Ann: Drilling Underway at 100% owned North Arunta Project, page-16

Newly merged entity Newmont Goldcorp has highlighted its commitment to the Tanami region in the Northern Territory with a $14.5 million joint venture with greenfields explorer Prodigy Gold.

The US giant has agreed to farm-in to the Matt Briggs-led explorer’s Tobruk project which lies 50km south of Newmont Goldcorp’s resurgent 14 million-ounce Callie mine near the WA border.

Prodigy is a significant landholder in the Tanami, which has also attracted the likes of Newcrest Mining and Northern Star Resources.

Under the terms of its Tobruk deal, Newmont Goldcorp will initially spend $6 million to earn up to 51 per cent of the project within four years, with an option to spend another $6 million over an additional three years for a 70 per cent interest.

Prodigy may elect for Newmont Goldcorp to fund its share of future expenditure and joint venture costs until commercial production to lift its stake to 75 per cent.

Newmont Goldcorp sees Tobruk as having a similar geological setting to its Callie underground mine, which produced nearly 500,000 ounces last calendar year at costs of $US763/oz ($1103/oz).

The mining giant is expected to begin geo-chemical work at Tobruk this quarter followed by diamond drilling later in the year.

Newmont Goldcorp is now examining a second expansion of Callie with exploration drilling discoveries economic gold up to 1.9km below surface.

The company has also build a 440km gas pipeline to its Tanami operations from the Amadeus pipeline, which runs north-south between Alice Springs and Darwin.

Mr Briggs said Prodigy now had more than $33 million in funding agreements from joint venture partners to accelerate discovery across the company’s entire exploration portfolio.

Prodigy also has farm-in agreements with Newcrest Mining over its Euro project to the north-east of Callie and with Independence Group over its Lake Mackay base metals project to the south.

Independence Group and St Barbara are significant shareholders of Prodigy.

https://thewest.com.au/business/mining/newmont-goldcorp-backs-prodigy-golds-tanami-chase-ng-b881201272z