Newcrest Mining was playing all coy on Friday in the wake of the surprise announcement by Greatland Gold of the UK of a sharp upgrade to reserves at their Havieron gold copper prospect in the eastern Pilbara of WA.
The Havieron project is close to Newcrest’s existing but ageing Telfer gold-copper project (which formed the basis of the company when it was BHP Gold years ago).
In a statement to the ASX on Friday, Newcrest said it “notes the release by Greatland Gold plc of an updated Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve Statement for the Havieron project.”
Newcrest said it “intends to issue an updated Group Mineral Resources and ore reserves statement as at 30th June 2022 with its full year results (Ie in August) which will include a revised Mineral resource estimated for Havieron.
“The Havieron Feasibility Study will be informed by the revised Mineral Resource estimate reported in Newcrest’s 30 June 2022 Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve statement and remains on track to be completed in the December 2022 quarter.”
Newcrest said it continues to have discussions with Greatland Gold regarding the acquisition of an additional 5% in Greatland which would take its stake to 65%.
Newcrest has spent around $200 million financing early work on an underground mine that will be linked to the processing facilities at Telfer, 45 kilometres to the east.
But it is hard to understand why Newcrest didn’t confirm (or reject) the Greatland upgrade, which is impressive.
Greatland said that total mineral resources (including ore reserves) jumped 53% from the previous estimate to 5.5 million ounces of gold and 218,000 tonnes of copper.
That’s from a total of 92 million tonnes of ore with a gold grade of 1.9 grams to the tonne and copper of 0.24%.
The inferred ore reserves estimate showed a 50% increase in contained gold ounces to 2.4 million ounces, helped by an 86% conversion rate from indicated resources to probable ore reserves.
“The update has unearthed further aspects of the Havieron system and validates that Havieron is a world class deposit with significant growth potential,” said Greatland CEO Shaun Day.
“With an ongoing and substantial expansion drilling campaign continuing, there is every opportunity to deliver more growth to the mineral resource and ore reserve as we continue to better understand the extent of mineralisation across the broader Havieron zonation.”
The indicated gold estimate soared 63% to 3.1 million ounces, thanks to infill drilling within the South East Crescent Zone converted some resources from inferred to indicated.
The inferred estimate contained the first results from drilling at the Eastern Breccia complex. This is one of the interesting areas Newcrest has highlighted in recent reports.
The updated estimate incorporated an additional 10 months of drilling results since the February 2021 cut-off date used for the last update.
