Waihi gold venture moving ahead

Press, 15 November 1984, Page 31

Waihi gold venture moving ahead

PA Auckland The Waihi Gold Company will apply for a licence in January to mine its Martha Hill prospect at Waihi after its success in obtaining control of most of the land needed for the gold and silver joint venture. Its joint venture partner, Mineral Resources (N.Z.), Ltd, told the stock exchange yesterday the final examination of proposed tailings and overburden storage sites was proceeding. Mineral Resources’ secretary, Mr Richard Sealy, said the operation would use the counter current decantation method for separating gold .and silver from the ore followed by precipitation of precious metals on zinc by

the Merrill Crowe process. An environmental impact report and an application for a mining licence are expected to be lodged in January. Mineral Resources also yesterday announced plans for the farm out of the Union Hill gold prospect, 1 km south-east of Martha Hill. “Mineral Resources and Green and McCahill Mining, Ltd, jointly own five mining tenements at Union Hill. This year, several old drives were reopened and cleared, and a programme of detailed geological mapping and sampling was carried out,” Mr Sealy said. “Examination of the reopened workings was sufficiently encouraging to convince Amax Exploration (New Zealand) Inc to enter into a joint venture tb earn equity in the prospect” Mr Sealy said the joint venture required Amax to complete a minimum of 1500 m of drilling in the next 12 months, with a minimum budget of ’5500,000. “Amax could earn a 52 per cent interest by contributing a further $6 million to exploration funds and then maintain this interest by advancing the next $6.5 million as an interest free loan to the project “Thereafter Mineral Resources will contribute its 24 per cent share of moneys advanced by Amax from 50 per cent of its own share of profits from production,” Mr Sealy said.

Mineral Resources also announced plans to farm out Muir’s Reef at Te Puke, a large vein system which it says occurs in a geological environment similar to Martha Hill and Union HilL Through , a subsidiary company, Mineral Resources is participating in a joint venture whereby it has the right to acquire up to a 30 per cent equity in the Vuda gold, prospect in Fiji. Net unaudited group exploration and administration expenditure covering all the company’s areas for the six months to September 30 totalled $279,654 (last year $355,884). Of this amount, $273,512 was written off reflecting the company’s policy of writing off a proportion of. the period’s administrative costs and previously capitalised expenditure on prospects which are considered no longer prospective and have been relinquished.