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Dwyka forges ahead on 2m oz gold project
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Mon, 03 Dec 2007

[miningmx.com] -- DWYKA RESOURCES will bring out its first resources statement early next year for a Swaziland gold prospect that is expected to have between 1.5 and 2 million oz, CEO Melissa Sturgess said on Monday.

Dwyka has the right to earn up to 90% in its 50% held subsidiary SwaziGold that was brought to the ASX and AIM-traded company by private vendors. The prospect is on the western border of Swaziland, a small landlocked country between South Africa and Mozambique.

The first round of drilling at the prospect, which has the same geological structures as Pan African Resources' Barberton gold mine immediately across the border in South Africa, will cost $750,000 and the second round to start in the first quarter of 2008 will cost $1.5m. All the exploration will be funded off the balance sheet.
it’s very doable
“What we are doing is verifying what’s gone on before and extending that. We’re pretty confident we have 1.5 to two million ounces of gold at our site,” Sturgess told Miningmx in a telephonic interview from London.

The quartz vein prospect has been mined before, but on a small scale, largely by artisanal miners, none of whom are on the SwaziGold projects. The project had been drilled by Rio Tinto, Southern Era, JCI and Harmony Gold, she said.

“Based on the historical data we’ve looked at and putting it together with our inhouse expertise of similar style gold projects in Australia, we’re feeling quite bullish about it,” she said. “It’s an absolute delight to have and it’s very doable.”

Once Dwyka has taken a larger stake in the project and moved it further up the value curve, it might consider listing the subsidiary in Johannesburg.

“I have historical experience of the JSE and it’s certainly a buoyant environment, so yes, it’s something we’d look at,” Sturgess said.

Results of the first round of drilling will be made public towards the end of the first quarter of next year.

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“On the back of that we’ll have a much better idea of how long until production, but we are certainly pushing quite hard,” Sturgess said, adding Dwyka was looking for cash flow.

The project is in the conceptual stage but hoping to have an idea of how best to progress exploiting the deposit by the end of March 2008, she said. She was unable to say if the Barberton mine could be used as a potential site for toll treating material.

Three out of four major targets are being explored, with the Daisy project showing the most potential to be a mine, albeit with small to medium tonnages but at high grades.

There are indications of a high-grade ore shoot at Daisy going down to at least 250 metres. One intersection shows 5.73 grams/tonne over four metres. Daisy would be an underground mine.

On a regulatory front, Dwyka has found it easy and relatively simple to work in Swaziland, which does not have a large mining sector. It used to produce asbestos.

“The geology is what we are familiar with in Australia, so it’s not something that has made us nervous,” Sturgess said.