On the 7thMay Alex secured the funding to do the following:
·Define a maiden resource estimate for the Grace Prospect (work already well advanced in May).
·Update the Project’s broader mineral resources, with the inclusion of newly identified shallow gold mineralisation located near historic open pits and in previously untested zones in the Youanmi Granite. In other words update the impressive historical resource of12.4Mt @ 2.97g/t Au for 1.19 million ounces of gold (Indicated: 5.5Mt grading 2.67 g/t Au, Inferred: 6.9Mt grading 3.2 g/t Au) aggregated over the Youanmi Near Surface and Youanmi Deeps deposits.
The latest step in achieving a maiden JORC is the RC drilling programnow underway of 16,000m in 126 holes in total, which will drill much of Grace out on a 40m x 40m spacing. Shallower parts of Grace are mostly drilled on 20m x 20m and in some places 10m x 10m. This largely infill drilling allows an accurate resource estimate to be calculated.
At the same time (4 rigs in operation) the Grace resource is being grown by targeting mineralisation at depth. Including drilling from the Western Side of the main pit to depths of around 500m below surface. A diamond drill rig is drilling night and day to accomplish this.
Once Alex knows exactly what resource it has, he will commencea high-grade starter mine taking in the Grace Prospect and other nearby shallow resources. This option is almost uniquely available to Rox because the gold starts from ground level.It will be very cheap to mine and provide a near term cash flow for the company.
This gold is oxide with a high recovery rate. Alex hasn’t told us how he plans to process the ore but he has the options of toll milling, upgrading the existing plant or using parts of it or bringing in a prefabricated modular plant such as a Gecko.
Alex then plans to move to a larger scale project to commercialise the broader resources at Youanmi. That will depend on a number of unknowns including the extent of the deeper Grace mineralisation. If any of the Penny West Deep South targets or others now being drilled under the VMC JV turn out to be repeats of the historical PW or Penny West North (RMS) finds then Rox will have an easily fundable large scale mine.
If Rox isn’t taken over the market cap is likely to double when we get the Grace JORC, double again when mining commences and it’s blue sky if we get a resource that could justify large scale mining.
(20min delay)