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Stavely’s breakthrough
discovery at Thursday’s
Gossan last year sparked
a positive reaction from
the market

last year when we drilled a 1,800m hole
looking to test for mineralisation under-
neath that M-vein type of expression. But
it was a spectacular duster, no miner-
alisation to speak of, and I think we went
through the barren core of what we now
consider to be porphyry No.2.”
In searching for what it thought to be a
deeper porphyry, Stavely engaged the
services of Dr Greg Corbett and Dr Scott
Halley – both experts in the field of por-
phyry exploration – to review the drill core
and associated exploration data. The pair It was a slow build-up for Stavely before the company struck success in hole SMD050
concluded that the apparent lode-style
mineralisation being observed was more its regulatory environment. Having said With Stavely’s focused narrowed into
characteristic of the Magma (Arizona) or that, I think they’ve [Victoria] come on in Thursday’s Gossan, Cairns said the com-
Butte (Montana) styles not previously seen leaps and bounds and perhaps were be- pany would review its future involvement
in Australia. ing judged on their moratorium on onshore at the Mathinna gold project in Tasmania.
It was then suggested to the Stavely conventional gas developments. But every This asset package includes the historic
team they try looking for this lode-style interaction we’ve had with the Victorian New Golden Gate mine which once pro-
mineralisation at a shallower depth. A new Government has been supportive, even to duced 254,000oz at an average grade of
hole was subsequently designed and the the extent that they’ve given us $1.5 million 26 g/t gold.
rest is history. worth of co-funding for drilling, so they’ve “The options on the table would be to di-
“This is an unusual style of mineralisa- actually helped fund us into this discovery.” vest it into another company, potentially list
tion not previously seen in Australia, so I Stavely’s quest to one day develop a in an IPO, or look at other corporate trans-
think the market probably doesn’t realise mine at Thursday’s Gossan received a actions that allow that project to progress
how vertically and laterally extensive this boost earlier this year when a former ven- without us having to invest a lot in it,” he
can be, so it’s our challenge to be able to dor accepted the company’s offer to buy said.
demonstrate that what we’re defining now out a historic 3% NSR for $350,000 and “It’s a very nice project, one that we
has the potential to support a long-life cop- 850,000 shares. would otherwise be very interested in,
per-gold operation,” Cairns said. In late May, Victoria’s Earth Resources but we’ve just got so much on our plate
“It was a bit of a brave call to go into a Regulation department also granted the at Thursday’s Gossan and we don’t want
belt with no previous production history company two key retention licences which to be diluting our technical or financial re-
and in a State which I think was consid- carry 10-year terms with the ability to re- sources.”
ered a bit of a basket case in terms of new for a further 10 years.
– Michael Washbourne

The Stavely discovery
team: Dr Greg Corbett,
Dr Michael Agnew, Chris
Cairns, Stephen Johnson
and Hamish Forgan
(Absent: Jennifer Murphy
and Dr Scott Halley)

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT JULY 2020 Page 57