Concept Study
ABA Resources has recently completed its Concept Study which is based on an extensive body of historical work and technical information. This includes an associated execution plan for staged development of the company’s 100% owned Glen Wills and Cassilis properties located in the Omeo Valley, eastern Victoria, Australia. The two properties are located approximately 75km from one another and both feature significant historical mining and include substantial mullock and tailings dumps independently estimated to contain sufficiently high tonnage and grades to support economically viable independent processing operations.
The concept study staged development plan of Cassilis and Glen Wills delivers a robust project which is within the development capability for ABA. In aggregate, the project concept produces a total of 421koz of gold over an 18 year total mine life. It generates $395m in pre-tax net cash flows after accounting for all capital expenditures at a gold price of A$2400/oz. Continual exploration drilling is planned in promising ground to locate further resources.
The Concept Study is conceptual in nature and study conclusions are indicative only, and require a substantial body of additional technical work to confirm the results indicated.
Metalurgical Test
Cassilis Mullock
Results have now been received from the preliminary bulk sampling program of mullock located at the King Cassilis and Beehive mines located on ABA’s 100% owned Cassilis tenements.
These dumps were a priority to sample because; 1. Previous sampling had not been comprehensive but grades were believed to be very high. 2. Metallurgical recoveries from cyanide leaching were also believed to be high. 3. The economic opportunity of the mullock may be very significant.
The average grade of all samples was 6.1g/t which is very high. The largest dump contained the highest grades, with an average grade of 10.8g/t which is exceptionally high. Sampling has commenced on both Mt Wills and Cassilis. Lower grade samples generated very favorable cyanide leach recoveries with results between 90% and 100% achieved. The two high grade samples achieved poorer recovery, but it appears possible the material had very high cyanide consumption given the high grade and potential for copper in the samples which also consumes cyanide.
Tests will be re-run with more cyanide to determine if excessive cyanide consumption affected the leaching results. The high grades and potential for high cyanide leaching recoveries provides a substantial opportunity for ABA to deliver strong, early cash flows with a minimum of upfront capital. At face value (and subject to further sampling, surveying etc) the large mullock dump is likely to contain 20,000t of material grading at over 10.8 g/t. The other mullock dumps are additional to this.
Ultramag
Deep Ground Penetrating RADAR (DGPR) – completed BY ULTRAMAG GEOPHYSICS.
This is a report is a first-pass, brief interpretation of DGPR data (Ultramag intermediate processing suite option requested by the client). No geological information was used.
10 line km was acquired over 5 days with sub-meter shot spacing in a bid to include the mapping of very thin (sub meter) quartz veins.
The DGPR worked extremely well despite challenging deployment terrain. Minimal airwave noise was recorded despite thick vegetation indicating excellent ground coupling.
Images are extremely high resolution in the top 50m and good results were achieved to 100m depth.
The following anomalies have been interpreted:
- 73 quartz veins (range of thicknesses). 2 of these are in known, old mine workings. These anomalies are typically near-vertical and some may represent shear zones.
- 17 “slots” that are likely deeper quartz veins and/or shear zones.
- 7 faults
- 6 old mine workings
- 1 dome
- 1 paleo channel-like feature
Note that some of these anomalies may be the same geological feature detected on separate lines. A plethora of folding was also imaged. This may also be a useful exploration tool.
JORC
- A JORC Mineral Resource Estimate of 319,500 oz of gold at Mt Wills under JORC 2012 Code guidelines provided by PT Green Gold Technology in 2019. This is made up of 181,670oz (1.42 million tonnes at 3.99g/t) at Mt Wills itself and a further 137,850oz (1.06 million tonnes at 4.06g/t) estimated at neighbouring Sunnyside;
- As a subset of this Mining Plus have provided ABA with an indication of high grade resource potential which is stated at 170koz @ 16.6g/t