barry fitzgerald in todays age

A sleeper indeed!!


Undercover operation as explorer prepares to bring Rover out of its deep sleep
* Barry FitzGerald
* February 25, 2008


Westgold ResourcesTHE Rover mineral field south-west of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory has been something of a sleeper.

But that is about to change, with Perth-based explorer Westgold Resources poised to convert the mineral field's long-known exploration potential into modern development potential.

Rover is regarded as an undercover extension of the Tennant Creek field. Exploration at Rover stopped more than 25 years ago when Aboriginal groups exercised their veto rights to prevent the long-departed Peko from chasing some highly encouraging exploration results.

Roll the clock forward to more recent times and the ground becomes the second-ranked Australian exploration property of South Africa's AngloGold Ashanti. And that is saying something, given AngloGold's first-ranked exploration property, Tropicana in Western Australia, was recently confirmed as a 4 million ounce-plus virgin gold discovery.

But Rover did not survive the cut when AngloGold culled its Australian exploration in 2005, leaving Rover to head off into a privately owned group - populated by former AngloGold geologists - that has since become wholly owned by Westgold.

Critically, Aboriginal agreement for exploration to resume on the drill-ready Rover 1 gold/copper prospect, as well as many other ironstone (magnetic) targets, was recently secured. The targets have been screaming to be tested by a drill-hole given, that up the road at Tennant Creek, the same rock types have yielded rich finds.

Initial interest in Westgold's Rover plans - it showed the benefits on an eastern states roadshow with a 1.5¢ gain to 21¢ on Friday - will be driven on three fronts.

They are a soon-to-start drilling campaign at Rover 1, drilling at the Explorer 142 copper/gold prospect and a maiden resource estimate for what is shaping as a sizeable and high-grade zinc/lead deposit, Explorer 108.

Weather permitting in the Top End, drilling at Rover 1 starts next month. Big things are expected, given historical intersections included 22 metres grading 13.4 grams of gold a tonne and 1.3% copper and three metres grading 14.1 g/tonne gold and 4.1% copper.

The sharp boys at Metals X must like the Westgold story, having moved to 22.3% of the company last year. And as an aside, it is worth noting Westgold's 42% stake in ASX-listed Aragon Resources.

Aragon was spun off last year to house Westgold's Western Australian gold, nickel and uranium exploration interests, most notably a big chunk of the Yandal belt originally put together by AngloGold.

That means Rover gets Westgold's undivided attention as it is brought out of its deep sleep.