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Havilah Resources Limited plans to sequentially develop its portfolio of gold, copper, iron, cobalt, tin and other mineral resources in South Australia. Our vision is to become a new mining force, delivering value to our shareholders, partners and the community.
168 million Ordinary Shares -- 36 million Listed Options -- 9 million Unlisted Options
ASX and Media Release: 31 May 2016 ASX Code: HAV
Portia gold processing plant
QUARTERLY ACTIVITIES REPORT - PERIOD ENDING APRIL 2016
HIGHLIGHTS FOR QUARTER
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First Portia gold ore mined from the northern sub-pit as planned.
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Processing plant construction completed, commissioned and first gold ore processed.
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First gold bullion poured on site (after end of quarter).
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First gold delivered to refinery (after end of quarter).
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Havilah received the inaugural SACOME Ocean Partners Commercial Achievement Award.
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Mining Lease for the Kalkaroo copper-gold deposit close to finalisation.
PORTIA GOLD MINE
Havilah Resources is pleased to report that significant progress has been made on the Portia project over the last quarter, with the achievement of several historic milestones, namely:
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First gold ore was mined and delivered to the ore stockpile in accordance with the accelerated mining plan previously announced (last quarter still mining overburden 10 metres above ore).
www.havilah-resources.com.au HAVILAH RESOURCES LIMITED
ABN 39 077 435 520
MAIL: 31 Flemington Street, Glenside, SA 5065 Australia EMAIL:[email protected]
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The gravity gold processing plant was completed and commissioned two months ahead of schedule (last quarter still under construction).
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First gold ore was treated in the gold plant, and gold was satisfactorily recovered in accordance with design.
After the end of the quarter first gold bullion was poured and sent to the refinery. First gold sales are imminent and proceeds are expected to be credited to the account of Havilah in the next few days, which will represent the achievement of yet another major milestone. With mining and processing of ore settling into a routine, Havilah expects weekly gold pours and regular gold sales, that in future will be reported on a quarterly basis.
The commissioning of the gold plant presented both expected and unexpected challenges, which were systematically worked through in order to progressively improve plant availability. Overall, the design of the plant is proving to be suited to the ore material being treated, with acceptable gold recoveries being achieved. Currently, the focus is on optimising ore throughput and achieving greater efficiencies at all stages in the processing circuit.
The accelerated mining plan to access gold ore in an interim northern sub-pit was successfully implemented as planned. Roughly 10,000 tonnes of higher grade (light grey clay) gold ore was delivered to the ore stockpile, together with significant tonnages of medium and lower grade material. This stockpiled ore was treated during the plant commissioning phase and at the date of this report, continued to be treated.
Northern sub-pit after removal of ore
In the meantime, Havilah's mining contracting partner, Consolidated Mining and Civil (CMC) continued to remove overburden in order to expose further ore as rapidly as possible. In late April a pit wall slip comprising approximately 160,000 m3of material from the northern wall slumped into the already mined out interim northern sub-pit. Movement of the pit wall had been detected by the Sentry I-Site laser scanner and from visual observation of cracks on the surface several weeks previously. Consequently, the slip was anticipated and all personnel were excluded from the relevant zone at the time. After the slip, CMC took the prudent precautionary measure of temporarily suspending mining operations to allow geotechnical experts to re-evaluate the integrity of the current mine design by applying back analysis of the failure. It was concluded that mining can proceed with acceptable factors of safety with small design changes to be implemented.
Subsequently, Department for State Development (DSD) and SafeWork SA personnel have inspected the site and were satisfied with the cautious approach taken by CMC. Ongoing monitoring of the pit walls using the Sentry I-Site laser in the manner currently employed and setting conservative movement rates to trigger action response plans is to be maintained.
It is known that the Portia gold mineralisation, both in the base of Tertiary and the bedrock, continues to the south beyond the current open pit design. The revised mining plan calls for a small cutback of the open pit south wall, and in anticipation of this, Havilah plans to carry out a targeted drilling program to gain an improved understanding of the continuity of the mineralisation towards the south. This drilling will take place from a ramp cut into the south wall and will commence in early June subject to weather conditions.
In another first, Havilah, was awarded the inaugural Ocean Partners Commercial Achievement Award for its innovative funding model that enabled its Portia Gold Mine to come to fruition. This Award is an initiative of the South Australian Chamber of Mines and Energy (SACOME) and was announced at SACOME's Annual Resources Industry Dinner on 20thApril.
Portia coarse gold concentrate
1 About the Portia Gold Mine
Portia is a unique coarse-grained gold deposit that lies under 75 metres of barren clay overburden. The open pit design requires removal of approximately 7.0 million cubic metres of overburden to allow mining of approximately 80% of the published gold resource. The gold will be recovered in a high efficiency gravity circuit, which is presently being constructed in modular form off-site, prior to assembly on site early in 2016. Mining commenced at Portia on 30 March 2015 under an innovative revenue sharing arrangement with Broken Hill based mining contractor, Consolidated Mining and Civil Pty Ltd (CMC). This requires CMC to remove all overburden and deliver the gold-bearing ore to surface at its sole expense, while Havilah is solely responsible for the construction and operation of the gravity processing plant. To date, mining has progressed according to plan and CMC have delivered first ore to surface, which has been processed and first gold bullion produced and sent to the refiner.
NORTH PORTIA COPPER-GOLD PROJECT
Havilah continued with its resource infill drilling at North Portia during the quarter and achieved further impressive results from within the known oxidised resource (refer to ASX announcement 03/03/16). Drillhole NPRC068 returned the best result of: 32 metres of 3.95% Cu and 1.45 g/t Au from 82-114 metres downhole. This result is the best ever combined copper and gold drill intersection obtained by Havilah in its drilling at North Portia to date. Highest grades of copper were associated with chalcopyrite, chalcocite and bornite rich mineralisation in the lower carbonate stratigraphic interval of the prospective sequence. This drillhole also contains a long interval of molybdenum mineralisation, namely 43 metres of 868 ppm Mo from 56-99 metres downhole.
Preliminary metallurgical test results from ALS Global's Adelaide metallurgical laboratory on saprolite ore material from earlier drillhole NPRC064, indicates de-sliming followed by light grinding and flotation produces the best copper and gold recoveries. Further metallurgical test work to verify a processing flow sheet is planned.
The current drilling and metallurgical work at North Portia forms part of a fast-tracked feasibility study aiming to determine the economic viability of mining the upper oxidised portion of the North Portia deposit as a sequential follow on operation from the Portia gold mine.
2 About the North Portia Copper-Gold Project
North Portia lies 500 metres north of Portia (see picture below) and contains a JORC Indicated and Inferred Resource of 11.3 million tonnes of 0.89% copper, 0.64 g/t gold and 500 ppm molybdenum (refer ASX announcement of 23 November 2010, noting that all the assumptions underpinning this previous announcement continue to apply and have not materially changed. See table below for the split of the resource categories). The immediate focus is on the upper oxidised part of the deposit that contains approximately 3.7 million tonnes of soft free digging saprolite ore (weathered bedrock) that could potentially be mined and treated for minimal capital outlay.