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starting to feel that it looked very rating milestone.
much like Karari and that style of “I’ve done this multiple times in multiple
rocks and alteration, but then once locations in the past where you have that
we started hitting the ‘red’ rocks at early discovery, there’s then a period where
Crusader we knew we were defi- it is just nose to the grindstone and you just
nitely in the same mineralised style have to get the work done, and that’s the
as what they’re seeing at Karari,” phase we’ll be going through over this next
he said. 12 months,” he said.
“With Templar, which is 1.6km “It’s still very early days at the moment
to the north, we already had the with some great exploration results and we
sense that it was one structure need to make sure we explore as meaning-
[with Crusader] but we needed to fully and as quickly as possible based on the
do some more geophysics which discovery that we’ve got. The rest will look
then ultimately told us Templar after itself.”
was this sort of a higher order Despite the recent success at Wallbrook,
target than what Crusader was. Nexus is by no means closing the door on
So, we drilled it and in the first few the Pinnacles JV with the company still plan-
Nexus hosted a site visit for investors, analysts and media holes we saw exactly the same ning to return to the project over the coming
late last year. The trip included a tour of the company’s core ‘red’ rocks with a lot of quartz al- months and model its new and improved un-
shed after lunch at the Edjudina Station House teration. derstanding of the geology on the old rocks.
“Hitting the right rocks and alter- Nexus also announced late last year it had
ation patterns now has really given formally exercised the option agreement to
project remained off-limits, but he did man- us huge confidence that not only is Crusad- acquire Bethanga following completion of a
age to strike up a JV with the gold miner for er-Templar significant but this structure will porphyry fertility study on the Victorian pro-
the Pinnacles ground to the south of Caro- continue for another 5km to the north. The ject. The final consideration was $300,000
sue Dam. geophysics is showing there’s plenty more cash and 1.22 million Nexus shares (valued
While the company experienced varying targets that look very much like Crusader at $700,000), having already paid $45,000
levels of exploration success at Pinnacles – and Templar, which we’ll
the project remains on the company’s books get tested in 2022.”
under a JV with Northern Star Resources At the time of print, Nex-
Ltd – it provided Tudor and his exploration us had completed about
team some invaluable insight into the geol- one-third of the 30,000m
ogy of the region. RC drilling programme
“Because of the JV, we were able to spend over the Crusader-Tem-
a lot of time underground at Karari and saw plar trend. While assay
the rocks, the alteration, where the gold ulti- turnaround has been slow
mately is and what it was attached to,” Tudor across the industry, the
said. company continues to re-
“That time at Pinnacles was incredibly well port encouraging results
spent, just getting a general knowledge of such as 8.22m @ 3.53
the regional geology, which often you don’t g/t gold from 90.1m and
get the luxury of time to be able to do. And 4.61m @ 5.78 g/t gold
with the more work we were doing, it just led (within 18.38m @ 2.4 g/t
us more and more to believe that whilst Pin- from 123.72m) in the third Exploration manager Adam James
nacles was good, the attributes of Wallbrook diamond hole.
were going to be significantly better, if we Ongoing exploration is being funded from to the vendors throughout the due diligence
could get our hands on it.” a $19 million placement completed in No- period.
It seemed an incredibly slow burn for Nex- vember on the back of the company’s surg- Tudor, who boasts extensive experienced
us after finally securing access to the ground ing share price. Nexus is in the throes of es- exploring for porphyry deposits over the
it had long coveted, until the drill bit started tablishing a 50-person exploration camp at course of his career, insisted there was plen-
turning up game-changing results from July, Wallbrook to cater for increased activity on ty of room in the portfolio for Bethanga, with
including 3m @ 11.54 g/t gold (within 9m @ site through 2022. Nexus exploration manager Adam James
4.49 g/t and 2.42m @ 4.28 g/t) from 159m at “We put the hand on heart and said this set to take the lead on the next phase of work
the Crusader prospect. thing is looking very real, it is significant and at Wallbrook.
Further hits of 14m @ 8.8 g/t and 10m we need to go hard and fast now to see what “Essentially that frees me up to do a little
@ 5.49 g/t followed in August before the is down there,” Tudor said. “By raising that bit more of this other early-stage work where
company unveiled a major discovery at the money when we did, at a great price with a you might need a different style of skill set to
neighbouring Templar prospect, headlined lot of interest, it was on the back of a genuine explore,” Tudor said.
by hits of 10m @ 5.64 g/t (within 23m @ 2.85 discovery. It’s fantastic to see juniors being “We will often call ourselves porphyry
g/t from 132m) and 28m @ 3.64 g/t, includ- rewarded for that sort of work.” hunters because that’s what it’s like; you
ing 4m @ 10.11 g/t (within 72m @ 1.68 g/t Tudor is conscious of not “putting the cart are really trying to hunt these things down.
from 24m). before the horse” on the back of one suc- It’s not for the faint-hearted, but it’s fantastic
Tudor was now supremely confident the cessful year which yielded a breakthrough when it all comes together. There’s nothing
company was looking in “the right rocks”. discovery and has urged investors to be quite like the thrill of the chase.”
“When we started at Crusader, at the most patient while the company slogs it out on
southern end of the project, we were already the exploration front in pursuit of the next re- – Michael Washbourne

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT FeBRUaRY 2022 Page 13