs.
"Gold mining is a significant contributor to the local and national economies through money that goes back into the community and through taxes, employment and training," Grindlay said.
The Golden Link exploration programmes was in two parts: one being a small underground exploration quest located entirely within the existing Martha mining licence area and the main pit rim, while a potential new underground mine in Waihi East, named Correnso, could possibly replace the Favona and Trio underground mines.
Should the Correnso proposal proceed, deep underground mining would occur in blocks starting at the bottom of the ore body, 350m below the surface, and working up to the top of the ore body, at about 130m below the surface.
Following consultation and further investigation, Newmont expects to lodge Resource Management Act applications for the Correnso mine with the Hauraki District Council and Waikato Regional Council in early 2012.
NZResources.com comment: Yesterday's announcement to give longevity to the Waihi district is a credit to Newmont Waihi as the company made a decision to retain rather than sell the relatively small Waihi operations soon after acquiring it and Australian mining assets from Normandy Mining.
For more than a decade the company ploughed about $9 M annually into exploration that first outlined Favona and then Trio. One other regional project that may provide future grist for the mill is the joint venture with Glass Earth Gold on WKP West, north of Waihi.
*Simon Hartley is senior business reporter for the Otago Daily Times.

[elZorro]

At first glance nothing new in this article from Ross Louthean (NZResources), but here is the 3-5 Moz figure again, that puts some scale into it.

Growth mode on NZ gold outlined by Glass Earth Gold

Ross Louthean — 24 August 2011
The active New Zealand explorer and boutique gold miner Glass Earth Gold Ltd (TVX-V & NZAX: GEL) has outlined an aggressive build up in activity this year.
The company which has alluvial gold mining joint ventures in Otago said that it would be expanding its placer gold production in 2012 to 7,500 ounces – operations that are covering operational expenses.
The major upside was seen as coming from the WKP West joint venture with Newmont Waihi Gold (65% and GEL 35%), north of Waihi and from Glass Earth’s 100% owned Muirs project in the Hauraki goldfield.
The partners were awaiting results of one large diamond hole at WKP West while another was currently being drilled. Earlier holes have shown a large epithermal system with hole WKP24 hitting 156 metres grading 1.6 grams/tonne gold within which there were significant high grade hits. One other wide hole, WKP26 hit 178m @ 1.04 g/t Au, including 64m @ 2 g/t, while WKP 27 hit 152m @ 1.16 g/t including 1.4m @ 30.7 g/t.
The potential for WKP West was considered to be within the range of 3-5 million oz of gold.
Drilling at Muirs has already produced a global resource of 390,000 oz.

As expected, the idea of Newmont needing to mine directly under existing houses at Waihi township has met with some dismay and articles in the regional papers. Glass Earth also holds a permit that partly lies under most of Waihi (link), I was unsure what use that would be. You have to wonder if Newmont is putting up these proposals to help frame any future idea to establish a larger opencast or mine at WKP, well away from domestic properties.

Meanwhile, GEL's shareprice is showing strength on the TSX, with the WKP28,29,30 announcement due within days. The AUSIMM conference is about to get started.

[elZorro]

Here is one big press release, out at 5.30 NZ time, after trading today. Where there's smoke, there's fire..

http://tmx.quotemedia.com/article.ph...&qm_symbol=GEL

Now the desciption is that it's "potentially a very large epithermal gold system". I'm going to have a beer on the strength of that.

Map of the drill site:

http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/gel0825.pdf

The black stripe sections look like fault markings in the map, and the purple outlines are walking tracks, surrounding older stockwork.

NZResources are going to write articles during the AUSIMM conference, and they are free to view on this page.
http://nzresources.com/sections.aspx?id=14 Looks like Glass Earth is running an ad there too.

It'll be very interesting to see what happened on the TSX overnight. The top grade mentioned was nearly three ounces per tonne.

[troyvdh]

...dear el.....thankyou....keep it up....please do not be be put of by the lack of responses.......same sort of thing happened with me a few years back.. when I went on and on about a company called Summit ...SMM.. I bought quite a few ...some at 4-5 cents...sold a few at $6.90....so chin up old boy...cheers...

[Toasty]

I think a few people read that press release before it went out the door based on the 12% rise in the sp in the late afternoon.

[elZorro]

Thank you for the kind words Troy, 30 or so posts on the trot with no reply can be a bit tough, but this is a rather secretive share, there isn't much detail out there for people to post about.
Hi Toasty, welcome to the thread, keep going with your posts..

I am not an insider, and I don't buy shares on the TSX at the moment, so what happens over there is more of an interest in how it links to NZ's shares. I'm showing a chart of the last month on the TSX, generally it has been a small trend down after the Muirs news release, and as Toasty said, looks like some on the TSX knew about an impending news release, on the 25th August. The volume overnight was relatively low considering the price was good, the news was also.

In 2009 and 2010 Glass Earth put out press releases at the start or middle of the AUSIMM conference, and they had advised a reporter or two they were going to do so again, so it was a good bet. Since it is nearly two months since the end of the 2nd quarter, GEL must also produce a Q2 report within a few days, and this will include an MD&A report which might give us some more info.

I have to repeat here, that under public listing rules, delayed posting of company reports to the website, delayed release of news (that might reasonably affect the share) to the market is an illegal act. I am digging away and finding quite a bit of positive news, which is not on the website, in company reports or press releases. Things like a simple list of permits (held and applied for). These were supplied to investors a few years back, but not now.

I think the good news from yesterday is that technical mapping has isolated a new area called WKP South, and the very first drill into it found plenty of gold. In fact all of the few drills on WKP West and South have struck mineable quantities of gold and silver. I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more about WKP in the future.

Excerpt from the news release:

NEW TARGET ZONE - "WKP SOUTH"
DDH WKP 29, drilled westward (previous holes were drilled eastward into the WKP West resistor) targeted a potentially new mineralised zone to the south-west, represented by a strong resistor, intersecting an exciting zone of high grade gold-silver mineralisation. (See Section attached)

Hole No	From	To	Interval metres		Gold g/t	Silver g/t
WKP 29	216	219.2	3.2	@	37.0	17.0
including	217.1	218	0.9	@	89.2	39.2
	279.8	293	14.8	@	4.82	2.7

The strong resistor extends both north and south of the current drill hole, with another drill hole WKP 30, (results pending) drilled beneath WKP 29, angling at depth and traversing the resistor for a length of 720m. Aeromagnetic and CSAMT resistivity geophysical surveys indicate this new zone has a strike potential of at least a kilometre.
"WKP WEST"
DDH WKP 27 (previously announced - see below - which had several notable intercepts) and WKP28, confirmed significant low grade gold mineralisation, highlighted by narrow intervals of high grade, and is consistent with strong ground-based resistivity (geophysical) surveying. This demonstrates the zone has potential for over 800 m strike and a vertical extent of over 250 m. To date, the five long, angled, diamond holes drilled have all intersected significant gold-silver mineralisation over broad widths confirming a potentially very large epithermal gold system.

Hole No	From	To	Interval m		Gold g/t	Silver g/t
WKP 28	174	223	49	@	1.08	3.3
including	174	175	1	@	7.69	34.0
	177	178	1	@	4.32	5.2
	187	188	1		5.31	35.5
	214	218	4	@	5.15	9.2
	214	215	1	@	11	19.2

A priority is to test further very strong resistor signatures, 500m to the north, and infilling to provide information on the continuity and grade of high grade structures. (See map attached)
Simon Henderson, President and CEO, commented that, "WKP West represents a substantial zone of very encouraging gold-silver mineralisation, with all five holes drilled into this target, showing compelling continuity of gold mineralisation. The new discovery, 200 m to the southwest at WKP South, presents another exciting dimension on this developing project. A substantial infill/expansion drill program is warranted when budgets and resource consents for further work are approved".

[elZorro]

From the AUSIMM conference: looks like so many permits are in process at NZPAM (Crown Minerals), they are swamped. They have extra staff now.

AUSIMMNZ2011: Conference told of legislative changes and need for greater community networking

Simon Hartley — 29 August 2011
“Incremental” legislative changes and engaging with affected communities were prevalent themes at the opening of the 2011 AusIMM New Zealand Mining Conference in Queenstown yesterday.
Both politically and economically, the potential for boosting the financial contribution from New Zealand’s mining sector remains at the forefront of development arguments.
For the heavyweight companies opening the conference yesterday – OceanaGold Corporation, Newmont Waihi Gold and Solid Energy -- all highlighted increased exploration programmes for their respective resources, in line with expectations of strong global demand for commodities.
Acting Minister for Energy and Resources for just six months, Hekia Parata, struck a positive tone in a well received presentation by the more than 270 delegates attending.
She drew together the threads of potential iwi investment in the sector, growing women’s roles in the industry and outlined numerous legislative changes which are already in place which should assist sector participants in future permitting and Resource Management Act issues.
High on her agenda, and later reiterated by OceanaGold, Newmont and Solid Energy, was the need for communication with communities, or a “no brainer approach” to talking directly with communities as an expected “best business practice.”
She continued the theme of her predecessor, senior Minister Gerry Brownlee, that the mining sector provided the opportunity for a “significant” contribution to the country’s gross domestic product.
Ms Parata cited the recent work, permits and consents awarded of listed-Heritage Gold NZ Ltd, Bathurst Resources Ltd and Trans Tasman Resources; which collectively between the trio could become hundreds of millions of dollars in turnover annually.
She did not shy away from land access issues, and spoke on reclassification of Department of Conservation administered land, which at present is covered by five different statutes.
While not repeating National’s ill-fated and seemingly sweeping proposal two years ago to open up prized conservation land to exploration, she instead talked of “incremental changes” to legislation, including the RMA review, the extension of the RMA beyond the 12-mile limit to cover ocean floor mining and the need to remove duplication of information at present required under numerous statutes.
(In answer to a question from NZResources.com, the Minister said discussions with Nautilus Minerals on its seafloor massive sulphide mineral exploration licences off the east coast of the North Island were still progressing).
The Ministry of Development would now be told a month before any public consultation took place on reclassification issues, in order for it to determine who all interested parties are.
She said National wanted to assure all aspects of environmental safety are in place, speaking on the Environmental Protection Authority and the importance of how RMA reforms must cover marine and coastal areas.

Still high on everyone’s agenda, is the current back-log of permits awaiting actioning by Government permiting agency, New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals (formerly Crown Minerals); having gone through months of restructuring and boosts to both funding and staffing.

NZP&M director of minerals, Josh Adams, told delegates the agency had been left “flat and stretched” as the sector grew in recent years and “had a lack of commercial focus.”
Newmont general manager of operations Glen Grindlay’s off the cuff comment during his presentation on new prospects around Waihi about an application “still sitting on a desk” of NZPM, reflected the frustrating sentiment of many companies queuing for applications.

Adams said NZP&M’s focus was now firmly on dealing with the backlog, with applications running well above the 10-year average of 114, and closer to 200 last year with 100 already made this year.

Solid Energy reiterated its commitment to developing new energy sources, with group manager of external affairs, Bill Luff, saying coal reserves were around 160 billion tonnes, but estimates of the resource could be seven times larger again.
For this reason, Solid Energy would continue with its plans of a lignite to briquette plant at Matura, coal seam gas studies in Huntly, and lignite to diesel and fertiliser conversion plans.
While environmentalist and the Green Party have been up in arms over the use of lignite, Luff said carbon management was fundamental to all the developments and they would be carbon neutral; in reference to emissions trading schemes.
Solid Energy wanted to “lead and accelerate” the lignite-use debate, even if that included “sticking out its neck” to do so.
*Simon Hartley is senior reporter for the Otago Daily Times.

Here's a contribution from Ross Louthean, unfortunately no extra detail over the last press release, except for a photo of Simon Henderson standing beside a statue in Te Aroha. Presumably he was having a look at WKP with Newmont recently.

http://nzresources.com/showarticle.a...4&gid=30002434

[elZorro]

GEL has put out the Q2 report and a short MD&A overnight. The placer recovery was about the same, but costs were higher. As no permits were written off during the period, the net result was a far smaller loss.

http://tmx.quotemedia.com/article.ph...&qm_symbol=GEL

But, it looks like an educated guess was correct: the GEL/Dunstan GRU#1 has returned from its lease period at Earnscleugh, where it was replaced with an even bigger unit. GRU#1 is being rejigged and will be installed at Drybread. This mining permit was granted on 26th August (just a 3 month wait), and it's quite a large area compared to McAdies and Gunclub, being 7 or 8 square kilometres. This rig should certainly bring in some ounces for the coffers.

See previous post: this GRU can handle 50 bank cubic metres per hour. So in a 40hr week, up to 2000 cubic metres, perhaps 4000 tonne of material, say 0.5g/tonne of gold if it's a good spot, so 2000g gold/week = 65 ounces, US$117,000 worth, up to nearly US$6 million income per year. Costs will have to come out of course, and any downtime. Not due there until Q4, it will take a bit of moving.

Meanwhile, another GRU will do some work at Drybread. I don't think we have been advised what this one looks like.

If anyone was wondering what the other blue mining permit was on the map, that seems to be covering Tinkers,the other area of historic mining near Drybread, MP41748. It is owned by Andrew Hawkeswood, found this interesting background..http://www.drivesouth.co.nz/news/163...-was-dangerous. Maybe the Dunstan Mining guys heard things were going OK over there?