Hang it in the Uvre: Norm Seckold joins Uvre to build Santana 2.0 in Kiwi gold boom

With gold prices booming, mining legend Norm Seckold is looking for his next winner next to OceanaGold’s 10Moz Waihi mine in New Zealand.

The 10Moz Waihi gold mine sits just 8km from Uvre's new Waitekauri project. Pic: Getty Images

• Uvre raising $4m to become NZ gold explorer in transformative deal, term sheet says

• Junior explorer will acquire Norm Seckold's Otagold, which owns five gold projects on New Zealand's North and South Island

• Seckold to join Brett Mitchell led board, with priority Waitekauri project 8km from C$4bn capped OceanaGold's 10Moz Waihi mine

Uranium and lithium explorer Uvre (ASX:UVA) is poised to be reborn as a Kiwi gold hunter, inking a deal with Aussie mining legend Norm Seckold in a bid to recreate the success of ASX gold exploration story Santana Minerals (ASX:SMI).

The firm entered a trading halt on Thursday. A term sheet seen by Stockhead said Bell Potter was on the ticket to raise $4m at 8c a share to restock the coffers ahead of an exploration run at the Waitekauri project on New Zealand's North Island.

Uvre's pivot comes with gold near record highs at US$3240/oz, equivalent to $5060/oz Aussie and NZ$5520/oz.

Chieftain Securities and JP Equity Holdings were on board as co-managers for Uvre, which last traded at 9.4c for a market cap of $5.7m.

If the placement and share sale agreement are approved by shareholders, Uvre plans to issue $6m worth of shares at 8c a pop to Minerals Exploration Limited. Its subsidiary Otagold owns Waitekauri and a host of other exploration projects across New Zealand's North and South Islands, and counts Seckold as its largest shareholder.

If his name seems familiar, it's because Seckold has a long history of success in the mining game, most notably as the founder and chairman of Indonesian nickel producer Nickel Industries (ASX:NIC), which read the tea-leaves early and leveraged relationships with Chinese stainless steel behemoth Tsingshan to turn from a minnow into one of the world's largest nickel miners as Australian operators were crunched by falling prices.

He's also the chairman of Queensland-based high purity alumina disruptor Alpha HPA (ASX:A4N), tin explorer Sky Metals (ASX:SKY) and Fulcrum Lithium (ASX:FUL).

He was also a founder and former chairman of Santana Minerals, the junior explorer which has brought life back to New Zealand's gold sector.

Santana shares have risen 775% over the past five years to a market cap of ~$380 million, after drilling out the 2Moz Rise and Shine deposit at the Bendigo-Ophir project near Queenstown, some 90km northwest of OceanaGold's 8Moz Macraes operation.

As part of the deal Seckold will enter the fray as non-executive director alongside executive chairman Brett Mitchell, with Peter Nightingale and New Murchison Gold (ASX:NMG) CEO Alex Passmore rounding out the board as NEDs.

Hang it in the Uvre

Otagold's key asset is Waitekauri, which is located just 8km west of C$4bn capped OceanaGold's other major NZ gold mine, the 10Moz Waihi mine.

It covers 58km2 of turf in the Hauraki goldfield, according to a presentation for prospective investors, along trend from three other +1Moz gold deposits in WKP, Golden Cross and New Talisman Gold's Karangahake.

But there appears to be a bit more than nearology behind the assets.

The Hauraki goldfield produced around 10Moz of gold and 1500t of silver to 2006 and Jubilee, one of three main prospects on the site alongside Scotia and Sovereign, historically produced 29,000oz of gold and silver bullion at a combined gold-silver grade of 48g/t.

The aim is to uncover super high grade gold in the vein of OceanaGold's WKP to the north-west, which clocks in at 2Moz at 14.3g/t + 3.1Moz silver.

Just 10 holes have been drilled along the Jubilee strike zone, with only three to more than 250m in vertical depth, even with some NZ$5m of exploration work completed historically.

A drill plan currently being permitted would sink eight holes into the prospect and resampled drill core from previous owner Laneway Resources, including a hit of 0.3m at a bonanza 521g/t Au from 170.5m, located 50m parallel to underground stopes at the historic Jubilee vein.

Uvre is working on a theory that Jubilee is the likely strike extent of the Karangahake deposit, sitting in the middle of a trend that has produced 4.4Moz of gold and silver bullion.

The epithermal hosted Karangahake has been tracked down to a vertical depth of 700m, but Jubilee was never mined below 200m, potentially where the opportunity for repeats of the historic orebody lie.

More on the cards

On top of Waitekauri, Otagold holds the 1104Ha Lottin project east of Rotorua on the North Island, a potential VMS system considered similar in style to Australia's Golden Grove and Rosebery, along with the Roaring Meg, Oturehua and Invincible gold projects, all near Macraes and RAS on New Zealand's South Island.

Invincible is also known to boast tungsten, which like gold sits on NZ's critical minerals list.

Uvre will continue to hold its uranium and lithium prospects, including licences in South Australia's Frome Basin, a geological region famed for hosting two of Australia's longest running uranium mines at Beverley and Four Mile.

Over in the United States, Uvre also holds the East Canyon uranium-vanadium project, 50km away from Energy Fuels' White Mesa mill, the only conventional uranium and vanadium mill in the US.

It also holds the South Pass lithium project in Wyoming, one of the most prospective hard rock lithium regions in the States.

Once the equity raise is completed, Uvre will be sitting on $6.2m in cash to pursue exploration at Waitekauri.

It comes amid a push to revive New Zealand's mining sector under the conservative government of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.

Legislation to fast-track approvals was passed in December 2024, meaning infrastructure and mining projects placed on the list can move beyond the referral stage and move straight to assessment by an environmental committee which will approve or reject the application.

The laws have been criticised by environmental groups, but form part of an aspirational plan to double mining exports from New Zealand to NZ$3bn by 2035 – 50% above the previous target of NZ$2bn.

The overhaul of mining and planning policy under the Luxon-led coalition included the addition in January of metallurgical coal and gold, responsible for ~80% of Kiwi resources export earnings, to its Critical Minerals List.

Uvre is currently scheduled to return to trade on Monday, May 19.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Uvre is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.

Originally published as Hang it in the Uvre: Norm Seckold joins Uvre to build Santana 2.0 in Kiwi gold boom