Technology incites change , change breeds risk ?
Where you are with the Ernest Giles project and what does the future hold ?
How important is it as a company to strike these partnerships ? What work do you do to attract ,
with the airborne geophysics is quite powerful , and that ’ s what ’ s helped us a lot at Ernest Giles .
Drilling is getting cheaper as well . I would have liked to have seen more advances in drilling . I don ’ t know why it hasn ’ t happened yet , but I ’ m sure it will do in the next five or 10 years . Drilling rates are probably comparable to what they were 15 years ago , so we ’ re getting a bit more bang for our buck with drilling these days .
Technology incites change , change breeds risk ?
Heddle : As a small company we need to embrace the technology because the technology makes it possible for us to compete . Drilling is the gold standard , but it ’ s expensive and so we need to look at everything we can before we actually go out and spend money on drilling to get us the advantage . We ’ re very prepared to embrace the new technology .
Where you are with the Ernest Giles project and what does the future hold ?
Baxter : The project has been through a sequence of airborne geophysics and targeting . We outlined a couple of targets through 50m or so of cover as well as some earlier scout drilling programs and intersected quite wide veins of mineralisation , sulfite mineralisation and alteration . Heading into ‘ 16 , we did a comprehensive drill program at one area . The drill spacing we had was 1,600m by 800m vertical IOC holes . I think we covered an area of roughly 30 square kilometres , and more than half of those holes hit mineralisation . We ’ ve got gold up to two grams to the tonne in that drilling and with the spacing of the drill holes , it really suggests that we ’ re onto something big . That ’ s when we got some interest from some of the larger parties around the world , including Newmont . We put together an agreement with Newmont which allows them to carry out proprietary surface geochemistry over the prospect .
But now we ’ re still very much in the early stages of exploration and we ’ ve planned a second drill programme for the property that ’ s likely to be completed within the next 12 months .
How important is it as a company to strike these partnerships ? What work do you do to attract ,
47