Just received this fGold mine could be reality for Tennant Creek By Penelope Bergen
Wednesday, 24/03/2010
Tennant Creek should know by the end of the year whether or not a gold mine just kilometres from the town could be a reality.
Technical Manager of Excalibur Mining, Matthew Sullivan, says they're at the pre-development stage of exploration at the Juno and Nobles Nob sites.
He says they need to find enough resources to justify putting in a mine, but the results have been positive so far.
"We've really focused on defining areas that other people have already, but I thought at the outset that our ground could easily have a one to two million ounce potential and at this stage we're sitting comfortably over a million ounces."
The areas they're looking at, about ten kilometres east of Tennant Creek, is only three square kilometres.
Mr Sullivan says they're small in size, compared to other exploration projects in the region, but not small in resources.
"The history of Tennant has been that a lot of effort has to go into finding the sweet spots but once you've got the sweet spots you don't worry about the rest."
But the process of going from exploration to mining is a long one, with the first drilling in the Juno area being in 1959.
"We finished drilling our most recent hole at Juno last Thursday so that's got to give you a bit of a hint that sometimes it just takes time."
New technology means exploration companies are in a position to find previously unseen options.
Mr Sullivan says the people of Tennant Creek have been 'fabulous' in terms of local contractors and people in general have been very helpful to the company.
He hopes Excalibur can contribute back to the community with work opportunities if mining goes ahead.
"I guess there's going to be opportunities that are going to come along in various formats and it would [be] nice if the local people had first crack at a couple of things."
In this report: Matthew Sullivan, Technical Manage of Excalibur Mining rom google alert - it's dated 24/03 10
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