The dominance of Western Australian-based companies continued for the September quarter, with more than two thirds of the top 20 Australian Stock Exchange-listed junior international explorers based in the state.
The dominance of Western Australian-based companies continued for the September quarter, with more than two thirds of the top 20 Australian Stock Exchange-listed junior international explorers based in the state.
According to the Intierra September 2006 Exploration Survey, the combined expenditure of the 16 WA companies in the top 20 was just less than $50 million.
Heading the WA contingent was West Perth-based Albidon Ltd with an exploration spend of $5.5 million.
This placed it second in the list behind Victorian-based Ballarat Goldfields.
This figure was up 532 per cent on the mineral explorer’s June exploration expenditure of $870,000.
The bulk of Albidon’s expenditure has been taken up by its Munali nickel project in Zambia where it completed its feasibility study for development of the Enterprise nickel deposit in July, with construction scheduled to commence in December 2006.
Albidon is currently seeking to raise around $46.9 million through a placement to fund further work on the project.
In third position was Universal Resources, with expenditure up from $1.7 million for the June quarter to $4.5 million for the September quarter.
The company completed a feasibility study on its Roseby copper project in Queensland with results from the study concluding that large scale development of the project was both technically and financially feasible.
Copper production from Roseby is targeted to commence in fourth quarter 2008 and is forecast to produce up to 34,000 tonnes a year (tpa) of copper and 14,700 ounces of gold.
Brazil-focused explorer Mirabela Nickel has jumped to fourth position with a $4.4 million exploration spend. The company is on track to complete a feasibility study on its Santa Rita nickel sulphide deposit in February 2007.
With an active exploration program under way on its Tanzanian and Australian projects, specialist explorer Goldstream Mining NL’s spending has increased from $1.1 million in June quarter to just more than $4 million in September quarter.
The remaining WA-based explorers making up the rest of the top 10 positions were Tianshan Goldfields (sixth), Centamin Egypt (seventh), Moly Mines (eighth), and Avoca Resources (10th).
A notable absentee from the September quarter’s results was aspiring iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group, which topped the exploration expenditure charts for the June quarter with more than $63 million spent.
In the September quarter, the iron ore explorer just scraped inside the top 200 with spending of $284,472.
Fortescue’s cash position as at end of September was $2.934 million, down from $18 million at the end of the June quarter.
Last week, at its annual general meeting, Fortescue’s chief executive officer, Andrew Forrest, said approvals to construct a railway to service its $3.7 million iron ore project in the Pilbara were imminent and reiterated a project start-up of early 2008.
