COBALT-NICKEL AND GOLD-COPPER EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Dual focused White Cliff Minerals is an exploration and development company with a portfolio of advanced cobalt-nickel projects in Australia and a gold-copper mine development project in Central Asia.
Cobalt and Nickel:
White Cliff’s three major cobalt and nickel projects play into one of the strongest investment thematic the world has seen in recent years – the rise of electric vehicles – and have genuine potential to develop into mines, particularly considering their location close to existing processing infrastructure in the Western Australian Goldfields.
Gold and Copper:
With gold’s enduring value and copper’s status as a critical energy infrastructure metal, the Company’s high-grade Aucu gold-copper project in the Kyrgyz Republic provides exposure to two similarly attractive sectors. Aucu, which is 90%-owned by White Cliff, contains an inferred resource of 1.8 million tonnes at 5.2 g/t Au for 302,000 ounces of gold. This is poised to grow significantly, with the company in the process of compiling an updated resource estimate.
AUSTRALIAN TECHNOLOGY METALS (COBALT-NICKEL)
White Cliff has three outstanding, 100%-owned cobalt-nickel projects in the Western Australian Goldfields that share multiple development options and a strong prospect of being brought into production in the near-term. They are:
Coronation Dam
- 16km2 tenement
- Near surface cobalt-nickel mineralisation 5.7km long and 1km wide
- Assays of up to 0.68% cobalt including:
- 16 metres at 0.42% cobalt and 1% nickel
- 24 metres at 0.23% cobalt and 0.8% nickel
- Near nickel-cobalt processing infrastructure – 90km from Glencore’s Murrin Murrin plant
- Limited wide-spaced drilling
Ghan Well
- 39km2 tenement
- Near surface cobalt-nickel mineralisation 11km long and up to 1.8km wide
- Assays up to 0.76% cobalt including
- 12 metres at 0.14% cobalt and 0.78% nickel
- 11 metres at 0.14% cobalt and 0.99% nickel
- Near nickel-cobalt processing infrastructure - 26km from Glencore’s Murrin Murrin plant
- Limited previous drilling
Coglia Well
- 70km2 tenement
- Near-surface cobalt-nickel mineralisation 7.5km long and 1-2km wide
- Adjacent to Glencore’s Rocky Well and Matilda nickel-cobalt deposits (29Mt at 0.11% Co and 1% Ni)
- Assays of up to 3% nickel and 0.25% cobalt including:
- 16 metres at 0.16% cobalt and 0.65% nickel
- 12 metres at 2.2% nickel and 0.06% cobalt
- Limited wide-spaced drilling
Planned activity for 2018 includes drilling to establish JORC resources and metallurgical test work to determine recovery and leach kinetics.
AUCU GOLD DEPOSIT: FACTS (WHAT WE HAVE TODAY)
LOCATION: Central Asia, Kyrgyz Republic
2014 RESOURCE 156,000 Ounces (1.2Mt at 4.2 g/t gold)
2016 RESOURCE 302,000 Ounces (1.8 Mt at 5.2 g/t gold), 44,870t Copper (10.6 Mt @0.42% Cu)
2018 RESOURCE New JORC compliant resource calculation underway (Due April 2018)
GOLD RECOVERY: 98%
CONTAINED COPPER: 44,870 tonnes (204,000 ounces equivalent2)
COPPER GRADE: 0.42% Copper
TONNES: 10.6 Million tonnes
TOTAL RESOURCE2: 506,000 ounces equivalent of gold
2 Gold equivalent resource: 44870t [email protected] $5700/t Cu/ $1250/Oz Au = 204,000 Oz Au-eq
SCALE POTENTIAL: Multiple mineralised systems
Mineralisation outcrops at surface over 700 vertical metres
Remains open at depth
Mineralisation extends over 4,000 metres along strike
Remains open along strike
TOTAL EXPENDITURE3: $USD 7 Million
DISCOVERY COST: $USD 14 per ounce equivalent of gold
The discovery cost is substantially lower than industry cost averages4 in Australia of $USD 61 per ounce equivalent of gold
COMMENTARY: The Aucu gold deposit currently contains 302,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of
5.2 g/t gold. The deposit consists of several sub parallel mineralised zones that have each been identified over several kilometres of strike. Only a fraction of these mineralised zones have been drilled. The parts that have been drilled have been tested to about 120 metres below surface. There is evidence to indicate that the structures occur over at least 700 metres of vertical elevation. The Company expects to find substantial additional mineralisation at depth and along these structures that will grow the project to a scale that will allow the development of a gold mine.
Notes:
2 Gold equivalent resource: 44870t [email protected] $USD 5700/t Cu/ $USD 1250/Oz Au = 204,000 Oz Au-eq
3 Total expenditure includes all costs incurred in Kyrgyz and Australia relating to the project excluding acquisition costs.
4 Source: MinEx consulting 2016, http://www.minexconsulting.com/publications/jun2016.html