Page 36 - pd290-Feb21-mag-web
P. 36

IPos




                   Caspin forges own destiny




      C   aspin   Resources                                                                 ly excited to see Chalice
                                                                                            on the register.
          Ltd chief executive
       Greg Miles has a simple                                                                “At the end of the day
       message for those who                                                                they’re all good guys, I
       are expecting the newly                                                              know some of their man-
       listed explorer to pick up                                                           agement team pretty well
       where  its  predecessor                                                              and we’ve got a pretty
       Cassini Resources left                                                               good working relation-
       off.                                                                                 ship. It works on a few
        “Caspin is not Cassini                                                              fronts, but certainly hav-
       Mark II,” Miles told Pay-                                                            ing  them  come  on  to
       dirt. “It’s probably better                                                          the  register  in  the  IPO
       to describe it as ‘Son of                                                            grabbed people’s atten-
       Cassini’ because we’ve                                                               tion.”
       certainly got some of the                                                              While  plenty  is  ex-
       DNA of Cassini.                                                                      pected  of  Caspin  at
        “It’s a bit like dad’s                                                              Yarawindah  Brook  from
       friends are my friends.                                                              outsiders, the company
       We’re still part of the                                                              internally  is  very  con-
       same family, but we’re                                                               fident  of  unearthing  a
       our own company and                                                                  major  gold  discovery  at
       we’ll do things our own                                                              Mount  Squires,  which
       way.”                      Caspin chief executive Greg Miles and exploration manager Ben Vallerine  borders the flagship Ne-
        Caspin listed on the                                                                bo-Babel deposit at West
       ASX  in  late  November  following  a  suc-  Cassini, said it had been that company’s   Musgrave.
       cessful  $8  million  IPO  which  was  first   ambition to progress projects in its own   Significant  drill  results  previously  re-
       proposed  five  months  earlier  when  Oz   right and not be solely beholden to what-  turned at Mount Squires include 20m @
       Minerals Ltd made a formal cash and   ever happened at West Musgrave.    1.27 g/t gold from 23m (including 7m @
       scrip offer for Cassini valued at $76 mil-  “We recognised that this project had   2.54 g/t) and 15m @ 2.3 g/t gold from
       lion.                               been sort of neglected for a long period   31m (including 9m @ 3.25 g/t).
        Oz had already acquired 70% of Cas-  of time and we recognised things in the   “Yarawindah has captured everybody’s
       sini’s West Musgrave nickel-copper pro-  geology that were similar to what we saw   imagination because of what Chalice
       ject in Western Australia over the pre-  at West Musgrave,” Miles said.  have  been  able  to  achieve  – and  quite
       ceding four years. Two assets not part of   “It was a way of applying some of our   rightly – but the Mount Squires project in
       that original JV – Yarawindah Brook and   learning from the West Musgrave into a   the West Musgrave region presents a dif-
       Mount Squires – became the centrepiece   new province. We did our first drill pro-  ferent opportunity for us to get stuck into,”
       of Caspin’s prospectus.             gramme at the end of 2019 and did some   Miles said.
        “We always recognised that there was   more work  early last  year, but then of   “It’s more frontier kind of country, but
       value in the projects other than the West   course Chalice had that absolutely stun-  that doesn’t present any kind of obsta-
       Musgrave, so we thought this was a mod-  ning  result and  the  world  just changed.   cle to us because we’ve been working
       el that could realise some of that value,”   We  were  already  feeling  confident  with   out there for six years already anyway.
       Miles said.                         what  we  were  seeing  in  our  work  and   We’ve got good relationships with the
        “Oz, to their credit, were open to lots   then Chalice came along and knocked it   locals,  we’ve  got  a  good  understanding
       of different structures and models for the   out of the park.”           of the geology, albeit it’s still early stage.”
       takeover. They recognised that these   Caspin  timed  its  IPO  to  aplomb  –  so   Caspin has also acquired the rights to
       projects weren’t ever going to be part of   well that it made its ASX debut just one   a contingent payment of up to $20 million
       their core business.”               week  later  than  what  was  proposed  on   from Oz should it sell all or a portion of
        Yarawindah Brook, 40km north of    the original timeline following Oz’s formal   its interest in the West Musgrave project.
       Chalice Mining Ltd’s Julimar nickel-cop-  offer for Cassini.              “If there are any further transactions
       per-PGE  discovery,  drew  significant  in-  In a major boost for the new float, Chal-  done on the West Musgrave project and
       terest prior to Cassini’s takeover by Oz.   ice also made a cornerstone investment   they are greater than the value of the
        Caspin  has  made  a  promising  start   in the IPO and walked away with a 10%   original scheme of arrangement, then
       to its maiden exploration programme at   stake in the company upon listing.  there’s a way for Caspin to capture some
       Yarawindah Brook with several new tar-  “It’s an endorsement that our technical   of that value,” Miles said.
       gets identified at the project in December   approach to the project has merit,” Miles   “It’s sometimes described as our third
       following a review of historic data. These   said of the investment by Chalice.  asset, so we’ll just put that in the bottom
       include the Aries prospect where rock   “I guess there’s also a corporate angle   draw for now and see what happens.”
       chip values of up to 149 ppb combined   and I think that probably appeals to a cer-
       palladium and platinum were returned.  tain type of investor as well, particularly              – Michael Washbourne
        Miles, who was an executive director at   the institutional-type investors were real-




       Page 36   FeBRUaRY 2021    aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT
   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41