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Company Information for Resolute Mining Ltd

Company stock charts - 12 Month chart

Exchange ASX; RSG


View full financial data

Company Statement

Resolute is building shareholder value through its strength as a successful developer and operator of quality gold projects. Its projects to date have yielded over 4.5 million ounces (140 tonnes) of gold. The Company is actively progressing its portfolio of projects to further enhance shareholder value.


Current Operations

MINING
Golden Pride
The Golden Pride mine is located in Tanzania, East Africa, 750km north-west of the port of Dar es Salaam and 200km south of Lake Victoria. Resolute has a 100% interest in the project through its Tanzanian subsidiary, Resolute (Tanzania) Limited.

Operations
During the 2007 financial year the operation produced 138,421 (2006: 145,043) ounces of gold at a cash cost of US$403 (2006: US$312) per ounce.

Plant throughput decreased to 2.51 (2006: 3.03) million tonnes at an average head grade of 1.94 g/t (2006: 1.59 g/t) and a recovery rate of 89% (2006: 94%)

Gold production was adversely affected by throughput and recoveries. The main contributors were the poor delivery of ore from the open pit and the slow leach nature of the fresh ore. Cost per ounce has increased largely due to higher wear components in the crushing and grinding circuit and general increase in the cost of mining consumables and labour.

The open pit mined 3.5 million cubic metres at a strip ratio of 2.9:1 with the majority of the waste mined from the central cutback which commenced mid year. This cutback exposed ore from the bottom central pit area towards the end of the financial year. All the ore for the year has been mined from the western pit area at depth. This competent ore had an adverse affect on equipment availability in the mining fleet and thus production rates. Higher grades in line with expectations have been mined from the western pit area in the later quarters of the year.

The treatment plant throughput has been affected by the mining schedule and reduced blending options due to poor mechanical availability of the loading equipment.

The Golden Pride mine has now produced around 1.4 million ounces of gold since commissioning in 1998.

Outlook
An amicable termination with the existing mining contractor has been negotiated and a new mining contractor commenced mining operations from 1 July 2007. The transition has been seamless with the new contractor taking over the existing equipment and workforce. New replacement mining equipment arrived on site during the September 2007 quarter. Furthermore, the installation of two new pre-leach tanks is anticipated to be completed in September 2007. This will lift overall plant recoveries. Mining has commenced on the re-optimised pit design. Higher grade ore in the first three quarters of the coming financial year is expected to lift the average grade of ore to be processed. Towards the end of the year access to higher grade ore will be limited and the head grade is predicted to reduce significantly as the majority of the mill feed will be sourced from low grade stockpiles.

Ravenswood
The Ravenswood gold mine is located approximately 95km south-west of Townsville and 65km east of Charters Towers in north-east Queensland. Resolute has a 100% interest in the mine through its subsidiary Carpentaria Gold Pty Ltd.

The majority of ore for the Ravenswood Operations was sourced from the Sarsfield open pit and the low-grade screening plant with a minor contribution from the Mt Wright underground project. The ore is treated using conventional three stage crushing, ball-milling and carbon-in-pulp (CIP) processing at the rate of 5Mtpa.

Operations
During the 2007 financial year the operation produced 117,521 (2006: 145,706) ounces of gold at a cash cost of A$781 (2006: A$617) per ounce.

The year was disappointing from both a gold production and cost point of view. A combination of factors contributed to this disappointing performance including: Lower than expected head grade from the Area 5 zone of the Sarsfield open pit.

A significant number of power failures during the second quarter combined with poor agitation of the CIP tanks resulted in CIP tanks sanding up which significantly reduced throughput.

Lower than expected recoveries due to poor agitation of the CIP tanks.

A two week processing plant shutdown occurred during June to upgrade the CIP tank agitators and carry out other modifications designed to improve plant performance. This major shutdown had a significant effect on throughput for the final quarter.

Sarsfield open cut activities predominately focused on mining of the Area 5 zone at the south of the pit. Total material movement from the open cut was approximately 4.2 million cubic metres. The Area 5, which delivered below expectation grade, was almost complete by June 2007.

A resource drilling programme focusing on below pit resources was completed. Pit designs will remain largely unchanged as any additional resources identified below the pit are likely to be treated as potential underground targets.

Waste dumping into the adjacent Nolan’s void continued throughout the year, with in-pit tailings disposal into this void commencing in the first quarter of the 2007-8 financial year. The waste dump will form an engineered wall to prevent the ingress of tailings into the main Sarsfield pit.

The Mt Wright underground project, located 11 kms from the Ravenswood treatment plant, developed on schedule with 3,126m of decline development and 67,731 tonnes of ore mined. Production from the first underground stope commenced in June 2007, however development ore was blended at low ratios into the Sarsfield ore stream from March 2007. Resource drilling from the decline has to date confirmed the upper Mt Wright ore resource, with similar grades at higher than expected tonnages. As a result, production tonnage targets will be lifted above feasibility expectations in the 2007-8 financial year.

For the period the treatment plant processed 4.6 (2006: 5.1) million tonnes at an average head grade of 1.00g/t (2006: 1.06g/t) and a recovery rate of 79% (2006: 84%).

Overall plant availability was 90.7% (2006: 96%) and was largely affected by the two week plant shutdown in June 2007.

The low-grade screening facility has performed well throughout the year treating 1.6 million tonnes to produce 0.6 million tonnes of product at an average grade of 1.11g/t.

The final lift of the existing tailings storage facility was commenced in June to provide adequate deposition areas during the life of the Sarsfield pit.

Outlook
A major shutdown was carried out in June 2007 and a number of changes made to improve the future performance of the treatment plant. This was successfully completed and the plant has ramped up to normal throughput rates. Sarsfield open pit mining is moving to the Keel and Bell areas with the poorer performing Area 5 ore now completed. At the Mt Wright underground mine decline development continues and ore mining from the upper stopes is underway. The decline is projected to extend to the main ore zone by the end of 2008. Mt Wright ore is expected to provide approximately 20% of the Ravenswood gold production in the coming year. An improvement in Ravenswood gold production and cost per ounce is expected due to the rectification work undertaken, and the positive impact that the introduction of Mt Wright ore will have on the average head grade of ore to be processed in the coming year.

DEVELOPMENT
Syama
The Syama Gold Project is located in the south of Mali, West Africa approximately 30kms from the Côte d’Ivoire border and 300km southeast of the capital Bamako. Resolute has an 80% interest in the project through its equity in Sociêtê des Mines de Syama S.A. (SOMISY). The Malian Government holds a 20% interest in SOMISY, 15% of which is free carried.

The Syama gold mine was established by BHP Ltd in 1990 as an oxide operation and in 1994 the decision was made to build a primary ore processing facility to treat the hard, refractory ore based on “whole of ore” roasting. It was operated by BHP until 1996 and by Randgold Resources Ltd from 1996 to 2001. Both operators were unable to achieve a sustainable operation based on “whole of ore” roasting, coupled with a low prevailing gold price, and Randgold placed the operation on care and maintenance in 2001.

Resolute acquired the project in April 2004 after completing a positive pre-feasibility study, and completed a Feasibility Study in April 2005. This study shows positive returns based on a modified flow sheet that processes a sulphide concentrate through the roasting circuit. The single pit operation currently has a six to seven year mine life with potential to increase reserves by development of an underground operation or by the discovery of new resources.

Project Activities 2006-07
The re-development project was initiated in June 2006 when Resolute entered into an agreement with GRD Minproc to provide engineering, procurement and construction management services (EPCM) for the Syama Project. The initial phases of the detailed design were completed in Perth and procurement, final design etc were relocated to Johannesburg in September. Outotec (Australasia) Pty Ltd, previously Outokumpu, was selected for the design, supply and commissioning of the roaster.

The start to the project was conditional, with a budget of US$32 million approved, while financing options for the project were evaluated. Negotiations with the State of Mali for an Amendment to the Establishment Convention were still in progress. On 12 December the Amendment (No3) was signed by his Excellency Diane Hamed Semega, the Minister of Mines, Energy and Water and SOMISY SA.

In response to the continuing price increases for labour, equipment and materials being experienced by the resources and construction sectors an update of the project’s capital and operating costs was completed in February 2007.

With Amendment (No3) signed, the updated capital and operating cost review and the sale of Resolute’s non core uranium assets the Board took the decision to commit fully to the re-development of the project in early 2007.

On 1 April the President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, officiated at a “ground breaking” ceremony for the re-development of Syama.

Updated Operating Cost Estimates
Operating costs were re-estimated in February 2007 and have increased approximately 9% since the last review in February 2006 with the comparison summarised in Table 1.

The increase in mining costs is higher relative to the other areas and reflected unit rates and current fuel costs as at February 2007.
Updated Capital Estimates
Following completion of the detailed design the Company announced, in February 2007, the revised capital estimate for the Project of US$118 million as summarised in Table 2. As a result of changes in scope for the project and a shift in materials and labour costs there was an increase in the overall capital of 22% compared with the Feasibility Study estimates in February 2006. Of this increase, 65% relates to scope changes and 35% relates to cost escalation since the estimate completed in February 2006.

The largest area of movement was in the electrical cost estimate as a result of the need for more cabling than previously anticipated.

Recently the Company has decided to commit to an owned and operated power station rather than purchase “across the fence power”. The power station is to have two medium speed engines and fourteen high speed engines giving the power station an installed capacity of 25MW. The cost of this facility is now estimated at US$20 million.

Reserves and Resources
A structural review of the deposit has resulted in a change to the interpretation of the ore body with it now considered one body rather than separate Main and Footwall zones. Remodelling with tighter search ellipses have given more confidence in the grade distribution resulting in a change of the mix of measured over indicated resources. In addition over the past year a number of designs have been developed to optimise the Syama pit design. These have resulted in improved access to waste dumps and haulage to the ROM pad. These iterations have taken into account the revised rates from the mining contractor and increased fuel and consumable costs.

These changes have resulted in a proved and probable reserve of 14.8 million tonnes @ 3.6g/t Au for 1.72 million ounces within the open pit. The bulk of the reserve (>60%) is now proven whereas previously it was around 23%.

Project upside
Considerable upside for the project exists beyond that included in the financial model. There are underground resources immediately below the pit which combined with the continuing exploration success in the Quartz Vein Hill area to the north of the pit, provide confidence that a longer life project can be achieved.


Geographical Spread

Australia and Africa (Tanzania, Mali, Ghana)


Board of Directors and Key Management

Chairman - PE Huston
Chief Executive Officer - PR Sullivan
Non-Executive Director - TC Ford
Non-Executive Director - HTS Price

Company Address

Head Office
4th Floor
The BGC Centre
28 The Esplanade
Perth, Western Australia, 6000

Telephone:+ 61 8 9261 6100
Facsimile:+ 61 8 9322 7597
Email:contact[at]resolute-ltd.com.au
Website:http://www.resolute-ltd.com.au

Additional Address/Key Contact

PO Box 7232 Cloisters Square
Perth, Western Australia 6850

Capital

Ordinary Shares - 229,124,559
Unlisted Options - 3,687,500

Annual General Meeting

November, Perth

Year End

June 30

Major Shareholders

Alliance Life Common Fund Ltd 40.27% of Ordinary Issued Capital
Equity Trustees Limited 5.32% of Ordinary Issued Capital

Related News

05/09/08 - Day Two, And The Africa Downunder Conference Crawls To A Close
22/05/08 - Third Time Lucky For Resolute Mining?
17/09/07 - Resolute Expects To Double Gold Production In Next Two Years
28/03/07 - Resolute Mining Ticks the Boxes For Exploration, Development And Production
21/12/06 - Resolute Mining Gets Ready to Re-Launch Syama

Most Recent Statement

28/11/08 - Prospectus - Convertible Note Offer
25/11/08 - Capital Raising - Appendix 3B
25/11/08 - Gold Pour at Syama
18/11/08 - Notice of General Meeting
11/11/08 - Market Update - Capital Raising
28/10/08 - Market Update - Capital Raising

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