Does anyone have any info on the WMC West Musgrave story...

Does anyone have any info on the WMC West Musgrave story ?
Apparently the AEX exploration operation is larger than WMC.
The comment below re access to explore the site is interesting.AEX are one of a few so far granted access.

I thought WMC had access - how else could they have drilled in 2000 as they did ?
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WMC set for new airborne search at West Musgrave
Stephen Bell
25 June 2002
AFTER a long pause, WMC is set to begin the next exploration phase at the much-hyped West Musgrave nickel project in Western Australia.

Sources familiar with WMC's exploration division say the company has scheduled an aeromagnetic survey for August, the first activity of any significance since the second half of last year.

The survey is an attempt by WMC to get a better handle on the geometry of West Musgrave, which has proven to be a much more elusive beast than first thought.

The project has fallen silent in recent times, after a second-stage drilling program last July produced less-than-spectacular results for WMC.

When first unveiled in May 2000, the Nebo and Babel discoveries at West Musgrave were lauded as a Voisey's Bay look-alikes in the WA desert.

But follow up drilling revealed "significant variability" in the thickness of mineralisation, leaving WMC to work out how to put the jigsaw together.

In the intervening 10-12 months, WMC has downgraded its exploration division and one of the key West Musgrave project geologists - Steve Worley - ended up at junior rock kicker West Musgrave Mining.

Former Mt Keith general manager Derek Lenartowicz has also left the company, apparently after being promised the top job at a now-defunct West Musgrave feasibility project.

Lenartowicz, regarded as one of the brightest mine managers in the company, was meant to head up a major development push for West Musgrave.

"He would have run West Musgrave out of Perth, doing prefeasibility and project work," one source said.

After the second drilling program was finished, however, WMC realised that the deposit needed a lot more exploration, leaving Lenartowicz out in the cold.

Lenartowicz, who could not be reached for comment on this article, subsequently left the "downsized" WMC in April.

The various personnel changes and lack of activity on the ground sparked rumours that WMC had put West Musgrave in the "too hard" basket until after the completion of the company's proposed demerger.

But the envisaged airborne work in August suggests WMC is at least starting to put the feelers out again.

To be fair, WMC has also had to deal with painstaking access negotiations, due to the project's location on a remote Aboriginal reserve.

Along with WMC, the region's Ngaanyatjarra Land Council has also been negotiating with dozens of juniors clambering for access deals.

Interestingly, West Musgrave Mining also plans to fly a survey over several priority targets in mid-to-late July using a "Hoistem" helicopter EM system.

Hopefully, all this airborne exploration will lead to some decent drill hits on the ground, and a new lease of life for the almost forgotten project.