Ann: Sandfire JV Update September 2022 Quarter, page-12

The future of AUR lies in what SFR does with Morck Well (MW) imo.

I cannot see it staying on for much longer, so when it abandons the tenements, it should see an opening for AUR to explore those tenements itself; and that would be a very good thing for AUR as I see it.

SFR got off to a very good start with exploring MW as the senior party in the JV, finding what I thought were very promising finds of gold and base metals. In the meantime though, back at HQ at DeGrussa, things were not stacking up very well in relation to new finds at DeG, Red Bore and environs so as to keep the production plant keep going after about late 2022. In fact, nothing of any substance was found as regards copper.

As a parallel activity though, SFR worked hard to create a commercial resource out of the gold resource at Old Highway, also assessing the viability of converting the plant to (also)? deal with gold. Much effort was put in to those 2 things, and from what I heard around the traps, they had the real effect of taking exploration resources away from MW. This was particularly so with regard to drilling at Old Highway.

As I see the situation, SFR came to the conclusion that Old Highway ended up not being what was hoped for and so it decided to abandon it as a saviour for DeG. The overseas ventures were also very relevant in how SFR acted as re DeG.

I believe that the changes in the geology team at SFR a couple of years ago (when Shannon Bamforth left) led to a redirection of policy as regards exploring MW. Instead of following the existing elephant droppings by standard practices going deeper and also wider where needed, the new boss(es?) went deep, seeking mineralisation that would be something like the finds in 2009/10. It seemed like a wildcat thing to do. It failed, as the currently-known conduct indicates.

So, what of the promising shallow gold and base metals referred to above? Was the geology not what was sought? ie not the same as Degrussa? Or was it that SFR got too busy at Old Highway? or both perhaps!

Those discoveries need much more exploration in my opinion, and that is the reason I see MW as being where AUR's future lies.