WWW.RESOURCEGLOBALNETWORK.COM
MINING | Indiana Resources
INDIANA RES A growing gold focus in Mali
SOURCES
Resource Global Network
MINING | Indiana Resources
The history of Indiana Resources of Koussikoto Ouest and Kenieko Nord, can be traced back to 1984 when in which it holds 75% and 95% interests respectively. The remaining interests are held it was listed under a company by local partners. In return, Anderton sits on called Goldstream Mining NL. Since then, the firm has looked the Indiana share registry with about 13% ownership. at various opportunities in the nickel mining space and owned Leadership expertise a producing iron ore project at Indiana’s board and management team is one stage before entering Mali’s led by a triumvirate of highly experienced well-established gold sector mining professionals, with non-executive following recent developments chair Bronwyn Barnes and non-executive director Bruce McFadzean working alongside in Tanzania, where it owns van Wijk. a nickel project. The Indiana licences and the current team “Bronwyn and Bruce are well known in the on the ground have been exploring in Mali since 2013, but Australian resources space. Bruce is the it was only last year that these managing director of Sheffield Resources, a very large mineral sands play in Western licences, located in Kenieba Australia. Bronwyn has been involved in the Province, were brought into small cap end of the market for many years Indiana through the acquisition and sits on the board of a couple successful of Mukuyu Resources and a joint juniors including Mod Resources. venture with Cradle Arc – giving Indiana a total of four licences in “But more importantly, she has worked in close proximity within this highly Guinea and various other countries in West mineralised Birimian Greenstone Africa, has a private venture in Burkina Faso and speaks excellent French,” he adds. Van belt. Wijk is also conversant in French and has
“After the recent developments in Tanzania
worked in several other countries in West
we were looking for a project elsewhere and
Africa prior to leading Indiana in Mali.
there was a willing vendor in Peter Anderton with Mukuyu Resources. He was the man
Under the guidance of van Wijk, Barnes
who vended the first two Mali assets into
and McFadzean, Indiana has focused on
Indiana,” says chief executive Chris van Wijk.
consolidating its land position in Western Mali following the acquisition of Koussikoto
Anderton did an all-share deal with Indiana, giving the company ownership
Ouest and Kenieko Nord.
Resource Global Network
FULL SERVICE DRILLING SOLUTIONS FOR AFRICA From greenfields exploration to mine site drilling requirements, Capital Drilling has one of the largest diversified drill fleets across Africa.
SERVICES INCLUDE: •
Blast hole
•
Directional
•
Exploration and delineation
•
Grade control
•
Underground drilling
Egypt Mauritania
Mali
Operational bases across Africa
Burkina Faso Guinea
Ethiopia
Cote d’Ivoire Ghana
Kenya
*Democratic Republic of the Congo
DRC*
Tanzania
We can mobilise quickly from our extensive network of offices located throughout Africa.
Zambia Namibia
Botswana
Contact us to discuss how our knowledge and experience can help your project. www.capdrill.com | info@capdrill.com
Resource Global Network
Soon enough, the company bolstered its land
not received the amount of exploration
package through a JV deal with Cradle Arc
attention that it deserved.
in August 2018, which provided two further licences in the shape of Kossanto West and
“We saw an opportunity there because
Koussikoto, located a short distance North of
most of those leases weren’t held by
Indiana’s initial licences.
majors, allowing us to go in and do some consolidation. We want to put together a
When studying a map of the area, it becomes
decent sized land package that would be
clear that Indiana’s four licences are located
interesting to a larger firm. We believe we can
smack bang in the centre of three large
do that quicker and cheaper than the majors
regional gold camps. To the North you will
can.”
find the Sadiola and Yatela deposits, to the Southeast are Loulo and Fekola and toward
This brings sharply into focus Indiana’s
the Southwest is the Sabodala mine in
strategy with regards to its status as a gold
Senegal, owned by Teranga Gold.
explorer and not a mine developer. “The company has no illusions about wanting to
With this in mind, Indiana’s board concluded
go into production,” van Wijk explains.
that the central area intersecting these major gold camps was highly prospective and had
“We believe that the best value is in putting
MINING | Indiana Resources
together a land package, working it up to
These facilities join an illustrious list of gold
point where we have a decent resource and
mines operated by giants of the industry
then moving that on for someone else to put
including Randgold Resources, Anglogold
into production.”
Ashanti, Resolute Mining and IAMGOLD. As
The land of giants Mali’s is Africa’s third largest gold producer
such, Mali’s geological pedigree is in no doubt considering the calibre of multinationals invested in the sector.
and expects output to increase by almost 21% to 600 tonnes in 2018, thanks to new
However, Mali’s standing as a reliable
facilities coming online such as B2Gold’s
investment destination has been called
Fekola and Hummingbird Resources’ Yanfolila into doubt in certain quarters after security mines.
Resource Global Network
“We want to put together a decent sized land package in Mali that would be interesting to a larger firm. We believe we can do that quicker and cheaper than the majors can” Chris van Wijk, CEO
issues came to the fore in 2017, including a
“The corruption that West Africa is well
terror attack near the capital Bamako and
known for is never encountered at the high
escalating conflict in the less fertile (hence
level of government that we have to deal
poorer) North of the country.
with,” he says. “From that point of view, it’s much easier than operating in Guinea, Liberia
Nonetheless, the commitment of the mining
or any other countries I’ve experienced in the
community to Mali has been unwavering
region.
since these incidents and van Wijk believes Mali is in fact a much safer jurisdiction
“All of Africa is a complex overlay between
compared to some of its West African
tribal interests, clan interests and religion and
counterparts.
Mali is no different. One redeeming feature
MINING | Indiana Resources
of Mali is that religion is uniformly Muslim, so
Progressing the licences
that kind of complexity dies away.”
Returning to the licences in Kenieba Province, Indiana’s scope of work in 2018 centred on
On a government level, Indiana has
geophysics using Induced Polarisation (IP)
established strong communication lines with
methods at Koussikoto, which was followed
the Malian Ministry of Mines, as evidenced
by around 4,000 metres of drilling.
by a meeting van Wijk held with the current Minister of Mines Lelenta Hawa Baba Bah at
The drilling programme returned some
the end of 2017.
excellent hits including 18 metres at 3.35 g/t Au and 5 metres at 4.86 g/t Au. Follow-up
“The doors are wide open for us and they
drilling and further ground consolidation is
[the Mali Government] are keen for any
planned this year.
form of investment. Mali is complex, but we believe it is a better jurisdiction to operate in
“Now, the plan is to do geophysics on the
than the majority of West African countries
Northern licences that comprise our Cradle
and it will remain our main focus for the time
Arc JV and the Western part of our Koussikoto
being.”
licence. Then we will aim to do more air core drilling surrounding the strike from where
Resource Global Network
we have had promising hits, to see if we can
Patience in Tanzania
define any targets with the geophysics and
Indiana is also maintaining its position in
geochemistry.�
the Ntaka Hill nickel project in Southern Tanzania, despite the recent controversy
Indiana has been running a primarily self-
and upheaval that has gripped the mining
sufficient model in Mali so far, preferring to
sector. The company maintains that the
undertake a wide range of tasks in-house
project resembles a significant and exciting
including the construction of a mining camp,
opportunity, but changes to the Tanzanian
and has also brought its own staff for the
mining act have led to its Retention licence
camp, along with its own vehicles and drivers.
being cancelled.
However, Indiana’s drilling partner thus far
In a recent meeting, the Tanzanian
has been Amco Drilling and it has used a local
government explained to Indiana their
geophysics company called Sagax to do the
intention to eventually return the tenure,
IP work and subsequent interpretation of the
provided they accept the new ownership
results. Beyond these contractors, Indiana is
structure which dictates that the state must
self-sufficient almost end-to-end.
hold a 16% stake in the project.
MINING | Indiana Resources
Chris van Wijk and Mali Delegation at Africa Down Under 2018
Resource Global Network
“We are not looking to build mines, we are looking to get those assets to a point where they are sale or JV ready.” Meanwhile, the government is still embroiled in a two-year long tax dispute with Barrick Gold’s Acacia Mining, therefore until this major conflict is resolved Indiana feels that the picture surrounding Ntaka Hill will not get any clearer. “We are confident that we will get our tenure back at some point and the ultimate plan for the Ntaka Hill licence is to partner it. Once again, we are not looking to build mines, we are looking to get those assets to a point where they are sale or JV ready,” says van Wijk. This brings us back to Indiana’s long-term goal of building enticing land packages in prospective mineral belts that would eventually attract the interest of the majors. In the short term, the company plans to continue consolidating its Mali licences and is quietly hopeful that a consensus will be reached in Tanzania’s mining sector.
ASX:IDA
a bj
Published by Anderson Murray Media Ltd
To tell the resource market your story, contact: editorial@resourceglobalnetwork.com
WWW.RESOURCEGLOBALNETWORK.COM