THE RACE IS ON AT DOOLGUNNA http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/the-race-is-on-at-doolgunna/story-e6frg8zx-1225882035650
EVERYONE'S in with a chance -- that's the view of one mining veteran who has got an exploration horse in the Doolgunna Cup race.
Doolgunna, of course, was probably the big discovery of 2009.
The high-grade copper and gold find at the DeGrussa tenement lit a fire under Sandfire Resources (SFR) shares and triggered a land rush to pick up adjoining ground in the region located about 150km north of Meekatharra.
We've had several developments over the past week or two in that neck of the woods, so it's probably time for a quick update. The bloke to whom we talked has a pretty comprehensive knowledge of the area concerned and believes there's a lot more mineralisation yet to be found.
Sandfire has, of course, gone on to add the Conductor 1 and Conductor 4 ore bodies to its kitbag.
While other companies are considerably behind Sandfire at Doolgunna in terms of exploration, early work suggests that our informant is probably on target; everyone is in with a chance, and several have the potential to come up with something.
Our man's horse is not Talisman Mining (TLM) but he rates that company as having the largest and probably the most prospective land package in the area.
Talisman's most recent announcement was that drilling at the Homer prospect, 5km along strike from DeGrussa, had intersected multiple zones of anomalous copper and gold.
Resource & Investment (RNI), a company run by Miles Kennedy, who left Sandfire after a disagreement, has ground that adjoins both the DeGrussa discovery and Talisman's project. It has just begun exploration with an aeromagnetic survey.
We'll be watching the assays from the Magnus copper-gold project owned by Alchemy Resources (ALY) which also adjoins the Sandfire ground.
The company made an initial statement that the first round of drilling had confirmed the chance of finding a repeat of the DeGrussa mineralisation.
Great Western Exploration (GTE) recently picked up additional tenements at Doolgunna and has identified 39 priority targets following an airborne survey.
On Friday, Thundelarra Exploration (THX) reported it had been granted its exploration licence for Curara Well, also adjacent to Sandfire ground and along strike from DeGrussa. Soil samples there have already returned copper shows.
The company is also earning a majority interest in the nearby Red Bore tenement, although Thundelarra has suspended plans to float these off into a new listing, a decision it blames on tax issues, volatile markets and the wretched (our word) super-profits tax.
The other players in the area include Lodestar Minerals (LSR), which bought the Peak Hill-Doolgunna project earlier this year, and Sipa Resources (SRI), which recently reported to the ASX that its geologist had noted visual mineralisation at its Thaduna project, which lies west of the DeGrussa and Conductor 1 deposits. Sipa has had some attention from Peter Strachan's StockAnalysis report, which notes the junior is one of the most active copper and gold explorers on the ASX. Sipa has been using the same geophysical consultants that helped Sandfire pin down DeGrussa.
Strachan says comparisons with Sandfire are dangerous at this point but "Sipa, with a market capitalisation of about $32 million, will look attractive if it can begin to emulate its larger neighbour".
Also back in the race is Ausgold (AUC), which will begin drilling its Doolgunna Station prospect this week. This is also part of the Sandfire neighbourhood. The company will be putting holes down into three priority targets.
Possibly the cheapest entry to this regional story is Astro Resources (ARO) at 0.5c, which earlier this year bought the North Doolgunna project but there have been no recent announcements. Nor did the company return our calls -- something that won't surprise those shareholders who have been complaining on one of the chatrooms about the problems of getting a response from Astro.
Runs on the board
YOU could never accuse Terrain Minerals (TMX) of hype.
It put out a terse eight-line ASX announcement covering start-ups of work at three projects. Terrain, which closed on Friday at 2.6c, is one of the ignored juniors but has been putting some runs on the board, with a 320,000oz gold resource at one project and hopes that it can find a repeat of the large nickel body that underpins the Kambalda mining story.
The new man running the company is Chris Tomich, a geologist with 30 years under his belt and an impressive CV.
Its gold focus is the Bundarra project, 70km from Leonora. But possibly the story to watch is the Aztec Dome project at East Kambalda, a structure that is covered rather than outcropping, at which initial drilling revealed similarities to the Kambalda Dome, a story that will be verified only by deeper drilling costing something in the vicinity of $3m.
But it's still a theory and no cinch. We've all seen a lot of great geological theories before and not all of them have been proven up.
Terrain has raised just over $1m to continue exploration. Consider it a dark horse, and one that might stop being overlooked.
ARO Price at posting:
0.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
