WWI - a junior company flying under the radar with millions of...

WWI - a junior company flying under the radar with
millions of ounces of gold
West Wits Mining (WWI) is a rarely traded, tiny gold
company that is sitting on two potentially very valuable
assets. The most exciting, but also the most elusive to date,
is the Derewo gold project in Papua. Artisans mining over
recent years have recovered an extraordinary amount of
gold from terrace gravels with much of it being sizeable
nuggets. One can draw parallels with the early days of Mt
Kare or Porgera. WWI’s objective has been to commence
mining of the gravels with a view to funding exploration for
the originating orebody. However, land access and the
inability of the local partner to rectify the problem has
been delaying the project for quite a few years. WWI has
taken on a new, more powerful partner that believes it can
overcome the problems. Time will tell, but until positive
cash flow starts the Company is unlikely to say much
about this one.
The other much more tangible project is named the
Soweto Cluster, located on the famous Witwatersrand
goldfields in South Africa. Historical records suggest that
a number of previously mined reefs still hold something
like 13 million ounces (87.9 Mt at 4.6 gpt for 12.82 Moz)
of gold (non-JORC compliant). Most of this is too deep to
worry about with deteriorating underground economics
effectively sterilising the orebodies. However, reviews of
the data suggest that there could be around one million
ounces in the top 200m, and another one million ounces
from 200m to 400m depths. The grade varies but much of
it is around 4.5 gpt. A small amount could be mined in
open pits.
West Wits’s strategy is to spend up to $1m to confirm the
resources and bring them up to JORC standard. That
would open the door to a sale of the gold to nearby
treatment plants, either outright or by joint venture
arrangement. Preliminary spreadsheets analysis suggest
that the NPV of a mining operation could be in the range of
$100-150m. Leaving a profit margin for the purchaser (who
needs the ore to keep its treatment plant operating), we
could speculate that it might be worth $50m in a trade sale
to WWI. That would be a serious win for a company that is
currently capitalised at only $4m. Maybe this is one for
patient value seekers. Have a look at the ASX release that
came out on Friday.
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