TXRogers wrote: Hey OBB:
Maybe I’ll step in here, and help old WG get a couple of points across. It’s an American holiday weekend, and I am sure he has better things to do. It’s a bloody monsoon out here with no Rising Sun in sight. Wings are clipped.
Let’s take a look at what’s going down in Nullagine – Down Under, Pilbara way.
1) Regarding Beatons Creek: The current stated resource in BC is NOT fully representative of the prospect. An initial 43-101 report was compiled and released to do more than just provide a resource. It was also done to show that Novo can actually succeed in delivering an approved 43-101 report for a coarse gold resource in the Pilbara. A resource defined by an “extreme nugget effect”.
Now, for those of that have been around since the beginning of this story:
This was once deemed a near impossibility. Novo has successfully developed processes and analytics that are now part of an approved 43-101 Report process. This is the most significant achievement.
https://www.novoresources.com/news-media/news/display/index.php?content_id=346 Regarding this stated 43-101 compliant resource estimate for BC: Does anyone actually believe it to be the final figure? It was clearly stated that the pit boundaries used to define this BC prospect was purposely limited. In fact, the following statement included in the Novo NR are quite telling:
“Mineralization remains open to the north-west and south-west with several areas identified for resource development drilling.”
“Underground Mineral Resources contain fresh mineralization outside the optimized shell. Underground resources are constrained to discrete areas of contiguous mineralization. NB: cut-off grade for underground resource has been increased from 2.0 Au g/t to 3.5 Au g/t for the 2019 Resource Estimate”
The Resource estimate for BC is clearly conservative in nature. But a recognized process (once thought impossible) in producing and expanding this resource is now in place.
Investors may ask why wouldn’t Novo expand this resource and continue to revise the 43-101 report? The answer is simple. There is no need to. In fact, it would probably be detrimental to expend further human and financial resources to expand a resource that they already know is much larger. Not until Novo are ready to mine it. And process it through a mill.
And this is where we stand today.
2) Millennium Minerals Nullagine Gold Project (NGP): And the “MOY mill” Millennium’s NGP is a dispersed mining operation consisting of a series of open pits and one underground mining center from which mining operations are conducted, with processing taking place at the Company’s 1.54Mtpa capacity plant. A recent strategic review conducted by Management indicated optimized production of approximately 80,000 ounces per annum at the NGP. Mining, haulage and ancillary activities were principally undertaken by contractors.
MOY started the NGP when it acquired tenements in 2001 and commenced active mining and processing in 2012. The Company’s assets can be considered in two broad categories, being first its tenements and ore reserves and secondly, its processing plant and other equipment.
The NGP comprises 64 granted mining leases, 11 miscellaneous licenses, 37 prospecting lease and one general purpose lease. These tenements have minimum spend requirements to maintain, which are currently being funded by the Secured Creditor.
https://www.millenniumminerals.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/20180314_NullagineProjectOverview-1024x702.png Gold production from the Nullagine Project is sourced from six mining centers established over a +40km strike length. Production from Nullagine has traditionally been sourced from open pits, however mining commenced at the Company’s first-ever underground mine at Bartons in late 2018 and a second underground mine is scheduled to be developed at Golden Gate in Q3 2019.
Ore was processed at the MOY 2Mtpa Golden Eagle CIL ore treatment plant (the MOY mill now in Care and Maintenance), with the ore delivered from multiple ore sources to a 150,000 tonne capacity stockpile where a front end loader re-handles the ore into a ROM (run-of-mine) crusher feed bin. Separate smaller stockpiles account for varying material hardness and grade, allowing for blending and process optimization.
A two-stage expansion of the Golden Eagle plant (the MOY mill) was commenced and constructed (see the New Circuit) and to accommodate the treatment of sulphide ore.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdZr54LX4AAB4MF.jpg The Nullagine area hosts a significant gold resource contained in sulphide ore, which has never previously been developed and mined due to the lack of a suitable processing route. As a result, Millennium commenced an upgrade to their existing CIL mill to process this sulphide ore. The upgrade was to involve a 2-stage low-cost expansion of the existing CIL plant:
Stage 1: In-mill oxidation to facilitate processing of pyrite/arsenopyrite-dominant ore.
a) Phase 1: The first phase is the Stage 1a, which includes concentrator and fine grinding circuit (now in operation).
b) Phase 2: The second stage is the stage 1b which comprises of the installation of the in-mill oxidation (INOX) process as the concentrate transitions from a pyrite-dominant to a blended pyrite / arsenopyrite ore.
Stage 2: Pressurized in-mill oxidation to facilitate processing of arsenopyrite-dominant ore.
Plan for commissioning was to be for early 2020, but the company went into Administration (Receivership) before realizing this goal.
In June of 2019, Millennium had announced that they had successfully commissioned Stage 1 of the Sulphide Ore processing circuit at their Nullagine mill. The company also reported that the commissioning of Ultra-fine Grind Mills was undertaken over 19-24 June 2019, with higher sulphide feed stockpiles now starting to be processed along with freshly generated product from the concentrator circuit. The company noted that concentrate grades over the previous six weeks was averaging approx. 3g/t Au. This is an upgrade of +13-times the average concentrator feed grade.
Note: This process did NOT involve any ore sorting to elevate the grades far beyond the 3 g/t Au.
So, Gold can now be recovered via the Millennium mill from sulphide concentrate. Millennium said that the delivery of first gold from sulphide ore represented a major milestone for the Company, marking the culmination of detailed development studies and optimization programs completed over the prior four years.
Bottom Line This does not suggest that Novo would not make any minor modification to this existing mill to optimize their specific operational needs. Especially where a process involves ore sorting that significantly elevates the head grades of the input ore. The main point is that this Millennium mill is basically “good to go”.
In addition, an investor needs to fully acknowledge the current Millennium gold bearing tenements throughout the area. These tenements are also major assets under the Creditor Receivership administration.
Combined with the recent Novo tenement acquisitions in the nearby BC area, Egina, and to the west in Karratha (i.e. Patch 47), there should be no shortage of “elevated head grade” gold ore to feed this mill. And these elevated grades at the current mill capacity would result in outstanding gold production from that single Pilbara processing facility.
Millennium Minerals failed in turning their operation into a successful business. Putting aside accusations of management incompetence, unhappy contractors, and lack of working capital, there are significant differences between Novo and Millennium. The biggest being that Novo controls multiple times the needed quantity of ore for the milling operation to process.
In the meantime, we wait for this thing to light up and go into production.
I hope I didn’t put any extra words in your mouth, WG.
Tx