Northern Mining Eyes Mid-Term Gold Production
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Research Note th 9 April 2015 Suite 5, Level 8, 99 York Street, Sydney NSW 2000 P: +61 2 9299 5001 I F: +61 2 9299 8001 [email protected] www.proactiveinvestors.com.au Northern Mining Limited Recommendation: Speculative Buy Northern Mining eyes mid-term gold production Sector: Materials o Northern Mining Ltd (ASX: NMI) is a Western Australian resource explorer that holds prime gold prospecting acreage located around Recommendation : Speculative Buy Kalgoorlie Boulder, on one of the world’s most productive gold belts. ASX Ticker Code: NMI o The acreage is known as the East Kalgoorlie Project and includes Share Price: $0.027 prospects at Blair North, Kanowna Lights and Snake Hill. 52 Week: - o Early stage exploration at Blair North has identified a structural High: $0.057 corridor that is 2 kilometres long that links the Company owned George’s Reward gold resource to an additional 1 kilometre of identified gold Low: $0.018 mineralisation at the northern end of the project area known as the Current Ordinary Northern Zone Deeps. Shares: 938.4M o Blair North forms the northern extension of the Cannon Gold Milestone shares (max): NIL Project mineralisation that is being jointly developed by Southern Gold (ASX:SAU) and Metals X (ASX:MLX), with Blair North constituting around Options: NIL 80% of the known gold strike line. Cash: $5.5M o The Cannon Gold Project currently includes shallow JORC gold Market Cap: $25.3M resources of 100,400 ounces that are contained within the southerly 20% Enterprise Value: $19.8M of the overall strike line, with the northern end of the Cannon open pit contiguous with gold resources owned by Northern Mining at the George’s Reward gold prospect. Major Shareholders: o George’s Reward currently hosts a shallow defined JORC resource Provenance Finance Ltd 224.6M of 22,850 ounces of gold that may form part of the northern extension of the Cannon open pit, and serve as a low cost “entry point” for the Top 20 91.06% development of the entire Blair North strike line. Melvin Boon Kher Poh 50.0M o Conceptual potential along the entire strike line and at depth is Daso Investments 24.4M very significant, and may be many multiples of the currently defined and combined 123,250 ounces of gold owned by Northern Mining and Southern Gold. Directors:- o This potential is highlighted by recent drilling programs instituted Tony Ong Non-Executive Chairman by Southern Gold that show open lodes at depth and by an Induced Danette Cheung Non-Executive Director Polarisation Study and limited drilling completed by Northern Mining. Andrew Nai Non-Executive Director o Similar potential exists at Kanowna Lights which abuts the Kanowna Belle Gold Mine with 6 million ounces of gold. Patrick Tan Chief Financial Officer o Northern Mining is a very tightly held company that is managed by Tony Ong, and he has the backing of his Hong Kong based private equity fund known as Provenance Finance Ltd. Provenance Finance has completed more than one billion dollars in funding for Asian entities, and Tony is seeking additional deals for Northern Mining that may significantly increase the value of the Company. o Proactive Investors has initiated coverage on Northern Mining with a Speculative Buy. BACKGROUND - HIGHLY PROSPECTIVE GOLD GROUND AND DEALMAKING ABILITY TO DRIVE VALUE Northern Mining Limited (ASX: NMI) is an emerging resources, exploration and development Company that is headquartered in Western Australia. The current portfolio contains exploration and development potential at the East Kalgoorlie Project in Western Australia. Other Western Australian projects include the Kanowna Lights Prospect and Snake Hill Prospect. In August of 2013 Northern Mining placed 87.3 million shares to Provenance Finance Ltd, and restructured the Board with the appointment of 3 new directors and resignation of 2 existing directors. In November of 2013 the Company raised $5.2 million through a one for one pro-rata non-renounceable right issue to shareholders, and raised an additional $0.8 million from Singaporean investors. Northern Mining is controlled by Tony Ong who is Non-Executive Chairman, and is currently Chairman of Cogent Financial Group (Hong Kong), which is an investment company with controlling interests in property development, hotel management, media publishing and commodities trading. He is also Chairman of Hoverwing Industrial Corp, a Chinese manufacturer of aerospace components and is the founder and largest shareholder of Provenance Finance Ltd, a private equity fund based in Hong Kong, which is the largest shareholder in Northern Mining. Tony was also the founder and largest shareholder of Provenance Capital, a corporate finance firm that is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and admitted onto the list of Initial Public Offer managers by the Singapore Stock Exchange. Provenance Capital’s senior management has cumulatively completed more than 150 corporate finance transactions including IPO, secondary fund raising, advisory, take-over and merger and acquisition. They have also cumulatively risen over A$0.94 / S$1.0 billion by way of IPOs and secondary fundraising. Most recently, Provenance Capital has advised Goodpack, the world’s largest maker of intermediate bulk containers, in their S$1.4 billion acquisition by KKR & Co. EAST KALGOORLIE PROJECT The East Kalgoorlie Project includes a number of separate project areas that include Kanowna Lights Prospect located about 30 kilometres north east of Kalgoorlie Boulder, and is adjacent to the Kanowna Belle Mine containing a total resource of 6 million ounces of gold. The Blair North and Snake Hill Prospects are located 23 kilometres east and northeast of Kalgoorlie- Boulder and the Kalgoorlie Super Pit. The Super Pit has produced a total of 50 million ounces of gold, and continues to operate at an annualised production rate of 850,000 ounces of gold from a pit that currently extends over a length of 3.6 kilometres, width of 1.6 kilometres and depth of 600 metres. Northern Mining owns 79% of Blair North with its joint venture partner Balagundi Mining owning the remaining 21%. MAP ONE: EAST KALGOORLIE GOLD PROJECT The Blair, Blair North and Snake Hill prospects cover an area that is approximately 8 kilometres in width, 14 kilometres in length, and is interrupted by an 8 kilometre section owned by Southern Gold. Local infrastructure includes gold mills, rail and road links that cross the property and provide direct access to a local skilled workforce and all utilities and technical services required for mining gold ores. The Project area includes the Northern Zone which contains a large, high grade quartz vein gold system containing four distinct zones of bedrock gold anomalism that is surrounded by a broad, low grade mineralised halo. It is situated within a 2 kilometre long and 400 metre wide structural corridor that has been poorly tested and links to the George’s Reward Gold Deposit in the Southern Zone of the Blair North Prospect. GEORGE’S REWARD GOLD RESOURCE – SOUTHERN ZONE AT BLAIR’S NORTH George’s Reward hosts a JORC Compliant initial Inferred Resource of 375,000 tonnes at 1.89 g/t for 22,850 ounces of gold, and forms a contiguous mineral deposit with the Cannon Deposit owned by Southern Gold (ASX: SAU). Hellman and Schofield of Sydney prepared the resource estimate in accordance with the 2004 JORC code, which was based on 18 rotary core and diamond drill holes for an Inferred Resource containing: o 18,000 tonnes of oxide resources at 1.69 g/t gold for 1,000 ounces of gold. o 134,000 tonnes of partial oxide resources at 1.74 g/t gold for 7,500 ounces of gold. o 223,000 tonnes of fresh rock at 2.00 g/t gold for 14,350 ounces of gold (Cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t gold and density of 2.65 tonnes per cubic metre). Drilling highlights at George’s Reward include 66 metres at 2.9 g/t gold commencing at a depth of 36 metres. Mineralisation has been identified and logged at a shallow depth of 7 metres, remains open at depth and displays very significant potential along strike. Gold values are widespread throughout granitic bedrock, overburden, and basalt. Shallow auger sampling has also identified additional gold anomalism west of George’s Reward. SOUTHERN ZONE – ADDITIONAL GOLD POTENTIAL Additional drilling to the north of George’s Reward confirmed that that the same host stratigraphy continues in that direction, and provides viable exploration targets for definition of additional gold resources. SOUTHERN ZONE – NICKEL POTENTIAL Confirmation of the presence of nickel sulphides of up to 4.4% indicates potential for the metal along strike. NORTHERN ZONE – GOLD POTENTIAL The highly prospective Northern Zone contains high grade and thick zones of gold mineralisation that have been identified within four zones that are contained within an area that extends for 2 kilometres and over a width of 400 metres. These zones carry bedrock values that exceed 0.5 g/t gold that were identified in early stage rotary air blast drilling. Early stage and deeper and rotary core drilling identified a mineralised trend of 600 metres that is open to the northeast and is essentially unconstrained in other directions. Highlights include 16 metres at 1.6 g/t gold, 25 metres at 1.11 g/t gold, and 20 metres at 1.67 g/t gold. Gold values are hosted in a variety of rock types that include granite, basalt, and ultramafics. Follow up drilling of 18 reverse circulation drill holes for 2,833 metres identified mineralisation in three distinct environments that included: o Mineralisation lying towards the base of a clay filled palaeochannel; o Mineralisation lying directly on, or within weathered bedrock; and o In fresh bedrock that is predominantly altered granite that is sometimes associated with pyrite.