Thanks for the heads up Pep. I think the article below is the one you're referring to? It's valuable for the company to be getting some positive coverage. A lot is riding on the Torrens work but it's kicked goals each step so far so I'm feeling confident that will continue. The only drawback right now is that we have to wait for the 12-18 months of a Feasibility Study so it should put some more value in but it will be a while before those deposits can be fully reflected in the market cap.
I'm still keen to see something happen with nickel exploration at Fowlers Bay. That's all blue sky potential at this stage but they need to find the right exploration partner. It would be great if BB can secure someone to work with us who is recognised for nickel exploration.
Share charts. Source: TheAustralian < Prev Next > •• Gunson Resources (GUN)
A FRESH set of eyes has added a much-needed second string to Gunson Resources’ bow.
The second string is the company’s Mount Gunson copper project in South Australia which, funnily enough, is why Gunson is called Gunson. But the project has been going nowhere for a long time, due to metallurgical issues.
While Mount Gunson was parked on the bench, Gunson became better known for its Coburn mineral sands project in Western Australia, which is limbo land at the moment.
But Mount Gunson is back on the radar in a big way — for a company with a 2.2c share price and $6.4 million market capitalisation anyway — thanks to Mike Collings and his partners at the privately owned Torrens Mining, an outfit that could well list one day.
Collings, both an engineer and geologist, has been knocking about the industry for 40 years and with his mates at Torrens, he enjoys scouring the industry looking for hidden value.
He reckons that he has found a gem within Gunson at its namesake Mount Gunson project, specifically its MG14 and Windabout copper-cobalt-silver deposits, about 40km south of Woomera.
Gunson needs a new focus just at the moment, too, as while its Coburn mineral sands project is dressed up and ready to go, financing the development at a time when zircon prices aren’t being helpful is understandably tough, which is why it is seeking a partner with deeper pockets to pick up the running.
Back at MG14/Windabout, Torrens is earning a 51 per cent stake by sole funding all tests and studies needed to confirm that the metals locked up in fine-grained black shale seams can in fact be extracted profitably.
Conventional flotation metal recovery doesn’t do the job on the black shales, but the Torrens boys, drawing on collective industry memories stretching back decades, reckon a sodium cyanide leaching process will do the trick.
As cyanide is expensive stuff, a processing route that recaptures and re-uses the stuff is a must. Working off flowsheets developed in the US in the 1960s, benchtop laboratory work by the Torrens/Gunson partnership has shown some real promise.
Copper recoveries of 80-85 per cent and cyanide regeneration of more than 80 per cent have been achieved, prompting the decision to now move to the pre-feasibility study stage, meaning likely capital costs and operating costs can be worked up.
The results leave the 54-68 per cent copper recoveries from a 2010 test program using conventional sulphide flotation in the shade. It’s early days and the eventual outcome is uncertain.
But it is certainly worth a short given MG14/Windabout are known to contain more than 200,000 tonnes of copper, plus valuable amounts of cobalt.
An eventual development producing some 10,000 tonnes of copper and 450 tonnes of high-value cobalt annually would be the ultimate aim. That sort of potential means that it can be said that in the case of Gunson, its Coburn mineral sands project comes for free in its current share price. Two (projects) for the price of one as it were.
GUN Price at posting:
2.3¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
