Transcription of Finance News Network Interview with Ventnor Resources Limited (ASX:VRX) Managing Director, Bruce Maluish. Clive Tompkins: Hello Clive Tompkins reporting for the Finance News Network. Joining me from base metals explorer Ventnor Resources Limited
(ASX:VRX) is Managing Director, Bruce Maluish. Bruce welcome to FNN. When did the Company list and what’s its focus?
Bruce Maluish: We put some projects together in 2009 and put the prospectus out in late 2010, and raised money round Christmas time, as it happened, in 2010 and floated in February 2011. And we’ve been actively exploring since April 2011, so we’ve really been exploring for about a year.
Clive Tompkins: Good thanks Bruce. And what are you looking for?
Bruce Maluish: Our primary project is the Thaduna and Green Dragon copper project. It’s a project that’s under some old existing mines that were mined in the Sixties. And we’ve been working around those and drilling almost constantly there since April last year. And we’ve done now about 22,000 metres of drilling there since April. And our other projects Warrawanda Nickel Hills, we’ve done about 2,500 metres of drilling there but they’ve taken a back step from our Thaduna/Green Dragon project. And we’ve got another project in western Queensland, we haven’t done any work there, we’re still negotiating access. And we’ve just recently released an announcement to show some ground that we’ve picked up at Kumarina, which is still not far from our Thaduna/Green Dragon project.
Clive Tompkins: Thanks Bruce. Now to your Thaduna and Green Dragon copper project, you’ve just completed the fourth phase of a drilling program. What did you find?
Bruce Maluish: It’s been an interesting part of the campaign. The end of the third phase, we discovered that many of the holes that we have drilled were too short and they ended up in mineralisation. Even though it was low mineralisation, it was the type of mineralisation that could possibly be extended and we did extend one or two holes. And we discovered a significant sulphide resource in the footwall of what we had been previously drilling. So the fourth campaign, the fourth phase of drilling was to come back and extend those holes, and that’s what we’ve been doing ever since. One of the holes that we extended was a bit of a game changer because at about 200 metres vertically, we hit some significant sulphides chalcopyrite and bornite, which are good copper sulphides. And really it indicated that the deposit could extend quite a bit deeper. We’ve just finished a short campaign of deep diamond holes. We’ve just completed those and we’re waiting for assays, which we’ll have in a month and they are drilled down to 300 metres vertically. They look good so far, but we’ll wait on the assays before we announce those. And we will also next week, we will be conducting down-hole EM (electromagnetic) to see if there is a larger conductor below those, which may entice us to drill some even deeper holes.
Clive Tompkins: Good, so what’s the next key milestone?
Bruce Maluish: We would like to have completed by the end of June, adequate drilling for us to complete a JORC compliant resource. So the real impetus at the moment is to complete a maiden resource.
Clive Tompkins: OK and then what follows next?
Bruce Maluish: We will complete an in-house scoping study. We’ve already commenced all the preliminaries to undertake mining there, flora and fauna studies have been done, Aboriginal heritage studies, surface hydro. We’ve still got some follow-up work to be done there but they don’t indicate any impediments at this point. So we will continue with those preliminaries, we’ve got mining lease applications underway. So they are all with the intention of putting a plant in there and undertaking a stand-alone operation. So we’ll do a scoping study on that and if that stacks up, we’ll head down the route of a BFS (bankable feasibility study).
Clive Tompkins: Now Bruce I see the Company’s just picked up a tenement holding in the Kumarina district, 200 kilometres north of Meekathara. Can you tell us about that?
Bruce Maluish: It’s an interesting prospect for a number of reasons. We were specifically looking for a project of this magnitude and with other
conditions, and particularly it is a big area that has had no modern exploration. And in fact, when we examine the historic data, we find it is for an area of this size, there’s a surprisingly small amount of data available. So very little work has been done there in the last 15 years, but it is ideally suited for a new technique called HyVista. HyVista is a hyper spectral digital imaging system. It was developed by the US military, it’s become publicly available only a number of years ago. There haven’t been that many surveys done in Australia, but it’s ideally suited to very large areas and of low vegetation, which is a fair chunk of Australia. But this project fits the bill because it allows you to take a very large area, but then focus your exploration onto specific targets. So we are able to interrogate the data to locate the spectral response from the type of minerals that will indicate thermal alteration. So we’ve got a very large area, we’ve got over 1,800 square kilometres, we’ll conduct the survey soon and we can examine this area quickly, and very economically. It is no doubt leading edge technology and we think this project suits that technology perfectly.
Clive Tompkins: And Bruce, what size area does it cover?
Bruce Maluish: It’s over 1,800 square kilometres; it’s a fair chunk of WA. We’ve been accumulating it for about a year; they’re applications in one of our subsidiaries so we own it 100 per cent. And because it’s a big area like that, it’s unrestricted exploration. If we do find something there that’s of interest, we’re not restricted by boundaries – we hope. Hopefully there’s nothing sort of sitting on the edge of it because it’s such a big area. But we’re quite excited to be using this technology and it could potentially be – if we could show that it is successful, we might be able to apply it elsewhere.
Clive Tompkins: Now to financials Bruce. What’s the current cash position?
Bruce Maluish: Currently at the end of April, we have about $4.1 million in the bank. By our estimates to get the drilling done at Thaduna/Green Dragon for resources, we’ll be down to about $2.4 million by the end of June. We’ve got 61.8 million shares on issue, this month we’re having an EGM (Extraordinary General Meeting) to refresh that issue. So I would think within the next three months, we’ll be looking to raise some more capital. The scoping study won’t be an expensive exercise, but what may be required is if the down-hole EM indicates a significant conductor, we may be compelled to drill some even deeper holes at Thaduna/Green Dragon. We haven’t got much money set aside for our other projects at the moment, but those can be advanced as well if we do raise some more funds. So I would think within the next three months, we will be raising some more funds.
Clive Tompkins: Last question Bruce. Where would you like to see Ventnor Resources start the new financial year?
Bruce Maluish: I would like to see us having a clear view towards a stand-alone project at Thaduna/Green Dragon. Whether we put a plant onsite or end up doing a deal with other operators in the area, it may be the case and that scoping study will investigate all those options. But I would like to have a clear view on our direction, which will lead us to our own direction for the next two years.
Clive Tompkins: Bruce Maluish, thanks for the introduction.
Bruce Maluish: Thank you very much.
Ends
