Mineral explorer Cyclone Metals has been granted two exploration permits covering about 198 square kilometres in the Otago region of New Zealand’s South Island.
A sampling program to cover the recently awarded projects is being designed.
The company’s newly granted Drybread and Waikerikeri projects form part of its broader six-project acquisition completed in March this year. At the time the two projects were under application, however approvals have now been given for a period of five years and can be renewed.
The company’s new ventures sit in prime real estate, with all projects being found near operating mines and facilities or other resource companies.
Cyclone believes New Zealand is a leading commodity investment destination, following a string of successful explorers and new mine approvals.
The newly granted gold projects are on either side of ASX-listed Santana Minerals’ flagship Bendigo-Ophir gold project that is advancing towards production and has seen a stellar increase in the neighbouring company’s market cap from about $30M to over $100M.
Interestingly since acquiring its project in 2020, Santana has managed to increase its gold inventory by 155 per cent to 643,000 ounces of gold.
Impressively, Santana boasts a low exploration cost of $5.82 per ounce added.
In addition to Cyclone, it appears Santana is also confident in the region’s potential as the company says it is “targeting a multi-million ounce resource in 2022.”
Notably, whilst Drybread and Waikerikeri contain historical alluvial workings, they are underexplored for hardrock potential with no primary gold exploration undertaken.
The explorer aims to quickly assess the project for drill targets.
Cyclone Metals Executive Director, Tony Sage says: “With the Maiden exploration program well underway in New Zealand and the first batch of geochemical samples dispatched to ALS in Perth, it is great to also get the news of the granting of Waikerikeri and Drybread that surround the Santana owned Bendigo-Ophir Gold Project that has increased their market cap to +$100M.”
About 100kms to the east of the new grants, Cyclone is undertaking a maiden geochemical sampling program at the company’s Mareburn and Macraes South projects, with the first batch of samples dispatched to ALS in Perth.
Notably, the projects to the east are contiguous to Oceania Gold’s Macraes gold mine that has a 6 million tonnes per annum plant and six-year mine life.
Interestingly, the regulatory body New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals, pegs the Macraes gold mine as the country’s largest known gold deposit, producing over 4 million ounces since 1990.
Mareburn and Macraes South are another two of the six-project acquisition.
In March 2022, Cyclone shelled out 900 million of its shares in exchange for the 1140 square kilometre portfolio of gold, copper, nickel and PGE projects in New Zealand. At the time Cyclone said a further two lithium and rare earth elements project applications were being submitted shortly.
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