Greatland Gold shares have languished 2022, despite the recent progress at the Haverion project – one of the most prominent gold discoveries of recent years. So what catalysts could provide some support and possibly push the Greatland Gold share price higher?
Positive updates on Havieron
Havieron is Greatland Gold’s most important asset, and is currently under development in a joint-venture with Australia’s largest gold producer, Newcrest Mining.
Newcrest currently has the right to earn up to a 70% interest in the venture through completing a slate of exploration and development milestones in a four-stage Farm-in.
Newcrest further has the right to acquire an additional 5% interest at the close of the farm-in term at fair market value.
The operation has discovered gold-copper mineralisation, with four key target zones and the potential for expansion beyond its resource shell.
The company updated its mineral resource and reserve for the project in March 2022, which reported a 53% increase in total gold content to 5.5 million ounces, alongside a 63% rise in indicated mineral resource gold ounces to 3.1 million ounces, an initial inferred mineral resource estimated at the Eastern Breccia and mineral resources which included 33 million tonnes at 3.2 grams per tonne of gold and 0.4% copper containing 3.5 million ounces gold, and 158 kilo tonnes copper in the South East Crescent Zone.
Greatland Gold (LON: #GGP) provides an exploration & development update at #Havieron.
— Greatland Gold (@GreatlandGold) June 9, 2022
“The existing high grade mineralised zone of the South East Crescent now extends a further 100 metres below our previous Mineral Resource estimate.”
View: https://t.co/nn04dFI4JK$GGP $GGP.L pic.twitter.com/o48SUypyzR
Greatland Gold noted that it would be drilling 90,000 metres to explore the asset further and gave investors an update in early June on their most recent findings.
The company is currently waiting for the completion of a feasibility study for the asset this year, and is aiming for commercial production in 2023 within three years of boxcut commencement.
The project is promising and shareholders will need to wait for the company to travel the path towards to production to truly unlock the value at Havieron. Each milestone along this journey will provide a potential upside catalyst in Greatland shares.
Positive updates on remainder of Greatland Gold’s Portfolio Assets
The Scallywag licence is completely owned by Greatland Gold, and has been identified as a site of gold mineralisation in four of the seven holes recently drilled by the company in its exploration programme at the operation.
The exploration programme was completed in April 2022, and is scheduled to be followed up by further analysis of drilling results and integration into ongoing basin-wide geophysical and geological modelling to kick off further targeting.
The project stands to become a literal goldmine of potential for the company, however additional information and analysis is needed before anyone gets too excited about the operation.
The Juri prospect is based in Western Australia, and apparently holds similar qualities to the Havieron project, so the conclusions from its current exploration programme at this project could signal major reason for the share price to fly if resource studies prove similarly fruitful as Havieron.
The gold-copper operation is held in a joint-venture with Newcrest Mining, and is currently undergoing an exploration programme. Newcrest has the right to earn up to 75% interest in the project by spending up to $20 million as part of a two-stage Farm-in over five years.
Greatland Gold’s Rudall and Canning gold-copper exploration licence applications are currently pending, and are reportedly expected in due course. The licences are both considered potential sites for gold-copper mineralisation similar to Havieron’s style.
The Ernest Giles project is 100% owned by Greatland Gold, and covers around 850 kilometres of territory in Yilgarn Craton, which hosts greenstone belts and intrusives with over 85 kilometres of strike of prospective rocks.
The company has applied for two new exploration licences at Mount Smith E38/3612 and Welstead Hill E38/3613, which would expand the project to 1,950 square kilometres, after an internal review of historical and recent regional exploration data concluded the broader project area was prospective for gold, nickel and base metals mineralisation.
Keep an eye on the approval of these licences, because if the mining group receives a thumbs-up, its share price may to follow suit in the long term should early evaluation be positive.
The Panorama project is 100% owned by Greatland Gold, and has identified gold mineralisation and potentially the largest coherent cobalt in-streams anomaly in Western Australia.
The project is under exploration at the current moment, and has potential gold targets on the north-western and southern licence, including rock chip samples with up to 18.4 grams per tonne in gold.
Higher gold price
A higher gold price is obviously good news for a company which has built its business on gold exploration, so where is the price of gold heading in the near-term?
The price of gold has recently been pushed down by a rally in the dollar, the anchor currency for the commodity. The prospect of higher interest rates has supported the dollar in 2022, trumping any gold inflation hedge trade.
Meanwhile, rising 8.3% inflation in the US has caused concern, with gold failing to operate in its usual role as an inflation hedge. Nonetheless, inflation is projected to rise through 2022, which could see gold prices rise further if the inflation hedge trade suddenly kicks in.
If the price of gold climbs higher, the Greatland Gold share price is primed to benefit. However, with gold diverging from historical correlations, the outlook for gold prices will be tough to predict.