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NEWGENGOLD PREVIEW

NewGenGold 2021:

A taste of Aussie success

he NewGenGold conference returns to the Pan deposits, porphyries and epithermal deposits,” Colin Moorhead,
TPacific Hotel, Perth on November 9-10 with a distinctly then executive general manager at Newcrest Mining Ltd said. “You
Australian flavour to the programme. need to work those models and test them with the right tools. We have
This year’s edition of the biennial event includes five Australian seen some great integration of geophysics and geochemical tools
stories among the 13 case histories on show, highlighting Australian and spectral scanners. It will be those types of tools and exploration
gold’s exalted position on the world stage. models that will generate the next round of discoveries. It will cost more
because they will take longer to develop, and we will have to rebuild the
A decade ago, the closing forum of NewGenGold lamented a lack
exploration capabilities in our companies around those skills.”
of new discoveries in Australia. That year’s programme included
just two Australian projects – Garden Well and Auron – and there If exploration costs are going up, it is not discouraging companies or
was little enthusiasm among delegates that the situation would turn their investors.
around. According to the Australian
Then Gold Fields Ltd regional Bureau of Statistics’ quarterly
exploration chief Craig Feebry exploration expenditure report,
acknowledged how difficult mineral exploration reached a
gold discovery had become. record $912 million in the June
period, up from $658.7 million
“Everyone in this room would
in June 2020 and $344.7
agree that Australia has
million in June 2016. Spending
its share of challenges in
on new deposits alone
respect to finding new search
reached $310.5 million, while
spaces,” he said. “We put a
gold exploration recorded the
lot of work into looking at new
largest rise of any commodity
search spaces in Australia,
group quarter-on-quarter, up
possibly in belts such as There is a strong Australian flavour to this year’s NewGenGold programme
19.3% to $429.8 million.
in the Yilgarn and the East
Lachlan, which may be thought When Feebry and Moorhead
of as mature.” were expressing their hopes for the future of exploration in November
2011, companies were preparing to spend just $168.8 million on gold
There was, however, a kernel of the impending turnaround in
exploration in the first three months of 2012.
Feebry’s next comment.
That figure steadily declined through the next few years, hitting a
“We look at them [mature belts] by applying new methods and we
nadir of $81.7 million in the March 2014 quarter.
are coming up with interesting results. I wouldn’t be too quick in
dismissing Australia as having potential for new discoveries.” While the Tier-1 discoveries have received the most attention, the
local sector has also delivered a plethora of low-key successes in
Ten years on and Feebry’s comments sound prophetic. It was Gold
brownfields locations – as represented by Apollo Consolidated
Fields which largely led the way, turning up the Invincible deposit
Ltd’s Rebecca deposit on the NewGenGold programme – and new
on its St Ives property in 2015. Since then, the Australian gold
positions – such as Stavely Minerals Ltd’s lode-style Cayley Lode
exploration sector has enjoyed a run of success not seen since its
deposit in Victoria.
early 1990s heyday.
With record capital raising activity in 2021, gold exploration does not
This year’s NewGenGold programme demonstrates the rate of
face problems of cash or targets. Instead, the issues are tantamount
success Australian gold is enjoying. Headlining the forum are three
to “first world problems”; accessing rigs, finding employees and
big West Australian discoveries – Hemi, Havieron and Winu – all
getting samples through assay labs which are bursting at the seams.
found under transported cover in areas previously assumed too
difficult to explore in. How times change.
Looking back to the 2011 forum again, another panellist predicted NewGenGold takes place at the Pan Pacific Hotel,
the trend. Perth on November 9-10. For delegate and sponsorship
“We have seen throughout this conference that there have been inquiries, contact Mitchelle Matambo on (+61) 8 9321
some quite sophisticated exploration models developed for orogenic 0355 or email mitchelle@paydirt.com.au
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