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News.com.au
10 hours ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Kristie Batten: Firetail expands Americas exploration strategy with US gold deal
One of Australia's top mining journalists, Kristie Batten writes for Stockhead every week in her regular column placing a watchful eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene. The team at Firetail Resources (ASX:FTL) are heading back to their roots with the acquisition of two high-grade gold projects. Firetail managing director Glenn Poole is an experienced geologist who has worked for gold miners including Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) while director and fellow Northern Star alumni Simon Lawson is best known for leading high-grade gold explorer Spartan Resources (ASX:SPR). A week ago, Firetail announced options to acquire two high-grade gold projects in the US, sending the stock up since ~10%. Poole said the company had been looking for additional assets in the Americas for some time. The combination of the board's experience in gold and wanting to take advantage of the record gold price made the company's latest move a no-brainer. Options over the two projects cost $3.7 million, comprising $900,000 in cash and the rest in shares. Firetail can acquire up to 80% of the Excelsior Springs gold-silver project in Nevada by spending US$5 million on exploration over the next five years. 'In Nevada, it's similar to what we see in Western Australia or even on the east coast of huge gold deposits within a localised trend,' Poole said. That trend is the plus-40 million ounce Walker Lane tectonic zone, which hosts AngloGold Ashanti's 15.4Moz North Bullfrog and Arthur projects and Kinross Gold's 200,000 ounce per annum Round Mountain mine. Excelsior Springs' Buster mine produced 19,200oz at 41 grams per tonne gold from shallow underground workings. More recent exploration has defined a target area with a strike length of 3.5km and 200-400m wide. Previous drilling has returned results including: 8m at 4g/t gold from 39.6m, including 6.1m at 16.3g/t gold 5m at 5.35g/t gold from 41.2m, including 10.7m at 15.99g/t gold; and 32m at 2.45g/t gold from 44.2m, including 6.1m at 10g/t gold. 'There's drilling that proves that there's gold from surface … it's still very shallow, in terms of its drill testing,' Poole said. Poole said permitting in Nevada was reasonably fast and the company planned to kick off an initial reverse circulation drilling program to test for extensions of known mineralisation as soon as possible. 'It's just deciding where to put the drill holes,' he said. 'There's such a broad trend and amazing targets.' The project also presents the opportunity for a silver discovery, just as the price has started to move. Silver eclipsed its long-term resistance at US$35/oz on Friday, now fetching US$36/oz. Until the start of 2024, the precious metal had been trapped around US$20/oz for years. Recent rock chip sampling on the eastern side of the project returned a result of 6630g/t silver in an undrilled area. Finding a unicorn Firetail also has an option to acquire 100% of the Bella project in South Dakota. The underexplored project is earlier stage than Excelsior Springs but sits just 20km from the historic Homestake mine, which produced 42Moz of gold. Poole likened the project to a 'geological unicorn'. The claims cover 110km of banded iron formation, which is the main host of gold in the district. The project has only had limited previous drilling, focused on the Standby mine. Results included 3.1m at 10.29g/t gold from 730.9m, 14m at 2.47g/t gold from 158.5m and 6.1m at 2.81g/t gold from 172.5m. Standby also returned a high-grade pit wall sample of 12.2m at 46.62g/t gold, including 1.5m at 343g/t gold. Other prospects have returned channel samples of up to 16g/t gold. Firetail will launch its own mapping, sampling and modelling program once the deal is completed. 'There'll be a bit more work to decide which projects get the attention here,' Poole said. Copper still a focus Firetail has previously been focused on copper and owns the Skyline project in Newfoundland, Canada, and the Picha project in Peru. Skyline produced around 100,000 tonnes grading 3-12% copper, 7% zinc and 1-3oz per tonne of silver via a small underground mine between 1898 and 1913 but has seen limited exploration since. Firetail has a 3D ground-based induced polarisation survey underway at Skyline and is hoping to receive the results in the next eight weeks. That will define targets for the next round of diamond drilling. Meanwhile, the Picha project was selected by BHP as one of just eight global exploration projects to participate in its 2025 Xplor exploration accelerator program. The program provides participants with US$500,000 in non-dilutive funding, as well as technical support from BHP. Poole said the Xplor program was going well for Firetail. 'We're meeting up with them again at the start of July for another boot camp,' he said. 'I was already excited by what we knew before this program and it's just taken leaps and bounds since then.'
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Spartan Resources acquires remaining interest in Dalgaranga gold project in WA
Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)-listed gold company Spartan Resources has finalised binding purchase agreements to acquire the remaining 20% interest in four exploration tenements at its Dalgaranga gold project in Western Australia (WA). The tenements, E59/1904, E59/1906, E21/195, and E59/1709, were previously held under two unincorporated joint ventures (JVs), with Spartan holding 80% and private parties holding 20%. With the acquisition, Spartan will own 100% of the tenements, and both JVs will be dissolved. The company will pay an aggregate cash consideration of A$2.5m, utilising its current cash balance. The completion of the purchase is anticipated in the coming days. The Dalgaranga gold project is located 65km north-west of Mt Magnet in the Murchison Region of WA. Following an operational reset in November 2022, Spartan shifted focus from low-grade open-pit mining to high-grade gold exploration and development. The turnaround of the Dalgaranga project has been marked by the discovery of the high-grade Never Never and Pepper Gold deposits, which have a combined mineral resource estimate of 2.32 million ounces at 9.32 grams per tonne. The deposits are situated less than 1km from the existing 2.5 million tonnes per annum carbon-in-leach processing plant. Additionally, the recent discovery of the Freak Prospect, located 110m south of Pepper, is in close proximity to the underground infrastructure currently under development. This prospect further enhances the project's potential. Spartan executive chairman Simon Lawson said: 'We are pleased to be able to consolidate the tenure immediately adjacent to our flagship Dalgaranga gold project. Moving to 100% ownership provides us with operational flexibility as we progress forward with making a re-start decision at Dalgaranga underpinned by the high-grade Never Never and Pepper underground deposits. 'A number of prospects on these tenements have been identified as being prospective for mineralisation similar to Never Never and Pepper and will be the subject of future exploration programmes.' Spartan Resources will be acquired by Ramelius Resources in a deal valuing the company at approximately A$2.4bn, as per an announcement last month. 'Outright ownership of the Dalgaranga exploration tenements assists in simplifying aspects of our business model as we continue to progress the steps required to implement the transaction with Ramelius that we announced on 17 March 2025,' Lawson added. "Spartan Resources acquires remaining interest in Dalgaranga gold project in WA" was originally created and published by Mining Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
