If there was ever a case of bad timing, it might have been Argonaut Resources' attempt to spin out its uranium assets.
It could scent a change in the wind and believed the market would welcome a new Australian explorer, but it was about one year too early.
Fortunately. or unfortunately, Argonaut's other assets struck a few unexpected difficulties, so eventually, the decision was made to reposition the explorer as Orpheus Uranium.
The spin-off had become the focus, with a new team at the helm led by executive chair Mick Billing.
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Billing is a survivor of the uranium space, having worked at Rum Jungle in the 1970s and ridden the cyclical ups and downs.
He told MNN it was an easy decision to recapitalise Argonaut as Orpheus Uranium after the failed attempt to float Orpheus Minerals in 2022.
After Argonaut suffered drilling setbacks in South Australia, and its complications with its Zambian copper exploration assets, Billing said investors had become jaded.
He said Orpheus had been able to build an enviable portfolio when most weren't looking at uranium, "back when you couldn't raise fourpence to do anything" in the space.
That's changed, and Orpheus has "plenty of opportunities in a fertile country", Billing said.
Expansive portfolio
The portfolio has been expanded in SA, with new leases in the underexplored but prospective Frome Embayment. With cash of some A$5 million, Orpheus is about to kick off its maiden drilling program.
Billing calls the Frome Embayment the most prospective region in Australia for sandstone-hosted uranium deposits.
The 7000m program within the Frome project will test the Erudina prospect with the aim of verifying a dozen historical holes that suggested the presence of sedimentary-hosted uranium deposits in the area of the largely underexplored part of the Lake Eyre Basin.
Historical data and the presence of Boss Energy's Goulds Dam deposit give the company some comfort of success, and there is additional seismic data indicative of paleochannel features in the Lower Eyre Formation that will be tested for the first time with first-pass step-out drilling.
The Erudina prospect covers an area of 12km by 7km, and with historical results with grades exceeding 1500 parts per million, Orpheus is hopeful of early success.
It is substantially larger than the Goulds Dam deposit.
Erudina was previously drilled by France's Avera, and the results give Orpheus "a hell of a leg-up", with interesting hints of redox-style mineralisation in the Eyre Formation and additional anomalies in the Namba Formation.
Heart of the action
Erudina isn't the only game in town. The explorer has ground at the heart of the action and host to the state's four uranium mines.
Radium Hill South sits on the margins of the Murray-Darling Basin, an area considered to have similarities to the prolific Lake Eyre Basin but that was largely under-explored during previous exploration cycles.
Radium Hill South is set to be Orpheus' second area drilled and was recently won by the company in a government-run competitive tender.
It lies just south of the historical Radium Hill field and contains five historical uranium occurrences — Mulga Dam, Gairloch, Kinloch Dam, Jones Dam and Lamberts — associated with the Olary Paleovalley System.
Radium Hill South was drilled by Mega Hindmarsh and would have become a focus if the uranium market hadn't collapsed in the 2010s.
"We need to secure heritage approvals and finalise management plans, but we intend to find out what's there," Billing said.
Mundaerno is likely to be the third project drilled and covers an area at the headwaters of the Yarramba paleochannel, just 12km from the Honeymoon mine.
Top End targets
Orpheus also has a position in the Northern Territory, targeting a different style of higher-grade unconformity and vein-style mineralisation, which would need to be developed by traditional open pit or underground mining.
It is looking for larger prospects in the 50-100Mlb range and hopes to be drilling at Mt Douglas in 2025.
"We're still keen on building position in the Territory, because our focus is where we can mine," he said.
Its initial focus will be Mt Douglas on the eastern flank of the Rum Jungle field.
The company isn't ditching its legacy projects, particularly Lake Torrens, where it fought for years to secure access.
At some point, drilling the large iron-oxide copper gold targets will become attractive.
Shares in Orpheus have traded between 8-12c since it recapitalised earlier this year.
At 9.5c it was capitalised at $18 million.
