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Andrew McIlwain

South32 Ltd’s Cannington mine in McIlwain said.
Queensland has become one of the Furthermore, Western Areas Ltd has
world’s premier silver mines and ac- added another dimension to the explora-
counts for about 6% of global supply, tion scene in SA with the Sahara nick-
and while there is significant secondary el-copper sulphide discovery, Western
production from gold mines in Australia Gawler, this year.
the sector is largely devoid of significant Investigator was one of three compa-
activity. nies that applied for ground next door to
The lack of primary production means Sahara and McIlwain was confident a
the market is not well understood do- deal could be struck between the three
mestically, forcing McIIwain to describe parties, as the company continues to
Investigator’s value proposition in more pursue other opportunities to expand its
recognisable terms. portfolio.
“I try and talk to people about what Domestic precious metals assets on
Paris looks like as a gold project; as the east coast of Australia, including
it currently stands there is more than Tasmania, where it has the White Spur
500,000oz gold in the ground at better project adjacent to Rosebery and Henty,
than 2 g/t gold within 120m of surface. If are favoured by Melbourne-based McIl-
you had one of those within a few hun- wain.
dred kilometres of Kalgoorlie it would “We are still on the hunt for projects,
have been gone by now. I try to draw preferably on the east coast. If we can
people’s attention to everything that we find something that we can be competi-
will do in South Australia is going to be nered fair attention, while McIlwain tive on a process in Western Australia
Australian dollar-domiciled so fuel, wag- notes the work being done by Rex Min- we would, but our preference is east
es everything else will be in Australian erals Ltd on the Hillside copper-gold coast or Tassie,” he said. “We have
dollars.” project (Yorke Peninsula), the activity touched base with a couple of majors
It is an opportune time to be dusting in Tarcoola and also the noise north of which have projects off their radar inter-
off previous work completed at Paris Challenger at the moment. nally and we’re looking at having some
given the weight of excitement on the ex- “It is probably not too dissimilar to what of those discussions.”
ploration side of the sector in the State. is happening around Bendigo in Victoria
In recent times, Oak Dam has gar- at the moment; rising tides lift all boats,” – Mark Andrews

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT OCTOBeR 2020 Page 19