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COVER

“Similar to exploration, we keep that as upside,” he says. “We technical staff. We’re finding new orebodies
always make sure we can see a return on our investment, such 3-4km from the processing plant.”
that if we pay ‘X’, can get ‘X plus’ back? And then if there’s The question now for Zeptner to answer is how
exploration upside or other intangible strategic benefits, they Ramelius will achieve its ambition of becoming a
can play out down the track. 300,000 ozpa gold producer. While the company’s
“We don’t want to rely on the need for big exploration success two operations will go close to meeting the
or the fact that you become the only mill in town to justify wholly targeted output, a third asset is needed to bridge
and solely an investment decision. We think that’s a higher risk the gap.
strategy and something Ramelius has typically shied away “I think that’s better than stretching to get to
from.” 301,000 ozpa and trying to hang on for dear life,”
The most recent addition to the Ramelius stable was the highly Zeptner says
sought Penny West project, about 150km south-east of Mt “So it’s very much on the cards, but we’re not in a
Magnet, via a takeover of Spectrum Metals in February this rush. For all the deals that we have done, we do
year. a lot of DD on projects that don’t quite make it so I
Penny West hosts an inferred resource of 799,000t @ 13.8 can’t say when that will happen, but it’s something
g/t gold for 355,500oz, including 569,500oz @ 16.8 g/t for over the next 6-12, to 18 months that if the right
306,800oz at the emerging Penny North prospect. The historic project comes along for the right price, we’ll be
mine produced some 85,000oz grading 21.8 g/t gold during the there.”
early 1990s. Zeptner has watched the likes of Evolution,
Despite having to wait for Spectrum to overcome a legal dispute Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd and Northern
with project partner Venus Metals Ltd before his company could Star Resources Ltd grow into “serious” mining
make a move, Zeptner said Penny West had long “looked, companies over the past decade, particularly
smelt and felt like a Ramelius asset”. on the back of strategically timed acquisitions,
“Any time you have a project that’s twice the grade and half the and once again he is not shy about his desire to
distance from your processing mill at Mt Magnet than Vivien, see Ramelius follow a similar path into the next
and it looks in geometry terms like a high-grade, medium- echelon of Australian gold producers.
sized underground operation, it looks like a Ramelius project,” “Moving up to 300,000-400,000 ozpa will go a
Zeptner said. long way to achieving that…but I’m sure there’s
“Once Spectrum had broken the perception that they weren’t also part of the market that would like us to bed
just drilling into the old Penny West and they had actually found down our plans over the next little while, which is
a new deposit called Penny North and were growing a very why we’re not in a hurry to make that third asset
high-grade, high-margin deposit there, we just felt it looked like happen,” Zeptner says.
it wasn’t going to be big enough for its own processing plant “Definitely we think you need at least five years
and it could be readily truckable into Mt Magnet.” and you need 300,000 ozpa [to move into the
With a production history dating back more than a century, Mt next class of mid-tier gold producers], but you
Magnet has been described as “the gift that keeps on giving” by also need to be a good operator and you need
some Ramelius staff. When Zeptner arrived at the company in to have reasonable costs and some exploration
2012 the mine had a reserve of life of eight years. That outlook upside.
remains in place today. “We’d be happy to have even half the valuation
“It’s a classic story of a rolling life-of-mine, but that only works as of those guys and obviously being talked about
long as you are putting money into exploration and you’re really as potentially the next Saracen is really nice. So
working the asset hard; it won’t just happen automatically,” here’s hoping.”
Zeptner says. While there are no guarantees on how things will
“I’m a mining engineer so I don’t know all the geological details, play out for Ramelius in the years ahead, one sure
but I do keep pretty close to my heart one of the sayings that thing is Zeptner retaining his sense of humour
gold is where you find it and the best place to look is usually while going about his day-to-day business.
where you’re already mining. Unfortunately for exploration “We used to tell jokes about the gold price going
geos, that’s not as exciting as finding a new gold mining district, to $2,000/oz Aussie; now we’re telling jokes about
but you’ve got a lot better chance of finding extensions in an it being near $3,000/oz because these really are
area like Mt Magnet, for example. The amount of different heady times for gold,” he says.
mineralisation types that we’re finding today make it quite an
exciting place for not only the business, but for some of those

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