WWW.RESOURCEGLOBALNETWORK.COM
BARTON
Scalable and synergistic gol
N GOLD
ld assets in South Australia
MINING | BARTON GOLD
After witnessing global economic growth tumble to a projected -4.9% in a COVID-dominated 2020, Alexander Scanlon, managing director of private Australian gold developer Barton Gold, casts his mind back to the global financial crisis of 2007-08, after which governments authorised colossal monetary stimulus to support the teetering global economy. Back then, the substantial economic crisis justified the subsequent programmes of mass money printing, however Scanlon believes that the long-term problem lies in his assertion that those money presses never turned off, even in the post-2012 period of economic stabilisation. “People just stopped paying attention to the global debt-fuelled wealth bubble that had formed,” he tells RGN. “Then we arrive in early 2020, where we have a real unforeseen problem. In essence, the analogy I would use is that from 2012-20, major governments around the world had already fired all of their monetary policy arrows at an invisible enemy.”
Barton is based in the
standard and basically rebuilt
habitually overlooked mining
the platform from the project
jurisdiction of South Australia
side.”
and Tunkillia assets, while
Leading from the front
It soon transpired that the real invisible enemy was COVID-19 – a highly contagious and often deadly virus that drove governments to lock down entire populations, effectively bringing the global economy to a juddering halt. Governments were left with no option but to double down on fiscal stimulus on an unprecedented scale that is illustrated by the fact that more money was printed in the past year than existed in the entire US monetary supply pre-2005. Now, with the inflated global monetary system at risk of overflowing with multiple decades worth of debt, Scanlon believes all the conditions are in place for a long-term structural gold bull market, and is positioning Barton Gold to capitalise on the positive outlook for the ‘safe haven’ metal.
curating an experienced
On the corporate side, Barton
corporate team to undertake
has made a number of high-
the elevation of the firm
quality additions to the
towards a rumoured imminent
management team, including
IPO.
the likes of Richard Crookes
(SA), where it owns three major ‘value foundations’ in a
The company’s total resource
key gold trend of the central
base currently sits at 1.1 million
Gawler Craton: the open pit
ounces (Moz), with significant
Tarcoola mine, the district scale
upside potential currently being
Tunkillia project and a 650,000
explored at both Tarcoola and
tonnes per annum mill adjacent
Tunkillia that can be buttressed
to the historic Challenger
with further exploration across
underground mine.
Barton’s 4,735 km² tenement and joint venture gold rights
Since 2019, Barton has spent
package in the increasingly
extensive time in the field
active region.
developing its technical understanding of the Tarcoola
and Christian Paech as non“We spent about 18 months
executive directors. Both are
combing through, reorganising
well known in the Australian
and validating data we had
resources sector, as is Mark
acquired on the assets,” Scanlon
Connelly; Barton’s non-
says. “We focused on resetting
executive chairman.
our technical understanding and from there building out the
Connelly is chairman of
assets. We have converted all
a number of other junior
of the resources to JORC 2012
and mid-tier Australian gold explorers, including
MINING | BARTON GOLD
Oklo, Calidus and Chesser
in Shannon Coates and an
Resources, and gained
experienced chief financial
significant recognition
officer in Rebecca Broughton.
for his role in leading two major merger deals: Adamus
“We also have a technical
Resources with Endeavour
alliance with Mining Plus,
Mining (2011) and Papillon
which allows us to fill out our
Resources with B2Gold (2014).
execution capability on the project management side, so
Barton has also brought in an
we can get the most out of the
excellent company secretary
skills and time of our people
DEVELOPING A NEW SOUTH AUSTRALIAN GOLD DISTRICT Two fully-permitted mines, large scale growth projects and the region’s only gold mill provide Barton Gold three major ‘value foundations’: 1) Tarcoola: Camp-scale project with significant exploration potential and de-risked production option using Barton’s wholly-owned mill
2) Tunkillia: Advanced district-scale project on ~50 km Shear zones with a cornerstone JORC resource of 965,000 oz of gold, and open for extension 3) Infrastructure: 650,000 tonnes per annum mill with legacy ~1.2Moz underground mine; option to leverage for own mineralisation and for regional consolidation
on the corporate side. That relationship gives us a lot of flexibility, firepower and experience.” Scanlon reveals that Barton was attracted to its current suite of assets because they are proven production projects
MINING | BARTON GOLD
THE TARCOOLA OPEN PIT
situated within close proximity
“This is one of the most richly
Nonetheless, there is an
to each other (Tarcoola
mineralised regions in SA. If
increasing number of
and Tunkillia are only
you were in Western Australia,
companies making noise
approximately 80 km apart
there would probably be
in the vicinity of Barton’s
with potential to operate as a
hundreds of mines within 200
assets, particularly around the
cost-efficient ‘hub’), in an area
km of our mill, whereas in this
Northern Infrastructure Hub,
that has been largely ignored
case, there are only two mines
which contains the company’s
and under-invested in for the
and we own both of them.”
mill. Notably, Marmota’s
last 25 years.
Aurora Tank Gold project is 50
the Tarcoola Basin – what
Resources is mobilising
Re-evaluating the resources
drilling at one of its advanced
At Tarcoola, Barton has
genesis of Tarcoola’s high-
targets between 50-80 km East
completed a significant
grade mineralisation.
of Tarcoola.
degree of back-to-basics
km Northeast, while Indiana
Barton suspects to be the
work aimed at reinterpreting
“What was really exciting was
“Things are starting to
the pre-existing geological
that we identified a number
happen and I think the focus
understanding of the asset,
of areas that are geophysical
is returning more to SA. As
which hosts the Perseverance
lookalikes for where the
people start to see the results
open pit mine – a historic
Perseverance open pit was
or our work and the work of
operation that produced gold
focused,” Scanlon exclaims.
other explorers, you might get
between 2017-18, including at
“These areas correspond
a focus similar to that of the
grades exceeding 4 g/t during
with relatively limited but
1990s.”
2018 – but was underworked
high grade shallow historical
outside of the main target area. drilling in the area. The 2D seismic then correlated
BARTO N GOLD
AT A G L A N C E
“We looked at Tarcoola and
perfectly with what we saw in
recognised that the geology
the geophysical programmes.
was far more interesting than
We’re very excited to go out
the story that had been told
and test those areas.”
publicly. We did some very high resolution, low altitude
Barton has also completed a
aero magnetics and geophysics
5,300 metre drill programme
programmes, as well as a 2D
adjacent to the Perseverance
seismic programme over that
open pit, discovering a new
area.”
200 metre long shallow gold zone in the process which has
PRO FORMA MARKET CAPITALISATION: Private
Thanks to this geophysical
been named ‘Perseverance
baseline work, the firm was
West’.
IPO DATE: Not yet announced
able to identify some large
aj
structural features that extend
The drilling also further
down to a crustal scale fault
validated an existing 500 metre
and interact extensively with
long gold target known as
intrusives pressing up against
‘Deliverance’, and the results
MINING | BARTON GOLD
ALTUS S
“This is one of the most richly mineralised regions in South Australia. If you were in Western Australia, there would probably be hundreds of mines within 200 km of our mill, whereas in this case, there are only two mines and we own both of them” Alexander Scanlon, Barton Gold managing director
MINING | BARTON GOLD
correlate with historic drilling data on the area that has been obtained by the company. “It’s still a relatively small resource, but now we have that in JORC 2012 standard we can continue to do more technical work and drilling to tie this area together. We have demonstrated that, rather than being a single open pit with potential extensions, we’ve got a 14 km long target zone on our tenements, which look like they are amenable to repeats of that open pit.” Meanwhile, Barton has conducted a full teardown at the Tunkillia project – ostensibly one of the largest undeveloped gold projects in SA – in order to build a better understanding of the resource, much like it has done at Tarcoola. The geological remodelling work focused on more specifically sub-domaining the project’s mineralisation and sharpening up the boundaries of the resource by removing
RGN editor Jacob Ambrose Willson interviews Barton Gold managing director Alexander Scanlon, January 19, 2021
“It makes most sense to develop the Tarcoola and Tunkillia assets as a Southern Hub because the Northern mill is approximately 180 km away from Tarcoola, but Tarcoola and Tunkillia are only 80 km apart, so there’s much greater potential for logistics efficiency”
a lot of extraneous low-grade
infill and extensional drilling
mineralisation. This allowed
to close gaps in the Tunkillia
Barton to identify multiple
resource and create further
high-grade ore zones and
continuity.
define a more continuous and reliable resource model
“The mineralisation that hosts
with significantly increased
that deposit is known to extend
resource ounces and greater
another 7 km to the North
development optionality.
and to the South. We’ve got a very strong and continuous
In October 2020, the firm
body of mineralisation and
announced that the JORC 2012
we have high hopes to extend
resource had grown to 965,000
the existing resource while
ounces at the 223 Deposit,
also replicating that resource
and confirmed targets had
within some of the nearby
been identified for follow-on
target areas in the vicinity of the 223 Deposit.”
MINING | BARTON GOLD
A Southern Hub
The opportunity remains for a
“The more you improve each
The potential district scale
‘Stage 1’ Tarcoola production
one, the more valuable each
of Tunkillia combined with
option using the existing mill,
asset becomes to the next,”
the higher grade ore from
and the construction of a
he says. “You can look to play
the Tarcoola resource has
second plant in the Southern
each asset off the other, you
contributed to a prevailing
Hub would provide capability
can divide them and you can
belief that a ‘Southern Hub’
for regional consolidation
combine them.”
would provide the most logical
around the Northern
development pathway for
Infrastructure Hub.
Barton’s current assets.
In the next 12 months, expect more drilling and
“It is the only mill in the region
resource growth at Tarcoola
“It makes most sense
so it does give us the ability to
and Tunkillia and an eagerly
to develop the Tarcoola
look to monetise that asset on
anticipated IPO on the ASX for
and Tunkillia assets as a
the basis that we’re the only
Barton, as it looks to capitalise
hub because the mill is
outfit there that could start
on continuing favourable
approximately 180 km distance
an operation without having
macro-economic conditions
away from Tarcoola, but
to build a new mill. That
for the gold market, despite
Tarcoola and Tunkillia are only
also represents value for our
seeing the gold price falter in
80 km apart, so there’s much
neighbours who have some
recent months while leading
greater potential for logistics
very interesting land packages
economists continue to
efficiency with a Southern
and are doing some interesting
digest the ongoing impacts
Hub,” Scanlon declares.
work in the region.”
of COVID-19 on the global financial system.
Considering that Tunkillia
Whichever way you look at it,
looks like a larger volume,
Barton possesses a very strong
lower grade operation,
hand with two scalable gold
the company could build a
resources and the only pre-
centralised mill adjacent to
existing mill in the region,
a Tunkillia mine and instead
which is gradually becoming
of trucking Tarcoola ore to
a hive of gold exploration. But
the Northern mill, it could
for Scanlon, the best thing
simply direct the ore South to
about Barton’s assets is the
Tunkillia for a ~ 50-60% saving
growing synergies between
on haulage costs.
them.
Published by Anderson Murray Media Ltd
To tell the resource market your story, contact: editorial@resourceglobalnetwork.com
WWW.RESOURCEGLOBALNETWORK.COM