Exploration is hard and unfortunately for most compatriots WA1...

Exploration is hard and unfortunately for most compatriots WA1 has made it look easy. It won't always be like this.

The experiences at P2, where the geology is a a little less revealing, and Luni are normal for geologists. Luni was targeted early on for gold/copper, based on a coincident magnetic and gravity anomaly and some proximal copper geochemistry and what do you know, a Niobium deposit. The geophysical signature was identified as a carbonatite, it almost maps the boundaries, and it created a walk up a signature for future targets. The normal procedure is to identify clones and other similar signature, drill them and....find something different. These are the inconsistencies of exploration and what keeps the motivation. Exploration geology is an inexact science, its akin to sleuthing. There are stages where you just have to throw theories out the window, systematically gather the data and allow the model to evolve.

Tools for exploration are useful but they're not prescriptive. In geophysics and geochemistry they can give you information but they can't reveal what we are looking for. The depth of cover, the orientation of the source, weathering, structural interruptions, metamorphism, hydrology and the nature of the surrounding lithology can all affect the types of anomalies created. They are useful for narrowing the search are but rarely do they provide a pointer to the source and sometimes they're complete red herrings.

The experience at P2 is much more normal than that at a little to the east. Luni has spoilt us, its now for the grinding part of the process, the long period of information gathering, slowly working things out and developing the model. Things won't shape up as a expected, other things will surprise, nothing will depend on the next announcement. Sometimes for investors this part of the journey is slow, but for the geologists, who think in time frames of billions of years, the story unfolds in the blink of an eye.