I asked the following:
1. EM surveys will be the next step, how far after this could you see drilling to happen. Can you give some timeline for this prospect.
2. When do you expect the remaining rock chips assays to return from the lab.
3. Can you give some detail on how these rock chips are indicative of a VMS system and do you think it's premature to compare Tiger to systems such as Golden Grove or Liontown.
DT replied:
1.EM in this environment could be a very powerful tool given that most massive sulphides can be very conductive, and the host rocks here would appear nonconductive and is certainly a technique that we would like to deploy as soon as possible. As a technical note, drilling an EM conductor can occur the day after a survey is completed, assuming all approvals etc are in place.
There is also the consideration of what EM platform or approach we take to help define the target. We could go straight into ground EM over Tiger which would be limited to a single target area for a style of mineralisation that tends to occur in camps (multiple deposits in a permissive area). Or we could arrange a target airborne EM survey over the camp scale target perhaps generating multiple targets to combine with our surface Geochem and mapping to create a target rich environment. Because Tiger sticks out of the ground and produces a strong geochemical anomaly, does not mean that it could be the best.
So ground EM would be limited in scope and target generation, but give us the quickest turn around on a drill target at Tiger, and airborne EM would take a bit longer but might produce a target rich environment including potentially better targets than Tiger.
Timing wise, there are a couple of options that we are considering at the moment.
Status Quo:The current plan is for the rigs to mobilise to Mangaroon at the end of this month / start of June (1-2 weeks from now) with drilling planned at the historical gold workings and new targets generated, including Tiger. That might be a tight schedule to complete EM prior to drilling. However, since we do have outcropping gossans, we could keep to the plan, rock up and drill the outcrops and follow up behind with down hole EM and surface EM. We run the risk of the first holes not drilling the best part of the Tiger target (and perhaps not the best target in the area), but keep to schedule and try and get some early holes in. We could then schedule the airborne EM in addition to this program to assist in generating additional targets to compliment the soil surveys which are almost complete. There are other modifications to this plan (no EM, wait for EM etc) but this is likely the option we would take.
Wildcard Plan:Delaying drilling is not something we want to do, so if we were to delay drilling Tiger, where would we drill instead? Just the gold? Move back down to Central Yilgarn (pending results)? But there is another option that is emerging which we are keeping a close eye on, and that is the West Kimberley has had an extremely dry wet (opposite to last year) and the DoD might be regrading tracks and opening access earlier than anticipated. If that is the case, then this would be the first time since 2021, when we made the Orion Discovery, we could have a solid crack at the Kimberley. The coincidence of these two developments could provide an opportunity to mobilise to the Kimberley early, giving us a full opportunity to deliver multiple programs, and give us time to create a VMS target rich environment around Tiger at Mangaroon.
We are currently working hard to deliver the possibility of both plans with a decision in the coming weeks pending how things play out. Expect to see the results of the Kimberley review and plan in the next week or two.
2.We rushed these rock chips and expect them next week. Should give us further confirmation of the system and assist in determining next steps.
3.The purpose of “comparing” Tiger to system such as Golden Grove and Liontown (and Mt Gibson) is not to say that is what we have, those are examples of what success looks like, what we could have and what we want to use to define success. It is a way of communicating what a VMS system is, people may not know those examples, and they can look them up to see what we are talking about. Specifically, Liontown has gold rich feeder zones, Mt Gibson is a very weak an uneconomic VMS system, but has been overprinted by orogenic gold (primary structures control VMS and are generally reactivated during orogenic gold systems) and Golden Grove is a bit of a WA icon and contains gold rich lodes within the system. Last time I visited Golden Grove, they were drilling out a high-grade gold deposit in the parking lot of the administration office! So, the purpose of this is not to say that with four rock chips I think we have the next Golden Grove, it is that this is early stage, this is different to what we were thinking a week ago, and these are different examples of success to familiarize ourselves with.
That said, some details. First, geochemistry. A great reference source is the original CRC LEME publications which were groundbreaking, in particular for understanding the expression of regolith geochemistry in Australian mineral systems.Link here. Pathfinders, we have Bi up to 1,205ppm, Cadmium to 247ppm, Indium to 75ppm, Mo to 73ppm, Sb to 146ppm, Se to 30ppm, Sn to 142ppm, Te to 24ppm. These are classic VMS indicators and at very high values. Exhalative Environment, we see variable and previously unmapped, banded iron and banded cherty horizons within the metaseds and volcanics which can be indicative of a VMS setting. Alteration, we see fairly strong bleaching alteration below and associated with some of the subcropping gossans possibly indicative of footwall alteration. We have a fair few samples being sent off for petrographic work as part of our mapping work. And taking a big step back, the interpreted formation setting of the Pooranoo is an intracratonic extension and basin deepening possibly involving some rifting and volcanism that could drive a VMS system.
All of our interpretations are part of multiple working hypothesis with new information coming to light all the time, that is part of the dynamic nature of exploration.
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