IGO Limited (Independence Group)
IGO Limited (Independence Group)
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West Australian explorer Enterprise will switch focus to gold exploration after Independence Group quit as JV partner on the historic Darlot gold-base metals project near Leinster.
Independence's Nov 2013 farm-in agreement entitled it to earn 51% by spending $A1.7M, but it departs with just a 2% NSR on one licence. Enterprise says Independence focused on copper-zinc at Darlot, but it will now resume developing gold targets.
New underground diamond drilling contracts at Independence Group's Jaguar and Nova mine sites in Western Australia are helping drilling services contractor Swick lift its rig utilisation rate to 76%, from 65% four months ago.
MD Kent Swick says with four rigs commencing work in April on the 1 year-plus 1 year option IGO contracts, and work recently begun on its KCGM contract with Newmont, Swick will have 59 of its 78 rigs in contracted work. It now has about $130M contracted work in hand.
Australia produced 285t of gold in CY2015, benefitting from weaker $US exchange rates to be worth over $A14B, almost 2t more than 2014 and the highest annual total since 2003, according to Australian mining consultants Surbiton Associates.
The $A gold price, at around $1,700oz, is now only about $100oz less than the all-time record $A price reached in Aug 2011.
Australia’s 2015 gold prodn up 2t to 286t with current $A1,700oz gold price only about $100oz less than the record $A price reached in Aug 2011, report
Miner Independence Group has plunged to a $A78M net loss after tax for the Dec 2015 half (H1 2016) from H1 2015’s $49.5M profit, hit by Sept Sirius Resources acquisition/integration costs of $66.9M and a $36M exploration assets impairment.
The result was on revenue from its Western Australia operations down 20% to $220.2M, due to a 4% drop in gold sales, 27% drop in zinc sales, nickel sales down 12%, and with nickel-copper-zinc prices received down 32%, 23% and 18%. Underlying EBITDA fell to $69.6M from $121.4M.
Impairments and Sirius Resources acquisition costs have fuelled a $128M turnaround for Independence Group, pushing it to an H1 2016 $78M loss.
S2, the spin-off explorer with early stage projects formerly held by Sirius Resources, expects to deliver the first substantial outcomes of its work since its Oct 2015 inception with a mineral resource estimate next month for the Baloo gold deposit, part of its Polar Bear project in Western Australia.
Supporting S2's aim to define a modest resource with potential cash-flow after minimal capital expenditure, initial RC drilling has delivered gold intersections up to 20m from as shallow as 2m plus high-grade mineralisation down-plunge at the southern end.
Western Australian-focused miner Independence Group (IGO) has substantially reduced its Dec 2015 qtr (Q2 2016) post tax net loss to $A7.2M from the previous qtr’s $50M loss, with gold production up, but nickel-copper-zinc down.
Independence cuts Sirius Resources acquisition-affected losses with Tropicana gold production up, but nickel-copper down
West Australian miner Independence has suspended all exploration at its Long nickel mine as part of targeted $A20M cuts in FY16 expenditure in response to weak base metals prices.
The rationalisation will result in 30 redundancies at the Long mine, with another 9 jobs to go due to the scaling back of regional exploration at the Jaguar copper-zinc mine. MD Peter Bradford says capital priorities will remain development of its newly acquired Nova nickel-copper project and debottlenecking of its 30%-owned Tropicana gold mine JV with AngloGold Ashanti.