This article is a sponsored feature from Mining.com.au partner Alice Queen Limited. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
Fiji has a significant endowment of gold, copper and other minerals, as well as a long history of gold mining dating back to the 1930s. However, much of Fiji remains underexplored, providing plenty of opportunities.
Alice Queen (ASX:AQX) is one company that has identified the potential of the South Pacific island country, which comprises over 300 islands, many of which were formed by volcanic activity starting about 150 million years ago.
This provides the perfect foundation for the formation of deposits, with volcanic activity often concentrating and depositing valuable minerals like copper, gold and silver.
Fiji’s Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources says the island’s location along the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plate boundary – known as the Pacific ‘Rim of Fire’ – is indicative of it having major potential for porphyry copper-gold, and epithermal gold mineralisation.
The broader Pacific Rim of Fire spans other countries including Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.
The region plays host to several major operations like Freeport-McMoRan’s (NYSE:FCX) Grasberg mine – one of the world’s largest reserves of gold and copper – in Indonesia, and Barrick Mining’s (TSX:ABX) Porgera Joint Venture in Papua New Guinea.
In Fiji, major epithermal deposits include Vatukoula, which has been in continuous production for 75 years, and Mt Kasi – the first major discovery that led to the development of the Tavua goldfields.
Vatukoula is Fiji’s most productive gold mine, having produced more than 7 million ounces in the past seven and a half decades.
Mt Kasi, meanwhile, operated between 1932 and 1946 mining around 265,000 tonnes of ore grading at 7 grams per tonne. The mine includes several old workings, in addition to the open cut, that contributed 64,000 ounces.
Mt Kasi was restarted in April 1996 and operated until mid-1998 producing 54,336 ounces of gold and 3,937 ounces of silver from 789,817 tonnes of mined ore.
A strategic South Pacific player
One of the most developed economies in the Pacific, Fiji is “open for business”, according to Alice Queen, which owns the Sabeto and Viani projects in Fiji.
Mining is an integral part of Fiji’s economy, with gold one of the country’s largest exports.
Fiji exported $48.5 million worth of gold in 2023 to countries including Australia, Singapore, New Zealand and Malaysia.
Investment Fiji says economic stability is essential for attracting significant inward investment, with the country having both low levels of inflation and positive gross domestic product growth since 2010.
Investment Fiji was formed in 1980 under the Economic Development Board Act No.11 to promote, stimulate and facilitate economic development in Fiji.
“Fiji has a fixed corporate tax of only 25%, further to this if you list on the South Pacific Stock Exchange your tax rate drops to 15%,” Investment Fiji notes.
“There are several tax incentives, tax free zones and low import duties making Fiji a viable environment to do business.”
Fiji is also the economic, trade and transport hub of the Pacific with several ports located on the main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, as well as on some of the smaller islands.
Geology favours discovery
Alice Queen’s Viani Project is located on Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second largest island spanning more than 200km2 and largely underexplored.
Extensive sampling, trenching and limited historic drilling has previously been undertaken at the Dakuniba prospect which has recorded epithermal gold mineralisation outcrop samples along an over 3km strike length.
Historical shallow drilling done by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) from 1995 to 1997 intersected up to 27.6g/t gold in epithermal quartz veining at less than 100m below surface, with the mineralisation remaining open at depth.
Previous surface exploration outlined a 5km by 1.5km surface gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly.
Alice Queen says the footprint of the mineralisation is comparable to other economically productive gold epithermal deposits globally.
The company is currently undertaking maiden drilling at the Viani Project and in mid-April decided to add a fourth hole to the program after intersecting the target zone 300m below surface.
The first two holes at Viani returned gold grades of up to 26.4g/t, which the company believes demonstrates a “high-grade” epithermal gold zone from surface to a depth of 175m.
Managing Director Andrew Buxton says the Viani Project has all the hallmarks of a potentially major discovery.
“Now that we have been able to replicate the high-grade gold hit that JICA made in the 90s, with more than 3km of surface gold anomalism still to test within a large 200km2 tenement area, and with drilling continuing on site, it feels like just a matter time before we can claim Viani as the ‘next big thing’ in the exciting and evolving story of gold mining in Fiji,” he says.
While the prior drilling by JICA was done to test the shallow levels of a vein style low
sulphidation epithermal gold system, the goal of Alice Queen’s phase-one program is to test for deeper high-grade epithermal gold mineralisation.
The first three holes tested a vertical depth extension of the high-grade gold down to 175m. The additional fourth hole, however, will test the lateral strike extent west-northwest of the second hole drilled that intersected gold grades up to 26.4g/t from 199.32m.
Porphyry potential at Sabeto
Alice Queen has also identified an emerging porphyry target at its Sabeto Project in the Sabeto Valley, 6km west of Lion One Metals’ (ASX: LLO) 658,000-ounce operating Tuvatu Gold Mine.
Mineralisation at Sabeto is hosted in the same alkaline rock formation, the Nawainiu Intrusive Complex, which hosts the gold mineralisation at Tuvatu – Fiji’s second operating gold mine.
Porphyries are wide and deep deposits hosting billions of tonnes worth of the world’s resources, including gold, silver, copper and molybdenum.
Historic drilling intersected anomalous porphyry copper and gold mineralisation that Alice Queen notes is coincident with a relatively deep “bullseye resistivity high” anomaly uncovered using an airborne Z-Axis Tipper Electromagnetic system.
The company believes this points to an intrusive complex at Sabeto.
Once Alice Queen has completed drilling at the Viani Project, the company is planning to undertake a 1,800m, three-hole drilling program to test for economic gold copper mineralisation at depth at the Sabeto Project.
Backing the company’s Fiji focus is Gage Resource Development, a subsidiary of Beijing-based private equity group Beijing Gage Capital Management – which has over $2 billion in funds under management.
Gage has progressively acquired a 51% stake in Alice Queen, which gave Beijing Gage Capital Chairman Wang Jianying a seat on the board.
Under Wang’s leadership, Beijing Gage Capital currently manages investments in over a hundred enterprises.
“We believe in the long-term potential of Alice Queen and are committed to supporting the company in achieving its exploration and development goals,” Wang said at the time Gage acquired its majority stake.
Gage has again just recently committed to injecting more cash into Alice Queen to maintain its 51% interest.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Mining.com.au & Alice Queen
