HERALD SUN SEPTEMBER 11, 2014 12:00AM
VICTORIA’S promise as a copper mining province has taken a big step forward with Stavely Minerals turning up some intriguing drilling results.
It wasn’t Stavely’s much hyped Thursday’s Gossan project that produced the surprising numbers but its second string copper project at Mount Ararat.
The first drill results included one assay of 5.98 per cent copper, which is a very creditable number and included gold, zinc and silver credits.
The biggest surprise was an unexpected gold hit at the footwall of the volcano formed mineral system, which showed similar characteristics to the fabulously productive Stawell gold mine.
Chief executive Chris Cairns said he was “pleasantly surprised’’ by the gold find and that area was being re-sampled to get a complete picture after part of the sample was destroyed in the lab.
Other than the gold find, the main aim of the drilling was achieved.
Mineralisation was found in every hole in the northern extension of the known Mt Ararat copper/gold/zinc/silver deposit.
That is significant because it greatly enhances the chances of extra discoveries to expand the resource base.
Mount Ararat already holds an inferred resource of 1.2 million tonnes grading 2 per cent copper but the hope is that this will be just the start of a big volcano-formed sulfide deposit.
Meanwhile the deep diamond drilling of Stavely’s Thursday’s Gossan copper prospect continues, with the aim being to prove up a large porphyry style copper/gold system like Newcrest’s massive Cadia mines in NSW.
That is the sort of high risk/high reward drilling that is rare in Victoria but Mr Cairns and his team are enthusiastic about the chances after closely examining earlier drilling by former owner BCD Resources.
Porphyry systems host most of the world’s copper and can be very large, as shown by Chile’s fabulously rich Andes mines. They also usually contain enough gold to improve the economics of a mine. Given that it only listed in May in a $6 million float, Stavely is a pedal to the metal company with chief executive Chris Cairns and fellow directors Peter Ironside and Jennifer Murphy holding around 60 per cent of the company between them.
Stavely has been well supported partly because Mr Cairns successfully turned Integra Mining from an explorer into a gold producer that was taken over by Silver Lake Resources for $426 million in 2012.
The earlier speculative buy remains in place.
The smart way to make money from a mining boom is to buy the suppliers of the picks and shovels — and their modern equivalents.
And the same probably applies for clinical trials.
While it hasn’t released details of its success based fees, cognitive testing company Cogstate is doing the web-based recruitment of patients for a phase three test on Alzheimer’s disease.
It is the same study for which it secured a separate $7.3 million contract and demonstrates that Cogstate’s web-based home testing is well placed to replace laborious, slow and expensive on-site testing.
Chief executive Brad O’Connor said Cogstate was “uniquely positioned’’ to become the tester of choice for future Alzheimer’s trials, given the trend towards much earlier disease intervention.
Cogstate’s tests are used in many sports to manage concussion but the clinical trials show the most promise.
A hold, based on Cogstate hitting its target for between $3 to $6 million of contracts in the 2015 financial year.
News source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/in-the-black/gold-and-more-in-victorian-hills-way-out-west/story-fni0d787-1227054549328?nk=fab08fef0ab981ee9eae216fbbac13b0
Picture source: http://www.roaringcampgold.com/