UREKA! STRIKING GOLD IN AUSTRALIA

CONTINUED TO EXPLORE AND DEVELOP GOLD OPERATIONS INTO THE NEW YEAR. SHARON MASIGE WRITES.

one of the most stablecommodities and inthe first half of 2016,it rallied 25 percent.

During the USpresidential election last year, theprecious metal was tipped to riseeven further with the possibility ofDonald Trump taking office and inDecember, economists predicted a$200 an ounce price hike. But thisforecast was shot down, with goldsinking to SUS1122.35 an ounce laterthat month - the lowest level it hadbeen in 10 months.

This slight turbulence in the goldprice however, has not hindered thespirit of gold explorers, who continueto pursue more opportunities forthe metal.

One of these companies is TraprockMining, which recently launched a$6.5 million initial public offering(IPO) as it prepares to list on theAustralian Securities Exchange (ASX).

The Brisbane-based company plansto use the funds for exploration andthe development of its Queenslandcopper-gold asset portfolio, whichincludes the Mount Chalmers gold-copper project near Rockhampton:the Waroo cooper-gold project nearStanthorpe: the Ilerries Rangegold project near Warwick: andthe Kunguna copper-gold projectnear Gympie.

The Mount Chalmers project is thecompany's flagship operation - holdinghigh gold mineralisation - with itstenement covering the former Mount

Chalmers gold-copper nistoncai mine.Traprock Mining chairman Tony

Fawdon told Australian Mining thatthe mine's previous owners, MountMorgan, finished mining at the sitewhen commodity prices fell in 1982.

"They mined 1.1 million tonnes,"Fawdon said.

"The grade was about 3.6 grams pertonne gold, three per cent copper and20 grams silver, and they only minedabout a quarter of the ore body.

"So it is our intention that once weget up and listed - get the funds inthe door - we will redrill the wholeof our resource and by about Eastertime we will have a full-fledged(joint ore reserves committee)JORC2012 resource."

Next to Mount Chalmers is anothersubstantial gold resource. Wood Shaft.

deep."There's drilling between Wood

Shaft and Mount Chalmers, whichcontain gold that has never beenfollowed up on." Fawdon added.

Upon defining the resource, thecompany will then determine the nextsteps to take with the project.

"Once we have established theresources...once we get that resourceup and running, then we'll bestarting a definitive feasibility study,"Fawdon said.

Fawdon added that the companyhad several options to consideronce it starts mining. One of themis to potentially open Wood Shaftand immediately begin operations,as the mineralisation is right onthe surface.

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February, 2017Australian Mining, National

Author: Sharon Masige • Section: General News • Article type : News ItemClassification : Magazines Trade • Audience : 7,337 • Page: 44Printed Size: 1780.00cm² • Market: National • Country: Australia • Words: 1346Item ID: 727885113

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The company is also consideringoptions for treatment facilities,possibly using Carbine Resources'neighbouring treatment plant.

However, if this does not go toplan, Traprock also has the option ofconcentrating the ore, putting it oncontainers to Gladstone, and shippingit off to Korea, Japan or China.

There is also the possibility ofTraprock establishing its own plant,if given the green light through thefeasibility study.

Once these steps are finalised, thecompany can then begin to look atemploying workers.

"We've got a lot of options in frontof us to then start employing people,for example, in two years time,"Fawdon said.

Once the project becomesoperational Fawdon estimates itwill take between 80-120 peopleto develop the plant and around 80people to run it.

Drill, drill and drill some moreTraprock is also focussed on areas inthe region that have scarcely beendrilled, particularly to the south ofMount Chalmers.

"Besides Mount Chalmers, we'vegot something like about 70-80historic mines and there's been nodrilling in the region," Fawdon said,adding that some of the areas maycontain large low-grade gold systems.

"Now we're throwing our moneyinto that because we believe the goldprice will eventually go upwards.'

Fawdon also explained another oneof the company's resources, HerricsRange, which may contain high goldmineralisation.

Traprock has completed a smallamount of drilling in the area andis planning to undertake more inthe future.

Copper anyone?Apart from gold, Fawdon is alsooptimistic about the copper price.

"The [copper] price started to fallabout four years ago," Fawdon said."It started a steady decline... but theposition was that no one was lookingfor copper and there was no pointbecause the price was falling.

"Yes there were plenty of largemines around the place that couldtake up the supply, but what'shappening is that people like Rio aresaying they are now going to startlooking for further resources because

there's going to be a shortage of supplyaround about 2020.

"We've already seen the Australianprice of copper in the last month goup by a thousand dollars a tonne, so Ithmk that copper is in for a good run."

Fawdon also expected there tobe a lot of resources mergers andacquisitions this year.

Impact MineralsAnother gold company that hascontinued to hold strong is ImpactMinerals, which celebrated its 10thanniversary in November last year.

Over the years, the company hasadvanced projects in Australia, as wellas Botswana and Turkey.

Impact Minerals managing directorMike Jones said shortly after thecompany listed it maintained itsAustralian gold and nickel assets, butalso expanded into Botswana.

"We were quite active inBotswana for three or four years foruranium exploration, and also nickelexploration,' Jones said. "We then gotcaught up in the global financial crisislike everyone else... but we managedto get through that."

Following the tragic Fukushimanuclear incident in 2011, the companydecided to look at developing projectselsewhere, settling on Turkey.

"Unfortunately Fukushimahappened and so that was really theend of the uranium exploration boomat that time, and so we had to lookaround for projects," Jones said.

"We were in Turkey for a couple ofyears, which has great potential butproved to be politically a difficult placeto work so we pulled out of there."

The company then decided to focusmore on developing its Australianassets and formed three flagshipprojects: one in Western Australia fornickel and gold, one in Broken Hill forplatinum group metals (PGM) and thethird. Commonwealth gold mine, nearDubbo in New South Wales, where itis currently drilling.

The Commonwealth projectproduced positive results, with thediscovery of significant high-gradegold and silver. It has been a knownhistoric site since the 1900s and stillhouses old mine shafts.

"They produced about 6000 tonnesof ore back in the early 1900s, whichwasn't probably very much but it washigh-grade ore," Jones said.

"And the high-grade gold and silverand zinc was what was attractive forthe area."

Jones added that Impact alsofound good results at the Silica Flillprospects - part of Commonwealth

- with high gold mineralisationpotential.

"We're very excited because theinitial results have given us thickwidths and good grades so it's a verygood start to an exploration project."

The next step for the company is tocontinue drilling and extend the resultsobtained from the drill holes dugbefore Christmas and in early 2017.

"We hope that we can extend thedepth, and we're going to try andscope out how big this thing might beand then based on that we can thenlook to actually define a deposit,"Jones said.

Looking further into 2017, Jonesremained optimistic but unsure of theunravelling gold market.

"Gold's had a very good run overthe last couple of years and that's beenreflected in the share prices," he said.

"Recently, only the last month orso, gold has been hit sort of (by a)major turn down, sort of this year[2016], and that again has knockeda bit of the confidence out of thegold market.

"I think 2017, one thing that's clearto me is that the world is becoming amore uncertain place."

With Trump now in power,uncertainty may continue to remainthe theme for the resources industry. O

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February, 2017Australian Mining, National

Author: Sharon Masige • Section: General News • Article type : News ItemClassification : Magazines Trade • Audience : 7,337 • Page: 44Printed Size: 1780.00cm² • Market: National • Country: Australia • Words: 1346Item ID: 727885113

Licensed by Copyright Agency. You may only copy or communicate this work with a licence.