wyoming re: anyone in this? Alkane has the Wyoming deposit...

wyoming re: anyone in this? Alkane has the Wyoming deposit (Tomingley). Alkane have made an important mineral discovery at Tomingley. Are Alkane moving it towards a mine? No Alkane are not. ALK just keep drilling more and more and Wyoming gets bigger and bigger. And Alkane keep aquiring more and more ground and deposits around Tomingley.

Alkane got the Dry Blower explorer of the year award. Great piece of geological detective work but can they manage a company onto being a miner? Is exploration and trading the companies shares just too much fun to become mine development minded?

Here's DryBlower's long-winded tale of Tomingley the great exploration achievement: -

Best Australian Explorer of 2003

Wednesday, December 24, 2003
IT PROVED to be a crowded starting grid in the race to find Australia's best explorer. The field ranged from juniors looking for African sparklers (Tawana Resources) to diversified giants bagging elephant-sized oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico (BHPB Oil Division).

The differences in size, country focus and commodity type made for an intriguing contest.

The smallish rock kickers included nickel explorer Western Areas, gold prospector Alkane Exploration, nickel hopeful Sally Malay Mining, base metals explorer Pilbara Mines and cashed up nickel group Titan Resources.

Tiddlers with an overseas focus included Alcaston Mining, an Australian diamond and gold tiddler making a splash in Sweden, Mineral Commodities, the junior with big plans in mineral sands in South Africa, and African diamond seeker Namakwa Diamonds.

The bigger hard rock starters were Kimberley Diamond Company, the Miles Kennedy-led group building up production at its Ellendale mine; Laos specialist Oxiana Resources; Dalrymple Resources, the gold/nickel group now merged with LionOre Mining; East Africa Gold Mines, Geoff Stewart's Tanzanian gold miner that was recently swallowed by Placer Dome; Queensland miner Kagara Zinc, and Canada's LionOre Mining.

Oil on the track was provided by Roc Oil, part owner of the Cliff Head field in Western Australia, Perth Basin specialist Arc Energy and Hardman Resources, a stakeholder in Woodside's exciting Chinguetti discovery in Mauritania.

Who broke down?

Some contenders didn't make it beyond the first pit stop. The nine unlucky starters not to receive a subsequent vote were Sally Malay, East African Gold Mines, Dalrymple, Kimberley, Tawana, Pilbara, Alcaston, Mineral Commodities and Namakwa.

Making it into first gear (with one vote each) were Titan, Hardman and Roc.

The only hard rock specialist among this grouping, Titan could consider itself unlucky to stumble after finding more ore at WMC's old Widgiemooltha project. Hardman probably had more fuel in the tank two years ago, when Chinguetti sprang into prominence and Woodside took a strategic placement. Roc Oil, meanwhile, has had its ups and downs this year on the share market as investors wait for the Cliff Head discovery to deliver on its promise.

Kagara, the Kim Robinson-chaired group that has made a successful transition from zinc explorer to producer at Mt Garnet in Queensland, managed to get into second gear. Kagara plans to double the size of its processing facility as it continues to enjoy exploration success at its various deposits. It recently finished drilling the upper lens of its Balcooma deposit and a total of 10 of the 13 holes returned significant intersections.

BHPB's oil division made it all the way to third gear before running out of steam. Headed up by Phil Aiken, the group recently announced a further spectacular hit at its Neptune discovery, near the Mad Dog and Atlantis development fields in the central Gulf of Mexico. The Neptune-5 well encountered a hydrocarbon column with more than 500 feet (total vertical thickness) of net oil pay. "The well logs at Neptune-5 indicate thick sands, and are amongst the most impressive we've seen in the Gulf of Mexico," said Aiken. "This is a positive result, and the data will significantly enhance our ability to evaluate the commercial viability and development options for the field." BHPB seems to be "kicking ass" in America's backyard. But the group was too big and cumbersome to win a race dominated by nimble juniors.

Back among the rock kickers, Western Areas edged up to fourth gear but faltered mid-race. The Perth-based junior became a blazing share market success last month on the back of solid hits at its Flying Fox zone at the Forrestania project. In the space of one day Western's shares surged by 45% to $1.95, a Poseidon-like performance that stunned seasoned market watchers. If the aim of exploration is to grow the share price, Western must be a front-runner for next year's award.

Chequered flag contenders

Only four contenders were sufficiently well-oiled to make it past the chequered flag. Equal third (each with five votes) were Arc Energy and Oxiana Resources. The latter has gone from strength-to-strength on the back of a solid first year at its Sepon gold mine in Laos. The nearby Khanong copper development is predicted to start in early 2005, building up to an annual rate of 60,000 tonnes. Analysts seemed unfazed last month when the expected cost of Khanong blew out by $US38 million to $US205 million.

Oxiana is certainly a worthy finalist. After buying 80% of Sepon from Rio Tinto in late 1999 for $US22 million, the group has proved to be highly adept at finding more gold and copper ore. Purists might argue that Rio found the deposits and all Oxiana had to do was stick plenty of drill holes into them. But it has proved a master at increasing mine life from astute near-mine exploration. Sepon now boasts a gold inventory of 4.1 million ounces, while the copper mine should run for over 10 years. Spectacular results from the Western high grade zone such as 44m at 11.4% copper should eventually translate into extra mine life.

Sunday, December 14, 2003
WA petroleum group Arc Energy has come out of left field to score a tie with Oxiana.

The contrast between the two could hardly be greater. Unlike Oxiana (hard rock, overseas focus), Arc is a specialist at finding gas and oil on its home turf. It has been one of the prime movers in rejuvenating the Perth Basin via oil discoveries such as Hovea. There is no doubt that seasoned driver Eric Streitberg has orchestrated a solid run for shareholders over the past few years. Arc could have gone all the way, but doubts remain about the longevity of Hovea, which is now in production. Some analysts also wonder if Arc may need to venture overseas to broaden its exploration horizons.

Outright second place getter LionOre Mining has built a reputation as one of the smartest explorers in the country. Its 2002 discovery of the Waterloo nickel deposit in WA built on earlier successes at the Thunderbox gold mine (just 6km away) and the Lake Johnston nickel deposits west of Norseman. Geologists Peter Buck and Dr Mark Bennett are the exploration gurus behind LionOre, while Australian managing director Mark Ashley provides the strategic and financial nous. It is a slick outfit with the runs on the board. Tipped into second place, LionOre may have lost some momentum because of its Canadian origins.

The winner

A long-term trier in the under-explored gold fields of New South Wales, junior group Alkane Resources finished two points ahead of runner-up LionOre. Alkane has struck it rich at its Wyoming gold project. The Perth-based group acquired Wyoming two years ago when it was offered the Tomingley tenements around the old Miles United Workings -- 12km away from a small dump leach operation at Peak Hill. The ground had been picked over by various players in the past decade, but nobody went any further than sparse reconnaissance drilling. Enter Alkane and geologist Ian Chalmers, a technical director of the company since 1986. Chalmers was looking for a small oxide resource at Tomingley to put through Peak Hill. But when the regional metallurgy looked better suited to a stand-alone CIP plant, Alkane decided to broaden its horizons. The big-is-better strategy paid off handsomely on Christmas Eve 2002 when Alkane punched through 75m metres of dirt at Wyoming grading 10.4gpt gold from 183m depth. As its share price doubled in the space of a few weeks, Alkane stated a minimum target resource of 500,000oz.

As of last month Alkane was tallying up the gold, with brokers suggesting that 500,000oz grading 3gpt could support a 75,000oz-per-year mine. Broker Paterson Ord Minnett suggested a conventional openpit operation could be established for around $20-25 million.

By the end of 2003, Alkane will have spent about $3 million drilling out the Wyoming One and Three deposits. The problem is where to stop (a nice worry to have for a junior explorer). Does it keep drilling away towards 1Moz, or try to bring an under-done Wyoming into production and get some cash flow? The betting is on the latter strategy, with the long-running Peak Hill venture slowly winding down.

Once in production, Alkane can continue exploring its 250-square-kilometre block on the rich Lachlan Fold belt for repeats of Wyoming. There is a chance that Alkane has only scratched the surface. In early September the company said that further drill hits confirmed Wyoming was a "substantial mineralised system with potential within and below the drilled zones, and regionally within this largely untested belt". As Alkane learns more about the geology, more targets will be uncovered and subject to drilling programs. Some brokers believe that the best potential lies down plunge – implying an underground operation down the track.

The discovery is testimony to Alkane's perseverance and knowledge in the Lachlan belt, host of Newcrest's multi-million-ounce Ridgeway and Cadia deposits. Alkane has been a long-standing tenant in the pleasant farming district, which boasts a host of infrastructure such as power and roads – along with a ready-made workforce. But the belt has not always been kind to juniors on limited drilling budgets, so Alkane fully deserves a gong for getting stuck in and turning up what looks like a useful orebody. Its key advantage has been a permanent operating base at Peak Hill, which has delivered a $16 million operating surplus since it kicked off in 1996. The modest mine bankrolled Alkane's fossicking in the region, and gave the company time to get familiar with the belt's geology.

Having been rated as Australia's best explorer, it is now up to Alkane to move beyond the drilling excitement and deliver the goods at Wyoming.