Prosperity Resources Limited

View the Brochure

Shifting its focus from a developed mining region Down Under to remote Indonesia was never likely to be an easy move, but one Australian explorer has made that change look like plain sailing.

Prosperity Resources Limited (ASX: PSP) (“Prosperity”) is fast making a name for itself in the tricky arena of Indonesian exploration. This Western Australian gold-copper explorer is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, but has targeted the Southeast Asian archipelago as its strategic focus.

The company’s main focus is on gold-copper porphyry and skarn mineralisation in Aceh Province in the north of the island of Sumatra.

Prosperity holds a 41,000 hectares land package aligned along the coast of Aceh, which covers an underexplored, but potentially highly prospective mineralised belt adjacent to the Sumatra Fault—an important feature controlling location of mineralisation in Sumatra. 

Since commencing exploration the company has identified 10 porphyry intrusive centres and related mineralised skarn and alteration zones confirming the huge potential of the land package.

Prosperity also has significant land holdings in the historic mining region of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, and iron ore and gold interests in the Murchison region of Western Australia.

The company’s experienced management team—which has vast experience in exploration, operations, legal and project financing—is focused on adding value to quality acquisitions.

From Oz to Sumatra

Prosperity began life focused on properties in the west of its native Australia.

“We were essentially focused on iron-ore properties in the mid-west, and a few gold properties scattered around Western Australia,” says Chairman and CEO Mo Munshi, who has been with the company since early 2007.

“We had managed to raise a little bit of money and we went and drilled the iron ore properties we owned.

“Everything was chugging along okay, but then the global financial crisis came along in mid-2008, by which time it had become pretty clear that the company needed a change in direction.”

It was at this time that Neil Rutherford of Rutherford Mineral Resource Consultants came on board as head of geology for the group and shared his view that its gold properties in Australia were surplus to requirements.

“The iron-ore projects in the mid-west also left a lot to be desired considering the financial environment the world was in and we decided that the only site worth keeping hold of was our Tennant Creek copper and gold tenements,” says Munshi.

Prosperity found that even at this site there remained some significant issues to be resolved and by the end of 2008 the company shifted its focus to Indonesia.

“I believe that Indonesia—despite all its political, administrative and bureaucratic challenges—is a country worth pursuing if you have the right partners,” Munshi remarks.

Entering Aceh

When the company entered the Indonesian mining sector in mid-2008 it took a low-key approach in looking for the right projects in Aceh.

“Neil [Rutherford] took a look at the sites we had secured and took the view that there was definitely potential in this ground, which was formerly owned by Meekatharra Minerals, and was also subject of an old Rio Tinto contract of work,” says Munshi.

“We were very fortunate to be supported by the local authorities and we were granted three new IUPs, each of 10,000 hectares in size, which—along with two existing 5,000 hectare blocks, and one 1,000 hectare block MMU—is how we got to 41,000 hectares in total and an area covering some 410 square kilometres.”

ome of the benefits of working in this part of Aceh is its accessibility by road from local coastal towns and its proximity to the town of Labuhan Haji in the north and the major urban centre of Tapaktuan in the south.

Rutherford notes that both Rio Tinto and Meekatharra had already carried out broad scale regional stream sediment work in the area as well, which Prosperity used as a focus for initial activities.

“We basically worked through these areas and came to realise that there were some interesting targets, and we started to work on one of the prospects called Pala,” Rutherford remarks.

“We sampled soils and rocks, undertook ground magnetics, trenching, mapping and drilled 16 shallow holes, and what we ended up with were some really encouraging results.” 

The firm then shifted its focus onto a second prospect called Jelatang, south of Pala, where it also achieved some encouraging results from similar work.

“We thought about the next step and decided to fly a regional airborne magnetics survey, because we realised there was quite a lot of magnetite showing up within these targets,” Rutherford notes.

Munshi says that the company’s optimism regarding its sites in Aceh has been met with much caution when considering the state of global markets and also the difficulties that could crop up working in a remote part of Indonesia.

“We are well aware of these issues, but we do think that with the world’s markets turning around, that Europe is not going to hang over our heads for much longer,” he remarks.

“But we will always be judged by our peers, especially big brothers with deep pockets, and we’ve got some of the largest mining companies in the world knocking on our door right now. 

“I think you’ve got to go step-by-step in Indonesia and you’ve got to make sure that you really do your homework, but these companies are very interested in what we’re doing.

“They are very keen to get on the ground, but we’re taking a very careful approach to our work in Aceh,” he adds.

As businesses across the world hunt for more and more sources of in demand copper, and with Prosperity’s sites in Indonesia revealing intriguing and positive results, the company could soon see itself becoming one of the major players within Southeast Asia’s booming mining sector.  

www.prosperity.net.au