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DIGGeRs & DeALeRs
Comprehensive Supply Chain Solutions

S2 prepares script for Nova sequel

hether it’s X-Files or Groundhog ing campaign. are other things to move onto, other tar-
WDay he’s not sure but Mark Bennett “At Nova, we could only afford three gets to test,” Bennet said. “Exploration is
is certain of one thing; the coincidences RC holes, this time we can go straight about putting in the hard yards and we
between the original Nova nickel discov- into diamond drilling,” Bennett said. “We stay realistic. It is important to be in with
ery and his latest prospect on the Fraser haven’t had to do soils or aircore to zero a chance all the time.”
Range are eerie. in on the target, that is all redundant be- That includes not being wedded to one
Bennett and the rest of the S2 Re- cause it has 200m of transported cover project. As well as winning the Fraser
sources Ltd team began work on the on top of it. Range ground, S2 has also pegged land
company’s new Fraser Range project “Instead, it will be death or glory with at the other margin of the Yilgarn Craton.
in July, just months after the tenements these holes. Because it models so well, “The Fraser Range wraps around the
were granted following a ballot process. we are very confident of where it sits, so south-eastern edge of the Yilgarn Cra-
S2 started its exploration push with we can go for the jugular. It will take a ton so we started looking at the west-
a moving-loop EM survey which imme- couple of holes because you can some- ern side; the Darling Fault runs up the
diately highlighted an enticing anomaly. times hit the conductor in a barren part of western side of WA and to us it looked a
Bennett said the anomaly shared many the system but the response is so unam- bit like the mid-continental right system
characteristics with the Nova nickel-cop- biguous we will get an answer quickly.” which hosts all the major nickel deposits
per deposit, the S2 team’s last big find. With an exploration portfolio bulging in North America.”
“Usually with EM you get nothing or with gold, nickel and PGE targets else- The S2 team may have been looking
just lots of noise and the trick is working where in WA and in Finland, Bennett for some time but they weren’t the first
out what is real,” Bennett explained. to act. Instead Chalice Gold Mines
“This time, we got a sea of blue noth- Ltd stole the headlines in late March
ing then in one area, this unambigu- when it announced the Julimar nick-
ous, big bold response sat out on its el-copper-PGE-gold discovery just
own, just like Nova was. 70km from Perth.
“Once Newexco modelled it in 3D, “We were gobsmacked by that dis-
it read almost the same as Nova; an covery,” Bennett admitted. “And after
800m elongated rectangle plunging that, things went crazy and we had to
to the north and highly conductive. stop looking and start pegging. It is
It was like Groundhog Day, every- safe to say that without the Julimar
thing was just repeating itself. Usu- discovery we may not have had the
ally when something looks too good impetus to peg the ground.”
to be true that’s because it isn’t, and Now it is waiting on approvals for
you are half scared to drill it; it was two projects – Three Springs 250km
the same in the Sirius days.” north of Perth and West Murchison
Given that S2 only secured the 500km north of Perth.
ground by luck of a ballot, the coinci- “They are not granted yet so we
dences were starting to stack up. can push too hard, but we have only
“The likelihood of getting three of done some quick soils and already
the four tenements in the ballot were got a nice nickel-copper target based
remote, then the likelihood of getting A distinct EM anomaly on S2 Resources’ newly granted on the broad sampling,” Bennett said.
a similar response to Nova was low; Fraser Range ground shares many similarities to the “There are PGEs in there as well and
it was eerie so we joke that it’s like original Nova nickel-copper discovery in the district a surprisingly big gold anomaly of
something from the X-Files.” more than 1 g/t. It is a bit of a mystery
Higher forces or not, S2 will ap- bag and we will extend the soils now
ply the same geoscience discipline to its is happy to have a quick result on the because the anomaly remains open to
new nickel target as Sirius did in the early Fraser Range. the east.”
days at Nova. “That’s how we like to be; in and out,” Travel restrictions around COVID-19
“We are trying to maintain our common he said. “There are a number of people prompted the renewed interest in WA but
sense,” Bennett said. “Just because it is a watching it because if we do get nickel, Bennett remains hopeful of restarting ac-
strong response doesn’t mean it is nickel it is not hard to work out how much there tivity on S2’s assets in Finland once the
sulphides. The rational part of our brain will be. It is like drilling an oil well: it could pandemic is under control.
is saying it could be barren sulphides or be a duster, or it could be onto something, “We had to abandon drilling in Finland
graphite. there won’t be anything in between.” with the onset of COVID,” he said. “We
“Our plan is to do almost exactly the If the target does turn out to be barren, have a nice gold target over there and we
same as we did with Nova, the difference S2 will be swift to move on. The company know it’s a live structure, but we will keep
being, we have money this time.” now has three tenements granted on the it up our sleeve for now.”
Sirius’ discovery of Nova has gone Fraser Range but has only limited infor-
down in Australian exploration folklore, mation on the ground. – Dominic Piper
the penny dreadful explorer hitting the “We have only done EM on a small
nickel system in a last roll of the dice drill- portion of the ground, so maybe there

Page 42 OCTOBeR 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT