birth of bullabulling gold

GGG Resources: The birth of Bullabulling Gold
Thursday, December 08, 2011 by Jon Mainwaring GGG Resources’ merger with Bullabulling gold project partner Auzex is expected to be completed early next year
GGG Resources (LON:GGG, ASX:GGB) is a minerals explorer that aims to become a profitable mining company via a strategy of finding, or acquiring, gold and other mineral prospects in Australasia and developing these into mining operations.

This strategy involves focusing on only a handful of quality projects – each of which is capable of delivering what the company describes as “early value” to its shareholders.

Much has been happening at the company in recent months as it has been preparing itself for a merger with its Australian joint venture partner Auzex (ASX:AZX).

GGG began as a gold and copper exploration company focused on China. Then known as Central China Goldfields, the firm successfully explored two projects in China that it believes showed its capability to make a significant geological discovery. Unfortunately, the world financial crisis interfered with GGG’s plans and it withdrew from China, unable to gain true value from its projects.

Using profits acquired from the sale of its assets in China, GGG saw an opportunity to invest in the Bullabulling Gold Project in Western Australia. This exploration project is within the productive Yilgarn Craton – a part of the world that hosts 160 gold deposits with resources greater than one tonne of gold. 19 of these deposits are considered “world class”, containing more than 100 tonnes of gold.

Based in the well-established gold mining district of Coolgardie in Western Australia, Bullabulling is close to established power, water and road infrastructure.  The firm reckons that this convenient location means it will be able to bring a new Bullabulling open pit mine into production far more quickly than if it were a greenfield project.

Since GGG invested in Bullabulling it has upgraded the resource a couple of times. In August 2010 it announced a JORC mineral resource at the project of two million ounces gold. A year later, this resource was upgraded to 2.6 million ounces – giving GGG and its partner Auzex more than 710,000 ounces in the ‘indicated’ category.

Most recently, in mid-November, the firm released further encouraging results from its ongoing drilling programme at the project. The highlights of these results included a one-metre section at 48.8 grams of gold per tonne and 13.3 grams over nine metres.

More typical were the wider intersections at lower grades, including 20 metres at 3.4 grams per tonne of gold and 19 metres at 2.5 grams per tonne. Gold was found from 21 metres down to 195 metres. 

GGG said the drilling results “continue to reconcile well against the latest gold JORC resource model and give confidence for the next JORC upgrade due in the first quarter of 2012”.

A key goal of the firm is to be able to move a significant portion of the 1.9 million ounces of ‘inferred’ resource into the higher category – increasing the 711,000 ounces of existing resource that is classed as ‘indicated’ – before estimating an initial ore reserve. This should establish sufficient gold reserves for at least a 10-year mine life at Bullabulling, according to GGG.

Commenting on the recent metallurgical results, independent broker Northland Capital Partners noted that recoveries at the Bullabulling are expected to exceed 90 per cent for grades above 0.6 grams per tonne of gold. The broker added: “The Bullabulling gold project is continuing to develop with positive results. The gold deposit based in Western Australian is continuing phase two of its drilling-campaign which has defined areas of high grade within a larger low grade open pittable resource. The metallurgical study has shown that the ore is neither hard nor abrasive because of the lack of quartz associated with the mineralisation, and as a result should reduce operating costs.”

Meanwhile, GGG plans to begin more detailed exploration drilling beyond the 2.2-kilometre zone where most of its drilling work has, so far, been concentrated. This drilling will aim to confirm the true extent – in terms of both length and depth – of the Bullabulling gold trend.

There is also additional exploration drilling, targeting the Gryphon, Kraken, Minotaur and Edwards pits on the southern extension of the Bullabulling

http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/23183/ggg-resources-the-birth-of-bullabulling-gold-23183.html