Commenting, Brian Stockbridge, Non-Executive Charmain, said:
“I am delighted to present the unaudited results for NQ Minerals plc, for the six months ended 30 June 2018. NQ Minerals has achieved the Board’s objective of becoming a near term revenue generating company. With the refurbishment near completion and operational commencement at Hellyer, it is an exciting time for the Company.
Looking forward, the second half of 2018 will be transformational for NQ Minerals. We are looking forward to the sales of our first concentrate as we move from a development to a revenue generating company.”
NQ Minerals Plc (NEX: NQMI ) a London listed company with Australia based exploration and mining assets, today announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2018.
Highlights:
· The refurbishment of the Hellyer Floatation Plant continued on time and on budget for the restart of the Hellyer polymetallic operation in Tasmania, Australia.
· Subsequent to the half yearly, NQ Minerals announced the progression of the restart of operations at its Flagship Hellyer polymetallic project and had commenced commissioning of the base metal floatation circuit.
· The Company successfully secured an additional U$10 million in funding for the development and operation of the Hellyer Mine Project via a silver purchase agreement with a U.S. based Private Equity firm.
· NQ Minerals also received its Mining Lease for Sunbeam Silver Mine. Sunbeam is the most advanced of 33 prospects on the Company’s Ukalunda project (“Ukalunda”) located in the Charters Towers Mining District of Northern Queensland, Australia. The Sunbeam Mining Lease allows NQ Minerals to conduct larger-scale mining operations starting with the processing of approximately 48,000 tonnes of surface mineral stockpiles at Sunbeam.
· NQ has two exploration projects known as Ukalunda and Square Post, in North Queensland, Australia. Both these projects are located in prospective mining districts that form part of the well-known Charters Towers Gold Province, where more than 20 million ounces of gold has been mined.
Projects
NQ is focused on three main projects, our flagship Hellyer polymetallic operation in Tasmania which is our near-term revenue generating project; and it’s two exploration projects, Ukalunda and Square Post, in North Queensland, Australia. These two exploration projects are both located in prospective mining districts that form part of the well-known Charters Towers Gold Province, where more than 20 million ounces of gold has been mined.
Hellyer
The Hellyer Gold Mine in Tasmania is the flagship project for the Company. The tailings project has a significant high grade JORC reserve constituting 9.5 million tonnes of Pyrite, Gold, Silver, Lead and Zinc. The necessary plant and equipment exists on site including a large pre-existing mill facility and full supporting infrastructure, including a direct rail line to port with port concentrate housing, handling and loading facilities. The refurbishment of the existing operating facilities to extract and treat the large tailings deposit and produce three marketable concentrates of lead, zinc, gold/silver/pyrite was underway during the six months ended June 30, 2018. Subsequent to the half yearly, NQ Minerals announced the commencement of operations at the Hellyer polymetallic operation. The Company should be generating cash flow in the second half of 2018.
Ukalunda
NQ continues progressing the development of the Ukalunda group of prospects. This tenement, which lies midway between the Lake Dalrymple/Burdekin Dam and the historic Wirralie gold mine, which previously produced 1.1 million ounces of gold. The Ukalunda project area contains multiple shows of mineralisation that are the same as other mineralisation shows discovered in mining districts around the world that host major ore bodies. This suggests that a major ore body may be present in this district. Historic, wide-ranging exploration has been carried out at the Ukalunda permit area, which had discovered some areas of rich mineralisation of gold, silver and a number of associated base metals. NQ Minerals also received its Mining Lease for Sunbeam Silver Mine. Sunbeam is the most advanced of 33 prospects on the Company’s Ukalunda project (“Ukalunda”) located in the Charters Towers Mining District of Northern Queensland, Australia. The Sunbeam Mining Lease allows NQ Minerals to conduct larger-scale mining operations starting with the processing of approximately 48,000 tonnes of surface mineral stockpiles.
The Ukalunda Project is comprised of 2 Exploration Permits and a Mining Lease (over the Sunbeam Mine).
At the Ukalunda Project, the known mineral deposits include breccia hosted, skarn, disseminated and vein hosted intrusive-related styles. Epithermal gold associated with ~350 Ma volcanics related to the formation of the Drummond Basin may also be present. The Drummond Basin is a prominent region in Australia for finding large world class epithermal vein and stockwork style gold. This Basin hosts a number of significant epithermal gold deposits, with notable gold-silver production coming from open cut and underground operations at: Pajingo, Wirralie, Yandan and Mount Coolon.
At Ukalunda, historical mining over the past 150 years has seen silver, gold, copper and bismuth minerals extracted from shallow surface and underground workings. The historic Sunbeam Mine produced more than 600,000 ounces of silver with bonanza grades of up to 37 kilograms per ton. Silver bearing stockpiles resulting from past small-scale mining operations at Sunbeam are also seen to offer cash flow potential.
Exploration by previous operators in the Project areas has included drilling, costeaning where a shallow pit is dug through surface deposits to locate an ore vein, geological mapping, rock chip, soil and stream sediment geochemistry plus aeromagnetic/radiometric surveys and limited electrical geophysical surveys.
Exploration results from NQM drilling at Ukalunda has included intersections of silver, bismuth, copper and lead mineralisation at Carrington, gold at Walhalla and previously unknown gold and zinc at White’s Hope. Encouraging results from assaying of stockpiles at Sunbeam has led to the application and granting of a Mining Lease over the old silver-lead mine and related stockpiles. The Sunbeam Mining Lease allows NQ Minerals to conduct larger-scale mining operations starting with the processing of approximately 48,000 tonnes of surface mineral stockpiles at Sunbeam. Further, sampling and mapping programs undertaken by NQM has also established numerous additional drilling targets and geochemical anomalies requiring follow-up.
Square Post
Investment continues in the Square Post tenement close to the Flinders Highway, 10 kilometres north east of Mingela and 50 kilometres south of Townsville. The area is considered to be underexplored, principally due to its rugged terrain. The permit consists of 47 sub-blocks covering an area of around 168km.
The Square Post Project is centred 65 km south west of Townsville and is mostly underlain by Palaeozoic granites. The Project has known gold and other mineralisation in the south-eastern and the north-western locations. The Project has exploration targets, gold prospects and advanced drilling targets.
The Breccia Knob prospect is one of the last remaining gold bearing breccia bodies in Queensland that has yet to be drilled. Breccia hosted gold deposits are a major exploration target in this area where there are renowned 1 million ounce plus breccia-hosted gold mines like: Kidston, Mt Leyshon & Mt Wright. In these large structures, gold is associated with hydrothermal/magmatic breccia pipes.
Prospecting near areas of historically mined small high-grade reefs located the Breccia Knob mineralised breccia in 2005. Subsequent work by NQM has established anomalous base metals, Bi and Te geochemistry as well as silver and gold.
NQ will be advancing their exploration at Breccia Knob over the 2019 season.
Outlook
The six months to 30 June 2018 has been an important period in the development of NQ Minerals. During the half-year, the Company focused on the refurbishment of the Hellyer polymetallic operation in Tasmania, Australia. During the half yearly, additional funding was secured in order to continue with the advancement of the refurbishment, and NQ Minerals expects to generate cash flow in the second half of 2018. In the prior year, we stated our objective was to become a near-term revenue generating base metal production company, and with the acquisition of the Hellyer Gold Mine in Tasmania, Australia in 2017, and the successful refurbishment of the Hellyer polymetallic operation, we believe we have achieved our near-term objectives and look forward to a transformational year for the group. The Board has also announced that it intends to seek admission of its shares to trading on LSE and intensive work continues in this regard.
