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Torian passes Torian is moving into the
next phase of drilling at
the Mt Stirling gold camp,
about 40km north-west
internal test of Leonora

hile the actual results fell short of mar- “We actually did that hole because we and Mt Monger/Wombola. In doing so, the
Wket expectations, initial drilling at the Mt were more interested ourselves in terms of company has started farming out its Zuleika
Stirling gold project handed the team at Tori- what we were seeing brought to the surface exploration project to Dampier Gold Ltd.
an Resources Ltd all the information required looked very prospective. Since then, we Torian also has a JV agreement with
to move into the next phase of exploration. haven’t seen any difference in the material Dampier over the Credo Well project in the
Shares in Torian surged nearly 200% in on any of the other holes, and all of that is in Kalgoorlie region.
the weeks leading up to the unveiling of re- line with our expectations to move into this “We always thought Zuleika was just too
sults from the first of eight RC holes drilled next phase.” vast a project for a company like ours,” Sum-
into a key area of interest at Mt Stirling, about Torian is currently refining targets for the mers said.
40km north-west of Leonora. next phase of drilling at Mt Stirling. Up to “At the moment our main focus is that
Despite drilling returning assays of 4m @ 12,000m of RC and diamond drilling has Stirling/Diorite area. We’re leaning on a lot
8.84 g/t gold (including 33.1 g/t over 1m) and been flagged to begin imminently and will of the local knowledge – there are some
24m @ 1.26 g/t (including 2.89 g/t over 7m) be funded from a recent $2.2 million rights very knowledgeable prospectors in the area
and wide widths of quartz-carbonate veins issue. – and lately the increase in technology has
hosting pyrite observed in all holes, the mar- Among the targets that will be followed up made accessibility to information about the
ket was expecting more and Torian’s stock in this next programme are the historic Di- ground so much better.
retreated slightly. orite King and Diorite Queen mines where “There’s been a massive amount of sam-
It was a different story internally for Tori- grades of up to 73 g/t gold were previously pling done at the Diorite area and we’re
an’s new board and management team, with reported. assessing that now. All things going well,
the company indicating the results only reaf- Summers is especially looking forward to at some point in the future, we could have
firmed their belief that Mt Stirling is host to a drilling some deeper holes into the project two operating projects in that Stirling/Diorite
potentially very large gold system in a district given its proximity to several operating un- area.”
already containing Gwalia (4.8 moz), King of derground mines. Torian recently announced it was debt-
the Hills (4 moz) and Thunderbox (3.8 moz). “If you look at Sons of Gwalia, that is a free following the early conversion of a con-
Speaking to Paydirt last month, Torian very deep resource, and given we’re now vertible note by major shareholder Nova
executive director Paul Summers suggested getting pretty deep – I think the last 3m [of Minerals Ltd – an ASX-listed explorer fo-
the current heat in the gold sector may have our first hole] was in excess of 5 g/t gold – we cused on North America – which joined the
given some investors a false sense of belief. will have to do some diamond,” he said. register earlier this year.
“I think the danger at the moment – and “Our desktop studies have revealed this Nova chairman Louie Simens also heads
we certainly discovered that with the results ground is extremely prospective. There’s a the Torian board, with Peretz Schapiro last
of our first hole – is that for us to express lot of historic workings in the area and the month stepping up to an executive director
our own excitement [it] can be misread by more we keep looking, the more exciting it role.
the market because right now this sector is becoming.” “The three directors work very well to-
appears to be running very hot,” Summers Some funds will also be tipped towards gether, we’re a very cohesive team because
said. ongoing sampling and mapping at the com- each of us has our own defined role,” Sum-
“Looking back, I think perhaps our investor pany’s Mt Monger/Wombola project which mers said.
market got a little too enthusiastic prior to the lies within touching distance of Silver Lake “If I received a criticism of the company
release of our first results. I think their expec- Resources Ltd’s Mt Monger mining opera- in the past, it would have been its manage-
tations were a little bit unrealistic. We’re now tion in the Eastern Goldfields. ment. The company may have been tech-
probably at a more realistic level, consider- As part of the board and company re- nically strong but lacked in good manage-
ing it was initially only one hole that was be- structure undertaken earlier this year, Torian ment.”
ing released. decided to streamline its focus on Mt Stirling
– Michael Washbourne

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