The International Resource Journal: Bass Metals

Bass Metals
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admin on 17 December, 2009 11:08:00
 
“explore smart”
In a country where mining is almost a na­tional pastime, Bass Metals Limited
are taking the lead as one of Australia’s fastest growing and interesting
mining companies. Bass Metals Ltd. is a mineral exploration company with focus
on the development and extraction industry within Australia. The company is
focused on gold and base metal production and exploration, and has a
sig­nificant operation in Tasmania, Australia.
Beginnings
In July of 2004, Bass Metals Ltd. secured $1 mil­lion in seed funding and
built a platform in one of the most significant mining provinces in the world.
According to Mike Rosenstreich, Managing Director, “We secured key
prospective tenements in Tasmania in early 2005 and floated on the ASX in
October of 2005.”
Three of the four current Directors on the Board at Bass Metals Ltd. are
founding Directors, which speaks to the confidence and partnership of the team.
The founders set out to acquire min­eral interests in Western Tasmania. In
2005, the core exploration projects of Bass Metal, Hellyer and Que River were
acquired.
Today
Bass Metals Ltd. have recently strengthened man­agement team. They have
recently taken on board two very qualified people, which speaks to the
commitment at Bass Metals Ltd. to grow their busi­ness. Brian Burdett was
appointed General Man­ager of the Tasmanian Operation in October, 2009. He
has 45 years of experience in the business across a variety of commodities and
he is going to lead production efforts in Tasmania. Ben Hamilton has recently
been appointed as Chief Financial Op­erator and has been involved in the
enhancement to commercial and transactional skills for Bass Metals Ltd. This is
a company that is very aggres­sive and serious about its attempts to grow.
In November of this year, Bass Metals Ltd. announced a $10-million placement to
new institu­tional investors as part of an integrated fundraising strategy.
This capital raising, in conjunction with other initiatives, will generate
enough cash flow for Bass Metals Ltd. to undertake its Fossey Mine
de­velopment and accelerate testing of its new explo­ration targets in
the Hellyer-Que River region.
This is a significant undertaking for Bass Metals Ltd. The company hopes this
capital raising will provide the necessary resources to fund the development of
the new Fossey Mine and to augment exploration work on recently generated, new
mineralisation targets in the Hellyer-Que River area.
Hellyer
Hellyer’s location—western Tasmania—has a track record for
sustaining what is known as ‘base load’ mines. Base load mines
typically have a proven record of maintaining profitability at all points of the
price cycle. Hellyer and Que River both lie within 100 kilometres of each other
on a Cambrian volcanic hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) centre.  The Que River and
Hellyer discov­eries were the first massive sulphide finds in Tas­mania
since the late 19th century. They are cer­tainly a fine feather in Bass
Metal Ltd.’s cap, as together, they rank among the world’s top dozen
massive sulphide deposits, with Hellyer generat­ing nearly $1 billion in net
revenue (by producing 2.7 million tonnes of zinc concentrate, 728,000 tonnes of
lead concentrate and 601,000 tonnes of bulk concentrate).
Outcropping massive sulphide mineralisation was first discovered at Que River in
1974. Initially, five steep dipping lenses were outlined over 800 metres in a
tightly folded sequence, to over 300 metres depth. Between 1981 and 1990, there
were over 3-million tonnes mined, at an average grade of 13.3 per cent zinc, 7.4
per cent lead, 195 grams per tonne of silver and 3.3 grams per tonne of gold.
After the Que River discoveries, fur­ther geochemical and geophysical
surveys were undertaken along the host volcanic sequence, and, in 1983, using a
new EM variant, Hellyer was discovered a mere 3.5 kilometres north east of the
Que River.
Hellyer is a single massive sulphur deposit which lies at intervals between 50
and 300 metres below the earth. Because of its dimen­sions, the Hellyer
deposit was extracted by sub-level open stoping and processing in a 1.5-
million-tonnes-per-annum (Mtpa) concentrator, which was built on site. At this
time, the
ore was processed by another concentrator, and the underground workings were
plugged and resealed when mining concluded in the late 1990s, under the
premature assumption that the previous contractors had exhausted their reserves.
In 2005, Bass Metals Ltd. bought the explora­tion rights to Que River and
Hellyer and acquired the Que River tenements outright. Bass Metals Ltd.
an­nounced the development of its Hellyer base metals project upon the
publication of a very successful feasibility study. This project focused on an
initial ore production of 851,000 tonnes in under three years (for a total
production of 167,000 of saleable zinc, lead and copper-precious metal
concentrate).
Over all, the study showed a potential for earning approximately A$75 million
and an oper­ating surplus of approximately A$50 million at an overall cost
of production of $0.38 per pound of payable zinc, which is well into the lower
half of the global cost curve for zinc operations.
Rosenstreich beams when he speaks of these projects. “We have had two
years of con­tinual production at Que River Mine with no lost time
incidents, significant exploration discover­ies, and a lot of success and
application of new technologies generating new targets. Our future exploration
success earns us respect of our peers because we ‘explore
smart’”, he explains.
Focus on the future
Rosenstreich attributes the success of his company to a “good team, a
focussed strategy and managing for the downside, which means a right mix of
technical and commercial skills. Getting into production quickly at Que River
with high grades, resilient cash flows built up our cash surplus and enabled us
to grow our assets whilst competitors and peers were cut­ting back.”
With what Rosensteich describes as “major growth in production profile in
the next 12 months, with a new project (Fossey) coming on line” Bass
Metals Ltd is set to be a $300-to $500-million market-cap resources business
with two estab­lished operations and a third being developed.
All of this good news will allow Bass Met­als Ltd. to get busy exploring.
Being in a highly prospective area for large high-grade, high-value deposits,
they will soon be filling up their mills with our ore.
www.bassmetals.com.au