AXG - Antipodes Gold [formerly GEL - Glass Earth]

[elZorro]

Attention at Waihi is firmly on the Golden Link project, which includes Correnso. There's a lot at stake, although Newmont appear to have a bob each way by continuing on with WKP exploration in the meantime.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Waihi-gold-mi...2/Default.aspx

I've had a look at a TOPO map of the WKP area. Looking at the area just below the circular track that skirts the older mining region, the purple dots are old drills mentioned in Christie et al, and the rough location of the latest WKP drills are shown. Old drills 20 and 23 were the best of the original set, with a grade of 3oz/tonne over a short interval being included. Drill 21, 400mtrs south of WKP35, was not without a strike, with 0.12g/tonne over 65 mtrs. Drill 22 pointed in the other direction, only found a little. The Martha Hill main prospect yielded over 10Moz, and is no wider than about 800 metres.

Older drill 20 (DDH20) intersected a broad zone of consistent mineralised sheeted quartz veins, averaging 1.4g/t Au over 83 metres from 159m downhole (Rabone, 1991a).

[elZorro]

Guided by a post on Stockhouse, I've found the BNN clip from the evening of 27th September, yesterday, where in part 7 of his normal spot, Brent Cook was asked about Glass Earth Gold.

Glass Earth is one of 20 junior explorers in his portfolio, and each one of these has been chosen for its outstanding prospects, from a pool of 1500 similar companies worldwide he's researched with his team. He's decided to keep GEL in his portfolio, based on the latest news release.

http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip771133

Have a look from the middle of this clip. Brent is going to write up GEL's prospects and his current opinion in his subscription broadsheet, this weekend.

He seems to think that if Newmont find continuous high-grade veins at WKP, either the project or GEL itself will be bought out. (Newmont have been keen to suggest that any future mines on the Coromandel would be underground). Brent also said that Newmont needs more good ore for its mill in Waihi, and that WKP is just over the hill, it would be feasible given good grades.

[elZorro]

Strong buying pressure for GEL on the TSX overnight as I'd expected. A lot of investors listen to Brent Cook.

Since 2007, the gold price has just kept going up, and naturally Newmont's plans have changed too.

This from Contrafed.
http://www.contrafedpublishing.co.nz...relations.html

The Vision Waihi Trust (VWT) helped organise the moving of the Cornish Pumphouse, and are involved in running tours of the Martha Hill minesite and environs. John Dow, Chairman of Glass Earth, was chaiman of VWT in 2006 and is still one of three trustees. He retired from his position as Chairman and MD of Newmont Australia in 2005.

All of this goes to my point that GEL is not a fly-by-night operation, there has been a lot of long-term planning in setting it up for what could be a very exciting time ahead for shareholders.

[elZorro]

This document describes WKP prospect historically as a bit of a failure, written by David Wilton in 2007.

The Treasury is a historical society based in Thames. Mr Wilton is qualified in the IT field, not geology, and has an interest in history and in helping the kiwi recovery program, according to the web.

However, the background of WKP is fascinating. A lot of effort went in over a century ago, when everything was stacked against them. Motor vehicles had barely been invented, steam or fast flowing water was the main driving power, and there was very poor access into the Coromandel bush. At the time the Hauraki mines were stamping ore with an average grade of 3oz/ton. The cutoff was 1oz/ton, and while that cutoff is now called a bonanza grade, I think the mines must all have been underground, and religiously following only the rich veins. They had no automatic underground miners, dump trucks, no ball mills or automation to speak of. In real terms, gold is now worth at least three times as much, and it's easier to extract large ore volumes from underground.

This writeup does explain very clearly that the walk into the WKP prospect area is about 1 hour each way, it's relatively easy going and well signposted, at least if you stay on the track. It's a public DOC walking track, anyone can go in.

Newmont Waihi, 2010:

The Future – Exploration
Visit Waihi’s Gold Story in the Waihi Visitor Centre, upper Seddon St, opposite the Cornish Pumphouse for
further information about exploration.
Favona decline (gradient 1:7) is currently 4,690 metres long and 332 metres below the surface. More than
16,800 metres of drives have been completed. The portal (underground entrance) was officially opened in
November 2004. Has been producing ore from stopes since September 2006.
Exploration drilling is taking place in and around Waihi and at Onemana. Diamond drills extract core samples
for analysis. Drill core is 5 – 9 cm diameter. A drill site uses approximately 10m x 10m area. All drill sites are
rehabilitated.

Newmont's interest is in high grade deposits in low-value conservation localities that can be mined by small
footprint underground methods. Ore would be transported to Waihi for processing at existing facility.

The RMA consultation process is rigorous and transparent and will be in place for any consent applications.

Here is part of the detailed consent process under way for the Correnso Mine.

Correnso is designed to use infrastructure from nearby mines Favona, Trio and Martha Hill. If they are given consent, Newmont will start developing the mine access in mid 2013, start mining in 2015, and have it completed by 2020, backfilling with crushed ore and concrete mix as they go. Trio and Favona mines would overlap production with Correnso for one year, and then 330-400 workers would be required on Correnso, with Trio and Favona being closed. A lot of the activity on Martha Hill (the pit) is stope stabilisation by decreasing the slope angle, to meet permit requirements. They are retrieving a limited amount of gold at the same time. This must be a loss-making exercise.

The mining technique proposed for Correnso appears to be by blasting, with smaller charges nearer the surface to meet consents (at least 150m underground). The longest blasting time is 18 seconds duration, with mining blasts being shorter, 8 seconds. The grade of gold at Correnso is less than 1oz/tonne, but in many places, not by much. Good solid seams too.

By August 2011, a newsletter included:

If approved, construction of the Correnso Mine would start in mid 2013.This would see a continuation of underground mining after the Trio Mine project’s anticipated finish in 2014. We expect
the Correnso Mine could operate to the end of 2020, but
potentially longer if additional resources are discovered.

If Newmont are loaded with cash and bullish in future, that should be a good thing for GEL shareholders. HSBC seem to think Newmont are well undervalued anyway.

https://www.research.hsbc.com/midas/...5&n=331666.PDF

The very detailed report includes mention of Correnso, but not WKP. Newmont only started drilling WKP in 2010 I think, a year after the discovery of Correnso. Three years later, the mining consent process for Correnso has started. Good grades demand action.

Why opencast is not usually a topic for conversation near Coromandel.

[elZorro]

Brent Cook has a subscription newsletter called Exploration Insights. Very recently, he has clipped out some sections of those weekly newsletters and put them into one big document for general background information. It does indicate that there is a lot to know about gold exploration, and WKP gets at least one mention.

https://www.explorationinsights.com/...ts_Aug2012.pdf

WKP mention I spotted:

CSAMT
From Exploration Insights:7/10/11

A CSAMT (Controlled SourceAudio frequency MagnetoTellurics) survey involves transmitting a controlled set of electric signals into the ground at one site and measuring the returned and natural signal, plus the magnetic field at other sites. The recorded orthogonal,horizontal electric and magnetic data is then filtered and processed through a complicated mathematical process to determine the relative resistivity of the area being investigated. The survey is a fairly easy and inexpensive geophysical tool that can be used to cover large areas and “see” up to hundreds of meters into the earth.

In the case of WKP, the resistivity anomaly relates to nearly massive silica associated with the hydrothermal system that replaced the host rock with quartz (and a bit of gold). Hence the resistivity anomaly is showing us where the center of the mineral system is.

One resistivity cross-section is helpfully provided on the WKP page on GEL's website. It lined up with the longest higher-grade intercept found by WKP24, over 150 metres at 1.6 g/tonne.

http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/Proj...eportID=450302

[ynot]

Thanks for the link EZ. This guy is good reading.

[elZorro]

No problem, apparently Brent Cook's report will be out to his subscribers on Monday, so they'll get the first use of the data on the TSX if GEL gets a mention.

In the meantime, I've been reading geological reports for WKP so I can understand more about what a good drill looks like. At the end of a permit, the explorers have to write a report to NZPAM, and Dr Stuart Rabone wrote this one in 1993, about all the recent drills up to DDH23 (Newmont's drill WKP24 in 2010 was the next time anyone drilled on the prospect).

In progress as the file is too big..

Dr Rabone remained fairly convinced that (the WKP ) zone is open along strike to the north and south. This means that the Wharekirauponga Stream has cut through the rhyolite and exposed quartz veins, and the early exploration drills focussed on that. All of this area is a graben or sunken, faulted area. Increasingly research moved from these broken-up veins and non-continuous gold strikes to areas immediately to the north and south, with DDH19-23 mostly in the south, near the confluence of Edmonds stream with (another one), which ends up as the WKP stream. Here's the last sentence:

The prospect continues to have very significant exploration potential; however prospecting work is seriously hampered by difficult access, and by constraints imposed on use of access-ways and potential drilling sites.

[elZorro]

The Brent Cook newsletter has not come out yet, but I did find this collection of anecdotes about WKP from mostly over 100 years ago.

http://www.ohinemuri.org.nz/chook/wh...ndard_mine.htm

Going over the magnetic survey map (Rabone, 1990), there is a large magnetic anomaly right in the middle of the WKP area. WKP36 is drilling through part of it. WKP32A found quite a bit of gold, and is on the northern edge of it. Gold in soils has been found above it, but up until recently it has not been drilled at all.

[elZorro]

The newsletter must be out, certainly big interest shown on the TSX overnight. From the front page of Exploration Insights, title for this week's writeup starts as "Glass Earth getting close", however I don't have a subscription (US$140 a month). Might be worth it though.

Also on the front page, why we're looking at GEL in the first place..

Why invest in minerals exploration?Virtually no other investment sector provides the opportunity for ten to hundred-fold share price increases on penny stock investments. The mining industry is extracting over 75 million ounces of gold; 675 million ounces of silver; 15 million tonnes of copper; 90 million pounds of uranium; etc., annually. These companies need to replace the depleted minerals with new discoveries. Economic mineral deposits are extremely rare, however, and finding one a very difficult and time consuming process; therefore, new mineral discoveries can be exceptionally valuable. When a junior exploration company makes a discovery, its share price and market capitalization increase dramatically. That early discovery, high reward, spot is where Exploration Insights is focused—that is our area of expertise and what we are really all about.

[elZorro]

Hi Yankiwi, I knew you'd be back.. I think you like a ramping share price just as much as I do. It's been a long time coming for this share, but I still like the law of averages. So many permits, so many drills, the GRUs, the contacts and the technology. Sooner or later GEL is going to strike it big. What's the CV now, $30mill? If WKP ends up being 5Moz (half the size of Waihi's Martha Hill area) the gold is now worth US$10 billion once extracted. GEL has 35% of it. Newmont are the second biggest gold producer in the world - loaded with capital - the maths is simple.

We all need to keep a very careful eye on the WKP assays. This might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.