One more......for tonight With respect to MGV still having...

One more......for tonight

With respect to MGV still having tenements covering an area of 25,000km2 - approximately 2.5 per cent of South Australia, in the the Musgrave province.


2nd August  

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...s/news-story/0882c05e2178c9b1734e516e8b5d7966

West Musgrave nickel/copper security for OZ Minerals

OZ Minerals has secured another growth area beyond its reliance on Prominent Hill copper/gold mine in South Australia in a $36 million farm-in deal on the remote West Musgrave nickel/copper deposit in Western Australia.

Under the farm-in deal with Cassini Resources, OZ could end up with 70 per cent of West Musgrave, originally discovered by Western Mining Corporation a couple of years before its takeover by BHP Billiton in 2005.

Ranked as a 2.5 million-tonne copper deposit (after giving the nickel a copper equivalent value), West Musgrave is the biggest undeveloped deposit of its type in Australia.

But its remote location, hard up against the WA and South Australian border, and the low grade mineralisation has held back its development prospects. The fall in the dollar and the rebound in nickel prices has enhanced likely project economics.

Cassini acquired the project from BHP in April 2014 for the knockdown price of $250,000 cash, a 2 per cent net smelter royalty interest, and should Cassini become a producer from the project, an inflation adjusted $10m payment after 12 months of production.

It was said at the time to have been a once in a (commodities) cycle deal, courtesy of BHP’s culling of its portfolio to focus on Andrew Mackenzie’s four pillars of iron ore, copper, petroleum and coal.

Cassini shares shot 1.3c, or 38 per cent, higher to 4.7c on the OZ deal, with OZ firming 10.5c, or 1.6 per cent, to $6.49. The market assumes a development of West Musgrave could follow OZ’s more advanced planning for a $975m development of its Carrapateena copper/gold project in SA.

OZ chief executive Andrew Cole said the West Musgrave deposit could be mined with a shallow open cut. The resource is spread across the Nebo and Babel deposits, with exploration also uncovering the Succoth copper deposit.

“Nebo-Babel is pretty compelling just on its own,” Mr Cole said.

“This deal is strategic because it gives us access to an exciting project and, importantly, a very significant proportion of a new mining province,” he said.

“The significant amount of resource that we already know about is under shallow cover so we are expecting that we can establish a low-cost, scalable open-pit operation.

“Cassini has done some great work already and I am confident that the OZ team can help forge a pathway towards commercialisation.

“Our recent work at Carrapateena clearly demonstrates that a fresh set of eyes can unlock a huge amount of vale.

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Mr Waugh was a critical member of the WMC Resources Limited exploration team that discovered the massive Nebo and Babel nickel/copper/PGM deposits at West Musgrave in 2000