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Wild about

North Stawell

ore than three decades after earning from 34m downhole and 5m @ 7.5 g/t targeting data that is coming out of all the
Mhis geology degree, Steve Tambanis gold from 15m downhole. historical data sets we’re compiling, and
has settled into his “dream job”. Diamond drilling was ongoing at the this new aerogravity survey…I think in-
Despite many years exploring exten- time of print and Tambanis expects it will vestors are going to be in for a very good
sively through Africa and the Pacific, continue generating more targets for his ride over the next 18 months,” he said.
Tambanis believes he has found his true team to chase during the back half of this “My geos are just so excited about what
calling much closer to home in one of Vic- year. they’re seeing; coincident anomalies, the
toria’s most overlooked goldfields. “We’ve still got 2.5km of core that has gravity together with the mag data…we’re
“What stands out to me about this part be logged and sampled, so we’ve got rewriting the targeting sequence on what
of Victoria is the Stawell mineralised cor- quite a bit to come back assay-wise, but we’re going to be drilling next.”
ridor is just so historically underexplored,” we’re very happy with what we’re seeing Tambanis said the company had about
Tambanis told Paydirt. come out of Wildwood,” he said. 40 targets – including Wimmera Park
“I don’t care how people look at it, de- “We’ve learnt a hell of a lot about the Granite, Lubeck and Germania – it was
scribe it, cut it, slice it or dice it – it’s only structure of Wildwood and this will prob- constantly ranking for a first taste of the
had a very limited amount of work which ably help us interpret other domes in the drill bit.
is really only centred around the Stawell region as well, because there are some “We’ll probably have 5-6 targets that
gold mine itself. I think the good thing subtle differences to the Magdala dome we’ll be working on at any one time as we
about this new Victorian gold boom is [the principal orebody of the nearby go along,” he said. “We rank and re-rank
you’re going to see new orebodies come Stawell gold mine].” our targets pretty much on a monthly ba-
out of this, undoubtedly. North Stawell was one of the surprise sis, or as significant news comes out.
“From my perspective, to be given the packets of last year after raising $20 mil- “To be frank, some targets we’ll drill and
opportunity of working an underexplored lion via an oversubscribed IPO and listing we’re not going to find anything, but that
region with adequate funds to do so, uti- on the ASX in September. The company is exploration. In saying that, we’re not
lising new technologies like geophysics proved to be an instant hit with investors just spraying holes in the ground; we’re
and geochemical work, and supported by and its stock quickly surged as high as using quite a bit of science and logic be-
a fantastic team, this is a dream job – an 55c within one month of debuting on the hind it. Our process basically just helps
absolute dream job.” bourse. maximise the value, putting every dollar
As chief executive of North Stawell With more than $14.5 million cash in the into useful drilling as opposed to hopeful
Minerals Ltd, Tambanis is currently over- back at the end of March, North Stawell is drilling.”
seeing an aggressive drilling campaign confident the two-year exploration plan Tambanis also said the Stawell commu-
on the company’s 261sq km land pack- outlined in its prospectus is tracking per- nity had welcomed his exploration crew
age, both along strike and immediately fectly from a budget perspective. with open arms, while the landowners
north of the historic Stawell mine which In terms of the progress on the ground, were very supportive of the company’s
has produced in excess of 5 moz gold. Tambanis declared the prospectivity exploration ambitions, particularly with
More than 13,000m has been drilled of the company’s ground holding to be providing ease of access at Wildwood
into the Wildwood prospect this year “more than I could have ever hoped for”. ahead of the current round of drilling.
alone. Some of the best hits from that ini- “Seeing the drill results that we’ve got at – Michael Washbourne
tial RC drilling were 12m @ 9.49 g/t gold the moment and just seeing some of the

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT JUNe 2021 Page 49