White Gold Cracks 1M Oz. Barrier

With the global mineral exploration industry converging on Vancouver for the annual Mineral Exploration Roundup convention, the third trading week of the year was filled with explorers touting their latest finds.

• One of the most closely followed grassroots gold plays in Canada is Underworld Resources’ White Gold project in the Yukon, and the company’s new, first-ever resource calculation did not disappoint.

At the project’s Golden Saddle deposit, Underworld has delineated in four zones an open-pittable 9.7 million indicated tonnes grading 3.19 grams gold per tonne plus 4.1 million inferred tonnes of 2.33 grams gold, for a total of 1.3 million contained oz. The nearby Arc deposit hosts an open-pittable 4.4 million tonnes of 1.21 grams gold for 170,470 contained oz. gold. Underworld used a lower cut-off of 0.5 gram gold for the open-pit numbers.

With Golden Saddle remaining open along strike to the northeast and down dip to the northwest, Underworld is gearing up for a new round of drilling to follow up on Golden Saddle and Arc, as well as to probe other regional targets.

• The World Steel Association has tallied up last year’s crude-steel output in the 66 countries that report to it, and found an 8% drop year-over-year to 1,220 million tonnes.

Steel production declined last year in the European Union, North America, South America and the CIS, but increased in China, India and the Middle East, despite a weakened global economy.

However, a more detailed look shows how strong the recovery in steelmaking has been recently, with crude steel output in December 2009 at 106.4 million tonnes, up a whopping 30% compared to December 2008, as capacity utilization rose to 71.5% from 58.1% between the two periods.

For iron ore miners, the rebound in steelmaking has resulted in a strong recovery in iron ore prices — a welcome development after a very tough 2009.

• The New Year saw new uncertainty over the status of the huge Reko Diq gold-copper project in southwestern Pakistan, where a feasibility study was originally due in the first half of 2010. Ownership in the project is ostensibly divided between Antofagsta Minerals (37.5%), Barrick Gold (37.5%) and the provincial Balochistan government (25%), however the latter recommended that the current contract at Reko Diq should be cancelled — a move that still needs the approval of the central Pakistan government to take effect.

Quoted in the Financial Times, Pakistan’s finance minister Shaukat Tarin said, “We can’t continue with this project in its present form. We have to protect our key national interests.”

The current resource estimate for Reko Diq’s key Western Porphyries deposits is an astounding 4.1 billion tonnes grading 0.50% copper and 0.291 gram gold per tonne, so it’s a project well worth developing if the region’s chronic political instability can be overcome.

• Noront Resources has problems at its Ring of Fire project in Ontario’s James Bay Lowlands, with the local Marten Falls First Nation (MFFN) blocking Noront’s access to the ice landing strip at Koppler Lake.

Noront says the blockade will be “in place for an indefinite period” and is supported by other communities in the area.

In a press release awkwardly titled, “Noront supports First Nations action at Ring of Fire,” Noront describes the MFFN and other First Nation communities in the area as having “become increasingly concerned by the lack of consultation with their communities concerning development in the Ring of Fire and a disregard for their environment.”

Noront considers the denial of service unfair but will abide by it as it tries to improve its relationships with locals.

• Iron ore giant Vale has signed up with the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro to sponsor for the next five years the restoration and maintenance of the famed Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooks the city from atop Corcovado Mountain.

Restoration work on the icon’s iron and soapstone structure and

its pedestal is due to begin soon and will last until June, during which time the 30-metre high statue will be covered with a transparent sheet. The statue took five years to build and was inaugurated in 1931.

There’s no truth to any rumours that, in the upcoming work, the statue’s face will be changed to look like Vale CEO Roger Agnelli.

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