Page 29 - pd281-Apr20-mag-web_Neat

Chalice goes diamond at Karri

With working capital and liquid investments totalling about $30 ith working capital and liquid investments totalling about $30 ith working capital and liquid investments totalling about $30
W W
million, Chalice is well placed to conduct an 11-hole (4,000m) illion, Chalice is well placed to conduct an 11-hole (4,000m) illion, Chalice is well placed to conduct an 11-hole (4,000m)
m m
drilling programme at Karri. A second diamond rig was due to rilling programme at Karri. A second diamond rig was due to rilling programme at Karri. A second diamond rig was due to
d d
arr
arr
arrive at Karri in mid-March ive at Karri in mid-March ive at Karri in mid-March
ictoria’s nascent gold scene has been ject to date. tion in recent times, however, Kendall
Vspurred by the performance of Fos- “The next milestone for us will be get- firmly believes greenfields pastures are
terville but while the Kirkland Lake Gold ting a good handle on the geology so we the places to be.
Ltd mine has been the catalyst for inter- can target much more efficiently in the He said a lack of investment in explo-
est, the expectation it has needs some next round of drilling. The diamond drill- ration was partly to blame for the lack of
tempering in the Canadian market. ing we’re doing is to establish the struc- Tier 1 discoveries being made but noted
“It is because of Fosterville that the tural setting for us to work out where we that the situation was starting to change.
Victorian sector is on the scene, it is are in the system and the next [drilling] “I think we will start seeing things hap-
where companies want to be seen and will be about trying to nail something pen now. You will make incremental
the Canadians certainly pay a lot of at- down, assuming we find something,” gains [in brownfields exploration], but it is
tention to Victoria. But the Canadians Kendall said. rare for a junior to get a company-maker
don’t yet quite understand the signifi- Having been involved in the discovery in brownfields. The chances of making a
cance of the geochem thing that we are of Tropicana – the AngloGold Ashanti big discovery definitely still lie in green-
doing,” Chalice Gold Mines Ltd general Ltd/IGO Ltd JV mine on the cusp of pro- fields,” Kendall said.
manager, corporate development Bruce ducing its 3 millionth ounce of gold – Ken- Cracking the code in Victoria’s green-
Kendall told Paydirt. dall has already lived every “geologist’s fields was thought to be “considered an
“When I sit down and talk to people, dream”, however, he is keen to repeat the almost impossible task” given the depth
they understand it, but generally talk- trick with Chalice in Victoria. of cover to be negated.
ing to people in the public I don’t think “People are willing to go into places However, Kendall said that Chalice
they quite get the concept. That is one that are unknown and that was the big had demonstrated geochem sampling,
of the downsides as they expect you to step for us to go out to Tropicana and drill drilling into bedrock and conventional
keep getting the results that Kirkland get. it. Everyone said that we were wasting exploration techniques were effective at
But, without Kirkland there I don’t think our time, but to find something big you Pyramid Hill.
they’d be paying any attention at all [to have to go somewhere new and that is “There is supergene gold for example,
Victoria].” pretty well what we see at Pyramid Hill; so you can see the halos and we are
Having Kirkland as a benchmark has that is a new frontier even though it is using that to hone in on targets very ef-
lifted expectations of companies explor- only 20km or so from Bendigo,” Kendall fectively. That is outlining the anomalies
ing in the State. Chalice itself is trying to said. we are seeing and reported to date like
get a handle on the geology at its Pyra- “Being undercover it is essentially a at Karri, which is a 4.5km-long geochem
mid Hill gold project in Bendigo. new frontier. We are seeing the same anomaly that is looking very interesting,”
The Karri gold trend at Pyramid Hill is thing in the Paterson Province at Winu Kendall said.
the focus of exploration for Chalice, with and Havieron where companies are re- Fellow ASX explorer Catalyst Metals
a third drill rig to arrive on site at the time ally starting to commit to things that were Ltd is dealing with similar terrain to Chal-
of print. too difficult in the past. I think we will ice, with the two outfits combining in a 2D
Two diamond holes have been com- start seeing some new discoveries come seismic programme recently.
pleted on the 4km-long Karri trend so far through, Tropicana was one of those and “We don’t have results from that yet,
with a new high-grade gold zone recently Gruyere was the same thing. People but it will be very interesting to see how
revealed by Chalice. weren’t that interested in the Yamarna that goes and I guess generally we will
Re-split and fire assaying of a stand- terrain and it took those guys to go out be monitoring what other companies
out 4m @ 3.97 g/t gold hit from aircore and have a punt, they got rewarded just have done in exploration also to see if we
drilling at Karri returned 1m @ 15.85 g/t as we were rewarded at Tropicana.” can learn anything from them as well,”
within 2m @ 11.54 g/t within 30m @ 1.12 Brownfields exploration stories on the Kendall said.
g/t, which is the best intercept at the pro- ASX have captured the market’s atten-
– Mark Andrews

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT aPRIL 2020 Page 29