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DIGGeRs & DeALeRs

Spotlight pivots towards Saturn

The Saturn team, anthropologist and
senior Traditional Owners of Apollo Hill
undertook a heritage survey in August

erhaps drawing inspiration from the un- “We’ve got Dundee Corporation on the been reluctantly sidelined by previous
Pheralded planet which bears its name, register for 10%, 1832 Bank of Nova Sco- owners – Peel and Battle Mountain Aus-
Saturn Metals Ltd has quietly gone about tia have steadily accreted their position tralia – due to significant discoveries being
its business this year without a great deal and the most recent significant notice was made by those companies in New South
of fanfare. Sprott who are well known for getting be- Wales and Queensland respectively.
While most of the headlines have fa- hind gold plays. There’s a few others who Bamborough said the wider potential for
voured the likes of Chalice Gold Mines sit behind that 5% level but in a substantial Apollo Hill first started emerging in March
Ltd, De Grey Mining Ltd and Musgrave way. 2019 when exploration manager Kathryn
Minerals Ltd for the significant discover- “It always fills me with confidence when Cutler put down a hole under an old air-
ies each has made amid a global health we get people ringing up and asking the core collar and struck 13m @ 5 g/t gold
and financial crisis, Saturn has continued right questions and giving us the opportu- from 74m (including 4m @ 9.8 g/t), provid-
to churn out one impressive result after nity to answer them technically and explain ing confirmation of a new high-grade lode.
another from its Apollo Hill gold project, the details. And when those people start Fast-forward through more than 12
60km south-east of Leonora. buying up after those answers it’s very months of what he described as a “heck
The latest results include shallow inter- pleasing.” of a lot of drilling” and Bamborough is
sections such as 6m @ 5.17 g/t gold from Saturn started the year on a positive supremely confident “the game has
47m, 3m @ 3.68 g/t from 89m and 7m @ note with two of the best intersections – changed” for Saturn in terms of what it had
1.21 g/t from 114m in the hanging-wall po- 12m @ 9.98 g/t from 269m and 8m @ 12.9 originally conceived for the project.
sition, as well as multiple high-grade hits g/t from 126m – ever drilled in Apollo Hill’s “It took us a while to feel through and
in the main lode, including 7m @ 5.55 g/t history. Those two hits alone essentially find the plunging shoots and all that – and
from 286m (including 3m @ 12.1 g/t from saw the company’s stock double through Apollo Hill can be quite unforgiving like
287m), 19m @ 1.06 g/t from 230m and late January and early February before that – but we’ve always had the belief in a
24m @ 1.02 g/t from 280m. retreating just as quickly when financial much bigger system,” he said.
All of those results sit outside Apollo markets closed ranks in March due to the “What is really evident to us now is that
Hill’s existing resource (24.5mt @ 1 g/t outbreak of the coronavirus. what was once considered the hanging-
gold for 781,000oz) which is poised for an However, as the gold price grew strong- wall, we now think it’s one big mineralised
upgrade this quarter. er from April onwards, so too did the in- corridor and we’re actually seeing quite a
Since listing in early 2018 as a spin-out terest in Saturn. At the time of print, the substantial pattern starting to develop in
from Peel Mining Ltd, Saturn has arguably company’s share price was almost triple there. It’s very under-drilled compared to
been the industry’s quiet achiever. With the mark it had pulled back to during the the main lode.
recent and ongoing exploration success initial stages of the pandemic. “The width there is now around 600m
all but certain to convert into a plus-1 moz “If you take the recent gold price spike and we’re stepping out along strike. We’re
inventory at Apollo Hill, the question now is out of it, we’ve had this very nice, steady, seeing the same kind of intersections com-
just how much longer the company contin- accretive growth off the back of the work ing together and I think it’s earmarking a
ues to fly under the radar. we’re doing to build up that recognition in much bigger opportunity in one single sim-
For Saturn managing director Ian Bam- the deposit,” Bamborough said. ple spot. And obviously there’s been much
borough, the arrival of some-big name “For me, persistence and the ability to better grades out here than in the footwall,
institutions on the company’s register in keep pushing on pays in exploration. Eve- which is very exciting.”
recent times suggests the spotlight is now ry time we have a push there’s always a Despite the strong likelihood of a size-
hovering near the Perth-based explorer. nice little step and hopefully you can see able resource being defined at Apollo Hill,
“I think at the moment we’re about 38% that reflected in both our share price and Bamborough and his team are not looking
institutional…maybe 15 months ago we market cap growth.” far beyond a current exploration campaign
didn’t have a single institution on the reg- There is a clear glint of excitement in which will include 20,000m of RC drilling
ister, whereas now we have a number Bamborough’s eyes when he starts dis- targeting high-grade trends and 4,000m of
of large North American technical, long cussing the big picture potential of Apollo aircore drilling across regional and camp-
funds who have done their homework and Hill, which is now benefitting from being scale opportunities.
come in to support us,” Bamborough told the single focus of a company for the first Bamborough said while the temptation
Paydirt. time in two decades. The project has twice was there to start moving into technical

Page 70 OCTOBeR 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT