AXG - Antipodes Gold [formerly GEL - Glass Earth]

[elZorro]

Putting some of these WKP maps and charts alongside each other gives us a few more clues. The original work done over a century ago provided a tramway line all the way to the coast, not sure of its condition now. But the sample they sent from a small shaft or adit at WKP for processing at Thames was well over 1oz of gold per ton. Back then, perhaps this was getting marginal for inaccessible hard rock mining that needed processing. Several greenfields explorers have checked out WKP since, using some quite new techniques, the same ones GEL has used in Otago and CVR. When GEL bought the prospect from HPD, all this info came with it.

Newmont are still concentrating their drilling in the same area around the WKP river gorge that has exposed the quartz veins, but has been successful in finding much bigger gold-bearing veins further underground, as Rabone and Christie predicted. Note that further south, large tracts of unexplored drilling space are waiting, with gold in the soils on the surface. Newmont's drilling in the next phase, of 5,500 mtrs, is the same amount that was drilled by three other companies in the period 1978-1993, that's 15 years, 23 drills.

So Newmont has only spent a few million on WKP so far, have earned in 65%, but are spending a lot more on their areas around Waihi to get to the mining stage. With a bit of luck and hard work, some continuing finds at WKP should encourage even more capital outlay. Newmont ramped up their exploration spend around 2008 to over $10mill p.a., and a change in policy over their intentions for Waihi was linked to the gold price.

http://www.contrafedpublishing.co.nz...ded+miner.html

Various timelines have been proposed, but Newmont appear to have moved to Option Four.

The fourth scenario, “Regional Exploration,” offers no timelines, just the continued targeting of underground deposits within 100 kilometres of Waihi.

WKP is of course just a few km away. And Muirs? From the GEL website:

The Muirs gold prospect lies 65 km southeast of the Martha Mine (Newmont Mining, 10m oz Au) at the southern end of the Hauraki Goldfield.

Going too far north of Waihi and up into the Coromandel proper might be asking for trouble, so Glass Earth's permits should be in the ball-park.