That article is behind a paywall, so here it is for anyone that...

That article is behind a paywall, so here it is for anyone that doesn't have access. This isn't the updated version that is linked - not sure what was amended.
Rise and Shine: biggest NZ gold find in 40 years
Australian gold miner Santana Minerals is spruiking its "Rise and Shine” site in Central Otago as “the most significant gold discovery in New Zealand for four decades”. That puts it in contention with OceanaGold’s Macraes mine, a 90-minute drive away and in the same geological structure, which has produced more than three million ounces of gold since opening 34 years ago, in 1990. At today’s gold price, that values Macraes at $9.6 billion, with Santana’s Bendigo-Ophir discovery potentially significantly larger if drilling results to date are replicated in other parts of its mining licence. The Rise and Shine, or RAS, project is already estimated at 2.9 million ounces of gold after exploration of a limited area of the licence. Gold is currently trading above US$2,000 (NZ$3,206) an ounce, and minerals sector analysts at Australian broking firm Bell Potter predicted in a Dec 18 report that gold could rise to US$3,000 an ounce if a typical response to the expected fall in global interest rates occurs this year. The mineral, a global store of value for millennia, was touted last month in the Financial Times by globally influential economist Nouriel Roubini as one of a few investment classes with counter-cyclical properties to current negatives for investors.Bell Potter also rated Santana as having had “extraordinary exploration success” in a round-up of Australasian gold explorers last month. Public notification of Santana’s ambitions was sparked by the company lodging a presentation about its Ophir-Bendigo Project with the Australian securities exchange (ASX) on Monday this week.

Jones in the loop

The company briefed the minister of resources, Shane Jones, on its plans late last year. Santana is understood to intend to seek a mining licence later this year, with a view to mining both open-cut and underground operations within three to four years at a relatively low cost compared with competitors. Santana’s presentation notes a “new pro-mining government in place since November 2023”, and Jones told BusinessDesk that “Santana and others should take confidence that the sector has an ardent supporter in this minister of mineral resources”. “We are a government seeking an export-led recovery, and our natural resource base has been deprecated, and statutory processes have been hobbled by successive governments.” He had asked officials at the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), the ministry with responsibility for mineral resources, “for technical advice on as to how legislation might be rebalanced because there are so many horror stories in the natural resources sector”. Ministers should be making decisions on mineral exploitation, and he had high hopes for the government’s plan for fast-track resource consent allocation, he said.
Capital call likely

A capital raising to fund what Santana described as a relatively simple mining operation is also likely. In the past four years the company’s shares have languished, sometimes well below A$1 (NZ$1.07) apiece. In a statement to BusinessDesk last night, Santana’s Arrowtown-based chief executive, Damian Spring, said: "We are still assessing our options regarding future capital needs and will be providing further information as we progress this historic gold discovery. “Our focus is to further our exploratory work and to determine the best way to undertake the mining processes and manage our environmental and community responsibilities.” An investment adviser of long experience, Chris Lee, told BusinessDesk in February last year that the Santana development was “well on the way to becoming a world-class resource” in an area with a track record of impressive gold production. However, other mineral sector sources at the time were sceptical that the Ophir project could be so prospective. Analysis by Bell Potter gives Santana the seventh highest reserves among the top 10 ASX-listed gold explorers, an active if high-risk perennial feature of Australian equities markets. It is ranked fourth out of 10 for average grade, at 3.609oz per tonne, and at the Dec 18 date of the Bell Potter report, had an enterprise value of A$50 per ounce of known reserves, ranking it fourth most expensive of the stocks Bell Potter covers.

The details

The Santana report describes “a zone of shallow dipping gold mineralisation traced for more than 1.5 kilometres down plunge and up to 500 metres beneath unconforming TZ3 cover”. High cyanide wash extractable gold (85 to 95%) at conventional grinds and modest (30 to 40%) gravity recovery of gold were anticipated in a “simple and uncomplicated mining strategy” on a site described as “semi-arid, sparse” and “hidden”. “Indicative metallurgy shows free milling gold recoverable by gravity followed by cyanide leach together expected to achieve in the order of 90% recovery.” There was also “plenty more” to prospect in the company’s exploration licence area. The company has yet to apply for a mining licence and associated resource consents but has land access agreements with two private freehold landowners and a crown leaseholder.History

The 19th-century Bendigo mine produced 300,000 ounces of the approximately 8 million ounces of gold dug up during the Gold Rush, which was over in Otago by the mid-1880s. Santana has been quietly developing the Ophir site for several years and is closely watched by some private investment advisers, including Chris Lee & Partners. Exploratory drilling at the mining site, which would involve a “simple and uncomplicated mining strategy – open pit, then underground”, is described as producing “exceptional drill hole intercepts”, indicating high mineralisation levels.

The RAS prospect shares the geology of both the Macraes and the historic Bendigo mine. Macraes says on its website that it produces up to 130,000oz of gold annually and that the known reserves give the mine a life of about six years, although that has been extended in the past following further exploration.