Yawn.
ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Printable View
Yawn.
ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Not at all Balance, I would imagine that the Glass Earth CEO, who is also the company's certified geologist person, will be busy while the rest of us are on holiday. Will this mean that data on WKP, which might have been held back via the Newmont connection in the JV, will be made public? Newmont have a lot more depth in their staff, and should already have a resources chart for WKP.
BOO! i was hoping for some news from a drill site or something half decent to start my new year back at work....
https://www.nzx.com/companies/GEL/announcements/231822
Hi Bucko, I doubt we'll get drill results in early January, but the revised 43-101 standard reports are due by 21st January. They will be much more useful for the market. In any case, there has obviously been ongoing interest in the latest private placement. It's possible it's not closed off yet, or that some funds haven't turned up in their bank account, allowing the paperwork to be completed. It's a positive sign that some well-heeled investors think there is plenty of room for upward movement in GEL's share price in 2013.
I like this focus on the gold recovery, after 2-3 months of work the company should be well on track for a stable cashflow at last.Quote:
Miner looks at franchising options ALAN WOOD
Last updated 05:00 10/01/2013
Glass Earth Gold is seeking to sell franchises within its Central Otago alluvial gold operations, and to make the venture self-funding for further exploration.
Chief executive Simon Henderson said the listed gold explorer had hit its straps with its alluvial operation before Christmas, producing 70 ounces to 80 ounces of gold a week. However, there was room for improvement.
The operation was cashflow positive for paying staff and meeting other overheads, but it could also pay its own way for further exploration in the area if production was raised to 120 ounces a week, Henderson said.
Glass Earth was operating two alluvial washing plants in the Manuherikia Valley, each employing five to seven people. "If we could get another 50 per cent increase in gold we would probably sustain not just the administrative costs and all the wages and salaries, but we would sustain probably all the exploration [in the area]."
Production could be lifted to the 100-ounces-a-week level by better configuration of machinery and better productivity, he added. "There are two big plants operating. They've been operating at about 65 per cent productivity. If we could get up to 85 per cent, we could get that increase in productivity."
Glass Earth is also looking to add two extra alluvial plant machines either through its own backing or by bringing in partners as franchise operators to process deposits in the Central Otago area.
"We're looking to do that [franchise] in the next two to three months. We have two other mining permits with the resources defined and we have two partners willing to do that work." The other permits were in the Ida Valley and Maniototo regions.
This week, Glass Earth, listed on both Toronto and New Zealand exchanges, said it had closed the second tranche of its previously announced private placement to raise C$3.76 million (NZ$4.56m) of gross proceeds to develop gold and silver prospects in the Hauraki region.
The placement is for 18.75 million shares at C16 cents, as well as an option to buy up to the same number for C25c within two years.
In the second tranche, a total of 3,343,750 units had been sold at C16c each for gross proceeds of C$535,000.
The company anticipated closing a final tranche shortly, with agreements for a further C$274,000 received and being processed.
- © Fairfax NZ News
The ODT has another article: some more good background on the alluvial work. The good grades are found 5 metres below the surface at Drybread, not too deep, and at least 0.3g/m3 on average. 50% above cutoff.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/2...gh-environment
It looks like Simon has found a firm who will mine under tribute at the Gunclub permit, which is still valid and consented. This is a lower grade site but with some new hotspots delineated, maybe with the GEL RC drilling truck. Note the photo of GRU#3 running.
The tenor of the two articles implies that Glass Earth is looking around to see who will front up with the capital and work teams quickly, to allow more gold recovery, and of course they'll have to strike a deal on the proportion of gold paid over for that work. As I researched a while back, the core cost for a brand spanking new GRU can be under $200,000, and there are a lot of diggers and ancilliary equipment lying around in NZ. GEL has been oversubscribed, so they do have an option to buy, lease or finance into some more equipment. That way, they'd be far more in control, if they are certain of the grades and their expertise.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/2...gh-environment
100-120 ounces by march this year
I wonder what the buy in is for this franchise they have sold was, must be close to getting a release about WKP soon surely?
Hi Bucko, good point, on closer inspection the franchisee setup is probably well in GELs' favour for once:
An operator will need to be certain that there is a good profit here for both parties, as that's the only way their labour and equipment costs would be covered. I had a quick look at the NZPAM site today: in the last month or so GEL has surrendered parts of permits 53189 (Sparrowhawk) and 53182. The small amount of land around the Gun Club mining permit was also dropped (51477) on 8th Jan. One other permit extension appears to be 'in progress' with NZPAM.Quote:
Glass Earth had borne all costs of exploration, consenting and permitting of the prospects so far, and the franchisee would take an undisclosed minority share in any profits.
The date for new reports to NI 43-101 standard is 21st January, Monday next week. There would appear to be three major areas, WKP, Muirs and the Placer permits. So next week could be really interesting for GEL holders.
Using the quarterly reports, shareholders can easily see what Simon Henderson and Peter Liddle are earning for their work with GEL. It's not a great deal, and perhaps from shareholders' perspectives, it's fair enough.
Here's a setup that a large company is using to boost their performance:
Senior management have some performance criteria to achieve, in GEL's case it might be to maximise placer returns, thus allowing leftover cash for exploration. It might include minimising dilution of the shares. Another performance criteria: progress benchmarks at the hardrock permits.
The bonus offered could be up to double their normal salary each year, paid half in cash and half in GEL shares.
But those gifted shares will have to be bought on the market by the company, so there is no extra dilution. There would also be a holding time for the shares, as though they were a private placement.
How does that sound? If all this worked out, there would be enough profit left for incremental exploration without selling new shares, senior management would be a bit more interested in the share price holding up, and the rest of us could look at the GEL shares as a non-diluting investment.
I don't know about "up to double their salary", but I very much like the idea of gifted shares that must be bought from the market. Share dilution is never fun. I wish you were on the board of directors. ;)
Here are the main salaries and director fees from the 2011 annual report, below. The company is not paying over $200k to any senior staff, no matter what their qualifications are, the workload, or the risks involved. This confirms that GEL is a very lean operation.
Glass Earth has done well with the latest private placement, and some of the interest will be due to the generous warrant options. As previous investors have found, the options are not much use if the share price keeps diluting after funding shortfalls. But surely the tide is turning, and those who have jumped in now (including one or two big investors and NZ's ACC besides) could do extremely well.
There wouldn't need to be a lot of shares purchased on market for performance bonuses (while we're at it, why not suggest the same for the board members, who appear to be underpaid too) - but it would be the principle behind it. Maybe some should be purchased on both the NZAX and the TSX-V, which would also improve liquidity over here.
As for your nomination for the board, Gonzo, thanks.. but I've checked the qualifications of the existing board members, and we're very well placed there. They are streets ahead of any experience a small shareholder like me can offer.
Today is the 23rd of January, a quick search reveals no new BCSC reports, but these might not be published to the web just yet.
Not much else has been happening on the web that relates to GEL. CHFIR have tidied up their client page for GEL, it now mentions the correct set of board members, and the big change in the number of shares on issue. The main Glass Earth website states "current" work as at June 2012, a permit list dated Sept 2012, quite a few pages that could be added or updated. Once the private placement is complete, the issued shares page will need to be updated too.Quote:
Technical Reports are being prepared. The company intends to finalize technical reports in relation to Muir's, WKP and Placer on or before 21 January 2013.
The private placement has not been mentioned lately, but I'd expect the third tranche will be the final one, and it will close well over the $3mill they were looking for.
I get the feeling that there will be quite a lot of news that could be released in the near future, but the new 43-101 standard reports will be compelling reading.
WKP is being explored under the JV with one helicoptered diamond drill rig. It's been a while since the last assays were reported on. Newmont is likely to be focussed on the Correnso hearing, looking for resource consent for their latest mining site.
Here is a timeline and the paperwork generated so far, it's a big job.
http://www.hauraki-dc.govt.nz/news/M...nkRCAp/app.htm
At the moment Newmont is responding to the submitters, then the submitters get time to consider those replies, and the hearing resumes in mid March 2013.
OGC's report is just out: they spent $4mill on exploration in the last quarter.
so much for that announcement last monday...and the price continues to drop
Hi Bucko, I was hoping to see something as well. Any of us can step in and buy some more shares if we think they are selling too cheaply.
I just had a look at the NZPAM website, the website you look at when you're scratching around for news on mineral exploration in NZ.
Placer Gold International has been granted an EP in Southland. Waikaka. They've put a request in for more area in Southland. I thought they were helping GEL in a JV. Renison Consolidated has been granted all of the space around the outside of the New Talisman Mine (NTL) in Waikino. Last I checked they had a minimal MCap. Glass Earth was the former permit holder for that area.
Waihi Gold Ltd has applied (16-Jan-2013) for a 643.11 Ha extension to permit 40598. The original permit is due to expire on 21/5/2013, but this won't be happening of course.
EP40598 is the permit covering the area from around Golden Cross Mine and up into the WKP JV exploration site. So it's good to see that there is some paperwork being done on the area, and far from dropping back, the JV is wanting to extend the position.
Michael Berry had this article about Glass Earth in the Southland Times, over the Christmas period.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-tim...ass-Earth-data
As I say, the transgressions are relatively minor as far as I can see. And it looks like GEL has been using global estimations for WKP made in 2008. The good thing about that, is there has surely been positive drills in more areas of WKP since then.
Sefton Darby, the PR person for Newmont's Waihi Gold, has a new job, at NZPAM.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times...for-ratepayers
This sets a bit of a precedent, and perhaps implies the govt is keen on mining initiatives. There have been some big delays in the granting of permits, well over a year in some cases. Sefton Darby states he won't be making any decisions, or be involved for at least a year, in hearings like Correnso. Looks like the final result of that resource consent might take over a year.
This impacts a bit on GEL, as in the meantime will we see increased work on WKP? Is the longer-term plan to be ready for talks about WKP as a mining prospect?
The permit list on GEL's website has been updated, yesterday. This is welcome, except there seem to be some errors and omissions, at least compared with the NZPAM records.
Area of EP53182, Manuherikia, should be 7128.34 Ha, not 6605 Ha.
Area of EP53297 Kakanui, should be 2256.8 km2, not 2335 km2
Another application is 54765, to replace the Moeraki permits above Macraes Mine
GEL has a 35% share of EP40813, a permit above the WKP area.
All sorted by 30th January, thanks. Neavesville permits have been added to the JV section, as there is an option to purchase these.
The first of the three required NI 43-101 standard reports has been put out, this one for Muirs. The overall picture (below) is not impressive for this site, it's easy to access but a bit remote from the Newmont powerhouse in Waihi. The amount and grade of gold is not proved continuous yet, and it's still not a feasible hardrock mining site. The fact is GEL dropped the permit area around Muirs itself, a few months ago.
The report was prepared by Peter Grieve, checked over by Simon Henderson too. I think there's a good reason for the Muirs report to be first: if there is to be a podium for the three reports, then Muirs was always going to be third in line of importance. It's still $430mill of inferred gold, but it could cost a lot of that cash just getting set up for it with drilling and planning, and mine establishment.Quote:
Glass Earth Gold Announces Filing of NI 43-101 Technical Report for its Resources at Muirs Project, Te Puke, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
Outlining an inferred resource of 5.24 Mt averaging 1.3 g/t gold, using a 0.5 g/t gold cut off for a total of 219,000 ounces of gold
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND--(Marketwire - Jan. 30, 2013) - Glass Earth Gold Limited (TSX VENTURE:GEL)(NZAX:GEL)("Glass Earth Gold or GEGL") is pleased to announce that it has filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) its National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on resources at Muir's Project, Te Puke, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.
Exploration at the Muir's Project in the Hauraki Goldfield in New Zealand's North Island has outlined an inferred resource of 5.24 Mt averaging 1.3 g/t gold using a 0.5 g/t gold cut off for a total of 219,000 ounces of gold. Gold as electrum occurs in mineralised low sulphidation style epithermal quartz veins. GEGL wholly owns the prospect and has focused on developing greater understanding of the economic potential of the mineralization at the site.
The resource estimate is based on data from GEGL and historical data from BP Minerals and Mineral Resources (New Zealand) Ltd dating back to the 1980's. GEGL executed 24 trenches of 510m total length, 16 diamond drillholes of 3,141.25m combined length, 2 RC drillholes of 463m combined length. The historical drilling comprises 12 diamond drillholes with a combined length of 1,739m and 40 RC drillholes with a combined length of 3,966m. Historical channel sampling includes 7 channel samples taken from surface and underground workings for a total of 253m combined length.
The reader is cautioned that the status of inferred resource reflects the relative confidence of the grade estimates and is based on several factors including sample spacing (both along strike and down dip), lack of quality assured data for historical drilling data, limited bulk density data, uncertainty over structural controls on mineralisation and sample quality. Furthermore, geological continuity has been assumed but not established. The resource has not yet been demonstrated as economically viable. There is also no certainty that it will be converted to a measured and indicated resource category through further drilling, or into a mineral reserve once economic considerations are applied.
The independent technical report, entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report on Resources at Muir's Project, Te Puke, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand" was prepared by Mr Peter Grieve, M.Sc., M.A.I.G. of GeoVentures Limited, who is a Qualified Person under NI 43-101 and has also reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release.
The Company's Muirs Reef Gold Prospect lies 65 km southeast of the Martha Gold Mine (Newmont Mining) at the southern end of the Hauraki Goldfield. Two quartz reefs were mined within this epithermal system until the 1930s, with over 43,000 oz of gold extracted from shallow surface and underground workings.
Qualified Person
Mr Simon Henderson, MSc Geology (CODES), an AusIMM Chartered Professional under the Discipline of Geology; is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and an employee of the Company, has reviewed and approved the technical information given in this press release.
About Glass Earth Gold
Glass Earth Gold is one of New Zealand's most active gold exploration companies with landholdings proximal to producing deposits and cash flow from its wholly owned placer projects. With an experienced geological team the Company is exploring promising gold prospects across both the North and South Islands.
In the North Island, exploration efforts are focused on large epithermal gold systems in the Hauraki Region, akin to the operating Martha Hill mine, (Newmont Mining).
In the Hauraki Region, Glass Earth Gold has identified and developed significant ground positions around the active Martha Hill gold mine operations at Waihi. The Newmont-Glass Earth Gold Waihi West JV (Newmont earning in) and Hauraki JV (65/35), including drilling at the WKP discovery, are being actively explored and managed by Newmont in collaboration with Glass Earth Gold.
The recent announcement that Glass Earth Gold has acquired option rights to the Neavesville gold/silver prospect (just north of WKP) will mean an increased exploration focus in the Hauraki region.
In the South Island, exploration efforts are focused on the Otago Region, home to OceanaGold's Macraes Goldfield, for identification of mesothermal "Macraes-style" gold targets and revenue generation through placer (alluvial) gold production.
For more information on Glass Earth Gold, please visit www.glassearthgold.com.
To receive Company news via email, contact erica@chfir.com and mention "Glass Earth news" in the subject line.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) nor New Zealand Exchange Limited has reviewed this release and neither accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contact Information:
Glass Earth Gold Limited
Simon Henderson
President and Chief Executive Officer
+64 4 903 4980
info@glassearthgold.com
www.glassearthgold.com
CHF Investor Relations
Jeanny So
Director of Operations
+1 416 868 1079 x 225
jeanny@chfir.com
The WKP report is out, but it is very disappointing in terms of detail in the summary that we've been shown.
http://www.directbroking.co.nz/Direc...spx?id=3273574
I've had a look at SEDAR, and its records only date from 29 January backwards at the moment, so the filed reports can't be seen, if they were filed yesterday (30th January).
The summary doesn't mention whether there is enough data on WKP to even give inferred figures (as for Muirs), there is just no quantified data in the summary at all, except for some drill results. One good thing I guess, the report won't contravene the NI 43-101 rules. It also offers nothing new for shareholders, at least in the summary. I'll be watching for the SEDAR report to show up in their database.
Peter Grieve has worked at Macraes as a senior geologist for 10 years, now has his own business, and was a consultant to Newmont for a short stint. He's based in Otago.
The East Graben area is where they're drilling, and the summary includes this promising-sounding paragraph about the 'district-scale' anomaly.
Quote:
The broad low grade gold mineralisation within the Central Zone and veins relating to the East Graben structure lie on a major north-north-east trending structure marking the intersection of rhyolite (west) and more intermediate andesite pyroclastics (to the east). This is a district-scale structure, identified on magnetic and resistivity (geophysical) data and may represent the primary focus of significant coherent mineralisation in the WKP area.
The two big reports are now available on Sedar. As the exploration work is deemed to be at an early stage for WKP (after all these years??) there was no need to fill out any sections dealing with estimations of resources etc.
Still, there's a lot of information about how the various data was gathered, who handled it, and how accurate it was. The description of Martha Hill brings up a lot of similarities. But there is a timeline for a resource estimate for part of the area, mentioned towards the end of the report. Just a few months away.
WKP36 and WKP37 have already been drilled, but no assay results were reported. SGS in Waihi has only 1/3 the capability of SGS elsewhere in Aussie, so that is where the assays are being done. The CSAMT data has been invaluable at WKP, it's the data they've used to find the resistors and then they drill to intercept them.
NZResources has also mentioned the WKP report today.
The JV is going to extend the permit containing WKP, for another 5 year term, as a discovery appraisal. There is no limit on how many times you can do that, but the holding fees are higher to make it a bit difficult.
Quote:
Technical report on WKP released to exchanges
1 February 2013
A technical report by the junior partner on a major epithermal gold prospect on the North Island of New Zealand has been released to the Canadian and New Zealand stock exchanges.
The report by Glass Earth Gold Ltd (TSX-V & NZAX: GEL).is on the Wharekirauponga prospect, thankfully shorted to WKP, in the Hauraki goldfield and is 10 kilometres north of Waihi at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula.
The operating partner Newmont Waihi Gold is a subsidiary of global gold giant Newmont Mining Corporation and it holds 65% stake with Glass Earth holding the balance.
Glass Earth’s technical report said WKP Project is developing as a significant new gold discovery within a large low sulphidation gold-silver epithermal system that is about 1.2 kilometres by 1 km that is capable of hosting a major gold deposit.
Following on from historical exploration on WKP’s Eastern Zone, the joint venture has identified two other significant zones of mineralisation (Central and Western zones), and recently intersected mineralisation on the Eastern Graben structure where drilling continues.
In the Central Zone broad low-grade intercepts are a feature (WKP26 151 metres @ 1.2 ppm Au and WKP27 102.2m @ 1.1 ppm Au) with the margins of a voluminous rhyolite rock-type providing a focus of hydrothermal fluid flow and high-grade mineralisation.
The interior of the competent and homogeneous rhyolite rock has permitted regular fracturing and broad hydrothermal fluid flow with resulting consistent low-grade gold mineralisation.
This, Glass Earth said, contrasts with the East Graben structure, within the Eastern Zone, which is typically dominated by discrete veins. Drill core from 580m down-hole in WKP35 shows episodic high level crustiform banded veins, hydrothermal and tectonic brecciation corresponding with multiple phases of mineralisation, hosted on the juxtaposition of rhyolite and andesite lithologies.
Assays for this interval returned 7.9m @ 5.1 ppm Au, including 3.4m @ 8.3 ppm Au.
This style of mineralization on the Eastern Graben structure was new for this project and important because, there are strong similarities with major gold mines in the vicinity, namely Martha, Favona, and Golden Cross.
The broad low grade gold mineralisation within Central Zone and veins relating to the East Graben structure lie on a major north-north-east trending structure marking the intersection of rhyolite (west) and more intermediate andesite pyroclastics (to the east).
This is a district-scale structure, identified on magnetic and resistivity data and may represent the primary focus of significant coherent mineralisation in the WKP area.
The joint venture plans a significant search programme for 2013; further evaluating the Eastern Graben Structure and including an initial project resource estimate, metallurgical test work, rock engineering study, geophysics and a 2,500m diamond drill programme.
The estimated cost for this programme is NZ$2.7 million (C$2.2 M) and Glass Earth gold’s share would be $C800,000. ($NZ953,370).
Here's one new diagram amongst many in the WKP report. This explains the physical features being mentioned through press releases. But it's also a great sign that the geologists are homing in on the monied parts of WKP.
Andrew Hamilton from Glass Earth has compiled quite a few good figures and diagrams for the WKP NI 43-101 report. Here's another one attached.
This map from above shows the location and orientation of all the drills undertaken at WKP. Note that some of the drills were started in the early 1980s, many were quite short, there aren't many drills in total (37) and the spacings are well above what would be called infill drills (50 -100 metres apart). So there was a good excuse for Peter Grieve to simply not make any mention of the estimated resources. Not even a guess..
But the last page or so of the report mentions what's ahead. Some more planning, careful inspection of previous results, some more CSAMT work (on the ground with wires and EM fields) to locate more of the resistors that have been near the mineralisation. The area that they're looking at is Central and the Eastern Graben Fault. As the drill patterns into the EG area all seem to have been collared from the Central area, maybe the access is just terrible down there.
Each new drilling area has to be checked for any presence of Archey's frogs, and other flora and fauna, first. Remember the rare and special Archey's Frog is not known to be present on WKP, or anywhere nearer than 20km away, but they still should be looking. I haven't seen any mention of the JV sponsoring any frog research, which I think at this juncture would be a smart move.
The JV will also be preparing an estimate on the resources from the Central and the EG area, while the new lot of 2500mtrs of drilling will also be probing the same space later, once drill directions have been sorted.
Thanks to the helpful charts provided in the report, I added up all the drilling that was done since the 5,500mtrs programme was announced in April 2012. It came to 3,601.5 metres, including an aborted WKP32 drill that seems to have gone haywire, with no data being presented on it.
So actually, the next round of 2,500 metres is only another 601.5 metres of drilling over what was promised last year, about one drill length. Maybe they've just paused while assays come back in. I must admit I was surprised how small-scale the assay labs seem to be. Here's an opportunity for some entrepreneurs in NZ.
The Placer report is out, will have to look on Sedar to see it properly.
So far, about $60mill (gross) of placer gold has been identified in all the earlier permits, but Drybread might have more to come, especially near the old diggings. Drybread has about 1/3 of the total, $20mill worth. If that's so, the Drybread spots will be worked through within 12 months.
The sample drills average about 8 metres depth. GEL's gear doesn't suit going lower than that generally, and it starts getting expensive moving overburden.
The Sedar report is now viewable. I've spent an hour looking at it, this report is packed with data and goes into great detail. So far, the placer resources look generally good, and at Hecklers, the equipment has been working at the poorer end of the resource, it's getting into better areas. Hecklers will take a bit over a year to complete, the equipment could then be applied to help with Morans, which will take over two years at the current rate. Increasing operational hours and ore handling would change all this. I'll have a more detailed look later.
Here are three images that help explain the situation at Drybread. Groundwater is the biggest area, and as the alluvial fan is further away from the Dunstan Range, the average grade has dropped off a bit. See chart above. Groundwater has not been mined yet, and GRU #2 is on the Drybread site somewhere but perhaps won't suit the area because it has a riffle trap, not the jig setup.
Morans has the biggest rig, GRU#1. The grade is slightly lower than at Hecklers, but to make up for that they've put it into the hottest spot first. At Hecklers, the tidy GRU#3 has been going well and is only at the cheap end of the area. The two operations could match outputs in the near future.
NZResources had an article today.
Quote:
Glass Earth plans to expand the scope of placer mining in Central Otago and Southland
11 February 2013
A technical report for stock exchanges by Glass Earth Gold Ltd (TSX-V & NZAX: GEL) showed alluvial gold deposits in Central Otago - now providing an improved cash flow for the company - had an indicated resource of 945,000 cubic metres for a contained 9,950 ounces of gold.There was also an inferred resource of 1.35 million m3 for a total 22,500 oz of gold (extra).
The detailed technical report covered five placer properties in Central Otago and Southland - Drybread, Matakanui, Vinegar Hill, Waikaia and Pigburn.
The inferred resources are within Matakanui, Vinegar Hill, Pigburn and Waikaia, respectively in the Manuherikia, Maniototo and Waikaia valleys, where the gold is contained within degradational gravels of Tertiary, Quaternary and Recent age, in shallow horizontal fluvial horizons within 1-11m of surface.
The report chronicles the historical mining, generally several campaigns of historical drilling, followed by Glass Earth’s drilling, bulk sampling and - where appropriate metallurgical-engineering data collection - on the five project areas.
The company completed a total of 887 drill-holes totalling 7,200m of drilling, 166 bulk sample/pits for 600m of sampling, and compiled and verified 341 legacy drill-holes for 4,500m of legacy drilling, averaging 8.2m depth of vertical drilling.
Glass Earth established its own Laboratory testing facility in Alexandra and said the prospects in Central Otago and Southland remain relatively underexplored.
At Drybread, where mining operations are currently underway, exploratory mapping and drilling is recommended to target the zone between the current operations, and historical mining activity adjacent to the Dunstan Range.
At Matakanui and Vinegar Hill, further drilling, and bulk sampling are recommended to improve the confidence in existing resources outlined, and examining the gold potential of recent gravel horizons identified to the south of both resources.
At Waikaia, this larger gold resource in the Southland basin requires significantly more drilling, pitting and engineering data to provide confidence to proceed further on what is a deeper and potentially clayey deposit.
Pigburn, whilst relatively modest, has both resource consent and mining permit in place, and is being examined as a small mining operation under franchise arrangement.
The report added that for all five properties, a two-stage programme of drilling, pitting and engineering studies is recommended, for an estimated cost of $NZ195,000.
Attachments
http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/icons/pdf.jpg 125 page technical report on Glass Earth's placer project. (Adobe PDF File) Download (2993KB)
Yesterday, some of the pages on the GEL website were updated by the look of it. All previous gold discoveries and mined amounts have been carefully referenced. The three NI 43-101 reports, which are full of useful data, are all installed on the technical reports page, which is great.
http://www.glassearthgold.com/s/TechnicalReports.asp
The WKP drill results table is still waiting for new assays to be reported on, but the page here has been changed a bit and mentions the 2013 drill programme and other work. There wasn't much updating on the Muirs, Garibaldi, Placer pages.
heading south indeed! another 124,000 offered at 16cps and 150,000 at 19cps so theres a lot up for sale at the moment!
I have inreased my stake though at this price it was too good to say no,
I tend to agree with elzorro in terms of the future potential of this company and im leaning towards the 6-12 months before i hopefully see some real gains, Once the placers get up to optimum production and the company starts running a small profit and then again when we see more results from WKP/Muirs drills (more so for WKP as Newmont is the majority holder of the permit and they have the cash to go ahead with a project sooner rather than later)
Bucko and others, yes it's a big change in the price today. This drop started on the TSX overnight, there was no company press release over there, and none here. It hasn't affected other goldie shares. So maybe it's a comment on Glass Earth in a subscription broadsheet or similar. Sabre rattling?
Here's a possibility.
http://www.stockhouse.com/bullboards...0&s=GEL&t=LIST
The placer report shows just how involved it is, getting gold out of the gravels in Otago.
I wonder if this dewatering machine would be any use in recycling clean water for the Drybread operations? It might be a good way of cleaning up the slimes or clay residues.
http://dewatersludge.com/dewatering-sludge-mining/
Or a clarifier from Rocktec..
http://rocktec.co.nz/file/Brochures/...thickeners.pdf
If it is Brent Cook's adjustment to his subscriber portfolio that has dropped the shareprice, it should only be temporary. Only 1 mill of shares were sold on the TSX yesterday, which is small for over there. As recently as late Sepetember 2012, Brent appeared still happy to be holding.
http://www.stockchase.com/company/view/4217
So it's an opportunity to pick up some cheap shares, for the brave. The GEL TSX shares are holding up today, with a bigger gap showing between buy/sell.
Brent Cook has quite a following in Canada though. When he plucks a small illiquid company like Glass Earth out of obscurity for his subscribers, the share price is bound to move upwards initially. I like to think that because he held the shares for 18 months or so, and actually visited Muirs, Waihi and Otago placer, his enthusiasm was well founded. Since he puts out a report on Sunday once every week or so, with buy/sell/hold and background data on the chosen set of resource shares he runs with, there has always been this temporary threat hanging over the share price, once he brought the new retail shareholders in on his coat-tails. But he also helped put out a good video on Glass Earth, he's great at fronting the camera.
I think GEL will survive without Brent Cook. Brent has given management some indirect advice though, by the sound of it.
(1) Stick to a clear plan, WKP is really important, don't risk GEL's portion of the JV interest.
(2) Don't dilute our shareholding so much, we're getting a bit tired of it.
(3) Placer returns need to be able to fully fund the operation if possible , both G&A and exploration. That will fix both (1) and (2).
While we wait for Newmont to have a think about their next shuffling steps in exploring WKP, the placer returns from Drybread need to be top of the pile in importance. The Placer report mentioned a portable conveyor system now being used at Morans. I've seen these being used in quarry operations - they can be really efficient. GEL should be highlighting these advances, and bringing in more gear like that.
I'm sure Simon will agree with my suggestion for the company motto..below :)
I'm not sure where the figure of 2Mt of ore is from. It's done in cubic metres of wash. Drybread is a reasonable permit for placer work. With two GRUs, they're handling 105 m3 of wash an hour, running for 64 hours a week, 350,000 m3 a year. There's about 6 years of Drybread material at the current rate, but they only have 2 machines going. More can be deployed, and they can increase the hours of operation.
The company info is that 0.2g/m3 is breakeven in ideal circumstances, and certainly grades around 0.4g/m3 and upwards are being worked. It's not hardrock, there is very little processing. Different rules Bullish. Some of the Drybread permit has a grade of 1.5g/m3.
In Canada, where most of the stock trades, the BCSC rules are very tough, and that flows through to press releases here, and the website. They do talk grades, always have. Have a deeper look.
i just got an email this morning...
"Good Afternoon,
Glass Earth Gold (TSXV – GEL; NZAX – GEL) advises that it has closed the third and final tranche of its previously announced non-brokered Private Placement. A further 1,884,500 Units have been sold at a price of $0.16 per Unit for gross proceeds of C$301,520.
Each Unit consists of one common share and one common share purchase Warrant. Each whole Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one common share at a price of C$0.25 per share, exercisable for a period of 24 months from the date of issuance.
For more information please see the attached release.
Should you have any questions, feel free to e-mail jeanny@chfir.com at anytime."
I guess we should expect the price to drop somewhat over next week given the amount of extra shares that are out there?
Bucko, the market already knew the latest PP was over-subscribed a small amount, so the Brent Cook decision had a lot more impact, but that'll be short term.
Here's a page from Brent Cook's EI website showing the issues with finding a payable resource. However a neat chart I'd forgotten about (a bit out of date) implies that only small grades below 1g/tonne are the cutoff for open cut mining, perhaps with heap leaching. Macraes does a bit of that in Otago. More like 3.5g/tonne for underground mining.
WKP has demonstrated large areas of good opencast grade so far, and now they're looking for underground resources.
Brent Cook appears to have replied to the Stockhouse thread.
Here's a very recent video from Brent Cook. Probably done just before GEL and another of his 22 shares was dropped from the list.
It's possible Brent still holds his GEL shares and will wait sometime into 2013 before selling. The mere fact that he held GEL tells us that he thinks the chance of GEL making it to the hardrock mining stage somewhere, is/was 1:25 to 1:50. The odds for average gold exploration juniors is more like 1:1000 according to him.
What does Brent like to see? Honesty, less dilution, focus, a good team, and credible drill results that are scientifically disclosed, without undue bias.
ElZorro, when are you hoping for positive movement on the share price? in your opinion
That's a good point, Bucko. So IMHO, DYOR etc: here goes..
I'd imagine that a lot of work was required of a small team at GEL HQ over the holiday break, they wouldn't have had much of a holiday. But they've done well, these are good reports. I'd expect the BCSC notification will be lifted soon, if the reports are accepted as up to NI43-101 standard. Maybe it's already lifted, they are not on the default list anymore, I looked. So there's one good press release coming up perhaps.
WKP drills 36 and 37 still have to report fully. Remember one of these was looking for an extension in the EG mineralisation, the money end of WKP hopefully.
Crucial to feel-good sentiment from shareholders at this immediate point, will be placer cash in the bank, and more of it. Maybe Simon and others will be able to give us some more background on what's happening over at Drybread, for instance what does the new conveyor look like? Any ideas to increase production further?
You also have an option to wander into the GEL head office for a chat Bucko, I've never visited any of the three locations they've had in Wellington.
I see the current shareprice dip as temporary, in fact investor interest seems to be good at these prices, here and on the TSX. Keep looking at the MCap, does it look logical for a company with a quickly increasing gold turnover that might exceed $10mill p.a. soon, with the exploration assets they have?
Short answer: I reckon the price will be back over NZ20c soon.
Yep, makes sense Yankiwi. No-one's saying this share is the best one in the world, but GEL's making the right sort of moves at the moment, on the whole. Brent might be able to see even better explorers out there, it doesn't mean we are going to do badly.
I wonder if this conveyor is anything like the one they're using at Drybread. On sale on Trademe.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/business-fa...-554414643.htm
wow the things you can find on trademe! haha
yeh i increased my holdings this week as well, i just couldnt say no to 16c and from what i've read so far about the company im flabergastered as to why it was so low anyway!
so as a shareholder i can just head into one of the GEL offices here in wellington and get a tour??? (still a noob investor, i dont know these things)
Bucko, visiting the office has to be fine, you might want to call first to make a time, as per any business. It's in a cluster around Straterra, an industry lobby group. The "tour" might not be a very big tour, as don't forget the company is on the whole, frugal.
I wouldn't mind being given the opportunity to go on a tour around the Otago permits though. They could set up an open day at Drybread sometime. While they might think it's boring, for shareholders it would be a real eyeopener.
I had a look at some of the other gear that is being sold alongside the 30mtr conveyor. Some of it is located in Central Otago. If I'm right, GEL management will already know all about this surplus mining equipment, it's not too far away from Drybread. Still, it's interesting to see the prices. And that crawler with a boom attached to it, from a Trademe photo, could that be the mobile cross-pit conveyor?
GEL shares have picked up a bit, since the collapse started by Brent Cook's broadsheet recently. They are still resting well below the price set in the latest PP (CD16c, NZ20c), and I thought that would be rock bottom.
Here's Brent Cook talking to the Gold Report in late 2012, and Glass Earth is not mentioned. Although he does say that some shares held by him for longer than a year hadn't performed well, and were pulling down his average returns. CTG, another TSX-V longer-term share he held, is mentioned and in a neutral (to positive) way. Both were dropped in the same week, with explanations.
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/2013...recious-metals
As usual though, great informative background here. Basically he thinks the market should still be tough on juniors in 2013, but that there are still some bargains to be had. The market is not at a peak, may be near a bottom, and maybe some of the poorer juniors are finally being valued fairly. Finance is going to be hard to find, leading to dilution for many.
Let's assume Brent didn't pick GEL 18 months ago so that he'd get a trip to NZ out of it eventually. It had well above average prospects, and I would think that still applies. Dilution and delays at WKP are behind this decision on his part.
Delays on the WKP drill core assays can be explained by the SGS lab in Waihi having one major customer: Newmont. And Newmont will be prepared to pay only a fair price for each assay, most of which will be for urgent grade control data for their mines. SGS will be looking after the 100% Newmont owned jobs first, because that's the breadwinner. They already do 12hour, 4 days on, 4 off shifts, meaning (I think) they are open for 84 hours a week, every day. There is a job going as a sample preparer for that lab, right now. No major qualifications needed (a good sense of humour?) The WKP report showed that the lab in Waihi has a limited number of fire assay pots, and the premises don't look too large or overly staffed. Maybe 10 staff in total. (Footnote, SGS looks like a very profitable company, only 8mill shares and each one costs a fair bit).
The WKP report explained some core samples are being sent to Australia now. What a shame explorers have to do this sort of thing to get a sensible turnaround.
The other aspect is dilution. The Placer report makes interesting reading, and there is clearly potential for much improved profit from the alluvial mining at Drybread. GEL is not using large-scale gear yet, compared to L&M for example. Some overheads and costs look like they could be pruned back, now that the team has decided what gear is needed for the longer-term work. The mobile conveyor looks particularly useful, and I'll be keen to see the details on this in future. The efficiency of something like that wasn't factored into the older data.
It's up to GEL management to prove Brent's decision on the share might have been a bit hasty. Good clear profit cashflow from the placer should increase the MCap of the company by about 5x the profit per annum, so say $6mill profit p.a. would add $30mill to the MCap. A quarterly target to achieve that is just $1.5mill of clear profit from placer returns. On current data, the return before scheduled payments on the equipment is about $2mill p.a.
Some increasing volume in GEL shares here lately, and the price is moving up steadily.
Looked at the NZPAM records just now. Renison Consolidated (Aussie minnow MCap $4mill, now called Lane Resources, LNY) has put in an application for 31,000Ha of exploration starting from below the Talisman Mine (they have the area around it, or want it) and way down into the Waikato. It's called Waiorongomai. I went up the valley on a school trip once, it's near Te Aroha, and there was a limited amount of gold taken out of there.
http://data.nzpam.govt.nz/PermitWebM...lication=55213
Glass Earth has booth 2706 at PDAC conference in Toronto, early March. They'll join a lot of other miners and explorers.
Maybe Simon will be over there, which explains the quiet information stream lately. They usually put out a press release about PDAC.
http://www.pdac.ca/pdac/conv/2013/pd...bitor-list.pdf
CHFIR has just put out a booklet for PDAC. GEL gets a page (14). Neavesville seems to be an important new initiative, because a good half of the page covers it. Trig Bluffs is the area they'll be looking at first. Historic 1999 drill results must have been good.
http://www.actonsoftware.com/acton/a...1/l-0001:52c9/
Here is the news release from November last year, confirming it's all old news. But Trig Bluffs might need fleshing out a bit.
http://glassearthgold.com/s/NewsRele...eportID=558357
The Neavesville area had some gold mining presence from 1875, and is located in the bush, serviced by tracks that might be part forestry tracks, part there to look after the power pylons running through. It's 1-2 km south of the Kopu-Hikuai Road which heads across towards Onemana etc, from Thames. The area has Maori ownership apparently, and has been cleared of some pine forestry recently.
Coromandel Watchdog shows three Neavesville area permits. Hauraki Gold is owned by Eurasian, the outfit that GEL has an agreement with. Newmont owns a small part of Eurasian. Eurasion was able to get hold of these two permits by staking, at minimal cost.
http://watchdog.org.nz/action/neavesville-kopu-hikuai/
Here's a video complete with great soundtrack, on the recent rediscovery of a stamper battery setup as marked on the topo map. 10 stamper batteries were erected there, and never got used because the gas powered motor wouldn't work properly at that altitude. Some of the stampers were removed and are on show in Thames somewhere.
Sounds a bit like WKP. Remember, back then the gear was crude, and you needed 1oz/ton grades to make good money. These are now called bonanza grades.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0rTmzvsPqw
PDAC starts today and runs until Wednesday. The Investors Exchange area (booths) is sold out. Looks like 1250 companies will be represented there, of various sizes. Most booths are the same size as GEL's (they are #2706).
http://www.pdac.ca/pdac/conv/2013/ie-exhibitor.aspx
The annual books will be due out at the end of March, last year they were signed off on 27th March and released by the required date, I assume the end of March.
Waihi Gold Company (Newmont) has applied for a 12 month extension to their 100% owned prospecting permit 52910. It's adjacent and above the Trig Bluffs area in Neavesville. So they do have some interest in the region then..
http://data.nzpam.govt.nz/PermitWebM...x?permit=52910
Yesterday, GEL relinquished permit 51706, which was Star Trek, in Otago. This has not had much of a mention for years. I liked the name though. Pity.
Renison Consolidated changed its name to Lane Resources, converted a loan to equity from its founder/chair Stephen Bizzell, and is poised to develop its coal mines etc in Aussie and do work on its exploration permits - their only NZ permits happen to be in the same area as GEL is working, lower Coromandel. Their new stock ticker is LNY on the ASX. MCap is $4mill, but I might have been hasty here, because Stephen Bizzell was involved in a billion dollar sale of a company he founded. He would have received nearly $23mill in 2010.
Quote:
CORPORATE
On 31 August Mr Ben Harrison was appointed as a Director of the Company replacing Mr David
Vincent.
In early October Renison advised it intends to undertake a restructure and recapitalisation of the
Company.
As an initial step in the process, Renison is currently completing an interim capital raising to fund
general and administrative costs until the restructure and recapitalisation is finalised.
Following the interim capital raising, Renison will then embark on obtaining the required shareholder
approvals necessary to complete the restructure. These approvals will include a share consolidation
and the cancellation of the forfeited partly paid shares currently on issue, together with a proposal to
change the Company's name to Laneway Resources. A larger capital raising will then be undertaken
primarily by way of a pro-rata entitlement issue to existing shareholders to provide sufficient capital to
recommence exploration activities across its project portfolio, continue feasibility studies on the Agate
Creek Gold Project and extinguish the existing loan facility (via conversion to equity) that has been
provided by the Chairman of the Company, Mr Stephen Bizzell.
Further details of the proposed restructure and recapitalisation will be provided to shareholders in an
Explanatory Memorandum that will accompany the Notice of Meeting for the Company's Annual
General Meeting to be held in November.
Following the restructure and recapitalisation, Renison will be well positioned to capitalise on its two
advanced assets namely the Agate Creek Gold Project and the Ashford Coking Coal Project, as well as
a promising portfolio of exploration projects and to investigate new project opportunities that are
being actively pursued.
For further information contact:
Ben Harrison or Scott Hall
Phone: (07) 3108 3500
E-Mail: admin@rcm.com.au
Website: www.rcm.com.au
Competent Persons Statement
The information in this report that relates to Exploration Results and Mineral Resources is based on information compiled by
Mr Scott Hall who is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Hall is a full-time employee of
Renison Consolidated Mines NL and has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of
deposit under consideration and to the activity which they are undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the
2004 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves.’ Mr Hall
consents to the inclusion in the report of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears.
Upon updating my GEL permits spreadsheet today, I see that some of GEL's permit applications have been let go. These were all quite large prospecting permit applications started in 2011, all in the Otago region.
55345, Murray (Poolburn-McAdies)
55347 Lammerlaw (Fruidburn)
55349, Omakau (Lauder-Becks)
55350 Black Rock (Lee Stream)
55351 Greenland (Serpentine outer)
All now missing from the spacial register, they added up to 1080km2 or 10,801.6 Ha.
This means that 'under application' and permitted spaces for GEL add up to a shade under 3,000km2.
Note that application 55109 is GEL's, to the side of Newmont's permit at Neavesville and above the Eurasian permits.
The picture is that Glass Earth is serious in its statement: they appear to be moving away from the permit prospector model and are going to concentrate on fewer permit areas. The upper Waikato is certainly one area of interest. Ophir is one older Otago permit that they've refused to let go. We haven't heard much about Garibaldi lately.
Research note: Brent Cook's newsletter EI was a renamed version of Paul van Eeden's newsletter, resumed in 2008. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Junior...o-a01611715826
Ophir Gold Ltd, a company with multiple shareholders but over 39% owned by Bob Kilgour's family, has applied to extend the time (5 yrs) exploring permit 40427 at Ophir, just South of the township. GEL has JV areas to the south of that, and around it.
and the price continues its decent, elZ is it end of march for the next announcements??
I had a look, last year it was March 28 for the annual set of books. It's only a year since the placer JV partner was bought out. So could be some good results to show.
PDAC sounded like hard work in general for the exhibitors. However soon after the end year books, the Q1 report will be due. By now the field work at WKP should be under way, finding the best resistors to drill. And where are those drill assays? I'd expect some press releases soon. I'm sure there will have been good developing profit from the placer work. That's something most junior explorers don't have, an income and a solid asset base with staff. It's time the shareprice reflected that.
The website was updated today, with a new permit application added that I've missed picking up on. This is (appl) EP 55162, called Okato. It's in Colac Bay, Southland. Right beside an existing smaller permit, Wakapatu (the one that looks like a begging dog). They are just looking for gold, and it'll be a placer operation. 100% owner would be Goldmines NZ, GEL the operator. GEL owns Goldmines NZ 100%.
791.58Ha. Colac Bay is mentioned in the 2012 Newsletter that I also missed.
http://www.glassearthgold.com/i/news...wsletter14.pdf
There are some great comments and photos here. None of the cross-pit conveyor, but the GRU running full bore looks fairly impressive.
Round Hill, the area is known for very fine gold. Floats in water. Sounds familiar. This story is about the Golden Bush permit, no. MP 52925 in the middle of GEL's permit application.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-tim...en-opportunity
The other mining permit is inside there is 41145, Coastal Minerals Corp Ltd.
There is still only one big story for GEL at the moment, it is WKP. The new technical report and the website mention the generation of a "Project First Resource Estimate" for the Eastern Graben-Central area of WKP. This will happen sometime in 2013, with various interpretations of the timing being possible. Is there nearly enough data there now, or do they need to do the rest of the 2012 drilling program first?
Remember that Newmont would probably require an underground resource of sensible grade with a total in the region of 3Moz to 5Moz. There is already a vast but broken area of low grade near surface, which looks more like an opencast proposition, elsewhere on the permit.
Here is what can happen to a share when a resource estimate comes out at 3Moz, in this case the grade was only about 1g/tonne. Alkane Resources in Aussie (ALK). About an 8 bagger within a few months.
Love your optimism EZ.
You are too kind ynot..it's a bit of an up and down share, is GEL. Mostly down so far. None of us are here for the dividends, it has to be interesting as a capital gain stock.
That example of Alkane Resource's shareprice is not so unusual, and follows a pattern that Brent Cook mentions. When a junior explorer finds a mine prospect, the share often peaks and then drops back for a bit as investors see the reality of the costs involved in a mine.
Alkane had to reply to the ASK at least twice about the unusual volume and price for their shares leading up to the peak. They also raised $21mill during the run-up. Their recent books and the records show that they have yet to provide any income streams - three years on they are still exploring and spending investor funds.
Getting back to Glass Earth, this company has an income stream that will be at least $15mill a year soon. It has staff and overheads, but should be able to make a profit. Maybe quite a big profit, if it finds the right placer permits. And then they have serious hard-rock permits like WKP, Muirs and Neavesville, with Ophir and Garibaldi in the South Island.
I think they've done well to get themselves into this position, although they could do better at explaining it to the market. Maybe next week, they'll have had time to prepare something. It's been a month since any news was offered up.
I hear ya EZ. To be honest i reckon the only thing holding them back now is the fact i'm shareholder.
My record is not that hot.
Mine's not that good either (no pun intended). But shares are only a part of my investments.
GEL has been a bit up and down all right. On the Canadian market, many have come to put a strong link for that to Brent Cook's paid newsletter. The comments inside it are fiercely guarded on the internet. Brent has recently put a sell notice on GEL and CTG, and in GEL's case he held the share for 18 months, and helped out with some PR work over here.
Some on Stockhouse argue that Mr Cook is in a prime position to profit from picking up (and then dropping) small-cap shares in advance of the newsletter, and perhaps buying after the havoc that resulted from a sell recommendation. He has some kind of a policy in place about that, but it is far from clear.
A poster kbCook (who I'd expect is Brent Cook), put up a rare post on Stockhouse on 14th February explaining what he'd said in the subscriber newsletter about GEL and another share (CTG).Quote:
Oceansun on Stockhouse, the CTG thread:
I for one very much welcome and enjoy Sams posts on this and the GEL board. I don't think you can discuss CTG or GEL stocks at this point without including in the discussion the huge impact Brent Cook and his readers have had on both stocks. If you own shares in any of the stocks in his portfolio you darn well better be prepared for the day the share price is cut in half or worse as a direct result of comments made in the letter. So yes, Brent Cook has to be a large part of the conversation when discussing these stocks. In the cases of CTG and GEL shareholders can actually rest a little easier knowing that the Cook factor has now been removed from the situation (at least for now) .
Read more at http://www.stockhouse.com/bullboards...zlCW7ZOMqrJ.99
http://www.stockhouse.com/bullboards...0&s=GEL&t=LIST
The EI Newsletter comes out on Sundays apparently, so 10th February, and the first trading day would have been 11th February. You can see the effect on the shares. It was much worse for CTG percentage-wise, because GEL had just announced another PP, and the shareprice had already dropped down to its lower level.
In September 2012 Brent was already saying that Glass Earth was their poorest performer.
http://juniorgoldminerseeker.blogspo...is-martin.html
I thought it might be interesting to go back and see what happened when Brent Cook first reported both CTG and GEL as buys for his own investments. Both shares are fairly small Mcaps, under about $40mill generally. You can see from the charts that in both cases there was an uncanny boost in the share price at the time. I didn't have a clue what caused it for GEL back then. For CTG it was on March 11 2011, and for GEL it was around July 2011. The pattern from then on was the same: a great price increase on the share, a peak and a drop, followed by some bursts as good press results came out, and then a drift back below the start point, followed by a sell result. Some of Brent's other picks had great results in the interim, some gains over 300% p.a, giving him a good average for the year.
I bet there is one thing in common with his junior picks: a price ramp on the first buy mention.
Two of the shares that Brent has been mentioning in interviews lately are Goldquest (GQC) and Almaden Minerals (AMM). The chart below shows what happened with these two. Brent mentioned he was buying GQC on May 23 2012. Within a few days the price was helped along further with a press release that they'd drilled a fairly good intercept. It became well over a 25-bagger before dropping back. It had started out as a fairly smallcap company at the buy date, so Brent's picking had a bigger effect.
On Almaden, the point at which Brent went public was harder to see (sometime August 2012?), and the best result was not even a doubling of the price. But this share had a bigger starting capital, not so illiquid.
In the case of Goldquest, anyone following Brent's picks here would have had a life-changing experience if they sold near the peak. That's great news for the subscribers. The only issue someone like myself has (who happens to be interested in one of the smaller shares Brent got involved in) is whether he is happy enough to win some, lose some, or is he trying to make a dollar on every single share? Would we then have to second-guess that GEL would have made a good shorting option a few weeks back, and even that its current buy price is a bit of a bargain?
Edit: Brent Cook said he was buying or holding Almaden on 2 Nov 2010, 7 March 2011, 15 Sept 2011, 7 March 2012, 2nd May 2012, 27 Sept 2012, 6 March 2013, according to a site which follows picks by the best commentators.
Another site had this to say:
Quote:
Another item of interest for market participants: The Drill Play is Back! Remember the good old times of the mid-2000′s and then again during QE1 and QE2 when stocks would move up dramatically on drill assay results and trenching figures? Well, those times are starting to come back except this time around a Company has to have better than average management, iron-clad results and having a tout by Brent Cook helps.Some of the recent examples include:
- GoldQuest Mining (TSXV: GQC) – in May the shares were trading below 5 cents and last month they hit $2.03. They have announced 6 closely space drill holes and closed on $21.57M in equity financings.
- Reservoir Minerals (TSXV: RMC) – in July the shares were hovering around the mid-50 cent level and just yesterday they traded to a high of $3.48. They have announced 2 drill holes and have a very generous JV with Freeport.
Brent has RMC on his list too. GQC may have been dropped recently, on 6 March 2013 he said it failed to meet their criteria but it was still rated a hold by the site repeating the finding.
I hope I haven't wasted my time on this research. It looks to me like Brent Cook is capable of picking some useful companies, and when he does, there is always a following with him, into the share. In GEL's case they did have some good drills that came out afterwards, but they weren't huge. Ongoing capital raisings through PPs have clipped back the share, despite any of the enthusiasm Brent and others brought to it.
It is now up to Glass Earth management to prove to shareholders that the placer investment will solve any cash requirements for G&A, staff and modest exploration costs. If they can get the cashflow issue sorted, like any business, then they can have a go at all the more exciting stuff. Shareholders have been tapped on the shoulder enough, already.
Looks like my research on Almaden Minerals (AMM) was a bit out, I missed the spectacular increase when they first found the big scale Ixtaca deposit, mentioned in July-August 2010.
This interview shows that Brent was quickly onto it, and bought the share near that time (2.5 years before January 2013). Again, a big increase in the share price followed, although it has drifted down a bit since. It might still be a great buy at the moment.
They have sold off six other prospects to concentrate on this one, and another copper/gold prospect. Three drills working at Ixtaca, March 2013.
http://www.juniorminingnews.com/?p=1052
Good work EZ. It appears easy gains could be made by moving on Brents announcements, as suggested he may be doing ok from it also!
Hi ynot, I wonder how many subscribers Brent has. Some of them appear to have deep pockets. By the time others jump in with a me-too following, it takes a month or two for the euphoria to drop back on most of these picks. Of course, if you don't subscribe, you don't get to have the earlier start on the market.
GEL had their time in the sun. It was a bit short-lived. The share only doubled with no obvious news, and later drill intercepts were OK but not internationally exciting. The share dropped away, and then it kept dropping. Looking back, GEL could have done more with the opportunity to benefit shareholders, and I don't mean try more private placements. On that score, they did well .:(
CHFIR didn't keep their data tidy, the website fell into disrepair, and cashflow was tight with all the deals that were being made all over the place.
That is all past news. I have big expectations of the next few months - in particular the placer returns need to be positive and well worth the effort and capital invested. Overheads there should be reduced, efficiency increased, and an eye kept out for new areas with higher and easier grades. These are obvious areas that I'm sure the GEL crew are working on.
And I hope they'll tell us all about it in the next few weeks.
Brent Cook being perhaps a bit too candid about the junior explorers and how to play them in 2011. And he has been touting Eurasian (of Neavesville fame).
http://avidinvestorgroup.com/2011/11...ove-your-odds/
Pity GEL doesn't have a large permit on the West Coast.Quote:
Grey River dredge on auction block
20 March 2013
The largest gold dredge in the southern hemisphere, the Grey River dredge, is for sale.
The Greymouth Star reported that Birchfield Minerals’ 3,500 tonne dredge, parked at Ngahere, has been placed on the global online auction site E-bay.
The asking price, according to the posting, is $3 million.
The company’s managing director Allan Birchfield mothballed the giant Grey River dredge late last year, declaring at the time that council bureaucracy was making it impossible to operate.
He had recommissioned the dredge in 2009 after a six-year absence and ferried it across the Grey River to mine land on the Blackball side. However, the paper said plans to extend the life of the Blackball operation for a further 10 years were later abandoned.
Birchfield blamed the West Coast Regional Council and Grey District Council rules for the closure, but the councils said the demands they had made of the operation were simply requirements of the Resource Management Act.
When he shut down the operation, Birchfield reportedly said 200,000 ounces of gold remained untouched in the licence area.
He had gained the dredge which was built to operate on the Grey River after the joint venture of Australian company Giant Resources and an engineering company from Spokane, Washington, failed to make it function property.
Birchfield made significant alterations to get the dredge performing.
Source: greystar.co.nz
The Correnso hearings for Newmont are ongoing. Waiting for more data at the moment. This will affect the timing for WKP perhaps.Quote:
Commissioners want more information on Golden Link
22 March 2013
The commissioners hearing Newmont Waihi Gold’s application for the Golden Link mine development in Waihi have adjourned the hearing to await new evidence from all parties.
Newmont Waihi Gold said the reconvened hearing operated for two days this month before commissioners decided they would need more time in dealing with evidence.
Before the hearing was adjourned the commissioners had put 26 questions to the mining company.
The Golden Link project takes in the planned Correnso mine development near the Martha open cut mine.
Newmont has explained to the Waihi community that once the hearing process is formally closed the commissioners will set a time for when they will provide a decision which usually can be three weeks but potentially six weeks.
This would be followed by a 15 working day appeal period and all parties can decide to appeal part or all of the decision to the Environment Court.
Newmont said the 26 questions from commissioners ranged from supplementary matieral on vibration, the property and community investment policy and ground movement on Gladstone Road.
Investigations were continuing to determine the cause of ground settlement on Gladstone Rd, and this includes re-drilling the original piezometer borehole and probing the area with ground penetration radar and geophones which use sound from defined sources to determine subsurface composition.
Investigations have shown that groundwater levels at Gladstone Rd were lowered due to seepage through an ungrouted section of a piezometer borehole drilled by the company. That borehole had been grouted but this was insufficient to fully seal the hole.
Newmont said this time of incident had not happened before with 30 years of drilling in and around Waihi. In future, all drill holes will be grouted to a depth below the top of the hard andesite rock where the orebodies are found.
NZPAM announced today that there will likely be a competitive tender over the CVR area. GEL has dropped most of its permits here. The area was subject to an intensive aerial scan by GEL, and the IPO made much of the possible outcomes. Just a few drills were put down, and there is the risk, it's a big area. GEL chose to drill nearer to known goldmining areas after a year or two.
http://www.nzpam.govt.nz/cms/pdf-library/minerals/competitive-tender/Proposed-Epithermal-2013
GEL holders like me will be watching intently for the annual report, which has to be released soon, before the end of the month.
found this on stuff this morning
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/indu...to-prospectors
again will be waiting for this report this week sometime to see if they have set anything aside for this
also just looking back at a story in the ODT from december about what Simon was aiming for by this time of the year.
"Mr Henderson said he hoped productivity of the gold recovery units could be raised by 20% to 85% by the end of March, which should boost weekly production to 100 to 120 ounces."
which from the current spot price would be around NZD$9.9m per year.... I WANT A PRESS RELEASE!
no announcement today...and break for the long weekend so hopefully we hear something on tuesday next week when the market reopens...unless elzorro would you know if they would release it on the canadian exchange first? so overnight tonight our time?
I don't know. Last year they met the end of March, but I'd commented then that this was up to a month earlier than usual. Maybe they're allowed until sometime in April to complete the reports. It's a long time between info points, when that is exactly what they said they'll be doing better at in 2013.. how about throwing us some crumbs Simon? ;)
Interesting comment from Newmont about them having no interest in exploring outside their existing tenements at Waihi and in the Coromandel. http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/indu...or-prospecting
An interesting aside: CGA Gold has been bought out by B2Gold in January 2013. I think both of these have been in comparison tables with OGC. B2Gold (BTO trading on the TSX) is worth nearly $2bill. They're producing about 365,000oz annually, will be up over 500,000oz in 2-3 years with their new mine acquisitions coming online.
One of these is Otjikoto in Namibia. It's going to be a big opencast mine, with leaching and carbon pulp being used after the crushing and milling processes. It can produce about 110,000 oz annually. To do this they'll need to process a lot of ore, and they're committed already to buying the crushing/milling gear. The grade? Only 1.4 to 1.6 grams/tonne. The mine only has a bit over 1Moz of resources noted at the moment.
http://b2gold.mwnewsroom.com/Files/f...6a46ce2570.pdf
Bucko, I have carried out a small bit of research on the filing dates for TSX-V companies. I don't know what the NZ rules are, but for annual reports on TSX-V, they have 120 days from the EOY. 60 days for the Q1,Q2, Q3 reports. This is awkward, as it means we could wait until the end of April for the annual report. On the other hand, last year there was a notice of meeting record date of 26/03/2012, and the annual report was out very soon after. This year that same date is 9th April 2013.
yeh on the NZX they made this announcement on 31st may 2012
https://www.nzx.com/companies/GEL/announcements/223452
soooooo much waiting, anticipating... although they haven't even released an update on the weekly placer production, they said they would be hoping to break to 200 oz barrier by this time, wonder how thats going????
Can I ask what other holdings you have elz? is it mainly mining? natural resource companies?
Hi Bucko, I think they were talking about 7500oz p.a. target from 4 placer setups, and of course they only have two running at the moment. We haven't heard about any franchisees picking up the offer to run one of two sites (maybe Gunclub and Pigburn) so I'm more interested in how well they're going at Drybread. They could be getting closer to 100oz a week there by now. This would mean a positive bank balance in theory.
Other shares: I can't deny I'm looking for capital gains mostly at this stage - I've also invested in NTL, and so April could be a great month. If I'm feeling conservative I'll buy some OGC, but I'd like to see the PoG moving strongly upwards first. OGC is always keen on plundering shareholders for their new project, but then we don't have to look far to see that being done on a smaller scale here.
Waihi Gold Co (Newmont) and Glass Earth have been granted a 640Ha (+20%) extension of the land area in permit 40598, on 22nd March. This is of course, the area that includes the WKP area of interest, which I would think is being drilled again at the moment. The whole permit is due to expire in May 2013 as an extended EP type (5 + 5yrs), but it can be extended further by various means. I think the next easy step is to call it a Discovery Appraisal. The fees go up a bit.
http://data.nzpam.govt.nz/PermitWebM...x?permit=40598
Note that all the area hard around Golden Cross Mine is held, and I think the new area is out to the East.
Someone is looking to buy 200,000 GEL shares for a bargain price of NZ12c, and the sell prices aren't very high either. But not much happening, while we wait for some company information.
Waikaia Gold Ltd must be starting up their operation in Southland by now. They are digging down 15 metres to an untouched gold layer, held in a 220 metre wide strip to the side of the current Waikaia River bed. I covered this operation without any real detail in post 830.
Southland District Council now has this very detailed report on how the mine site will work. It's using gear very similar to that used by GEL at Drybread, but on a bigger scale. Their proposed output from one big pontoon trommel is only twice that of GEL's target, 15,000oz a year, 106,000oz total.
Over a couple of months after the PP has been closed off, Glass Earth has produced no press releases, the market is in the dark. Today 200,000 shares traded for NZ 12c, and for those who bought into the PP at NZ 20c, presumably at a discount to market, that would be a bitter pill to swallow.
Is it too much to ask for, a bit of feedback and info on how the various permits are going?
When will the annual report be produced?
Is Drybread meeting the target production?
What does the new cross-pit conveyor look like and is it useful?
Has drilling resumed at WKP?
Are there any drill assays due, can we complete some old drill logs?
Garibaldi, Ophir, Southland, Placer JVs, Muirs - updates on these?
Website updates?
Comment on Brent Cooks' dropping of GEL and the effect on the share price
Why was WKP extended, and what is the next step in the permit.
Obviously none of the above bits of info, if divulged, would have any material effect on the share price. Really?
Whoever bought those shares, that's got to be smart buying. Divide it by 5 and that's as low as the share has ever gone, yet we have Newmont dangling beside GEL on the WKP permit, and a couple of other sites near Waihi.
hey elZ, got a response from an email I sent through We are awaiting two drill results on WKP (WKP 36 & WKP 37); no drilling is currently ongoing as they are awaiting results to come back before proceeding drilling (the budget for 2013 has already been year-marked so drilling is planned for this year – targets have been defined but results from WKP 37 will dictate which target to drill first); and year-end financials is scheduled to come out before the end of this week.
We will await information from management from placer, Neavesville and other projects as I am not as up to speed on these projects.
Thanks for the work there Bucko. The news release on the annual report came out overnight, and it is just a very short version of the results and discussion. The full filed reports will be shown on Sedar in a day or two, based on previous experience.
http://www.sedar.com/GetFile.do?lang...5Cgel412pr.pdf
The guts of it is (forget the big exploration permit losses which are on paper, not cashflow) - the placer lost a shade over $1mill in the 12 months because of hireage costs, refurb costs, learning to use the gear, fine-tuning etc. Plus the payments had to be made for the purchase of Dunstan Mining. In the great scheme of things, the results for the next quarter will be more interesting, as it's possible a placer profit of about $1mill has been made there already.
Drilling not restarted on WKP: that's a bit painful, as these assays just don't seem to be popping out of the lab. If we're so far down the queue, then the partners should see about setting up their own contracted lab in a container on site.
SEDAR now has the full annual report and the MD&A. These are big documents, about 40 pages each.
Annual report to 31 December 2012: http://www.sedar.com/GetFile.do?lang...5Cgel412fs.pdf
The MD&A report to 31 December 2012: http://www.sedar.com/GetFile.do?lang...Cgel412mda.pdf
I've had a read through these. Some of the data in the MD&A has been recovered from the NI 43-101 reports, but they are still interesting.
The placer income was much higher in the second six months of the year. Of course the setup costs were in there too. There is a statement that lower grade areas of Drybread were used for the commissioning stages, and that sounds sensible. No mention about how the next three months panned out in the placer areas. I think the first quarter report will have to come out before the end of May.
Muirs: they're thinking about it, along with Ophir in Otago. Doesn't sound too promising there.
Writeoffs on permits during the year - Simon has provided some detail on the thought processes and the reasons for dropping some permits in 2012, and as I've kept up a permit spreadsheet with costs, I can quite understand. The GFC has restricted funding, so GEL has to be very choosy about held permits.
WKP: not much new detail here, but thinking about it all, GEL probably had to pay the costs incurred with the NI 43-101 report, as Newmont were not required to do anything.
One thing I certainly found heartening was the statement that Glass Earth is going to concentrate on just a few areas: (WKP, Neavesville, Garibaldi are most of it), helped along with positive funding from the placer areas. They aim to bring the hard-rock areas of WKP and Neavesville through to some kind of completion (deliver) within 2-3 years.
Some work has been done at Garibaldi, it's shaping up well. It's obviously near-surface.
Some of the questions I posed above, remain unanswered by the annual report. One we can answer ourselves: the next WKP drills will be concentrating on the area near the Eastern Graben. This is a fault area very close to the eastern extreme of the older permit area. The permit extension gives a lot more room around that, as shown by the changing outline.
am i the only one who thinks this price is hugely under valued????
Maybe some of us know it's undervalued Bucko, but having spare capital is an issue. I was just thinking this morning that once the annual report and some of its negative data is out of the way, some new press releases can only improve the shareprice from here.
For instance, we should be able to hear a bit about some drills at Garabaldi soon. From page 23 of the MD&A report (which last time I looked, hadn't made it to the public web or to GEL's website):
Quote:
Garibaldi Prospect
On the Stuff website, a bit of a report about the annual results. I was wondering about the increase in stock-based compensation ($620,000) too. It is mentioned in the full annual report on page 33, it's a total of 2,730,000 shares as an option to purchase before Feb 9, 2017, a five year period, but at C35c a share. I wouldn't think these have been picked up yet. Over a million dollars worth of share purchase warrants expired in the 2012 year.Quote:
(Glass Earth 100%)
Glass Earth announced the discovery of the gold mineralised Garibaldi Vein System on 23 April 2012, showing ore grade gold and related tungsten and arsenic mineralisation within vein sets striking over a 900m length and 300m width in outcrop and trenching.Geological mapping, detailed soil/gold sampling, and trenching have scraped the surface of a significant gold and related tungsten and arsenic mineralisation associated with multiple east-west and northeastsouthwesttrending epizonal-style quartz + sericite/illite + Fe-sulphide vein altered and sheared mafic schist in the Omnibus Stream catchment, North Rough Ridge, Central Otago.Channel/panel sampling from trenching (individual samples of 1mx1m) demonstrate consistent mineralised E-W orientated quartz veins with individual grades between 1 – 16.1 gm/t gold and importantly interfingered mafic schist with grades between 0.5 – 2.65 gm/t gold. This is an important development in early stage prospect delineation where the potential for significant widths of mineralised quartz and host mafic schist offer potential for a significant size mesothermal gold discovery. 168 line kms of ground magnetic surveying was completed in a 12 day period, to delineate the structureof the mafic schist, data has now been post processed and interpreted. After data consolidation and review, a shallow reconnaissance drill program of ten drillholes will be undertaken at Garibaldi in Q1 2013, to test the down-dip and along-strike widths and grade of potential gold mineralization.
There's been a bit of press repeated on the web about the placer costs:This is technically incorrect, from what I've seen in the NI 43-101 report. Glass Earth has hired a lot of equipment like diesel generators, spent a lot on repairs for the older gear, and this has all been brought into the books for the financial year. This is how a normal business likes to operate, because it reduces the tax for the year, if all the costs are immediately expensed.Quote:
A fourfold increase in production from its small-scale placer mining (mining by washing or dredging) saw total revenue rise to $2.98 million from $752,000 a year before. However, capital costs associated with ramping up mining activities saw the cost of sales rise to $4.12 million ($523,000 the previous year) to produce an operating loss of $1.15 million for the year.
These were not capital costs then, they were running costs. If they could have been treated a capital costs, only about 10-20% of the costs would have been shown as depreciation, and the rest would show up as assets in the books. For a listed company like Glass Earth, with ongoing tax losses that accrue every year, there is no need to minimise taxes. In fact, shareholders like myself are waiting for the day when they can post a profit, and even a dividend!
I contend that the picture looks worse than it really is. Glass Earth should be buying the ancilliary placer equipment (like gensets) as it needs it, reducing all running costs, and figuring out how to turn a solid trading profit from the placer. If they're using contractors to repair the gear, they either need newer gear, or the ability to repair the gear themselves with the minimum downtime. There are a few great looking positives tucked away in the annual report data, and these would be interesting to have expanded, in the coming weeks.
after watching the first season of Gold Rush: Alaska Im essentially a pro miner now so if GEL would like to hire me to make repairs I guess i'd have to put my hand up!
yeh i think next quarters results are going to see a rally in the share price hopeuflly there would be minimal write offs as if they continue generating 1.4m quarter on quarter the company value is seriously undervalued
yeh just reading on huff post about the decline of the price of gold, aparently cyprus is looking at a possible sell off of its bullion...not good if that happens!
may as well increase my take at this price (and lower my average purchase price because all this red is making me depressed)
Looks like Warren Buffetf is proven right again - gold has no real economic value beyond its emotional appeal?
1. “Gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”
2. “The problem with commodities is that you are betting on what someone else would pay for them in six months. The commodity itself isn’t going to do anything for you….it is an entirely different game to buy a lump of something and hope that somebody else pays you more for that lump two years from now than it is to buy something that you expect to produce income for you over time.”
3. “Gold is a way of going long on fear, and it has been a pretty good way of going long on fear from time to time. But you really have to hope people become more afraid in a year or two years than they are now. And if they become more afraid you make money, if they become less afraid you lose money, but the gold itself doesn’t produce anything."
Balance you are a person of two personalities.Generally you produce junk about NZO but just in the last two days are coming across as a well balanced poster [pun intended]. This above quote is in every way correct and it would be hard to put up a case against it. It does however not cover the human side enought. Sure gold is mostly useless and produces almost nothing and cost a lot to produce and guard.Humans are strange animals and for about ten thousand years we have decided gold is valuable so no Balance arguement no matter how reasonable is going to change that.Fortunes have been made and lost on gold since we invented the need for a means of exchange and that stays the same into whatever future humans made for themselves. Surely Balance you are not suggesting we entirely embrace the fait paper currencies we exchange goods with today.I am not in any way suggesting you are but by saying it that way it does show the problem we humans have to find some way to agree of value in our exchange. To me gold is certainly as good as any other means of exchange. Can you imagine a QE3 on gold????
These are points that you might make on a GOLD thread Balance, and the answers will be a bit different there.
Gold does have a lot of use as a near-perfect conductor that doesn't tarnish, and of course another big use in jewelry. Gold is often mined in association with other metals like Mercury, Silver, Copper, Tin, and so while it's a most valuable byproduct, the bulk of the minerals mined in a gold mine could easily be the more commonly used copper, for wiring etc. The mines themselves, the exploration, the funding, are all big employers worldwide, so that's another positive.
No-one can deny that the basic purchase of some gold 10-12 years ago wouldn't have been a great investment, compared to many so-called productive investments and financial instruments. Gold isn't getting any cheaper to recover either. It's a proxy for the cost of energy, and also related to the the amount of foreign investments in US Treasuries. Maybe the Chinese have found a way to increase their gold holdings at a special rate, good on them. But I can't see that gold will stay down and out for long, and it's always recovered to make new US$ highs.
More from Warren :
“I will say this about gold. If you took all the gold in the world, it would roughly make a cube 67 feet on a side…Now for that same cube of gold, it would be worth at today’s market prices about $7 trillion – that’s probably about a third of the value of all the stocks in the United States…For $7 trillion…you could have all the farmland in the United States, you could have about seven Exxon Mobils (NYSE:XOM) and you could have a trillion dollars of walking-around money…And if you offered me the choice of looking at some 67 foot cube of gold and looking at it all day, and you know me touching it and fondling it occasionally…Call me crazy, but I’ll take the farmland and the Exxon Mobils.”
“The major asset in this category is gold, currently a huge favorite of investors who fear almost all other assets, especially paper money (of whose value, as noted, they are right to be fearful). Gold, however, has two significant shortcomings, being neither of much use nor procreative. True, gold has some industrial and decorative utility, but the demand for these purposes is both limited and incapable of soaking up new production. Meanwhile, if you own one ounce of gold for an eternity, you will still own one ounce at its end.”
well fella's its a good job this forum thread isn't about purchasing Gold its about purchasing shares in a gold exploration/production company. while i agree wtih some of Mr Buffets comments about investment in gold i can still understand its historical importance to the global economy...and i also understand (and hope) that if GEL mines lots and lots of gold ill end up with lots and lots of moolah!
are you a holder in GEL Balance?
Probably not..although Digger is.
I can report that the Glass earth website now has the annual report and MD&A locked in as pdfs. Here is part of the MD&A relating to WKP.
None of this text is entirely new, it's been around for a few weeks/months. It's just great to read and hold in view. It's the second to last sentence I'm having trouble with. What does it mean? I think that being realistic, all the test work and the drilling programme will have to be completed before the Project First Resource Estimate can be published. Clarification from head office would be helpful here. If that is the case, the drilling needs to get underway pronto, before the winter season hits. Although perhaps the lone helicoptered drilling rig doesn't have such an issue with access. WKP36 and 37 assays are needed first.Quote:
Exploration on the WKP project demonstrates that it is a very large permissive low sulphidation
epithermal gold system (approximately 1.2km by 1km). Following on from historical exploration of the
Eastern Zone evaluated by various parties in the 1980’s and 1990’s the Hauraki Joint Venture work has
identified two other significant zones of mineralisation (Central and Western Zones), and recently
intersected mineralisation on the Eastern Graben structure where the current focus of drilling activity
continues.
In the Central Zone broad low grade intercepts are a feature (WKP26 151m at 1.2ppm Au, and WKP27
102.2m at 1.1 ppm Au) with the margins of a voluminous rhyolite rock type providing a focus of
hydrothermal fluid flow and high grade gold mineralisation. The interior of the competent and
homogeneous rhyolite rock has permitted regular fracturing and broad hydrothermal fluid flow with
resulting consistent large-tonnage low-grade gold mineralisation.
This contrasts with the East Graben structure within the Eastern Zone which is typically dominated by
discrete veins. Drill core from 580m down-hole in WKP35 shows episodic high level crustiform banded
veins, hydrothermal and tectonic brecciation corresponding with multiple phases of mineralisation,
hosted on the position of rhyolite and andesite lithologies. Assay results for this interval returned 7.9m
grading 5.1 ppm Au, including 3.4m grading 8.3 ppm Au. This style of mineralization on the Eastern
Graben structure was new for this project and important because there are strong similarities with major
gold mines in the vicinity, namely Martha, Favona, and Golden Cross.
The broad low grade gold mineralisation within the Central Zone and veins relating to the East Graben
structure lie on a major north-north–east trending structure marking the intersection of rhyolite (west)
and more intermediate andesite pyroclastics (to the east). This is a district scale structure, identified on
magnetic and resistivity (geophysical) data, and may represent the primary focus of significant coherent
mineralisation in the WKP area.
The HJV plans a significant exploration programme for 2013, focussing initially on the evaluation of the
Eastern Graben Structure and to include a project first resource estimate, metallurgical test work, rock
engineering study, geophysics and a 2,500m diamond drill programme. The estimated cost for this
programme is NZ$2.7 million.
What does it take to get those core samples assayed? You'd think that with geologists and lab/chemical engineers being produced by our universities every year, someone would step into any gap in the NZ mineral reporting market. In the Waikato, a big and profitable lapse in speedy agricultural soil/grass/water/crop data analysis was filled by Hills Laboratories.
AA Spectrophotometers sell new for about US$12,500 to $20,000. Guess you'd need a diamond rock sample cutter, a furnace, a small rock crusher, some crucibles and some chemicals and reagents. And a quality certification, maybe the tricky part.Quote:
How are ore and waste defined?
Samples of rock from within the pit or from underground are sent to the SGS laboratory in Waihi to determine gold content.
The data generated from assaying is used to map out which areas are suitable to process as ore and which areas are waste material to be used to build the waste rock embankment or to be used as backfill underground.
In process testing - double checking
Throughout the extraction process at the Newmont Waihi Gold mill, samples of solution, solids and activated carbon are removed for analysis to determine the efficiency of the process. The solids and the carbon samples are analysed by the fire assay technique for gold and aqua regia for silver. The solutions are aspirated (turned into a fine mist) into an AA Spectrophotometer.
Fire assay
Fire assay involves adding a ground portion of the solid (or carbon) to a crucible containing a flux. Flux is used to lower the melting point of the samples to ensure the entire sample becomes liquid during firing. The flux contains borax, soda ash, silica flour, litharge (lead oxide) and silver nitrate in various quantities. In the firing stage everything turns liquid and the lead oxide forms into small globules of metallic lead. The globules fall through the liquid and form an amalgam with any other metals it comes into contact with, including gold and silver. This all collects in the bottom of the crucible. After about an hour at 1,000 degrees Celsius the contents of the crucible are poured into a conical mould to cool. Again the lead, being more dense than other material, quickly settles to the tip of the conical mould and solidifies along with the glass-like rock remains.
When cooled, the lead is separated from the glass and then cupelled. Cupellation involves placing the lead ‘button’ into a pre-heated cupel at 1,000 degrees C. A cupel is a small cup made of magnesium sulphate which is a material that is capable of absorbing the lead. At this temperature the metals liquefy and lead is absorbed into the cupel. Gold and silver having a higher surface tension than lead, are not absorbed and remain as a small ‘prill’ in the bottom of the cupel. The cupel and prill are removed from the furnace and allowed to cool. The prill is then dissolved in aqua regia. The resulting solution is aspirated into an AA Spectrophotometer to determine the gold content.
Aqua regia
Silver in the solids and carbons is determined by dissolving the sample in aqua regia, a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids. The sample has specific volumes of each acid added, then is placed on a heating block to digest. When completed the resulting solution is diluted and then aspirated into an AA Spectrophotometer.
References and acknowledgements
The information on this page was kindly supplied by SGS NZ Ltd.
The events of just the last few days have (nearly) swapped the MCAP positions of GEL and NTL. The former is now trading at an MCAP not far above the private placements that were put into the company in the last financial year, while NTL yesterday was at one stage up by 45%. NTL also appear to have some more immediate prospects for hardrock mining, and that will take some of the focus off GEL.
However, the last time GEL shares were this low, large numbers of shares were sold at a bargain and the price recovered very well. Back then, WKP had not been looked at. Garibaldi was not discovered, Neavesville was not under investigation for mining, and GEL had no rapidly increasing placer income stream or mining equipment assets.
So this time around, Glass Earth is at some risk of a takeover, IMHO. By whom - that would be another question - but I can think of two parties who would be interested.
I conclude that it might be a good time to accumulate GEL shares. Those who took part in the private placement earlier this year will not be too worried, as they have an option to purchase more GEL shares for no more than C25c, for up to two years. This is almost within the new timeframe that GEL put out in the annual report, of being in a position to "deliver" on WKP and Neavesville within 2-3 years. Delivery of either permit to the mining stage would turn GEL share ownership into a life-changing experience.
Gold/production company = even more high risk than investing in gold!
Not a holder and after following the comments on this thread, will never be.
What a disastrous investment for anyone, save for the traders who are able to move ahead of the market peaks and troughs.
Balance, I think the only other time you've given your thoughts on GEL, it was to pop up with an equally light-weight denouncement.
Yes, timing in this share appears important at the moment, and over the last few years since the IPO in 2006. But the MCAP of the company has always been less than say $60mill over the entire time. Longer-term holders are well aware of the massive value for the company, of any hard-rock mining feasibility studies, or movements towards mining. A quantified report on WKP for just part of its resource, is due out sometime this year.
You appear to be more interested in shorter-term dividend paying shares, and that's fine. Other investors like me are taking a calculated longer-term play with a local business that appears to be moving in all the right directions, with management that are working hard to achieve longer-term results.
I'm sure the likes of Newmont Mining, L&M Mining /millionaire Geoff Loudon, ACC's share fund, and some old family interests, who are all investors or JV partners with Glass Earth, don't share your opinion of the longer-term prospects.
No need to be so touchy over a stock which has so far made losses only for everyone save the management.
My reply is in response to bucko stating that there is a difference in investing in gold versus investing in a gold exploration company, as if the latter is lesser risk!
Balance - I'm not touchy, I'm just saying that you should be sure of your research before making grand claims. The salary package for the CEO of Glass Earth wouldn't get me too excited. It looks like a lot of work and stress for that sort of a tax-paid return. Members of the board are paid a very small amount, although that looks like being improved a bit in the next AGM. Glass Earth has been a frugal operation all the way through, and they've been out there doing it, just like they promised.
I agree that it would have been less risky investing in gold from that great runup from $300 an ounce to $1800, in hindsight. But GEL and some other junior explorers have the clear potential to be 10-30 baggers in the medium term.
So let's see.
Shares were listed in October 2006 at 25 cents per share.
Now they are trading at 10.9c per share but that's after a 5:1 consolidation in Mar 2010.
So it's equivalent of 2.18c per share - 92.8% loss over 6.5 years for those who got in at the IPO level.
Rather hard to get excited about a stock with that kind of loss track record, wouldn't you agree?
All junior explorers in my observation raise funds by holding up the promise of 50 to 100 baggers.
Most go the other way however and deliver massive negative returns. Become shell companies for backdoor listings.
Balance, I've already pointed out the dilution you mention in a post a few months ago, with a caution.
But I also mentioned what can happen when a junior explorer produces a Project First Estimate, as GEL will, for WKP, in 2013.
http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthread.php?4019-Glass-Earth-IPO&p=397622&viewfull=1#post397622
Glass Earth has needed to expend $50-$60mill on exploration over the last 7 years, much with external contractors, and a good portion was spent up front with the airborne surveys. This has provided a wealth of data covering a big part of NZ, and some has been used to track down water supplies in Otago, or to help spot an unknown large lava area near Taupo. It also highlighted WKP, and many other sites, only some of which were drilled after further ground-level investigation. This data will be there to help future mineral exploration in NZ.
While the risks for junior explorers are high on individual new projects, GEL has looked at multiple permits, on a scale never seen in NZ before. This mitigates the overall risk of finding nothing. Brent Cook chose GEL as one of the shares he held for about 2 years, while we waited for more drill assays from the big WKP prospect. If you look at the chart, investors had some opportunity to recover any losses during that period, in Sept 2011 when the share reached well over NZ70c, and in Oct 2012 there was a moderate peak near 50c. But many investors will chose to stay for the end game. Glass Earth is now focusing on their best prospects, after doing the hard yards.
and the slump continues...from one of the articles on the NTL thread theres an NZ company forcasting the Gold price to rally and hit up to $2750 an ounce by the end of the year
I've had a bit of a look at the NZPAM site, some developments there for GEL. Permit PP39336 (Southland) has been extended until 5th May 2014. This is a large permit area of 15,140 Ha, surrounding some other permits including one or two of GEL's. There is platinum in the general area.
Also, EP54765 has been granted, this is Moeraki. It had a mention in the February report. From the ODT:
Moeraki is a wide skinny permit stretching from Northwest to Southeast across part of the South Island. The other very interesting feature is that it shares a southern border with OGC's Macraes Mine permits. Moeraki is valid until 18th May 2018.Quote:
Aside from ongoing drill testing and sampling around the Ophir gold project in Otago and nearby Garibaldi prospect, Mr Henderson delivered a technical report in February looking at four other Otago and Southland projects, in the valleys of Manuherikia, Maniototo and Waikaia, where alluvial gold lies in shallow gravels, 1m-11m below the surface.
Glass Earth has also been granted prospecting permits around North Otago, in the Kakanui and Hawkdun ranges, with stream and soil sampling under way, including at a permit near Moeraki.
simon.hartley@odt.co.nz