re: dont miss the boat!!!! Thursday, February 03, 2005WHILE one...

re: dont miss the boat!!!! Thursday, February 03, 2005


WHILE one drill hole doesn't make a mine, it can do wonders for your share price as Ramelius Resources has discovered with its Hilditch nickel/copper strike about 50km south of Coolgardie in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia. By Tim Treadgold

From a long run at a lowly price around 9c a share, Ramelius more than doubled in mid-December to trade briefly close to an all-time high of 21c, before easing back as the year drew to a close.

Interest in the stock, which has done little since listing in early 2003, has been driven by a December 16 drill result which included a reported assay of 3.9% nickel and 0.5% copper over 1m from a depth of 74m. The width of the intersection was later expanded to 2m with the assay adjusted to 2.4% nickel and 0.3% copper.

Whatever the final result the clear message is that Ramelius has made an encouraging discovery which certainly deserves a much closer look, which is precisely what the company is doing in the early weeks of 2005.

Hilditch is located close to a series of historic mines including the old Spargoville goldmine which was worked in the 1930s.

During the original Australian nickel boom of the late 1960s the area, which includes the Widgiemooltha Dome, was blanket pegged by explorers looking for a repetition of WMC's Kambalda Dome which lies to the east.

Ramelius, which has the unusual distinction of being closely tied to the oil explorer, Beach Petroleum, rates its Spargoville Regional Project as one of four key projects.

The other main areas of interest are close to Coolgardie, the Murchison district and the Warburton area near the WA/SA border.

At Spargoville, Ramelius has four distinct exploration zones with a broad selection of targets, including nickel, gold and base metals. As well as Hilditch there is the Wattle Dam project, the North Widgee Block and the Logan Larkinville project.

Ramelius believes that its claims in the area represent the first time in 40 years that the key 30km of the Spargoville belt is under majority control of a single company.

The trick now will be to deliver follow-up hits to match what has been returned in the discovery hole, HRC025. With work scheduled to continue through the holiday period it is possible that fresh drill results could be available in January and February.

Apart from waiting for future drilling potential investors might also care to look at the capital structure of Ramelius because at a price of 16c the company is capitalised at a humble $7 million with even the sniff of a second nickel hit potentially enough to do wonders for the stock. -Australia's Mining Monthly