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NEWS

Alkane’s Christmas wish list

by Fraser Palamara

lkane Resources Ltd managing director Nic Earner observed mineralisation close to surface having previously
Abelieves the company could release the hotly anticipated targeted the mineralised envelope at depth.
initial resource from the Boda discovery in time for Christmas, RC drilling revealed at-surface results of 1m @ 2.94 g/t gold
given a best-case scenario. and 0.97% copper, and 9m @ 9.43 g/t gold and 2.65% copper
At the very least, the figures would be out this financial year in a zone of breccia. This has been encouraging as Alkane
as Alkane “has the tiger by the tail” but battles a rainy season, continues to solve the Boda puzzle.
COVID-19 tribulations, and slow laboratory assay times – the “I think the main hurdle is now the unfolding geological
latter of which is proving the most difficult. knowledge,” Earner said. “People struggle to understand
“We are working on that inferred resource. If we get the results, geologically what it means, so we try to unpack that for
we may be able to put this out by Christmas time, but it could investors. Boda has massive mineralisation over 1.5km strike
be early next year,” Earner told GMJ. “It really depends on the and 500m widths and it actually extends to surface…which we
laboratory.” didn’t expect. It’s very interesting. It opens up the idea of ‘could
Boda, north-east of Dubbo, New South Wales, and sitting Boda grow to be a very large operation?’”
inside the Northern Molong porphyry project, has proven to Two diamond and one RC rig continue to spin at Boda and
be an ongoing conundrum due to its porphyry-style structure. nearby prospects with 60,000m planned over the next financial
A revelation was hit in August when the exploration team year.
Earner compared Boda’s potential to that of large, bulk-
tonnage underground mines such as Newcrest Mining Ltd’s
Cadia and Oz Minerals Ltd’s Carrapateena.
“It could be a sublevel cave [operation] like Carrapateena,” he
said. “It is heading in that direction. Could it be a multi-100,000
ozpa underground operation for over 10-15 years? I’m just
saying that’s the degree of definition it’s moving towards.
“Different analysts are already starting to speculate ‘could
there be several million ounces in this and what would that look
like?’, but we’re just trying to increase our own knowledge of it.”
As Alkane scratches its head at the extent of the Boda beast,
its Tomingley operation – also in NSW – kicked up a notch
in September with near-mine drilling supporting a mine life
extension to at least 2030.
Drilling at the McLeans prospect, located between the Roswell
deposit and Tomingley, returned intercepts of 1m @ 24.6 g/t,
Nic Earner 3m @ 10.7 g/t, and 4m @ 3.39 g/t.

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