Integra (ASX:IGR) is an Australian gold explorer looking at becoming a significant new mid-tier Australian gold production house.

IGR has built up its portfolio through a series of acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances – predominantly in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia.

It is looking to commission its flagship, the Randalls Gold Project. In January, IGR announced a 40% increase in resources.

The miner has an attractive asset portfolio with low cost gold production, approximately $500 per ounce cash cost.

It has enjoyed a successful transition to a gold producer aiming to produce 140,000 ounces (oz).

IGR has a good track record of discovery and development with significant exploration potential.

The miner recently reported shallow high grade gold results at the Lucky Bay prospect.

Business investment

Integra is looking to spend $12 million upgrading its processing facility. It will also be looking to repay $20 million worth of debt.

By the end of FY12, the company will be nearly debt free.

The Randalls Gold project will be producing 90,000oz per year at $500 per ounce.

The process plant expansion is expected to be completed by August. The target production is 100,000oz per annum.

There are also plans to increase production to 120,000-140,000oz per year underpinned by underground production potential.

Looking ahead

IGR has a very strong business primed for long term growth. The recent positive results at Lucky Bay are testament to IGR’s strength and potential.

Gold has gained significantly this year, reaching fresh record highs as global economic uncertainty, natural disasters and tension in North Africa and the Middle East pushes investors towards the safety of the shiny metal.

The metal tacked on 4% last week and continues to hold its ground well above US$1500.

With plenty in the reserve growth pipeline and rising gold prices, we feel IGR will be one of the stocks to watch in coming months.

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Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) is a Western Australian-focused unhedged gold producer with mining operations at Wattle Dam near Kambalda and milling facilities at Burbanks near Coolgardie.

Wattle Dam is the group’s cash cow, producing solid amounts of high grade gold at a low cost.

With Wattle’s mine life potentially coming to an end, RMS also has its lucrative Mt Magnet project, which will come into production this year.

RMS is benefitting from its strong operations and boom times for gold. The group is a low-cost operator with no debt and in a strong financial position with $90 million in cash on hand.

Golden production

RMS produced just over 100,000 ounces (oz) of gold from its Wattle Dam gold mine for the full year.

On the back of a solid June quarter, total gold production for the mine was over 200,000 oz, including production from the former open pit of 51,000 oz.

The Mt Magnet project north east of Perth is proceeding with the planned schedule for gold production to begin in January 2012.

RMS currently has $100 million in cash and gold on hand.

The stock will also benefit from a surging gold price.

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Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) is Australia’s largest gold producer, with mining and exploration projects in Australia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Indonesia and the US. The miner also has a smaller exposure to copper, mostly as a by-product of its gold production.

Importantly, NCM is working on bringing a few massive projects on stream. It already has six operating mines and five significant development projects.

NCM achieved its first gold production at its Hidden Valley gold mine in PNG, and delivered initial production ore at Ridgeway Deeps, a resource below its Ridgeway mine in central New South Wales.

In contrast to most miners, NCM mostly focuses on exploration-led production increases rather than acquisitions.

However, NCM reversed this trend when it decided to takeover Lihir Gold (LGL).

Newcrest Mining this week downgraded its production guidance for FY11 as a result of a production interruption at its Lihir mine and minor production delays at other sites.

Australia’s biggest gold miner is now expecting to produce 2.7 million ounces of gold this year, down approximately 3.5% from its previous guidance of 2.75 – 2.85 million ounces.

NCM should continue to receive support from surging gold prices.

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Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) is Australia’s largest gold producer, with mining and exploration projects in Australia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Indonesia and the US. The miner also has a smaller exposure to copper, mostly as a by-product of its gold production.

The company is also considered among the market’s blue chip stocks by virtue of its size and performance.  Furthermore, due to its leverage to rising gold prices, NCM has been one of the hot stocks over the past month.

NCM reported its latest quarterly production numbers yesterday.  The results showed a 16% decline in gold output from the previous quarter.

Gold output was hit by wet weather events in eastern Australia, low rainfall which hurt production at Lihir, and civil unrest in the Ivory Coast leading to the suspension of operations at Bonriko.

As a result, NCM said cash costs for the quarter rose from $440 to $497 per ounce.  Newcrest Mining also downgraded full year gold production guidance to 2.82 million ounces (plus or minus 35,000 ounces).

This compares to previous guidance of between 2.85 million and 2.95 million ounces.

Copper production guidance was left unchanged at 75,000 – 80,000 tonnes, with cash cost guidance also remaining the same.

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Newcrest Mining (NCM) is Australia’s largest gold producer, with mining and exploration projects in Australia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Indonesia and the US.  NCM is the largest gold producer listed on the Australian share market.

The miner also has a smaller exposure to copper, mostly as a by-product of its gold production.

In its latest production report, NCM announced a 7% increase in gold output in the 2Q11 from a quarter earlier. Copper production of 17.712t was in line with the previous quarter.

NCM attributed the growth in output to higher gold grades and increased throughput.  Cash costs of $440 per ounce were also an improvement over the previous quarter.

However, NCM downgraded FY11 gold production guidance to 2.85 – 2.95 million, from 2.85 – 3.00 million ounces.

Copper output was also expected to fall to 75 – 80 thousand tonnes, from 80 – 86 thousand tonnes.  NCM attributed the downgrades to rain and a suspension of operations at Bonriko in the Ivory Coast.

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Saracen Mineral Holdings (SAR) is an Australian mid-tier gold producer. The company became a producer when production began in April from the Carosue Dam gold project, 120km north-east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Current gold production is from the Porphyry and Whirling Dervish open pit mines.

SAR has only just made the leap to producer, but as its quarterly results demonstrate, the company is already delivering increasing gold production from its flagship Carosue Dam operations.

Carosue cruising along

Carosue Dam’s 2.4 million tonne per annum (mtpa) processing plant is forecast to produce approximately 100,000 to 120,000 ounces of gold in FY11.

SAR is targeting an increase in production to around 160,000 ozpa by 2015. Gold resources at Carosue stand at around 3.3 million oz while reserves stand at around 0.9 million oz.

Saracen’s Carosue Dam operations area contains a large number of known gold deposits within four separate districts (the Carosue Dam, Porphyry, Safari Bore and Red October districts).

SAR is forecasting future production from open pit mines at Karari, Enterprise, Wallbrook and Deep South, and, subject to positive feasibility study results, underground operations at Porphyry, Red October and Deep South.

Project development for a trial underground mining operation at Red October is presently underway.

Looking golden

SAR’s tenement holdings and gold deposits are located in one of the world’s most prospective gold provinces.

In excess of 23 million ounces of gold in resources have been found and/or brought into production in this province, where SAR is building a long-term strategic infrastructure and resource position.

As at 30 June 2010, SAR’s gold hedging position stood at put options bought over 154,347 oz, and call options sold over 90,810 oz, all at an exercise price of $1,250 per ounce and expiring in monthly amounts through to December 2011.

SAR is fortunate in that its commodity of choice – gold – is experiencing a “golden” run over the months, and currently sits at around US$1,400 per ounce.

As a result, Australian gold miners have been among the hot stocks this year as investors look to gain exposure surging bullion prices.

The precious metal has repeatedly hit record highs on demand from China. Even though China is currently in the midst of battling inflation, the country is buying large amounts of gold and creating demand for SAR’s services.

Pumping production

In its first full production quarter, being the quarter ended 30 June 2010, Carosue Dam operations produced 25,036 ounces of gold, from the processing of 520,214 tonnes of ore grading 1.62g/t.

Most of the ore was sourced from the Porphyry open pit mine.

Saracen’s second open pit mine, at Whirling Dervish, supplied first ore to the plant in June 2010.

For its more recent (September) quarter, gold production totalled 27,233 ounces at a cash cost of $705 per ounce.

The quarter saw gold resources increase by 8% to 3.3 million ounces and gold reserves increase to 0.9 million ounces.

SAR clocked mine operating profit (excluding hedging losses) of $11.3 million for the September quarter.

Impressively, over the quarter Saracen Mineral Holdings saw its Million Dollar operation gold resources increasing 55% to 327,000 ounces.

Drilling at Million Dollar is continuing whilst SAR is focused on an exciting broader $12 million drilling campaign, targeting numerous brownfields and greenfields targets.

Outlook

Saracen Mineral Holdings has only just made the leap to producer, but as its quarterly results demonstrate, the company is already delivering increasing gold production from its flagship Carosue Dam operations.

The company is looking at a successful future as a mid-tier gold producer, which will be boosted by the development of its various operations in the lucrative West Australian gold districts.

This bullish outlook means SAR will be one of the stocks to watch in coming months.

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Straits Resources (SRL) is a coal miner, with secondary interests in copper and gold mining.

SRL’s flagship operations include the Sebuku and Jembayan coal mines in Indonesia, which are owned by SRL’s subsidiary Straits Asia Resources.

SRL is now looking at a vastly changed future owing to a demerger, and a takeover offer from Thai-based PTT Mining.

The development will result in SRL becoming a pure coal play, whilst SRL will demerge its metals businesses under a new ASX-listed company, MetalsCo.

SRL says the demerger will provide greater clarity of identity to each of the businesses by creating a pure coal company and a pure metals company.

Operational update

In this month’s AGM presentation SRL updated the market as to its operational achievements and goals.

Straits Asia is targeting 16-18 million tonnes of production from Sebuku and Jembayan by 2013, and Tritton is targeting 25,000t copper production for FY11.

SRL’s Brunei drilling has commenced and Madagascar feasibility has reached completion.

Mt Muro Gold boasts a stable production platform and SRL anticipates it will be cash flow positive by the end of FY11.

The group is also actively exploring, investing around $20 million across the group in FY11.

Lessened loss

On 31 August, SRL posted an FY10 net loss of $69.4 million, which was less than FY09’s $235.3 million loss.

The result was impacted by the $72 million write-down associated with its Hillgrove Mine, whereas on an underlying basis, SRL posted a net loss of $18.5 million.

SRL’s focus in 2010 was on the recapitalisation of its Tritton copper mine in NSW and the Mt Muro gold mine in Indonesia, with the group investing $62 million in capex at its core operations during the year.

As a result of the capitalisation, SRL was confident enough to announce a 10% share buyback in addition to a 5 cent final dividend.

SRL boasts a strong balance sheet with cash and investments of $218 million.

SRL said that it was in a strong position to leverage off an upturn in global economic activity, targeting production of 27,000 tonnes of copper at Tritton in FY11.

Demerger delight

SRL has agreed to a demerger, and a takeover offer from Thai-based PTT Mining.

PTT has proposed paying $544.1 million for SRL’s existing 40% interest in PTT Asia Pacific Mining Pty, which is also 60%-owned by PTT.

The development will result in shareholders receiving $1.72 cash per SRL share, in addition to one share in a new listed company called MetalsCo, which will include SRL’s existing metals and associated businesses.

SRL will hold onto its coal business and intends to become a pure coal company.

SRL says the demerger will provide greater clarity to each of the businesses by creating a pure coal company and a pure metals company. Moreover, the separation of distinct businesses creates efficiencies and a more appropriate platform for both metals and coal businesses going ahead.

Conclusion

SRL’s decision to demerge its coal and base metal assets is an important step in unlocking value for shareholders, and SRL’s stock has already risen on the development.

The new demerged company will be copper focused, with the Tritton copper mine near Nyngan in NSW targeting 25,000 tonnes in FY11.

SRL is positioned in three of the best commodities of the moment – coal, copper and gold.

Though SRL performed below expectations in FY10, the recapitalisation programs at Tritton and Mt Muro will be completed towards the end of FY11 and lay the foundations for sustained growth.

Given this potential upside, SRL is going to be one of the stocks to watch in coming months.

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Avoca Resources (AVO) is a gold producer focused on becoming the next Australian mid-tier gold mining company.

AVO’s base operation is its Higginsville Gold Project in Western Australia, which contains the Trident Underground Mine, AVO’s trump card.

Gold miners have been among the hot stocks in recent months, benefiting from record high bullion prices.

On 1 November, AVO reported its 1Q11 production numbers, with gold output rising 28% on-year to 64,783 ounces.

Cash costs rose to $577/oz from $428/oz a year ago, but this was compensated by an increase in the price of its gold sales to $1360/oz, from $1158/oz.

AVO also forecast an increase in gold output during the 2Q10 to 70,000 ounces.

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Kingsgate Consolidated (KCN) is a gold miner, operating in South East Asia, South America and Australia, whose main trump card is its Chatree Mine in Thailand.

KCN has become one of the hot stocks this month, as record bullion prices lure investors to gold mining companies.

However, KCN recently downgraded its production forecast for the September 2010 quarter, to 22,000 ounces of gold.

KCN advised that the new forecast output will be lower than the average quarterly production for FY10.

KCN attributed the downgrade to the scheduled shutdown of its gold treatment plant, mining operations at Chatree constrained to a lower grade section of the orebody, and higher-than-normal monsoonal rain in the Asian region.

KCN maintained its full year forecast output of 120,000 – 130,000 ounces of gold.

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Resolute Mining (RSG) is a gold mining and exploration company with operations in Africa and Australia.

RSG’s key mines are located at Golden Pride in Tanzania, Obotan in Ghana, while it also owns the Ravenswood gold mine in Queensland.

RSG has been one of the market’s hot stocks in recent weeks, with its share price surging on record high bullion prices.

Recently, RSG completed a $40 million capital raising, which was designed to close out its hedge book and fund working capital requirements.

RSG will now become fully unhedged and exposed to gold price movements, whilst the excess funds will help to improve its operating cash flow.

RSG jumped 4.6% on the day of its announcement, making it one of the best performers in the Australian share market.

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