China turns sights to WA goldPETER KLINGER, The West Australian...

China turns sights to WA gold
PETER KLINGER, The West Australian November 24, 2009, 6:17 am
Chinese interests have completed what is thought to be their first foray into WA's gold sector with a farm-in deal over Range River Gold's Indee project in the Pilbara.
The Chinese state-owned Northwest Mining and Geological Exploration Group (NWME) will earn a 49 per cent stake in Indee by spending $6 million on exploration and development over four years.
The deal, first flagged in May last year, has received Foreign Investment Review Board approval and was signed off by the two groups in Xi'an, China, yesterday. Exploration work should start early next year.
It will be NWME's second deal in WA's North-West following a $10.5 million investment in Meridian Minerals, which is reworking the Lennard Shelf zinc-lead asset in the Kimberley.
Chinese groups have rushed into base metals and iron ore projects but largely ignored gold plays.
Range River closed Indee this year after struggling to establish a profitable gold mining operation at the asset, south of Port Hedland.
NWME's Indee farm-in leaves Range River to concentrate on its flagship Mt Morgans gold project near Laverton, where it expects to be in production by the end of this year.
Range River's shares closed steady at 3.9¢ yesterday but have enjoyed a rerating over the past two months on the back of high bullion prices and Mt Morgans' imminent start-up.
The gold junior's backers include Rupert Murdoch's brother-in-law, John Calvert-Jones (12.8 per cent), Barrick Gold (11.7 per cent), and non-executive director and former Oxiana boss, Owen Hegarty (3.6 per cent).
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/...hts-to-wa-gold/

China scents the lure of gold BARRY FITZGERALD November 24, 2009 CHINA has not felt the need to raid the $10 billion Australian gold sector as it has the rest of the local mining industry.
This has something to do with the communist state already being the world's biggest producer of the yellow metal.
But signs are emerging that with gold prices now at all-time highs, the Chinese are finding the lure of the untapped exploration upside in the Australian industry - ranked third in the global production stakes - too much to resist.
Melbourne-based Range River Gold is one of the first locals to benefit, striking a deal with Xi'an-based and state-owned North West Mining and Geological Exploration on its Indee gold project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Under the deal, NWME can earn a 49 per cent interest in Indee by spending $6 million on exploration and development over the next four years. Indee was unsuccessful as a producer of gold from the heap-leaching of oxide ores.
The Chinese are interested in the project because of its potential for the discovery of higher-grade sulphide mineralisation at greater depths. There has been encouragement on that score in the past, but now the Chinese and Range River are going to give the potential a serious test with the drill bit.
The Foreign Investment Review Board has cleared the investment, which has been close to a year in the making. It follows an earlier deal for NWME to pump $10.5 million in to Meridian Minerals, the group that plans to revive the Lennard Shelf zinc project in WA.
Meridian has just started a drilling program at the Kapok West deposits at the Lennard Shelf project, originally developed by BHP Billiton in the 1980s.
Meanwhile, Range River confirmed yesterday that it remained on track to begin gold production on what has become its mainstay project, Mount Morgans near Laverton in WA.
Assuming everything falls into place, gold production is due to start next month at an annual rate of 40,000 ounces.
Mount Morgans was picked up by Range earlier this year from the world's biggest gold producer, Canada's Barrick.
Barrick holds 11.7 per cent of the company. Range closed steady at 3.9¢ a share, giving it a market capitalisation of $63 million.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/china-scent...91123-izmv.html

The Age also had this last article