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Summary
- With gold dazzling up to fresh record highs, tremendous opportunities are unfolding for companies operating in the gold space.
- The year 2020 is proving remarkable for Middle Island, with Company attaining substantial success in its drill program initiated in January.
- The Company achieved major breakthroughs in April and May 2020, discovering five new gold deposits from its successful Phase 1 RC drilling campaign at Sandstone project.
- The Company seems well-positioned to generate notional Indicated Mineral Resources for inclusion in the updated feasibility study from its Phase 2 drilling campaign in progress.
While the year has been a bumpy ride for economies across the world amidst outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, it appears to be ruling in favor of gold that has delivered a return of over 16% in 2020 so far. A considerable surge in coronavirus cases is generating uncertainty worldwide, thereby creating speedy demand for safe haven assets like gold.
Of late, on a flight to safety, gold rallied to its 7-year high level as the uptick in COVID-19 cases dashed hopes of rapid global economic recovery.
With gold dazzling to fresh record highs, tremendous opportunities are unfolding for companies operating in the gold space.
Middle Island Resources Limited (ASX:MDI) is a gold explorer headquartered in Australia, that intends to recommission its Sandstone processing plant at the earliest opportunity.
The year 2020 has been a spectacular one for Middle Island, with the Company attaining substantial success in its drill program initiated in January. Having said that, let us quickly scroll through key developments reported by the Company in the first half of 2020:
January 2020: Commenced 2020 Drill Program
Middle Island kick-started a major, multi-phase open pit drilling campaign at Sandstone project in January 2020 to extend or assess some seventeen long-standing, prioritised open pit gold targets and deposits, the majority on fully permitted Mining Leases and all within 5km of its 600ktpa Sandstone gold processing plant.
The 2020 drilling campaign was directed at defining additional gold Mineral Resources to enhance the prospect of the project’s pending pre-feasibility Study (PFS) review, that could underpin a mill recommissioning on delivering a positive outcome.
The campaign comprised an initial aircore program, followed by two stages of RC drilling with the objective of resource definition and a limited oxide diamond coring program. The Company finalised an initial aircore drilling program in January and commenced the first phase of RC drilling in February.
February 2020: Strengthened Hold on Barkly IOCG Super-Project
Northern Territory Government allocated portions of all four of Middle Island’s competing exploration licence applications in East Tennant iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) province (Barkly) to the Company in February this year.
Consequently, the Company was awarded super project blocks comprising 10 exploration licence applications covering 3,253 square kilometres, which included six exploration licence applications previously accepted within the East Tennant region.
March 2020: New 600m gold target at Sandstone
The Company notified about the discovery of a new 600m gold target at Sandstone in March 2020.
April 2020: Estimated New Mineral Resource at Sandstone
Middle Island reported a new 500,000oz gold Inferred Mineral Resource for the Two Mile Hill deeps gold deposits at Sandstone project in April this year. The new mineral resource was estimated by independent consultants, Mining Plus Pty Ltd and comprised of 480k oz associated with the tonalite-hosted portion of the deposit & 20k oz within the banded iron formation (BIF)-hosted element.
With the addition of new mineral resource, the Company’s aggregate Sandstone project’s JORC Code 2012 Mineral Resources expanded to 624,000oz gold, representing a near five-fold increase in Mineral Resources.
April 2020 – May 2020: Five New Gold Discoveries at Sandstone
Middle Island achieved major breakthroughs in April and May 2020, discovering five new gold deposits from its successful Phase 1 RC drilling campaign at Sandstone project. The Company identified five new satellite deposits at McClaren, McIntyre, Ridge, Old Town Well and Plum Pudding.
Out of these deposits, McClaren, McIntyre and Old Town Well were discovered in April while Ridge and Plum Pudding were uncovered in May.
May 2020: Received Further Encouraging Results from RC Drilling; Announced Capital Raising
In addition to these developments, Middle Island announced further encouraging results from Phase 1 RC drilling at Sandstone, particularly an extended intercept of 22m at 1.42g/t Au at the Two Mile Hill deposit.
The Company also discovered a mineralised extension from drilling at the southern extremity of the Twin Shafts deposit that would be estimated and included as a maiden Mineral Resource for assessment in Sandstone’s feasibility study update.
Besides, the Company raised $4.0 million in May 2020 to fund Phase 2 RC and diamond drilling campaign at Sandstone.
June 2020: Initiated Phase 2 Drilling Campaign
Following the success of Phase 1 RC drilling program, the Company kick-started Phase 2 drilling campaign, comprising an initial 13,800m of resource definition RC drilling and ~1,000m of HQ diamond drilling before feasibility study.
Moreover, the Company initiated a drone terrain survey to complete a high-resolution digital terrain model (DTM) over the two granted Mining Leases and Wirraminna Prospecting Licence ahead of feasibility study update.
Middle Island is worthy of praise for the pace at which it has progressed with its massive drilling program in 2020, reporting remarkable outcomes from Phase 1 RC drilling and commencing Phase 2 drilling on schedule. The Company seems well-positioned to generate notional Indicated Mineral Resources for inclusion in the updated feasibility study from its Phase 2 drilling campaign in progress.
MDI last traded at $0.018, up 20% on 25th June 2020.
