Page 54 - pd297-Sept21-mag-web

eURoPe focUs

Sala goes bonanza there’s going to be more results coming
through, and it’s ‘look out’ as far as I’m
concerned.”
The immediate drilling is propped up by
ike many explorers, Alicanto Minerals “When I approached Lundstam and $4.5 million in Alicanto’s bank and the sale
LLtd managing director Peter George said, ‘do you want to make one for yourself of its Guyana projects in June.
said his company was one drill hole away and I?’ and he said ‘100% let’s go for it’,” “There’ll be more money coming in the
from proving its point – that there was more George said. door once that’s resolved,” George said.
mineralisation waiting to be found around “So, we looked at Sweden and kept “The money from that sale will go straight
the historic Sala silver mine in Sweden. coming to Falun and saying, ‘there’s some into exploration at Sala and Greater Fa-
Long after previous explorers packed up real trends here for high-grade mineralisa- lun.”
their tools and went home, Alicanto moved tion at surface’. As a Kalgoorlie native that found himself
in and has recently justified its hunch on “We started looking at data given to us working in Sweden during his formative
the project when bonanza silver and zinc from the Swedish Geological Society, find- years, George the polyglot has a unique
grades were returned from the company’s ing some rocks and saying, ‘these aren’t insight into the insular mining industry that
first diamond drill hole. supposed to be here’. The more we looked not many outsiders get a peek into.
Early August saw hits of 6.8m @ 123 at it, the more we realised that maybe “Prior to 1992 you had to be a Swede
g/t silver, 2.3% lead and 1.4% zinc from we’re dealing with something else here. or a Swedish company to own tenements,”
589.75m (including 0.95m @ 348 g/t silver, “We picked up a rock, had it assayed, he said. “After the law change, a lot of peo-
5.9% lead and 4.06% zinc from 592.58m). and it came back at 12.9% copper.” ple still don’t know what opportunities there
Two drill rigs continue to turn with as- The rest is modern history. The green are. If Falun or Sala had been in Australia,
says pending for another two holes, with a light at Greater Falun sent the pair follow- there’d be 100,000m put into each one of
third drill rig on the cards. ing the same mineralisation to Sala where them and likely all mined out by now.
“There’s going to be lots of news flow their positive reinforcement continues, and “Combine that with the fact Sweden
coming through over the next six months George today wags the ‘I told you so’ fin- doesn’t really have a junior exploration ex-
as we try to figure out how big this beast ger. change, it’s really then up to those on the
is,” George told Paydirt. “This is what I’m trying to explain to peo- ASX or TSX to go in and raise the money
Discovering the beast came after sniff- ple,” he said. “There’s been no real mod- and bring in the focus of these projects.
ing out the Greater Falun project, left dor- ern exploration at Sala and nothing below “But you have to be prepared to go for
mant since 1992 in the same region as the 290m level up until basically now… both grade and size over in that part of
Sala – an expedition that was made with Lundstam figured out we were dealing with the world or you’ll be beholden to the big
George’s long-time friend and colleague, polymetallic skarn instead of what people players that have dominated the Swedish
chief geologist Erik Lundstam. believed was only VMS. industry for a long time.”
Call it a hunch, or just pure experience, “From a geological and exploration – Fraser Palamara
Lundstam and George kept coming back perspective, and a mining perspective,
to Greater Falun when deciding to do their we’re super excited about what we’re see-
own thing for once. ing here at Sala and we’re still drilling, so

Peter George shows off the Swedish Sala spoils
Page 54 SePTeMBeR 2021 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT