WESTERN AREAS NL
WSA - Mineral Resource Doubles at Spotted Quoll - Mr Julian Hanna, Managing Director and CEO
Fri, 5 Sep 2008 02:45PM
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Mr Julian Hanna
Fri, 5 Sep 2008
02:45PM Australia/NSW
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WESTERN AREAS NL (WSA)
ASX code: WSA
Website: http://www.westernareas.com.au/
Industry: Materials
Principal Activities:
Mining exploration
Address:
11 Ventnor Ave, Level 1, Suite 3
WEST PERTH
WA
Phone: (08) 9334 7777
Fax: (08) 9486 7866
Executives & Directors
Mr Terry Streeter , Chairman, Non Exec. Director
Mr Julian Hanna , Managing Director
Mr Dan Lougher , Director
Mr David Cooper , Non Exec. Director
Mr Robin Dunbar , Non Exec. Director
Mr Craig Oliver , CFO, Finance Director
Mr Craig Oliver
Mr Joseph Belladonna , Company Secretary
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Company ASX Announcements
Company ASX announcements can be viewed on the ASX website.
Announcements from the preceding six months are shown below.
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WESTERN AREAS NL (WSA) Events
Australia/NSW
WESTERN AREAS NL (WSA)
| Forrestania Mine and Infrastructure Development Update | Wed, 2 Jul 2008 |
| WSA - Change in substantial holding for SXG | Mon, 30 Jun 2008 |
| Latest Corporate Presentation | Wed, 18 Jun 2008 |
| Successful Share Registrar Changeover | Fri, 6 Jun 2008 |
| Appendix 3B | Thu, 5 Jun 2008 |
| Change of Director`s Interest Notice x 3 | Thu, 5 Jun 2008 |
| Drilling Extends Spotted Quoll to 450m Depth | Mon, 2 Jun 2008 |
| Issue of Employee Incentive Options | Fri, 30 May 2008 |
| INITIAL RESOURCE FOR T4 DEPOSIT INCREASES FLYING FOX NI 14% | Fri, 23 May 2008 |
| Initial Director`s Interest Notice | Thu, 22 May 2008 |
Please note: This company appears on this website as a result of its listing on the Australian Securities Exchange. Boardroom Radio does not claim any association with any company listed on this site.
INTERVIEW WITH MR. JULIAN HANNA, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF WESTERN AREAS NL (WSA)
“Mineral Resource Doubles at spotted Quoll”
http://www.brr.com.au/event/51057
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2008, 2:45 PM.
BRR Today on Boardroomradio I’m speaking with the Managing Director of Western Areas, Mr. Julian Hanna. Julian, thanks for joining us today.
10 WSA Good morning James, I’m pleased to be here.
BRR The latest release from Western Areas showed that you’ve been able to significantly increase the mineral resources by the Quoll following some extensive drill work you’ve done. Julian, could you just start by telling us what
15 you’re learning about Spotted Quoll?
WSA We’ve had a pretty good run with the drilling there, James, from discovery in October last year to ten months ago, we’ve been drilling 24 hours a day non-stop, and we’ve been able to increase resource. We’ve announced results previously in May. The resource was around about 35,000 tonnes contain
20 nickel and an average grade of 6.3% nickel. We’ve since more than doubled that. Well, that was just current round of drilling, and we’re up well over a million tonnes than an average grade of 7.2% nickel. So we’ve defined 75,000 of nickel, but the key to all of these is that we’re still only drilled it down to 300 meters vertical depth. So it’s a long way to go in front of us and
25 all about drill rigs have now shifted to test below that 300 meters depth and take us in down to the next panel down the 600 m.
BRR And, Julian, you’ve articulated there that this mineralisation continuing at depth, it surges forward some options for Western Areas in terms of the mine
30 design and you’ve talked about open pit but also doing some underground mining, what’s the development here?
WSA The way we’re looking at developing Spotted Quoll is initially with an open pit mine. We put out a scoping study a while ago and that was for 160-meter deep open pit mine. It would produce around about 80,000 tonnes of nickel a
35 year commencing mid 2009, and because of the high-grade in the fabulous continuity of the mineralisation the cash costs to be an estimated for production for that open pit were only around about US$1.50 a pound of nickel. So that would make it certainly the lowest cost nickel mine in Australia. We don’t see operations stopping there. We’ve had some significant
40 intersections below the pit as it stands today. Probably, you know, central to that is 18 meters at 10%, 12 at 9%, these are the numbers below the pit, so clearly with the drilling that is current down to 300 m depth we’re already looking at the potential to have an underground mine extending below the pit. What our mining engineers are doing is looking at the potential to
45 concurrently mine open pit and underground. Instead of, as most gold mines, for example, do that, they mine the outer pit and then they develop a portal in the bottom of that pit and commence underground mining below the pit. What we’re looking to do here is bring that underground process four to five-fold as we can, so that the potential is for the underground production to overlap the open pit, and that could take the production well above the 80,000 tonnes that we’ve envisaged in the first few years of mine life here. I think so it clearly below that, and what we’ve demonstrated I think is the potential for extensions to this mine. So even if we look at it today at that 8,000 tonne a
5 year production rate, potentially there’s about eight years of mine life in front of us where we stand today just in the resources. Obviously that needs to go into our reserve and needs to be scheduled into open pit and underground mining production there, but the potential I think is for a much bigger operation and longer life and highly profitable mine.
10
BRR Now Julian, I understand when Western Areas did first come across Spotted Quoll it came as a bit of a surprise to find the deposit so shallow and you know how the three deposits across about 6-kilometer stretch the Western nickel does extend quite significantly to the south of Spotted Quoll, what are
15 the implications to further exploration for Western Areas and what work you’re doing?
WSA James, the bulk we have tied up there’s 25 km long. It’s very, very well strongly mineralised. Most historic exploration, the next you go as back as far as 40 years, were shallow, generally stopped at granite and we now know
20 that the mineralisation that we see in all these deposits is effectually hidden below this flat line sheet of granite. So the discovery of three deposits being Flying Fox, which is now in production, New Morning, which will be in production in a couple of years’ time, and now Spotted Quoll within that central 6-km belt all related to this granite context suddenly opens up a hole
25 of this 25-km long context for further discoveries. So what we’ve done is -----Spotted Quoll was as you say a lucky find. It was very close to surface and we’re able to pick it up with EM relatively simply in the first drill hole 6% , you know, nickel from day one. So we’ve been sport there so what we’ve done is we’ve extended the EM coverage for 10 kilometers along this contact south of
30 Spotted Quoll. We’ve identified a number of targets there and we’re just really commenced testing those EM targets. In addition to that, because nickel sulphide leached relatively easily from surface and EM will only see down to run about 100 m vertical depth, we’re also targeting a number of these geological structures but the lava channels that host Spotted Quoll, that
35 host New Morning, that host Flying Fox, we know there are at least three or four of those south of Spotted Quoll, so we’re also targeting drilling on those we’re also targeting drilling on those lava channels looking for mineralisation that may not be as close to surface as Spotted Quoll was. So, EM is our first task to find new discoveries as rapidly as we can, but certainly beyond that
40 there’s a real potential for new channel host to deposits of the Spotted Quoll, Flying Fox, New Morning (inaudible) (00:05:44). So plenty of drilling to be done in front of you, James.
BRR Okay, Julian, we will certainly be keeping our eyes on the new flow from
45 Western Areas as you understand more about this Western nickel belt, and we look forward to further news from you in the future.
WSA Okay. Well, thanks so much James.
INTERVIEW CONCLUDED
Contact brr@brr.com.au for more information
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