AXG - Antipodes Gold [formerly GEL - Glass Earth]

[elZorro]

There's a bit more detail about the proposed new director, Mr Fleming, in this NZResources article.

Glass Earth gains a new director and seeks another
15 February 2012
Active gold explorer and boutique miner Glass Earth Gold Ltd (NZAX & TSX-V: GEL) has appointed a new director and has a nomination for another director.Justin Cochrane has been appointed to the board and the company said well known geoscientist and corporate developer Adrian Fleming has been nominated to become a director at the annual general meeting on April 25.Both Cochrane and Fleming are Canadian residents in Vancouver and Fleming retains a New Zealand residence and spends a lot of time on the South Island.

Cochrane is executive vice president of corporate development at Sandstorm Metals & Energy, as well as being actively involved with Sandstorm Gold and earlier worked as an executive of Canada’s National Bank Financial.Cochrane said Glass Earth Gold was going through a “transformational period” and said the company differed from other junior exploration companies, being well funded and generating cash from its placer gold operations. Excess cash from this can be reinvested into drilling hard-rock projects in New Zealand.

Adrian Fleming is a geologist with 35 years diversified experience in the mining sector and has been in teams that made gold discoveries at Porgera (Papua New Guinea), Big Bell, (Western Australia), Gross Rosebel (Suriname), Hope Bay (Nunavut, Canada) and most recently White Gold (Yukon, Canada) with Underworld Resources -- which was acquired by Kinross Gold in 2010.He is the founder and CEO of Smash Minerals, a director of Goldminex Resources, and several TSX-V listed companies."This is a great time to be invited to join Glass Earth Gold. The company is NZ's leading junior gold explorer, and in contrast to its peers has developed small scale gold mining operations which provide a cash flow to cover its fixed costs,” Fleming said.

Glass Earth Gold has licences covering more than 10,000 square kilometres on both the North and South islands and, at the end of last year had a net cash position of $C3.6 M.

I would like to see GEL hold onto 35% of the WKP area if they can, and this just needs a bit more capital to be put in for a (likely) large return. I put this to Simon Henderson:

Q. There are very few details about the WKP area JV document with Newmont. If the 4 years of exploration by Newmont under the JV is technically complete in mid 2011, and the permit is finishing its 10 year term next year, what is the timeline for a mine feasibility study? Is Newmont entitled to take control of this regardless, in which case the earn-in for GEL will reduce to 25% or 20% from 35%, or can GEL opt to pay for the study? Is the intention to add a four year discovery permit to this area? Does Newmont have a more recent estimate of the resources at WKP than that supplied for 2010, and if so, what is the figure?

A. WKP (10km north of Waihi) you'll of course be familiar with, it looks like a company-changer and is our top priority for this year - we're looking forward to some real drilling progress and taking care to release both news and plans as soon as that's possible.

Regarding the WKP JV: the window for Newmont funding a feasibility study in exchange for another 10% of interest has passed. Newmont shares our excitement about the project but we're not quite at the stage we can put a solid timeline on how it will progress. Close, but not yet, and in the meantime we see no issues arising around the permit administration. We've made real progress at WKP so far and there's plenty of drilling to be done yet. I don't believe they have officially revised their estimate but are likely to soon, and for now the priority is getting on to some drilling in anger.

Sounds like Newmont are in the driving seat, and are committed to further drilling at WKP - they still have their eye on the prize.

[Vtrader]

Z,
down 4% on NZAX
up 8% on TSX

All this FA is a bit unusual for me.
Confident to hold currently, the direct communication from GEL is reputation enhancing.
Ahem! PC brigade leaving their mark. Once upon a time things were good or bad, better or worse. Now every action ie either reputation enhancing or reputation eroding. My mind boggles how masked and convoluted the truth has become. Who benefits from this PC stuff anyway?
Gold is good, always has been.
V.

[bermuda]

Vtrader,
Good to have you on the thread. I suppose it is you who is right up there on the ASX comp. This looks good. El Zorro has kept it alive but so often these gems fly under the radar. I am normally a O&G guy but this gold play has to be the best tip I have heard of. Picked up a few and still in the negative. Hate it when that happens.

Patience required.

To be honest this is a tip from one of the best stock picking experts I have ever come across. I would not have a clue about gold. Suffice to say I think it is a pretty safe haven.

[Vtrader]

Vtrader,
Good to have you on the thread. I suppose it is you who is right up there on the ASX comp. This looks good. El Zorro has kept it alive but so often these gems fly under the radar. I am normally a O&G guy but this gold play has to be the best tip I have heard of. Picked up a few and still in the negative. Hate it when that happens.

Patience required.

To be honest this is a tip from one of the best stock picking experts I have ever come across. I would not have a clue about gold. Suffice to say I think it is a pretty safe haven.

Bermuda,
all sorts come together here on this forum, we all know and celebrate that.
It is no secret that elZorro and myself share a beer or two occasionally and call it a ST meeting. must be almost time for another...
re Gold and the ASX comp, all my picks are from ASX.XGD, from some analysis I completed late last year.
O&G, must be about time NZ had a good showing again. Is Maui the only significant deposit around?

On topic.
GEL is speculative for me, well assisted by elZ and his ability to extract the most obscure connections from published material and otherwise.
My methods are technical, and this is a speculation of chart trends usually more suitable to indices and liquid stocks.
will post some EWT charts and commentary, see how GEL lines up going forward, was a good match on the way up to 80cps and back to 50cps currently
V.

[elZorro]

Hi Bermuda and VTrader, if it cheers you up, I'm a bit in the red with GEL too. But not much, and of course this share has a massive upside potential, and could do anything on that score. Another quarterly report has to come out this month (wrong again, see lower post), and there is drilling and trenching going on over three permits at least, with alluvial/placer equipment in use flat out. Including the GRU#1, 'Big Bertha', I'd hope. So we should have some news soon.

A last comment from Simon's email:

You'll understand it's difficult, as a lean junior explorer, to put as much time into communication with investors and the market as we could. But it's also of vital importance and we are always thinking of ways and means to get our message, and our results, communicated effectively. 2012 is looking like an exciting year for us and part of that will entail pressing forward with more effective communication - our shareholders deserve to see value arising from our hard work.

Amen to that.

[elZorro]

I have had a bit of a look at the last two quarterly reports from Glass Earth, as although they might be a bit cryptic, they are generally useful. In relation to GRU #1, which will be pivotal to solid placer earnings in 2012 (as far as I can tell) we have:

2^nd quarter August 29 2011
Placer production -- Mining commencement at Drybread in September with rebuilt Gold Recovery Unit #3. GRU#1 off lease and being reconfigured for mining at Drybread in Q4. GRU#2 continuing mining at Gunclub. Resource definition on several other prospects is continuing.

3^rd quarter report 25 Nov 2011
Placer cash generation was down as Gold Recovery Unit #1 came off lease and has not yet
been redeployed to another mine site. GRU#2 remains operating at Gunclub and GRU #3 is
currently being commissioned at Drybread (all in central Otago in the South Island of New
Zealand – see attached map). Expansion of alluvial/placer gold mining in the Central Otago
region is a strong focus as mining operations bed down.

Near Term Outlook

• WKP South - additional step-out drilling planned.
• Muirs - Further drilling being undertaken.
• Ophir - Plant and mine designs to be finalized.
• Placer production - Mining commencement at Drybread in November with rebuilt Gold Recovery Unit #3. GRU#1 off lease and being reconfigured for mining at Drybread in early 2012. GRU#2 continuing mining at Gunclub. Resource definition on several other prospects is continuing.

OK, so it looks like the reconfiguring took a bit longer than planned, but as at late November 2011, it was still headed for Drybread. I was just wondering if it will be used at Ophir later, but of course there is no mining permit in place yet.

The GRU#1 was purchased by Dunstan Mining around 2009 from someone who had left it in the Cardrona Valley. I'm no expert on this, but I'd guess it was in the Cardrona river or nearby. There was a mining permit no. 41670 which had been taken over by NZ Gold Ltd in 2004, and surrendered before time in early 2010. The director is Michael Coleman, the company has no other current permits. Once the GRU was tidied up by the Dunstan team (now 50% owned by GEL), it was leased to L&M Mining for testing in their Earnscleugh project above Alexandra. And here's the curious thing -a Mike Coleman is a contractor to L&M Mining for that permit.


http://www.odt.co.nz/the-regions/sou...ing-operations

[elZorro]

GEL management is promising more news and communication in 2012, and it looks like they have started down that path already. For the previous three weeks, we've had a news release on the first day or two of the week. http://www.nzx.com/markets/NZAX/securities/GEL. GEL is not a big company -yet- so we can't expect earth-shattering news every time. But with so many permits being worked on, there will obviously be plenty of data for a few new releases.

One other company I looked at even gave a press release to report simply that nothing has changed, but they've drilled another few metres in a few days. GEL could not be that boring, and the last three news releases have been very positive. Let's see what happens this week.

An example of stuff we don't hear about: positive outcomes from the aerial surveys. This data has to be made public eventually, and GEL provided immediate info on water sources in central Otago.

http://www.odt.co.nz/regions/central...ter-ida-valley

[elZorro]

In March 2010, GEL announced a possible JV effort with Placer Gold International Corp, if they fronted up with some exploration costs and $500,000 of machinery. At the time they were very difficult to spot on the web. Now they are listed on the Frankfurt exchange as BPK, a reverse takeover. They have a small MCap of about 2.5million Euro.
http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/BPK:GR

Their technical director is Dr. John H Youngson, who is noted as an alluvial specialist advising GEL back in the 2007-2008 Exploration Report, page 10.

Dr. John H. Youngson, Technical Director
Dr. Youngson graduated from the University of Otago, New Zealand, with a Masters degree in orogenic (hard-rock) gold deposits and a PhD in placer gold deposits. He is one of only a handful of experts in placer geology worldwide. He has over 20 years’ experience in placer and hard rock gold deposits in Africa, the western Pacific, Australasia, North America and South America, where he has worked as a consultant to several Major and Junior mining and exploration companies. John is currently CEO and co-founder of Placer Solutions Ltd and Youngson & Associates Ltd and a founding director of Placer Resources Ltd. He is also Managing Director of Tanzania-focused resource company, NZTZ Developments Limited and COO of PGIC’s New Zealand based daughter company, Placer Gold International Limited.
http://placercorp.com/index.php?id=11&L=1

Maybe we'll hear more about this in the next few months, but in the meantime their website has some really interesting data about GEL's permits in Otago. Have a good look at the site, some GEL photos we've never seen.

German Hills

PGIC has the option to enter into a JV on the German Hills Project with Glass Earth Gold New Zealand Ltd and Dunstan Mining Ltd, on essentially the same terms as those for PGIC’s Vinegar Hill JV (NZ$ 150,000 to $ 250,000 expenditure on exploration for 30% of the project, with an extra 20% for expenditure of up to NZ$ 500,000 on mining equipment for the JV). The project has not entered the exploration phase yet. The German Hills project area includes a portion of the same ancient channel system that is being explored at PGIC’s Vinegar Hills JV in Central Otago and wholly-owned Waikaka Project in Southland. An exposed portion of the quartz pebble conglomerates (QPCs) at German Hills were mined by hand methods and hydraulic sluicing in the late 1800s and the early 1900s.

Mining ceased where the QPCs disappear beneath younger cover sediments, because no fall was available for the tailings. A limited amount of contemporary exploration showed that the ancient channel QPCs continued beneath the cover strata. A model resource of 45 million m³ with gold grades of at least 0,1 g/m³ was estimated from widely spaced drill holes. Significant results included 3 g/m³ over a 6 m thickness of gravel as well as some encouraging intercepts in the QPCs. In the 1990s, alluvial fan and stream sediments containing gold reworked from the QPCs were successfully mined by Dunstan Mining Ltd, and a continuation of one of these fan deposits was recently mined by a Glass Earth – Dunstan Mining JV. Further mapping and exploration work is necessary before drilling for resource estimation can commence. In a next step the Joint Venture partner will close up the drill hole spacing to define any high grade channels and a mineable resource, and apply for a mining permit on the area.

Vinegar Hill

The Vinegar Hill project covers 940.3 hectares in Central Otago, South Island in New Zealand. It consists of two broad alluvial flats (referred to as Nicholson Lake and Shepherds Flat) flanking a small, central dome-shaped hill of recently uplifted Otago Schist bedrock (Vinegar Hill). It is a joint venture (JV) with Glass Earth Gold Ltd. and Dunstan Mining Ltd. PGIC has the right to earn 30% of Nicholson Lake and 30% of Shepherds Flat by spending from NZ$150,000 to NZ$250,000 each on exploration, and a further 20% of each alluvial flat by spending up to NZ$500,000 each on mining equipment for the joint venture. Two gold bearing units are present; the modern gravels of the alluvial flats in the valleys and an older quartz pebble conglomerate (QPC) unit (Dunstan Formation), which is richly auriferous locally.

Dunstan Formation QPCs are the basal fluvial gravel in a deformed Miocene sequence that underlies the valleys and has been upturned and exposed locally around the margins of Vinegar Hill, by uplift of the hill through the sequence. These gravels were deposited in the upper reaches of the ancient (Miocene) river system, which drained most of the Otago Goldfield and transported gold into Southland, where PGIC’s (PGIL) Waikaka Project is situated. The same QPC unit has been mined extensively elsewhere in Central Otago, notably at St. Bathans about 4km distant, where an estimated 200,000oz of gold at grades up to 1-2oz/m³ were produced between the 1860s and the 1930s.

Gold was discovered at Vinegar Hill in the 1870s and was initially exploited by hand-methods mining of selected stream gravels. Gold was soon traced to sources in the Dunstan Formation QPCs and several companies commenced hydraulic sluicing and elevating operations on them, which continued into the 20^th Century. Production records are poorly documented but anecdotal reports of excellent returns were reported from time to time.

Contemporary exploration has utilised geophysics and drilling (c.40 holes) to follow the QPC beneath the alluvial flats. Grades obtained from the alluvial flats and the QPC are variable, but encouraging, and are locally high (up to 20 g/m3 for a 1m interval in one hole and 0.9 g/m3 over 60 m in another). A poorly constrained model resource of 10,000 ounces at depths less than 8 m in the alluvial flats has been estimated from existing resource data. Landowner access agreement is in place and the JV will commence an aggressive exploration programme in Q3 of 2011. This will include test pitting of the alluvial flats to infill and extend existing resource data, and drilling and bulk sampling of the QPCs to define high grade leads within them.http://placercorp.com/index.php?id=22&L=1 (Spot the yellow GEL bulk tester in the photo)

GEL has several permits in the area, and one covering St Bathans and Blue Lake. EP53182, MP53653, EP53008, and EP53349 in process. The area is now covered in permits. Remember the grades are probably in grains per cubic metre, with 3g/m3 being the cutoff.

Glass Earth hasn't been in the habit of producing a 4th quarter report or MD&A in advance of the annual set of books. So late April is the date for the annual report publication, and a month after that the Q1 report. Maybe they'll take pity on the shareholders and start knocking out a Q4 report late in February each year. Just an idea...

[elZorro]

It's like watching paint dry, isn't it, VTrader? The permit 53378 on the West Coast was granted on 8th February. EP53378 "Old MacDonald" of 4963Ha. Goldmines NZ (Bob Kilgour) is 100% owner and GEL is the operator. The intention is to look for alluvial gold in the headwaters of MacDonald's Creek. The permit is beside Lakes Wahapo and Mapourika. And GEL is over here why?

Back to Otago, here is the last remaining operational stamper battery running in a video. DOC crank it up and look after it. Great job...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAUbdqs8Xy4

From November 12 2009:

OPHIR: Glass Earth has recently constructed a purpose-built pilot plant (5-7 tonnes/hour throughput) designed to recover coarse/fine free gold by means of conventional crushing/grinding followed by a gravity separation process. An initial bulk sample of approximately 150 m3 is currently being processed in order to confirm the crushing parameters and recoveries. Following this test, the pilot plant will be relocated on site at the Wai-iti vein system for additional bulk testing.Following a successful Evaluation Phase (November 2009), an affirmative decision to mine would allow for the construction of a larger plant (circa 40 tonnes/hour throughput), completion of regulatory consents and mining. The potential to replicate the mining on other pods of near-surface ore will be progressively evaluated thereafter.

If Ophir needs a grinding/crushing process first, that would be a bit of a holdup.

There's a photo of the plant in this article. http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-tim...xt-gold-strike

[elZorro]

There has been a steady increase in interest in GEL on the TSX over the last week. Look at the buy side orders, not high value, but there's about 10x more volume than normal.