This week’s Northern Miner podcast sets the stage for our month-long focus on forecasts heading into 2018 (5:00). Matt tackles Scotiabank’s “Top Themes for 2018” (8:02), courtesy of portfolio strategist Vincent Delisle, which lays out the case for gold and oil heading into the new year. Scotia discusses the state of the U.S. dollar, Canadian small-cap equities, and an “equity-over-bond preference” strategy for 2018.
Meanwhile, Lesley’s back with a brand-new edition of the Geology Corner (12:05). This episode deals with the Novo Resources (TSXV: NVO; US-OTC: NSRPF) recent woes at its high-profile 7,600-sq.-km Karratha gold project, in Western Australia. Lesley examines the company’s “revised geological model,” and what it means for the project moving forward.
Novo stated in a Nov. 24 press release that after “careful review of sample consistency, integrity and recovery” the company intends to review other options for collecting bulk samples from drilling.
Our Sponsor Spotlight (27:09) for the week features PwC partner Marelize Konig, who discusses the firms annual Art of Mining and Vision to Reality competitions. She also talks about the impact of innovation on PwC’s business.
Bonus: Matt rants about company disclosure and securities regulators (20:40).
(PwC was a sponsor of The Northern Miner’s Progressive Mine Forum in October.)
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Articles referenced:
Novo shares drop on sampling woes, revised geological model
Garibaldi’s Golden Triangle discovery disappoints
Facts ‘n’ figures: ICSG says copper production declining
Video: Progressive Mine Forum 2017
Music Credits:
“Exciting Trailer” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
“Isolated” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Hey all, there was a comment posted on our soundcloud website that a listener was “disappointed” I never discussed the precipitation theory, as it’s the “heart of Novo’s story.” The precipitation theory being that gold precipitated directly out of seawater and into the conglomerate horizon at Comet Wells/Purdy’s Reward.
Just to clarify (in case others are thinking the same), I never ventured into the precipitation theory in this weeks podcast because it ventures away from science and into arm-waving territory, as there has been no evidence presented to support it.
Novo’s geological model overwrites the precipitation theory altogether, as the gold was transported and deposited through wave action along an ancient shoreline – which probably only lasted a few hundred thousand years because the Bellary Formation (the target conglomerate horizon) is exceptionally thin, compared to the Wits Basin in which deposition took place over 200 million years.
The only mention of any “submarine biogenic activity” in the company’s presentation is written in tiny font on slide 12, suggesting the activity occurred offshore in deeper parts of the ocean basin, but no evidence is provided to suggest this is the case! In fact, from a geological perspective this might not make sense either – if the seawater was “chemically aggressive” enough to hold gold in solution (as Hennigh suggested in one of his papers) why don’t the clasts of pillow basalts show signs of intense chemical weathering? Anyway, just one of many unanswered questions I have about it, but that’s for another episode another time!
We also covered the precipitation theory in podcast episode 77, an interview with Hartwig Frimmel, one of the world’s leading experts on Wits geology and former co-author with Quinton Hennigh on the subject. If you’re interested please check it out and if you have any questions, feel free to contact me at lstokes@northernminer.com.
Happy geologizing!
lesley