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e Grey Mining Ltd, Legend Mining found the Nova nickel de-
DLtd, Chalice Gold Mines Ltd, Rox Re- posit and then again when
sources Ltd and Musgrave Minerals Ltd Gold Road Resources Ltd
all posted multiple gains on the ASX in unearthed the Gruyere gold
the March and June quarters thanks to system.
success at the drill bit. Their strikes fol- But were they outliers
lowed impressive discoveries by Great- among a general trend or
land Gold plc (Havieron), Stavely Miner- outriders for a new genera-
als Ltd (Thursday’s Gosson) and Alkane tion of Tier 1 and 2 discover-
Resources Ltd (Boda) last year. ies in Australia? Will 2020’s
At the same time, the majors are rein- explorers match their devel-
vigorating their exploration departments. opment and transition from
Rio Tinto Ltd and BHP Ltd are competing exciting discovery to world-
to make the next Australian copper dis- class operation?
trict in Western Australia and South Aus- Industry conditions are Julimar, 70km north-east of Perth, has been
tralia respectively, Newcrest Mining Ltd actually in favour of jun- a standout discovery this year
is trying to catch up to Rio Tinto in WA’s ior explorers. Majors and
Paterson province and Anglo American particularly the mid-tier gold producers 8.37g/t palladium and 1.11g/t platinum,
plc has just picked up more than 3,000sq are dripping with cash but, given they including a massive sulphide zone of
km of ground in WA based on Chalice’s slashed their development pipeline fol- 13m @ 3.15% nickel, 1.19% copper,
early PGM finds. lowing the last downturn, have no pro- 8.85 g/t palladium and 1.09 g/t platinum.
“Compared to the mining boom, there’s jects to spend it on. Despite the market oscillations created
a lot higher quality of work being done The cycle, it appears, is turning in fa- by the coronavirus pandemic, investors
now,” Stavely executive chairman Chris vour of greenfields exploration. leapt in, taking shares more than 400%
Cairns said. “I think because times have “I think we beat ourselves up to some up since the announcement.
been lean that maybe the cream has extent; it is actually a really interesting A $30 million capital raising soon fol-
risen to the top and a lot of the crap is time for exploration in Australia,” Gold lowed and the company is now get-
falling away. It is a double-edged sword Road executive director Justin Osborne ting down to business on testing of the
in the market though. If you haven’t got told Paydirt. “In the period 2012-16 there 1.6km-long, 700m-wide mineralised sys-
a compelling story in terms of near-term wasn’t enough greenfields exploration. tem at Julimar.
discovery or good people aren’t seeing Some of that is cyclical and you can see Chalice managing director Alex Dorsch
you on a pathway to development, then the cycle happening, especially with the has certainly recognised the change in
it’s very, very difficult to raise capital.” majors. They went from doing no green- investor mood towards greenfields drill-
It feels like the dawn of a new age of fields, to putting money into juniors, then ing.
exploration, but a closer look suggests doing JVs themselves and now all of a “There is more appetite for explora-
2020’s achievements are just the latest in sudden you have got the likes of New- tion success and all of a sudden there is
mont and a push from everyone to join in the fun
“ I think we beat ourselves up greenfields, to work,” he told Paydirt. “Investors are
as we are coming out of the COVID re-
N e w c r e s t
spending on
strictions and people are getting back
looking through the results beyond width
Rio Tinto with
to some extent; it is actually a
and grade. Width and grade in a drill in-
Winu and An-
glo
[Ameri-
tercept doesn’t make a discovery, ore-
really interesting time for exploration
can] pegging
ity over large scale.
ground in the
in Australia.
“I think the investor is becoming more
Yilgarn. It had bodies are made when you see continu-
ground on the familiar with that and where companies
edge of the are demonstrating scale and continu-
a growing crowd of discovery successes Yilgarn a few years ago but is only now ity but where they’re not and announc-
in the country. beginning to rank it highly again following ing holes that are not particularly wide
There has been concerns voiced about Chalice’s discovery at Julimar.” spaced with any sort of continuity they
the state of Australia’s exploration sec- Chalice is perhaps the most intriguing are not getting the reactions.
tor ever since there was one, but in the of the new wave of discoveries. “The discoveries that we are seeing
last decade the lament has grown louder Found just 70km north-east of Perth, are not always guaranteed to become
as the flood of cash generated from the Julimar may have appeared an oddity to mines but when they do they do spur the
commodities super-cycle failed to trans- some but its discovery confirmed a long- next explorer to go after the analogue or
late into new Tier 1 discoveries. When held belief in exploration circles about use that model to chase the look-a-like.”
JV partners AngloGold Ashanti Ltd and the PGE potential on the fringes of the Experiences elsewhere are also guid-
IGO Ltd announced the Tropicana gold Yilgarn Craton. ing investors back to greenfields explo-
find in 2005, industry experts tagged it The discovery hole at Julimar returned ration. Over the last decade, greenfields
an outlier. They did the same when Sirius 19m @ 2.59% nickel, 1.04% copper, exploration has been ignored in favour of
aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT JULY 2020 Page 19