ventnor at thaduna compared to sipa at enigma

Ventnor's leases at Thaduna occur as a small excision within the regionally extensive Sipa Resources tenement block.

They have reported what appear to be good grade, mineable thicknesses and reasonable strike lengths of mineralisation at economically accessible depths, beneath and to the north of the old Thaduna open cut copper mine, and also beneath the old Green Dragon open cut.

In the AFR today Ventnor's managing director has been quoted as loosely describing these intersections as 'reserves', and the company is now embarking on a follow-up drilling programme to establish these as JORC-accredited reserves.

A recent, widely-circulated research report by RM Research's Guy Le Page is said to have assumed a likely resulting JORC resource of 50,000 tonnes of contained copper, with possible upside to 100,000 tonnes. At $9,000/t Cu, 50,000 tonnes would give a theoretical in-ground base value for the contained copper of $450m.

Apparently the report discounts the potential in-ground resource value to $490/tonne by peer comparison (ie.about 4.5% of the contained copper value), but this still gives a potential market cap value of some $25m for what has been discovered so far, plus of course the company's cash.

And this is a very spectacular start for Ventnor.


But the crucial points to realise about Sipa are:

a) Sipa has all the ground along strike of both the Thaduna and Green Dragon discoveries, so any strike repetitions of these orebodies will be on Sipa's ground,


b) Sipa's Enigma discovery runs for many kilometres more than the tiny limits of Ventnor's Thaduna tenements,

and most importantly:

c) The spacing of Sipa's Enigma discovery drilling (500m by 100m, with apparent continuity of mineralisation between all 20 discovery holes, and open in all directions) is large enough to have half a dozen Thaduna-sized bodies of mineralisation just in between these holes.

Ventnor's discovery is looking fantastic, but for my money I would much rather be in Sipa Resources. Sipa's upside potential is many many times more than that of Ventnor!

(As usual, pay no attention to me. I am not a financial advisor. Do your own research and make up your own minds)