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S2 has had considerable success using base-of-till drilling as a first-pass exploration technique

certain places we wouldn’t go – Russia, “Agnico Eagle which is producing
particular parts of Africa, parts of Asia, 200,000 ozpa gold at Kittila and it is The exploration strategy may be the
Latin America but only because we within sight of Finland’s biggest ski re- same as australia but the conditions
haven’t the experience. It is hard enough sort. So, there is a good precedent for in which it is being executed are very
advancing a project as it is without stack- building projects in the country,” he said. different as graduate geologist Thomas
ing more things against you.” Dols (opposite) and the geophysics
Having worked extensively in the re- – Dominic Piper team demonstrate
gion, Bennett said West Africa was a po-
tential destination “if it was compelling”
but he ruled out diverging too far from
S2’s commodity focus.
“We don’t look at bulks, laterites or
even porphyries,” he said. “Basically, we
steer clear of anything with big capex or
long lead times that a company of our
size can’t handle. Gold, nickel sulphides,
VMS; they are all doable with other kinds
of deposits you can end up painting
yourself into a corner when it comes to
funding development.”
S2 is some way from facing project
funding challenges yet but if it does make
its way down that path, there is confi-
dence it can undertake development
itself. Most of Europe has a reputation
as a regulatory nightmare but Bennett
pointed to S2’s neighbours in Finland as
examples of what could be achieved.

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT NOVeMBeR 2019 Page 65