UNLESS Dryblower is badly mistaken, it seems that the investment world has embraced a new form of mineralisation. Without waiting for official guidance from the technical boffins who normally define such events, the latest fad is to invest in a rock type which is said to have "style".
In a world where fashion often outweighs substance this is perfectly understandable, though it is interesting to find it in a usually precise science such as geology.
But as careful readers of a number of stock exchange reports will have noted recently, style has become the buzz word.
Nowhere was this better illustrated than just before Easter when junior explorer PepinNini announced a remarkable expansion of exploration targets.
Miracles, as all Christians know, are standard fare at Easter, though in PepinNini's case there seems to have been a multiple serving.
According to Dryblower's reading of the company's April 5 statement, PepinNini has, in a single momentous step, added silver, lead, zinc, copper, gold and nickel to its range of exploration targets.
More importantly, none of the targets are what you would call small.
The silver, lead and zinc are to be found in rocks considered "prospective for Broken Hill-style base metal deposits". The copper and gold (plus uranium) are to be found in "Olympic Dam-style iron oxide copper gold deposits" and the nickel is to be found in "Voisey's Bay-style magmatic nickel copper sulphide deposits".
Remarkable as all that sounds, it gets even better because the areas considered prospective for these Broken Hill, Olympic Dam and Voisey's Bay "style" deposits are all found in a single location – one 1382 square kilometre tenement in the Musgrave Province of central Australia.
Investors lapped up this Easter miracle. On a day when the all-inclusive metals and minerals index of the Australian Stock Exchange fell a modest 16.6 points (0.4%), the share price of PepinNini rose a handsome 14c (6.3%) to a 12-month high of $2.35.
To aid the ignorant reader with a deeper understanding of what PepinNini has done, here is a Dryblower synopsis.
The company's April 5 statement announced the purchase of a mineral exploration tenement in the Musgrave region, plus a new drilling rig that will be dedicated to exploring the area.
The vendor was Rio Tinto, which had held the area since 1999 and spent the unprincely sum of $1.1 million on exploration over the past eight years.
PepinNini, however, has much higher hopes than Rio Tinto for the tenement. It noted the lack of prior exploration, caused partly by historical land title disputes with local Aborigines, and then adds this momentous description about the geology:
"The basement rocks covered by the licence are considered prospective for Broken Hill-style base metal deposits, Olympic Dam-style iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) deposits, and Voisey's Bay-style magmatic nickel-copper sulphide deposits."
Given the next few words about "very little historic exploration" in the region, Dryblower wonders why it might not also be considered suitable for Bushveld-style platinum, and Witwatersrand-style gold.
As ever, Dryblower wishes everyone the best of luck with their exploration, and is delighted to see such optimism.
In fact, he reckons that PepinNini is in the running for a Dryblower award for successfully comparing a remote chunk of outback Australia with Broken Hill, Olympic Dam and Voisey's Bay – in the same breath.
Meanwhile, just to make sure than all's well, Dryblower is off to check his copy of the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) code to see what it says about the application of this trendy new geological term, "style".
Perhaps he'll find that JORC reckons Mars is "prospective for Earth-style mineral deposits".
PNN Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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