Triton Gold Initiates A 10,000 Metre Drill Campaign Targeting Tropicana Lookalikes In Western Australia.
By Alastair Ford www.minesite.com
Greg Hall, the interim managing director at Triton Gold, hit the ground running with his presentation when he stopped to catch up with Minesite during a brief lull in the proceedings at the Mines and Money conference in London a couple of weeks ago. Before Minesite could get a word in Greg had already laid out in sketch form on the back of his own presentational material a complete schematic of Tritons area of operations in the Albany-Fraser gold province on the Yilgarn craton in Western Australia.
For those not completely familiar with this part of the world, its worth knowing that not far from where Triton is operating on a nice-looking package of exploration ground, the joint venture between Independence and AngloGold Ashanti is making rapid strides on the five million ounce Tropicana discovery. On the Salmon Gums tenements, Triton has managed to pick up ground that covers eight anomalies, all of which at this stage look comparable to the original soil anomaly that led to the discovery of Tropicana.
Gregs sketch maps illustrate how Triton has pegged ground over eight areas on which two fault lines intersect in a manner similar to the way faults intersect at Tropicana. This ground covers a fairly large 60 kilometres by 60 kilometres area, but Gregs not daunted by that. All of the major gold deposits in the wider region those at Kalgoorlie, St Ives, and Laverton cover areas of comparable size, so in fact it only boosts his confidence. And given that Greg was the former chief geologist for Placer Dome, his views on gold geology are not to be lightly trifled with. Placer was responsible for many of the gold discoveries now currently being mined in the Kalgoorlie and Laverton regions, including the three million ounce-plus Granny Smith gold mine currently being operated by Barrick.
The rest of the geological team at Triton also comes out of Placer, and according to company documentation, this group has brought significant intellectual property to Triton Gold that allows the early recognition of large gold bearing mineral systems based on analyses of relatively few samples. Generating large targets from relatively few samples must be a geologists idea of a perfect days work, although some investors less well versed in these matters may be tempted on such a description to recall Mercator Golds fabled Spadis technology, which promised computer generated ounces and was no help at all in preventing the company from going bust in all but name.
Triton also has other projects on the go, but its the acquisition of Tropicana lookalikes thats of real interest to Greg and the team. Albany-Fraser may still only be whats termed an emerging gold province, but already there is precedent, aside from Tropicana, that lends encouragement to Tritons operations. Corvette has found the Corvette deposit, Dominion has found the Cortona deposit, AGA has found the Beachcomber deposit, and Sipa has found the Socrates deposit. So in no way is Triton shooting in the dark, although from Greg Halls bar-room language its clear that the companys ethos is fairly rough and ready.
Creating Wealth Through Excellence is the strapline on Tritons website a nice trite sounding phrase which most companies the world over might ascribe to. However, theres a certain sense that if Triton pulls it off and delivers one or more Tropicana lookalikes, then such tritness might indeed be justified. Certainly, shareholders wont complain, not a bit in the current gold price environment.
And it might not be too long before we get some indication of how things are going, as the company has just initiated a 10,000 metre aircore drill programme on Salmon Gums. As part of the same programme, Triton will also undertake some RC and diamond drilling work, designed to test for the continuity at depth of what it calls gold anomalism. The results from the programme should be with us as early as February, and you can expect a certain amount of action in Tritons shares ahead of that time as the rigs start turning and anticipation starts to build. A lot is riding on this, but Greg Hall and his team have been down this route before. If theres anyone around who can find the next Tropicana, it might as well be them.
TON Price at posting:
21.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
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