Saracen Mineral Holdings (SAR)

Shares / Stock Code

SAR

Stock Exchange / Sharemarket

ax

Saracen Mineral Holdings (SAR) is a minerals exploration company, searching for gold and base metals. The company has interests located in the South Laverton region of Western Australia and Tasmania.

Saracen listed on the Australian stock market (ASX) in July 1989 as Central West Media Limited. The company changed its name to Saracen Mineral in August 1997. After its shares were suspended from quotation in December 2005, the company undertook a reorganisation of its capital.

SAR's main focus is on the South Laverton Assets, acquired from St Barbara Mines Limited. The South Laverton Assets comprises over 320 tenements and tenement applications, the 2.4m tonnes per annum Carosue Dam milling facility, and gold resources in several deposits totaling around 760,000 ounces.

Major competitors consist of other mining companies in Australia and overseas exploring for gold, precious and base metals. These range from massive international companies to small explorers with one or two projects. Prospective gold customers include governments, banks and international gold brokers whilst for precious and base metals would involve arrangements with utilities, large industrial users and steel plants.

Its wholly owned subsidiaries include Saracen Gold Mines Pty Limited and Saracen Metals Pty Limited. Saracen Gold Mines Pty Limited holds a tenement position in the region covering substantial strike lengths of two structural zones, the Laverton Tectonic Zone and the Keith-Kilkenny Tectonic Zones, which host most of the gold deposits in the region.

Saracen Gold Mines Pty Limited (a wholly owned subsidiary) holds a large tenement position in the region covering substantial strike lengths of two major structural zones, the Laverton Tectonic Zone and the Keith-Kilkenny Tectonic Zones, which host most of the gold deposits in the region. Over 20Moz of gold has been discovered in the last 15 years in the Laverton and Keith-Kilkenny Tectonic Zones. The substantially under-explored covered areas, potential for blind flat-lying mineralized structures, growing understanding of the geological controls on gold deposits, and the large tenement holding are factors that support the potential for further gold discoveries in the region.

Twenty of the known gold deposits in the Saracen tenements are currently being systematically re-evaluated. Five of these, shown in red on the figure below, are the basis for the re-commencement of mining and processing at Carosue. It is anticipitated that additional resources and reserves will be outlined at several of the other deposits. Exploration drilling is also planned to test several new geochemical anomalies outlined by Saracen in the past two years.