article in the age

GARIMPEIRO has previously described Argonaut Resources as a three-trick pony in that if it wasn't to get some sharemarket applause for its gold/copper interests in Laos, then it would for its Kroombit zinc/copper project in central Queensland, or its copper/gold hunt at its Lake Torrens prospect in South Australia.

While Garimpeiro always thought that it would be Laos that would be exciting, it's actually been Kroombit and Lake Torrens that have fired up interest in the stock. So much so that it rose 15.5¢ or 54 per cent last week to close at 44¢ on Friday.

Laos might yet overtake the other two. But for the moment at least, it is the prospect of near-term production from Kroombit after some strong confirming drilling results (nine metres at 7.1 per cent zinc), and the high-risk but big-time potential of Lake Torrens that the punters are interested in.

By mid-November the group should be somewhere near a compliant resource estimate for Kroombit, which in itself would go a long way to justifying the group's $59 million market capitalisation.

Final approval from SA's Primary Industries and Resources for Argonaut and its funding partner, Straits Resources, to start drilling on exploration licence 3195 at Lake Torrens isn't hurting either.

Fifty kilometres from Teck Cominco's Carapateena copper/gold discovery and 75 kilometres from BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam monster, the prospect contains the sort of magnetic and gravity anomalies that get explorers for so-called iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) deposits excited.

What's more, WMC — now part of BHP and the group that discovered Olympic Dam — punched some holes into the property and intersected what Argonaut says was "intense magnetite and haematite alteration typical of Olympic Dam and Carapateena".

A racier interpretation of it all comes courtesy of the New Zealand tip-sheet, "Ten Bagger Quarterly".

It makes the claim that Argonaut has about a 20 per cent chance of finding the next Olympic Dam, and an 80 per cent chance of hitting significant copper and gold mineralisation.

It added that if "all dreams come true" and Argonaut hits an IOCG, the shares will be a 75-100 bagger. And if it fails, the downside is modest given the company's other projects. No argument with that last bit but the 20 per cent:80 per cent prediction is utter crap.