The Havieron Gold - Copper Discovery - Patterson Range - Western Australia.

Coffee with Samso Episode 147 is the second episode of the Exploration Discovery Series which is all about mineral exploration discoveries.

 

This episode of Coffee with Samso is all the Havieron discovery by Greatland Gold Plc. in 2018. It was a major success in where there is now a gold and copper mine nearing production stage.

 

According to the company's website, the project is currently in development under a Joint Venture with Newcrest Mining, Australia’s largest gold producer. Havieron is located just 45km from Newcrest’s Telfer mine. This allows the project to leverage Telfer’s existing infrastructure and processing plant to significantly reduce the project’s capital expenditure and carbon impact for a low cost pathway to development under an ore tolling arrangement.

 

Figure 1: Location of the Havieron project (Source: Greatland Gold website)

 

According to the latest presentation from the company, the updated Probable Ore Reserve and Mineral Resource is in Figure 2.

 

The significance of these numbers is in the manner that the deposit was discovered. In many cases, investors are only looking at the results of a long journey of mineral exploration.

 

 

Figure 2: Probable and Mineral Estimate for the Havieron deposit. (Source: Greatland Gold website)

 

The journey for a discovery is never an overnight process. In reality, discoveries of any mineral deposit is minimum timeframe of years and development is usually in decades (including exploration and resource development).

 

The Coffee with Samso - Exploration Discovery Series is aimed at showcasing the discovery and also the more interesting parts of the exploration journeys. The insides of what happened and what did and could not happen that led to the discovery, for me is the fun part of the conversation.

 

The discovery of Havieron is one of the recent success that has come about because management kept the faith and applied the principals of mineral exploration. As an exploration geologist, the discovery of Havieron is one that excites me. The chase for discovery is one of the most satisfying feeling. The idea of setting up a company to source funding to chase the elephant deposits is high on my bucket list.

 

This is why I want to bring these stories onto the Samso platform so that the average investor out there can have the insights of the journey.

 

I hope you enjoy the video and get some sense of "excitement" that would have been in the room when Callum and his associates received the results from the drilling.

 

Chapters

 

00:00 Start

01:35 Callum Introduction

03:46 Was undercover discovery always the plan?

06:33 Was it a geophysical target?

08:10 Chasing the elephants.

08:56 Chasing broad wide anomalies.

10:34 What were the challenges like for Greatland Gold at that time?

12:28 The magic formula for exploration success.

13:54 The story behind the discovery.

20:29 Was the discovery luck?

21:41 Was the core of the deposit giving a lot of clues?

23:21 How has technology in Geophysics helped mineral exploration.

27:36 Would the new technology today have changed the modelling?

29:09 Big Elephant deposits still exist.

31:03 Potential of discovery.

32:12 What is Callum Baxter doing now?

33:27 Is Callum heading back into the industry.

33:46 What is happening in the market?

37:26 Are there more Elephants in the Paterson Range?

38:50 Conclusion

 

 

About Callum Baxter

Former Chief Technical Director of Greatland Gold PLC

 

Exploration geologist and founding Director of UK based Greatland Gold plc.

 

Commenced working in the mineral exploration industry after completing geology undergraduate qualifications in 1991 in Western Australia. Participated in discovery of large gold resources (Jundee/Nimary) before moving into other commodities including base metals and nickel. Member of AusIMM and AIG.

 

Worked with juniors, mid-tier explorers and major mining companies globally over more than 25 years. Completed an MSc in Ore Deposit Geology in the early 2000s. Co-founded Greatland which listed on AIM in the UK in 2006. Greatland is focussed on discovery of large precious metal and base metal deposits in Australia, in areas that have not been subject to extensive previous exploration.

 

Greatland has achieved recent success with the discovery of high-grade gold and copper mineralisation at the Havieron deposit, under 400m of cover, in the Paterson Region of Western Australia.