"Too much copper, too hard to mine otherwise the last owners...

"Too much copper, too hard to mine otherwise the last owners would still hold the Paris Mine."

Maybe, maybe not. The Independent Geologist's report in the Torque Metals prospectus indicated that the elevated copper levels at Paris and HHH were manageable but poor blasting techniques caused excessive dilution.

"Elevated Cu is present in the Paris [and HHH] ore. This is manageablewith the use of an increased volume of cyanide when milling.87% to 90% recoveries were achieved during processing of theParis ore when campaign milled during 2017 and 2018."

"The HHH and Paris ores were blended and milled at threedifferent processing facilities. The combined reconciliation ofthe two deposits (Mining Reserve versus Actual(mill)) standsat 146% tonnes,72% grade and 106% of the ounces. Theexplanation of the elevated tonnes and lower grade can becontributed to additional low-grade ore of economic valuebeing mined and excessive dilution due to poor blastingtechniques."

(Page 73 of the Torque Metals prospectus from June 2021).

Austral Pacific Pty Ltd acquired the Paris project from St Ives Gold in 2015, mined there for less than a year in 20216 and 2017 and offloaded it to Torque in 2020.

Another possible reason that Austral shut up shop at Paris was the gold price. As you can see from the chart below, 2016 and 2017 were probably not the best of times for toll treating gold.



The results today are probably not the out-and-out company maker we were wishing for but nevertheless they are damn fine hits: broad, high and shallow.