Hillgrove’s charter is to become a successful medium sized resources group listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Either of the company’s existing major development thrusts offers the potential for this goal to be fulfilled.
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 in October 2006 and another 19% to 34.44MT at 0.9% copper and 0.2 g/t gold in May 2007. Total contained copper metal has increased to 290,000 tonnes and contained gold to 216,900 ounces. Drilling continues in the hope to grow the resource further, with Hillgrove focusing on bringing the Kanmantoo Mine back into production supported by satellite deposits such as Emily Star. With the Definitive Feasibility Study completed in December 2007 the Board gave the 'green light' to continue seeking government licensing and arrange the project finance, both of which are expected to be completed in April 2008.
Hillgrove had earned a 32.5% interest in the Gunnedah Gas Project, a coal seam gas opportunity which contains one of Australia’s largest on-shore accumulations of natural gas, which it sold in October 2006 for an initial strategic 19.9% shareholding in the project manager Eastern Star Gas Limited (ASX:ESG), an integrated natural gas and electricity production company which has a focus on developing its gas resources for the major Eastern Australian market. 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 project 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.
Additionally, Hillgrove has a 31% shareholding in InterMet Resources Limited (ASX:ITT) which has over 6,000 km² of ground in the Gawler Craton prospective for copper, gold, nickel and uranium.