The Newcrest Mining Ltd [ASX:NCM] share price is are down 0.74% today at time of writing after announcing they no longer hold any interest on the West Tanami Gold Project.
Newcrest is one of Australia’s largest gold producers with operations in NSW, Western Australia, Papua New Guinea and Canada.
Encounter Resources regains 100% interest
The West Tanami Gold Project extends over 3,400km squared in Western Australia. It covers over 100kms of strike of the major Trans-Tanami structural corridor that also holds Newmont Goldcorp’s Callie gold deposit.
Newcrest and Encounter entered a joint exploration venture in May 2018 that included the Selby, Watts and Lewis tenements. Newcrest has since completed an 18,400km line airborne magnetic survey and heritage clearances along with one program of broad spaced RC drilling.
But Newcrest has now decided to withdraw from the joint venture with Encounter, which means that now Encounter has 100% control of the project.
Encounter Managing Director Will Robinson had this to say:
‘We are delighted to be back in control of this major prospective land position, in a strong gold market, with immediate high quality drill targets for follow up in 2021. The project contains open, high-grade gold intersections under shallow cover and large untested geophysical anomalies with supporting geochemistry. We anticipate strong partner interest in the West Tanami Gold Project, which represents a rare belt scale gold project in a Tier 1 jurisdiction.’
What could happen next?
Encounter says they’re now in talks with other partners to accelerate gold exploration and drilling activity.
On the other hand, Newcrest had already flagged earlier this year that Havieron in the Paterson Province, and Red Chris in Canada were their short-term growth projects.
After the announcement, Encounter Resources Ltd [ASX:ENR] had seen a 2.94% surge and was trading at $18 cents. As mentioned before, Newcrest Mining shares were trading lower, at $26.85.
Newcrest wasn’t the only gold miner down though today. While gold prices dropped slightly, Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd [ASX:SAR], Northern Star Resources Ltd [ASX:NST] and Evolution Mining [ASX:EVN] were also down today.
Still with debt levels at record highs, negative rates and central banks flooding the economy with money, there’s a strong case for holding some gold.
One way to get exposure to gold is through gold stocks. Check out The Rum Rebellion Editor Greg Canavan’s free guide on ‘How to Pick Winning Gold Stocks’.
You can get it here.
Best,
Selva Freigedo