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market value meant De Grey was under
immediate pressure to justify those
valuations.
Glenn Jardine arrived as managing
director that same month and was tasked
with putting some meat on the growing
Hemi bone.
“There is a bit of laying down a marker
about announcing the resource now,”
Jardine explains to GMJ. “There was a
lot of speculation about what the number
would be, and although there is still a lot
of exploring to do, the decision was made
that we would be better off getting out there
and demonstrating it is a Tier 1 asset. So,
we made a commitment last year that we
would release a resource by mid-2021 and
Technical director Andy Beckwith has been integral to every
also announce production potential around
aspect of the Hemi discovery, from land acquisition, to target
the same time.”
generation, exploration strategy and resource definition
Given the anticipation in the market, did
the resource meet analyst expectations?
your mind around what it could likely be. The scale, grade
“The feedback is that it is exceeding
and the fact mineralisation is so uniform and consistent
expectations at the four main zones –
gives confidence when you are stepping out.”
Aquila, Crow, Falcon and Brolga,” Jardine
Beckwith points to the incorporation of the Diucon and Eagle
says. “Most estimates were for 4-5 moz @
zones as evidence of how quickly De Grey can add ounces
1-1.5 g/t and we have met that, defining
at Hemi.
5.4 moz @ 1.2 g/t from those four zones.”
“For me, the main takeaway from the resource is that Diucon-
Surprising the market on the upside has
Eagle were only drilled for the first time in January, yet they
become the norm at De Grey since it
contributed 1.5 moz gold to the resource statement,” he
announced the first follow-up intersections
says. “That shows that when we get onto an intrusion zone
of 24m @ 7.5 g/t gold, 49m @ 3.7 g/t and
we can grow it very quickly.”
36m @ 4 g/t on the Brolga zone and 24m
@ 4.2 g/t, 15m @ 2.5 g/t and 21m @ 2.5 The aura around Hemi is reinforced by the nature of the
g/t from the Aquila zone in January 2020. discovery. While De Grey had already defined 2 moz on
its wider Mallina gold project, Hemi’s intrusion-related gold
Those results led to an immediate market response with
represents a completely different style of mineralisation,
the share price quickly climbing from 4c to 23c by March
unique not only to Mallina and the Pilbara, but WA’s entire
and then steadily climbing past $1/share from September as
gold sector.
anticipation about the size of Hemi grew.
As Beckwith told GMJ’s sister publication Paydirt last
The company took advantage, raising $31 million in April
year, the Hemi discovery was the result of many hours of
and $100 million in September and throwing almost all of
strategising.
it at exploration. The company drilled 688 RC holes for
134,166m and 169 diamond holes for 69,061m (a further “It was good geological detective work,” he said. “The WA
200,000m of aircore drilling has also been undertaken) up Mines Department had done good work showing Toweranna
until May 17, 2021 and continues to push the pace with 12 intrusions were all part of a sanukitoid suite of intrusions
rigs on site at the end of the June quarter. and we began identifying other targets. We went back and
re-interpreted the magnetics and the drilling, etc, trying to
Both Jardine and Beckwith are adamant the maiden resource
get into the minds of previous geologists and how they were
is only the first step for Hemi.
logging. We then asked ourselves why they had stopped
“It is just the start,” Jardine says. “It puts a peg in the ground
drilling in 2000, even though they had tested a few of the
to prove this is a Tier 1 production asset and allows us to
intrusions. It was the typical story of corporate priorities
start talking production numbers.”
changing.
Beckwith sees the nature of the Hemi mineralisation as
“After 12 months working on and thinking through the
conducive to rapid resource delineation.
strategy, the logical thing to do was focus on four or five of
“If you think of intrusion-related systems, they tend to be these intrusion-related targets in the Hemi area.”
big orebodies,” he says. “So, once we did the RC drilling at
Those targets have now been transformed into resources
Brolga and in those seven holes demonstrated exceptional
and will likely be increased and joined by others in the next
thickness with good grades, it became pretty easy to get
12 months.
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