Phil -Here is my take to date over what has happened over the last 2 years and my expectations going forward (this is my opinion; I am optimistic so please DYOR):·
Brief history over the last 30 years. The Plutonic Dome has been a major gold producing area with over 5Moz mined to date. The “big boys” left decades ago with high grades intact that weren’t significantly tested at depth. The “big boys” have trouble recognizing at early stages and generally wait for juniors to do the hard/risky work. Plus, gold was around $800 oz when they left. After the next upgrade report and if the current gold price holds, I believe the "big boys" will get reacquainted with the area. ·
The current drilling has focussed on filling in the gaps for the resource modelling and defining the better grade ‘shoots’ or lodes so VAN can define them along strike and at depth. These are all additional key targets! VAN already has 850,000 oz in resource, including Trident, 1.6 Mt @ 8 g/t gold (410koz) with 300,000 oz of open pit resource! ·
Drilling to date has produced intersections in a number of areas (see last 8 months drilling results). Past and present results must meet the required reporting criteria (under the JORC code 2012). IMO in the long term the potential exists to find another Plutonic sized resource (>5Moz), however this will take a lot more, deeper, drilling and several years of work. ·
The upgrade report is expected to be due in 4-6 weeks which should include the estimated tonnage, grade and ounces for all deposits announced over the last 18 months including incorporating some results still to come in. This will also be added to previous results to generate the models for the resource upgrade. The extraction/processing rate VAN are targeting is approximately 750,000 tonnes per year (multiply by expected grade and divide by 31.1 to get expected oz produced per year). IMO if the upgrade report meets the above expectations the market should reward us nicely. ·
The above report (together with other requirements) should enable VAN to complete the Mining Application with WA. Hopefully approvals can be achieved by year end 2020. I also expect a definitive binding agreement for the $70m with NFC to be completed and executed by then. (IMO this my main area of risk). ·
IMO The plant should be built and operational by August 2021
VAN Price at posting:
11.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
