AXG - Antipodes Gold [formerly GEL - Glass Earth]

[elZorro]

Thanks Aotea, trust you'll have a good Christmas too. I'm hoping to practise with the cicada lures in January up here, mid-late Feb sounds good :)

Re site visits to McAdies/Ophir etc, these are on private land, but I have put in a request and will wait to see what happens. I've been into a quarry before, and it usually involves a quick OSH training meeting, hardhats and high-vis vests. I still think a site tour(s) for shareholders at some stage would be a great idea, now the mining is up and running.

2009 has been a bit of a do-nothing year in Hamilton, with lots of promise but no action ;). I expect 2010 will be a lot better, and I'm looking forward to the GEL SP moving up to something sensible :D

Here's the story about our big GRU, L&M Mining have it for the meantime..

http://www.odt.co.nz/your-town/alexandra/80623/earnscleugh-gold-extraction-starts-week


Earnscleugh gold extraction starts this week
Home » News » Regions
By Rosie Manins on Wed, 4 Nov 2009
Your Town: Alexandra | The Regions: Central Otago
Click photo to enlarge

The 70-tonne plant L and M Mining Ltd is leasing for its mining operation at its Earnscleugh mine. Photo by Rosie Manins. L and M Mining Ltd is due to start extracting gold from Earnscleugh this week, following delays with its equipment.
The 70-tonne mine plant L and M is leasing had to be re-wired to comply with existing industry standards.

Initially, the company hoped to start mining for gold in late October.

Mine manager Mark Coleman, of Cromwell, said the plant should start operating in the next few days.

Physical work started on the site in June, and almost all initial major earthworks have been completed. About 40,000cu m of earth has been excavated and used to create bunds around the mine pit.

Once operating, the plant will float on water at the bottom of the mine pit, the depth of which will increase by another 8m. The plant will be winched into position and moved as mining progresses.

"The mine pit will stay relatively the same size, but it will slowly be moved through our projected course. Old mine spots will be filled in as we go."

One person will stay on the plant at all times, and a fulltime digger operator will also work on the site.

Mr Coleman said the plant would weigh about 90 tonnes and process 80cu m of raw material each hour when it was operational.

As mining developed, L and M might use a larger plant capable of processing 250cu m an hour.

"We have a plan of what we want to do, but some of the details will be determined as we go, depending on how the site responds, among other things." So far, seven staff, including Mr Coleman, have been working on the site.

More people are expected to be employed as the project intensifies.

L and M plans to extract more than 110,000 ounces of gold during the seven-year mining project.

It owns much of the land on the Earnscleugh flats, alongside the Fraser River.

- rosie.manins@odt.co.nz

[elZorro]

Partial surrender of GEL by 0.38km2 on the books today also...

EZ, by now GEL should definately be making money from Ophir Gold I would expect.

(1) 38Ha relinquished within a month or two by GEL..good news for someone?

(2) Ophir Gold - wonder what that equipment looks like, and who is running the other sites, contractors or GEL staff? Have you seen the Ophir site Aotea?

[Aotea]

(1) 38Ha relinquished within a month or two by GEL..good news for someone?

(2) Ophir Gold - wonder what that equipment looks like, and who is running the other sites, contractors or GEL staff? Have you seen the Ophir site Aotea?

Ophir Gold is Bob Kilgour the GEL alluvial advisor...I dont know the site. It should be making money now one would imagine.

As for the 38ha, thats been surrendered by GEL to me. ;)

[elZorro]

Ophir Gold is Bob Kilgour the GEL alluvial advisor...I dont know the site. It should be making money now one would imagine.

As for the 38ha, thats been surrendered by GEL to me. ;)

2196

I guess you've had a great year then Aotea..looking forward to hearing more about it later!

[elZorro]

The news just gets better: I hadn't noticed the new text on the front page of the Glass Earth website, quoted below:


Bulk testing of several prospects in the Otago Region is either
underway or completed. With a Mining Permit granted for the
McAdie's project as well as access and council approvals granted
mining is now underway.

In the McAdie's photos, two medium-sized Hitachi diggers/excavators are seen working, with another person beside the GRU. There is water flowing, so most issues seem to be resolved. As long as there's enough gold in each tonne handled, GEL should be making money :).

[elZorro]

Hi Yankiwi and other GEL holders:

Back from holiday and looking forward to 2010, all is improving. Been so busy at work there's no time to post..

Early this year we should see the Gun Club MPA being approved/started, and start seeing some figures on placer/alluvial production at McAdies and Ophir, along with a steadily improving bank balance at Glass Earth head office.

Around this time GEL will probably be employing extra geologists and field staff to work on their extensive PPs and EPs spread around NZ, and getting more drilling done.

So I'd expect a lot of news releases (at least one a month), and some more of the images that the GEL webmaster has been collecting. These are all really helpful, each one says a few thousand words, and I'm feeling better and better about my investment.

As an aside, have a look at ASX:ARM, (Aurora Minerals) - these guys look a bit like GEL, started out with a dual listing, had gold prospects and all sorts of mineral areas to look at, but in 2009 found a huge Manganese deposit sitting at or near the surface in Australia. It's so rich (50% by weight) you can scoop some of it up and ship it in bulk without further processing. Suddenly this minnow (MV about 50mill a few weeks ago) could build into a business worth over a billion dollars. Their share price has doubled in the last two months, it went up 7% yesterday, and I'm picking at least another 6% today.

By 3pm: not looking like a smart prediction, as some profit-taking sellers have appeared.

But I've been reminded:

Links for Aurora in
NEW ZEALAND: At Macraes West Gold Project: JV with Canadian-New Zealand company Glass Earth Limited (GENZL). The Macraes West prospecting permit area comprises 1,173sqkm and covers the possible westward extension of the Hyde–Macraes shear which hosts the Macraes mine mineralisation.

So our own GEL has links with Newmont, Aurora, Ophir Gold, L&M and OGC, among others. We're in good company.

[elZorro]

The relevant web page from Aurora's website is here:

http://www.auroraminerals.com/Default.aspx?tabid=1644

But although this is a big area and in a great spot, the 1173km2 PP was number PP39267, which was due to expire on 26 Feb 08. It's not available to view on the CM site, it's expired. (See GEL's strategy report for 2008-2009, includes a great map of the mentioned locations and a permit list). Ophir Gold and GEL do have some areas very near the Macraes mine, but a good chunk of the other areas nearby are taken by OGC.

Maybe some of PP39267 was incorporated inside PP39322, which has been extended and expanded over this period, before getting reduced over time.

[elZorro]

We're not far off the time when GEL will be reporting on its gold recovery, and I'm a bit curious as to the royalties due to the Crown, and accounting issues. According to the NZMIA website:


The tax legislation contains several provisions for companies mining 'specified' minerals. The list of specified minerals includes gold and silver but not coal.

For tax purposes, these "specified minerals" companies are required to divide their income and expenses between mining and non-mining activities. The tax rate applicable to both types of income is 33%.

Where the mining activities result in a tax loss, this loss may be set off against income from non-mining activities, although the benefit of the mining loss is reduced by 50%; ie $300 of mining losses are required to be offset against $200 of non-mining income. The reasons for these unusual offset arrangements relate back to a period when mining companies paid a lower rate of tax than ordinary companies.

Mining companies are prohibited from grouping their profits or losses with other mining companies or with non-mining companies.

Despite these limitations, the tax regime for mining companies is generally regarded as concessionary. For example, it allows mining companies to immediately deduct their exploration expenditure and any expenditure incurred in the development of the mining licence. Thus buildings, mine-shafts, plant and machinery, production equipment and storage facilities, which would ordinarily be capitalised under standard accounting conventions, may be deducted immediately for income tax purposes.

These concessions extend to 'associated mining operations', a term which describes facilities situated in New Zealand for the accumulation, initial treatment and transportation of gold up to the stage where gold is in a saleable form and in a location suitable for sale.

Mining companies are also allowed to deduct their estimated expenditure for the next 2 years on exploration and development. The estimate is reversed in the following year and therefore is included as income in that year. The mining company can maintain its deferral however, provided it continues to budget for further exploration and development work.

There is also a concession for carrying tax losses forward. New Zealand companies are usually only permitted to carry losses to the extent that they have 49% continuity of shareholding. However, mining companies are permitted to carry forward their tax losses even where there has been a complete change of ownership, where:

The losses have resulted from exploration expenditure or development expenditure incurred on licenses which are retained by the company;
The losses are offset against assessable income arising from mining from the same or geologically contiguous licence areas.

Royalties……

The Crown Minerals Act 1991 contains the right to charge a royalty on any mining permits.

The Ministry of Commerce has recently imposed a royalty on minerals owned by the Crown. The royalty is the greater of 1% ad valorem (value of production) or 5% of accounting profits. The prescription for calculating the ad valorem royalty (AVR) and the accounting profits royalty (APR) is set out in minerals programmes issued by the Ministry in October 1996. Separate documents cover coal and other minerals, though the royalty provisions in both are very similar.

I think GEL's books are based on a Canadian system, which means the costs for exploration are brought in only in the year that permit is surrendered. I'm not sure about the capital costs for mining equipment over there, but Aotea, you are no doubt going to be able to buy dredging equipment and other gear, and claim the costs immediately. That's quite a good deal.

And the royalties don't look high either. Can anyone give us an idea what a mining company would get for their raw gold in today's market, near NZ$1125 per ounce spot price?

[elZorro]

Spotted while looking to see if L&M Mining had posted returns from our GRU:

http://www.graysonline.co.nz/sale.asp?SALE_ID=4356

This a great looking piece of gear. Is the intention to bring it to Earnscleaugh if it doesn't sell, replacing the leased GEL GRU?

It is only a part of the full gear required, see the detailed listing. It might be a bit beyond GEL's budget at this stage. Good to know this sort of equipment is around in NZ though.

[elZorro]

The latest private placement for GEL has been documented on the TSX.


GLASS EARTH GOLD LIMITED ("GEL")
BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-Brokered
BULLETIN DATE: January 8, 2010
TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to
a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced October 28, 2009:

Number of Shares: 7,420,000 shares

Purchase Price: $0.05 per share

Warrants: 7,420,000 share purchase warrants to
purchase 7,420,000 shares

Warrant Exercise Price: $0.10 for a three year period

Number of Placees: 10 placees

Insider / Pro Group Participation:

Insider=Y/
Name ProGroup=P/ # of Shares
Woolrich International Y 5,720,000
Holdings Limited
(S. Collins, M. Hoddinott)
Thomas Gallant P 100,000

Finder's Fee: $1,200 and 24,000 warrants payable to
Leede Financial Markets Inc.
$2,000 and 40,000 warrants payable to
Raymond James Ltd.
$1,600 and 32,000 warrants payable to
Jones, Gable & Co. Ltd.
$400 and 8,000 warrants payable to
Penson Financial Services Inc.

Pursuant to Corporate Finance Policy 4.1, Section 1.11(d), the Company
must issue a news release announcing the closing of the private placement
and setting out the expiry dates of the hold period(s). The Company must
also issue a news release if the private placement does not close
promptly.

TSX-X

[Cannibal]

Wow - this has been tracking at 8 - 8.5 cents for the last while - down to 6 cents now.
Any ideas?

[elZorro]

Last I looked, TSX holding firm at 5.5c CDN. So someone got a bargain..

[elZorro]

Nothing has changed in the last few weeks as far as I'm aware, except GEL is a lot closer to earning an income from gold recovery. The TSX market still values GEL at 5.5c CDN, about 7cNZD, and they almost always lag behind NZ.

I think the small NZ market lacks direction on GEL at the moment, and this could easily be sorted out with a press release or website update on the alluvial/placer recovery results from various sites. Just an idea Andrew...:)

Also note that a total of 10 placees (most of the money connected with GEL in some way) fronted up with the latest placement, and in a year or two the option (warrant) to buy GEL shares for 10c CDN might be a dream for the rest of us.

I posted this up so we could all see how these deals are done. Maybe next time some of us will be keen on getting involved.

[Cannibal]

Ta for the feedback people. Pretty much how I saw it.
I was happy to pick up a few at 6 cents.
Up overnight on the TSX - now 6 cents Canadian!

[elZorro]

Overnight NZ$8000 spent on GEL: TSX holding solid at about 8c NZ. Still some cheaper shares sitting over here. Perhaps there's more good news on the horizon.

[elZorro]

I'm getting confused about dredges: here is the latest information I could find about these private companies on the Crown Minerals website:


L&M starts up Earnscleugh alluvial goldmine in central Otago.
— filed under: News, Minerals
12 June 2009 - Private mining and energy company L&M Group has begun work on its Earnscleugh alluvial gold mine project across the Clutha River from Alexandra in Central Otago.
L&M exploration manager David Manhire, of Christchurch, said high gold prices had encouraged the company to activate its Earnscleugh project, which isestimated to contain 110,000 oz of gold and is expected to run for at least seven years.

The L&M Group’s focus on alluvial gold mining in the 1980’s and 1990’s switched in the past decade to lignite, coal seam gas, and recently Buller and north Waikato coal.

Mr Manhire said the size of the Earnscleugh mine had been scaled down to 150 hectares (ha) from an earlier plan to mine 255 ha as granted by the 2001 resource consents in 2001. All appeals against the consents were cleared in mid-2004.

He said gold mining subsidiary L&M Mining held two mining permits MP 41005 covering 81 ha and the much larger MP 41462 covering 919 ha. Both are held in the name of Mintago Investments Ltd.

The project will focus on the smaller of the two permits and the area nearby on the eastern side of the Fraser River, which will now not be diverted. The Fraser runs parallel to the Clutha and through MP 41462 before joining the Clutha upstream from Alexandra.

Mr Manhire said the mine was virgin ground and had not been mined by the large Earnscleugh dredges that mined the area 100 years ago.

Some 1,300 holes were drilled to test gold grades over the new mine area in the 1980s and 1990s before the mining permit was granted.

The Earnscleugh mine will be operated by a contracting team and have two stages, Mr Manhire said. The first stage will be a small scale mine that is expected to begin mining in July.

In the second stage a larger floating gold recovery plant currently stored at L&M’s closed Waikaka mine near Gore, will be brought to Earnscleugh.

Sources: L&M Mining and Lindsay Clark
Last updated 29 June 2009

Maybe L&M have several dredges to choose from, or they have had second thoughts about bringing in bigger gear (see For Sale advert posted above).

Now about the whopper dredge:


Grey River gold dredge restarts again on north bank
— filed under: News, Minerals
26 June 2009 - The large Grey River alluvial gold dredge, which was extensively refitted in 2008, is now successfully mining gold on the north bank near the town of Blackball.

Birchfield Minerals restarted the dredge early this year to take advantage of the higher gold prices. The dredge operation was shut down in 2004 for economic reasons.

The 3,500 tonne, 170 m long dredge is one of the world’s largest remaining alluvial gold bucket dredges, and is working the wide gold-bearing gravel flats of the Grey River inland from Greymouth.

The Grey dredge’s electrical system and bucket line was rebuilt near Ngahere (about 15 km upstream from Greymouth) on the south eastern side of the river.

Allan Birchfield, managing director of Birchfield Minerals, said that the dredge was moved to the north western side of the Grey River where it is now mining the area near where the Blackball Creek and Ford Creek join the river. He said the refurbished dredge was operating well.

Gold is now selling at NZ$1,500 an oz unlike in 2004 when the gold price was about NZ$600 an oz, Mr Birchfield said.

Fifteen staff are now employed on the dredging operation, he said.

Birchfield Minerals last year was granted an extension of its Mining Permit 41933 to 873 hectares (ha), which almost tripled the original size awarded in 2006 of 294 ha.

The extended permit area included a small area on the northern banks near Blackball as well as a greater area downstream on both sides of the Grey River from the original permit area.

Mr Birchfield said the current permit contains an inferred recoverable reserve of 170,000 oz of gold.

Source: Birchfield Minerals and Lindsay Clark
Last updated 29 June 2009

All this confirms that most Otago alluvial areas are quite profitable at the current gold price, at medium to large scale.

[Aotea]

Birchfiled Dredge is a brute, and is making loads at the moment, They went up Blackball Creek and found bugger-all, but now am working in a screek below the Roa coalmine and doing very well. The other Birchfiled project near Ross is working blacksand and making $1M days....
The Birchfield dredge got their consents canned about 6 years ago, but have reappiled and been granted them. Its a mighty beast...West Coast alluvials are low grade typically but a lot of material to feed, and Otago has the goods, far higher grades and discrete sites.

[elZorro]

Birchfiled Dredge is a brute, and is making loads at the moment, They went up Blackball Creek and found bugger-all, but now am working in a screek below the Roa coalmine and doing very well. The other Birchfiled project near Ross is working blacksand and making $1M days....
The Birchfield dredge got their consents canned about 6 years ago, but have reappiled and been granted them. Its a mighty beast...West Coast alluvials are low grade typically but a lot of material to feed, and Otago has the goods, far higher grades and discrete sites.

Ah yes, thanks Aotea, I got my geography mixed up a bit..

Quickly found this about Birchfield:
http://www.ross.org.nz/business_and_industry.htm

Presume they're now mining the local beach for gold, not ironsand. Are you saying that they can separate $1mill of gold in a good day? That takes a bit of thinking about.

The big Grey River dredge link has been posted before:

http://www.mineralswestcoast.co.nz/dredge.html

Of course, GEL doesn't do the West Coast, stayed clear of it.

[Aotea]

Ah yes, thanks Aotea, I got my geography mixed up a bit..

Quickly found this about Birchfield:
http://www.ross.org.nz/business_and_industry.htm

Presume they're now mining the local beach for gold, not ironsand. Are you saying that they can separate $1mill of gold in a good day? That takes a bit of thinking about.

The big Grey River dredge link has been posted before:

http://www.mineralswestcoast.co.nz/dredge.html

Of course, GEL doesn't do the West Coast, stayed clear of it.

Thats right...the photos of the beachsand set up is outstanding. Thats Evan Birchfirlds' project which he started after the Ross pit was demossioned and turned into a lake at Ross township. It isnt beach gold exactly, but old beach leads, and yes $1M days are happening Im reliably told.

As for Allan Birchfield, he is into the confluence of Ford Creek and has been doing very well, where he was previously at Blackball Creek confluence and doing OK. Has been finding lots of historical coins and apparently loads of mercury too from the old timers...pretty interesting beast the grey dredge. They got taken to the environment court for breach of consent and eating up a riverbank if I recall correctly...

[elZorro]

Finally found a picture of the Ophir pilot plant..


Ophir May Be Next Gold Strike
By JOHN EDENS in Alexandra - The Southland Times Last updated 05:00 18/11/2009

FUTURE'S IN GOLD: The test plant at Glass Earth Gold's exploration site near Ophir, which has the potential to yield more than 100,000 ounces of the precious metal.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/business/3072752/Ophir-may-be-next-gold-strike

Ophir could be the next gold bearing site in Central Otago after mining began at the L&M Mining Earnscleugh pit.

Glass Earth, a dual-listed explorer, has a 50 per cent stake in private firm Ophir Gold to explore a 640ha prospect near Omakau.

The company announced pilot plant construction was finished and bulk testing at its Ophir prospect had started. Pilot plants are small mining plants used to test a prospect's potential gold yield ahead of major operations.

The gravity separation plant, which can sift five to seven tonnes an hour, is testing a 150 cubic metre bulk sample before more testing at a nearby prospect, the Wai-iti vein system.

After this evaluation phase a decision to mine – using a 40 tonnes an hour plant – could follow, although the firm would need mining consents. A ground survey was completed to add to geophysical data from an earlier aerial survey, to identify areas of interest.

Rock studies, mapping and geochemical soil analyses showed the "potential for several new gold bearing ... systems," the statement said.

If a decision to mine is made, the joint venture aims to extract more than 100,000 ounces. The firm is required to fund the exploration phase, plant design, installation and any resource consent applications.

Glass Earth chief executive Simon Henderson, who emailed The Southland Times from Perth, said testing must be complete before any mining recommendations were made.

It would take at least four months for permit and resource consent applications to get approval, he said.

The joint exploration site is 70km northwest of the Macraes gold deposit.

john.edens@stl.co.nz

I found part of an article on google, the first confirmation about the ownership of the 40-tonne GRU. Anyone get the Southland Times?


Ready to Mine for Bullion

The 40-tonne plant, valued at about $500000, was jointly bought by Dunstan Mining and Glass Earth Gold. They stripped it down, sanded the 10-year-old kit, ...ex Southland Times article cached by stuff.co.nz

And here is a general article summarising the gold prospecting/mining business in NZ in Sept 09. Glass Earth gets a mention.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/business/2856900/As-good-as-gold

[elZorro]

Publicly available information on the McAdies regional council permits that were approved by ORC staff and presented to the consents committee follow (stripped down version). These show that Glass Earth has permission to obtain up to 10 litres/sec of water from its own bore(s), and will discharge into a treatment pond and holding ponds. The approximate location of the site is about 1km from the mapped end of German Hill Road.


REPORT from Otago Regional Council (ORC)
Document Id: A158365
Report No: 2009/1384
Prepared For: Consents Committee
Prepared By: Julene Ludlow, Manager Resource Management Administration
Date: 3 November 2009
Subject: Resource Management Administration Report from Saturday 26th
September 2009 to Friday 30 October 2009 inclusive
__________________________________________________ ___________________
1. Project E.1 – Resource Consent Application Processing
40 new applications, 1 transfer of site and 3 variations to conditions were received during this period. The types of applications received are shown in Appendix 1. Applications for land use consents to drill a bore made up the majority of new applications received.

1.3 Consents Decided
The table of consents decided between Saturday 26th September 2009 to Friday 30 October is attached as Appendix 2. There were a total of 24 consents decided; none were either limited notified or publicly notified. In the case of water take decisions, the rates of take for those decided consents are included in Appendix 3.

Appendix 2 (includes)

2009.169 23/10/2009
Mathew Bell Staff Panel
[Water Permit] - Under Take
Glass Earth (New Zealand) Limited
To take groundwater water for non-consumptive use for the purpose of operating a gold recovery plant. Location: Approximately 2.7 kilometres southeast of the intersection of Flannery Road and Jones Road, Poolburn, Central Otago

2009.170 20/10/2009
Mathew Bell Staff Panel
[Discharge Permit] - Water
Glass Earth (New Zealand) Limited
To discharge water containing sediment to water in a processing pond and storage ponds for the purpose of operating a gold recovery plant. Location: Approximately 2.7 kilometres southeast of the intersection of Flannery Road and Jones Road, Poolburn, Central Otago

2009.171 23/10/2009
Mathew Bell Staff Panel
[Land Use Permit] - Bores
Glass Earth (New Zealand) Limited
To construct up to three bores for the purpose of accessing groundwater. Location: Approximately 2.7 kilometres southeast of the intersection of Flannery Rd and Jones Rd, Poolburn, Central Otago

Appendix 3
Water Take decisions made between 26 September and 30 October 2009
Consent Number Holder Rate (l/s)
2006.402 Borst Holdings Limited 40
2009.169 Glass Earth (New Zealand) Limited 10
2009.219 Watson I S Watson P M 5
2009.296 Aitkens Folly Vineyard Limited 1.5
2009.309 Highground Land Company Limited 0.15

This looks like a very tidy self-contained setup, and GEL are by no means the biggest possible water user in this batch of consents.

[elZorro]

Aotea, you've got me interested in finding out what size of operation is needed for those large mining turnover days..


Westland District Council site:

Ross, located 15 minutes south of Hokitika, was settled in 1865 mainly as a gold mining town which at its peak had a population of about 2,500 people drawn by the lure of gold as well as numerous hotels to service the thirsty miners. Today the town has a resident population of 291 people and has become a popular base for people working in Hokitika and Greymouth as well as staff employed by Birchfield Mining who operate a large gold mining operation in the area.

During spring, the main street of Ross, which is also the State Highway, is lined with blossom trees in flower which were planted by the Community Association.

In 1909, two miners working in Jones Creek close to the township unearthed a gold nugget weighing around 3.1 kg which was then and still is the largest found in New Zealand. It was christened “The Honourable Roddy Nugget” after the then Minister of Mines, Roderick McKenzie. The nugget was used as a doorstop at a local hotel for many years before being raffled to raise money to build the local hospital. This raffle was the start of New Zealand’s first Golden Kiwi Lottery. In 1911 the nugget was gifted to King George V as a coronation gift and was sadly melted down and gilded on a tea set.

Ross is bordered by the Totara and Mikonui Rivers to the North and South and the Southern Alps and Tasman Sea to the east and west. It is a paradise for anyone with a love or yearn to explore the outdoors. Walks close to Ross include the old Railway walk, which is currently being converted into a cycle way from Hokitika, or the Water Race through rainforest which also takes in a historic cemetery, an old miners hut and tunnels as well as spectacular views of the coastline and valley. There is excellent trout fishing and white baiting in the rivers close by while the surfcasting from the Ross beach is among the best on the West Coast.

The Ross Goldfields Information and Heritage Centre, which is operated by the local community, has a great shop showcasing local art, crafts, souvenirs and gifts as well the local history of the area. Visitors can also try their hand at panning for gold while staff are always happy to help with accommodation and other travel enquiries as well as the many attractions in the area. The town has two hotels, bed and breakfast outlets as well as backpacker accommodation and campsites.

Ross Goldfields Information & Heritage Centre
Ph 03 755 4077 or email rossgoldfields@netaccess.co.nz for more information on accommodation, tours, walks and activities.
www.ross.org.nz

The Grey River dredge operated by Allan Birchfield can run 24 hrs a day and process 187,000 tonnes of gravel a week. At Ross, Evan Birchfield's operation appears to be a fixed system:


Minerals West Coast Annual Forum, Hokitika 2 July 2008

Similar to previous years the day’s proceedings commenced with the Trust's AGM, followed by a morning session concentrating on national issues that affect the Coast, and an afternoon session of updates of major developments and topical issues within the Coast. (etc).

..The theme for this year’s Forum was Mining on the West Coast –its recent evolution. Three morning speakers Don Elder, Damien O’Connor and Chris Auchinvole were followed by updates form Pike River Coal (Peter Whittall), Oceana Gold (Gareth Thomas and Melanie Rosak) and Department of Conservation (Mike Slater) The afternoon presentations were followed by a wet and windy field excursion to Birchfield Ross Minerals operations in Ross.

Birchfield’s maintain the only fixed plant alluvial gold operation on the Coast . Commissioning of a new plant, some two kilometres south of their existing now decommissioned plant is currently underway, and it was to here that the group was safely escorted by a retired WWII military tank. Evan Birchfield explained the plant had ‘yet to produce’ any gold but all were hopeful. The mining process and the considerable extent of rehab work, now with good grass cover and carrying stock, was a testament to how integrating land development with mining provides multiple benefits.

Special thanks to Evan for hosting the field trip and the efforts he went to ensuring we were not ‘at risk’ from any insurgents.

I did some quick calcs: at 5g gold/tonne, this operation would need to process 6,200 tonne a day if their return gross was (say) NZ$1000 per ounce. That looks to be about a third of the big dredge's capability, and I guess they use earthmovers like Newmont does at Waihi. You might have more details though, Aotea.

Newmont Waihi's site states their maximum processing ability is 3,500 tonne of ore/day, at average 3.3g/tonne gold (main pit), so 379 oz/day at best..but the extended work in the pit may yield 800,000 oz gold. Their max water take was/is 230 litres/sec.

[elZorro]

Anytime now we should see a press release detailing how the gold recovery and bulk testing is going :D. Meanwhile, we have to guess:

It's quite hard to put together, but here is the scant information we have on GEG (GEL's) mining equipment:

(A) 1x 40 tonne floating GRU, refurbished and rewired, part owned with Dunstan Mining Ltd, currently leased out to L&M Mining, from Nov 2009. Working in a pond at Earnscleugh, unknown results.

According to CHFIR, it handles 75 cu mtr/hr, say 150 tonne of gravel per hour. If it was run perfectly for 24hrs a day, with ore at 5g gold/tonne, it could recover 580oz a day, worth about NZ$580,000 gross/day.

I assume this beauty will end up at one of the GEL permits in the near term..

(B)The new Ophir pilot plant with crushing and gravity separation handles 5-7 tonnes/hr, so by comparison can yield 27oz/24hrs at best, and the level of gold over there is apparently between 3g and 4g/tonne.

(C)Mention is made that if all goes well at Ophir, the JV (GEL&Ophir Gold) will construct a 40 tonne/hr plant. This could yield up to 125oz per 24 hr shift at 4g gold/tonne.

(D)At McAdies, another plant is in use. It's not much smaller than the 40 tonne GRU (A) which was earmarked for this site. Maybe it's about 100 tonne/hr, so capable of 386oz per 24 hrs. It's running costs would be higher I guess.

Anyway, we're all quite keen on hearing about these machines..

[elZorro]

Here's a bit more about the first GRU: the full article I think.


Ready to mine for bullion

The Southland Times, Sep 17, 2009 | by John Edens

THE plant for an Earnscleugh goldmine is expected to go on-site next month.

L&M Mining began a seven-year, $165 million goldmining operation on the Fraser River bed in June.

Dunstan Mining managing director Bob Kilgour is in charge of the plant, leased to L&M on a renewable contract.

Mr Kilgour and his team spent the last four months rebuilding the machine, which is in pieces in a yard off Boundary Rd, Alexandra.

The 40-tonne plant, valued at about $500,000, was jointly bought by Dunstan Mining and Glass Earth Gold.

They stripped it down, sanded the 10-year-old kit, cleaned and welded, Mr Kilgour said.

Three 106cm jigs would sieve alluvial gravel at a rate of up to 100 cubic metres a second to extract gold, he said.

Power for the diesel plant would be supplied by a separate 120kW generator.

Next month, a crane would lift the plant on to a transporter before it is placed on pontoons at Earnscleugh and floated over the mine site.

--------------------
The Southland Times, Copyright of Fairfax New Zealand Limited 2009, All rights reserved.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

I'm not a mining engineer, but I think there may be some technical errors in this article. Maybe the rig can handle 100 cubic metres of gravel an hour..and I guess the unit will be powered by a 120kW diesel genset.

The renewable contract (mentioned above) may mean GEL will not be able to do more than reap a portion of lease fees from this gear until the contract is up, I hope it's worthwhile.

[elZorro]

Might have posted this earlier, but this was the intention of L&M in June 2009.


L&M starts up Earnscleugh alluvial goldmine in central Otago.

12 June 2009 - Private mining and energy company L&M Group has begun work on its Earnscleugh alluvial gold mine project across the Clutha River from Alexandra in Central Otago.

L&M exploration manager David Manhire, of Christchurch, said high gold prices had encouraged the company to activate its Earnscleugh project, which is estimated to contain 110,000 oz of gold and is expected to run for at least seven years.

The L&M Group’s focus on alluvial gold mining in the 1980’s and 1990’s switched in the past decade to lignite, coal seam gas, and recently Buller and north Waikato coal.

Mr Manhire said the size of the Earnscleugh mine had been scaled down to 150 hectares (ha) from an earlier plan to mine 255 ha as granted by the 2001 resource consents in 2001. All appeals against the consents were cleared in mid-2004.

He said gold mining subsidiary L&M Mining held two mining permits MP 41005 covering 81 ha and the much larger MP 41462 covering 919 ha. Both are held in the name of Mintago Investments Ltd.

The project will focus on the smaller of the two permits and the area nearby on the eastern side of the Fraser River, which will now not be diverted. The Fraser runs parallel to the Clutha and through MP 41462 before joining the Clutha upstream from Alexandra.

Mr Manhire said the mine was virgin ground and had not been mined by the large Earnscleugh dredges that mined the area 100 years ago.

Some 1,300 holes were drilled to test gold grades over the new mine area in the 1980s and 1990s before the mining permit was granted.

The Earnscleugh mine will be operated by a contracting team and have two stages, Mr Manhire said. The first stage will be a small scale mine that is expected to begin mining in July.

In the second stage a larger floating gold recovery plant currently stored at L&M’s closed Waikaka mine near Gore, will be brought to Earnscleugh.

Sources: L&M Mining and Lindsay Clark

Multiply 110,000oz by NZ $1500 per ounce and you get $165 million, that's the figure the Southland Times used for the project. So that doesn't take into account costs or wholesale value, it's the retail value of the gold that should be recovered. Still, not a bad living by the look of it.

110,000 oz is 3,410kg of gold over seven years, and if working for 240 days/year, they hope to recover an average of 2kg of gold a day, so they need to process perhaps 400 tonnes of gold-bearing gravel each day.

Without even going 24 hrs, you could do that at 50 tonne/hr in an 8 hr shift. What's a bit disturbing, is that GEL's refurbed GRU can handle 150 to perhaps 200 tonne/hr, but it will need loading by digger(s).

Will L&M still want to bring in their second stage big gear with a bucket dredge?

[elZorro]

Found this on a BusinessWeek page for GEL: probably it was announced on a trading day, I missed it.


Key developments for GLASS EARTH GOLD LTD (GEL)
Glass Earth Gold Limited, Special/Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting, Feb 24, 2010

01/15/2010

Glass Earth Gold Limited, Special/Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting, Feb 24, 2010, at 10:00 US Pacific Time. Location: Suite 1750 – 1185 West Georgia Street, Vancouver B.C. V6E 4E6,Canada. Agenda: To consider the issued share capital of the company be altered by consolidating all of the 157,702,633 issued common shares without par value into 31,540,526 issued common shares without par value, on the basis that every 5 common shares be consolidated into 1 common share without par value, or on such lesser basis as may be approved by the board of directors and the TSX Venture Exchange; and to transact such further or other business as may properly come before the meeting and any adjournments thereof .

As a relative newbie, what does this mean for us?

[Silverlight]

I can't see that on the NZX nor TSX website.

In the US and most likely Canada listed companies get charged listing fees on the amount of shares they have on issue, not the market cap of the company.

So a share consolidation on the TSX may be a way of cost cutting, the annual listing fees that Glass Earth gets charged.

They may do the same here, but NZX don't seem to show a record of it.

Additionally NZX and ASX both only charge their annual listing fees based on market cap, so there would be no benefit to Glass Earth doing a consolidation here.

[Canstock]

Check out my comments on Stockhouse.

[elZorro]

Just relaying a private message from Canstock (his post not set up by admin yet):


From Canstock, Ontario:
Reverse splits rarely benefit the little guy. If we are trading at 5 cents one day, then the reverse split, we will be trading at 25 cents the next day, after the RS. Without great news we will drift back down to 5 cents, but now we only have 20% of our original shares. I understand why they have to do it, but it still sucks for us. It will be easier for them to raise money with less shares outstanding. The unfulfilled private placement was likely the catalyst for this.

I don't think the share price will drift back, Canstock, we have just seen it firming up here in NZ, in anticipation of the placer results and cashflow improvements. There was some mention that not all of the CAN$500k had turned up earlier on, sounded like that was temporary.

I'm taking a longer-term view on GEL (being an optimist) and I consider that the money spent on R&D (exploration) will come out the other end - if everyone does their job. That means (to me) the ordinary shares are still worth NZ25c, and I picked up some bargain GEL shares over the last year or so. While the shares now rest at 7.7c-8c here, there is expectation that the placer cashflow and some firmed-up drilling results for the larger sites will have a positive impact on the share.

I received the paperwork for the Special General Meeting over the weekend. Wellington head office had dated the letter 20th January 2010. As expected, management is keen on the 1 for 5 share deal. I think I'll go along with that.

I can imagine that new investors might be put off by the currently low share price, and without the history and buy-in that the rest of us have, be reluctant to get started. The consolidation might also put GEL back on the map a little. It applies to all shares, in NZ and Canada. The special deals for GEL share purchases at a later date (stock option plan) are also changing in line with the ordinary shares.

[elZorro]

Great, there were some press releases in the weekend:


Glass Earth aiming at higher capacity
ODT: Home » News » Business
By Simon Hartley on Sat, 30 Jan 2010
News: Business

Listed Glass Earth Gold is working towards commissioning a second gold-recovery unit for use at one of its three Ida Valley prospects in Central Otago, where the firm has been recovering alluvial gold for the past five weeks.

It is likely the commissioning can not come quickly enough for Glass Earth.

The exploration company's cash in hand had fallen below $1 million by December last year, the company having spent more than $24 million since dual listing on the Toronto and New Zealand stock exchanges in October 2006, focusing mainly on exploration around Otago.

Creating cash flow from its boutique mining ventures in the Ida Valley and Ophir is crucial to Glass Earth's future, the explorer to date having only posted losses.

Glass Earth chief executive Simon Henderson was upbeat about the consistent but unspecified amount of gold being recovered daily from the McAdies prospect in the Ida Valley.

"I'd like to see the second GRU [gold-recovery unit] start tomorrow. But we're likely to see that happening by the end of February," he said yesterday.

Glass Earth is working with joint venture partner Dunstan Mining in the Ida Valley and is permitted for mining at the McAdies prospect.

The explorer was "almost 95% of the way there" to get mining permits in place for the Gun Club and Nevills prospects in the Ida Valley, Mr Henderson said.

At present there is a 60-80cu m-per-hour gold-recovery unit operating at McAdies, achieving 40cu m per hour, and Mr Henderson hoped a second unit would also have an up to 80cu m-per-hour capacity.

"A lot depends on the ground conditions when it comes to [cu m-per-hour] recoveries," Mr Henderson said.

He has said in the past 2010 would be crunch time for Glass Earth in terms of generating its own cashflow and in December, he forecast the company had enough funds to continue into "early 2010", a forecast which remained unchanged yesterday.

"We're getting gold on a daily basis and are meeting [gold-recovery] expectations," Mr Henderson said of the McAdies prospect, while declining to reveal details.

In early December, Glass Earth posted a third-quarter loss of $218,000, leaving it with working capital of $934,000.

A month earlier, it had completed a private placement in Canada, raising $640,000.

For its previous full year to December 2008, Glass Earth spent $4.1 million on exploration and booked a $1.3 million loss, having a year earlier recorded a $2.68 million loss.

In mid-November last year, Glass Earth recovered a small amount of gold from its other Central Otago prospect, near Ophir, with 50:50 joint venture partner Ophir Gold Ltd, a private company, following bulk-sampling tests under its extended exploration permit.

Unlike the Ida Valley's alluvial (loose) gold deposits, the Ophir deposits are set in hard rock, which is crushed for extraction.

Mr Henderson said the results from bulk testing at Ophir had been sent to a Canadian company to determine the recovery rates and assist in the design of a bigger gold-recovery plant.

Before resuming work at Ophir, Glass Earth also had to determine the size of the gold target, Mr Henderson said.

While the firm had not applied for a mining permit from Crown Minerals for Ophir, the exploration permit allowed for continued bulk testing.

This one shows that McAdie's GRU is running at about 80 tonne gravel/hr, so if at 5g gold/tonne (someone help me out here, is that realistic?) it's nearly 13oz per hour, say $13,000 of gold income every hour!

Note that the placement was fully subscribed, and that the bigger Gun Club mining permit looks close to being approved. It's right next door to some other alluvial miners who are doing well.

And Glass Earth gets a mention today in "shares to watch" over here:

http://www.sharechat.co.nz/article/91892215/stocks-to-watch-tel-allied-charlie-s-glass-earth-hlg-npx.html

[elZorro]

Andrew (IT at GEL's Head Office) has emailed a bit of background: he's busy with permit reporting obligations, but acknowledges the website should get an update or two in future. Thanks for that.

On another note, GEL's partner (Dunstan Mining) is keeping the recovery levels at McAdies in-house at the moment, even the crew there don't know the levels. Andrew thought the figures will be released eventually..with a bit of diplomacy.

I've been working with figures of 5g/tonne, as the big pit at Waihi has 2-3 g/tonne. I figured GEL has drilled quite a few holes all over the place, and had selected McAdies as a good starting point. They certainly had heaps of sites to choose from. Gold naturally occurs in the crust of our Earth at 5ppb by weight, and anything up to 15ppb or so is "background". Of course 5g/tonne is 5ppm, a thousand times more gold than background.

I don't think GEL would have chosen a mining site with anything less than 1g/tonne over parts of it, considering they can pick which gravel goes into the GRU. If the results were average or poor, I don't think they'd be talking about building or bringing in another GRU so soon:).

[elZorro]

Capital will pay for gold exploration
By ALAN WOOD - The Press
Last updated 05:00 02/02/2010

Glass Earth Gold is planning a capital raising through overseas and New Zealand investors in March after it completes a share consolidation plan.

Glass Earth chief executive Simon Henderson said the money raised will be spent on test drilling at five of the company's seven South Island sites and in two North Island sites.

He did not want to name a figure, but it would be significant for a company of Glass Earth's size – a capitalisation of around $11.9 million.

"(We've) got to get onto our major drilling projects at the end of the recessionary phase. We've got ourselves through that process without falling over and now we've got to ... start more active drilling in the field," Henderson said.

Glass Earth has called a special general meeting on February 24 in Vancouver, Canada to consolidate its 157.7 million shares into 31.5 million shares – on the basis that every five common shares be consolidated into one.

This was to help with efforts to raise more capital, Henderson said.

Investors, particularly in North America, were not as interested in "penny shares" or those with a face value of less than 20 cents a share.

Glass Earth shares last traded at 7.7c within a 12-month range of 5c to 17c.

"We are looking at a significant capital raising in late February, early March. The (share) rollback is geared around that fundraising process, so we'd need to formalise that so people buying shares are buying in at the rollback stage."

Glass Earth also wanted to commission a second alluvial gold-recovery unit at one of its Ida Valley prospects in the first quarter of 2010. There was already one unit – comprising diggers, a processing plant and water supply-washing system – operating in the Ida Valley region of Central Otago.

Henderson was unspecific about the amounts of gold being recovered daily from the McAdies prospect in the Ida Valley but said its sale would go towards making the company cashflow positive.

Glass Earth is working with joint venture partner Dunstan Mining in the Ida Valley and is permitted for mining at the McAdies prospect.

"We are producing in a very minor way. It's a good start for us," he said.

"We anticipate increasing the number of operations that we have in the Ida Valley ... we have one operation going in partnership (with Dunstan Mining).

"We should have another running inside three months, and we have potential to grow further if those two consolidate enough business."

Henderson said he was confident of getting a second permit through soon for the second Ida Valley site.

Glass Earth dual-listed on the Toronto and New Zealand stock exchanges in October 2006.

It has also entered into a joint venture with private South Island company Ophir Gold and has recovered a small amounts of test gold from a prospect near Ophir township in Central Otago.

Henderson said sampling tests were continuing at the Ophir prospect with drilling into the rock, and some results from those tests still to be returned from Canada. "We did construct and process some material, and the results of that aren't finalised yet."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/3283139/Capital-will-pay-for-gold-exploration

Right, that's starting to get clearer: the placer work won't pay for all the drilling they'd like to do soon, and of course there are time limitations on the Crown Minerals exploration permits. And to outsiders, despite the fact the GEL shares only started off at 20c/25c (IPO), they can look a bit scary at the current price.

[elZorro]

A business called Kenex has been an historical feature of GEL's JVs (Aurora) and acquisitions (HPD) by the look of it:

http://www.kenex.co.nz/Predictive/success.asp

Who knows what the near future holds, if GEL start drilling their best spots in earnest.

Re post above, I forgot Ophir rates its prospects at 3-4g/tonne gold, so McAdies should be there or thereabout.

[elZorro]

OK, lets start with a proposition that one GRU at McAdies recovers 13oz gold every hour, running at about 50% duty, 80 tonnes gravel/hr, 5g/tonne gold.

The GRU and water pump could use $60 of diesel every hour, and one person (I'm being careful here) stands next to the GRU looking after it at $60 per hour chargeout. As part of the contract, two medium diggers and their operators could cost another $400 per hour. The GRU would also be billed out, let's say $200 per hour. Total running costs if everything goes right could be just $720 per hour, and the worst that can happen is that the rig breaks down, stopping the income flow. The contractor would carry any repair costs I guess.

With no better figures, I guess the wholesale gold value might be over NZ$1,000 per ounce in the raw state, some silver to be extracted etc. The govt fee is fairly small, so let's say income is $13,000 per hour, costs are $720, wow! over $12,000 per hour profit. Is this too good to be true?

One would hope that there's not some sort of 50/50 profit sharing going on with Dunstan Mining, the contractor, as mooted for Ophir. Fair enough when it's over or around their mining permit.

Now if $12,000 profit per hour was doubled with another GRU, and assuming there was no shortage of 5g/tonne gravel, and again running at 50% duty, how long would it take to make the NZ$12mill GEL is looking for?

1,000 hours of operations, 500 hours for each GRU, so just a few weeks.

Just a reminder about the levels at Ophir:

http://www.contrafedpublishing.co.nz/QM/Ophir+gold+beckons+again.html

[elZorro]

Have GEL missed something in the Waikato?

Just entered on the Crown Minerals site, application for a 452600Ha EP by China's largest gold mining company, Zijin Mining Group. No. 52446, at 4526 km2, this area is not in Taranaki but the Waikato. It stretches around Hamiltown (that's close to home) and up past Huntly's coalfields towards Meremere, and way back down into the King Country.

http://data.crownminerals.govt.nz/PermitWebMaps/StaticReport.aspx?application=52446

Zijin have a market cap of NZ$22.6Bill and that changes a lot (listed company), was heaps higher 2 months ago. This area is almost as much permit space as they had in all of China, according to a 2008 article I glanced at.

Anyone know anything about this?

[elZorro]

http://www.otago.ac.nz/Geology/research/gold/otago_gold/alluvial.html

Just double checking, a few grams of gold per tonne is not unusual in Otago alluvial mining sites. Recovery rate could be somewhere between 50% to 80%.

[elZorro]

Hi Yankiwi, thanks for posting..plenty are just looking..

I think this SP lacks direction at the moment, here and on the TSX. Shareholders do deserve some numbers from GEL management. Recent (and some old) drill results, bulk testing figures, assays, etc from some of those permits we stopped hearing about.

Not to mention the recovery grades and tonnage mined from McAdies, and how that site is set up with the contractors, if it affects the returns to GEL.

Is the company playing around over there, or is it literally a goldmine for temporary cashflow? You'll know from previous posts that I think it's more likely going quite well :).

[elZorro]

You've got that right eZ.

I'm sure the information they seem to be sitting on would surely effect the share price one way or the other. Therefore - it should be released in a timely manner.

IMO GEL has a big future in front of them, as well as us shareholders. The only question is how long will it be until that future arrives.

One reason that persuades an exploration company like GEL to have an IPO is to increase its profile, while of course having access to shareholder funds without paying any 'interest' in the short term. The quid pro quo is that the operation of this business must be a lot more open than a privately held company. I've no doubt this can take a lot of effort, but at times like this when more shares are likely to be issued, shareholders (existing and prospective) would like to see a state-of-play document that really does let us see how things are going.

On another note, MPA 52021 has still not been approved according to the CM website. I note that MPs have been issued for other numbers around this series, 52022 through to 52146. Many of these are on the West Coast, seems to be where the action is. It's also possible the permits are easier to get over there (no shortage of water Aotea?).

This Gun Club permit application is across Webster Lane and Nevill Lane, near Moa Creek/Bonspiel. I would expect that the Gun Club and Nevill prospects are within this space, but cannot find anything pinpointing the spots on a Glass Earth plan. But these appear to be the other two sites GEL is wanting to set up gold recovery on, in Ida Valley.

[Aotea]

Gidday EZ,
I wouldnt put too much weight on that delay....provided GEL could prove there is a resource there, and the means to extract it, they have little worries. As for water, Crown Minerals couldnt care and doesnt have the ability to consider such things, so thats a no-brainer. I would stick with Otago tenements rather than the Coast...far higher values.

On another matter, Im a little surpised that the ORC has allowed the water takes being ground water, then then returning them to surface flows and then calling them non-consumptive. They dont know their ar*e from their breakfast and clearly the wool has been pulled over thier eyes....

[elZorro]

Hi Aotea,

Welcome back, are you heading over to your prospect soon? Are the cidadas flying around yet (trout fishing)?

You will have a better idea than most, what did you think of my speculation on the amount of gold in the gravels at McAdies? What would be the range expected in partly covered areas of Otago, if the average grade is higher than on the West Coast?

I'm not sure about the water rights, just happy they got some, and it's not too bad a use for water considering irrigation water (in much bigger volume) is only used relatively inefficiently in Canterbury, say about 30% is used by the crop, the rest filters through the ground. Huge power use too, of course.

[Aotea]

Hi Aotea,

Welcome back, are you heading over to your prospect soon? Are the cidadas flying around yet (trout fishing)?

You will have a better idea than most, what did you think of my speculation on the amount of gold in the gravels at McAdies? What would be the range expected in partly covered areas of Otago, if the average grade is higher than on the West Coast?

I'm not sure about the water rights, just happy they got some, and it's not too bad a use for water considering irrigation water (in much bigger volume) is only used relatively inefficiently in Canterbury, say about 30% is used by the crop, the rest filters through the ground. Huge power use too, of course.

Gidday EZ,
Trout fishing is looking very unlikley..I have a ton of work on the house and have been housebound for an age. I can put you onto a good man who would love to take you out if you were interested though.

Re the water, yes it all looks promising really, mostly thanks to incompetent staff at the Council. I wouldnt say most filters into the ground though, most evaporates, and especially in the stoney paddocks!

As for your good value guesses, I think they are possibily a bit optimistic, but I dont know. There is a reason they are mining there afterall....

I think GEL will do well this year and they are one of my NZ Sharetrader comp picks!

[elZorro]

Aotea,

Hope being housebound is your choice, I know from experience it can take 5 years of all your spare time just to paint the inside!

You might notice I didn't enter the share pick competition for the year, not feeling brave in December. So what sort of % increase in GEL would bring you to the top of the competition table? I see the average spread is about +/- 15% so far.

Anyway, the MV of GEL should get a big boost if McAdies turns out at the high end of the expected range, so good luck with your picks.

I'm still keen on going down to Otago to have a look at these GEL sites, the fishing would be an added bonus, not too worried.

[elZorro]

Glass Earth has a policy of releasing important information to the market, and Peter Liddle has stated that they do not go along with the very frequent releases from some other operations, that have limited effect other than raising the profile of a company.

But Glass Earth has never had an income up until recently, and by their own admission have been mining at McAdies with some reasonable equipment for at least 5 weeks. There is also a share consolidation and share issue being mooted. Is now not a suitable time for a press release?

What would larger companies do in this situation?


POSTIE PLUS LIMITED
COMMUNICATIONS AND DISCLOSURE POLICY
(As adopted by the Board on 22 October 2009)
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 TYPE OF INFORMATION TO BE DISCLOSED
As soon as Postie Plus Limited (“the Company”) is aware or becomes aware of any information concerning the Company that a reasonable person would expect to have a material effect on the price or value of the Company’s securities, the Company will immediately tell the NZX that information, unless the information is subject to the disclosure exceptions set out in the NZX Listing Rules.
1.2 DISCHARGE OF OBLIGATIONS
In discharging this obligation, the Company will ensure that company announcements:
• Are made in a timely manner
• Are factual
• Do not omit material information
• Are expressed in a clear and objective manner that allows investors to assess the impact of the information when making investment decisions.

[elZorro]

Hi Yankiwi,

Yes, I see what you mean, maybe under the clauses of exploration findings, even if McAdies is just a placer site. The cashflow could easily be significant to the MV of the company. Based on the TSX trading last night, someone could in theory buy the whole lot for a few million CDN.

But, I am most impressed with the form of GEL's disclosure document, it is well done, to TSX standards.

Have a look at the equivalent Telecom NZ document, which I was going to post as an example instead of Postie Plus. I couldn't, because it was too full of mistakes!

http://www.telecom.co.nz/content/0,8748,204685-203840,00.html


Telecom has also appointed certain executives as authorised spokespeople who are required to ensure that all proposed public comments contain information already in the public domain or information which is not material. Management is responsible for ensuring compliance with the policy.

Telecom's website, contains media releases, quarterly financial information, current and past annual reports, dividend histories, notices of meeting, a list of shareholders' frequently asked questions and other information about the company.

[elZorro]

Looking back on some of the older posts here, I found some mention of MD&A results from the quarterly reports. These are not often posted to the web, but anyone can access them by going into the "Financial" menu on the Glass Earth website.

This is where some of the drilling and testing results have been recorded by management. I've just added together the comments on the placer mining spots, mainly McAdies, below. Italics refer to new information.


Glass Earth Gold Limited
Management’s Discussion and Analysis
For the three months ended March 31, 2009

- Placer (Alluvial) Targets

Significant effort was put in to delineating placer resources to allow evaluation studies to be completed with a view to mining commencing in Q3. An infill RC-drill programme of 13 drill-holes was carried out to further delineate an indicated alluvial-gold resource. Hole-spacing varied between 25-50m with an average hole-depth of 5m. A total of 66m were drilled. The five highest recently drilled 1m intervals range from 16.7 to 33.5 grains/m3 Au (gold).

A ground magnetic test survey was carried out across this alluvial prospect as well as a gradient array resistivity survey with different electrode spacing. It appears that the detailed measurements (2m electrode-spacing) can distinguish layers dominated by sand and gravel from those dominated by clay and silt in the upper ~10m depths. Such measurements have the potential for filling in gaps of data between shallow exploration holes. The preparation of the mining permit application and associated resource consent application was commenced.

Separately, a drill-programme of 39 drill-holes across three lines was carried out subsequent to encouraging results from previous drill-holes (legacy data). Hole-spacing varied between 10-15m average hole-depth of 3m. The total amount of drilled meters was 128m. The five highest recently drilled 1m intervals range from 3.13 to 11.46 grains/m3 Au (gold).

2nd Quarter
In Q2 2009, the following work was undertaken:

Otago Region Placer (Alluvial) Targets
Management has identified two areas in the Ida Valley region of Otago as having the potential for hosting modest placer gold resources and results from exploration activity to date have been encouraging. Three prospects have been subject to drill testing and two have been tested further with pitting which has supported the drilling results. Once resource and other regulatory consents are received, trial mining is planned.

The Company, in conjunction with its alluvial partner, has purchased a 40 tonne floating gold recovery unit which is currently being refurbished.

3rd Quarter:
Glass Earth Gold Limited
Management’s Discussion and Analysis
For the nine months ended September 30, 2009

Management has identified two areas in the Ida Valley region of Otago as having the potential for hosting modest placer gold resources and results from exploration activity to date have been encouraging. Three prospects have been subject to drill testing and two have been tested further with pitting (25 pits and 54 pits respectively) which has supported the drilling results.

The Company, in conjunction with its alluvial partner, purchased a 40 tonne floating gold recovery unit which has been refurbished in Q3. Requisite permitting processes have been advanced.

A grain of gold is not that big. The best result we have been told about is 0.07oz (2.17grams) of gold per cubic metre, which means about 1g/tonne. Working back from there, the average amount might be 0.1g to 0.5g per tonne. Of course this is just the gravel near the surface, and we don't have much to go on.

Looking again at the quoted breakeven of 3,000 oz gold over two sites, plus another possible 6,000 of hardrock gold as being the target over one year, it starts to add up. The costs per hour per GRU could be in the region of $700 to $750, for a 40 hour week, but as the gold level (on the surface anyway) may be at this lower level, the gross profit would be much more "modest".

At 0.5g/tonne gold, say, the GP could be more like $550 per hour.

These are all just figures guessed at from the small amount of information, and the MD&A documents give plenty of far better test results elsewhere among the permit areas. Perhaps McAdies is a test site, and/or it has a large volume of accessible gravel, with an interesting signature underneath. No doubt we'll find out in time.

[elZorro]

Just spotted, Crown Minerals shows a surrender of 146.5Ha from Glass Earth, and a matching MINING PERMIT for 52021, the Gun Club Project. The date for this was 22nd February. (It might or might not be a coincidence that 285,000 shares sold on Friday at 7c, the biggest amount here for a few months). It wasn't me buying...

Anyway, this could well be a good spot, considering the adjacent Falconers alluvial/placer results appear to be good. Now GEL need ORC approval to get started on this one.

In the weekend I was near Te Puke and had a drive up No.3 Road, linked up with No. 4 Road and after passing over two one-lane bridges was opposite a private driveway sign saying "Muirs Reef". Opposite was Muir Orchard (kiwifruit I think). There is a lot of kiwifruit being grown on the roads around there, but at the end of No. 4 rd it's more rolling sheep/beef country. There are steep gorges with good looking trout streams in the bottom, but I was not allowed to head off on foot to have a look (2 reasons: pvt property and the family were with me).

Muirs has not seen mining since 1928, but about $55mill dollars worth was taken from the site using fairly rudimentary equipment, at today's prices.

[Aotea]

Put me down for some of those traded EZ...I thought after all the comments I had made, I should put my money where my mouth is.

This is my third jump into gel, and the first two were short but profitable..may hang around for a while this time ;)

[elZorro]

Yes, should be an interesting day for GEL holders. I'm going to pay a lot more attention to any drilling and test site information that we have already been given. Maybe that's what GEL means when they say the market is fully informed. If new results are not substantially different, no need for a new press release. Similarly, the mining permit is not a licence to start mining at Gun Club, but no doubt they have been working on the ORC consents process in the background.

I trolled the internet and found these snippets about Muirs Reef:


The prospecting and exploration permits discussed in the previous section indicate
that these activities are primarily focused on potential gold deposits in the Bay of
Plenty. While there is no current gold production in the region, existing information
and the location of the nearby Martha Hill mine at Waihi suggest that this cannot be
discounted in the future. Figure 6 maps some areas of potential interest for gold and
silver deposits, identified using publicly available information. The map locates these
areas in the Western Bay of Plenty and Rotorua districts.

Areas of interest in the Western Bay of Plenty centre on known mineralised areas
with historical gold production. Information from Crown Minerals (2004) focuses on
two locations in particular and provides the following commentary:

(i) Muirs Reefs in the Te Puke area.
Two subparallel, north northeast striking auriferous quartz reefs. Worked intermittently from 1897 to 1928 from several adits and shafts with a production in excess of 1685 kg (54,172 oz) of bullion
from 64,482 tonnes of quartz. These reefs and their possible extensions and repetitions have been explored under various mineral licences and permits in more recent times. The area has good prospectivity and is potentially a future extraction site.

(ii) The Eliza Mine on the Waitekohe Stream in the ranges southwest of Katikati yielded only 150g bullion from 12 tonnes quartz earlier last century but remains a potential future extraction site. The known mineralisation is >400m long, several metres wide, and strikes 15° dipping steeply west.
While these remain potential areas of interest, other interpretations should also be taken into account. For example, Houghton and Cuthbertson (1989, p.31) acknowledge the Eliza Mine deposit, but conclude that the history of prospecting and mining in this part of the Kaimai Range has been singularly unsuccessful..


Gold and base metals
Stokes (1980: 276) recorded the history of gold prospecting in the Tauranga/Te Puke area. A small amount of rock was crushed at the Eliza claim, south of Katikati (Downey 1935: 254). Muir’s Reef, south of Te Puke, was a much more substantial effort, with a number of claims being made there and one substantial mining effort resulting, which operated from the late 1890s until 1928 (Downey 1935: 252; Taylor 1969: 123–134; Stokes 1980: 278–280)....

Muirs Reef, southwest of Te Puke, was the site of the Bay of Plenty's only commercial goldmine. It was operating around the 1920s, and the mining activity generated mail, resulting in the Muir's Reef Post Office being opened in July 1921. An accident in 1924 saw the mine being flooded, and the main pump destroyed. An attempt was made to keep the mine going, but rising costs, diminishing amounts of gold, and continuing water problems, the mine closed in 1928. Once this happened there was no further call for a post office, and it closed in February 1929.

I think I'd need to consult some books for more detailed information, but this does help. Using fairly basic equipment at the time, $54 million dollars worth of gold was recovered (today's trade value), and GEL thinks there is quite a bit more kicking around in the general area (but note the seams appear to be not very wide). If the above data is correct, the average grade was a little less than 1oz/tonne (a creditable 26g/tonne) for the quartz ore, for the two reefs that were mined. GEL has access to historical drill results giving up to 358g/tonne over a 1 metre interval. A little bit of that sort of ore would make up for a lot of lower grades.

[elZorro]

GEG (GEL) put out a press release last night, just before the start of trade on the TSX.


MINE: GEL: PLACER GOLD PRODUCTION UPDATE AND PRIVATE PLACEMENT CLOSING 08:32a.m. GEL 25/02/2010

REL: 0832 HRS Glass Earth Gold Limited

MINE: GEL: PLACER GOLD PRODUCTION UPDATE AND PRIVATE PLACEMENT CLOSING

PLACER GOLD PRODUCTION UPDATE AND PRIVATE PLACEMENT CLOSING

Glass Earth Gold Limited (TSX-V: GEL; NZAX: GEL) ("Glass Earth" or the
"Company") commences gold production at McAdie's, New Zealand.

Glass Earth Gold Limited further advises that it has closed the non-brokered
private placement announced on October 27, 2009.

Placer mining at McAdies, Ida Valley, New Zealand commenced in mid-December
2009 following the grant of Mining Permit 52 018 on 10 December 2009. Weekly
production is in line with expectations and Glass Earth is delighted to
commence modest gold production.

Consents for the Gun Club placer gold project, Ida Valley have also been
granted as well as Mining Permit 52 021 (on 22 January 2010).

Together with the 40 tonne placer gold plant currently leased out on the
Earnscleugh Project (L&M Mining - nearby at Alexandra), Glass Earth intends
to have three placer projects contributing to gold production/cash flow in
the first quarter 2010. Cash generated from these projects is expected to
significantly contribute to Glass Earth's corporate operating expenses.

Glass Earth's placer operations are managed by GEG's 50% joint venture
partner Dunstan Mining - releasing Glass Earth technical management to focus
on its hard rock exploration in Central Otago, and Hauraki-Mamaku, New
Zealand.

Glass Earth further advises that it has completed the non-brokered private
placement announced on October 27, 2009. A total of 7,420,000 units (the
"Units") at CAD$0.05 per Unit for gross proceeds of CAD$371,000. Each Unit
is comprised of one common share and one common share purchase warrant (the
"Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional
common share at a price of $0.10 until expiry on December 29, 2012.

The Company also issued 104,000 finder's warrants and paid cash of $5,200 to
finders in connection with the closing of the private placement. The
finder's warrants have the same terms as the Warrants issued to subscribers
in the private placement. The securities issued in the private placement and
the finder's warrants are subject to a hold period expiring April 30, 2010.

The proceeds of the private placements will be used for general corporate
purposes.

Qualified Persons
Glass Earth's exploration programmes are carried out under the supervision of
Glass Earth's President and CEO, Simon Henderson, M.Sc, M.AUSIMM, F.SEG. Mr.
Henderson meets the qualified person requirements (as defined by National
Instrument 43-101) with more than 30 years of experience in the gold mining
and exploration industry.

About Glass Earth Gold Limited
Glass Earth is one of the largest New Zealand-based gold exploration
companies exploring a land position of over 17,000 km2 in the North and South
Islands. With its main office in Wellington, New Zealand, Glass Earth Gold
Limited is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX.V: GEL) and the New
Zealand Alternative Stock Exchange (NZAX: GEL).

For additional information on the company, please contact:
- Simon Henderson, President and Chief Executive Officer, at +64 4 903
4980 or info@glassearthlimited.com;
- Jeanny So, Director of Operations, CHF Investor Relations, at +1 416
868 1079 or jeanny@chfir.com
- Visit the Company's website at www.glassearthgold.com.

To receive Company news via email, contact jeanny@chfir.com and mention
"Glass Earth news" in the subject line.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor New Zealand Exchange Limited has
reviewed this release and neither accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release.
End CA:00191649 For:GEL Type:MINE Time:2010-02-25:08:32:33



145,000 shares traded higher over there at CAN 5c.
Looks like some of us could have jumped in on the private placement after all, and had guaranteed CAN10c share options up to 2012. Anyone have any comments?

[elZorro]

Database error on Sharetrader? that's a new one.
This press release is certainly helpful.

[elZorro]

Let's see if this post will end up towards the top of the page..

It's a full-on day for GEL fans: the news release goes a long way to spelling out the situation at McAdies, and of course the Gun Club Project is fully consented, so mining can start there immediately.

It's a bit late in the day to do figures, but Dunstan Mining is now a 50:50 JV on these GEL alluvial sites, this will have another impact on returns. It might also be a very clever move for both parties: GEL doesn't have the gear or lots of spare staff to run that sort of equipment, and Dunstan Mining is probably waiting on consents and more information to get started on Ophir. I guess were were all hoping (well I was) that the first bit of mining would be on 5g/tonne ore, a big ask.

Andrew (GEL IT dept) has kindly posted quite a few new photos on the website this afternoon :D These include the first confirmation that some of that precious yellow metal is being recovered, so much it covers the bottom of a gold pan.

http://www.glassearthlimited.com/gallery.html

I wonder how the big meeting at Vancouver went last night? The company was to vote on the 5:1 share consolidation.

Does anyone else have any comments on the news release?

[miner]

That's a mighty big pan elzorro,it's the centrifuge used to catch the fine gold that the tables don't as the water flow is too strong in them.

Cheers
Miner

[elZorro]

miner
That's a mighty big pan elzorro,it's the centrifuge used to catch the fine gold that the tables don't as the water flow is too strong in them. Cheers, Miner

Thanks for that info Miner, I saw the hole in the middle but had no idea of the scale of the photo, or how that equipment worked. I guess the closeup of gold would be the heavier pieces trapped further up on the sluicing tables?


I see the release as good news all the way around. Those new photos on the GEL website have put a bit of a sparkle in my eye as well. :D

I do however have a bit of a concern on the share consolidation. I understand the fact that it'll take 5 shares and convert them to 1, but there has been no mention of the warrants. Will these too be consolidated? If the CAD s/p goes from .05 to .25 with the 5:1 move, then surely the warrants will have to go from .10 to .50 exercise price, or 5 for 1 as well?

I don't think there will be any problem there Yankiwi, those warrants will be changed to 50c say, I'm sure (pro rata?). It's a little bit late to say so now, but as the private placement was not filled in Canada, maybe the same deal could have been offered in NZ at equivalent rates. But that amount of money might be less important, now the placer gear is running.

The press release hasn't given a figure for the gold grade being seen at McAdies, and fair enough. It could change as they move across the site, dig deeper, or find efficiencies in the equipment. GEL now has to work with Dunstan Mining to get Gun Club and Nevills areas going, which I think are on the new permit (a map would be helpful).

But we now have an indication on the sort of returns GEL expect over a year, probably without using the large GRU which is leased to L&M. I have no information to figure out what the lease return would be, as GEL only own part of it, and no doubt there is a financing or use-of-money cost which offsets some of the income.

In the year ended 2008 financial statements, pg 13 lists Significant Expenses of a Corporate Nature. These dropped back in 2008, and should be even less for the next year. So the total is say CAD$1.3mill.

Three GRUs running for a year on a 50-50 JV should provide a significant contribution to those costs, according to the news release.

If each GRU provided net profit to GEL of one third of ALL the corporate costs, that would be NZ$600,000 clear income per GRU per year. That can be lined up with gold at $1,000 per ounce, 600oz per GRU, say 2.5 oz per day of the gold is net profit for GEL.

Allowing for $750 running costs per hour/GRU, 240 days/year, 8 hours/day, the JV will have to use some of the gold to pay those bills first. That's $6,000 per day, 6 oz used.

Dunstan Mining could also be expected to have the same return as GEL, so 2.5oz per day (they supplied the equipment at some risk).

This gives a predicted total of an average 11oz of gold recovered per GRU, per working day. McAdies has been reported as handling 40 cubic metres/hr through its GRU, about 80 tonnes ore/hr. It could do more than that if everything was going well.

These rough figures indicate the modest grades of 11x31g/80x8 tonne = approx 0.5g/tonne.

All this is based on what has been recovered so far, and that could change. The old alluvial miners that turned up at Otago in the late 1800s didn't have any of the geomagnetic and other electronic equipment GEL is using. The chances are very good that plenty of gold remains undiscovered. And now I'll try to choose an applicable smilie..:D

[elZorro]

Re share options Yankiwi: I had a look back through the information sent by GEL.


The proposed consolidation will not alter or change in any way any shareholder’s proportion of votes to
total votes, however, the total votes capable of being cast by shareholders at a General Meeting of the
Company in the future will be reduced if the resolution is passed. Any resulting fractional share will be
dealt with by taking the number of shares issuable on the exchange to the nearest lower whole share. In addition, the common shares reserved for issuance under the Company’s Stock Option Plan will be
reduced to 3,154,052 common shares upon the share consolidation. In the event that the consolidation is not approved by the ordinary resolution of the shareholders, the Company will not proceed with these matters.

A news release yesterday confirmed the share consolidation.


Wellington, New Zealand, February 26, 2010.
SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING APPROVES SHARE CONSOLIDATION
Glass Earth Gold Limited (TSX-V: GEL; NZAX: GEL) (“Glass Earth” or the
“Company”) announces that it intends to proceed with a consolidation of its share
capital on a five (5) old for one (1) new share basis. The share consolidation was
approved at a special general meeting of the Company’s shareholders held on February
24, 2010. The consolidation remains subject to acceptance by the TSXV Venture
Exchange.
Upon completion of the share consolidation, a total of 32,684,526 common shares will
be outstanding. The name of the Company will not be changed as a result of the
consolidation.

[elZorro]

The TSX depth information for GEL is missing in action this morning, very unusual. Could this be an indicator that the consolidation will be done on paper over the weekend, so by next week's start we're into the new prices? :cool:

[elZorro]

[QUOTE]GEL
11/03/2010
APPNDX7

REL: 1628 HRS Glass Earth Gold Limited

APPNDX7: GEL: Appendix 7 - Share Consolidation

Name of Issuer: Glass Earth Gold Limited

Type of Event: Capital Change

EXISTING securities affected by this:
Description of the class of securities: Ordinary shares
ISIN: CA37713P1045

Details of Securities Issued Pursuant to this event:
Description of the class of securities: Share Consolidation - one new share
for each five existing shares
ISIN: CA37713P1045

Number of Securities to be issued following event: Post Consolidation -
32,684,526

Record Date: 18 March 2010
Allotment Date: 19 March 2010
End CA:00192375 For:GEL Type:APPNDX7 Time:2010-03-11:16:28:12 [QUOTE]

19 March is the change date?

[elZorro]

You know, if we had a time machine, Miner and Aotea, we could go back 150 years and get in ahead of these guys:

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/gold-and-gold-mining/3/2

$40 million dollars worth in 10 weeks, a small party of miners.. :D

I can't believe that there's not more of that hidden away down there somewhere.

[JBmurc]

I'm sure there's penalty more round here too-------- be real nice to have a small gold mine operation here

[Aotea]

You know, if we had a time machine, Miner and Aotea, we could go back 150 years and get in ahead of these guys:

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/gold-and-gold-mining/3/2

$40 million dollars worth in 10 weeks, a small party of miners.. :D

I can't believe that there's not more of that hidden away down there somewhere.

LOL...I could show you a small valley in Central where there is $100M waiting t obe pulled out in three of those wee mines you speak of....there are plenty around if you do your homework.

[JBmurc]

an this valley could be open cut mined permits available??

[elZorro]

LOL...I could show you a small valley in Central where there is $100M waiting t obe pulled out in three of those wee mines you speak of....there are plenty around if you do your homework.

All this begs the question, if GEL has the knowhow and the prospecting permits to do this sort of thing, and have been working on it for a few years - why are they working in a JV with virtually no mining equipment of their own, where the returns are modest at best, and the JV partner ends up with most of the returns from the GEL mining permits??

[Aotea]

an this valley could be open cut mined permits available??

One consent is lodged now with a floating plant, another will be lodged in a couple of weeks and I dont know when the third will be. There is other opportunities in the valley also, plus numerous others in Otago/West Coast to make good money. That said, the Coast has low concentrations and relies on huge turnover of ground...

[elZorro]

From the GEL website:


Glass Earth Gold Limited's financial year ends on the 31 Dec.
Reporting dates are therefore planned for release as follows:

Mid March (New financial year Annuals)
Late April (Q1)
Early August (Q2)
Early November (Q3)

Last year, the annual report was signed off on 18 March. The consolidation process might start on Friday, Yankiwi, hard to say. Since the capital raising will follow all this in March, we'd have to expect a few press releases soon :cool:

Some entries I'll be looking for in the books:
income from the McAdies operation
lease income from the GRU (plus costs for GRU)

And it would be good to see a more detailed exploration report, covering all prospects.

[elZorro]

The depth page on Direct Broking's listing for GEL is currently empty, and in Canada (TSX) some shares have been traded overnight at 15.5c CAD, lowest sell price is 20c. Looks like we'll be seeing the 1 for 5 adjustment today.

The GEL website has been adjusted on the no. of shares page on 10th March to show the current position before the consolidation.

More news just in on my email (gee, thanks for the advance notice).


Wellington, New Zealand, March 18, 2010
GLASS EARTH ANNOUNCES NEW PLACER GOLD PARTNER,
APPROVAL OF 5:1 SHARE CONSOLIDATION
Glass Earth Gold Limited (TSX-V: GEL; NZAX: GEL) (“Glass Earth” or the “Company”)
announced today that it has signed a Letter of Intent with Placer Gold International
Corp. to develop two placer targets in central Otago, New Zealand; and the TSX Venture
Exchange Inc. has approved the consolidation of Glass Earth’s issued and outstanding
shares on the basis of a five (5) pre-Consolidation shares to one (1) post-Consolidation
share ratio.
Placer Gold Venture Partner
Glass Earth previously announced on February 24, that revenue from its placer gold
mining operations could significantly contribute to corporate operating expenses. Glass
Earth, along with its partner, Dunstan Mining Limited, has since signed a Letter of Intent
to explore and develop two new placer operations. These operations could significantly
increase placer gold output in an area that historically produced in excess of one million
ounces. The venture is based on the following terms:
1. Placer Gold International Corp. (“Placer Gold”) will fund development work
within a range of NZ$150,000 to NZ$250,000 (circa C$110,000 – C$180,000) for
each of the two targets. Placer Gold would thereby earn up to 30% equity in a
target.
2. Placer Gold may elect to fund NZ$500,000 (circa C$365,000) of the plant and
equipment required for mining activities on a target, in order to earn another
20% equity in that target.
3. Placer Gold has an 18 month option to fund a third target on the same terms and
conditions.
4. Should Placer Gold fund the equipment per cl 2, net revenue will initially be
returned on a monthly basis in the ratio of 75% to Placer Gold and 25% to Glass
Earth/Dunstan until the initial capital funding of NZ$500,000 has been recouped
by Placer Gold.
“This transaction will accelerate our ability to assess more placer potential on our
permits while maintaining funding for the core activity of hard rock gold exploration.
Cash generated from placer mining operations means more funding will go directly into
the ground – what every exploration manager and investor wants,” commented Simon
Henderson, CEO of Glass Earth.
2
Share Consolidation
The common shares of Glass Earth will be traded on a post-consolidation basis on the
TSX–V starting March 18, 2009. Trading on the NZAX on a post-consolidation basis will
commence March 19, 2010 (NZ time). Upon completion of the share consolidation, a
total of 32,684,526 common shares will be outstanding.
Qualified Persons
Glass Earth’s exploration programmes are carried out under the supervision of Glass
Earth’s President and CEO, Simon Henderson, M.Sc, M.AUSIMM, F.SEG. Mr. Henderson
meets the qualified person requirements (as defined by National Instrument 43-101)
with more than 30 years of experience in the gold mining and exploration industry.
About Glass Earth Gold Limited
Glass Earth is one of the largest New Zealand-based gold exploration companies
exploring a land position of over 12,000 km2 in the North and South Islands. With its
main office in Wellington, New Zealand, Glass Earth Gold Limited is listed on the TSX
Venture Exchange (TSX.V: GEL) and the New Zealand Alternative Stock Exchange
(NZAX: GEL).
For additional information on the company, please contact:
• Simon Henderson, President and Chief Executive Officer, at +64 4 903 4980 or
info@glassearthlimited.com;
• Jeanny So, Account Manager, CHF Investor Relations, at +1 416 868 1079 or
jeanny@chfir.com
• Visit the Company’s website at www.glassearthgold.com.
To receive Company news via email, contact jeanny@chfir.com and mention “Glass Earth
news” in the subject line.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor New Zealand Exchange Limited has
reviewed this release and neither accepts responsibility for the adequacy or
accuracy of this release.

OK, I'm hereby sick of being told about new JVs. This is not the kiwi way: we get in there and do it ourselves don't we?

[elZorro]

I see negotiations are at an early stage with Placer Gold International Corp (letter of intent). Is this an overseas company? Looks like they don't have enough capital to bring $500k of equipment with them, they'll have to pay it off with gold under one of their options..

There is no mention of this business name on google, but I did find a company on the NASDAQ (PGCR) - Placer Gold Corp.

http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/PGCR

http://www.placergoldcorp.com/

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-q-placer-gold-corp-2010-01-04


(EDGAR Online via COMTEX) -- ITEM 2. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OR PLAN OF OPERATIONS
We were incorporated in the state of Nevada on August 23, 2004. We have started operations. We have not generated revenues from operations, but must be considered a start-up business.....

On May 25, 2006, we completed our public offering by selling 3,862,500 shares at $0.02 per share, totaling $77,250. ...On November 16, 2007, Arctic Oil & Gas Corp (formerly known as Bulldog Financial Inc.) entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement with United Oil and Gas Consortium Management Corp., a Nevada Corporation, Strategic Nine Corporation, also a Nevada Corporation and Sterling Oil and Gas (NZ), a New Zealand Corporation, pursuant to which it acquired a thirty percent interest in certain oil and gas claims as set forth in the agreement...On November 27, 2007, Scott McDowell resigned as president and secretary/treasurer of Arctic and appointed the following persons as officers:
President - Peter Sterling
Immediately thereafter, McDowell, as the majority stockholder, appointed Peter Sterling and Edward M. Lawson as directors and then resigned as a director.

On November 27, 2007, the company changed its name from Bulldog Financial Inc. to Arctic Oil & Gas Corp.
On November 27, 2007 Arctic increased its authorized capital to 500,000,000 of par value $0.0001 per share.
Effective November 30, 2007, Arctic increased the number of issued Common shares, by exchanging each such share for 20 Common shares, each with a par value of $0.0001.
In January 2008, M. Lawson resigned as director and Kelvin Williams was appointed as a director.
Current Directors are;
President - Peter Sterling
On January 22nd 2009 the Company changed its name to Placer Gold Corp.

ALASKA GOLD PROJECTS RELINQUISHED
The "Company", previously entered into option agreements to acquire interests in Certain Gold Mine and equipment at Bear Creek in Alaska from Concha Holdings.
On December 26th 2009, the Company received a notice from the Claim holders, Aladin Mining Corporation's attorneys confirming that Concha Holdings no longer has Rights to the Bear Creek property. Accordingly PGCR no longer has interests in the Bear Creek Alaska Gold Claims.
RENEWABLE WIND ENERGY
Focus For 2010: While the Company continues to seek alluvial gold projects to bring into production, its primary focus in 2010 is to secure strategic equity positions in large-scale wind energy leases and bring one or more of them into production, using off-balance-sheet government government-backed commercial project financing and grants wherever possible.
On September 30th 2009, the Company acquired strategic 20% equity interests in a Joint Venture which has interests in an expanding number of large-scale Wind Power Project proposals. The successful development of any one of the wind power projects proposed by the Wind JV would catapult the company into a major green energy producer......
Further Wind Projects information is available at;
http://www.zero-carbon-energy.com/PGCR.htm

From Inception on August 23, 2004 to November 30, 2009
During this period we incorporated the company, hired the attorney, and hired the auditor for the preparation of our Form SB-2 Registration Statement. We have prepared an internal business plan. Our loss since inception is $171,450....

On April 06, 2009 The Company Entered into an agreement with Pavilion Energy Resources to sell its oil and gas interests for a consideration of 20 million Rule 144 Pavilion shares....
Accounts payable
Accounts payable of $34,170 represented by liabilities as of November 30, 2009.
Liquidity and capital resources
As of the date of this annual report, we have yet to generate any revenues from our business operations.
In August 2004, we issued 500,000 shares of common stock pursuant to the exemption from registration contained in section 4(2) of the Securities Act of 1933. This was accounted for as a sale of common stock.
In November 2007, we issued 35,000,000 restricted Common shares to United in its own right and as agents for Strategic and Sterling, or their assignees for the 30% interest in the Arctic Hydrocarbons Claims.
On November 27, 2007 the Company increased its authorized capital to 500,000,000 of par value $0.0001 per share.
As of November 30, 2008 our total assets were $389.69 in cash, and our total liabilities were $561,992.22 comprising of accounts payable and accrued fees.

Critical accounting policies and estimates
Management has reviewed the financial statement disclosures for the list of the most important accounting policies that the Company has. Management feels that the accounting policies that are estimate based, fair value, and revenue recognition are the most important accounting policies that the Company has.
Jan 04, 2010
(c) 1995-2010 Cybernet Data Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The full text implies that Placer Gold is now much more interested in Wind Power, so this leaves me confused.

[elZorro]

Today's report back from govt will have some bearing on us GEL shareholders: we have permit 40813 to the west of Whangamata (7167Ha). It appears to include a place called Parakiwai (Parakawai?) and drains towards the Otahu estuary. There aren't many permits nearby, GEL also has 40598 to the south.

http://data.crownminerals.govt.nz/PermitWebMaps/StaticReport.aspx?permit=40813

http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/publications/media-releases/forest-bird-reveals-government-mining-plans


Forest & Bird:
Coromandel Peninsula – Otahu Ecological Area and Parakawai Geological Reserve
Where: The forest-clad Otahu Ecological Area (396ha) and its neighbouring Parakawai Reserve (70ha) drain into the 110ha Otahu estuary south of Whangamata. The Otahu River retains an intact natural sequence from the mountains to the sea. It is ranked as “outstanding” in a 1993 Department of Conservation survey; an “area of significant conservation value”, “nationally significant recreation resource” and of “ecological significance (outstanding)” in proposed council plans.
Why it’s special: These areas have rare native frogs such as Hochstetter’s frog, native fish such as banded kokopu, Helm’s butterfly and many native bird species. The area’s volcanic landscape retains indigenous forest with very little development, and it is popular with locals, tourists and walkers using nearby tracks.
Mining interest: Gold – nearby areas have had limited gold mining in the past. Gold mining would destroy one of the Coromandel’s few remaining natural river catchments running from source to sea.
Minerals targeted in the Government’s stocktake are found in low concentrations so open-cast mining – not “surgical” mining – is the most likely way to extract them. “In New Zealand, you get an average 3 grams of gold for every 1400 kilograms of rock that’s dug up. A mining company is not going to drill small, unobtrusive holes to process huge quantities of rock,” Kevin Hackwell says.
“In Paparoa National Park, for example, river terraces are being looked at. Open-cast mining is the only way to get at any coal or gold there,” he says.

Does anyone have more local knowledge?

[elZorro]

Looks like there is some connection to GEL:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1003/S00275.htm -discusses GEL and Newmont working in the area.

Today:


Govt Will Receive Fierce & Relentless Backlash
Monday, 22 March 2010, 3:29 pm
Press Release: Coromandel Watchdog
Mining Plans Contemptible.
Govt Will Receive Fierce & Relentless Backlash
The Government's decision to allow mining -- even open-pit mining - in pristine areas of Coromandel conservation land and our National Parks is contemptible, says Coromandel Watchdog spokesperson Denis Tegg.
"The backlash from mainstream New Zealand will be fierce and relentless. A previous National Government put the current Schedule 4 protection in place, after a concerted 30-year campaign by Coromandel Watchdog, visitors and locals. Many are National Party supporters.

Related Stories on Scoop
Beware of Gold Miners "Spin" 18/03/2010
Open The Floodgates To Extreme Hazards 15/03/2010
Greenpeace warns of mining backlash 09/02/2010
Foreshore Mining Harebrained and Dangerous 08/02/2010
Gold Miners Statements About Disruptions Untrue 18/01/2010
Results powered by search.scoop.co.nz

"No one will be taken in by suggestions that this is just a small area of land. The Government has kicked open the door to mining the core conservation estate with this announcement. But it's a Trojan horse for Government plans to open up another 500,000 ha of prime conservation land to mining, including all currently protected land on the Coromandel." said Mr Tegg.
"The $4 million Government handout to mining companies for aerial surveys is equally detestable", said Mr. Tegg. "It's social welfare for multinationals. Mining companies are creaming off huge profits. They already receive large income tax concessions not available to ordinary Kiwis. They pay pitifully low royalties. We privatise our minerals by just giving them away to overseas corporations."
Nor will anyone be fooled by the Government's laughable "spin" that modern mining can be done "surgically". The Government's refusal to rule out open pit mining speaks volumes. Both open pit and underground mining have severe impacts with roads, rock crushing, cyanide treatment and millions of tonnes of toxic waste dumped in fragile high rainfall areas." Mining will industrialise our parks."
"The Thames schedule 4 conservation land has immense value if left untouched. Its native forest cover protects the town from severe floods and an even more lethal and destructive hazard called a debris flow. A debris flow can kill people and destroy property. The land has outstanding landscapes, high recreational use, and is home to kiwi and other endangered species."
"The Otahu and Parakiwai Waiomu and Broken Hill ecological reserves all contain many endangered species, have mature kauri and kahikatea forest, and outstanding geological, natural and recreational values."
Almost all this Coromandel land the Government wants to open to mining has been actively prospected by Waihi miner Newmont Gold. What back room deals has the Government done with this multi-national company?" Mr Tegg asks.
ENDS

I wish GEL was creaming off huge profits..and some of that aerial survey money will end up being public good knowledge to benefit all NZers. But despite the returns being small in Otago so far, I'd rather GEL worked down there (over already barren and worked-over ground), than in the Coromandel. Unless they are going to surgically follow a quartz reef for example, and treat the rock in the Newmont plant, perhaps.

In any case, have GEL shareholders heard anything about Glamorgan? Only a passing reference or two I think. The link to Newmont is the salient point. They do have the capital to do something.

[elZorro]

Very recent blog by Marty G. on "The Standard", a left-wing site (no I'm not a regular..yet). There is a bit about Glass Earth tucked in there:

http://www.thestandard.org.nz/the-numbers-on-mining-dont-stack-up/


A few tens of millions: The value of aggregate identified in the Ecological Areas near Whangamata that National wants to allow mining of, according to the geological report. That report didn’t have access to the latest data from mineral prospecting company Glass Earth, which makes me think they and National know something no-one else does.

A few tens of millions minus extraction costs, that's more in the league of GEL than Newmont. Newmont's media rep has also been quoted as saying they have no interest in the area, recently.

Background on this area:

http://www.crownminerals.govt.nz/cms/news/2006/glass-earth-granted-two-coromandel-permits

[elZorro]

A bit of searching has picked up more data that should be interesting:


Newmont Waihi begins drilling Goldwyn prospect in Coromandel
— filed under: News, Minerals (MED CM website)

26 June 2009 - The first of four diamond drill holes has been drilled by Newmont Waihi Gold at the Goldwyn epithermal gold prospect in the Coromandel about 16 km north of Waihi.

Glass Earth Gold, which is a partner of Newmont in a number of Hauraki permits, said that the Goldwyn (or Wentworth-Glamorgan) prospect contained several veined and silicified outcrops through rugged bush south west of Whangamata.

A 2 km long zone of 50 parts per billion gold in soils (with a maximum of 365 ppb gold) blankets a zone of high resistivity and remains open in both directions. Insitu rock chips found in the prospect contained gold ranging from 3.65 to 20.30 g/t.

Glass Earth said that Newmont’s Waihi based team were also in advanced planning stages for follow-up drilling at the Wharekiriponga (WKP) prospect south of Goldwyn.

Wharekiriponga is a classic epithermal gold system and lies 5 km north east of the Golden Cross deposit, which produced 634,000 oz of gold in the 1990s. Wharekiriponga lies 11 km due north of Newmont’s gold processing plant at Waihi and is within exploration permit 40598.

Wharekiriponga lies in rugged bush and is technically challenging to explore, Glass Earth said.
Past core grades included 150m at 0.93 g/t of gold including 17.7m at 4.0 g/t of gold and 17.1 m at 3.87 g/t of gold.

Sources: Glass Earth Gold and Lindsay Clark

From GEL's website:
http://www.glassearthlimited.com/north_proj.html#hauraki

Hauraki Joint Venture
The potential exists for the location of Martha-size gold systems and/or additional high
grade mill feed for the existing Waihi milling operations.

Newmont already possessed significant databases of the Hauraki Region (including
extensive magnetic surveys, regional mapping, and stream sediment sampling). By
collating and interpreting this information Newmont obtained preliminary results that
defined prospect areas for detailed follow-up work and drilling. These targets
correspond well with those generated by Glass Earth’s own 2004/05 data intervention
and targeting process.

In 2007, Newmont conducted a programme of Hoist Electro-Magnetic surveying,
surface geochemistry and resistivity surveys over several of these targets. The Hoist-
EM programme (Newmont's proprietary EM/magnetic system suspended under a
helicopter) highlighted resistivity anomalies over the Wentworth / Glamorgan,
Wharekiriponga (WKP) and Owharoa areas, providing encouragement to advance on-
ground exploration on these areas as a priority.


May 2009: Active exploration campaigns of drilling, ground-based resistivity surveys,
mapping, and analysis in the Hauraki (funded and operated by Newmont);
Mamaku-Muirs; and Otago Regions (see map below).
Newmont continues its active diamond drilling of Glass Earth’s Hauraki
projects, commencing the highly prospective Wentworth/Glamorgan evaluation
in April 2009. The first of four diamond drill holes is underway on the Goldwyn
Prospect, just 17kms from its Waihi operations, with the hole currently at 30m
depth.

But the 3rd quarter MD&A report from GEL includes this:


In Q3 2009, at Glamorgan (Goldwyn prospect) 3 diamond drill holes (1230.9m) were completed
with no significant results. Newmont has advised that this expenditure completes their earn-in
obligations in respect of the Northern area under the joint venture and accordingly Newmont
now has an equity of 65% in Exploration Permit 40 813. Newmont has advised that it will not
sole fund through to completion of a feasibility study.

In the Central area (EP 40 598) Newmont have undertaken the following work on the WKP
prospect: detailed mapping, rock (230 samples) and soil sampling (6 line km) in addition to 5.3
line km of CSAMT resistivity with encouraging results. Previously unrecognized vein zones have
been delineated and drill testing will commence when drill sites have been approved.
As at 30 September 2009, Newmont has expended approximately 67% and 65% respectively of
the funds required for it to earn initial 65% equities in the permits comprising the Central and
Southern areas.

Separately, at Waihi West (adjacent to the Martha gold/silver mine owned by Newmont,
pursuant to an April 2006 Joint Venture agreement, Newmont has undertaken preparatory
exploration and drilled 4 holes into this permit area, with modest results. Glass Earth has agreed
to extend the term in which Newmont can expend the remaining funds, by 2 years, out to 31
March 2011.
As at 30 September 2009, Newmont has expended approximately 64% of the funds required for it
to earn an initial 60% equity in this permit.
So it looks like there is some gold up there, and it is close enough to Newmont Waihi's plant to be interesting to them at some stage, but Goldwyn has been dropped down the list by Newmont.

[elZorro]

Here's a PDF of an interesting powerpoint presentation, to investors presumably, made just after the IPO, with some extra info on the backgrounds for these Newmont Joint Ventures. It seems to date from late 2006.

http://clients.westminster-digital.co.uk/minesite/microsite/events/45/pdf/GlassEarth.pdf

Not that long after came the announcement:


Glass Earth Announces Joint Venture Agreement With Newmont to Explore Hauraki Region in New Zealand Market Wire, February, 2007

Glass Earth Limited (TSX VENTURE: GEL)(NZAX: GEL) ("Glass Earth") wishes to announce that an Agreement has been entered into with Waihi Gold Company Limited (a subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation) whereby Newmont will explore Glass Earth's extensive permit area in the Hauraki Region, North Island, New Zealand.

Glass Earth's Hauraki Region permit area lies immediately to the west and north of the Waihi / Martha Hill Mine, located at Waihi, North Island, New Zealand which is owned and operated by Newmont.
15 advanced gold prospects lie in the Glass Earth / Newmont Joint Venture area within trucking distance of Newmont's Waihi gold plant; several of the targets have significant gold intercepts, such as:
- At Wharekiriponga (WKP), DDH4 17.7m @ 4.0g/t Au (in 150m @ 0.93g/t Au) lies just two kms along-strike from the Golden Cross mine (produced 634,000 oz gold 1991 - 1997); -
At Owharoa (historic production 63,334 oz), a 500m wide alteration zone is interspersed with innumerable quartz veins.
The 10 million ounce Martha Hill Mine, owned by Newmont, is considered to be the "type" epithermal gold deposit and the kind of large epithermal gold deposit targeted by Glass Earth in its exploration program.
Hauraki Region Joint Venture Agreement
The Agreement terms provide that Newmont may earn an equity interest in each of the 3 sectors of the Hauraki Region (named Northern, Central and Southern) by undertaking exploration programs (including drilling) as follows:
a) To earn an initial 65% equity in a venture area, by expending over a 4 year period;
- NZ$1.65m (circa C$1.37m) on the Northern Hauraki Venture Area;
- NZ$1.75m (circa C$1.45m) on the Central Hauraki Venture Area;
- NZ$2.8m (circa C$2.3m) on the Southern Hauraki Venture Area.
b) Newmont may elect to prepare a feasibility study to earn a further 10% in a venture area;
c) Glass Earth may request that Newmont arrange Glass Earth's share of financing in return for a further 5% equity in a venture area;
d) Glass Earth and Newmont will be liable (in proportion to their equity interests) for the Geoinformatics Exploration Inc 2% royalty on any production from identified and acknowledged targets in the Hauraki Region permit area.
e) Newmont will be the operator

Newmont will commence exploration activities immediately.

Fast forward to the last MD&A report:


Exploration Update and Financial Statements and Management's Discussion & Analysis for the 9 Months Ended 30 September 2009 Marketwire News Releases
Published: 11/26/09 09:20 AM CST
Released By: Glass Earth Gold Limited

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND -- (Marketwire) -- 11/26/09 -- Glass Earth Gold Limited (TSXV:GEL)(NZAX: GEL) ("Glass Earth") announces the release of its third quarter financial statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") report pertaining to that period.
EXPLORATION UPDATE
Glass Earth is one of the largest....

- Hauraki Region - Newmont Mining Corp. continues to operate this joint venture over Glass Earth's significant ground position in this region, which is centred on Newmont's Waihi/Martha mine. Newmont has advised that it has earned its initial 65% equity in the Northern Hauraki Joint Venture area and continues to earn into the permits subject to the Central and Southern Hauraki Joint Venture areas.

Drilling at the Goldwyn prospect (3 diamond drill holes) has been completed with the best intersection being 46.7m @ 0.2g/t Au from 99m. Newmont continue to evaluate the potential of the prospect.

Newmont have identified previously unrecognised vein zones at the WKP prospect through a programme of detailed mapping, rock and soil sampling and CSAMT resistivity surveying. Drill testing is planned.

But Newmont has declined to earn another 10% into Glamorgan/Wentworth/Goldwyn through completing a feasibility study for mining there, as advised by GEL. 0.2g/tonne is not exciting.

So perhaps of more interest is WKP to the south, in a JV permit, and it's also closer to Newmont's operation. I think it's only 11km north. Note that GEL would probably end up with just 20% of the equity (read profit) from any mining there, under the terms above.

[elZorro]

Glass Earth's WKP Joint Venture With Newmont Commences Drilling
8:30 AM ET, March 26, 2010

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND, Mar 26, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Glass Earth Gold Limited (GEL)(NZAX: GEL) ("Glass Earth") today announced that Newmont has commenced drilling at the WKP prospect in the Hauraki Goldfield.

'WKP' GOLD PROSPECT

Glass Earth's joint venture partner, Newmont, continues with its active drilling programme on Glass Earth's Hauraki prospects and has now commenced diamond drilling at the highly prospective Wharekirauponga ('WKP') gold prospect.

The WKP area is a 2km mineralised alteration zone, just 10km from Newmont's Martha gold mine at Waihi (see map below) and 5 km north east of the Golden Cross deposit (634,000 oz gold production in the 1990's). The WKP epithermal system has magnetic/alteration characteristics similar to the Martha mine and has open-along-strike potential for several kilometres southward, being at least 900m long, 150m wide, and unconstrained to over 300m depth.

Exploration in the late 1980's and early 1990's identified a very extensive altered and gold mineralized system with multiple intersections including:

150m @ 0.93 g/t Au, including 17.7m at 4.0 g/t Au; 17.1m @ 3.87 g/t Au; 32m @1.45 g/t Au; 2m @ 7.7g/t Au; 3.1m @ 9.7g/t Au; 1m @48 g/t Au.

Initial drilling by Newmont is to target a zone of strong silicification and veining between 180-380m, with further drilling also targeting a second parallel 500m+ vein system not previously drill tested.

Qualified Persons

Glass Earth's exploration programmes are carried out under the supervision of Glass Earth's President and CEO, Simon Henderson, M.Sc, M.AUSIMM, F.SEG. Mr. Henderson meets the qualified person requirements (as defined by National Instrument 43-101) with more than 30 years of experience in the gold mining and exploration industry.

About Glass Earth Gold Limited

Glass Earth is one of the largest New Zealand-based gold exploration companies exploring a land position of over 12,000 km2 in the North and South Islands. With its main office in Wellington, New Zealand, Glass Earth Gold Limited is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX VENTURE: GEL) and the New Zealand Alternative Stock Exchange (NZAX: GEL).

To receive Company news via email, contact jeanny@chfir.com and mention "Glass Earth news" in the subject line.

To view the map associated with this press release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/GELmap.pdf

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) nor New Zealand Exchange Limited has reviewed this release and neither accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:Glass Earth Gold LimitedSimon HendersonPresident and Chief Executive Officer+64 4 903 4980info@glassearthlimited.com www.glassearthgold.com CHF Investor Relations Jeanny So Director of Operations+1 416 868 1079 x225 jeanny@chfir.com
SOURCE: Glass Earth Gold Limited

mailto:info@glassearthlimited.com

I guess the references to WKP in GEL reports were strong hints as to continuing interest. None more surprised than me, that the press release followed my post yesterday..:cool:

[elZorro]

Well timed eZ!

Maybe someone from Glass Earth views our forum and read your post. After that sighting it might have rewoken a memory that GEL and Newmont are working together. :)

Maybe, more likely just a coincidence Yankiwi, as GEL did say they were looking to drill that one next. As far as getting major work done on the permits, looks like external money (Newmont, JV, shareholders) is needed at the moment. The other permit to keep an eye on is Hindon, permit EP40739, near Dunedin, Otago. I think that has the drill site Game Hen. It expires on 19 May 2010.

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=OW18920915.2.42&l=mi&e=-------10--1----0-all

Another 10 or so will also complete their CM terms this year. There has been some purchasing interest on the TSX over the weekend.

[elZorro]

The Glass Earth website was updated today, at the least the page relating to the new share numbers was adjusted. However, Yankiwi, there do appear to be some remarkable value in the share options, which I assume will be adjusted upwards by a factor of 5 later...:ohmy:

http://www.glassearthlimited.com/investors.html

There are still plenty of old figures on the website, including the 17,000 km2 of permit area (home page): that is certainly now cropped down to 12,000 odd, as noted in the latest press releases.

Note: website amended by 31 March, these items fixed. Cheers Andrew? (GEL IT dept)

[elZorro]

Stock market notice late yesterday:


SSH: GEL: SSH (Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc) 04:34pm
GEL
30/03/2010
SSH

REL: 1634 HRS Glass Earth Gold Limited

SSH: GEL: SSH (Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc)

Disclosure of ceasing to have substantial holding
Section 25, Securities Markets Act 1988

To: The New Zealand Stock Exchange
And: Glass Earth Gold Limited
Date this disclosure made: 29 March 2010
Date last disclosure made: 19 October 2006

Substantial security holder(s) giving disclosure
Name(s): Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc
Contact details: Wendy Tsui, +852 2848 5217, Email
wendy.tsui@morganstanley.com
Date on which substantial security holder(s) ceased to have substantial
holding: 25 March 2010
Summary of previous substantial holding to which disclosure relates
Class of listed voting securities: Ordinary share (GEL.NZ)
Summary for: Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc

For last disclosure,--
(a) total number held in class: 8,000,000
(b) total in class: 129,902,633
(c) total percentage held in class: 6.16%

For current holding after ceasing to have substantial holding,--
(a) total number held in class: 1,600,000
(b) total in class: 32,684,526
(c) total percentage held in class: 4.90%

Details of transactions and events giving rise to person ceasing to have
substantial holding: The decrease in holding is due to an increase in total
number of outstanding shares as a result of new shares issued by issuer.

Details of the transactions or other events requiring disclosure under the
instructions to this form:

Additional information
Nature of connection between substantial security holders: NA
Address(es) of substantial security holder(s): NA
Name of any other person believed to have given, or believed to be required
to give, a disclosure under the Act in relation to the securities to which
this disclosure relates: NA

Declaration
I, May Wong, declare that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the
information contained in this disclosure is correct and that I am duly
authorised to make this disclosure by all persons for whom it is made.
End CA:00193137 For:GEL Type:SSH Time:2010-03-30:16:34:59



Morgan Stanley were 6.16% shareholders in GEL, and have not sold down. But because of dilution recently (25 March), they are now just under the threshold for 5% holdings (have 4.9%). Morgan Stanley runs equity funds for investors, among other activities.

[elZorro]

Today, Crown Minerals granted a five year extension of EP40702 - this is Manorburn, and stretches south below Ophir, the site of JV EP40427 and GEL's permit EP40870, also a JV with Ophir Gold. The area has been halved to 4220Ha, but this is still a big block of land. Unsure if the outline on the CM site has been adjusted yet. There has been very little posted anywhere about the Ophir area recently. Perhaps there will be some details in the annual report, which must be due soon.

[elZorro]

The CM map for EP40702, below Ophir, has now been updated. Looks like GEL have kept all the area near to the Ophir ground, which is shown as either side of a range of hills and with numerous watercourses (when it rains) running through them. No sign of the annual report yet, and I guess they'll be wanting to put out a tidy report on all sorts of aspects, ready for a capital raising. Looking forward to seeing it.

[elZorro]

The CHFIR website page for GEL has been updated overnight. Here is a press release that has been linked in over there. It answers a few questions.


Level 7, TeRenCo House, 86-96 Victoria Street,
Wellington, New Zealand, 6142
Tel: +64.9360.8211 Fax: +64.2150.0735
Web: www.glassearthlimited.com


Placer Mining Commenced – Second Unit Planned, Hard Rock Drilling Campaigns and Fundraising Planned

New Zealand has a successful mining industry and a variety of mineral deposits including iron sands and coal. Total mineral production is around 40 million tonnes with gold production worth more than $480 million each year. Because of its diverse geology and dynamic tectonic history, New Zealand has a wide variety of potentially profitable mineral deposits, although relatively few have been extensively exploited. Glass Earth Gold Limited is a greenfields gold exploration company with one of the largest land packages in both the North and South Islands.

In the North Island, the Company has an extensive land package around the Martha Hill Gold Mine at Waihi, 110 km southeast of Auckland. Martha Hill is a Newmont mine that has been producing gold since it was reopened in 1988 and is approaching 2 million ounces in total current production (historical production was around 6 million ounces).

To capitalize on its holdings, Glass Earth negotiated two joint ventures with Newmont around Waihi (2006 and 2007). Newmont has expended ~80% of the requisite C$6 million of exploration expenditures to earn 65% interests in the various permits. Newmont is commencing a new drilling campaign on Wharekiriponga (WKP) in Q1-2010. The WKP project, under Newmont’s JV, has a potential of 1.4 Million oz (non-compliant resource) and has had 18 holes already drilled with 3-4 to be drilled and financed by Newmont for 2010.
Last year Management made considerable cutbacks on expenses and revisited the near-term prospects on all of its projects in order to achieve a cash neutral status as quickly and cost-efficiently as possible. Establishment of placer production and ‘boutique’ hard rock extraction utilizing gravity recovery methods was decided upon - to be carried out in the South Island (central Otago). To this end, Glass Earth Gold commenced placer gold production at McAdie’s in the Ida Valley, and is planning a further placer gold operation commencing this quarter. A gold recovery plant is leased out for test work on the L&M owned Earnscleugh deposit. These placer operations are all in 50/50 partnership with an experienced placer operator Dunstan Mining Ltd.

Test work on the hard rock processing plant at Ophir continues; a pilot plant tested 150 tonnes of material from the Wai-iti vein in Dec. 2009 to establish crushing and recovery parameters; metallurgical test-work is ongoing.Following a successful Evaluation Phase, an affirmative decision to mine would allow for the construction of a larger commercial plant. There are 4 to 6 small deposits similar to the Wai-iti vein around the permit to encourage further development. Using a mobile plant, the Company has the potential to recover approximately 10,000 oz/year @ 7-8 g/t Au. The Ophir project is a 50/50 JV with Ophir Gold Ltd.
Glass Earth remains committed to undertaking drilling campaigns in 2010 on the best targets in its extensive portfolio and will be undertaking fundraising in respect of this shortly.

With its promising land packages, combined with an experienced management team, the year holds a positive outlook for this company. The new mining projects should make the Company cash flow neutral so that exploration efforts and expenditure can be directed towards the discovery of a major gold resource.

The CHFIR page also mentions strong links with Newmont Gold, and I can see why: WKP looks to have the biggest pile (sure, a non-compliant figure) that we've seen mentioned in despatches. Note the above data appeared in a January newsletter, and includes some information that I haven't seen in one place before today. The CHFIR page has only just been updated, so it is already 3 months behind. I think this link is the only change to the page, so the rest of it is severely out of date, still mentions 17,000km2 and 154,000,000 shares for example.

http://www.chfir.com/content/newsletter.aspx?nlid=24

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

[elZorro]

I have had a good look around on the web and this thread, I don't think a non-compliant resource of 1.4Moz has been mentioned before, for WKP. This information went out to "special" subscribers to a newsletter in Canada in January 2010, and there was a solid run of TSX shares sold in late January bringing the price back up to 6c (30c on consolidation). GEL could get a 20% share of this possible resource, but we are not being told what grade it is yet. If it has to be transported, it would need to be at least 0.7g/tonne, and Newmont has had a fairly good run nearby with ore at 3-4g/tonne (or more, at Favona). What would the net profit on 20% of 1.4Moz be? perhaps $140 million?

It's all academic at the moment, but this information could have a big impact on the share, so I think we'd all like to see stronger links between whatever is reported in NZ, Canada, CHFIR and the GEL website, not to mention press releases in various papers and mining magazines. Just a reminder to all, the annual report is due very soon, based on a mid-March release.

[Cannibal]

Hi eZ,

I'm looking forward to the release of the annual report. With capital raising on the near horrizon, I expect to see some very positive information with-in it.

Obviously others agree with you - share price up 25% in the last 2-3 days with more to come.

Down on the Toronto Exchange though - weird.

[elZorro]

Obviously others agree with you - share price up 25% in the last 2-3 days with more to come.

Down on the Toronto Exchange though - weird.

Maybe because some on the TSX market knew about WKP 3 months before we did :t_down: and have become bored waiting for more info. I think anyone can view the offending newsletters on the CHFIR website, but you have to realise that there could be very useful information in there that is not public knowledge anywhere else, not even on the CHFIR page for the business concerned. How much does GEL pay for this brilliant service? Quite a bit each month, it's in the financial statements somewhere.

http://www.glassearthlimited.com/pdfs/pressreleases/2008/GEL_PR_20june08.pdf

But in any case, GEL must have created this document, so why wasn't it posted on their own website in January? :confused:

[elZorro]

Glass Earth Gold Limited (Toronto: TSXV: GEL / New Zealand: NZAX: GEL) is one of the largest New Zealand-based gold exploration companies exploring a land position of over 17,000 km2 in the North and South Islands. GEL maintains its objective to discover new large gold deposits in NZ, and it is currently mining placer gold under its giant Otago permits to provide funding for its ongoing hard rock gold exploration.

New Zealand has a strong history of gold mining, including:

The Hauraki Region, an historic gold province, currently host to the 10M oz Martha Gold Mine, owned by Newmont Mining;
In the Otago Region, in excess of 8 million ounces of placer gold has been recovered since the first gold rush in 1861. The vast Otago Region is also host to the 7.2Moz Macraes Gold Mine (OceanaGold Limited), a major mesothermal hard-rock gold deposit.

HIGHLIGHTS:
GEL holds permits over four distinct gold regions likely to contain new gold discoveries
Newmont is funding the Hauraki Region
Potential to JV with the Muirs Reef Project
Exploration funding generated by mining at Ophir & alluvial deposits
Exploration potential and ground holdings are intact and impressive

READ THE GLASS EARTH GOLD ARTICLE IN CHF SPOTLIGHT, ISSUE NO. 41.
OTAGO REGION
Otago Region has had a historic placer production in excess of 8 million oz Au since its first gold rush in 1861. Otago Region is also host to the 7.2 million oz Macraes Gold Mine (OceanaGold Ltd.), a major mesothermal hard rock gold deposit.

GEL is moving directly to mining alluvial gold and small hard rock resources under its extensive regional portfolio of Otago permits to take advantage of record high gold prices.

Placer Mining at McAdies, Ida Valley commenced in mid-December 2009 following the grant of Mining Permit 52 018 on 10 December 2009. Weekly production is in line with expectations and Glass Earth is delighted to commence modest gold production.

Consents for the Gun Club placer gold project, Ida Valley have also been granted as well as Mining Permit 52 021 (on 22 January 2010).

Together with the 40 tonne placer gold plant currently leased out on the Earnscleugh Project (L&M Mining – nearby at Alexandra), Glass Earth intends to have three placer projects contributing to gold production/cash flow in the first quarter 2010. Cash generated from these projects is expected to significantly contribute to Glass Earth’s corporate operating expenses.

Alluvial Highlights:
• Mining commenced at McAdies (Ida Valley)
1,000 oz Au production can earn $20,000/week

• Processing at Earnscleugh (100 t/h plant)
250,000 oz Au – L & M Mining
GEL contracting plant (currently in test phase)
can earn $3,000/week

• Mining at Nevill’s (Ida Valley) anticipated for Q1 – 2010
3,500 oz Au production can earn $20,000/week

HAURAKI REGION
Hauraki Region is a historic gold province, currently hosting the 10 million oz Martha Gold Mine owned by Newmont Mining.

Newmont continues to operate this joint venture on Glass Earth’s significant ground position in this region, centred on Newmont’s Waihi/Martha mine (above picture). Newmont is aggressively exploring for the next major gold discovery to feed its mill. Newmont advised GEL that it has earned its initial 65% equity in the Northern Hauraki Joint Venture area and continues to earn in to the permits subject to the Central and Southern Hauraki Joint Venture areas.

Drilling at the Goldwyn prospect (3 diamond drill holes) was completed with the best intersection being 46.7m @ 0.2 g/t Au from 99 m. Newmont’s efforts continue to evaluate the potential of the prospect.

Newmont has identified previously unrecognised vein zones at the WKP prospect through a programme of detailed mapping, rock and soil sampling and CSAMT resistivity surveying. Drill testing is planned.


MARLBOROUGH REGION
A programme of stream sediment and pan concentrate sampling was undertaken in the Marlborough region to investigate the potential for mesothermal gold systems outside the zones of known historical workings. In addition, sampling and mapping around the historical mining areas (Wakamarina/Wairau goldfields) was done to determine the mineralisation styles and to seek both extensions to the previously identified vein systems or parallel veins.


MANAGEMENT AND DIRECTORS

MR. SIMON HENDERSON, MSc BSc (Hons), member, AusIMM - President and CEO:
Mr. Henderson is a founding shareholder of Glass Earth and is a geologist with over 30 years experience in the gold mining and exploration industry.

MR. JOHN DOW, Chairman (non-executive):
Mr. Dow is a geologist, joining Newmont Australia in 1978, culminating in him being appointed Chairman and Managing Director of Newmont Australia (previously Normandy Mining Limited) in April 2002.

MR. PETER LIDDLE, CFO and Company Secretary

MESSRS RICHARD BILLINGSLEY, PAUL C. JONES and STEVEN BURNS (Canadian/North American based non-executive Directors) provide valuable guidance in their respective areas of exploration, mining and finance.

Glass Earth is now at the target specific drilling stage in three regions: Hauraki; Mamaku and Otago. Key targets in those areas are:

• WKP in Hauraki (Newmont funded)
• Muirs in Mamaku
• Serpentine in Otago.
• Rise & Shine gold prospect in Otago.

Glass Earth is well placed to achieve this in terms of:
Its extensive ground position;
Experienced management;
Its funding and contributory joint ventures.

Symbol/Exchange GEL: TSX Venture
Shares Outstanding 32.7 M (after 1:5 consolidation in 2010)
+ Text Size - Text Size Print Page Email Page Top of Page
Company Stock Information
Exchange TSXV
Exchange Symbol GEL

Investor Relations Contacts

Simon Henderson
President & CEO
Glass Earth Gold Limited
+64.4.903.4980
simon.henderson@glassearth.co.nz

Jeanny So
Director of Operations
CHF Investor Relations
+1 416.868.1079 x 225
jeanny@chfir.com

Content last updated on 04.14.10

Without a timeline on how long it takes to recover the alluvial gold, it's hard to say what the grades are, or even what portion of the income GEL gets to keep (maybe 50%?). If you add all the income up and assume it carries on for a full year, it's over CAD$2mill, compared to the cost of the admin overheads ($1.3mill). Note this won't be paying for a lot of exploration though.

But, it's a lot better than no income, all spend.

[elZorro]

Here's part of a new article I found doing a quick check, can't get at the rest of it. Ounces recovered from McAdies look like about 150g/day at best.


April 20, 2010

Glass Earth Is In Pole Position In New Zealand As Gold Mining Comes Back To Life Under The Conservative Government
By Charles Wyatt

After nine years in power the Labour Government in New Zealand gave way to the Conservatives about a year ago, and already a more positive attitude towards mining has become apparent. This is good news for Simon Henderson, chief executive of Glass Earth, which has the biggest exploration acreage of any company in that country, with a presence on both islands. Glass Earth is listed in Toronto as well as New Zealand, and Simon is currently on a quick visit to London, which may be a bit prolonged if the volcanic revenge from Iceland on our banking system does not disappear soon. He is on his way to Canada to get an update on a funding which should raise around C$3 million. With that in hand Glass Earth should be firing on all cylinders once again. The company had a particularly bad time in the 2008/9 fall-out as a major shareholder, St Andrews Goldfields, threw all its shares out of the window in panic and knocked the Glass Earth price so hard that Simon did not feel that he could raise any funds without undue dilution to existing shareholders.

Instead he resolved to generate cash flow from alluvial mining near the seven million ounce Macraes gold mine operated by Oceana Gold on the South Island. As partner, on a 50:50 basis, he took a very experienced operator called Bob Kilgour of Dunstan Mining. The new partner had all the necessary equipment, and so modest production of between 20 ounces and 25 ounces per week was in place early this year. Now the operation is being expanded as Placer Gold International, which Simon describes as a...

[elZorro]

Thanks for that Yankiwi, I was expecting there would be a few choice bits of information in the rest of the article.

This item is written by the same reporter that produced a similar article a while back, some of the same phrases used. You have to have a bit of a sideways look at the text, and do a bit of filtering I think.

Simon sounds a bit like an insurance salesman closing the deal on a new policy, heading overseas for the CAN$3mill cheque..and Placer Gold International (German-Swiss financing) is required for a small amount of capital to help with some alluvial work.

We are all still waiting here for the annual report, which is about a month late (books closed off on Dec 31st).

One of the more interesting gems in the article:


While the precise details of Placer’s intervention are being worked out, production from the joint venture with Dunstan is advancing towards 50 ounces per week, and this will be enough to fund all Glass Earth’s basic overheads.

This implies that the weekly output from Nevills and McAdies is likely to be 50oz/week. That's a turnover of about NZ$50,000 per week. But I suspect Dunstan Mining will take overheads and costs out first, and half of the leftover (gross profit) will go to Glass Earth. But let's assume the gold is split 50/50.

The gear at each permit is running at possibly 80tonne/hr, so in an 8 hr day produces 50oz/2 sites/5days = 5oz gold. That's 0.62oz/hr, a rough grade of 0.24g/tonne. I'd expect it's better than that, and the plant is not running for a full 8 hours to recover the gold. But in any case, the grade is low.

Can this plant be run for about $620 per hour profitably? Two diggers, 3-4 people, diesel/power, breakdowns, etc, per site. It looks a bit marginal to me. It would be OK if the diggers were your own, and had already been paid off on other jobs.

WKP could be big I admit, but GEL's share would be 20%. Muirs could be the best prospect GEL has at the moment, I hope there's plenty of gold around the 1oz/tonne grade (26g/tonne) that was found when it was mined earlier. (Hmm, Muirs does look good..)

I still hold GEL, but we need good clear communication from the company, and you have to compare GEL's performance with other companies like OGC, who do have lots of proven gold in the ground, and are finding more with astonishing regularity. They have the cashflow and financing to get out there and drill for it.

[elZorro]

Some details about the 3mill private placement:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Glass-Earth-to-Raise-Up-to-C3-iw-161524973.html?x=0&.v=1

The annual report is out, very scant details on the web though:

http://www.stockhouse.com/News/CanadianReleasesDetail.aspx?n=7720595

What the?? heard of this one?


Acquisition costs of $314,000 (NZ$420,000) were incurred in respect of an unsuccessful bid for significant mining and exploration assets in theTanami Desert, Northern Territory, Australia;

Geez, we'll be needing a fair bit of gold from McAdies to pay for that one..:ohmy:

Was it this?

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/02/15/123655_nt-business.html

[elZorro]

Glass Earth Gold posts loss (Stuff.co.nz)
NZPA Last updated 13:29 03/05/2010

Gold exploration company Glass Earth Gold reported a 2009 loss of $C2.68 million ($NZ3.62 million), with $C2.36m of capitalised exploration expenses written off in relation to relinquished ground that contained targets associated with those expenditures.

Total exploration spending for the year was $C2.6m, of which $C1.1m was contributed by other parties, Glass Earth said today.

During the year, drilling, ground-based resistivity surveys, mapping, sampling and interpretation and analysis were carried out in the company's exploration areas.

"Useful" cash contributions were being generated by placer mining _ the mining of alluvial deposits for minerals _ that started in Central Otago in December, and from a jointly-owned gold recovery unit leased to another mining operation at the time, Glass Earth said.

It planned to start another placer mine in mid-2010, and the company had also recently signed a letter of intent with a venture partner to provide funding of up to $1.5m to develop two placer mines.

Those initiatives were expected to generate significant contributions towards cash requirements, the company said.

By Friday, $C1.7m of signed unit subscription agreements had been received to take up shares and warrants in a private placement offer seeking to raise $C3m.

A rolling 12-month budget had been prepared that allowed the company to continue as a going concern based on committed funding, cash budgeted from mining activities, and contributions from joint venture partners.

Directors were also confident that additional subscriptions to its placement would be secured in the next few weeks, which would allow for more exploration spending.

Along with Otago, Glass Earth's main project areas are the Hauraki, Mamaku-Muirs, and central volcanic areas.

Not too exciting, but note that some more probable? figures have been linked to Muirs, 390,000oz at a grade of 1.5g/tonne.

[elZorro]

ODT article for today:


Glass Earth after more exploration cash
Home » News » Business
By Simon Hartley on Tue, 4 May 2010
News: Business | Glass Earth | gold mining
Click photo to enlarge
Listed Glass Earth Gold - which has spent more than $24 million in gold exploration during the past three years - is seeking a private placement of up to $4.2 million to finance exploration, including four gold targets in Central Otago.
Glass Earth has already raised more than $2 million of the $4.2 million and chief executive Simon Henderson is confident the balance will be raised during the next two weeks.

"We have five good targets in mind, one in the North Island and four in the South," he said.

The $4.2 million would be used for exploration drilling at one site in Te Puke in the North Island and four others in Central Otago, including a hard-rock target in Ophir.

Craigs Investment Partners broker Peter McIntyre said the placement was timely for Glass Earth, considering the amount of cash poured into the past three years' exploration.

"Their [financial] situation is looking a lot more promising than it was 12 months ago.

They have been whittling away [cash reserves] but some of that exploration work is taking shape and showing good potential," Mr McIntyre said.

Separately, in mid-March Glass Earth went into partnership with Placer Gold International Corp, with the pair holding permits for adjacent prospects in the Manuherikia Valley, near Alexandra.

Placer Gold is expected to fund initial development costs up to $250,000, for a 30% stake in the targets, and has an option to put $500,000 in for plant and equipment to gain a total 50% stake.

Mr Henderson yesterday said access was still being negotiated for the Manuherikia targets, and if that was finalised soon, exploration work could possibly begin by the end of the month.

Glass Earth's cash in hand had fallen below $1 million by December last year, the company having spent more than $24 million since dual-listing on the Toronto and New Zealand stock exchanges in October 2006, focusing mainly on exploration around Otago.

To create cash flow it is processing ore, recovering "modest" amounts of gold from its McAdies Ida Valley permit, and expects to cover the year's expenses.

Mr Henderson said the results from bulk testing at Ophir were sent to a Canadian company to determine recovery rates and assist in designing a bigger gold-recovery plant.

He expected the report to be released soon.

• In early December, Glass Earth posted a third-quarter loss of $218,000, leaving working capital of $934,000.

A month earlier, it completed a Canadian private placement, raising $640,000.

In the previous full year to December 2008, Glass Earth spent $4.1 million on exploration and booked a $1.3 million loss, having a year earlier recorded a $2.68 million loss.

[elZorro]

The full annual report and MD&A was posted to the GEL website yesterday, by the look of it.

http://www.glassearthlimited.com/financial.html

I had a good look, no numbers for any income from the placer mining. There is some new mining equipment on the asset list, at $88,000 for 2009. Doesn't look like we own much of the leased-out GRU then. Lots of drilling costs coming up to keep the permits alive, a few have been dropped. Most interest is in the Otago areas for 2010. That $3mill will be needed.

So, who is Placer Gold International Corp? Is it connected with Placer Gold Resources Ltd, who have a 50% shareholder Abonus S.A. based in Switzerland (or in the Bahamas, 2007, according to Google).
Placer Gold Resources Ltd are shown to have a permit on the West Coast, but not near Alexandra.

So many questions....

[elZorro]

How to find gold with a metal detector near Poolburn, German Hill, Moa Creek, etc.

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php?topic=278115.0;all

[Cannibal]

You are correct - well worth reading.

They make it all look so easy.

As an aside GEL up 40% in Toronto in the last 2 weeks. Admittedly off a low base.

[elZorro]

You are correct - well worth reading.

They make it all look so easy.

As an aside GEL up 40% in Toronto in the last 2 weeks. Admittedly off a low base.

Hi Cannibal, yes, that glittering gold...maybe GEL should try some of these as plant. I was thinking that JBMurc could get one of these detectors, trade in his gold pan..

Should we be looking harder at Serpentine and Game Hen?

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/3331/gold-rush-investment-digs-deep-otago?page=0%2C0

[elZorro]

Spotted on the Crown Minerals site: GEL has today been granted the discovery appraisal extension on EP40667 for Muirs. It will last until 3rd October 2013. This is for 595Ha, encompassing the main Muirs site, which is already covered. I'm still in the dark about what a discovery appraisal means, but I think it's a step up as far as findings go, from a standard EP.

[Cannibal]

GEL
17/05/2010
GENERAL

REL: 0830 HRS Glass Earth Gold Limited

GENERAL: GEL: CLOSING OF FIRST TRANCHE OF C$3M PRIVATE PLACEMENT

Wellington, New Zealand, May 14, 2010.

GLASS EARTH GOLD ANNOUNCES CLOSING OF FIRST TRANCHE OF C$3M
PRIVATE PLACEMENT

- FOR DRILLING ON FOUR TARGETS

Glass Earth Limited (TSX-V: GEL; NZAX: GEL) ("Glass Earth") is pleased to
announce the completion of the first tranche of a non-brokered private
placement previously announced on April 29, 2010.

In the first tranche a total of 8,667,500 units (the "Units") at a price of
C$0.20 per Unit were issued, for gross proceeds of C$1,733,500. Each Unit
consists of one common share priced at C$0.20 and one share purchase warrant;
each warrant entitling the holder to purchase one additional common share at
a price of C$0.35 expiring two years from the closing date.

All the securities are subject to a 4 month hold period and may not be traded
until September 5, 2010.

A further announcement will be made when the second
tranche of the private
placement is completed.

The proceeds from the financing will be used to complement cash generated
from the Company's placer mining operations and to drill the following
targets:

North Island, New Zealand (Epithermal gold targets)

Muirs Reef (GEG 100%)
A 27 hole drill program is planned to confirm the historical resource and to
test new east and west vein systems defined by ultra detailed 3D resistivity
and geochemistry. This advanced gold project lies 65km SE of Newmont's Martha
Gold Mine (Waihi).

Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand (Mesothermal Gold targets)

Serpentine (GEG 90%)
A 12 hole program is planned to test a 12 km long shear zone, in a 1.5 km
zone with gold in soils up to 1500ppb Gold, and rock chips ranging from 2 -
30 g/t gold.

Game Hen / Hindon (GEG 90%)
A 12 hole program is scheduled to test a 12 m wide quartz shear, and
co-incident carbonaceous shear, with individual rock chips in the 7-40 g/t
gold range.

Ophir (GEG earning 50%)
Drill
ing is planned on the Wai-iti vein systems and extensive high grade soil
geochemistry on a 600m long shear zone.

Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand (Placer Gold targets)

Expansion of its Ida Valley placer mining operations and the development of
new placer operations in the Manuherikea Valley is scheduled in concert with
GEG's placer partner Dunstan Mining, and PGIC, a Swiss based gold exploration
and development company.

WKP (Newmont 65/35 JV) Drilling in progress:

Glass Earth also announced that drilling on the first drill hole on this gold
target has reached a depth of 200m; progress has been hampered by lack of
water (drought conditions). (This target is managed and funded by GEG's JV
partner Newmont).

Qualified Persons
Glass Earth's exploration programmes are carried out under the supervision of
Glass Earth's President and CEO, Simon Henderson, M.Sc, M.AUSIMM, F.SEG. Mr.
Henderson meets the qualified person requirements (as defined by National
Instrument 43-101) with m
ore than 30 years of experience in the gold mining
and exploration industry.

About Glass Earth Gold Limited
Glass Earth is one of the largest New Zealand-based gold exploration
companies exploring a land position of over 11,500 km2 in the North and South
Islands. With its main office in Wellington, New Zealand, Glass Earth Gold
Limited is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX.V: GEL) and the New
Zealand Alternative Stock Exchange (NZAX: GEL).

For additional information on the company, please contact:
- Simon Henderson, President and Chief Executive Officer, at +64 4 903 4980
or info@glassearthlimited.com;
- Jeanny So, Director of Operations, CHF Investor Relations, at +1 416 868
1079 x225 or jeanny@chfir.com;
- Visit the Company's website at www.glassearthgold.com.
To receive Company news via email, contact jeanny@chfir.com and mention
"Glass Earth
news" in the subject line.
End CA:00194930 For:GEL Type:GENERAL Time:2010-05-17:08:30:15

[elZorro]

Hi Cannibal, looks like the overseas trip was a success, with some drilling funds freed up.

It's a dull day here in Hamilton. I have had another look for PGIC, who have remained anonymous on the web. (Remember they are the new placer partners).

I did find that Placer Gold Resources Ltd (NZ Company) are likely to be bought out by Superior Mining International Corp, see below.

http://www.superiormining.com/news/news_releases/index.php?&content_id=50

Take two words out of each company and you have a new entity perhaps, but that is drawing a long bow.

Investors in SUI (Superior Mining on the TSX) are also wondering about "Abonus SA" and have managed to learn a bit more, see thread.

http://www.stockhouse.com/Bullboards/MessageDetail.aspx?s=SUI&t=LIST&m=28237376&l=0&pd=1&r=0

[JBmurc]

How to find gold with a metal detector near Poolburn, German Hill, Moa Creek, etc.

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php?topic=278115.0;all

Yeah that sounds like the go better get one for next summer too bloody cold now- have many places to go with me 4wd an Dirtbike -family owns large farm in poolburn

[elZorro]

Yeah that sounds like the go better get one for next summer too bloody cold now- have many places to go with me 4wd an Dirtbike -family owns large farm in poolburn

Best of luck with that JB, you are in a fortunate position. Gold trumps silver?
Let us know how it goes.

[JBmurc]

Best of luck with that JB, you are in a fortunate position. Gold trumps silver?
Let us know how it goes.

Yes will do Have been looking on trademe for a good detector looks like I have to spend 2k+ still finding a couple Oz will soon pay off

[miner]

Yes will do Have been looking on trademe for a good detector looks like I have to spend 2k+ still finding a couple Oz will soon pay off



Hi JB,kiwi JW is a mate of mine he is down south at the mo,lucky bugger found some more nuggets in the last few weeks,we got a tiny bit dredging in coro the other month.

Get a minelab for a detector,worth a bit but they are great detectors,then you just have to learn how to use it :-),let me know how you go as always interested in gold prospecting and if you want may be able to connect you up with me mate to show you some detecting tricks.

Best of luck but remember if it was that easy everyone would be doing it,also allot of gold is found before you leave home,as in do you research and put yourself in the right spot to start with.

Cheers
Miner

[JBmurc]

Hi JB,kiwi JW is a mate of mine he is down south at the mo,lucky bugger found some more nuggets in the last few weeks,we got a tiny bit dredging in coro the other month.

Get a minelab for a detector,worth a bit but they are great detectors,then you just have to learn how to use it :-),let me know how you go as always interested in gold prospecting and if you want may be able to connect you up with me mate to show you some detecting tricks.

Best of luck but remember if it was that easy everyone would be doing it,also allot of gold is found before you leave home,as in do you research and put yourself in the right spot to start with.

Cheers
Miner

Yeah thanks miner I'll have many days over winter free I might have to get in touch with your mate when I get a detector---I also have a mate that use to work on a small gold operation here I want to checkout--

-With my Trail riding experience traveling many 100kms of central trails know of many old gold mining areas I can reach within an hour or so 60kms-70kms per hr depending on weight (Quick in --explore 4-5hrs --Quick out) .

[miner]

Yep get into it as your in gold country and it's heaps of fun,anyone can detect but as with most things there a tricks of the trade,JW is a really nice guy that could show you a few things.

You've got a KTM 525 from memory ?,I just bought a DRZ400,was going to go KTM but then thought I'm not as young and fit as I used to be :-(.

Look at getting a wet suit snorkel and some crevassing gear also,was just talking to another gold guy from down your way who told me of a mate who got 17 ounces out of a crevice that everyone missed.

Cheers
Miner

[JBmurc]

yeah the DRZ400 is a very solid bike that will last for along time (my mate done well over 300hrs on his) ,I've spent 3k+ on my 130hr old KTM- high performance high maintenance cost-
I think of all the ways to small time discovery gold -Detecting sounds like me I'll leave the 10 deg water you keen diver dans --If your ever coming down to Qtn I'll be more than happy to take ya on some high country trails I know of we really live in the world mecca of trails here all within mins drive

[miner]

Yep went for low maintenance and something I can work on,you live in trail bike heaven,did gold up in the Nevis years ago,wish I had my XR500 with me,don't worry if I ever get down your way with my bike will be catching up for a blast.

The forestry up here is stuffed now days not like when we were younger had miles of mint fire breaks to ride.

Cheers
Miner

[elZorro]

On 19th May, GEL were granted an EP52700 "Wakapatu", for 204Ha near two other permits, Round Hill area, Southland. That's quite a way out of their normal area. Anyone have any ideas about this?

Today a GEL press release, books for the last quarter to 31th March, but no figures, and no new management discussion details either. It's also not posted to the website in advance, but that's not unusual.

[JBmurc]

On 19th May, GEL were granted an EP52700 "Wakapatu", for 204Ha near two other permits, Round Hill area, Southland. That's quite a way out of their normal area. Anyone have any ideas about this?

Today a GEL press release, books for the last quarter to 31th March, but no figures, and no new management discussion details either. It's also not posted to the website in advance, but that's not unusual.

They mined gold back in the late 1890's at round hill have been reading the "Gold baron" on Mr Ewing of late --so much gold round these parts --in one wash at tinkers Alex they found 800oz gold--I'll be happy just to find 1 oz

[elZorro]

Hi JB, how's it going? Sounds like a good book, (John Ewing). Is Tinkers near the same area?

http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/historic/by-region/southland/murihiku/ports-water-race/

[JBmurc]

Hi JB, how's it going? Sounds like a good book, (John Ewing). Is Tinkers near the same area?

http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/historic/by-region/southland/murihiku/ports-water-race/

Tinkers in just north of Alexandra --yeah the book is a great read is the second I've read on the central otago gold boom days (there's got to be still a huge amount of gold left round here when you read how much they discovered with 1890's technology.....can't wait for summer will be out with my metal detector looking for a seam of gold bearing grounds ---have been studying small gold operations plants etc is something I'm very keen on looking into further .......here is some great Utube links I watched today--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lbk0RjKRP4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AM2F2SZPAU

[elZorro]

Tinkers in just north of Alexandra --yeah the book is a great read is the second I've read on the central otago gold boom days (there's got to be still a huge amount of gold left round here when you read how much they discovered with 1890's technology.....can't wait for summer will be out with my metal detector looking for a seam of gold bearing grounds ---have been studying small gold operations plants etc is something I'm very keen on looking into further .......here is some great Utube links I watched today--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lbk0RjKRP4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AM2F2SZPAU

The first video looked good, almost enough info to build one?

Someone blogged on another share forum their secret to wealth: Start a business and grow rich slowly.

The guy might be right, a setup like you see there gives you an edge anyway. You just need to find a decent amount of good grade alluvials, and get a permit of course.

[JBmurc]

The first video looked good, almost enough info to build one?

Someone blogged on another share forum their secret to wealth: Start a business and grow rich slowly.

The guy might be right, a setup like you see there gives you an edge anyway. You just need to find a decent amount of good grade alluvials, and get a permit of course.

yeah I'd say it would be worth a few dollars yet it's all about costs to revenue from production even a very small production of gold say 3-4oz per day will yeild min 600oz on 200days of work -gross revenue 1mill+ NZD(----I will be playing round with a decent detector this summer know many areas worth a explore Tinkers,Carrick ranges,poolburn,skippers,old man women ranges
their is no-way even 10% of Central otago's gold has been discovered IMHO such a vase hard land

[elZorro]

Best of luck with the detector purchase JB, you might need to swap it with some silver..:)

The Glass Earth website has been updated with the quarterly records. There's a lot to read, only skimmed it. I can see that there was a need for cash to pay some bills on 31st March, should be all OK now.

Mention is made of the permit commitments looming, desire to hold these or extend. Look at the maps: now have an area on the West Coast, and one in Southland. The West Coast block looks very big, fairly sure it includes lots of permits, notably Placer Gold Resources has a permit in the area. No mention of any of this in the MD&A.

Cash in: CAD $100,000 might be from the placer mining. Still only $88,000 of mining gear on the books, compare that to the 8mill new excavator ordered by OGC .

http://www.glassearthlimited.com/financial.html

[elZorro]

Press release out this morning:


GENERAL: GEL: GLASS EARTH GOLD CLOSES PRIVATE PLACEMENT 08:31a.m.
GEL
11/06/2010
GENERAL

REL: 0831 HRS Glass Earth Gold Limited

GENERAL: GEL: GLASS EARTH GOLD CLOSES PRIVATE PLACEMENT

Wellington, New Zealand, June 10, 2010.

GLASS EARTH GOLD CLOSES PRIVATE PLACEMENT; $2.7 MILLION TO BE SPENT ON
EXPLORATION

Glass Earth Limited (TSX-V: GEL; NZAX: GEL) ("Glass Earth") is pleased to
announce the completion of the second and final tranche of a non-brokered
private placement previously announced on April 29, 2010.

Simon Henderson, President and CEO commented, "This year, so far, has been
very gratifying. We have been operating our placer gold mining site at
McAdies since December 2009, from which gold sales are offsetting our G & A
expenses, for the most part. As a result, the private placement funds we have
raised will be predominantly spent on the ground, drilling four identified
and ready to drill targets. We are planning a 27-drill hole program at Muirs
Reef to confirm and hope to expand its historical non NI 43-101 resource of
390,000 oz @ 1.5 g/t Au. Elsewhere in the South Island, we will drill three
other targets that we believe have 'game-changing' potential for our
Company."
In the final tranche a total of 4,981,500 units (the "Units") at a price of
C$0.20 per Unit were issued, for gross proceeds of C$996,300. Each Unit
consists of one common share priced at C$0.20 and one share purchase warrant;
each warrant entitling the holder to purchase one additional common share at
a price of C$0.35 expiring two years from the closing date.

All the securities are subject to a 4-month hold period and may not be traded
until October 8, 2010.

Combined with the first tranche, Glass Earth issued a total of 13,650,500
Units for a total cash consideration of $2,730,100. The Company now has
46,335,026 common shares issued and outstanding; 63,822,526 fully diluted.

As mentioned, the proceeds from the financing will be used to complement cash
generated from the Company's placer mining operations and for drilling,
exploration and development purposes.

The Company also announces that, pursuant to an agreement dated April 21,
2010, it has agreed to issue 100,000 common shares to an arm's length lender
for loaning the Company NZ$100,000 (approx. C$79,780) on an interest free
basis. The loan is to be repaid to the lender, without interest, on or
before September 30, 2010 and the shares are to be issued in lieu of
interest on the loan. The issuance of the shares to the lender is subject to
acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange.



Cripes! Good that we'll see some big progress at Muirs (fairly average grade mentioned though) and three "other" SI sites.

But: 2nd/3rd tier bridging finance from within NZ? at a big cost, 30% for less than a year interest (OK, some risk in selling those shares for 30c perhaps). The major money for the tranche seems to have come from Canadian investors, this time non-brokered.

I hope those drills find some gold.

[elZorro]

This helps to explain why GEL has a new permit in Southland perhaps.


Miner confident of finding gold
The Southland Times, May 25, 2010 | by CRAYTON-BROWN Kimberley

A LARGE block of Southland land could soon be mined for gold if mineral prospecting yields good results.

Crown Minerals has granted a prospecting permit to Alexandra's Goldmines New Zealand, for a 151.4 square kilometre section of Southland from Colac Bay to Te Waewae Bay.

Company director Bob Kilgour said he had been planning to prospect the area for three years, and was hopeful the area could again be mined for gold.

"There was still mining there in 1954. That's quite recent," he said.

Now that the permit had been granted, Mr Kilgour and a small team would investigate the area and meet the land owners. Mr Kilgour expected the prospecting would take less than a year to complete.

Once the prospecting had been completed, and as long as all restrictions and conditions of the permit had been met, an exploration permit would be applied for.

"We're not flying blind. It won't take long to select areas to explore," he said.

He said the price of gold would not "stay up there forever", and New Zealand should make the most of the minerals it had. Gold is currently NZ$1700 an ounce.

"Look across the Tasman, their business is booming," he said.

He compared the Queenstown Lakes District tourism profit last year to OceanaGold's. The mining company made more than three times the amount tourism did.

"Quite extraordinary, isn't it?"

He applauded the Government for its support of mining, and the stand that it had taken against anti-miners.

"Mining companies today clean up. We mine farmers' paddocks and restore them all and they are the same as when we started," he said.

"The only thing we've done is removed the gold and created wealth."

He said the wealth would circulate and benefit the whole country. It was small compared to farming in New Zealand, he said, but it would still add to the country's wealth.

kimberley.crayton-brown@stl.co.nz

Southland Times, Copyright of Fairfax New Zealand Limited 2009, All rights reserved.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

Interesting: have a look at this permit on the West Coast, also belonging to Goldmines NZ Ltd (100% owned by the Kilgours).

http://data.crownminerals.govt.nz/PermitWebMaps/StaticReport.aspx?permit=39337

It is the area shown on page 6 of the latest MD&A put out by Glass Earth. Maybe it's a JV.

http://www.glassearthlimited.com/pdfs/financial/2010/mda_31mar10.pdf

Someone on Stockhouse wondered what the placer gold returns were. There is CAD$100k shown as Revenue in the lastest quarter, but also 94K of 'Cost of Revenue' expenses!


GLASS EARTH GOLD LIMITED
(A Development Stage Company)
Consolidated Statements of Operations, Comprehensive Loss and Deficit
(in thousands of Canadian Dollars, except per share amounts)
3 months ended March 31 2010
(Unaudited)
3 months ended
March 31
2009
(Unaudited)
$ $
Revenue 100 - (no income for previous year's period)
Expenses
Amortization 12 17
Cost of revenue 94 - (no corresponding cost here either)
Consultancy fees 19 24
General and administration 57 54
Professional fees 18 5
Registry and filing 21 11
Salaries 54 42
Stock-based compensation (Note 5(c)) - -
Travel and accommodation 25 13
(300) (166)
Loss for the period before the undernoted (200) (166)
Exchange translation gains 7 169
Interest Income - 8
(Loss)/Profit before Income Taxes (193) 11
Income tax recovery (Note 9) - -
Net (Loss)/Profit and Comprehensive (loss)/profit for
the year (193) 11
Deficit - beginning of year (9,531) (6,856)
Deficit - end of period (9,724) (6,845)
Loss per Share - Basic and Fully Diluted (0.01) (0.00)
Weighted average number of basic and fully diluted
common shares outstanding during the year 31,419,189 30,980,526
(The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

[Cannibal]

GEL News Release

Wellington, New Zealand, July 12, 2010.

GLASS EARTH GOLD REPORTS 156 metres at 1.6 g/t Au and 2.6 g/t Ag at WKP gold-silver prospect, Hauraki, New Zealand

Glass Earth Gold Limited (TSXV-GEL; NZAX-GEL) (“Glass Earth”) today announced significant results from a diamond drilling campaign at its WKP gold–silver prospect, a joint venture with the operator, Newmont Mining Corporation.

„WKP‟ GOLD-SILVER PROSPECT – Newmont earning 65%

Newmont continues with its active drilling program on the highly prospective WKP gold-silver prospect and has completed three diamond drill holes (WKP 24, 25 & 26). More results of WKP 24 and 25 are further below, with assays awaited on WKP 26.

WKP 24 intersected mineralization of 156 m @1.6 g/t Au, including 1.6 m of 30.2 g/t Au and 13.8 m of 6.6 g/t Au.

WKP 25 intersected mineralization of 15 m @ 9.3 g/t Au, including 1.8 m of 61.4 g/t Au.

Simon Henderson, President and CEO that “These drilling results are significant intersections in both WKP 24 and 25 confirm that mineralization extends well beyond the known mineralization at WKP. Glass Earth and Newmont are very encouraged by these results and are confident that this exploration phase will provide substantial insight into the characteristics of the new zone, “WKP West” and the overall WKP prospect."

As reported on March 26 2010, the WKP prospect is a 2 km mineralized alteration zone, just 10 km from Newmont‟s Martha gold mine at Waihi (see map below) and 5 km north east of the Golden Cross deposit (634,000 oz gold production in the 1990‟s). The WKP epithermal system has magnetic/alteration characteristics similar to the Martha mine and has open- along-strike potential for several kilometres southward. Exploration in the late 1980‟s and early 1990‟s identified a very extensive altered and gold mineralized system identified as the „WKP Stockwork Zone‟ with multiple intersections, including several ore grade intersections.

The current drilling, together with previous exploration work by Newmont, targeting the new WKP West zone, outlines a new area approximately 180 m wide with a strike continuity of over 600 m.

WKP 24 and 25 intersected broad alteration and intense silicification over wide intervals. Quartz vein stockworks and gold-silver mineralization were encountered adjacent to major
fault structures with at least two high grade intersections apparent in broad mineralized intervals.

WKP 24 intersected:


WKP 24 125.9 282 156.1 @ 1.6 2.6
including 268.2 282 13.8 @ 6.6 3
207.7 209.3 1.6 @ 30.2 44 *within following interval
207 210 3 @ 15.6 23.2
262.5 263.5 1 @ 16 9.8
251 253 2 @ 6.2 2.9
252 253 1 @ 11.3 5.1


WKP 25 collared from the same drill pad intersected:

Hole No From To Interval m Gold g/t Silver g/t
WKP 25 221 236 15 @ 9.3 12.8
including 225 226.8 1.8 @ 61.4 80.3
235 236 1 @ 9.5 19.3

Assay results are pending on WKP 26.

The WKP West zone represents a compelling target in its initial stage of exploration, with surface mapping and additional geophysical data (CSAMT resistivity) planned to assist in the targeting of additional step-out drilling.

[elZorro]

Yankiwi, I haven't seen much on the web about Glass Earth, but I stopped looking hard a few months ago.

Heres a NZResources.com? article about WKP http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page66?oid=110327&sn=Detail

In September, a half-pie report on emerging goldminers selected Glass Earth as one, see page 12. There are some factual errors in there, using old data.
http://byroncapitalreports.com/Gold%20Report%20(09-07-2010).pdf

Perhaps more important is that two big tranches of shares were sold, some being available for trading in September, more in early October. These should have a dilution effect on GEL, but the opposite is happening. The GEL website has not been updated, neither has the CHFIR site since August. So if there is something going on that is important for the market, GEL is not fulfilling its duties to inform shareholders. (I'd have to say that's not impossible going on past form.) Could it be a bit of ramping to sell some shares at a profit? Why would the TSX shares go up and the NZ ones stay low until the last day or so?

By 28th October: the shares portion of the GEL website (http://www.glassearthlimited.com/investors.html)has been updated to the correct figures. Cheers.
Prices on the TSX have fallen back to the norm.

[elZorro]

Saw this on the Crown Minerals website today:


L&M plans to expand Earnscleugh

— filed under: News (http://www.crownminerals.govt.nz/cms/search?Subject%3Alist=News), Minerals (http://www.crownminerals.govt.nz/cms/search?Subject%3Alist=Minerals)

22 October 2010 - The L&M Group is refurbishing a floating gold recovery plant prior to stepping up production from its Earnscleugh alluvial gold mine near Alexandra early next year.

Sources: L&M and Lindsay Clark

The company is currently trial mining the deposit with a smaller leased plant. The deposit is estimated to contain 110,000 oz of gold and to run for at least seven years.
The mine’s project manager, Shirley Herridge, said the company’s own floating plant, which has been sitting at a former mine site at Waikaka since the mine closed in 2002, is currently being stripped down before the move. The plant will be moved by truck to the Earnscleugh mine site and the pieces reassembled there for the planned February start.

Higher gold prices encouraged L&M to restart the mine as it already held fully approved and consented permits since 2004.

The mining began in July 2009 and the small plant has recently lifted production with the operation of more shifts. The capacity of the current plant is 50 bcm (bank cubic metres) per hour. The projected capacity of the larger plant is 150 bcm per hour.
Two mining permits MP 41005 covering 81 ha and the much larger MP 41462 covering 919 ha are both held in the name of Mintago Investments Ltd, a subsidiary of L&M Group. The permits lie between the Clutha River and the Fraser River tributary, which runs parallel to the Clutha before flowing into the big river upstream from Alexandra township.

So this is interesting: GEL owns a small part of this leased rig (http://www.glassearthlimited.com/gallery.html)perhaps, but it has never been spelt out. Most of it is owned by Bob Kilgour's operation I think. Certainly it's not on the GEL books in the asset list. If it is, from memory it was valued at 80k. Would GEL have a use for this gear on its alluvial permits, or would it end up somewhere else if L&M handed it back early next year?

[elZorro]

GEL traded at 40c Canadian on the TSX overnight. That's a two year high.

GEL.TSX (http://www.stockhouse.com/tools/?page=%2FFinancialTools%2Fsn%5Foverview%2Easp%3Fsy mbol%3DV%2EGEL%26table%3DLIST)

That converts to just under 52c NZD, yet on the NZX it's still sitting on 32c.

Thanks Yankiwi, hadn't seen that. Looks like someone bought 300,000 shares for CAN 28c early on Friday. Since then smaller purchases have pushed the price up. There has been more volume over there for a month or so.

Could be related to this old press article: (http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/glass-earth-gold-newmont-strike-again-128991) But short on details at this stage.

[elZorro]

Last quarterly out today/yesterday. Muirs to be test drilled soon. Ophir mining decision soon??

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Glass-Earth-Gold-Limited-iw-1351576430.html?x=0&.v=1

[elZorro]

GEL up nearly 10% on the TSX overnight. Plenty of fluctuation there in the last month or two. Interesting press release, for this junior explorer, cash is still king. I think the floating recovery unit must be going into action for Glass Earth when it returns from Earnscleugh. So far about 1,000 oz has been recovered, half goes to Dunstan Mining at least, so after recovery costs they will need to increase output to make much headway financially. Targeted drilling for early 2011, one good find would make a big difference to this share.


Glass Earth Closes First Tranche of $4 Million Placement; Adds Program to Improve Liquidity

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND, Dec. 28, 2010 (Marketwire) -- Glass Earth Gold Limited (TSX VENTURE:GEL)(NZAX:GEL) ("Glass Earth") today announces that it has closed the non-brokered portion of its previously announced Private Placement. A total of 10,016,299 units have been sold at a price of $0.30 per unit for gross proceeds of C$3,004,890.

Each Unit consists of one common share and one half of a common share purchase Warrant. Each whole Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one common share at a price of C$0.50 per share, exercisable for a period of 24 months from the date of issuance. The units are subject to a four month hold period expiring on April 24, 2011.

The Company anticipates closing the brokered portion of the private placement in early January.

The proceeds of this financing will be used for mineral exploration and general working capital purposes.

Market Liquidity Program

Glass Earth Gold Limited has initiated a Market Liquidity Program (more commonly known as market-making), as part of investor relations' services provided by CHF Investor Relations. First retained in June 2008, CHF Investor Relations has offered its clients market-making since 2002. Subject to TSX Venture approval, fees paid to CHF will increase, accordingly, to C$7,500 per month while all other terms of their IR agreement remain unchanged (see news release dated June 20, 2008). Simon Henderson, Glass Earth President and CEO, has provided 100,000 GEL shares, in certificate form from his personal holdings, for the purposes of this program.

The market-making activity is undertaken using a registered broker, Mackie Research Capital, in compliance with the guidelines established by the TSX Venture Exchange Policy 3.4 and other relevant policies so that trading orders in the Issuer's stock are made to manage volatility and improve liquidity.

About Glass Earth Gold Limited

Glass Earth is one of the largest New Zealand-based gold exploration companies exploring a land position of over 2,800 square kilometres in the North and South Islands.

In the North Island, exploration efforts are focused on large epithermal gold systems in the Hauraki/Central Volcanic Region. This Region is host to the 10 million ounce Martha Gold Mine, (Newmont Mining).

Hauraki Region - Glass Earth occupies a significant ground position around the Waihi/Martha Gold Mine; The Newmont-Glass Earth Waihi West JV (65/35) is currently being explored and managed by Newmont. The Newmont-Glass Earth Hauraki JV (65/35) has recently announced significant results on its WKP - West Project (August 25th press release).

WKP West - Follow-up drilling campaigns planned for the last quarter 2010 will now commence in early 2011, following delays in site access and drill equipment scheduling.

Central Volcanic Region - Glass Earth has defined several significant epithermal gold targets in this region, drilling is currently underway on the Muirs Reef project (Mamaku district) where the strike and depth potential of the Muirs Massey Reefs are being tested, as well as the new East and West vein systems interpreted from 3D resistivity surveying. Two rigs have been drilling, with results anticipated in early 2011.

In the South Island, exploration efforts are focused on the Otago Region for mesothermal "Macraes-style" gold targets and alluvial gold.

Otago Region - Field programmes to commence the drilling of highly ranked Serpentine and Game Hen gold targets is planned for early 2011.

Two alluvial mining operations continue into the 2011 year, coupled with an acceleration of alluvial exploration and resource definition; Glass Earth / Dunstan Mining (placer mining 50/50 partner) plan to treble gold output in 2011.

To receive Company news via email, contact jennie@chfir.com and mention "Glass Earth news" in the subject line.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) nor New Zealand Exchange Limited has reviewed this release and neither accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. http://links.newstex.com/image?c=9100008&p=103627&s=52131966 Glass Earth Gold Limited President and Chief Executive Officer +64 4 903 4980 info@glassearthlimited.com www.glassearthgold.com (http://www.glassearthgold.com) CHF Investor Relations Director of Operations +1 416 868 1079 x225 jeanny@chfir.com

[elZorro]

Glass Earth begins drilling at Serpentine

By Simon Hartley (http://www.odt.co.nz/history/65) on Wed, 30 Mar 2011

Gold explorer listed Glass Earth Gold has begun a $200,000 six-week five-hole drilling programme at its Serpentine prospect, 13km north of Lake Onslow, near Millers Flat.
Drilling was scheduled to begin yesterday at Serpentine, following an airborne geophysical survey in 2007-08 and more recent rock chip and pan sampling around the area.
Glass Earth chief executive Simon Henderson said yesterday he was excited to be "finally drilling one of Glass Earth's highest priority targets", as the drilling was originally planned for about two years ago, but was delayed for various financial and weather-related reasons.
"We will have to be through the [drilling] programme before the first week in June, when the Dunstan trail is closed," Mr Henderson said yesterday.
Glass Earth is in the process of moving from explorer to gold producer, to boost cashflows, with almost a thousand ounces coming out of its McAdies prospect in the Ida Valley between January and December 2010.
Expectations are 7500 ounces will be mined from McAdies during 2011.
Glass Earth has two alluvial (loose) gold-mining operations, including a fifty-fifty venture with Dunstan Mining Ltd.
Mr Henderson said that historically, the region, part of a schist belt which includes Oceana Gold's Macraes and Frasers underground mines, was a "prolific gold producer" area.
About eight million ounces of gold had been recovered so far.
A "targeting and ranking" exercise using the geophysical data from Glass Earth's $4 million airborne survey initially highlighted the Serpentine prospect, Mr Henderson said.



Maybe this will be the site to set GEL up..

[elZorro]

GEL will probably get its dredge back soon.


Earnscleugh alluvial gold to move to commercial stage in mid June


Ross Louthean — 25 May 2011

The Earnscleugh gold project, owned by private company L&M Group, is gearing up to move to a commercial scale operation after 18 months of trial mining operations on the South Island project.
The operation which currently employs 17 is having an old L&M alluvial dredge rebuilt in Alexandria near the Earnscleugh operation and company chairman Geoff Loudon told NZResources.com in Broken Hill yesterday that the complete overhaul should be completed early in June.
He said the trial operation was aimed at proving overburden removal and mining costs and to verify the grade estimates.
Earnscleugh has been owned by L&M Group for more than a decade – at a time it was undertaking alluvial gold mining elsewhere on the South Island, but its development was held up by the then gold price of around $NZ600/ounce and some vexatious issues with one local landholder wanting to sell.
Loudon said apart from producing the results required to go commercial the trial mining period had produced about 2,000 oz of gold which had allowed it to “wipe its nose.”
The company has struck a joint venture with the local Coleman family which has a 10% interest. Son Mark Coleman is helping operate the dredge which has been hired from Otago belt miner and explorer Glass Earth Gold.
The existing plant has a 50 cubic metre capacity and this has allowed the prospect to provide 200,000 bank cu m of alluvial gold ore, grading about 100 mg/cu m and also 600,000 bank cu m of low grade material.
The rebuilt L&M plant was gathering cobwebs at the mothballed Waikaka alluvial project that ended about 10 years ago and it has a capacity to produce 1 M bank cu m per annum and, with higher grades expected in the lower reaches of the mineralised system the annual production could be about 8,000 oz per annum.
The current gold price of about $NZ1,900/oz means it will operate in the price range to provide a significant profit.



New diamond hole gives further proof of big system at WKP West prospect
Ross Louthean — 18 May 2011

Assays in from one of two new diamond drill holes into the WKP West gold prospect on the Coromandel Peninsula has provided further proof of a big epithermal system.
Project partner Glass Earth Gold Ltd (TSX-V & NZAX: GEL) said that drill hole WKP 27 had produced a 152.4 metre section grading 1.16 grams/tonne gold and 2.22 g/t silver, within which the best section of 1.4m went 30.7 g/t gold and 77.7 g/t silver.
Three other good intercepts from this hole were 1.1m @ 10.2 g/t Au and 7 g/t Ag, 1.1m @ 11 g/t Au and 5.7 g/t Ag and 1m @ 8.33 g/t Au and 6.7 g/t Ag.
Results are awaited on the second new hole WKP 28.
WKP 27 was a step-out of 200m south west of a previous significant drill hole. Glass Earth said this hole showed significant mineralisation greater than 150m with narrow high-grade zones on the 1-2 oz/tonne range.
“The success of the 2010 drilling results on holes 24,25 & 26 demanded further drilling examination,” Henderson said.
“Both Newmont and Glass Earth have been very keen to press forward with additional drilling, and we are confident that this exploration phase will provide further substantial insight into the characteristics of WKP West and the overall WKP prospect.”
The WKP prospect is a 2 km mineralised alteration zone, about 10 km from Newmont Waihi’s mining operations in Waihi, and 5 km north east of the Golden Cross deposit that produced 634,000 oz gold in the 1990s.
Henderson said the WKP epithermal system has characteristics similar to the Waihi area and has open-along-strike potential for several kilometres south-westward.
The WKP West zone now has a known system 180m wide and with a strike continuity of more than 600m.
The project is 65% owned by Newmont Waihi and 35% by Glass Earth Gold.


Article on the Serpentine drilling (http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/business/4854708/Gold-project-progressing), it's a bit old but no other news yet?

It's perhaps worth noting that GEL still has an MCap of NZ$20mill or so. OGC has lost NZ$200mill of MCap in the last few months, while the US$gold price increased.

[elZorro]

Is it time to have another look at Glass Earth? With strong interest being shown by their JV partner, Newmont, in the WKP prospect near Martha Hill and the Golden Cross mine, this is starting to look like a goer.
Still with a low Mcap of $20mill that reflects well over $30mill spent on exploration, Glass Earth was at least savvy enough to grab some permit areas near Newmont's operations.

Because Newmont has spent most of the exploration money so far (GEL spent funds widely on other spots), they have 65% of the claim at present. If GEL ask them to prepare a feasibility study for mining WKP at their cost, Newmont will gain another 10%. For providing GEL's funding towards an operational mine, another 5% could be gained. This leaves GEL with at least 20% of the prospect, maybe 25%.

Here's what NZ Resources has to say about WKP:


New diamond hole gives further proof of big system at WKP West prospect


Ross Louthean — 18 May 2011

Assays in from one of two new diamond drill holes into the WKP West gold prospect on the Coromandel Peninsula has provided further proof of a big epithermal system.

Project partner Glass Earth Gold Ltd (TSX-V & NZAX: GEL) said that drill hole WKP 27 had produced a 152.4 metre section grading 1.16 grams/tonne gold and 2.22 g/t silver, within which the best section of 1.4m went 30.7 g/t gold and 77.7 g/t silver.
Three other good intercepts from this hole were 1.1m @ 10.2 g/t Au and 7 g/t Ag, 1.1m @ 11 g/t Au and 5.7 g/t Ag and 1m @ 8.33 g/t Au and 6.7 g/t Ag.
Results are awaited on the second new hole WKP 28.
WKP 27 was a step-out of 200m south west of a previous significant drill hole. Glass Earth said this hole showed significant mineralisation greater than 150m with narrow high-grade zones on the 1-2 oz/tonne range.
“The success of the 2010 drilling results on holes 24,25 & 26 demanded further drilling examination,” Henderson said.
“Both Newmont and Glass Earth have been very keen to press forward with additional drilling, and we are confident that this exploration phase will provide further substantial insight into the characteristics of WKP West and the overall WKP prospect.”
The WKP prospect is a 2 km mineralised alteration zone, about 10 km from Newmont Waihi’s mining operations in Waihi, and 5 km north east of the Golden Cross deposit that produced 634,000 oz gold in the 1990s.
Henderson said the WKP epithermal system has characteristics similar to the Waihi area and has open-along-strike potential for several kilometres south-westward. The WKP West zone now has a known system 180m wide and with a strike continuity of more than 600m.
The project is 65% owned by Newmont Waihi and 35% by Glass Earth Gold.


In 2010 a non-JORC resource of 1.4Moz was mentioned by GEl for WKP's potential. Perhaps this figure was understated.


Delegate numbers flow in for Queenstown mining conference

Ross Louthean — 30 May 2011

There has been a positive early response for bookings to attend the annual New Zealand Minerals Conference to be held in Queenstown from August 27 to 30.
The organising committee of the NZ Branch of the AusIMM has had a positive response for the annual programme which was also held in Queenstown two years ago.
Theme for this year is “Mining for New Zealand – Creating a Powerful Future.”
This year’s programme will take in new presenters including Bathurst Resources Ltd which is developing the new Escarpment coal project in the Buller coalfield and is now owner of the Cascade and Takitimu coal mines.
One of the more interesting presentations should be from either Glass Earth Gold Ltd or Newmont Waihi Gold on the emerging WKP West gold discovery north of Waihi which is shaping up as the best new gold find in at least the past decade.
One delegate of interest will be the yet-to-be-named head of New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals, the re-shaped division of the Ministry of Economic Development that has long been known as Crown Minerals.
Bathurst Resources will be hoping to get its chief executive Hamish Bohannan to attend, provided his management team can nail his feet to the floor in Queenstown as a break from his strenuous globetrotting on fund raising, offtake agreements and project development matters.
Expected speakers of note will be Dr Don Elder of Solid Energy, Glen Grindlay from Newmont Wahi Gold, OceanaGold Corporation’s chief executive Mick Wilkes, well known Kiwi geologist Julian Hanna who has forged one of Australia’s most successful nickel mining companies, and the principal of the L&M Group Geoff Loudon.
There will be field trips including the Otago goldfield taking in OceanaGold’s Macraes mine, a tour of Southland coal projects linked to a Milford Sound cruise and a tour of East Otago wineries, led by veteran geologist and wine buff Peter Atkinson.
Short courses will include orogenic gold deposits in Otago, mine drainage and geochemistry, and one on NZ Petroleum & Minerals data.


Now companies listed on the TSX have to be careful with their statements. There has been limited interest in the share lately, but each new drill at WKP (http://www.glassearthlimited.com/pdfs/pressreleases/2011/GEGL_PR_12May2011.pdf)seems to reinforce the idea that the ore region is about 150 metres in depth, 180 metres wide, somewhere between 600metres and 6000metres of length (open along strike). The average grade for the whole 150 metres at WKPWest (part of the prospect) is around 1g/tonne, but some holes showed small bands of up to 60 g/tonne, or an extremely profitable 2oz per tonne. As it's not down too deep, this is a very promising opencast prospect. Having Newmont's Martha and related mines nearby (and they are keen to keep all their equipment operating), is a big advantage for GEL's chances of getting this area into operation.

Late May Financial report from GEL:



Operational Activities
Field operations concentrated on the testing of Glass Earth's two most advanced prospects WKP West (65% Newmont Mining / 35% GEG; Newmont managed) and Muirs Reefs (100% GEG) in the North Island, and drilling of the Serpentine prospect in the South Island. Encouraging assay results for drill hole WKP 27 were released May 12, 2011 with assay results awaited in respect of WKP 28 and two further drill holes into Serpentine.
In addition, metallurgical testing and test plant design on the Ophir Project (50% GEG/50% Ophir Gold) is nearing completion.
Expansion of alluvial/placer gold mining in the Central Otago region is a strong focus as current mining operations bed down.


I'd think there's not much chance of bad news on the horizon, quite the opposite for this minnow.

[elZorro]

Crunching some numbers: for each easily reached region of ore that might be available at WKP, you'd expect to find 1Moz of gold. This is based on 150mtr x180mtr x600mtr volume found/estimated so far, just over 1g/tonne average, ore being about 2tonne/cubic metre. Martha Hill has produced 10Moz, WKP is open along strike so needs to be delineated. But if I suggested it could get to 5Moz (just to do some figures) and GEL had 20% of the resource, then its Mcap once production was underway could reach 200x that, or CAD$200million. Much depends on the drilling campaign.

WKP28 drill assay awaited: the cores should be in the SGS lab at Waihi. This from the Newmont website on assays:



How are ore and waste defined?
Samples of rock from within the pit are sent to the SGS laboratory in Waihi to determine gold content.
The data generated from assaying is used to map out which areas of the mine are suitable to process as ore and which areas are waste material to be used to build the waste rock embankment.
A portion of the sample has a cyanide solution added to it. This is mixed in a ringmill, then the slurry formed is removed, placed into a vial and centrifuged. The supernatant liquid is then aspirated into an AA Spectrophotometer to determine gold content.

[elZorro]

The Resource World magazine has sent a reporter to look at Glass Earth, on Simon Henderson's invitation. In the very recent June edition of the mag, there are four pages on GEL, and background.

The WKP prospect is promising, this is repeated by a senior geologist, Rick Streiff, from Newmont. "What all this is telling us is that, it's a big system".

Another bombshell for me, and good news I'd think, is that Glass Earth now owns 50% of Dunstan Mining Ltd. This happened in February 2011. Didn't see any press about it, but here is the revelation in the article. So those 50% joint ventures in the alluvial work really are 50/50. Dunstan Mining can be the sole contractor, but GEL will end up with half the profits and a chance to see the books I'd hope.

The alluvial prospects are looking better as far as covering permit and office costs. If either WKP, Muirs or even Serpentine give some more good news, the share price should improve. And surely GEL is worth more than $20mill right now. Could Newmont buy them out? By lunchtime.

This 2010 link from Crown Minerals (http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/news/2010/glass-earth-and-newmont-discover-new-gold-quartz-vein-structure-at-wkp-gold-prospect-north-of-waihi?searchterm=wkp)helps explain the setup at WKP: the main alteration is WKP, 2km to "several km" long (open along strike). WKP West is a newer discovery off to the side, seems to be a deep pocket with good grades, also open along strike.

I have not seen a geological 3D map of this area published, if it was GEL's alone I'm sure we'd have that.

[elZorro]

3402The NBR is keeping tabs on GEL, including this article last year. (http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/result-glass-earth-gold-panning-out-well-128762) The value of the gold at WKP is variously quoted as up to $20billion ($10billion later), but I don't have access to the in-depth article(s) behind. If anyone can help with that, we'd be obliged.

A few days later, another article (http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/glass-earth-gold-newmont-strike-again-128991), $20billion mentioned, which would imply 10Moz in ground at NZ$2,000 per ounce. That's probably OTT, but an off-the-record figure perhaps.

Some are not happy about any mining in the area north of Waihi. (http://blog.greens.org.nz/2011/05/30/coromandel-%E2%80%93-no-more-mining-stop-the-vandals/) Perhaps they are fully employed up there already? What about the extra unemployment and reduced income if Newmont pulls out of Waihi? What would replace it? Newmont has set high standards of care for the environment so far.

Glass Earth's website, like some other junior explorers, is hopelessly out of date, maybe 1-2 years of new info is not on there. The most I could find about WKP is in the 2009-2010 forecast exploration report, not sure where 2010-2011 is, should have been out in June 2010, and what about 2011-2012 lookahead report for the next year? Note Goldwyn turned out not to 'wyn' enough 'gold'..

The closeup shows the extent of WKP at that time, note open along strike in all areas. WKP West is a smaller area than WKP, and results there are attracting interest at the moment. The rugged area must be hampering drilling, it won't be too easy over winter.

[elZorro]

The MD&A just out late May makes much better reading than usual.



GLASS EARTH GOLD LIMITED For the three months ended March 31, 2011 QUARTERLY OVERVIEW
Exploration –WKP gold prospect in Hauraki, New Zealand (Glass Earth 35%) – Follow-up drilling of the encouraging results from the 2010 diamond drilling at WKP West was completed. The first of the 2 holes (WKP 27) intersected 1.4m @ 30.7 g/t Au and 77.7 g/t Ag within an extended intersection of 152.4m @ 1.16 g/t Au. Assay results of WKP 28 are awaited.
Ophir gold prospect in Otago, New Zealand (Glass Earth 50%) –
Additional work is being undertaken as a pre-requisite to a formal proposal for capex and mining for the consideration of the Joint Venture.
Mining Operations - cash contribution from the Company’s placer mining operation (including the lease of a Gold Recovery Unit) totaled $129,000 for the three months ended March 31, 2011 (March 31, 2010 - $6,000).
Financial results - The net loss for the three months ended March 31, 2011 was $61,000 (March 31, 2010 - $193,000).
The Company’s cash position as at March 31, 2011 was $3,801,000.

Near Term Outlook
-WKP West – WKP 28 drilling assay awaited; analysis and interpretation to underpin future exploration initiatives including additional step-out drilling.
- Muirs – 5 hole diamond/RC drilling program completed in Q1. Further trenching over the recently detected high surface gold values (up to 17 gm/t Au in situ rock chips) has commenced in April 2011 prior to recommended further drilling.
- Serpentine – 2 diamond drill holes completed; assays awaited.
- Ophir – Mining decision pending.
- Placer production – Replacement placer mine successfully in production since December 2010. Resource definition on several other prospects is underway. Third gold recovery unit being built.

It looks like GEL ran out of easier gold at McAdies and moved the gear to Gun Club late in 2010. Now 50% of Dunstan Mining, GEL can make more out of any mechanical work, and I think Dunstan Mining could be working on refurbishing L&M's big dredge, which will replace GEL's GRU on lease. More to the point for the GEL shareprice, there is great potential for some good news in the next quarter, to add to the new momentum.

[elZorro]

NZResources: AGM in Vancouver coming up, maybe that will get some interest going over there..


Glass Earth Gold shareholders to hear the fruits of positive exploration

Ross Louthean — 15 June 2011

What a difference two years make for Glass Earth Gold Ltd shareholders (TSX-V & NZAX: GEL).

Two years ago the company was looking as though it had its back to the wall like so many other junior explorers in the Western World following the global financial crisis which hit global sharemarkets for a six.

This year the company will hold its annual general meeting in Vancouver, Canada on June 29 and there will be good news on several fronts.

The company is getting a cash flow out of alluvial mining joint ventures in Otago but its eye catching performance has been in the joint venture with Newmont Waihi Gold on the WKP West gold prospect, north of Waihi where there have been some spectacular intersections.
The best last diamond hole released had an intercept of 152.4 metres grading 1.1 grams/tonne gold and 2.2 g/t silver within which there were a series of high grade intercepts, the best being 1.4m @ 30.7 g/t Au and 77.7 g/t Ag.
At the time of writing the joint venture – Newmont Waihi 65% and Glass Earth 35% -- was awaiting assays from the latest diamond hole, WKP28.
There have been a series of wide intersections of epithermal gold and silver on the WKP property in the past two years to indicate there is a big system.
With the company better cashed up Chief executive Simon Henderson is also expected to give an outline of a more aggressive exploration programme on both NZ islands, taking in projects such as Muirs Reef in the Tauranga region and the Serpentine gold prospect in Central Otago.

[elZorro]

Since Glass Earth now owns 50% of Dunstan Mining (as at February this year) and has a new large workshop/office in Alexandra with 4 staff (March), I thought I'd google up the location or phone number. No such luck. Maybe GEL have moved into the Dunstan Mining HQ, in which case it is probably somewhere on Eclipse Street, or Eclipse Road. The exact location is beyond me, the street number is not available over the internet. Dunstan Mining don't have a website either.

A little bit of good background on Bob Kilgour is reported way back in this thread somewhere. A 2008 ODT article covers an interest in the Nevis area (http://www.odt.co.nz/regions/central-otago/2211/gold-hills-only-dedicated). Since then, GEL has probably listened to Mr. Kilgour and set up alluvial recovery in the Ida Valley, using Dunstan's equipment and labour force. 2010 article from ODT. (http://www.odt.co.nz/regions/central-otago/117333/plea-keep-mine-sites-non-039historic039?page=0%2C0)

[elZorro]

Glass Earth's shareprice is starting to recover on the TSX, while we are waiting for the news on WKP28 and other drills. Has anyone had a look at the tired old Glass Earth website lately? I did bring this up with management about a year or two ago, and I was told abrasively that GEL are gold explorers, not website designers. That may be so, but up until now they have had to rely mostly on investors for funding. The website should be the company's window to the world.

On about 22nd June, a new website has been uploaded (http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/Home.asp). This is a great step forward as far as investors are concerned, can't wait to have a good look through it.

[elZorro]

The new website has been provided by a web designer firm in Canada who have looked after other miners there (including St Andrews Goldfields (http://www.sasgoldmines.com/s/Home.asp), Toronto). It's probably a content managed (CMS) site, so the NZ staff can add photos and data when needed. This site might have cost only about $5000, there's a lot of competition out there, and no excuse to have a poor website these days.

One web page has the TSX current share price and history chart -it's a bit damning that the NZAX trades aren't worth a mention on the same page. Of course the two share prices should be in synch at all times, depending on the exchange rate. A while ago the TSX price was pumped up a bit and the NZX price stayed down, and now the opposite is happening. GEL has moved from an MCAP of 8mill to about 20mill, still a minnow, even as an explorer. They have had more capital invested than that of course. This is an interesting time-line point - if a company does find some resources that will reach the large-scale mining phase, a rapid escalation in the price should follow once the market takes that on board. GEL can't categorically say that yet, so the shares are in limbo.

On the new website, there are pages devoted to WKP and Serpentine. (http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/Projects.asp?ReportID=450302)While there should be nothing important on the web pages that has not been already disclosed in media statements, it's worth having a look at these. Here is a side profile of the expected interesting area (red?) at WKP West, showing an angled drill intersect. The Serpentine page also mentions a possibility of 1Moz gold, which puts it well beyond being a placer site. Note that Serpentine, Ohir, and all of the placer sites, are near Alexandra, making sense of the strategic alliance and 50% shareholding with Dunstan Mining Ltd.

Here's a decent copy of the Resource World article too (http://www.glassearthgold.com/i/Articles/ResourceWorld_June2011_GlassEarth.pdf), June 2011, from the GEL website.

St Andrews Goldfields (TSX: SAS) was a major stakeholder in Glass Earth Gold earlier on. Many of those shares were transferred to Herbert Abramson personally. Here's a list of the Board of SAS, (http://www.sasgoldmines.com/s/Directors.asp) you'll see that two of the board members (Paul C. Jones and Stephen Burns) are also on the board of GEL (http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/BoardOfDirectors.asp). They will no doubt be looking after the Canadian investments. Richard Billingsley is a self-employed mining consultant based in Vancouver, and is involved on the boards of Luiri Gold and Southern Hemisphere Mining too.

[elZorro]

Here is a very involved pdf presentation (http://www.glassearthgold.com/i/pdf/Oct_2010_GEL_FINAL.pdf)I found on the new Glass Earth website just now. It would have to be recommended reading.

Why it is dated October 2010, and yet I have never seen it before, is beyond me. Is this the sort of data new investors get to see first? Could explain previous good pricing on the TSX. See posts 388,89,90 (http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthread.php?4019-Glass-Earth-IPO&p=323772&viewfull=1#post323772)from October 2010, this PDF was not easily accessible on the net around then.

CHFIR may have posted it on their client page back then: here is the slide version.

http://www.slideshare.net/CHFIR/glass-earth-gold-limited-gelv-oct-2010

The writeup on WKP West implies the area of mineralisation could support 3 to 5Moz or more, even rivalling South American monster mines, although Newmont's estimate is 1.4Moz based on drilling data to hand. Serpentine could equally be a big mine, based on mineralisation. Drilling assays for two holes is awaited.

Note volume and price moving up on the TSX.

[elZorro]

It's worth keeping a very good eye on the MD&A reports, and now instead of a very few words, we seem to have more explanation of what has ocurred, as well as what is coming up for the next quarter, which has to be reported on within another month or so.

http://www.glassearthgold.com/i/newsreleases/2011/GEGL_PR_24May2011.pdf

Reading between the lines, Muirs has some drilling results back (not waiting on assays). WKP28 must be reporting soon. Looks like the GRU at Earnscleaugh might stay there through 2011, see the pdf in the previous post.

I had a good look through Crown Minerals yesterday. GEL has dropped quite a few underperformers, but has added 4 new Exploration permits recently:

52844 - Waikaia 223Ha, Wendonside Southland, adjacent to other mining permits
53006 - No label, 10,580Ha, Includes Blue Lake, St Bathans, Otago
53182 - Manuherikia, 13,610Ha, Drybread, below St Bathans, Otago
53183 - Maniototo, 17,060Ha, below Ranfurly, Otago -all these in March and April, valid for 5 years

And a new Mining Permit has been applied for, within 53182, and this is 53653, 822Ha, straddles Lauder Creek, near Drybread, Otago. This is probably a placer site.

The total permit area is around 1,000 sqkm, or 100,000Ha. Some of the Waikato/BOP permits are still listed there, although they are past their expiry date.

[elZorro]

I was puzzled about the permit list I put together, where was the Serpentine permit? If you ask for a list of all Glass Earth current permits, this one is not on the CM list at the moment.

Exploration Permit no. 53191 - Serpentine- granted 29 April 2011, 5 yrs, Gold/Silver, 100.90 km2, split out from Initiative 39322. Glass Earth has also filed a prospecting permit to cover the outside of this area, will be PP52351 if approved.

Here are some beaut pictures showing the scale of this area compared to Martha Hill, Waihi.
The two lakes adjacent to Serpentine are Manorburn and Greenland Reservoirs. They are situated southeast of Alexandra, up in the hills.
You can drive to Manorburn Reservoir from Alexandra /Poolburn (http://www.centralotagonz.com/Upper-Manorburn), sort of, and take your boat to Greenland Reservoir. There must be other rugged access for drilling rigs. (http://www.nzfishing.com/FishingWaters/Otago/OTMaps/Manor_BurnMap.htm)

[elZorro]

The WKP drill site is on permit 40598. If the drawing is to scale, this is nearly opposite Whiritoa Beach and up in the forested hills. Golden Cross Mine is similarly positioned, that's rugged looking country, all folded.

[elZorro]

A bit of looking on google reveals that Alton Drilling, a specialist exploration drilling contractor, is doing work for Glass Earth.
The photos on this link might include the Serpentine location.

http://www.altondrilling.co.nz/current_projects.html

Some clever search engine optimising on the GEL website is bringing it to the top of Glass Earth google searches. That will be useful. Here's a page from the website:



Glass Earth Gold is building shareholder value with concentrated, science-driven gold discovery and development throughout New Zealand.

With a strong geological and management team, substantial and highly strategic land holdings, and a secure and sustainable funding base, Glass Earth Gold is well positioned to pursue and attain its objective - discovery of new large gold deposits in New Zealand.

Glass Earth Gold presents a positive and unique gold exploration opportunity:

Underpinning Value: by holding substantial land holdings of over 9,000 km2, with key positions beside New Zealand's major gold producers (including exciting exploration progress (http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/Projects.asp?ReportID=450302) in joint venture with Newmont Mining adjacent to their 10 Million oz Martha Hill mine, and identification of deposit signatures with hallmarks of OceanaGold's 7 Million oz Macraes Mine in Central Otago (http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/Overview.asp?ReportID=450551)) Glass Earth Gold has created a strong foundation for effective gold exploration.

Upside Potential: Glass Earth Gold's experienced and successful technical team have proactively identified drill-ready targets (http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/CurrentWork.asp?ReportID=450306) with company-changing potential throughout New Zealand - a jurisdiction with minimal sovereign risk or indigenous issues, world-class infrastructure and personnel, and sound environmental standards.

Sustainable Exploration: the company protects shareholder investment, allowing sustainable and meaningful exploration, by profitably developing and producing placer gold (http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/Projects.asp?ReportID=450554). With existing gold production projected to cover company-wide G & A expenses by the end of 2011, and significant expansion forecast for 2012, placer development represents a highly effective financing tool to accelerate Glass Earth Gold's hardrock exploration.


The 'identification of hallmarks of a new large signature' part must be referring to Serpentine, 90% owned by GEL (and maybe Fruidburn/Game Hen, see post 413). On the TSX-V side, shares are for sale from 28c Canadian, just the odd small player selling at the market buy of 25c. This share could move quite quickly on any more good assay news, IMHO.

[elZorro]

Until there is a bit more faith in the NZAX/NZX, most of the action for GEL will occur over on the TSX. Major shareholders and capital are domiciled over there, and GEL is listed on the Venture exchange. It may be my omission that I didn't find the October 2010 presentation, but I have a feeling that although the document was being presented to investors overseas, it was not posted to the old GEL website. It might have been put on the CHFIR website client page in October, but the rest of the data there is well out of date. This helps explain the curious activity with the TSX shares, which are identical to the NZ ones, just the exchange rate should separate them on a given day. You can see that GEL shares reached a peak of 43c Canadian, on big volume compared to any NZ trading. Given some good news, there is no reason why the shareprice couldn't get there again, especially when you place any sort of value on the drilling results so far. This will amount to a good short-term capital gain of near 100%, which partly explains my intense interest of course. Longer term, GEL could follow OGC and be listed on the NZX, maybe even try for the NZX50 later.

In September 2010, GEL signed up Loeb Aron & Co, UK, as an investment advisor or provider from that region. Here's a radio interview with Frank Lucas, the legendary managing director of Loeb Aron, talking about Lydian Mining (LYD:TSX) in March 2010. That gold explorer (was similar size as GEL) had a 300% shareprice increase in 2010.
http://commoditywatch.podbean.com/2010/03/01/tim-coughlin-of-lydian-international-with-frank-lucas/ No point looking at their website, you won't see anything useful. However, Frank has been accurate in predicting that mining would rebound strongly from its big drop in 2009.

[elZorro]

There has been some mention of Fruidburn as another good target for a large gold find. While looking this up on Crown Minerals, I saw many other applications from Glass Earth in the pipeline. The company is really going for it at the moment. The Fruidburn site is about 12km north of Beaumont in lower Otago. GEL is applying for EP53190 and PP53347 (encompasses the site, Lammerlaw title, 305 sqkm). Far from giving up on Otago, GEL is moving to protect the best finds from the Initiative.

Note Hindon and Game Hen were/are close together, but further east, my mistake.

I remembered the Stockhouse forum was also puzzled over GEL's increasing volume in October 2010: one of their posters found this Byron Capital report from September 2010. GEL on page 12.

http://byroncapitalreports.com/Gold%20Report%20(09-07-2010).pdf I don't think that light report produced the volume and price change, nothing happened in September (apart from a massive purchase later in the month).

In early September Sprott AM, Herbert Abramson and Woolwich International each had about 10% of the shares.

The clear message to Glass Earth management must be that investors (even the little guys) deserve clear and open communications and the open and speedy display of any new internally-generated report for investor consumption. We must find it clearly on the new website, not have to wait months for it to be posted. How can the two markets be linked up if one set of investors have an extra set of well presented (new) data? I'm sure there are continuous disclosure rules that every listed company has to follow, these are fundamental to the market.

Someone from GEL could always post here, if I have it wrong.

[elZorro]

Very interesting, elz.

I thought so too, elz2.

You do know it's the first sign of madness elz?..

Well, I was just hoping that NZ investors would get in behind this emerging gem of a company and make some real capital returns. Let's not leave it all to the Canadians..

We're keener on pumping up the Aussie shares from over here elz..

Yes, but this is such a small Mcap at the moment that even NZ investors could have a big effect on it, surely?

Look, you're being far too optimistic as per usual.

Maybe, maybe not. Wait and see.

[elZorro]

All cheap GEL shares were snapped up on the TSX overnight, and that wasn't me. The price ended up matching the NZ price at the end of trades here. GEL shares over there are now in short supply, higher priced. Anything could happen from here, but if you look at how Glass Earth has taken in well over $20mill in capital (probably more like $40-$50mill), has spent it carefully and yet has an Mcap of around $20mill now, you have to wonder if that is a fair price.

The big investors will be wanting a bit more than 40c for their shares, some were purchased for $1 or more. And GEL does have a lot of IP and permit areas locked in, a possibility of several million ounces of gold in-ground already, more to come. If parts of this IP were sold off, for example the rest of WKP in the near term, what would it fetch?

For instance, Waipori region in Otago: no mention for quite a while, but these permits EP53229 (Lee Stream) and PP53350 (Black Rock) are in the process at Crown Minerals. Note the close and appropriate proximity to Gabriel's Gully (http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/gold-and-gold-mining/3), the site of the first major gold rush in NZ. (http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/gold-and-gold-mining/1)

[elZorro]

It's just before closing on the TSX, GEL shares are now at CAN 33.5c, on their way back up. US$gold is also on the rise to about $1510/oz.

A lot of the new EP's and PP's filed by GEL in Otago have a 10% partner, New Zealand Minerals Ltd. This looks to be a straightforward private company, the only shareholder is a Mark Gunton, of Westgate fame, Auckland. Mr Gunton works with Bryce Donne in property investments, but must have an intense interest in minerals for investments too.

http://metalsplace.com/news/articles/10891/australia-tungsten-hunt-on-west-coast/

[elZorro]

The news out yesterday/today that two board members didn't seek re-election, was a bit interesting. Paul Jones is still there however, retaining links with SAS, St Andrews Gold. There will be five on the board once another director is appointed. Note both the price and the OBV of the share is rising quickly on the TSX.

I have found the EP and PP areas surrounding Game Hen, which has been mentioned in despatches as another 'hot spot'. These are still in progress at Crown Minerals. The bigger PP 53346 (34,780Ha) is called Ross, and the EP 53181 beside it is called Game Hen. Both are near Waipori (Lee Stream).

US$Gold is on the way back up again, although some say it will rest around here ($1530) and go on to new highs later on in the year. That would be the normal annual pattern. With a lot of uncertainty still around in the markets, at least GEL, a local greenfields explorer with multiple prospects, gives some hope of phenomenal or breakout gains over the next few months. It would be good to see the return of the annual exploration brochures. I can't remember when the last lot of coloured printing arrived in the mail from Glass Earth.

Here's a map from the 2009-2010 exploration brochure, it's on the GEL website still. (Some other old but useful articles are not).

NZResources article from today:


Glass Earth Gold retains its NZ directors

Ross Louthean — 8 July 2011

Active New Zealand gold explorer Glass Earth Gold Ltd (TSX-V & NZAX: GEL) is now looking for additional directors following the decision of two of the Canadian directors not to seek re-election.
The annual meeting in Vancouver last week saw the retained board including chairman John Dow, chief executive Simon Henderson, Peter Liddle the chief financial officer and Paul Jones as an independent director.
Departing were Richard Billingsley and Stephen Burns, both of whom did not seek re-election.
Glass Earth Gold is one of the largest New Zealand-based gold exploration companies with a land position of about 10,000 square kilometres in the North and South islands.
In the North Island, exploration efforts are focused on large epithermal gold systems in the Hauraki/Central Volcanic Region.
In the North Island’s Hauraki Region Glass Earth has significant ground position around Newmont Mining’s Waihi gold operations – including the Waihi West JV, Hauraki North and Central Areas JV’s with Newmont Mining.
A key focal point has been the WKP prospect north of Waihi with Newmont where drilling has shown up a major gold-silver epithermal system.
In the Central Volcanic Region the company holds the advancing Muirs Reef prospect, while on the South Island there has been a focus on the Otago region for mesothermal deposits of the Macraes-style and also for alluvial gold from which the company is generating a cash flow from operating joint ventures.
Shareholders at the Vancouver meeting were told Glass Earth ranks highly its Game Hen prospect in Otago.

[elZorro]

Glass Earth is really seeing some interest on the TSX overnight. It is at CAN 45.5c currently (still 1/2 hr to go), with good volume of 410,000 shares traded. Might look a little peaky, and this is the highest the share has reached since mid 2008.

To assume it will drop back to where it came from, is to ignore this list of submitted permits with Crown Minerals, which can be accessed by anyone to check details, using the internet.

EPs (proposed exploration permits)
53142, 53174,53180,53181,182,183,184,185,186,188,189,190, 191, 229,52700

PPs (proposed prospecting permits)
53295,296,297(big),298,345(big),346,347,349,350,35 1, (52793,53341) EOL

MP (Mining permit) 53653

It would be great to see this data on a giant wall chart, but I'm sure it will cover a substantial part of Otago. Being a second wave of permit applications based on previous research, this won't be a scattergun approach.

This might be one of those days when NZers like me have to show some faith in a locally operated explorer that has done its hard graft, and is ready to make a difference over here. It is incredibly undervalued, it's right on our doorstep, it's likely to be a multi-bagger. JIMHO.

Speaking of faith, JBMurc and Yankiwi seem to be the keenest, based on their NZX share picks for the annual comp http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthread.php?8142-NZX-2011-Share-Investing-Competition-June-update&p=349864&viewfull=1#post349864. JB's chances of hitting the top are improving every day..Yankiwi I'm not so sure about your HGD pick, but who knows. Best of luck to both of you anyway.

[elZorro]

GEL had another good trading day on the TSX overnight. I think the buyers there are certainly looking over at the NZ shareprices, but even with a small drop and 400,000 shares purchased, they valued Glass Earth at NZ55c, MCap NZ$32mill.

There has been a bit of the green-eyed monster from some of the hobby dredging people about Glass Earth. Already, large amounts of Otago were freed up when the Initiative expired. Glass Earth is moving to protect the best parts of this space, and anyone can do the numbers and see that it will cost several hundred thousand a year to pay the fees alone. The work that GEL shareholders have paid millions for, will be released to Crown Minerals in due course, and so the whole of NZ's mineral sector will benefit.

Until the small miners stump up with equivalent capital funding and expertise, they should not grumble too much about what Glass Earth is doing. I'm sure the focus of most funding will remain with hard-rock large discoveries, not alluvial dredging sites. It's a win-win.

The question remains, what do NZ traders and holders consider the fair value of Glass Earth to be at the moment? US and Canadian investors say this share is looking very interesting. It seems to me that TA and FA research agree - GEL shares are due for a breakout. Worth a small punt in any case.

[elZorro]

Glass Earth's holding a good price of CAD 46.5c (NZ 58c) at the moment, over 200k of shares sold, with plenty more (200k) wanting to buy near that.

Here's the link to the quote page for GEL. (http://tmx.quotemedia.com/quote.php?qm_symbol=gel)Without logging on, you can look at quite involved charts, look at the depth, etc.

Any company connected with gold will be doing better, after US$gold looks like breaking $1600 any day. Looks to me like the mining sector in general is very busy buying equipment, and gearing up. While GEL's gold output isn't that high, I think its function is to pay for administration costs, link the company's shares to the gold price a bit more, and ensure that all investment money is spent on exploration.

Having a 50% share of Dunstan Mining means GEL has a foot in the door to the lucrative area of mining hardware and services. Dunstan Mining doesn't hold any permits, it would seem, it's all about the mechanics of the mining business.

We're at the press release end of the week, if I'm an optimist..

If I had a few hours spare, it would be interesting to list all of the current permits and applications that GEL has filed. Here's an interesting PP (prospecting permit application).
(PP) 53297 sits above and around OGC's giant Macraes Mine. OGC has a lot of the nearby space covered, but this new Kakanui application is big, it's 526,000 Ha, prospecting for gold and silver, for two years duration if approved. You have to wonder what GEL saw in the earlier intervention scans, and what OGC thinks of all this.

[elZorro]

Overnight TSX saw some profit-taking on the goldies, OGC included. Gold didn't break $1600, got close. GEL held up at CAD46c though.

Here's a map from the Glass Earth website, the Serpentine page. It shows the nearby permits that are granted, and those in progress with Crown Minerals. You can see the area around Macraes and across to Alexandra is well covered.

In May 2011, Crown Minerals had a review, a new name, and staff will increase from 40 to 70 over time.

http://business.scoop.co.nz/2011/04/14/new-zealand-petroleum-and-minerals-business-unit/

New contact details, a work in progress.. http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/news/2011/new-zealand-petroleum-minerals-update

I'm not an expert at trolling through the permits on this nzpam site (same as the old Crown Minerals site). But it looks like the current permits are one database, and the permit applications are another. If anyone wants to have a look, here is the page that gets you into the 'recently granted' or 'applications' area.

http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/online-services/current-permits/banner_template/CMINPSCURR

To dig your way in to applications (who coded this thing?), first select recent grants and applications, minerals, then change the filter from "applications granted" to "applications received", change the date filter back about another year or so, and select another button called "Search". Then a few pages of listings will appear, remember to press "NEXT" up the top to see the next pages. You cannot search applications under an operator filter, but you can search granted permits in various ways that are easier. Once into the applications, a map will appear if you click the blue rounded blob. See, it's easy.??

Now if someone could stick all of these onto a spreadsheet for us all, I'd be eternally grateful.

GEL is sticking at a price of about CAD 45c, fairly impressive considering there is no news release out. I think this behaviour is related to the gold price, and why not?

[elZorro]

Wow, US$gold passes $1600 overnight, the fortune of many goldies is on the rise. GEL up at CAD 48c.

Of course GEL is not recovering a lot of gold, their main focus is on large, hard-rock discovery. They have travelled right over many parts of NZ looking for it, and this shows up in their permits. I've attached a 'work in progress' spreadsheet, with expired permits in yellow, and the current permits left in black. There are many more in progress with NZPAM, still to be entered. I will find out more about loading spreadsheets properly later, for now it's just a screen, showing most of them.

[elZorro]

Just at the moment, GEL is trading at CAD 52c on high volume of 532,000 for the day so far. The NZ trading also saw one of the biggest days' volume in this share. As the chart from the TSX shows, bigger volume has gone into GEL before, the OBV has also been higher. This time I think it's more a broad awakening to the value held in GEL's permits. Should be an interesting day in NZ..

I missed the really big news for today: a press release covering high gold levels at 'Muirs' in Te Puke, from mainly shallow surface sampling and drilling (more mention of a sizeable system). Included in the release is the note that WKP28,29,30 drill results (Newmont JV) are due to be released soon. Since volume on the TSX for GEL is 10x the NZX level, they usually get the news first.

http://tmx.quotemedia.com/article.php?newsid=43069322&qm_symbol=GEL

From NZResources: The importance of WKP perhaps?

Newmont details limited resources for Waihi

Ross Louthean — 20 July 2011

The updated global reserves and resources for gold mining giant Newmont Mining Corporation has its resources at Newmont Waihi Gold near the bottom of its scale.
The ultra conservative company has adopted a low key approach to the Waihi operations that were acquired several years ago with the takeover of Australian company Normandy Mining Ltd.
The latest figures show for the Asia Pacific region – taking in mines in Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand – that Waihi had no attributable measured or indicated material but had an inferred 300,000 tonnes grading 0.14 ounces/tonne (grading just below half an oz to the tonne).
The figure may well increase in the next inventory with development of the Trio mine to take over underground operations from the maturing Favona mine and, further down the track, Newmont has 70% of the big new WKP West discovery, north of Waihi – in partnership with Glass Earth Gold Ltd.
The global proven-probable reserves were put at 1.632 billion tonnes grading 0.019 oz/tonne for a contained 31.41 million oz gold.
The biggest contributor to the gold inventory was Asia Pacific with a total of 1.632 Bt @ 0.019 oz/t, with the big new Boddington mine in Western Australia dominating with about 70% of the tally.
The US-based company has also used conservative gold prices for its figures -- $US950/oz, $A1,000/oz and $NZ1,200/oz.

[elZorro]

Sharechat mentions GEL today..http://www.sharechat.co.nz/article/a099bb2b/glass-earth-reports-significant-results-at-muirs.html

The Glass Earth site has the best version of this report, it includes a map showing a satellite picture of the area, with drawings showing the Muirs and Massey Reefs, and the sampling lines.

http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=467655

This from Equedia today: would it apply to GEL?



When it comes to investing in juniors, there are many opportunities to hit one out of the ballpark. You can wait for a company to make a discovery or wait for a company to be bought out.

But at the end of the day, you just have to hit a sweet spot - the perfect combination of the right projects, the right people, and the right timing. If all of these ingredients come together, investors who act quickly can make fortunes on the right company.

That's why in the past few months, I have been looking specifically for an early stage company that I believe has the right ingredients to move their projects forward.

Before I introduce this company and their management, let me share a quick story.

Back in 2006, a new mine in Africa and a steady rise in the price of gold lifted a company called Red Back Mining from obscurity in 2006.

Led by Rick Clark, Red Back went from virtually no revenue in 2005 to $45 million just a year later - on the strength of a new and promising mine in Ghana, the Chirano mine. The Chirano mine achieved commercial production in October 2005 and is the start of what propelled Red Back Mining into new territories.

Six years ago, shares of Red Back Mining were trading at less than $2. Over the next five years, Red Back continued to reward its shareholders with tremendous returns, closing at nearly $35 before it was finally sold to Kinross Gold for nearly $7.2 billion.

If you were a Red Back Mining shareholder five years before its takeover and invested $10,000 at $2 per share, you could have made $165,000. That's a gain of 1650%.

That's why getting involved with companies before they ramp up can return investors with big rewards. I love getting involved with companies at an early stage.

[elZorro]

349234903491[ATTACH]

Here is a screen grab of all the recently applied-for permits by Glass Earth. I can't figure out a way to include the map links on any of the HTML or Code patches, which would make it much more useful. But we can see that while GEL will fund 100% of the prospecting permits, the EPs in Otago are 90:10% split with NZ Minerals, maybe this is an historic arrangement, or NZM are the sugar-daddy for the annual fees? Look at some of the areas, they are quite large, in interesting spots. I don't think there would be any other miners in NZ with this many on the go at once.

The map below shows roughly where the two reefs at the Muirs prospect are located. It looks like a drive down No. 4 Road (Te Puke) will take you right over the top of two gold reefs. These extend down over hilly country, towards flatter horticultural areas.

A 2006 article gives some more background on the area.

http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/local/news/top-story-prospecting-firm-keen-to-reopen-old-bay-/3700978/

An optimist like myself could type up a spreadsheet, totting up the upper estimates of the finds GEL might make in some of these permits. If these went into production, you can expect an EV ranging from say 70 to 200 multiples of the resources total (AUD). OGC is about 88, it is low. Average is 180 for smaller miners. GEL has always found some gold after narrowing it down using their instrumentation, and more lately the hit rate for larger finds has improved. The fanciful chart does imply that placer or alluvuial gold has a small part to play, but any reasonable hardrock finds would push the value of GEL into the several hundred million dollar valuation range, making it a multi-bagger from where it stands today. I only need one..
http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/images/misc/pencil.png

[elZorro]

GEL raced ahead on good volume on the TSX overnight, resting at 61c (that's Canadian, not NZD) although it went as high as 64c. This could be an expectation of the WKP drilling results to be released soon. We were waiting just for WKP28, but now we are told it's assays of drills 28,29 and 30 to be released.

If NZ were to match the Canadian price today, the share would finish at about NZ 74c. These are good gains already, for any who are steadily accumulating the share.

(NZ tried, but will do better tomorrow?).


Impressive news: Simon Henderson, CEO of Glass Earth, has been invited onto the board of Straterra, a lobbying group for resources in NZ, chaired by the very capable Mark Cadzow of OceanaGold.

http://www.sharechat.co.nz/article/ced66e4b/straterra-strengthens-board-to-position-mining-sector-for-green-growth.html

[elZorro]

GEL peaked at CAD 65c overnight, resting at 62c (NZ 75c), lower volume of over 100,000 shares, but no news release on WKP yet.

The Straterra organisation is in the same building as Glass Earth Gold, and a few other allied firms, in Wellington. Some big NZ players on the board, including Don Elder of Solid Energy. It will be Simon's job to look after the interests of NZ exploration firms.

http://www.straterra.co.nz/Industry+Links

[elZorro]

GEL has dropped back a small amount on the TSX to match sentiment here, but volume is low. Most who have bought on the way up will be patiently waiting for the WKP results.

I have only just noticed that the Straterra organisation didn't move in with Glass Earth: looks like GEL moved offices from 104 The Terrace, to be part of an industry cluster at 93 The Terrace, Wellington. I assume an accountancy-type office is being left in Auckland, with Peter Liddle running that. Also on the board of Straterra: Mr Glen Grindlay, General Manager of Newmont Waihi Gold.

This looks like a very good move from Glass Earth, and a sign they are being taken seriously by big industry. Looks like the office was relocated sometime between August and November 2010, following on from the serious drilling at WKP (which started in March 2010, and was turning out fairly positive by July 2010).



18 January 2011
Industry hub at Straterra's premises, 93 The Terrace

Early in 2010 Straterra took a lease over a large office space at 93 The Terrace in Central Wellington. Our vision at that time was to sublet to similar companies and associations to create a hub of resource and sector-based activity and expertise. We have now achieved that vision and are seeing the results. The increased interaction over a range of issues adds value to Straterra’s work in the areas of government policy, government relations, and advocacy for the NZ resource sector and, we think, adds value to the tenant organisations!
We are pleased to announce the following are co-located with Straterra Inc at 93 The Terrace:
Chatham Rise Rock Phosphate (http://widespread.co.nz/)(exploration), Fortescue Metals Group Pacific Ltd (http://www.fmgl.com.au/IRM/content/home.htm)(ironsands exploration), Glass Earth Ltd (http://www.glassearthlimited.com/)(gold and other minerals exploration), NZ Energy Corporation (oil & gas and minerals exploration), and two resource-based industry associations.


From NZ-Energy & Environment subscription newsletter 27 July:



"Muirs Prospect Findings Buoy Glass Earth"

Glass Earth Gold is either more than usually excited, or more than usually organised on the PR front, with the findings of surface channel sampling..
CEO Simon Henderson sent personalised notes from the US, where he was giving investor presentations, to several news outlets in NZ, stressing the company will now plan a new drilling campaign based on "significant" results..


The short article concluded with "although the NZAX and Toronto-listed share is always very lightly traded."

I think this situation is likely to change. I have watched this company carefully for most of a few years - they might have been shaky once or twice - but they are certainly not now. In fact, they have to be in a very strong position, and are yet valued at around the capital that has been put in by some savvy investors. Simon was an employee looking over the Muirs site several years ago, so this must be pleasing, to come up with better results within his own company.

[elZorro]

It's the start of a new week, a new month, and I'm looking forward to seeing what will happen with GEL's shareprice. There's a conference coming up in NZ, which will give them some press. Not to mention their WKP results due "soon".

I read this in Equedia this morning - compare GEL-OGC or GEL-NEM/NMC.



Many seem to think that once we reach an agreement on the debt ceiling, gold and silver will pull back some of its gains. While this may be true, I don't think the impact will be enough to justify worrying about a major decline in gold prices. Even with gold prices anywhere above $1500, or even $1400, there is a lot of money to be made. That's because even at those levels, the miners are extremely profitable.

Of course, there is still a major disconnect between gold prices and the price of gold miners. This is one question that I get asked a lot.

People don't understand gold miners. While it is riskier to own a gold mining stock than to own gold itself, the leverage far outweighs the risk in my opinion - especially at current valuations.

The real price of gold has risen dramatically which also means the profits of the major mining companies are rising very dramatically. While I like the big producers and own them in my portfolio, I am still much more bullish on the juniors or the new producing gold and silver mining companies.

Let me tell you why. The guys at the top, the Barricks, the Goldcorps and the Kinross' are having a hard time replacing the gold they produce every year. In order to keep shareholders happy and attract new investors, they're now having to pay out dividends for the first time. That's the problem with the majors. All shareholders care about is the next quarter. All they care about is increasing production. But when you increase production, you wear out your mine life and quickly need to find other sources to replace it. As a result, they have to go down the food chain and look for smaller companies to takeover.

That's where the new producers and juniors have an advantage.

The new producers and the juniors are the ones that are finding lots of new gold in the ground. That's where I think the real money is going to be made because the senior mining companies have to pay through their nose to add to their reserves. They have to pay five, six, and sometimes eight hundred dollars an ounce in the ground to buy out some of these companies. When you factor in the costs of the acquisition and the costs to take that gold out of the ground, there really isn't a lot of profits left for the big guys.

When you consider that many of the juniors are currently being valued at less than $50/oz of gold in the ground, the potential for gains can be astronomical. Even at a $500/oz buyout price, that's ten times your return on investment with $50/oz valuations. But that doesn't mean every company with gold in the ground is going to be bought out.

The companies that will be bought out are those with great projects in mine-friendly jurisdictions. They are the companies that are near, or along strike, of other current producing mines and deposits. They are the ones with large unproduced resources. Even if they don't get bought out, the possible fact that they could be considered as a takeover target could send shares through the roof.


The CHF promotional outfit has provided an article on GEL in June, posted to their site. These special mentions don't come up often, and some of the other data there is out of date. I've only just remembered to have a look there. It's yet another place where you can find a bit of news about GEL.



Science-Driven Exploration Leads Glass Earth Gold to Major Discovery at WKP West

A field trip to New Zealand has confirmed that one of Glass Earth Gold Limited's (TSXV, NZAX: GEL) projects has the potential to deliver the goods for investors, CHF's Director of Operation, Jeanny So said this week. A detailed review of the WKP West project in Waihi with Glass Earth Gold's joint venture partner Newmont verified the enormous potential of this previously understated project.

The WKP prospect is a 2 km mineralised alteration zone hosted in scrubland and regenerated bush 10 km north of Newmont's own Martha and Favona mines (10 million oz gold production to date) and 5 km northeast of the Golden Cross mine (634,000 oz gold production in the 1990s). Newmont has a 65:35% joint venture with Glass Earth and on the drill core table Jeanny So was shown the results from the WKP 27 drill hole. The several hundred metres of hard-silicified core sample is further evidence of broad widths of gold mineralised rock, potentially hosting more than one million tons of gold.

This is not just an isolated drill hole, but follows up from four previous drill holes in the area, each returning broad widths of potentially economic mineralisation (consistently greater than 150 metres with narrow high-grade zones in the 1 oz to 2 oz range).

WKP 27 was a 200 m step-out to the southwest, and provided promising confirmation of these significant intersections with results of 1.4 m @ 30.7 g/t Au and 77.7 g/t Ag, within 152.4 m @ 1.16 g/t Au and 2.22 g/t Ag. With WKP 27 indicating strike continuity of 600 m, and results from further step-out holes pending, the programme continues to suggest open-along-strike potential for several kms southwest.

Results from a completed fifth drill hole are now being analysed and a sixth hole drilling into a new adjacent system is nearing completion.

CSAMT geophysical survey is working well and is generating many more drill targets. An additional three CSAMT lines will help target the next round of drilling. The WKP West discovery is a direct result of Glass Earth Gold's targeting process, and significantly validates this scientific approach to gold exploration.

With results from drill holes WKP 28 and 29 eagerly anticipated and regional exploration on several other high ranking targets continuing, Glass Earth Gold is enjoying a positive and proactive joint venture in the Hauraki region. This is underpinning the Company's wider ambitions and activity throughout New Zealand and investors should look out for more news to come in the near future.

I think GEL are trying to say (or imply) in their news releases, that WKP and the Golden Cross Mine might be interlinked with mineralisation. Golden Cross is to the South-West of WKP, also tucked away up in the hills.



Drill hole geochemistry at Wharekirauponga, Golden Cross and Ohakuri epithermal gold prospects, New Zealand
Anthony Christie 1, Richard Carver2, Joel Thomas1, Al McOnie3
1GNS Science, New Zealand, 2GC Xplore, Australia, 3Consulting Geologist, New Zealand
Exploration drill hole geochemistry has been compiled in Leapfrog 3D databases for three epithermal Au-Ag prospects in the North Island of New Zealand: Wharekirauponga (WKP) and Golden Cross in the Hauraki Goldfield, and Ohakuri in the Taupo Volcanic Zone. Host rocks are predominantly rhyolite for WKP, andesite and dacite for Golden Cross and rhyolitic ignimbrite for Ohakuri. All three exhibit anomalous As and Sb associated with the Au-Ag mineralisation, but concentrations of Cu, Pb and Zn are generally at background levels. Gold to silver ratios average 0.22 at WKP and 0.25 at Golden Cross, but are much lower at 0.05 at Ohakuri. The Au:Ag ratio generally increases with increasing Au grade. This effect is most pronounced at WKP, less so at Golden Cross, and very mild at Ohakuri. Gold concentrations peak in specific depth ranges: between RL 30 m and 130 m at WKP, between RL 125 m and 200 m at Golden Cross, and between RL 220 m and 260 m at Ohakuri, defining vertical Au zones. Antimony and As peak above and below the Au zones at WKP and Golden Cross, but at the top of the gold zone at Ohakuri.


http://www.glassearthgold.com/i/pdf/GEL_Inbrief_MARCH_2011_FINAL.pdf

http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/news/2010/glass-earth-and-newmont-discover-new-gold-quartz-vein-structure-at-wkp-gold-prospect-north-of-waihi?searchterm=glass

[elZorro]

The Golden Cross Mine was a second very successful stint in mining gold from the area southwest of WKP. It was a well-run operation by Coeur Gold NZ (80%), and Viking Mining Co (20%). This team still has mining permit no. 322954, although the entire site has been reinstated to farmland, with secure tailings dam, and most equipment removed. Here's a great story about the history of the area.

http://www.minerals.co.nz/html/green_from_gold/gx.html and http://www.minerals.co.nz/pdf/nzmiafaqs310801.pdf

Looks like everything worked out well, and they were a large employer for the district, 243 direct staff at the peak.

If the mineralisation is in the southwest direction down from the WKP sites, wouldn't GEL have been smart to cover all this area in permits? Looks like they did just that, within reason.

Permit 40717 is all GEL's, and it circles all around mining permit no. 51326, which is the Talisman Mine, HGD. Look at the scale of GEL's JV permits, 40598 and 40813 (Glamorgan). Considering GEL has Newmont onside, it looks a safer bet in many ways.

EP 40598 is also a bit unique in that most minerals are included, not just gold and silver. Glass Earth's research is capable of picking up other metallic and useful resources, as well as geothermal hotspots.

At this point, you have to admit that it might have cost a bit of capital funding to get it underway, but their data and permits are now looking like they are worth a lot of moolah.

[elZorro]

Very light trading of GEL on the TSX, understandable with general trading.

I have had a look into the NZ Minerals 10% Otago holding situation: in the 2007 third quarter report on the website, there is mention of NZ Minerals handing over their Prospecting permit PP39320, which was about 1793 sq km, and contributing 12.5% (up to $437,000, think it ended up as $405,000) towards the cost of the big Resolve Otago Survey, in return for a 10% equity in Glass Earth's combined Otago Region tenement portfolio, then covering over 23,000 sq km.

Website link to the press release 6th Sept 2007. (http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:YacMSyp_ktcJ:www.glassearthlimited.com/pdfs/pressreleases/GEL_PR_6sep07.pdf+glass+earth+sept+6+2007&hl=en&gl=nz&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgw2pI-ea3YH3XK4yVQJyCRrmN-LsV_ldaeYBFWvSj4uHlxS96RqfJKXDO9EQ-YFw7pyPiE4qWFb8J2gEWH7_Q2PbARsKkNWMLfgVl97UDkuknzD q1_x5B7G8Ev9owNlGxepmaa&sig=AHIEtbTchHRRg5WNDYr71_NbK8bSGZ7aJA) Via TSX (http://tmx.quotemedia.com/article.php?newsid=6104922&qm_symbol=GEL:CA)

The PP39320 site is towards the bottom of the Otago Resolve sweep area, might include the Fruidburn site, but not Serpentine. So I'm not sure whether this agreement carries on to new Otago permits (it appears to), and if any other costs are being covered by NZ Minerals. By January 2008, GEL had raised at least $16.3 mill from shareholders.

[elZorro]

From NZ Resources: Article with photos (http://nzresources.com/showarticle.aspx?id=2358&gid=30002358)


Refurbished dredge prepares to lift Earnscleugh production


Ross Louthean — 5 August 2011

The alluvial gold mining operation at Earnscleugh near Clyde is making the transition from trial mining to full production for Christchurch-based L&M Group.
The company has refurbished the gold dredge it had at Waikaka and it has been moved to a terraced area at Earnscleugh to begin production, replacing a smaller alluvial dredge unit.
It was being prepared to move into a filling hole this weekend to begin production at around 150 bank cubic metres of material per day.
L&M Group’s chairman Geoff Loudon said at the Diggers & Dealers Forum in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia this week that the dredge had been streamlined with in-line pressure jigs from the Australian group Gekko which have enhanced the cleaning up of jig concentrate.
He said L&M has introduced a specially modified long-arm CAT hydraulic excavator to provide feed for the floating treatment plant.
Compared to some conventional alluvial dredging methods used on the South Island, including past operations by L&M, he said because the feeder is land-based the floating treatment plant “is not really a dredge.”
Back in May Loudon said the trial mining operation had produced about 2,000 ounces of gold. The refurbished plant should process about 1 million bank cubic metres of alluvials per annum and the production target is about 8,000 oz pa. The gold price this week was about $NZ1,928/oz.
Earnscleugh has been owned by L&M for more than a decade – at a time it was undertaking alluvial gold mining elsewhere on the South Island, but its development was held up by the then gold price of around $NZ600/ounce and some vexatious issues with one local landholder wanting to sell.
The company struck a joint venture with the local Coleman family which has a 10% stake in the project. Son Mark Coleman helped operate the smaller dredge for the trial mining.


One report I saw from Glass Earth mentioned a lease on the smaller dredge (GRU) to L&M through 2011. But if it has been replaced on the site, maybe it will soon help out at the GunClub alluvial permit or elsewhere.

GEL is holding up very well at this stage, investors still waiting on the WKP assays and news release.

Meanwhile an older article, 2009, covers Otago areas. (http://www.contrafedpublishing.co.nz/QM/August-September+2009/Gold+country.html)

[elZorro]

Still no news on WKP assays, but the AUSIMM conference in Queenstown is coming up, dates are 27-30 August. Simon Henderson is listed as a participant (explorers division) on page 2 of the brochure.

http://www.ausimm.co.nz/reg_brochure.pdf

I can't see him heading up a session in the draft proceedings, but several other names are there, which have links to Glass Earth permits and exploration.

Paul Wopereis, Nokomai Gold, 2 sources.. is a consultant (MWH) (http://www.mwhglobal.com/) for GEL, Nokomai is one of their areas.
Anthony Coote, applied petrologist, Finding gold in Otago Schist, also a GEL consultant. Website, needs upgrade?
(http://www.aps.co.nz/index.htm)Amy Fleetwood (under Jeff Mauk, University Auckland), Ohui Prospect, Hauraki area, soil mercury
Tobias Francis, WKP, mercury soil gas measured as a tracer for gold.

Also a lot of representation from members of Straterra.

[elZorro]

Maybe the WKP news is being saved for the AUSIMM conference. From NZResources today.


Partners preparing to release next drill hole from WKP West

Ross Louthean — 12 August 2011
At the time of writing the joint venture on the promising WKP West gold prospect north of Waihi were looking at assays to release another major drill hole from the epithermal gold project.
An update is scheduled to be given on the exploration progress at WKP West as well as other exploration targets for Glass Earth Gold (TXS-V & NZAX: GEL) at the AusIMM 2011 NZ Minerals Conference in Queenstown at the end of this month.

Newmont Waihi Gold (65%) and Glass Earth Gold Ltd (35%) were advancing this prospect which is shaping up as the next major gold discovery in New Zealand. Glass Earth Gold indicated results for the latest diamond hole was pending. Eyebrows were raised with the last diamond hole into WKP West which intercepted 152.4 metres grading 1.16 grams/tonne gold and 2.2 g/t silver, within which there were a series of high grade intercepts. These included 1.4m @ 30.7 g/t Au and 77.7 g/t Ag and 1.1m @ 11 g/t Au and 5.4 g/t Ag.

From drilling to date WKP West has a known system of 180m wide on a strike length of 600m. The name WKP is an abbreviation for a mouthful – Wharekirauponga.
A previous diamond hole last year hit 178m @ 1.05 g/t Au and 3 g/t Ag, including intercepts of 64m @ 2 g/t Au and 2.6 g/t Ag and narrower hits of 1m @ 19.1 g/t Au and 71 g/t Ag and 0.8m @ 24.5 g/t Au and 100 g/t Ag.

A year ago Glass Earth Gold chief executive Simon Henderson described WKP West as providing the portent of a major discovery – a view he maintains. The WKP prospect is just 10 km from Waihi where Newmont Waihi Gold operates the Martha open cut, the maturing Favona Lode underground mine and is developing the nearby Trios underground mine.

Glass Earth is earning a modest income from alluvial gold mining operations with private partners in Otago province on the South Island, and is advancing its Muirs gold project in the Hauraki goldfield, south of Waihi, where it gained more encouraging results last month.

Surface channel sampling at Muirs, following earlier positive drilling, included a series of sections grading high grade gold and significant silver values.
Better results included a 24m section @ 5.7 g/t Au, within which there were values up to 33 g/t gold, and other channel results included 28m @ 1.78 g/t Au and 2.4 g/t silver, including 1m @ 8.7 g/t Au and 7.4 g/t Ag and another channel with 23m @ 1.13 g/t Au and 0.9 g/t Ag, including 1m @ 7.91 g/t Au and 0.3 g/t Ag.

Another major target for Glass Earth is the high country Serpentine prospect near Millers Flat, west of Dunedin where there are old workings and indications of a strongly mineralised system. A drilling programme is earmarked for this property.


If the news is being saved up for a technical audience, I would expect it to be positive in nature. Not just a quiet news release then.

GEL shares are holding a good price here and on the TSX.

[elZorro]

It's not often Glass Earth gets in the mainstream news, and this time it's all good.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/5443056/Rocketing-gold-price-breathes-fire-into-Glass-Earth

OceanaGold and Newmont get a mention too. Newmont is always very cool about press releases.


Rocketing gold price breathes fire into Glass Earth
CATHERINE HARRIS Last updated 05:00 15/08/2011

Gold's stellar performance last week has given a confidence boost to gold exploration company Glass Earth.
The spot gold price touched a record US$1800 last week, although by the weekend it had slid to $1746 an ounce, in reaction to a rise on Wall St.
In New Zealand, AX-listed Glass Earth shares closed unchanged at 70c on Friday. They have almost doubled since the end of June after a company roadshow and indications of high-grade gold and silver deposits at Muir's prospect in the central volcanic region.
The firm also has a joint exploration venture near Newmont Mining's Martha Mine and mines alluvial gold in Central Otago.
Glass Earth chief executive Simon Henderson said the rising spot price for gold, combined with the falling New Zealand dollar, was giving it an excellent return "and that helps balance the books".
It also improved the climate for raising funds. Glass Earth was aiming to increase output "and so the gold price encourages us to accelerate that as fast as we can".
In contrast with Glass Earth, shares in New Zealand's biggest gold producer, Australia-based OceanaGold, have been up and down for months. They have fallen from a peak of $5.25 in September last year to $2.65.
Head of business development Darren Klinck said gold mining company shares "have been underperformers against the gold price, and it's an anomaly that we've seen since January but nonetheless ... if this is maintained you'll see these gold prices positively affect earnings and cashflows into companies.
"And gold companies today are pretty well financed, pretty well cashed up, because they have been enjoying stronger prices for their commodity."
He noted gold's value had increased even more sharply in New Zealand, with the price hitting NZ$2224, $350 to $400 higher than two weeks ago.
OceanaGold, which is listed in New Zealand, Australia and Toronto, continues to take increasing volumes of gold from mines in Reefton and Central Otago and expects to open a new mine in the Philippines at the end of next year.
"It's a very transformational project for the company. It's the first mine outside of New Zealand and it's one that will demonstrate our first exposure to copper in addition to gold," Klinck said.
The country's other big gold miner, US-owned Newmont, said the gold price had made no impact yet on its revenues, which were calculated on a rolling three-year average.
Its Martha mine is due to close in 2014, and Favona at the end of this year but an extension called Trio is due to open soon.
Gold's value has risen 20 per cent since June as investors eye up the European and United States debt mountains and retreat instead to gold as a hedge against inflation.
So traders do not expect gold's long-term march upward to end any time soon.
"All of the positive factors that have been supporting gold for the last several months are not dissipating," David Meger, of Chicago commodity broker Vision Financial Markets, told Reuters.
- BusinessDay.co.nz

[elZorro]

Glass Earth (GEL) is getting more popular on the TSX, gold on the climb back up, and overnight nearly half a million GEL shares have been purchased at C62c-64c (now at NZ 78c equiv). We are all expecting a great news release towards the end of the month.

[elZorro]

More Canadian interest for a gold explorer in the South Island sees greenfields funds rolling in.


Canadian company takes up big Kent Exploration stake

Ross Louthean — 17 August 2011
A Saskatchewan-domiciled company has taken up a significant stake in Kent Exploration Inc (TSX-V: KEX) which has a gold project in Western Australia and is exploring for gold on New Zealand’s South Island.
49 North Resources Inc (TSX-V: FNR) has taken up two private placements in Kent to give it a 7.56% stake in the company and, by exercising warrants, a 17.03% interest in Kent’s outstanding warrants.
FNR’s chief executive Tom MacNeill said his company acquired the securities for investment purposes.
Kent’s properties in New Zealand include the Alexander River gold prospect in the southern Reefton goldfield and a prospect in the historic Lyell goldfield where trench sampling was carried out recently.
49 North in July took up a shareholding in another Canadian company Lakota Resources Inc and has maintained a strong investment interest in coal and gas interests in Saskatchewan.
Its commodity asset interests until now have shown little focus on gold.


Here's the page of delayed market depth for GEL (TSX).

(http://www.tmx.com/HttpController?GetPage=DelayedMarketByPrice&Market=V&Language=en&SelectedSymbol=GEL)Right now it shows 322,000 shares bid (99 orders) in the range 56-60c CAD. That bid size has been rapidly rising in the last few days. On the other side, cheapest share offer is 64c, only 78,500 shares offered (9 orders). Some must have taken a profit and the share ended up at 60c this morning. (NZ equiv 73c).

If this keeps going, there will be a lot of interest in the news release coming from AUSIMM in late August. Already the article from Catherine Harris that I posted earlier (Google "Breathes Fire Into Glass Earth") has been posted on several sites worldwide, including the UK.

This was a stated strategy earlier this year from Glass Earth, using CHFIR to help with market building. It seems to have worked. Safety in numbers.

[elZorro]

What a day of turmoil: the flight to gold and precious metals continues, see charts below.

While GEL has dropped a small amount on the TSX before close, look at the increasing numbers on the buy side, now about 500,000 shares wanted, compared to 78,000 on offer. Some profit has been taken, but most will be wanting to hold or buy in while we wait for the news release this month.

We are talking about further delineation (WKP) of what promises to be the biggest gold find in New Zealand for many years, a game-changer for Glass Earth Gold. And behind that, Muirs, Serpentine and others hold great promise. A lot of field and exploratory work, linking of databases, and collaboration with government agencies and contractors with the right gear has brought through these results. It was always a good story, and soon I hope we'll see a road map showing a startling future for this company.

Glass Earth has also put in a new Mining Permit application according to NZPAM, early in August. No. 53814, PigBurn, 5yrs, within 53183, 45.57 Ha. I'd guess this is for placer mining, it's 30km or so northwest of Macraes Flat, an area below Ranfurly. Pigburn was an exploration site mentioned way back in 2008, not much mention since.

[elZorro]

At the end of next week, the AUSIMM conference in Queenstown will be starting. It is expected that GEL's WKP news release will be issued at some stage, perhaps just before the conference starts? But who knows, it will be interesting regardless.

I have had a bit of a look back over the prices for GEL since it listed (I bought shares in the IPO) and wrote up a chart of the MCaps as it progressed. It is revealing and reassuring to see that GEL has only recently passed the valuation that it set itself at the IPO. Of course, management knows the exact location of a lot more NZ gold than it did in 2006, and the permit holdings are progressing well.

GEL does not intend to set up large mines on its own account, those were always intended to be farmed out, or via JVs. GEL's M.O. is to be an explorer. Now that stronger links with larger miners are being formed (e.g. Straterra board membership), I would think exploration funding issues will be a relic of the past. How long will it be before a larger company makes an offer for all of part of GEL's permit holdings and IP? And what would that be worth?

I have taken the top potential Moz figures given by GEL for some sites, and chose 1Moz for Game Hen and Serpentine, which is a bit hopeful. As gold has just gone up $200 in two weeks, and oil has dropped, a valuation multiple of $200 per ounce in-ground seems very fair, and that is a figure many miners already sit at. All this makes GEL look like a future multi-bagger.

Disc:
While I did buy some bargain shares in October 2008, I sold them back to the market at a small profit. These would have qualified as 6-baggers today. I won't make the same mistake twice..

[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/presentations/GEGL_CorporatePresentationJuly2011.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/Wharekirauponga/Wharekirauponga.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/industries/5491059/Waihis-1-billion-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), (http://data.nzpam.govt.nz/PermitWebMaps/StaticReport.aspx?permit=40767)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.php?newsid=44132888&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.aspx?id=2434&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.php?newsid=44180920&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 (http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthread.php?4019-Glass-Earth-IPO&p=325888&viewfull=1#post325888): 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 (http://www.centralotagonz.com/Central-Otago-New-Zealand/Drybread_IDL=24_IDT=294_ID=1605_.html), MP41748. It is owned by Andrew Hawkeswood, found this interesting background..http://www.drivesouth.co.nz/news/16382/from-when-motorsport-was-dangerous. Maybe the Dunstan Mining guys heard things were going OK over there?

[elZorro]

Looks like Tinker's Diggings to the South West were very rich, but Drybread offered a bigger area suitable for sluicing.

GEL's two joined exploration permits cover the St Bathan's area down past Tinkers. This area, to one side of the Dunstan Range, was a hotbed of activity for alluvial or placer mining. Layered beds of gold grains ran right through this, so if GEL can find leftover material, these permits will be more valuable using the latest equipment with the higher gold price.

My only reservation is the St Bathans/Blue Lake area, being a prime site for very old fossils, some seeming to prove that not all of NZ sank beneath the waves before popping back up, to be repopulated with flora and fauna from other places. While the fossils were probably only discovered because of earlier mining, there should be special rules for that part of the permit.

Things I didn't know I didn't know.. (http://evomech1.blogspot.com/2006/12/fossil-discovery-turns-scientific.html)

[elZorro]

I must have 'missed' the results of the Serpentine drills, at least 2 were completed a few weeks ago, but Serpentine is now persona non grata on the news releases. It did look good.

Game Hen near Hindon (close to Dunedin) is the next one. This is a previously worked area, but that was a long time ago, the gear was fairly simple. Look at this archived press article, I might have posted it before, but there were some huge lumps of gold found near Hindon, and up Game Hen Gully (Game Hen is the name of a stream). Not sure if a current journalist would get away with some of the comments made..but this article is very entertaining.

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=OW18920915.2.42&l=mi&e=-------10--1----0--

EP53181 (Game Hen) has not yet been approved by NZPAM, not according to the web. 40739 (adjacent) is GEL's Hindon permit, that is approved. Most of the other permits overlapping here are aggregate or clay soil permits (50847,50726,41316). Note Styles Gully is southeast of Game Hen Stream, both spots are southeast of Hindon settlement.

[elZorro]

Game Hen has been mentioned by GEL for several years, and here's an article from the ODT in 2008 that covers the main prospects briefly. Sounds like GEL would like to prove it's more than alluvial, this could be a hard rock site.

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/1482/big-call039-over-gold-prospects-exploration-spending-triple

Much stronger interest on the TSX overnight, ended up at CAN 74c (NZD 89c), and plenty wanting to buy around that.

[Selena]

Game Hen has been mentioned by GEL for several years, and here's an article from the ODT in 2008 that covers the main prospects briefly. Sounds like GEL would like to prove it's more than alluvial, this could be a hard rock site.

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/1482/big-call039-over-gold-prospects-exploration-spending-triple

Much stronger interest on the TSX overnight, ended up at CAN 74c (NZD 89c), and plenty wanting to buy around that.

THanks ElZorro for your input. An old mate put me onto this one in May at 40 cents. ( silly me waited until they got a bit higher ). Happy to be on board now though.

[Selena]

THanks ElZorro for your input. An old mate put me onto this one in May at 40 cents. ( silly me waited until they got a bit higher ). Happy to be on board now though.

Elzorro, That reply was from me, Bermuda! I am sharing a computer in a room with with Selena over in Mooloolaba. I wonder how many other posts I have made under his code!?

[elZorro]

Elzorro, That reply was from me, Bermuda! I am sharing a computer in a room with with Selena over in Mooloolaba. I wonder how many other posts I have made under his code!?

Hello there Selena/Bermuda, is it hot over there? (Just south of Noosa, QLD according to Google).

I suggest you hang on for the ride with GEL, who knows what they will find next, and already the Mcap is starting to reflect what a sensible valuation of their IP would reach. I found this satellite picture of the Game Hen/Styles Gully area. Over the years scrub has covered the workings, and on the flats are some paddocks in grass with a bit of cropping by the look of it. But farming would be lucky to show a profit of more than $2,000 per hectare per year. Mining activity in this previously-explored area would be far more useful to the economy. On most of the ground GEL has permits for, any annual returns from other uses would be minimal.

[elZorro]

3589

GEL is currently trading at CAN 67c, equivalent to NZ's close at 81c yesterday. A large parcel of 1 million shares has just shown up, mostly as a transfer (at 67c) between two parties at D&D Securities Inc, Toronto. Volume like this should be a good indicator for the share, which has traded at this level before.

Gold shares in general look good going forward: the HUI gold index is nearing a breakout position, gold has held firmly near US$1820 (it has not dropped back to $1500), and anything could happen next week.

[elZorro]

The Glass Earth PR dept seems to be non-existent at the moment. There was no major address at the AUSIMM conference last month, the Q2 report has not yet been posted on the new CMS website, and in the Media section there is reference to an article on GEL in July, which appeared in Northern Miner. Naturally I tried to read this from the link, but no go.


http://www.northernminer.com/issues/search.aspx?qt=ss&phrase=glass earth

I could read that, if I paid $99 for a subscription. Isn't GEL interesting enough for a more standard newspaper to report on? GEL should arrange for the article to be available from its website, perhaps by paying a small fee on shareholders behalf. The wider point I want to make is that if there is anything in this article (or other media) that would impact on the shareprice, everyone should be able to view it.

I would also like to see a photo of the large workshop and office in Alexandra, and see the phone numbers and addresses of the Wellington and Alexandra office in the phone book, and online in the NZ white pages.

The gold price took off overnight (Sept 2nd). It looks like breaking US$1900 soon, who knows what will happen next. Barrick Gold just reported great profits, is closely tracking the gold price once again. http://tmx.quotemedia.com/article.php?newsid=43343513&qm_symbol=ABX

See the chart comparing OGC, GEL and ABX against the gold price. GEL has outperformed since early July.

GEL's first placer (alluvial) mine permit was McAdies (German Hill Diggings). Here is a preliminary archaeological report on the site. The recovery gear was moved to the nearby GunClub permit site a few months ago. This is useful for the detail on the mining that was done. Nothing of great historical merit was found, if compared to many other sites in Otago I would expect, and no Maori artefacts either.

http://www.spar.co.nz/Reports/Otago/Glass Earth Final Report.pdf

Here is the Magazine article, temporary view. Not any new material there as it turns out.


Aug 15 - 21, 2011 Volume 97 Number 26
Glass Earth sees clear potential in New Zealand
Vancouver 2011-08-15 New Zealand is an uncommon destination for gold exploration, but the low-profile presents opportunities for smaller and determined players.
Glass Earth Gold (GEL-V), for one, has put together more than 10,000 sq. km of claims largely centred around two of the three producing gold mines in the country.
On the North island, the company has a 35% interest in a joint venture with Newmont Mining (NEM-N) on the WKP West prospect, 5 km northeast of the Golden Cross mine that produced 634,000 oz. gold between 1991 and 1997. The Golden Cross mine is 10 km north of Newmont's Martha mine.
The open-pit Martha mine sits conspicuously in the middle of the Waihi township like a massive sinkhole. And while the company has long held it up as a model of social responsibility, there is little room to expand it. The open-pit and underground operations are expected to close shortly. But with nearly 10 million oz. gold produced from the mine and significant infrastructure investments, Newmont continues to explore the area to the tune of $9 million a year.
Some of that money has gone to WKP, where a $1-million follow-up exploration program is underway. Last year, holes 24-26, collared and fanning out from the same pad, respectively returned 156 metres grading 1.6 grams gold per tonne from 126 metres depth, 15 metres carrying 9.3 grams gold from 221 metres and 178 metres averaging 1.05 grams gold from 115 metres downhole.
This year, 200 metres southwest, hole 27 returned 152 metres grading 1.16 grams gold from 129 metres depth, and included several metre-long high-grade intercepts. Hole 28 was drilled from the same collar to test further south, with results pending. WKP west has been identified over a 750-metre length, a 100-metre width and a 250-metre depth. Newmont has also drilled holes 29 and 30 to the southwest to test the WKP south target, with results also pending.
At the Muirs Reef project, 65 km southeast of the Martha mine and 100% controlled by Glass Earth, the company has been working to test the extensions of known mineralization. Recent trenching results returned 24 metres grading 5.72 grams gold, 28 metres averaging 1.78 grams gold, 23 metres carrying 1.13 grams gold and 14 metres at 1.81 grams gold. The trenching has hit significant quartz veining across more than 450 metres of the project's southwest extension. The company is now launching a drill program to prove up the identified mineralization and establish a compliant resource.
Glass Earth's other big land play is on the South Island in the region of Oceanagold's (OGC-T) Macraes gold project, the largest in the country with about 185,000 oz. annual gold production. Glass Earth has several hard rock targets in the Otago region that it established after doing extensive geophysical work, including a 13,000-sq.-km airborne survey, looking for structures on the Otago schist belt that could host Macraes-style mesothermal gold.
The company identified the Serpentine, Ophir and Game Hen targets, and started a modest drill program on its Serpentine project in late March with results pending.
To help fund exploration, Glass Earth has also taken on a large alluvial land package to produce gold in the near term. The scale of the operation is small, producing 2,500 oz. gold a year that it splits fifty-fifty with a local partner and operator, but the operation is helping to reduce losses and the company reports it could expand production to 7,500 oz. a year by 2012.
Glass Earth's share price has climbed from around 20¢ in early June to a 52-week high of 61¢ on July 25. The company has 60 million shares outstanding, and at the end of March had $3.8 million in cash.
Kent Exploration (KEX-V) is the only other Canadian-listed junior drilling in New Zealand. The company has a sizable land package near Oceanagold's Reefton mine, the only other producing gold mine in New Zealand.
The company recently drilled 5 holes on its 27-sq.-km Alexander River project 25 km southeast of Reefton. Of the five holes, two were abandoned due to broken ground, two hit no reportable results and the fifth hit 1 metre grading 2.03 grams gold and 2 metres at 1.4 grams gold, from 229 metres and 251 metres downhole. At Kent's 472-sq.-km Lyell gold project, 40 km northwest of Reefton, recent sample results included a high of 6.87 grams gold.
Superior Mining International (SUI-V) has several properties in the country and is renegotiating option terms on others, with work currently focused on mapping and surveys.
© 1915 - 2011The Northern Miner. All Rights Reserved.

[elZorro]

L&M Mining produced some Powerpoint slides at AUSIMM, some of which show the Glass Earth GRU used for their evaluation. The new renovated plant is fairly massive, the site being quite close to Alexandra.

http://nzresources.com/attachments/2460/ausimmslides.pdf

[elZorro]

Nice to see: the GEL website now has the Q2 report in place, and the media report page has been fixed. I even found the Alexandra office and phone number listed on the contact page (42a Russell St, Alexandra). This seems to be a large modern shed behind McCrostie Builders and Dunstan Homes. Much appreciated :).

In the last few days, GEL has been granted an EP near Round Hill, in Southland. It's called Wakapatu, 202Ha, and there is some older mining history nearby. Quite a few Chinese miners made their fortunes here, by discovering that earlier European miners worked down to a false bottom, leaving a rich vein of gold underneath.

http://www.westernsouthland.co.nz/pages/viewentity.php?entity=422

[Aotea]

gidday EZ,
hey mate, you need to empty your mailbox..sent you a pm, but it bounced...

[elZorro]

Hi Aotea, long time no hear..I deleted a few, sorry about that.

I found this article about Chinese goldminers. It makes frequent mention of Round Hill, as it was one of their biggest camps in NZ. It looks like the famous NZ gold dredges were first designed by a Chinese engineer, and then copied. Very interesting, well worth a read. The Labour Government made a formal apology to the Chinese population of NZ for some historical policies, just a few years ago.

http://www.stevenyoung.co.nz/The-Chinese-in-New-Zealand/Whats-New/Chinese-goldseekers-in-Otago.html

Map of the permit..https://data.nzpam.govt.nz/PermitWebMaps/StaticReport.aspx?permit=52700

The nearby mining permit (41145) is owned by Coastal Minerals Group Ltd. http://data.nzpam.govt.nz/PermitWebMaps/StaticReport.aspx?permit=41145

The much larger prospecting permit 39336 is owned by Goldmines NZ Ltd, wholly owned in turn by Bob Kilgour and family. http://data.nzpam.govt.nz/PermitWebMaps/StaticReport.aspx?permit=39336

It would seem that there is more down here than gold. All three permits have spread the mineral resources list out a bit. Platinum is a big contender.
http://gyrosgarage.com/Orepuki.php

[elZorro]

Here's a background from NZPAM /Crown Minerals on Platinum prospects in NZ. The Longwood Range in Southland looks to be the go.

http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/pdf-library/minerals/minerals-overview-pdfs-1/CO11916_5_PGM.pdf

The Wakapatu permit is quite near the coast, follows a road, so may be one property. Curious it's in the shape of a begging dog, or is that my imagination?

More minerals data: PGM placer deposit.http://www.mindat.org/loc-68868.html

[elZorro]

Glass Earth has applied to NZPAM for another Prospecting Permit, this time on the West Coast. Un-named PP53911, 2508 Hectares, and in a very interesting spot in Reefton! Looking for all minerals.

[elZorro]

Looks like GEL is making a habit of exploring near existing mines.. EP40598 (35% JV with newmont) has been extended to include the area that was held aside around the Golden Cross mine. See post #430. http://data.nzpam.govt.nz/PermitWebMaps/StaticReport.aspx?permit=40598.

GEL owns PP50950 (6131Ha) and EP40838 near Macraes, and has applied for PP53911 beside Globe Progress in Reefton. OGC is holding adjacent permits EP50438, 40604, MP41164, see previous post.

I have a table of the GEL permits that I found, so far there are about 28 current permits and another 23 in progress with NZPAM. There might be more JVs with Ophir that I haven't counted. The total area is about 870,000 Hectares, over 3% of the land area of NZ.

Glass Earth is at the leading edge of a growing group of explorers getting poised for a commodities boom already prevalent in Australia, where gross income from mining is over A$210 billion per year, and employs nearly 700,000 workers (although much of their mining industry is foreign owned). Note: income of A$300,000 per employee, sounds profitable.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/decades-of-wealth-from-boom-as-commodities-exports-forecast-to-hit-480bn/story-fn59niix-1226132689353

With this background, I can't see any other reason for GEL to look for a prospecting permit on the West Coast near OGC's Globe Progress mine, except to say "Here we are, we're on the map".

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mergers-acquisitions/mining-ma-deals-hit-record-67bn-on-china-demand/story-fn91vdzj-1226131726042

[elZorro]

I noticed that Placer Gold International has applied for a PP53402. Googling a bit, I found the firm's website, been looking for awhile, so it might be new. PGI have been mentioned as a JV partner for Glass Earth.

First, here's the team: http://placercorp.com/index.php?id=11&L=1

And have a look at this image: http://placercorp.com/index.php?id=3&L=1 This is the GEL/Dunstan Mining big GRU#1, probably seen here at Earnscleugh before removal. It's on the way to the Drybread permit near St Bathans, Q4.

Vinegar Hill is one of the JVs PGI mentions, near St Bathans. Looks like rich gold in areas, up to about 40g/tonne over an interval in a shallow hole. http://placercorp.com/index.php?id=22&L=1

There are some interesting bits of info about Glass Earth's areas. With quite a few JVs going on, it's hard to keep track of it all.

This is probably a discussion on the area around McAdies and Gunclub, Ida Valley. http://placercorp.com/index.php?id=24&L=1

In their own right, PGI have EP51820 and are looking for the surrounding PP53402 in Southland. Not so hot on the Mcap front ..http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=BPK:GR

Glass Earth does have other connections on the West Coast: they are the operator of two permits Goldmines NZ Ltd are applying for.
EP53378 and EP53379 (two rivers). Both fairly big. http://data.nzpam.govt.nz/PermitWebMaps/StaticReport.aspx?application=53379

An excerpt that I hadn't read well enough from the Q1 report:
[QUOTE] Placer exploration & mining is conducted under a 50/50 joint venture with an experienced placer miner in the Otago region (Goldmines New Zealand Ltd and the related mining company, Dunstan Mining Ltd). In Q1, the first generation of cash from these placer initiatives was recorded. Costs associated with the exploration and establishment of theseoperations is being amortized rapidly against revenue as a conservative approach.The first placer mining at McAdies commenced in December 2009 and finished in October2010 with the replacement operation at Gunclub commencing in December 2010.In March 2010, Glass Earth (and Goldmines New Zealand Ltd) entered into a joint venture with Placer Gold International to carry out drilling and bulk sampling at Vinegar Hill in the Manuherikia valley (the 2 target areas are referred to as Shepherd’s Flat and Nicholson’s Lake). Historically, the site was mined by sluicing and hydraulic elevators. Placer Gold will provide up to NZ$250,000 (circa C$190,000 for each of Shepherd’s Flat and Nicholson’s Lake to prove up the resources in return for earning a 30% equity. Should Placer Gold wish,it can provide further funding of NZ$500,000 (circa C$380,000) per target for capex to earn a total of 50%. The NZ$500,000 funding is preferentially repaid out of mining profits.

In October 2010, the Company purchased 50% of Dunstan Mining Ltd, thereby securing access to mining equipment and related resources. All mining equipment is held by Dunstan Mining including the 40 tonne Gold Recovery Unit leased to another mining project.Net cash generation from the Company’s 50% share of placer operations totaled $357,000 for the year, with the Q4 contribution reduced due to rehabilitation work at McAdies and the initial set up at Gunclub.Planning is underway to commence a further 2 mining operations and a franchised arrangement – all to run concurrently with Gunclub. The leased gold recovery unit is expected to be returned to Dunstan Mining in June 2011 and a third gold recovery unit is being built.[QUOTE]

[elZorro]

16th September 2011:
Glass Earth is seeking C$5mill capital. http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=479719

There are quite a few positives here: It's going to be raised at C55c, which is a discount to the current share price average of C64c. The amount of dilution is about 15%, which lines up with the price. Considering GEL has hit C74c recently and the investors have options to buy more shares at C80c later, you'd expect a good uptake. The biggest plus is that it's going to provide a good amount of capital for an explorer, and now admin overheads are likely covered by placer work, most of it will go into exploration activities. It also puts a holding line under the current share price increase, an important statement from the company.

If there are some bigger fish out there watching and waiting, that might be an expensive option. The Gold price is gathering strength again for another run upwards, and who knows what C$5mill of drilling and exploring will find, on GEL's permits.

[elZorro]

Looks like anybody with good connections could receive a 7% finders fee on the latest capital raising. What about you JBMurc?

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1109/S00529/glass-earth-to-tap-private-canadian-investors-for-c5-mln.htm

[elZorro]

Not much new here from Simon, but a good summary anyway. (NZ Resources)
There is an indication that the C5mill will be used on exploration in one year. Exploration costs are left off the main books (treated as an increase in assets) until an area is written off as unprospective. This is normal practice. When you see the massive amounts that miners like Barrick spend each year, Glass Earth has done very well with the funds it has available.



New Canadian capital raising for Glass Earth

Simon Hartley — 21 September 2011
Gold explorer Glass Earth Gold Ltd (TSX-V & NZAX: GEL) is seeking $C5 million ($NZ5.82 M) in a private placement in Toronto to recapitalise and continue its test drilling and mineral exploration around New Zealand.
About two years ago, Glass Earth's cash-flow was becoming perilously low, but it has successfully recapitalised several times since then.
It is understood to have spent more than $30 million during the past four years; the majority of it around Otago prospects.
In 2010, Glass Earth completed two fundraising exercises which raised $6.2 M and at the end of December carried $C3.9 M cash then in January received a further $500,000.
Glass Earth booked a loss for 2010 of $1.4 M, compared with $2.6 M the year before.
The company's chief executive, Simon Henderson, said together with increasing mining income from Otago, the $C5 M private placement would leave Glass Earth in a strong position for its drilling activities in 2011.
"The company consolidated its placer activities by acquiring 50% of its joint venture party's mining company; and related placer mining equipment," he said.
Gold production from Otago last year saw cash generation total $357,000, and forecasts in December said alluvial mining expansion in 2011 should mean a significant increase in both gross and net revenue.
Otago remains the focus of Glass Earth's South Island exploration efforts, which includes hard-rock exploration and some small-scale mining of loose alluvial gold around Central Otago.
On the North Island, exploration efforts are focused on gold systems around the Hauraki and central volcanic region, including a joint venture with Newmont Waihi Gold on the WKP discovery near Waihi which continues to shape up as a major epithermal gold project.
In the Central Volcanic region Glass Earth is adancing exploration on the 100% owned Muirs Reef in the Mamaku district.
*Simon Hartley is senior business reporter for the Otago Daily Times.

[elZorro]

NZPAM have just locked away a big area around the Longwood Range, Southland, for 9 months. http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/pdf-library/minerals/maps-ras/Map Longwood 9.9.11.pdf There is talk of Platinum Group Metals, it's the main likely source (so far) in NZ. This closed-off block is much bigger,and the lower part is just partly overlapping, GEL's Wakapatu permit application - which is to the left of the lakes shown.

[elZorro]

I've just located a new slideshow from Glass Earth I think, this should be very recent, and is now available on slideshare from September 2011. Interesting new graphics, showing some of the trenching work at Muirs, more detail on the massive WKP prospect with 3.5km of possible strike indicated.

http://www.slideshare.net/CHFIR/glass-earth-gold-limited-gelv-oct-2010

This slideshow has been made available through the CHFIR web page for GEL, http://www.chfir.com/content/clientprofile.aspx?cid=68

While the link has been called October 2010 presentation, it's now a September 2011 Corporate Presentation, much updated. It chronicles that WKP30 is still due, which is the second WKP diamond drill into WKP South, a new area.

The CHFIR webpage for GEL is otherwise badly out of date, who knows what the reason for that is. Even the address of GEGL in Wellington is wrong.

Anyway, some very good new data here, worth having a good look at while we wait for more results. We shouldn't forget that WKP is the surprise package of immediate interest. Here's a local article (late August this year) that fleshes out a bit more detail from Simon Henderson:

http://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/7710-good-prospects-waihi-gold.html


"In non-mining terms we've had some nibbles and now we have hooked something - but we haven't got it on board," says Glass Earth's president and CEO Simon Henderson.

More technically they have found a broad, wide system. They have drawn a line through it and drilled four holes across the middle. Now they intend drilling out at 100 metre intervals towards each of the pointy ends of the football shaped prospect.

"If it is 800 metres long - Martha Hill is 1000 metres long - then it is a world class ore body," says Simon.

It will be another 6-12 months and six more drill holes at $500,000 each to get the detail.

"We celebrate our victories on the way," says Simon. "We have been waiting six or seven years to be getting results like this and we have invested more than $20 million in New Zealand in the process."

Looked at optimistically, they have drilled four holes into the prospect and every hole has had economic mineralisation in it. "This has got some legs in it."



So, what is a World Class gold deposit? Apparently one with over 3.2Moz of gold in it.


World class base and precious metal deposits; a quantitative analysis

Donald A. Singer
U. S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA, United States
Over 62 percent of the 193,000 metric tons of gold discovered to date is located in four countries and more than 68 percent occurs in four types of mineral deposits. About 55 percent ofthe 1,740,000 metric tons of silver found is in four countries and 45 percent is in four types of deposits. Fifty-six percent of the 1.52 billion metric tons of discovered copper is from four countries and four types of deposits contain 88 percent of the total. Over 50 percent of both the 713,000,000 metric tons of zinc and 349,000,000 metric tons of lead discovered to date come from four countries and 70 percent of both metals occur in four types of deposits. All discovered gold would fit in a cube with a height of 22 m, silver in a 55-m cube, copper in a 550-m cube, zinc in a 460-m cube, and lead in a 310-m cube. At least 74 percent of gold, silver, zinc, and lead is in deposits having average grades above the respective median grades and 44 percent of copper is in deposits with average grades above the median grade of all deposits. Lower grade deposits contain less total metal than higher grade deposits. Tonnage of mineralized rock is an even better predictor of contained metal with over 96 percent of each metal's total residing in deposits having greater than median size and between 47 and 79 percent of metal contained in the largest 10 percent of deposits. World class deposits, defined as the upper 10 percent of deposits in terms of contained metal, account for over 86 percent of all gold, 79 percent of silver, 84 percent of copper, 71 percent of zinc, and 73 percent of lead. These giant deposits contain at least 100 metric tons (3.2 Moz) gold, 2,400 metric tons (77 Moz) silver, 2 million metric tons copper, 1.7 million metric tons zinc, or 1 million metric tons lead. Mineral deposits occur rarely in the earth's crust and large ones are especially uncommon. This analysis shows that only the unusually large deposits can significantly affect supply.

If WKP proves to meet the minimum standard of World Class, GEL's 35% share is 1.12Moz, at say US$150 in-ground value per ounce on a bad day, it's about US$168 Million (that's a lot higher than current MCap), and they have many other permits.

Last bit of research for today: Loeb Aron's site is still inscrutable. But Vicarage Capital (Europe) wrote up something on Glass Earth in March 2011.

http://www.vicaragecapital.com/images/stories/monthly_mar11/VCL%20monthly%20news%20Glass%20Earth.pdf

At this stage Serpentine is still mentioned. Note nil mention in the detailed September report, so maybe the drills didn't hit much down there. However, there is some detail on Game Hen and Hindon, big area and big rock chip grades. Placer Gold International might have fronted up with $1.5 million to help with the placer sites.
Game Hen and Sparrowhawk appear to be the most promising Otago hard rock sites at the moment.

Value of gold in ground for junior miners: a recent article will help. P&P resources are the highest priced by far, which require lots of drilling.
http://www.munknee.com/2011/07/how-to-value-a-junior-miners-gold-in-the-ground/

[elZorro]

That's a lot better for holders: over half of the funds are already committed in the first tranche. That is one huge vote of confidence in how the next year is shaping up for GEL.

http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=482055

[elZorro]

WKP30. Anyone following Glass Earth over the last few weeks must be fairly interested in WKP generally, but WKP30 is a drill that was completed by late August 2011, 720 metres long and following a strong resistor below drill hole WKP29. From the latest presentation, here is a rough map of the location southwest of the earlier exploration work. No doubt these drill cores are being assayed in Waihi nearby, and as I mentioned in another post, this shouldn't take too long.

If you look at the list of results on that page, the general trend has been one of increasing grades. I would think that a drill hole designed to follow the resistor (rather than pass through it) will bring back terrific data. Already there are intersections in other holes that are bonanza grades, up to 3oz per tonne. And this is a BIG prospect, with another pocket to the North and Southwest crying out for exploration too.

Late August: WKP30 is "pending"

September Presentation: WKP30 is "imminent"

Small wonder the first tranche has been filled already. But even the small guys like me, might be able to get to multi-bagger status..

[elZorro]

WKP's importance to Glass Earth depends on the interest of Newmont, the joint partner. While Newmont is attempting to arrange the extension of mining activities near Martha Hill so operations can continue until 2020, there is some rising local opposition http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1109/S00216/waihi-residents-receive-no-answers-on-extension-of-mining.htm

The existing Waihi milling infrastructure, fed by some local ore and perhaps a lot more concentrated ore from a place like WKP, must be appealing. There are no locals at WKP, I wouldn't think there is much special biodiversity that is not already well established elsewhere. In fact the whole place is probably riddled with rats, possums, and mustelids, killing off most of the chicks of any native birds that try and nest in the bush there. Existing income from the regenerating bushland in the area: nil (maybe carbon credits). It might have some benefits for trampers and a few deer/pig hunters, that's about it.

If Newmont opened up a road into WKP to gain access, clobbered all the pests in the area to allow native species to thrive, and built a tidy opencast/underground mine, 700 jobs would remain in Waihi, govt coffers would be benefited, and tourists and trampers could get there and have a better experience. Who is missing out? Land area needed is minimal, try looking for the nearby Golden Cross mine on a satellite photo. Just a small spot in the bush.

I can't have a good look at the WKP permit, as the NZPAM website is still mostly down, after a huge crash. But remember this press release from July 19:
http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=467655

At that stage, WKP28,29,30 assays were due soon. As it turned out, just 28 and 29 were released in late August, WKP30 (drilled from the same site as WKP29) is now imminent, and we're into October. So it shouldn't be a long wait.

Looks like an easy half-day return walk into the WKP area. Maybe I should give it a go. Are you keen Vtrader?

http://www.aatravel.co.nz/about-newzealand/editorial.php?pagename=coromandel-region-details

[Canstock]

Why do you think the share price in Canada has dropped so fast? In prior months, a quick run up in the price was soon followed with a good press release. I am wondering if some results are coming back flat, and it is insiders unloading. Or maybe it is potential PP investors trying to get the PP price lowered. What are your thoughts?

BTW, thanks for all your updates. I check this site at least twice a day, in anticipation of your posts. Keep up the good work, it is very much appreciated!

[bermuda]

El Zorro,
I got some of these ( not nearly enough ) on the advice of you and a mate who is actually turning out to be a bit of a Guru. I had a chat to him in the weekend. Everything is still on tract for this baby to fire. Thanks for all your input.

[elZorro]

Thanks guys, nice to see some other names pop up. I think the TSX price drop (mostly on low volume) just reflects a lack of news, and traders moving on after a few days. Unfortunately with just one or two rigs going, the drilling assays are a bit too spaced out. Maybe WKP30 is being bundled with the next drill result. In any case, if you want some bargain shares in GEL, they usually appear on the TSX, it's just more volatile than the NZAX. But there's no denying that Glass Earth is building up a momentum, and junior explorers that move up to the next step are generally multi-baggers. So I'm not too worried at the moment, and I'm holding plenty.

[elZorro]

The NZPAM website is now back up and running. Here is a link to the mineral section of the site, for existing permits. http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/online-services/current-permits/banner_template/CMINPSCURR If you supply the number 40598 as a permit number, all of the detail on the permit for the land including the WKP site will come up, in the document.

This reveals that the original site was bigger and started with a term of 5 years, issued to HPD NZ in 2003, and GEL took that over and soon formed a joint venture with Newmont, for 40598 plus other permits. The term has been increased for another 5 years, ending in May 2013, and two extensions of land have recovered most of the space HPD started with. It also confirms most of the land is on the NZ conservation estate, but that is not unusual, and there isn't much else you can do with rugged areas that have probably had all the good timber milled out in earlier years.

Newmont/GEL have just passed the 96 month stage, so had to produce data to NZPAM from 1,000 mtrs of drilling. Maybe they've just made that timeline. Within the next two years, they have to do another 2,000 metres, if I read it correctly. Also a scoping assessment etc. On the earlier maps, Waihi Town is closer than I thought. Resistance to mining under the town might speed things up at WKP.

[elZorro]

September 26, 2011
GLASS EARTH CLOSES FIRST TRANCHE OF $5 MILLION PLACEMENT



Glass Earth Gold Limited (
TSXV-GEL; NZAX-GEL) ("Glass Earth") today announces that it has closed the first tranche of its previously announced non-brokered Private Placement. A total of 4,717,184 Units have been sold at a price of $0.55 per unit for gross proceeds of C$2,594,451.
Each Unit consists of one common share and one half of a common share purchase Warrant. Each whole Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one common share at a price of C$0.80 per share, exercisable for a period of 24 months from the date of issuance.All securities issued pursuant to the private placement are subject to a hold period and may not be traded until January 27, 2012.The Company anticipates closing a further tranche shortly. The proceeds of this financing will be used for drilling, mineral exploration and general working capital purposes.

Yes, I thought that was right: just a few days ago a large investor(s) valued Glass Earth at C55c (NZ70c) a share within 4 months. Has anything material changed for Glass Earth since then? No.

Here's an excerpt from the June Media report from GEL's website:

Glass Earth employs a scientific, detail oriented, exploration strategy using the newest available technology, implemented by a carefully chosen exploration team in order to explore large prospective areas for big gold deposits. Large amounts of data were gathered in order to build a three dimensional model of their claim geology. Glass Earth was the first exploration company to use modern geophysics in New Zealand, completing a 37,000 line-mile survey covering all targeted areas.


The company also conducted ESCANs, a ground based, 3D resistivity survey method employing a grid of electrodes that provides precise information about the geology and mineralization below. They acquired a geochemical data base from Newmont Mining [NMC-TSX; NEM-NYSE] who conducted an extensive geochemical survey of the Otago region, on the South Island; Newmont withdrew from the area pending a sale of their Waihi Mine (circa 1995). Once all of the data was compiled, the company began the work of identifying and exploring the targets with the most potential.

I forgot about this, Glass Earth has old links with Newmont. Maybe exchanging Otago data with JV options for WKP are part of a sensible deal. Of course, improving gold prices meant Newmont stayed in Waihi.

Things are looking more positive on the TSX overnight, and Vicarage Capital published this a day or so ago:

http://www.vicaragecapital.com/reports/2011/oct/gel.pdf

[elZorro]

Both of Glass Earth's airborne scan datasets from CVR and Otago have been released to the public through NZPAM. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1110/S00209/airborne-geophysical-survey-data-sets-released.htm

Otago Regional Council added some extra funding for the Otago set, so they obtained the data earlier, and it was more detailed.

Anyway, GEL has moved to retain permits on many areas of interest, in advance of the full release. I would assume that more local ground proving data is not included.

[elZorro]

I've had a bit of a look at the separate NZPAM database of filed reports. http://data.nzpam.govt.nz/GOLD/system/mainframe.asp

You can search the mineral report section for Operator "Glass" or author "Henderson" to pick up some reports in a list, but I couldn't get any to view, as they timed out on broadband. However it would appear that the reports don't contain data on any area that the operator is holding as an EP. That can be withheld until/if the permit is relinquished no doubt. Simon Henderson has reports going back to 1977 at least, so he's no bunny.

[elZorro]

Here's a short video presentation on Stockhouse, from Simon Henderson. I hadn't seen him speak before. He does say that Glass Earth would like to be involved in the development of WKP (presumably with Newmont).


http://www.stockhouse.com/InvestorRelationship/VideoDetails.aspx?s=V.GEL

The Stockhouse site is being reworked over the next few days.

[elZorro]

There has been some renewed interest in GEL over in NZ over the last two days. The TSX and NZ prices are well matched, and there will have to be a third quarter report coming out before the end of November, along with management analysis of some sort. I get the impression that head office is very busy with something, but what?

GEL sits at CAN 54c now, near the cost of the new shares that are to be issued. As the tranche was closed early, not as much dilution will occur.

[elZorro]

I can't remember posting or seeing this article from December last year. http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/news/2010/newmont-active-in-waihi-region-gold-exploration?searchterm=glass earth 2011

Newmont is rather secretive and low-key about new exploration. Glen Grindlay is mentioning that standalone exploration areas need to have a potential of 2-3 Moz of gold. If you total up all the areas they have left very near Waihi, it's not great. The WKP joint venture is surely a good medium term bet, and GEL has mentioned the figure of a possible 3-5Moz before, regarding the WKP area. So here we are, waiting for the imminent news on assays from drill WKP30. We have not been told that more drills are going on at the moment, but it would be Newmont running those, maybe they have some other use for the few rigs that might be available. Access at WKP is not good either.

Glass Earth must produce a quarterly report before the end of the month. I have watched the website carefully, I can't see any new data going in there, can't see any action at NZPAM regarding permits, no news articles, so I'm just keeping a wary eye on the gold price. Looks like gold is about to move up again, which is good for the fortunes of Newmont. In turn, GEL should again do well in 2012. They have certainly done well this year.

[elZorro]

Australia's Peel wins gold exploration permits near Cromwell



Friday 4th November 2011







Perth-based junior gold explorer Peel Mining said it has been awarded two exploration permits covering the Rise and Shine gold project near Cromwell in Central Otago.
Peel said the permit area, which was the subject of a competitive permit allocation process by New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals, the government-owned manager of the Crown minerals estate, hosts multiple historic gold workings with historic production estimated at more than 180,000 ounces of gold.
It said the area appears to be structurally similar to the Macraes gold mine, which is owned by the publicly listed OceanaGold Corp. The Macraes mine is about 80 kilometres north of Dunedin and Peel said permit area is located in a similar position in the Otago Schist.
“Substantial amounts of exploration have previously been completed at Rise and Shine,” it said.
“However, the majority of work has been directed at historic workings sited at the base of the Rise and Shine Creek Valley. Peel believes that the Rise and Shine Shear Zone could possibly be 'flatter' than previously assumed, offering potential for large-tonnage, low-grade grade gold deposits extending up-dip from previously defined mineralisation.”
It said it plans to complete a program of drilling aimed at testing this.
“Peel was attracted to Rise and Shine because of its apparent similarities to Macraes” and it offers the company a potentially low-risk, high-return exploration scenario, said managing director Rob Tyson.
Peel reported a A$500,000 net loss for the year ended June 30, down from the previous year's A$700,000 loss. It had A$700,000 in cash at Sept. 30.
Peel shares are 0.5 cents higher at 14 Australian cents on the ASX, having risen from 7 cents this time last year and below their recent peak at 16.5 cents.
(BusinessDesk)
BusinessDesk.co.nz


The two permits are EP53088 and EP53111, cover over 3500 Ha. Of course GEL had an EP in this region, one was called Bendigo, EP40748. EP40771 was another. Press release in 2009:
(http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&tkr=GELGF:US&sid=ab.nXZjRNSFM)There has been a competitive tender for these latest permits with NZPAM.

[elZorro]

Glass Earth have updated the website, the current work page (http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/CurrentWork.asp). Looks like, for the first time in a few years, we can see a list of the permits the company has on the go. This will be useful. Each one links back to the NZPAM site for a map reference and details. GEL has a lot of permits, a lot of chances at a pot of gold.

WKP: there is some likelihood of a press release about WKP30 drill results, and they are making a decision on more drilling. So they're probably not currently drilling WKP.

[elZorro]

Here's a good writeup on the costs of setting up a new mine, by Ivan Lo of Equedia.

http://equedia.com/blog/view.php/Its-Not-That-Simple-Mining-101

Applying all of his comments to the WKP situation, Glass Earth could be onto a winner here. The mine would be fairly close to Newmont's Martha Mine in Waihi. If there is found to be 3-5Moz of gold in an open-cast situation, the profit from mining it could easily be $500 per ounce at current prices, so up to $2500 million of net profit. It won't take too many hundred million to set up the mine. The milling equipment and some infrastructure is already nearby, and becoming surplus to requirements.

Access to funding and nearby infrastructure would be the largest impediments to a new mine, so this must explain why GEL is targeting EPs near Oceanagold and Newmont. Management have a payout clause related to a mining setup, so there is a powerful incentive there, also. I'm not expecting the gold price to drop back anytime soon, in fact it looks like it'll be over $1800 soon. It's also a given that while gold may peak and drop back every so often, it always gets back to and exceeds the previous peaks eventually.

[elZorro]

Financial results for the third quarter (http://www.istockanalyst.com/business/news/5564806/glass-earth-gold-announces-financial-statements-and-management-s-discussion-analysis-for-the-third-quarter-ended-september-30-2011)were posted for Friday on the TSX. The result was no arrest in the slide in value over there. On the face of it, just another loss posted. But there is plenty to be hopeful about.

The loss was smaller than usual, and some exploration areas had to be expensed as they were let go. The placer or alluvial mining profited just $60,000 last quarter, meaning the ground at Gun Club is not too prospective. But GRU#1 is going to be at Drybread soon, and it's a whopper compared to the smaller plant they've been using.

They keep promising to show us the results from WKP30, it's a separate news release, expect that this week I'd think. Note that "more step out drilling is planned at WKP South", that's good news from Newmont. Also drilling is ongoing at Muirs, and the long-sleepy Ophir mine proposal gets a mention too.

GEL has plenty of cash in the bank for the moment, so let's hope GRU#1 keeps it stable, and in particular WKP results could add plenty of excitement in the months ahead.


Also spotted for the first time: GEL is running banner ads on the Stockhouse website, seem to come up if you look at OGC.

[elZorro]

Those banner ads mention some big GEL holders like Sprott Asset Management. When we say big, that is a comparative term, since the entire MCap of GEL is fairly small at the moment.

But I wonder if Sprott et al have been kept in the loop already over what happened with the drilling results at Serpentine, and what the WKP30 results were. Because this is surely now old news for insiders. Assays on core drills don't look to me to be very time intensive. If management and insiders are sitting on poor news from these drills, that's not quite cricket is it? And that's being polite. I have directly asked management about Serpentine results by email. No reply.

When are we going to get some proper information about Newmont's intentions over WKP in general? They have been hot and cold in the very few instances I have read in the media. National is back in, there was something in the media yesterday about Newmont looking at the Conservation Estate (http://www.odt.co.nz/source/apnz/188549/coromandel-residents-oppose-mining-survey)for mining sites. Well, WKP is on the Conservation estate I think. Not that we've ever been informed further about that.

Of course, Newmont poking around slightly inland from Thames, when the watchdogs have stated no mining north of Thames will be acceptable, is like a red rag to a bull. Hmm, maybe it'll make WKP look good by comparison.

Late today a new press release showing some lowish results from surface trenching at Muirs. However GEL own this site 100%, and it extends 650mtrs at least and could be quite deep. Some followup drills are planned.

http://tmx.quotemedia.com/article.php?newsid=46460371&qm_symbol=GEL

[elZorro]

Reading the news again, 17 diamond drill holes for 2500mtrs at Muirs, that should provide a lot of data. It's a few more holes than we've seen at WKP from Newmont. The access is probably a lot better.Comments from anyone else always appreciated...

[elZorro]

:)Released overnight for the TSX market: Newmont is drilling at WKP again.

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/glass-earth-gold-consolidates-new-discovery-wkp-south-commences-further-drilling-tsx-venture-gel-1593338.htm

The WKP30 results are finally revealed, not too exciting as we'd guessed. But 9mtrs at 1/10oz (3.5g/tonne) isn't all bad. Simon Henderson reveals that WKP South has a strike potential of at least 1,000 metres, that the latest drilling program is a substantial one for infill and expansion purposes, and that the host rock underneath is Andesite, another good sign. The WKP area is referred to as being very large.


Simon Henderson, President and CEO, commented that, "The WKP Project represents a substantial zone of very encouraging gold-silver mineralisation, with three major zones of gold/silver enrichment in a very large and fertile epithermal alteration system of significant dimensions."

There's no doubt GEL are stepping up their promotion, especially on Stockhouse. This press release has also gone out to a lot of mining broadsheets. WKP looks more and more like a site that would suit Newmont's equipment and plant really well. Who knows, maybe the press releases were put on hold until after the election. I would guess National being voted back in has been a favourable outcome.

Here's the latest map of the area (http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/gel_12_01_2011_fig.pdf), note that the area to the south of WKP South has an arrow indicating an expansion drilling direction. Will this be WKP South South?

A bit more interest being shown in the share today. Has to be better than HGD doesn't it?

More on the Muirs drilling program from NZResources today.


New round of drilling on Muirs Reef

Ross Louthean — 2 December 2011
A new round of drilling is being undertaken by Glass Earth Gold Ltd (NZAX & TSX-V: GEL) on the Muirs Reef prospect in the Hauraki goldfield to follow up earlier positive exploration.
Glass Earth fully owns Muirs Reef which is 65 kilometres south-east of the Martha gold mine at Waihi – owned by Newmont Waihi Gold – which has so far produced about 10 million ounces of gold and substantially more silver.
More than 43,000 ounces of gold were mined from the Muirs Reef area in the 1930s – from two reefs Muirs and Massey. Glass Earth Gold chief executive Simon Henderson said recent exploration had discovered significant gold near the historic mining areas.
“We are now drilling 17 more holes to further identify gold in the area,” Henderson said.
In 2007 initial exploration showed results in the 0.5-3 grams/ton gold range.
“This work demonstrated an exciting continuous gold prospect over 5,000 metres in length, surrounding the historic Muirs Reef gold deposit.”
“Work since then has indicated the potential for several major new veins and extensions of existing veins”
Drilling so far has found samples of up to 6 g/t in known veins up to 75m deep with surface trenching showing up to 33 g/t in the broadest vein.
“I am hopeful the latest drilling programme to be completed in early 2012 will confirm to international standards that we have a commercially viable gold resource.”
To expand and develop the prospect's zone of identified mineralisation, Glass Earth Gold's recent exploration focused on surface channel sampling. This programme outlined “significant” quartz veining, exhibiting multiple phases of gold deposition, across over 450 m of the prospect's south-west extension.
Earlier work by Glass Earth in the Muirs prospect includes geochemical sampling, multiple resistivity surveys, and diamond and RC drilling.

[elZorro]

Here's an information poster from GNS Science on epithermal gold in NZ. One map shows the largest mine, Newmont's Martha Hill, and nearby WKP (Wharekirauponga) being on the edge of an andesite area. No wonder GEL is pleased to find andesite under the drill sites for WKP. This is yet another marker when looking for a larger deposit.

http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/pdf-library/minerals/conferences-1/346_poster_08.pdf

It's interesting that Waihi is by far the largest Coromandel gold despoit at 6.5Moz so far, but the nearby Golden Cross (mined out and left tidily by Coeur Gold) yielded 1.2Moz for second place, and is 5km south of WKP.

[elZorro]

I reckon that A.B. Christie would be an interesting person to talk to regarding WKP. Here's another document that he's a co-author of, this time all about Wharekirauponga. The document is linked on the Glass Earth website, for good reason. Dated 2008 I think. http://glassearthgold.com/i/pdf/Christie_p137.pdf

Here's the Abstract and the Conclusion, there's a lot more detail in the rest of it.
Exploration of the Wharekirauponga Epithermal Au-Ag Deposit,Hauraki GoldfieldA B Christie1, S D C Rabone2, R G Barker3 and R J Merchant4

ABSTRACT The Wharekirauponga prospect, located about 10 km north of Waihi in the Hauraki Goldfield, is a rhyolite-hosted,adularia-sericite, epithermal Au-Ag deposit, with a 40Ar-39Ar age of 6.3 Ma measured on vein adularia. Exploration between 1978 and 1993 consisted of aeromagnetic surveys, ground-based geological and hydrothermal alteration mapping,rock chip and soil geochemical surveys, ground magnetic surveys, CSAMT and DC resistivity surveys, and the drilling of 5505 m in 23 diamond drill holes. An approximately 3 km × 2 km area of low relief negative aeromagnetic anomalies, attributed to hydrothermal alteration, encompasses a c 500 × 250 m zone of +0.1 ppm Au in rock chips, in turn containinga c 350 × 50 m zone of mineralisation outcropping in a gorge of Wharikirauponga Stream. The Au-Ag occur predominantly as electrum in sheeted to stockwork quartz veins and disseminated in hydrothermally altered rocks.Maximum assays of drill core are 89 ppm Au (with 52 ppm Ag) and 72 ppm Ag (with 9.0 ppm Au), but the mineralisation is generally low grade. XRD analysis of more than 300 surface and drill core samples show that in the rhyolite, quartz+adularia alteration associated with the quartz veining and Au-Ag mineralisation, grades outward to quartz+ illite alteration,and to interlayered illite/smectite and kaolinite + smectite alteration assemblages in flanking rhyolitic tuffs. Inferred formation temperatures for these alteration assemblages are supported by fluid inclusion Th and Tm determined in vein quartz, which suggest fluid temperatures between 180 and 250°C, with apparent salinities up to 1.2 eq wt per cent NaCl. Fluid inclusions and oxygen isotopic analyses suggest boiling. Exploration to date has outlined a low-grade resource, but has so far not defined any upflow zones of the former geothermal system where higher Au grades may occur. The strike extent of the prospect has not been fully defined and it remains open to both the NE and SW where it passes beneath younger cover rocks.

Keywords: Wharekirauponga, Hauraki Goldfield, T12, T13, epithermal deposit, gold, silver, rhyolite, exploration.

CONCLUSIONS

WKP has had much effort expended in exploration and research, particularly in the application of XRD and fluid inclusion analyses from exploration and research viewpoints. The prospect exhibits a variety of favourable features to encourage exploration: it is a large mineralised system, which hosts a significant quartz vein stockwork zone within quartz-adularia altered host rhyolite; locally the veins carry high-grade mineralisation albeit over narrow intervals. The system is open in two directions and not well tested where it occurs in basal andesite host rocks, which are typically better host rocks for epithermal vein style mineralisation in the Hauraki Goldfield. The fluid inclusion and wall rock alteration data suggest that polyphasal boiling has occurred within the system; however, major upflow conduits are yet to be discovered. Although there isisotopic evidence of fluid mixing, specific mixing zones, also prime targets for gold mineralisation, have not been identified. The strongest mineralisation and vein development intersected to date is in the south of the gorge section (in DDHs 20 and 23). Low amplitude-long wavelength magnetic anomalies are extensivein this area, despite the presence of outcropping unaltered Whakamoehau Andesites. This suggests that Whakamoehau Andesite post-mineralisation cover here is thin and that alteration extends a considerable distance south of the gorge section. Significant exploration potential consequently exists in this direction beneath cover rocks (cf Golden Cross; Mauk andPurvis, this volume).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Rabone, Barker and Merchant were at various times part of theteams of exploration geologists that worked on WKP. Research by Christie was funded by the Foundation of Research, Science and Technology under contracts to the GNS Mineral Resources Programme managed by Ian Graham. Julia Vodanovich and Carolyn Hume drafted the diagrams and Pat Browne reviewed the manuscript.
REFERENCES

As this diagram (http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthread.php?4019-Glass-Earth-IPO&p=357817&viewfull=1#post357817)shows, Newmont has been using drill and GEL data to look in a Southwest direction at the moment. It looks like they have found one or more mixing zones with high gold content. There may be more yet, and WKP30 was probably designed to see if the gold levels increased as they went lower down, rather than just finding out if there was andesite present. For geologists and gold explorers, WKP must be a dream of a site. More work from Richard Barker (early 2010), helping to explain why the drilling is in the South direction: there are ecological reserves to the north.

http://www.med.govt.nz/upload/71519/Assessment-of-the-Otahu-Ecological-Area.pdf

Areas near here are highly prospective (see map), and up until early 2010 a good find at WKP hadn't occurred. This picture is changing rapidly.

GEL has permits over quite a bit of the red-coloured areas shown in R Barker's figure 4.

[elZorro]

Here's a 2 month-old post from Vicarage Capital (UK), that I missed (Oops, no I didn't, I just didn't read it properly). There is a December 1st (http://www.vicaragecapital.com/reports/2011/dec/gel.pdf)update, with no. of shares issued now being more correct. There seems to be some very interesting new data inside the short note, that is not available anywhere else. http://www.vicaragecapital.com/reports/2011/oct/gel.pdf -including this really massive find by Newmont (no true width dimensions but 44 metres at over 1oz per tonne) slightly north of GEL's claim at WKP. This might put the find close to the Otahu Ecological reserve. (http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/5040989/Activists-denounce-gold-search) The locals are restless. (http://www.goldfm.co.nz/general-news/2011/protesters-wave-red-flag-at-mining/)Google gives no further hints about this "reported find". It could even be just to the north of WKP West and still inside the NZPAM permit, or could be on EP40813, Glamorgan, still a JV between GEL and Newmont, although that technically expired in Sept 2011. It could also be a typo (but it's now a 2 month typo).



Waihi West JV (North Island):

JV with Newmont (65%). The property is located immediately to the south & west of Newmont’s 10Moz Au Martha open pit & underground mine, the JV is on strike with the associated Martha vein systems. The project itself is subject to a 2%NSR payable to Geoinformatics Exploration Inc. 2010 work by Newmont on the JV and their own assets has shown the presence of several high grade veins (NE-SW strike, near surface and underground).

On March

26th, 2010 Newmont started drilling an alteration zone 10km from the Martha mine (this is WKP); it has similar magnetic alteration characteristics to the Martha mine, a 900m strike, 150m width and believed 300m depth. Historic exploration(1980-90’s) included 150m @0.9g/t Au; 17.7m @ 4g/t Au; 32m @ 1.45g/t Au; & 1m @48g/t Au.
Recent Newmont drilling has reportedly included 44m @ 36g/t Au, just to the North of the GEL claim.



WKP West JV (North Island):

Following acquisition of these properties, GEL entered in to a JV with Newmont (65%);Newmont can earn a further 10% interest by funding a feasibility study. The project itself is subject to a 2% NSR payable to Geoinformatics Exploration Inc. Newmont is understood to have calculated a (non-compliant) internal resource estimate of 1.8Moz Au on this property. Recent results from the on-going diamond drill programme include178m @ 1.05g/t Au & 3g/t Ag; and 64m @ 2g/t Au & 2.6g/t Ag; 1.4m @ 30.7g/t Au and77.7g/t Ag within 152.4m @ 1.16g/t Au and 2.22g/t Ag, and most recently 49m @ 1.08g/tAu and 3.32g/t Ag. Drill hole DDH

WKP 29, drilled westward (previous holes were drilledeastward into the WKP West resistor) targeted a potentially new mineralised zone (WKPSouth) to the south-west, represented by a strong resistor, intersecting a zone of highgrade gold-silver mineralisation: 3.2m @ 37.0g/t Au and 17.0g/t Ag. The strong resistorextends 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 resistorfor a length of 720m. Aeromagnetic and CSAMT resistivity geophysical surveys indicate this new zone has a strike potential of at least a kilometre.


Just showing how volatile GEL is to news like this, have a look at the TSX market from early October (Vicarage report was 3 Oct). The shares rapidly climbed from about 33c to 52c or so (NZ 66c), before trailing back after 2-3 months of less impressive news and slow drill results. But more results from WKP work and GEL drills at Muirs should liven up the price again, early in 2012. If Newmont conservatively think WKP has at least 1.8Moz of gold, that is just below their trigger point of 2-3Moz for mining establishment (Glen Grindlay, earlier post). (http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/news/2010/newmont-active-in-waihi-region-gold-exploration?searchterm=glass earth 2011)So not far to go.

Newmont are interested enough in WKP to respond quickly to any poor PR. http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/6177257/Coromandel-protesters-in-standoff

[elZorro]

The Otahu ecological area or Parakawai reserve are mentioned as suitable habitat for Archeys' frog , both areas are at least 1km north of the WKP area. That doesn't mean there are any remnant frogs in either reserve. These are relatively small protected schedule 4 areas specially marked out of the conservation estate at the moment. There was a hue and a cry when the National Govt brought up the idea of removing the protection in 2010. (http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/publications/media-releases/forest-bird-reveals-government-mining-plans)


8. Otahu Ecological Area and Parakawai Geological Area

The 396 hectare Otahu Ecological Area ispart of the Coromandel Forest Park, located south-west of Whangamata. The 68 hectare Parakawai Geological Area (incorrectly described in Schedule 4 as the“Parakowhai Quarry Ecological Area”) is located nearby and is also part of the Coromandel Forest Park. These two areas are located within the formations that confine several significant gold deposits, including Te Aroha, Karangahake, Golden Cross,Wharekiraponga and Ohui.They are likely to have excellent potential for development of medium grade, medium tonnage, gold-silver vein deposits, which would become apparent with exploration and increased knowledge of the areas. It is estimated there is potential within the two areas for a million-ounce ore body, which would be worth approximately $1.5 billion at today’s prices.The Otahu Ecological Area comprises lowland to montane forest, including kauri, and ispart of the largely forested Otahu River catchment. This catchment drains to the Otahu Estuary. The Otahu Estuary and catchment is one of few areas remaining in the Coromandel that provides a reasonably intact natural sequence of habitat from the upper reaches of stream tributaries in the mountains to the marine habitats of the ocean. The Otahu Ecological Area provides valuable habitat for North Island brown kiwi, Hochstetter's and Archey's frogs, as well as native fisheries.The conservation values of the Parakawai Geological Area are similar to those of the surrounding conservation park land, which is not covered by Schedule 4. Distinctive geological features exposed by past quarrying are considered worthy of protection. The streams of this part of the park have high habitat values for threatened native freshwater species.
These two areas are proposed for removal from Schedule 4.


The Otahu reserve is not the site of the last vestiges of Archey's frog, they are well distributed right through the Coromandel (http://www.edgeofexistence.org/amphibians/species_info.php?id=546), and at least another spot in the King Country. However, one study found they were dying off to a large extent. This could be due to predators, a fungus that has affected some frog species, or just a general warming (less moist air about). Archey's frog needs moist ground litter to live in. An obvious site for a resurgence in their population would be the Maungatautari Ecological Reserve below Cambridge, which is fenced off and free of all mammals, except the odd mouse. A remnant population of Hochstetter's frog has already been found there. Both frog species are ancient relics of Gondwana, and are worthy of interest.

From DOC:

4.3 ARCHEY'S FROG Probably many thousands occur in total although precise information is lacking. Very locally in the central Coromandel, densities as high as 8 frog/m2 have been recorded (Bell 1994) cf. Hamilton's frog: up to 0.6 frogs/m2, and Maud Island frog: upto 1.3 frogs/ml (Newman 1990). The main threat is continued depletion and modification of habitats from exotic afforestation, farming, quarrying and mining activities. The impact of introduced mammals on

L. archeyi is not fully understood,though goats, cattle and pigs have a detrimental impact at some Coromandel sites(Bell 1985). At Whareorino predation has been recorded on "L. archeyi" by the introduced golden bell frog Litoria aurea, and by mammals, possibly rodents(Thurley & Bell 1994).


Here is the most definitive page on the two frogs (http://www.nzfrogs.org/Resources/Mining+and+Frogs.html) that I could find for now, and the two reserves are mentioned. Archey's frog is less well distributed than Hochstetter's, but it would appear that many parts of the Coromandel Peninsular offer better survivable (real) habitat for the frogs at the moment. In fact, it looks like the nearest known occurrence of Archey's frog is about 20km northwest of WKP.

The answer to all of this is obvious. Newmont/Glass Earth could easily become the champions of these frogs, and any other special flora and fauna near their mining interests, because there is no major funding (http://www.nzfrogs.org/NZ+Frogs/Save+the+frogs.html)going into conservation in specific areas. It is often done on a voluntary basis, although DOC staff must spend some time looking after these frogs too, but probably on an irregular pattern.

It would be my bet that rats, possums, stoats and other introduced predators would find these frogs an interesting meal. You only have to sit out in the bush or scrub at night-time for an hour to become aware just how nasty the rat population must be (especially if near waterways). It sounds like the frogs are difficult to breed in captivity, so perhaps getting a strong population going on Maungatautari (or any other fenced, protected reserve) would be a good place to start.

[elZorro]

Happy New Year everyone, I hope we all get a reward for holding GEL in 2012. Looks promising so far. The NZX and TSX prices are matched up, valuing GEL at just NZ$26mill at the moment. A good time to buy some.

Once all the rain stops and drilling work is resumed at WKP after the holiday break, we should see some more good news. From Vicarage Capital, the South Island prospects are not too bad either.


Game Hen (South Island):
90% interest in a mesothermal shear zone. E-W orientation, with strike length of 760m,
6km shear zone, with a separate 4.7km vein swarm at Hindon. Rock chip samples have
returned several results ~41g/t Au, with up to 71g/t Au at Hindon.
Placer Deposits (South Island):
GEL has a number of deposits, which produce 2,500oz/yeah Au. GEL purchased a 40t/d
float unit, which was refurbished in Q3 2009, and production begun in Q1 2010. With
recent investment of C$1.5M from placer specific investment group, GEL intends to
increase production from these placer deposits to 7,500oz/year Au in 2012. Recovery is
through gravity only, recovering ~3g/t.
Others:
There are numerous other small high grade vein projects located within the Otago
South Island area at various stages of development/exploration.

One of the interesting points here is that 3g/tonne recovered is not a bad grade at all, from alluvial deposits, if the figure is correct. The big GRU#1 (weight 40 tonne) can process up to 100 cubic metres of ore an hour, so yield is about 100 x1.5 tonne x 3g recovered /31 g/oz or about 15oz, so NZ$30,000 worth an hour. It's hard to tell what the operating costs might be, but you'd expect a good profit.

15oz x 2000 hours is 30,000 oz per year from GRU#1, and the GEL target for 2012 is 7,500oz. This would seem achievable, even with large downtime, as three units will be operating.

Note from 30/01/2012: When I queried the 3g/t recovery rate with Vicarage, they promptly removed reference to it from the December article. Other queried figures stayed the same.

[ynot]

what am i missing here? it currently trading at .40 a week ago it was .60c ?

[elZorro]

what am i missing here? it currently trading at .40 a week ago it was .60c ?

Hello ynot, keep watching GEL in 2012. Most of the shares are traded on the TSX venture exchange, and there is more optimism in NZ for this share at the moment than in Canada. The NZ shares have just been brought down to match the TSX, as they should be. However there is some old money holding GEL in Canada, notably Trapeze Asset Management and more personally, its principal. There is still a connection with SAS, St Andrews Gold. The share is valued well below the capital put in so far, and yet you can see the company is most likely on the verge of being involved in planning a new mine at WKP, with Newmont's superior resources near at hand.

I wouldn't be surprised if GEL becomes a multi-bagger, it has ramped up from a low once already, and has never been in a stronger position, as far as possible gold reserves on its multiple permits.

We just need a few more shares to trade here in NZ, to ensure the two exchange shareprices stay more matched up.

[elZorro]

Given that it takes a lot of capital to set up a new mine, it seems obvious that GEL's links with Newmont Mining are one of their biggest assets. NEM:US has a market cap of about 30billion US$, so it's 1,000 times the size of GEL's.

The list of permits on their website shows the JVs that GEL has at the moment.

(http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/CurrentWork.asp)Here's a timeline that is interesting:

March 2005: John Dow retires as Chairman and MD of Newmont Australia after 3 years in office. He had been with the firm since 1978. Well thought of in mining circles. One of his jobs was to oversee the Martha Mine in NZ.

April 2005: GEL announces JV with Newmont for permit 40767. This is a big block of land mostly under Waihi, right next door to the Martha mine, technically this expired in 2010, but no doubt being kept alive with an extension application.

2006: John Dow appointed to the board of Glass Earth http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/news/2006/29-march-2006-former-newmont-australia-head-john-dow-on-glass-earth-board?searchterm=glass-earth

28 Feb 2007: The WKP permit and others, JV with Newmont announced, 65% Newmont, 35% GEL. Newmont cover all exploration costs.

2008: John Dow appointed independent Chairman of Glass Earth Gold.

2010, 2011: GEL shares move up strongly, in patches, as new drills in the WKP area start to show real promise. GEL beefs up website and forges stronger promo links overseas.

2012: ??

[troyvdh]

Giday Mr Zorro...thanks again for your tireless work...have you entered the comp....?...I could probably guess some of your picks....cheers troy...

[elZorro]

Giday Mr Zorro...thanks again for your tireless work...have you entered the comp....?...I could probably guess some of your picks....cheers troy...

No problems Troy, I have to write this stuff down or I'd forget it anyway. Often I still forget it..
I see you've picked GEL too, I left it out in 2011 and that was a bad idea. Maybe we'll both get lucky with good drills and more intention from Newmont in 2012.

[karen1]

Hi eZ

Have sent you a PM, but your inbox is overcrowded!

[elZorro]

Hi Karen1, cleared some..

[elZorro]

In the Waikato Times this morning, sad news about Archey's Frog, it appears to be at the top of the list of small endangered amphibians. Worldwide. The ones they know about, anyway. Some tiny frogs have been discovered in PNG recently (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2085353/Worlds-smallest-frog-discovered-Papua-New-Guinea-measures-just-7mm.html), 7 and 9mm long as adults.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/6267717/Quest-to-make-rare-frogs-frisky

I'm not posting this to imply that WKP should never go ahead as a mine. Rather, a relatively small amount of profit or setup costs should go toward protection and research on local native frogs. This would be a win-win for all. How long will it be before Newmont or GEL seize the initiative and make a move for a bit of public goodwill?

More background (http://www.edgeofexistence.org/amphibians/top_100.php).

Although, if you read this carefully, Coromandel Watchdog (http://watchdog.org.nz/)are not saying that the Otahu Ecological Reserve contains any Archey's frogs at all. The peninsular has them alright, all known occurrences there are well north of WKP.

[Vtrader]

EZ,
GEL has got you out of the blocks well in the NZX2012 ST comp.
Go the POG.
must be also near time for a ST hamilton meeting...
V.

[elZorro]

EZ,
GEL has got you out of the blocks well in the NZX2012 ST comp.
Go the POG.
must be also near time for a ST hamilton meeting...
V.

Gidday there Vtrader, just finished half the lawns, and feeling fairly thirsty. But we need to plan these things.

First I'd like to thank the person who matched up the TSX and NZ market for GEL for a while. It wasn't me, by the way. Good timing though. But I'm looking at the bigger picture, GEL has a long way to go yet.

BTW, Vtrader's picks in the comp do not include GEL, that's after all my earbashing.. bitterly disappointed;). But 7 hardy souls think it's worth a punt, out of over 550 picks.

I do have a poor memory. But I remembered something that was in the 2006 Prospectus for GEL, when it listed on the NZAX. See page 40. Direct from my filing cabinet and typed in, because it would appear that Google and the new Glass Earth website have no recollection of this:


Mr Henderson's contract provides that:

a) Up to 24 months base salary compensation may be payable upon the occurrence of certain restructuring and change of control events or should his employment be terminated without just cause; and

b) A success fee of 2% of the value of Glass Earth's retained equity in any mine/resource put into production (up to a maximum of NZ$2 million per discovery) may be payable.

Mr Liddle's employment contract is similar but has compensation limited to 12 months and no success fee.

Let's say WKP goes ahead, and GEL keeps 35% of a 2Moz resource, valued at conservatively US$200 per ounce in the ground. That's worth $140mill to the company (which would imply Glass Earth shares should be worth at least C$2.50 each at that point, a 10-bagger from today's price) , and the maximum amount of $2mill success fee would be triggered. Muirs is also sitting there, plus whatever Otago may produce.

I think this is a pretty sensible encouragement for key personnel in the company, and it certainly didn't deter me from investing, quite the opposite.

Updates to the permit list on the Glass Earth website were made today, 18th January. These older permits are dropped: 40717, 40765 (expired).
Extended for another five years with reduced area: 40770 and 40739. Atiamuri (Waikato) and Hindon/Game Hen (Otago).

The CHFIR promo website has been updated. (http://www.chfir.com/mining/GEL)The data for GEL is just as out-of-date however.

[elZorro]

More data on the WKP joint venture with Newmont:Here's a radio interview with Sefton Darby (PR for Newmont) on Gold FM (http://www.goldfm.co.nz/general-news/2011/we-re-not-drilling-in-schedule-4-land-full-stop-audio/). It would appear that Rosemary Segedin is not aware that mining and prospecting for minerals and resources is a big part of the reason for humanity lifting itself above cave-dwelling over the recent centuries. Carefully worded protest notes to garner signatures imply Archey's frog is nearby (it most likely isn't), the bush in the area is virgin native forest (it isn't, looks like regenerating bush), there are no pests to wreak havoc on any native animals that are still there (imported animals like possums, rats, mice, stoats will be all over the place) and that Newmont are drilling with abandon without controls (they're not).This is purely an anti-mining protest, but the facts are: Newmont are working on the fringes of an already briefly mined area, and are close to an ecological reserve, but working well within the rules.


Coromandel protesters in standoff MATT BOWEN, Last updated 13:13 22/12/2011
A standoff between mining giant Newmont and environmentalists unfolded in the Coromandel bush yesterday. Nine members of Earthwatch Whangamata hiked two hours up the Parakiwai valley with the aim of stopping work on an exploratory drilling rig. But when they arrived the operation was being dismantled for the holidays. Spokeswoman Rosemary Segedin said they still plastered stickers on equipment and took photos with banners which halted work. "Then the public relations guy got flown in all the way from Waihi – we did not expect that." The group released a press release in conjunction with Coromandel Watchdog which said, "Protesters send miners home for Christmas". It said the area had high ecological and recreational values and was home to the endangered Archey's frog. "The thousands of summer tourists are on their way, showing the real value of the Coromandel is in sustainable tourism." It also urged businesses and the Government to leave the Coromandel free from mining.
Newmont Waihi Gold external affairs manager Sefton Darby said the media release contained numerous factual errors. "The primary one being them claiming they've sent us home. "They say it's a great threat to endangered frogs. [The Department of Conservation] requires us to hire a scientist of their choosing to do a pre-site survey so we don't end up camping on endangered frogs – in the past they have denied us the site we want and told us to go elsewhere." Mr Darby asked if mining was so bad for tourism then why did 50,000 people visit Waihi every year? "For the Coromandel to be free of mining would require us to sack 700 people, stop spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on local suppliers, not pay tax to government and to not spend the last 15 years supporting DOC's dotterel programme." Mr Darby said the company would continue drilling in the Parakiwai permit area over DOC land next year. Newmont had six exploration permits on the Coromandel area and a "big" prospecting permit application for the northeast was being processed. - © Fairfax NZ News

What I'm taking from this is that Newmont are very interested in the area around Parakiwai, and to the Northeast. They'll have a good look at GEL's joint permits (which they already own the majority of), and hedge the bet with their own permits. But unlike Glass Earth, who have scarce cash to spread around multiple permits, Newmont are already set up, and will be ready to go with a mining proposal once they've delineated enough to work with. Of course, that will result in a bonanza for the Glass Earth shareprice, not so much for Newmont.

I'm not sure what the umbrella group Coromandel Watchdog are doing way down at WKP.. Any land north of Whiritoa seems to be in the Thames Coromandel district council area, while lower than that, it's the Hauraki District Council's province.

[elZorro]

I emailed Vicarage Capital about their Glass Earth data because it's pertinent to the share price. This has resulted in one interesting change to the December writeup on Glass Earth. Reference to 3g/tonne recovery on the placer areas in Otago is gone. I did think that was a bit hopeful. It's probably more like 1g/tonne. But it looks like the non-compliant estimate of 1.8Moz at WKP by Newmont is correct though, that's good news.

Additionally, this really impressive line is left, that's a real puzzle - Recent Newmont drilling has reportedly included 44m @ 36g/t Au, just to the North of the GEL claim.

The discussion above this relates to WKP. However GEL and Newmont have permit 40813 just above the WKP area. I think the Otahu area will be partly inside the same permit as WKP. Waihi Gold (Newmont) also have permits 51041 (East of Onemana) and 52804, Broken Hills. Both of these are North of 40813, but several km away.

Notably, Renison Consolidated Mining (RSN:ASX) were recently granted two big permits, no. 53464, which is around permit 40813 and lower, and 53469, stretching from 40767 -GEL's beside Martha Mine, to the Golden Cross mine 5 km away. on 19th December 2011. Here is their press release on filing the application in 2011. (http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20110502/pdf/41yd85xfvj9ng2.pdf) (RSN is a penny dreadful at the moment, trading at 0.1c, had been as high as 14c 5 years ago. Mcap now $3mill, cash on hand in Sept 2011 $6,000 only). These are their only two permits in NZ.

Most of the area nearby is taken up by gold exploration permits.

So without any further information, it looks like one recent drill by Newmont (recent in 2010?) has hit 44 metres of 1 oz per ton mother lode. Glass Earth management know about it, but it's not on a JV area perhaps?


(From Vicarage Capital)

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
The statements you have highlighted in the recent monthly note issued by VCL were all sourced from statements & presentations made by GEL management at or following the initial meeting held in March 2010.
As stated in the disclaimer at end of the report, we strive to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible, however & I am grateful that you have brought these points to my attention as certain aspects of that stated should have been phrased differently & will be rectified forthwith.
I trust this answers your questions.
Regards
Will


Will King

Vicarage Capital Limited


Here's the earliest post I could find about GEL from Vicarage Capital, a report out on 5th Jan 2011. The same facts are already mentioned, so the news is at least 12 months old. http://www.vicaragecapital.com/images/stories/monthly_dec10/VCL monthly news Glass Earth.pdf

This means that the 1.8Moz estimated resource was in place before the more recent drilling in 2011, which discovered WKP South. It's almost certainly over 2Moz of estimated resource now. If Vicarage are uncertain about the permit boundaries, it's possible that slightly 'north of WKP' is where Newmont are drilling now, just below the Otahu area, well inside the lower JV permit.

Here's a map that finally puts the two areas together, provided by Coromandel Watchdog. http://watchdog.org.nz/press-releases/waihi-gold-co-targets-open-pit-mine-in-coromandel-park/

This shows that most of the Otahu schedule 4 protected area is inside the lower part of permit 40813.

[elZorro]

Here's the interview with Rosemary Segedin on Gold FM, (http://www.goldfm.co.nz/general-news/2011/drill-rig-packing-up-as-protestors-arrive-audio/)describing what was happening at WKP just before Christmas. The drilling rig is helicoptered in with staff. It would seem that after a previous 3 month stint in the area or site (WKP29/30 South?), Newmont spent another three weeks at the same drill site, so were keen or "quite serious" about something. The rig was in the process of being removed. I guess we have to wait for the drill results, and most likely exploratory drilling has restarted on another site(s) in 2012. Ms Segedin was careful with the words she used (OK, so was Mr Darby later in the day), but there was an implication Archey's frogs live nearby, probably untrue. Perhaps the habitat there would suit them, but then so would a lot of habitats in NZ bush, if there were no introduced pests. Is the bush pristine there? Unlikely, the big timber would have been logged years ago, and possums will be working on what's left. Also no figures were provided on the number of people who use the walks in the area at the moment, and how much they pay for the priviledge. Two hours walk in, two hours out, I'd say not many, and that's for free.Looks like there are more clues in the Dec 1st 2011 press release from GEL: Regarding WKP (South). (http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=494104)
A substantial infill/expansion drill programme is planned; drilling to establish constraints of depth, continuity to the south, and mineralised structures in the andesite has commenced.The existing site that allowed WKP29 and WKP30 drillholes has probably been used again for more infill data, and the rig will be somewhere else nearby at the moment.

A.B Christie has been involved in this NZPAM report about NZ's epithermal gold deposits (http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/pdf-library/minerals/conferences-1/346_poster_08.pdf), often hosted in andesitic rocks.


Coromandel Volcanic Zone and Hauraki Goldfield
Some 50 separate epithermal Au-Ag deposits are associated with Miocene-Pliocene calc-alkaline volcanic rocks of the Coromandel Volcanic Zone in a 200-km long by 40-km wide metallogenic belt that constitutes the Hauraki Goldfield (Brathwaite & Piranjo, 1993; Brathwaite et al., 1989, Fig. 1B). The Hauraki Goldfield has a recorded (1862-present) production of more than 380 t of gold and 1300 t of silver, mostly from deposits hosted by andesite and dacite, although a few veins in rhyolite and basement greywacke were also worked. The Waihi (Martha Hill) deposit is by far the largest, with total gold production to date of about 202 t (6.5 M oz), ranking it as world class deposit. Major production also came from Golden Cross (37.1 t Au), Karangahake (29.4 t Au) and the Thames field (21.8 t Au). The Au-Ag mineralisation occurs predominantly in quartz veins along tectonically-controlled fault-fracture systems, which are parallel with the main regional fault trends. The quartz veins dip at steep to moderate angles and are typically 0.3-5.0 m wide, 200-1600 m long, and have depth extents of 170-300 m. A few larger veins display a greater depth range (400-700 m) as at Waihi and Karangahake. Stockwork quartz veins are present in some deposits (e.g. Golden Cross). The quartz veins are surrounded by extensive zones of propylitic and clay alteration characterised by chlorite, calcite, illite, smectite and pyrite as hydrothermal minerals. Higher rank alteration with strong silicification plus adularia and/or illite borders the quartz veins.

[elZorro]

The EP40598 permit contains WKP, and this EP will reach its 10 year extended period in May 2013. Form 7 is used to extend permits, and here are the rules:


3. Applications to extend the duration of a permit must be made while the permit is still in force (prior to expiry). A permit that is the subject of an

application for an extension of duration under section 36 or section 37 of the Act continues in force until the Minister determines the application.

4. The duration of a prospecting permit may be extended for a period not exceeding 4 years from the commencement date of the permit. The duration of an exploration permit may be extended under section 37(1) of the Act for a period not exceeding 10 years from the commencement date of the permit (exploration permits may be extended beyond this period to appraise a discovery under section 37(2), such applications can be made using form 8).The duration of a mining permit may be extended for such a period as the Minister considers reasonable to enable the permit holder to economically deplete the discovery.

5. Applications to extend the duration of an exploration permit under section 37(1) of the Act must be made over an unbroken area of land not exceeding one-half of the area comprised in the permit.

6. For prospecting permits this figure should be stated in square kilometres. For exploration and mining permits it should be stated in hectares.

UNDER SECTION 36 or 37(1),

CROWN MINERALS ACT 1991

MINER ALS & CO AL
Form 8 (discovery appraisal extension) from NZPAM contains these notes:



3. Appraisal Extensions will only be granted where the permit holder has made a discovery (refer to the Act and relevant minerals programme for moreinformation on the meaning of “discovery”), the remaining duration of the permit is insufficient to carry out the appraisal work for the discovery, the permit holder is not entitled to extend the duration of the permit under section 37(1) of the Act for a period sufficient to carry out the appraisal work for the discovery or for all land to which the discovery relates, the Minister is satisfied that reasonable efforts are being made to carry out the appraisal and that the proposed work programme is sufficient to carry out the appraisal work (refer section 37(2) of the Act).

4. Applications for Appraisal Extensions must be made while the permit is still in force (prior to expiry). A permit that is the subject of an application for an Appraisal Extension continues in force until the Minister determines the application.

5. The Minister’s general approach will be to not grant an Appraisal Extension beyond four years.

6. Appraisal Extensions are restricted to that land comprised in the permit to which the Minister determines it is likely that the discovery relates and is necessary to reasonably appraise the discovery and enable subsequent mining operations.

UNDER SECTION 37(2),CROWN MINERALS ACT 1991







Where am I going with this? Permit 40598 has conditions for progress reports to NZPAM (http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/services-drm-web/RetrieveDocumentServlet.svt?documentId=244E0C25CEC 956A3D686C5970E40ADCE&p_access_no=62FFDF24015FC41F085E5AE2FB8B4159), but no mention of a mine feasibility study in the last year, 2013. Glass Earth has a discovery appraisal extension on Muirs, permit EP40667, (http://data.nzpam.govt.nz/PermitWebMaps/StaticReport.aspx?permit=40667) but in that case it ends in 9 years, late 2013, as they only had one 5 year term to start with. It looks to me like Newmont/Glass Earth will apply for a discovery appraisal extension for the WKP area in 2013. That would give them until 2017 to think about a mining proposal. While this means that the road to big riches for GEL holders might be a bit longer than I hoped, it's also probable that GEL will have to make a move on applying for a mining permit at Muirs in 2013. They own that permit 100%. Newmont have the closest large scale equipment suitable to mine it, so a farm-in with them could be on the cards.

I'll say it again, I wish I had a time machine.

Newmont Waihi Gold (NWG) had this to say in a 2010 submission: (http://www.marthamine.co.nz/assets/Schedule-4-Submission-FINAL-MAY-18-2010.pdf)


It seems reasonable to assume that a mining proposal with high mineral potential on land identified as having
only low conservation/stewardship values will have a greater chance of obtaining the necessary resource
consents than the corollary. Therefore, exploration efforts will likely target land having low or lesser
conservation values.
NWG has publicly stated its strategy for targeting high grade deposits suitable for mining by underground
methods with transit of ore to its existing mill in Waihi. This means no open pit and no tailings disposal on the
Peninsula. The transport of ore will of course require careful consideration.
NWG suggests the development of protocols for an engagement process that brings interested parties
together at identified low conservation – high mineral potential localities. This engagement process should be
led both nationally (eg Land and Water Forum) and at the local levels.
The process should provide a communicative and educative function to the wider community regarding
modern mining practices, environmental regulations, bonding, site rehabilitation, insurance, safety and public
access.
As noted above, the resolution of the Ministry of Economic Development and New Zealand Minerals Industry
Association appeals on the proposed Thames Coromandel District Plan by consent order, including
agreement as to areas of the District where surface mining is prohibited is proof that the industry can work
with conservation groups.


More detail from them on exploration drilling procedures and public access. (http://www.anotherview.co.nz/text/exploration101.html)

[elZorro]

The NZPAM site shows some recent applications granted: Glass Earth has dropped permit EP40818, around the Karangahake Gorge area.

More interesting: Waihi Gold Company (Newmont) has been approved to hold prospecting permit PP53325 for two years. This wraps around the seaside holiday destination of Whitianga, further up the Coromandel Peninsular. Brave step that -'just looking thanks'. Isn't there a private kiwi recovery programme up there? But this must be the peninsular area Newmont have been hinting at.

The other map shows the extent of mineral permits around the area north of Waihi -all ground taken-, while across to the other side are coal and gravel permits around Huntly.

Just out on the TSX, a press release from GEL: the first assay from Muirs is out, the latest batch of diamond drilling. (http://tmx.quotemedia.com/article.php?newsid=47872088&qm_symbol=GEL) Some gold was as shallow as 5-7 metres down. The grade is generally low (good enough for opencast?), but patches of 1oz/tonne have also been found at shallow depths. I think this area is in a small valley, it's rolling to steep country with pasture and low bush on the site, but nearby are kiwifruit orchards, closer to Te Puke. At least the site is not right beside a township, like the Martha Mine, and there is a passable road to it. See earlier posts with a satellite map etc.

(http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthread.php?4019-Glass-Earth-IPO&p=351869&viewfull=1#post351869)A drive down No.4 Road, out the back of Te Puke, will take you to the drill area.

Here are the two image files from the news release: an out-of-date total permit map (http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/ged12F1.pdf), and the Muirs satellite detail (http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/ged12F2.pdf).

TSX shares went up nearly 16% to CAD 29.5c, but someone quite big has been selling for a few days over there, looks like they've finished for the moment.

Also in the press release:


In the Otago Region - The drilling of highly ranked Hindon and Game Hen gold targets has commenced.

Now that could also be great news soon, let's hope it's not like Serpentine, where we have never been informed what happened there.

Good news (or maybe bad news) for HGD holders: the NZPAM overall map for permits near the Talisman mine clearly shows a brown area that is newly released GEL permits. Either not too prospective, or GEL decided to put its resources elsewhere perhaps.

[elZorro]

You know what? I hate loose ends. That's why I'm quite pleased that, finally, some drilling is going on at Game Hen in Otago (http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthread.php?4019-Glass-Earth-IPO&p=355814&viewfull=1#post355814). It's all in the latest news release.

Here's another timeline. We shareholders have to be patient, that's for sure.


1st April 2008 (NZPAM article)
Similar ground mapping and soil/rock chip sampling is being carried out over the Gold and Pine targets (adjacent to the historic Gabriel's Gully site of the original gold discovery in Otago which began the 1860s gold rush) and Game Hen (adjacent to historic Hindon Gold workings) where targets are being prioritised by the coincidence of magnetic/EM identified shears, and surface gold anomalism.

August 22 2008
The drill rig will move to Game Hen (Hindon, central Otago) following the Sheep Wash drilling, where in-situ rock chips from Glass Earth mapping returned grab rock chip assays up to 44gm/t gold. Drilling of the Serpentine prospect is anticipated to follow this programme as spring clears access to this area.


May 2010:
Serpentine (GEG 90%)
A 12 hole program is planned to test a 12 km long shear zone, in a 1.5 km zone with gold in soils up to 1500ppb Gold, and rock chips ranging from 2 -- 30 g/t gold.

Game Hen / Hindon (GEG 90%)
A 12 hole program is scheduled to test a 12 m wide quartz shear, and co-incident carbonaceous shear, with individual rock chips in the 7-40 g/t gold range.


July 7 2011:
Otago Region –Field programmes to support the drilling of highly ranked Game Hen gold target is underway.

Jan 26th 2012:
The drilling of highly ranked Hindon and Game Hen gold targets has commenced.

[troyvdh]

...you are a gem...no doubt...keep it up...cheers troy....may karma prevail...

[elZorro]

...you are a gem...no doubt...keep it up...cheers troy....may karma prevail...Thanks Troy, I'm a great believer in Karma. Generally the harder you work, the luckier you get :)

I've been thinking that until the TSX price matches up with NZ again, it might be a good time to buy some more GEL, but over on their exchange. What is a fair price to pay for this undoubtedly speculative share? I have totalled up some optimistic valuations already, but the gold-in-ground is only based on crude estimates, and in some cases, on hope. Plus, it's not that close to being mined yet. The current massive jump in US$gold on the back of a slumping US$ gives some cause for optimism in gold shares in general. There is no doubt that should GEL manage to interest a JV or farm-in partner to run a mine operation, it will become a multi-bagger. I don't follow many junior explorers, but it seems to me that GEL has a good chance of getting to this stage, because they have plenty of options and permits.

Back to the current price. 3-4 years ago Herbert Abramson, Chairman of the executive committee of St Andrews Gold, Canada (TSX:SAS) purchased for himself as an investment (from SAS), 9.4mill GEL shares for CAN 11c. After the 1 for 5 share consolidation he would have had 1.88million shares, each costing CAN 55c . SAS was partially divesting itself of non-core investments, and GEL was one of those. Herbert Abramson is also Chairman of Trapeze Asset Management, a firm that includes two other family members, according to their website. They invest for institutions and high net worth individuals, and are keen on small-cap shares. Their last report: (Note SAS is a recommendation).

(http://www.trapezeasset.com/tiny_mce/plugins/filemanager/pics_cms/27/27/TAMI_Q4_2011.pdf)As at January 2010, Herbert Abramson still held 13.66% of GEL, but there has been little mention of the largest single shareholder since. The last capital raising for new shares (just a few months ago) was coincidentally at CAN 55c, and over 2million shares were sold last week for CAN 25c. This points to the speculative nature of holding shares in GEL. But in just the few years since 2006, some will have made multi-bagger returns with GEL, if they had their timing right. At about CAN 55c, the Mcap for GEL would reflect the capital that has gone in for exploration, and demonstrate that this was not burned up, but has held its value in terms of IP in the permits and JVs. It doesn't yet reflect any valuation of gold-in-ground, but then no qualified valuations have been published.

Here's the website for SAS, the directors page (http://www.sasgoldmines.com/s/Directors.asp). Two gentlemen are of interest, Herbert Abramson and Paul C Jones. Paul Jones lives in Colorado, is a mining engineer, and has been an advisor to many firms like GEL. He is currently one of four board members at Glass Earth, the only one who lives outside NZ, and that will be useful. I would expect he is also looking after the interests of Mr Abramson and/or SAS. The fee for being a board member is around C$10,000 a year, so he won't be putting all his time into it. In mid 2011 Glass Earth revamped their website, using the same website developers as SAS. The SAS shareprice has been on a steady decline for 12 months (after peaking strongly in August 2010), they are a smaller producer of 100,000 oz/year, from three mines on one property. MCap about CAN 165mill, has been 4x higher.

It might help with investing decisions, if we knew more about the current major investors in GEL. The presentation that was out in Sept 2011 (http://www.slideshare.net/CHFIR/glass-earth-gold-limited-gelv-oct-2010)is the latest data, and shows GEL at a peak. Total shares issued now total 66 million odd. This page shows the main shareholders, which implies Herbert Abramson has brought his personal shares into Trapeze Asset Management's fold.

Of the other major investors, Auriferous Mining Ltd is a private company which owns L&M Mining (http://www.lmgroup.net.nz/display5a13.html?ss=rach&pri=19&sec=651&cid=5280&tpl=1), and this firm leased the 40 tonne GEL/Dunstan Mining GRU#1 at Earnscleugh for a year or two. GEL is now using it at Drybread for its own placer work. Having them as shareholders is another good sign, surely they'll know what's going on. GEL's placer results will also get a boost with the big GRU in action.

[elZorro]

"Woolwhich International Holdings Limited" is possibly the second biggest shareholder in GEL after Trapeze Asset Management (TAM have about 13%). I think there has been a spelling mistake in the name in these reports, it should be Woolwich. This appears to be a secretive UK company, very little data on the web. It might be linked to Barclays Bank, who bought out Woolwich Equitable Building Society when it demutualised to become a bank, and retained Woolwich as a brand.

Here's an interesting page on insider transactions for GEL, in which Woolwich are listed as having over 10% of the shares. http://www.investorpoint.com/stock/GELGF-Glass%20Earth%20Gold%20Ltd/insider/All%20Insiders/All%20Types/

Based on the 1 for 5 dilution figures of shares relinquished, WIHL might have about 4,124,00 shares, plus another 3,333,300, or about 11.2% of the company.

Alton Drilling are working in two areas for Glass Earth - Muirs and Otago. http://www.altondrilling.co.nz/current_projects.html

Boart Longyear are one drilling contractor that Newmont uses frequently, they might be drilling at WKP. Newmont exploration video.

(http://www.marthamine.co.nz/exploration/video/)Here's a 2010 factsheet from Newmont, (http://www.hauraki-dc.govt.nz/news/Mining-issues/trio/Apx3-IIIfactsheet.pdf)some snippets below.

Newmont Waihi Mines: 2009 revenue is over $4 million each week

Approximate production figures: 2006 2007 2008 2009
Gold Poured 129,654 oz 84,815 oz 144,428 oz 133,554 oz
Silver Poured 847,019 oz 276,709 oz 567,990 oz 448,886 oz
Gold Revenue $111M $88M $176M $184M
Silver Revenue $15M $6M $12M $10M
Total Revenue(NZD) $126M $94M $188M $194M
Average grades from Martha open pit – 3.4gm/tonne gold, 30gm/tonne silver.Average grades from Favona underground – 10gm/tonne gold, 30gm/tonne silver.

Approximately 350 direct on-site employees – Newmont, Macmahons, HWE, Boart Longyear. Approximately 370 employed indirectly (full time equivalent) in downstream occupations.

2010: Exploration drilling is taking place in and around Waihi and at Onemana. Diamond drills extract core samplesfor analysis. Drill core is 5 – 9 cm diameter. A drill site uses approximately 10m x 10m area. All drill sites arerehabilitated. Newmont's interest is in high grade deposits in low-value conservation localities that can be mined by smallfootprint 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.

FAQs
4. If the gold price goes down will you leave town?Not necessarily – projects are determined by taking a three year rolling average of the gold price to protectagainst the highs and lows of the gold price fluctuation. If however the gold price was to drop dramaticallywhereby costs exceed income then, like any business our future would be examined.

11. How much gold does Waihi produce yearly?Average over 20+ years is approx ��100,000 oz au (4 tonnes) 750,000 oz ag (30 tonnes)

12. How much has Martha produced over its lifetime?Since 1987 2Moz au (>50 tonnes) 15Moz ag (��400 tonnes)1880s – 1952 5.6Moz au (��200 tones) 38.4M oz ag (>1,000 tonnes)2008 was the 20th anniversary of the first gold pour and the year when the 2 millionth ounce of gold waspoured by the current operation.

13. How does that compare to world output?Global production ��2,500 tonnes/yrMartha @ 4 tonnes ��0.2% (NZ total ��0.5%)Gold is NZ’s second highest-value export to AustraliaStatistics NZ states: “Australia is New Zealand’s largest export market by region, and accounted for $6.3 billionor 19 percent of all merchandise exports in 2002. These exports to Australia have grown, on average, 9percent per year since 1999. Significant exports to Australia include machinery and equipment ($645 million),mineral fuels, mineral oils and products ($493 million), and logs, wood and wood articles ($353 million).”

14. Is gold becoming scarce?Gold is rare; only about 140,000 tonnes has been mined throughout mankind’s history.Because gold is rare, it is difficult to find and current demand outstrips production rate. So in terms of meetingcurrent demand, gold is becoming scarce.All the gold ever produced is still with us. 3,800 tonnes/yr is consumed globally.

15. Why is there so much interest and why has the price risen so much in the last few years?Gold is a tangible security that people turn to in times of high inflation and geopolitical unrest.Most investment and pensioner funds now include gold as a component of their portfolios.A rising middle class in India and China has increased jewellery demand.
There are increased technological uses in this electronic age.And within the last couple of years, it has become possible for individuals like you and me to sit at theircomputers and buy and sell gold, which alone has increased investment demand by around 500 tonnes/yr;that’s a 20% increase.Current rate of supply can’t keep pace with demand, pushing up prices.

16...Why is it so expensive when gold basically has only intrinsic value?Gold’s intrinsic value comes from its beauty, its rarity, its permanence; humans seem to have a strong affinityto gold. But its special qualities mean that it also has a practical value. For example it is one of the bestconductors of electricity and heat, and doesn’t tarnish or corrode, and it’s totally recyclable.Like all commodities, gold’s value increases when demand exceeds supply, which is the current situation.

21. What's the outlook for gold mining in New Zealand for the future?Newmont is actively trying to grow its gold assets in NZ, which can be demonstrated by:��Our investment in Favona and Trio��Currently we are budgeted to spend up to $NZ9M on exploration in NZ.��Newmont is actively seeking other growth opportunities. Recently Newmont entered into a joint venture with Glass Earth to jointly develop one of their properties.

Article in Christchurch Press re overseas companies investing in NZ
RC’s comment re the article below:
It’s a good article. 2009 is an even better story. $0 dividends paid. Instead all money was retained to invest infuture projects in NZ. One thing the article fails to mention is the $39million of capital expenditure on top of the operating expenditure quoted. This brings the “outgoings” before tax to about 75% (article quotes 55%). Also the royalty in 2008 ended up being revised upwards from $1.1m to $2.1m after the accounting profit calculation (done in 2009)

[QUOTE]The silly belief that overseas-owned companies send all their profits overseas has bubbled away in the background for decades.

Among some, it's a mantra and regularly gets hauled into the overseas ownership debate, especially when a contentious issue like mining arises. Those who are currently braying the mantra betray a fundamental, if not disturbing, misunderstanding of what a trading entity does with its dollars.The silly belief is easy to refute simply by looking at the dollars, and where they go. In New Zealand, thankfully, an overseas-owned company must file its annual accounts with the Companies Office.

One such firm is Newmont Waihi Gold, owner and operator of the gold mine at Martha Hill which is beneficially owned in the United States. The latest available audited accounts (2008) tell us Newmont's total revenue from running its mine was $188.11 million. Out of that sum and like any business, Newmont had some rather large bills to pay. Its wage bill was $10.69m (5.6 per cent of trading revenue). Many of its employees live in Waihi and so presumably spend some of their wages in the town. On the wages front too, the company spent another $32.8m (17 per cent) with various contractors to mine and drill the ore. The firm also had to buy raw materials and consumables to keep the mine running and probably to process the ore into gold. They cost $26.8m (14 per cent) and repairs and maintenance another $7.12m (3 per cent).

With these and other items, the cash paid out to run the operation was $105m, including a $1.1m royalty payment directly to the Government. From its trading turnover of $188.11m, Newmont therefore paid a total of 55 per cent into its local and wider New Zealand community.The mine's operating expenses totalled $144m (including the accounting mysteries of depreciation and amortisation). This gave a profit before tax of $44.57m, on which $13.3m in income tax was paid leaving the owners with $31m in tax-paid profit. So, what happened to the profits around which is wrapped the mantra we started with? From the $31m tax-paid profit available, the company sent its US owners $11.7m (37 per cent) by way of a dividend. That left $19.56m in the business. But before that happened about $105m in cash was distributed locally. Elsewhere in the accounts it is stated that a total of$33.45m is pledged by the company by way of rehabilitation bonds when mining finishes at the site.

This 100 per cent overseas- owned company therefore spends a great deal in New Zealand. It pays wages in New Zealand, pays a royalty in New Zealand, pays income tax in New Zealand, and posts rehabilitation bonds in New Zealand. Overseas-owned Newmont Waihi sent not all of its profits overseas: just 6 per cent of the mine's income was paid individends to its American owners, which was just 37 per cent of its after-tax earnings.

The debate about mining should be an informed one. To have that debate, we need facts, not mantras.

* Chris Rennie is a partner in Carter Price Rennie Ltd. He cheerfully toils in the vineyards of capitalism, including thoseof overseas-owned companies. There are no specific client interests in the article.--------------------The Press, Copyright of Fairfax New Zealand Limited 2009, All rights reserved.Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

[elZorro]

This is an old article, but worth having a look at again. NZ$20 billion of gold is a figure that might have been put forward by Mr Dow, the Chairman. This lines up with 10Moz, the same size as the Martha deposit 10 km away. It's also interesting that Simon Henderson suggested that it should suit underground mining, and that's exactly what Newmont are looking for.

$20b potential for Coromandel gold deposit
| Liam Baldwin | Tuesday July 13, 2010
Gold deposits potentially worth $20 billion have been confirmed 10km north of the Martha mine in Waihi on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Prospecting company Glass Earth Gold confirmed this morning “significant results” from its drilling at its WKP gold-silver prospect, which is an exploratory joint venture with Newmont Mining Corporation. Three holes drilled by the company since March confirmed the presence of gold beyond what was already known at the WKP site.

Glass Earth Gold president and chief executive Simon Henderson said the companies are encouraged by the results and are confident that the exploration phase of the venture will provide substantial insight into the characteristics of the new zone and the overall area. “The results are very compelling,” he said.

The WKP prospect is a 2km mineralised zone which is 5km north-east of the Golden Cross deposed, which produced 634,000 oz of gold in the 1990s.
In a statement this morning, Mr Henderson said the WKP system has characteristics similar to the Martha mine and has strike potential for several kilometres southward.
Martha has produced eight million ounces of gold and between 40 and 50 million ounces of silver with estimated reserves of another 1.5 million ounces of gold.
Exploration in the late 1980s and early 1990s identified potential in the area.

Mr Henderson said much more groundwork was required and more holes will be drilled over the coming months to confirm the deposit’s full potential.
He said while it was difficult to speculate at an early stage, the mineralisation of the area suggested an underground mine would be appropriate, but more data was required.
The prospecting is occurring on land held by the Department of Conservation.

[elZorro]

When the next quarterly report comes out late in February, we should hear about DryBread, where I'd guess the big GRU#1 is being used. L&M Mining used this GRU at Earnscleugh, and here's a powerpoint presentation of it in use. http://www.lmgroup.net.nz/gold2pp.html There are some great numbers to have a look at. The ideal feed rate is about 60 m3/hr, which is about 100 tonne/hr. But on average (the site worked 24/7 under lights) the feed rate was about 45 tonne/hr, 5000m3 a week. If they were able to take out 100,000 oz in 7 years using that GRU, that's about 40oz a day, a grade of about 1.2 g/tonne. While there is a much bigger GRU there now, it's possible Dunstan/GEL's GRU#1 can process 1000 tonne/day and recover 40 ounces, or about NZ$100,000 worth a day..but it will need good grades of 1g/tonne or so.

[Vtrader]

eZ,
Enough attraction to GEL, Vtrader is poised to do as advised.
Been watching, and something tells me it is time...
Making end of day trades at present, so if you want any before me get it at open!
V.

[bermuda]

eZ,
Enough attraction to GEL, Vtrader is poised to do as advised.
Been watching, and something tells me it is time...
Making end of day trades at present, so if you want any before me get it at open!
V.

EZ,
You are the man on this thread. You have recognised where this is going and have made the effort to put it in front of our faces. I do try and understand some of your technical stuff. I just go for the signals and if it feels good I go through a big checklist. Plus if I get a tip like this then I am in.
To be honest this is the only gold stock I own.

I was given this by a guy who is an unbelievable Guru having always learnt from his odd failures. This guy is very experienced. He is hot on GEL. And DIL and OYM. I only own GEL but I do have GEL and DIL in the NZ competition. GEL suffered a bit today. ......Rome wasn't built in a day.

Been an exciting week. I must be MAD. What a little beauty. This is what we work for.

Thanks for your posts. Something must happen here.

[elZorro]

EZ,
You are the man on this thread. You have recognised where this is going and have made the effort to put it in front of our faces. I do try and understand some of your technical stuff. I just go for the signals and if it feels good I go through a big checklist. Plus if I get a tip like this then I am in.
To be honest this is the only gold stock I own.

I was given this by a guy who is an unbelievable Guru having always learnt from his odd failures. This guy is very experienced. He is hot on GEL. And DIL and OYM. I only own GEL but I do have GEL and DIL in the NZ competition. GEL suffered a bit today. ......Rome wasn't built in a day.

Been an exciting week. I must be MAD. What a little beauty. This is what we work for.

Thanks for your posts. Something must happen here.

Gidday Bermuda, a bit of a drop over here was predictable, as the TSX side is not very interested at the moment, must be other stuff going on to interest the punters, and some GEL holders short of cash. When the exchanges match each other, it should be about time for more news releases. I see what you mean about DIL, that's impressive, but now a high P/E ratio, can it keep going from here?

On the other hand, GEL still has a very low Mcap for an outfit that might be mining big-time in future. On the not-too-technical? side, the GRU at Earnscleugh needed 15 staff (rotated?) and there were several metres of overburden to remove. Lots of diesel etc, cleaning up afterwards. So if the bigger L&M GRU was needed to make a useful profit (not just a working trial), the grade there might have been below 1g/tonne. It's to be hoped that GEL has a site(s) with free alluvial gold content around 1g/tonne or better, it's relatively easy to get at, and there's a big amount of it.

ODT wrote up the press release. (http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/196280/glass-earth-gold-reports-results) $357,000 of alluvial gold (total turnover?) in 2010.

[elZorro]

A bit of background on Earnscleugh, (http://www.contrafedpublishing.co.nz/QM/August-September+2009/Gold+country.html) from 2009. GRU#1 was leased by L&M to prove the site, and from memory it had to be tidied up a bit more, so it should be in good working order now. Note that L&M kept the permit for the area alive, until gold prices recovered. Total area of 150Ha is 1.5million square metres, the alluvial gold gravel thickness is purported to be seven metres deep, a total estimated 110,000oz in that space. 10.5 million cubic metres of gravel, weight about 1.5 tonne per cube, yielding perhaps 110,000 oz, is a grade of 110,000 x 31/(1.5 x 10.5 million), or 0.2 g/tonne grade.

That is the worst case grade, there will be better pockets of gravel probably. But this area has never been worked before, unlike Drybread. I'm thinking that Vicarage Capital might have misplaced a decimal point in their earlier alluvial grade. Maybe it's 0.3 g/tonne. Placer gold is much easier to process than the Coromandel gold, so it's still possible to make a profit at these grades.

Newmont to look further off to the side of the existing pit. (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10782764) They'll spend $55mill here, partly on spec. They could buy all of Glass Earth for that..

Here's a background on Galena, if this is the outfit with a block of shares in GEL, they won't be there forever, according to their charter.
But they did do very well in 2009.

http://www.hedgefundsreview.com/hedge-funds-review/profile/1592880/galena-special-situations-fund-galena-asset-management

To read the easy way, try googling 'Galena standout special situations fund'

Caterpillar went really well in 2011 (http://www.mining.com/2012/01/26/dr-caterpillars-excellent-prognosis-for-mining/), doubling profit.

[elZorro]

Great short background on L&M Mining in this article from NZResources.


Earnscleugh gold project to move to two shifts

Ross Louthean — 3 February 2012
The privately owned alluvial gold project at Earnscleugh in Central Otago will move to a two shifts a day operation within the next few weeks as more kinks are being ironed out with the gold plant.
The operation, near Alexandra, has been established by the L&M Mining, part of the L&M Group, initially using an hired smaller gold plant before revamping one of its mothballed plants that had been gathering moss at Waikaka.
L&M’s chairman Geoff Loudon told NZResources.com that it has taken some time to get the gold plant operating effectively and this has included getting adequate service for a sophisticated generator unit and new additions to the plant.
He said moving to two shifts will allow the operation to run more smoothly, advancing from treating about 150 cubic metres of terrace material per hour to more than 200 cu m/hour.
Target production for the Earnscleugh operation is building annual production to between 7,000 to 9,000 ounces of gold.
The original L&M company had a long history of alluvial gold plant and dredge mining on the South Island. Two decades ago it was mining on the Shotover River and terraces on the West Coast, under the wing of a listed vehicle that had the misfortune of being controlled by another company that went belly up takings its funds with it.
Loudon’s team acquired the company from a bank and continued gold mining until resources cut out and a major drop in the gold price created problems.
Earnscleugh was held through that drought.
Meanwhile, L&M moved into coal and coal seam gas and moved its oil and gas permits into L&M Energy Ltd (ASX & NZX: LME) and vended some of its West Coast coal permits into Bathurst Resources Ltd (ASX & NZX: BTU).


The figures show that L&M's GRU can process about 6x more gravel than GEL's GRU#1, but if it runs near non-stop at that rate, the grade at Earnscleugh would be only 0.1g/tonne, so assuming it's about 50% duty, 0.2g/tonne Au sounds about right.

Gold's up, US$ heading down..and I liked this:


Reality is the leading cause of stress
among those in touch with it.

~ Lily Tomlin


L&M Group have previous/current interests in seafloor mining. They've made a surprise move over here, obtaining a permit.


L&M Group in new Chatham Rise phosphate quest

Ross Louthean — 3 February 2012
The L&M Group which figures strongly in petroleum exploration, coal seam gas, coal and gold mining is now joining the quest for seafloor phosphate deposits on Chatham Rise.
The company has formed Chatham Phosphate Ltd which it owns 90%, with the balance held by prospect vendor and veteran geoscientist Roger Gregg.
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals has granted a permit on the rise, near the Chatham Islands and well east of Christchurch and it envelopes on three sides of the marine phosphate permit held by Chatham Rock Phosphate Ltd (NZAX: CRP).
Chairman of the L&M Group, Geoff Loudon, said there are no set plans and the future development of the company because everything is in its infancy. Later, consideration could be given to whether Chatham Phosphate remains private or looks at an IPO.
Over the years Roger Gregg was involved in studies on the Chatham phosphorites.


Comment by Chris Castle (CRP), 8th Feb:


Chatham Rock welcomes new Chatham Rise explorerRoss Louthean — 8 February 2012
Chatham Rock Phosphate (NZAX: CRP) yesterday welcomed news that another company has been granted an exploration permit to explore seafloor rock phosphate reserves on the Chatham Rise.
As reported by NZResources.com, the L&M Group, which has a wide range of petroleum exploration and mining interests, has been granted a permit by New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals to explore seafloor phosphate deposits over a wide area to the west, south and east of the marine phosphate permit held by CRP.
L&M holds 90% of Chatham Phosphate Ltd, with the balance held by veteran geoscientist Roger Gregg.
CRP managing director Chris Castle said he was delighted another company recognised the potential of the area.
“It reinforces the enormous potential value we see in the area, which is being constantly confirmed as we gather new technical data,” Castle said.
Chatham (Phosphate) holds a large area which has more unknowns but which could have real prospectivity for both rock phosphate and glauconite. ”
Mr Castle noted Chatham chairman Geoff Loudon has had a distinguished career in the mining industry and is widely recognised as an astute investor.
“CRP has done a huge amount of work over the past couple of years that would be of benefit to Chatham. There are many potential synergies that can be achieved, particularly relating to environmental monitoring and scientific research.”
The Chatham Rise is about 450 kilometres east of Christchurch.


Keen to keep their 350 + 350 workers employed, Newmont is beavering away in Waihi, not moving too far from the Martha pit just yet.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/6358719/Waihi-residents-battle-mining-giant

Local opposition to disturbance might keep their sights on WKP, however, and good drill grades there will help. The future Correnso mine site (http://nzresources.com/showarticle.aspx?id=2416gid=30002416)grades are not easy to find, still looking. Sounds like there might be 500,000oz Au there.

[elZorro]

Investing in shares is a bit like fishing, I realised this weekend. With fishing, you are always hoping that you’re using the right gear, at the right time, and you’re in the right location. Here’s why I think we might have hooked a big fish with Glass Earth.

I’ve noticed how every year or so, GEL needs more funds for exploration, and issues shares at a discount to the market, usually in a brokered series of tranches. The last fundraising was at CAN 55c, and was closed short of the original total that was indicated by the company. Previous capital raisings were at CAN 20c and CAN 30c, and the original IPO at CAN 20c (before the 1 for 5 condensing) valued the early shares at $1 each. But this latest set of tranches was non-brokered.

So two things have happened recently: the valuation of the company has improved following drills at WKP, and there has been more interest from well-connected investors. The latest presentation shows that there are at least four major investors holding perhaps about 40% of the company in total:
Trapeze Asset Management (13%?)
Woolwich International Holdings Ltd (Over 10%)
Sprott Asset Management (Unknown%)
Auriferous Mining Limited (Unknown%)

Trapeze Asset Management is the investment advisory firm partly owned and chaired by Herbert Abramson, who has connections to St Andrews Gold, the original major investor in Glass Earth.

Sprott Asset Management is a much larger funds firm with various gold interests worldwide, so it’s hardly surprising to see them on the major shareholder list.

Auriferous Mining Limited (AML) is a private investment vehicle set up in the British Virgin Islands. It has equal third shareholdings -
Campania Holding Inc 1/3 (controlled from Wong Lam Leung & Kwok CPA Ltd, accountants’ office in Hong Kong)
Tangent International Ltd 1/3 (connected to Dr. Werner Muller, Swiss Geologist)
Archibald Geoffrey Loudon 1/3 (Chairman of L&M Group and Nautilus).
Geoff Loudon and Campania Holding were also founder investors in the private firm Peru Copper Inc, holding about 6% of the shares each, in 2006. This explorer was sold to Aluminium Corp of China (Chinalco), and Geoff Loudon remains as an advisor.

AML are also major shareholders in L&M’s spun-off Energy division, LME (listed on NZX and ASX). This now includes L&M Group’s coal seam gas assets. Total holding assuming all options are taken up by AML, is 84% of LME. LME has looked fairly sick chart-wise for the last few months, but they have a few promising areas of energy exploration themselves, and their IPO was only in 2007. Based on the current low price, Mr. Loudon’s share of LME is worth $13million, but it has been nearly 3x higher in the last year.

AML also own all of the private L&M Group assets, including L&M Mining. This is the firm that leased GEL’s GRU#1 for Earnscleugh trialling (late 2009 to early 2011?), near Alexandra in Otago.

Geoff Loudon has achieved much already (http://www.mge.arizona.edu/alums/files/lacy_program09.pdf), including being founding CEO of Niugini Mining, which discovered the huge 30Moz Lihir Gold Mine in PNG. He was a director of Lihir Gold Ltd when it was sold to Newcrest Mining (NCM) in 2010, to create what is now a 26 Billion dollar company. Geoff Loudon sold up in London in 2010 and moved permanently to New Zealand. He has old family ties to the Hokitika Goldfields, back as far as 1875. He will receive a total of US$40mill for his 1/3rd share of L&M Coal (http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/5344392/Share-options-for-Bathurst-management), sold to Bathurst Resources.

All this brings me to the second largest investor in GEL, Woolwich International Holdings Ltd (WIHL). The only other mention on the internet is that WIHL is a cornerstone shareholder (http://investor.puricore.com/majorshareholders)in PuriCore, a listed company which has purchased the rights to a non-toxic sterilising system (brand-name Sterilox). (http://www.puricore.com/endoscopy.aspx)It’s just too much of a coincidence that Geoff Loudon mentions the same brand-name as one of his retirement investments in an interview for a mining magazine, which is now posted on L&M Group’s website (http://www.lmgroup.net.nz/content/Home/News/5375/South%20Sea%20Story.pdf?cid=5375).

Most likely, Geoffrey Loudon is behind Woolwich International Holdings, meaning that he controls the biggest cornerstone shareholding in Glass Earth, if you add in Auriferous Mining holdings. As it would appear that most of his share purchases happened from late 2009 or 2010 onwards (http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthread.php?4019-Glass-Earth-IPO&p=289670&viewfull=1#post289670), it’s likely that the Lihir Gold and the L&M Coal deals freed up some capital. Out of all the companies Mr Loudon has observed in the last few years, he chose Glass Earth as one to invest in.

The TSX chart for GEL shows that major investors will not let the shareprice fall below 20c or 30c, but rather than let the price drop back there and allow more of the company to be picked up at a bargain basement valuation, I think it is fair that all shareholders are aware that some big fish are getting involved. This is great news for Glass Earth, as there is a surplus of capital available from cornerstone investors, and in fact all shareholders might appreciate the chance to chip in on the next capital raising. GEL has done a lot with a tiny amount of capital, they're used to allocating funds carefully.

More great news this morning: it's now 7th February and Glass Earth management has posted a news release about ACC investing more in GEL (http://www.directbroking.co.nz/DirectTrade/dynamic/announcement.aspx?id=3005869), now having over 6% shareholding, just over 4million shares. I saw that big one going through, one buy was through Haywood Securities Inc on the TSX, 1,745,000 shares at C25c each, 26th Jan 2012. It's taken a bit too long to inform the market. Anyway GEL has gone up 18% over in Canada this morning (now CAN 35.5c), to match the NZ price of 40c. ACC bought the latest (net) parcel of shares at equiv NZ 29c, so they're doing well already. (Note the Accident Compensation Corporation of NZ (ACC) has investments totalling over $17 billion, having increased the fund by 36% in just a year, with some extra money put in, but also good returns). As GEL pays no dividends, I assume ACC is here for a long term capital gain, like me. ACC owns(on average) about 4% of the NZX domestic sharemarket. See pages 17 and 18 of this report. (http://www.acc.co.nz/PRD_EXT_CSMP/groups/external_communications/documents/reference_tools/wpc097214.pdf)

September 2011 flash presentation from CHFIR site mentions major shareholders. (http://www.slideshare.net/CHFIR/glass-earth-gold-limited-gelv-oct-2010) Woolwhich x, Woolrich x - Woolwich is the correct spelling.

[elZorro]

Thought I'd google a look at the Ophir JV up above Alexandra, Otago. Ophir Gold Ltd is majority owned by Bob Kilgour, with other shareholders. This page shows large areas with gold-bearing gravels (http://www.ophirgold.co.nz/project-ophir.html). All seem to be above 1g/tonne, some 3g/tonne, which are all highly profitable grades for an alluvial or placer GRU. Back in 2007 Bob Kilgour was openly discussing an IPO (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/mining/news/article.cfm?c_id=64&objectid=10446485)for the area. http://www.contrafedpublishing.co.nz/QM/Ophir+gold+beckons+again.htmlAs it turns out, by 2009 Glass Earth had negotiated a 50:50 JV (http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/news/2009/new-joint-ventures-at-rise-shine-and-ophir-gold-prospects?searchterm=glass-earth)on this prospect, and the area Wai-iti is mentioned (http://www.glassearthgold.com/i/newsreleases/GEGL_PR_12Nov09.pdf)in several despatches. Q1 2011:
Ophir gold prospect in Otago, New Zealand (Glass Earth 50%) -- Additional work is being undertaken as a pre-requisite to a formal proposal for capex and mining for the consideration of the Joint Venture. Q2 report in August 2011 also mentioned Ophir:



Operational ActivitiesThe Company has had an active and successful quarter as described in the Quarterly Overview and Near Term Outlook below.Field operations concentrated on the testing of Glass Earth's two most advanced prospects WKP (35% Glass Earth / 65% Newmont Mining; Newmont managed) and Muirs Reef (100% Glass Earth) in the North Island. Encouraging assay results for drill holes WKP 28 and 29 were released August 26, 2011, with assay results awaited in respect of WKP 30.In addition, further metallurgical testing on the Ophir Project (50% Glass Earth/50% Ophir Gold) gave very good recoveries based on gravity separation processes.
Expansion of alluvial/placer gold mining in the Central Otago region is a strong focus as current mining operations bed down.


With more capital appearing every day for GEL, maybe we'll see some real action on the site soon.CHFIR in Canada reports


GOLD PRODUCTION AT OPHIR

A step closer as very encouraging gravity met results push plant design ahead

Sounds like there is plenty of gold-bearing gravel, and a GRU about half the size of the #1 unit (or 50 tonne/hr) would be suitable for the site. A lack of water capacity for sluicing has been mentioned as one hiccup in the process. The schist boundaries are host to higher-grade gold-bearing veins, which might be a bit harder to recover, more capital needed.This is yet another permit area that has been kept alive while some others were dropped, and we're seeing some progress.Central Otago background, Drybread, Moa Creek, Ophir, St Bathans and Alexandra. (http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/otago-places/15)Oturehua, home of the Hayes wire strainer, and other Hayes products.. (http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2h25/1)

Here's a map from NZPAM showing the Ophir permit areas, all under JV and quite a large area, almost over to Moa Creek.

A page out of the presentation on the bottom left of GEL's homepage, has this flow chart on Ophir. This is nothing short of a highly profitable test grade, since this isn't autoclaving or crushing, just separation by flotation and gravity. Maybe they hand picked the 80kg sample, hard to say. Late last week Simon Henderson was down in Alexandra, at the base there. If there is a decent amount of this grade available, GEL won't need any private or brokered placements to pay for a bit of drilling, and for overheads.

[elZorro]

I'm still unsure if Ophir is a placer (alluvial) type of site, but there was talk of an open-pit mine in 2009.

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/70550/glass-earth-takes-50-stake-ophir

This article mentions coarse gold, it's not finely ground, implying it hasn't moved far.

[elZorro]

I emailed Simon Henderson (GEL's CEO) a week or so ago, and received a written reply from him yesterday, to some queries about the company. All the answers were in a positive vein, and things are looking good for 2012. Here is an example.

Q. Does Mr Abramson still hold shares privately or are they now distributed to Trapeze clients?


A. While he's been a staunch supporter of GEL (and has told me he'll be back), Herb Abramson has sold down much of his stock - for reasons not associated with GEL he needed to divest (and given we had underlying value compared to other holdings, the GEL stock was able to be sold), and these shares were snapped up by ACC. On the plus side, for us it's a boost having ACC as a supportive and growing shareholder, and our price isn't being held down by a big seller's overhang.

That paragraph explains most of the behaviour of the GEL shareprice on the TSX, for the last 6 months. WKP exploration and other positive news boosted the share to a sensible valuation of near C65c/ NZ80c (the IPO listed at C$1.00/NZ$1.25 equiv) but it inexplicably drifted back from there, after a capital raising at C55c. Once a big enough block of the shares were sold in a parcel the other day, you could almost hear the stock springing back.

GEL has a link to the US gold price like most goldies, but over the last 11months has drifted away from the rising gold price, due to the consistent selling up until recently. See chart below. As an aside, these charts are easier to read if you log onto Sharetrader, and how about some other posts on this thread? For example, anyone have any ideas on the direction of the gold price? Cheers.

[elZorro]

Here is another question that had been bugging me - well answered by Simon Henderson in the email last week.

Q. Vicarage (Vicarage Capital, UK) claimed 3g/t from the placer work in Otago, then removed that from the latest file (GEL brief note Dec 2011) . What is the average yield? I would hope this type of data will be revealed to the market with the new Drybread results.


A. On to alluvials, Vicarage's quote of 3g/t is an error. In alluvial production we quote grade in grains per cubic metre, not grams per tonne. (A grain is roughly 1/15 of a gram, and there are about 2.5 tonnes of gravel wash in one cubic metre).

We'd regard a grade of 3 grains/m3 as an acceptable cutoff point for profitable mining (high volume throughput, no crushing, gravity separation and so on all mean that far lower grades than that needed in a hardrock environment can be profitable), but of course can run into far more than this on richer leads - in fact we will have on occasion run into 3"g/t" ground but believe the Vicarage quote is a coincidental mistake.

Given the small size of these deposits and the difficulty and expense required to define an official resource (plus the sensitivity our JV partner has required us to have towards reporting grades in Otago, based on keeping results confidential to each landowner) it makes more sense to have a solid estimate of projected ounces per week production, and then the total net revenue we are achieving - net profit from alluvials measures for us what these deposits are worth in terms of what they add to our company.

We're actually going through a significant (and exciting) overhaul of alluvials, I can't tell you more than that today but we are looking forward to some real progress, and profit, this year. Our placer mining is shaping up as a very useful and unique side to how we operate - it began as a survival tool but is starting to look like a true opportunity for self-funding meaningful hardrock exploration. So when laid alongside our current projects and land package it's very compelling.

This helps explain a lot, we won't be able to know individual area grades, as that is sensitive information to landowners. As the material is scooped up as wash with water added, a cubic metre into the GRU weighs 2.5 tonne, but about 1.7 tonne dry. A minimum payable grade of 3 grains/m3 of wash is about a dry grade of 0.12g/tonne. This is in the region of half the average grade at L&M's Earnscleugh area, perhaps.

This low figure can be put alongside the impressive Ophir test grade (above) of 19.4g/tonne, this is over 160 times better than the payable grade. Here are some photos of the Otago placer operation (http://chfir.com/gallery/geltour2011)taken in June 2010 or June 2011, according to CHFIR.

[Vtrader]

Vtrader found time to purchase today.
Chart has the right look, and the FA from elZorro tipped the balance.
I am predicting POG increase, and GEL fits the theme.
V.

[elZorro]

Vtrader found time to purchase today.
Chart has the right look, and the FA from elZorro tipped the balance.
I am predicting POG increase, and GEL fits the theme.
V.

Good on yer Vtrader, expecting lots of EWT posts over the next few months..

Overnight GEL announced some additions (one proposed) to the board of directors.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/13/idUS145285+13-Feb-2012+MW20120213

Justin Cochrane and Adrian Fleming, both from Vancouver, have plenty of company experience and enthusiasm by the look of it. The timing of this announcement, after the investment by ACC, confirms GEL has turned a corner, and 2012 is going to be a good year for the company.

[elZorro]

Another tricky question arose from a UK advisory firm's report (Vicarage Capital).

Q. Vicarage Capital has published at least three short notes to the web about GEL, and in all of these they claim that Newmont reportedly drilled 44mtrs @36g/t Au, slightly north of a GEL permit (presumably WKP, so probably still within the GEL permit space). When I asked them directly, this aspect remained unchanged. They replied that this information was passed to them in a meeting(s) with Glass Earth in 2010. Is this drill data correct, where is the site, and why is Vicarage the only web source for that information?



A. The report from Vicarage is slightly confusing in that it amalgamates news from WKP and a discussion of our Waihi West JV. These are two different things. WKP (10km north of Waihi) you'll of course be familiar with..Waihi West again is a JV with Newmont (65%) but relates to our permit within Waihi to the (immediate) East and South of the pit (https://data.nzpam.govt.nz/PermitWebMaps/StaticReport.aspx?permit=40767 (https://data.nzpam.govt.nz/PermitWebMaps/StaticReport.aspx?permit=40767)). We don't have news to release yet on this but the Vicarage report is picking up on some of the excitement coming from Newmont's exploration on their 100% ground next door. They presented this at the AusIMM NZ conference late last year and I understand will be publishing resource/reserve estimates from their discovery later this month.

The high intercept that Vicarage quotes looks just like the new Correnso deposit, (said to be) 650,000 oz Au, at 12g/t, accessible as an underground system from their existing workings. It's stayed hidden for so long as it runs in a different direction from previously known mineralisation in the town (a N-S rather than NE-SW orientation), and while we have no solid news on our own permit today, having such a large discovery made right next to us certainly poses some exciting questions - especially given that Newmont is exploring Waihi with vigour and we're already part of that.

650,000 oz at NZ$2300/oz is 1.5 Billion dollars worth. It's not near WKP, but very near the GEL permit 40767, which runs under Waihi township. The Correnso find (http://www.hauraki-dc.govt.nz/news/Mining-issues/GoldenLink/correnso-brochure.pdf)is deep but underneath some houses, (not many), and how Newmont Waihi Gold handles this situation will be informative. With gold at this grade close to their milling plant, the pressure might be off WKP for a bit, while Newmont proceed with planning hearing stages for Correnso. See the satellite map of the area, the 35/65 JV boundary is less than 1000 metres away.

GEL up 15.5% on the TSX overnight, resting at C38c, which brings it close to the NZ price of NZ48c. Having two more Canadian board members is a smart idea.