San Anton. The biggest unknown 10 mil.oz deposit
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Jun 07, 2008 08:30AM
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Video on Kings Minerals SNN Mother Company in Australia.
What is San Anton?
The San Anton Property is located in a historic gold-silver mining district in the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico, approximately 270km northwest of Mexico City. The only target that has received extensive work to date is the Cerro del Gallo deposit, where a NI 43-101 Mineral Resource of +10 million ounces gold equivalent has been defined in less than two years. Measured and Indicated (M&I) categories account for 74% of total resources. The deposit is still open in a number of directions and a number of other exploration targets on the property have yet to be drilled.
1. On October 12, 2006, It was announced a price of $C0.80 per common share ( that was over subscribed ) and raised approximately CAD $17.25 million for the listing of SNN on the TSX. This value was established by the company in co operation with underwriters and investors. SNN was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange on 12 December 2006, following completion of the business combination and merger between Kings Canada Inc ( Kings Minerals NL Australia ), and Andaurex Industries Inc. Kings holds 72% (approximately) of SNN. Since then a number of important milestones have passed in the development of SNN. Of most importance the reporting of a NI 43-101 Mineral Resource of +10 million ounces gold equivalent, based on 57,592m of drilling in 232 holes. This announcement on Mar 13, 2007, generated significant investor interest, and supported a share price increase from the listing of 80 cents to a high of $2.55 shortly after.
2. The 10 million oz gold equiv. resource is approx. 50% gold, 25% silver and 25% copper, which gives a value of more than US $8 billion in the ground. The prospect is open pitable, with deposits at surface, and they will be mining away a hill, so there is very little waste. In 2007, Golder Associates carried out a series of pit optimization studies, which indicate that potential pits already contain a significant resource and have a very low strip ratio of 0.57. The by product silver and copper is added value, and offers a degree of diversification. With a billion pounds of copper in the mix, and projected copper pricing to improve on a yearly basis this is an attractive investment.
3. The San Antón Project covers an area of 23,562.48 hectares (approximately 15km north-south by 16km east-west) and consists of a total of ten granted, contiguous exploitation and exploration concessions all owned by San Anton. It is only in the period since July 2004 that the Property has been subjected to modern exploration techniques, a process that quickly identified more than 20 exploration targets. The only target that has received extensive work to date is the Cerro del Gallo deposit. Regional exploration work focused initially on the Empalizada and Espiritu Santo segments of the >3km long Carmen–Providencia epithermal silver-gold vein system located 1.75km west of Cerro del Gallo. To date drill results have been encouraging from these target areas, together with the potential to define further resources, at the remaining target areas with several historic previous mining operations.
4. Management in the form of the key stakeholders from Kings Minerals have a proven track record of mining successes in Australia and around the world. Dudley Leitch and Norm Seckhold are the principal shareholders and owners of Kings Minerals. Together they have developed eight mines over 30 years. Their most recent success Dec 08 2007, was closing a US $1.1 Billion Merger deal with Coeur d'Alene Mines Corporation (NYSE:CDE) (TSX:CDM) related to the acquisitions of Bolnisi Gold NL (ASX:BSG) and Palmarejo Silver and Gold Corporation (V.PJO ). PJO shareholders were delighted with a share price performance that ran from CDN $1.75 at listing, to CDN $11.00 in less than 24 months. Seckhold and Leitch were the principals behind Bolnisi and PJO.
5. A new resource update is due early July. This will add to the already significant 10 mil. oz resource. The top 5 Gold producers are each pulling between 3.5 million and 7 million ounces out of the ground every year. In order to keep up with the current production rate the miners need to replace their mined-out reserves through exploration . But that's exactly the problem. In order to replace 3.5 - 7 million ounces of gold each year you'll have to find a major world class gold deposit ( > 5 million ounce) each year which is highly unlikely. Of the 800+ discoveries listed of greater than 100,000 ounces (US Geological Survey's database), only about 6 percent contains 5 million ounces of gold or more. In short, we appear to have reached the era of Peak Gold. Whereas a major discovery used to be 10 million ounces or more, the threshold for attention-getting discoveries these days has fallen to more along the lines of 1 to 3 million ounces. San Anton is the biggest unknown 10 mil oz. deposit in Mexico and about to get larger! On any scale, I consider it could be later defined as world class when all the drills are done.
6. A scoping study is due out early in the fourth quarter of 2008. Preliminary scoping data that I have seen from May 2006.
Proposed initial throughput: 15 million tonnes per annum
Life of initial pit: 11 years
Annual production (in concentrate): Gold 180,848 ounces
Silver 6,172,939 ounces
Copper 14,440 tonnes
Total initial pit production: Gold 1,989,326 ounces
Silver 67,902,326 ounces
Copper 158,400 tonnes
Capital cost estimate: US$265 million
Total operating cost: ~US$312 per ounce gold equivalent (payable by smelter)
With a new resource update, and record precious minerals pricing revenue, this data will be sure to attract significant investor interest. Sentiment can't trump fundamentals for ever. SNN is fundamentally very sound, with significant upside potential and very profitable as a stand alone mining enterprise or takeover target. Sooner or later traders will realize $900 gold is very profitable for miners and they will rush in to buy. Profits are always the ultimate long-term driver of stock prices.