As there are some people who persist with malicious postings, stooping to personal attacks on Marathon management and pushing the line that Marathon is misleading the public, I think some discussion is needed.
1) Marathon owns the Mt Gee Exploration license 100%. This means that Mtn can explore the tenement for mineral deposits. It is not a national park or wilderness area. All modern exploration in Australia is undertaken in accordance with environmental guidelines set by the various primary industries/mines depts in each state. All work is done in consultation with the Depts of Environment and Heritage, which control impacts on flora and fauna, visual impact, erosion and covers historical relevence of the work area. Work can only go ahead through this process. Yellow-footed Gudgeons and DoDo birds are taken into account by all concerned.
2) There is a registered native title (9B) agreement in place for this exploration license. Unlike 90% of the exploration licenses in South Australia. This can be verified by anyone by contacting Primary Industries Resources SA (PIRSA).
3) Some people were taken aback with Marathons ugrading of the resource. The old resource numbers were calculated using drilling from 1969-1972 by Exoil. In 1989 CRA (now Rio Tinto) drilled 67 holes in 4 years. CRA never published resource calculations for their extensive work. Marathon did. In 1995 a private company took up the license and joint ventured it with Goldstream Mining who had the right to earn 75%. They drilled 7 holes in 1999. The report of this drilling sent Goldstream's market capitalization to 110 million dollars. As a result Goldstream was admitted to the All Ordinaries Index for a year! A legal dispute between the joint venture partners ended in settlement and the license was retained by the private company. It was then vended into the Marathon Float. As far as I can see Goldstream never made a public announcement on this issue. I would be surprised if some Goldstream shareholders didn't ask what went on as Mt Gee was a major project.
4) Grade. 24,800t of U3O8 at average grade 730ppm as reported on Aug 2 is worth today $60 per tonne equivalent to 3 grams of gold for a total of 52m pounds uranium at todays price is $A 2 billion or 3.3m oz of gold. Grades are comparable or superior to many large Australian gold mines. The X factor is, Uranium is seen to be a fast appreciating commodity with recent talk of the possibilty of $US 100 lb. These calcs are very conservative as it only takes into account the Mt Gee prospect which is open in many directions. Further drilling will shed some light. The work scheduled to begin in October is a combination of testing the veracity of the old data and drilling in new ground to find proposed extensions of mineralization. A modern approach to exploration using new technology and understanding could significantly extend the resource.
The only reasons I can see for the continued attack on mtn is that either these people have a philosophical objection to uranium mining, are extreme environmentalists or have gotten egg on their face over the corporate history of the tenement.
I beleive that these issues have been discussed behind the scenes and could relate to the apparrent under pricing of Marathon with respect to other companies with similar resources.
When drilling commences I expect many current lies to be dispelled and Mtn to be rerated accordingly. I suspect overseas money will find its way past the misinformation soon. There are many people in Adelaide with axes to grind. The truth will prevail.
I have done a lot of research and spoken to many people over these issues. I suggest you do the same. Invest your money wisely. All the best from the opalfields. I hold Mtn.
LCK Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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