Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – China’s Shandong Tianye Group has acquired unlisted Hanking Australia and its Southern Cross gold project, in Western Australia, for A$330-million.
Hanking Australia, which is a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed China Hanking Holdings, acquired the Southern Cross mine in 2013. The project is estimated to host a 34.7-million-tonne resource, grading 4.1 g/t gold for 4.5-million ounces, and a reserve of 8.7-million tonnes, grading 3.4 g/t gold for 960 000 oz.
The Southern Cross mine was on care and maintenance at the time of its buyout by Hanking Australia but, since then, the company has invested some A$136-million to resume operations, with production having restarted in August 2015.
During the first half of 2016, Hanking Australia sold some 64 232 oz of gold from the mine.
Shandong Tianye, through its subsidiary Minjar Gold, in August 2016 bought the Pajingo gold mine from gold miner Evolution Mining, in a deal valued at A$52-million.
The Pajingo mine, in North Queensland, produced 68 630 oz of gold in the 2016 financial year.
Minjar also acquired the Kirkalocka gold project in 2015, some 130 km east of its Golden Dragon project, also in Western Australia, with the openpit project estimated to contain a resource of some 548 000 oz.
The Kirkalocka mine was operational between 2002 and 2006, having produced some 294 000 oz of gold, and Minjar is now conducting drilling in both the openpit resource and underground targets with the aim of restarting the processing plant and trucking high grade ore to the Golden Dragon processing plant.
Further, Minjar Gold is in negotiations with gold major Barrick Gold over its interest in the Super Pit gold mine, in Kalgoorlie, in a deal valued at an estimated $1.3-billion.