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Promises of more gold output, but data show a decline - Ferdi Dippenaar, CEO Great Basin Gold
In an interview on ClassicFM @ 18:25 on 26 September 2006
[miningmx.com] -- GOLD mining companies in Denver are talking about increased gold output but recent mergers to create larger producers have in fact brought it down, said Ferdi Dippenaar, CEO of Great Basin Gold.
"One thing we've seen is that there have been a lot of promises about increased production," Dippenaar told Classic Business Day, the week-nightly radio show.
"But when the real numbers come out on an annual basis we actually see global gold production is basically decreasing," he told the radio show in an interview from Denver.
"We've seen with consolidation what normally happens with these big mega-mergers is the guys tend to cut out loss making ounces and everyone produces a bit less at the end of the day," he said.
If the gold price had to break through the $600 level from its current mid-$590 level, it could trigger investor interest in gold stock he said.
"I don't think we'll see $800 soon," he said.
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Great Basin empowered before year end
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Tue, 26 Sep 2006
[miningmx.com] -- CANADA’S Great Basin Gold has secured South African Reserve Bank approval to list on Johannesburg’s bourse, a move that could open the way for its empowerment partner to take shares in the holding company rather than the company’s South African project.
Great Basin is drilling and developing the Burnstone project 80km southeast of Johannesburg near Balfour. Company CEO Ferdi Dippenaar expects to conclude an empowerment deal and be granted a new order mining licence before year-end.
Great Basin is talking to Tranter, an empowerment investment group headed by Sipho Nkosi, who is soon to be deputy CEO of South Africa’s largest listed empowered mining company Exxaro. He currently heads Eyesizwe.
“If the empowerment deal is done at the holding company level it makes things easier,” Dippenaar told Miningmx.
it makes things easier“It would allow the empowerment company to hold stock in a listed entity, which means it is a lower risk option when it comes to raising finance, and it will give Tranter access to our other project in Nevada,” he said.
Gold mining analyst Nick Goodwin from T-Sec said Great Basin would be a welcome addition to the bourse. There are less than 10 listed operating gold miners on the JSE, with four of those large companies with mines in South Africa and abroad.
"It's a good time to list (because of the high rand gold price) and it will get good ratings. It will be a small cap stock and it will be an opportunity for investors to put money into a single entity. These small stocks are more exciting because of that," Goodwin said.
A feasibility study indicated the $144m Burnstone mine will produce an average 214,000 oz of gold over its 14-year life of mine, but Dippenaar said there has been a busy R8m drilling programme with four rigs to raise the reserve estimates this calendar year.
A new reserve estimate will be released by the end of the year and could show an increased reserve of one million ounces. This will alter the mining plan by increasing the life of mine and upping production.
“Burnstone could produce 240,000 to 250,000 oz a year on average in the short term. There are some years when it will produce 260,000 oz, but that is a function of tonnage and grade,” he said.
Great Basin owns most of the South Rand Basin near Balfour and the company will continue a vigorous exploration programme next year, he said.
The date for Great Basin’s secondary listing, which will not be a capital raising exercise, will be set by the JSE, but it should be in October, he said.
A decision on whether Tranter will take a stake in the listed company or just the Burnstone project has yet to be made, he added.
African institutional and retail investors hungry for a fresh gold project to invest in have been phoning Great Basin’s offices, demanding to know when the listing will take place, he said.
Great Basin also has the Hollister project on the Carlin Trend in Nevada. The Carlin Trend is to Nevada what the Wits Basin gold deposit is to Johannesburg.
A feasibility report into Hollister will be completed in the second quarter of 2007. The decline development at the project is virtually completed and Great Basin has conducted trial mining there.
“The mining infrastructure is in place and it will be very easy to go into commercial production next year,” Dippenaar said. Hollister is expected to produce 880,000 oz of gold over its life-of-mine and 4,5m oz of silver.
Great Basin is currently looking at toll treating some 500 tonnes/day of material from Hollister, which is a joint venture with North American junior miner Hecla Mining, but its feasibility study will look at the purchase of a plant.
Great Basin could purchase a nearby treatment plant and truck material there. Dippenaar would not be drawn on this proposal.
Promises of more gold output, but data show a decline - Ferdi Dippenaar, CEO Great Basin Gold
In an interview on ClassicFM @ 18:25 on 26 September 2006
[miningmx.com] -- GOLD mining companies in Denver are talking about increased gold output but recent mergers to create larger producers have in fact brought it down, said Ferdi Dippenaar, CEO of Great Basin Gold.
"One thing we've seen is that there have been a lot of promises about increased production," Dippenaar told Classic Business Day, the week-nightly radio show.
"But when the real numbers come out on an annual basis we actually see global gold production is basically decreasing," he told the radio show in an interview from Denver.
"We've seen with consolidation what normally happens with these big mega-mergers is the guys tend to cut out loss making ounces and everyone produces a bit less at the end of the day," he said.
If the gold price had to break through the $600 level from its current mid-$590 level, it could trigger investor interest in gold stock he said.
"I don't think we'll see $800 soon," he said.
________________________
Great Basin empowered before year end
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Tue, 26 Sep 2006
[miningmx.com] -- CANADA’S Great Basin Gold has secured South African Reserve Bank approval to list on Johannesburg’s bourse, a move that could open the way for its empowerment partner to take shares in the holding company rather than the company’s South African project.
Great Basin is drilling and developing the Burnstone project 80km southeast of Johannesburg near Balfour. Company CEO Ferdi Dippenaar expects to conclude an empowerment deal and be granted a new order mining licence before year-end.
Great Basin is talking to Tranter, an empowerment investment group headed by Sipho Nkosi, who is soon to be deputy CEO of South Africa’s largest listed empowered mining company Exxaro. He currently heads Eyesizwe.
“If the empowerment deal is done at the holding company level it makes things easier,” Dippenaar told Miningmx.
it makes things easier“It would allow the empowerment company to hold stock in a listed entity, which means it is a lower risk option when it comes to raising finance, and it will give Tranter access to our other project in Nevada,” he said.
Gold mining analyst Nick Goodwin from T-Sec said Great Basin would be a welcome addition to the bourse. There are less than 10 listed operating gold miners on the JSE, with four of those large companies with mines in South Africa and abroad.
"It's a good time to list (because of the high rand gold price) and it will get good ratings. It will be a small cap stock and it will be an opportunity for investors to put money into a single entity. These small stocks are more exciting because of that," Goodwin said.
A feasibility study indicated the $144m Burnstone mine will produce an average 214,000 oz of gold over its 14-year life of mine, but Dippenaar said there has been a busy R8m drilling programme with four rigs to raise the reserve estimates this calendar year.
A new reserve estimate will be released by the end of the year and could show an increased reserve of one million ounces. This will alter the mining plan by increasing the life of mine and upping production.
“Burnstone could produce 240,000 to 250,000 oz a year on average in the short term. There are some years when it will produce 260,000 oz, but that is a function of tonnage and grade,” he said.
Great Basin owns most of the South Rand Basin near Balfour and the company will continue a vigorous exploration programme next year, he said.
The date for Great Basin’s secondary listing, which will not be a capital raising exercise, will be set by the JSE, but it should be in October, he said.
A decision on whether Tranter will take a stake in the listed company or just the Burnstone project has yet to be made, he added.
African institutional and retail investors hungry for a fresh gold project to invest in have been phoning Great Basin’s offices, demanding to know when the listing will take place, he said.
Great Basin also has the Hollister project on the Carlin Trend in Nevada. The Carlin Trend is to Nevada what the Wits Basin gold deposit is to Johannesburg.
A feasibility report into Hollister will be completed in the second quarter of 2007. The decline development at the project is virtually completed and Great Basin has conducted trial mining there.
“The mining infrastructure is in place and it will be very easy to go into commercial production next year,” Dippenaar said. Hollister is expected to produce 880,000 oz of gold over its life-of-mine and 4,5m oz of silver.
Great Basin is currently looking at toll treating some 500 tonnes/day of material from Hollister, which is a joint venture with North American junior miner Hecla Mining, but its feasibility study will look at the purchase of a plant.
Great Basin could purchase a nearby treatment plant and truck material there. Dippenaar would not be drawn on this proposal.
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