Kalgoorlie turned on the weather for this year’s Diggers & Dealers bash which was just as well given the difficulty which the more hardy of the 2200 delegates had finding a taxi after 2am.
A few of the stragglers came up with some innovative solutions, including leaning on the locals for a lift.
Ball handling skills also came in handy as some delegates taking in the air outside the bustling pubs were to find out when they suffered the ignominy of being pelted with eggs by drive-by toothless types not happy with their watering holes becoming clogged with interlopers.
Back at the forum itself, the thick heads from the night seemed to pass quicker this year, with the rollicking array of good news stories over the three days proving a better fix than a Berocca.
Red 5 pivots to Aussie gold
One of the busier booths at Diggers was Red 5 (RED), which unveiled a dual $34.5m acquisition of the Darlot and King of the Hills gold projects, respectively from South African gold producer Gold Fields and local mid-tier Saracen Mineral Holdings (SAR).
Apart from being on the receiving end of some handy plugs from the CEO’s of both vendor companies during their presentations (both will end up as cornerstone shareholders), the Red 5 team found that their “consolidation” play flushed out interest at a number of other levels. Some punters compared the bold deal to the early-stages of Northern Star (NST), with its acquisition of the Paulsens gold mine proving to be the foundation stone for what has become one of the standout success stories of Diggers over the past seven years.
New discoveries and the application of technology such as state-of-the-art 3D seismic has returned ageing mines such as Northern Star’s later Jundee acquisition back to their “world-class status”, thanks to new discoveries at depth.
Red 5 appears to have every chance of replicating this strategy at Darlot, which has produced 2.7Moz over its 28-year life. Gold Fields recently completed an extensive seismic survey at Darlot, using the same cutting-edge technology which assisted Northern Star in making its recent “Zodiac” discovery at Jundee.
Plus, Red 5 wins a plug from Gold Fields and Saracen, Metal Bank highlights big potential for its Triumph gold find, Blackstone buzzes on back of its cobalt buy and Allan Kelly returns with Riversgold. Read more here +
