Bullabulling Gold

We aim to become a profitable mining company, capable of producing up to 230,000 ounces of gold per annum, with initial production starting from 2015. The directors and management team is experienced in finding, building and running mines in Western Australia.  We are, however, in the process of strengthening our mine building team, as well as appointing more Australian-based board directors.

Bringing Bullabulling into production is a sizeable task and will require the stewardship of a new managing Director with solid mine building experience.  We are delighted to have Brett Lambert as the new Managing Director of the Company starting on 1 May 2012. In the meantime we are  seeking to welcome a new Australian Chairman, and a further non executive director with an Australian corporate background.

The promise of Bullabulling means that once in production there is scope to explore further within our sizeable 131km² project area.  Historic data from previous drilling has revealed areas of promise where we are likely aggressively explore later this year and beyond.

The recently completed 110 km Phase Two drilling programme added significantly to our new JORC resource calculation.  As of 29 February 2012, we are reporting a JORC global resource estimate of 3.2 million ounces of gold (102.8 Mt at 0.96g/t Au) using a 0.5g/t Au cut off.  Of this new estimate, 2.1 million ounces are in the Indicated resource category at a grade of 0.92 g/t Au.

The increase in the JORC from 2.4 million ounces (excluding Gibraltar and Laterite Dumps) to 3.2 million ounces is primarily the result of new zones of mineralisation intersected particularly north of the Phoenix Pit.

This means the total resource along the Bullabulling Trend has increased by 800,000 ounces of gold and the Indicated resource in the same area has increased by 1.4 million ounces of gold.  What’s more, this new JORC excludes known gold mineralisation contained within both the Gibraltar Pit and the Laterite Dumps.

The Bullabulling Gold Project

Based in the well-established gold mining district of Coolgardie in Western Australia, Bullabulling is conveniently close to established power, water and road infrastructure. Our licence area straddle the Great Eastern Highway, and lies around 70km to the south west of the gold mining town Kalgoorlie. We own a sizeable project area - 131km² – which is held in a series of granted mining leases, prospecting licences and exploration licences, including the recently acquired rights to our new Geko property. The site is well served by roads, power and water, and has no issues over native title claims.

Bullabulling deposit is located in  the Eastern Goldfields. The Eastern Goldfields contain over 160 deposits, 19 of which are greater than three million ounces of gold. We are developing the new mine in an area with a rich history of successful gold mining, and where we have ready access to experience people whom we will need to build and run the mine. Bullabulling was originally owned by Samantha (Resolute Mining) and latterly by Jervois Mining.  When we acquired the project we also bought a significant drill hole database that included the data on over 12,000 completed drill holes.

We are now embarking on a significant new phase of the mine’s development.  The past two years have been spent proving the potential of the asset. Today, as part of our pre-feasibility study we are starting to get Bullabulling ready for mine construction and gold production from 2015. The new mine will be built and run under the stewardship of a new board of mainly Australian directors with direct Western Australian mine-building experience.

While at the pre-feasibility, we are also continuing to explore promising areas on our existing licence area, with the aim of finding more areas with higher gold grades, particularly at the Gibraltar pit, and potentially Geko and other satellite areas. Following the recent Scoping Study, we are focusing on optimising expected costs, with the aim of bringing the pro-forma Capital Expenditure and Operational Expenditures into line with similar operations in the Coolgardie region.

Exploration

We identified two large mineralised trends of primary orogenic gold mineralisation: the north-south striking Bullabulling Trend and the east-west to northwest-southeast striking Gibraltar Trend.

The Bullabulling Trend contains the most laterally consistent gold mineralisation and can be traced for over 6 kilometres of strike. From north to south, it covers the following deposits and prospects - Bonecrusher, Dickson, Hobbit, Phoenix-Bourke-Wills, Bacchus, Edward and Griffin.

Since 2010 we have been exploration drilling mostly around the Phoenix and Bacchus pit areas, both of which are within a concentrated 2.2 kilometre stretch of the Bullabulling Trend. It is in this part of our licence area that we intend to open our first producing new gold mine, which will be built with an initial target production of around 230,000 ounces of gold per year. The geology, however, suggests that there is potentially a lot more gold to be discovered along the whole Bullabulling Trend and the separate Gibraltar Trend that appear to host similar commercial concentrations.

At Gibraltar we have started a programme of more finely targeted drilling, looking specifically for higher gold grades. Between now and the opening of the mine in 2015, the main focus of our drilling work will be looking for gold grades of comfortably more than 1 g/tonne.  We expect that in the process of looking for higher grades we will also increase the size of the overall resource by continuing to add lower grade ounces.

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Brett Lambert - Managing Director Designate (From 1st May 2012)

Brett Lambert is an Australian mining engineer and senior executive with over 30 years’ experience in project development and the operation of resources companies, including several mines based in the Coolgardie region of Western Australia. Brett has held the position of Chief Executive Officer in three mining companies over a thirteen year period, and has been a director of companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, Toronto Stock Exchange and the Stock Exchange of Thailand. He was responsible for the financing and development of the Paulsens gold mine and oversaw feasibility studies for the Casposo gold and silver mine in Argentina and Nifty Sulphides copper mine. Brett managed site activities during development of the Three Mile Hill gold mine, and was Project Director for the evaluation and construction of the Pillara, Goongewa and Kapok lead zinc mines.

His experience includes taking several projects through feasibility studies and into production and has been involved in two successful mergers and a number of asset acquisitions.

Dr. Peter Antony Ruxton, Non-Executive Chairman

Peter Ruxton spent 16 years in the mining industry focused on Australia and SE Asia. Between 1981 and 1994, Peter worked for Billiton Australia (the Shell Company of Australia's Metals Division) progressing from Exploration Geologist to Regional Exploration Manager. From 1994 to 1997 he was Exploration Manager of Brisbane-based mid-tier gold producer Ross Mining N.L. responsible for all geological functions in the company and the co-ordination of a positive bankable feasibility study on the Gold Ridge Mine in the Solomon Islands - this world class gold mine commenced production in August 1998. In late 2000 Peter was appointed Investment Manager for the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC Plc) before moving to Actis LLP in 2004 as an Investment Principal, joining the partnership between 2006 and 2008. At Actis he was responsible for initiating, managing and exiting over US$180 million worth of private equity mining investments in emerging markets. Peter is currently a non-executive director of AIM-listed Platmin Ltd. Peter is a member of the GGG’s audit and remuneration committees.

Dr. Jeffrey Francis Anthony Malaihollo - Managing Director

Jeff Malaihollo worked for Newcrest on grass roots exploration for gold and base metals before joining Rio Tinto, working mainly on area selection and project evaluation in the Former Soviet Union and Indonesia. Subsequently he worked and consulted for Billiton on generative programmes and target selection in South East Asia, China and Eastern Europe. From 2000 to 2004, Jeff was an Executive Director at Loeb Aron & Company Ltd, City-based corporate financiers specialising in natural resources.

David McArthur - Finance Director

David McArthur is a qualified Chartered Accountant who has spent almost 30 years working in the publicly-listed resources sector. 

An Australian, David's experience includes taking companies from start up through to successful gold mining operations, an example of which is the Kundana mine, a gold producer based just outside of Kalgoorlie. 

David was appointed CFO and Finance Director of the ASX-listed gold producer Dioro Exploration NL, a 100,000 ounce+ per annum producer also in Kalgoorlie, where he worked for 15 years. 

Through his involvement in numerous funding arrangements, David is familiar with all forms of mining project finance.  Equally importantly, he is experienced in the many forms of hedging and price protection strategies available to gold producers.

Paul Mc Groary - Non-Executive Director

Paul Mc Groary is a Director of Marshall Lake Mining plc a copper zinc exploration company focussed on Ontario, Canada. Paul has held several other directorships within the quoted natural resources sector, including mining projects in Canada, Chile as well as a Central Asian oil explorer. Paul is a member of the audit and remuneration committees.

Nigel Bruce Clark, Non-Executive Director

Nigel Clark has over 30 years' experience in new business development and management in the precious and base metals industry. He started working for Billiton in Brazil as an exploration geologist, later as an exploration manager in Portugal and Indonesia, as well as a general manager of both underground and open-pit gold mines in Indonesia, business development manager in Singapore and ultimately as general manager in China. Nigel is a member of the audit and remuneration committees.

Ciceron “Jun” Angeles, Technical Director

Jun Angeles is a geologist with over 30 years of experience in gold-base metal exploration in Asia, mainly Indonesia, Philippines, China, Malaysia, and Iran, with minor assignments in Vietnam, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan. His specialisations include epithermal gold-silver, porphyry copper-gold and Carlin styles of mineralisation. He obtained his MSc in Mineral Exploration from the University of New South Wales, Australia in 1985 and is a Fellow and Chartered Professional in Geology (CPGeo) of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM). Jun was the Asia Exploration Manager for Newcrest Mining during which time Newcrest brought the Gosowong Mine into production. Since February 2006, Jun has been the Exploration Manager and latterly VP Exploration of the Company when it discovered the large Nimu copper-molybdenum deposit.

Michael John Short, Non-Executive Director

Michael Short has 35 years of project management and site construction experience on a broad range of projects.  For the last 30 years, Michael has focused on the engineering, design and construction of gold and copper/lead/zinc ore treatment plants in Australia, Africa, Central Asia, Russia, Europe and Asia. During this period he has acted as Project Manager and Site Construction Manager on greenfield plants, as well as on the extension of existing plants, and has gained significant experience in the preparation, administration and implementation of projects. Michael is the Managing Director of GBM Minerals Engineering Consultants Ltd. Michael is a member of the audit and remuneration committees.

Updated from Bullabulling website 16.03.2012