western australia world hub of gold and new technology...

Government of Western Australia Department of Mines and Petroleum Government of Western Australia Department of Mines and Petroleum Government of Western Australia Department of Mines and Petroleum

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Western Australia –

World hub of gold and new

technology metals

Rick Rogerson

Executive Director

Geological Survey of Western Australia


• Cost cutting and an average 2016/17 Australian dollar gold price of $1675 meant that

producers were highly profitable and exploration increased

• Lithium exploration and development has been frenetic, and construction of

downstream processing capacity has begun

What a great resources year in WA!

Abi Rose Ni


• Major discovery of coarse gold in an

Archean conglomerate in the Pilbara

• New gold field identified only 260km

from Perth (details on next slide)

• In the last year, 4 new gold mines

opened and 10 re-opened

• WA produced 196 tonnes Au in 2016

valued at $US7.9 billion — 68% of

Australia’s production

• Largest producers:

Boddington (Newmont) — largest Au

mine in Australia

Kalgoorlie Super Pit (KCGM)

Telfer (Newcrest)

Tropicana (Independence

Group/AngloGold Ashanti)

St Ives (Gold Fields)

Gold exploration and mining booming in WA

Mining & under construction

Scoping or feasibility

Advanced exploration

Mine care & maintenance

New gold

field

Coarse gold

discovery


• Tampia Project (Gault prospect) owned by Explaurum Ltd, an ASX-listed company. Project at feasibility stage

• In high grade Archean metagabbro and granite

• Excellent infrastructure, in wheat growing area, good relations with property owners

• Resource: 11.3 Mt @ 1.91g/t = 695,000 oz Au and will increase with more drilling

New gold field only 260km from Perth


Coarse gold discovery near major town

• Purdy’s Reward — coarse gold

discovery only 40km from

regional town of Karratha

• Artemis Resources in JV with

Novo Resources hold tenements

over the gold discovery

• Shallow trial trench excavated

and drilling will begin shortly

• In conglomerates at base of

Neoarchean Fortescue Group

which directly overlies

Mesoarchean Pilbara Craton

rocks

• Opens up new gold play in

Pilbara region of WA where

Fortescue Group is widespread


• Exploration and mining of lithium is

booming in WA

• All WA deposits are hosted by

pegmatite within Archean rocks

• While brine operations are generally

cheaper to operate, they involve higher

up-front costs, slower start-up periods,

and high wet weather risks

• Global average price of lithium

carbonate increased 138% from

US$5,731 per tonne in June 2015 to

US$13,625 per tonne in June 2017

• WA accounted for 41% of World lithium

production in 2016

• A record of ~500 000 tonnes of

spodumene concentrate produced in

2016

WA — World capital of battery metals

Mining & under construction


Exploration stage


Project Company Ore

(Mt)

Grade

% Li2O

Contained

Li2O (Mt)

Downstream processing

Greenbushes Talison Lithium (51%

Tianqi, 49% Albemarle) 119.4 2.42 2.89

Tianqi constructing LiOH plant near Perth;

Albemarle considering Li2CO3 plant in WA

Wodgina Mineral Resources 195.8 1.18 2.32 Direct shipping of spodumene concentrate

Pilgangoora Pilbara Minerals 150.6 1.24 1.86 Direct shipping of spodumene concentrate

Mt Holland

(Earl Grey) Kidman Resources 128.0 1.44 1.84 Feasibility into lithium refinery in WA

Mt Marion Reed Industrial Minerals 77.8 1.37 1.06 Li2CO3 plant proposed for Kalgoorlie

Pilgangoora Altura Mining 42.6 1.04 0.42 Direct shipping of spodumene concentrate

Mt Cattlin Galaxy Resources 16.4 1.08 0.18 Direct shipping of spodumene concentrate

Bald Hill Alliance Mineral Assets

and Tawana Resources 12.8 1.18 0.15 Direct shipping of spodumene concentrate

Lynas Find Pilbara Minerals 5.6 1.22 0.09 Exploration stage

Total 749.1 10.81 Committed or planned downstream processing

Emerging hub of lithium downstream processing


• More nickel is used in batteries than any

other metal!

• WA is Australia’s only nickel producer

• In August, BHP announced it will build

World’s largest Ni sulphate plant (used in

batteries) near Perth in WA that will

produce 100,000 t per year

• Current Cobalt price ~ $US 60,000 per

tonne and Nickel ~ $US11,500 per tonne

• 2.76 Bt @ 0.05% Cobalt resource in WA

= 1.37 Mt of contained Co in 37 deposits

• WA exported 5140 t of Co in 2016

produced as by-product of Ni mining

• Most deposits are in nickel-cobalt

laterites

• Several Co deposits at pre-feasibility

stage

Co & Ni — more WA battery metals!

Mining, Care & Maintenance


Exploration stage

Nickel mine

Cobalt

resource


• Both HREE and LREE deposits

• Browns Range HREE project

begins mining and construction of

pilot plant

• New mineralisation zone

discovered at Yangibana

Rare earth developments continue

Mining

Feasibility

Exploration stage

LREE deposits

HREE deposits

Project Tonnage

(Mt)

Average

REO

(%)

Contained

REO

(tonnes)

Mt Weld (Lynas) 61.0 3.53 2,154,730

Yangibana (Hastings) 14.3 1.17 167,613

Brockman (Hastings) 41.4 0.21 87,460

Browns Range (Northern

Minerals)

10.8 0.66 71,107

Cummins Range

(Navigator Resources)

0.7 3.39 23,289

East Kimberley

HREE mineral

district


• Discoveries being made: Citadel (Antipa

Minerals), Tollu (Redstone Resources)

• Citadel Project (Antipa/Rio Tinto JV) is in

Proterozoic rocks with little previous

exploration — enormous potential in region

for new vein and hydrothermal Cu+Au

discoveries

• Tollu Project (hydrothermal veins in

Proterozoic gabbro) has inferred resource of

3.8Mt @ 1.0% Cu for 38,000 tonne Cu.

Resource will grow as drilling continues

• Calingiri (Caravel Minerals), 120 km from

Perth, is a bulk tonnage Cu–Mo deposit in

metamorphosed Archean granite

• Pre-feasibility study released later in 2017.

• Current resource: 251 Mt @ 0.34% Cu

(0.38% Cu equivalent) for 844,000 t of Cu.

• 20 year mine life; CAPEX $US 355 M, post-

tax ROI = 23%.

Don’t forget WA’s increasing Cu resources

Tollu

Callingiri

Citadel

Cu deposits with resources

Total Cu resource: 9.5 Mt

Mining

Exploration stage


Freely available information

Online and free of charge to

view and download at

www.dmp.wa.gov.au

• All details of licences and

leases (ownership, expiry,

conditions, expenditure etc)

• Online GIS map of exploration

and mining leases

• All geological reports, maps

(including GIS & Google Earth

files)

• All company exploration reports

and data files over 5 years old

• Mineral deposit database

including resources/reserves

Use Online

Systems to

access all online

information

http://www.dmp.wa.gov.au/


• ASX 300 Metals and Mining Index has been

rising since January 2016

• By end of August, 17 initial public offerings of

shares in mineral companies on ASX — best

result since 2012

• Lion Selection investment clock probably at 7 for

most commodities but Au and Li probably higher

Company & project bargains disappearing fast


• Fraser Institute ranks Western Australia 3rd

best minerals investment destination in

2016

• 1st in World for quality of geoscience

databases

• Top Australian State for mining policy

attractiveness

WA is World’s 3rd most attractive mineral

investment destination

Fraser Institute’s Policy Potential Index (Australian States only)

Fraser

Institute

ranking

2006-

2007

2007-

2008

2008-

2009

2009-

2010

2010-

2011

2011-

2012

2012-

2013 2013 2014 2015 2016

1 SA SA SA SA SA NT WA WA WA WA WA WA

2 QLD TAS NT NT WA SA SA SA SA SA SA

3 TAS NT WA WA NSW NSW NT NT TAS NT NT

4 VIC WA NSW NSW NT TAS VIC QLD NT QLD TAS

..

7 WA


Thank you

western australia world hub of gold and new technology...

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