After 4 LONG years of toiling away, setbacks and achievements; we have successfully sold our first shipments from our lease in KPK, Pakistan! NOTE: This material was sold at 42%+ Chromite in Karachi and is essentially surface mining. We currently have a special exemption to sell a limited amount of material while we await our mining licence conversion (from prospecting licence) which will be the last stage before we take this to more people. A special thank-you to all my partners who have endured the struggle.
June 1st, 2017: In the picture above is another 40 foot “exploration tunnel” which was added to our chromite JV in KPK, Pakistan bringing the total to 3 full-face locations on our property. After this work and a job well-done (safe, slow and careful), we sent everyone home to be with their families during Ramadan. This tunnel in particular started as a showing of a ~1′ wide vein/chute which grew to a more massive chamber where I would like to establish the extents of the mineralization.
Here’s a link to our first blast:
And here’s a link to the tunnel we’ve driven over the past month or so:
I strongly suspect the chamber is contiguous to our other tunnel on the other side of the mountain which is roughly 300m or so away. Depth is still undefined but we know the grade starts at 42% on surface, increasing and broadening with depth.
Above: Me collecting composite samples with one of the landowners from a small adit on my first visit
We’ve worked with our prospecting licence holder/ partner to submit all appropriate paperwork including geological reporting, work completed, agreements, etc., sponsored the Dasu Assistant Director’s visit to the site which he then granted his approval and submitted the final documents to the Mines and Minerals Dept. of KPK who we have met with extensively in Peshawar, communicating the importance of the receiving the licence in order to take this property to the next level given the history of properties like Reko Diq (Barrick-Antofagasta JV) in Baluchistan.
Above: The “Man with the Plan”. Nooruddin Poonawala P.Eng. our relentless partner on the top of the mountain
There will be one final committee meeting in the very near future (hopefully before Eid) in which we should FINALLY convert the prospecting to a full mining licence for the landholding for 30 years. At that point Optimineral will take possession of 50 acres of choice land including the 3 tunnels and we will be off to the races! We have 3 separate agreements lined up with the various landowners (which is apart from the mineral rights which we own), we have buyers lined up, logistics lined up, investors lined up, construction companies lined up, exploration drillers lined up (literally divide a diamond drilling campaign by 100 when comparing costs to somewhere like Canada; and still using a commercial lab (SGS) for assays) and a solid plan of attack. The cherry on top is that the Chinese-Pakistan Economic Corridor ($46 Billion US+ One Road-One Belt/ New Silk Road) has already been commissioned nearby (less than 3km away) and we can get to Kashgar in under 15 hours on the Chinese Border vs a 30hr drive to Karachi.
Please wish us well for we want to do the “impossible” in this beautiful, wonderful and very “complicated” country!
Above: Me at a small “exploration shaft” on the property
A video I made last year for the 2016 PDAC about who we are and what we’re trying to do:
Summer 2016:
A great time at Detour Gold. We got to work on quite a lot of fun and interesting aspects of a great operation filled with wonderful people.
July 23rd, 2016: Optimineral: Engineering Services and Resources: We’re back in Canada after a successful trip to Madagascar. We will see how well the lab results come back, but we are quite enthusiastic about the potential.
Older News, But Now “official”:
Optimineral has added Robert “Bob” Stewart P.Geo. MSc. to the team. Bob has extensive expertise in geology (from exploration to full blown operations) with his over 40 years experience in the mining industry. He has been has been all over the world and we are VERY lucky to have him. He has collaborated with us for over a year now, but is now “officially” part of the team. Welcome to the team Bob!
July 6th, 2016: Optimineral is going to Madagascar to inspect an exciting gold property! We’ll be flying into Antananarivo (capital city) and staying for a week then flying back to Toronto mid-July. We’ll be negotiating terms and conditions of our business relationship/partnership, taking samples, inspecting drill core, looking to convert their previous work into JORC/NI 43-101 compliant reporting, amoungst a host of other things..Please wish us luck 🙂
April 4th, 2016: Optimineral is pleased to announce that our founder, Jon Gibson is working and collaborating with Analyze and Improve www.analyzeandimprove.com and Gary Molloy (Independent consultant) on Plant stability and 5 S implementation at an intermediate Canadian Gold Operation.
We’re at PDAC 2016
http://www.pdac.ca/convention
Check out our promotional video for it!
March 1st, 2016
Hi Everyone,
Please join us at Mining Industry Human Resources (MiHR)’s Virtual Career and Information Event over today and tomorrow (9am to 6pm EST) and “Explore for More”!
https://vts.inxpo.com/scripts/Server.nxp?LASCmd=L:0&AI=1&ShowKey=29866&LoginType=0&InitialDisplay=1&ClientBrowser=0&DisplayItem=NULL&LangLocaleID=0&SSO=1&RandomValue=1456844278200
Of course, we are always looking forward to meeting with everyone at the PDAC 2016 from March 6th to 9th.
October 21st, 2015: Optimineral has a potential metallurgist position available for a short term project with plenty of upside potential and is considering adding additional staff. Applicants must have commissioning and project management experience; precious metal and gravity separation are invaluable. Final decision will be made by November 7th. Send your resume/CV and cover letter to info@optimineral.com
July 27th: We at Optimineral are pleased to present our Technical Report on our wholly owned Wawa Pukaskwa mineral claim with our own grab sample (from a blasted outcrop) containing 2.66% Cu.
We will be looking for and suiting interested investors to further develop this high potential claim. The Technical report can be found here:
http://optimineral.com/wawa-ontario-canada-mineral-claim/
July 2nd, 2015
Optimineral performed active exploration and due diligence on some claims in the historic Sudbury, Ontario, Canada mining district.
June 22nd: Optimineral is back from a successful trip to the historical mining district of Wawa where we have staked, prospected and are performing a geological study on our claim. We will be proud to disclose our findings once we have completed our appropriate lab work on our samples that we have collected and have a completed a full report.
More details will be posted here:
http://optimineral.com/wawa-ontario-canada-mineral-claim/
April 30th, 2015
Hi all, Just a quick update on an amazing Optimineral milestone: I am proud to say we took our first round today at our high grade chromite mine (40%+). We’re in business!
April 9th, 2015:
Nooruddin Poonawala P.Eng, PMP, M.Eng. has safely arrived in Pakistan to begin the mobilization of our high grade (40%+) chromite mine restart & developing other business streams. This has been a 2 year internal project culminating in the first blasted material due by the end of this month. We have put in a lot of effort and are eager to bear witness to the first fruits of our labour! Safe Travels!
March 1-4th, 2015
Another excellent time at the 2015 PDAC! Here Derek and Jon are enjoying some time at the Canada Trade booth where we met with some great foreign Trade Ministers!
Jan. 26th, 2015
Technical Director Jonathan Gibson along with Principal Consultant Noor Poonawala arrive safely back in Canada after an extensive trip throughout Pakistan including a site visit to our Chromite mine in the Dubair region. What a wonderful trip full of amazing hospitality and ripe opportunities. We have established deep ties to operators, government officials and like-minded business companies. The future for Pakistan and Optimineral is exciting despite the current and future challenges requiring hard work and know-how.
Oct. 26th, 2014
Optimineral is pleased to announce the addition of Tony Di Feo to our team. Tony brings over 14 years’ experience in mineral processing and process optimization and implementation. Welcome to the team Tony!
Sept.11th, 2014- Optimineral is pleased to announce Sept 25th and 26th we will be at the Canadian Investor Conference in Toronto: http://cambridgehouse.com/event/31/canadian-investor-conference-toronto-2014
Optimineral Turns 1 year old! From Jonathan Gibson- Founder & Technical Director Thank you all! This year has been a tremendous learning experience and there’s been such rapid change this first year. I am very thankful for all those who have contributed to Optimineral’s first year of operation. This next year I am excited for new opportunities and continued success! I believe the mining world is recovering and will begin to show signs of growth within the year. Optimineral’s main focus is to meet this future demand by developing our talent, building our network, continuing to provide professional engineering services and being well-positioned for the upcoming changes to the mining cycle. The future is bright and exciting, I wish you all nothing but success! -Jon
Sept. 9th, 2014 Optimineral is pleased to announce the addition of Joe Fars to our team. Joe brings significant resource geology experience and is currently building his investment acumen; being enrolled in a combined MBA/ CFA program at the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University part time. Welcome to the team Joe!
July 15th, 2014 Optimineral is pleased to add Richard Daigle to our roster of professionals. He has over 34 years’ experience in prospecting and adds tremendous value to our organization. We are very grateful to have him. 
June 9th, 2014 Optimineral is pleased to announce the addition of 4 new associates to our organization: 1. Jag Patel P.Eng. -Professional Mining Engineer with over 20 years’ experience 2. Norman Poonawala P.Eng.- Professional Mining Engineer with over 30 years’ experience 3. Saeed Chelgani Ph.D.- Mineral Processing Expert with over 9 years’ experience 4. Arash Farhood M.Sc. – Mineral Processing (including Pyrometallurgy and Hydrometallurgy) Expert with over 9 years’ experience See www.optimineral.com/about for further information on these experienced and talented professionals!
February 25th, 2014 We are going to be at the annual PDAC 2014 March 2nd to 5th. Hope to see you there! Make sure to check out our partner ROMQuest’s table to find out more about the Oxford Instrument’s Handheld XRF and talk to our associates about what we can do for you. http://www.pdac.ca/
January 31st, 2014 Optimineral successfully conducted extensive handheld XRF research on known ICP assayed samples, verifying appropriate operating parameters for different compositions. The testing used 16 samples with 14 measured elements (ICP assay) with 3 different operating parameters. We also measured drill core and mine grab samples. We are looking forward to publishing these findings on our website in the near future. During the same day we also received our Certification to practice Engineering from the PEO. A monumental day for Optimineral indeed! A special thanks goes out to ROMQuest Technologies and our friends at the lab, you know who you are.
