Hillgrove’s charter is to become a successful medium sized resources group listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.
The Kanmantoo Copper Project is an advanced development project that covers a zone of mineralization that is part of the highly prospective Kanmantoo Trough. On 16 May 2006 Hillgrove announced an Indicated and Inferred Resource of 25.375Mt at 1.0% copper and 0.2g/t gold calculated by Resource Evaluations Pty. Ltd. Drilling continued and increased the resource to 28MT at 0.94% copper and 0.2g/t gold the following October and another 19% to 31.8MT (21.4MT Indicated and 10.4MT Inferred) at 0.9% copper and 0.2 g/t gold in May 2007. Total contained copper metal has increased to 290,700 tonnes and 189,300oz gold and 3,218,400oz silver. With the Definitive Feasibility Study completed in December 2007 the Board gave the 'green light' to seek government licensing and arrange the project finance. The Mining Licence was awarded in October and the MARP is expected shortly which will allow the financing to progress. Drilling continues in the hope to grow the resource further, with Hillgrove focussed on bringing the Kanmantoo Mine back into production supported by satellite deposits such as Emily Star.
Hillgrove had earned a 32.5% interest in PEL238 at Gunnedah, a coal seam gas opportunity which contains one of Australia’s largest on-shore accumulations of natural gas, which was sold in October 2006 for an initial strategic 19.9% shareholding in the project manager Eastern Star Gas Limited (ASX:ESG). ESG is undertaking an extensive programme of evaluation with a view to outlining sufficient P1 and P2 reserves of gas to support the development of the area to supply gas into Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong and to meet a potential gas sales contract under a MOU with Macquarie Generation of up to 500PJ’s. Hillgrove's current fully diluted holding in ESG is 20%.
Additionally, Hillgrove has a 84.8% shareholding in InterMet Resources Limited (ASX:ITT) which initially specialised in the Gawler Craton with over 6,000 km² of ground prospective for copper, gold, nickel and uranium, but in the last year has really moved its focus to northern Queensland. The portfolio includes a number of projects with identified zones of mineralisation that are drill ready and which have the potential for early and speedy development, with key prospects located near to existing infrastructure.