Key points from NCM Diggers & Dealers Forum - Aug 3rd 2021

[DipSard]

Key points from NCM Diggers & Dealers Forum - Aug 3rd 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WPeO7JY2jk

NCM General Exploration Mgr. Fraser MacCorquodale presentation focused on exploration and growth strategy

*Growth Strategy
- Leveraging off mining & exploration capability, technology, innovation and collaborative relationships with their partners.
- 3 keys areas are Hav, Red Chris and additionally some early-stage growth opportunities in other jurisdictions.

*Looking Deeper and opening up new search spaces
- Differentiate from peers by targeting belts where they can find higher value deposits and bring something to it and their partners through their experience and capabilities.
- Two main focus areas are the Paterson and W.A through Telfer and Hav and also the Golden Triangle centred on Red Chris.
- All about growing resource space to leverage off existing infrastructure.

*Why does Newcrest look deeper?
- They feel that the top 100 to 200m in outcrop areas is pretty much exhausted, however if you go into these regions and look deeper under cover, there are still great discoveries to be made.
- Top success stories of late are from companies brave enough to look deeper, with the best example being the Hav discovery by GGP who were brave enough to drill over 400m under cover with holes up to a kilometre deep and the rewards for both NCM and GGP have been fantastic.

*Newcrests experience in deep exploration and mining
- Started over 20 years ago at Telfer and continued at Red Chris and other provinces.
- Newcrest developed their extensive skills in bulk underground mining capability by looking deeper and developing techniques to extract these minerals.

*Most recent exploration success is at Hav
- Located in Paterson, W.A, 45km east of Telfer under 420m of cover in a JV with GGP
- Hit ground running over two years ago with aggressive drilling campaign with over 180,000m of drilling to date despite serious factors such as the pandemic and wet weather issues to contend with.
- Amazing job by team to outline a large area of mineralisation leading to delivery of an initial inferred resource in Dec 2020 of 3.4 MoZ of gold and 160,000 tons of copper and a growth program is in place right now to grow the resource space.

- Also they’re not just looking at Hav, the question is if there are more Hav’s in the district as the style of mineralisation being seen at Hav usually performs in clusters - so where are the other ones?
- To this note they have two active JV’s in the region with Antipa and GGP, who are both technically strong groups they love collaborating with. Both projects are managed by those companies and right now they have drill rigs churning away drilling under cover targets.

*Detailed look at Havieron
- 400m of cover under which they’ve seen mineralisation to at least 800m below that.
- Deposit is centred on a NW trending corridor of calc silicon alteration, surrounded by better embedded sentiments (variable intensity of alteration in that zone) but alteration and mineralisation is centred around the NW trending body of diorite dykes.
- Mineralisation and resources at this stage predominantly hosted within the SE Crescent which if stretched out below unconformity would be about 500-600m long and 20m wide.
- It’s funnel shaped so as you go deeper to about 800m into it, it is down to around 200m.
- Intriguingly, as you go deeper they’re seeing some significant grades and some of the better intercepts at depth are listed on his presentation slide. Slide also shows intercept drills below 4400m RL with plus 1-gram intercepts, so gives you a feel for the extent of the mineralisation.
- Deposit is associated with variable amounts of sulphide quartz and carbonate that forms in brushes or vein infill in a typical Hav style mineralisation.

*Growth program in place
- Testing series of exploration targets to support potential resource growth in three main areas over the next 12 months.
- SE Crescent Deeps (HG open at depth): drilling sitting below resource is still open with significant intercepts, trying to define extent of the higher grade and continuity of mineralisation
- Northern and Eastern Breccia Targets (Open HG Mineralisation): NW Hav trending corridor hosting two zones of higher-grade mineralisation in N Breccia and NW pod. Drilling around these to define footprint of the higher grade and to see if the corridor links into a bigger single zone of mineralisation.
Work on Eastern Breccia is early stage with only a handful of holes into it so they don’t currently understand the geological controls and dimensions of system, but encouraged by some good intercepts and presence of HG which could indicate the presence of an additional NW corridor, currently testing this concept.
- 3 new targets within Hav proximity: with potentially similar Geophysical properties, so again the question is, are there more Hav’s floating around Hav?
- The targets are named: Zipa (Gravity), Havieron North (Magnetics) and Meco (Gravity) - image link below:
https://twitter.com/paddygall1/status/1 ... 21/photo/1
*Improving their exploration capabilities
- Thinking outside the box by using machine learning to analyse historical public data of Australian wide geochemical data to identify and rank potential targets of bigger ore deposits. Also applying to other jurisdictions.
- Adopted use of two Truscan units at Red Chris (XRF instruments) as part of core logging process to photograph and scan cores to give real-time metal values at the time of drilling to enable real-time decision making in regards to drill planning and rig location.
- This is helping to circumvent issues being experienced through industry wide assay delays and turnarounds experienced over the past few months.
- Advantages include being able to ‘log smarter’, geo’s have the geochemistry to hand before starting and they’re also using machine learning to identify basic structures lithology to help focus their efforts and move away from metre by metre logging to speed up the process.
- Closes section by mentioning they’re doing a similar exercise or just starting that journey up at Haverion.

*Deliver value through growth and exploration strategies
- Through three pillars:-
- Partnership: most of their projects are JV’s or option deals, it is their preferred method as helps them to capture good ground and work with really good groups to share knowledge and also learn from, are always happy to review projects with anyone as constantly looking for something new.
- Leverage off exploration DNA & Technology
- Mining capability is key as not only can they explore deeper but can also turn these all around.

*Answering a question from the host about dealing with challenges from increased cost of mining services and the lab delays
- The 21-day turnaround they aim for is currently out to 40-60 days like most others.
- Another industry challenge is obtaining good drillers, geologists and support staff, so they are helping to develop the next generation of personnel.
- Shortage of resources and price pressure really keeps them moving.