Thursday's AIM news: Gold and copper miners
8th March 2012 10:22
by Sarah Modlock from interactive investor
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Five AIM-listed gold and copper miners including GGG Resources and North River Resources updated investors on Thursday and enjoyed a boost to their prices following positive news. Read our round-up...
GGG Resources
Brett Lambert has been appointed by as managing director of Bullabulling Gold from 1 May following completion of the merger of the two companies.
Lambert has previously been chief executive of three mining companies over a 13-year period, and has been a director of companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, Toronto Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
He is an Australian mining engineer and senior executive with over 30 years' experience in project development and the operation of resources companies, including several mines based in the Coolgardie region of Western Australia where the Bullabulling project is located.
Lambert's experience includes working in precious and base metals, and uranium. Over a successful three-decade career he has gained a strong set of financial, technical and people skills which cover the essential elements of exploration, commissioning and production. Importantly, his experience includes taking several projects through feasibility studies and into production and has been involved in two successful mergers and a number of asset acquisitions.
He was responsible for the financing and development of the Paulsens gold mine and oversaw feasibility studies for the Casposo gold and silver mine in Argentina and Nifty Sulphides copper mine. Lambert managed site activities during development of the Three Mile Hill gold mine, and was project director for the evaluation and construction of the Pillara, Goongewa and Kapok lead/zinc mines.
"We are delighted to announce the appointment of such an experienced and capable managing director. Brett will be responsible for delivering the Bullabulling gold project to commence gold production in 2015. We expect to draw heavily on his skill set and experience of taking projects into production and his valuable contacts among Australian investors and the mining industry.
"Bullabulling is entering a critical phase in its development and we are excited to have someone of Brett's calibre leading the operational team and joining the new main board," said the company in a statement.
North River Resources
Investors in responded strongly to the firm's latest Namibian copper results.
Metallurgical test work completed on samples from the Malachite Pan Copper Project, within the Witvlei Licence Area, and the Koperberg Copper Project, within the Dordabis Licence Area were positive, the company said.
Managing director David Steinepreis said: "These very encouraging recoveries, especially at Malachite Pan, reinforce our confidence that the project can be developed into a profitable mining operation.
"Together with the recent maiden JORC [joint ore reserves committee] resource at Malachite Pan, the results support North River's 2012 plans to complete approximately 6,000 metres of drilling at the Malachite Pan project and to advance both technical and environmental studies to support a mining operation. We are also commencing programmes with the aim of expanding our known resources and exploring numerous known prospects."
North River's exploration programmes are continuing on existing licence areas in Namibia with the aim of expanding JORC resources and advancing numerous known prospects.
Scotgold Resources
shares moved higher after the company announced that recent drilling at the Sron Garbh mafic complex has returned interesting results, including assays of gold, platinum and palladium.
The style of mineralisation appears similar to that observed in major deposits such as Agualanca in Spain, certain parts of the Sudbury mines in Ontario, Voisey's bay and Lac des Isles, all in Canada.
Assays also returned interesting results for copper, nickel and cobalt. The Sron Garbh complex is outside the national Park, located two kilometres from Tyndrum and five kilometres north east of the Coronish gold and silver deposit.
Solomon Gold
provided a brief update to investors on its global search for new gold -copper opportunities on Thursday.
It said due diligence activities are currently underway on several opportunities in South East Asia and in the Americas. It will update the market as these opportunities are assessed and when any of these opportunities advance to the point of letters of intent.
The company has appointed Dr Bruce Rohrlach as its chief geologist.
Previously Rohrlach spent 14 years with WMC Resources, subsequently as an exploration consultant, and most recently as part of the discovery team of the 1.7 billion tonne Tujuh Bukit gold-copper deposit, Indonesia. Rohrlach completed his PhD on the 2.9 billion tonne Tampakan copper-gold deposit in the Philippines.
Since joining Solomon he has focused on the review of the company's existing projects, together with the assessment of new gold-copper opportunities which may provide the company with further growth opportunities through discovery.
Sovereign Mines of Africa
Shares in were boosted after the company revealed significant results from its Mandiana-Magana project in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa.
The company said it has successfully completed another 4,000 metres of reverse circulation drilling as part of its Phase 2 campaign to test the proximal strike extensions of the mineralized zones. The completion came one week ahead of schedule. Also as part of Phase 2, it will now commence 1,000 metres of diamond drilling.
The update follows a report on 26 January, when Sovereign said its maiden 3,009 metre reverse circulation drilling campaign had identified wide intervals of significant gold, including 6.40 grams per tonne (g/t) over nine metres, 2.58 g/t over 14 metres and 2.08 g/t over 24 metres, intersected in 21 initial drill holes.
John Barry, director of exploration, commented: "The pace of progress we have made in our early drilling campaigns is testimony to the exceptional skill and application of our teams on the ground. We fully intend to maintain this momentum in the months ahead.
"The company is continuing to progress exploration at its other exploration projects in Guinea, principally, Marela, Dalagna, and Kouroussa - which will assist in identifiying the best potential drill targets."
What will gold have to offer investors this year? Charles Gibson, gold analyst at Edison looks at the potential highs and lows and shares his price prediction in: Gold - the opportunities and threats in 2012.