and Controlled Entities
ACN 009 067 476
Annual Report
for the Year ended 30 June 2016
Directors: NIGEL RAYMOND FORRESTER, FCA
CHRIS CAMPBELL-HICKS, FAusIMM CP Met MMICA
KAREN CLARK - Appointed 25 August 2015
HARRY WARRIES, Ms Mine Eng., AusIMM - Appointed 1 August 2016
JASON STIRBINSKIS, MBA, B. Sc., Grad Dip Ed., AusIMM - Appointed 29 August 2016
Joint Secretaries: JAN FORRESTER
SERENE CHAU, CPA
Registered Office: Unit 8
800 Albany Highway East Victoria Park Western Australia 6101
Telephone: +61 8 9355 0123
Facsimile: +61 8 9355 1484
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.mountburgess.com
Share Registry: Advanced Share Registry Services
150 Stirling Highway
Nedlands, Western Australia, 6009 Telephone: +61 8 9389 8033
Facsimile: +61 8 9389 7871
Level 6 225 Clarence Street
Sydney NSW 2000 PO Box Q1736
Queen Victoria Building NSW 1230 Telephone: +61 2 8096 3502
Website: www.advancedshare.com.au
Auditors: BDO Audit (WA) Pty Ltd 38 Station Street
Subiaco, Western Australia, 6008
Bankers: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd 77 St Georges Terrace
Perth, Western Australia, 6000
Mount Burgess Mining NL is an ASX listed public company incorporated in Australia (ASX Code: MTB).
It is my pleasure to present to you our annual report for the year to 30 June 2016.
It is my further pleasure to welcome those recently appointed to the Board, Mr Jason Stirbinskis, MBA, B.Sc, Grad Dip Ed, Aus IMM, a geologist and Mr Harry Warries, MS Mine Eng. F Aus IMM, a mining engineer.
Since May 2013, the Company has been in litigation in an effort to regain title to its Kihabe-Nxuu Zn/Pb/Ag project in Western Ngamiland, Botswana. Having been through the High Court and the Court of Appeal, it was granted the right in July 2015 to take the matter back to the High Court.
However, as announced on 10 November 2015, through assistance from the Chamber of Mines, Botswana, the Ministry for Minerals Energy and Water Resources, Botswana (MMEWR) confirmed that it was ready to engage with the Company in applying for a new Prospecting Licence over the Kihabe - Nxuu project. An Application for a new Prospecting Licence was submitted on 2 December 2015, resulting in the grant of a new Prospecting Licence PL 43/2016 on 26 January 2016.
With the reinstatement of its title, the Company now intends to move forward with the development of the project. In order to achieve this the Company has engaged at Board level the required technically qualified personnel. Mr Jason Stirbinskis, a geologist, Mr Chris Campbell-Hicks, a metallurgist and Mr Harry Warries, a mining engineer, will all be necessary in their particular fields of expertise, in moving the project forward.
The Company is one of a few ASX listed companies with exposure to zinc. With the encouraging zinc price forecasts and signs of a positive shift in market sentiment, I believe the Company is strategically placed to move the Kihabe project forward.
Despite the difficulty that prevailed through the past year in raising funds, the Company has been successful in small capital raisings. In this regard I extend my sincere thanks to those participating shareholders for their continued support. I also wish to thank the Directors and their associates for necessary loan funding provided during the year as well as continuing to work for no pay.
Nigel Forrester
Chairman & Managing Director
28 September 2016
THE KIHABE-NXUU PROJECT BOTSWANA
TITLE
In January 2016 Mount Burgess (Botswana) (Proprietary) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company was granted Prospecting Licence PL 43/2016 over the Kihabe- Nxuu Zn/Pb/Ag project, previously held under PL 69/2003. The term of PL 43/2016 runs for three years to 26 January 2019 with the right of two further two year extensions to 26 January 2021 and 26 January 2023.
RESOURCES
To date the Company has developed 2004 JORC compliant indicated and inferred resources amounting to 25 million tonnes @ 3% Zn equivalent grade, including 3.3 million ozs of Ag. These combined resources are made up from the Kihabe and Nxuu deposits, seven km apart. Both the Kihabe and Nxuu resources have the potential to be open cut mining operations.
STYLE OF MINERALISATION
The Kihabe-Nxuu project is a SEDEX mineralised system within a Neo-proterozoic belt. Zn/Pb/Ag mineralisation occurs in a quartz wacke, right at the contact with the regional dolostone.
In the Neo-proterozoic era, this SEDEX zone of mineralisation was formed by hydrothermal fluids depositing mineralisation over quartz wacke overlying the regional seabed/lakebed dolostone. This would have formed a single unit covering a large area. Over time that unit has been broken up by folding, faulting and erosion into several individual units, all within close proximity of one another that now show up as individual geochemical anomalies.
POTENTIAL TO FIND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
The stratigraphic location of this mineralisation detected in the quartz wacke right at the contact with the regional dolostone acts as a significant pathfinder for the discovery of additional resources.
Apart from the Kihabe and Nxuu resources, six other Zn anomalies and one Cu/Co anomaly have been identified through geochemical soil sampling conducted to date. Three of the Zn anomalies and the Cu/Co anomaly are known to exist at the contact zone between a quartz wacke and the regional dolostone beneath Kalahari sand cover, just as the mineralisation occurs in the Khabe and Nxuu deposits.
The Kihabe and Nxuu resources have been delineated over a combined strike length of 2.3km. The six other Zn anomalies and the Cu/Co anomaly have been delineated over a combined strike length of 13km. The three Zn anomalies and the Cu/Co anomaly known to exist at the contact of a quartz wacke with the regional dolomite have a combined strike length of 10.2 km. One of these Zn anomalies, the Target 52 anomaly, delineated around a fold closure has a strike length of 5.2km.
The scale of these anomalies demonstrates the potential to significantly expand the resource base at the Kihabe-Nxuu project.
POTENTIAL TO INCREASE RESOURCE GRADES
The Kihabe and Nxuu resources have been estimated mainly from results from Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling, which represents around 80% of the holes drilled, together with Diamond Drilling (DD) results, which represent about 20% of the holes drilled. DD holes that have twinned or intersected the same zones of mineralisation as those drilled with RC have shown an average Zn grade increment of close to 60%.
A further exercise was conducted on the Kihabe resource where the results from only the DD holes within the 0.5% low cut resource envelope were compared with the results from both the RC and DD holes within the same 0.5% low cut envelope. Results from the DD holes alone showed an average Zn grade increment of 48%.
POTENTIAL FOR ADDITIONAL METAL CREDITS
Recent assaying has shown consistent grades of Germanium (Ge). Further assays are being conducted to determine the consistency of these Ge grades. If further assays show that this consistency can be relied upon, Ge could be included as a material credit.