I find aspects of the Rio "discovery" very fascinating and somewhat puzzling - almost obsessively so (apologies).
One of the main things is that the tenement (E45/4833) on which the "discovery" was made was only granted on October 13 2017. By December - less than 2 months - Rio had drilled something that encouraged them to go on staking spree.
The logistics of such an operation is, to me, amazing in what had to be accomplished in that short period of time.
Novo Resources waited a similar period of time for the grant of the Comet Well tenements (Au-cong) which came through in early December 2017.
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I searched for, but couldn't find, any reference to what work can or can't be done on a pending tenement. I believe no ground disturbing activity can take place (i.e. no drilling trenching and perhaps certain types of geophysics - but perhaps nothing much other than aerial geophysics??).
From the Novo announcement they didn't start any major work pre-grant (prospectors did a lot of work for them). Then they had to
wait for the approval of a proposed Programmes of Work (POW) .
The POW is something Rio would have to submit and wait for approval - a process that can take several weeks or more which doesn't fit well in a 2 month time frame.
Also for a POW they needed some targets. What targets and when was that work done? Rio applied for the tenements in September 2016 which suggests their interest in the ground began before this and may have started or even pre-dated the October 2015 Citadel agreement with AZY.
From the Barry Fitzgerald article posted by yehmate is this snippet about an IP anomaly:
Back on planet earth, the scuttlebutt is that after mapping a subtle IP granite-related anomaly, drilling by Rio hit primary copper at a depth of 40m and then visible primary mineralisation down to depths of 180m in two holes 200m apart just before what was the 2017 drilling program came to an end.
There has been a lot of exploration done in the overall area for >20 years with some booming IP anomalies (e.g. Citadel's Blue Steel) that took months of geophysical processing and drilling to yield nothing. Yet Rio had success in probably less than 6 weeks. Rio does have in-house assay labs so presumably near same day turn around could happen even if the visuals weren't convincing. Suspect they were.
So in two months at least these needed to be done:
- Select targets? already done?
- Submit and get approval for POW
- Mobilise and drill (use rig that did work at Calibre Rimfire?). An RC drill rig can drill several drill holes a day depending on ground conditions and depth so a reasonable number of holes could have been drilled in the available time. Last couple of holes in the program 200m apart - see something interesting in one and do a follow up.
- See rock chips and perhaps get assays (PXrF?, transport?)
- decide on what to stake (Everything they could get their hands on! essentially) and apply on line. a few days
A very busy and unusually successful two months - serendipity? or good science -power to them.
During the week I tried to write a post along these lines a couple of times but didn't post these drafts.
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They contain slightly different data mainly about the geophysics and drilling near the "discovery".
One aspect that seems a bit rough to me is that AZY doesn't appear to have had any sphere of influence rights around Citadel. The discovery is only some 6 or so Kms away and many JV type agreements have such sphere of influence up to some 25 Kms which give all parties a share if they pay up their cost of exploration - whatever is in the contract. Apparently no such thing in the Citadel one.
What, if anything, does Rio share with AZY on Citadel? Maybe Folly was a suggestion by Rio? It seemed to come out of left field.
There are quite a few suspected intrusives and many will probably receive exploration over the next few years especially if a big discovery has been made. AZY has quite a few magnetic anomalies that are probably intrusive related.
From the Alloy agreement there is this map.
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I have wondered why Rio pegged all of the deep embayment as well as shallower areas. I don't know what the Cu occurrences shown on the map are but maybe there is something going on with the "cover rocks" to the Telfer/Nifty/Citadel Neoproterozoic (600-800Mya- million years ago) basement.
During the week I read a post on HC about Admiral Bay (MCT) being just down the track from Rio's pegging. A bit further away than that plus very different geologically - Zn and much younger (450-480?Mya). Structurally related so maybe the embayment faults ....
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Hopefully something of interest for a few on the weekend.
(20min delay)