World Gold Editor Cites 'Top 10' Undeveloped Projects
Thursday March 13, 12:28 pm ET
TORONTO -(Dow Jones)- Many gold projects that have been accumulating dust on mining company shelves are starting to look promising again amid higher prices.
Paul Burton, London-based editor of the journal World Gold, presented his Top 10 list of undeveloped projects at a Canadian mining conference. With the flair of a beauty-pageant host, Burton introduced them one by one.
His top pick: the Target North & Sun project, north of the Target mine in South Africa, owned by Avgold Ltd. , with resources of 72.3 million ounces. The project is likely to produce 500,000 ounces a year, Burton said.
The others, from second to 10th:
-Russia's Sukhoi Log deposit, owned by the Russian government. Burton said he settled on a figure of 46 million ounces of resources (as there are a variety of estimates), and said it's likely to produce 1.4 million ounces a year.
-Telfer in Western Australia, owned by Newcrest Mining Ltd. . Burton said indications are that it'll produce 800,000 ounces a year. Construction has already started.
-Barrick Gold Corp.'s Pascua Lama deposit in Chile, with an estimated resource of 23.9 million ounces and indicated production of 800,000 ounces a year. Its estimated capital cost is expensive at $1.2 billion, Burton noted.
-Donlin Creek in Alaska, owned by Placer Dome Inc. and NovaGold Resources Inc. . It's likely to be producing at 1.1 million ounces a year or more, Burton said.
-Cerro Casale in Chile, owned by Placer Dome and Bema Gold Corp. , a project that was shelved years ago. It has forecast production of 900,000 ounces a year but high capital costs of $1.5 billion, Burton said.
-Boddington expansion project in Western Australia, owned by Newmont Mining Corp. , AngloGold Ltd. and Newcrest Mining. It's run by a committee of the three owners, "which probably explains why they haven't been able to reach a production decision for over a year now," Burton said. It has a resource of 20 million ounces and forecast production of more than 500,000 ounces a year, he said.
-Turquoise Hill (or Oyu Tolgoi) in Mongolia, owned by Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. . "It's very low-grade, but has huge copper resources," Burton said, adding that the project's size is growing daily.
-Burnstone property in South Africa, which was recently purchased by Great Basin Gold Ltd. of Vancouver. Indicated resources in one area of the property would indicate modest production of 144,000 ounces a year but Burton suggested that figure is likely to increase.
And squeezing into 10th place on Burton's list is Placer Dome's Pueblo Viejo project in the Dominican Republic, with an estimated 16.8 million ounces of resources and expected production of 530,000 ounces a year.
Burton noted that many of these deposits were found in the 1970s. Target North & Sun and Telfer were the most recent ones, found in 1998.
With gold at $350 an ounce, they are virtually all likely to show enough of a return to warrant a green light from their owners, he said. "Perhaps the only one with some doubt is Cerro Casale," Burton said.
Together, the 10 deposits' resources total 286 million ounces, "which is quite an inventory," Burton said.
He spoke at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada convention, which ended Wednesday. |
