yeah I did, a sum total of four people in attendance at the AGM.
Couple of things came out:
Operations:
- I raised the concern about communications to shareholders via email and calls and it was taken on board well. The Board generally were surprised that no communication was occurring and phones were going unanswered and will seek to address this straight away.
Cooletha:
- rock chip samples indicated that their proximity to the source rocks was too close to form Lithium, but the pending tenements are much more in line with the expected range. There's a closeness to ironstones that may have impacted formation. It's likely in my view that the area just surveyed and the area further to the west where the Fortescue group sediments exist will get relinquished over time.
- Manganese and iron formations represent real value opportunities, particularly the Iron. the eastern section has several multi-spectral markers and historical rock chips to indicate that both Fe3+ and Fe2+ exist in good quantities. I have run the multi-spec myself and can see the same output. I would not be surprised if there is 250-300M tonnes commercial play in here.
- award of parts of the Goldilocks zone and northern pending tenement application sections are also being held up by a dispute resolution between Gina, FMG and DMIRS rail development applications, with expected resolution in ~5 months. However, after speaking to Dean, ACM can reapply for the remaining sections of each zone that are unaffected by this dispute and progress shortly. In reality, 1/5 blocks in the northern section could be obtained in a few weeks and about 95% of the eastern section as well.
- Overall, Cooletha is weighted in my view to Iron commerciality but a couple of Lithium sections my hit.
Rankin Dome:
- Results came in yesterday and are being prepared now for release either this week or early next week.
- results for both auger drills and model orientation (to a degree), bedrock depth testing and bedrock composition have been achieved.
- results are sufficient to increase drilling campaign to meet earn-in requirements
- Dean noted that they were testing for bedrock MAGNETIC anomalies.
- My own multi-spec analysis indicated that these magnetic anomalies are strong in the bedrock and are NON-FERROUS. There are also indications from radiometrics that there are two signatures overlaying each other. In other words, the sedimentary rock on top is weathered, has a low signature and has deposited more recently but the Proterozoic source rock underneath has a stronger signature.
- Both LREE exist in sediments and HREE from below
- other signatures for Al, Mg, Si and Fe3+ are low (Fe2+ is high on surface but likely due to soil treatment processes), indicating that we have REE sourced from the rock highlighted below:
- given the profile of the multi-spec and likely source rock compositions, I’d say the source rock is either pegmatite or carbonatite, but the original augers only said granitic. Historical surveys of this source rock showed Proterozoic formations, so this likely narrows the field down to those with HIGH Ca and CO3 content. Proterozoic rock can have high Si2+ but multi-spec says no this time.
- given that HREE was noted by Kula Gold at 8.45 times in the original augers, the sedimentary enrichment would appear to come from source rocks and not from farming activity! LREE were noted in the sedimentary deposits on top as well, indicating that the source REE may be Ln3+/Y centric (more Y found in augers) and degrading into LREE over time.
- Look for PO4 and Ca2+ content in the results, this will further define the type of REE, however given that SW WA soils were considered deficient in P when land clearing commenced in 1800s for agriculture, I would expect this to be low.
- at a guess, the source rocks are predominantly Bastnaesite or Fergusonite, though given the soil acidity of the region this leans towards Fergusonite in the sediments, with the Yilgarn craton source rocks stretching up to Marble Bar. This is important because Fergusonite was found up there with low thorium and uranium content. This makes it much easier to process and safer to handle.
- Nb, Ce, Y, Ta all target elements here
Shaw:
- approvals are being sought now to commence exploration at Shaw. Drilling expected to commence H2 2024 at this stage
- Multi-spec looks good in this are for some commercial deposit (my view) of iron and/or copper
