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Porphyry option lures

Nexus east

exus Minerals Ltd managing director undertake reconnaissance exploration ac-
NAndy Tudor is confident his company tivities on the Bethanga tenements and elect
has the capacity to manage exploration pro- to proceed with the acquisition for a total
grammes on both sides of the country after consideration of $300,000 cash and 2 mil-
unveiling plans to acquire the Bethanga por- lion shares. The company has already paid Andy Tudor
phyry copper-gold project in north-east Vic- $45,000 to the vendors as part of its initial
toria. due diligence. right rocks, you don’t have a project which
Tudor insisted the decision to enter into Tudor, who has more than 15 years of you can genuinely and meaningfully ex-
a binding option agreement with Jamieson experience exploring for porphyry deposits plore. I’ve never been interested in postage
Minerals Pty Ltd over Bethanga in April through the Asia-Pacific region, said oppor- stamps, I’m looking for regional-scale oppor-
would not interrupt the momentum the com- tunities such as Bethanga had been on the tunities.”
pany has been building at its Wallbrook and company’s radar for some time. Nexus will soon begin a soil sampling
Pinnacles gold projects in Western Australia “One of the first questions we were asked programme at Bethanga with the aim of
in recent years. [upon announcing the option agreement identifying pathfinder elements indicative of
Bethanga, about 300km north-east of over Bethanga] was ‘is this a pivot because a magmatic hydrothermal system at depth.
Melbourne, is hosted in the same porphyry you’re not happy with what’s happening in Geological mapping, litho-geochemical
tract as the world-class Cadia-Ridgeway the Eastern Goldfields?’ The answer is no, sampling, reprocessing and 3D inversion of
and Northparkes copper-gold mines over this is not a pivot at all,” Tudor told Paydirt. regional aeromagnetic data, and a ground
the border in New South Wales. No major “We’re stoked with the work at Wallbrook magnetics survey are also on the agenda.
exploration has been carried out on the two and how it’s coming together, but when an Tudor said the eight months taken thor-
tenements which make up the 194sq km opportunity like Bethanga comes up – and oughly reviewing the project before proceed-
project since 1987. keep in mind we’ve been looking at opportu- ing with the acquisition was an appropriate
Nexus has an eight-month window expir- nities like these for the past 6-7 years, so it’s timeframe, given the lack of modern explora-
ing in mid-December during which it can not a flash in the pan decision by any means tion on the highly prospective property.
– you need to take the time to “By the time we get to the end of this eight-
have a closer look and care- month timeframe, we’ll have completed the
fully review the options. geochemistry over the whole tenement,
“The plans at Wallbrook completed the litho-geochem, completed
are set for the whole year, so the magnetic assessment and then we’ll get
there won’t be any clash and the opportunity to stand back and ask, ‘does
it will be a different group of it show what we think it might show?’,” Tudor
people involved over there said.
versus who we are using in “Eight months is still a very tight timeframe
WA. We certainly have the to get that amount of work done, but we’re
capability and skillsets to here to be genuinely involved rather than to-
keep exploring on both pro- kenly (sic) involved.”
jects meaningfully for the Back in WA, the drill rigs are expected to
year ahead.” keep turning at Wallbrook for an extended
Nexus actually began as- period with a 12,000m of RC and a further
sessing Bethanga in late 2,000m of diamond drilling set to follow on
2019 before reluctantly hav- from the current diamond campaign at the
ing to put its review on hold Eastern Goldfields project.
due to the COVID-19 pan- The first diamond hole drilled into the
demic. When WA’s hard bor- Crusader prospect intersected multiple min-
der with Victoria came down eralised zones, including 3m @ 11.54 g/t
late last year, Perth-based gold (within 9m @ 4.49 g/t) from 159m, 4m
Tudor headed east again @ 2.59 g/t gold (within 7m @ 1.63 g/t) from
and picked up where he left 138m and 2.7m @ 5.7 g/t gold from 53.4m.
off. Tudor said there were “a lot of eyes” on the
Fortunately for the sea- company’s WA projects due to their proxim-
soned geologist, the project ity to the Carosue Dam mining centre which
looked every bit as good is now under the ownership of Northern Star
as when he first walked the Resources Ltd.
ground a year prior. “It’s one of those tenement packages
“It’s all about the rocks for which has just suffered from fragmented
me, it’s where I start every- ownership and lack of exploration over the
Nexus has signed an option agreement to acquire the thing,” he explained. years, but our drilling last year really proved
Bethanga porphyry copper-gold project in Victoria which “There’s always the corpo- there is something worth pursuing here,” he
is hosted in the same mineralised belt as the world-class rate side that has to be dealt said.
Cadia-Ridgeway and Northparkes mines with, but if you don’t have the – Michael Washbourne

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT JUNe 2021 Page 51