Blackham Resources may have found yet another way to create value for shareholders from their newly re-commissioned Wiluna gold plant under a deal that could see it mining GWR Group’s 258,000 ounces of gold from GWR’s neighboring West Wiluna gold project.
The companies announced today they had executed a Memorandum of Understanding to delineate, study and potentially mine gold deposits at GWR’s West Wiluna project on a profit share basis with the ore to be treated at Blackham’s 100%-owned Wiluna gold plant.
The Wiluna West project contains JORC 2004 compliant mineral resources of 3,478,000 tonnes of ore grading 2.3 gram per tonne gold for an estimated 258,200 ounces of gold.
The GWR deal adds yet another potential revenue source for Blackham, which has no shortage of its own gold resources at the Matilda/Wiluna gold project.
Earlier this month, Blackham announced another resource upgrade at the Matilda/Wiluna project, from 6m to 6.4m ounces of gold. Gold bulls have sent the company’s share price soaring in the past month, bidding up the stock another 6% today to 75.5 cents.
Under the MoU, GWR will be responsible for drilling out the gold deposits to JORC 2012 complaint level and the initial metallurgical testing.
Blackham will then undertake a feasibility study to determine the economic potential of the project. If the study results are positive, Blackham will be entitled to make an offer to GWR to mine, transport and process the ore, with Blackham paying GWR under either a profit sharing or ore sales agreement, which is yet to be negotiated.
The initial focus of the MoU will be on the Golden Monarch and Emu/Eagle deposits which GWR is planning to drill out in the first half of 2017. The deposits are already on current mining tenements as part of GWR’s Wiluna West iron ore project.
The deal appears to be a win win for both parties.
The GWR resource does not appear to be sizeable enough to fund a stand alone plant but could deliver some serious economic returns if they can access Blackham’s plant just down the road, thus avoiding the need for a capital injection.
For Blackham it’s just a numbers game, if they can make the same amount of money from mining GWR’s ore on a profit share arrangement then the deal will simply have the effect of prolonging the life of the Matilda/Wiluna project and preserving Blackham’s own ore.
By Matt Birney
